“Kai, you’re famous!” Is the first thing Kai heard when he stepped into his room later that night.

“What do you mean?” Kai asked confused. His two roommates had ambushed him the moment he stepped inside his dorm room.

“Everyone was talking about it at dinner,” Andre said, waving his hands excitedly. “They were saying you were talking to Prince Nicolas and Lady Ashley. That a commoner was chatting with two of the highest-ranking nobles in the kingdom.” Andre got even more animated. “Lady Ashley even gave you a magic item. She’s absolutely gorgeous. I had a class with her and let me tell you it was hard to concentrate in there.”

While Kai agreed she was very attractive, there had been something off about her.

“Not only that, but you also made group S on the first try. Something only a handful of commoners have done till now, including your brother who apparently won the third-year tournament. Why didn’t you say anything!”

Kai put a hand on Andre’s shoulder. “Chill and take a breath. I didn’t want to mention it because my plan was to be low-key and pass under everyone's notice until the final tournament. I didn’t want to become a target. Which now that I think about it... my plan was ruined by a very well-timed burp,” he bore his eyes onto the fox, who was in bed napping. But Kai knew better by now, there was the slightest uptilt in her lips that he knew for certain to be a hidden smile.

“We couldn’t believe the rumors at dinner. A few people were coming up to us and asking about you. We didn’t know what to tell them. By the way where were you during dinner? Both you and Ashley were missing.” Asked Hector, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. Even the usually composed young man couldn’t hide the interest and excitement in his eyes.

“Whoa, whoa. Slow down. First off, I missed dinner because I went to the library after the melee training class and fell asleep.”

“You fell asleep in the library?” They both asked in unison, skepticism laced in their voice.

“Yea, there wasn’t anyone else there and I ended up closing my eyes. It wasn’t until the librarian woke me up at closing time and kicked me out.” Both Andre and Hector gave him a judging stare.

“Look... Everyone deserves a good nap occasionally. Akane is on her 5th of the day.” Kai pointed to the faux sleeping fox. On cue, she snored.

“What about Prince Nicholas and Lady Ashley?”

“What about them? Nicholas seems like a nice person. And Ashley... I think I’m out of my depth with her. I don’t know why she approached me, but it makes me think she wants something.”

“Maybe she likes you. She did give you those boots,” Andre squatted down next to Kai. He ran a hand over the material, letting out a whistle. “Any idea what Aerowolf is?”

“Nope. I was hoping you would know.” Kai questioned his merchant friend.

“No... But my father is still in the capital for the next few days while he concludes his business. I could go visit him and ask him tomorrow if you trust me to borrow your boots for the day.”

Kai had his reservations. He liked Andre but didn’t trust him. After all, he hadn’t even known Andre for more than a week. Giving Andre an appraising look, he knew that Andre was probably being truthful about his family background as merchants. His father was the best person to question about the boots and the enchantments short of taking them to a professional shop. He didn’t think Andre would try to deceive him if he ended up lending him the boots for the day, but he had been totally wrong about people before. Whatever, it’s only boots, not as if I’m trusting Andre with my life.

“That’s fine. I’ll leave the boots with you then. Thanks.” Kai unstrapped them, and handed them over to Andre who started examining them in greater detail.

“Hector, what do you know about Ashley?” Kai asked. Hector was the closest thing to a noble among his roommates, he was going to be Kai’s best source of knowledge about the upper-tier echelon of the nobility.

“Not too much, just that she and her grandfather are treated like royalty in our king—”

Right as Hector was about to finish answering a knocking at the door interrupted their conversation. Walking over, Kai opened it. Another student stood at the door, bags in hand. His bright red hair stood out against his dark green eyes. Dirt and smudges covered his clothing and face as if he had been traveling for days without a wash or rest.

The red-haired student gave a stiff smile. “Sorry to interrupt, I believe I am your new roommate.”

Silently, Kai held the door open a little wider, gesturing for the student to come in. Walking towards the last remaining empty bed, the student plunked his bags down. He looked around briefly, before turning to the trio, who remained steadily staring at him silently.

Coughing once, Kai nudged Andre in the ribs. As if waking up from a stupor, Andre walked up to the new student. “Nice to meet you. Names Andre Belton, of the Belton Merchant Group. That’s Hector and Kai.”

“I’m Sean,” he said quietly.

[Human – Foundation Level 14]

Sean looked very uncomfortable standing there, as he was scrutinized by his new roommates. His fidgeting became more pronounced the longer he was being observed.

“Where you from?” Andre asked after an awkward amount of silence had passed.

“I’m from... a port city south— “

Screaming, Sean back peddled until he stopped against a dresser. Halfway inside his bag, tossing stuff out was Akane. Running over Kai grabbed at Akane pulling her out of his new roommate’s bag. Free of the bag, everyone could see her mouth moving rhythmically up and down as she ate and swallowed something.

