This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Kain arrived at the auditorium that his registration packet indicated would hold freshman orientation.

Pushed out of the dorm earlier than he had planned he was one of the first people in the auditorium.

Having his pick of seats, he chose one in the middle of the third row, not too close, not too far.

It also had the added benefit of being quite far away from the Cheat who had already arrived and was settled into a spot in the front row.

Slowly others began to also filter in and fill up the remaining seats.

Thankfully, there was still enough room for Bridge and the 5 others from yesterday next to Kain.

"Good morning everyone! I am the Director of Academic Affairs for the Beast-Taming Department, Rowan Voss. It is a pleasure to welcome some of the most talented young members of the Celestial Empire to Dark Moon College. You've all demonstrated exceptional talent and potential to be here, and we are thrilled to have you join our vibrant community.

At Dark Moon, we pride ourselves on our rich history and our dedication to excellence in teaching…

'Ahhh…No matter the world the orientation speech is always needlessly long and boring' Kain began to tune out the director as he droned on about the college's impressive history, its core values when educating its students, commitment to the ethical treatment of contracts, academic integrity, blah blah blah. Until finally he got to the important parts almost 40 minutes later.

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"As I'm sure you all know, you are required to take 3 core mandatory courses. You must obtain at least a B in all core courses in order to move on to the next year. Elective courses only require a passing grade.

"Additionally, for the successful completion of the academic year, each student is required to obtain a minimum of 100 credits through missions each year. However, there is no limit to the number of missions a student can take. These credits can also be exchanged for valuable and rare resources that would be almost impossible to get outside of the academy.

Please take advantage of this system and exchange for them while you have the opportunity to do so.

"Every year, our college also publishes several lists. Getting your name on these lists comes with a variety of benefits.

"One such list is the Mission Leaderboard. A ranking of the number of mission credits obtained within a given academic year. It is separated into leaderboards by school year, and also an overall leaderboard not separated by year level. There are also the Academic Rankings, organized by year level, based on your grades within the 3 core beast-taming courses.

A place on the list of any of these rankings will come with lucrative rewards that will help you to greatly improve in strength.

"The most important ranking, however, is that of the Combat Rankings. Currently, you are ranked based on your entrance test results. However, every 3 months you will compete head-to-head with one another in order to determine your new ranking among your peers. Therefore, those in the top ranks shouldn't dare to slack off, as those around you will be itching to take your place.

Although rare, we have had instances of lazy over-confident students falling out of the top 5 to even below the top 20. Conversely, we've had plenty of students in our history who have come from the bottom rankings to go on to represent the college at the National Collegiate Beast-Taming Championship.

"This ranking is especially important because as the representatives of the school, the top 5 students will be the key focus of the university's resources and opportunities. One such opportunity I'm sure many of you are aware of, which is unique to the top 5 colleges, is the opportunity to enter Enchanted Spring in 3 months.

For those of you who don't know, the top 5 colleges all possess a spring that, when entered, increases the likelihood of manifesting a gift.

"However, the order for entering the pool is based on your rankings, with the top 5 students of each year being granted first access, followed by those ranked 6 to 20, and so forth. However, the magical properties of this pool are limited in effectiveness. For those of you at the later rankings, there may not be much of an effect remaining by the time that you enter.

"Therefore, all of you must strive to not only maintain your rankings, but also to improve your rankings.

"Now, I'd like to call the following individuals to the stage: Serena Storm"

At the very end of the front row, the Cheat stood up and made her way to the stage. Kain could immediately hear the whole room become abuzz with hushed whispers as they couldn't help but marvel at her stunning features.

"Kain Newman. Soren Lysander. Ranya Elaris. Kairos Umbrae."

Heart pounding, Kain made his way to the stage with the other individuals who had had their names called. He tried to appear a lot more confident than he felt. Soren, the arrogant blonde guy during the entrance exam who questioned the rankings, was glaring fiercely at Kain. Likely having identified him as the one who pushed him down to second, now third, place.

'But why is he glaring at me and not that Cheat who pushed everyone down without even taking the exam? Can't bear to glare at the beauty?" Kain thought in disgust, having lost a lot of the respect he'd had for him and glared right back.

"Take a good look at these faces. These are the individuals you should be aiming to surpass for the next re-rankings."

Suddenly, it wasn't only Soren glaring at Kain, the entire room full of students was glaring at the 5 figures on the stage. Over 50 pairs of eyes were examining them critically for any weaknesses they could pounce on. Their eyes more resembled those of starving animals than people, Kain thought he saw one guy even lick his lips while staring at him.

Sigh

'This day just keeps getting better and better.'