《Into the Abyss》


 Death is only the beginning

    My day was actually going pretty good for once. I started out finding a hundred dollars walking to school. Then all the jerk-wads I knew were out sick. Plus the cafeteria gave me two pieces of pizza because so many others were gone! Put shortly, my day was going splendid, I should have known it was too good. I was walking home from school thinking about my recent activities when I walked into my house to find my mom bent over by some sleezebag! I ran back outside in a fit of rage and turmoil. I called my dad, but he was apparently unavailable so I headed towards his office downtown. I was so distracted, I didn¡¯t even notice the bus when it ran the red light.


    There was a short blip of pain, then everything went dark¡­I heard sirens at times, but I was in and out of consciousness. At one point an EMT tried telling me I was going to be ok, that¡¯s when I really started worrying. When the doctor looks worried about you, then your f*%$&#.


    I woke up later to the sounds of beeping monitors, but it was silent otherwise. My eyes must¡¯ve been wrapped, because I couldn¡¯t see anything. He tried sitting up, but his body wouldn¡¯t respond. He couldn¡¯t even move his neck, much less itch his nose which was seriously irritating him. After a little while he fell back into a deep slumber.


    I still couldn¡¯t move, but there were a few occasions when my parents came in and cried a lot. My mother kept asking me for forgiveness, while at other times I heard screams of anger between the two before some security presumably took them away. My father was no happier than him, and he blamed his mom for the incident. I knew my parents felt tired of the whole situation after a while, but when I was just lying there helpless, do you want to know what my parents finally did to ¡®help¡¯? They were arguing back and forth over my medical charges and what it¡¯d take to keep me alive when I felt it.


    The room went silent, then they simply unplugged me! What sick f*(&$^@ does that to their kid to escape medical charges!  I immediately started going into fits, after a while some medical personnel made it to me and tried stabilizing me. It was too late though, I was too weak already. They got me under control again, but now I could feel myself slipping even faster. Finally he woke up listening to some rude guy insulting him.


    ¡°Welcome to the afterlife! Oh sorry, you¡¯re not dead yet. Well I can wait a couple minutes, but hurry up!¡± I couldn¡¯t see the guy who just spoke to me, but I was seriously considering giving into death to get away from him. What kind of asshole actually says that to a guy in the ICU? I couldn¡¯t even open my eyes to glare at him. Suddenly he felt himself going into another fit of seizures, then everything went dark. ¡°Finally, let¡¯s do this thing!¡±


    He was faintly aware of his consciousness moving, running rampantly and violently, and jostling around in an unbound freedom. He didn¡¯t even care all was dark, he¡¯d been that way for a while now. Moving rapidly along an unknown path, he felt a slight tug on his conscience. It was telling him to move a certain direction, he didn¡¯t want to listen though. He was a free spirit now, how dare someone tell him where to go! Then the tug became an overwhelming push and it shoved him into a strict course, limited to a tunnel-like shape.


    As it pushed him, trapped him in its embrace, he suddenly felt small. Nothing he could do would affect this other force! Seething in anger he pushed out with his mind. At first nothing happened, but he pushed with more and more force, like forcing Jell-O through a strainer.


    Slowly though, streams of darkness around him seemed to become more tangible, more real than the rest of the endless expanse of darkness he felt whipping past him. He was somehow aware he was no longer in his body, but yet he was still a vessel capable of moving as he willed. Forcibly, in the same slow battle of will, he ¡®reached¡¯ out and grasped some of the strands closest.


    The rush of knowledge was insatiable, he couldn¡¯t seem to let go. He felt part of the stream of darkness enter him, join with his very being! Then he could suddenly see more in the darkness, there was a deep black void in the distance throbbing a dull color of red around the edge. But the darkness was no longer as crushing, no longer so oppressing. He could see farther, he could now see other strands of color. They were smaller, but they were there. In a kaleidoscope of colors too. Somehow he knew the red void was the end of this journey, but remembering the rush of knowledge he just couldn¡¯t leave it behind! Having only a little longer, he hurriedly sent multiple tendrils of his being out into the great expanse to retrieve more colors.


    The effort was incredible, but he willed all but the smallest part of his being outward. In a great heave he reached the first color, a brilliant green and felt he suddenly knew much more about life and earth. He knew how to manipulate it and push and pull just as earth did. After that stream he concentrated on a stream of white light, beaming just further out. It was full of good will, and great deeds. It was the very essence of color and vision, the substance that which gave the world variation. White was overpowering on its own but he didn¡¯t have time to dwell. At the same time he grabbed a stream of red light, a stream of orange light, and a stream of sky-blue light. The red was a thick substance flowing slower than the others. This was muscle and bone, this was what everyone was made of. He could feel a great essence of creation and repairing. It made him feel warm inside but the others came rushing in jarring his suddenly peaceful mind.


    The orange light gave him understanding of fire and heat. It taught him about the very basis of all the destructive properties of it, though in a deeper sense it gave him a feeling of recycling and creation. The heat combined with the muscle light searing his soul but he was suddenly filled with a deep, deep cold. Colder than anything else, he felt mana. The very substance of magic, it¡¯s very make-up. How anything had mana, how everything was mana. He was reveling in his deepest understanding yet then he felt the red circle approaching him.


    With one final heave he reached out for a golden shaft of light far in the distance. This time he only briefly felt the knowledge caress his soul before he was gone. There was a brief moment when he glimpsed the great powers that were electricity. He was just understanding something about lightning and currents when he entered the red void.


    This time when he blacked out he did not wake up in a deep dark void. He was no longer the free spirit he once was, though he still had the knowledge somehow, deep sown he knew he did. Suddenly remembering the seizure he opened his eyes in a hurry to look around.


    There was a dimness to the room, startling him. While he didn¡¯t expect to be capable of opening his eyes, he was more surprised by where he was. The first thing Jake saw startling him was a man wearing a grey cloak in some medieval looking clothes. The first thing I said after waking up was quite intelligent actually ¡°Erm, uhhh¡­Hello?¡±


    ¡°Oh! So sleeping beauty decides to join us does he? You know that stunt you pulled, while entertaining was quite stupid of you. If you wanted that kind of knowledge there¡¯s a library for a reason. Though I was quite surprised you could push yourself that hard. Still, you almost destroyed your very being. Any more expenditure from your own self to reach out and you would¡¯ve been lost forever. There would have been no afterlife for you. Alas, you¡¯re not the only one who does it. I myself did the very same thing in my youth.¡±


    ¡°W-what? Where am I, and what do you mean afterlife?¡± He was really confused now, wasn¡¯t he talking to someone right now? Plus he didn¡¯t believe in any religion, he was an atheist so shouldn¡¯t he be in hell if anything?


    Standing up the man started pacing around his bed looking him in the eye the entire time. Finally settling at the end of the bed, he pulled out a paper and seemed to read it for a moment. Finally giving a sigh of relief he rolled it up tucking it away again. ¡°Well that¡¯s a nice, at least I don¡¯t have to convince you your ¡®god¡¯ brought you here for judgment. You know that can be a little crazy at times haha.


    But seriously, you are dead right now. Well, in a sense. Every soul is born in a dimension, though if you die you will come here. Think of your world as a sort of incubator, or area where you grow. Then imagine your body is the ¡®egg¡¯ and when it ¡®cracks¡¯ your soul is released to travel freely out into the real world. Typically someone with a watcher job will wait in hospitals or battlegrounds to guide your soul here. If you die somewhere else, it sucks because it might take hundreds of years before you either find the path here yourself or we track you down to guide you.¡±


    ¡°Wait, so that was you in my room? And what was that stuff I grabbed, it seems sort of distant now.¡± I was quite frazzled about the turn of events, but he guessed he was taking it better than most would. At least hysteria hadn¡¯t set in, so that was good. While the guy talked I looked around the room. There was a heavy looking wood door straight to his left, a small bed table with a candle, a bedpan, a mirror, and a chair beside his fluffy bed.


    ¡°Ya that was me in your room. Jiminy crickets though, took ya long enough to die?! I thought I¡¯d be there forever like that coma case a few years back. Sorry if I seemed rude at the time. As for the knowledge you consumed, that was just what it was. Knowledge is just as tangible as a soul, just far more infinitesimal and ever evolving. For some knowledge it could be common sense, though others are what you might consider more complicated magic. Here it¡¯s all just considered knowledge of one form or another. Give it time as you should start to come to wits with your new ¡®abilities¡¯.


    Most people absorb some sort of power from their travel from random collisions along the way. Others just learn here, though it¡¯s never on the level of potential you can gain in the void. And before you ask, no you cannot go back to absorb more. It¡¯s a sort of one-time thing, the nature of it won¡¯t let you have a ¡®redo¡¯. Whatever you get is considered a measure of your will or luck. It¡¯s a sort of gift, so don¡¯t take it for granted. You absorbed a lot for someone from earth, though most from other worlds gain about as much as you did if not more typically. So anyway, that¡¯s the basics of that. Let¡¯s go get you something else to wear here now though, that way I can get you to the orientation before another patient needs this room. Sound good?¡±


    ¡°Umm, eh¡­ sure I guess. One question though, what happens if I die here? I mean, if this is the afterlife or as you say my ¡®real life¡¯, then where would I go?¡± I said this as I slid out of bed and tried standing. Of course I fell on my face, why wouldn¡¯t I? Looking down I about had a heart attack. Like the well-educated boy I was I did the only thing I could, I screamed. ¡°Ahhhhh, holy of the s***!¡± Standing up with some help I observed my arms and body.


    Running along my meridians I could see super thin lines of light shining as they seemed to flow. Especially where my heart was I noticed a conglomeration of colors flashing through it. It was actually pulsing with my heart-beat and I noticed it was a vague shape of a real heart. Looking under my boxer shorts I somehow had on, I noticed no part of me escaped the change. The overall appearance was quite startling against my pale white skin. I looked in the mirror as the guy tried getting himself back under control. I was thankful at first at what I saw, I expected my hair to be purple or something insane, though it was still it''s dark blonde color.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    I was a bit surprised to find all the scars and stuff I recalled having disappear though, especially after getting hit by a bus. I didn''t necessarily look younger, just cleaner. Newer I guess you could say.


