《They left my lazy ass on earth》 1. Last day I woke up with my door being thrown open ¡°You better get up soon or else You¡¯re gunna be late to school¡± my older brother Julian shouted before heading downstairs. ¡®ugh, I only need to put up with this a little longer. Soon I will be at college and I can decide what hours I wake up and go to sleep¡¯. Next fall I am going to be living on my own at MIT. Thankfully my parents feel bad about always leaving their kids to fend for themselves. Bad enough that they are willing to pay for any school we decide. I quickly looked around my room for my clothes, quickly took a shower, and brought everything I needed for school down to the kitchen to where my siblings were waiting for me. ¡°ah so he is alive¡± I am greeted with a sarcastic remark by my little sister Erin. ¡°I just like my sleep, what¡¯s wrong with that?¡± ¡°just get ready for school so I can get on with my life¡± After breakfast I drive me and my sister to school and we part ways to go to our respective classes. Today is the last day of my senior year in high school, and I was ready to be done with high school. School had never been a problem for me, ever since I was a child once I was taught something I would never forget it. This meant I get to sleep at school and play video games all night at home.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. When I finally get to school I head on over to my seat in the farthest corner, away from everybody, and rest with my head down. When this school was built they must not have known how to put classrooms and building supports together, because in front of my seat is a large support beam that hides me from most of the class. This works out better for me, I would rather be as hidden as possible. ¡°good morning Mason¡± I look over and see Jessica, an overly peppy cute blonde that always tried to talk to me. I take a second and give a halfhearted ¡°morning¡± back to her. ¡°do you even sleep at night? You seem to use school as your personal nap time¡± ¡°why would I sleep at home if I could sleep here?¡±. It was then when the teacher walks in and got class started. I napped through most of the day and finally it was the last class of the day and the teacher was starting to rant about how once we leave this place it¡¯ll be the real world. I pretty much just zoned whatever the teacher was saying and started trying to sleep again. I was fading in an out of sleep when I started hearing a voice I didn¡¯t recognize ¡°mortals, I have come to bring you to another world!¡± ¡®was there a guest speaker scheduled for today? Sounds like he¡¯s advertising a game, I guess I¡¯ll write down what this is about and check it out later¡¯ I thought to myself. ¡°I am Tercurn a god of Padderil, and my worshippers have performed a summoning ceremony to summon warriors for the upcoming war against the demon army¡±. ¡®man this old guy is really getting in character; I guess he¡¯s the developer of a game called padderil¡¯ The man described the current situation of the world in detail, saying about how it is a world of magic and adventure much like some of the novels here on earth. From the crowd of students, a worried voiced asked ¡°but won¡¯t we die if we are just thrown into a war?¡± The man looked down at the students with a smug grin on his face ¡°fear not, I shall give you two gifts. One is my blessing which will allow you to learn much faster than others around you and the other is a technique that will make you unrivaled in magic¡±. After the man spoke these words a feeling of warmth and comfort washed over the classroom, and a script of words were imprinted in our minds. ¡®man for some reason I¡¯m feeling so relaxed, I guess I¡¯ll just snag the notes from someone else in class¡¯ and I went back to sleep. ¡°alright now that you won¡¯t die in the other world easily, let us go¡± The god looked around the classroom and all of the students in his sight disappeared. ¡°I think that was everyone, I hope my worshippers will leave me alone after this¡± after Tercurn finished talking he simply disappeared from this world. 2. Odd day JESSICA POV It all happened to quick, one second we were sitting in class listening to our teacher and the next second there was this old man telling us about another world that he was the god of. We only had enough time to overcome our shock, and ask a single question before we were shifted through what I assume is another dimension. Everything went black for a few seconds but those seconds felt like an eternity when you are sucked from you are previous life and thrown into a different world. When we all open our eyes there is a grand hall in front of us and at the end of the hall there are three regal looking individuals which seem to be the king, queen, and princess. ¡°welcome to our country of Thernna, I am king zed Azor and this is my wife, queen Charlotte and my daughter, princess Catherine. we apologize for summoning you here against your will. I hope you will help us fight against the demon horde that creep closer to our great kingdom every day. I will not force you to help us in our upcoming battle but if you do assist us we will provide food shelter and training as well as send you home after your work is done¡±. ¡®So they are going to keep us safe, feed us and train us? How nice of them, but I expect some people may be skeptical. I look over to the king ¡°can we have some time to think about it?¡± The king gives us a warm smile ¡°absolutely, this is a big decision. But keep in mind, I expect an answer by dinner in 4 hours¡±. ¡®Four hours should be long enough for everyone to decide what they want to do¡¯. ¡°we will all give an answer by then¡±. ¡°Good. Now my servants will bring you to your rooms¡± as the king said this, four women in standard maid outfits came out from the edges of the meeting halls and started leading us through the castle. As we were being led around the castle I was looking around at faces of all my classmates, some had worry, some had excitement, some were just confused, but there was the one face I couldn¡¯t find, Mason was nowhere to be seen. ¡®I know for sure he was in class today but why isn¡¯t he here? I hope he¡¯s alright and didn¡¯t get lost somewhere¡¯ The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. After 4 hours we were led to a large dining hall filled with extravagant food, as everyone took their seats I still couldn¡¯t find mason. We all ate a pleasant meal and ate our fill of chicken, beef, and goat. It was then when the king got our attention. ¡°now that you all have had some time to gather yourselves and eat some food I wish to hear each of your answers, keep in mind if you wish to leave we will give you some money and food for your journey. If you wish to stay then stay seated, if you wish to leave please meet with my retainer and he will give you what you need with your journey¡± Shortly after the king finished talking only three people stood up, one was a rude kid named Kyle, another was one of Mason¡¯s friend named Steven, and the last one was a quiet girl named Tamara. They were given supplies and quietly walked out of the castle. ¡®how brave and foolish, running out into a world we know nothing about with no guide and minimal training. I hope they stay safe.