Serum

While Dirk already understood the dark reality of war, he also started seriously contemplating Rita's words.

When faced with the choice, would he go back to the life he lived? Or would he shut himself in these dungeons and hunt monsters for a living? Thinking about it, Dirk actually started having a bad feeling. In his last life, he didn't get a choice. In this life, he wondered if he would. He had always been some kind of symbol for bad luck. But he had never been able to figure out if he was the unlucky one. 

He didn't know if he wanted to go back to the life of fighting day after day. He could kill, and he could do it very well, but did he want to? He had fought for a leader that only saw him as a pawn to be played, a disposable dog to take care of the dirty work. The only thing special about him was that he was a strategic weapon capable of taking care of nearly any task. He was just a really strong dog. 

Now though, he had more of a choice. If he absolutely didn't want to, Dirk didn't need to fight anybody. Worst case, he left home, disappeared, and started a life tending to a farm or something like that. 

However, when he thought about living a life of mediocrity like that, he couldn't see himself doing it. He wasn't drawn to it. For once, he wanted to do something that he at least agreed with. He wanted to exercise his ability to do something... good. After all, he knew how dark humanity could be. Thinking about all the people that he was capable of helping, he couldn't shut himself away. 

But at the same time, he couldn't help everyone, and he wouldn't kill himself for justice. Justice was always a tricky thing in his eyes. It changed, and because of that, he couldn't define what justice was to him. 

Dirk had many conflicts in his head. He didn't know where he belonged. Did he belong in the dark? Did he belong on the battlefield? Did he belong in a dungeon? Should he kill people? If he did, what kind of people were good or bad? Did he have the right to judge people? Could he define good and bad? And what about his own freedom? Would he allow himself to be leashed by some rules again? 

The questions boggled his mind, and he became frustrated when he couldn't answer them. For once in his life, he didn't have a set direction. 

However, all that would have to be dealt with in the future. For now at least, he had things he needed to do, like magic classes. He could slowly figure out his purpose over time. 

Dirk hung out at Rita's house and ate dinner there, after which he left and went back to his own house. Unlocking the door with his fancy new keys, he entered the desolate living space. Well, he thought it would be desolate, but after flicking on a light, he could see luggage strewn throughout the room. 

He walked over to the dining table that had a note on it. It was from his mother, and it said that this was all his stuff from the house. There was also a case of healing potions for him to use. It ended by telling him to be careful.

Dirk smiled after reading the note. He cast the Spark spell to burn it before turning and bringing his luggage upstairs. After situating everything, he washed up before heading to bed. 

.............

*Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!*

"..."

Dirk's eyes flew open when he heard an alarm. Looking at the time, he saw that it was 5 am. He took a deep breath before hopping out of bed. It was time to work out. 

Rinsing himself and putting on a pair of shorts and shoes, Dirk walked out of his house and into the cold morning air. The sun hadn't yet peaked over the horizon, so everything was still dark. 

Dirk didn't mind it though. He had memorized the layout of the school, and his eyes were more sensitive to light than normal as per his cybernetic enhancements. He could see fine and already knew the route he would take on his run. 

With a direction, Dirk ran onto the street that wound through the neighborhood. Soon, he left the neighborhood and ran past the apartments, maintaining a single, steady pace. 

After the apartments, he ran across the front of the school. Then, he ran around to the colosseum, past it to the magic pyramid, down toward the Hall of Artisans, and then back to the neighborhood. This route was a loop that essentially circled the school, and it was a whole 6 miles long.

Dirk did three laps before going back to the house and beginning his body-weight exercises. By the time he was finished with that, it was 8 am. The entrance ceremony was at 9, so he prepared himself to go. He washed up, ate some food that had been put into a cooler before by his father, and got dressed. He left for the colosseum 15 minutes before the start of the ceremony, and as he walked, he pondered over his workout.

'Things are starting to get easier and easier. I can deactivate my nanites to prevent them from giving me more energy and recovering quickly, but Anima is starting to show its effects. I'm simply stronger, faster, and have more stamina. Soon enough, these workouts aren't even going to be enough to get me tired unless I go for several hours. I should see if I can find any way to fix that.'

Dirk had been thinking about this issue for a while now, and finally, it was starting to become a problem. He could run for several miles as a warmup, and he was forcing himself to go faster and faster just to get himself tired. Plus, the fact that he didn't have weights meant that he had nothing to push his muscles to the limit with. Dirk was approaching the stamina of his past life. While his strength wasn't there yet, it wasn't far. He would easily reach it in a couple more years just by growing. Anima was just that miraculous. 

