“Are all lycans like you?”

“And how am I like?”

“Aggressively… social.”

If the two first years were popular before, well Michael was and Micah just soaked up the fame, then they were now even more so. It appeared that news traveled fast at Gnosis, though the difference between news and gossip was just in the eye of the beholder. That being said, everyone knew that Michael and Micah had just braved a lower-level room along with a few upper years and lived to tell the tale. Came out probably richer, too. They also knew that Erea, the infamously prickly elf was now on decent terms with Michael, after the young human trounced her in battle Class. Ah, and everybody also knew that at least three factions were trying to get Michael to call himself one of theirs.

Which was why everybody was either staring at him or trying to get his attention and Micah was once again using the opportunity to make a few more contacts.

Or maybe he just liked basking in the limelight.

“I’m not aggressively… anything.” The lycan said.

“It’s telling that out of my two words, that’s the one you chose to take offense too.”

“Yeah, well. You gotta know your peers, dude. Like, see that kapror chic over there? I heard she knows a |Quill Dart| Spell. And she’s not opposed to trading it.”

“Trading it for what? You just managed to learn that |Tripping Vine| Spell. You already up for teaching it?”

“Well, not teaching it, but maaaaybe-“

“I am not loaning you the book back.”

“Oh, c’mon!”

“No. Maybe I’ll do it after I learned the Spell. But not before.”

“Wow. How fame had affected you, Michael. I am appalled.” Micah said, in a higher-than-thou tone.

“Yes, well, takes one to know one.” Michael laughed.

“Quiet there!”

“Yes, sir!” they chorused.

Their Alchemy teacher was rather strict, but then again, the two really should have been paying more attention in their Class. Both because it was important to know at least the basics of Potions and because most of the ingredients they were using could catastrophically blow up. Or fizzle out, but mostly blow up.

The fact that a good portion of the Class was also more interested in them than in the Class itself might have explained why the teacher was so grumpy.

Their second Class of the day was far more interesting, seeing as how the teacher had chosen to actually bring a small specimen to today’s lecture. Their lesson they had the week past detailed a number of creatures they could stumble across Gnosis’s halls. The logic here being that it was nice to know what creatures you could expect in the wider world, but the academy was vast enough that certain native species could be found here as well, both brought from the outside and sub-species which had evolved.

“That’s a Hexhamster? It looks… well, like a hamster?” Michael asked aloud.

“Yes, mister Becket, it looks like a normal hamster.” Their teacher said. “But I assure you, this pest has been the downfall of nations.”

Michael must have been wearing the same expression half the Class wore, which was ‘dubious’, so the teacher went on.

“Who here knows what hexhamsters are known for?”

Surprising everyone, it was Micah who raised his hand and started speaking.

“They’re known for bringing about bad luck. Just a little bit, but they usually live in colonies. If not periodically exterminated, the they can bring floods or wildfires or droughts to nearby settlements.”

“That’s correct. Very well!”

“What?” Micah asked, amused by Michael’s look. “I used to hunt them, back in my Clan. They taste good.”

“Indeed, the more hexhamsters there are, the more improbable events start to happen. Cages rot in hours. Adventurer’s swords break. Landslides wipe out parties sent to exterminate them. And yes, what settlements have the ill-luck of developing next to them, often find themselves the target of calamity. They are a few, not many, but enough, records of entire nations being broken by enough hexhamsters drawn together, whether because said hamsters tried to harness their innate magical potential, or simple happenstance.”

“Sir, but why does Gnosis accept these things inside our halls?” Michael asked.

“Some say that they provide useful monster parts and ingredients. That is certainly true, but not the full truth. The full, honest truth is that hexhamsters are notoriously hard to completely wipe out. Even if one remains, it will soon breed.”

“How… how can one hamster breed?”

“They are harbingers of bad luck. Probability. And a cat would have an incredible amount of bad luck to be mounted by a hexhamsters and birth other hexhamsters, no? Not that these pests are picky regarding their breeding partners.”

Michael’s mind was trying to picture what the professor had just said and failing completely.

