The woman clapped her hands, making everyone stop talking and look to where she was.

"Goodmorning!" She cheerfully greeted us, "My name is Miss Anguis, and I am the principal of West Utsa City School!" She spread her arms as if to motion around her. They really had to work on that name, maybe make it an acronym like W.U.C.S or something. As I thought that I looked around the auditorium and saw a banner with that exact acronym written on it. Huh, guess they did try to work on the name.

"As today is your first day, I would like to welcome you and give you a tour of the building!" Continued the principal in that voice used for children. It irritated me to be talked to like that all the time, but there was nothing I could do about it.

We were eventually gathered in a straight line again and led through another door next to the stage. We were greeted by a hallway that reached around 50 metres into the distance, held by arches. On our left there were stairs leading to a second floor. As we kept walking, the principal told us about how school worked.

"You shall each be put into a classroom, which will be here, downstairs. Seeing how many there are of you, you won't all fit in one classroom." As she said that she motioned to stop, which we did, some other teachers stopping us as well, helping the principal.

"Here is a classroom, have a look!" We all bundled around the doorway, except me. I stood back, pretending to want to see, but actually looking somewhere else. I was looking at the principal. She had something... off about her, and I quickly put my finger on it. Even if it was a medieval, fantasy world where magic existed and monsters ran rampant, why would the principal of a school own a sword and then wear it next to children? Her sword was a rapier, I could tell from the rounded handguard, which had a pattern engraved onto it. I quickly looked away, in case the principal caught me.

After that we went on a tour around the school. There were a total of 5 classrooms on each floor, 2 for every year group. As you enter from the auditorium, there was a staircase on the left, and staff faculty, including a reception, on the right. Past that were 2 parallel classrooms on each side, then there was another classroom on the left while on the right there was a door leading to a courtyard, after that it was another 2 classrooms parallel to each other, followed by a staircase on the left and a doorway on the right. At the end of the hall was a door, leading to the laboratory. I was surprised they had that, but it seemed that this world wasn't as medieval as I first thought it to be. It was more towards the 17th or 18th century, but considering my lungs haven't been filled with smog, they hadn't made factories yet. That or they have magic factories.

The laboratory was used for alchemy, of course. I learnt a bit about it from the books around the house, and it was exactly like how I imagined it to be. Get some magical, usually, ingredients and mix them together to make a potion. That was the general gist of it. Afterward we were shown outside the door, which led to a path that went forwards all the way to the stone wall which surrounded most of the school, and turned left to lead into a playground. To the other side was a gate that led to the courtyard opposite the classroom, stuck in between 2 classrooms. It was strange.

We walked to the playground and I needed to reevaluate my size of it. It was the width of the entire school, which was about 50 meters, and then it went another 50 away from it, making a large square with a stone floor. However, past it, on the left as you enter, was a massive field, around 200 meters long in each direction, easily bigger than the entire school. We were then taken back inside to the auditorium. Children eagerly talked to each other, excitedly thinking about the big playground and the field. I stood by myself looking around to see if there was anything else there and apart from another door on the auditorium that most definitely lead to the field, there were only some banners up. As I was looking at them a clap echoed from the stage.

Everyone stopped talking and looked over. Miss Anguis smiled at us and spoke.

"I'm happy you are all excited to start! Now, let's get into lines to go to your classroom. If I call your name, please line up in front of me." She walked over to the left side of the auditorium and took out a piece of paper and began shouting names. The children called walked over and lined up, and I couldn't help but notice that all of them had nice clothes, an actual backpack, kept hair, smug looks... Of course! These must be the rich, noble kids, and right now everyone would be divided from nobles and peasants, like me. That seemed to be the case as Miss Anguis called out names once again this time on the other side of the auditorium.

"Arret Ouned!"

