“Alright, can I please have a show of hands for all those who have gotten the Dimensional Storage skill?” Professor Untfeher asked the class pausing to watch for raised hands. “Only 3 of you? Okay then. Well, those of you who haven’t gotten the skill will continue working on it during this lesson. Those of you who haven’t gotten the skill by the end of his class will be coming in over the weekend until they have the skill. Albert, Sam and Paul you three will be working with me on a new skill today. This is a very useful passive skill that can help you a lot when diving into dungeons, which a lot of you will be doing in the next few weeks I have heard. Now are there any questions before we get started?” the professor asked. A single hand raised from the front of the classroom. “Yes, Miss von Doumei?”. “Can we please get another demonstration of the skills before we begin practice?” she asked. “Of cause you can. Sam, please step up to demonstrate the skill” he instructed. Sam was startled for a moment, the request taking him by surprise. He got up from his seat as requested and stood next to the professor. “If you will” he asked gesturing for him to demonstrate the usage of the skill.

  Sam activated the skill and remove his new short sword with one hand and a book with his other. He then put the items back into the storage space and deactivated the skill. The professor followed the demonstration up with a further explanation reiterating the principles they learned in the last class. Once he was done he separated the three who had gotten the skill into one corner.

  “Alright, the next skill I will be working on with you is the ‘Danger Sense’ skill. This is a skill that is passively active and will alert you when danger is nearby. At low levels it’s normally if a fatal ambush or something is about to occur but as you level the skill up its detection is dramatically improved to the point where you can walk through a dungeon and sense which rooms are safe to enter and which ones have enemies or traps inside” the professor explained.

  “To teach you this skill is difficult and with their only being three of you it’s much easier than it would be with a large group. This skill will normally develop by itself the more you dive into dungeons and artificially creating the conditions for the skill to manifest is quite difficult” he continued.

  “With that being the case the only real way we can try to trigger the skill to manifest is by launching a fatal attack at you and stopping the millisecond before impact. This would be impossible without having someone with a max level combat skill like myself, as the control required to pull it off is extremely high. Now who wants to go first?” the professor asked the three of them. Sam reluctantly chose to go first. He was going to have to do it anyway, might as well get it out of the way he thought as he raised his hand.

  Sam sat down in the chair the professor had brought over. “Alright, I want you to close your eyes and attempt to sense or feel the attack coming. Look out for sound, wind and feeling, understood?” the professor asked. “Yes sir” Sam said with a nod as he closed his eyes.

  Sam sat there for about thirty seconds before he felt like he needed to lean forward. “Okay, you clearly felt something there however you need to try not to move as it will trigger better if you’re completely stationary as the attack comes in” the professor said.

  Sam closed his eye again awaiting the second strike. A sudden feeling of discomfort came to him, and he felt the air move against the side of his head. The notification sound chimed in his head as he felt a shudder run through his body. Sam opened the notification ~Natural Skill Gained. ‘Danger Sense’ LV1~ “That was better, it might take quite a few attempts before you gain the skill so we will keep going until you understand the feeling, okay?”. “Um, professor?” Sam said. “Yeah?” the professor asked. “I got it” Sam stated. “What? Already?” the professor asked again in a surprise tone. “Yep, just got the notification that I have gained the danger sense skill” Sam said. “First dimensional storage and now this. You must have some sort of affinity for gaining skills or something. I’ve never seen someone gain the skill so fast before” the professor said astounded. “Well, I supposed you can get up then. Albert… your next” the professor instructed.

  Sam got up off the chair and watched as Albert took a seat. “So, what do you want me to do now?” Sam asked. “Honestly I hadn’t prepared what we need for the next skill I was planning to teach so, I’m not sure. Give me a bit to think about it” the professor said. Sam spent the next twenty minutes watching Albert and Paul switch places and the professor swung his dagger towards their necks. Neither of them had yet to gain the skill yet Sam had gotten it on the second attempt. He was starting to wonder if his blood skill had an undisclosed buff for gaining skills considering how fast he had gained the last two. Although the sword skill took a while maybe that was also considered fast he thought as he stared off into space losing himself in his thoughts.

  “Sam….. Sam….. SAM” Albert said shaking his shoulder. “Hmmm, Yeah?” Sam replied. “What do you mean yeah, you were seriously lost in space there” Albert said.

