The problem with (Alex Moore)'s story is that it longs to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of magic. Instead, every child on his home planet and many across the realm grow up thinking that maybe they could be next.

- The Dancing Fang Redacted when asked about (Alex Moore)'s first achievement.

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Alex Moore woke up to the sun streaming in through his window. He had overslept, “Dammit!” He exclaimed, rolling out of bed and moving towards his dresser. The two were only a couple of feet apart. Getting a bedroom to himself as he entered his final year in the academy had been one of the highlights of the last twelve months. Moving into more spacious accommodations had become his goal for the next twelve.

He grabbed a change of clothes and got dressed, slowing down to make sure he grabbed everything he needed. Gathering himself at his door he took a deep breath, readying himself for the day. Then a voice came in from the common room, “Come on out, Alex.”

Alex let out his breath with no small amount of relief, the voice was just Marlin, his suitemate, which meant Becca wasn’t waiting for him out there. She would’ve called out to him herself after hearing the noise he made jumping out of bed. She also would’ve sounded annoyed instead of gleeful.

“She left you a note,” Marlin declared as Alex exited his room into the suite’s common area. Alex took in the space, once again appreciating the senior dorms. Sure, his bedroom wasn’t roomy, but the common area he shared with his suitemates had a couch, desks for studying, and a kitchenette for preparing meals at home. “Preparation for the future when you don’t have academy chefs making you three meals a day,” according to the instructors.

Only Marlin was in the common area since Blake and Jose were both early risers and would be out studying or training. Neither had received Common mana control certifications yet, so Alex assumed they would be out practicing if they could get one of the academy’s Tier 2s to operate a mana control chamber for them.

Marlin was Hispanic, and a bit under average height. This made him nearly a foot shorter than Alex, who stood at an intimidating 6’5”. Marlin had handsome features topped by hair that was cut for style. The Academy’s focus on preparation for magical combat led to many students keeping their hair short, but it wasn’t mandated.

“What does it say?” Alex asked, dread piling up in his gut.

Marlin cackled a bit at him, “You’re so whipped, man. She’s mad that you didn’t wake up on time to get breakfast together, again.”

Alex’s face burned crimson at the implication, “You know we’re just friends, shut up Marlin.”

Marlin just rolled his eyes, the mirth on his face still present, “Sure you are, didn’t you tell me you planned on fixing that just the other day?”

“Well…” Alex pushed off answering as he tried to find the right way to explain how things had gone down. Specifically, that he hadn’t asked at all.

“You told her you wanted to talk and then asked her about something else, again?” Marlin’s mirth was gone as his voice turned flat, “Seriously, man?”

Alex decided that it was far too early in the morning for this conversation, even if it was barely still morning, and moved over to the table to read the note. “You need to figure out how to wake up on time without me or someone else getting you. At least remember that we’re planning on meeting at the library at around noon.” He read aloud.

“She doesn’t sound that pissed off,” Alex noted, “If she was really mad she would’ve called me lazy or compared me to some animal.”

“You’re coping.” Marlin replied, “I left you some breakfast on the counter if you want to eat before heading over to the library to meet her.”

“My friends aren’t meeting up until noon,” Alex replied as he happily walked over to find some oatmeal flavored with strawberries, “I’ll probably go for some illusion fighting at the gymnasium first.”

“Or…” Marlin said while Alex took a bite of oatmeal.

Alex chewed and swallowed, “This is good, thanks, Marlin.” Purposefully ignoring the topic of Becca seemed like his best strategy to stop this conversation in its tracks.

“Listen, man, she’s definitely going to be even more pissed off if you don’t head over to the library.”

“She’s probably not even there, she doesn’t have a shift today. Neither of us has any studying left to do with graduation so close.” Alex replied, “Just because you still haven’t turned in all of your assignments doesn’t mean the rest of us are waiting until the last minute.”

Marlin feigned clutching his chest in hurt at the comment, “Harsh, man. I’m just trying to help.”

“I know you are, but I know Becca better than you do. Even if she’s at the library at this point she’s engrossed in a book and won’t even notice my absence.” Alex wasn’t lying to Marlin to change the topic, he and Becca had been friends for a decade and he felt confident that she had given up on their planned morning together when he failed to wake up.