¡¯ ¡°Now for the rest of you, it is time for you to go to bed. Training starts tomorrow, and we need you ready for battle in a few months¡± Thus we all went to sleep, knowing our lives were about to change forever. MASON POV When I woke I saw that I was alone in the class room, there wasn¡¯t a trace of any of my peers being there. I checked the time and saw that school ended twenty minutes ago. ¡®I must¡¯ve been in a real deep sleep if I slept through the entire class, oh well guess I¡¯ll go home¡¯ I began to pack up my things, picked up my sister and headed home. When I got home I went up to my room and tried looking for the game that the speaker was talking about, but after spending a minute of searching I gave up and played Xbox until I was called downstairs for dinner. My brother made burgers for me and my sister, we each talked about our days and how we were glad that it was finally summer. It was at this moment when the news came on talking about a freak disappearance of an entire class. ¡°that¡¯s horrible¡± my sister said in shock ¡°I don¡¯t even know how you can kidnap an entire classroom full of students¡± The reporter was still on screen interviewing a police man about what could have happened, the camera panned over to take a wide shot of the school. ¡°hey mason isn¡¯t that our school? And your class?¡± ¡°Holy shit¡±. ¡¯Did this all happen when I fell asleep, why was I left alone¡¯. I quickly pull out my phone and call the police. ¡°hello, I¡¯m from the class on the news that was reported missing. what¡¯s going on?¡± A policeman answered the phone in a shocked tone. ¡°you¡¯re from the class that went missing today? Wait right where you are, we are sending a car to come pick you up¡±. It didn¡¯t take long for the car to come get me and take me back to the station, when I got there They took me to and interrogation room and asked me if I had any idea who did this. I told them there was some old guy with a long gray beard was talking about some video game then I passed out and when I woke up everyone was gone. ¡°how is it that you were the only one who wasn¡¯t taken, why were you not taken too.¡± the police man was obviously annoyed that this interrogation was going nowhere. ¡°Look I can¡¯t tell you why I wasn¡¯t taken, maybe he couldn¡¯t see me in the back¡±. ¡°doesn¡¯t matter, since you¡¯re the only person left from the class, we haven¡¯t ruled you out as a suspect yet so we are going to need to have you stay at the station¡± After that they took me to the coziest metal cell they could find, and left me there to sit in silence. As I was sitting in this uncomfortable cell wondering if they¡¯ll actually let me out tomorrow or if the person behind the disappearance will find a way to frame me for this whole thing. ¡®There has to be something else he said that could lead me to who these guy is¡¯ After thinking about what the guy said to the class I felt something from deep in my mind come up. There were a bunch of words started in the back of my mind and the more I thought about them the calmer I became, it felt like a cold breeze flowing through me a hot summer day. As I continued to recite these words, I could feel the cool energy inside of me slowly gathering. This feeling gave me a sense of comfort and ease and let me gradually fade off into sleep. When I woke up I saw a gruff looking police officer opening my cell and telling it was okay to leave. They gave me a ride back to my home and told me not to go very far from here for the next few months (which I wasn¡¯t planning on doing anyways). I explained to my siblings what happened at the police station and at school, and how I was just supposed to linger around home for a few months. So every day for the next three months before I went off to college, I did three things, say those calming words in my head, game, and sleep. 3. dawn of a new day Today was finally the day, this was when I could finally be on my own and not have anyone nag me about when the proper time to sleep was. The drive up to school was a nice and long and gave me time to think about what happened the a few months ago, like how all of my friends from school were lost and never found again or how thinking of a few words to myself could help me feel at ease. Whatever. I was never super close to most of my classmates but it is kind of scary thinking about how most of the people I knew disappeared, and I also don¡¯t know what those words are but whatever helps me through the day is fine by me. After getting to the college I took some time to familiarize myself with the school, and after a few hours I found the student admissions office so I could find where my dorm room was. I walked up to the lady at the desk ¡°hey, my name is mason deluge and I was wondering of you could help me find my dorm room¡±. ¡°Sure, no problem¡± She typed my name into the computer and looked back at me with a confused look. ¡°I think there was a mistake with the sign in process, you were never signed up for the special orientation. just give me a minute and I will sign you up now¡±. A few minutes of her typing, and clicking, again went by until she finally looked up ¡°you should be all set, just follow your roommate to orientation and you should be set. And your dorm is across from this building, room 315¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. she handed over her key and turned her attention back to the computer screen. ¡®I don¡¯t know what she meant by special orientation. I guess I¡¯ll find out soon¡¯, I thanked her and went to the building next door. After looking down the hall I found room 315, I knocked as I went into the room ¡°hello? I think I¡¯m supposed to rooming in here?