The First Legendary Beast Master novel Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Dropoff Site

"All new students, gather your preferred weapons, your school uniforms and wait for the notification to disembark. We are now five minutes from the Golden Divine Academy." The train's announcement declared just after breakfast on the morning of the second day after Karl woke up.

He packed the snacks he had obtained in advance from the train's kitchen into the provided backpack along with the spare uniforms and shoes, then put on the black metal clawed gauntlets and hung the short sword from a scabbard at his hip.

There was no rule saying you couldn't prefer more than one weapon, and the guards hadn't mentioned it when they saw him practising in the room that way, so it should be alright.

The cook and the guard had both mentioned the walk into the Academy on the first day after he woke up, so the train wouldn't be stopping at the gates. This was probably some sort of test, either to see how the students would solve a problem or get along or some nonsense, Karl decided, but whatever the reason, he was packing a lunch.

As expected, the train came to a stop about a kilometre from the Academy, at the far end of a grassy field with a few well-maintained hedgerows along the way.

"This is your stop. The last bit is up to you. I will see you all in the Academy tomorrow after the train is cleaned and repaired." A slender man in a guard uniform announced.

The students mostly stood by their open doors with looks of confusion, but Karl walked out into the hallway and stepped down from the train to take his first breath of the clean country air.

Without all the dust from the mines, it smelled strangely like trees and flowers here, and he could feel the power of the Academy in the distance, like a tingle in his bones, warning him that it was something abnormal, something magical.

The first student out was like a beacon to the others, and slowly the new students started to leave the train, mostly still exhausted from practising their new skills and a lack of sleep, but the sun was directly overhead in the sky, and sleeping under the scorching morning sun wasn't going to be easy.

The slender man in the guard uniform stepped in front of them again once everyone was off the train, and raised his voice to address the crowd.

"Welcome, everyone, to Golden Divine Academy. As a special welcoming gift to all of our new students, we have prepared the traditional walk across the grounds to the front gates for you. Every year, the new arrivals make this trip, entering the gates as Awakened elites to begin their new lives.

Now it is your turn. But be warned, the grasslands look empty, but that isn't always the truth."

He wasn't lying. Karl could see that the train tracks circled the Academy at a distance of roughly a kilometre, passing through these grasslands, a large portion of forest, and even through a swampy bog around a river.

They must drop every group off at a different point, so they could watch them come into the academy. It seemed like a strange tradition, but when he looked out over the field using [Super Vision] he could tell that there was a huge population of Earth Rats, a Common Grade magical beast with incredible digging skills, and the ability to throw small stones using magic.