Lyle panted, hands on his knees, breathing as much air as his lungs could take one breath at a time. Lyle was no stranger to physical exertion but the things the elder made them do had Lyle wishing that he was back home lifting boxes. At least those boxes needed to be transported a short distance to the wagon. The elder, he denied them the privilege of his name and told them to just call him coach, like the front seat of the carriage, made them all run laps after everyone took a single pill. The pill’s effect was immediate, Lyle could visibly feel the pain leaving his body and energizing him, he felt better than he ever did as he could run without stopping. Boy was he wrong.

Using his strange technique, coach spoke from the side of the courtyard but everyone heard him. “You have 2 laps more to run after this five-minute break. You can take another pill but do not be dependent on them, the more you use them the less effective the training becomes, and the longer and harder the exercise becomes.”

Lyle shuddered at coach’s words. This was going to get harder? Lyle thought of such things but before his mind wandered off into unpleasant places, someone patted him on the shoulder. “Hey, good work. I was thinking that you were gonna pass out but you kept going, I’m surprised that you’re not on the ground right now..” Irnel was beside him and coming from in front of him was Chris. Both were in fairly good shape but Irnel was doing the best out of them all.

He looked up to stare at his roommates' clean-ish face. “Why are you not sweating as hard as the rest of us? Are you secretly a cultivator?”

Irnel’s easy smile dropped and his eyes looked far away. “In the streets, if you can’t run fast and long, you die. I guess that helped me now.”

Lyle froze, from an outside perspective Lyle looked like a deer in front of a carriage, wide-eyed and frozen stiff. Irnel laughed when he saw Lyle’s expression. “Dude, there’s no helping it, we didn’t want to go to an orphanage so we lived in the streets. It was our choice and now it helped me. That’s life.”

Lyle tried to smile but found that he could not. So he stood up instead and patted Irnel and began to jog again.

After jogging for two more laps, coach made them perform a set of movements for the rest of the time remaining. Lyle fell more than a couple of times trying to copy coach’s movements and his legs and arms were sore afterward. As the sun rose, Lyle could make out that on the other side of the courtyard, the girls were doing the same.

“That’s it for today, we’ll start again tomorrow at the same time. If you don’t wake up, I’ll be sure to send the sophomores to fetch you. That is all. Dismissed.” With that, almost all of the students collapsed. Lyle just laid there for a good thirty minutes, the cold being chased off by the rising sun and his partially frozen fingers heating up. The sun felt nice, so nice that Lyle almost fell asleep then and there if not for Henry approaching him. They had briefly met while running and kept an eye on each other.

Henry crouched down near Lyle’s face and dangled a bottle of pills, the same pills that Lyle previously toon. Lyle noticed that it had fewer pills than Lyle’s bottle. “Want one? The training is over for today so taking a pill now shouldn’t hurt right?”

“Yes please.” Lyle didn’t think to bring his bottle. “I’ll give you one of mine when we get to the dorm.”

“Yeah sure, no rush.” henry took one pill out and dropped it in Lyle’s hand. Lyle quickly downed the pill. Instead of relief, what Lyle felt was intense pain, quickly followed by relief. Lyle almost shouted, his face contorting before the relief set in.

When the effect of the pill wore off, Lyle was as good as new, even his sleepiness vanished. He was suddenly very hungry so Lyle quickly stood up and invited his roommates and Henry to breakfast. Lyle was a little nervous about his old and new friends meeting, worried that they wouldn’t get along. Luckily all his fears were for naught as both groups immediately connected and were joking and complaining about the coach, the school and the sophomores. They arrived in a very noisy cafeteria and a long line for the food.

They talked some more while waiting for the food, the server was not the big blonde guy Lyle first met and quickly ordered a large serving of stew, bread, and meat. They all sat down and ate. Even the usually graceful and reserved Taylor tore into her food. Edward was another sight to behold. The quiet boy voraciously stuffing his mouth with bread and swallowing with the soup was almost comical but no one noticed. They were all too busy eating.

