Ty felt his face go red as he stood there dramatically with the two knives in his hands. He expected Peasant Individual rank items to do… something, anything, even. But instead, they sat in his hands, as lifeless as ever.
"D-Did you really think… Oh my Lords, this is hilarious. Did you really think that anything would happen with the knives? I told you the effects of everything, and I even told you the effects of the knives too. They're just really, really sharp for their rank, and that's it!"
"I… I thought maybe you forgot to tell me or something…"
At this point Ty was blushing even harder now. He looked like a child holding a pretend magical wand. To rid himself of embarrassment, he quickly equipped the sheaths and stored away the knives, effectively hiding his shame. At least they could cut a lot, and they would help him all throughout the first two and possibly three ranks.
"Nope, they're just sharp. I'm pretty sure Seahawk would have told you that the less enchantments a relic has, the more power the remaining ones have, right?"
Ty did seem to remember learning about that, although a bit later in the book rather than in class directly. His study habits had initially caused a problem with Seahawk, but that was until it was discovered that it was his book that Ty was reading. After that came out, he was fine with it, since the book went over the course content. That led to Ty not having to answer any questions in class, letting him focus on his more advanced education.
"Yes, I do remember that. Is sharpness really the only enchantment?"
"Well, a strong sharpness enchantment and a minor durability enchantment, making it closer to an unenchanted Apprentice Species rank item."
"Is it really that good? I guess staying with the government for six years isn't too bad…Well, if this is all, I can get my materials and go, right? I still want to participate in the other classes, and I've been here long enough."
Ty did want to go back and go back to class, but he also just hated being here after embarrassing himself. The workers had worked quick, dressing the monsters in not time flat. Maybe it was a profession thing? The point was that he could now grab his things and go back to class and see his friends.
"Yeah sure, just don't expect those knives to do anything on the way out lil' dude!"
Offshore continued laughing to himself as Ty ran out of the room, with his face getting even hotter. Thankfully his dark skin concealed any type of blushing that Offshore would have seen.
Ty made his way back to class, the entire ordeal taking no more than thirty minutes. Making it to class, everyone stared at him as he entered with a full getup on. Thankfully, everyone was provided with armor as well to help them train in it, so he didn't look out of place. After all, the Dubbed wear armor more than they go without it, so it would be nice to train with it at least for now.
Making his way to his seat, most people ignored him, since he was someone they had seen before. Of course, Ariel and Cata had questions.
"He Ty~ what did you end up getting? Your armor looks a lot fancier than ours."
Ariel was in a relatively light getup similar to his, possibly preferring it to more protective armors because of the maneuverability needed to use a whip. Speaking of, she had a long leather whip beside her feet on the floor, looking as frightening as a whip should.
On the other hand, Cata was wearing a half-plate armor with a badass-looking cap. Considering snipers required ceasing all movement and focusing on the target, it made sense for her to be so protected. And just like Ariel had a whip, Cata had somehow gotten her hands on a sniper rifle. This was odd to Ty, since he had not seen any firearms in the student's armory when he was in there.
"Offshore had actually prepared a full set of gear for me before but forgot about it… for two weeks. Only when the day to choose out gear came did he remember, and kinda late at that. I even got some Serf rank relics lying around in wait for me too, which is nice. The weapon I got were these twin knives."
Ty showed off his knives, them being of a much higher quality than anything else in the room.
"They really want me to be some type of assassin, because they didn't even give me any ranged weapons to train with. They might be too confident in my skills…"
Before he could speak to his friends any longer, Coach Turbo spoke to the class.
"ALRIGHT MAGGOTS! NOW THAT EVERYONE HAS THEIR WEAPONS, YOU WILL EACH GO THROUGH TRAINING TO MAKE YOURSELVES FAMILIAR WITH THEM! ANYONE WITH A RANGED WEAPON WILL DO TARGET PRACTICE WITH CROFT, WHILE MELEE WEAPON USERS WILL RECEIVE BASIC FUNDAMENTAL TRAINING FROM ME!"
He paused for a second and watched as some students paled at the thought of having to train under such a creepy instructor. Although, it wasn't that he was creepy in the illegal way, just creepy in the 'I like dead bodies' way. Still very scary.
"ANYONE WITH ANY TYPE OF RANGED WEAPON, PLEASE EXIT AND GO INTO THE ROOM ACROSS FROM THIS ONE! CROFT IS WAITING THERE AND WILL INSTRUCT YOU ON WHAT YOU'LL DO NEXT! FOR THE REST OF YOU BUMS, I'LL START TRAINING ONCE THEY LEAVE!"
Hearing that, Ty looked over at Cata as she stood, her face tinged with a slight bit of worry.