“My rations…” Sean looked dejected. “Does the fox belong to you?”

Kai’s new roommate took it with less grace than the others.

“Yea…” He answered. Akane was paddling through the air, grasped in Kai’s hands, as she tried to escape over to Sean’s bag. “Akane. Relax.” She didn’t.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what is going on with her,” Kai apologized. Akane’s behavior was extremely unusual. “Akane, stop. Or I won’t take you to the cafeteria anymore.”

With the threat of delicious food being taken away, Akane immediately stopped paddling. She looked at Kai, his slitted pupils were now wide in fear. Nodding her head, Akane agreed reluctantly, tiny tears dripping from her eyes with her ears drooped to the side of her face. She looked utterly depressed.

Then it hit him. He has missed dinner, and he had no idea if Akane had gotten food with the others since she hadn’t been with him in the library.

“Guys, was Akane at dinner?”

“Nope. Never saw her,” Hector replied, his eyes going large in understanding. Even a week in they all understood the fox’s appetite by now.

It made a little more sense why she was acting out. The gluttonous fox was probably starving after not eating for whole ten hours.

“I’m sorry once again. I forgot to feed her.” Kai explained to Sean who looked somewhere between shocked and terrified. “She won’t be doing that again,” Kai said loudly for the benefit of Sean, but his words were meant for the naughty fox.

Akane dejectedly hung limply in Kai’s arms, soundly defeated by the threat of withholding food.

“I have to go guys. If I don’t get this fox some proper food, I don’t know what she’d do.”

Almost an entire week had passed since Kai had arrived at the Ashbourne Academy. Andre had come though, returning the boots to him the next day. His father had identified that the boots were made from a fifth realm wolf that used air magic that wasn’t native to the Planet Eris.

‘Vanguard has reached Foundation Level 28’

During the past week, Kai had gained one level randomly. The level came from his body slowly absorbing the ambient mana in the atmosphere and fusing into his body. This was the main method used by non-combatants to level up. The process itself was extremely slow, taking decades to level from Foundation Level 1 as a non-combatant to Forging Level 1. The variables are dependent on a variety of factors, but mana density was the main component. The higher level a person was, the longer it would take in between levels until eventually they just stop leveling up naturally because it took too long between levels. Kai ended up putting the 5 stats into strength bringing it up to a solid 50.

It was their first day off from classes and Kai found himself on the training field. He was restless to use his magic as he wished to grow more familiar with it. The field was the only area students could use magic unsupervised as long as it wasn’t against other students. He was not the only one on the field, but everyone was separated enough not to bother the others.

Starting with light exercises he moved his body and sword in quick drills his father had taught him. He swung with slow precision, keeping his form steady throughout the training.

Next, he trained inside one of his gravity pillars. The unseen pressure tried to buckle his back and knees, but he stood strong against it. He continued the forms slowly. A thought occurred to Kai during his training. What if I activate pillar and domain on someone, would the abilities stack? The only problem was he couldn’t test it on other students, leaving only himself or Akane.

“Akane, I’m going to activate domain, leave the area for a minute. I don’t want you to be under the increased gravity." When the lazy fox merely opened a single eye at him, before closing it, he took that as a sign to do his worst. Already under his gravity pillar, which was steadily draining his mana, he used domain. Immediately his mana started dwindling faster than ever.

He was correct in his suspicions; the gravity abilities did not stack gravitational force. The force of gravity is determined by my intelligence stat. It makes sense since each spell has the same modifier. After all, I’m not summoning two fireballs but affecting the same pull of gravity.

He spied Akane unperturbed by the increased gravity, napping away like nothing had happened. He quickly turned off both abilities as his mana reached the halfway point.

Next, he began using his last active ability. Starting with heavy blow, he practiced his sword swing in combination with the magic. The weight of the sword grew as an unseen pressure descended upon it every time the magic was activated. The sudden onset of weight and momentum nearly ripped the sword from his hands every time even when he knew it was coming. Only through his practice and expectation of the increase in weight and momentum could he catch himself from dropping it most of the time.

Furrowing his brows, he was aware this would pose a problem in actual life and death combat if he had to catch himself from dropping his sword every time. He wanted to know how much faster and heavier his sword swing was but there was no way to measure it without precision instruments. If Kai had to approximate it was nearly twice more powerful than his normal strike. But that was only a guess.

After practicing chopping downwards with the sword a few times, Kai decided to practice his horizontal swings. But he had miscalculated. Without the ground to break his sword’s momentum, his blade ended up ripping out of his hands and went soaring through the air like a spinning blade of death. Kai watched on in speechless horror as the sword ended up falling near a student, nearly hitting them on the way down until a barrier of rock appeared out of thin air blocking the sword.

Akane, who had been supposedly sleeping until now, was rolled over onto her back, snickering with laughter. Kai briefly gave her a death stare before witnessing the student grabbed the sword embedded in the manifested rocks. Kai ran to him and immediately apologized. The student looked amused more than upset.