I walked over in line. The girl in front of me looked over and realising I'm not one of her friends promptly ignored me. I was fine with that. The noble line left first of course, and seemed to head upstairs, which was the one place we didn't see in the tour. Guess it was the cliche noble vs peasant school scenario. That was expected, of course. After theirs, our line moved and we headed to the first classroom on the left. We walked inside and sat at the top of it. It looked like my college classroom from Earth, with benches on either side, and a walkway down the middle, but the benches weren't elevated. Inside the classroom, sitting at the teacher's desk, was an old woman with grey hair filing papers. She looked up seeing us and waved.

"Hello children, let's all have a seat."

Promptly, everyone went to a seat, the back ones filling up quickly, while the ones in front were avoided. I waited until everyone was seated before I sat down myself. Just so happens the only seat left was the one closest to the teacher, front row on the right closest to the walkway. I sat down, placing my bag under the bench, and scooted the wooden chair forwards. The teacher nodded, seeing all of us in a seat and picked up the chalk next to her and began to write on the blackboard.

"Hello everyone, my name is Mrs. Ocodrep," she wrote her name on the board. "And we shall start the first lesson with teaching you all how to read." There was a groan around the class. I began to sweat. I already knew how to read, I could finish books in no time. Of course we would learn how to read, most 5 year olds can't in the 17th century! Well, not the peasant ones anyway. Mrs Ocodrep, which I have began to shorten to Mrs O, pointed at a letter with one hand and to someone with another.

"What is your name, young lady?"

"M-May." She said.

"May, dear, can you tell me what letter this is?"

"Uhm..." May thought for a but before exiting it a shot. "U?"

"Sorry May, but that's incorrect what about you? What is your name?"

My heart skipped when she pointed at me, but I answered calmly.

"Arret."

"Arret, do you know what letter this is?"

"O."

"Correct! Its O!" She moved on to the next letter and asked, getting a correct answer from a very anxious boy sitting towards the back. Then it was O again and she asked expectong us to remember but it took 4 questions before she got the correct answer.

"We have seen this letter before, please remember it!"

This was going to be a long day.

...

I was right. After her name, she made us do the alphabet until the lesson ended. Next was maths, which was just us counting, then it was breaktime. Mrs O lead us outside the class and down the hall, but we didn't go to the playground with the field like the people we saw coming down from upstairs. We went to the courtyard, joining the other years. The children in my class were clearly agitated by this, complaining, and some asking Mrs if we could go to the playground. She just shook her head, and it seemed to me she was sad. We eventually spread out and I was left alone again. Something I realised just now was how tall I was compared to everyone else. I was at least a few centimetres taller than everyone from my class, except 2 people, being a pair of twins sitting the closest to the door that were a smudge taller than me. I spotted them now, they were looking around and then approached a child who was alone walking and stopped her. I proceeded to see them get really close to her and tell her something. A twin looked around, maybe to look out for teachers, while her sister kept talking to the child.

"H-hello."

I turned to my right, seeing a dark skinned boy with gold, wavy hair looking downwards at his feet.

"M-my name i-is Rohan. Nice to meet you."

"Oh, hello. My name is Arret."

He looked around anxiously, leaving us in an awkward silence. I better fill it in.

"W-wanna be friends?" He suddenly asked, breaking the silence before I could.

"S-sure." I accepted. The boy visibly relaxed. I looked at him again, he wore around the same clothes as me, so he was a peasant. Seems like everyone in this courtyard is.

"So, where do you sit?" I ask him.

"Uhm, next to the window at the back." He responds. So he was sitting in the protagonist seat, great. Looking at him again, I saw that something wasn't really right. His skin... it looked a little cracked? At his joints, his skin looked kind of cracked, as if it was stone. Well it doesn't concern me.

Me and Rohan talked for a bit longer, though he seemed to keep the conversation afloat, while I was just reacting to whatever he said. He talked mostly about how things are like at his house, about his dog, toys, siblings meanwhile I was nodding along, not knowing what to say. I'm not great at this. We returned to the class and began the next lesson. Mrs O pulled out a small book, the title of it being "Save the Kingdom" and had a picture of a Knight raising his sword to the sky. And so, the reading lesson began.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

...

