Duncan woke after only a few hours of sleep, ready to start his day. It’s nice that I need less sleep and food and so on as I advance, but the Academy’s schedule is designed for people who need more. He rose quietly and left the room to visit the toilet and baths. His morning ablutions taken care of, he spent an hour practicing sharp turns and sudden stops on his Flying Blade, taking more than a few tumbles in the process. The pre-dawn light was no problem with his Shadow Sight passive. Next came two hours of physical exertion in the Academy’s well equipped training room. There were half a dozen other early risers in the room, but they were all focused on their own training.

Duncan returned to the baths on his dorm floor to clean up before breakfast and classes began. I don’t want to offend any sensibilities on the first day of classes, after all. This time, the baths were quite busy. It was easy to tell which of the students had no prior communal bathing experience. There were lots of flushed faces and people bathing with their faces to the wall. There were also leering looks and the occasional whispered remarks between some of the young men. Duncan dismissed his clothes into his armband as he entered the baths and cleaned himself with the soap provided.

His classmates were generally fit, as he’d expected from people attending an academy for physical training. Some of the bodies were more aesthetically pleasing than others, of course, but what surprised him was the lack of evidence of strong Body affinities. While it was certainly possible to be a warrior without a strong Body affinity (there were melee and even bow Techniques for many affinities, after all), he’d have expected an elite academy to draw more folks with a strong Body affinity, since it was best suited to a warrior build.

He finished his bath quickly, toweled off, and equipped a clean uniform directly from his storage device. That is never going to get old. He returned to his room, where only David remained. “Are the baths still crowded?” David asked.

Duncan shrugged, “Not crowded, but if you’re shy, it might seem that way. Just go and bathe and head to breakfast. You don’t want to be late, and you’ll need to get used to it eventually. Start now, while all the other nobles who’re used to privacy feel the same way you do. It doesn’t take long to realize they’re just bodies.” He Blinked out the window, summoned a sword from storage, and flew down to the mess hall. David would take the advice, or he wouldn’t.

Ladies Cassandra and Amelia were already seated, eating their breakfasts. To his surprise, they waved him over once he’d grabbed his own meal. “You were up early,” said Cassandra. “Avoiding the bathing crowds?”

“I don’t need as much sleep as I used to,” Duncan replied. “I trained for a few hours, then bathed before coming down to eat. I don’t really need to eat as much as I used to, either, but it’s a hard habit to break.” Although the mana density here isn’t really enough to sustain me without food for any length of time.

“How was the gauntlet?” asked Amelia.

“The gauntlet?” Duncan was confused.

“All the second and third years lining the stairs, whipping you with towels?” said Cassandra.

“Oh. I flew down from our room. I guess I missed that. Probably a good thing, really.”

The girls laughed. “It’s an annual hazing ritual. Mostly harmless, and they took it easy on us because no one wants to upset the Yorks,” said Amelia. “But yeah, it was probably good that you weren’t there. Most first years can’t fight back, so everyone just runs through as fast as they can. Wait, how did you get out of our room? The window doesn’t open that far.”

“I can teleport,” replied Duncan.

“Interesting!” Amelia said, “Flying and teleportation. And a warrior class. You must have an unusual affinity and technique mix.” Seeing Duncan’s shrug, she continued, “Have you seen David?”

Duncan nodded. “Last I saw, he was waiting for the baths to be less crowded.”

Cassandra cackled. “A shy one! We can help him get over that.” At Amelia’s raised eyebrow she said, “What? It’s the least we can do after being mean to him last night for the joke.”

Amelia shook her head, “I am not sitting around naked to make him feel embarrassed.”

“It’s to help him get over his embarrassment. Once he’s over us, the baths will be nothing!” Cassandra protested. “Duncan can help too, in case it’s not women he’s worried about.”

These two are not what I expected from upper crust nobility. “I will be gone long before the rest of you wake up each day.” He got up to return his plate before the discussion could continue, having inhaled his food. Then it was off to his first class at the Academy.

Elvish was one of the classes that students from the other two academies in Lanport attended, presumably because it wasn’t popular enough to be taught at all three. There were eleven students in the class, and only one other identified as a warrior. The instructor was an elvish woman with a youthful complexion. She was a Level 78 Mage, so Duncan presumed she was older than she looked. He got a few odd looks from the other students, presumably because of his level, but the class went well.

