The Headmaster gazed down at them with an amiable smile, crouching himself he said:
"I have some grasp of the situation." Turning to Ra;
"Boy, you are quite the talent!" He praised
"My name is Sigurd Lionel Gram, you will come to know me as Headmaster Gram."
Ra nodded his head, bowing awkwardly.
"Yes Headmaster"
Smiling in a misty eyed trance Headmaster Gram said continued-
"In my day I believed myself to be quite talented when I awakened an Epic Guardian soul, but this pressure i feel from you is none other than that of a Legendary Heroic soul!" Headmaster Gram's laughter boomed from deep within his belly.
"A full stage and rank above mine! Today is a glorious one for the Academy and a bane for the Dragons! Instructor! train this one carefully."
He said seriously before standing.
"Yes Headmaster."
"And that goes for the rest of you as well, train hard, and join your brother and sister slayers at their sides, guard their backs so they might guard yours."
Saying so, The Headmaster turned and left the room, vanishing on the spot.
"Sigurd Lionel Gram" Ra murmured
"What a frightening man"
Ra felt as if he had just encountered a ferocious lion and he had barely escaped with his life intact.
"The aura of that man is indeed incredible." he sighed
The days passed quickly, they ate in their classroom no one daring to leave, Ra and a few others who had successfully awakened their souls assisted those who had failed, but even with their help many who struggled continued to do so, it seems comprehension played a significant role as well when it came to the soul formation, nevertheless they continued to challenge the formation, they continued to challenge themselves.
Finally on the 5th day, the last of the recruits had finally awakened their souls, with the weakest obtaining a Legendary Adventurers soul, and the strongest having obtained a Legendary Heroic soul, and the strongest was naturally Ra Usfur, the girls of Class 2 were instantly enamored with him, and while a few of the boys had a bout of jealousy most of them looked at him in reverence, wanting to befriend him.
"It seems I'll have to work extra hard from now on" Ra thought
"Else I'll have plenty of enemies, few friends, and insufficient strength."
"At least for now, I don't seem to have suffered too much" he thought
"Well done Recruits, you've worked hard, Congratulations on succeeding in your soul awakenings, I wanted to wait until this moment to tell you that soul awakening is a side effect of the soul formation, if you recall, the main purpose of this formation is the soul forming, the shape your soul takes when it becomes a weapon, and likely no other class has had multiple awakenings, although all have probably successfully completed their soul forming, next week you will all gather in the auditorium to register your soul weapons, and those that have completed their awakenings will be required to register their rank and stage as well, this will determine the Type and Rank of Dragon you will be qualified to hunt."
A magic array showing all of the possible ranks and their qualifications appeared behind her.
Stage 1: Recruit- Infant Green Dragons
stage 1 slayers have no rank apart from the standard Green, Blue, Purple, Gold, and Platinum Emblems, your emblems also double as legacy keys which you will learn more about when you graduate from the academy.
Stage 2: Explorer- up to Young Blue Dragons.
Stage 3: Adventurer- up to Young Red Dragons.
Stage 4: Knight- up to Evolved Red Dragons.
Stage 5: Guardian- up to Ascended Red Dragons.
Stage 6: Hero- up to Primal Green Dragons.
You can increase your qualifications by hunting Dragons and raising the rank of your soul, some people are born with higher ranked souls while others are born with lower ranked souls, but anyone can raise their rank.
"This magic array will disappear after a few hours, are there any questions?"
Instructor Shizune cast an expectant gaze around the room.
A few hands shot up.
"Yes, Miss Wood?"
"What about Stage, can those be advanced as well?"
Instructor Shizune shook her head...
"A Slayers stage is decided from birth, if there is a way to advance it... It has not been discovered."
"Oh" Natalie wood sat back in her seat dejected, she of course had awakened a Knight soul, and while she had been proud at the time she now knew it was only a rank 4 soul.
"Young Master Usfur, you had a question?"
Ra leaned forward, grinning widely.
"The array says we can increase our ranks, what are they?"
"Good question, the ranks are as follows:
Basic-
Intermediate-
Advanced-
Epic-
Legendary-
and Ancient-.
The grin on Ra's face faded.
"Ancient, Instructor?
"Indeed, did you truly think you were unmatched in the world?"
Instructor Shizune smirked.
"Yes, Young Master Freeman, your question?"
"Instructor, I recall the headmaster claimed his stage and rank was one below Ra's in each category, does this mean Headmaster is merely an Epic Guardian ranked slayer?"
Ra brightened again as he turned his attention back towards their instructor.
but she simply shook her head again.
"No, While Headmaster Gram indeed awakened as an Epic Guardian soul, that was 2,000 years ago, Headmaster is already a peak Ancient Guardian ranked slayer today."
"So that's how it is." Jace said, nodding in understanding.
"Alright, that is all for today, class dismissed.
this chapter isn't complete, its just a teaser to avoid that obvious cliffhanger in chapter 9