    ¡°Hahaha, you should¡¯ve seen your face!¡± The guy couldn¡¯t stop laughing as I saw myself. Especially as I turned stark-white looking under my modest apparel. Eventually the guy calmed down enough to wipe the tears away and speak again. ¡°Now that, is by far the best part of this job! Don¡¯t worry you can learn to hide them, that¡¯s actually part of the reason you¡¯re going to the orientation.¡±


    Finally he opened the door leading me out into a hallway where he steered me right, towards a door labeled ¡®equipment¡¯ at the end of the hall. Stepping inside the room, it was stuffed from floor to ceiling with racks of clothes. ¡°Here¡¯s the list of your starter gear. As for the death thing, you¡¯ll find out after your done here.¡±


    Handing me a list about a half a page long I just stared at it and the highly disorganized shelves. ¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to help me? I mean this place is huge!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but let the anger seep through my voice a little.


    ¡°Well I could, though the time you take determines your score against everyone else I¡¯ve taken here. If you make the top ten times I typically give you something a little extra to start with.¡± He said this with a smirk as I suddenly turned tail as fast as I could. Reading the list as fast as I could I scanned the shelves for the items and ran off.


    The list included:


    1.            Pair of thin leather boots in your size


    2.            Two plain shirts of choice


    3.            Two pair of pants of choice


    4.            One leather belt


    5.            Three pairs of socks


    6.            Three pair of undergarments


    7.            One cloak


    8.            One pair of leather gloves-thin


    9.            One knife-small


    10.          One backpack or bag


    11.          Tinder box


    12.          One thick blanket


    13.          One blank leather book with writing quill and ink


    Boy that really was a list! He wasn¡¯t sure how fast the others were so he started as fast as he could trying to collect all the necessities as fast as possible. As soon as he grabbed a pair of pink socks though and was forced to return them for something more fitting, he decided he should take more time choosing his starting gear. Just in case the quality mattered. Looking down at his pile he went and returned most of it.


    Most of it was dirty or had bad stitching. The shirt looked really itchy especially. Returning to looking, he started with a pair of pants. The options were innumerable, but he soon got to thinking. If there were powers here, then what else would he encounter? In all the stories, powers were the least of his worries. Thinking of this he started looking for the more defensible or sturdy clothing. Who knew when he¡¯d find a time to trade up? Observing the clothes closer scared him a little, they seemed second hand for the most part. Some had burn marks and others like the boots especially, had what looked like bite marks. After a while he started to get an eye for unused items and started collecting what he needed slowly.


    Finding some decent dense-knit black cotton pants, he moved on to shirts and decided to match his gear a bit. He found a green, red and a white cotton shirt with some sort of padding around the elbows and shoulders. It didn¡¯t impede his movements and seemed the most protective style. Collecting a few pairs of medium thickness black tall socks, he moved to the boots. T


    hey all looked about the same though he noticed the style of clothing rotated around the medieval days. The boots had clasps and they varied in height, width, and of course length. I scanned the racks for a good while, remembering his father¡¯s advice about a good pair of boots. ¡°It wasn¡¯t you who would fail walking across the desert, it was the grain of sand in your boot that would stop you.¡± With that in mind he especially looked for a good pair of boots with less openings. He took about thirty minutes looking before he reached the back of the shelves and still hadn¡¯t found something to his standard. Huffing Jake looked forward back the way he¡¯d come and happened to look up a little higher than the boots shelves and noticed something peculiar.


    Up above the racks of boots near the ceiling a box was collecting dust like no other. Intrigued by its location and obvious lack of attention, he started climbing the shelves to reach it. The shelves were well over ten feet near the back where he was now. The old wood groaned under his meager weight, and as he neared the roof, the quality of the clothes dropped drastically with more dust, mildew, and what looked like rat droppings.


    As he finally reached the top he looked across the shelves to notice a few other boxes like his, but otherwise he was just coughing on dust as he observed degrading clothes. Finally he found the box. His hopes soared as he looked at it. It was a sturdy, thick wood with a few swirls here and there. There was some weird runic writing on the top, but he ignored it not understanding it. The lid wasn¡¯t latched so he opened the top pulling it off.


    Looking inside his heart stopped¡­ it was empty. He was so agitated he went to pick it up to throw but when he picked it up the bottom came away showing a hole in it. Looking under the box, his eyes finally lay on what must have fallen through it from rot. Tossing the box away he looked at them in love. After a whole ten minutes of marveling at his lucky find, he tried them on. They had a set of silver clasps running up the front connecting with an intricate work of silver along the sides and finally running along the bottom intertwining with leather creating a greater traction along with some minor cleats near the toe and heel.


    The insides were soft with some sort of second layer of leather and padding in-between. As I tried them on something even more amazing happened though. At first they were a bit too long, but when the last clasp latched into place they started glowing a low turquoise color. Then the silver seemed to flow into a more fitting design to his taste somehow he just knew. His meridian lines were blazed briefly, then the boots seemed to form to his feet perfectly. The excess leather and silver flowing up his legs creating a taller pair of boots guarding his shins and tendons with the silver.


    After this was done he was plunged into the dim darkness again, and blinking the dots from his vision before looking at his boots again. They were perfect! He couldn¡¯t be more in love, it seemed he could move as freely and comfortably as if they weren¡¯t even there! With this newfound discovery he looked over at the other boxes scattered along the roofline. The alleys between the shelves were cramped so he easily climbed across the gaps making his way to another similar box he spotted.


    This one was much the same though it held the item inside it. It was much larger though and as he opened it he found a backpack. It was of the same style as the boots. As soon as he put it on, it grew longer along his back and expanded to hold many pockets with clasps of silver. It was also a deep black leather. The frame seemed breathable while still lithe and close to his body. It almost moved as he climbed across the shelves. Always at center balance. Not even looking inside it more, he moved to search for more boxes. There was a semi-armored cloak with plates around the back and sides and a pair of gloves.


    Everything in this style was in supreme condition compared to the other items. The other things weren¡¯t as nice, such as the tinderbox and such were just normal from the racks down below. The knife was rusted a little but he could fix that. It was a thin seven inch blade with a belt sheathe. He looked kind of badass if he didn¡¯t say so himself!


    When he was satisfied he had everything on the list, he headed back to the front of the shop. He didn¡¯t even care he took hours looking and grabbing stuff, who cared about the extra prize when he most likely had the best clothes in the room.


    When he got back to the door, the guy was asleep leaning against a crate. I ever so gently pushed him as hard as I could while yelling in his ear.


    ¡°Ahhhhh¡­What the hell was that for, and you lost by the way?!¡± Then he gasped when he saw what I was wearing. ¡°W-Where¡¯d you find those! I thought we ran out of that stuff like four months ago! Damn, kids never seize to amaze me. Well, I guess you¡¯ve got a head start on the others during your trials. Also, take the hood off, you look like an assassin. Where ya find the elven stuff anyway?¡±


    ¡°Top shelves, last boxes I think. Might be a couple if you dig a little. So this is elven? How is that even possible, aren¡¯t they mythical?¡± I say this in half surprise, though part of me is starting to understand this place is basically full of mythical and otherwise fictional things.


    ¡°Well ya, they used to come across this wing for gear, but threw a fit when the other races used their stocks up without paying. They moved over to the southern wing of this building. We¡¯re in the human north gate area now. Anyhow, let¡¯s head over to the check-in at the school. Oh, I¡¯m Brent by the way.¡±


    Exiting the room I noticed Brent¡¯s gear for the first time, it was kind of trashy but somehow it seemed stronger than his even. Though it looked close in style, his was more armored than anything else he¡¯d seen so far. The quality made his look rough and uncomfortable, though he knew that wasn¡¯t true at all. Finally after exiting the room and going to the other end of the hall, they exited through a huge metal banded door. Then he got his first look at the world outside and gasped in astonishment.


    TO BE CONTINUED

 Orientation

    ... Not gonna lie here, but this place looked like s**t! The place I was in was located at the bottom of a sandy crevice, or was it between two steep mountains? No it was too steep, that couldn''t be right? The most obvious thing about this world was the shortage of colors. Beyond some scraggly trees or potted plants, everything was some sort of variation of red, even the sky was a deep maroon. To add to the cheery view, instead of clouds and birds some sort of heavy mist swirled across the skies occasionally interrupted by a strong breeze. I didn¡¯t feel like letting my imagination run too rampant, so I focused on the city clustered about in front of me. The city was full of commotion, and as Brent had promised there were a few other races here and there. The main populace was comprised of humans or elves, though a dwarf bobbed out of the crowd every now and again.


    The city spanned far into the crevice, extending the entire length until it hit the end, then a road zigzagged its way up the cliffs face until it reached the top. I noticed a tower located near his end of the crevice and couldn''t help but stare in awe. Shooting up into the sky''s it seemed taller than the ravine he was in. Flags blew on poles at the top in a series of shapes and colors along the outside edge. This wasn''t necessarily what caught me off guard though. The base spanned a few hundred feet in diameter adjacent some shops and houses. A slew of people were coming and going from the front entrance, but I couldn''t take my eyes from the stone-work. The entire thing was covered in glowing runes, shifting, moving, and sometimes combining. It seemed to radiate an aura saying "don''t f*** with me".


    Needless to say, I was gaping at the thing when Brent called my name. I closed my mouth with an audible clop and rushed over to him, as he''d gotten a dozen paces away.


    When I pulled up next to him I noticed more buildings like the stone one I''d just exited from situated around mine in an x design. That must have been the other races starting locations. We were just making our way onto a cobbled street when a gaggle of people exited the same buildings I started in. They seemed to be getting along for the most part, which of course made me wonder why I hadn''t noticed them before.


    "Umm... Why didn''t I meet anyone else inside like them?"


    "Well if you hadn''t spent all your time in a dirty attic space nit-picking gear you would''ve noticed multiple groups of kids coming or going. I hope you¡¯re not that inobservant all the time, otherwise you¡¯re not gonna last long. Anyway, that¡¯s where you usually group up so you''ll just have to meet them after the orientation. Which reminds me, we need to get moving if you want to make it there before today¡¯s starts."


    "What''s this orientation about anyhow, and whys everyone who arrives here around my age?" This whole situation seemed kind of odd the more he looked around.


    "Well the orientations ensures new people know what¡¯s in this world, how they got here, some common knowledge about the culture, and some basic knowledge about survival. It¡¯s kind of like a short variation of classes over a short time. After you go through some of the testing they''ll offer a starting job if they have some or you can enroll for more semesters of course training. I did a work exchange, though if I told you the truth it''s kind of a crappy program. I hardly get any pay, plus I haven''t explored nearly as much as I''d like. Also, as you can tell, I got stuck transporting dead people. It wouldn''t be that bad don''t get me wrong but the contracts start in the decades, not years. As for the whole age thing, most people appear in their younger prime years. It''s sort of how the system works. The oldest I seen come across was a 40 year old body builder guy. It''s not bad, after all you age like ten times slower in here, and you can find potions or magic ways to reverse aging. I myself am 92 years old. Though you will be relieved, the kids here are actually around your age when they died. This keeps the program a little more consistent, especially in the classes. So don''t worry your flirting with an old lady or something, though be a little more wary of the other species. They may be young to their culture and mindset, but elves for instance age until they¡¯re about a hundred before they reach ¡®adulthood¡¯."