And Micah ate them?!

Luckily, he was saved from more thinking by a heavy knock on the door.

“Ah, that must be our new student. One moment, everyone.” The teacher said, as it stepped out into the hallway.

“New student?” Micah asked. “I though everyone come in at once.”

Michael shrugged, but a girl from behind them whispered.

“Mostly, though some students make a good case for waiting some more before coming. Overlapped religious events, cultural practices… all kinds of stuff. If they’re exceptional, Gnosis waits for them, instead of just letting them wait for another year. But mostly when it happens, they’re just students who got whisked away by a wrong location Spell.”

Michael remembered that happening to him and shuddered.

“So, what, whoever this is had to survive somewhere in the castle until now?” he asked, turning to the human girl behind him. “Isn’t that a long time to be found?”

“Depends on how far up or down they went.” She shrugged. “But yeah, it is kind of odd. Maybe that’s not the case.”

“Maybe they’re exceptional.” Micah said.

That was the moment the teacher walked back inside the classroom, with the new student in tow.

Well… I mean… ‘exceptional’ fits, I guess.

The new student belonged to no race Michael had ever seen before. Even in games, really. He was a rhino. As in rhinoceros. Only he was walking upright and looked anthropomorphized, with expressions on his face Michael could actually read. His robe was bulging in places and it barely came to his knees. To say that the guys was muscular would be an understatement and he was at least a couple of heads taller than Michael. Maybe more.

“Everyone, this is… uhm how do you pronounce your name again, dear?”

“My name is Bobleh Mupuntu. But calling me Bob is fine.” He graveled, in a deep voice.

His name is BOB! This is hilarious. Hold it together, Michael, hold it together.

While Michael did his best not to burst out laughing at the absurdity of a walking, hulking rhino-man being called Bob off all things, the teacher instructed him to take a seat on the sides of the Class, so that he wouldn’t obstruct anyone’s view.

Michael noticed that Bob was moving with quite a lot of care and grace for someone his size. He also didn’t give him the feeling that he was noticing a barely restrained hulk. More of a gentle giant.

Bob sat down and the wooden chair creaked. Creaked, but held itself together and everyone let out a small breath. Which was of course when a squeal was heard and they all saw the hexhamster break out of its now-rotted cage.

It darted around, under their chairs, while the teacher tried to cast a retrieval Spell. To no avail, though, as the students Spells, since they got in the game too, only managed to make sure everybody was hitting everyone else.

Michael was simply satisfied with shielding himself, though Micah actually tried the |Tripping Vine| Spell on the hamster. It only served to trip the girl who had talked with them before.

Bob did nothing, just looking about amusedly, until the hexhamster jumped out from a chair and landed in his lap. His chair creaked again. Then splintered. Then broke apart, making both him and the critter land on the ground.

The others started laughing, but Michael noticed… they weren’t laughing at the situation. They were laughing at Bob himself. Which… kind of sucked. It wasn’t his fault the bad luck hamster chose him as his target. The rhino man himself just stared at the hexhamster in his hand, not looking at anyone else, as if wandering whether squishing the critter would make them shut up.

Michael didn’t like this. It felt too much like high-school, only with snotty mages instead of jocks.

So he moved ahead and stopped next to Bob.

“Hey. Want some help with that?” he said, pointing at the shivering fluff.

Bob looked at Michael, before turning his eyes back to the animal.

“Oh. No, I was just… no.”

“Well, at least let me help you up, big guy.” He said and raised his hand.

Bob grasped it and smiled amusingly when Michael tried and failed to get him up. But he had too much grace to mention it, after standing up himself.

“Thanks. I’m Bob.”

“Michael. And don’t worry about it. Gnosis’s standards on furniture are pretty low.”

“Yes.” He said, looking over Michael’s shoulder. “It seems a lot of its standards are low.”

So saying, he walked forwards and gave the teacher back its hexhamster, before walking out of the room. The Class carried on like normal after that, though everyone seemed to be eerily silent on what had just happened.

