An hour later, as Aaron was thinking about his future plans to develop himself faster, an old man with a white beard appeared on the stage.
He gave a look around before he said, "Okay, everyone that needs to be here is here".
Once the old man spoke those words, the doors to the Orientation hall closed, barring anyone else from entering from then on.
"Okay, everyone, I am headmaster Viren Ebonblade, and my profession is Dark Mage. I hate people who are tardy. You are all informed about the orientation and when it starts, yet there are a few who didn’t arrive on time".
"Every action we take has consequences. You are all awakeners here, and that means one day you would go out there into the wild in search of treasures or whatever reason that you may have".
"The journey wouldn’t be so easy, and you would have to face many enemies. You may not come out unscathed and if by chance you lost a hand or something but still made it back to the safety, where a healer can reattach your arm".
"If at that point, what would you do if the healer doesn’t arrive on time?"
"Would you or would you not be angry about that?"
"Of course you would be. Anyone would be. The more the time goes on, the lesser the chances of reattaching the arm or even growing a new one. A healer can only heal if there is something to heal. If it’s dead, he can’t do anything. It means you would end up with a stump for the rest of your life".
"In the end, that means the end of your life as an awakener. Without all the limbs, it would be quite difficult to go out and hunt".
"So, what I say was to be punctual. Some consequences you may not see, but every action has consequences. Remember this, and don’t become like those who thought they can arrive whenever they want to".
"Now, let’s forget about them and talk about why you are all assembled here".
"Everyone got their guidebooks, right? There is everything there about how the academy works. So, no need for me to talk about those things that you can read in the book".
"Even though everything is there, I need to repeat a few things. Everything in the academy works based on Dusk Credits. If you want to buy something, you need credits. If you want to enter a dungeon to level up, you need credits".
"In the academy, there are no compulsory classes. You may or maynot want to attend the lecturers of the professors but if you want to, you need credits".
"Everyone as a fresher would get a monthly stipend, at that ends at the end of the first year. Use those credits wisely to obtain more credits, or else you may not have a good life from second year onwards".
"That’s all. You can meet and greet with...Oh, before I leave, in a month, there will be a Fresher’s Competition, exclusive to first-year students. There are rewards for the top ten students".
"From four to ten, students would get a free chance to enter any E-rank dungeon. In addition to that credits would be added based on your rank. The top three would also get these rewards, but in addition to these, there would be some extra rewards, which I am going to keep secret for now".
"Want to know what those rewards are? Then win".
"Okay, now greet your fellow first-years. You have to spend the next four years with them, so it’s best to know each other".
After saying what he wanted to say, the headmaster disappeared into a puff of dark smoke.
There was amazement written all over the faces of the students, but the staff had seen the headmaster pull such tricks many times in the past. So, they weren’t that surprised or amazed when he disappeared like that.
"Hi, I am Erika Dunberg", the girl that sat beside Aaron introduced herself.
Only when he heard the girl’s voice did Aaron observe that there was a student beside him, and that too was a girl.
If it was a few days ago, he might have shied away from speaking with her but that changed after certain things happened.
Though he can now speak with girls without getting all shy, it was not as if the shyness disappeared totally. He was still having problems while speaking with girls, but compared with how it was a few days ago, he has changed a lot, and a lot of changes are going to occur in his behaviour.
"Hi, I am Aaron", Aaron introduced himself but didn’t say his last name as he feared that could attract unwanted attention. He was already lucky that no one had identified him by now.
Aaron was hoping that he could return to his house without any incident, and he didn’t want to jinx that by giving out unnecessary details.
Erika was surprised when she heard the boy’s name.
She arrived almost late, and when she appeared, there were only a few seats available for her to settle down. So, she chose the one that was beside Aaron because this seat had a girl on at least one side, but the other seats didn’t have that.
At that time, the boy appeared busy looking into the air, which is a sign that he was checking his status panel. So, she didn’t disturb him. She only spoke with the girl on the other side of her.
After the headmaster left, she initiated the conversation. Though she felt that she would be good with girls around, she knows the reality.
She has to come into contact with boys too, or else things won’t move forward. So, as a step in that direction, she initiated the conversation with Aaron by introducing her name, but when the boy said his name, she was surprised.
She felt that the name appeared familiar but couldn’t place where she heard the name Aaron but she didn’t think much about it as it is a very common name, not an unique one. If she wanted to sift through her memories, that may take a lot of time.
The reason why she was surprised was because he only gave his name.