Before they realized it, a crowd had formed in the training grounds. Apparently, the message about a record being broken had been sent to every single person currently in the Academy.

“They got B rank right after arriving?”

“Huh? Didn’t they say all of us would have a hard time using mana since there’s none on Earth?”

“I guess some people are just born lucky.”

“Does that mean they can dish out fireballs or something?”

“The lessons haven’t even started and we already have someone hogging all the attention.”

“My highest stat is an E rank…”

Eventually, Nil managed to slip out of the room unnoticed. They felt bad about leaving Kai behind, but they would surely see each other again soon.

Just as they thought they were out of the spotlight, a hand grabbed their shoulder. They got startled and spun around with a yelp, but there was only one person behind them. It was a stylish-looking tall man with glasses and slicked back blond hair.

“You’re the one who’s stirred up all this fuzz, aren’t you?”

Nil sighed. “You caught me.”

The man adjusted his glasses. “How come it took you so long to get evaluated? I thought everyone was already done with it.”

Nil fidgeted awkwardly in place. Would it be wise to reveal the truth?

“I just… wanted to wait until everyone else was done with the training grounds. I don’t like crowds.”

The man chuckled as if he didn’t believe it for a second. However, he didn’t give a rebuttal. Instead, he extended a hand.

“Call me Corwyn. I’m one of the instructors here at the Academy. You’ve piqued my interest.”

Nil took it.

[Name: Corwyn. Age: 29. Background: Physicist. Level: 5. Class: Scholar.]

His list of skills was enormous, but they were mostly not combat related.

Without waiting to hear Nil’s name, Corwyn turned around.

“I’ll show you my lab. I want to have a chat with you. Don’t worry, it won’t take long.”

Nil supposed it wouldn’t hurt to go with him. He seemed trustworthy enough. They had begun to notice Insight was always working in the background. With Aldo, for example, they’d felt a terrible dread since before the conversation even started. They weren’t getting anything in particular from Corwyn.

As soon as they entered the dingy ‘lab’, which would have been better described as a normal office with a few bizarre machines strewn around haphazardly, Corwyn instructed them to sit down in the only chair in the room before starting to bombard them with questions.

“How high are your other stats?”

Nil answered truthfully.

“I see. Average, but decent. What kind of class are you going for? Mage?”

Nil shrugged their shoulders. They hadn’t stopped to think about it.

“What about your exclusive skill? What is it?”

He saw Nil was reluctant to respond, so he crossed something off the notebook he was holding.

“Don’t worry, you don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to. I asked because exclusive skills are very important for research. Everything else, like stats and normal skills, is very mutable, but the exclusive skill…” He tapped his pen against his temple as he thought of a way to explain it.

“Basically, it represents the way mana reacts naturally to your body, which is why they’re unique to the individual.”

Nil decided to take the bait, although they toned it down a bit.

“It’s called Insight. I can see other people’s data.”

Corwyn lowered his glasses, raising an eyebrow. “Are you serious?”

Nil nodded carefully. “You’re a level 5 Scholar.”

Corwyn suddenly burst out laughing.

“I knew it! I knew you were something special. What else can you see? Skills? Stats?”

Nil didn’t actually know if they could see stats. They focused on Corwyn and thought about it.

[Strength: C. Agility: A. Endurance: C. Mana Capacity: S. Mana Conductivity: S.]

His stats were that high, and he was only level 5?

“C, A, C, S, S.”

Corwyn immediately recognized what they were saying and laughed again.

“You’d make a great assistant. What do you say? Interested?”

Nil shook their head. They couldn’t help but think back to that dream. For now, they just needed to keep getting stronger.

“Oh, well, that’s a shame. In any case…”

Corwyn’s expression grew solemn, contrasting with his earlier attitude.

“What do you think about the ‘system’?”

Nil frowned. “I don’t understand it, to be frank. How can such a thing even exist?”

Corwyn nodded. “That’s the question, isn’t it? How? At the very start, I thought it was a quirk of this world, but its original inhabitants aren’t even aware of it.”

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Nil scratched their head. “So this place did have people before us Earthlings started coming?”

Corwyn nodded. “Yes, of course. Did you think we were the ones who built this huge castle?” He laughed. “There was a whole society pre-established here before we arrived—you’ll learn about them during the next few weeks. Their level of technological advancement is medieval at best, but they do have the advantage of magic.”

“So magic doesn't come from the system?” Nil asked.

Corwyn shook his head vigorously. “No, no, of course not. The system doesn’t really do anything. It’s more like a guideline. It almost feels as though someone prepared it so we could adapt more easily when we finally came. My working hypothesis is that it was created by whatever person or group opened the portals in the first place. Of course, we have no clue how they accomplished that, but…” He sighed, dejected.

Nil cocked their head. “Couldn’t they have done it using magic?”

Corwyn rested his head on the back of his hand, and started fidgeting with a pen.

“I mean, sure, maybe that’s the case,” he said. “But that’s a bit of a lazy answer, don’t you think? Teleportation magic is one of the hardest things to learn in this world, and it can’t send you across continents, much less across worlds! And to maintain it in a constant state of operation for so long? Whoever did it would be, by far, the most powerful individual in Asphodel.”

“I guess you’re right,” Nil said.

“By the way,” they continued after a short pause, “Is it true that there’s no way to return?”

Corwyn shrugged. “Not that we know of.” He off-handedly grabbed something from one of the room’s many drawers, and handed it to Nil. “Here, you can have this.” He winked. “Now you owe me a favor.”

Nil could only stare at the object, stunned.

“A smartphone?”

Corwyn grinned. “Sure! Why not? Is magic more believable than a working phone?”

