This world had no weekend or rest day tradition. It felt a bit weird that there were no free days. Like no Sunday or Monday… But I had to say that the program for today was a bit strange. We had only one class and it spanned for six whole hours! ‘What are they expecting us to do? Even stamina training is not supposed to take that long…’

  Magnar was already there when I reached the Colosseum-like building where the class was going to take place. A lot of seats surrounded the huge arena. I doubted that anyone in the higher seats would actually see anything considering how large the distance was…

  Magnar was waiting for me close to the fighter entrance. Compared to the audience entrance this was a minuscule corridor. It was understandable, after all there was no need for grandeur for staff and warriors.

  In and of itself, it was still a larger than usual entrance, probably to bring in caged beasts or any other necessary material for maintenance or props for the shows.

  We walked quietly, Magnar leading. He was more familiar with the place since he came here even before the academy started its program. This wasn’t his first fighting class either while I was still in bed, the second day after we arrived, such a class took place.

  “Say, Magnar, what was it that you did last class? Six hours is a bit much, don’t you think?” I asked quietly.

  “Hm? What did you say?”

  I sighed then asked louder. “What did you do last class? Six hours is too much for any sort of training.”

  “Ah… Well, the professor dismissed us after a discourse about listening to his commands that took about three hours and that was it…”

  “That’s… anticlimactic and not useful at all…”

  “I guess so…”

  We kept walking. Various other corridors extended on the left and the right every once in a while. The lighting was done with some crystals. The light was gentle, and sincerely not really good, but it was enough. Soon we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. ‘Damn… this is the second time for me…’

  A small chuckle escaped my lips, prompting Magnar to give me a strange look. I waved him off as we reached the arena. It was big, I felt really big, bigger than a soccer or football field, I couldn’t say for sure, however.

  The rest of our classmates were already waiting near the center. We continued towards them and the sound of chatter filled our ears. They were standing close to some circular pedestals, probably some rings… Most of the kids were still in the aether gathering stage, so it wasn’t unexpected…

  Even the range of a caster mage type at this stage wouldn’t exceed ten meters so the entire arena would be overkill anyway. I moved closer to them and started examining them, sensing the way aether moved around them.

  I couldn’t tell what it was for, but I felt an array inside the structure. By slowly circling it I discovered an interesting mechanism. Since the Arrays were made using aether conductors and aether had its own flow, it meant that aether would move and gather in the array. This would mean that at some random point the array would just start by itself and stop after a short duration.

  This phenomenon was prevented with a small release formation. It was included in the structure of other formations and made it so the flow of aether would not be continuous in the array, making it impossible for the array or any of its formations to just activate.

  Each one of these had such a structure that if the total quantity of aether flowing through the array was not enough, it would be released in the atmosphere… ‘This… Could work like a transistor… It would be inefficient though…’

  My musings were interrupted when I heard Magnar, and some other kids start shouting. I turned around and went to see what was going on. Smoke twirled around Magnar, his uniform slightly blackened. His jaw was clenched so tight, you could see the bumps of his muscles. ‘Damn… He looks like some Baki character…’

  Elian Thorne was facing Magnar. More kids were standing behind Elian, while others were keeping their distance. Some looked down or away, it seems not all were fine with Elian’s harassment, but no one would step in. What struck me was that there were only three of them acting this way, the rest were scornfully looking at Magnar.

  “Oi you’re here, why don’t you take your ape somewhere else for a walk?” Elian shouted at me.

  I raised my brows. ‘He’s got a sharp tongue for a kid. Too bad I’m not good at trash talk… There’s no need to bother with him though.’

  “Why are you just standing there Magnar? Don’t let the buzzing of a mosquito annoy you like so. It’s bad for your health.”

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  Air billowed out of his chest. Like the wind rustling the leaves of a forest, raising some dust from the ground. ‘Damn… What kind of lung capacity and strength is that?’ Together with the breath, his shoulders fell too, his jaw slackened a bit and his forearms de-tensioned. He smiled weakly.

  “Yeah, I should just smack it when the time comes.”

  Elian’s sneer faltered. His upper lip twitched when he heard me, his irritation apparent. One of his friends shouted promptly to remedy the situation.

  “Look at them! The ape and stupid villager gather together, it really seems like the stupid gather together.” This time I got annoyed.

  “And the dog bootlicks the master.” I shouted back and pulled on Magnar’s hand to have him follow me. As he started walking and following me, I let go. We walked closer to the entrance, that way we wouldn’t miss the professor unless he entered on the other side…

  “Thanks for intervening, I’d have smacked him, but he just blew me away each time…”

  “No problem… Try to talk back before punching… Unless he learns how to stop you from speaking you can do more damage to his ego and image by talking.” I paused some more. “I know it’s not easy, but it’s gonna be so worth it when you see him cry.”

