A gentle breeze permeates my damp clothes as I proceed forward. The building isn’t that wide, so it won’t be too long until I reach the other side. Five minutes, maybe, if I wasn’t tired. I’ve done so much running today, and I trained myself to exhaustion. My chest is burning like crazy.

Metal devices are sticking out across the entire length of the Academy wall.

They are small globular iron contraptions, spaced half a foot apart solely on the ground level. What could they be for?

Hot sweat drips from my entire head, still panting from exhaustion. My arms are like dead weights when I move them even a little. There’s this strange tingling sensation on the surface of my skin around my body. And it isn’t muscle soreness. What is this?

It almost feels as if my Mana wants to come out, but it’s not quite the same. I want to try and let this thing out to see what would happen, but I refrain. Now is not the time to experiment.

Eventually, I reach the end of the path. The tingling is gone at that point, so it’s too late to try anything. More importantly, it’s time to eat!

Up ahead, there's a large, open grassy area between the Academy and another large building. Crowds of kids enjoy servings of food throughout the grassy area. A rumbling sound comes from my stomach. I rub my tummy. It’s okay, you’ll be satisfied soon. Where are they serving the food?

"Kaister, over here!" Drugo shouts. He and Luna wave.

I wave back and run over with a grin. “Hey!”

As the distance closes between us, I notice they aren’t eating, unlike everyone else. I ask, “Why aren’t you guys eating? Not hungry?”

There's a brief silence accompanying everyone's blank facial expressions.

"Whose fault do ya think that is?!" Hiro lashes out at me as he clenches his right fist.

Is he trying to imply that it’s my fault?

He continues, "I'm starvin'! Ya better have a good excuse for this, Kai."

I wrap my thumb and index finger around my chin. I can’t tell him that I was playing around with my Mana. I don’t know what to say yet, so I interject, “Uhh…”

"Sitos, you're bein’ unusually quiet, say somethin’ ta 'im! Weren'tcha two in the same group?"

This bastard is probably going to tell everyone that I was crying, and say that I’m a weakling. I frown while clenching both of my fists.

He turns around with his arms crossed. His face is completely relaxed, as if he doesn’t care at all. I thought he would have taken this opportunity to be furious with me.

“It does not matter, does it? Let us get his ticket and eat already,” he says.

"What?! You're gonna forgive 'im that easily?!" Hiro exclaims.

Sitos stays silent with the same expression. This is weird seeing him not throw rude remarks at me.

"Well, you heard him, Kaister. You should've gotten a red piece of paper from Teacher Moria, right?" Drugo asks.

“Oh, yeah,” I respond while taking the piece of paper from my pocket. I hand it to Drugo.

He takes out five other similar red pieces of paper and walks off.

Luna is talking to Marin, and I don’t want to converse with Sitos or Hiro. My eyes wander around. Look at all this food! I take a big whiff of the roaming scents. I can almost imagine what it all tastes like.

Drugo comes back with six pieces of yellow paper, giving each of us one. I think we need these to eat, but what’s the difference between the red paper and this yellow paper other than the color?

I ask, “What’s this for?”

"We can get food from over there with this slip of paper now. Since you weren’t here for the instructions, we'll explain it to you while we eat," Drugo explains.

I follow everyone else to a place with various food spread out on top of several tables. A giant pot of soup catches my attention, prompting me to grab a bowl nearby. Drool practically leaks out of my mouth as the rich smell of the broth invades my nose. I take the ladle and serve myself all the goodies inside with the soup, filling my bowl to the brim. I grab a spoon before locating my group and joining them on the ground.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Drugo starts to explain the meaning of the red and yellow pieces of paper, but I lose my senses, simply scooping the bits of beef in my soup. It’s real, genuine soup. A few tears escape my eyes.

“…Kaister, are you lis… Did I say something bad?”

"Huh...? Oh, it's nothing!" I wipe my tears with my arms. "Sorry I wasn't listening. Can you explain again from the beginning?"

Drugo sighs. “Okay, pay attention this time.”