Geography was fascinating. They began with a quick overview of the world, represented as a big ball. The Arnite Empire was a small corner of one continent. The first few months of the class would focus entirely on the empire – the map the instructor showed them of just the empire was huge, with hundreds of cities and towns marked. Lanport was on the southern coast, and the empire extended a long way North and West and included a massive island and a series of smaller islands to the North, as well. The world was huge, and Duncan resolved to see as much of it as he could.

Duncan’s first afternoon class was mace mastery, with the third-year students. Most of them appeared to be in the late-thirties, level-wise, and early twenties, age-wise. They’d all been training together for three years, so Duncan stuck out even more than he’d expected. There was a lot of staring and muttering amongst themselves from the other students, but Duncan ignored them and limbered up. Once the entire class of twelve had assembled, the instructor spoke up, “Silence! I’d like to introduce the new kid. Everyone, this is Duncan of the Valley. He comes to us from the Adventurers Guild, and he’s here to train, not to deal with your petty politics. His level is legit – I’ve seen him fight and believe me when I say this: If all of you attacked him at once, he would kill you all without breaking a sweat.”

The Level 82 Warrior ignored the rumble of discontent from the students. “Duncan, I’m Iain McDoughal, and this ragtag group of heroes is the finest batch of young mace fighters the academy has produced in many a year. I expect they’ll be excellent leaders of men when they leave here.”

“Thank you, sir.” Duncan nodded at the other students, “I look forward to training with you all.”

One of the students, a handsome fellow not much smaller than Duncan, addressed the instructor, “Could you take him, sir?”

Iain snorted. “Not on my best day, even if I took him by surprise from behind. Fortunately, all I have to do is teach him to use a mace well. Now let’s see what you’ve forgotten over the break.”

Next up for Duncan was great axe. The instructor was a woman larger even than Duncan, a Level 81 Warrior. This class seemed to have a higher proportion of people with a good Body affinity. Again, the students were about five years older than him, and under half his level. The instructor approached Duncan and shook his hand. “Maebh Glencairn. Welcome to the class.” She raised her voice as she addressed the rest of the students. “We have a new addition this year. This is Duncan. He’s training to become a blademaster, so the only place you’ll likely see him is here on the training grounds.” She looked over the group. “Now I’m supposed to tell you not to fuck with him because the headmaster doesn’t want to have to tell your families you died due to your own stupidity. But I’ve known you for a couple of years now, and none of you is that stupid. So let’s just get to training.”

Dinner was the most harrowing part of the day for Duncan. He sat with his roommates, but there was a constant stream of other students coming up to speak with Cassandra, to pay their respects to the scion of a powerful family. Cassandra made a point of introducing each of them to her roommates. Duncan wolfed his food down and left the table as early as he could. She may handle those supplicants with aplomb, but they were really grating on my nerves.

Amelia sought him out after dinner, catching him on his way to his sword training. “Why did you run away like that at dinner?” she asked.

“Too many people, and Cassandra kept introducing them all to me.”

“Cassie was doing you a favor, idiot. As a commoner who stands out, you’re bound to be the target of some of the noble bullies. By introducing you as her friend, she was telling the rest of the families not to fuck with you.”

Oops. “I didn’t know. I’ll apologize to her later. All the instructors are telling my classmates not to fuck with me, too. I don’t know if I should be concerned that everyone thinks I’ll go on a killing spree when some noble weakling squawks at me, or if I should be concerned that no one thinks I can take care of myself.”

Amelia sighed, “Look Duncan, I know you’re big and strong, but that doesn’t mean you’re invulnerable. If you piss off the wrong people, they can make life miserable for you.”

“How?” asked Duncan. “I have no family or friends they can target, no reputation they can harm, and the students here are too weak to hurt me physically.” At her skeptical look, he said, “What’s your weapon of choice?”

“Longsword, why?” answered Amelia.

Convenient. Duncan summoned a longsword from his storage device and passed it to her. “Hit me like you’re trying to kill me.”

Eyes wide, Amelia shook her head. “Are you crazy? No way.”

“Fine, hit me like you’re trying to take off my arm.”

“What’s going on here?” a deep voice interjected. A tall, wiry man, a Level 88 Warrior, stood behind Duncan. I never heard him approach.

“Master Guilford!” said Amelia. Oh, he’s the man I’m supposed to be taking my evening lesson from. Awkward.