He hoped though that the academy would have a solution to his problem. There was no way that someone in this world before him hadn't had and dealt with his very problem. And since the academy was so amazing, they had to know of a way to help. Dirk would be shocked if they didn't. 

'Well, I have a class for it, so let's just wait for that.'

With that, he put the thoughts to the back of his mind and looked around. Since the ceremony was about to start, there were crowds of people around him of all ages and sizes. Everyone was flooding to the colosseum as well, and the atmosphere was exciting. After all, everyone here was accepted into the academy. For the new bloods, they were thrilled to have been accepted by such a prestigious institution. For the veterans, they were focused on working even harder toward their goals. Everyone had something to do here and a goal to achieve. 

Dirk simply made his presence faint as he blended into the crowd. Since he was only 12, he was rather small and capable of slipping through places. After a bit of maneuvering, he passed through the entrance to the colosseum. 

Walking through the gates, he saw signs that designated where the students of each year sat. He quickly found the 1st year sign and followed it up to the seating area where he found a random seat and sat down. It looked like there were already a few hundred students around his age there. Dirk guessed they were his classmates. 

"Please take your seats! There are 3 minutes until the ceremony starts!"

Suddenly, on the stage of the colosseum, a woman behind a podium spoke into a magical device that amplified her voice. Hearing it, the crowds entering and mingling around the place quickened their paces. In only a few minutes, nearly all of the empty seats had been filled. 

When things had fallen into place, the woman walked up to the podium again. The colosseum quieted as everyone sensed her presence. She was a beautiful woman wearing some fancy robes that did nothing to hide her curves, and all the pubescent boys near Dirk were eyeing her like a nice slab of meat. 

"Welcome everyone! I congratulate you all for being accepted into the Horizon Magic Academy! Out of the thousands upon thousands of applicants across the empire, only you all were chosen. This is a high honor, and I hope you all do your best to make the most out of every day! For the Dawn of Horizon!"

"For the Dawn of Horizon!"

The colosseum reverberated the woman's pledge, creating a large echo. Dirk just watched on. You can't have a strong nation without some nationalism. He had also learned these basic pledges and salutes. 

The woman went on to say a short speech about how lucky all the students are and how they needed to push themselves so as to become powerful individuals worthy of respect. This went on for around 10 minutes before she finally passed on the mic.

"Now, without further ado, let me set the stage for our Headmaster! Duke of the Empire and Tier 8 Magus, put your hands together for Headmaster Hillshire!"

"Hm?"

Hearing that name, Dirk perked up as the crowd roared with cheers. He looked down and saw Duke Hillshire step on stage. Clad in royal robes, he stood and smiled valiantly while looking through the crowd. Seeing the Headmaster look upon them with fond eyes and an encouraging smile, all the new students were instantly drawn to like him, and the returning students cheered for him even more. From the almost fanatic cheers, it seemed like the entire academy idolized this man. 

The instant the Duke put his hand up, the entire crowd quieted. Dirk was instantly baffled. Who could command this kind of respect and reverence? It was like the Duke was actually the king. 

"Thank you all for your warm welcome. You may simply call me Headmaster. Like the lady before me, I congratulate you all on successfully entering the academy. Here at the academy, you all will struggle, experience hardship, and claw your way to a more powerful existence. The road is long and hard, but I assure you that I will do everything in my power to open up the largest road for you all. While we may compete and fight here in the academy, at the end of the day, we are all brothers and sisters brought together through the pursuit of a higher purpose. 

You will be seeing a lot of me throughout your days here, and that's because I'm here to help each and every one of you. I don't ask that you treat me as the headmaster, but as a teacher here to guide you. If strength is what you desire, and you wish to be men and women who bring good into the world, then I will show you that path. Simply follow me, and together we will forge a path to greatness."

The Duke spoke with deep and bold words full of spirit. The kids throughout the stadium were mesmerized, and nobody made a peep. When he finished, the place was quiet for several seconds before cheering erupted even louder than before. 

Dirk sat there silently though. 

'This man really is one for the people. No wonder they love him so much. Though, if anyone were to be a good headmaster, it would be him. He loves raising children.'

Dirk thought back to the two times he visited the Duke. The first time, he had gotten a good idea of how much the duke loved kids. Later, his father told him that the duke had been trying to have children for over 80 years with his wife. In all that time, they have had 19. From that, one could easily see how kid-crazy the duke was. When Dirk thought about it, it made sense that he was the headmaster of such a school. The man was accomplished, strong, and loved being a mentor. Who better to run the academy?

'Though I'm surprised father is brothers with him. I wonder how they came to get so close? At least I know why father works at the academy now.'