I surrender myself to the soup and begin eating while maintaining my focus on Drugo.

"Basically, there will be goals for each day. When the first objective is met, you're given a red slip of paper, and when the second goal is met, you're given a yellow slip of paper. Each person can only get one ticket. On those days, everyone in the same group must present their yellow tickets to eat for that day."

He chews a piece of steak before continuing, "Today was a freebie, but in the future, it could be an individual activity we have to complete or some group activity. They stressed it was like an attendance system. It’s not possible to fail."

I slurp up the last of the soup and stare down at the bowl. That’s why Hiro was upset with me earlier. I should come clean. “So it was my fault you guys were starving… Actually, I was—“

"Training, right?" Sitos asks.

I raise my eyebrows as a cold chill runs down my spine. My lips shake as I make eye contact with him. No way. Sitos saw me manipulate my Mana? That’s why he’s nicer to me?

Hiro puts down his sandwich and asks, "Trainin’? Whadaya mean? It shoulda ended for everyone at the same time."

It's over… I look down and close my eyes.

"Yeah, it ended, but Kai wanted to train more. He did not want to drag us down, so he stayed and worked himself harder."

Huh? My lips stop twitching as I open my eyes and look up. Am I hallucinating? I rub my eyes and still see Sitos as the one who said those words. This must be a dream. I pinch myself until it hurts, but nothing around me has changed.

Hiro hops closer to me while he’s still sitting cross-legged. He wraps his left arm around my neck and laughs. "Why didn'tcha just tell us that? So, ya worked really hard, eh?"

I'm still confused by this unexpected scenario, but I force a smile to play along. "Yeah…"

Everyone smiles at this new development. Luna quietly claps. What is this? Everyone is impressed just from me dedicating time into training? Even Sitos, who was really rude to me, randomly became friendlier after the training session. Is hard work all it takes to impress?

Gradually, the smile I forced transforms into a genuine grin. I feel accepted into this small group. It’s a nice feeling. Is this what having friends feels like?

Time seems to fly by as I continue lunch with everyone.

“Ahem,” Moria interjects. “Everyone, I need your attention.”

Conversations around us die down. We focus our attention on Moria at the front of the building behind the Academy. "I hope you enjoyed your meals today. You will also enjoy a grand meal prepared by us for dinner and every day of this year. Next year, however, you will have to prepare meals yourself."

The kids around us let out a unanimous groan. "Now, there is a reason we had you take the path outside to get here instead of the central corridor of the Academy. All of you should have felt some tingling under your skin, right? The magical items attached to the wall are meant to stimulate the Scrap Mana in your bodies."

Scrap Mana? So, that’s what I felt earlier! I can’t wait to try this out later.

"Now that you have experienced what Scrap Mana feels like, it should be easier for you to release it. Do not worry too much if you cannot do it. On average, it takes about a month to actually be able to release it from your body.

"Next, we will assign and show you to your living quarters. This building houses all the students here at the Academy. For this year's first-year students, you will live on the first floor. Within each room from the hallway, there are six separate lockable bedrooms with the same amenities in each room. In the common room, there is a kitchen, lounge, and storage room. It is up to you to figure out how to utilize these rooms. Stand in line and get your keys here now. You only get one, so do not lose it, or you will be penalized as a team. The number on the key matches the room number."

We line up for the keys as he finishes the instructions. Luckily, we are the first ones because we were seated the closest.

We follow Luna to the entrance of the dormitory situated right behind the Academy. Immediately, there’s a crossroads in which the left and right sides are completely symmetrical. At the end of each side are stairs leading up.

Our group splits up to find our room 146. Each half hallway contains ten rooms, available only on the top portion of each row. The door in the last row interests me. There are only three doors in this entire hallway rather than the twenty in the rows before that.

Whoever wins the lottery for these rooms are lucky. These rooms must be massive compared to the other ones.

Hiro discovers our assigned room and yells for us to come over. Things are going to get chaotic quick if everyone in our year does the same thing.

When everyone arrives, Luna unlocks it, and we flood into the room.