Serum

"So we are in the same class! Now we can continue our training!"

Ava beamed as she took up a spot next to Dirk. She had been worried that she wouldn't see him again, but now she was content. Choosing to take the body refining course felt like the best decision she ever made. 

Dirk nodded to her, but he had other thoughts. Depending on what they did in this course, they may not be able to practice anything. It would have to be on their own time. Still, he was happy that she was there. It was nice to have someone familiar there with him. 

"What was your class before this?"

Dirk asked as they waited.

"I had my magic class. For the water element."

"So you have the water attribute."

"Yes. It's my only one though."

"Is your affinity high at least?"

"Yea. It's 97%."

"That's good. You didn't have to tell me though if you didn't want to. That information is best kept a secret."

"No, it's fine. I trust you."

"..."

Dirk thought about that for a second before nodding. Ava's cheeks also reddened a bit, but she didn't mind. It was the truth. 

"Well, I have a suggestion for you. My father said that one needs the water attribute to be good in alchemy. It might be something to consider since you have it."

"I see... I'll take a look. But we can't do that stuff until next year, right?"

"Correct. It would be enough to simply think about it this year."

"Right."

Ava nodded in agreement, and they both went quiet. 

It wasn't long after though that they heard a shout.

"Everyone gather up! Around me!"

The kids all heard this booming voice and turned. In the middle of the gym stood a large burly man. His face was tough, his beard looking like a 5 o clock shadow, his head bald, and his muscles bulged from under his shirt. He looked like a really intense fitness trainer.

Getting a glimpse of his imposing figure, the kids quickly gathered in front of him, including Dirk and Ava. He looked at everyone before speaking. 

"My name is Instructor! That's all you will call me. I will obviously be your instructor for the year. I'm in charge of doing three things! Pushing you to your physical limits with exercise, teaching you combat arts, and teaching you how to utilize Anima! As body refiners and warriors, we must learn how to use our body to its fullest ability so as to ensure our survival and our enemy's demise! I know all of you can use magic, but being able to use your physical body and Anima is yet another insurance for your life. I myself have killed plenty of mages in the military only because they were incapable of escaping my grasp!"

The instructor raised his hand and clenched his fist as if he were crushing a heart, making the kids in from of him shiver. They all felt a bit more wary of this instructor who had killed before and subconsciously moved to be a little farther away from him. 

"Becoming strong warriors will allow you to utilize more techniques and it can even supplement your magical ability. No matter what, it is not a bad thing to be learning this, only good! When the time comes that you're in a battle for your life, you will think back and thank yourselves for not neglecting your physical ability! So let's get started! I'm going to teach you the drills we will do every day. Don't forget them! Now line up!"

The kids all looked around them after the instructor shouted. At the halfway point in the gym there was a line. They all ran to it and lined up beside each other. Though, not all kids were quick witted and couldn't seem to think as they just walked and glanced around.

"Hey! You! Move your scrawny ass over to the line! What about that don't you understand?!"

The instructor yelled at several kids who trembled before running as fast as they could to the line. After a minute or so, everyone was standing side by side on the line. 

"Finally! You all better learn this stuff quickly! Now, I will demonstrate a workout, and then all of you will do it. Keep your eyes peeled!"

The instructor shouted before dropping to the floor and performing an exercise. All the kids watched and none of them made a peep.

Dirk and Ava were standing next to each other, and when they saw the instructor do the exercise, they glanced at each other. They already knew this one! It was likely that they already knew all of them actually. There were only so many ways to move the body after all. 

And sure enough, by the time the instructor had finished the last one, Ava was smiling. She and Dirk already knew all of them. She suddenly felt that this class wouldn't be difficult at all. Could they really be more difficult than Dirk's hellish workouts? Unlikely.

After the instructor performed the exercises, he led the class to do an actual workout. One moment all the kids were doing suicide sprints, and the next they were doing pushups with shaky arms. Some kids even ran over to a trash bin and threw up, falling to the floor as if they died. 

Meanwhile, Dirk and Ava did the workouts with ease. The entire session counted as more of a warmup for them, and they were the first to finish everything. Even the instructor noticed how fit they were.

"Impressive! Hey everybody! Take a good look at these two. They're doing everything easily. This is a walk in the park for them! By the end of the year, all of you will be just like them! In fact, until you can catch up to them, all of you will be doing suicides every day! Now move! And don't vomit on the nice floor!"

The instructor yelled at all the kids who were slacking off or giving up. These kids hadn't yet been forced to do things that pushed them to their limits. Besides a few of the poorer ones, their lives up until now were were relaxed and simple. Nobody was like Dirk or Ava and had already been training for a few years. 

The class was concluded after an hour. Before they left, the instructor told everyone to prepare clothes specific for this class starting tomorrow. He said that they would also be using the lockers inside the rooms to change and wash up a bit before leaving for classes. Until then though, they would just have to go to class nice and sweaty in their nice clothes. 