“I mean, you did help the guy out.” Micah said. “And you’re popular. So, people won’t joke about him near you, since it’ll be uncool of them.”

Micah’s vocabulary of earth-words was steadily increasing.

“But they’ll joke about him when I’m not around.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“I hate stuff like this.” He complained.

“Hey, that’s what you have me for. To be your social navigator.” The lycan laughed. “Just not right now. I need to run a little errand.”

“You don’t do errands.” Michael said, raising an eyebrow.

“I do when there’s a |Quill Dart| Spell in it for me.”

Michael laughed and wished him the best. He himself would head for a quick lunch, before deciding on what else to do. Maybe the library? He hadn’t seen it yet, but he knew few existed in the castle. Or maybe he’d go exploring. Nothing wild, just a floor above normal.

The Spell pinged off him, being deflected by his bracelet and he instantly turned.

Behind him, right at the corner of a corridor, was a young man. Under twenty, though probably not a first year. He had a Spell already cast, floating over his hand.

Huh… that’s new.

He wore a robe, but the upper part of it was layered with a sort of cloth armor, covering his chest and shoulders. Michael couldn’t tell what Spell it was, just by the color of light it was giving off, but he did know that the other human would be able to cast it faster than he could. Still, that was no reason not to be read.

“Nope.” He said out of the blue. “You’re not doing that. If your hand goes for your robe again, I’ll let this little gem fly to you.”

“What do you want?”

“Just to get a look at you. See, I just now heard that my faction wants you. Personally, I don’t see what the big deal it, but I thought that I would do my part and appraise you myself. Well, that and convince you to join.”

“Why ‘convince me’ if you don’t think much of me?”

“Because I care for my faction.” He shrugged. “And because bagging you as a prize would mean a higher status for me.”

Michael disliked being thought of as a prize, especially being named one so directly, but he had to be careful. His arsenal wasn’t as developed as he liked. And his wand wasn’t in reach. So, the only thing he could do was… to delay.

“And let me guess. Your faction likes me, you’re a very direct mage, you’re wearing armor. Am I speaking with a martial mage?”

“You are. Good for you. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I won’t just take you at your word. I have a magical contract with me. You will be signing it.”

Like fuck I am.

“I’m afraid I’ll need a little more convincing before I do that.” Michael smiled.

“I’m afraid the only convincing I can provide is of the attack Spell variety.” He smiled as well, though his smile was colder.

I am not smiling a magical contract. But I can’t fight him either… probably. This isn’t like with Erea.

Can’t run, can’t hide.

Then again, he can’t seriously hurt me either. At least, he can’t kill me. Or his faction will get him. I hope.

Maybe I can catch a break and escape?

Shit.

“Very well, then. I accept.” Michael said, with more bravado than he felt.

The other guy looked disbelieving for a second, before crossing his brows. He was expecting something like a hidden power. Which meant he would probably go all in from the very start. Not exactly raising Michael’s chances of escape.

“At least you got our spirit.” He said, stepping back and casting a |Barrier| with his other had.

Which was when his head snapped to his right and his eyes widened.

“What the-“

A massive punch impacted with his face, sending him flying into the other wall. Judging by the shape of his nose, he wouldn’t be waking up too soon. Rounding the corner, came Bob, who nodded at Michael and went to check on the other human.

“He’ll live. I was afraid I hit him too hard.”

“Oh… good. Yeah, it looked like a hard punch.”

“Yes.”

After the whole fight-or-flight situation, Michael found himself in a very different type of one. An awkward one.

“Thanks. For helping me out.”

“Don’t mention it. Just returning the favor.”

“Even so.”

Awkward and more awkward.

“I will be going now.” He said. “Have a pleasant night.”

“Uh, yeah, you too.”

It was as he was watching him leave, that Michael had a thought.

Fuck it. I was going to start a power group sometime anyway.

“Hey, Bob.” He called out.

“Yes?”

“We have ‘Introduction to General Races’ tomorrow, first Class. You want to sit with me and my friend?”

The rhino smiled.

“I would like that.”