    As Brent spoke, we made our way across the quieter side of town making our way across in the general direction of the tower. The streets grew busier as we neared the other end of town though, and a lot more groups of kids were making their way over with us. I noticed some other humans dressed like himself scattered among the others as well, so maybe he wasn''t the only patient or smart one here. At least he wouldn''t be singled out as much.


    "So all these kids died within the last day? At least I don''t feel as foolish about my death now haha. Still sucks losing everything you had before though... I guess my life was kind of falling apart anyway. Not like my family life would''ve been much fun at least. That sucks your stuck herding dead people all day, I wouldn''t do it at least."


    ¡°Well, I only have like ten years left on the contract anyway. I was too young to do much at the time I died so I couldn''t have gotten by otherwise, so I kind of had no other option. A lot of younger people are raised here, you know adoption and such. If a babies young enough during death it might be reborn here too. That''s how you can get a kid, gives ''em another chance you know? Most of those are abortion babies. Well that''s enough about me, let¡¯s sign you in. After orientation just come find me if you need something, you know where I work."


    He says this as we trudge up to a fast growing line to enter the building. I noticed a lot of other kids were being left by some guardian or another as we entered the line. I even noticed some extremely gorgeous blonde elves near the front of the line at the doors. Some older gentleman and a tall brunette stood at a table filling out forms as kids stopped to give their information then we could enter the building.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "Alright, I may just do that. Thanks for the guidance and all, but the lines getting pretty long."


    "Yep, no problem. I better go get another soul before my shifts up today. See ya around Jake"


    With that said Brent turned and left back the way they came, just as fast as they arrived he was absorbed in the growing crowd milling in the streets.


    I turned around and stepped in line before the crowd could catch up and made my way to the door shuffling as the line moved. It went surprisingly fast which he actually should have guessed, considering these people did this pretty much every day. As I stepped up to the counter the lady introduced herself as Isabell. Then she handed me a sheet asking for name, date of birth, age, height, weight, and what my intelligence level was (this being my grade at school or any diplomas).


    ~It looked kind of like this~


    Name: Jake Denner


    DOB: 12 December 1996


    AGE: 19


    Height: 5 ft. 11 in.


    Weight: 152


    INT: Year 12 High school


    After filling it out I received some sort of bronze pin with a long number on it, which she deftly pinned to my cloak near my left shoulder. Then I proceeded into the towers first floor, which was actually pretty cool. I entered some sort of auditorium capable of seating something like 500 people. Not wanting a bad seat I made my way down the mini coliseum for a fifth row seat. Unfortunately the front was full of elves and more than a few dwarves. I was pretty surprised to see a few orcs with pale green skin seated in a big group opposite himself across the room, in what seemed like a pretty heated discussion. I couldn''t hear what they were up to, though from the spittle collecting on each other¡¯s faces it just didn''t seem right to intervene. (That and they had weird tusks jutting out of their bottom jaw. Like seriously what human wouldn''t be afraid?)


    After a while of observing the other students I finally just sat back trying to absorb what I''d just seen. Of course I was thankful for the whole second chance thing, but maybe he could avoid the orcs a little?


    I wasn''t really surprised to see the dwarves wearing better armor than even the elves, though I was a little jealous. The orcs and the humans had armor about just the same quality, with the exception of about 15% of the humans wearing armor much like mine.


    I was still thinking about the orcs when the deafening sound of a gavel resonated through the room silencing everyone. I looked to the arena but it was empty. On further inspection I found a little raised platform on the right side of the room set up in the bleachers. This made sense since everyone could now face directly at the speaker and hear everything. Then a dwarf with a red beard and cloak stood up to talk, calling attention to himself.


    "Welcome everyone to the village of Ralthru. My name is Taernue Spen, and I am the Chief of this Village. These are my main council members, Miss Daria Lirs and Mr. Tandar Light. (At this a couple others stood up behind him) You will treat them both with the same utmost respect you will treat me. They are both teachers here as well, so I will know of any disrespect or trouble caused by any one of you. If you cause too much trouble do not doubt my power to cast you from the program or even the village, I find trouble intolerable and will not stand for it." He says this while looking over towards the Orcs especially. "Now, onto more exciting news. You will all be granted the beginners classes for survival and general knowledge of the abyss free of charge. Housing will be provided during the week long classes, any longer time will be reserved for the students attending the schooling program. If you would like to settle here there are lots for sale in-town if you save enough for the deed. On that note, jobs will be offered to those we find with the best scores and or achievements, so work hard and you may get a job immediately here.


    You can also talk with us about working for schooling, though that takes a long time to pay off. Other than that, you may either take odd-jobs around town until another opening comes up, or you have two options. One, you may venture out to the unknown lands north of this settlement and try your luck. Or two, you may head to other villages or another settlement, city, or capital to try your luck at a job there.


    So, with that all told I would finally like you to head to your designated quarters after this seminar to get settled in, meet other classmates, or look around town. If you head to the other door beside the one you came in, you will find a reception office. At the counter say your name and you will receive your parcel with a schedule and all your enclosed informational packets required for the lessons. Breakfast at 8:00, classes at 9:00 tomorrow. Meeting adjourned!"


    With that he slammed the gavel down twice more and the whole class stood to leave. I was actually quite dazed from the speed at which the whole thing took place. It seemed they were busy people to be so brief, then again he did have to make the same speech every day so maybe it was a matter of boredom?


    Since everyone was already standing I had to go with the flow and headed towards the door. I had a lot of questions, but I guess that would have to wait until tomorrow.

 Stupid as a human?

    Stupid as a human?


    As I was making my way to the front of the line I noticed some kids were given thicker packs of books and supplies, while others hardly received anything.


    I was in the process of figuring this out when a young woman snapped her fingers in front of my face. ¡°Hey, pay attention I haven¡¯t got all day! Name?!¡± I wouldn¡¯t call the woman the most congenial person I¡¯d met so far and her breath stunk of garlic, so I promptly said my name and received my packet. Anything was better than standing in the blasting radius of that woman¡¯s breath!


    My room and floor number was located on the side of the bag, so I decided to make my way up the spiral staircase to my dorm. After stopping on the fourth floor, I found the sixth door on the left and entered. There was a key in the bag, so I wasn¡¯t worried about locking up at night. This was a huge relief, because as I was entering my room a few of the orcs started down my hall.


    Now, I¡¯m not really sure what they thought when they saw me, but it must have been pretty funny because they started laughing hysterically before walking down the hall slowly. Put shortly, I was not reassured by the looks they were giving me. I felt like they were eyeing lunch, so I not so nonchalantly ran into my room and locked the door.


    After ten minutes of my life on the brink of falling ill from a heart attack, I finally got myself under control, seeing as the orcs had moved on. Thankfully, they went pretty far down the hall before I heard them enter their rooms.


    The rooms were pretty bare bones. Just a bed, an open window with wooden shutters, a chest at the foot of the bed, and a small desk with a chair facing out the window. Surprisingly, the room¡¯s temperature was a steady 70 degrees despite the draft and the fact the place was completely made of red bricks.


    Throwing my stuff on the bed, I sat at the desk and opened the parcel they gave me. On top was my schedule for the next week, and an introductory packet with some basic information.


    There was a whole lot of random information mingled inside, such as success rates of the school and some famous heroes risen from the program. But there was some useful information as well. It didn¡¯t really occur to me before now, but evidently the world had a universal language translation system. Everyone could speak or hear any language and understand it in your own tongue.


    Somehow the same magic affected the way you looked when you spoke to sync your words with your mouth. This made it easier to speak without looking foolish. No one really knows what allows this, but they do know it¡¯s closely tied to whatever powers allow you to travel to this world through the void. Some simply say it¡¯s a form of illusion magic, but it hasn¡¯t been proven.


    The next useful bits of information included a basic map of the building directing you to the cafeteria, classes, bathrooms, rec areas, and practice rooms. There was a shop for supplies, but he didn¡¯t have anything of value he wanted to trade that he knew of.


    The map also included a basic layout of the town, and the roads leading away labeling the two closest towns to be at least 50 miles south or east. There was another outpost north about 80 miles, but west was uncharted lands.


    It may seem odd that some land would lay unclaimed, but it takes a lot of effort to defend a place and it¡¯s not like your invincible either. There¡¯s a few main capitals where the first souls arrived in this world, but you have to pay a toll and travel by teleport stations.


    A lot of people actually save up, and then move to places like this because there¡¯s practically no violence beyond the occasional political move. This land is also the most fertile with the most hospitable lands. Supposedly it was a green paradise.


    I would¡¯ve been happy but the toll for a single teleport was more than a thousand gold. So basically the rich lived there, but you could indenture yourself into slavery if you really wanted to move there¡­ not really what he was looking for.


    Perhaps one of the most surprising things he read about were some of the floating islands or continents. There really wasn¡¯t a sky to speak of, otherwise you would just go up indefinitely, but you could get above the mists and see a nice orange, yellow or red sky. It mattered where you were, but something of note would be that there was no moons, stars, or sun. Just a sort of ambient light. Some old cities have artificial suns to change the overall atmosphere of the surrounding lands and allow better plant growth.


    Most towns grew crops on large swaths of land over extremely long periods of time. Water or nature oriented mages usually made daily rounds to help speed up growth.


    The whole world as he had first seen was indeed covered in a heavy roiling mass of clouds, mist, or fog. There were seasons spanning exactly 100 days each. A whole year took 400 days with ten months having forty days each.


    Seasons changed by way of the light levels and temperature. Summers were extremely hot, falls were about normal, winters usually froze the landscape into a tundra, and springs were about the same temperature as the fall.


    By the time he was done reading the first introductory book he realized it was time for dinner. Quietly he opened his door to look check if the orcs were near. Finding none he locked up and followed a few others in the halls to the stairs. The cafeteria was on the third floor so it was a short trip. Arriving in a huge vaulted room, he got inline for some odd looking meat looking suspiciously like a chickens, and grabbed some scarlet red ¡®lettuce¡¯. Then grabbed some water in a mug and found a seat in a quiet looking corner.


