An Excerpt from the Adventures of Gonnynock, a children's book written by Ulric Gnom

Gonnynock strode towards the battle on his pet goat Garth and raised his dagger into the air. Calling upon the gifts of his race, he leaped into the air and struck down the fireball that was hurtling towards him. The evil Mana user's cackle stopped abruptly and Gonnynock held his blade towards his opponent. "For the Gnominiam!" he cried. The evil man was frightened by Gonnynock's courage and honor and turned to flee, screaming in fear.

It doesn’t take long for the hall to become overrun with applicants. The combined body heat of hundreds of crammed bodies brings the temperature up by more than a few degrees, a couple individuals break out into light sweat.To their credit, none of them leave. Everyone patiently mills around and waits.

I sit in a meditative pose on the second floor, reaching out with Passive Search and diving into as many of them as I can. Understanding who my students are, what motivates them, is my top priority. As much as I want to, I can’t take everyone here; my space and time are limited. The goal will be finding talented individuals who are willing to commit themselves to helping me kickstart this fledgling endeavor.

I wait for another hour, accumulating and digesting the sheer volume of thoughts from the people below. A few are afraid, some are only here at someone else’s insistence, and there’s even one or two people already considering how to use Mana in nefarious ways. Apart from these exceptions, the vast majority are a combination of excitement and nervousness. .

I rise to my feet and walk down the halls of the second floor, trailed by a series of small groans from the wood below. A hush descends over the crowd as they notice my presence. Reaching the stairs, I quickly walk down and find myself among the crowds.

There are easily a few hundred people crammed within the hall. A sea of faces stare back at me and I can see the poorly hidden emotion. Nervousness from a young woman in the crowd, naked ambition from a boy in the front, frustration from an older gentleman in the back as he pushes away others with his stick.

My own nervousness hits me. There’s something about large crowds that just puts me on edge. Cold sweat drips down my back, not due to the heat but from my own anxiety.

I reach a raised platform and climb on top of it before I begin. “Welcome everyone, my name is Cael King. I’m glad that you all decided to come out today but, as you can see, there are a lot of you here. This first class will be my pilot program and will be comprised of only twenty students.”

A low murmur of disappointment. Eyes begin looking left and right as everyone tries to size up their future competition.

“Now, I want to be clear about something. I’m offering to teach you a Skill that can be used in a host of different ways. This is a Skill with massive destructive potential. Because of that, I will be meeting with each of you in a one-on-one meeting to discuss what you plan on doing once you finish the program.”

“I hope I won’t need to say this again but let me make this clear: I will not accept a single person who lies to me.”

A heavy choking silence falls over the room. I break it by clapping my hands and smiling.

“But enough of that. Welcome to the Genesis Academy.”

“So, tell me why you want to learn”.

I sit in one of the offices of the second floor, using Sound Mana to ensure that no one hears the conversation. Across from me sits a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties, who wraps some of her hair around her finger. She has a wide frame and thick shoulders, accentuated by strong legs. Between her eyes, small and richly green, rests a small nose, almost button-like, in stark contrast to the rest of her body. Her presence surprises me slightly; I would have assumed someone with her build and physicality would have joined the guards or chosen the non-combat route.

With her hair wrapped entirely around her finger, she looks down at the floor. “I don’t like blood …”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t like the sight of blood. It makes me nauseous. But I want to help the city so I was hoping I’d be able to do it from a distance.”

“Why not become an archer then? Or a non-combat Class?”

“Because, I know that the non-combat Classes help, but they aren’t the same. They can’t level. All they get are the Skills. I want to actually be helpful.”

I look at her in a new light. I don’t know how long it had taken her to reach that conclusion but she managed to grasp something that a large portion of the city seems to have accepted or ignored. Non-combat Classes are helpful, especially given the Third Trial, but they are limited by their inability to level. For someone to become strong, they have to level and that means combat.

“And what makes you think you’ll be able to handle combat with a new Skill?”

Her brows furrow, still refusing to make eye contact with me. “I … I was hoping I could use it to help people.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was hoping there would be some way you could teach me to heal people instead of hurt them.”

I sit through the hundreds of meetings and collapse at the last one, exhausted from the seemingly endless amount of interviews I had needed to conduct. Maintaining a respectful professional demeanor throughout had been necessary, as this was the first time a large portion of the city would personally interact with me, but it had become extremely difficult to maintain it during a few of those interviews.

One boy had yelled that the only reason he wanted to learn was so he could ‘blow up people he doesn’t like’. The older gentleman who I had seen pushing people away in the hall had spoken with kindness, but a cursory search of his mind had shown that it was all an act. Perhaps the most extreme case had been a young man, in his early twenties, who had spoken of his desire to kill with such a steady and emotionless voice that I was convinced he was a sociopath. I used Active Search to make sure he hadn’t committed any crimes yet, which, thankfully, he hadn’t, but I still sent a note to the guards to keep an eye on him. My search hadn’t discovered any plans to kill anyone but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t come up in the future.

