“WAKE UP!” a deep voice shouted so loudly that I felt as if my eardrums were going to burst.

When I opened my eyes the skinny guardian was already gone, most likely tormenting other children. I reluctantly left the sorry the excuse of a bed this world has and put my clothes on. Frank and Owen however were already wide awake, waiting for me in an impatient fashion.

Oh, right. They were brought up by retired warriors. Of course they would be unfazed by waking up early.

After I had shaken the tiredness off we went to the same training field as yesterday. The familiar sight of over a hundred children awaited us and after we found Greta we waited for Asshole to arrive.

When he did arrive he unexpectedly brought someone else with him. It was a middle aged man who was about half a meter taller than our teacher. He wore a black robe similar to the one the person who escorted me back had but with a lot ornaments. The sword stuck in the head of what seemed to be a western dragon which was embroidered with fine golden threads in the middle of his chest was the most eye-catching one though. Similar themes could be found in all of other ornaments. Some showed a slain beast whilst others showed various landscapes.

Together they formed quite an impressive sight. I wonder if those ornaments have a special meaning?

His blue eyes were complemented by his short brown hair and he seemed, unlike most of the people I have seen so far, to be quite frail. Well, back in New Pandora his build would have been quite normal but most men here are quite muscular.

“Children, this person here is the headmaster. Be respectful to him!” Asshole shouted at us. Unlike yesterday I could hear no real threat in his voice though.

“Ahem, aren’t you forgetting something?” the headmaster said to him. A grin was rapidly spreading on his face. Well, it looks like someone is enjoying the situation.

Asshole grumbled something incomprehensible. Then he looked at us and shouted “I AM TRULY SORRY!” He bowed deeply towards us. “It is the duty of a teacher train his students, not injure them without any reason to do so! What happened yesterday was my mistake, I do not expect you to forgive me, but I will do my best to make you into the finest warriors this city has ever seen!

As an apology I will teach you everything I know, including techniques I developed myself and secret knowledge I never planned on sharing!” he looked as if he had swallowed a lemon whole.

Except the few who were reared by warriors all of us were pretty uncaring about his apology. We didn’t really know what he meant. Well, I was at least a bit grateful though. At the very least he would answer my questions now.

Seeing that most of us didn’t really care the headmaster spoke up. “You don’t understand what this means, do you? Although this man can be quite violent he survived two hordes as a frontline fighter.” I could hear the people around me taking in deep breaths. “His experience will benefit you greatly. The most important thing however is that he will share his techniques with you! He has lived three hundred years now, imagine that! Three hundred years of knowledge! Young ones, I advise you to take this chance. Learn as much from him as you can, and maybe you will become one of the most powerful batches we have ever seen” The headmaster explained to us in a fervent tone, obviously trying to persuade us that the benefits were enormous.

300 years?! The old man didn’t lie when he said that we could reach immortality! The dream of every living being could come true! But it obviously won’t be easy. Based on the way the headmaster spoke about his age it must be quite something to survive for such a long time.

But I have to say I have truly underestimated this world. If we could live for 300 years, then what else is possible? Assuming that meditation constantly improves our bodies then wouldn’t it be possible to become gods?

Seeing our now interested looks the headmaster just laughed. “I will leave the rest to you. I am sure this batch won’t disappoint me” As he said that he looked at my group. Then he just slowly walked away from us.

Well, I expected a more… flashy departure. He is the headmaster after all. Well, one can’t have everything in life, right?

“Ahem!” Our teacher cleared his throat loudly, drawing our attention back to him. “Now that we got this out of our way, let’s start with the training.”

The same dummies that appeared yesterday slammed into the ground again.

“You know what to do. I won’t answer questions until you can’t even stand anymore!” He said. Well, that was just as expected. Of course he wouldn’t answer our questions that easily.

Sighing, I went on my way and began punching the dummies again.

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

I laid on the ground, enjoying its softness. Although I lasted far longer than yesterday due to not experimenting I still reached my limits rather quickly.

After I more or less recovered I dragged my tired body to our teacher, who sat on a chair he conjured out of nothing.

“Mr. Teacher, would you like to answer my question now?” I may not like him but I won’t give him a reason to injure me. I will be careful to not provoke him too much, lest I lie on the ground again.

“Of course, ask me whatever you want.” He told me in an uninterested tone. Hopefully he will answer my question seriously.

I took a deep breath. “How did you make all of that stuff appear? I mean you couldn’t have created all of it out of thin air, could you?”

He sighed, most likely fed up with being asked the same question over and over again. “Well, you create all kinds of things in your core, right? These dummies and the chair I am sitting on all come from my core space. It is a technique too wasteful for you right now so don’t even think doing it. You will only waste a lot of mana on nothing.”

This is pretty interesting. So I can bring anything I create in my core into the real world? Surely there must be limitations on that, otherwise how would we still have problems with beasts if we could just drop mountains on them?

