After much (much) cursing, and a few ineffective attempts to brain Suds with a pickaxe, my day began in earnest. If there was one thing to say for my impromptu, involuntary ice bath, it woke me up far more than even a gallon of kash ever could.

I scarfed down a quick breakfast in-house, received a set of directions from Markus, and then I was off. A hop, a skip, a jump, and a loop ride later, I found myself in the Knowledge District, the Academy laid out before me.

Or, at least sort of laid out before me. It was more like a college campus than it was a high school -- spread across multiple buildings instead of being all packed into one, with ample green space between them all. Getting around would likely take some getting used to, especially with how similar the gray stone buildings all looked, but hopefully I’d learn quickly.

Even as early as I’d arrived, I could see a fair number of students either milling about or relaxing in the grassy areas. As expected, they looked, on average, around my age or a year or two younger.

The main administrative building, thankfully, was labeled quite clearly: Sylum Academy for the Advancement and Improvement of Society and Humanity. A bit of a mouthful, but in fairness, the acronym sounded a lot better in Common than it did in English.

While I was pretty sure I still had some time before my first class started, that time was soon put to good use. As soon as I stepped in, a clerk assaulted me with a stack of paperwork. As I started to fill it out, I was mortified to see a notification pop up.

Congratulations! You have learned the Writing skill.

+2% to writing speed

I tried to think back on all of my time in the past months, searching for a time where I’d written even a single letter, only to draw a blank.

That’s… just sad.

As if to add insult to injury, the system followed it up with another prompt.

Quest Received: Basic Literacy

Congratulations on receiving both the Reading and Writing skills! Now it’s time to raise them up!

Requirements:

Raise Reading and Writing to level 10

Rewards:

+100xp

I sighed. At the very least, no one had to know I’d gotten the quest, right?

Once all my t’s were dotted and my i’s were crossed, I was given a thin, black identification bracelet -- bringing my bracelet total up to five now -- that would apparently mark me as a student at the school. More immediately helpfully, I was also given a map and a course schedule.

Looks like… three classes today?

Armed with the knowledge of where to go now, I set off for my first day of school.

“Welcome! Welcome. Take a moment. Take a look around. Memorize some faces. Say hello to a neighbor. If you pass this course and stay with us next semester, you’ll be forming groups of five to venture into the dungeon. If you don’t find anyone, don’t worry -- we’ll work it out -- but it’s not a bad idea to get started early. Good teamwork goes a long way in a real fight.”

My first class was already shaping up to be fairly notable, for a number of distinct reasons.

First, its size. I only had a fuzzy idea at best concerning how many students the academy held, but I was fairly surprised at the large auditorium-like space we were packed into. And by packed, I meant packed -- all the seats were essentially full, with some sort of auditory spell helping the professor project her voice evenly throughout the room. Said voice was smooth, but stern, a good match for the silver-haired woman who was evidently the professor.

Secondly, those many students bore a number of recognizable faces. It seemed that the course was standard for whatever movers and shakers there were in the city, as just about anyone I could recall from the ball found their way here. In a far corner, I spotted the icy-eyed Lady Verin, though I hadn’t managed to talk with her. On the flip side, I’d already had to exchange some polite nods and pleasant small talk with a few of the men I’d paired with in my somewhat ill-fated dancing experience.

It was possible I’d have been roped into sitting with one of them, too, if not for the third feature which was bound to make this course fairly memorable.

Periodically, I’d been casting Sense Minds, listening to the archmage’s advice to attempt to level it. Surrounded with people as I was, a number of minds flared in my mental vision, corresponding to all the people sitting around me. There was one exception, however: The spell didn’t register the person sitting directly to my right, the magic seeming to fizzle out as it hit her.

It was this person -- this familiar person -- that was the aforementioned third feature. Presently, she swung an arm around me, pulling me into a brutal side hug.

“Perfect! Got one of my five here!” As if to show me off, Alara panned from side to side, beaming at anyone and everyone. Much to my embarrassment, the action pulled a fair amount of attention to us, as she’d once again failed to modulate her volume in accordance with classroom norms.

Apparently, it was even loud enough to reach the professor who coughed at the interruption before deciding to carry on.

“Yes, well. Today’s mainly a syllabus day, so if you were hoping to immediately be jumping into a dungeon, I’m afraid I’ll have to dash your hopes. In fact, in case any of you were operating under an illusion, you won’t be entering the dungeon at all this semester. This entire course is theory and lecture based.

“How to best prepare for dungeon runs. The standard enemies you can expect to find in dungeons of various types. Pros and cons of party compositions, and how to work around a party’s weak points. Every year, without fail, there are some battle maniacs sitting in these seats who can’t keep a thought in their head if it’s not about whacking something with a sword. I want to get it out of the way now. There will be written tests. You will not be entering the dungeon if you don’t pass them.”

