Simon was not surprised by the fact that they were going to have seventeen courses in total in their first year of the academy.
This was one of the reasons why the Shadowgrave Academy was said to be one of the most ruthless elite academies in the demon realm.
Having to go through seventeen different classes was not an easy thing to do, and these classes were not just simple classes.
However, Simon also knew that they were actually not required to pass all seventeen courses.
And the next words of their Head Instructor confirmed this.
"Although there are seventeen courses, you are not expected to pass all."
"We have five courses under the Body Pillar. One is the normal physical training where we train your physical strength, agility, dexterity, reflexes, constitution, and so on."
"The second is called Vertical Mobility and Environmental Movement. In this class, you’ll learn how to fight on cliff faces, combat on suspended platforms, navigate through a dense fog, mist, and also environments with poor visibility. You’ll also learn silent landing techniques, and anti-fall reflex training."
"You might be wondering why we’re teaching you this since it’s not going to be useful in every environment."
Instructor Valdin paused as he took a turn to the right on a dark stone bridge. Simon and his classmates followed with majority of their attention being on their surroundings and the remaining being on their Instructor’s words.
"The reason why all of you are going to do this course is because of the environment of the clan. In the history of the clan, there have been cases where other clans and even kingdoms attacked us, and many of us died because we didn’t know how to fight in this sort of environment... in our ravine city."
"We learned from that, and the Clan Leader and the Grave Lords made it mandatory for every clan member and the future students of the academy to learn how to battle in this environment."
"If not for how powerful the Night Sovereign and the Grave Lords were back then, the Shadowgrave Clan would have been nothing more than a story in the sands of time."
"So, this course is compulsory for all, and you must pass it before you’re able to graduate. It’s a very important course. Don’t forget that."
None answered because they were not given the permission to, but they all understood how important the Vertical Mobility and Environmental Movement course was.
Simon already knew this, so he wasn’t surprised by the words of the Instructor. However, there was no mention of the brief history Instructor Valdin said in his Grave Mark.
Instructor Valdin continued speaking.
"The next course under the Body Pillar is called Blade Doctrine and Multi-Weapon Integration. In this course, you’ll learn how to wield dual daggers. It’s why you were given two daggers in your rooms. You’ll also learn how to use concealed weapons, improvised weapons, how to transition between short and mid-range combat, and how to kill in confined spaces."
"This course teaches you how to be efficient in killing and battle."
"And then the next course under the Body Pillar is Anatomy."
"To learn how to kill efficiently, knowing and understanding the bodies of certain races helps a lot. You’ll learn about the general demon anatomy in this course, you’ll also learn about the anatomy of humans since you’ll be killing humans in the future. You’ll learn about the weak points of certain species, you’ll learn how to perform non-lethal disabling strikes, how to perform silent kills and even psychological kills."
"Don’t ask me what psychological kills are, your Instructor would explain it to you."
"And you’ll also learn how to kill another living being so that their death would be slow, not quick."
Simon glanced at the Instructor with slightly furrowed brows as he contemplated on several things while walking.
Instructor Valdin continued.
"And the last course is called Endurance and Pain Conditioning."
"This course would teach you how to increase your endurance, breathing techniques that would help you to maintain the quick bursts of speed assassins generally have, and how to overcome the general weakness of assassins, which is endurance."
"It also teaches you how to control blood loss. You’ll undergo sleep deprivation simulations, and you’ll also be fighting while injured."
The last words of Instructor Valdin made the students to give him strange looks. Some were in disbelief and in shock.
Fight while injured?
What was wrong with this academy?
How many things were they to learn?
And this was just a single pillar?
Just five courses?
A single course taught so much that they could not help but wonder if they would ever be able to keep up.
Just what had they entered?
’I now see why the Velaris were such a difficult race of assassins to battle in the past. Even the elite assassins on Earth paled in comparison to the Velaris... Only a select few could compare to them, and only that bastard instilled fear in the Velaris as a fellow assassin.’
Simon was not a stranger to the Velaris. They had assassinated many heroes on Earth, and he had nearly died from their first and even several assassination attempts from the Velaris.
But he never knew that the Velaris had an organization called the Shadowgrave Clan.
’I tried so hard to locate their hideout in the past because they were one of the demon races that gave me so much headache back then.’
’Now, I know why I never found where they were located. It’s hidden behind a very powerful formation. I was so close to it and I still wasn’t able to notice it.’
’Sigh... Anyway, I guess I’m about to learn from the very race I used to be wary of.’
Just as Simon finished his thoughts, Instructor Valdin spoke.
"Aside from the vertical mobility class which is compulsory, you can choose to attend and not to attend any of the remaining classes."
"But just know that at the end of the day, you must pass at least three courses including the Vertical Mobility course."
"If you don’t, you fail. And failures have it a lot more difficult in the academy."