Archer was surprised to find that he was actually one of the first people to enter the class. Only a few other people were in the class of sixty. At least this time Archer would be able to sit himself in the corner without disturbing anyone.

As he sat himself down in his seat he realized just how comfortable the cushion was. He also remembered how sleepy he was. Now he was concerned that he might fall asleep in the middle of class. From his brief experience with Professor Blackowl he knew that if he did fall asleep he would be chewed out.

Archer briefly considered the fact that it might build to his character if he was caught asleep in class. But then he thought that it was likely to result in some type of punishment for him, which probably would hinder his progress.

Archer quietly pinched his own leg to try and stay awake. He wondered what the first day of real school would be like. Hopefully nothing too overwhelming while he was still in his sleep-addled state. I remember lots of combat-style tests being a thing here. But what are the chances something like that will happen?

As the minutes passed by, more and more students entered the classroom. With more people around it resulted in more conversations. Some more interesting ones were the discussion regarding the challenge for Ran Almer. Considering most of the class was C rank and above save for a small splattering of F ranks, the talks were nearly all negative.

Most annoyingly of all was that it sounded like it was an important enough event that he needed to keep an eye on. Okay, another thing to keep track of. Archer thought as Ran Almer himself entered the class.

Immediately the mood in the room changed. Several people shot him dirty looks and the animosity towards him was thick in the air. Clearly the other students weren’t fans of someone at the bottom rung trying to move above his supposed station.

However if this affected Ran at all, he didn’t show it on his face, he simply sat himself at his seat and waited for the teacher to arrive. At the same time some of his friends whom he made on the first time greeted him happily.

As long as they were in the classroom it didn’t seem as though any of the students leering at Ran would actually act out. Which meant that Archer could shift his eyes towards two other people of interest.

The girl Luna, the one that he suspected was being possessed by something. What and how he did not know yet, he would need to get closer. Which he wasn’t exactly sure how to do. She was having headaches as she seemed to internally battle whatever was plaguing her. Archer wasn’t sure if he would be able to get close due to that. Currently her back was facing him so he couldn’t see her face. But the slouched-over body language was not a good sign.

I need to try to figure out the source before I approach her first. So I can deal with it accordingly. But then there’s that guy. Archer said as he glanced over to the other side of the room.

What sat in the opposite corner of Archer was a very peculiar-looking person. They had their uniform jacket tied up like a cape, large square-rimmed glasses, messy black hair that covered their eyes and their arms were covered in what looked to be bandages.

Damn. I need to get my equipment cleared soon. Archer lamented seeing his fellow students wrapped arms. What was the strangest thing about the man was that he was how he seemed to be murmuring, well nonsense.

From the distance, Archer had no chance of making out anything audible from his whispers, and lip reading was difficult. But from the bits he was able to gather he mentioned something about having secret powers.

Archer wanted to just take this as nonsense, someone just rambling to entertain themselves, but there was something off about the guy. Not just him being weird, but it felt as though there might have been some validity behind his words. Maybe not intentional, but he just gave Archer an off feeling. I hope I’m wrong. He thought as he looked across the classroom as Professor Blackowl entered and the bell rang.

He wasn’t alone however as a beautiful, tall, short-haired blonde woman followed him in. She wore short sleeves that exposed the hidden musculature of her arms. She looked to be another professor, but Archer couldn’t recognize her. Though he thought he probably should.

“Class.” Blackowl announced, “Today you will be visiting Trinity Academy’s dungeon, normally it would be on Fridays and Mondays, but today you and the other first years will go down to the dungeon together. This is Professor Alia Hearthstone. She is the professor responsible for handling first-year students in all subjects related to dungeon diving and adventuring. She will be in charge of the class today.”

“Hello class of 101! As your professor kindly introduced to me already, I am Alia Hearthstone, you may call me Alia if you’d so like.” She said giving the class a charming wink.

Archer quickly glanced around noticing how mostly the boys had their attention all directed towards her. She’s definitely a looker. But looks more like a wolf in sheep's clothing than anything else. Archer said as he leaned back.

Alia gave a charming wink toward some of the higher-ranking boys as she spoke, “I look forward to watching you all grow and mature as you lovely students spend your time here at this academy. Please get changed and then follow me and let me introduce you all to Trinity Academy’s glorious dungeon where you will learn some of your greatest lessons.”

Immediately as she began to walk out of the classroom several of the boys got up to follow her. At the same time, some of the girls shot the professor some dirty looks. Including a certain bubble gum pink-haired girl, A-ranker Annaxia Torri. She really didn’t like people more popular than her. Or at least that’s what Archer was able to gather so far.

I suppose I need to start to get to know my classmates soon. Archer thought as he got up from his seat. I need to confirm her relationship with Julia.

***

The dungeon was located outside of the academy building. Towards a much more wooded area of the school. It was explained how this area they were headed to not only had a dungeon but also a dense woodland for further training.

Archer wore basic armoured clothing provided by the academy, but he noticed how many of the others, most notably the higher ranks had their own equipment. Though some of the lower ranks did bring their own equipment, albeit old and shoddy-looking. Which made sense, it did cost money to rent the stuff unless it was covered by some sort of scholarship.

The dungeon itself on the outside looked rather plain, no windows just a concrete rectangle, though a large one. It was a simple gray building and the interior wasn’t any more interesting. It was an empty room that had a few photos of students and professors on the walls and a panel with a few buttons. In the middle of the room was a large fenced-off area with another panel of buttons.