A few muffled groans filled the room, along with some good-natured chuckles. Alara fell into the earlier camp, evidently not too enthusiastic about the written tests.

“But!” she continued, “the second semester is a practicum. Barring anything abnormal, if you stick around, you will be delving into the city dungeon multiple times, with various levels of assistance along the way. As a final project at the end of the year, you can expect to have to make a dungeon run all by your lonesomes, with nothing but your party to back you up. This is dangerous. It’s infrequent -- rare, in fact -- but there have been incidents in past years. If that’s not something you’re comfortable with, know it now. There’s no shame in leaving or taking this course some other year when you’re stronger.”

Probably some shame in leaving, actually. From the ball, I was well aware that a good number of the students were from influential families. I’d eat my metaphorical hat if they wouldn’t get some serious flack for chickening out of the course.

Well, whatever. The various families probably know how to tell when their kids are ready.

Speaking of influential families, I’d already spotted Verin, and Alara was next to me. Try as I might, however, I wasn’t able to spot the other major player I’d grown… acquainted with.

“Looking for War Man?” Alara scream-whispered. For all that she painted herself as clueless, the woman could be surprisingly perceptive sometimes. Either that, or I was being really obvious about it.

“I am,” I admitted. “Feels like everyone’s here. He would definitely be in a class like this, wouldn’t he?” Even for students who had no desire to fight as part of their careers, the supervised fighting would be a boon to their leveling speed and skill growth.

“You didn’t know? War Man’s some sort of passive-fist. Guy doesn’t ever even fight! His class gives him massive penalties to all offensive skills and actions, so he’s practically useless in a dungeon. Hah! He would make a poor excuse for an adventurer.”

Huh. I guess “Pacifist” was in the name of his class, but I didn’t really think it went that far. It was nice to know he couldn’t be bugging me here though.

I was pulled from my musings as I slowly realized that Alara’s voice had carried a bit farther than intended. Even without superhuman hearings taken into account, I was pretty sure a lot of the room had just gotten her opinion on Warram’s fighting acumen. The professor was no exception.

She cleared her throat. “We have a good deal to cover, and not much time for chit-chat. You there, in the back. I’d appreciate if you could hold any further comments until after class.”

As if Alara somehow hadn’t anticipated being heard, her easy-going smile shifted into a momentary panic. She bowed her head, only narrowly keeping herself from slamming her forehead into the people in front of us.

“Yes professor! Apologies professor!”

After a brief snort, the gray-haired instructor carried on. It was time to learn about some dungeons!

“Listen up! This is the Beginner’s Weapon Mastery course for standard weapons! If you’re here to train a weapon skill up past level 20, you signed up for the wrong course! If you’re here to train up an exotic weapon, you signed up for the wrong course! If that applies to you, scram now! Not my problem. For the rest of you, group up by weapon type to receive your instructor!”

The speaker in question was a particularly wiry man with a shrewish face and a head of closely cropped hair. Additional instructors stood behind him, lined up with various levels of projected severity.

The shouting instructor addressed us in a training yard of sorts, a fenced-in area of bare dirt. “Us,” in this case, was about fifty students all huddled together. Surprisingly, save for some vague recollections of faces from the ball, I didn’t recognize a single soul.

I had little time to dwell on that, however, as I hit my first snag fairly quickly: As the teacher began shouting out various weapon types and grouping everyone up, I realized I didn’t know where to go. At the end of it all, I was one of the few left standing unallocated.

He pinched the bridge of his nose as he eyed the remaining stragglers. “Always a couple of you. All right, out with it. Spill your nonsense so we can get on with it.” He went from person to person until it was my turn to “spill.” I did my best.

“Um. All weapons are class skills for me,” I admitted. “I need to learn everything. Also, the main weapons I’m working with right now are…” Thinking it better just to show the man, I summoned up my pickaxe first, followed by my pair of kitchen knives.

Despite his earlier show of exasperation, my case didn’t seem to bother the man nearly as much as I’d expected it to.

“Easy fix. The pick counts as an axe. Knives count as small blades. Some of the forms will be clunky, and you won’t level as fast as you would if you got personalized instruction properly set up for your weapon variant, but that doesn’t matter yet. You’re with the Small Blades team today. Come to me at the start of each class, and I’ll tell you where to go. Now, move!”

Needing no further prompting, I found my group and summoned up my knives. I got a few odd looks at that, but nothing more. Soon thereafter, a different shouting instructor -- this time a bear of a man who looked better suited to clubs than knives -- greeted our pared down group and led us off to a corner of the training grounds. Without much fanfare, he ran through a series of knife movements before having us do our best to repeat them.