I repeated my thoughts to him and he looked at me strangely.

“Well, you are interesting kid. Not only are you quite talented but you also have an inquisitive mind far above your age.

To answer your question there are indeed some limitations. The amount of matter you can summon is dependent on the strength of your mana veins. If they are too weak for the amount of matter you summon they will rip apart, turning you into a normal person! Furthermore, the things you wanted to summon will turn into ambient mana.” He had a melancholic expression on his face as he said that.

The headmaster said that he survived two hordes, right? I heard about them from my father. They are catastrophes that happen roughly every hundred years.

The beasts, led by an especially powerful leader, storm into our territories in order to wipe humanity out. It is unknown why they do this though. I wonder if they are just playing around with us. Is something sending every hundred years a force which causes massive causalities but doesn’t kill us, just for the fun of it?

I wouldn’t put it past this crazy world with endless possibilities.

The last horde was seven years ago, which means it was around the time I was born. My mother most likely died in the beast horde as the civilian causalities are always high due to the farmers not having time to evacuate.

“Don’t worry though, you will feel a bloated sensation when that happens. Mana veins naturally strengthen with age but the process mostly depends on meditation. How fast your mana veins improve depends on your talent so having weak mana veins essentially limits your power. Because of that we can’t just drop mountains on them, most warriors wouldn’t be able to handle the strain and their mana veins would rip, making their sacrifice useless.” He shook his head; the melancholic expression being replaced by a frown.

“Even if the more powerful ones did drop mountains on them, it would only invite a calamity. The bulk of the beast horde is composed of weak beasts; most warrior would be able to easily defeat any of them in a one on one. The problem is that they come in great numbers and their leader is comparable to the head of a powerful noble clan. Beneath the leader there are some strong beasts that need several powerful warriors to defeat. Although the horde may be terrifying, it won’t lead to the downfall of our city.

The dropped mountains however would create a massive mana fluctuation and shockwaves, luring some true monsters to our city. Do you understand what that would mean? Imagine a pure blooded dragon attacking our city! We would be wiped out within hours, without any of us having even a miniscule chance of surviving.” Both of us visibly shivered at the thought.

So it’s not that we can’t do so but that it would be better to just let many warriors die instead of risking a disaster.

“What are mana fluctuations?” Without wasting too much time I asked him another question.

“Curious, aren’t we? Normally a kid would be terrified when speaking to the person who sent it into a coma just the day before but it seems that you don’t have such emotions.

Well, it doesn’t really matter, but remember: The fearless ones die young. Too many people have died because of recklessness. We need every warrior we can get, so be careful, okay?” What I heard wasn’t the voice of a strict teacher but of an old man who had seen too many people die.

I wonder how many things happened during his three hundred years of living in this dangerous world? How many friends, relatives or students died to either age or beasts? What did he experience on the frontline? What did he have to do in order to live until now?

I am sure that nobody can live so long as a warrior without being mentally scarred. He most likely suffers from PTSD, which would explain his sudden aggressions.

“But I am getting off topic. Mana fluctuations are something you will feel after having meditated long enough. The constant improvement to mana will make you sensitive to it.

Mana fluctuations are caused by anything you do. Just by living you emit mana fluctuations and every action you take intensifies them. Your emotion can make the fluctuations vary to a large degree so it is not only dependent on your body but your soul plays a large part too. Together with the fluctuations of everything near you it will create something akin to a melody. If the surroundings are peaceful it will sound calming, wonderful even. If you are in a battlefield however it will sound like a mix of a battle hymn and a sorrowful song.

Well, that is how I perceive it. Every person has a different way of perceiving them. Some see them as ripples, others smell them and some even taste them as if they were food!

I wonder how you will perceive them? Well, it won’t be that far in the future anyway so I am looking forward to seeing it.” He explained to me.

His tone became more and more friendly as we talked. I wonder if it is a good thing for a teacher who educates warriors to become emotionally attached to his students? If they die won’t he be depressed? If it were me I would…What would I do? Becoming emotionless towards my students would save me from being sad when they die but I don’t think I would be able to do that. I am still human after all.

Now that I think about it, how do the teachers feel when they see young warriors they taught themselves fight against beasts and die? I honestly can’t imagine it.

Is that why the Academy has such a bad reputation? Because the teachers don’t want their pupils to die so they prepare them as good as they can?

“If you have enough energy to ponder these things then I am sure that you are able to hit some dummies, right? Now let me be and do your work!” He pushed me back to my dummy.

Strangely enough I felt I had enough energy to continue punching it even though I was pretty tired a few minutes before so I did as I was told.

Before I could get into a rhythm I noticed some stares burning into the back of my head. I turned around and noticed my friends, especially Owen, staring at me in awe.

Authors Note: Can anyone tell me why chapter 6 has more views than the first three chapters combined? I am really curious about that. Thanks for reading and I am, like always, open to suggestions and questions!