After their first serving, all of them came back to get seconds, the line now the same length as before. It looked like they had the same idea. They ate their food slower this time, now actually talking to one another instead of focusing on just their food.

“Hey, do you two need help reading? It’s just I noticed that you sound the words out as you read them and was wondering if you need help.” The three roommates were taking a stroll through the courtyard near the dorms where vendors abounded. Lyle was addressing both his new friends. “It’s just that we have all this free time and the guards aren’t letting us out before the classes start so maybe we could use this time to learn.”

Irnel had that far away look again. Chris was the first to speak to the other two’s surprise. “I could use the help. Thanks.”

After a moment, Irnel looked at Lyle and spoke after a moment. “Yeah, sure. Let’s do it.”

The rest of the morning, Lyle and his roommates went to the library to study. The library was as grand as the other buildings in the academy. They learned that the library contains rooms for three people or more to use for studying and that they can book one in advance, as long as the time slot is not yet taken. Luckily at the start of the school year, no one wanted to study so a lot of rooms were available.

Lyle and his friends read books on the subjects that interested them. Mostly books on heroes but sometimes books on agriculture for Chris, and economics for Lyle. Surprisingly Irnel had a love for puzzles and math.

Lyle spent his afternoon alone, today Lyle chatted with the guards at the front gate, Rus and Terry. They told Lyle some tales on their adventures as cultivators across the land. After talking to them Lyle walked around alone and met with his old friends.

Thus a routine was built in the next four days. Before dawn, Lyle would wake up and exercise together with the rest of his class. The mornings were spent reading with his roommates and the afternoons were used for whatever Lyle wanted, usually just meeting new people and strolling around the campus.

“Alright gather up! This is the last day before school officially starts, the day that you get your schedules and the last day of this class. If you’re still unfamiliar with the place ask a friend the directions for your class or a servant. Tomorrow at the eighth-morning bell, you are to gather at the multi-purpose hall for the official opening ceremony for the school year.” A cheer erupted from the boys and girls, finally, the torture that was exercise was over. When the noise died down, coach dismissed them for the day. Irnel was beside Lyle panting as he did.

Irnel was now finally properly sweating as coach singled him out together with a Chris and a few of the more fit students and made them do more laps in shorter times and made to practice a harder version of their movement or forms as coach called it.

“Finally, I thought that the torture would never end!” Irnel said. Lyle saw his other roommate approach and together they headed to the cafeteria. Lyle ordered his usual. Before eating, Lyle and his friends crushed the pill and poured it into the water. Someone realized that if you did this, you wouldn’t hurt as much and the water tastes like fruit juice.

Lyle and his friends went to the administrative building, the most mundane of the buildings with only three floors with stairs, to get their schedules. They just had to present their IDs and after a few moments, they had a piece of paper that had the time, location and subject for the rest of the year.

The group quickly read their schedule and a groan escaped all three of them. They had a class called Physical Enrichment, and in the description, it says “The study of the physical body through exercise.” And instead of the one hour, they had before, the subject had two bell’s worth of time, followed by meditation class, another two hours followed by basic cultivation for one hour before a one-hour lunch break. The other classes were divided into the afternoon from the first-afternoon bell to the fifth.

Lyle heard Irnel swear. “I thought that the torture was over! Now it’s even longer. Argh, I hate this.” Lyle shared the same thoughts but didn’t voice it. He let Irnel rant for the three of them. Despite the dreaded exercise subject, Lyle’s heartbeat stronger at the thought of school finally starting. He could finally start on the path of being a cultivator.

Lyle decided to distract Irnel. “Hey, why don’t we visit the rooms listed on our classes?”

Irnel stopped from his tirade and looked at Lyle. he shrugged. “Sure, lead the way.”

And so he did. Lyle and company went to the academic building, the one next to the library. They entered the building, the biggest one on the campus but he didn’t gawk this time, all that strolling was making him used to the thought of big buildings and rising towers. The building surprisingly has stairs unlike the dorms and the cafeteria which only had holes and terraces as the entrance to the higher floors. The hallways seemed like an endless maze, going every which way and abruptly ending into a dead end. They searched their classes and realized how confusing it all is. It took them all morning just to locate their classes.

