After a bit more idle chatter Shorey excused himself. The student meant what he said earlier, working hard to engrave a new spell.

Tepo and Yerive naturally understood. They thanked their dormmate for the warm welcome before inspecting their own rooms.

Opening the door, Tepo was met with a sparce sparse. To his surprise it only featured a small cabinet and a single chair. If it wasn’t for the window letting in the bright sun, Tepo would’ve thought he was back in his old life.

The young man frowned as he sat down. Taking a short moment to adjust Tepo opened the small booklet with the forum’s rules.

For the next few hours Tepo followed Shorey’s advice and branded every word in his mind. He read about the different courses, the trial field, does and don’ts, and more.

A few things quickly stood out to him, especially the recommendations for new students.

Interesting. So, we are entitled to a monthly allowance of one hundred force crystals. And one of the recommendations is a course on a warrior’s use for force crystals.

Luckily the course is tomorrow by a guest teacher Mr. Onh.

Guest teacher? Ah, here. Someone who doesn’t belong to the forum but has been allowed to teach.

Seems like another method for warriors to get their name out there.

Tepo made sure not to miss anything before putting the booklet away. He looked at the center of his room. A large circle was painted there on the old wooden floor.

Following the instructions in his rulebook the young man took a comfortable sitting posture within the circle. He closed his eyes and calmly began training.

Let’s see if you can really boost my training speed.

A few moments later the young man sunk in a deep meditation. The force of time gathered continuously on his body. With [Time Dilation: Body] activated his absorption speed was noticeably boosted, almost rivaling the dark root’s effectiveness at the beginning.

Not bad. But I feel like they promised more in the booklet…

Tepo continued his training. His Core of Time jumped in joy. It could already foresee that its host was finally taking the training seriously.

But after a while, Tepo felt something off. His body was strangely energetic, his skin heating up faintly. It felt as if his cells were rejoicing as another force entered his body.

Tepo’s mind was perturbed, but his instincts urged him continue. The young man observed the situation in his body closely, not yet stopping the training.

In this state a lot of time passed. Tepo already knew that the day in this world was separated into 36 hours.

Since the nine suns always dominated the sky, their might only blocked by the barrier shielding the city, there was no day or night in this world. The inhabitants simply choose 36 hours because it was a multiple of nine.

Fortunately, Tepo’s sense for time was accurate as always. Five hours into the new day he abruptly opened his eyes.

The warrior inspected his advancement. Despite his heightened speed he wasn’t satisfied. It would still take him at least three months to advance his rank.

Although Tepo was normally a patient man, the threat brought by outsiders constantly plagued his mind, making it almost impossible for him to be content with his growth.

Thus, the young man faced his first day as a student with mixed emotions. He stood up, pondering for a second, and decided to stick to his black robes. After all, he wasn’t here to blend in.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Looking out of the window at the bustling city, a confident smile formed on Tepo’s face, suppressing the clouds in his mind.

Tepo stepped out of the door. He was met with a dim room, none of his dormmates awake yet. He stretched his body before reaching the bathroom.

It took the young man a second, but he managed to figure out how the bathtub worked. Soon, a hot, comfortable bath invited Tepo to relax.

Half an hour later a knock suddenly startled Tepo.

“Hellooo. Is someone in thereee? I am missing my baahaath.”

Tepo sighed as a mellow male voice reached his ears, disturbing the relaxing mood. He left the bath putting on his clothes again.

Opening the door, a young man with a outstandingly handsome face appeared in his view. He was tall, athletic, had long blond hair, and broad shoulders. He wore a fluffy white robe, obviously ready to take his daily bath.

“Ahh, so it is our new doormateee. Please call me Quordh. Nice to meet youuu. I see you are a connoisseur as well?”

“Hi. I’m Tepo. Don’t worry I won’t occupy the bath any longer.”

“Oh, but I didn’t complain, did Iii?

In fact,… if you want we can surely find a… satisfying… solution for both of uuss.”