  “Thing is…” He looked at me. “I can’t help it. We, in Vok’Tar, don’t run our mouth that much… The monster fraught environment doesn’t make you someone that talks before acting…”

  “What’s your status anyway? It’s unusual for a noble from another country to come here for studies… Wouldn’t you rather go to Val-Tyria?” I asked a little curious. In the meantime, students from other classes entered and passed by too.

  “Go to those psychos? I’m made fun for being slow here, imagine how bad would it be in a country led by the ones with the highest academic achievement…” He paused a little taking a deep breath. “I’m the second prince… Valuable enough to be a hostage for an alliance, but ultimately below my older brother…”

  As he talked, I spotted some of the kids I came here with from Rovandel.

  “Wait… You’re a prince!?” I asked feeling shocked and amazed.

  “Yeah…”

  “I had a prince do manual labor…”

  “Eh, don’t worry, back home everybody does this… We don’t have servants and hundreds of fancy clothes… We live amongst our people and work with them… Actually, it’s not quite right to call me prince, we don’t have a real king as you do…”

  “Then?”

  “Vok’Tar is made of multiple tribes. We are basically an alliance. The strongest tribe takes leadership, and similarly the strongest person in a tribe becomes the chief… So, I’m the current ‘king’s’ son. You’ll see more of us on campus, or you probably did, because all tribes sent potential heirs like this… You never know when leadership will change.”

  “Well, that’s tough… What happens if the leadership changes? Were there any exterminations of clans or something?”

  “No. We highly respect strength, even if others were to plot or kill it would be considered shameful. If a clan declines, it’s simply left alone. If the leading clan does so, then depending on their leadership, they may even be commended on sacrificing for the others.”

  “Sounds like a nice place… I’d like to see it someday...”

  “Consider yourself invited, that is if everything here goes alright and I’m not killed…”

  “That is a possibility, I don’t think it will happen… You look tough…”

  “What are you two doing all the way here?” A warm raspy voice came from behind us.

  I jumped forward and twirled, my entire body just tensed right before the voice came. In comparison, Magnar didn’t even flinch… Perhaps he didn’t have a reason too, but I usually sensed if someone got close.

  “Whoa, easy there, easy, what were you plotting for you to react like that.” Said the man.

  An elderly white haired man. His back was hunched, and he was propping himself up with two sticks. One shorter and one longer, like a staff. His face was wrinkled, his skin rough and brownish. He had a white stubble. His arms were not thick by any means, yet they seemed so, an illusion I only saw in some yogis back home.

  “We weren’t plotting, just talking.” I answered.

  “Why all the way out here?”

  “I don’t really get along with the others…” Magnar spoke before I could.

  “Bah, it’s we, we don’t get along with the others, if you weren’t there with your big frame attracting attention, they’d pick on me.”

  “Is that so… Don’t worry, I’ll give you the opportunity to get back at ‘em, that is if you’re capable enough, of course. Now come, come, class has to start, I’m late anyway…”

  We followed the professor as he slowly trekked over to the rest. Soon the others noticed his presence too and came towards us.

  I spotted those familiar faces, but didn’t bother greeting them. ‘For better or worse, Elian is right… commoners are uneducated and come across as dumb… Even more so to me… Someone that is as mature or maybe as silent as Magnar is rare amongst kids…’

  “Well now, I made things clear last time about how this class is going to go down. Today I need to see what capability you have. Choose sparring partners. This is for individual spars. We’ll see next time group fights. Each group should also pick an arbiter. I’ll keep an eye on you all. Now find yourself partners. Come to me in threes the first five teams here will be the first to fight and so on in that order.” The professor finished speaking.

  I saw Magnar’s eyes dart out to Elian. I nudged Magnar.

  “Elian is a bad match for you. I’ll take him, you deal with his loud sidekick.” As I finished telling him this Elian and his entourage approached us.

  I could not help but smirk. ‘Idiots… Walking to your doom…’ We both waited. Elian ignored me and went straight to Magnar.

  “Big oaf, come fight me, didn’t you say to not let you catch me during practical training? Where’s your big tongue now?”

  “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” I stepped forward. I was shorter than him, which garnered a lot of sneers and strange looks from others nearby.

  “I’m not wasting my time with worthless commoners, go away.” He said, his lips bent with disgust, his nose raised and with a downward glance.

  “What is this, small oaf? Are you scared?” I asked imitating his tone.

  “That’s it I’ll wipe the floor with your blood!” He shouted, his face red.

  “Then don’t stand there like some girl confessing her love! Come to the professor.” I twirled on my heels and approached the teacher. Magnar followed behind dragging along the loud idiot from earlier.

  It didn’t take long for three other teams to come. Fifteen of us gathered around the professor. Our arbiter was busy assuring and singing praise to Elian and his to be victory. Fairness wouldn’t be seen here, but it didn’t matter since the one falling would be Elian anyway.