With a smile, the instructor waved off the dying kids after the bell rang. Dirk and Ava left the gym with light steps. 

"So... Since we won't be training hard for a while in that class, should we do our own training?"

Ava spoke as they walked out. Dirk thought about it.

"Yea, we should. When do your classes start and end?"

"I have three classes. The first starts at 9 am, and the last ends at 2 pm."

"Only three?"

"Yea? How many do you have?"

"5, I'm in class from 9 to 7."

"Huh?! That's a lot... Well, we could do things before and after I guess."

After was surprised before thinking of something that would work for them. Dirk nodded at her suggestion.

"That works. Do you have a dorm?"

"Yes."

"I see. Here's what we'll do. Meet me in front of the Hall of Artisans 10 minutes after 7. I'll take you from there to my house where we'll do our workouts."

"House? Wait, you're in those houses?"

"Yes."

Dirk nodded as Ava's eyebrows rose. After thinking for a second though, she could only sigh.

"...I guess you are a high noble. Alright then."

"Good. Then I need to get to my next class."

"Okay. See you later!"

Ava waved, and they went their separate ways. 

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

"Magic is the process by which our souls communicate with mana and affect the physical world. Over thousands of years, our predecessors have discovered and analyzed how our souls communicate with mana, and through this they have discovered runes. Runes are a magical language rooted in the nature of magic, not just some weird lines that we draw with the elements. Through runes we can communicate with mana and control it in a more reliable, codified way. This allows us to develop advanced spells."

A teacher lectured his students not long after they sat down. All the kids couldn't help but be drawn to his voice as he spoke of ethereal concepts and drew mystical diagrams on the board. 

Dirk was one of the ones listening intently. He had always wondered about the workings of magic, and this was the first time he was going to get real lessons on it. 

"In this class, I'll be teaching you all Earth magic. To learn this you'll need to know about Earthen runes and mana. Each of the elements has different runes and different theories behind them, so knowledge doesn't transfer over much from one element to the other. However, only those with more than one attribute need to worry about this. Most of you in this class only have the Earth attribute anyway. But for those with more than one, you'll find that after understanding one, you'll achieve a more general understanding of how to learn another, not unlike learning languages. Now, all of you will be starting off with learning the chore magic and a couple other basic spells. We'll break each down and talk about each individual rune until all of you can fluidly cast the spells. This is a gradual process that can vary in results depending on your affinity, but none of you have affinities so low that there's any worry about not being able to cast these simple spells. Go ahead and open the books in front of you to the first section..."

The teacher laid things out clearly, and the students followed directions. After opening the books, they got rough ideas of what they would be learning, and the teacher even started some of the first lesson during the second half of class. 

*Ding!* *Ding!* *Ding!*

Before long, the bell rang, and everyone closed up. For most of the kids in the class, this was their last class of the day since they only had one attribute. However, Dirk still had two more classes, so he packed up the book and headed out. 

The next class was his fire class, and here the teacher did mostly the same thing as the previous one. He talked about some basic principles before getting more specific, and it ended with everyone having a general overview of what they would learn. 

This led to Dirk heading to his final class that taught the dark element. However, when class started, he was surprised.

'There's only 15 people here...'

Dirk counted the small number of kids. The Earth class was filled entirely, holding 70 kids. The Fire class had held 45, which was a bit lower but not by much. But for this class to only have 15 was odd. 

His questions were answered though when the teacher walked in. The teacher was a very slender man who wore flamboyant, colorful clothes and held the happiest smile one had ever seen. At first glance, Dirk had thought he was some kind of circus performer with those clothes. He had expected something dark, since this was the teacher for the dark element, but this had stumped him. 

"Hello kids! How are you all today? You, how was your day so far?"

Instead of doing an introduction, the teacher walked up to a boy and asked his question. The kid was stunned for a bit. What kind of teacher was this?

"Um, fine?"

"Fine? It's not fantastic? Exhilarating? Are there any girls who have caught your eye so far?"

"Wha..? N-no!"

"No? Well how could that be so?! There are many pretty girls here. Oh, I remember when I was your age at this school. There were so many beauties that I couldn't choose between them all! In the end, I was caught dating four of them! You, my strapping young friend, must go out in the world and get yourself a woman! There is no room for cowards in the world of romance! How about you, young lady? What kind of meals have you eaten today?"

Suddenly changing subject, the teacher moved to another student, his exciting clothes moving with his body as he shifted. The girl had originally been giggling at the boy in the spotlight, but now she was nervous. She thought back to the lunch she had a few hours prior.

"I-I had some meat soup."