¡± As I entered the room I saw a six-foot-tall guy with blonde hair ¡°ah I was wondering if they even assigned me a roommate, move in was supposed to be yesterday. My name is Isaac¡± As he said his name he held out his hand as if asking for a handshake. ¡®move in was yesterday? Shit, that explains why the receptionist was giving me confused looks ¡® ¡°hey, my name is Mason. good to meet you¡± I shook his surprisingly strong hand. ¡°I got here first so I took liberty of first pick of the bunk. I took bottom, so you can put your stuff in the top bunk. Do you need any help bringing your stuff in?¡± ¡¯what a nice guy, I don¡¯t even know him and he wants to help me out ¡°I¡¯m good, I don¡¯t have much stuff so I should be able to handle it on my own¡± I then went out to my car and started bringing in all my stuff After about 3 hours and a considerable amount of effort I finally got everything from my car, to my room, and set everything up. After I caught my breath from working so hard my roommate Isaac turned to me. ¡°Wow you really went all out bringing your stuff in here¡± ¡°yeah, it took a while but I finally got everything in¡± ¡°nah man its good I was just surprised you did all that stuff with just normal muscle¡±. I was kind of confused by what he meant, was he expecting me to bring in a miniature forklift of something? ¡°How else am I supposed to move all this into my room? Teleport it into the room with some kind of magic?¡± ¡°yeah, that¡¯s more or less what I did¡± ¡®what, did he just say he used magic to move his stuff in? is he some kind fantasy nerd or something¡¯ ¡°oh yeah? can you show me how you teleport something.¡± ¡°sure thing¡± The lamp on my side of the room suddenly vanished from where I put it and it appeared in his hand. I just stood there in shock, and after a few seconds I looked at him and asked ¡°what on earth did you just do¡±. He just looked back with a simple shrug ¡°Want me to teach you?¡± 4. shattered day I was kind of taken aback by what I just saw, the fact that magic was actually real and he was actually willing to teach me on how to use it. Magic has always been a dream of mine and the fact that there might be a chance to learn anything about it brought me such deep joy. Holding in my excitement I responded with a simple yet firm ¡°That¡¯d be neat¡±. He came over to me and started describing the process of how to use the spell, and the structure needed to form it. The more in detail he went about all kinds of magic the more confused I got, I finally reached a point I had to stop him ¡°dude listen I have no idea what you are talking about, I don¡¯t know the first thing about magic, I didn¡¯t even know it was real until a second ago¡± he looked at me with a confused face and asked ¡°what do you mean? I can sense that you have about the same amount of mana as me, and you were assigned to this room with me. Are you trying to tell me that you never used any sort of meditation technique and that the faculty made a mistake in putting you here?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know anything. A few months ago I had a set of words appear in my head that made a cool feeling flow through me, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re talking. The lady at the student admissions desk said she signed me up for some special orientation¡±. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°yeah that sounds like a meditation technique, but did you just say you have only been practicing a few months? My parents have been training me since I was born, and I¡¯m considered pretty good. The amount of mana you have would also explain why she just assumed you belonged in the magic classes¡±. ¡®I didn¡¯t know that developer/kidnapper was actually some kind of magician, but that would explain how no one could find any of my classmates. So the lady at the desk felt my mana and assumed I was supposed to be in some magic curriculum? Man am I lucky¡¯ ¡®I have just as much mana as this guy who has been training all his life when I accidentally started a few months ago. What did that guy give me?¡¯ ¡°If what you¡¯re saying is true and I have a good amount of mana, what can I do with it? I was never raised in a wizard family, so this whole meditation technique is just an easy way to sleep for me¡± ¡°well lucky for you, that¡¯s what this school is for. Normally students spend the first eighteen years of their life building up enough mana, and maybe learning a spell or two if their gifted. so you aren¡¯t even that far behind anyone, you¡¯re even ahead of most people in terms of mana quantity¡± ¡®I am probably the luckiest person to ever exist, not only did I evade a magical kidnapper, I was given a super meditation technique, accidentally chose a magic college, and I found out that I¡¯m not even behind any of the other students. This is the best day ever.¡¯ Trying to keep my excitement in check ¡°I might need some help understanding this whole magic thing though, considering I just found out it actually exists¡± ¡°sure no problem, but on one condition¡± Isaac looks off to side as if he¡¯s embarrassed ¡°My parents were so focused on making sure I was good at magic that they sort of forgot to teach me normal school work. So in terms of mortal homework, I¡¯m kind of behind¡± So he¡¯s a genius of the arcane but doesn¡¯t know how to do algebra, I guess it¡¯s a fair trade. ¡°sure thing bro I got you if you got me, but I got to say I always pictured wizards as frail little hermits but your grip strength could probably crush my hand¡± He let out a chuckle ¡°ha yeah that is the impression that most books give off and games give off, and it¡¯s mostly true. I come from a cultivating family so they made me practice a little.¡± I thought my world was already as shattered as it was going to get, but this took my shattered world view and turned it into dust. Of all the many questions that popped into my head all I could get out was one simple word ¡°what¡±. 5. first day The look on my face was one of shock and excitement ¡°it¡¯s not as cool as you think, only some wizards can cultivate the body, and qi cultivators can¡¯t even use mana.¡± ¡°if magicians can do both and cultivators can only do one, then there must be way more magicians than cultivators?