The next morning Robert and I met up before heading to cafeteria to meet with Evelyn. The day before we decided that if I found that their food was poisoned, I would say I was not looking forward to sparring with Robert for some reason or other. If it was good I would look at my food and nod before eating.
It might make me look a little weird, but I was beginning to like Robert and Evelyn and felt that looking a little weird was a sacrifice I could accept. Besides, once I was finished with school, I was planning on joining the Adventurers Guild and travelling around and seeing the world.
Breakfast came and went with nothing big happening. As I ate, I reflected on how quickly things had changed since arriving at Ascension. The quiet morning offered a rare chance to gather my thoughts, to think about Robert and Evelyn, the friendships I was building, and how those relationships might shape the challenges ahead. I couldn’t help but let my thoughts wander to the day ahead, how I would handle the combat class, what new faces I might meet, and whether I’d finally start getting the hang of life at Ascension. The quiet morning felt like the calm before the storm, a moment to collect myself before diving into the challenges waiting just around the corner.
I did go over and apologize to Devin sincerely. Telling him that because of the nature of the school and how it felt like everyone that I had met with Robert constantly wanted to just suck up to him I decided to just have fun and be rude. He was actually very calm about it and apologized as well. He let his sense of propriety get the better of him instead of considering the fact that at the school everyone was equal.
He did ask that I try not to disparage others though. According to him they would be less likely to forgive me than he was. After that little chat I thought I might be able to get along with him. Maybe not as well as I did with Robert, but still better than some of the suck ups that were around Robert yesterday.
After breakfast we went to our first class of the day, Fundamentals of Combat and Strategy. It turned out that the class was in the arena and as I thought, there were multiple other classes going on as well.
Robert, Evelyn, and I all went on to the field, seeing a group of kids who looked lost made us think that was probably the group we should be with. As we were walking to the group Instructor Remy came out and also walked to the group.
“Alright, all the first years gather up, I want everyone over here now.” Instructor Remy’s voice boomed throughout the arena, so loud that it seemed to reverberate off the walls. I could feel the vibrations in my chest, and a hush fell over our group as we exchanged uncertain glances. Some students straightened instinctively, as if his voice alone demanded discipline, while others fumbled awkwardly, caught off guard by his intensity. Some of the other classes paused mid-drill, their curiosity piqued as they turned to see the source of the commanding voice. It was impossible not to be drawn in by his presence, authoritative, magnetic, and impossible to ignore. “Jace, Prince Robert, this is perfect, you two are going to be the student aids. I don’t have anyone who can help with blunt weapons, or spears, but we will make do.”
Robert and I looked at each other before nodding and heading toward Instructor Remy.
“Most of you in this class have some form of knowledge on how to fight. Be that some small amount of training or just trying to fight on your own. We will start every class with a warmup and stretching, then we will work out for a bit before we do some light sparring. If I pair you with either of these two you will give it your all.” Instructor Remy said pointing to Robert and me. “If you do not, they will and they will beat you silly, do you understand? Good! Now everyone does three laps around the stadium, Prince Robert and Jace I expect you two to finish first and be ready to help me prepare for the workouts. Begin!”
As soon as he said begin Robert and I took off, running as fast as we could while still being able to finish all three laps. While being scouted as a potential early delver was nice, it came with expectations I was not expecting. I only knew that they were placing these expectations on us to try and help us improve, because of my past life.
Robert and I stayed neck and neck for a bit before I glanced over at him, only to see him doing the same. “There won’t be a debate this time I am definitely going to win.” I said with a slowly growing smirk that was a match for Robert.
We both turned and pushed ourselves to the fullest, each trying to outdo the other. I took the lead early on, but Robert stayed close behind. Every so often he would push past me, and I would have to dig just a little deeper to push past him.
By the time we got to the last hundred or so yards we were both panting and covered in sweat. Instructor Remy had a massive grin knowing that he was the catalyst for the friendly rivalry between us. As we drew closer, he yelled out to us that he would decide who the winner was, and we split each trying to reach him first. The last few steps we each leaned just that little bit more and slapped his outstretched hands.
As I came to a stumbling stop the first thing, I did was put my hands over my head taking deep breaths. “I won right?” I asked between pants. Only to hear Robert saying the same thing at almost the exact same time.
Instructor Remy started laughing hysterically, “HA, it was a tie boys! Looks like you will both have to do a lot more training!” As he spoke, we both looked back only to realize that we had actually lapped the others. We each took a minute or two to catch our breaths before going to grab some of the workout equipment.
We set up ten different stations for the fifty-odd students in the class. Each station focused on a specific aspect of physical training: push-ups, pull-ups, weighted squats, speed bag drills, obstacle courses, and even a station for practicing precision strikes on dummies. The variety ensured that everyone worked on different skills and improved their overall fitness, making it clear that well-roundedness was a priority in our training.
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As we worked through the setup, I couldn’t help but notice the mix of reactions from the other students, some dived into the challenges with eager determination, while others hesitated, clearly intimidated by the intensity of the tasks ahead. A few struggled with the heavier weights or the precision drills, their frustration palpable, but they kept at it, driven by the instructor’s sharp gaze and encouragement. Then we gathered everyone up and got them lined up to follow Instructor Remy in stretching.
The rest of the class was pretty boring overall, we stretched for a bit then worked out starting with an entire upper body workout. After that Instructor Remy had everyone separate into pairs. The two that finished after Robert and me, were paired with us and told to go all out. He was going to evaluate them and see how they stood with their combat. While I try not to be rude about others when it comes to them learning something, everyone starts somewhere after all, it was very boring.
