I can feel the heat around me from the battle. Rocks softly melting around the ground near me. I take my hand off my wound to see my hand now stained in crimson red. 

That's a lot more blood than I'm ok with leaving my body. My attention is taken from seeing a giant lightning bolt off in the distance fight the big bad. The one who used it is the protagonist of this story. 

My eyes quickly go back to the giant dragon in front of me. A black window appears in front of me that says { Slay the Dragon } Cool. 

Three Years Earlier 

The cold fear grips my mind once more as those dark words haunt me. His deep red eyes stare at me with this look that it has gained something vile. "Tu es aliquid alienum." 

I wake up to the sun on my face and a pounding at my door. Shit, it's the landlord. It seems I don't get a moment to just take a breath nowadays. I rush to the door and quickly unlock my door. 

Once the door opens, I see the fiery ginger hair of my landlord Angus Dragonbane. He is a dwarf who has been my landlord for the last two years. The angry look on his face tells me everything. 

"How many times must I tell you this?! Tell that damn school of yours to pay your rent on the first Tuesday, not the first Thursday! Also, keep it down at night. I know you're a night owl, but if you need to practice those sword moves, do it somewhere else or learn a simple silence spell." 

I give him a strained smile and say " I understand, sir. I'll stop by the head office to tell them about it." He points his finger at me and yells "Don't forget it, Eduard! You have a habit of forgetting these things." Yeah, I kinda do. 

"Ok. Well, stay safe if you stay out late. Those missing person cases make me worry." My smile turns soft at those words. I say softly "I will, Mr. Bane. Hey, I was thinking of stopping by the Rhodes Store. Do you need anything there?" 

He shakes his head and says "No I'm good. Just stay safe coming home, Eduard." I nod and close my door. Well, it's time to get ready. A breath in and out. { Get to school early } Fuck. 

An Hour Later

The giant bell rings out as it signals the start of class for everyone in the Tyson Adventuring Academy. Anyone not already in class rushes to their seats. I have to follow the rule of a side character so I can only be late and make a scene if the protagonist asks me. Another one is if I'm given a prompt to do something.

Oh, right, I'm Eduard or simply Ed. If you're looking for the protagonist, go to the seat next to me. As I was narrating to keep some sanity the door to our teachers' office opened to reveal them. They are a dragonkin. A race that resembles more dragon than man but has a man-like body. If a dragon without wings were standing up like a man and similar in size to one then you get the dragonkin. The one standing before me has red scales so his ancestry is from the fire clan. 

He clears his throat as I see a few late people rush to their seats and our teacher says with a booming voice "Thank you for being here today. Now since today is the first day of the semester I shall go over the review of what is expected in my class. I Professor Klein expect you all to hold to the standard I ask of you today. This is not a place for you all to slack off. You have made it to this grand Academy to become an adventurer or something that needs similar skills." 

Some nods follow and he turns the blackboard behind him. He writes down Quest and Grand Adventures 101. As he writes a few bullet points my ears pick up some of my classmates whispering to each other. They so desperately are trying to be quiet but it seems the whole class can hear them. 

"Did you hear about the rumors that the princess has joined this year?" 

"No way. That's got to be some hogwash. No way the princess will want to join an adventuring school. Isn't she a druid? Wouldn't she fit in more at a spellcasting school?" 

Before the two could keep their gossip going a cough interrupts them. They turn to see a stern look coming from Professor Klein. They slink back to their desks and Professor Klein clears his throat. He goes to speak but the door opens to show a woman of gnome race. She isn't wearing the school's uniform so she must be a teacher. Her bush blond hair seems taller than her head. Her brown eyes land on Professor Klein. 

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Klein says in a softer voice "Professor Tula? Is something wrong?" The now-named Professor Tula shakes her head and says "No. Some good news. It seems you have a transfer on the first day. We were asked to let her introduce herself to the class." Klein nods and Tula steps aside to let someone in. 

A woman with green skin and horns. Her eyes are a solid purple and her hair is a deep green. She is a devilkin and the princess of Doja. This is Camilla Doja and she is here. Oh fuck she is going to be one of his love interests. I look over to see Travis is looking right at her and Mira is looking at Travis with a worried look. That worry may grow more once the two grow closer. If they don't then that is the oddest way of not using a plot hook. 

Oh yeah, let me introduce Mira Malstorm. If I had to label what type of trope she could inbody would be the best friend love interest. She was Travis's next-door neighbor and like many little kids played together. I was forced to try and befriend him. Thankfully I was ok at playing child games. We bonded and were the best of friends. She moved for a few years and then came back with the biggest crush on Travis. 