“I was not expecting to get decapitated today, perhaps wait until I’ve at least had one last good meal,” the student joked lightly. He had a knowing smirk on his face. He had dark brown eyes and the beginning of a pale beard that matched his wheat-colored hair.

[Human – Forging Level 71]

Kai whistled in his mind. Must be a third-year student.

“I am sorry again. My magic is... tricky. I should have expected that to happen,” Kai apologized once more, this time giving a light bow.

The student brought his hands together and then apart. The earth rumbled momentarily before a wall made of dirt and stone rose from the ground in front of the two. It stopped a few meters high and was nearly a meter wide.

“Please face the wall when practicing your swings. Oh, and do me a favor. If your sword is cruising through the air again, maybe a little warning next time.” The earth magic student winked before walking over to where Kai had originally been practicing.

Kai reached up and covered his face with his hand, giving a solemn nod in response. How embarrassing. By the time he dragged his hand down, the student had vanished to Kai’s previous position, training once again as stones rotated around the floating student. Akane stood next to him imitating his accident by winding up her front right leg and flinging it outwards in a motion as Kai had done. Except she kept repeating it, laughing the entire time.

Ignoring the giggling fox's laughter, Kai kept trying his horizontal swing, only losing his grip a few times more. Each time his sword would embed itself into the rock wall. He noticed one critical thing about his Heavy Blow ability during the training. The weapon he used would gain weight suddenly when using the ability, but only during the swing. Once the swing was completed the weight would vanish instantly, like a cut thread, the pressure on the weapon gone. Gravity seemed to be pulling on the weapon in the direction it was headed, giving it additional weight and momentum to strike harder. While this made his attack much stronger, it also made it difficult to control, which was obvious from the number of times the sword flew out of his grip.

After horizontal swings, he decided to attempt stabbing with heavy blow. To say it was a failure, would be an understatement. The sword had actually shot out of his hands when he thrust forwards. The few times he had actually managed to keep his hands on the handle, he had to take a few steps forwards to compensate, or else he would fall flat on his face. The feeling was as if the sword had teleported half a meter forward with his hands still attached, throwing him completely off balance. Without a doubt, it was something to continue to work on much like everything else.

He decided to call it a day when his sword had sunk far into the rock wall. The tip of the blade was visible through the other side, with the cross-guard pressed against the rock. It took considerable effort to pull it out, which prompted another wave of laughter from Akane, the earth mage, and the other students who spectated.

“I should have stuck with a mage class,” he muttered.

Afterward, he decided to head to the library to do a little research. Kai marched away from the still snickering fox. The training had exhausted him and drained his mana. He hadn’t done much besides strain his arms with the heavy swings, but it had burdened the rest of his body. It was a surprise to see that his health had gone down 15 points during the training. The repetitive swings must have stressed his arms enough that it had somehow caused him to take damage.

Walking into the large, exquisite stone building, the air changed. The aroma of ink and fresh books overwhelmed his nose. Upon entering, a chill ran down his spine. The same librarian who had woken him up the other night was sitting at the front desk, her glare firmly following Kai as he approached her desk. It felt like he was marching to his death.

“Are you here to defile our halls and take a nap once again?” The raven-haired librarian peered at Kai from her seat. Her youthful face looked the opposite of her jaded behavior. Kai would think her pretty if she wasn’t on the verge of murdering him for the capital crime of taking a nap. Her glare made him think that nothing he said would rectify his past behavior.

Avoiding eye contact, Kai’s cheeks turned red. “Is it against the rules to nap?” he asked sheepishly.

The librarian stood faster than Kai could see, slamming her palm on the desk. An audible thump resounded, Kai’s chest vibrating ever so slightly. The ancient-looking blue leather tome the librarian had been tending to on the desk jumped up half a meter before crashing back down. The desk stood steady and firm despite the beating it had just taken.

Holding up his hands in surrender, “I was kidding. I am here to do some research, not sleep. Promise.” He tried to give her his most charming smile, but the librarian’s face remained indifferent.

Her eyes shifted down. “What is that?” The librarian asked in horror. Pointing at Kai’s feet, he instantly knew what she was referring to. Akane, sat at his feet, having once again appeared like a ghost.

“That is my companion fox, Akane.”

“Nope. No. Absolutely not. No animals in the library. No sleeping. No eating or drinking. That... That thing will have to stay outside. I will not tolerate it defacing this holy building. I absolutely forbid it.”

“But —”

“No arguing. Either you both leave, or the fox does.”

“Akane,” Kai turned to her. “I really need to do some research. Can you wait outside? I’ll give you extra dessert tonight if you wait quietly.”

Giving a very human-like roll of the eyes, Akane turned and walked back towards the entrance.

After a moment, the librarian spoke up. “You may stay, but I will be watching.”