In the end though, I had settled on a group of twenty individuals. Half of them are suited for combat roles and the other half are suited for support roles, a good breakdown that will let them explore different paths.

They stand in front of me now, spread out into small groups of three or four. Without the hundreds of occupants that it had earlier, the hall feels empty. The conversations of the self-segregated groups echo off the wooden floors, mingling and bouncing around. I hear a group of young women talk about their desire to defend the city, a duo of two older men discussing the possibilities of Skills on the health of a body, and a young man and woman who seem to be flirting with each other.

It is a strange but welcome contrast to the deafening noise of the crowd. I don’t mind people as individuals, but something seems to change when gather into large groups. Whether it is the sheer volume of people, or just some reaction within me, I find myself filled with an overwhelming anxiety that I can’t control.

The only solution I’ve found is acting; if I’m able to play the part of some larger than life character, then I’m not showing the people my true self. They get distracted by the fake persona and color their impression of me through that lens. It isn’t a great solution but it is the only one that I know.

A quick whistle from me brings the twenty diverse individuals over to the stairs. They mill around uncomfortably but their eyes focus in on me, all of them displaying an eagerness to get to work. It is a strange mixture of people but I feel that will work to their advantage Each of them will have unique ideas on how to utilize and harness Mana and I’m hoping that those ideas will cross over onto the others.

I sit down on the stairs and motion for them to do the same. A chuckle falls over the group as they all follow suit, looking like a strange group of adult kindergarteners sitting with crossed legs on the wooden floor.

“Thank you for all staying and congratulations, you twenty are the first class of the Genesis Academy. We will be primarily focusing on one topic while you are here; Mana, and how to use it.”

A middle aged man raises his hand, arcing an eyebrow at me. “What do you mean by Mana? You talking about the thing in our Status page?”

“Exactly. Mana is … it’s hard to describe. Best I understand, it is a new form of energy that we can access. And as far as I’ve been able to tell, there aren’t any limits on what it is capable of.”

The wide framed girl, whose name I learned was Joselin, excitedly claps her hands. “So you do think there is a way to heal!”

My hands come up, palms open wide to try and calm her down. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. The first thing you all will have to do is manifest your Mana. Unfortunately, you only have one week. If you haven’t manifested by the end of the week I’ll be asking you to leave.”

“Time to begin.”

I crash down into my new bed on the second floor of the newly established Genesis Academy. A heavy duvet molds itself around my body as I fall onto the bed, cocooning me in the comfortable fabric. My feet flail around in the air as I try to kick off my shoes, finally succeeding after a few seconds. The duvet is quickly pulled over me and I rest my head on the pillow, feeling the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm me.

For the first time since I came back to Earth, I truly feel like I need to sleep. Most nights I usually just nap for an hour or two, which is enough to make me feel fully recovered, but I already know that I’m going to be out for a lot longer this night. The exhaustion from teaching is … unbelievable. My opinion of the men and women who willingly decided to become teachers has drastically shifted. I admire them for their commitment to training the next generation and pity them for the exhausting task they took upon themselves.

Thank god I only need to do this for a short period of time.

Despite the fact that all twenty students had spent the entire day waiting around in a crowded hall, they had insisted that they spend their first night practicing and studying. Of course, there was no way I was going to let them experiment with Mana without keeping them under my own watchful eye. Mana Infusion is a helpful ability but I’ll never forget the fact that I only unlocked it after nearly killing myself.

None of the students had managed to manifest but they all managed to gain an understanding of what the Mana flowing through their body felt like. To my surprise, Joselin almost reached the point of manifestation but I’d been forced to stop her after I sensed she was losing control. I feel a sense of pride as I consider her future. She has massive potential and I won’t let her risk it because she is impatient.

Heavy eyelids try to force themselves closed but I keep them open through sheer force of will, staring up at the ceiling above. Am … am I doing the right thing? Would it be a more efficient use of my time to focus entirely on training my own Skills?

I don’t know the answer. Opening the school and picking the students has fulfilled me in a way I’ve never felt before. It is completely different from how it felt teaching Hakim; his was a rushed and frantic process focused on increasing his ability to survive and fight. These new students will be taught the framework and from there on they’ll be free to grow in their own paths, with me only supervising them to prevent any accidents and offering advice when necessary.

I think it is this strange sense of fulfillment that leaves me with a sense of guilt. Every action I’ve taken since returning to Earth has been focused on becoming Primus and making sure that Everwall can stand on its own even if I lose. Each one was essential but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed being the one forced to make them. Now, for the first time, I feel like I’m doing something that satisfies me.

I struggle to keep my eyes open as I find myself drifting off to sleep, consumed by doubts and indecision.