Standing among the others, Noctis suppressed a yawn as he glanced over to his red-haired neighbor, who, for some reason, was still completely ignoring him. Seriously, how arrogant can one be? I don't even know your name yet!
Not interested in befriending this arrogant kid, Noctis focused instead on the class Professor, who began to explain how the rankings worked, drawing his attention back to the front.
As Noctis understood it, they were ranked in three categories: academics, combat, and—strangely—adaptability. Academics and combat made sense; adaptability, on the other hand, was just baffling.
How was one even supposed to measure adaptability? Academics were clear as they could be determined by test results, and for combat, there were many ways to determine that.
So, how was one supposed to measure adaptability?
However, what interested Noctis more than the ranking system itself was the rewards for placing at the top.
Three drops of Notium.
Notium was a scarce resource, used as currency within the city and far beyond its reaches.
This was the case because of its inherent high value. Of course, it could be traded for paper money, since the smallest units of Notium were already quite high in value.
To summarize, Notium had an inherently high value, such that even the smallest portion could be compared to a large monetary amount. In fact, it was so valuable that the entire city, a production city, was focused solely on mining this resource in its raw form.
And a whole of three drops were given to the first-place winner in each category!
This was a huge amount; one could rent a small apartment for a year with simply one win, or a big one if one wanted luxury for a short time. To add on, the second place got two drops, the third one got one, and after that, everyone got half a drop.
With fifteen students in each class, Noctis calculated that twelve drops were distributed weekly in just a single category.
Some might wonder why students received money rather than something that would enhance their Authority. However, the true value of Notium made this reward logical to those who understood its significance.
Its value stemmed from the fact that Notium was essentially the energy Authoritys ran on, and what would happen when a small fragment of a concept came into contact with pure conceptual energy.
It was quite simple, really. It started growing quickly.
When Noctis heard Trisha say they would get funded, he didn't know what to expect. But this made him, someone who usually didn't care much about money, start to feel his mouth water and his mind short-circuit.
Listening with rapt attention, Noctis was to be a bit disappointed, as one did not receive a reward from every category and only the one who had excelled in the best. This destroyed the dream of getting one and a half drops every second week for basically doing nothing.
Yet, this disappointment was short-lived, as half a drop of Notium was still a large sum, especially considering that he was in the first rank, which meant that he had a less urgent need for Notium and saw it more as a currency than a way to grow his power. Of course, financial power was also a form of strength, so the two were not mutually exclusive.
Yes, it was not stated that we are to use our allowance strictly for our growth! They would obviously have stated that if that were the case.
Justifying his future plans internally, he cleared his head the next moment. Noctis began to critically analyze the ranking system, considering strategies to maximize his gains within it.
Are they trying to reward specialization? This seemed most likely. This aligns with Trisha's words: specializing would be quicker than learning every field in depth. When sent in groups, shortcomings could be effectively eliminated this way.
So I can go on with the assumption that specialization is the way.
Students excelling at one thing often outperform jacks-of-all-trades after all.
But what is the intention behind that? And doesn't the category adaptation seem counterproductive to nurturing such a mindset? Noctis did not know the answers to these questions and might never know.
Turning his attention to the side, he saw a Leaderboard embedded in a wall, displaying the combat scores of all students.
This leaderboard was large and blue, its display running on a loop as it cycled through a list of names. At its top, it read Brutus Aurelious, next Reinhard…. and at the ned of the list, stood the names Siana Vale, Riven Holt, and Noctis Raveth.
Next to it stood a ring dedicated to letting students fight to prove their worth.
Today, class wasn't held in the usual room. Each week, one day was dedicated to physical education—combat training—while the other two were spent on academics in the standard classroom. Today, for combat training, they used a vast hall. To Noctis, who'd seen little of the world, it seemed immense. What surprised him even more was how clean everything here was.
The largest spaces he had seen were the underground market and various alleys, and all, without exception, seemed unhygienic, truly a stark contrast.
What he found especially peculiar was that, from the outside, this room looked tiny in comparison. It couldn't merely be explained by a change in perception or something like that, as the change was far too great.
When he asked Trisha about it, she uncharacteristically answered in a not cryptic kind of way, putting on the air of a teacher. Maybe because the information was so fundamental that she found it unnecessary to hide it, or perhaps she simply enjoyed explaining.
To put it simply, the distortion effect wasn't uncommon in the inner city, as it was a mix of technology and research into Notium's special properties.