“Amelia is concerned for my health. I’m trying to convince her that the students here are no threat to me,” Duncan explained. “But she’s hesitant to hit me.”

“I have metal and poison affinities, Duncan. I could kill you,” Amelia said.

Duncan sighed. “Never mind.” He turned to Master Guilford. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting, sir. We can begin my lesson right away.”

“Very well. Young Lady Dauntry could benefit by watching today’s lesson, if you don’t object,” Master Guilford said.

Duncan turned to Amelia, “Do you not have a private lesson this evening?”

“I tried to engage Master Guilford’s services, but someone beat me to it,” she replied. “I would like to see what I’m missing.” Ouch.

“I’m sorry. You’re welcome to watch.” Duncan hurried after Master Guilford, and Amelia followed.

They reached the small training yard Duncan had reserved every evening for the entire term. Master Guilford gestured to the center of the space and said, “Go through your normal warm up and sword forms while I observe.”

Duncan retrieved his longsword from Amelia and spent five minutes limbering up, then launched into the sword forms he’d been practicing since he was fourteen. After ten minutes, Master Guilford said, “halt. You have the most traditional interpretation of the classical forms I have ever seen, although your movements are sloppier than I’d have expected.”

“Sorry sir,” Duncan said, “I’ve not used a longsword since I left home, so I’m out of practice. I fight sword and shield in dungeons.”

“I’m sure it will come back. Now, strip and go through the forms again. We might as well put that Body Affinity to good use – if we can see the musculature, we can better see when you’re unbalanced or overreaching.”

Duncan stored his clothes in his storage device and went through the forms again. And again, and again, as Master Guilford repeatedly stopped him to adjust his stance minutely or to have him change the distribution of his weight. After an hour, the swordmaster said, “Alright, armor up. We’re going to spar at half speed. No active Techniques.”

And so they sparred, slowly. As always when sparring at low speed, Duncan found it difficult not to adjust his movements to account for what he could see coming, to not speed up to get out of the bad spots he found himself in. Master Guilford called a halt dozens of times to correct Duncan’s blade position, or to quiz him about why he made the choices he did in stance, guard, and attack.

Finally, Master Guilford called a halt for the night. “It almost feels sacrilegious to adjust your form. It’s so pure in its classical intent. But I think we can work together going forward. You understand the terminology I use, and you have a strong grasp of the basics. Do you agree?”

“Yes, sir,” Duncan said. “I feel I can learn a lot from you.”

“And you, Lady Dauntry – did you learn anything tonight?” Master Guilford asked. Oh, I completely forgot she was here. I don’t think she’s made a noise in the past three hours.

“Yes, Master Guilford. It was quite educational,” she replied. “I think I sit my hips a little too far back in my stances, for one thing. I shall need to practice on my own.”

“I can recommend you to Master Decidia – she rarely teaches any more, but we’ll see if I can talk her into it. I was most impressed with your attention and stillness.”

“Thank you, sir. That would be wonderful,” Amelia said.

“Very good. You are both dismissed. Duncan, I will see you the day after tomorrow.” Master Guilford took his leave.

Duncan walked back to the student dorms with Amelia instead of flying back as he’d originally intended. “He’s a very good instructor. I’m a little sorry I stole him from you,” he said.

“He’s the best in the empire,” Amelia replied. “But Master Decidia is also amazing. If she’ll take me on as a student, that’ll be just as good.”

They chatted amiably for the rest of the walk and found Cassandra and David had beaten them back to their room and were already fast asleep. “I need a bath,” Duncan whispered, stepping back out of the room. Amelia hesitated a moment, then joined him. She blushed prettily when she undressed; Duncan made sure to not give her any cause for further embarrassment.

Ablutions done, they retired to their room. Duncan lay in bed, meditating on the day. Classes went well. Elvish is going to be a challenge. Geography is wonderful so far. The mace and great axe classes went surprisingly well, given the other students were older and could have been problematic. Maybe the heavy-handed warnings from the instructors were helpful. Longsword was far and away the best class, though. I am going to learn a lot from Master Guilford. I hope he’s able to talk Master Decidia into teaching Amelia – I feel a little guilty about taking the teacher she wanted. She seems nice – I wasn’t sure about her and Cassandra after that supposed “joke” yesterday, but she genuinely seems to have no snobbishness. And she’s quite attractive, too.