At least that lesson was interesting; I learnt a children's book that apparently was based off a real story, so it must have some basis in reality. That means its the closest I could get to a history class. The book was about a Knight saving a Kingdom, as the title implies. We haven't finished it yet, hell we aren't even past the first chapter, so I don't know what happens in it except for the fact that knights protect cities and that the main character was a Knight. The next lesson was just more learning of the alphabet. Then it was lunch. We didn't get to leave the classroom, needing to eat inside. Everyone stood up and sat next to their friends. I also sat up and looked around for Rohan, the only person I knew. I found him at the back, alone, and went to join him. I took out my food, just some bread with a slice of cheese wrapped in cloth. I quickly ate it all, before I look at Rohan, who was eating bread with grape jam he had a jar full of, waiting for him to start a conversation.

"S-so how is school?" He asks me.

"Kind of easy." I reply truthfully. I didn't see a reason to lie, this was my friend, or at least future friend, and I felt it was OK to do so.

"Yeah I think so as well." He responded before taking another bite.

The next lesson Mrs made us all line up and go to the laboratory. We weren't allowed inside when we had a tour so when we entered we were kind of surprised. The room as square but the tables were rounded, as if spinning around the teacher's desk in a semi circle. Behind the desk sat a woman with glasses thicker than the table, clearly made to protect her eyes, along with a white lab coat filled with stains of every colour.

"Ah, welcome. Today I'll be teaching you some alchemy. The most important part of alchemy are ingredients, and..." Her voice was deadpan with no emotion at all. I was excited to learn some alchemy but then we were learning the different seasons of the year. I was tempted to sleep, but my usually sleepy self was full of energy. Guess I could do the best next thing. I looked within myself. Over the years I not only made mana breathing an unconscious action, I have also tried to improve it. There was always something to improve, and I get bored especially easily. The default mana breathing was like a bowl of water being stirred at a normal speed. It rushed against the sides of the bowl, aka my core, and expanded it, increasing the size. Eventually, the corre can't expand so it pushes back, condensing the mana, and the cycle begins again.

The harder the waves hit, the faster my core grows. However, I can't make the mana move faster with the breathing, there just isn't enough energy coming in to do so. Maybe it would work faster in a more mana rich environment, but right now I didn't have access to one. I had to input my own energy into the system. I trained my mana manipulation a bit when I was lying breathless on the floor after training, and discovered it was easier to move mana inside of me than outside. That made it easier for me to develop a certain breathing. When the mana is stirred, it creates a whirlpool in the middle, which I use as an indicator of the strength the mana is pushing with against my core. The deeper the stronger it is. This is why I named this Deep Breathing.

I took in a long breath in, and I didn't stop. I needed to add my own energy, and it was easier when I had constant mana coming in. I controlled my mana and sent it out through my body. The closest point was my fat reserves, which I converted into energy and absorbed it to convert it to mana. My core, and maybe all mana, seemed to be able to convert energy, be it chemical or not, into mana. This seemed to not be a 100% exchange, as I felt my core heat up a bit, and I remember it created some light as well when I tested it in the dark. I didn't have much fat, considering I am a peasant in a mostly medieval world. Or is it victorian? What easier the in between called?

I couldn't use my fat much, I just use it to get to the other parts easier, feeding my mana on it to quickly move it up. To my heart. Cardiac muscles were unconscious and constantly moved. I could use excess energy from it to gain more mana. It was a big jump from fat to vital organ but it was fine, it only decreases my heart rate by 10 to 20 beats per minute. I surrounded my heart in mana and every beat sent a pulse through it all the way to my core. There was slight pain, that was like someone stabbed me in the heart, and I strained to not freak the hell out until my heart went to a safe level. After about a minute, I saw it was stable and looked at my core. The whirlpool was significantly deeper, and I think will increase my training by around 2 to 3 times.

