“To be very honest,” Thane began, “Commoners are at a severe disadvantage in Celestia.”

He daintily held his glass by the thin stem, and sipped from it,

“From what I’ve seen so far, this is a gathering for the high grades, B, A, and S. I won’t ask how you gained entrance, but the vast majority present, 60 to 70 percent at the very minimum, descend from the nobility. The grade and rank are most likely decided from a mix of our potential, our stars, and the duels we fought when we got here.

“The sheer fact that we’re here at Celestia means that most of us have talent; no doubt about that. Even the least talented person I’ve met so far had 4 stars, and was a noble at that. But what that means is that those born with, the nobles, most likely performed above us in their duels. So they have an overwhelming starting advantage over the rest of us in mana conductivity, skill in using weapons, everything.

“And since they’ve been assigned to the higher classes, that gap is only going to widen as time passes.

“But they'll never be united,” he held up three fingers,

“Thaloria, Kyriena, and Etroych, those are the three major players on this continent, not taking into account those savages in the North.

“Look,” he suddenly pointed out.

Curious, I turned my head to see what he was talking about, finding Lunia at the end of his finger. Visibly uncomfortable, she shifted from foot to foot, not even looking at the other girl she was talking to.

Though, I could sympathize with her. The girl opposite Lunia towered over her, and despite her hair being colored a blue, aquamarine, she had an intense, focused air to her which I could discern even dozens of yards away.

“Princess Anastasia,” Thane commented, “Anastasia Thaloria. The nobles are already gathering around and placing her as their figurehead.”

He was right. I could spot Anne in the crowd that gathered around her.

“But that doesn’t matter,” Thane spitefully spat out, his voice dripping with venom, “Fuck their money, fuck their blood. By themselves, they’re strong.

"But divided? They’re easy pickings."

He stopped walking,

"In my home town, there was a boy. Son of the local blacksmith, strong as a horse and the size of one too.

"I remember," Thane chuckled, "His father would always boast to mine about how he came out of the womb with a hammer in hand.

"He was like a brother to me, and sure, he was a little rough around the edges, playing jokes around town, sometimes stealing fruit, but he was a good person."

Thane wistfully smiled,

"As time passed, he became angrier. His pranks became less about making others laugh, and more about how much he could hurt someone before he got into trouble. He would pick fights with those around us for any perceived slight. Just look at him wrong, and he would immediately punch you in the eye, insult him. he would punch your mouth.

"But even so, even as he slowly began to change, he stayed the same with me. He was still my brother, who would laugh with me when he did something stupid, who would always walk in front of me, making sure there wasn't anything dangerous in our path.

"And one day, he somehow wound up dead, a gallon of water in his lungs, eyes glassy, his body bloated. They said that he had fallen into the rushing stream near our town by accident."

He set his glass down,

"But they were lying. I overheard some of the others, other children, celebrating his death. Whispering, saying that it was deserved, that he was a monster, and to not worry about it.

"I had seen him beat each and every one of those bastards before. They sometimes came at him with a branch, a metal rod, anything, but they always fought alone.

"He never would have died if that were still the case."

Thane clapped his hands together.

“Sure, in a one on one duel, nobles win ten times out of ten. No doubt about it. But if there are ten of us? One hundred? One thousand?

“And It doesn’t matter where you’re from, a commoner is a commoner.”

He placed both his hands on my shoulders.

“Let me be the commoners’ leader,” he softly requested, “Follow me, and I’ll guide us to the land of milk and honey.”

Downing my previously untouched drink, the liquid was very obviously nonalcoholic, but it still slightly burned on the way down.

I enjoyed the feeling though.

“Why me?”

Thane rubbed from his right ear down to his jaw.

“You know why,” he smiled, “I’m only one man. And I need soldiers. I don’t care about where you come from, what your goals are, your personal grudges. Whatever it may be, I’ll do my best to help you. All I ask for in return is your loyalty.”

Rubbing my nose, I stayed silent.

“Let me think about it.”

“Of course,” he nodded, “But just remember.

"No matter how they act; no matter how nice they may seem, the nobility will always look down on us for our blood.”

Thane patted me on the shoulder, before going on his way.

Setting my now empty glass down, I began to walk away. Despite only just arriving and it being only half past six, I felt especially exhausted, and I wanted nothing more than to act on my deep yearning for sleep.

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

Already one foot out the main hall, the pitter patter of running steps sounded behind me, and I was completely unable to react in time as Lunia jumped on to me.

“Your thoughts?”

“Completely awful,” I muttered, “I’m going to sleep.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “Can’t argue with you there. But it’s so early; the suns only just set. Let’s go exploring!”

Briefly weighing the pros and cons of just going back to my room and calling it a night, or accompanying Lunia on whatever impulse came to her mind,

“Fine,” I relented.

***

Gritting my teeth to the point that I could feel the roots of my teeth in my gums, I continually circulated the mana in my channels throughout my body, over, and over, and over again, until it was all released back into the atmosphere.

Pausing to catch my breath, I dug out from my pocket, and stared at the face of my iron pocket watch. It’s faint ticks constantly reverberating, I confirmed just how much time I had left.

Five minutes.

I smelled faintly of sweat and my clothes were soaked despite not having physically trained, but I ignored everything that even slightly distracted me, reasoning that I had barely enough time to complete one more cycle.

Sitting back into a lotus position, I closed my eyes, returning to the soul plane, and before I knew it, a faint beeping sound telling me my time was up sounded off in the room.

