Chris wasn’t aware how physically strong he was until he saw the knights guarding the vessel fight off some Orcish Boars. It required three guards just to take down one, and afterwards they needed emergency healing.

Chris has been hunting Ocrish Boars on his own for over a year now, because they tasted super good, and they liked harassing villagers. His mother was worried at first, but when he kept coming home with no injuries whatsoever, they began to accept the delicious food he was supporting the village with. Even with their high resistance, when Haven fired his mana burst at them, they were reduced to a burnt carcass. They really were special, and that made Haven excited, but it made Chris nervous.

The look in that Priest’s eyes made him feel queasy, and if other people in this church act like that, then they need to be on guard. Especially since this is the church that the textbook talks bad about.

Both the Holy Unity Church and the Orthodox Church of Rymek are hiding something. While you aren’t ready to know what it is, I recommend you take caution when dealing with them. They thirst for powerful people and control.

At least that’s what the book said. Just in case that Priest wanted to double check them, Chris kept scattering his mana from his body into the air.

Their trip consisted of camping out, eating poorly cooked boar meat, pre-portioned bread, and vegetables. Riding along the bumpy cobbled path was quite exhausting; the bumps along the road constantly launched the small boys upwards. By cycling out drivers, they were able to turn a trip that took three weeks, into a trip that took two.

On the way Chris saw many sad fields, but he was told to hide his utility skills as he would be mocked for them, just like his parents, and their parents before them. He exerted his mana from a distance, but he couldn’t leave them alone. At each stop, from the time they arrived, to the time they left again, Chris poured his mana, not into the air, but into the ground. The crops looked much happier after each stop. When they arrived at the gate, the boys had to get off the cart, and what they saw amazed them.

Giant walls around the entire area, another wall further in, and then a castle inside of that, two story buildings, buildings with rock floors, and varnished wooden support posts. Compared to their small village of one hundred people, this place was both giant, and beautiful in its own way. They were asked to follow the guard to an outpost station to fill out residency forms. They were required to be able to come and go from the city, as well as enter the Academy.

Once filled out, the Priest walked them around, showed off the various shops, inns, restaurants, and some residencies. Haven and Chris looked around with wonder at all the sights and people. Chris even spotted a woman with the ears of a wolf, and a short tail. He wanted to talk to her, but the Priest grabbed him by the hand, “Those people are dirty, and go against god, do you hear me boy!” Chris looked apologetically at the woman before agreeing and walking away.

Haven didn’t say a word until they arrived at the Academy. He was too amazed at the architecture to not admire the building.

The structure was entirely unreasonably large. It stood almost as tall as the King’s castle in the distance. The stone was a polished silver, and the entrance had many marble pillars scattered throughout. The windows were all stained glass with various noble and historical symbology. The phoenix, the gryphon, and a strange symbol of an eye stood out. Expensive colored carpet lay on the staircase, leading up to the entrance, and the doors were a rich mahogany, large and overbearing. They stood twice as tall as the priest, and were almost as thick as him as well. The word ‘Fortress’ came to mind.

He had almost entirely forgotten the altercation prior, and as their feet slapped against the marble floors. He was awe-struck. They filled out the forms at the Academy front desk, took the boys measurements, handed them their uniforms, and took them to their room. Each room was for two people, and the space they had was similar to his parents house back home, except the stone was far cleaner, and he got to live with his best friend.

“Can you believe we made it here? All the way to the Academy from Lykar? I could have never done this without you,” Haven hugged Chris and cried on his shoulder. Just like Chris, Haven did this for his family, and even though his family felt guilty pushing all this on him, he had already been doing that to himself. “I’m proud of us Haven, we worked so hard to get here.” They both smiled and decided it was late and they needed to get some sleep in an actual bed, compared to the horrible sleep that damn wagon gave.

