The first lesson of the day: Swordsmanship.
A couple of students looked weirdly at Shang when they saw him.
They had heard of him before, but they hadn't expected him to be in their Grade. After all, Shang had never shown up to this lesson.
Most other students came from the yellow and blue factions, but there were also a couple of students with black, red, and green uniforms.
There were only five people from the Caterpillar Class in this lesson, and they had vouched for Shang when everyone inevitably started questioning why someone at the Peak Soldier Stage was in their Grade.
Teacher Mervin eventually arrived, and he began the lesson.
"Closing in on spear users," he announced.
After his announcement, a student at the Peak Soldier Stage walked forward.
He was tall, muscular, and had long green hair. A mighty spear was in his right hand.
None of the other students seemed surprised that the student was a level higher than them.
The student with the spear was someone in the Preparation Grade, and they were supposed to help the students in studying. He had to be more powerful to properly control his power and techniques against his opponents.
Of course, the student would earn quite some Contribution Points for performing this service.
After the student stepped forward, teacher Mervin called the first student to the front.
Teacher Mervin didn't explain anything.
He simply sent the student against the spear user.
"Level three," the student said, obviously familiar with how the lesson worked.
After that, the two students began fighting.
In just a couple of seconds, the sword user managed to get past the spear and reach the spear user's body.
At that point, the fight ended.
The two students parted ways, and the next student stepped up.
"Level three."
While one student after the other stepped forward, Shang asked one of the other Caterpillar Class students about what was going on.
The student told Shang that there were different levels of difficulty.
Level one was the easiest, while level five was the hardest.
If a student managed to beat level five, it meant that they could close in on a spear user a level above them.
There were only two students that beat that level, and both of them wore yellow uniforms.
The highest level the people from the Caterpillar Class managed to beat was level three.
The difference in techniques was just too much.
The Caterpillar Class only had access to techniques of Soldier Stage warriors, which were themselves. The other students had access to techniques perfected over years by the most talented and experienced Commander Stage warriors.
Something like that couldn't be learned without proper guidance and a lot of time.
Shang watched the students fight the spear user time after time, and for the first time, Shang saw the power of real techniques.
One of the students had wind come out from their back, which increased their speed by a level.
Shang was a bit confused when he saw that since he was under the impression that only someone at the General Stage could release their Affinity in such a way.
However, another student explained to Shang that this was the power of a technique.
The student couldn't manipulate their Affinity freely.
They could only follow guidelines.
This was the difference between a technique and mastery.
Mages used incantations and practiced Mana movement to create a powerful attack.
However, what if they didn't use incantations?
What if they moved their Mana differently?
Someone that knew a technique could theoretically replicate the same thing again and again like a copier.
However, such a copier couldn't create a completely new piece of paper that didn't already exist.
Without the incantations, the Mage would find it very hard to manipulate the Mana appropriately.
The incantation was the guideline that showed the Mage the way.
The same thing applied to techniques.
The student in front of Shang could unleash their Affinity in this very specific way, but if they wanted to unleash their Affinity in a different way, they would need a long time and lots of practice.
If someone had mastery over their Mana, they could use it in whichever way they preferred.
But that mastery was hard to achieve, and people in the Soldier Stage couldn't achieve that.
However, with these techniques, they had a shortcut and a guiding light to attacks and movements that should be beyond their abilities.
This was the strength of techniques.
Eventually, it was Shang's turn.
"Level one," he said.
After a couple of questions to the teacher about how the student should handle someone on his level, the fight began.
Passing level one was very easy for Shang due to his stronger body. At level one, the opponent only stabbed forward without moving.
At level two, the student also swung his spear from side to side.
At level three, the student bent the spear in several attacks to make the movements of his spear less predictable.
At level four, the student was allowed to move around, which mostly meant them retreating.
At level five, the student could do whatever they wanted.
Levels one and two were very easy for Shang, but he failed level three.
Together with his more powerful body, that basically meant that Shang was essentially only on level one when compared to the other students.
Since Shang had a more powerful body, he would need to beat level five to reach the average of the other students in class.
Several other students only snorted at Shang's performance, but Shang didn't mind it.
He was here to learn.
He had only recently joined.
With time, he would gain experience, and he would become better.
Shang got several more tries over the next three hours, and he eventually managed to beat level three. He had watched how the other students managed to close the distance, and he tried to emulate some of these things.
Even just by watching, Shang had already learned a lot about fighting someone with a spear.
After the lesson, Shang walked to the next lesson.
"Fighting a Fire Mage," the Vice-Dean announced when the lesson started.
Yes, it was another theoretical lesson for the red uniforms.
After three hours, Shang went to the next lesson.
"Life in the Empress Cobra Zone," a teacher Shang didn't know said.
This was a lesson for the blue uniforms and yellow uniforms, knowledge about different Zones.
These lessons talked about the local economy, policies, wildlife, rulers, events, and many other things. It was just a general overview of different Zones.
Today was about the Empress Cobra Zone.
Shang learned a lot about the Empress Cobra Zone in this lesson, and he went to the next one.
"Let's start," Astor said with a big smirk as he looked at Shang.
It was another lesson for the Caterpillar Class.
After that lesson, Shang went to the last one for the day.
There were twelve hours of lessons during the day with a total of three hours of breaks.
The first lessons started at 7 am, and the last lesson ended at 10 pm.
"How to spot pickpockets," the unknown teacher announced.
This was a lesson for the yellow uniforms.
These lessons taught the future guards and soldiers how to do their job properly.
Shang was interested in that lesson.
Why?
Because he wouldn't always be in the academy, and it was important to protect himself. These lessons went into the behaviors of other people and many different things.
The concept wasn't fully developed in this world yet, but this lesson was basically a rudimentary version of psychology with a heavy focus on only a couple of categories.
After the lesson, Shang went back to his room to train in his techniques again.
Then, he trained his Affinities.
The next day started, and with it, the next lessons.
Swordsmanship.
Politics.
Caterpillar.
Beasts.
Then, more training.
Then, more lessons.
More training.
More lessons.
More training.
More lessons.
And before Shang knew it, the last days of lessons had ended.
The Day of Chaos had arrived.