The rest of the day proceeded as normal and Lyle went to bed early. He slept past midnight though, his body refusing to sleep, his mind kept going back to the stories told to him by the guard duo and his father. He couldn’t believe that he was finally going to be a cultivator.

Lyle was in the testing hall, or the multi-purpose hall, like all other buildings in the academy this one was also huge. He could see that every student, teacher, and elder was present. Even with the whole population of the academy concentrated into this building, Lyle found himself with plenty of space to move around, not that he did, coach warned them that any bad behavior would be punished. If the exercise wasn’t a punishment Lyle feared what was.

After the eight bells had rung, a man stepped out of the stage. He had fair skin and blue electric hair. His hair was combed back but Lyle could see sparks forming in his hair. His eyes bright yellow iris also made him stand out, Lyle had never seen those eyes before. Even with his electric appearance, the man looked elegant and strode to the center with grace and languid movement. The man was the oldest Lyle had met, with wrinkles on his forehead and eyes signaling a lifetime of laughter and an easy smile on his lips. To Lyle, the man looked like a proud grandpa. He was dressed in a white robe, with a stitching pattern of gold dragons on his sleeves and the bottom of his robe had green mountains

The room’s noise slowly ground to a halt until the man reached the center. The man spoke, his voice loud and clear, sounding like he didn’t use the technique used by the other teachers.

“Greetings students new and old. I welcome you to the academy. As you all know, this academy was built to teach the younger generation how to use the energy around us into whatever we want. And we made great strides in that regard. But recently we have opened our doors to noncultivators, mainly scholars and those who seek to improve their knowledge.

“This is a good thing, as knowledge should not be hoarded and kept only to those who are strong. We as a nation and as a people would not advance if there is no trust. And more importantly, more people means more breakthroughs in our knowledge and less work!

“I am the current principal of this academy, and you may call me Principal Taniel Lagunov. And I aim to make this institution better, raise new heights with you. But today isn’t about me. No, it’s about you. Today marks a new chapter of your life, either from beginning cultivation, advancing to a new realm or even teaching for the first time. Grab this opportunity and never let go because it may be the only one you’ll get.

“I would like to call on Erin Antoni. Please come up to the stage.” This statement started murmurs on the ground. Lyle didn’t know him but, all of his other classmates did. A girl with skin as dark as night walked up to the stage. She prowled like a tigress, stalking her prey, her every movement exuded confidence. Principal Taniel nodded at her and then looked back towards the crowd.

“This fine young lady showed the best characteristics on the test and was ranked at the top of the entrance ceremony. As a reward, she will have her very first skill core.” This statement shocked all of the new students and even made others shout in anger. The principal produced a wooden box and opened it in a way that the box was facing the girl while also showing the three spherical orbs inside it. The three orbs all looked different and all looked powerful. The noise quickly died down again, everyone mesmerized by the powerful item displayed in front of them.

“Young lady, this choice can be the determining factor of whether you succeed in the world of cultivation or kill you. Choose wisely, as even I don’t know what these orbs hold.” The principal’s voice rang out in the awed silence.

Silently, carefully, Erin Antoni hovered her right hand over the orbs. Her hand was slightly shaking. Lyle’s hand would too. These are featured on almost every fairy tale Lyle listened to when he was a child. These orbs were power precipitated and no orb was useless. From breathing fire to being immovable the possibilities were endless and in front of the three of these legendary items.

The girl finally picked up an orb and the principal nodded to her and closed the box. “All power comes with a price, be they hard work or a loss of something important. Now, this is your price young one. Connect with the orb, if it accepts you, you get its power, if it doesn’t the orb becomes dormant, never to be absorbed again.”

Erin nodded and closed her eyes. For a second that lasted an infinity nothing happened, all the people there held their breaths. And at the next second, the orb glowed so brightly that everyone was completely blinded. As they regained their sights Erin was floating three feet in the air. The principal caught her. “This event concludes the opening ceremony.”