    Kids sat or mingled everywhere rambunctiously talking excitedly or in some cases morosely. As I sampled the ¡®chicken¡¯ I overheard a group of elves to my left talking about the lessons on magic and weapons training. Evidently they thought this was all too easy or that it was a waste of time. A few were even making plans to leave already to go collect some money somehow.


    Of course this made me feel really stupid for having almost no combat experience beyond hunting with my father a few times, or scraps on the playground when he was younger. It made him feel absolutely retarded when they started talking about magic affinities or some ¡®simple¡¯ spells they thought they might use until their strength increased a little.


    There were a few other groups of humans listening in on the conversions as well, and I could tell we all felt inadequate to say the least. Then again, there were some rougher looking people with a look in their eyes saying ¡°ya, whatever just stay outta my way plebs¡±.


    I tried listening in to as many conversations about beasts from other worlds, or the way magic worked. I was at a loss for words when one individual described a fight with a dire wolf he had just before he died. I about fainted when he described how much the he could evidently lift.


    How was he supposed to compete with that? He was gonna die for sure¡­ then he heard someone who was currently learning at the school talking about the classes on mana manipulation. She was describing how she found a new light spell when he spotted her cast a globe of dim yellow light in her palm. Somehow he could see mana flash under her skin and flow from the meridians before forming a symbol and exiting her hand in the form of the globe. The symbol consisted of a series of circles, connected by jagged lines surrounded by small slashes pointing in then swooping out near the outer circle.


    I was amazed to say the least. This was the first spell he actually saw in the workings. Suddenly the globe started spinning uncontrollably though and it collapsed shooting from her hand blowing her bowl of soup into her friends face eliciting a screech of pain before a teacher sitting nearby jumped up and hurried over.


    The girl covered in hot soup had small burn marks on her face and hands where she tried blocking the blast. The casters hands were also smoking slightly and she looked massively hung over.


    The students eating nearby glanced over but shrugged and continued eating as if an explosion didn¡¯t just go off a few meters away.


    I was still in shock when the teacher cast a spell forming a triangle with a hexagon inside surrounded by a white aura flowing into the center of the rune then running into the body parts he was directing it to. The girl now in tears from the burns was still glaring at her friend when the burns seemed to swell up into red puffy patches before deflating it seemed, leaving perfectly unblemished skin. It actually seemed healthier than before.


    After he finished with the hurt girl she left and the teacher started on the caster girl, and he started talking to her in an abrasive tone reprimanding her for her stupidity and telling her to use the practice areas. I was pretty sure the guy was madder at the disturbance of his meal though.


    I was still in shock but I immediately snapped out of it when the teacher left to go sit at an adult populated table. I immediately got out a notepad for class and started writing down the symbols as much as he could remember in detail describing what each part did when he watched it. The few others sitting near him looked over in surprise at his enthusiasm. One kid actually snickered at his action and called him a terrible artist. I just ignored the comments and starting drawing up and index describing parts or theories about the reactions with others symbols.


    After I was finished was extremely happy with the results. I refined the drawings and looked over my work. I was actually a pretty good artist despite the comment. The person in question just had no idea what he was drawing was all.


    It actually brought a little relief when he saw a few other newbies drawing like him in a frenzy, but most others hadn¡¯t noticed it seemed.


    Looking around I immediately knew I couldn¡¯t eat anymore. There were practice rooms right? I immediately jumped up and dropped off my half eaten meal before heading to the closest practice room. The closest room as it turned out was actually a small veranda at the first floor, including a bunch of cubicles branching off from a main larger hard packed dirt arena.


    There were a few kids practicing in the cubicles, but a lot of kids were seated around the edges in meditative states. I wasn¡¯t sure what was going on, but I sat down a small distance from the others with my backpack. I had brought it with me.


    Leaning against it I relaxed waiting for someone to use a spell with my notepad laying on my lap.


    It was over an hour before anything happened, and the sky was darkening significantly. I was about to call it quits when a boy with long black hair sitting to my right did something surprising. All these students had learned to hide their meridians, but suddenly is saw a dim glow in his veins and he watched mana flow from his meridians towards his stomach, then surge out to fill the veins, this happened a few times before the sight was gone again.


    I immediately wrote all this down before looking at myself and back at him. The kid seemed happy all the sudden and stood to leave. I immediately jumped up and trotted over to the kid to stop him.


    ¡°Hey! Ummm, what exactly where you doing just now?¡± The guy looked kind of skittish as I kind of scared him.


    ¡°Err, um I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about?¡±


    ¡°You know, the meditating thing. What¡¯s the point of it, and what were you trying to accomplish with your mana?¡± Now he seemed kind of freaked, like a sketchy hobo had just asked him if he wanted some candy.


    Frowning he responded in an apprehensive tone. ¡°Well¡­ you know¡­ meditating? You know, to increase mana flow and stuff.¡±


    I was writing this all down as he spoke, but when I looked up he was suddenly gone. Glancing around I frowned since I had some other questions, but it was about time to clean up and hit the hay.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I headed up to my room without any freaky incidents happening and used the bathrooms to shower. A rune on the ceiling activated when I pulled a cord in the stalls. Surprisingly the bathrooms were pretty normal functioning, though the water was colder than he was used to.


    I turned the water on and off eliciting a few wary glances from the others showering nearby, but in the end I felt the rune was memorized good enough to record later.


    The bathrooms were separated into male and female, but the dormitory was coed. I saw plenty of leg as I passed some bombshell elves wrapped in towels on the way back to my room.


    After I arrived in my room I stared at the lesson schedule in anticipation for the following days. He was so excited, that he could hardly wait for the morning to come. He switched over to the notes he had, and memorized everything by heart with nothing better to do.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Waking up with a jolt, he peeled his face from his notebook and looked out his window bleary eyed for a moment before he realized what time it was.


    He heard the bustle of the city waking up but jolted up when he heard kids hurrying down the halls to class. He was late waking up. No time to shower or brush his teeth, he rushed out the door hurriedly pulling his cloak on with one hand while juggling his stuff in his hands.


    Of course his luck was not that great, and as he was near the stairs a huge hand pushed him to the side. Note that the side was the open doorway leading down. He needed to go up, but suddenly he was bouncing down the stairs in the opposite direction. He was stopped about twenty paces down the stairs when some rough hands caught him and lifted him gruffly by the nape of his shirt.


    Still dizzy, I couldn¡¯t hear what he said, but the voice seemed pissed before I was sent onto my ass holding my now bruised jaw. I guess tumbling down the stairs was frowned upon? As it were, he steadied his head until his sight came back and immediately got up battered to hell and back, to go up another five floors to his first class.


    Stumbling in the doorway as a bell rung from somewhere outside, I finally collapsed in my seat in the farthest corner from the door. Everyone was from the same arrival group as him, and almost half of them looked on at him laughing like hyenas at breakfast.


    That¡¯s when I noticed the teacher¡­ he was an orc. Ah com on, for the mother of-


    ¡°I will not have any late arrivals in my class, next time get up earlier! Stupid humans, always the laziest. Hello class, welcome to basic magic manipulation. From fire to water, this class with teach you the basics of what it means to use your mana. First off, my name is Noajin (pronounced: now-yin) and I will not tolerate fighting, arguing, or bad behavior. If I catch you I will kick you from this class! Understand!?¡±


    At that there was a resounding chorus of ¡°yes sir¡± around the whole class room. Of course the orcs looked especially at home and happier yet as they glanced at my pained expression.


    ¡°Alright runts, now this is important! I¡¯m tired of seeing your disgusting lines, in order to get rid of ¡®em you gotta find your inner power and calm down the flow. Most people imagine a lake with many waterfalls running into and out of it flowing through you meridians. After you find your balance you can meditate in a trance you choice to increase the flow of mana.


    Once you increase the flow of mana enough, the capacity you can use at one time will increase along with your mana ¡¯lake¡¯. Most people will locate their ¡®lake in their stomach region or upper chest. Though rarely some cases have deemed their mana to flow in and outta the head. Now start your training you shits, you aint got all day.


    Oh, and I¡¯ve decided just now that you have until fifth day this week to find the source. After that you¡¯re ineligible for this class, after that day we will teach and practice mana manipulation to form basic elements. That¡¯s the plan for the week, now get to work ya maggots!¡±


    After his brief introduction to the class I pulled out my notebook and jotted down the schedule and the information about the mana pool, meridians, and manipulation he spoke about.


    Of course, I sat down to think about the meditation and compare it with what I saw yesterday. The kids all had their hands in their laps, while in comfortable positions. I tried sitting just like they had, but my legs were still stiff from the stairs so I simply leaned against the wall.


    After was situated, I ignored the orcs talking with eh teacher and closed my eyes. The teacher described the flow like a river and lake, but truly his meridians didn¡¯t feel pressured right? Maybe it took effort to slow the stream more than speed it up? No, that couldn¡¯t be right¡­ now that he thought about it, how was he supposed to slow the stream down? Dammit Noajin, why can¡¯t you be thorough!? Whatever, he could find out on his own right? It is the simplest magical manipulation right?


    With that determination he set to work looking over his body memorizing where the lines were. Maybe it would be easier to learn, if he knew where to feel from the inside if he had to have his eyes closed?


    After a while he was convinced there was absolutely nothing duller than staring at the back of his hands, so he closed his eyes to meditate.


    As he stared at the back of his eyelids, he felt tired and sore. So of course, he was about to fall asleep after just thirty minutes of quiet whispering around him. The cool breeze blowing in from the outside carried a sweet smell from the bakery down the street, and did someone have potted flowers hanging from their windows below his floor?


    Suddenly he found himself floating off into a peaceful sleepy state. The only thing keeping him awake was the brighter light emitting inside from the window he sat next to. Oh how the sweet rays of light felt good on his bruised skin¡­


    That¡¯s when it happened, a slight pull¡­ like his conscious was pulled from himself. It felt like he was being pulled forward towards the light pouring through the window. Yet, he could tell the more he followed it, the further into himself he was pulled. As if the light was growing brighter the further he pulled from the red of his eyelids.


    In the outside world only moments had passed, but it felt like hours to Jake. The further he pushed, the harder it was to go further. After a while his conscious was quivering under the strain. It was like pushing a cemented block from a wall, trying to push past and grind it to dust at the same time.


    This is what image he could only describe as when he was fighting his way inwardly. It now felt as if a day had past, but finally he felt a jolt, as if a rock had come lose in a river. Continuing to push, the barrier moved again. Each time it felt like his conscience flowed in around the brick to flow and push on more sides.


    After further struggles and many jolts the brick felt like it blew apart into dust and debris dissolved immediately. The pressure he used to get through launched him inward and he was almost blinded by the light. A light so divine, so colorful, and so active he felt he would shiver at the sight if he saw in person.