Tepo shivered faintly as his handsome dormmate winked at him.

“Aren’t you advancing a bit too fast?”

Quordh only gave a chuckle as an answer. Tepo shook his head as he took a step forward. Fortunately, Quordh wasn’t unnecessarily intrusive and took a step to the side, letting Tepo pass.

As the dormmate disappeared into the bath, a low laughter reached Tepo’s ears. The young man’s eye twitched as he looked at Yerive sitting on one of the couches.

“What’s so funny, hmm?”

“Oh. Nothing, nothing.”

Tepo shook his head, changing the topic.

“So how was your first training?”

“Not as good as I hoped.”

“Really? Why?”

“It was so loud! This city is so noisy and the room badly isolated. Honestly, I’m considering if I should complain at the reception.”

Tepo furrowed his brows. He thought back to his own training. Only now did he realize how noisy his room was, but apparently, he was better at ignoring the commotion.

Before Tepo could answer, another door opened, revealing an exhausted looking Shorey.

“Don’t bother, Yerive. No one cares for our rooms. We have tried more than once.”

“Hmm? But this can’t be the standard the forum should try to uphold, can it?”, questioned Yerive with a frown.

“Do you think our rooms are standard?”

“But the rulebook said… that everyone… has to be treated equally…”

Silence fell on the room as Yerive’s words faded out. A depressed mood settled.

Tepo smiled wryly as he turned towards the dorm’s main door.

“Come on Yerive. Don’t be distracted by those unimportant matters. All that counts is your own growth.

Let’s go and get our allowance. When we grow stronger, we can still put others in their place.”

Yerive followed Tepo’s suggestion. The two friends said goodbye to their new roommates before leaving the dorm.

Thanks to Inurol’ah’s tour Tepo and Yerive knew where to go. They walked through the park area and arrived back at the forum’s main building.

Inside, a set of stairs led upwards to a place called ‘students office’.

The two friends pushed open the door and entered a room with a simple desk and two comfortable couches. A few shelves with all kinds of documents lined the walls.

Since no one was present right now, Tepo and Yerive weren’t sure how to act. They decided to sit down and wait for a while.

Quickly a while passed. And another one. And another one.

Tepo realized that if this continued, they would be late for the course he had in mind. Running out of patience he spoke up loudly:

“Hello?! Is someone here?”

A faint sound reached Tepo’s ears. He eyed the door leading to another room, but even after a few seconds it didn’t open.

“Hey! We are here to get our allowance!”

“Tepo, maybe we shouldn’t overdo it on our first day?”

“Hmpf. Do you feel like we are the ones overdoing it?”

“…no.”

Tepo felt more annoyed with every passing second. Finally, he stood up, silently approached the door, and with a sudden tug he pulled it open.

Gritting his teeth Tepo pierced the old man standing behind the door with his eyes.

The old man took a step back in surprise. But quickly he remembered his own status again.

“Insolent! Student, how dare you open random doors without authorization?!”

“Old man, don’t pretend to be stupid! I have heard you arriving quite some time ago!”

“Tepo… maybe we should…”

“Who are you calling an old man?! You are disrespecting an elder!”

Suddenly a strong pressure spread in the room. Tepo and Yerive felt their chests tighten, pushing them backwards.

A frightening look was on Tepo’s face. Rage welled in his chest.

A whisp of a smile graced the elder’s lips. He observed Tepo and Yerive with eyes, which showed complete disregard. Like a massive boulder which obstructed the path of a tiny stream.

“In my position as elder of student affairs I herby suspe…”

“What’s going on here?!”

Suddenly the office door was pushed open. A woman entered the room. She wore comfortable leather clothes, her sleeves turned inside out. Long black hair framed a valiant face. Small pieces of metal were sewed onto her clothes.

“Elder Bluetome! Aren’t you going too far?!”

“Vice commander Tapharn! What are you doing in my office?!”