They woke up to the sound of knocking and Haven went to answer the door. There was a young girl, around the same age as them at the door. “Oh sorry, I thought this was room 213, do you know where it is?” Her Auburn hair and red eyes fluttered back and forth in a nervous jitter. “It’s the next door on your right, no worries. My name is Haven, and the blond kid still half asleep is my best friend Christof, but you can call him Chris. Anyways, it’s good to meet someone our age here, I only saw teenagers on our trip in.”

She took a deep breath, and calmed down, “I know what you mean, I think I heard my roommate was fourteen, that’s two years older than me, you know? How are we supposed to relate to each other?” Chris finally got out of bed, “I know what you mean, no matter how much I wanted to practice magic with the older kids in our village, they wouldn’t let me, but now who’s laughing, we’re here, and they aren’t.” Chris shot off his bright, confident smile. “Anyways, I need to get my stuff to my room, but would you guys want to go get breakfast together here in a bit? I know where the cafeteria is.” Chris and Haven both smiled, and nodded.

Once the door shut, Chris and Haven threw on their uniforms, which were required to walk around the Academy, and couldn’t stop being pumped. “What kind of food do you think they serve here? You think they use salt in all their foods? I bet they do, I bet it’s so good!” Chris shook with excitement. “Forget food, we already made a new friend, and it’s a girl. I didn’t think it would be so easy, but I’m really happy to have more people around,” Haven couldn’t contain his excitement.

The knock on the door came, and they flung it open to see a girl towering over them, and the redheaded girl standing meekly behind her. The girl had brown hair, ice blue eyes, and stood over a foot taller than all of them, except Chris who was just a bit taller than Haven thanks to over a year of physical enhancement magic applied to his body. “I’m Jenny, and this little thing behind me is Lilly, she realized she forgot to introduce herself and wanted to hide out of embarrassment, but instead I drug her out here and introduced her.”

The girl wasn’t mean, and it seems that she had already taken a liking to the older sister role in the relationship. Chris, walked through the door, “No problem, I was gonna ask her when she showed up since I realized we forgot to ask. Nice meeting you.” Chris extended his hand out, and Jenny gripped his hand as hard as she could. Chris didn’t notice. “Let’s go Haven, I’m starving.” Everyone began walking down to the cafeteria together. It seems like this is the start to everyone’s new life together.

From what Chris could gather from everyone, as he didn’t know exactly how this was supposed to work, this was a place to take those with magical skill, teach them independence and magic, and depending on their skill level, place them into specific jobs to help the Kingdom. Classes would start in two weeks, and there was an announcement that everyone was required to go to in a few days.

It seems like most of the people here were from the area, and those from the outer rim of the kingdom got here last minute. After enjoying their meals they walked around campus. They discovered where the library and laundry rooms were, as well as finding several classrooms. Outside there was a flower garden filled with pastel blue and magenta roses, as well as towering stone statues of famous mages.

The group stumbled across a training arena where a few older boys were practicing their magic. When Chris and Haven noticed, they almost giggled. The teens were shouting out their incantations so loud it was almost embarrassing, and after firing a firebolt, it had barely singed the targets they were using. The thing that shocked them even more though, was how Lily and Jenny reacted.

“That was incredible, I can’t believe they could cast firebolt so quickly,” Jenny said, with her mouth wide open from shock. “I hope one day I can use magic that strong, I can’t let down my family after everything we’ve been through,” Lily said, nervous and fidgeting.

“You’re kidding right, is that some sort of joke?” Haven said, not grasping how lucky him and Chris were to have that book. The teenage boys overheard them, and since there were girls around, they decided to act tough.

Only one of them walked forward, a boy with bright orange hair, crimson red eyes, and a stupid scowl across his face, “What, you think you can do better? A pipsqueak like you needs to learn to act right around someone as important as me. I haven’t seen you around here. You must just be some peasant that got lucky on their test,” The boy got closer, grabbing Haven by the collar, “Show me what you got and I’ll leave you alone for today, because as a member of the Herval family, I must be fair,” the boy made a grand gesture, waving his hand up to the sky.