    A rotating mass of colors jumped and slashed about as if a beast had it by the tail. It was chaotic to say the least and how felt small in comparison. If he was his normal size, the mass felt like it was ten feet in diameter. But he felt a connection to this beast.


    It was as if this were another limb of his, a long lost one yes, but still part of him. Slowly I reached out to touch a fluorescent red vein drifting past. It was one of the calmest in this vortex, so it seemed the easiest to tame.


    As soon as he touched it, the whole mass went mad. It was like his own body were fighting back against himself. But that was wrong right? His body couldn¡¯t fight HIM! Anger roiled out across his being and the vortex seemed to quiver.


    Yes, that was it! He could tame this beast, it just needed to know who was boss. But he didn¡¯t want it to be scared of him, his power was himself and he didn¡¯t want himself fearing himself right? It felt wrong¡­ reaching out he gave off the feeling of regret and soothing feelings. He tried to convey his feelings across the connection, as if he were simply thinking to himself.


    The effects were almost immediate, seeing as the swirling mass suddenly jolted in surprise from this change. It acted almost surprised, as if it expected to be beaten into submission.


    Like a small animal needing food, it seemed to creep towards his hand. Like he had an especially enticing snack. A strand from each color reached out to caress him, as he had them just before. It was like they were trying to emulate his emotions.


    They just sat there for a while as if they couldn¡¯t get enough of each other, just looking and feeling everywhere. It was now minutes in the real world, and his breathing had slowed down so much he looked like a statue. A few drops of sweat dripped from his hair line falling into his lap. All the kids on his side of the class were staring at him like he were emitting gas loudly while in bed with them.


    Back in his mind the swirling vortex had calmed to a smooth flow. He was just observing this when he thought ¡°I am one with the mana, and the mana is one with me?¡± This was when the mana truly accepted him, giving up itself to his full use, to his whims and needs. They were now one and nothing could get in-between them.


    At that time it felt like a revelation as knowledge flooded him. It was all the mana¡¯s knowledge of who, what, and where it was. He now could feel the meridians where they connected to his conscience, and the man flowed towards him like a wave on a full moon.


    He did not feel troubled though, as it simply formed a bubble around him. I watched in amazement as the vortex spun around me like I was the sun. But it was too chaotic, too mixed and incoherent.


    In an epiphany I willed the mana around, as easy as parting a flow with my hands I pushed and pulled it to my needs.


    As it were, all the colors were fragmented and moving in different directions. Grabbing hold of the blue mane, I pushed it into one corner and let it merge together. Doing the same for all of them I was suddenly left with singular orbs floating about erratically moving about. So I payed closer attention to the direction each fragment wished to move, and found which ones fit together almost like they fit. As it turns out, there was two groups for each. Both moved in opposite directions. As soon as I did this there as even more to control, but it seemed right the way it was.


    I couldn¡¯t have it all wandering off into the seemingly abyss, so I willed it into long ribbons and set them in tracks running next to each other. Twisted together for more organized access to single streams.


    Doing this for all of the mana I looked like an atom with long ribbons at a complete standstill simply twisting rapidly like a DNA ladder. These ladders always shifted of moved though, as if they were repositioning themselves until they were comfy before stopping for a while.


    It was beautiful, and I could feel the ribbons flowing out and in from my meridians slowly converting the whole flow into the same simple, organized system to be used.


    Using the knowledge from the mana I knew the mana was in my head, physically it was currently manifested as a small round crystal node in his brain.


    While odd, the flow was strong and he could feel more now than he ever could. Like his mind had been fragmented, only able to concentrate on one body part at once. Now he could feel everything, and at the moment someone was poking him.


    Dammit, can¡¯t a guy revel in his greatest achievement of his life? Evidently not because as he came back to his senses an ugly orcs face was inches from his own. ¡°See I told you he was stupid, just like all humans. He just aint got a knack for it, they¡¯re too stupid to understand magic!¡± Noajin was standing in front of me knelt down with a stupid look on his face, as if Jake had bad breath. Oh wait, he probably did¡­oops? Was it bad to wanna laugh?

 Crazy Plant Lady

    Crazy Plant Lady


    ¡°Erm, sir what are you doing?¡± The previously smug orc jumped at my comment. I was squinting at the light shining in my eyes from the window, so he probably thought I was still meditating.


    *Cough grumble ¡°Humph, so he lives after all. See, I told ya he wasn¡¯t dead. As for you, you¡¯re a complete idiot.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean? Wasn¡¯t I supposed to find my mana and calm it?¡±


    ¡°Ha! Like you could do that without help! No one gets it on their first try, especially not a human. Now the orcs over there, they almost got it done in under an hour. Heck, those elves are just now finishing up. Don¡¯t tell ME, that a human is good at all. Next time you lie about harnessing your power in my class, this won¡¯t be your class got it!¡± Standing up, the orc went to walk to his desk.


    ¡°Come! You must have a humongous backlash from failing so hard to calm the flows. Here, use this regeneration potion so you can try again. Bintar, come here. For calming your mana the most today you receive a full gold. Tomorrow I expect full control though, got it!¡±


    ¡°Yes sir, I will control the mana fully by tomorrow.¡± At that a huge orc walked up beside me and collected his unjust bounty. It was obvious I was the most in control, but the teacher was playing favorites for sure.


    He handed me a small flask made of copper which I promptly took and walked back to my corner observing.


    I wasn¡¯t even sure this wasn¡¯t poison, so I just stuffed it into my pocket after acting like I took a drink.


    Of course, the teacher was engrossed in talking with the orc students. After all, he couldn¡¯t have a young HUMAN overtake his Orcish students in magic manipulation.


    Most humans didn¡¯t have magic control in prior lives, while most other species had an innate ability for it. He was hoping the humans would fail out actually. Aggravated, he sat at his desk to put notes together for his Orcish students.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Of course, I had already achieved success in finding my mana. Some other smarter students actually approached him secretly and asked for some tips. It was quite obvious to those from worlds previously with magic, just how successful Jake had been.


    If he had failed, he would¡¯ve had a massive headache. The students smart enough to speak with him left with puzzled looks and notes displaying what he had done, imagined, achieved, and how it was done.


    Over the class period another boy and three girls broke through and controlled their magic. Many others found it but failed. Still, this was further than the orc had gotten them. Soon enough the whole class would get the procedure down pat he thought.


    I didn¡¯t have much to do, but class only went on for another thirty minutes. When the bell rang he sat back waiting for everyone else to leave before departing. No more stair incidents for that day, or that was what he was hoping for.


    True to his desires, he made it to his next class without incident. This one was up another floor. Entering in high hopes his mood was slightly dampened upon seeing the teacher once again. The lady had twigs and sticks poking out of her hair, and her clothes were covered in green burn marks.


    Taking my customary seat, as far from the front as possible, I waited to see just how crazy this class was going to be.


    ¡°¡¯Ello students, my name is Ms. Maquin welcome to alchemy. In the next few days, you will learn to harvest soochrum leaf, antler rose, and many binding components for to create minor stamina, minor mana restoration, and minor healing potions.


    At the end of the class you will have the option to buy a simple alchemy kit, so don¡¯t worry right now. Now if this is the entire class, I would like you to each receive your introductory books to plant, animal, and mineral identification. If you do well, I will offer you a bonus recipe book. Come now hurry up.¡±


    I hurried to the line making it about half way to the front. I could see some crappier books missing pages, so I wanted a good copy. When I reached the front I didn¡¯t rush by after picking a random book. After 30 seconds and a couple of shoves from behind I found a decent book containing all the original contents.


    Of course, the ones who rushed were now giving me the stink eye for their stupidity. No matter, I wasn¡¯t going to flunk out because I was missing the instructions.


    ¡°Unless you receive the recipe book at the end of the week, you will need to return these books unless you would like to owe me money. Each book is worth five gold, so don¡¯t rip ¡®em up like my last class. You¡¯ll still owe me if it¡¯s damaged more, and trust me I know how bad each one is.¡±


    Of course, she gave us a scary look making her eyes squint as she stared all of us down.


    ¡°Now, if you will turn to page sixteen please?¡± The class went by smoothly despite her antics and evil glare. AS it turns out, the orange spotted viper sapling behind her desk was to blame for the green burn marks and twigs in her hair.


    One poor guy tried taking a leaf to examine and the trunk opened up before roots shot acid at him. He almost lost his hand! Thankfully there were plenty of healing potions and chemical wash basins located in the room. For good reason I¡¯d say. I laughed when a blue hemp leaf latched onto one of the orcs faces though. I think he actually respects our teachers¡¯ bravery now despite her being human.


    I on the other hand kept careful notes from the BACK of the crowd during demonstrations and lessons. The antler rose looked pretty scary. It had thorns which could move slowly and grab your hand unless you severed the rose bud fast enough. Did I mention you had to reach inside to get the bud?


    The dang teacher actually let a few students get caught before explaining a set of forcep like tools was typically used. Also, the bud may be for healing, but the thorns are practically deadly. The poison stops clotting, so you have to use a healing powder to stop the flow directly. If you don¡¯t stop the flow, you¡¯ll bleed out. Stupid psychopath lady actually smiled as the kids yelped in pain¡­ Better them than me I always say!


    By the time class was over, I was convinced I should just privately study for the tests. We all received some samples, gathering tools, vials, and a mana Bunsen burner with a few glass beakers. I didn¡¯t really trust the other students with stuff like this, but I guess it¡¯s their pockets paying if it¡¯s damaged at all. Of course, the books she lent us had all the information and more than we actually needed for the lessons that week. But I¡¯m not complaining.


    While some kids looked at pictures or man-eating flytraps, I was busy reading through the animals and minerals section familiarizing myself with the most valuable and or dangerous things to watch out for. I wasn¡¯t going to die from wiping my behind with a poisonous leaf while on a hike near town.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    After agonizing and cringing at descriptions of plants for over two hours it was finally lunch time.


    Of course normal classes were shorter and more plentiful, but this was the simple training for survival. After a blissfully boring lunch of some sort of fish and chips I made my way up to the top floors of the building for the rest of the day. I ended up in a simple survival class teaching you about tents, fire-starting and the hunting and gathering of simple foods. The class was run by a group of senior students, but we all got another pamphlet skimming over simple survival tactics.


    Put shortly the day was pretty boring until our last period. This was actually held inside in the arena we sat around the first day for the speaker.