However, there were some minor setbacks. I opened my eyes and the teacher was explaining autumn. We had started in the spring. It took a while to get going, which could be improved. Second, I couldn't keep it up in any form of high stress. Any significant change in heart beat could make it have an irregular beat and lead to... I didn't actually know, I just heard the term in a show detailing the daily life of ambulances and it didn't sound good. But it's not only a physical limit, it's also a mental one. I doubt I could speak right now, let alone plan and fight. I didn't even attempt to move in my tests in fear.

2 to 3 of those could be improved, but the heart beat conundrum might remain a limitation forever. There was also the fact that since it relied on breathing, if I got in a fight, or went underwater, this would be useless. I stopped using Deep Breathing and returned to my usual breathing, slowly extracting mana strands from the heart to not mess it up, and retracting them into my core. I need to figure out the kinks of it and I'll be confident enough to use it most of the time in school, not just when bored. I refocused on the lesson, listening to how and why the seasons change. They seem to realise its because of the planet, so at least that stays the same.

Maybe I could take energy made by my voluntary muscles? That won't work, if I only take it from one it might mess something up, but I can't take it from all of them. Wait, why can't I? I mean, I can't now but maybe later. Ok add that to a list. Wait. I can make energy into mana, and I can take energy from muscles. Spells take mana to make and use...

I might have found a solution for all the mages with low wisdom but high intelligence.

...

The lesson ended and we all exited the room. Lead by our teacher, we were taken back to the atrium, waiting for the nobles to come down the stairs before following them. We were then taken outside and told to find our parents. I said goodbye to Rohan, and began to look for Mum. I found her waving at me and went up to her.

"How was school?"

"Good." I nodded.

She took my hand and we began walking back home.

"Did you make any friends?"

"Yeah, his name is Rohan."

"That's nice!"

She then smiled mischievously.

"And did you friend any girls?"

Mums are similar no matter the universe. I guess I should be embarrassed here but I don't want to make this world any more cliche.

"No, why?" I said innocently.

"Just curious~."

...

I lay in bed at home, the sunset painting the walls red and orange. I needed to remind myself that combat is not my priority, survival is. I needed to think of contingencies for all necessities. The easiest was shelter. I drew a pentagram and wrote around it, charging it with mana. I waved the Earth Wall spell around, before scattering the mana, and making a fire spell. Shelter is taken care of. Now for food and water. Snakes can go without food for a month because they can slow down their metabolism. I can do the same, except with mana. Just that I didn't know what I had to steal energy from to do that. Was it my stomach, small intestine, large intestine, liver? All of them? And would stealing energy from the kidneys make me use less water? Stelaing isn't really the right word, it's converting. So do I just convert energy from all of those or do I need to specify parts? I shall choose option 3: research.

...

A week has passed since my first day. We are halfway through the book about the knight, and still learning basic arithmetic. I have been tinkering with the whole energy conversion thingy while ignoring most classes that I could easily catch up on, such as arithmetic, literally no challange, and Science, I can just ask someone before the test. Yeah, there were tests every month apparently. I wasn't worried about those. The story of the knight has reached the middle. The knight hears of a planned attack on the city to steal the princess and proceeds to tell people about it, but they don't listen because he is weak. The city is attacked and the princess is kidnapped.

Considering this is a fable, it's moral must be something like, "don't ignore the weak" or something. Wait it's a children's book, for peasants, so it can't be that direct. Maybe something like "respect everyone"? Yeah sounds about right. The mana conversion project I have been on has improved, by that I mean I can cover my entire body and therefore theoretically steal from all my voluntary muscles. And I'm planning to test that today.

The school let out and I met with Mum, heading home. Once there I asked her to go to the park, which was next to my school, and close to my house; only a few streets away. Mum allowed me reluctantly, ruffling my hair and telling me to take care. I will try.

