The admittance gate to Pricore academy creates opened. The two thousand applicants giddy with excitement slowly stepped through. The air felt heavy to them like stepping out of a warm house and into cold air where your breath fogged up. Most moved slower. Raff felt more energized than he did after a good morning in the snow on the roof. He reflected on how it was odd that luck had brought him to a place where he felt more at home than anywhere else he had been.

The girl, Rian, paid close attention to how the students around her reacted as they stepped into the outer ring of the school where they would all be living soon. The deeper you get into the academy, the worse it was supposed to be. The outer ring for the zeros. Levels one and two occupied the next two circles, and the center was where the teachers and those who were level three and on their final year lived. She watched how many other applicants broke out into a sweat. She watched as one boy stumbled, gashing his knee on the cobblestone street. That one probably won't make it. She reflected before moving forward, ignoring the single bead of sweat dripping down by her ear.

Asper cursed his clumsiness. Three steps into the academy and he had stumbled and scraped his knee. He could see the blood welling up through his pants. It didn't feel too bad, he was used to walking off minor wounds, falls, and accidents. He felt better than he did after many of the worst ones, never more than a day, and he'd be back up trying to improve something. Dusting himself off, he stared wide-eyed at the first ring. Behind the tall wall was its own private town. Shops, houses for the students, training areas. All made of sturdy stone, more solid-looking than many of the quality houses in the surrounding city. Not surprising, because the city had grown up around the academy. He'd at least gotten that far in the history book he had been given, once it moved onto things that didn't mention the academy he had lost the interest to struggle through more than half a page a day he had assigned himself.

Another wall separated the outer ring from the next one. Between the fall and his gawking other applicants were starting to pass him by. The slower ones who were catching up to him were not looking good. Asper watched as one kid started hacking and coughing before he collapsed onto all fours. Asper jogged back towards the boy. "Are you all right?" He asked.

The collapsed boy only responded with a hacking cough, it was a strained looking girl who answered. "Didn't you read up on the ceremony? They keep the second door open even less. We need to pick up the pace if we want to make it. They send people out to take care of those who don't make it after the status ceremony is over. Lingering here isn't doing him any favors and increases the likelihood you are cut."

Asper shuddered. Failing again because of his own lack of foresight would be just like him. He promised himself he would make it. He turned away from the downed kid and back toward the mass of future students. He let his desire to find his status drive him as he picked up the pace to get back with the majority of the group.

More students peeled off from the group. Some simply sat down and chose not to stand back up. Others stumbled, or just slowed down. One fell to the ground, their body twitching violently.

Raff reached the door to the next ring first with a good bit of space between him and the next closest. He was oblivious to the suffering of some behind him. He placed his palm on this second door, and it too slowly creaked open. A loud group groan of disappointment and frustration caused him to turn his head back and stare at the faces of a large group of angry and frustrated young adults.

"You idiot! That door stays open even less time. It would have been nice if you could wait until some of us were closer before opening it!" Yelled an angry young woman's voice. Raff simply shrugged and stepped through into the next ring.

Rian muttered out loud, "Idiot, Idiot, Idiot." As she and all the other applicants who had been close to the lead picked up the pace to follow that one nearly naked kid who opened the next door. The groans of those beside her shared her pain even if many were not able to use words. There was no record of how long the second applicant gate would stay open, the papers were unclear, and some postulated that once a certain number of students went through the gate would start to close. She hoped that was the answer. "How did that kid move so fast here?" She asked Jon, who merely huffed in response instead of wasting energy speaking.

Asper got distracted by the other applicants who looked like they were wasting away off to the side. One girl kept moving forward, crawling on her hands and knees. It was the creaking and flash of movement of the door to the second ring, slowly closing that pulled his gaze away. He knew he had to get through the next gate. He grunted with effort thinking of the shame and all the thorn bushes that needed work if he had to go home. He felt like he was running through mud or into a terrible wind. One kid, a chunky boy, was trying to slowly push his way into the slowly closing gate and getting squeezed a little. "Move!" Asper yelled with a shove getting the kid to the other side, and then with a spurt of effort, he stepped through the gate as it snapped shut behind him, trapping the end of his pants leg at the bottom.

He cursed that nothing was ever easy and pulled at his pants, wondering if he would need to remove them. He wrenched his leg forward with effort, and the sturdy fabric ripped freeing him, surprising himself more than a little with that success. It was then that he turned his attention to the second ring of the academy. Seamless ivory buildings that looked as though they were grown from the white stone ground. Asper's jaw fell open, as it was like nothing he had ever seen before. Then he realized he was gawking when he should be walking. The mass of applicants was already ahead, and he didn't want to be last through the next gate.

The whiteness of the area bothered Rian as she moved deeper into the second ring. That and the fact that the fool who opened the last gate was still far ahead of everyone else, it offended her sensibilities that someone would try to stand out so much that way. She preferred to blend in and only stand out when she had a reason to, like impressing the armored lug beside her. "Can you believe that guy?" She quipped to Jon.

"He must be very powerful. I've heard some stories of students who had picked up a wild level before arriving. I can only hope to be so strong."

"He's a show-off," Rian muttered.

Her eyes darted to the other applicants. They all were moving much better than in the first ring, and most had their voices back as she could pick up the low rumble of grumbling and conversation.

Someone cried out, "I can't do this! I can't leave my family!"

Rian shook her head at that. It seemed too late to bail out now. Another cry of "Mommy!" Shook her out of her thoughts. She could see Jon clenching his teeth.

Voices of doubt rippled through the group. Some kept going even while wailing. Others stopped walking forward or sat down, deathly quiet, or emotionally overcome with tears.

The sounds that Raff could hear from his comfortable lead did not bother him. There were always other students who could not do the work and abandoned it. He never quit something he decided to do, merely became bored after mastering a skill. He had no family to miss anyway.

Raff's time at the orphanage was something he never thought about. He found it weird to be thinking about it now as he marched through the second ring. Once Bargerous Graft realized how useful he was, he was never presented to be adopted. And as long as there was something new to do, he never complained. The man had respected Raff saying, "I'm bored. I want something new to do." Until he didn't.

Raff remembered the broken, bleeding bodies he left behind. Graft wasn't stupid. He knew that when he told the man that if he wasn't left alone, Graft could find out how skilled Raff would get at killing. The man never bothered him again, and that was years ago. "Why am I wondering if he was like a father to me?" Raff spoke out loud.

He decided then that this was new. This was interesting. So, he stopped. He'd wait for the other applicants to catch up. The idea of school has bored him, but what was going on and this academy was finally something worthy to focus on.