novelraw Chapter 60 : Chapter 60
Chapter 60 : Chapter 60
Chapter 60 : Formation
Jez carefully placed an exquisite metal box on the desk.
The smile on his face did not disappear.
All eyes in the classroom were focused on Sal, who was carefully opening the lid.
Inside the box, a crest with an intricate pattern made of fabric lay on purple cloth.
Sal was puzzled, as he had never seen any of the symbols engraved on it.
At that moment, Jez explained the meaning of the prize to the entire classroom.
"This is called a Challenge Crest! It is awarded to students who achieve outstanding performance, and is attached to the uniform so everyone can see it. It is a symbol of honor and a mark of recognition showing the difference between you and your peers. This is the first time a crest has been awarded to a student this quickly, but you fully deserve it! Mr. Argento, I expect great things from you in the future as well."
Jez tapped the desk, then slowly walked to the center of the classroom.
He picked up the ledger that was on the desk, turned a few pages, and then looked up at the students again.
Tapping the ledger in his hand, he shifted his gaze to the students standing on both sides of the classroom and continued.
"Excuses or blaming others is very easy. For example, 'Mr. Salvatore has appraisal ability, so naturally it must have been easier for him,' right?"
When a few students standing by the side of the classroom nodded, Jez slammed the ledger shut.
"Wrong. Motivation and drive are completely different stories. Every student here may dream of success and desire unimaginable wealth. But without the drive to make that a reality, any ambition is merely bubbles. Mr. Argento established himself as a priority appraiser through negotiations with the Reavers Guild. That was a relationship that didn't exist at all before entering here. And then he stayed up all night performing a whopping 73 appraisals in a row."
Jez paused for a moment to give the students time to digest his words.
Most of the seated students looked at Sal with new eyes.
However, Jez's words were not finished yet.
"I'm not standing here just to praise his achievements. He created a link, negotiated, actually performed the work, and has now established himself as an appraiser who gets the job done properly. People spread rumors. And three staff members working on the Credit Floor were dying to tell me about the new appraiser who did appraisals all night. That is exactly how you build a reputation. And that brings us back to the subject we first covered. Reputation. What do you want to be remembered for?"
Jez gestured to both sides of the classroom.
"The reason you are standing against the wall is because you didn't complete the assignment. Right now, you have two paths. You can solidify your resolve through this moment, or you can completely crumble. If you only find Mr. Argento's success annoying, this class won't be of much help to you. But if you feel a sense of competition... and want to surpass him? Then this class is perfect for you."
Jez leaned against the desk and laughed.
"From now on, a baseline is set. Students earning less than 50 Q-Credits by next week will be moved to the edge of the classroom. You can only sit if you achieve 50 or more. If you come to school with absolutely no Q-Credits, you are out of this class. And every week, that baseline will get higher."
Hushed groans erupted here and there in the classroom, but Jez didn't mind at all and only looked at the center of the classroom.
"Students who survive until this month will attend a private auction house with me. There, you will get the opportunity to purchase items that do not exist in the Q-Credit Store. If you survive until the end of the first semester, you will be able to enter the private market used only by top guilds.... But we'll deal with that later."
Jez opened the ledger again and looked around the crowd.
"Now then, shall we look at the rest of the rankings? Raise your hand if you earned 100 Q-Credits or more."
The class continued with Jez checking each student's earnings and adding simple advice and praise.
Sal listened intently and discovered that there were surprisingly many passionate students in the classroom.
One student was even running a business opening a dating service connecting people with compatible Essence attributes.
On the other hand, students located at the bottom of the list were mostly lower crafting types, cases where they failed trying to sell services in the traditional way at the existing Q-Credit Store.
It was the method Jez had told them to avoid.
"Before wrapping up today's class, let me say just this one last thing."
Jez put the ledger down on the desk and looked around the classroom.
"In the end, what comes back is reputation. We have an appraiser who established himself as an expert in the appraisal field and proved it with results. What if he had sold services in the Q-Credit Store without any fame? You must create your own brand. Provide customers with a memorable experience so they look for you again and recommend you to others. Don't struggle to fit into existing structures, create your own market! What is your unique value? What is your brand identity?"
A few students inhaled sharply.
"Also, what value can you put forward that is different from your peers? You can only succeed when you can answer those questions. Simply having the will to work is not enough. Chase opportunity, or create it yourself!"
Jez clapped his hands and pointed to the door.
"Remember. Now there is a baseline. Next week, bring results, not excuses. Next time, I hope more students will be sitting in this classroom listening to the lecture."
***
"Sorry!"
Blanid shouted as she broke formation again.
Anxiety spread all over her face, but Sal raised both hands to signal it was okay.
He gestured to the team members to take a short break and brought more drinks he had kept on one side of the training ground.
"This helps improve team cohesion, so make sure to drink it all. Let's start again after drinking."
Sal checked the labels and distributed the drinks one by one to the team members.
Blanid accepted the drink with a grateful expression and smiled awkwardly, while Barry had a face full of extreme boredom.
As Divinity had already warned, Barry was highly likely to be a problem in the team.
And judging by the complaints he uttered in between, he seemed close to the limit of his patience.
Sal let out a sigh of relief as Jack and Anthony accepted and drank the beverages without much comment.