¡± ¡®Why would you do one when you could do both? It seemed like a no brainer¡¯ ¡°well magicians are kind of ¡­ looked down on, but you¡¯ll learn more about that at orientation tomorrow night. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll show you how to get there¡± And with that he left to go to sleep, because at this point it was pretty late into the night. He seemed to get to sleep rather easily, but I was way too excited about how my night classes were going to go. Eventually I chanted my meditation technique for an hour or two and fell asleep. The day was uneventful as most of my classes just went over the syllabus or reviewed what we already knew from high school. After, me and Isaac got dinner we headed over to the student admissions building. ¡°what are we doing here? Are the classes somewhere in here?¡± Isaac ignored me as he walked over to the lady I talked to yesterday. The woman who helped me yesterday took notice of Isaac approaching and gave him a look of surprise ¡°I didn¡¯t think you would be here. Follow me¡± The woman led us into a back room and out her hand on a wall. After a second or two the wall vanished and there were stairs leading down. ¡°you just pour a little of your mana or qi into this wall and the stairs will appear, you can come and go as you wish¡± and with that she turned around and went back to her desk. After making sure me and Isaac were alone ¡°one, how to I use my mana. Two, why does she seem to know you¡± ¡°They should give everyone a crash course tonight. We don¡¯t know each other; she probably just knows of my parents¡±. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me that you are from some famous family or something¡±. ¡°I mean they went to the rival school and won a competition or two so they¡¯re kind of well known, but I don¡¯t know if I would call them famous¡± ¡®still sounds like a famous family to me¡¯. We walked down the stairs and as we crossed through a doorway, a large auditorium with a big stage opened up in front of us. There were students finding seats so we followed suit. A few minutes after we sat down a woman and a man walked on stage.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Hello and welcome to our school. For those of you who don¡¯t know me I am Ms. Joyce. I am the principle as well as the overseer of the magic department at this school, and this is Brick. Mr. Brick is the vice principle and overseer of the cultivation department.¡± The woman could only be described as beautiful, but it was strange to how someone who looks so young could also be the principle of a secret magic school. The man had the appearance of some sort of body builder/supermodel combo, he was a good looking yet seemingly angry man. ¡¯I wonder if practicing magic or cultivation makes you look younger than you actually are, like in those wuxia novels¡¯ ¡°each student is required to sign up for at least five classes and will attend one mandatory introduction class. The classes you can enroll in can be magic, cultivation, or both. In front of you is a sheet of paper detailing the different classes offered by this school, after you are done circling five or more classes please head over to one of the teachers and have your mana or qi checked.¡± After she finished talking, a sheet of paper with a long list of classes appeared in front of every student. Just skimming through it I saw all kinds of fantasy skills like inscription techniques, rune magic, magic and qi manipulation, and even time magic. I didn¡¯t even know what I needed to choose first or what is needed in this hidden world, but thankfully I had Isaac. In the end I signed up for history of the hidden world, mana manipulation, fire magic, water magic, and Isaac recommended me taking intro to body refinement. After deciding on our classes we both got up from our seats and started heading over to the nearest teacher. ¡°Hey Isaac what do you say we take time magic so we can freeze time during a normal test and get the answers¡± ¡°if it were that easy everyone would be doing it. ninety-nine point nine percent of all magicians can¡¯t use magic like that, to be able to use higher tier magic a person needs a really high mana quantity and purity. That¡¯s also why they are testing our mana, so they can make sure we are attending classes we can actually handle and also to separate the people with high purity from the low purity¡± ¡°different purities? How many different purities are there?¡± He looked over with a tired expression on his face ¡°I can¡¯t wait for you to start class so you can bother your teacher instead of me. There are nine purities ranging from white being the lowest and blue being the highest. Your purity and quantity are dependent on two things, your talent, and your meditation technique. But your technique seems good so you don¡¯t have much to worry about.¡± ¡®wait that means that some people will never be able to use good magic, what if I go through this whole process of finding a magic college just to find out I¡¯m some worthless trash who can¡¯t even use the simplest magic¡¯ as I worry about whether or not I have a future in the arcane, it becomes my turn to hand over my class schedule and test my mana. A kind looking old man hold out his hand to take my sheet. ¡°I¡¯ll take your sheet. Can I get your name and are you going to test mana or qi¡±? ¡°Mason Deluge and mana¡± ¡°to test your mana please touch this crystal¡± He held out a crystal that looked like chaos emerald straight out of sonic. As I touched it I could feel something being pulled ever so slightly from my body and the crystal started changing colors. It starts off white then it turns a shade of yellow, then a shade of orange before settling on a deep crimson color. ¡°an unknown new comer with a red level purity, that¡¯s pretty good. My name is mister hoover and I am the instructor of the high purity freshman. You will be attending my class in room A-1. It¡¯s through that door and at the end of the hall, I¡¯ll be there in a few minutes.¡± I walked through the door and made my way down the hallway. After a minute of walking I found my classroom, I took a deep breath and entered my classroom. 