image [https://cdn.midjourney.com/245ae7c6-db77-4f73-9afc-426a776737e5/0_1.png]

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

The alarm didn't wake Parker. The humid small tongue on his face did a better job.

"Fuck… it's late…" he growled, checking the clock. "No way! You're real?" he jumped out of bed, seeing the pup. "It was not a dream? Didn't I put you in the bathroom? How did you get out?"

the System said.

Pulling whatever jeans and T-shirt on him in a hurry, Peter made himself a sandwich, forgetting what he put on it a second after it was finished, then rushed out with the dog on a leash. The collar proved too big, and soon, he found himself running all over the main lawn, to catch up with the little pest, who was now jumping amock between groups of students, to make them play with him.

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

"I… think so," Peter said, surprised the jock talked nicely to him. "It's a boy." 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 allow to be petted.

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

Who other than my cold-hearted bitch ex? Peter simpered inside. And she told me she's a dog person…

"The rules are ours to set as we see fit. That dog has an… acceptable cuteness," a voice in their back said. "I'll allow it."

It was the Alchemy teacher—nicknamed, unsurprisingly, Alchemy—and at the same time the Headmaster of the school. Brunette, good looking, but her late twenties look could mean over a hundred, on Cultivators standards.

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

It was a slip of the tongue that 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. This is test day."

"Teacher's pet," Peter heard Ariana's words 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.

"Woof!"

the System suggested. There were only two more minutes before the beginning of the class.

They'll notice.

Peter made it to the class with only a second to spare and took the first chair available. 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 qi-pills," the teacher said. "Some of you will never taste them, as they would kill you," she looked meaningfully at Peter, "but the money they bring tastes as sweet. 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.

For the remainder of the hour, Peter paid as much attention as possible, 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. He had to fight a lot against the need to sleep, but when the practical test arrived, he scored second after Ariana, and before the girl he had saved the prior day. There was another girl who usually was better than all three of them combined, but she was not there.

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. His eyes met the girl he saved.

"Hi… Peter… Are you available for a date in the afternoon? I'll treat you with a dinner and a movie… for saving my life."

The words sounded barely sincere, yet the tone was warm. Bringing immense joy to Peter's soul, Ariana choked on the water she was drinking, letting the small bottle fall on the floor and spitting out droplets over her friends.

Got you, bitch! Peter reveled. "Sure—"

the System sussured in his mind.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"–Regina, I look forward to it."

The AI imitated Ariana's voice, quite well.

"Six o'clock outside the campus, main entrance?" the girl asked.

Peter nodded, and Regina went away. Near the wall, a group of girls looked in his direction, Ariana frowning. Their voices were similar to a nest of vipers hissing, but it was music to his ears. It meant they were upset.

The next class was about monster parts preparation. The teacher arrived pushing a cart and distributed samples of monster body parts to be further dissected. X

Now that I'm thinking back, they never taught us how to skin monster hides… Only how to extract glands and stuff…

the System said.

What's their deal? In everything you say, you make them look inferior. Why don't they adopt a System?

What?

Go on.

Oh… You'd die if I uninstall you?

OK, I'll keep this in mind.

Nodding and pretending he was doing it while concentrating on the pituitary gland of a mutated fire lizard, Peter abandoned the chat and tried to do his best for the class. The professor, an old geezer nicknamed Dissection, gave him a B+, which was a good grade, considering everything, and was the fourth after Regina, Ariana, and the girl who flunked Alchemy.

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 he performed better than expected, due to the System, which was whispering the answers in his mind. It was cheating, but he didn't care.

the System said.

Go on.

So what? I'm level five after a few hours.

"The fuck?" Peter exclaimed aloud, fortunately after surrendering his test. "Sorry, Madam, 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," she waved her hand, a smug expression on her face.

Bitch! Peter frowned, at the same time angry at his teacher and relieved because his pretense had been accepted.

There was a longer break now, a snack time. Peter took his food outside, on the terrace, looking longingly at the sports fields and the forest behind. The place where he saved Regina, and changed.

During the sports class, the change became noticeable. His new stats in power showed up in the number of pushups and laps he did.

"Finally, you put some muscle on you," Sports, the physical training teacher congratulated Peter. It was a bittersweet compliment. He had trained quite intensively at other sports before the Mana came, and Cultivators took over. Even the weakest of them had more strength than a normal human.

"Hey, Petey, take care of these," Jack appeared, throwing at Peter's feet a pile of dirty sports clothes and a training sword. 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, a medium-aged woman, the typical cat lady, waited patiently until all the noise ceased, and the students were a raucous bunch. While Body Cultivators were not required to attend Alchemy, Dissection, or Botanics, English was mandatory for all. 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.

"Rosaline," Ariana pointed in a neutral voice.

Of course, she knows this shit, Peter grimaced.

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

"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 keep in mind, 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.

The class applauded, starting with Regina. "Cease, please," the teacher waved her hand, giggling. "What do I know about love, after all, right? I'm old. It's at your age you know everything that is to be known about it. Good." She clapped her hands. "This is the last day of the semester. I won't torture you with more poetry. Class dismissed."

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 like talking to himself.

Looks so. How did you know all that? The plants and Rosaline?

Was that a joke?

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

I don't have time. I have to see if Jack's clothes are ready, iron and fold them, and put them in his room in the dorm. And I'd like a bit of sleep after that.