Dirk's thoughts moved about as the duke went off the stage. After him, many other staff members introduced themselves to all the students. None of them particularly cared though. It seemed like the Headmaster was the only one with all the attention. The rest were bland compared to him, no matter how amazing they tried to make themselves look. 

After almost an hour, the speeches finally came to an end. By this time, all the students simply wanted to get on with the day. Luckily, after the beautiful lady came back on stage, she sent them off with a brilliant smile. 

Dirk took a deep breath as he stood up with all the other students. He walked quickly and was one of the first to exit the colosseum, dodging the crowds that already started building up. 

Instead of walking home though, Dirk turned to the main building of the academy where all the classes were. Today, the schedule was modified, but they all still had class. Dirk made his way to his first class which was general education. 

The corridors were mostly empty as Dirk walked with steady steps. His feet made no more than a faint tapping sound as they stepped on the solid wood flooring. The wood under his feet was almost pitch black, contrasting with the white stone walls. 

When Dirk arrived at the classroom, he walked through the door that was already open. Inside, the teacher was sifting through papers on her desk. She didn't lift her head even when Dirk walked up to her desk. 

"Teacher?"

"What?!"

The woman was startled and jerked backward, flicking her pen at Dirk. His body automatically bent to the side and his hand reached out and grabbed it. He settled back in his original position the next second like nothing happened. 

"Who? You? Who are you?"

"My name is Dirk Strider. I believe I'm one of your students."

Dirk spoke simply, and the teacher's heart settled down. She took a deep breath before taking out a roster and looking through it. 

"Sigh, I see. Sorry Dirk. I didn't see you come in. Uhh, you can take a seat wherever you wish. You're the first one, so you get first pick."

"Thank you. Here's your pen."

"Oh, thanks."

The teacher took the pen from Dirk's outstretched hand. As he went to go pick a seat though, she pondered curiously. How was he able to catch her pen? Those were some fast reflexes. 

Dirk walked up the stairs that led to higher desks. These desks looked like those of a college lecture hall. From Dirk's count, he found that at least 70 kids would be able to fit in this room. He took the desk at the highest level and sat on the edge closest to the staircase. 

Not long after he sat down, more kids started to pile in. They came in groups of 3 or 4, and the classroom quickly got noisy. The teacher simply herded them to the desks, telling them that they could pick whatever seats were open. As this happened, Dirk sat with his eyes closed and trained his Mana Lungs a bit. The process was more gentle though in an attempt to not disturb the surrounding mana too much. 

"Alright class! Settle down. My name is Ms. Adricia, and I'll be your general ed teacher for the year. We're going to be learning about a lot of different things, but don't worry about getting thrown off. We'll be doing this in sections so it'll be easy to keep up. Alright, each of you should have three books in front of you. Go ahead and open the history book and turn to the first section. We'll take a little glimpse of all the things we'll be learning about this year."

All the students followed directions and listened to the teacher as she outlined all the books and what they would be focusing on. There were three books at the seat of every student as well as a bag to hold them in. The first was the history book, second was the world studies book, and third was mathematics. These were the same subjects that Dirk learned about in the children's school, but he knew they would hold different information here.

After a while, the teacher was done going through the history book. Just from the introduction, Dirk could tell how much more information was in there. It was more in depth and held more specific details unlike in the children's school where everything was vague. It also talked about the general history of the world, including other nations. 

Next, they opened up the world studies book. In there, it talked about not only other nations and their cultures but also the dungeons and how they operated. This book held a lot more information that Dirk actually wanted. If he was to dungeon dive in the future, he wanted to know what the hell dungeons were. 

Lastly there was mathematics, but the teacher didn't touch upon that a lot. By the time they were done, there were only 5 minutes left in class. Everyone simply hung around and discussed stuff until the bell rang, where they all rushed out and moved to their next class with their new books in hand. 

Dirk hoisted his book bag and walked out as well. His next destination was the gymnasium. 

It only took a couple minutes to arrive. After walking in the doors, he found he wasn't the first one. A bunch of kids were hanging around the place, talking and laughing about whatever they had on their minds. However, there were surprisingly few. Only 40 kids were present, and Dirk didn't see any more people trickling in. 

He simply walked over to one of the walls where there was a bench and sat down. In this gym, there were two other large rooms that were used as lockers and for changing. Dirk made a mental note to start bringing a change of clothes. 

"Huh? Oh! Dirk!"

Suddenly, there was an excited shout. Dirk's head snapped to the noise, and he saw a cute girl with small antlers coming off her forehead.

"Hello, Ava."