You are being trained by an Expert in Small Blades! Leveling speed greatly increased.

Nice. The Knife Bear instructor came around, fixing stances, shouting half-insults, half-encouragements, and generally making sure we were doing what we needed to.

Considering that all I was doing was following some repetitive motions, it was something of a shock when the notification finally came.

Small Blades has reached level 5!

Guess this class is going to work out for me then.

As it turned out, my cooking class wasn’t technically taught at the academy. Instead, there was some sort of partnership between the school and a few more trade-oriented colleges back in the Commons District. Additionally, the class was offered to a wider variety of people than just young-twenties students, and by necessity, it met fairly late, after the standard workday had ended.

It was thus that some time later, I found myself back in my own district, standing in a kitchen which felt mostly familiar, but just the tiniest bit off. Sure, there were pots and pans, and though they worked a bit differently, there were sinks and stoves. Every once in a while, though, I’d spot an instrument whose purpose I couldn’t even guess at. Not that I’d been the most savvy of chefs in the first place, but I was largely certain there was some fantasy tomfoolery in the air too.

“Mm. Cooking.” The instructor -- a looming figure with such square features that if he stood still, he would likely pass for a giant block of rock -- hummed out while gazing down at us all.

“Food is good. We all have to eat it. Might as well taste good, mm?”

He made some compelling points.

“Can’t cook if you know nothing, though. No cooking today. Just going over the names of everything. What they do and when to use them. Come on then. No sense in wasting time.”

And with that, the class jumped into our first cooking lesson.

Some time later, I crashed into bed. I flicked through the day’s notifications, pulling up my progress.

Small Blades has reached level 5!

Darken Small Object has reached level 3!

Dark Magic has reached level 3!

Sense Minds has reached level 2!

Mental Magic has reached level 3!

Today was nice, honestly. More than that, judging by the five lines of level ups, today was productive. If this sort of growth kept up, I’d be fighting giants and slaying dragons by year’s end.

Or at least cooking dragons? Good class though. Didn’t grab the skill because I didn’t make anything, but still nice.

Past that, I was happy to see I’d gained a level in my dark magic skills just from passively using my hairclip. Casting my mental cantrip seemed to be paying off as well, and thanks to the archmage’s bracelet, no one had looked at me funny or locked me up for it either.

All in all, I considered the day a plus.

And here’s hoping things stay that way. Three classes down, three to go.

Stat & Level Updates:

Writing 0 → 1 Small Blades 4 → 5 Darken Small Object 2 → 3 Dark Magic 2 → 3 Sense Minds 1 → 2 Mental Magic 2 → 3

Character Sheet:

Name: Tess

Age: 26

Race: Human

Class: Arcane Arsenal

Level: 11

Prestige: 1222

Health: 300/300

Mana: 325/325

Stamina: 240/240

Constitution: 28 (+2)

Strength: 26

Endurance: 26

Dexterity: 21 (+1)

Intelligence: 31 (+2)

Wisdom: 27 (+2)

Perception: 28

Charisma: 21

Luck: 27

Skills:

Skills

Weapon & Armor

Archery: 10

Spears: 10

Medium Armor: 5

Small Blades: 5

Swords: 3

Axes: 3

Hammers: 2

Staffs: 2

Unarmed Combat: 2

Heavy Armor: 1

Movement

Dodge: 3

Magic

Fire Magic: 10

Water Magic: 8

Life Magic: 6

Light Magic: 6

Dark Magic: 3

Mental Magic: 3

Earth Magic: 1

Ritual Magic: 1

Demonic Summoning: 2

Spells

Conjure Water: 10

Flameploof: 10

Minor Healing: 7

Illumination: 7

Darken Small Object: 3

Sense Minds: 2

Summon Pebble: 1

Resistances

Trauma Suppression: 13

Mental Resistance: 7

Poison Resistance: 6

Bleed Resistance: 4

Pain Resistance: 4

Heat Resistance: 2

Detection

God's Eye: 8

Detect Trap: 7

Detect Secret: 6

Craft

Construction: 6

Woodworking: 7

Jewelry Making: 5

Mining: 5

Alchemy: 1

Social

Conversation: 5

Etiquette: 5

Trade: 3

Flirt: 2

Dancing: 2

Deception: 2

General

Drinking: 7 (+5)

Reading: 3

Gambling: 1

Writing: 1

Class Skills

Weaponmaster

Bind Weapon: 3/5

Arcane Armament: 2/5

Overload Weapon: 1/5

Armorist

Bind Armor: 3/5

Arcane Armory: 5/5

Resist Magic: 2/5

Augmenter

Mana Feet: 1/1

Arcane Vision: 1/1