6. gaining knowledge I enter the classroom and it looks like a small lecture hall. As look around I see that most of the students have gotten there before me. I took a glance at my classmates, and I instantly felt like a fish out of water. Every person looked pristine, they all had nice clothes, beautiful faces, and perfect hair. Every person in the classroom looked like a princes and princesses, but there is this one girl at the front of the class that especially eye catching. She had long silver hair and had a beautiful but stern face, unfortunately I couldn¡¯t afford to spend too much time ogling my classmates and moved to an open seat in the corner of the room. After a few seconds of waiting Isaac enters the room and sits next to me. And in a low voice I ask ¡°dude why is everyone who goes to this school way hotter than they should be?¡± ¡°Whenever someone cultivates or trains in magic they remove their imperfections, the higher the level the more imperfections are removed¡± ¡°but people around our age should not be at a very high level?¡± ¡°they aren¡¯t, but this is also the highest tier freshman class which means they are the best in the school and they have parents in the upper echelons of the hidden world. It might be best if you don¡¯t even try talking to them, because if you were to offend any of them it would be very bad¡± ¡°I¡¯m the best at not talking to people you won¡¯t need to worry about me. But if you said everyone in here has parents in the higher echelons of the hidden world, doesn¡¯t that include you?¡± ¡°I mean yeah, kinda. But compared to the people here my family is only a little better¡± ¡°I knew you were a rich boy¡± Isaac looks like he wants to refute but is cut off by the teacher entering the classroom. ¡°Hello class. My name is Mr. Hoover I am going to be your teacher this semester, my job in this class is to assist you on your cultivation or helping you learn magic. We will also have occasional sparring between students to prepare you for future explorations and tournaments. To start off class let us all introduce ourselves, tell us your name and what stage of energy you¡¯re on. lets starts in the front and work our way back¡± He walked over to a guy in the front row ¡°Let¡¯s start here¡± The guy had weird green spiky hair, it was like he thought he was in an anime or something. He turned toward the rest of the class. ¡°I am the Ronan from the Blackheart family, and I am on stage five body refining¡± Ronan gives his brief introduction and sits down back in his spot. The next person to stand was the stunning girl with the long platinum hair, she stands up gives a look throughout the classroom. I can feel pressure throughout my body, and chills running down my spine. ¡° I am aurora of the dragonvein family, I am stage 4 of qi condensation realm. Just by extending my sense I can tell no one is my match, if any of you want to fight I will take any of you¡± ¡®Damn, she¡¯s hot but kind of a bitch¡¯ Everyone''s introductions didn''t take long since there were only about 10 people in this class but surprisingly there weren¡¯t any mages yet and the aurora was the only one in essence condensation. And after a little bit it was time for me and isaac to give our introductions. ¡°Hey I¡¯m isaac and I¡¯m from the pheonixheart family, and I¡¯m an orange purity and a stage 2 body realm. Nice to meet you guys¡± After he said his name the people were doing their own thing looked directly at him, their faces were confused and almost startled. ¡®Yeah just a normal family huh. Sure.¡¯ ¡°I¡¯m mason deluge, ah, good to meet yuh guys. I¡¯m a red purity¡± The previous looks turned to confusion then dismissal, it is like they were expecting me to be someone just as amazing as the person sitting next to me. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it I quickly took my seat and got ready to listen to whatever the teacher was going to tell us about. ¡°Let me start class by giving a brief explanation of the differences between mana and qi. Mana and qi are both fairly similar. Mana is an energy that draws power from the ambient mana in the air and reforms the soul, while qi draws from the world energy and reforms the body. For both of them, quantity and quality are vital. If you have high quantity but low quality then you can use a lot of techniques and spells but only the low ranking ones. If you have high quality but no quantity you might only be able to give off one or two high ranking techniques or spells. The main difference between the two is a cultivator can take world energy from certain plants and animals as well as the air, while mages can only take energy from pacts with higher beings or from the ambient energy. It also goes without saying that the better the technique the better the quality and quantity will be. Alright now that the brief introduction is done let us focus on how to channel our qi or mana outwardly, watch me then you try¡± He lifted his hand and as he did there was a weird light coming from it, it looked like he was molding the air. ¡°I¡¯m sure you all can feel the energy inside of you, to make your energy move outside your body all you need to do is ... move it. Imagine gathering it all together and feel it moving throughout your body, then you guide it to your fingertips. Once it¡¯s there, force it out of you and make it take form in the air. you try now, and show each of your creations to the class¡± I¡¯m guessing people have already done this before, when it was each person¡¯s turn they were all able to form something. Most of them made blobs but the platinum girl formed a what seemed to be a dagger, I saw her glance around the room and her face formed a smug grin. After everyone finished, it was my turn. I began moving my energy within me. Imagining the energy condensing in my chest I slowly moved to my fingertips, but as I was going to move it outside my body it felt like something shocked me. The energy I was moving came rushing back into me. ¡°You cant even move your energy? How did you even make it into this class¡± ¡®It¡¯s my first time give me a break. I¡¯ll make something that wipe that smile off her face¡¯. I started thinking what could I do to show that girl up, and gave it another try. I tried once again to move my mana, this time I said the chant implanted in my mind and the energy flowed throughout me. I felt in complete control of everything in my body, I forced the energy out and guided it to form a well defined dagger. The dagger was a copy of aurora¡¯s except if my sword was made by a normal smith, hers was made by a blind fool. I gave her a quick glance then looked away. In the brief moment I looked over at her, I saw anger. she looked like she was going to rush up to me and beat down right here and now. ¡°Alright class, everyone showed splendid control over their energy. At the front of the class you can pick up a piece of paper that will tell you when and where the rest of you classes are, class is over for today so good luck for the rest of the night.