Hugo had done well during the run, but he was a bit worried because Sage Hanna said today was going to be a longer day. He was already tired.

There was an obstacle course spanning the entire building, which was enormous. It was three stories tall, and twice that wide. What made him less stressed was that it was somewhat familiar. The shimmer corps entrance exam had an obstacle course too. Now that he saw this room, he realized that he had practiced on a lesser copy of the real thing.

Hanna started off by doing a run through the courses to show them the correct path. There were five different courses that could be run at the same time. She ran over boulders, across thin ledges, up ropes and down spinning logs.

It wasn’t until she was running the second course that Hugo noticed a problem. The second half of the courses were impossible. Jumps that were way too far, lifting blocks that were far too heavy, hanging on by just two fingers. Maybe their instructor could do it because she was so high leveled, but there was no way anyone in this room could complete a single course.

After she had finished the last course, Hanna said, “Alright everyone, make five lines. We are going to run all of the courses at once. You will notice that every course has three sections, green, yellow, red. If you fall off in the green section, walk to the beginning of the course and get back in line. If you can make it to the yellow section of any course, you can take a break for the rest of the class.”

She sent them running onto the course, with only a few seconds in between each other. It was a cluster. There were students falling off the course in the first ten feet, students accidentally being pushed off by those in front, a constant line of failure. Hanna was sending the students in fast enough that no one was waiting in line for long.

Even though Hugo was experienced, even he couldn’t get to the end of the green section. He got knocked off of a ledge before he could see what needed doing. Things only got worse from there. Just getting past the halfway point of the green section required a wall climb and a jump between walls with no floor beneath them.

Slowing down wasn’t allowed either. Hanna seemed to have eyes on the back of her head and would throw small bags of sand at slackers. They weren’t heavy enough to injure, but they sure hurt.

About a half hour later, Hugo found himself at the edge of his capacities. He was alone on this section of the track, no one else was able to figure out the timing of the swing circles yet. But he just couldn’t figure out how to run up this curved wall and catch the edge above. He wasn’t sure if it was impossible with his current strength stat, or if there was some trick he didn’t understand.

A few frustrating minutes later, Hugo was convinced this was as far as he could go. The jump was just too high. Then a girl ran past him, not slowing as she ran up the wall. She jumped at the last possible second, and caught the wall. Hugo stood and stared. She had done it, why couldn’t he?

A sandbag to the back of his head convinced him to try again. Maybe if he ran faster and jumped at the last possible second? He ran as fast as he could at the wall, only to stutter at the last second. The height of the wall kept messing with him. He could plow through his fear of heights, but they messed with his instincts anyway. This stutter caused him to stumble and fall off the course completely.

At least falling off the course didn’t hurt, there were piles of soft woodchips below the obstacle track. He could see that there were ponds of water below the yellow and red sections of the track. Certainly made one wary of taking risks on those sections. It didn’t look like they cleaned that water.

Every so often, Hanna would give them all a short break and have them switch tracks. Hugo never was able to break into the yellow section of the track, but the girl from earlier was able to get there. She was enjoying her well deserved break, only slightly waterlogged.

Two years. Hugo was going to have two years of running these obstacle courses. He shivered. Hopefully the extra stats he would soon be getting would be useful.

After entirely too long, their class was finally over. They dragged themselves back to their dorm rooms and showered and changed. Hugo was both happy and sad to discover that the showers didn’t require mana to work. He had just been too stupid to figure them out earlier.

After lunch they went back to the auditorium for their next class.

Marta walked up in front of the class and said, “Today’s lesson will be on the people of Acamar. Those with a high intelligence stat will recognize that name. We soulmarked all use the Acamarian system, it said so in your welcome to the system. Understanding who they were and why they created this system of magic will help you understand how best to use it.

“First off, everything we know about them is fragmentary and incomplete. Don’t believe anyone that tells you that they know everything there is to know about the system. The Acamarian system architects have long since left this world, millennia ago.

“The Acamarians were, or perhaps are, powerful beings that wielded unfathomable magics. It is important to note that they weren’t gods. They were powerful beings to be sure, archwizards at the very least, but they did not know all, and their system of magic was imperfect at first. Ancient nox records show that the system went through several iterations before it became what we use today. The reason that the distinction is important is that the system is not infallible. If you ignore your teachers, and try untested magics, you might create an error. An error almost always results in your death, and the deaths of those around you. Do not experiment with magic.