"Meat soup! Ah, such a wonderful food, isn't it? A mixture of the greasy meat and sweet broth! Food is a brilliant thing all races around the world seek to perfect. The excitement it brings to all our tongues is indescribable. Right! I forgot to mention my name."

As if he remembered who he was, the teacher suddenly backed away from the girl and stood in the front of the class. He took up a more formal posture, but with his crazy clothes it only looked weird. 

"My name is Garel Vincent. I'm a Tier 6 Dark Mage. This year, I'll be at your service. Now where's my list..."

Garel spun around in place like a dog chasing his tail before reaching into his shirt and pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. He read it before his eyes lit up. 

"Aha! Okay, so I'll be teaching you the fundamentals of Dark magic. Now, the first thing you need to know about Dark mana in general is that it is inherently... crazy. It's insane, bombastic, and literally out of this world! It is very unlike light magic which seeks to control everything. Gosh, I really do hate those with light magic. I mean, what's the point of life if you can't live it the way you want?!"

Garel shouted with surprising hostility, surprising all the students. Dirk also tensed up and reached for his waist, feeling a bit less secure when he didn't feel a weapon. This was an instinctive reaction when he didn't feel safe. 

The next moment though, Garel returned to his brilliant happiness. 

"Anyway, Dark magic is best controlled by those who don't control it. One needs to flow with Dark magic, loosening restraints and ridding thoughts of manipulating it. You must invite the darkness in, channeling it to do the things you desire."

As he spoke, Garel spun around in a dance and traced black lines with his fingers. What resulted was a rather elegant display of control, except it wasn't control. It was like he was merely following the will of the dark element, but at the same time, the dark element was following his will. The two synchronized to produce a giant black rune in mid-air. Dirk could feel copious amounts of the Dark element radiating off of the rune. 

"This symbol I drew in the air is one that seeks to contaminate and obliterate the light element. It would instantly kill anyone below Tier 5. However, since I forgot to add a circle, it will explode in about 2 secon-."

*Boom!*

Before he could finish, the symbol suddenly erupted out with dark mana, filling the classroom. Dirk's soul was shaken a bit as the mana slammed into him. However, he suddenly had an idea and decided to use his mana lungs to breathe in the next moment. The super dense mana flooded into him, and the bottleneck to Tier 2 that he had been struggling to get past for a year suddenly broke down. 

When that barrier broke down, Dirk felt as if his soul had opened the flood gates. mana from the atmosphere flooded into him for a moment before calming, filling him with rejuvenation. Dirk's ability to sense mana sharpened at that moment. Looking back, it felt as if he had been congested all this time, and his soul was finally able to take a deep breath. 

'This... feels nice.'

Dirk reveled in the feeling for a while as all the dark mana around the classroom dissipated. When everyone had settled back down, they all looked at Garel, who was actually smiling at Dirk.

"Congratulations, my talented friend! You've broken past the first Tier to officially enter the world of mages! Tell me, how are you feeling right now?"

Garel rapidly approached Dirk, who backed into his seat with obvious caution. The previous feeling of comfort quickly disappeared. 

"...I feel nice."

"Nice. Yes, it's an adequate description. For the first time, your soul is going beyond what an ordinary person can accumulate. Your sense for mana has become sharper, your ability to channel it strengthened. Now, you'll follow your technique to cultivate some kind of core that will be the foundation for the rest of your magical career. You could say that you've taken a step through the gate and can finally ascend the stairs to godhood."

Garel raised his hand to the sky as if he were trying to grasp heaven itself. Dirk though only felt that the man was dangerously volatile. He didn't know how to handle such a person. 

However, his description was spot on. Dirk was now at the level where he could create his first Mana Heart. He was actually a bit glad that Garel had done what he did. 

Garel looked back at him after a second of suspense.

"I'm excited for you, young man. What's your name?"

"Dirk."

"Dirk! I will remember that name. A child who could grasp the opportunity I gave him will surely go far. In fact, I am now going to declare you my favorite student! Now! Allow me to read you all my list which tells us what we will be learning this year."

Saying that, Garel walked back down to the front and read off his crumpled paper. Dirk was stunned though. Opportunity? Garel had done that for him? Did he see that he was on the verge of advancing? Dirk couldn't seem to get a read on that man at all. 

However, Dirk's face fell when he heard that he would be the favorite student. Even the other kids glanced over in pity. Who wanted to be the target of that man's attention all the time? They would all rather be the target of his ire. 

The rest of that class went a bit more smoothly once the students were able to handle the bundle of chaos that was their teacher. The list he read had 4 bullet points on it, each pointing out a general concept like runes or mana control or spells. Apparently, this was the curriculum for the year. There weren't even any books. 

Finally, after a long 2 hours, the class ended. Each of the students left the room with confused minds. The teacher was eccentric and volatile, but he was nice? They couldn't seem to make up their minds about him and left with unsure steps.