"Mr. Quall was surprisingly nice today. After that first class, I expected the rest of the year to be a living hell." I said to Xan who sat across from me. He was stuffing his face with food. Trying to disregard the complete slob in front of me, I continued, "I think it was just tough love from him. Unlike the rest of the teachers at this dump, he seems to actually care that we get an education." 'Though, it makes you wonder why he would ever teach at this school.'

As if he didn't hear a word I said to him he asked, "Ou guna e tat? (You going to eat that?)"

"YES!", I said, shoving it in my mouth before he could get his grubby paws on my biscuit. This was the best meal I've had since school let out last year. I was happy, but also mad. Though Xan's deal got me some books, it also gave the greedy pigs an idea to stop feeding us dinner on school days too. So, even though we got better food, overall we got less.

In the middle of eating the rest of my food, I realized the time. My eyes bulged and my face turned red. I couldn't breathe. Hitting my chest a few times, I choked the rest of the food down and wheezed out, "We're going to be late!"

As if totally aware of the situation, Xan calmly stared at me while chomping down on his fork.

"Stupid! Mr. Quall makes you run ten laps for being late to class," I yelled, already on my way out the cafeteria doors.

----------------------------------------

When I got to class, everyone was quietly sitting down, staring at me. That said I wasn't actually late. I quickly went to my desk, took out the old notebook and pen that I've had since fourth grade, and waited for Mr. Quall to enter class.

"Pss," I heard someone say next to me.

"Pss," I looked over and saw it was Jennifer and not only that she was looking at me.

I pointed to myself, blushing while looking behind me to check for the person she was trying to talk to.

"Yes, you!" Jennifer snapped, but then quieted down. "Do you know what we're doing in class today?"

'Ah! So she just wanted something from me.' I sighed and responded, "Yes, I do. If you paid attention in class yesterday, you would too."

She ignored my comment and excitedly asked, "So, what is it?"

'Ugh!' "We're going to learn how Skills form in detail," even I was excited thinking about this topic. All we ever learned before was that the system transformed what you knew into something more powerful under certain conditions.

Before we could continue our conversation, Mr. Quall walked in and set his papers down.

"Good evening! Ok, first thing first...Yup, you're all here. Good job, no one has to run laps today," he seemed to be in a very good mood today.

"Ok, Carver, tell everyone how a Skill forms," he sat down at his desk and picked out one of the top students to start off class. That was his style of teaching. It made him better than every other teacher at this school too. Even people like Jennifer paid attention in his class (most of the time anyway).

"Yes, Mr. Quall. Under certain unknown conditions, the system will manifest a Skill. A Skill is something formed by the system that elevates the power of a spell or skill that has been mastered to a certain degree," Carver said confidently. He wasn't overly proud, but he was certain his answer was correct. You could see him waiting for Mr. Quall's praise.

"Wrong!" Mr. Quall snapped. He was about to say his favorite word, 'Run!' but his anger deflated and he asked hopefully to the rest of class, "Anyone, I mean anyone, even Jennifer, have a better answer?" The room was silent.

"This damn education system," Mr. Quall mumbled under his breath. "Okay, we'll start at the top. What is the difference between a Skill and a skill? No, don't answer, you'll be wrong anyway. A Skill is something formed by the system from a skill or spell. I'll focus on spells since those are what you all use. A spell is something human-made. It transforms the mana inside of you with the help of imagination to form a phenomenon. Since the imagination is a soft limit, we form naturally occurring phenomena with magic usually. The main categories include fire, wind, earth, death, gravity, ice, water, plant, life, space, and time. With enough imagination and mana, technically anything is possible."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Mr. Quall had a way with words[I know I'm such a good writer. ;)]. Complicated stuff became simple and simple stuff became complicated. Not in a bad way though. It was like we had become scholars for just a moment and knowledge was at our fingertips. 

"Mr. Quall, I though time magic was impossible? Also, isn't life magic a taboo?" I heard someone in the back bring up.

"Oh yes, I'm glad you're paying attention. Though three laps for interrupting, and minus three for a good question. I do try to stay away from talking about my opinions, but I choose to believe time magic is possible. If time is another dimension, then you should be able to manipulate an object to move in it. Magic affects all dimensions, so why is time any different? It's just that the required mana is so much that only higher beings can have an effect on it. As to life magic, it's only a taboo in spell form. When applied to other areas of expertise, it is very effective."

"What does this have to do with forming a Skill?" I thought out loud. I already knew most of this. I mean, it was all very informative and easy to digest[right?], but when were we going to get to the good stuff.

"Hold your dragons," I think the only thing stopping Mr. Quall from assigning me laps, was that I wanted to learn and wasn't trying to be rude.

"Do you know what DNA is? What about the Requirements and Catalyst?" He asked the class, but was staring at me. No one knew what he was talking about, but his smile said everything. This was the key. The stuff we weren't taught that would change how we view Skills.

"When the system forms Skills, where does it go? The system doesn't 'hold' the Skill for you. Your spells don't improve but the power, casting time, even elemental affinity jump up. So let me ask you again, where do the Skills go?" 

We were stumped. We knew the system improved those things, but we never sat down to think 'How does it improve power without any change?' 

"Ha! It stores it in your DNA!" Mr. Quall seemed really excited for some reason.

"What's DNA?" Everyone asked, only making his smile bigger like he expected that question from the start.

"Why, it's what makes you, you. A normally unchanging formula for how you grow, how you look, how good at magic you are, how strong or fast or even how smart you are," The whole class was fascinated at this revelation, but we didn't have time to calm down. "Whether the system isn't powerful enough, or that a change must be caused at least partly by you, those 'unknown certain conditions' are what causes the DNA to change to accommodate Skills. Remember me mentioning, 'Catalysts' and 'Requirements'?" Everyone was wide awake. They were waiting for the big reveal.

"I'll tell you tomorrow!" Mr. Quall said.

"WAAAAa?!" Everyone, myself included went slack-jawed. We couldn't believe he would do this to us. 'The big secret was about to be revealed and he did this to us?!' If I had telepathy magic, I'm sure not a single person would think differently.

"Just kidding!" Mr. Quall was just a hair away from full-blown hysteria. He was clutching his stomach and bending over, his laughter could probably be heard all over the school.

After a while, when he was able to just barely stop laughing, he started to explain, "The requirements aren't set in stone, so you are partly right to say 'unknown'. The known requirements are:

* The will to learn the spell or skill,

* The affinity with the associated element or elements,

* The success rate of casting or using it, and

* The average power output.

Saying this, it is not guaranteed you will gain a Skill if you meet all the requirements. This because like alchemy, mixing sand and heat does not necessarily make clear glass. You need a catalyst to guarantee success. Have you ever heard of a failed Skill creation? No, you haven't. This is because the system has Requirements and Catalysts to ensure successful imprinting onto the DNA. The known catalysts include:

* A certain emotional state,

* The levels of danger,

* The environments, and

* The right enemy, patients, or objects of skill.

These make your DNA unstable and susceptible to change."

We... I felt like I've been lied to my whole life. Such information was a lot to take it, but I understood it. I also understood the big 'Why?' too. If this information was given to the public, then those nobles wouldn't be so special. All this information left me with four questions.

'Who is Mr. Quall really?'

'Why is he telling us this?'

'What more have we been lied to about?' and the question that was on everyone else's mind,

"What are we learning tomorrow, Mr. Quall?"

The fire of our souls have been ignited. We wanted to learn. I wanted to learn more. I wanted the forbidden fruit called knowledge more than ever. I felt starved of knowledge.

*GRRR*

Well, food too.