Reaching the next town, we rested for a night there. Finally there was a proper bed and after the hectic journey and the (un)fortunate/unexpected windfall/accident. These events tired out the five years old mind more than anything else. After a brief dinner and a good long shower, all the kids were knocked out. It was not until the next day near noon that we took off. During this second half of the journey, nothing much happened and it became a sightseeing journey for all the kids once again.

Finally we reached the academy. All of us were bored to tears already. We have all finally arrived with a sore and fairly bruised butt. Can you imagine sitting on a wooden board that trembles, jerks and bounce in random interval? It is like someone slapping your butt for fun. Except it lasted for 3 days. Maybe that sounds fine but can you imagine that on a five year old? My soft tender butt! I feel like i can’t get married anymore.

Looking around, i see rows of kids lining up and waiting for placement. There are hundreds if not thousands of kids! If there are only 10 kids a village, just how many villages are there?

Asking amy, “how many villages are there if there are that many kids?”

“We have villages, towns, districts, counties and states and we currently reside in a county.

5 village matches 1 town and 20 town matches to 1 district and 5 district makes 1 county and 20 county makes 1 state.Usually we have 10 kids from a village, 20 from a town, 50 from a district and 200 from a county and over a thousand from state. From all the kids here, we split everyone based on their type of tree.”

((10x5+20)x20+50)x5+200= 7450

Doing some complex math for a five year old, it seems that there are at least 7450 five years old here. The day slowly trickled away as batch by batch students are screened again and assigned to their specialty.

The students are split by elements. The common ones are earth, fire, water, air, light, dark, spirit and there's the others. Most students do not belong in just one element. For example my vine current belongs to the earth and water elements. Should one day my tree evolve and gain healing ability, i will have a new sub-element, the light element. If it gains something that belongs to another element it will gain that subtype.

When it was finally my turn, Amy came along as well.

“Eric, this boy marcus would not be summoning his tree, we do not want to waste time seeing another fainter. You still have many more to screen. He is talented but i do not want him to grow up in the academy with everyone staring. His tree is a vine of nature element so he will be in the earth and water element classes.”

“A fainter? Good prospects then. Throw him with the elites?”

“No. Those rich kids will make fun of his vine instead.It is still too weak. We do not want another case of 5 years ago.”

“True. Put him among the irregulars then. They are the only ones whose tree flickers from corporeal and incorporeal form. That would be the best camouflage for him.”

“That works too. Watched and given extra attention while not being disturbed by the elites as the elites do not want to get hurt. Good plan. Guess we will do that.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

The conversation went on to further discuss about my placement and where do i stay to keep me hidden from view. Sign. Politics. Hearing the continued conversation i understood that there are many factions in this school. Given that there are about at least 35000 students at any one point, certain ‘governing’ groups must exist. Amy and Eric belong to the group Osprey and my hometown is under their watch. They have lots to discuss so as to make it seem as long as a normal observation of student’s tree.

Just as we were leaving, Amy instructed again and again.

“Remember Marcus, if anyone ask you to reveal your tree, say that you can’t control your tree and that you are an irregular. They will avoid you as they do not want to get hurt.”

When it was all finalized, i was assigned to first year level of plant, nature, earth, water, basic combat classes. With that which is done, i waited for what is to happen next. There was not many of us from the village but there was plenty of other students. All in all it took another half a day before everyone was assigned to a dorm. Everyone from the village was scattered apart as we all had different type of tree. The core of my classes revolve around plants so i reside in the dorm full of people with similar tree. The place is huge! It takes five minutes to run from end to end. After a simple round of exploration and touring, almost all the kids crashed on their beds when night fell. Common thing about plant type ability holders, we tire easily during the night like plants.

*Clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-*

Groans and moans were heard all over the place as it was first time for most kids to wake up in such a rude and loud way and many proceeded to crying. After a brief period the older kids came over to pacify them. All of them had been through this very same rude awakening and understood the pain. Loneliness.No family, no friends and no one to comfort them is a very painful thing. After a brief period of settling down, everyone proceeded to the halls for the meals.

Two simple meat buns, not as tasty as the ones i had at home.

After the meal we got around the campus. Even though the halls looked huge on the inside, the halls where just an average looking building from the outside. Each of the hall is expanded by spatial enchantments. Come to think of it, the sleeping quarters was a rather plain mansion but yet over 1000 could sleep there.

Everything around was rather pack and close to each other but i do wonder, if there is spatial enchantment, why is there no spatial travel? But since no one can give me an answer as of right now, i guess i have to wait until i learn about it in the future.

now all that is left is just waiting to get to classes.