After following the directions from the administrative staff for the dormitory, Lyle looked around at a large building, at least 5 floors tall, with disbelief. He had seen the tall tower that wanted to reach the heavens but this building could fit three of Lyle’s houses side by side and another on top. Looking from afar was not the same as standing right in front of it and Lyle could feel himself growing smaller at the size of the building.

Lyle started as a student landed in front of him. Lyle looked closer and found that at the front of the building were three terraces fully open with cultivators jumping to and from them. And more amazing still was that it was not only on the second floor but on higher floors. Lyle after a few minutes of watching the spectacle entered the dormitory for the boys.

Lyle first saw the reception desk and a man standing there. He looked to be in his thirties with a neatly cut short hair and a goatee. He had green eyes that when Lyle stared into, felt like he was looking into the man’s kind soul. He also had an aura about him, what Lyle referred to as the cultivator’s aura. The man was currently reading a book titled “The Lusty Servant and his Asexual master.”

“Just a minute, I’m getting to the good part. Yor is finally confessing to her crimes of seducing his master and Julius has finally developed feelings for You.”

Lyle waited patiently if a little confused. Why were all the elders at this school so different from the stories and visiting cultivators that he heard about? Were all cultivators like this?

The man closed the book after a few minutes and looked at Lyle. “Show me your ID and I’ll give you your key. All the rooms for freshmen are here on the first floor.”

Lyle handed his newly acquired ID, a metal plate that has an accurate picture of him on it. “Lyle Welfer. Rank 16.” The man ducked under his desk and came back with a box and a key at the top. “Here is a part of your reward. In a week's time will be the start of the school year and you need to fill in and pass a data sheet for the classes you need to take tomorrow to the administrative building. Failure to do so will result in random classes. You can get your class schedule a day before the class starts.”

Lyle took the surprisingly heavy box. “Thank you, elder. I will do that at once. I’ll take my leave now.” The man nodded and got back to his book. He took the key with a wood attached to it that said “102”. He passed the doors, the gap between them shortening as he passed more until he arrived at the door with the same number as his keys. He turned the key and looked at the door.

Lyle entered a room bigger than his own in his house. Bigger than the servant chambers, where they stayed during the entrance tests. The room had 2 bunk beds and one single bed. He noticed that the single bed was already occupied and so was the bottom bed of one of the double beds. Lyle moved to the last bottom bed and placed his pack and the box. Sitting in the bed, Lyle scanned the room. He saw five tables, one at each corner and another beside the door. A line of five closets was placed on one side of the room. The windows with a view of a field and the wall reminded him that the place was guarded and secure.

Lyle opened the box to see a collection of pills and books. At the very top sat a piece of paper. The top read “Classes and extracurriculars”. As Lyle read he realized that the academy had a variety of classes and that he had to attend 6 - 10 classes. He noticed that the classes he had to take must be varied. It must not all be math or about cultivation, although he could pick all his classes related to cultivation, the classes he had to take would be something like “Cultivator and their impact on the economy, and Cultivator’s history.”

So busy reading, Lyle didn’t realize that another person entered the room and was looking at him. So when Lyle finished reading the form, he found himself jumping at the sight of Irnel standing a few feet from him.

Irnel snickered, Lyle noticed that Irnel’s laugh sounded like chimes on a windy day. “Hey. Look, thanks for the advice from the test.” Irnel sat back down to the other. “You’re get scared easy. You won’t last a night in the street.”

He got a point there, Lyle conceded in his mind. “Maybe not now, but when we start cultivating nothing will make me flinch.”

Irnel just shrugged, moving towards Lyle’s sheet of paper. “What’re the lessons you’re taking?”

Lyle suddenly felt hot, he moved away from his paper. “I don’t know yet, but I’m thinking of taking the easy ones. I like history and maybe the economics one. I would also like to take the extra physical training and mental meditation classes, maybe the basic math class too so that makes five.”

“Hmmm. I think I’ll take the training ones too. You should take the one with beasts or plants. You don’t know when you may encounter danger or precious plants.”

Lyle suddenly felt happy. “Yeah, that makes sense. Sure, I’ll take the beast one.”

Lyle and Irnel talked some more about the prospective classes they could take. The classes were very varied and some were very weird. There was a class called “Writing erotic novels” and even mundane ones like “Basic Farming.”

Another person entered the room before long. This guy was bulky, tall and had calloused hands, He nodded towards the two and when Lyle said hello and Irnel nodded back, the giant walked towards the upper bed of Lyle’s. He placed his bag and box, took the form of the paper and went to a table.

Lyle just shrugged after a moment and continued their small talk with Irnel.

Later that night, Lyle met the other two, Kurtis Gerard and Fredrick Massey. They were both came from cultivator families and quickly ignored them after knowing that Lyle was from a merchant family, Irnel was an orphan and Chris was a farmer’s son.

Although tension was present between the roommates, nothing escalated to a fight. The next day, Irnel, Lyle and Chris went into the admin building and decided to tour the academy. The place was huge, and they realized that the place had two courtyards. There were also vendors in the second courtyard, the one between the dorms of the boys and the girls. They also learned that they can come and go to the academy before curfew, which was the tenth bell, and they could visit their families as long as they can come back on time.

