Zell’s forehead slammed into his desk with a loud thud after it slipped off his palm, jarring him awake with an audible curse. Giggles from the twenty or so other students in the class erupted and abruptly died as a droning voice from the front of the room sounded.
“Mr. Balfonse. Do you find my lecture so uninteresting that you can’t even stay conscious?” The instructor, a heavy set man in his early fifties asked in the same gravelly monotone that had lulled Zell to sleep in the first place.
“I’m very sorry Mr. Grendol!” Zell cried, forcing himself to meet the ugly man’s piercing gaze. Zell rarely paid attention to looks but Grendol Posi was truly difficult to look at. His bulbous nose was pitted with gigantic open pores, peppered with blackheads, and was crooked from being broken often without proper healing. His eyes were narrow, dark, spaced too close together, and had no eyebrows. His pale cheeks and jowls were puffy with red splotches. His thick lips were too red and were always open displaying crooked orange teeth. His hair looked like a grey rat’s nest and his facial hair grew in uneven wiry patches. He had clearly once been a powerful specimen but his body had been long overtaken by flab.
This was the Monster Ecology and Biology class. In the four weeks since the official beginning of school Zell had learned to fear and respect it more than any mechanical dwarf, demon, or dragon. It took place first thing in the morning before the sunrise.
Even though the temperature outside was frosty, this lecture hall was always uncomfortably warm with a huge fire blazing in the wide fireplace behind Grendol’s desk. Zell also felt alienated in this class. Thanks to his low academic entry exam scores, he was in what amounted to a remedial room while the twins and his sister were in far more advanced ones. Rin’s high scores were understandable, she was the smartest person Zell knew aside from his father. Nin was less of a bookworm but still worked hard to excel in all areas. Cora’s scores were downright shocking. For some inexplicable reason, his sister who had grown up in a farmhouse had achieved unprecedented perfect scores in all of her written exams.
In all, there were four first and second year classes rotating throughout the different lecture halls and practice fields during the day. The most esteemed class was known as the Alpha Class where Nin, Rin, Cora, and Sikuna had all landed. It contained all of the top performers from among both the first and second year students. They were only outranked by the Academy Student Council (the third year students) and the staff itself. Nearly all of them were skilled in magic, general knowledge, and combat skills.
The Beta Class was the normal class for second year students, and had been most affected by Agitha’s reformations. Barely two score students remained in the Beta Class from the original hundred or so.
Below that was the Fresh class for normal first years, and below even that was Zell’s class which didn’t even have the dignity of a name at all. Most of the students in Zell’s class were simple commoners, and were only attending for a chance at a warm bed and hot food offered to poor students. A few were genuinely trying their best though. Aside from Misazel, the only other Nameless Class student that had any hope of making it as far as Zell could tell was Copita, the farm girl. She was so determined to win Misazel’s approval that she pushed herself to exhaustion and beyond every single day without complaint.
Thus Zell was left alone with a group of mostly strangers, other than one adolescent dragon that insisted on calling him ‘Boss’ and attacked him at the gates of the academy every morning. The first battle had caused a huge commotion and resulted in both of them being dragged before Agitha. She had laughed hysterically before fully supporting the delinquent dragon’s behavior to the dismay of both Zell and the uptight staff. And so Zell arrived each morning battered and exhausted to the overheated room where the ugly Grendol would drone for two hours about the migratory patterns of lowland orcs or the growing trend of monster hybrids in the wake of the Monster War. To Zell, sitting still and staying awake through those lectures was hands down the most agonizing thing he had ever endured.
Luckily, Grendol accepted his apology this time and continued on with his lullaby lecture. It wasn’t uncommon for him to punish students with extra homework. Zell vastly preferred Agitha’s physical punishment over that torture. The thought of doing more schoolwork at home turned Zell’s stomach.
“Remind me why we can’t just destroy all of them for their insolence?” Misazel whispered from behind Zell. “Their combined might is less than half of yours.” He reasoned quietly.
“Teacher would slaughter us both, and it’s wrong to go after someone just because you’re stronger than them.” Zell whispered the same answer as always. “I wouldn’t expect someone that turns himself into a mouse to pick fights with alley cats to be such a bully.” Zell added, referring to the baffling scene he had witnessed just two days before. While returning from walking the twins home, he had spotted a blue furred mouse chasing a terrified black cat out of an alley only to have that same mouse suddenly transform back into Misazel before Zell’s eyes.
“Or when I turn myself into an elf to fight a human.” Misazel added, clearly thinking hard on the subject. “You’re right, squashing these ants would bring no satisfaction.”
“I dislike that comparison but I guess so...” Zell grumbled, realizing he had walked straight into that line of reasoning.