    ¡°Welcome to combat class! Listen up or die later you runts. The names Kane and today you will watch a few demonstrations from some of my senior student¡¯s. Afterward you will pick one of these weapons used as a main weapon to train in this week. Don¡¯t pick something stupid, pick something YOU think you can actually use. BEGIN!¡±


    As soon as he said that three archers stepped out from one side of the arena. *PING! They all fired off using a few different bows shooting a target which in turn moved and they were forced to fir off more shots to steady the dummy before shooting again and again until they missed the moving targets.


    The speed was incredible and some shots were imbued with fire of ice near the end for speed or sowing effects on the target.


    I was amazed by the skills shown in the short time frame, then they all ran in a circle shooting a flipping target which in turn spun until they missed. Add in obstacles and I was sitting wide-eyed as they fired away.


    After the bow demonstration a few skirmishes using varied swords including the rapier, long, and short swords took place. Same thing happened with and without shields with them imbuing minor enchants into their weapons as the fights progressed. On a few occasions the students were actually hurt and carried off on stretchers to an infirmary.


    There was a LOT of blood, like you would not believe. I was interested up until the orcs started a death chant for one opponent¡­guess my decisions made! The elves were staring at the orcs like they wanted to gouge out some eyes. A bunch of them seemed to lose interest after the bow demonstration so it was pretty safe to say a lot of those were gonna go for bow training.


    Well, they¡¯ll probably show me up but whatever. At least I¡¯ll have some backers who hate orcs as well. Besides, everyone has to learn the dagger anyway since we all received one.


    Of course I wouldn¡¯t be showing up for the sparring days¡­ I¡¯m not chicken, I just don¡¯t have a death wish! Anyway, I already know a little about archery from bow hunting back on earth in the good ¡®ol days.


    I¡¯m probably a little rusty, but then again I should just find out what a fireball takes¡­ ya that sounds smarter. Or maybe something NOT involving putting my life in peril. Like construction or crafting, heck at the rate injuries come in a healer job sounds kind of lucrative!


    After a few more demonstrations including halberds, spears, axes and tridents the fighting was finally over. Looking up from my notes the class was talking excitedly as they lined up for equipment rentals and signups.


    Technically the class was a sparring and self taught thing, but the teachers would wander around giving tips and examples. In this way you actually remembered the forms and steps involved since it was your own doing half the time.


    They just gave you the framework for your own work. Of course you could watch the teachers spar too and learn something, but I didn¡¯t think archery needed too much demonstration. More so just instructions than anything else. Although the imbuing process could be a problem at some point.


    Lining up near the end we slowly got equipped. When it came my turn he asked my name and weapon of choice. I repeated archery to him and moved on to some helpers checking out the equipment.


    There wasn¡¯t much left, but I easily found a simple enough bow. There were more elaborately designed bows, but most were riddled with cracks or simply looked cumbersome. I settled for a tough, yet supple recurve made of a hickory looking wood. They all had prices over ten gold, but whatever. I then checked out a bundle of arrows which were actually given to me free of charge.


    Of course a lot of the humans chose huge cumbersome weapons, while few chose bows or tomahawks. Most of us smarter people consisted of woman, but meh. When my life¡¯s on the line at least I won¡¯t have as many issues finding the cuter girls.


    As I checked out they also handed me a free bowstring. Evidently my bow wasn¡¯t as ¡®adequate¡¯ as the others they said. I just chuckled and moved on, if they were giving stuff away why not?


    After everyone was settled they told us the times the practice fields were open between classes. The archers were all lined up across one wall while the others all got a crash course on hand to hand and melee.


    I was already appreciating my intelligent decision when they told us to fire at will until the whistle was blown to retrieve arrows. At first, I couldn¡¯t hit the straw dummy at all. But as I started into my third round I just stood trying to remember my lessons from my father.


    Hand down, index and thumb touching, loose grip, push bow out, breath in, aim, breath out half way¡­ fire¡­ follow through and watch arrow¡­ let bow stay loose in grip¡­ watch arrow until impact. *Thunk! ¡°Yes, woohoo that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about!¡± I accidentally let out a girlish whoop of delight as I see my arrow pierce the dummy in the groin. Doing a little victory jig I am stopped by a look from the students and teacher. ¡°Sorry¡­ won¡¯t do it again.¡± I think I¡¯ve just lost my chances with most of the girls here¡­ I hear giggling all the way down the line as everyone watches my antics.


    Face still beat red, I g back to shooting slowly. I hit the target more or less the rest of the day by going through the steps. Heck, by the end I¡¯m hitting body mass at the 40 yard mark, so it could be said I still got it.


    Of course, all the others do better than me. The elves especially do great, at least as good as their bows allowed them. They went for the fanciest ones available, so at least I think my eyes better when it comes to quality.


    By the end I¡¯m sweaty and am forced up to the showers. The others are so tired they don¡¯t even make fun of me from today, woopy! After a brief dinner I head to bed. Surprisingly, experiencing multiple dangers in one day AND falling down a flight of stairs will make you really tired.


    Crap! I forgot to ask about the runes. Oh wait, I have Noajin. Maybe I can ask a senior or other teacher?


    (A.N: One or two more chapters coming later today, hope ya like it! If you see any issues, please comment, I read them all.)

 Killer healing spell

    Killer Healing Spell


    Waking up in the morning, I head to class on time after I grab a weird sweet roll and fruit juice. Honestly, the only reason I¡¯m even going to class is to make sure Noajin doesn¡¯t kill a student or kick someone before learning the basics. I¡¯m pretty confident he won¡¯t teach us much useful information anyway, until you sign up for a semester that is at least. But the basics could still come in handy.


    Of course I was made to sit to the side just practicing speeding up and slowing my mana. I like my method better than the orcs. He uses brute force and imagery. I use imagery to visit my internal mana yes, but to control flow I just speed up the DNA ladders at certain points along my body using thoughts on an instinctive level now. I don¡¯t waste as much mana either since I don¡¯t use the whole meridian.


    Unlike Noajin¡¯s theory, I feel the mana in all of my being not just my head. My head is kind of the area it is ¡®stored¡¯ and interacted with, but it¡¯s just the representation of you as a whole. That¡¯s why I imagine myself standing in the middle of the nucleus. I could reach for a mana flow from any point of my body that way.


    Getting bored I decided to try something a little different. By this point his notes were evenly distributed to anyone but the orcs, so he didn¡¯t have anything to do.


    Anyway, he had his cloak on, so he leaned forward so he could look inside while blocking the outside from sight. Pushing his hands in form the sides, he decided to do a little experimentation.


    Letting mana flow freely in the palm of his hand a faint light shown about enough to see. Opening his notebook, he turned to the first chapters of his notes.


    Of course he read through everything again, but it was pretty much memorized. Pushing more mana into his hand he first formed a circle. Then he drew the few runes in the center forming the semi-complex series of runes he¡¯d seen before used on the heal spell.


    After he was satisfied with the results, he let the mana flow freely through the runes in a counterclockwise rotation from the outside of the circle. The extra mana circled off back into himself and the mana required was pulled away from his hand forming a tall pyramid that steadily grew.


    He just sat in amazement as the red and pink flows converged at the tip to form a small white globe. It was mesmerizing, and everything looked right? Yes, he thought so¡­ Slowly reaching over he brought the globe to his blistered left hand from his bow practice.


    Then he almost lost his concentration as his mana creating emitted a light whoosh and flared before dimming enough to see. His cloak was still held under his feet but now a steady stream of hot air was rushing was his face making his hood billow a little from the outside.


    On the inside of his cloak a mini battle for control was going on. The pyramid swished from side to side leaving afterimages as the mana speed increased. The runes shown a slight blue near the center of the lines now.


    He could feel the raw mana boosting the effects but he felt as if something were missing. The blisters were gone now, but his hands still seemed imperfect. In fact, his whole body seemed flawed everywhere.


    On instinct he added flesh magic to the stream of mana and the flow orb emitted a small burst of energy from the quick change¡­ That¡¯s it, he needed slower changes, and less rushing meant more efficiency.


    At this point a few others felt the miniscule airflow and shockwave emit from his body. Thankfully they just acted nonchalant, but they watched his still form as his cloak was now clearly rippling slowly.


    The new wave of mana seemed to soak into his body easily, too easily. It needed a direct purpose¡­ Again he felt a tug of instinct and formed some swirling patterns resembling a seeds growth from birth to tree. This pattern repeated slowly as another series formed shaping into a leaf floating and falling slowly.


    Suddenly green formed and two more beams formed to steady the flow. At the same time a surge of purpose drive like a hammer twice more creating small shockwaves. This time it sounded like a couple of sticks snapping fast.


    The new runes gave purpose to the body/restoration part of his spell adding a growth, strength, light, and nature element to his spell.


    Now his internal battery felt slightly depleted by at least a quarter. The group paying attention still hadn¡¯t reached the teacher, but the gusts were like that of a stormy day now. His cloak bulged out only held taught by the man inside.


    As the spell crept up the power lines another clap was heard just as loud and as soon as it connected a sound like a blow torch emitted from his hands.


    His spell immediately shot off from the point of contact creating ribbons flowing over his skin forming a complete layer.


    Now a feeling of euphoria enveloped his whole being. As if he were witnessing and feeling all forms of enlightenment, joy, and healing at once. It was fantastic to the point he was in complete bliss.


    The currents changed his pale skin a light golden with a slight tint of green and his irises slowly turned emerald green as a slight trace of gold surface forming a star shape too thin to see unless mere feet away. The gold was as bright and true to name as possible though. Almost glowing you could say.


    HE felt his body as is stretched and tore repairing itself in places while absorbing other areas. Small unrefined muscle became ropey and taught. Tendons became flexible yet held elasticity. His hair turned a shad of light blond with a depth of darkness to it.


    His ears refined themselves to become for efficient with only a slight point as the tips leaned back further. His face became more symmetrical and clean. His teeth once crooked snapped into place and became white as pearls.


    His bones structure completely changed. He was now exactly six feet tall, with an average shoulder width. His meridians seemed to expand though, as if they were pencil thin instead of needle thin now.


    Even his ¡®parts¡¯ were refined and perfectly symmetrical. His bones were denser, yet they held less space than before allowing more flesh to take over. At this point his mana was running low at a quarter his original amount.


    With one last push he cleansed his bodily organs and added more binding muscle and strength to his heart. His lungs cells worked way better now at peak efficiency.


    Finally done, he let the spell diminish and fell over backwards breathing hard. Not because he was in pain or from a backlash, but because he could breathe! Not that old thing he did, but actually breathe. His body felt so refreshed, he could feel everything more clearly. And the colors! By gods he felt blind for the first part of his life!