¡± After everyone grabbed the sheets and left, I went over to pick up the class schedule sheet. I don''t know how they planned these classes or how many teachers there are but all of my classes were back to back and all finished by midnight. That¡¯s real convenient for me. The rest of my classes were much easier than my first one, it seemed like as soon as the teacher gave us instruction I could instantly figure out how to do it. This school¡¯s primary focus was on using whatever mana we had efficiently, so in both my magic classes we were focused on having proper control of our mana. At the end of both classes, the instructors gave us a number of control exercises and expected us to practise out of class. Honestly the most interesting class was the history of the hidden realm. Turns out mages were once the leaders in every corner of the hidden realm. The reason they fell from grace is due to their shrewdish nature, they refused to pass their legacy on to anyone else. Only a few great mage legacies remain, thankfully they were as cocky as they were shrewd because they left behind plenty of high level spells. The only problem is that apparently very few people can ever reach the amount of purity and quantity it takes to use the spells. Also there were plenty of low level and unimportant spells but only a few hundred mid leveled spells. Another reason why mostly everyone uses cultivation is because large clans were formed and they passed all their techniques to the next generation. cultivation can be more useful faster, and because all you need is a lot of money to do well. Cultivation uses world energy, which can be in the air but it also can form into rare herbs in different corners of the hidden world. Another thing I found out just by listening to my classmates. The hidden world is fucking huge. Earth may serve as the main world but each clan has their own training dimension, and there are thousands of dimensions that are unclaimed wildlands. There may be even more for dimensions that unknown powerhouses keep to themselves. The last class of the night is my intro to body refinement, and it was a little different from what I expected. They went over the different types of body cultivation techniques, some were actually made for mages. Every type of body cultivation strengthened the body but if you went for the qi energy system it would drastically strengthen your body and if you went for the mage system is was allow energy to flow through you body better, and allow for better control of your mana. Although this class wouldn¡¯t hand out body cultivation techniques it would teach us how to use our strengthened bodies to the fullest potential. By teaching us how to fight. Even though most of the classes were going over the most basic of the basics, I felt like I learned so much and was excited for when I get to go back. I walked back to my dorm room and found Isaac getting ready to settle down for the night. ¡°Hey Isaac how were your first day of classes¡± ¡°They were pretty interesting how were yours¡± ¡°It was amazing. I never knew any of this stuff could ever be real¡± I said probably a little louder than I should have ¡°Good to hear, but you need to be careful. You really poked the bear when you showed aurora up, she¡¯s going to be gunning for you now¡± ¡°Woah, woah, woah, I didn''t want to stir up trouble. I just wanted to show that I could make something and her dagger was the only thing I could think of¡± ¡°Whatever you say dude, just be ready¡± With that he fell into a state between sleep and meditation. I also got ready for bed and relaxed in my bed for a few hours before using the meditation technique and finally drifting off to sleep. 7. beat down I woke up to the sound of my alarm blaring ¡®shit I¡¯m late for class¡¯ I quickly rushed to put on normal clothes and find my things. I was really hating past me for signing current me up for a eight a.m. class. ¡®Second day of school and I¡¯m already late. great.¡¯ After rushing to class I managed to make the second half of it. I don¡¯t even know why I was in such a hurry to get to class because I sat there for five minutes before saying the chant in my head and falling asleep again. Strangely, when I woke up I felt like I knew the content of lecture as if I was a model student. I proceeded to sleep through the rest if my classes, it wasn¡¯t until dinner at five that I met with Isaac again. ¡°Hey Isaac, I haven''t seen you all day what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Not a whole lot just trying to get into the swing of school, I sometimes think you mortals have harder classwork than mages¡± ¡°Ha. I beg to differ. I actually have to try at this magic stuff, and I haven¡¯t put effort into any kind of school work ever. Remember you can ask me for help if you need it¡± ¡°Thanks man, but you should be worried about yourself. We should be doing sparing in class today and I have a feeling that a certain platinum haired beauty is going to be gunning for you¡± ¡°I think you''re overreacting; I didn''t even do anything. There¡¯s no way she would be so extreme¡± ¡°I think you underestimate the pettiness of the people here; they take everything personally.