A sudden shadow fell over Zell as he was whispering, and only then did he notice the lecture had ceased.
“A thousand word report about today’s topic on my desk tomorrow morning if you don’t want to spend your day off with me.” Grendol glared down at Zell as he spoke.
“Y-yes Mr Grendol.” Zell replied and before his poor brain could catch up, his mouth continued moving. “What was the topic again?” He compounded the verbal felony as a chorus of groans and giggles assaulted him from all directions.
“Two thousand words.” Grendol answered as he stomped back to the front of the room.
Zell sank deeper into his chair. Maybe Misazel’s suggestion wasn’t so unthinkable after all.
Zell managed to stay awake for the remainder of the class and felt a rush of relief when they were finally dismissed. It was finally time for the part of the day he enjoyed the most, General Fitness taught by Agitha herself.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
In stark contrast to Zell, the other students filtering on to the large frost covered dirt field wore looks of utter despair. They had all changed into their sets of training clothes which were already stained in mud and more than a little blood. Fifteen first year students and nine second year students had fled the school after their first General Fitness class.
The Alpha class was exiting the field as the Nameless Class entered it. As usual, the Ruby Princess led the pack with her head high. Even the spot of mud on her cheek looked regal. Predictably Nin was right behind her looking satisfied if a bit worn out. Behind the imposing pair shambled several second year students that looked as though they had just come from hell itself, filthy and ragged with hollow eyes. In the back of the group, but nowhere near as haggard were Cora and Rin. Thanks to enhancement magic and years of hard labor, Cora seemed full of energy as did Rin. They had become very close in the days since the tournament.
There was no time to stop and converse, so Zell simply held out his hand to Rin and they briefly touched with a loving glance. Cora roughed up his scalp as she passed and grinned. She was so happy, and taking to school so much easier than he was. Zell couldn’t help but feel a sharp pang of envy but quickly berated himself for it.
He shook himself, smacked Misazel on the shoulder and jogged onto the field eagerly.
General Fitness was a circuit of brutal physical exercises that changed daily according to the whims of its instructor. Sometimes it was simple running and calisthenics pushed to the extreme, other times it was full speed sparring with other students or even Agitha herself. The only constant was that from the time it began there was no rest for the full two hours.
Zell noticed that today there were strange looking dark stones roughly the size of apples in a long line on one side of the field. He was more curious than concerned. A rock fight? Zell wouldn’t put it past Agitha. He saw his eccentric master on the other end of the field conversing with the mysterious student named Mera whom she had taken on as her assistant. Zell felt like he knew her but she always kept her face hidden and never spoke loud enough for him to hear. He shifted his attention back to the stones and approached them casually.
To his surprise when he was still fifteen feet or so away from the nearest stone it began to move. It rolled very slowly at first toward Zell and he cocked his head curiously and slowed his pace. The stone didn’t slow, in fact it rolled faster and the closer to Zell it moved the faster it went. Suddenly Zell was feeling cautious. He moved back a step but it was too late. Like a magnet suddenly within range of an iron bar, it left the ground faster than Zell could react and slammed into his abdomen with more force than one of Agitha’s strikes. His mana barrier did little as he was blasted backward. The next moment he was looking up at the overcast morning sky with Misazel’s curious but amused face looking down at him.
“What’s that thing, Boss?”
Zell’s lips moved but the air had been fully blasted from his body and no sound accompanied the movement. Worse, the strange stone was attached to him and it seemed no amount of force could pull it away.
“What did you learn?” Agitha’s voice sounded a moment later from behind him.
“Rocks bad.” Zell finally was able to gasp as he struggled to his feet with the fist sized stone still stuck fast to his belly.
“No. Rocks GOOD.” She corrected. With that she reached out and casually plucked the frightening thing from Zell’s belly and held it up. “These are going to get your delinquent mana under control.”
She then addressed the rest of the class. “Grab some dirt, this is a short lesson and I’m only giving it once.” The students complied, sitting or kneeling a healthy distance away from the ominous rocks.
“These are Anima Stones on loan from a friend of mine. As you just saw, they can be dangerous. They are reactive to mana and depending on how well you control the flow of your mana can be manipulated like so.” She held her hand up and suddenly the stone levitated a few inches above her palm. To everyone’s amazement it then began to orbit slowly around her body. “If I were to simply let my mana pour out with no control like a certain dense apprentice, something like this might happen.”
She took a step near Zell and withdrew her mana. As predicted the uncontrolled stone once again shot toward Zell like a crossbow bolt. Zell covered himself and groaned but the stone stopped in mid air just inches from him. It hung in the air and vibrated so fiercely that it produced a strange humming sound. Then it reversed direction and began to once again orbit Agitha’s petite frame.