Divinity had handed over guidelines for the first day of training to Sal.
It centered on light practice like formation training and stance switching.
The team members were struggling even with simple commands to move to designated positions.
"Is everyone ready to start again?"
Sal asked, moving the empty cups aside.
Barry downed his cup in one go and tossed it next to Sal's cup.
Blanid, Anthony, and Jack also hurriedly drank their beverages and nodded.
Sal smiled and gestured for everyone to come back inside the training ground.
Several shapes Divinity had drawn on the floor with chalk marked the movements they needed to master.
"The drink you just had is for strengthening team cohesion. Now we should be more sensitive to each other's positions or sudden movements. Once we get used to each other's movements, we'll be able to predict them naturally in the future. Well, theoretically speaking. Any questions?"
Sal looked straight at Barry.
When Barry slowly raised his hand, Sal took a piece of paper out of his pocket without delay and handed it to him.
"Divinity organized questions you might ask in advance. Trying not to waste time arguing unnecessarily."
"Must've thought I'd pick a fight for sure, huh?"
Barry grumbled as he took the paper and unfolded it.
His eyes moved quickly following Divinity's handwriting, but no emotion was revealed on his face.
After a while, he folded the paper, put it in his pocket, and sighed.
"No questions."
The rest of the team members looked at Barry's pocket with curious eyes, but he seemed to have absolutely no intention of explaining.
Sal clapped his hands to turn everyone's attention back to himself.
"Good, let's start again! The effect of store-bought drinks doesn't last forever, so if you want to save Q-Credits, it'd be better to learn quickly."
The five took their positions again.
Sal stood in the center at the very back of the group, and Jack and Blanid, standing wide on both wings, flanked him.
In front of them, Barry and Anthony took positions close together.
"Shield!"
Sal shouted, taking a step forward.
At those words, everyone moved simultaneously, standing back-to-back and bunching up in the center to take a defensive stance.
Although they didn't understand exactly, it was a stance Divinity had taught them.
After a few seconds passed, Sal shouted the next command.
"Spear!"
Everyone moved into a single file, and Barry stood at the very front taking a loose attack stance.
Sal stood at the very back of the formation observing the team's progress.
Divinity had only designated a few formations at first.
She wanted Sal to rotate through them directly to raise the team's sense of balance and cohesion.
Divinity was moving busily with her team training on the opposite side of the room.
"I have a question that wasn't on the note!"
When Barry shouted from the very front of the formation, a few team members groaned as if resigned.
Sal ignored him and ran the formation training a few more times, and fortunately, Barry followed instructions without a word.
Sal checked the overall flow again.
The initial awkward gestures were gradually changing into smooth movements.
It started with a series of anxious laughs and apologies from beginners, but now they looked like a team capable of collaboration in its own way.
Even Blanid, who was afraid of the team itself at first, was now moving to her position naturally with a smile.
Then, as Barry waved his hand again, Sal eventually gave in.
"Fine. What's the question, Barry?"
Barry turned towards Sal, took out the note, and said.
"The original question was about our team's survivability. Sorry everyone, but we suck. Even if we do formation training a hundred times, it's over if we get hit by one lightning bolt to the face."
Barry shook the note in his hand and continued.
"According to Divinity, if we train according to the schedule you set, we can avoid relegation... but what I want to ask is, how on earth? We have no attack power, no defense power, no healer, just overflowing with useless supporters. Sorry again."
Barry stared piercingly at Sal and asked.
"What on earth has to happen in the future for us to survive?"
Sal pointed to the team still awkwardly maintaining formation and said.
"We will utilize equipment. That is the method. I possess a Rare rank weapon capable of shooting projectiles. Meaning long-range attacks are possible. But it's useless if someone walks in front of it during battle and gets shot dead, right? So I will procure the best equipment we can use, and what we can't procure, we will make ourselves. That is exactly the competitiveness we can have."
Sal tried to say something encouraging, but the team members seemed focused only on the mention of possessing a long-range weapon.
Jack raised his hand to ask an additional question, but Sal continued speaking just like that.
"Asking what possibilities we have ahead? How we survive a single lightning strike? Most of our opponents haven't used Essence in real combat for long. Especially in group battles. So they won't be able to control the speed of Essence usage and will exhaust it all in the beginning. When they are tired and have used up all their Essence, we can seize the opportunity as a team and take them down one by one."
Everyone looked at Sal with surprised expressions, and Jack quietly lowered his hand.
Sal laughed and shrugged.
"Most top-ranking team leaders will try to fight with solo play. In such cases, we just need to concentrate on attacking one person. Conversely, lower-ranking team leaders lack leadership or aren't respected by team members, so there's a high possibility the battle will be a mess from the start. In those times, we must focus on defense. Divinity has already analyzed all the formations we will learn in combat class. Thanks to the intensive training course Divinity created, we will get ahead of other teams. And according to that future, we really have a possibility to survive."
Sal gestured to Jack asking if he had a question again, but Jack smiled and shook his head.
So did Blanid and Anthony.
Now the only one left was Barry.
Sal looked at him, but Barry laughed without a word and returned to his position within the formation.
"Didn't you say the effect of that drink doesn't last long?"