The monitor showed the end of the exam.

Samuel, Ellie, and the other students were paying attention to the video being played by the Dean. The man with the brown, slightly curly hair and cold eyes was clicking on the controller, saying "So, dear students, I called you here because of this kind of behavior". The screen showed the fight between Daniel and the pair.

"Take a closer look at what was happening while you kept throwing rocks into each other". Ellie was touching Sam with her elbow, looking at him with a 'WE?' look. While they were covering, the video footage almost turned into a comedy movie: Three robot-thieves were walking ou calmly with a bag of money, another one fell from a window and splattered into the ground, two others were trying to prevent a wall from collapsing and ended buried under it. "It definitely doesn't look good," Sam whispered to Ellie, with his brown and green eyes, while scratching his chin.

The Dean kept going on "And all of this happened while you guys were in a fight. Another one of you was like...reading a book or something? And another one of you guys didn't know which way to go and kept freeze in the start?" Everyone was thinking about the points, and things weren't looking very well.

"So, you can imagine that I didn't gather you all here to said you're in the first class, right?" The Dean was trying to make things less harsh, but he wasn't very good at this.

"So, basically, you all are in the last class. You're part of the Zebra class from now on. The path will be hard, my dear students, but I have high hopes with you all!"

Ellie raised a hand: "Sir, so the four-armed robots full of muscles that we beat didn't count?" The man answered with a questioning expression "What kind of robot are you talking about? We don't have those in here...do we?" And looked to the assistants, that denied with a head nod. "Let's try to check the video of you guys fighting this four-armed thing…" The man tried to forward the record, searching for that amazing good part, but only found some glitchy portions. Ellie and Sam thought that was pretty strange, and raised the eyebrows to each other in a "let's search for more info later" expression.

"Wait, what? Can someone from the support help me with this? That's strange... We'll try to check, miss Williams, but anyway, if the bots weren't registered in your systems, we cannot give you any points with those, since they're not part of this exam." The Dean was dealing with the situation as if it was solved.

His cold expression quickly switched to a cheerful one, while talking about the first day. "So, you all have the first official class in a couple of minutes, is that correct? Oh, great! It is some great Anilink foundation knowledge. You guys will receive some GREAT teachers!" The Dean smiled, almost closing his eyes in a sarcastic expression, holding both hands close to the smiling face.

The first class was about to start.

The students from the Zebra class, the lowest in academy ranks were anxious while the steps were getting closer to the classroom door. The door slowly opened with a hairy, big hand pulling the door slide. The man that appeared was closer to a yakuza than a teacher: A black ponytail, a serious/angry look in his grey eyes, a scar on the right one, and a smile with golden teeth. The wide mouth was carrying a toothpick on the left side. Before any of the students could breathe or understand the scene, a huge Panda went behind the strong guy, walking slowly, seated with a bamboo stick on the teacher's table, then started to eat. The man shouted:

"Hey, kids! So, you made into the first day of class, congrats!" His cologne was strong as his arms and the front row kids' eyes were burning with that fragrance. "...but you're in the Zebra class! I didn't study in the Zebra, but I guess I can help you guys learn one thing or another about the human-animal connections!"

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"The name is Kazama Rami, teacher of Human-Animal Connection Fundamentals. This is my best buddy, Pan." The panda raised his arm in a gesture that somehow looked like he was waving, but turned out he was just scratching his fluffy head.

Rami started: "So, do you know all about Anilink? This crazy connection between us and the animals, RIGHT?" The man was excited and started to explain the topics while swinging his arms on the chalkboard. "Let's start with the Anilink Levels, let's go!"

Level 00 - Connection.

"This is the basic level. In this level, the animal and the human are connected, sharing/absorbed some physical characteristics and life expectancy. I suppose that lady eyepatch wasn't originally hers, right?" Ellie nodded the head, answering the question.

"Some basic skills are also added to the humans, like the boy in here with the sleepy puppy must have an excellent sense of smell right now, am I right?" Sam shook his head in agreement and started to make a bad face while paying attention to Rami's cologne. "I got this crazy will to eat bamboo shoot, and I even knew people who were introverts and then never stopped talking after connecting to parrots. Then we have the first level. Let's always remember the skills on a level are always inherited/added to the next ones, right?"

Level 01 - Tool.

"In this first level of body manipulation, the animal can be changed into a weapon or tool, that will always match the animal and human souls/personalities. For instance, our buddy Pan will change into an awesome naginata. I guess most of you can reach this level, since you all finished the physical exams, right?"

Rami started talking to the class: "You, the goth kid in the back, you with the book, what kind of weapon/tool you and your buddy crow can create?"

The pale kid with the dark circles around his eyes and a black hat answered with a calm and cold voice: "I'm Edgar, sir. Answering your question, the darkness gifted us with an elegant scythe." The crow was cheering and dancing at the kid's table, opening and closing the dark wings.

Rami was very happy with the class, and pointed to the next one: "You, pal, the brawler with the big guy, what can you create?"

The blonde guy quickly answered: "Girl. She's a girl, and I'm Daniel. And we can make an AMAZING Warhammer. You guys must have seen it in the video." He said it proudly. Sam and Ellie were rolling their eyes with the sentence. Rami kept going on. "Ok, kids, so the next level is..."

Level 02 - Protection.

"In this level, the animal can be turned into armor, that adding to the weapon/tool, turns into an amazing full gear. It also represents the join of two souls, as the tool from the previous level. This level requires a bigger bonding between humans and animals, and as a result, there is telepathic communication between both. Is not as clear as the next level, but you will be able to understand each other without any issues."

Rami called Pan, that jumped and changed into a ball of light, getting close to his friend. Then, Rami was wearing an incredible black and white samurai armor, while carrying a naginata. The aura was felt by all of the students, that answered with a collective "WHOOOOA".

"Let's talk about the next level, right Pan?" Rami changed his gear to the simple vest he was dressed.

Level 03 - Transportation.

"In this last known level, adding to the tool and protection, the animal can change into a transportation form, usually in form of the animal itself, but WAY bigger than its standard size, while wearing armor too. I won't show this step, first because this class is way too small to fit us, right Pan? And because it takes too much energy and we didn't lunch yet" Rami was smiling and Pan was playing with the pencils, making drawings in a paper sheet.

"This last level is the one where telepathic communication is established, and the memories are shared. No secret can be hidden, and the two souls are connected more than ever. We're talking about PURE connection, folks! It's simply beautiful!"

"The fourth level is a mere legend, a tale. Not even Mr. Green, the founder of Anitech and Anilink itself didn't make it. But who knows, right? What if we have in here an anime protagonist or something like that?"

Sam was thinking about the next levels and was pretty excited about the upcoming skills and powers. He was petting Kara, saying "It will be in your time, buddy. We don't need to rush."

It was a great first day of class.