“For some of you these stones won’t react at all, and your task will be to express your mana to a degree that you are able to begin to make them move. For others you will need to learn to suppress and redirect the flow of your mana and prevent them from sticking to you or taking you out like Bait here. That’s it. Approach a stone and play with it, I’ll begin checking on you after awhile.”
The students complied quickly, they knew better than to hesitate after the director gave an order. Luckily for them, none of the stones reacted violently as they had with Zell. There were more rocks than students and Misazel took two of them, instantly attuning his massive mana to both stones and making them fly effortlessly through the air around him.
Zell eyed his stone cautiously from several yards away and focused internally trying to reduce the mana he was exerting. Unfortunately he hadn’t the slightest clue of how that was done. He approached the stone and if anything it seemed to react even more violently than before. He put his hands in front of him to catch the speeding thing but that simply pinned his hands to his body as he was launched back down to the ground. He was once again at the mercy of the Anima Stone, he tugged with all his might to free his hands to no avail.
“Need help, Boss?” Misazel asked, looking bored as his stones floated peacefully near him.
“Aye! How do you do that?” Zell asked as he continued to tug and roll about in the dirt.
“Just move your mana. If you leave it like that you won’t get anywh- oh!” Misazel stopped his explanation short suddenly. He had been walking toward Zell while he was talking when suddenly Zell’s mana seized Misazel’s two stones. They both hit with loud cracks as they collided with the stone already stuck there. “Oops...”
“Dying...” Zell groaned in despair after he regained his breath once again. “Teacher get them off me!” Zell rolled on to his side to find Agitha also lying on her side cackling uncontrollably a few yards away. After a few seconds she recovered and stood up.
“I’d help but I can’t play favorites just because you’re my apprentice! I’ll be back after I check on the others. Do your best Bait!” Agitha cheered for him, still struggling to contain her laughter.
“Sheesh, those are really on there good. Aren’t they?” Misazel held his hand out, trying to draw the stones with all of his formidable power but they didn’t so much as quiver. “Didn’t know your mana was so wild... and growing?” He tilted his head as he observed Zell’s aura growing more dense even as the energy in the air diminished around him. “Hey whatever you’re doing is making it worse.” Misazel stood and took a cautious step back as Zell seemed to be in a strange trance and his mana was multiplying in intensity every second.
He turned to alert Agitha and his shock deepened to find the Anima Stones of every single other student rolling across the field in Zell’s direction as their owners watched in confusion. Before anything could be done, a series of loud cracks echoed across the field so rapidly it sounded like one long note. Zell was literally entombed in Anima Stones. They squeezed him so tightly that he passed out from lack of oxygen, allowing Agitha and Misazel to remove them though the effort was still exhausting. Moments later, Zell’s eyes fluttered open and he sat up with a gasp. All of the stones were gone except for one, which Agitha had intentionally left stuck to him.
“That one goes home with you. You either remove it on your own or live with it forever.” She said, weariness creeping into her voice from the effort of overpowering Zell’s mana even while he was unconscious.
“What the hell’s wrong with me?” Zell shook his head in a rare moment of self pity.
“You bought the hens before the coop.” The answer came from a most unexpected place. It was the farm girl, Copita. She was talking to Zell but was focused on her own Anima Stone, rolling it back and forth a few inches at a time with obvious effort. “Cool you have tons of chickens but what’s the point if all the eggs rot in the woods?”
“Huh.” Zell thought hard for a moment. Someone had finally given him an explanation he could understand.
He closed his eyes and peered deeply within himself. He had been aware of his mana since his early days of meditation with Rin. It appeared as a violent churning storm of energy that he could never really fathom. It merely existed within him and boosted power and defense when he pushed it clumsily around his body. Perhaps he couldn’t control his mana because he had always imagined it in the form of something uncontrollable. It felt silly but in his mind Zell was soon herding mana chickens into a small fenced pasture complete with a detailed imaginary coop. After a long, grueling time he vaguely felt something happen on his abdomen.
When he opened his eyes and looked down, the stone was on the ground between his legs. Zell leaped to his feet in sheer ecstasy and raced over to Copita who had completely forgotten about him. He grabbed her by the shoulders with a maniacal smile and she squeaked in alarm.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I owe you so big!” He let her go embarrassed when he saw her panicked expression. “Sorry, it’s just that the thing you said helped me alot.”
Before Copita could reply, her Anima Stone as well as the one Zell had left in the dirt suddenly and silently soared into Zell’s back and stomach. Apparently mana control was a constant effort, Zell thought as he collapsed.