She is human and has light blond hair with brown eyes. She has specialized as a Ranger. They are the fighters of the wilds. They use many weapons and work well in a particular environment they train in. They can be many things like monster hunters, the best fighters with an animal campion, and many other things. Mira is a relentless type of Ranger that uses many weapons and you can bearly get your footing once she ambushes you. The only reason I could win is to abuse my dark affinity to gain an edge. 

My attention is cut back to the Princess saying "Hello there. I am starting my first day here and would like it if you all treated me just as another classmate." As she bows my curiosity is peaked as I sense some holy magic from her. So she is either a holy paladin or a cleric of a holy god. Well maybe a warlock is she was lucky to gain her power from a friendly angle but that is very rare.

The students talk amongst themselves and I see Travis talking with Mira. I hear Mira saying "It's odd that she transferred here of all places. Do you think it's anything to do with the King insulting the Grand Magus?" Oh yeah, I remember hearing some of the old ladies outside the bakery talking about it the other day. Travis says "Well maybe she just wanted to be an adventure instead of some mage stuck in a tower. We will not know till we ask."

A loud cough silences everyone and it comes from Professor Klein. He says "Ok then. Well, Ms. Doja if you can please go to that empty seat." I look around to find an empty seat in the classroom. My eyes land on the seat to my left. Fuck. The Princess sits there and beams a smile at me. I just simply look to the front but instead of seeing the back of people's heads, I see they are staring in my direction. I sighed and pleaded in my mind for the professor to begin the class. 

One hour later 

The bell rings and I rush out of here to escape the rush of students trying to brown-nose the princess. I go to find the library since my next class is my wizard one. A wizard is the ultimate spellcaster since they learn spells from scrolls and books, or simply teach the spell to someone else. I am one but my speculation is Blade Mage. I mix magic into fighting with swords or any type of weapon. 

As I find a quiet place away from the hoard of students I get a breath of air. Okay. This is not the worst of it. Just stay down and let Travis do the whacky things for him to be the protagonist. At least I'm not getting another prompt from those jackasses so just have a normal class period.

The Classroom 

As everyone sees the odd Mr. Moon run out of the class a few of his classmates think about him. The kind princess holds worry in her mind that she made a bad impression on the young man. She was able to tell he did not enjoy the attention of his peers. Travis sighs and says to Mira "You still think he has changed." Mira shakes her head as she says "I still do but it's good to see there is still some of the old ed there. Remember when he would run as fast as he could on Fridays to get home early? He left us every time." 

Back with Ed 

I make my way to the classroom to find an elf is my professor. He seems to be a wood or high elf. Sadly between the two unless you find them in their homelands you can not tell the difference. He puts a hand through his black hair and his sharp eyes look at everyone in the classroom. Those vibrant orange eyes hold a power behind them I have only seen in dragons or devils. 

I just take a seat and it seems there are not many people in this class. Once I take out my materials for the class I just sit there calmly till class starts. My thoughts wander to my teacher. He and Professor Klein are new this year. There would be no way that if we had a teacher like this last year I would know if we did. 

The bell rings and the professor gets up to the blackboard. He simply writes down Mr. Bareth. It was written simply as well. No fancy cursive or chicken scratch handwriting. Odd. He then waves his hand in the air to have a small portal appear and he reaches in it. Good Gods, he must know a lot of spacial magic or has the inventory gift from some higher power. 

When he speaks it fills the room and he says " I will not waste your time with simple introductions you all have stuck with these classes because you have chosen to walk this path. Today we will go over the many types of magic attributes people have. Now many people know of the simple ones like Fire, Lightning, or Ice. Then there are the odd ones like Gravity, Mind, or Dark. The last category is the once-in-a-lifetime affinities like time, twilight, or if you were from the Seig family a once in forever affinity. Now it was the old King of Magic Seigmund had the affinity of all. The reason I'm talking about this is I want you all to test your affinities in these orbs I'll be passing out." 

Glass orbs float to us all as I can feel the magic pull from the orb. Once it's placed down in front of me I force my magic into it. Fill it up like a bucket of water. The clear orb grows dark as it's confirmed for the hundredth time that my affinity is dark. I sigh and place the orb to the side. 

Curiosity gets the better of me and I look to others orbs. I see one is fire, another is alchemy. The one to get my full attention is the orb glowing in a way to show they have metal affinity. That's a very rare case. 

The Professor looks at each orb and his eyes land on mine. He gets this look in them that surprises me. Normally when other wizards see my affinity they show pity or something like I'm a failure for it. What I see in his eyes seems more like curiosity. 

"What is your name?" I gulp and say "I'm- Eduard sir." He nods and says "You should head to the combat instructor. After he evaluates your skills, come back here." The thought of even asking why doesn't even enter my mind till I'm halfway to the combat teachers class. 

Well hopefully he's not in this class right now. { Get the attention of Darren } Fuck.