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The next day, Thursday, the phone’s alarm failed to wake Peter. A humid, small tongue on his face did a better job.

"Fuck… it's late…" the young man growled, checking the hour.

“Woof!” the pup made his presence known, adding another lick.

"No way! You're real?" Peter jumped out of bed, flailing his hands. "It was not a dream? Shit… I have an alien AI in my head…”

“Sorry, sorry… Didn't I put the pup in the bathroom? How did he get out?"

“Oh, fuck… I so much wished it was a dream,” Peter sighed. “You’re talking a bit more normal. How so?”

Pulling whatever jeans and T-shirt on him in a hurry, Peter made himself a sandwich, then rushed out with the dog on an improvised leash made of laundry rope. The noose proved too loose, and soon, he found himself running all over the main lawn to catch up with the little pest, who was jumping amock between groups of students to make them play with him.

Farewell, not attracting attention…

"Nice dog, Petey," Jack said. "What is it, a Malamut? A girl or a boy?"

"It's a boy," Peter said, surprised the jock talked nicely to him. You traitor! This is how you reward me for saving your life? he mentally scolded his companion. From all the students around, the warg has chosen Jack to play with and obviously liked it.

"There's a no-dog policy on Campus," Ariana appeared in the conversation. "You have to give him for adoption. I'll take him out of your incompetent hands, free of charge."

You cold-hearted bitch!

"The rules are ours to set as we see fit. That dog has an acceptable cuteness," a voice in their back said before Peter started arguing with his ex. "I'll allow it."

That voice belonged to the Alchemy teacher—nicknamed, unsurprisingly, Alchemy—and, at the same time, the Headmistress of the school. Brunette and good-looking, she appeared to be in her late twenties. However, Peter knew that could mean over a hundred, on Cultivators' standards.

"Thank you, teacher." Peter kneaded his hands in gratitude. "Do you want to walk the puppy sometimes?"

His slip of the tongue provoked a choir of gasps around the students. Offering one of their highest-ranked Cultivator teachers to walk a… dog? Yet the teacher smiled, and it reached her eyes, too. "On Sundays," she declared. "My class starts in five minutes. You better be there in time, Peter."

"Teacher's pet," Peter heard Ariana's insult as he ran back to his dorm, the puppy in his arms.

"Please, stay here and don't eat any more shoes!" Peter begged, throwing the pet inside and closing the door behind it after he snatched his phone and a few notebooks. There were only two more minutes before the beginning of the class.

"Woof!"

the System suggested.

Peter made it to the class with only a second to spare and took the first chair available. There was less than half the number of students than usual, which explained why the Campus had looked deserted the previous night. The most likely explanation, for Peter, was that many had taken a few days off before the summer holidays.

On the teacher's desk, a complex apparatus was arranged. New tubes, substances, and what he could swear were monster cores.

"Today, you take the first step toward preparing concentrated qi-pills," the teacher said. "Some of you will never taste them, as they would kill you," she looked meaningfully at Peter, then at the other normies around, "but knowing how to make them will grant you employment in any Cultivator clan. We'll start by dissolving the monster cores into the proper solvent and combining the result with reagents. It is most important to know the properties of each reagent to perfection."

The System exclaimed into Peter's head.

I won't die from a qi-pill?

Let me hear the lesson, you chatterbox.

Peter paid as much attention as possible for the remainder of the hour, writing down every detail. The Alchemy teacher was the one he disliked less. She was clear with her explanations, slowing down at times and asking if everybody understood. Another thing Peter liked about her was that she didn’t oblige the students to sit separately. Cultivators or normies were mixed, although the first were easy to detect by their robes, scarves, or badges. No self-respecting student would walk without at least one of those things.

During the class, Peter had to fight a lot against the need to sleep. Still, when the practical test ended, he scored second after Ariana and in front of the girl he had saved the prior day. There was another girl who was usually better than all three of them, but she was not there.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

When the bell rang, Peter let his head down on his desk, emptied of all his energy. The System was mumbling something, but he couldn’t hear a word. A soft touch on his shoulder made him raise his head.

"Hi… Peter… Are you available for a date today?"

The blonde girl’s voice was warm and sounded sincere. Bringing immense joy to Peter's soul, Ariana choked on the water she was drinking, letting the bottle fall on the floor and spitting out droplets over the girls she chatted with. The gossip club, Peter called them.

Got you, bitch! Peter reveled. "Sure… err…"

the System sussured in his mind.

"Regina, I look forward to it."

The AI imitated Ariana's voice quite well.

"At ten outside the campus, main entrance?" the girl asked. “We’ll go clubbing if it’s OK with you.”

Peter nodded, and Regina went away. Near the wall, the gossip club stared in his direction. Ariana frowned so badly that her eyebrows almost joined the tip of her nose. Their voices were similar to a nest of vipers hissing, but it was music to Peter’s ears. It meant they were upset.

Nevertheless, he had other worries. The next class was about monster parts preparation. The teacher arrived, pushed a cart, and distributed samples of monster body parts to be further dissected.

