The walk was the same from the day before, several winding hallways making up the path between the cafeteria and classroom. It didn’t take too long, and both Kai and his week-long assigned chaperone reached their next destination; the classroom from the day before. As he took his seat in the same desk and chair, he nodded at his teacher Ms. Neal, his three juvenile classmates, and the lone guard positioned at the far wall of the room.

Marnick waved his ward goodbye before he made his way out the door. “I’ll be back to pick you up after class!” he quickly added, halting in his tracks for a second and turning around in a sharp jerk. The chaperone repeated the same awkward actions in reverse as he left the classroom in earnest.

“So, why only the single guard today?” asked Kai, facing the man who wore similar arms and armor to the one who’d brought him here.

“Extra guards are just for peoples’ first and second days, to make sure they don’t do anything really bad. You never know what someone’s capable of until you see them in action. You probably saw them all over the place yesterday.”

Kai nodded in half-understanding, recalling several of such guardians he’d encountered the day before. Strangely, there weren’t any when he was travelling alone with Gus, Sheila, and Rory. The young man figured they were just following at a distance.

“Does Gus really think I’m that much of a threat?” Kai chuckled.

“The guards are for everyone,” shrugged Hannah. “And you know how paranoid Gus can be.”

“Still feels a little overkill, if you ask me.”

“He’s got his reasons to be worried about security,” his teacher deadpanned. “There are things out there that can kill you all dead in a heartbeat, so I’d prefer to take whatever precautions he comes up with, especially if they don’t get in the way of my life or privacy.”

“Like Car-” started the teen before cutting himself short. “Hold on, privacy? Doesn’t he spy on where we are through our flip phones? I’d figure he’d be doing something like that.”

“He can, but it doesn’t mean he’s actively doing it. They usually only turn on the beacon for soldiers, or when you’re going out on a trip. From what I’ve seen, they don’t track you while you’re inside headquarters. I mean, that would be Sheila’s department anyway, crunching through all of that data, and she’s never touched any information like that before.”

“Well color me surprised, then,” replied Kai with a shrug. “So what are we doing today?”

“That’s what I was about to get to,” replied Ms. Neal. “Today, I’m going to go over what each of you learned from school back home, and come up with a customized syllabus for what’s left! Since you’re the oldest here Kai, I’ll start with you. So what were the highest level classes you were taking at school before you got brought here?”

He thought for a moment before replying. “I was a senior, and half a year from graduating. There was algebra 2 and chemistry for the big wig classes, and I’d already taken freshman biology a few years before that. Also American literature, PE, and government.”

“Alright, alright,” replied the woman as she jotted the list down on a clipboard. “PE is physical education, and this is all under the American school system, I’m guessing. Any AP classes?”

“Advanced Placement?” asked Kai, shifting his gaze away from the teacher. “Nah, my school didn’t have any, and I wasn’t going to bother studying for the end of the year tests myself. I mean, that stuff’s for college, and I wasn’t headed there,” he concluded with a sigh.

“No matter, most universities this side of the veil don’t really accept AP credit. But your syllabus should put you in a good enough shape to go there, if that is what you’re interested in.” she explained, eyes still on the paper in front of her. “You don’t have to answer that now, you’ve got plenty of choices.” Ms. Neal’s eyes widened and she quickly looked back up at the young man. “Shit, did I tell you about those yet?”

“Nope,” replied Kai as he suppressed a sigh. “But Marnick told me all about it. Like becoming a chef, arcade worker, researcher, doctor, or anything else TOAL needs. And that it’d come with a free college tuition if I need it?” He looked at Hanna hopefully.

“That’s right! If you decide to stay here, that is. I’ve got a huge list of things somewhere, which I’ll get to you when I find it.”

“Any caveats that come with it, though?” carefully asked Kai. “Like a blood contract binding me to TOAL’s service for the rest of my life?”

“Nah, only for the next 50 years.”

