Wren was sat in his homeroom class. The class had about thirty recruits, a few of which Wren recognised. Both Liam and Carlos were placed in his class and he recognised a few others from the island they arrived on. He also noticed that a couple of the goons that rolled about with Chadwick were also in his class and were eyeing up his bruises with smug expressions. The class was arranged in rows facing the front of the class and the instructors desk, each recruit had their own desk which had been labelled with their names. Wren had found himself sat in the back row in the corner of the class. This was fine with him, it meant that he could blend in, all the way in the back he could stay out of trouble.

A lot of the recruits had already formed cliques, milling about at other peoples desks having conversations. Wren noted that Carlos had drifted over to the two that he recognised as Chadwick’s friends. Carlos seemed to think highly of the pompous boy and was trying to make headway into their group.

Wren noticed that similarly to himself, Liam was sat alone at his desk, patiently waiting for the instructor to arrive and to begin the class. Wren had thought that Liam would be out making friends, finding other Legacies like him, forming their own little groups, but that wasn’t the case. Maybe Wren had been wrong and he wasn’t like all the other kids, maybe he’d come to regret what he said to the boy the previous day. Either way, what was done was done, and Wren could do nothing about it.

“Alright alright everyone. Settle down, take your seats.”

A man who looked in his early thirties swept into the room and placed himself at the front of the class. He waited for everyone to take their seats and go quiet before speaking.

“My name is Steven Lops and I will be your homeroom teacher for the next year.”

He walked round to the front of the desk and perched on top of it, giving the class an easy going and friendly smile. He was dressed as all the other instructors had been, in white robes and green trim. His looked particularly clean, as if he’d spent hours washing and ironing them this morning. His sandy hair was also kept neatly, swept to the side in a short trimmed fringe that framed his face and showed off his thick rimmed glasses.

“The faculty will expect you to address me as Instructor Lops, but when its just us you can call me Lops.”

Wren raised an eyebrow at those words. Lops was quite clearly going for the cool chill teacher kind of vibe. He wondered how long that would last.

“As I said, I will be your homeroom teacher for the next year, but I will also be teaching monster studies. You won’t find an instructor on this campus more versed in the takedown of a Winged-Back Muscle Worm than me.” He said, flashing the class a wry grin.

“Now the first order of business for today is class testing.”

The class looked up at him with confusion painted across their faces.

“I can see some of you don’t know what I mean. Let me explain.” He said. “As you heard yesterday, classes will consist of monster studies, elemental ability training, martial arts and finally armament training. And of course general studies which take place in homeroom. Now each and every one of you has different capabilities, some of you are Legacies who have the base knowledge and training that others do not, some of you will just be naturally gifted and be prodigies in some areas. Either way, it’s not fair to teach you all at once when some of you will be above or below each others levels.”

He paused for dramatic effect.

“This is why we have the class testing. Today you will be put through a series of tests to show us your base physical, combat and elemental abilities. After the tests you will be placed within one of five groups depending on your level, and then you will be taught within your respective groups.”

Wren looked around the room, trying to gage the other recruits strengths. He wondered which groups they’d all be put in, which group he’d be put in. He figured that he’d do best somewhere in the middle and wondered if he should flunk the tests on purpose to make sure he remained in the middle. That would require a semblance of knowledge of his abilities though. He’d seen his abilities represented as stats but didn’t know how they measured up to the rest of his class. He could be the weakest there for all he knew and wouldn’t need to do anything to make sure he ended up in a middle group.

“Please bear in mind that the group classes are only applicable for the physical lessons; elemental abilities, martial arts and armament training. The rest of the classes, monster studies and general studies, will be taken with the class you are in now.” Lops continued. “Now, are there any questions?”

Wren looked about the room, waiting for someone to say something. The explanation Lops had given was good, he’d gone over everything in enough detail that the class had understood quite well. Towards the front of the class, a shaky hand rose from the second row.

Lops turned to the girl in the second row and gave her a reassuring smile, sensing her nervousness he gave her a nod to let her know it was okay to speak.

“Will there be an opportunity to change classes?” The girl asked nervously.

“Brilliant question Ms Stein.” Lops said. “For now, there won’t be much changing between classes as all of you are new recruits and have yet to even touch your abilities. However, later on in the year, if it seems like you are outperforming your fellow recruits you will be given the opportunity to move up a class. To do this you undergo a special test.”

“What kind of test?” The Stein girl asked.

Lops looked at her with a smirk.

“You’ll need to fight in single combat.”