"I guess I have to go practice under Instructor Croft, so I'll get going. Wish me luck, I guess."
"Good luck Cata, don't let that guy's creepy demeanor affect you too much now."
After he said that she left to train with her sniper. If she grew, she could be immensely supportive to him in battle, a sniper and assassin.
"ALRIGHT NOW THAT THEY'RE GONE, WE CAN BEGIN! MELEE COMBAT IS EXTREMELY SIMPLE IN THE BEGINNING, SINCE YOUR OPPONENTS IN THE WILD HAVE LITTLE TO NO INTELLIGENCE! HOWEVER, DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU, AS THEY STILL HAVE THEIR ANIMAL INSTINCTS, AND THOSE CAN BE SCARIER THAN REAL BATTLE SKILLS!"
Ty thought about it, and it did make a bit of sense. Back when humans were the dominant species, they still died a lot to wild animals like lions, tigers, and bears just due to their brute strength and animal instincts for hunting prey.
"NOW, THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MELEE COMBAT ARE SIMPLE TO COMPREHEND AND BEGIN, BUT EXTREMELY HARD TO MASTER! THIS IS DUE TO THE TONS OF DIFFERENT FOOTWORK FORMATIONS THAT YOU COULD USE TO BREAK UP THESE FUNDAMENTAL MOVES, THE MENTALITY AND FIGHTING STYLE OF THE ENEMY, AND EVEN SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS HOW MUCH CONTROL YOU HAVE OVER YOUR MUSCLES! THESE FUNDAMENTAL MOVES BEING SLASHING, STABBING, THRUSTING, BLOCKING, AND PARRYING! HOW YOU ENACT THESE MOVES WILL CHANGE DEPENDING ON THE WEAPON, AND SOME MAY BE COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE! FOR EXAMPLE!"
Coach Turbo then turned his head towards Ariel and pointed at her, making her open her eyes a bit wider in surprise and contemplation. However, after a bit of thought, her expression went back to normal, just as the Coach moved to explain.
"ARIEL THERE HAS TAKEN THE WHIP! IT HAS SOME OF THE LONGEST RANGE OUT OF ALL WEAPONS CONSIDERED MELEE, HOWEVER IT HAS THE DRAWBACK OF NOT BEING ABLE TO PARRY OR BLOCK, AND ESPECIALLY NOT AT LONG RANGE! HOWEVER, THESE ARE NOT GIVEN UP WITHOUT BENEFIT! SHE CAN INSTEAD, WITH ENOUGH TRAINING, DISARM OTHERS WITH HER WHIP! SHE IS ALSO ABLE TO CAUSE IMMENSE PAIN, CAUSING DISTRACTIONS!"
Ty started to understand at this point. Each weapon set had their own tradeoffs, making every matchup different. Someone with a whip might have a better time against a regular warrior but fall short when facing someone wearing heavy armor like a tank type profession or someone proficient with a shield. Someone like him, the quiet assassin type might be at an advantage against a slower opponent like a tank type but be at a disadvantage against someone quicker and more observant of their surroundings like a fencer.
Coach Turbo continued to go more in depth about the fundamentals of melee combat for another two hours, making class an hour longer than it should have been that day. Ty was anxious to get out and absorb the information he had heard, although he was more so to eat and rest. The next week would be extremely hard on his body, needing him to train even harder to keep up with the rigor of weapon training. He was lucky he didn't use a heavy weapon.
On the way back to his room, Ty found Cata. She seemed to be in much better spirits than he initially assumed she would be in considering her teacher.
"Hey Cata, how was Instructor Croft? Is he worse as a Coach or an Instructor?"
"He was… surprisingly normal? His demeanor completely changes when he isn't talking about wilderness survival, so the class itself was actually quite pleasant. Although he did find some common ground with one of my friends about toxins, but his personality meshed well with hers, which was nice to see."
"Ah well that's good to hear. Coach Turbo instilled a lot of melee knowledge into us- in his usual tone of course. I never knew there were so many intricacies to close range fighting."
"I doubt it's as bad as using ranged weapons. We can't use logic in most places due to the abilities of many beasts, or just the environment themselves, so we have to learn to use our intuition. It makes a bit of sense, since even lower ranking beasts and humans can either affect the wind via other abilities, or just control the wind outright."
"That… sounds rough. I hope you guys are able to learn quickly. I want to go and eat now, so I'm going to go to the cafeteria and then head to my room. I'll see ya later though, maybe!"
"Bye, Ty."
Ty went to eat, noting the food was starting to have more protein in it recently, and eventually, after finishing, he went to his room to rest and prepare for the days ahead.