24 Silence

Six in the morning comes far to quickly, especially when your girlfriend literally gets energy from sucking it from you. With bloodshot eyes I left the house to begin my physical training with Master Asura. It was only after talking with Lily last night that I realized that they did not have PT (Physical Training) until 630. Well whatever. An extra half hour won't hurt anything.

Never have I been so wrong. For the next hour and a half I understood why she had the title Asura. She very much was a devil. Basic training had nothing on her. I did pushups until my arms collapsed, only to be told to heal and do it again. Afterwards was sit-ups and squats, followed by running. There was so much running. When my lungs collapsed I was told to heal, when my muscles tore I healed. When I passed out from lack of oxygen I was awoken by a spray of cold water. This went on and on until finally I was out of essence. Only then was I allowed to go back to my room to shower and feed.

A uniform had been delivered while I was gone. Black with a white band on the left arm. On the right arm was a black skull with fangs in a white circle. I noticed that there was a separate one ready for Lily. It was white with a black band on the left arm and a Purple Lily with dripping blood on the right. Apparently they somehow identified our classes as well as out majors and minors.

Whatever, I was used to wearing uniforms, and I actually felt a sense of comfort wearing one again. I noticed that there was also a belt and sheath for my wooden short sword that I put on. Yep, just like basic, a uniform and a weapon to make us realize that we were just another tool to be used.

Lily returned as soon as I got dressed, her body was covered in sweat. Causing her workout clothes to cling to her body, hinting at the body underneath. She had a slight blush as she saw me admiring her body, but made a show of undressing before walking to the bath. If only I had more time I would do more than just admire the view.

As I walked with her to class I noticed that there were four colors of uniforms and four different colors of striped. They were the same. Black, white, green, and orange. And that most of the students did not have an image on their right shoulder rather three stripes. The stripes were the same as the elements, but there was white as well. Recalling what I had learned previously white was the color that came up for Mind.

The black stood for assassin, and the white stood for magus. I knew I would find out what the other two stood for in class so I wasn't too worried about it. I gave Lily a quick kiss as I dropped her off, her class was only a couple doors down from mine which made it easy.

The others were arriving just as I was, and to my surprise I found that Cyan took the seat next to mine. He smiled as I sat down, and began to speak "I heard that you have 2 masters now as well as the Instructor? "

"Where did you hear that from?" -Me

"My master told me, hidden weapons isn't that popular, only 5 students, but the instructor took a liking to me and I have to attend his class for all 5 of the weapon training classes". -Cyan

"Oh? I was the only one who specialized in the short sword. And Master Asura said I suck so bad that I can't focus on any other weapon or I would embarrass her as my master" -me

"So what about the second master then?" - Cyan

"That's the only master I know about.. wait I am also going to be helping the old man in the library during Telekinesis training as I have already mastered the telekinetic blade" -me

Instructor Grey walked in before we could finish the conversation, we stood up as he entered, greeting the Instructor. Instructor grey did not look at us, simply telling us to sit as he began to speak. "Yesterday we spoke about learning anatomy, and that's what the first hour of classroom time each day will be spent learning. We will be discussing the various parts of a human body today and easy to strike places. The most obvious is the groin. A simple tap there can send a man to his knees. Of course that isn't the only weak spot..."

Instructor went on to show us various weak spots on a very life like human statue that was in the corner of the room. The speaking went on for like he said for an hour, and we moved on to the next topic.

The next topic was on survival. He proceeded to introduce us to several different types of plants in a book, but assured us that the topic would cover much more through out the year. The topic again lasted for an hour before the next topic was brought up.

The third topic was on stealth. He proceeded to bring us to the library and pick up a stealth technique. He explained on the way that stealth was split into 2 different categories, the first being hiding and the second being moving silently. Each stealth technique fell into one of these two categories and that we would have to use the academy points we warn to rent another one. Thankfully I already had a stealth technique that focused on hiding, so I only had to pick a technique for moving silently. He only gave us 30 minutes to pick out a technique once we arrived there. The old Librarian was working, and directed us in the right direction.

Sora Ash and Mica each headed towards the Hiding section, as it was a must for stealth, but to my surprise Cyan headed with me to the movement section. He explained to me In a hushed town that the gift he had awakened was shadow form, which allowed him to hide in any shadow other than his own. With such an over powered hiding technique the only thing he needed was a movement technique, even if it was kind of redundant. He made his choice rather quickly it was a technique called shadow steps, that quieted the sounds of his movement while in shadows. It was a powerful technique, however rather specialized. The technique matched his natural ability and was a great choice in my opinion.

For me the choice was not so clear cut. The skill I had was simply called Stealth, it said that at perfection I could move without being noticed. As I searched through the books one finally caught my eye. It was tucked into a corner. The cover was half ripped off, and the pages were very weathered. It was hard to read, but all of the letters were there. The book was simply titled "Silence". From what I could make out the skill book actually led to a passive skill called the same as the book, that actually made the user make no sound when moving. Not walking, not running. But any movement. However the skill was very obscure and hard to learn. And even if I managed to learn it, there would be a high cost. As I was going to set the book down Instructor Grey called for us to come. With no choice I carried the book with me.

The old man did not seem to recognize me as I handed him the book to check out, however his eyes lingered a moment longer on it then the rest before he handed it to me. When he was done he finally spoke "you have a week to memorize the skill, if you need more time then you must check it out again. Dark you can keep the book for an extra week as that skill book is so worn you will need the time to unravel it."

I nodded and thanked him. The old man had recognized me after all. We returned to class. And Instructor grey simply sat at his desk. "The next hour you will have to read and memorize the contents of your skill book. For the remainder of the week we will be spending two hours a day on this, next week we will be moving on to the last topic that we will learn in class, magic.