“You sure?” Marlin asked, “Because I’m not trying to nag you about this, I just know how things can get with Amy if I forget something she wanted me to do.”

“Mission failed then,” Alex smiled briefly to show that he wasn’t that upset, “you’re definitely nagging at this point.”

“Whatever, man,” Marlin shrugged, “I might come along and get some practice in later, I’ve got some more work to do first.” Alex nodded in reply before turning to his oatmeal.

Marlin was more than a bit pushy about his relationship with Becca, but the truth was that Alex had no plans of pursuing a relationship before they had spent some time out in the wild clearing trials and getting more power. Tiering up would give him all the time in the world to pursue a relationship.

Marlin didn’t seem to understand Alex’s thought process and was rather persistent in his quest to get the two of them together. Marlin had been with his girlfriend, Amy, for the last 8 months and was convinced that she was the one for him. Alex was skeptical since Marlin had dated at least a few dozen of their classmates during their years at the academy. Then again, none of those relationships had lasted this long. Maybe Marlin had struck gold this time.

In the last few weeks, Marlin had gotten it into his head that Alex and Becca were meant for each other, which Alex didn’t disagree with. He had taken to enthusiastically chipping away at Alex’s resolve to focus on his friendships and on tiering up.

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Alex could appreciate that the man was just trying to be a good friend. They weren’t incredibly close despite being suitemates, mainly because Marlin tended to rag on Alex for being single, but Marlin was a good guy. He had finally told him that he would ask Becca out a few days ago just to get Marlin to shut up.

Sadly, that had only worked until Marlin figured out that he didn’t actually ask Becca out, and now they had essentially this same conversation every time they saw each other for the past forty-eight hours.

As suitemates, that was very often.

At least the oatmeal was good, Marlin really could cook. Alex’s annoyance with his friend faded away as he enjoyed his meal. Marlin wasn’t clueless enough to keep on prodding and had returned to the book laid out on his desk, taking notes while he read.

Alex glanced up at the clock while eating, and saw that it was a bit after 10. He had slept for two extra hours, yikes. No way Becca was waiting for him at this point.

After a minute, the silence started to feel a bit awkward. Alex worried that his comment about Marlin nagging had come across a bit too seriously, “What are you working on?” He asked.

“Some extra work for Instructor Martinez,” Marlin replied, “She wants me to demonstrate my control of ritual mana in an illusion again, she says I didn’t quite reach her standard for the Uncommon body I’m going with last time.”

Alex winced, “That’s tough. She’s having you draw another annotated diagram before you can attempt the test again?”

“If you don’t master the theory, you can’t handle the practical.” They intoned together, although Marlin’s frown was matched by a grin from Alex. Probably because he had already passed the practical and been approved for a ritual after graduation.

Deciding not to interrupt Marlin’s study further, Alex finished his food and washed his bowl before heading out, “See you around Marlin.”

The senior apartments were almost all found in the aptly named, senior dorms. Not all students lived on campus, but several students would live in the dorms part-time as their parents went out to challenge trials or on monster sweeps. The Academy was one of several places that would take care of the children of these adventurers and soldiers while they made the city’s surroundings a safer place.

Alex lived on the fourth floor. He walked past the other apartment doors in the hallway, glancing at the door to Becca’s apartment across the hall as he went. The Academy didn’t keep seniors of different genders on completely separate floors like they did younger students, but suites were still divided. No one else was out in the hall so he made his way to the stairs and then out of the building without anyone stopping him, then he took in the academy campus.

And remembered that he hadn’t grabbed a jacket, in the middle of December. At least the city’s arrays kept things relatively temperate, although no one would consider it nice.

Alex told himself it was just an excuse to warm up by jogging to the gymnasium as he began to make his way across campus. Waving and nodding to a few other students he recognized as he went. The Academy campus was picturesque. The lawns and bushes were manicured by a Tier 2 groundsman. The pathways were all made of stone, cut, and smoothed by magic. While most of the city was incredibly compact to make room for the city’s rising population, the Academy was allowed to sprawl.

The cold air was biting, but also kind of refreshing. Alex almost managed to convince himself that his forgetfulness had been a good thing as he jogged. When that failed, he instead distracted himself by trying to recognize the runes used to enchant magical infrastructure on campus. Most of the runes used for city enchantments were higher tier than he had learned. Luckily, he could still identify several runes that followed similar patterns to the lower tier versions with which he was familiar.