Now that I think back, they never taught us how to skin monster hides, only how to extract glands and stuff…

the System said.

Cut it, I’m working here.

Concentrating on the pituitary gland of a mutated fire lizard, Peter abandoned the chat and tried to do his best. The professor, an old geezer nicknamed Dissection, gave him a B+, which was a good grade considering the teacher’s acrimoniousness. Peter was the fourth after Regina, Ariana, and the girl who flunked Alchemy and who was back.

After a break spent in the cafeteria, Peter returned for the Botanics class. Again, it was all about pills, but of a different kind. Botanics was his weakest spot, and the teacher, an old lady with a carrot stuck up her ass, hated him for whatever reason. They were given a written test, in which the System whispered the answers in his mind. It was cheating, but Peter didn't care.

the System said.

Go on.

So what?

"The fuck?" Peter exclaimed aloud, fortunately after surrendering his test. No, I couldn’t break into a facility! They have guards. "Sorry, teacher, I forgot to write something. Can I—"

"It's Adept Master Ling, for you, and there is no more writing you put the test on my desk. Shoo, off you go," Botanics waved her hand, a smug expression on her face.

Bitch! Peter frowned, simultaneously angry at his teacher and relieved his pretense had been accepted.

There was a longer break now, snack time. Peter took his food outside, on the terrace, looking at the sports fields and the forest behind—the place where he had saved Regina and Awakened. Thinking of both events made him melancholic. In his heart, he wished the girl would have been less pretty and popular. Popular cultivator girls meant trouble.

The Awakening became noticeable during the sports class. Although not yet fully installed, according to the System, Peter’s new physical stats were visible in his number of pushups and running laps. He even had to pretend he was tired at some point.

"Finally, you put some effort into it," Sports, the physical training teacher, congratulated Peter. It was a bittersweet compliment. He was fit for a normal human before the Mana came and Cultivators took over. Now, even the weakest Body Cultivator had more strength than a normie.

"Hey, Petey, take care of these," Jack appeared, throwing a pile of dirty sports clothes and a training sword at Peter's feet. A twenty-dollar bill accompanied the order. Cleaning the sword and putting the clothes into a laundry machine in the annex took all the break.

The last class of the day was English literature. The teacher, the typical cat lady, a medium-aged normie woman, waited patiently until the students stopped behaving like rapscallions. Peter felt sad again. The English class was the last remnant of the old world.

"Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet," the teacher began curtly. "Who's Romeo's love interest at the start of the play?"

"Juliette, of course," Jack laughed.

“R—” Peter tried to say.

"Rosaline," Ariana blurted, cutting him.

Of course, she knows it too, Peter grimaced. Ariana was a cultured girl with razor-sharp smarts. That's why he had been attracted to her from the start; they had a love for books in common. Then, he paid for that happiness with many bitter experiences.

"Correct," the teacher wobbled her head randomly, the strangest movement Peter had ever seen. It was amazing how her large head—made larger by a pile of hair tied in a bun resembling a mole's mound—stood on such a frail, long neck. "He loves somebody else, and only later Juliette. Is this a good or bad thing by the author?"

"Terrible," Ariana sneered. "It's supposed to be the perfect love. Pure and carnal at the same time, until the supreme sacrifice. He should have kept himself untouched, waiting for the one!"

"It's perfect!" Peter almost yelled. "It gives depth to the character. Romeo's a naïve teenager; he sees a crow and thinks it's a phoenix. When he meets the phoenix, aka true love, nothing else matters."

"Rosaline? Who's Rosaline? I have forgot that name," Peter took a declamatory stance, looking intently at Ariana. She gave him the midfinger. The class applauded, starting with Regina.

"Good, Peter, very good," the teacher started her head-wobbling again, making Peter feel dizzy just by looking at it. "You have an A from me. But remember, my dears: sometimes, true love comes without warning and sweeps you off your feet; other times, it's just by your side, and you realize it years later." Sighing, she diverted her gaze toward the ceiling, like remembering sweet memories of a distant past. “Class dismissed,” she clapped her hands. "This is the last day of the semester. You deserve some free time."

The students erupted in cheers. As Peter left the room, he observed that some students stayed behind. Regina, but also Ariana, arguing vehemently with the teacher, her face red.

the System decided.

"Holiday? We have practical courses all summer, twice a week," Peter whispered, pretending he was talking to himself. “Some opt out but must do an extra semester at the end. Question,” he adopted the AI tone for a second, “How did you know about the girl’s name, the plants, and Rosaline?

"I don't keep personal stuff on the phone."

I don't have time. I have to check on Jack's clothes, iron them, fold them, and put them in his room in the dorm. And I'd like a bit of sleep after that. I’m supposed to go clubbing… I hate that, by the way.

“Let's go for Physical. I like how my body feels,” Peter said. A blue text followed.

Name: Peter Hillden. Age: 24. Lvl. 6 Main Class: Impulse (Bespoke)

Physical: 28 Mental: 15 Mystical: 14