I sighed, getting back up as I did so. For the past week, I had stuck to a strict schedule of going to Mana 101, then Alchemy 101, eating lunch with Lunia afterwards, then for the rest of the day, either physically training or cultivating mana in my room, using the refractory period in between cycles to study Fundamental Alchemy and the Compendium of Flora and Fauna.

But I had plateaued. I could physically feel that the rate at which my mana conductivity increased had leveled out, and the readings I got back from the public measuring devices only confirmed my suspicions.

A feeling of anxiety washed over me at the thought that those around me were only continuing to progress, while I stayed my same weak self, so I relented. I spent ten points for an hour in one of the lower cultivation rooms, hoping that the artificially created mana dense atmosphere would make me just the bit more ready for The Dream.

Though, I instinctively knew I would be sorely disappointed.

The door to the lower training room automatically sliding into the wall, I frantically raced down the spotless white hallways, the number of people around gradually increasing to the point I was eventually able to tell when the person next to me last bathed.

My anxiety reaching a precipice, I fought my way to the stalls where the free mana conductivity measuring devices were.

Closing and locking the door behind me, I stared intently at the metal orb that rested on the pedestal at the center of the claustrophobic chamber.

I breathed deeply, attempting to slow my heart rate. Thalric had previously lent me a measuring device for a brief period of time, though his was of much higher quality, and thus more precise, than the ones offered by Celestia free of charge.

And a lot less painful as well.

Deciding to just get it over with, I lay my fingers and palm over the orb, immediately feeling 14 tiny spikes embedding themselves into my hand directly into my nerves, one for each segment of my fingers and thumb.

Lunia had cried to me about how the measuring devices hurt horribly, but she was S class. The devices they used were of even better quality than Thalric’s, and likely hurt even less as a result.

Quickly channeling my mana into the orb to get the reading over and done with, the spikes finally retracted after half a minute.

Cradling my pierced hand against my chest, I read the number displayed.

21%

Even with a week of daily cultivation, it had only increased by 1%, from 20 to 21%.

Brushing my hair out of my eye, I stood in quiet contemplation.

It became evident that I needed to form my first magic circle.

I not only already acquired a model for the first level from Mana 101, Imario’s Beginner’s Guide to Mana, despite missing crucial fundamental information, provided a guide to forming all of the first star.

I had only been avoiding it because I wanted to maximize my mana conductivity, and gain a better foundation, but I intensely regretted making such a decision.

The first Dream would take place at midnight tonight, and I would be participating as a circleless weakling.

My overall fitness had increased over the past week, but I wouldn’t attribute it all to my having cultivated. In Frosthelm, my time was either spent either working at the bakery with Aurelia, or staring up at the floating diamond, and my muscles had atrophied as a result.

By the time I arrived at Celestia, I was already 30-40% weaker, so I wouldn’t say that I had grown stronger, rather, I just regained what I lost.

But that only made me feel even worse.

It wasn’t nearly enough.

I needed to be better, stronger. I didn’t need to, nor did I desire to be the strongest, but I at least needed to be able to survive an encounter with the person who was.

And at my current state, that seemed to be impossible.

My mood bottoming out, I exited the underground passageways, going into the main training buildings, before soon leaving those too.

As a result of my schedule, I never interacted with others except for Lunia, and I recognized just how detrimental that could be for me in the future.

Even in the Baron’s army, where it was the closest to every man for themselves as could be, there were still bootlickers who only survived because those stronger took a “special” liking to them.

Of course, that liking was very often twisted and carnal in nature, but even still. I could apply at least some of what I learned from those unfortunate souls to my current situation.

Pulling out my pocket watch, I checked the time.

6:20. He would still be there for the next ten minutes.

I frantically sped up, reaching the U dormitory with three minutes to spare.

SItting on a bench with a book on his lap, Rat looked up at me.

“Hey,” he warmly greeted, “I didn’t get your name, but you’re the one who asked me about the notes the first day right? What can I do for you?”

“Sol,” I panted, “The Dream. There’s nothing about it in the rule book, and the teachers haven’t said anything about it, even after I asked. Tell me everything about it. I’ll give you 100 points”

Rat silently smiled.

***

As I blankly stared out my room window to the outside world, I unconsciously bounced my knee.

Checking the time for the tenth time in not even a minute, I sighed, aware of just how insane I probably appeared if any outside observer were to be looking in.

There was only a few more minutes until The Dream would begin, and there was nothing left I could possibly do to increase my chances of success, yet I was still pointlessly stressing over it.

Raising my head in an attempt to distract myself, the eldest moon caught my eye.

Previously, I couldn’t go for even one hour without thinking of my family. Of their warmth, of their love, of those happy days I spent with them, with nary a care in the world. But whether consciously or unconsciously, I had kept busy the past week, and there was no time for me to get lost in melancholy.

Even so, I felt lost, split, empty. As if something fundamental inside me had gone missing, and the lack of that thing’s presence left me completely and utterly alone.

But I was here, and they were there.

I wouldn’t lose a prime opportunity to become stronger because of my personal weakness.

Never satisfied with what little I possessed, a feeling of safety always just out of reach, the smell of blood forever coming from behind me, the faces of the dead forever below me, hiding in my shadow, the unknowable infinity of the sky forever above me.

There was no other option; I would keep pushing forward.

Always.

Newfound resolve sprouting inside my heart, I stood up, moving to and sitting in the middle of the blood red magic circle embedded into the floor, my sub-level one sword and the 7th compendium next to me.