Noah's eyes opened as warm beams of light flashed through the window. His eyes fully opened to the weirdly familiar feeling of waking up in a bed that was not his. He got up and looked around to find the clock. Seeing the time he slowly moved off his bed and leaned back stretching his back and earning a couple of cracks for his effort. As he came back to a standing position he felt all the blood flow back into his body.
He looked down and noticed that he went to bed with his normal clothes on so he just left the room without ever changing. As he left the dorm he made his way to the cafeteria to get his breakfast. Entering the cafeteria Noah was pleasantly surprised to see that on a counter to his right was a machine that was sent from heaven. A majestic, heavenly, dare he say godly coffee machine.
Noah was pretty excited to see a coffee machine and was even more excited to see that the coffee machine used real coffee beans. Usually Noah had synthetic coffee, due to the price of coffee beans being so high, but they were just handing them out for free in this academy which made him very happy.
Noah then looked to his left and saw the assortment of foods that were laid out at the pick up area. They had a wide range of meats, with egg, bread,and even cereal. This place was heaven on earth. Noah made his organic coffee and walked into the line that had started to form in front of the food. Noah filled his plate and went to sit at a table. He ate in silence with the only thought in his mind being the quality of the food.
Noah, finished with his food, gave his plate back and continued towards the academic side of the academy. On his way there he picked up a pamphlet and looked at the variety of classes that were given. The three classes that Noah saw some interest in were Basic to spear, basic combat, and survival training.
Looking at the line up of classes he saw that he would be going to survival training first. Noah walked through the hallway evenchilly arriving at the classroom. He opened the door to see no one inside. He looked down at the pamphlet to see if he had the wrong classroom, but to his surprise he was at the right place. He walked in and sat down in the first row of the class. Around a minute later Noah heard the door open and an Old man walked in . With a little pep in his step he walked in and placed his things on his desk.
Confused, Noah walked up to him" Hi sir, Uhh is this wilderness survival?"
The old man turned around " why yes it is, My name is awaken Julius but you will address me as Mr Julius"
Noah nodded " yes sir, but si- Mr. Julius, why is there no one here?"
Julius' face shriveled in annoyance " those simple minded buffon's want to learn fancy things like how to swing their swords and fists. Very few Know the true power that comes with knowledge"
Noah knew he was one of these "simple minded buffoons" which kind of bothered Noah . Sure he could put more time into this class but he also sees more value in learning to fight plus, how much could there be to learn in this class? It was probably just how to build a basic shelter and how to cook food.
Julius looked at Noah with an inquisitive stare " what made you want to take wilderness survival classes?"
"Well, I kind of know how to fight so I thought it would be better to learn how to make a shelter or how to cook food. You know, learn the bare necessity before getting thrown into the dream realm."
Julius looked at him slightly unimpressed at his reasoning. Julius now knew that his desire to learn was not out of a pursuit for more knowledge but in the simple minded action of learning the basics of survival. He then asked a question in a slightly annoyed tone" Are you taking any other courses besides this one?"
Noah scratch the back of his head" oh well I'm taking two other courses Spear combat and Basic-Combat"
Julius hit Noah with the * that's about right * look and said with a annoyed tone " Ok I shall teach you the bare minimum of survival"
Noah looked kind of ashamed that he did not focus on only Wilderness survival, but he reasoned that he would need the spear skills to kill and the basic combat to test his might against other humans.
The class lasted about 3 hours. Noah might have been gifted in learning ways to fight, but was not gifted in learning literally anything else. Fighting kind of just clicked for him unlike everything else he learned. Noah understood the basics of what Mr Julious was teaching but did not understand the in depth reasonings . All he could really commit to memory was the way to create fire, but Julius knew that he could not expect more. It was the first day after all so he was pretty patient with Noah. But the class did eventually come to an end, and Noah again found himself walking to his next class.
As he walked down the hallway he looked at his pamphlet again and saw that his next class happened to be Spear combat . The class was almost on the complete otherside of the campus. Noah arrived at the door to see some people walking into the class. As Noah walked up to the door he thought that at least this class was more lively than his wilderness survival.
He opened the door and saw that the classroom was not a classroom at all. It was more like a dojo with many advanced looking dummies strewn across the area. In the middle of the dojo stood one man with a long spear with delicate engraving on the spearhead. The spear rested against his body giving him a relaxed look. On the ground around the man there were about 14 people sitting in a half circle. Noah inferred that this man was the teacher and sat down with the rest of the students.
As he waited, people started to trickle into the class. Then once people stopped trickling in, the instructor spoke.