    Unfortunately the smell in the room became more saline and sweaty smelling, but now his lungs felt like they had actually done something. They were so efficient in fact, that he didn¡¯t really breathe a breath for a whole 7-8 seconds. Not only that, but his heart! By the gods his heart beat so hard and strong you might see his veins bulge under the stress each time it pumped. And to him he could clearly hear it if he listened carefully.


    He went to sit up and rocketed to his feet actually hopping a little. Stumbling forward he held onto the window sill and looked outside.


    Wow¡­ The view was spectacular. He could see individual clouds drifting past and he could spot single herbs on ground level. It was at this point that he threw up. It was to be expected though. There were some things in the body that just weren¡¯t worth the energy to convert to mana. So his system put an auto eject button in.


    After ridding himself of his breakfast, he turned around to find his half of the class staring at him. He hadn¡¯t realized he looked that much different at that point, but the woman sure had.


    The men were even struck by his appearance. Not with appreciation, that would be weird. But with envy and in some case slight cases of animosity emanated from them. The overall effect was more surprise than anything though.


    Suddenly he didn¡¯t feel so well after throwing up. The fatigue from the bodily stress caught up with him and he just about collapsed before a couple students caught hold of his shoulders.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    He reached down and grabbed his stuff before taking another step at which point he heard the teacher turn around saying ¡°What ¡®av you done this time maggot!¡± before he actually did black out.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    [Female voice] ¡°What is it this time?¡±


    [Noajin] ¡°Not sure dammit! One moment I¡¯m teaching the orcs, the next I turn around this scum decides he wants to test magic on himself. I hear him vomit out the window, and turn around next he¡¯s being held by his classmates.


    [Female voice] ¡°Do you have any idea what he cast?¡±


    [Noajin] ¡°Do I look like I know what he did, he probably backlashed himself¡­ You know I could have sworn these stupid humans looked uglier. Ah, I¡¯m just getting used to ¡®em.¡±


    [Females voice] ¡°You don¡¯t even know what your students look like! What if a fire drill happened? So in other words you¡¯ve no idea what he did.¡±


    [Noajin] ¡°Ahhh shut up Lin! Like you know all your students by the second day either!¡±


    [Lin] ¡°Excuse me! I will have you know-


    [Noajin] ¡°Ah! I think he¡¯s moving.¡±


    [Lin] ¡°Oh you¡¯re just escaping persecution you shit! Oh, he is actually moving¡­ That doesn¡¯t change anything, you were still in the wrong.¡±


    Aaaaand¡­ I¡¯ve heard enough. As nice as it is to hear Noajin cussed out, I¡¯d rather have my peace. Well, here goes nothing¡­ ¡°Shut up! Can¡¯t a man sleep around here without two people arguing over my body?!¡±


    My eyes snapped open and I sat up slowly as the two looked down at me skeptically.


    A young elven woman in her thirties looked down at me like I stepped on a bug and ate it. A bug the size of a shoe¡­ and Noajin looks kind of angry like expected.


    After thoroughly enjoying the scene I turned to exit the stretcher style bed. At some point someone took my clothes in exchange for some breezy blue robes.


    ¡°How long was I out?¡±


    ¡°A day almost exactly.¡± Lin responds kindly after recovering herself. ¡°Young man, what were you expecting to happen yesterday? Casting a high level spell and failing is liable to kill you. You seem luckily healthy, otherwise we would¡¯ve needed to do extensive healing on you.¡±


    ¡°Erm¡­ I just did a heal spell.¡± The two look at me quizzically before I respond exasperatedly.


    ¡°Oh come on, it even worked. I used to be covered in bruises from a trip down the stairs. You¡¯ve obviously seen my body enough to know I am perfectly fine. I just did too much at once¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ohhh, that does make sense. I had no idea Noajin was teaching those rank spells, I guess he¡¯s not as stingy anymore.¡± She looks relieved before I scold her and the teacher to be sure they don¡¯t misinterpret.


    ¡°No, I learned that on my own after watching a girl healed by another teacher in the cafeteria. Noajin hasn¡¯t taught me crap! Just yesterday he refused to admit I was the first to unlock and fully control my mana even, then rubbed it in my face rewarding some orc who didn¡¯t even finish the control of his mana!¡±


    ¡°Like hell I didn¡¯t teach you that! Of course it was me, who else would tell you. You can¡¯t learn from watching, that¡¯s preposterous. He¡¯s just trying to take my credit!¡± Of course as predicted the stupid green man interjects directly after me, trying to pull up his reputation.


    ¡°Excuse me! Of course you can learn from watching. Just watch the mana flows, then replicate it to your liking. Heck, if you can name my other spell and describe it to me I learned from the cafeteria, you can have the credit though¡­¡±


    ¡°Other spell? Err *cough. I mean ya, the other spell¡­ of course its minor flame conjuration. You learned it to heat stuff up¡­ yep, see I was right like always. Didn¡¯t anyone tell you not to bet with an orc, hahaha?¡±


    ¡°Not so fast slime! Bring me my stuff if you would please¡­¡± The woman laft for a moment as me and Noajin stared each other down. Really, I¡¯m pretty sure I could see killing intent coming off him in waves. Finally Lin stepped inside with all my gear, freshly cleaned and folded. I dug into my pack as she set it on my lap.


    Of course my stuff was on top, so I quickly pulled out my writing feather and ink along with my notebook.


    ¡°This here is the healing spell. As you can see, it is very basic. This here is a light spell. I¡¯m not really sure what its purpose was, but the girl who used it lost control blowing up her meal, directly into her friend. When emitted it is white and gives off a slight glow.¡±


    ¡°Oh that girl? Ya we had one in a while ago for a backlash. Pretty common from these young folks.


    Noajin¡¯s eyes were bulging out of his head like a frog at this point. ¡°W-What the hell! He immediately rips the book from my hands before reading my descriptions and data collected. I immediately rip it back and calmly start adding the two runes I learned under a new page labeled Modifiers.


    I take my time as the others absorb what just happened before I try speaking. Noajin looks like he just swallowed a bowling ball as he¡¯s bent over seemingly in pain.


    ¡°Erm, now down to business. Can I keep the robe? Also, I believe Noajin owes me something. Heck, if he would have been teaching me I wouldn¡¯t have tested anything.¡± Lin raises an eyebrow at this before I add more. ¡°Also, he just tried discrediting me and lied about teaching me anything yet. He was gonna wait five days until he taught me anything else, and even then anyone who hadn¡¯t unlocked their mana was going to be kicked out. I think¡­ ten gold should be about right?¡±


    Noajin is busy falling over as Lin just gives me a skeptical look before talking. ¡°I know this is all inconvenient and all, but wouldn¡¯t you rather move on and all? I mean, ten old is a hefty lump for a freshy. Maybe next time you show us something impressive we can make a deal?¡±


    ¡°Huh, just as I thought. A bunch of penny pinching jerks. Fine, you may observe my last two runes for a moment. They basically stand for grow and improve naturally. Though I believe context of use is important, when used for other types of spells.¡±


    Lin Blanches at the fine detailed artwork which actually gives off a slight glow from the page where drawn. As a test I added mana to my ink when drawing and as a result they both move like they do when used. As a precaution I drew the regular runes first so I could draw the original print without it moving around on me.


    ¡°H-How¡­Who taught you this. You aren¡¯t supposed to know this until you join a real class for a semester! When I find this student they will be punished directly! Tell me, who told you of this.¡±


    ¡°Ma-am, with all due respect, this was all my curiosity and idea. As for the runes, they just kind of came to me when I was testing. Like instinct I guess. Now, since you forced me to show you twice as much, you now owe me 25 gold. I will be going to the cafeteria soon, so hurry up.¡±


    I scowled at her the best I could and sat on the edge of the bed simply observing my handy work, before adding the active runes for the heal spell which played from beginning to end repetitively forming the triangle and globe before restarting.


    ¡°Uhhh¡­ I¡¯m sorry sir, but I don¡¯t think we can do that.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ well I guess I¡¯ll just have to report what went on to your superiors¡­¡±


    ¡°N-No! I mean, that¡¯s not an issue at all. Is it an issue Noajin?¡± He moaned a little on the ground before Lin left after hauling Noajin to his feet and out the doorway.


    A moment later she came back in with a smile and handed me a coin purse containing 25 gold coins as large as a quarter in dimensions each. I smiled and thanked her but before she left she turned back around to speak.


    ¡°He had it coming, don¡¯t worry that¡¯s only a day¡¯s wages for him anyhow. Good luck with your practice in the future. Just don¡¯t overdo it.¡± I simply smiled and waved as she left me.

 The One-Sided Fight

    The One-Sided fight


    Well, time for lunch! I got up in a hurry feeling lighter and better than ever. My body felt great, and even my mana seemed to run smoother in my new body.


    I stuffed the gold in the bottom of my sack making sure it wouldn¡¯t rattle at all before getting dressed. They didn¡¯t say anything regarding the Robe, so I kept it. It was really soft despite the breeze, and I could use it between the showers and my room.


    As I left the room in my clean clothes, I made a pit stop at a bathroom. OF course, it was basically just to check myself in the mirror.


    I didn¡¯t look that different than before. My teeth were clean and straight, and my eyes were brighter, but I was still myself. My skin was a little odd since I wasn¡¯t used to the color, but it wasn¡¯t a tan. It was a more flawless creamy white with a slight golden tint to it.


    Before I had been about as average as possible. Almost invisible in a crowd, since I just wasn¡¯t noticeable. Now though, I had lean rippling muscle, and a more refined look about me. I suppose if I kept my head down a little I could still pass fairly unnoticeably with my cloak.


    But wow, who knew a heal spell could do just this much. Even now he could feel the potential changes he could still do. In the future he would try keeping it internal though. He wasn¡¯t necessarily looking for attention. After all, he still had to beat the other kids for a job offer. Which might be harder after threatening a teacher¡­ what¡¯s done was done though.


    Moving on, he walked out the infirmary following arrows on the walls until he exited around the second floor stairwell.


    Moving back down stairs, he decided to visit the city for lunch. Screw these classes, he might visit the archery classes later for more practice though.


    Exiting the building carrying his pack, he made his way down the market district. It was rather loud and people pushed and jostled about as little kids ran around your knees. I even saw a teen nick some coins out of a guy¡¯s pocket.  I guess they should¡¯ve hid their money better.


    A little happy from the current events I stopped at an outdoor restaurant serving a spicy skewer with some sort of meat and purple vegetables with a sweet flavor.


    After I sat down with my meal, I finished up in under two minutes so I got another large skewer with a barbeque flavor. The local fauna might bite back, but man did it taste good!