“The other main fact that is important to learn about the Acamarian system is that it was designed solely for nox. Every aspect of the system, from the eight stats to the eight domains of magic were designed for nox and nox alone. Humans weren’t a part of this world when the system was built and tested. We are only able to use the system through a series of cheats, rituals that burn our souls into the proper shapes. We can do almost everything that they can, but a nox will always have an advantage when using the system. It’s their world, we are just part of it.

“Another salient fact is that the stat points are achieved solely via magic. If you put a hundred points in strength, you will get stronger. But you won’t grow any new muscles. If you are then hit with a shimmer caster or other magic disruptor, you will be back down to where you started. It’s one of the reasons continued physical education is important.

“Now, open your books and we will start going through the stats one by one,” Marta said and gestured for them to comply.

Hugo had to force himself to pay attention to the next section of the lesson. It was mind-numbingly boring but he couldn’t take the chance that they wouldn’t go over something new. He hadn’t been planning on even attending the academy, he wasn’t prepared like the rest of the class. Just because he thought he knew everything about the stats, doesn’t mean that he actually did.

An hour later, Hugo realized that he could have just slept through the lesson. It was all obvious, even an illiterate child would understand. Adding points to the strength stat would slowly make you stronger. Adding points to dexterity would make you faster and more nimble. Perception let you see and hear better, what a shock.

He had to admit that his assumptions about the wisdom and intelligence stats were slightly off. They didn’t really make you smarter, but the ability to remember more and process information faster was close enough to being smarter for Hugo.

Marta did gloss over charisma though, only telling students not to put any points into the stat. Hugo agreed with that recommendation anyway. He was going to get ahead on the merits of his own natural charm, not some artificial system making him likable. The only people he heard were adding points to charisma were gangsters and he didn’t want to be associated with them anymore.

What Hugo really wanted to know more about was the eight magic domains. But just as they were getting to that section in their books, the teacher ended the lesson and had them pass their books back into the front.

Next was History class. Sage Ioana was the teacher, but there wasn’t a lot of history teaching the first day. They spent the whole class period talking about class rules and procedures. After the first ten minutes, Hugo thought that they would be done, but she kept going. On and on. It wasn’t until forty minutes were up that she stopped going over the class rules.

Hugo sat up, finally ready to learn something. He hadn’t learned much history in his public education classes before this. They hadn’t considered it important for day laborers and farmers to learn history. Consequently, he was actually kind of excited for this class.

His hopes were dashed though. Sage Ioana spent the rest of their first day testing the students on the class rules and regulations. By the end of that first class period, she had the whole class speaking in unison.

The last class of the day was the Cryptozoology class. Better known as the monster class. Hugo wasn’t sure if it was the subject matter or the book that earned the class its nickname. The book was thick and weighed a ton. Each page had a detailed monster description, and most had an illustration. Hugo hadn’t known that there were that many different monsters in the world, but apparently there were. He was hopeful that the class would be about monster theory instead of rote regurgitation of facts. Memorizing that whole book would be impossible.

The teacher was already sitting at her desk when the students filed in. Hugo guessed that she was older than his mother. She didn’t look up from the two copper novel she was reading. The classroom was small, only about forty desks fit in the room, each desk with a monster book on it.

When the hour bell tolled outside, she slowly got up and shuffled to the front of the classroom. She said, “My name is Laisk. I will not be taking attendance. Your task this year is to memorize the book in front of you. I don’t care how you do it. At the end of the year, I will be administering a test. Pass the test, pass the class.

A few hands shot up, students already had questions.

“I will not be answering questions. We are going to read Markel’s Cryptozoology Textbook cover to cover in this class. That is all. Open your book to page one. You, in front. Start reading.”

It took the startled student a few moments of staring before she caught on and opened her book to the first page. She started reading, “Acid Ant. Like its cousins the acid ant resembles a terrestrial insect. Typically six to nine feet tall, acid ants have all the offensive abilities of the normal ant. The monster gets its namesake from the fact that it spits acid. The acid is secreted from the mandibles, not the center of the mouth. This means ...”

The students took turns reading from the book for the next hour. Hugo was honestly impressed. She had taken what should have been the most exciting class ever and turned it into a mind numbingly boring one. And to top it all off, she mentioned that she didn’t take attendance. She was practically begging them to skip class.

Hugo didn’t trust it. He assumed that it must be some sort of test, a test to see if students would attend even when it didn’t seem like there was any reason to be here. It was the last class of the day for the rest of the year, he promised himself he wouldn’t miss a class. He also promised himself that he would bring paper along next time so he could doodle during class.

He couldn't wait to pick a magic domain. He hoped that class would be more exciting than the ones he had attended today. Even if that course ended up being boring too, he didn't care. He would have real power, and the freedom that came with it.