Shane thought that the badly beaten up students might be more interesting because of two facts.

First, their combat prowess was extremely bad even though their cultivation stage had reached the Expert stage.

​​

Otherwise, they wouldn't have allowed the hot-tempered youth, who laid unconscious next to Shane, to beat them up.

As for the second reason, Shane couldn't see anything unique about these students, and they looked at most like nerdy high-schoolers on earth as he had been one of them before.

After he transmigrated this had changed, but he felt an odd connection to them which was what made him curious about them.

'How were they accepted in the Shirai academy if their combat prowess is negligible and what is so special about them? The academy must have seen something…'

Following the medic team that carried away the seven beaten-up students, they entered the infirmary where many devices were empowered by mana.

Shane was already familiar with a few of them because his father had bought them for his combat training.

The purchases had been more of a preventive measure to help Shane if something were to happen to him, but somehow, he had to use it more often than his father or uncles and aunts had initially expected.

The images of past incidents flashed before his eyes as he recalled the horrific combat training where he had suffered a similar fate like the seven students in front of him. Shane had to shake his head to clear his head before he took a glance at the young students' emblems that were embedded in the school uniform they were wearing.

After he figured out which class they belonged to, he decided to start investigating their background, which included using the Shirai academy's own forum on PrimWeb.

Until the seven students didn't recover from their injuries, he couldn't ask any questions and he noticed the nurse who had arrived in the infirmary handing out pills.

Those pills would accelerate their recuperation process while sending them into a hibernating state for a day.

When Shane saw this, he knew that it was pointless to remain inside the infirmary.

Instead, he could use his time fruitfully by investigating everything in a detailed manner.

As such, he used the academy's forum to figure out the young students' names and why exactly they were beaten up.

Shane only heard something about "trash occupations" and "non-combatant" which allowed him to search about those students' names, age, and maybe even what kind of occupations they had picked that had made them a target in the eyes of the bullies.

While walking outside the building complex, his eyes were trained on the holographic screen in front of him as he skimmed through several dozen forum threads without figuring out much.

Half an hour later, one could see Shane, sitting on a wooden bench pondering about the information he acquired so far as a young female student with fair skin approached him hesitantly.

"H--Hello Shane Suro..was it right?...M-my name is Talia Sar...I saw you helping out my friends earlier….Thank you!!" She blushed while holding out a soft drink as a means to thank Shane.

However, Shane hadn't even realized that there was someone in front of him as he had been deep in thought. Only after Umbra, who had perceived everything in his surroundings, told him that there was someone in front of him, did Shane lift his head.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you, what's wrong?" He was not sure whether she had said something important or not. This caused him to be rather polite instead of creating a misunderstanding as it had happened with the Valkyries who had misinterpreted his words.

The young fair-skinned student's cheeks turned even redder as she stuttered,

"I-I-I just wan-ted to thank you for helping my friends!!"

Tilting his head he thought about it for a moment.

'So, she is a friend of those seven students that had been beaten up? That's quite good!'

"No problem, but do you have some spare time for me? I'm curious about your friends and the rumors I heard about them!"

Talia stiffened for a moment before she nodded her head

"I don't know if I c-can help you, b-but I will give my best!"

"Alright, don't be so stiff and calm down, I won't do anything to you," Shane said teasingly as he smiled lightly, seeing how Talia behaved.

Umbra communicated her name to him because he had been attentive to his surroundings, unlike Shane who had been in his own train of thoughts.

This was beneficial but at the same time, it allowed Shane to notice that Umbra was able to hear things in his surroundings which he might otherwise miss.

Maybe this was possible before but they had never realized it, however, one had to acknowledge that it was extremely interesting!

With that, Umbra might even be able to warn him about certain things in his surroundings which he failed to notice!

Talia sat down at the other end of the bench, which caused Shane to smile oddly as she asked

"W-What do you want to know?"

"It's nothing special, I just want to know if the rumors about the seven students' occupation, whom I helped earlier are true?"

Shane was hopeful and his eyes gleamed with curiosity as if he found it extremely interesting which was something new to Talia and her friends.

"If I were to say yes, would you say that we are wasting our time?" Somehow, Talia felt uncomfortable under Shane's gaze, yet happy that he didn't seem to be repulsed when he heard the rumors.

"Why should I say that? Every occupation has its own worth, and it's unnecessary for everyone to pick a combat occupation! Strength might be important but so are other factors. For example, being strong but extremely stupid or unaware of how to use martial art techniques properly would be useless, right? Mankind needs more than just strength."

Smiling brightly, Shane tried to reassure her, because he understood what the 'we' in her question indicated.

Sighing in relief, Talia felt as if a huge, heavy burden had been lifted off her heart as she said,

"The rumors are true, but probably both exaggerated and underrated at the same time!"

When Shane heard this, he couldn't help but feel that his smile widened further which Talia noticed. Her cheeks that had turned back to her normal, fair skin turned red as she blushed once again.

She almost exclaimed 'How beautiful' but fortunately she could restrain herself.

Thinking that Shane might want to know more she offered her help as she said

"I might be able to answer more questions if you want to know more! I can tell you everything!!"

To Shane, Talia sounded a bit ambitious which caused him to be tongue-tied for a moment.

He regained his composure after a moment before he asked,

"If It's possible I would like to know what kind of occupations you and your friends picked and more importantly why! I'm really curious about the reason for y'all to choose an artisan occupation like an [Craftsmen] over a combat occupation!"

Shane seemed sincere which made Talia happy as she and also her friends hadn't encountered someone like him at the Shirai academy.

Until now, they had been harassed a lot for choosing their occupations, even though they were useful in their opinion.

As such, Talia began to speak and when Shane heard the reason for them to choose their occupations and what occupation they chose, he couldn't help but ask

"What kind of geniuses are all of you??"

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