Surely, such an effect was expensive to achieve, yet every realm had its specialties, and in the space realms, progress was furthest along in incorporating space Notium into technology, as it was the pre-existing version of the Notium only found in the space realm, meaning they had it in spades, making progress in the manipulation of space much quicker.
The Professor, slowly coming to the end of his explanation, was pointing at a few devices, laid out on a desk placed at the side of the hall. These devices looked different from one another. One was a lever glove with the symbol of a moon sickle placed on its palm, another was a small triangular shield, and another was just a straight-up Zweihaender, lying there.
These apparently were called Convergers. These Convergers were used to siphon Notium out of the body, and each Converger could then converge it in a different way.
This was another application of the mix of technology and Concepts. The difference was that one used a metallic battery, while the other used a human one.
Convergers could be used in many ways to create unnatural phenomena.
However, Convergers had limits, like any machine, but they could help offset Authority Wielders' weaknesses. Today, they would, if not learn how to use them, at least receive one.
To be precise, Noctis, Siana, and Riven would get them, as everybody else already had one. Watching from the side, Riven, with his ever-present stoic expression, took a slight peek at Raef before moving toward the table. Siana, with a still gloomy expression, was making her way toward the table as well, not seeming to put much weight on the whole process. At the same time, other students started skatering around the room, some simply talked, while others warmed up their bodies.
Noctis decided to spectate a fight and, from there on, planned on picking something that best suited his needs.
Sitting at the side of the ring, waiting for anyone to enter, Reaf walked over with an especially friendly smile.
"Are you looking for a friendly spar?"
Noctis blinked at Reaf. Why would I want to spar? I haven't even picked a Converger yet—let alone learned how to use it.
Reaf noticed Noctis's confusion and explained. "Sitting by the ring means you're up for a challenge." Noctis snapped to attention, flustered.
"Sorry for the mix-up. I'm just here to watch. I want to pick my Converger based on what I see."
Feeling a bit perplexed that he had gotten so flustered all of a sudden, Noctis quickly regained his calm as he watched Raef like a Hawk. His previous experience with him had not been forgotten.
Chukeling calmly, Raef looked towards two other students, signaling them with a shake of his head to come over. While two students, both of whom had been present during their little initiation, walked over, Raef said.
"Then this is your lucky day. How about my two friends give you a demonstration?"
Both of his "friends", who arrived simultaneously, looked at Riven with questions in their eyes.
One standing on the right was of medium build and wore strong, deep eyerings, giving the impression of suffering from insomnia, stroking his arm as if slightly nervous.
To the left stood a tall man with bronze skin, very muscular, with brown eyes and slightly slit pupils. Noctis couldn't quite describe it, but when that man looked upon him, he instinctively felt that he should run. This was Brutus, who had brought up the topic of the Hollowfang in their earlier meeting. Shaking off this feeling, Noctis redirected his attention to Raef.
From what Trisha had told him, Raef was the leader of his pack, but how? No matter how he saw it, this man Raef seemed in no way superior to the others, so why would they let him rule over the other two?
Wasn't strength everything, or had Noctis misunderstood something?
Standing between the giant Brutus and the still taller-than-Raef Elijah, he gave off the vibe of a lost child, escorted by his older siblings, not in the least giving the impression of a leader.
Throwing a charismatic smile towards Noctis, he spoke, not even acknowledging their existence, a clear show of their standing.
"These two can give you a good show, considering that you'll have to decide upon your Converger soon, how about they only fight using their Convergers and brawn?"
Hearing this, Elijah, the guy with dark eye circles tried to interject, as if displeased with this arrangement, a certain uncertainty in his gaze, yet before he could even utter a word, he was shot down by a slight but sharp glare from Raef.
Elijah fell silent the next moment, with a defeated expression on his face.
With the bigger man not interjecting, Raef continued.
"So how about it?"
Suspicious of Raef's motives, Noctis hesitated briefly. However, as he could not see any direct danger or reason to reject, he simply nodded, giving his approval.
Seeing this, Raef's smile brightened. He took the other two to the side for a brief moment, seemingly whispered a few words into Elijah's ear, before returning to Noctis. A certain shudder ran through Elijah as Raef walked away from him.
Raef's smile never wavering, he spoke.
"Then let's see how these two will fare."
Feeling a chill run down his spine, Noctis remembered the robed man at the sight of that smile as their eyes met.
Replying with a dry throat, Noctis thanked him curtly, his perplexion a bit whiter than before.