“Are there any other questions, or can we move on?” No one else raised their hand. “Alright then, continue it is. In addition to the portal-centric classes, you will also be taking regular, more mundane classes, as the headmaster announced earlier. My wife and I, along with many of your parents, are living proof that one rarely stays a traveler for their entire life. You each need to be prepared to handle life once that happens. Some only make it five years, others twenty. There is no knowing which you will be until you have gone through the portal and faced your first monster.”

That was not what Zack wanted to hear, due to their circumstances, he hadn’t been able to attend much of school. He knew how to read and write and even do basic arithmetic, but none of those were anywhere close to the level of what he would be expected to perform at.

The teacher glanced up at a clock set into the wall at the back of the classroom. “Alright then, I think enough time has passed that we should be fine to start touring the grounds. While we are walking, I want each of you to take this opportunity to get to know the rest of your classmates. You will be depending on them during the training exercises, so it is best to get along with each other. You never know when they might be needed to save your life or protect your back in a fight.”

Zack let those words trickle through his mind before deciding to reject the advice. There had never been anyone else to guard his back or save him before. It had always just been him and Zara, and most of his time inside the portals was spent alone, without even her. He could see the wisdom in the man’s words, but he wouldn’t rely on them.

Besides, he didn’t even remember how to make friends anymore. The last one he had was back when they were still in the orphanage a lifetime ago.

Slowly, everyone in the class stood and looked around. Most of the nobles already knew each other and felt no need to introduce themselves to those of a lower station. None of them had taken Quinn’s words to heart, at least not yet.

Shaking his head, Quinn stood and ushered them all out of the room after noticing what they were doing.

“To our left, you can see one of the training fields. That will be the one everyone in your year will be using.” The muscular teacher droned on as they walked in a loose group. “Coming up, we have the ‘Mana Tech and Applications’ building. I know it has a grand name, but honestly, all they really do there is process the stones you will be bringing back. You will be shown how that is done, and I suggest you stay on the good side of any scientists or alchemists you may meet. More than one student has been forced into an experiment they were conducting.” He paused, as though considering whether he should tell them more.

“Were they alright afterward?” A student asked from the middle of the group.

“Most of them survived, if that is what you mean,” Quinn grinned sadistically. “We have one last stop and that is to the top of the hill behind the academy. From up there, you will be able to see the complex that has been built around the portal we use for training purposes. When we aren’t using it, portions of the military and certain corporations will rent it out for their own training programs.”

The path up the hill was one Zack used most mornings during his runs. It wasn’t a large hill, but the back of the short incline was actually an artificially created cliff. It had been cleared out years before when the school was first built. Back then, people were still unsure if the monsters could come through the portal and attack everyone. A military bunker had originally been built around the portals as a precaution.

Then the school was converted into the first Traveler’s Academy in the country. A few years later they were given exclusive rights to the portal, and as the years went by, the regulations relaxed. Now the bunker that once obscured it had been partially torn down, though the portal itself was still hidden by the walls.

He had seen the various buildings surrounding the portal each morning since they arrived, and was anxious to go through it once more.

***

Zack was standing in front of the door to Edith’s after school had let out for the day. He hadn’t talked to a single one of his classmates, really none of them had talked to anyone they didn’t already know. It was an oddity he didn’t think the teacher had been expecting. He certainly hadn’t.

What kind of teens got together, and then only talked to people they knew?

Granted, he hadn’t actually been around that many kids his own age, especially recently. He had, however, heard the various fathers talking about their kids at the construction job sites. What he had experienced earlier was nothing like what they had described.

Shaking his head to dispel the thoughts of people he didn’t understand, he raised his hand and knocked. Zara should be inside, having started her lessons with the kind older woman that day as well. That was not his reason for knocking on the door at that moment.

He needed help with one of his own problems. The more traditional classes were going to cause him issues if he couldn’t find a tutor for them fast.

Edith opened the door a moment later, the harsh frown she had prepared leaving her face as she saw who it was. “Did the first-day orientation already end?” She asked, stepping to the side and inviting him in.

He nodded, “I actually need to ask you for some help related to that.” He glanced past her to where he could see Zara hunched over a short table working on something. Her teddy bear George was sitting beside her, leaning against a leg of the table. “You know how much I struggled to keep food on the table before we came here?”

“I do,” She nodded.

“Well, being busy always working didn’t leave me with a lot of time to go to school. I was only able to go maybe once every other week. The teacher for my class mentioned that we would need to take regular subjects alongside our more specialized ones.” His hands fisted together as he built up the nerve to ask her for help. “Would you be willing to tutor me in those subjects, so I don’t fail?”

She thought for a moment and then shook her head. “No. If I tutor you, it will be for more than the bare minimum of not failing!”

Zack, who had felt his heart fall at her presumed refusal, felt some whiplash form alongside the hope her words gave him. “I’m fine with putting in that kind of work and effort, if you mean it?”

She smiled and tilted her chin towards Zara and the small table, “If you are anything like her, then it won’t be a chore in the slightest. The other students must have been terrible to force her to stop going to classes. She is slightly behind what I would expect someone her age to be at, but the sheer desire she has to learn is a delight for me. Not to mention that she is by no means a slow learner.”

He smiled as they came up behind the young girl absorbed in whatever she was working on. “I’m afraid you will be disappointed in that case. She has always been the smarter one. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m a slow learner either, but I’m not anywhere close to her level.”

“Few are,” She tapped Zara on the shoulder. “Come on, your brother is here.”