It started with having to run laps while trying to rattle off the answers to various trivia problems. Things like how Ice beats Dragon and whether one spirit beast was faster than another. He hadn't earned his trainer rites yet because he hadn't shown the necessary level of competencey required to handle a Chidi beast responsibly. Caring and feeding was all well and good, but being unable to navigate a battle? He'd never get anywhere in life like that, let alone make it to the First realm of cultivation.

His legs were rubber and his concentration waned when he answered the question wrong. "GAH!" And there was the punishment. A brief electric shock.

"Worthless child!" We're the last words the boy heard. The instructor giving him this 'special education' launched the lightning for only a moment. The frustration of her young pupil's failure possibly caused her to shock him a second longer than she should have, but he would live. A little pain would serve him as a reminder for his failure. This was sadly not the case. The kid wept on the track before fading into unconsciousness, only to be hauled off to his dorm room.

========

The child had woken up in his bed, only it wasn't actually his bed; or the child. Little did the instructor know but that little electric shock had held on just a little too long. It stopped the poor child's heart killing him in that instant. Now with no idea if it was divine intervention or some sick joke a man in his mind twenties was now in the body of a child.

'I can’t believe that bitch killed him!' The thought was surreal to him. Even more so than the fact that he was now stuck in the body of a ten year old boy from another world.

Instead of fading into the great beyond or going to heaven, he has now been given a second chance at life. At the expense of a young child. None of this sat well with him. The thought of being killed by your own mother made him nauseated to the point he had thrown up on the floor beside his bed.

'Great, now I have to clean this mess up.'

With a sigh the boy attempted to get out of bed only to stumble from his feet, onto the wooden floor. He vented his frustration to the bare room with a shout. What should’ve been a furious howl from a grown man’s baritone voice came out as little more than a child squeaking. In that moment he wondered if he had actually died and instead of heaven was just sent to the other place to be perpetually annoyed for all eternity.

On his hands and knees, the boy, or Maddox rather, was cleaning up the mess of bile, utterly bewildered by the idea that he was able to navigate his way through the boy’s room, small as it may be. He attempted to draw upon some random information and was surprised when he knew the answer. “I have all of his memories.” Sitting on his knees in a bewildered state the revelation was a shock to him. No mistaking it, it was an incredible boon, but it was still quite the shock. Honestly the more he sorted through the memories of the child whose body he now occupied the more a sour look grew on his face.

“She was his mom. I guess, my mom.” Maddox dropped the rag into the bucket. Sitting on his knees while processing what he had just learned. “What sort of cruel hell hole did I end up in?” The eerie quiet of the room gave him no answers, but the sudden motion of his door being shoved open soon would be a fast track tutorial to his new life.

The instructor burst through the door. A small smile of relief seemed to dance on her face briefly before turning into a scowl. “Its about time you woke up boy,” she spoke with her pssed off tone tossing him a basket of laundry which of course he didn’t catch. “You were asleep for three whole days.” Her scowl grew larger at both the mess of the thrown laundry basket and the realization of how long he had been laid out.

Maddox tried his best to stand quickly, attempting to gather up the laundry back into the basket. “Sorry mother.” He had spoken it absentmindedly, and only after the words left his mouth had he froze. “I meant Instructor Sha’Carri.” Out of fear he was too busy trying to avert his eyes from her, but if he had taken a split second to look up at the dark skinned woman with similar bright orange hair as him he would have seen the look of shock that was on her face.

'He called me mother.' The thought was fleeting and the smile it had placed on her cheeks very much so. A scowl perched on her lips again but there was a warmth in her heart. She had been fearing the worst when the boy hadn’t woken up after several days. A fear that she might have lost her child much like she had lost his father not so long ago. “I’m glad you remembered your manners, boy.” were the words she chose to say instead of the ones swirling inside her heart. Cold and distant. 'This is for the best.'

The instructor walked over to Maddox, turning his head to face her with a simple finger. She was only 5’4, just a head taller than the boy, but she was well into her cultivation. and the strength this tiny woman possessed was unreal. “You look like shit, but at least you’re standing. If you can stand you can attend classes so get on your uniform, go eat breakfast and don’t you dare be late for home room. I’ll be checking in on you today.” It was the only words she gave him before tossing a set of robes that were on the bed onto his head. She was at the door about to shut it when she heard the squeaky voice try to ask her something. It was soft, almost a whisper, but with her superhuman senses she heard every word of it. Sha’Carri focused, taking a deep breath. Her mask would not break today. With another scowl on her face she slowly turned to face the boy. Her hand on the door knob. “Speak up boy if you have something to say, put some bass in your voice!” Her tone was harsh and degrading. Her mask would hold, at least for now.

“Thank you for doing my laundry,” Maddox finally spoke up. He was still trying to get all the clean clothes back into the basket while the instructor just scoffed in reply. “Instructor, how did you know I had woken up?”

The instructor raised a pointer finger and a small bird flew onto it. “I had this little fellow keeping an eye on you.” The door shut after that. Leaving the eerie quiet once again.

“I guess that could’ve gone worse.” he sat on his bed with a sigh. “God I hope this place isn’t crazy.”

As Maddox was getting ready to start his first day in this new world. Little did he know that outside of his dorm room stood his mother with her back against the door and a tear rolling down her cheek. She was in the middle of doing the boys' laundry when her faithful messenger bird came and sat on her shoulder. The chirping in her ear was as low as a whisper while the intelligent creature showed her an image of her son waking up in her mind. The news had elated her to no end. While the mental image of him throwing up on the floor had caused her to frantically gather the dried laundry into a basket so she could run to his aid. The last image of him obviously trying his best to stand under his own power had stopped her in her tracks. He was still trying to be strong.

