Ascension of the Primalist [A Tamer Class, LitRPG]

Seth entered the locker room nearly a dozen minutes after everyone else, hoping to avoid running into Lucius. No instructor meant no protection, and he wouldn’t be surprised if that silver-spooned bastard would use the occasion to jump him.

'Watching you lose was more annoying than I expected,' Nightmare said as Seth peeled off his sweat-soaked training suit.

'Try getting squashed by a giant hand of dirt,' Seth retorted. 'Bet you’d find that worse.'

'That's your fault, not mine. With my help, you wouldn’t have been humiliated like that.'

'Yeah, yeah, I know,' Seth replied, though deep down, he still believed he had made the right choice.

As Seth slipped into his gray uniform, one of the few remaining students in the room approached him—someone from the Guardian’s group, if he recalled correctly.

"Hey," the brown-haired student began. "That lightning spell of yours is quite powerful. Who gave it to you?"

Seth frowned, taken aback. "No one. I bought it in a shop."

The youngster's eyes widened then a smile curled his lips. "You bought it? Sure. Your sponsor did."

Seth’s scowl deepened. Clearly a noble. "I don't have a sponsor."

"Yeah, right," the young man scoffed. "Even if you sold your sister and mother for a dozen coppers each, you still wouldn’t have been able to afford that."

Anger flared in Seth’s chest while his blood started boiling. Was that jerk deliberately provoking him? He’d gladly smash the student’s face against the wooden bench until all his teeth fell off—but that would also mean getting expelled.

Clenching his jaws, Seth grabbed his damp training suit and headed for the exit. "Great talk."

"If I were you, I’d leave the academy before I get hurt," the noble jeered from behind him.

Seth paused in the doorway and turned to glare at the Guardian, who bore a massive grin on his face. "And why do you think that would happen?"

The noble shrugged. "Who knows?"

"Guess I'll find out, then," Seth shot back before striding out of the locker room and slamming the door behind him.

It was obvious now: Lucius and his boot-licking friends weren’t going to let him go anytime soon, which was far from ideal. It would have been better to get stronger and climb further in Rank a bit more before making enemies—but the noble had other plans for him.

As Seth crossed the academy’s corridors, he mulled over what the Guardian had said. Is Shocking Strike really worth more than two dozen copper coins? If so, why did that creepy shopkeeper sell it to me at such a low price? Maybe Primalist's spells are just cheaper than others and that noble simply doesn’t know it? he wondered. Well, let’s find out.

Reaching the main hall, Seth entered the academy shop next to the three large ranking boards. A middle-aged man wearing a professor’s uniform greeted him with a simple nod from behind the counter. Seth's golden eyes were immediately drawn by the countless weapons, pieces of armor, artifacts and scrolls displayed on the wooden shelves, each meticulously labeled with a scrap of parchment.

Almost instantly, he filled Identify’s grooves with aether.