  “Sorry, I was thinking about the danger sense skill” Sam answered still in a bit of a daze. “Yeah it’s a bit of a pain to trigger the conditions but it was easier than the dimensional storage skill” Albert said. “I don’t know, it was about the same for me” Sam replied shrugging. “Yeah, you’re apparently pretty good at unlocking skills” Albert replied. “Swordsmanship and my jumping skills took a while” Sam countered. “Yeah I don’t think so. It took me 3 hours despite the fact I had been trained in swordsmanship my whole life” Albert said knocking him back. “Well, I’m not going to complain about it” Sam said shrugging once again not sure what to think about it other than the fact it was quite the boon if it was related to his blood skill.

  “Alright kids, enough chatting” the professor said. “I’ve got another skill you can work on” he explained as he approach the two waiting students. Sam and Albert perked up and put their full attention back on the professor. “This one’s a bit different and will require some physical labour. The skill I want you to work on for the rest of the lesson is another passive skill called ‘Iron Skin’” the professor said continuing his explanation. “The Iron Skin skill is another passive skill that makes your skin more resistant to cuts from blades. It’s one of those skills that when levelled up to max a steel sword wouldn’t have a chance of drawing blood even if swung with incredible force. Now to get this skill you will have to sit down and cut your skin with a dagger. This will be the lightest of cuts just enough to draw blood but not enough for it to trickle out. It should take around 1000 cuts to gain the skill depending on your blood skill rank. Those with a high rank blood skill tend to need less cuts to gain the skill” the professor explained to them. “Here are two bottles of lesser healing potion. After each cut just put the tiniest amount on the cut and it should seal in a couple of seconds. Now, do either of you have any questions for me?” Professor Untfeher asked. “No, it sounds pretty simple” Sam replied with Albert nodding along in agreement.

  Albert and Sam spent the rest of the double lesson using their daggers to lightly cut their skin before putting a small amount of healing potion over it to heal the cut. Sam repeated this about 200 times before the end of class not yet gaining the skill. “You can take the rest of that healing potion with you so you can keep going in your spare time” the professor said to them before they left for their next class. “Thanks Professor” Albert and Sam said at the same time as they left the classroom.

  Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

  After lunch Sam and Albert made their way to the combat arena for their penultimate class of the day. When they arrived professor Goldblade and his two assistants were waiting for all the students to gather in front of them. Once the last students arrived they received their instructions for the coming lesson.

  “Alright students listen up. Today we will be focusing on leveling up your sword skills to level 10. Once we are all at level 10 we can begin working on some proper advanced combat but until then we will be working on leveling the skill. Those of you who are still yet to gain the skill will be working with me. Those who are levels one through to five will be working with Adam and those of you at levels six through to ten will be working with Gaius. Does anyone have any questions?” the professor instructed them. There were no questions and they all split off into their separate groups.

  During the lesson Mr. Freed ran them through some hard sword drills for the first 10 minutes of the lesson followed by a round robin sparing session. Overall, Sam gained about three levels to his swordsmanship. After his final bout Sam was taking some deep controlled breaths before he got another notification. That’s strange I wasn’t even doing anything Sam thought to himself as he opened and read through his notifications.

  ~Natural Skill ‘Basic Swordsmanship’ level gained. 'Basic Swordsmanship' is now Level 2~

  ~Natural Skill ‘Basic Swordsmanship’ level gained. 'Basic Swordsmanship' is now Level 3~

  ~Natural Skill ‘Basic Swordsmanship’ level gained. 'Basic Swordsmanship' is now Level 4~

  ~Natural Skill Gained. ‘Combat Tranquility’ LV1~

  Combat Tranquility? I’ve never heard of that skill Sam thought as he read through the final notification. “Excuse me, Mr. Freed?” Sam asked the professors assistant. “Sam, what’s up did you get a couple of levels from that training?” he asked. “Yes, three but I also gained another skill, and I’ve never heard of it before” Sam replied. “Oh, I see. What’s it called?” he asked in response. “It’s called Combat Tranquility” Sam said. “Hmm, can’t say I’ve heard of it either” he replied in a curious tone as he appeared to run through his deeper memories.