¡± ¡°I guess we¡¯ll see¡± After we finished eating and headed to our magic classes in the secret basement of the admissions building. We walked to the back room, inserted our mana, and moved through the hidden wall. I was so excited my first time here that I didn¡¯t even take in the fanciness of the school. Every hallway we walked through was tall, and parts of the stone walls were made of a beautiful dimly glowing rock. We made it over to our classroom and took our seats next to each other in the back corner. ¡°It¡¯s good to see everyone again, today we are going to do some light sparring to see where everyone is at. For now, using energy is not allowed, we are just testing your physical strengths and weaknesses. Let¡¯s move to arena and pick our partners¡± As a class we all got up and moved through the school until we arrived at a white shimmering doorway. Without missing a beat everyone went right on through, acting like it was just another doorway. I figured it was safe enough and went through, and what I saw on the other side was amazing. I was just in the basement of school in the middle of the city but now I only saw a field with some raised platforms. ¡°Here is where we will be doing all of our sparring, while you¡¯re on the platform it will keep discharged energy contained. All the damage received while on the platform will be undone when exiting the platform, so feel free to go all out in there. Pick your partners¡± I look over to Isaac but I see him walking over to the green haired kid from yesterday. The look on his face was blank but he almost seemed angry. I didn¡¯t have much time to wonder what was going on between the two of them before I am very forcefully (and painfully) dragged away towards a platform. From my point of view. The only thing I can see are some long, elegant legs and some silver platinum hair. ¡®Oh come on. please tell me she isn¡¯t mad about yesterday, I didn''t do much of anything. I just made a slightly better version of her dumb dagger¡¯ I am thrown up the stairs and I unceremoniously fall on face on the platform. When I look up and instantly fall back to the ground and a sudden pain going through my face. ¡°Get up wimp¡± I look up to see the person I was warned about. The beautiful pain in my ass. ¡°Fuckin. ow. what are you doing?¡± ¡°I¡¯m showing you who you shouldn¡¯t mess with¡± She gives me a powerful kick to the stomach ¡°let me get up first, god. It¡¯s not even a fight if you keep kicking me when I¡¯m on the ground¡± ¡°Fine I¡¯ll let you get up¡± A take a second to let the pain subside and slowly stand up. The second I stand up I feel a pain in my legs and my face meets the ground. ¡°I''m sorry I thought you were gonna get up¡± ¡°you¡¯re kind of a bitch, you know that¡± The next 50 minutes of class consisted of me getting kicked, punched and being thrown around, my beat down finally came to an end. ¡°Alright class, we are going to end class today. Make sure to practice hard for the next sparring session in two days¡± I crawl my broken body off the edge of the platform and instantly feel rejuvenated.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°That was fun. But if you wanted to spend more time with me there are easier ways¡± ¡°It seems like you haven¡¯t learned your lesson. I hope you¡¯re ready for the next sparring match, I went easy on you this time but next time you¡¯ll know true pain¡± She turned away and started walking towards the shimmering door. ¡®Maybe I shouldn''t have tried testing her¡¯ I stand in place waiting for the bear that I poked to get a fair distance away, and Isaac walks up to me. ¡°Oh hey Isaac how was your fight?¡± ¡°It was alright, it looked like you had a lot of fun though¡± ¡°If by fun you mean an hour of getting my ass kicked then yeah, lots of fun¡± ¡°To be fair you kind of brought it on yourself¡± ¡°All I did was copy her a little, that shouldn¡¯t warrant a total beat down¡± ¡°Like I said, everyone in our class is going to be petty like that. If you¡¯re going to start fights you need to at least learn how to protect yourself¡± ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. By the way, what¡¯s up with you and the green haired kid. You didn¡¯t seem like a happy camper when you went over to fight him¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Our families have a bit of a feud, It¡¯s none of your concern. Anyway let¡¯s get going to our other classes¡± After moving through the shimmering door we went to our separate classes. My magic classes were both exciting and a disappointment, the teacher started teaching us actual spells. The only thing, is that they are probably the most boring spells ever. In my fire magic class, I learned how to make a small flame on our fingertips and in my water magic class I learned how to make my hands slightly moist. So if anyone needs a candle to be lit or needs a table to wet down, I¡¯m the guy to call. There was nothing noteworthy in my history class but after my beat down earlier and the threat of another one. I was very motivated to learn as much as I could in my body refinement class (AKA fighting class). When I entered the class I noticed how it looked very different from yesterday, the whole room had an Asian dojo feel to it. I noticed people sitting on the floor so I followed suit and waited until the instructor came. The instructor a was a thin man but every ounce of him was pure muscle. ¡°Let¡¯s go, my name is Mr. Maus. Today is when we really start having fun. Who here has had previous martial arts training¡± A few hands went up ¡°Good, now pair up with someone who doesn''t have their hand raised¡± ¡®Oh come on are they trying to kill all the new guys, maybe I¡¯ll get lucky and he won¡¯t want to fight¡¯ I think I spoke too soon because some kid who looked like a cross between the Rock and Arnold Schwarzenegger was heading my way. ¡°Word on the street is that you tried to make a fool out of aurora, maybe if I can get into her good graces if I rough you up¡± ¡°Dude come on, it was a simple misunderstanding. I just found out about all of this stuff yesterday¡± ¡°You think I¡¯m a fool, I can feel the purity of mana from you. You must¡¯ve thought you were hot stuff and thought you could show her up. I¡¯ll show you why that was a bad idea¡± Me and my new best friend found ourselves an open space and got ready to fight. ¡°Those of you who have had previous fighting experience are going to be on the offense and all you newbies, well. Your goal is to survive¡± The very second the teacher stopped talking, gorilla boy unleashed a flurry of blows toward me. Without any time to prepare I took what felt like one hundred punches and got pushed back. His attacks sure hit hard but compared to lady from earlier it was like playing patty cake. ¡®I can¡¯t sit here and take hits all day¡¯ I moved back into range and focused on dodging. At first I was slow but the more time went by, the faster I would get. At the start I was getting hit most of the time but after about a minute of his nonstop attacking, he couldn¡¯t even touch me. I could see the original satisfaction on his face slowly melt to anger. After some time, I switched