While Lyle and his new roommates were strolling around, they met with Lester. He was also with his new roommates.

Lyle jogged towards his old friend, leaving his roommates to lag behind him “Lester hey! Congratulations on passing! I knew you could do it.”

Lester approached him, he had a slight smile. “Yeah I did, no thanks to you. Look out, cause the real competition starts now. Let’s see who gets stronger faster.” Lester patted Lyles back as they laughed and talked. It looked like Lester was back to his arrogant self.

They continued talking for a few more minutes before walking together with their roommates. Lyle realized a few minutes after talking to Lester’s group that they were envied and respected Lyle and his roommates, and he also sensed a slight hostility, a begrudging respect. The two groups mingled until dinner time where Lyle met the server again, yesterday’s server was different and he was too exhausted to talk to her.

Lyle walked up to the counter to look at the food. “Good evening mister. Give me your best vegetable dish and meat dish. Half and half pease.”

The man grunted. “Best? Everything I cook is the best. I’ll just give you the newest dish I made then you give me your thoughts hm. If you people can appreciate my food then maybe I’m doing something right.”

Lyle didn’t have a reply to that so he just laughed. When he received his plate, Lyle went to the table with Lester and his roommates. They chatted some more before walking together to their dorms and retiring for the night.

A banging sound awoke Lyle. The darkroom didn’t help his confused and hazy mind. As he got up, he heard his roommates groaning and stirring from their slumber. After a few more seconds of continued banging, Lyle now noticed that it was coming from the door, Kurtis trudged towards the door and opened it forcefully, his annoyance clear

“What the hell is going on!” Kurtis’ tirade was cut short as he was pulled out of the room and into the hallway.

Alarmed that they were under attack, Lyle’s body quickly woke up and his mind cleared. He looked at his remaining roommates and moved towards Chris and Irnel. Before they properly grouped up, someone shouted. “Get out of your rooms and fall in line in the hallway.” Lyle didn’t recognize the voice and looked at his friends. Chris squared his shoulders and Irnel was inching his way towards the windows. A few tense seconds passed before a boy, smaller than Chris walked into the room and stood in the middle.

The boy smirked at what he saw. “You can try to fight me or you could follow. You’ll go out one way or another.”

Before Lyle could say anything, Chris was already charging at the boy. At the corner of his eyes, he saw that Fredrick was also preparing to strike while Irnel opened the window. The boy moved fast, inhumanly so. He dashed towards Irnel, easily passing both Chris and Lyle, and caught a fistful of the back of his shirt. He threw him into the room, while Fredrick dashed towards the open door. Chris stopped and turned ready to charge once again while Lyle helped Irnel up. The boy and Chris collided, his tan arms in front of him in a cross pattern while the boy just stood.

Against all his expectations, Lyle saw Chris go down as the boy remained standing, unscathed. He walked towards Chris, easily picking him up, and threw him towards the door. Lyle and Irnel weren’t idle while they were fighting. Lyle stood in the way his tutor taught him, arms close and hands clenched. Irnel was Lyle also in a fighting position.

The boy calmly walked up to them. He still had that smirk, like fighting five on one was nothing to him. Filled with adrenaline, Lyle was unable to think and unable to fight. He gawked as Irnel charged towards the older boy, a knife in his hands.

Lyle say the boy's smile get wider as Irnel ran towards the boy. He just stood there, hands in his pocket as Irnel charged with abandon. Lyle snapped out of his stupor and charged the boy, being a second behind Irnel.

Lyle didn't see the older boy move. One second Lyle was charging, the next he was seeing the ceiling. Things happened so fast that Lyle only began to hurt a moment after he was on the ground. The pain bloomed so suddenly that he writhed and coughed violently after the pain caught up.

“See, I told you you'd be outside one way or another." The boy stood somewhere near Lyle but he couldn't spare the focus to track exactly where. "Thanks for the fun though, if you haven't realized it yet, I'm going to tell you so that you all could survive in this academy. You kids are just that. Kids. You're not the sons of powerful noble families or from a cultivator bloodline, nor are you peasants ready to serve your masters. You're students and that is all you are, at the bottom in this academy. Even servants are above you at this point. And if you can't adapt quickly to this lifestyle either improve so that no one can go against you or get out of here no one wants you here

"Now pick yourselves up and fall in line. You have ten minutes." With that Lyle heard footsteps coming towards him and saw a foot going over his head.

Lyle tried to stand up after a few minutes but found that his feet were unsteady. Luckily Chris recovered first and helped Lyle as he stood up and steadied him.

Lyle crept towards Irnel, still wary of his senior hurting them, and helped him up. He nodded his thanks to Chris before looking around. The same scene happened all around, people on the ground trying to get up and others helping them.

When all of the first years were standing, the older students faced them on the other end of the doorway. A teacher walked down the hall afterwards and when he got to the end of the line, Lyle didn’t recognize this teacher. Lyle could hear him talking like he was beside him. “Good morning students. Today is the start of your training. For the next five days, you will be running and doing whatever I say until sunrise. Those who fail this training course will be expelled.

“I will give you five minutes to recover. In the box that you were given, there is a pill that makes you recover better. You can use it. Or not. Your break begins now.”