" Welcome to Spear combat I'm Awaken michel and as you already Know I am Here to teach you how to use a Spear! Since you probably signed up for this class because you have a spear as your main weapon, Summon your weapon!"
Everyone one in the class summoned their weapons and to Noah shagreen everyone's weapons were without rust and scratches, they were in a pristine condition. Then Noah's weapon was summoned. His weapon was all black with rust beginning to form on it. It was also covered in rotting wood. He compared his weapon to the others and felt kind of self conscious at how out of place his weapon looked.
In Reality No one really cared what his weapon looked like other than Noah but it still made him kind of nervous. The instructor continued.
" Now most of you know the advantages of a spear but some of you are new so I will still explain. A spear is used instead of a sword because of its extended range and its powerful thrusts. It can also be used as a projectile"
Awaken Michel then turned around and threw his spear to demonstrate his point. It flew through the air embedded itself in the chest of the dummy. He then walked over to it and pulled it out of the dummy's chest.
" But with all things it comes with drawbacks. You are limited to longer rangers and the weapon can be unwieldy if used improperly."
The professor then went on a spiel about how the spear is a great weapon to learn and its versatility. He then split the class into two different groups: the experienced group and the new group. Obviously Noah was put in the newbie group. As the experienced groups practiced their already learned skill, Awaken michel took the newbie group to the side.
He did not show us anything too complicated, just the basics on how to thrust and return it to ready position. This was a relatively easy affair and the group stayed on this one task for the entire class. In all honesty Noah was pretty bored in that class. He could get behind using his fist because he could vary his combos but from what he learned on the first day it was just the same attack over and over again. Sure Noah could aim for different spots but he did not find it that interesting. He liked how in fist fighting you could vary the attack motion but for now Noah did not find much enjoyment in using a spear.
His final class was the one class that he actually had some interest in, which was his basic combat class. He assumed that basic combat was a substitute for hand to hand since there were no hand to hand combat classes on the list. This guess turned out to be right. As Noah walked in he noticed a similar dojo setup and again he saw many people even more than his spear class sitting on the mat . The awakened that was teaching this class was someone he had met before. It was the man who had given us the entrance speech not too long ago, Awaken Rock.
Awaken Rock announced that this would be the basic combat class and this would mostly be sparing against other students so they could get used to the pressure of battle. Noah was absolutely elated by this fact. He then paired two random students and put them in the center of the room.
He told them that they would be doing a sparring match to which both of them got into ready positions. They laughed at each other and shared a short exchange of blows before one was knocked down. The loser was then sent off into the crowd at which point Awaken Rock told us that we could volunteer to face the winner.
Noah, who was very excited at the prospect of this training, instantly volunteered. He walked up and got into a ready position. As instructor rock started the fight Noah charged in confident that he would win. And why wouldn't he? Noah had fought humans before and won but there was a stark difference in skill between the people in this academy and the people in his Nightmare. Immediately after Noah's reckless charge he was almost overwhelmed by his opponents.
He was sent completely on the defensive, unable to strike back. He dodge left and right but couldn't find an opening. The guy he was facing moved like water; he could not get a read on his dodges and foot work. So Noah was stuck in a dilemma, he couldn't strike and his enemies' attacks were getting closer and closer till one finally stuck and after that Noah was fully overwhelmed and knocked onto his back.
The rest of the class was a lot of Noah losing his fight. Sure he won every now and then but he was outclassed by the skill of the people here. Noah had noticed many flaws about his fighting style. First he had only really learned the basics: 4 different punches, to dodge, and where the vital spots are. His fighting style was missing something huge, Range. More specifically Kicks, sure arms were pretty important but everytime Noah saw an opening he was always too far away to capitalize on the opportunity. His opponents were also able to strike him when they were out of his range.
Noah knew that this was what he was missing. With new resolve Noah threw himself into training to learn how to incorporate kicks into this fighting style.
For the next few weeks Noah fully devoted himself to learning everything he could from the academy. Teacher Juilous was able to teach Noah the basics of survival and was even able to cram some Knowledge of rune into Noah's skull. Awaken Michel was able to teach Noah the basics of spearmanship, Noah also learned to like spear arts. After hours of training Noah actually found it pretty fun to use a spear. Finally Awaken Rock was able to help Noah further develop his fighting style and by the end of the weeks of training Noah was finally able to incorporate kick into his striking style albeit a little janky.
The date of the winter solstice was fast approaching and Noah thought he was ready for anything the dream realm could though his way.