  “Hey, Nick. Can I have a moment” Mr. Freed called out to Professor Goldblade. The professor who was straightening the training swords out on the rack after they had been returned walked over to them. “Sam here said he gained another skill and I haven’t heard of it before” Mr. Freed explained to the professor. “Oh, what is it called?” the professor asked turning his gaze over to Sam. “It’s called Combat Tranquility” Sam replied. “Hmm, yes I’ve heard of it. It’s a rare natural skill that only a few natural born fighters can get. I can’t quite remember what it does exactly, but you should be able to find some information on it in the libraries skill compendiums, or you could try to speak to Katia Winters as she’s one of the few people I know who has the skill and would likely be in the city” he explained. “Okay, thank you. I will head to the library and check it out after my last class of the day” Sam said giving a slight bow as he turned to head off to his next class.

  Albert and Sam entered the classroom and took a seat next to Alice and Chloe who had arrived before them. “How was your dancing?” Sam asked the two of them. “Exhausting” Alice sighed. “What about you?” she asked back. “Leveled my sword skill a bit and gained another skill. Not sure what it does yet though. I need to go over to the library to look it up” Sam explained. Just as he finished replying to Alice the professor entered the classroom.

  “Good afternoon everyone” he said taking his place behind the lectern at the front of the room. “May I know which of you have completed your homework?” Professor Tinderfall asked them once the class had quieted down. Sam thought for a moment before he remembered that gaining the mana manipulation skill was the homework he had set for them. “Please raise your hand if you have gained the skill” he instructed. Sam raised his hand along with two thirds of the class. “Of whose have gained the skill keep your hand raised if you have levelled it past level 1” he asked again. This time over half the raised hands fell. “I see, now those who have levelled it up to level five or above keep your hands raised, those levelled under 5 drop your hands” he instructed once again.

  Sam lowered his hand and looked around at those who had it still raised. Alice, Chloe and three other students still had their hands raised. “Hmm very good. Those of you who have levelled the skill past level one, please work on leveling the skill to level 5 or above before the next lesson. For those of you who haven’t gained the skill or only have it to the first level you will have a lot more work to do before the next lesson. If you haven’t gained the skill before our next lesson you will have to separate from the rest of the class and work with my… assistant before rejoining the class” the professor said.

  “For this lesson, please focus on working on your mana manipulation skills some more. I was going to begin with a simple spell today but with so few up to level five on their mana manipulation skill I have decided to wait until next week. I’m sure you have all been busy getting used to the academy in your first week so I will be lenient on this occasion. Just remember however that if I set homework to be completed before the next lesson I expect it to be done. Understood?” he lectured. The students all nodded in understanding and proceeded with their mana manipulation practice.

  Sam was starting to get into it as he felt himself guiding the mana around him. “Ping” a sixth notification sounded in his head as he stopped to take a break. Sam wiped some sweat from his forehead and leaned back in his chair. He had found using the mana manipulation skill to be quite easy. It was weird, it didn’t feel like this when he had first gained the skill perhaps it’s got something to do with some of his other skills synergizing with it or something he thought. The end of class arrived with him getting a further two notifications. Sam opened them up to confirm they were as he had expected.

  ~Natural Skill ‘Mana Manipulation’ level gained. 'Mana Manipulation' is now Level 5~

  ~Natural Skill ‘Mana Manipulation’ level gained. 'Mana Manipulation' is now Level 6~

  ~Natural Skill ‘Mana Manipulation’ level gained. 'Mana Manipulation' is now Level 7~

  ~Natural Skill ‘Mana Manipulation’ level gained. 'Mana Manipulation' is now Level 8~

  ~Natural Skill ‘Mana Manipulation’ level gained. 'Mana Manipulation' is now Level 9~

  ~Natural Skill ‘Mana Manipulation’ level gained. 'Mana Manipulation' is now Level 10~

  ~Natural Skill ‘Mana Manipulation’ level gained. 'Mana Manipulation' is now Level 11~

  ~Natural Skill ‘Mana Manipulation’ level gained. 'Mana Manipulation' is now Level 12~

  From level 4 to 12 in just one class seemed like a lot to Sam but perhaps it was normal at the lower levels of the skill. It made sense that it would get harder as he leveled the skill up like most other skills.

  Before long the class had ended, and Sam had returned to his dorm for the evening. He had prepared a quick mental list of things he wanted to do over the weekend before his lessons next week. He wanted to do some sword training to try and increase his basic swordsmanship level further. He also wanted to go to the library to try and figure out what the Combat Tranquility skill did as well as pick up a book or two on the dungeon they would be diving in a couple of weeks. There was plenty to do and he was getting more excited with every day that went by. He couldn’t wait to be able to dive his first dungeon.