“You have all seen what those who have pushed themselves to get better can be, neither of their talents improves their strength or endurance. Now you have a goal to work towards, tomorrow we will be doing the same thing with just a different muscle group.” Instructor Remy stated while pointing at Robert and myself.
As everyone walked away Robert and I met back up with Evelyn. I looked over at her apologetically, “Sorry Evelyn, we should not have just ditched you like that.” I said and Robert nodded his head in agreement.
Evelyn shook her head, still somewhat out of breath from the workouts and very sweaty. “No, you both were just doing what the instructor told you to do. Besides the two of you are the strongest in the class. Not that the other students really believe how much stronger you are than them, and I am the weakest in the class. I do recommend the two of you sparring or something tomorrow to show everyone just how strong you are.” Evelyn suggested
“I don’t know if I want another spar, Jace is a sore loser.” Robert said while grinning.
“You’re joking, but I’m not sure I want to spar either. Most of the class already doesn’t like me for just hanging out with Rob. If they see me fighting him toe to toe, who knows how they will take that.” I said thinking about how everyone kept eyeing me throughout the class.
Evelyn just smiled and shook her head at my thoughts before leading the way for us to go to Magical Theory and Talents. The class was held in one of the buildings and was in a classroom setting. Evelyn once again made us sit at the very front of the class.
As we waited for everyone to make it to the class, another girl entered and hesitated briefly before sitting down next to me. She moved with a quiet deliberation, as if trying not to draw attention to herself. Her gaze flitted around the room, avoiding direct eye contact, and she seemed to shrink slightly into her seat, exuding an air of shyness. She was on the shorter side at 4 feet 2 inches tall. She had a heart shaped face, with long brunette hair. She seemed a little shy as when she saw me look at her, she just nodded her head before taking her seat.
“Hi, I’m Jace. What’s your name?” I asked reaching my hand out to shale hers.
Barely taking the tips of my fingers, she shook my hand, “Madison” she responded in a voice barely above a whisper.
“I promise we’re not nearly as scary as Instructor Remy made us seem.” I told her while gesturing at Robert and myself. Though Evelyn was in between us, so she was pointed to as well. “This is Prince Robert and Princess Evelyn. Evelyn is the brains to Robert and I’s brawn. What about you? What can you do?” I asked, trying to get Madison to open up a little and engage us.
As I spoke Evelyn stood up and walked over to me and smacked me on the back of the head when I was finished. “Sorry about him, he is a big softy though so don’t worry about him. I’m Evelyn and don’t worry about the prince and princess thing, everyone is equal at Ascension.”
Evelyn continued to talk to Madison and did her best to get her to open up, even going so far as to push me from my seat and taking it from me. When the instructor finally showed up, she had learned quite a bit about Madison.
She was the daughter of Viscount Maris, and she had the ability to create and manipulate water. She was the girl that I saw that had the dragon made out of water on her shoulder at the entrance exams. Her talent was extraordinary, capable of shaping water into intricate forms or devastating attacks, something that could easily set her apart in any group. However, she had spent almost all her time alone growing up except for the maids around her home, which left her unsure of how to use her abilities effectively in a team setting. This was why she was so shy when I spoke to her, despite the immense potential she clearly possessed.
The instructor that came in was an attractive woman. She stood at 5 foot 4 inches tall, with an oval-ish face and long straight blonde hair. She seemed to be the type to smile a lot due to the smile lines on her face and I expected her to be in her late twenties to early thirties.
She introduced herself as Instructor Salise. I won’t bore you with the details, but the class was actually pretty interesting. We did not get into all the details, but the class was basically to go over all the information that is currently known about talents, as well as everything that is currently known about magic. Being from a world that did not have magic I was looking forward to learning about it.
After that we went to lunch, Evelyn dragging poor Madison along with us. It looked like our group had just grown to four. I wasn’t sure if Evelyn planned on having Madison join us in delving dungeons, but personally I felt that Madison might be a better fit for Robert. Madison seemed to be very timid, and he could use that in his group to calm him if he started being a little over eager. I on the other hand, had Evelyn to keep me in line.
I guess I should mention that classes did not start until 9am so we were able to grab breakfast earlier and have time to digest before class started. We then went on to combat at 9 for two hours, before magic class which was one hour. Then we had lunch from noon to 1pm when our third class started Dungeon Exploration and Survival. Another two hour class where we were split up into random groups of four and told to work our way through a maze that has all sorts of traps.
Our instructor for the class, Instructor Shortz, would wander over the top of the labyrinth giving us pointers. It was simultaneously boring and fun, walking along for several minutes before trying to figure out the trap, or falling in a pit trap that was only a foot or so deep, being hit by rubber balls, things like that. My Panoptic Sense came in pretty handy there as I was able to notice if there when something looked less natural than others.
The last class of the day was kind of a catchall class in my opinion, Applied Ethics and Problem Solving. The class was taught by Instructor Sagan, and after he explained the class, I felt it would boil down to him giving us word problems that we would have to answer. For example, he posed a scenario where a group of adventurers had to decide whether to save a trapped villager or secure a vital relic that could stop a larger disaster. These kinds of dilemmas were designed to test our critical thinking and force us to weigh immediate consequences against long-term outcomes.
Some of the problems would be about who you would save and why, while others would be actual puzzle-type scenarios that have a right and wrong answer. For instance, one puzzle involved figuring out how to safely distribute limited supplies among a group stranded in the wilderness, ensuring everyone could survive until rescue. This would force us to actually think through problems instead of just spitting out whatever our parents told us.