Nil blinked at him a few times. “But how do you charge the battery?”

“Magic!”

“What about the connection? Does it get a signal?”

“Magic!”

Nil was so baffled that they didn’t know what to say.

“Does everyone here carry smartphones around?”

Corwyn laughed, shaking his head. “No, they’re pretty rare.”

Nil raised an eyebrow. “Why? Do people not bring them from Earth?”

Corwyn kept laughing. “Oh, I’m sorry, it’s just fun to mess with you. It’s not exactly a real smartphone. You’re holding the bleeding edge of magical engineering. Be careful not to drop it.”

Nil examined the device. Now that they looked at it more closely, the screen’s shape was off, more square than usual. The back had a symbol they didn’t recognize either. Despite being quite thin, it had a button on the front, like those of early smartphone models.

“Can it connect to the Internet?” Nil asked.

Corwyn shook his head. “No, it’s not quite that impressive. It can only communicate with others of its kind that are here on Asphodel. Like this one!” He took out another device from the pocket of his coat. “Most of the members of the faculty have one.”

Nil rubbed their chin. “Why would you give me something so valuable?”

Corwyn narrowed his eyes and smiled. “Oh, that’s an easy one. Half a year from now, you’ll be a very helpful person to be acquainted with.”

Nil raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Didn’t you see the notification? ‘A record has been broken’, remember? You’re the first one to get that sort of rank at level 0, at least in one of the magical attributes. There are extremely rare cases of someone getting a B rank in strength or agility without doing any training, but mana conductivity? It’s unheard of. It’s as if you weren’t an Earthling, like your body has already been conditioned to handle mana. This is a gamble, but if my intuition is correct—and it usually is—you’re going to be blowing up mountains in no time flat.”

Nil crossed their arms. “I don’t plan on blowing anything up, thank you very much.”

“What, can’t you take a joke?” Corwyn chuckled. “Tell me something. What did it feel like when you used the magic crystal?”

Nil shrugged. “Well, I sensed some kind of energy inside it, and when I imagined pulling it into me, it worked. I just did what felt right.”

Corwyn slapped his desk and smiled. “Now that is talent. For most people, it’s hard enough to simply sense the mana, let alone control it so easily.”

Nil looked down at their hands. “Is it really so impressive? It didn’t feel like much.”

“It is. Look, my gut says you’re going to be a big shot sooner rather than later—that’s why I wanted to have this talk. You may be a weakling right now, from my perspective, but that could change fast.” He paused for a moment, his smile vanishing momentarily. “And, well, I wanted to confirm you weren’t a murderous lunatic. We get those from time to time, and it would have been sensible to root you out while I still could if that turned out to be the case.”

Nil felt a chill run across their spine. Would Corwyn have killed them if he had deemed them too dangerous? Behind the man’s lighthearted facade, for a moment, Nil thought they had seen the real him.

“Luckily, you seem reasonable enough,” Corwyn continued, “so no drastic measures will be required.” He smiled again.

Nil coughed awkwardly, trying to recover from the fright they had been given. They decided to change the topic.

“By the way, one of my teammates from the Tutorial said that there were ways to communicate with Earth. If these devices aren't how, then what was he talking about?”

Corwyn furrowed his brow. “Oh, that.” He seemed frustrated about something. “He wasn’t lying to you, but it’s complicated. Once a year, the system allows us to go back to Earth for a day.”

Nil got up rapidly, almost causing the chair to fall. “Really? Then there is a way back!”

Corwyn sighed. “Don’t get too excited. I said ‘for a day’, didn’t I? As soon as those twenty-four hours end, we get forcibly sent back to Asphodel. We do as much as we can to share information about this world during those days, but they’re unpredictable. Until it actually happens, we don’t know whether we have a day or six months to prepare.”

Nil sat back down, a bit deflated. “Oh…”

Corwyn chuckled, turning back to his jovial self. “There’s so many things we don’t know about this place. At least we can discuss magic with the natives, but when it comes to the system and the reason the portals appeared, we’re clueless. My job is to research those things, but even I am embarrassingly ignorant about it all.”

Just as Nil was about to say something to the effect of ‘don’t be so hard on yourself’, their train of thought was interrupted by a series of knocks on the door.

Corwyn scowled as soon as he heard them.

“Do you know who it could be?” Nil asked.

“I’m afraid I do,” he said, going to open it.

The person responsible for the disturbance turned out to be a broad-shouldered older man wearing formal attire, with a serious look on his face. He instantly looked at Nil.

“Is that the one?” the man asked Corwyn, who nodded in response.

Seeing that Nil had raised an eyebrow, Corwyn chuckled.

“Nil, let me introduce you to the director of the Academy, Durai.”

Durai gave a slight bow as a greeting.

The director? Out of curiosity, Nil activated Insight.

[Name: Durai. Age: 53. Background: Soldier. Level: 7. Class: Paladin of Redemption]

[Strength: S. Agility: S. Endurance: S. Mana Capacity: S. Mana Conductivity: S.]

Oh.

To be polite, or maybe as a way to hide their shock, Nil bowed as well.

Insight alerted them that something was wrong. Suddenly, they reached for their sword and pulled it out of its scabbard just in time to deflect the rapier that the man had suddenly thrust at their face.

A thin red line appeared on Nil’s cheek, and blood started dripping out.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Nil asked.

“You grabbed your blade before me.” Durai said. “Are you sure I’m the aggressor here?”

Nil stared at him intensely without answering. Corwyn's mouth was hanging wide open.

“You’re dangerous,” the director continued.

“Am I?” Nil said.

“Don’t play coy with me,” Durai said. “You’re not human, are you?”