“…”

“Just pulling your leg!” laughed Hannah. “It really does come with no strings attached. The otherworldly colleges we’ve got deals with usually have Earthers on their faculty, who can pull their own strings to get us in for free or at a steep discount. And showing kindness like that can help get deals out of those new students in the future.”

“Huh, that makes more sense,” replied Kai with a contemplative look. “Just a giant chain of paying it forward and back, then?”

“Pretty much,” nodded Ms. Neal, finishing her scribbling. “Anyway, here’s your syllabus! Take a look and tell me what you think!”

Kai took a sheet of paper from the woman and began to scan the relatively high quality parchment. On it was a neatly printed list of various school classes organized into subjects, all perfectly arranged in several spreadsheet-like tables.

Math

Science (at least 1)

History

Algebra II

Chemistry

Earth History: Man Made Calamities

Calculus (opt)

Physics

G-P-E

Statistics (opt)

Adv. Chemistry (opt)

Adv. G-P-E (opt)

Adv. Physics (opt)

Adv. Biology (opt)

The first side of the paper contained three distinct subjects; math, science, and history. Most of it made sense, especially math, which was filled with the class he was already about to complete, as well as a pair of advanced classes that Ms. Neal apparently forgot to mark as such.

Luckily, she didn’t forget to mark them as optional in parentheses. Kai let out a sigh of relief. Most of the other courses looked like ones that were offered back home as well, albeit with the interesting epithet on the Earth History class, as well as the one simply named “G-P-E.”

“That stands for Government, Politics, and Economics, by the way,” noted Hannah, as if she read Kai’s mind. “They tend to all mix together in practice, so that’s how it’s taught. I mean, politicians might try to introduce a spending bill that they need some politicking behind it to get enough support to pass. And they have to work through the government system to be able to do so. It’s got plenty of field trips and real world examples from the past few years behind it, by the way!”

Kai simply nodded before going back to the page in front of him, now focused on the science section. The notes written at the top were an even bigger relief than the optionals of the last subject. The teen figured that since he’d already taken and finished biology back home, Ms. Neal didn’t bother writing it down here, so that still meant he had to take a science class instead of being able to skip through it all.

Besides the chemistry and physics courses were three separate advanced variants of the science trifecta. The young man sneered at the thought of unnecessarily troubling himself that much by taking them in his quest for freedom. The same applied to the advanced variant of G-P-E as well. With that in mind, Kai resolved to just stick with chemistry, another subject he was already part way through back home.

“By the way, when it says to pick one or some number, you don’t have to stick with only that. Feel free to take as many classes as you want! This is just to get you the equivalent of a high school diploma. And that apparently means different things for different people.”

“Sure,” nodded the teen halfheartedly. “Sure,” he thought with an internal chuckle.

Kai quickly noticed that there was a back side and flipped the paper over. On it were several more subjects and classes below that caught his attention.

Literature (pick 3)

Magic

Survival Training

Electives (pick 2)

Epic of Gilgamesh

Basics in Magic

Combat Training

Evocation Magic

Ramayana

Alchemy (opt)

Body Conditioning

Divination Magic

King Arthur Collection

Magitech (opt)

Dungeoneering

Enchantments

Rising of the Shield Hero

Vigilance and Danger Avoidance

Bio-augmentation Magic

Beware of Chicken

Introduction to Auras

Wandering Inn Abridged

Theory of Rune Magic

…

First up was literature. Kai couldn’t help but make a face of disbelief as he went through what was there. Rather than a series of classes, there was just a reading list. One that consisted of various Earth mythologies and epics, and several isekai light novels and web serials. The teen wondered what kind of school made students read that kind of low quality crap?

That wasn’t to say Kai didn’t enjoy that kind of content himself, quite the contrary. But they were full of typos, terrible pacing and plot, and the subtlety of a sledge hammer in the points they were trying to make. There was a reason they assigned “the classics” back home, and that was because they were proven to know what they were doing, even if they were pretty boring. The teen felt he was entitled to one old person opinion, and this was his.