Once at the park, which was just a massive green field with some paths in it along with benches, I found an empty spot away from eyeshot behind a small hill. I looked around to make sure no one was looking and began to concentrate. My aura exited the vortex within my core and spread, akin to butter on toast, across my muscles. My abdomen, chest, legs, arms, neck, face, every single voluntary muscle. Once there I decide to sit down. That shook my mana, some of it breaking and moving off the muscle. I moved it back and stared up at the blue sky.

I started the conversion.

I gasped as I tried to take a breath in, the intercostal muscles not strong enough to expand and let more air in. I didn't breathe deeper, keeping it shallow; I didn't want to break the mana round those. I felt weak, and had a weird feeling as my muscles could barely move. I moved my eyes, or tried to but they stuck in place. I tried to move them again, managing a small nudge. Then I tried again and the mana broke, allowing me to move them around fine. Let's see if it's working. I look within myself at the core and HOLY-

It's spinning quickly, violently. So powerful the middle reached the other side and is now a tunnel to the other side of the core. Then it began to hurt. The core was stretched too quickly, and I quickly changed the direction of the force, making the mana stretch the core upwards and downwards for around a minute before that began to hurt as well. A sharp pain rang out as I moved the mana back to its original orientation and made me joly up, holding my stomach. The mana broke off my arms, back, abdomen and chest. I stood quickly before falling, the muscles to weak to hold me before the mana broke off them as well. I looked inside again and saw that the mana returned to its passive whirlpool state.

My mana core burned like a muscle after the most intense workout, which it was. I curled up into ball and rolled on the floor, breathing deeply in and out, initially hindered by the weak intercostals before the mana broke off them as well. Quickly, I took in the rest of the mana back into the core and made it stop moving as the core stabilised. I saw that my core was not full anymore, only at around 95 percent capacity. It increased in size by 5 percent. In around 2 minutes.

It worked but...

My arms shivered from the strain, legs shaking. I tried sitting up but my back shook hard enough to put me back down and my butt yelled out from the weight. Note to self: Don't use this right before initiating plan B. That's why I was here in the park in the first place. After about 5 minutes, my muscles didn't hurt as much, allowing me the ability to stand and move again. I really had to work on that. Right, so the first experiment was a success, considering I didn't die, or was permanently paralysed. Now for the other experiment. Considering I can exchange energy from the muscles to my mana core, I should also be able to exchange mana from my mana core to my muscles. I surrounded my muscles in mana once again. I took a deep breath in, and then pumped mana into my muscles. I felt any remaining pain get waved away. I moved forwards and was able to walk. I didn't get super strength, that's good to know. Now to put more mana in. I built up mana in my legs, and pushed forwards. I leapt 5 meters forward, falling and rolling immediately after. My muscles seemed a little hurt from that, I must have torn them. Right, I see. Must mean that since I'm giving my muscles more energy, they're able to output more strength, but since my muscles are not conditioned, they can only handle so much. That was overshadowed by the fact that the longest long jump on Earth was around 9 meters, with a run up, and done by a trained professional athlete. What I did was me just pushing forwards with one of my feet, and I'm a 5 year old with little training.

Time for the final test and the thing I hoped to work the most. I again wrapped mana around my muscles, but just the arm this time. I put mana into my bicep and tricep of my right arm. And then I moved the mana inside of it. I carefully moved my arm and at the same time made the mana revolve around the muscle. Muscle growth works by muscle cells being replaced or repaired after being damaged. What I'm doing is damaging my muscles cells as I move my arm, and also applying pressure to the muscle, which is the reason I'm moving it; for the muscle to feel that pressure. After doing a small lift, I let it fall down, working on my tricep this time. After my hand touched the ground, I stopped the mana, retreating it back to my core. I lifted my left arm and began to draw a spell. I learnt this spell immediately after arriving in the city, learning it from a book I found at school, which seemed to originated from the second floor. It was a simple heal spell. A heal spell. A spell that repairs.

Plan B for Beefy is finally getting some real progress after all of this time.