The boys wake up in their dorms at their usual times to go to school, but when both of them get ready for the day, they notice that no one is around.

"Yo bro, you know what they have here?" Marcus asks

"Nah what?"Götz replies

"Showers." Both of them rush towards the bathroom and find two small showers with the showerhead missing. Both of them take despicably long showers and are clean for the first time in their entire lives.

"We’re spick and span now," Marcus says.

"What a weird plot point to add into a normal series" Götz replies.

I remembered the old "they don't shower" plot point and didnt feel like removing it. They both walk out of the shower, clean for the first time in their lives. After this, they brush their teeth, get up and start heading down to the cafeteria for breakfast. As they walk outside, they notice how dead the atmosphere feels, it's as if the entire capital has disappeared overnight. They go to the cafeteria and notice that it's closed.

"Open from 8am to 11pm. Why do they stay open so late ?" Marcus says

"I have no earthly idea." Marcus replies. As they walk through the street, they notice the time on a clock reading 5:00.

"Three hours to kill, what do you want to do?" Götz asks

"Let's study that book we got." Marcus says

The boys head back to the dorm, the sun begins to slowly peak out of the cracks of the dome. The sky has a dark blue tint as the sun begins to rise slowly. They head back into their empty dorms and begin to read the book.

"The basics of mana absorption by H. Bush." Marcus says

"I can read " Götz says,

"Fuck you too then. "

Mana absorption is the most fundamental thing taught at any level of any school. If you are reading this, then that probably means that you are from outside the dome and want to get the basics down. While most books will talk about slowly absorbing things, you don’t have the chance to do that. You most likely need to be at the light red stage to not be exposed, but the orange stage is much more preferred. This means you are going to have to be on the fast track of all fast tracks, and it's my job to get you there. The first most important step is to be in an area that is calming, or at least, there is nothing there that requires your immediate attention. Focus on your breath. Make sure it is through the nose and out of the mouth. After this, make sure to focus on your core. Now the core sounds confusing, but just focus on your sternum. This is where the fast versus slow teaching occurs. When breathing for mana absorption, it is often taught to be done slowly and with a slow, relaxed pace. We can’t afford that luxury. You need to breathe fast. As soon as your body gets in the air, release it. Once you become lightheaded, this is when you stop. After you feel lightheaded, think of something that makes you angry and this will train your fire element, if you think of something sad, it will help your water element. Something boring will help your earth, and something extremely apathetic will train your air element. The more intense the emotion, the more intense the focus on the element will be. Since we are going for an all-around training, you have to attempt to relive the most intense trauma of your life. This is why our method isn’t taught to the average person. Most people would commit suicide if they did that. It only works for those outside of the walls who have experienced the harshest of harsh. The apathy of seeing 18 dead men and women on a cart, the sadness of seeing someone you know there, the anger of society for taking them from you, and the tediousness of everyday life. These struggles and emotions are known only to us. So be sure to take your advantage over everyone else. Do this practice 5 times a day and in about a week you can reach the orange stage in magic. Once you reach the orange stage, continue reading, but until then, stay strong. "

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Damn that is a lot of information on one page," Götz says.

"Well, let's get to work then, huh." Marcus says.

Both of the teens begin to practice the new technique. After intense breathing, they stop. After a moment, tears begin to form in both of their eyes. Then they both wipe their eyes quickly and open them.

"Damn, my fucking chest feels weird." Marcus says

"Yeah, same here." Götz says

"I want to get this done before class, so I'm going to go again. What about you?"

"Fuck it."

After repeating this cycle, they both look at the clock and see that it is finally 8:00. They wash their red eyes and begin to walk to the cafeteria. When they get there, they notice that they are the only ones there at the time. Both of them shrug their shoulders and eat in the most vile and diabolical way and leave. This time there are many more people walking in the streets, and the campus feels alive again.

"What's the next class?" Götz asks

"They do a monday, wednesday, tuesday, thursday schedule, so it's gonna be new ones." Marcus replies

"I know that. That's why I asked." Götz replies, dumbfounded.

"Well, next is practical combat." Marcus says

"We are going to absolutely molly whop these rich bastards."

"Definitely, if i'm not mistaken, this is the class that teaches about the dome."

"What time is the class anyway?"

"9:00"

"What time is it?"

"8:55"

"Fuck"

They both sprint to their class, Marcus whips out the map and realizes that they were going the wrong direction. So they run back at full speed, trucking and stiff-arming those unfortunate enough to get in their way. As they ran at full speed at the poor bystanders, one of the men that Götz tanks happened to be much older than everyone else. He shouted something at the two, but they were too busy to notice it. As they walk in, they notice that the class is like a stadium with bleachers on either side and an arena in the front. They get to the class and sit down just before the professor walks into the class.

"Not even close," Götz says

"Not at all." Marcus says

While running in, they had failed to realize why the two seats that they sat in were empty. On Marcus's side, there was Theodora, and on Götz’s, there was the blond girl. After both of them look at their situation, they look at each other with a deadpan face. They communicated with only eyebrow raises and head movements, but the consensus that they reached was that it was not worth it to move, so they were just going to have to deal with it.

"Welcome to practical combat," the professor says. "Every other class started with an introduction, so will this one, Everyone turn to your neighbor, that is who you will be fighting with."

The boys turn to each other and start to get hype. It is always a fun debate amongst every man to see who wins in a fight, and now they get to see it- "Also, if you only have one person sitting next to you, that is who you will be fighting." The professor says

The excitement drains as they turn. They realize that they are going to have to fight a woman half their size at 9:00 in the morning.

"Let's start in the back. First is going to be Theodora versus... Marcus, please step into the arena. "