'You can do this Maddox. I know you can.' She left quickly after that, before any students could see her.

=========

Accessing the boy’s memories wasn’t hard. It was more depressing than anything. Well atleast the thoughts of the school were sad. He had no choice; he had to find his way to the cafeteria, and from all the looks the other students had given him he didn’t feel like stopping to ask for directions. Even now as he sat at an empty table with a plate of food he couldn’t help but notice two things. First off every student seemed to act as if he wasn’t there and second, he was smaller than everyone else.

‘Seriously, what am I doing here?’ He sighed as he ate his meal. ‘At least the food was decent, but it's kinda hard to screw up fruit and oatmeal.’ His mind automatically went to his older sister burning a pot of water. She Hadn’t known how to cook at the time, but she learned at a steady pace, even if it was too slow for his tastes. A memory from his old life. No one paid him any attention as he laughed. A pleasant memory from a more pleasant time. A sigh escaped his lips soon after. The realization sank in that he was stuck here. Wherever here was. He wasn’t allowed to wallow in his own despair for long as a bell rang throughout the cafeteria. The kids slowly left the large building to head to their classes. Maddox had to sit there for a moment. Drawing on the memories of his new body’s former owner to figure out just where he had to go. It felt weird navigating memories of someone else's life. It showed up as still images in his mind along with a jolt of information that stung in his mind, or a video clip that was just a few seconds long before cutting out, all the while sending a slight itch through his brain. With that knowledge now well in hand, or in mind. He was happy to shut off those memories.

=======

Instructor Von’Bleek struck Maddox as an odd woman, with her scraggly black hair and sickly pale skin. She had bags under her eyes and gave off the impression that one good breeze would blow her right over. Other than that she seemed nice enough.

“Okay students, your first class will be basic cultivation. Now everyone be on your best behavior and I’ll see you all after that.” How such a sweet voice could come out of someone that looked so ill was beyond him. Instructor Von’Bleek left the classroom only to be replaced by another instructor. It seemed as if the teachers came to the students rather than the other way around. Maddox had no idea if that was the case for all the classes, but for now he was content to sit in his seat and listen. The classroom was set up like a lecture hall, but this one could hold only twenty to thirty students at a time, and currently he was sitting in the back off to the corner with no one else next to him.

‘I really need to figure out what's going on with this school.’ He just couldn’t understand how every student could just avoid him like they had been. The teacher at the head of the classroom was Instructor Von’Pebble. A silly last name for a man built like a brick shit house. The flowing robes everyone seemed to wear were baggy, but not on this instructor. They looked like a size too small and ready to burst at a simple flex of the man’s large biceps. Maddox looked down at his own scrawny body and couldn’t help but be jealous of Instructor Von’Pebble. In his previous life he had been a fat kid, and the ridicule of it made him not a health nut per say, but he did watch what he ate and tried to go to the gym regularly. Even in his college years he was too afraid to pack on the pounds, but now. Well he looked like he needed a cheeseburger.

“Seeing how you’re all first years,” Instructor Von’Pebble had been speaking this whole time, but Maddox’s thoughts had kept him from fully paying attention. “Most of you are still in the Initiate Realm. Pupil Von’Ashe can you answer for me what that is!” It wasn’t until his commanding voice yelled for him did he focus on the classroom. The other twenty or so students looking back at him as he sat in the top row off to the corner by himself. Maddox stood up and began to talk in that squeaky voice of his. “Speak up boy I can’t hear you from all the way down here.”

“I don’t know Instructor!” Most of the kids laughed but most just scoffed at his words like he was the most ignorant person in the world and right now Maddox would agree with them. He needed to get his bearings in this world and from the jumbled mess of the boy’s memories Maddox was under the impression that he wasn’t very knowledgeable. He counted himself lucky that he understood the language and could at least read and write.

The instructor’s face was fixed in a scowl, until he sighed deeply. His face finally softening with a look of pity for the boy. “It can’t be helped, pupil Von’Ashe. You’re much younger than the other first years and you’ve only been in the academy for a week. Three of those days was spent recuperating from Instructor Sha’Carri’s;” He froze mid sentence, searching for the right word to use. “special lessons.” where the words he chose to use for his fellow instructors cruel act. “Pupil Von’Kiernan please answer the question.” A girl with a natural tan and long purple hair stood right up at the bellow ofher last name.

“The Initiate Realm is where we build our bodies, pushing ourselves to the limits of what our mortal fiber can do Instructor!” The girl screamed so load everyone heard her. The instructor nodded with approval.

Instructor Von’Pebble then gave everyone tickets to the gun show. With a twinkle in hi eye he flexed his huge arms. His robes bursting off his muscular chest to every students dismay. “The mortal form can not handle the stress of filtering spirit engery into Chidi. You must strengthen yourselves so you can be ready to bond with your first spirit beast.” He emphasized every word with a new pose of his rippling physique. Most of the students looked like they were over it, but in the back Maddox’s eyes went wide.

“So Cool!” he couldn’t help but blurt out, and that brought a smile to the instructor’s face, more than happy to continue flexing.

“It makes no sense to discuss anything further when most of you haven’t even taken this first step into the magnificent world of Chidi Cultivation.” He barked out a deep laugh when finally the bell rung, saving the students from anymore of the instructors posing. “Your Alchemy class will be in the labs today, but keep in mind what I told you all here today.”

The students were already leaving the class room, fleeing the shirtless man. All except Maddox, who was looking at Instructor Von’Pebble like he was sosme sort of superhero from out of a comic book.