    Sitting back with a full belly I pulled out some of my books. The restaurant wasn¡¯t overly busy, and I still wanted to learn a few things today after all.


    Starting in on the journal, I noted the price I shared the information for and my reasons, just in case I needed to remember for taxes or something. Not like I¡¯d actually pay taxes for extortion, but recording stuff has kind of become a habit.


    Actually, now that he noticed he was running low on paper for notes. If he kept adding more and more to the current notebook, there wouldn¡¯t be any information blocks. Just a bunch of random stuff. He needed to stay more organized, and didn¡¯t the teachers want their books back for the most part?


    Well it¡¯s settled then, he would find a shop selling supplies. With that he tucked the notebook away and headed off further into the hustle and bustle.


    You wouldn¡¯t think paper was that hard to find, but every time he found something resembling what he needed the hop owners tried selling their other wares pushing it into my face. I wondered if they knew they were pushing a shopper out of a purchase.


    I was just about to try later when I exited the previously crowded streets and entered a road seemingly four wagons wide. On either side there were glass fronts and slow foot traffic milling about leisurely. I guess this was the wealthy shopping district?


    Well no matter, writing supplies couldn¡¯t be that different here right? Finally free of the crowds I walked comfortably along window shopping for a while until I found something that looked like a general goods store.


    Upon entering a small bell chimed but the clerk didn¡¯t simply glanced up from their newspaper, then went back to whatever they were reading. Kind of rude if you ask me, but then again I was wearing lower class clothing and I did just fight through throngs of crowds before getting here. So I guess it was ok that I wasn¡¯t swamped by merchants and such for once.


    Moving along I perused the shelves quickly coming to the paper, ink, quills, and books. I wanted something to last a while and I wanted to be sure I wouldn¡¯t be snubbed buying something too fancy which would break immediately.


    I grabbed some loose paper in a folder to practice my drawing skills and general class notes. That done I grabbed a small wood box with slots for multiple different ink types to be stored. It currently had full containers of black, red, green, and blue. This seemed like more than enough for his purposes. It was mostly useful because it had a few nicer quills stored in the top of the lid for easy access.


    Finally I started perusing the bound books. There were actually a few textbooks on the shelf, but I couldn¡¯t look at them because they were behind locked glass.


    I couldn¡¯t believe how many things there were, from blacksmithing all the way to agriculture. They definitely had a good variety. The only issue was, everything cost like five gold each! Even a blank book was a whole gold piece.


    The ink and lose leaf only cost 1 gold two silver. The currency ran 100 copper = 1 silver, 10 silver = 1 gold, 100 gold = 1 platinum, and there were many other high up currency but those were usually kept in treasuries.


    Anyway the point is, why are things so much more expensive after you add a binding? I couldn¡¯t really investigate everything, since there was just too much that cost too much. I was looking thought the magic books when I heard a gravelly voice beside me.


    [Male clerk] ¡°Young man, may I help you? Surely what you have already is pushing your budget?¡± By the gods, this had to be the oldest person I had met here so far. I wonder if he just can¡¯t afford healing potions, and who is he to suggest I am too impoverished to shop in a general store?!


    ¡°Actually, Could you open this case for me? I would like to check the merchandise for a purchase.¡± I think his eyes twitching a little¡­ Did I say something wrong?


    [Male clerk] Of couse he couldn¡¯t just walk away, but he grudgingly opened the case with a scowl on his face. ¡°Better not try any funny business, and no reading any of it. Ya gotta pay for it first.¡±


    I thanked him but he just stood there all crotchety like I stepped on his foot. I quickly turned to the case and scanned for the products I was interested in. I quickly found a thick green empty tome with a latch and key on the side covered in a reptilian hide. The book was at least six hundred pages judging from the thickness. I¡¯m pretty sure it was ten gold because it had a large round piece of amber inlayed in the front.


    It was expensive, but I was going to use it as my spell book in the future. I also picked out four smaller green leather bound books about two hundred pages thick. These were to copy the class books into for my own use after this week. They were 1 gold each, but they weren¡¯t anything special.


    Finally finished shopping I stood up with the books in hand. After fishing the gold out of my bag the man closed the case and left back to the counter to store his new funds. I think he was pretty surprised when I actually handed it over to him. He was probably ready to call me a thief or liar.


    Still though, I wasn¡¯t done shopping yet. I went over to a rack stacked with clothing items and other wearable items. I looked for about thirty minutes before I found what I was interested in. I wasn¡¯t necessarily looking for the clothes themselves, but something to repair the ones he had when needed.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I found a spool of thick corded cotton-like material, and a small leather folding kit with some tweezers and a small selection of needles ranging up to four inches long. It would run a whole whopping 3 silvers. I considered it a steal really, considering how thin the metal work was.


    I paid at the desk and left a somewhat confused, but nonetheless happy man behind. I decided to cut my spree short and head back to the academy. That was what the tower was, as far as I knew.


    The crowds were just as bad, but I hustled my way through with better efficiency than before, seeing as I wasn¡¯t shopping anymore.


    I arrived at the dining hall just as dinner was being served. A soup it seemed today, the bread was the highlight though having a cheesy layer. Completely stuffed, I made my way up towards my room to unload my stuff.


    I had basically been carrying everything I started with in my pack, since I wanted to know what things to look for and compare prices and such.


    When I arrived in my hall, there was a very minimal traffic going back and forth. What I do know is none of it was good, hence why I got my key out to run for my door. Of course nothing ever works out the way you plan.


    As you could probably guess, the Orcish group must not have been happy for about me extorting money from their idol. Looking back on what I did, I should¡¯ve turned tail and ran back down the staircase. I am not the smartest person though.


    The orcs, as it turns out are very fast and they were all currently in possession of some dangerously large maces. It didn¡¯t take me long to reach my room, but they were on me like flies on shit I tell you.


    I had just inserted the key when I felt a vice-like grip wrench me from the door. I don¡¯t know what kind of training they were doing, but it wasn¡¯t the gentle kind.


    I was still carrying my slim pack so the impact on the floor when he threw me ten yards into the wall was only slightly dampened by all my books. Of course, the asses they were I wasn¡¯t given a chance to get up.


    The largest one from the group knelt on my chest eliciting a slight crackling noise from my ribs. Then he laughed! Jerk number one then pulled a dagger from behind himself and placed the tip on my left shoulder. The thin leather padding didn¡¯t do much to resist and he plunged the whole thing in between the joint popping and cutting as my arm lost any ability to move.


    The pain was incredible, and I¡¯m sure I would¡¯ve passed out if they didn¡¯t slamming their clubs into my legs. Each one progressively hurt worse, as the bones splintered and cracked. My kneecaps were practically gone after a whole minute of this.


    Then they all took turns spitting in my face as I suffered for breath. I was completely helpless now. They were just too big, like big green statues come to life. I could feel three ribs at least snapped off as orc number one pushed himself off of me to stand.


    Now my right lung was filling with fluids through a puncture going all the way through. They all laughed like maniacs as they bragged about who did the most damage.


    Then just like nothing happened, despite the blood spattered around nearby, the first orc simply wrenched his serrated dagger from my wound and they all walked off. Not even a glance back, I think it might have even been an insult considering I felt I was worth thinking about at least.


    I simply laid there until a gaggle of girls came up the stairs, of course they screeched like any horror movie I could remember. But, unlike the movies where they suddenly admit their love to you or cry over your body, these girls ran PAST me and didn¡¯t stop until they reached their rooms.


    I guess, considering it was kill or be killed, this was to be expected. Also, they probably didn¡¯t wanna end up like me, the smear on the wall. I wasn¡¯t having a good time, which was for sure. At least I still had money¡­ for a short time I guess.


    Oh pretty colors¡­ wait! Don¡¯t pass out, I¡¯m gonna die! Wait, yes if I can heal the lung and open wounds, maybe I can wait until someone comes along that actually helps others.


    With that I concentrated inwardly looking at my body like a 3d hologram. The damage came up as a red light, and I looked like a Christmas tree. Well time to get to work. I memorized the locations needing the spell most and opened my eyes while collecting mana in my hand.


    Forming the circle, I slowly drew the runes including the ones for improve and grow. The torch-like pyramid appeared and I enlarged the globe until it was a few inches in diameter.


    Pressing the tip into my skin I heard a sound like a vacuum sucking up water, and slowly as I moved around the lungs my breathing became easier and easier.


    It was bliss just having my breathing back, but now I could clearly concentrate on the pain resonating around my body. Thankfully I still had one good arm because otherwise it would¡¯ve been hard to reach my other limbs.


    Pulling myself into a sitting position against the wall, I started healing my shoulder. But everything took enormous amounts of mana to actually repair.


    Before, it was just bruises and the muscle made was more like converting body fat. This was fabrication out of nowhere, besides the destroyed muscle and bone I absorbed, which still barely affected the dent in mana. I guess bone takes a lot of effort to stitch together or replace.


    I was still in pain but, I started a second set of runes on my left hand as well when I felt confident it was functional and started in on both legs working my way down devouring and realigning bones to at least save the limb. By the time I was done, I looked ridiculous and I was still missing the muscle. But I still had legs, even if they looked like noodles.


    The feet were a little tricky, and I¡¯m still not sure whether the tendons are in the right place, but now I just sat back reminiscing in the relief from escaping the pain.


    Who knew it felt this good to be crippled or emaciated on a brick floor? Anyway, I sat there a while just waiting for someone to come by to get a teacher but I was sorely disappointed when it became late and no-one else came along.


    I guess the orcs threatened anyone who helped or stayed in the halls late today. I thought of a lot of things as I sat in silent darkness simply staring at the stairs. Every now and again a person would walk up or down but didn¡¯t glance in at me. Every time was like another strike to me.


    I had helped most of these kids find their mana or gave them notes in classes, and not one looked back at me. Like a greasy burger wrapper after you ate its contents, I had lost their appeal. Actually, most probably thought I was dead by now including the orcs. Heck, by the time the girls past I was barely breathing at the time.


    Well, if no-one¡¯s gonna help me I¡¯ll just have to help myself. Of course my legs were worthless, but I managed to flop onto my belly before I crawled towards my door. The bag was holding me down like a cinderblock, but there was no way I was leaving it behind.


    Reaching the door I leaned against it to get it opened with minimal issues, before crawled into my bed after making sure my door was locked. I passed out as soon as I laid on the rough material of my blankets.


    (kind of slow here in the beginning, but I am trying to establish rivalries and character development. leave comments if you see issues or questions please. thanks for reading again :) )