"A lot of hunters, quite a few among you as well, tend to disregard everything else in the pursuit of strength."
The same elderly instructor who taught us about monsters stood before the class again. He still carried that characteristic cheer of his from the previous lesson, giving cadets a cursory scan.
Even the multiple cadets sleeping couldn’t dampen his mood. If anything, his smile widened at the sight.
Sadly, I wasn’t one of those lucky bastards. Or more accurately, I couldn’t be.
As much as I wanted to rest my dizzy head on the desk and kindly tell this world to go fuck itself, I couldn’t.
This class was far too important to miss.
Its instructor was a rather peculiar man.
’Professor Scott Lancer.’
He was one of the few instructors who wasn’t a hunter.
Though he made up for this shortcoming quite easily with his obsessive interest in his area of research.
Particularly, monsters and the environment beyond Bastion.
The man even had a habit of forcing hunters to take him along on dangerous expeditions, just so he could study them better.
Because according to him, recordings and samples didn’t let him get an authentic feel of them.
’Whatever that means.’
Oblivious to my musings, Professor Scott continued his lecture on the podium below.
"While strength is undoubtedly an important part for hunters, your strength doesn’t work in isolation. Will you be able to exert it properly if you’re hungry, sleep-deprived, or halfway dead from frostbite?"
He paused abit, letting the question linger.
Before answering it himself.
"Of course not. And that..."
The professor walked toward a chalkboard he’d dragged in when entering the class.
He rapidly scribbled something on its surface before turning to face us again.
"... Ladies and gentlemen, is why we learn wilderness survival. After all, the environment comes a close second to monsters when it comes to newbie hunter deaths."
He began pacing around the podium.
"As we all know, the typhoons last for roughly nine months, with an awfully wicked winter taking most of the remaining three. The human body takes rather unkindly to this sort of weather. And sure, you’re hunters now, but at the end of the day your body is still human. At least at this stage."
He paused, then turned, pacing in the opposite direction.
"As your body is still human, even if your physical stats are raised, it just needs to take sufficient abuse before it inevitably breaks down. And trust me, that nasty weather out there is always ready to dish out a good deal of it."
He stopped in front of the chalkboard again.
"So, how do you as hunters prevent your squishy insides from giving out on you?"
He turned back to the board again.
"Let’s begin. Firstly..."
The lecture continued.
Even through the constant shivers, cold, and nausea, I managed to take notes of the important things he mentioned.
It was mostly possible through meds from the hospital. Though I couldn’t say I was happy using them.
For one, they weren’t perfect. The drugs only served as suppressants. The symptoms were still present, just dulled.
More importantly, I couldn’t feel the full brunt of the illness under them.
Now, I know that may seem a bit counterintuitive. After all, I was taking the meds for that explicit purpose.
But taking them stopped me from learning how to operate under the effects of my burden, forcing me to rely on them just to function at a basic level.
I certainly couldn’t use them forever. After all, the effects of mundane medication weakened significantly with higher ranks.
Hell, the dosage prescribed to me would already be considered an overdose by normal human standards.
The main reason why I wasn’t just roughing it through this class was because it was bloody important.
I closed my interface before turning downward to see the professor leaving the board.
He was just about done with the class.
"There is only so much you can learn about survival from a classroom. Which is why this class should be a practical session. It will be starting next week. We will be using the dream engines for our purposes."
It was the same device we would be using for the simulation as well.
The device allowed one to project their consciousness, along with their gifts and burdens, to a virtual plane.
In doing so, it let them possess an avatar that was essentially a carbon copy of themselves. Well, apart from the fact that said avatars couldn’t die.
The professor began dragging the board along with him, then paused to give the class a final word.
"And to those of you who may not yet understand the value of this course, I’m sure the simulation will provide you with generous enlightenment."
That caught most cadets’ attention as they immediately perked up, looking toward the professor.
But the man in question was already gone.
"Hey. Were you taking notes?"
"Who paid attention to what he was saying?"
"Did anyone take notes?"
Needless to say, they were panicking.
At the corner of my vision, I could see Shin flashing me a sly grin.
"I saw you taking notes."
I facepalmed, trying to resist the urge to roll my eyes.
"Weren’t you paying attention?"
"Um... yeah. Totally, but you kno—"
"That’s enough. I’ll send them to you. Just don’t send them to anyone else."
Immediately after I said that, my body instinctively moved to dodge his claw before it could pat my shoulder.
Shin looked at his paw, still mid-air, then back at me before laughing it off.
"I knew I could count on you."
"Yeah, sure. I’m serious about not sharing anything though."
While the notes weren’t heavily crucial, I still wasn’t willing to do anything that could help my possible competitors.
Unfortunately, the professor only handed out valuable but basic information this class. Though, that was likely to change in future sessions.
"Relax. You can trust me on this."
I just nodded in reply, shifting my gaze away from him as I turned to face the front rows.
Scanning them, it didn’t take long to find who I was looking for.
’Well, well, well. If it isn’t Song. Looking very much alive and unexploded.’
She still had bags under her eyes, with skin of sickly pallor. But even that was already a huge improvement compared to yesterday.
Not that I had much doubt in it to begin with. It was simply logic.
The moment her gaze met mine, I flashed her the brightest smile I could muster.
Her face immediately twisted into a scowl before she turned away.
I wasn’t letting her off that easy.
I popped open my interface to send her a message.
[So... How did it go? Feeling pretty healthy right ;)?]
Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the look on her face. But I got a reply pretty quick.
My face twisted at that.
[That’s a weird way of spelling ’Two’.]
[No, I mean one. You’ve already cashed one in.]
Oh. For original chapters go to novel{f}ire.net
[You agree with my idea, then?]
I looked at her again, but she was still faced forward, so I couldn’t see her expression.
’Still, this is good. Very good indeed.’
[It is to be expected. You were bound to see the light of reason eventually.]
[Oh shut up. What’s this ’genius’ plan of yours even about?]
[About that... I don’t exactly have one yet.]
She immediately snapped her head toward me, her face completely stupefied.
Her next reply came furiously quick.
I was already typing a response before she even sent it.
[Alright. I’m kidding, ok? I have a plan. Well, sort of.]
I waited for a response, but she just kept a dangerous glare trained on me. Waiting for me to explain myself.
[I do have a plan, but I’m not entirely confident in it. So I’ll send you the details tonight. Check them and tell me if there’s anything that needs changing.]
Any help was appreciated. Especially from the perspective of someone like her, who was born of this world. There might have been things I overlooked, given my outsider perspective.
With that, she stood up and began walking out. A girl with green hair quickly followed after her.
’What happened to the other lackey?’
Not like it was my business.
"You’ve got a crush on Song?"
Shin’s voice sounded beside me. I could only give him a confused look.
"What gives you that idea?"
"You’ve been looking at her for a while now, and letting out that creepy smile of yours."
I unconsciously touched my lip at that.
’I guess I did look rather suspicious in hindsight.’
"You don’t have the right to call anyone’s smile creepy, Wolfie."
"Doesn’t matter. I think you should quit it. The girl doesn’t seem to like you very much. She kept glaring at you."
He kept pushing the misunderstanding further.
’How do I shut this down?’
"Shin, trust me on this. It’s not like that."
"Sure, whatever you say buddy."
The wolfman nodded dismissively.
"I think you’re heavily misunderstanding something."
"Come on, let’s go grab lunch."
"I swear it wasn’t like that at all."