“So you’ve seen the reading list?” asked Ms. Neal with a curious smile. “Surprised that we’ve got a more modern selection than what you were expecting?”

“Er, yeah,” replied Kai uncomfortably. “But why?”

“They’ll give you a better idea of what kind of situation a lot of Earthers find themselves in when they get summoned. You’d be surprised how close a lot of those authors got things.”

“Right…” hesitantly replied Kai before returning back to the syllabus.

After the reading list, things truly started taking a turn for the interesting with magic and survival training. The only required class in the first subject was what sounded like an introductory course. Although the other two classes following it were optional, Kai felt conflicted about just skipping them like he planned to with the more mundane subjects. But there was probably plenty of time for the teen to decide, so he instead chose to move his attention to survival training.

This subject, on the other hand, sounded like a weird mix of adventurer training and army boot camp. Unlike all of the academic courses that plagued his list, these classes sounded the most fun to Kai. They were probably as close as he was going to get to any actual adventuring before he was let loose.

And finally, at the very end of the sprawling syllabus, was an expansive list of electives. They were almost all mystical in nature, focusing on what looked like various branches of magic. From his mental nerd encyclopedia, Kai figured each class respectively equated with throwing around fire, fortune telling, imbuing weapons and armor with magic, and… that’s where the rest of the courses lost him.

Bio-augmentation? Like making your body stronger? To Kai, that could’ve meant anything between turning yourself into a cyborg or shapeshifting into a monster. To the teen, either option sounded fucking awesome.

After that was something about auras. The only thing that came to mind about aura was those funny color-changing rings that would tell you what you were feeling based on your body temperature. Kai had a feeling that there was more to it than tacky jewelry.

And then there was rune magic theory. Tons of people had been talking about rune magic since he’d gotten here, even Gus! But the monotonous man also mentioned that TOAL didn’t actually teach how to use it unless you joined up with them full time as a researcher or a soldier. So “theory” in this case was synonymous with “tease.” Kai leered at the word as he continued down the list.

“You get a good look at that, Kai?” eventually asked Ms. Neal as the young man’s attention started to wane. “Honestly, with the huge gap in knowledge between you and the others, it won’t be easy to teach you all at once. And since you were so close to graduating back home, I’m going to let you self-study for the most part. You could probably wrap up all of that stuff in a couple of months if you really apply yourself.”

“Wait, for real?” asked Kai, his eyes widening.

“Yup! I’ll get you the textbooks, lecture videos, and lesson notes you’ll need, and you can come ask me questions anytime! For the magic stuff though, I’ll probably be with you all the way in getting that stuff into your head, since the subject’s all brand new to you.”

“Damn, so I can go at my own pace then? I could just slack off… nah, I’m just going to speed through this and do well enough to get out of here as fast as I can.”

“Whatever you want,” shrugged his teacher with an accepting smile. “There’ll be a basic ‘test’ at the end, which is more of a conversation about the subject or a project rather than guessing a bunch of multiple choice questions. Just get a basic idea of everything, don’t worry about numbers, and have fun!”

“Really? No scantrons or #2 pencils?”

“Nah, those just force you to memorize everything, and none of that stuff sticks around afterwards anyway. I told you we do things differently here!”

“Yeah, that really is different. So when do I get started?”

“It’ll probably be tomorrow, or the next time you head to the library. I still have to come up with syllabi for the others, and then you’ll be off to survival training and afterwards the gym.”

“Does that mean no class today?” asked one of the children with an eager expression.

“Yup! But don’t think of that as a good thing,” replied Hannah with a stern look. “Sergeant McPike is anything but soft, especially early on. And you’ll be meeting with him twice a week after this.”

The children disregarded their teacher’s warning, just happy to get out of lecture for the day. Kai on the other hand held some reservation in his own joy. He’d had the displeasure of being put under some pretty draconian PE teachers back home, and this Sergeant McPike sounded like he would be welcomed amongst their ranks. Still, the young man did have to admit; running a mile or however long did beat going to class.