The Witch of Calamity

04

"First I would like to congratulate you seven for making it into S Class, it's not easy to make it into this academy but you've gone above and beyond what we've expected and made it here. Be proud of that." Professor Estain began to talk once the students had settled down after choosing their seats. "This year is a bit different from others since there has been a lot of pressure to have a more combat orientated curriculum due to the increasing number of dungeons and daemons that I'm sure everyone here is aware of."

Dungeons, a phenomena that's been around for as long as history has been recorded and probably much longer before that. There are a lot of speculation as to where dungeons came from whether that be from ancient civilizations, from gods preparing trials for mortal beings, to even the world trying to balance itself out due to the reduction of mana veins. Although it is agreed upon across the world that dungeons and mana veins are somehow connected since dungeons will only appear along dying mana veins. Dungeons themselves are dangerous mazes and labyrinths filled with monsters and treasures alike. Anyone can enter and exit a dungeon however that task is mostly left to adventurers, the Magic Tower, and the kingdom's military due to the dangers that lurk inside. Dungeons were essential since there were certain materials that could only be found in dungeons and killing the monster that served as the boss helped to revive the mana veins they were situated on. It worked out since dungeon bosses also respawned until the dungeon core was destroyed and anything inside the dungeon eventually came back so it was an infinite well of resources.

Daemons on the other hand were much more mysterious forces that had only appeared within the last fifty or so years. They took the form of shadowy beasts with a crimson aura and attacked any living thing around themselves. So far it was unknown what the daemons had appeared from and what their purpose was. There were rumors of daemons taking human forms but so far there was no form of communication as far as anyone knew. The only thing daemons had brought was ruin to the kingdoms that faiked to realize the threat and had been overrun. Currently that threat was spreading across the world at an alarming rate and the various councils and kingdoms were scrambling to find a solution. So far the best that anyone had come up with was to create the Daemon Hunting Guild that was sponsored by each kingdom's military. The other sentient races had their own forms of protection against the daemons but the humans were having the hardest time with defending against the threat. They focused on defending their inner cities and capitals so the outer regions were left unprotected and the damage had become devastating.

Due to these recent developments the human kingdoms had collectively agreed that they would push an initiative for combat ready graduates from both the magic and knight academies. There was a lot of push back from the Magic Tower initially but after The Nine also began to push for the same thing the Magic Tower relented and allowed it. However, the caveat to that was the Magic Tower had to review and approve each kingdom's plans to make the students ready for a potential war. To this degree it was decided that both the Yuslan Royal Magic Academy and the Yuslan Royal Knight Academy would partake in joint training with the Adventurer's Guild. Students would be granted an Adventurer's Licence that acted as a temporary form of registration until they graduated. After graduation students would not have to register would the Adventurer's Guild unless they wished to at which point their rank gained during their student years would be restored and they could resume their duties immeaditely. Other positions in the Magic Tower, Daemon Hunting Guild, and as Court Casters were also readily available to students after graduating.

"With that said you seven will be paired with A Rank and above Adventurer parties to take on more difficult tasks along with the Royal Knight Academy's S Class as well so don't be surprised if you get mixed in with them." Professor Estain finished up his explanation after writing the major points on the chalkboard, "Any questions?"