to blocking and redirecting his attacks. Again I would take some hits right away but after a minute or two I was untouchable. ¡®Why is this guy so easy? Did he stop trying after the first few minutes or what¡¯ The teacher let us fight it out for a couple more minutes before stopping the fights and telling us to switch roles. I was on the offensive now and once again, I couldn¡¯t even touch him. He swatted, blocked and dodged everything I threw at him like he was playing with a child. Over the next few minutes I slowly grew accustomed to the way he defended and worked my way around it. Shortly he was taking the full force of my punches and there was little he could do about it. Again the teacher stopped class, but this time he walked over to me. ¡°You have terrible form but have good moves. May I ask why you are fighting someone with previous training when you yourself are obviously not a newbie¡± I looked at him with confusion ¡°I am new, did you not see me getting beat to a pulp and easily handled in the beginning¡± ¡°From what I saw, you were giving your opponent hope before abruptly take it away. Today was about finding strengths and weaknesses, not to show who is better. So, for the remainder of the class I will be your opponent¡± For the rest of class, I knew nothing but disappointment and pain. Every time I thought I saw an opening I would suddenly eat the floor. Every time I thought I got the hang his technique, he would switch it up and beat me down. ¡°Stop fighting. Tomorrow will be a more structured lesson; I hope everyone understands where they need to improve¡± ¡®Thank the lord¡¯ As I was starting to move my tired body I heard the teacher speak again ¡°mason is it; I need to have a word with you¡± ¡®Just when I thought I was free too¡¯ When all the students left I walked over to my teacher. ¡°how do you know my name¡± ¡°I make it my duty to know all students from A-1. More importantly how did you beat Mike so easily. I know that you haven¡¯t been formally trained in any martial arts, that much is obvious from you lack of technique. Even if you had been formally trained you shouldn¡¯t have beaten him. So how did you¡± ¡°Honestly I took the beating and eventually got used to when are where he was going to attack¡± Mr. Maus put his hand on his chin ¡°interesting, very interesting. I¡¯ve decided that I¡¯ll personally train you then, at least until you disappoint me. So starting now, after this class we will have private lessons¡± ¡°Thanks but you don¡¯t have to do this. I don¡¯t really plan on getting into too many fights¡± ¡°You must be new. Fighting is a constant thing here and if you don¡¯t know how then you die a dog¡¯s death once you¡¯re out in the worlds¡± ¡°Fine, fine, I get it.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll even give you a choice of techniques. Would that make you happy¡± ¡®Sleeping at home would make me happy¡¯ ¡°Yeah that sounds great when do we start training?¡± Instead of words Mr. Maus figured a fist would be a better response ¡°Um ow, was that really necessary? And what¡¯s with everyone here loving sneak attacks sneak attacks¡± ¡°First lesson, always keep your guard up. For today we are going to go over a proper form for you, follow me¡± We then walked through the school until we arrived at his office, I say office but it was more of a private fighting arena with a desk and a side room. He led me to the back room and all I saw were a bunch of flash drives with different numbers next to them. ¡°Here is my personal stash of fighting techniques, none of them are very special but it¡¯s a good place to start. I will give you a choice of three different fist techniques, the first one focuses on attack, the second focuses on defense, and the third is an all-around with no real benefit or fault. Which one do you choose¡± Each of the techniques have different aspects that make them beneficial. Being able to drive straight through an enemy seems hardcore, but if it is at the cost of bodily harm, it doesn¡¯t seem worth it. Using the all-around technique doesn¡¯t sound that bad, but excelling at one thing sounds better. Sometimes it¡¯s better return home a coward than die a hero. ¡°Um, the defense one please. If I can avoid pain, I¡¯d like to do that¡± ¡°Thought you might do that, I¡¯m more of a brute force kind of guy but to each their own. Anyway here take this and plug it into that computer over there¡± I took the flash drive and plugged it into the computer and for a second nothing happened. But as I stared at the screen I started falling into a daze, it felt like I was getting pulled into the screen and before I knew it there was a man in front of me. The man himself wasn¡¯t interesting but the actions he was doing were. He was going through what looked like different fighting forms, I figured the only way to learn the forms was to mimic them with him. Then a shadow person showed up and started attacking the man. I was mesmerized by his movements as the shadow man assaulted the man with an onslaught of punches and kicks, but the man was left unscathed. The man was dodging, blocking, redirecting, and countering every attack that was coming at him. Even after two more shadows showed up, the man was unstoppable. I did my best at shadow boxing along with him trying to figure out all the proper movements, and after what seemed like a few hours the illusion started to disappear and I was drooling in front of a computer screen. I looked around and only saw my teacher, Mr. Maus staring at me ¡°What was that and how long have I been out¡± ¡°Only a minute. It¡¯s a program that everyone in the hidden world uses to teach one another techniques. How ¡®d you like it, the first time is always kind of weird¡± ¡°I thought you taught each other with scrolls and actual practice¡± ¡°All the scrolls were converted over to flash drives, it is a lot faster and more convenient. You can still find scrolls in vaults and old ruins but that''s about it. And the flash drive just gives you a baseline for the techniques. The practice starts now¡± It was an hour and a half of fighting before I was finally released from my extended training session. Apparently I was supposed to come back every day at this time and train, which really cuts into my personal time but whatever. I got back to my room and rested my battered body on my bed before chanting to myself and drifting away into sleep.