The most obvious array was the one under his feet, which gathered mana from the entire city, not just the academy. The city-wide array siphoned excess mana from the millions of people living in New Chicago, stripped it of any attunement, and stored it for future use.

The emplacement rituals that all academy students hoped to qualify for required the use of this mana. They made up a minuscule percentage of the overall mana input the city received but were still only given out to students with sufficient ability. Most of the mana went to powering other enchantments to make the city a better place to live. Alex knew of several famous enchantments, but there were plenty he didn’t know about as well. Excess mana from nearly a hundred million people allowed the city to achieve some truly wondrous feats.

Alex’s attention wandered over to one such example, the academy sundial. The enchantment was a personal accomplishment of the Dean, who had received a Rare achievement for creating it. The academy sundial kept the time unerringly, automatically adjusting for seasons and weather. The fact that the magical device had managed to do so with only cursory upkeep for a century was already impressive, but the enchantment was also linked to a projection array which allowed the time to be shown all over the city.

Clocks like the one in Alex’s apartment were just illusory projections, and the Dean’s work made it incredibly easy to add new locations.

When the Dean told the story, he described it as “a triumph against the forces of chaos.” Alex found that a bit dramatic, but had to admit that he had never lived without clocks before. Who knew how many classes he might’ve missed growing up if the clocks in student housing didn’t have built-in alarms?

With only two weeks to go until graduation, all classes were finished so that seniors could wrap up any last-minute work or practice they wanted to get in before entering Tier 0. The alarms had been shut off in the Senior dorms to let students sleep in without the need to adhere to a strict schedule. Alex had assumed that years of waking up at seven in the morning for breakfast and some morning exercise before class would stick with him anyway. He was rapidly learning that he might need to buy his own alarm enchantment after graduation.

As Alex contemplated how his life might’ve gone without the Academy’s alarm system, he was forced to revise his thoughts about the Dean’s storytelling. Maybe the man was onto something regarding the importance of telling the time.

Alex’s jog across campus ended up only taking a few minutes, as the dorms were pretty close to the gymnasium. It was one of the largest buildings on campus and fulfilled all of the functions of a gymnasium before the apocalypse. Alex had seen a few old-world gyms in movies and memories, but he’d also played sports growing up. The Academy was a blend of the old world and the new, although it focused less on the three Rs and more on preparing students for the trials out in the world as students grew older.

The massive building contained several fields for what had historically been outdoor sports, but through the power of magic had been moved indoors while still using natural grass. Alex hadn’t taken a class or an extracurricular with Instructor Davies in years, but he still remembered the way the man described turf with similar vitriol to how he described monsters.

To hear Instructor Davies talk, turf did similar things to people's knees as a monster would. The man had been a high school football coach before the Trialbringer brought mana to the world, and he was now in charge of extracurriculars at the academy. Reaching Tier 2 had given him plenty of longevity to continue pushing teenagers towards physical excellence, and a few of his older students liked to laugh about how he had been changed less by the apocalypse than anyone else.

Instructor Davies had been one of Alex’s favorite teachers in his middle years at the academy, and he spent a few minutes staring at the gymnasium, reminiscing about the years he’d spent here as a student. It had been a full decade since he’d passed the entrance exams to join the academy as a first-year, with dreams of becoming a swordmaster filling his head.

A full decade since he and Becca moved from a city orphanage, where they’d first met, and started learning everything they’d need to know to become powerful mages and defenders of New Chicago.

A decade that was going to come to a close in just two weeks, when he’d finally accept the Trialbringer prompt that popped up every few hours. He understood why the academy kept a full year of graduates waiting to accept the ascension together, but he couldn’t help the impatience. He couldn’t imagine being one of the students who had turned eighteen early in the year and needed to wait nearly the full twelve months. His birthday fell in September, so he’d only needed to wait around two and a half months.

Do you wish to begin the Trialbringer’s Path?

His thoughts had summoned the prompt again. He didn’t even consider saying yes and dealing with his pissed-off friends and disappointed instructors. He had already waited this long, he could handle another two weeks. The prompt faded as he resolved himself to wait a few weeks more.

Alex walked into the gym. It was time for some practice.