The howls of wendigos signalled the beginning of night. They ran on their long legs across the forest, any smell of blood would trigger them. Even though they were quite weak due to their small frame, their fierceness and relentlessness made them dangerous predators. 

Currently, a lot of children stand outside of their homes waving goodbye to their parents. Today would arguably be the most important day of their lives; they would receive their first monster, and they would design their first room. 

“Son, which species is better for offense, goblins or skeletons?” His father asked, hand firmly planted on Jake’s shoulder.

“Skeletons against melee, goblins against ranged.” Jake answered, however he didn’t plan on using this knowledge.

“Oh my god, our little devil has grown up.” His mother added.

“Yes he has. We believe in you son.”’ His father said in a grave voice.

The long black bus stopped in front of each house in the neighbourhood, and soon it would be in front of Jake’s house. Jake had already walked to the front of his house and anxiously waited for the bus. He looked back towards his parents and gave them a final wave, they were in tears staring at him. Today would be the last day for many parents to see their children.

The driver to the bus was a skeleton, who stared at each child with mild annoyance. For that was the most annoyance they could give without a face.  Jake climbed into the bus and looked towards the seats, he received multiple stares.  He would be their competition, and sadly for them, he didn’t plan to make them his. In the front of the bus sat Charlie, his best friend, who upon seeing Jake free’d space for him to sit in. 

“I can’t believe we are finally going to the academy.” Charlie said, his eyes filled with anticipation.

“Yeah, crazy isn’t it?” Jake responded.

The bus continued to drive, stopping periodically to pick up another student. They were regular faces, faces Jake had been acquainted with his entire life. He lived in a poorer area, and a majority of the people living here were from mixed dungeons.

Mixed, but that didn’t mean there weren't pure dungeons here either. The skeleton pure dungeon was rather famous for being in the bottom. Skeletons just couldn’t compete with other creatures, they didn’t have any balls to put it bluntly.

“What direction are you looking to go?”  Charlie asked me.

“I don’t know man. But I wanna go big, how about you?”

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“I wanna get a vampire.” He felt the bus quiet down a notch as Charlie said the last word. Jake’s eyes rose up.

“Really-really?”

“Really-really.”

The rest of the ride they sat beside each other rather silent. The bus eventually entered the highway and was promptly surrounded by other busses. Some of them looked worse than the one they were in, and some of them looked a lot better. Jake felt himself slumber away. 

He woke up to a barking voice. “Get up and out.” His peers had already begun pushing and shoving out of the bus and he followed suit, so did Charlie. When they exited the bus, they saw lines of students forming.

On the most right side of the line the students wore uniforms, their faces pointed straight forward, their eyes were green. They were taller and looked fierce. On the left side of the line, they were all short, their hair ruffy, their faces dirty, their eyes brown. 

Jake entered a line somewhere in the middle, and Charlie followed suit. There were a bunch of teachers standing in groups in front of the lines, inspecting the students with a clear gaze. The principal spoke up.

“I welcome all of you to the academy. I feel it in the air, just like with each new batch of students. A lot of you are nervous.” At the last remark the students to the right scoffed. “And that is completely acceptable. Your lives, and your family's reputation rest on your performance.  But worry not, for this school has been made precisely for your success...”

“... for this year we are going to try something new to diminish discrimination. We’re going to randomize the classes…” The students broke out into a murmur, but the principal's stare made it stop. “So I’d appreciate it if you gave your best attempt at making this work. Now we’ll proceed with the classes, listen for your name… and that’s it.  Now follow your teacher towards your classes”

Luckily, Charlie and Jake had gotten in the same class, class D. They found their homeroom teacher, an old man with a long scar running across his face.  He began walking into the school, which was shaped like a large dungeon. Its walls were filled with slabs of stone, and it was very square like. 

As they walked Jake realized that the class had already begun splitting into smaller groups. The students who came from stronger, nobler families walked at the front, whilst the weakest walked at the very back. Jake had a bad taste in his mouth from this.

They entered their classroom, there were 30 tables and 30 chairs alongside a black board and bright lights above them. The walls, floor and roof were made out of fine stone. They took their seats, once again, the taller green eyed students sat at the front. Whilst the shorter ones sat at the back. 

Jake and Charlie had taken seats at the very front. They wanted to make it obvious that they were aiming high. They received looks from the entire class, looks saying, “Know your place.”

The teacher began talking. “Hello students. I’m not a big one for introductions, so we’ll skip that. All I’ll say is call me K. Right. So as a lot of you know, if your dungeon dies you die. And as you also know, today you all turn 17 which is the age you get assigned a dungeon.”

“Now whilst that is true, that’s not the entire truth as many of you know. First you gain your first monster, which is a critical part of this. And that’s actually what we are going to do today.”

He brought up a white ball, and put it on the table.