“Into the middle everyone.” Alia ordered opening the gate to the fenced-off area. As they entered Archer realized just how big the area was, even with sixty students there was still enough space to comfortably fit two or three more classes.

How big is this dungeon? Archer thought as he recalled what a dungeon was. Dungeons had been around for at least a century now. Originally they along with towers appeared about a century ago.

They were strange structures that randomly appeared across the planet. Those who investigated them found them to house floors and floors of rooms with a massive amount of area and varying environments.

They were unfortunately all inhabited by various monsters and strangely enough treasures beyond imagination. Anyone brave enough to venture down did so at their own peril. If Archer’s history knowledge was correct that remained the case for a while. Until the Time of Calamity fifty years ago, when monsters from these towers and dungeons poured out and wreaked havoc across the world.

It was then that people knew what these structures could be used for. These things were separate worlds that connected themselves to Gaia which had their own logic of physics and reality. A dark god then activated them and sent monsters to try and destroy the world. Thankfully they failed and many of the dangerous buildings were destroyed. Though even now, how these things were created and why they worked the way they did was still a bit of an unsolved mystery.

Some still existed, either due to not being conquered yet or became government property. At the end of the day, these things did house treasures and valuable resources. Not just things that can be used solely for monetary value, but also power sources and building materials. People decided that the risk of keeping some of these things around was worth it.

A person with some combat skills could make a living from going through one of these things. It was a lucrative market for those who took the occupation of hunters, albeit a rather dangerous one. Entire economies and cities have been built around these areas.

Dungeons, where Trinity Academy was built around, were vital sources of both experience for the students and the economy of the city. The students and anyone who got a license can do battle with monsters down below.

As Archer was reflecting, Alia pressed a button on the panel and the fenced-in area descended down to the dungeon. They were now in a large empty cavern with tunnels and signs leading deeper through the underground building. They weren’t alone however as several other first-year classes were already there waiting.

Alia then stood in front of the crowd of students and teachers with Blackowl standing behind her looking disdainfully at his surroundings. Alia smiled at the class and began to give out instructions.

“Alright students, go ahead and form yourselves into groups. No group can be more than five. You can be solo if you so choose, but be warned, it is dangerous for you to do so and is not recommended. Do not explore any further than the first level and after a few hours you will be called back.” Alia said instructing everyone as she strode around the place.

Murmurs amongst the students began as they became excited over the prospect of exploring a dungeon. For many, it would be their first time doing so.

“Before I forget, everyone please take a remote.” Alia said holding up a small remote with a single switch on it, “It is an alarm in case you run into danger. Once activated it will alert one of the teachers to your location and they will help. However do know that if you choose to enter the dungeon on your own spare time you will not be provided one of these. So you must be careful down there. Now come and line up.”

As she finished speaking a line began to form as the students, now ranging in the hundreds all eagerly waited to get their alarm from one of the teachers. Even before the alarms were being handed out, other students were already looking and talking to one another and forming their teams.

Unsurprisingly, same-ranked students grouped up together with one another. But Archer was surprised to find that there were few people not looking for groups aside from him. Even weirder was that the three he spotted were also low ranks.

One was the F rank he had spotted the previous day, the other one was an E rank who seemed to be already waiting before a tunnel, and the third was the weird guy who was muttering to himself from his class. Pot calling the kettle black though. Archer argued internally as he received his alarm and stashed it away within his pocket.

Archer then found a quiet corner to sit down at and debated whether or not he could get away with taking a nap. Still, he couldn’t go to sleep yet, there were a number of things he needed to watch out for.

“Hey, do you still need a group?” Someone called out to him.

“Hmm?” Archer asked looking up surprised to see who was talking to him was a friendly-looking coffee-haired girl. He recognized her, sort of. She was in his class and was also an F rank.

“I saw you sitting by yourself. Do you want to join our group? We have space for one more.” She said pointing back to her group. There were three other people standing around talking to one another. One of them was Ran Almer, his friend Alex, and another was Selena.

“Oh.” Archer said with a pause considering his options, “Thank you. But I don’t want to be a bother, I’m really tired. I don’t think I’ll be much use.”

“It’s fine. It will be better working as a group. Are you sure?” She said looking concerned.

“Yeah. I’m going to try and take it a bit slow this first time down here. I won’t be doing too much.” Archer said declining the offer.

“Alright, if you’re sure.”

“Yes. Uh, thank you kindly for the offer, uh… miss?”

“It’s Emmra. You’re Archer Griffen right?”

“You know my name?”

“Well, you are…” Emmra said trailing off.

“Oh right. I was chewed out.” Archer said with a chuckle.

“Sorry.”

“Oh it’s fine. It’s been a hectic few days moving in. I want to take it a bit easy.” Archer said.

“Oh, I understand. Wait, so you’re from out of the country?”

“Yes. I came from Arcadia.”

“Arcadia? You mean from the other side of the world?” She said her eyes widening in wonder, “What’s it like?”

“Ah, it’s a fun place.” Archer said as he scanned the room, “Uh, if you are looking for another group member why not ask her?” He said pointing at a blond girl with a very distracting chest and an F rank on her uniform.

“She’s our class isn’t she?” Archer asked.

“She is! I didn’t see her. If you’re sure about going alone, I get her.” Emmra said offering one last time.

“I’m fine. Thank you for offering.” Archer said giving her a friendly smile. Archer watched as she bowed her head in goodbye and ran off to the other student.