It had been three days since the encounter with the strange witch who tried to blow a hole through my stomach.

Luckily, there hadn't been any more encounters with her. However, therein lay the issue. I did not encounter anyone, neither Natasha nor Alexei, and I had no clue how to get to them. Last time I met Natasha by chance, because Alexei told her to meet me. But when they brought me to their place, I turned them down and told them not to contact me.

'What am I supposed to do now?' I contemplated. If the magic university was so easy to just stumble into, then it would have been uncovered in an instant.

By the way, Lana really did forget all about our... well, date. And all about her confession. As for what she thought she was doing on that day, she said she just went back home and crashed for the rest of the day. That was a little sad, but I knew that I could get her to recollect her memories if I got involved with this magic stuff.

I did not have the faintest idea of how to get in contact, so I decided to walk over to the place where I first met Natasha. It was night when we met, so I set off to the street a little later in the evening with that in mind. Maybe I'd see someone there by chance. Then again, just because I saw her there doesn't mean that it's a spot that has anything to do with magicians.

There was a bench not too far away, so I took the chance to sit there before anyone else did. I began thinking over what happened in the past few days. A bunch of supposed magic users went out of their way to bring me in because I was apparently strong. But how did that matter to them?

I knew nothing about magic, and I was sure if I kept living normally I never would have had anything to do with it. So why were they scouting me? Maybe Alexei just wanted a friend.

'Welp, whatever,' I thought. I sat around waiting for sometime, and before I knew it, it was pitch black. There were only the street lights illuminating the deserted road. It was eerily silent too. I looked around to see if there was anyone around, but I couldn't spot a single person.

I decided to sit around for just a little while longer, and closed my eyes. It was dark, after all, and I was getting sleepy.

"Have you reconsidered our offer?" spoke the voice of a girl right beside me. I instinctively jumped out of my skin and turned to look at whoever was sitting next to me. "Wh-When the fuck did you get here?" I asked, still a little startled.

"Just now. I teleported from nearby to startle you," she said. Crap, I played right into her hands.

"That aside, I'll repeat my question. Have you reconsidered our offer?" she repeated.

I looked at her, then looked down on the ground. Why was I hesitating? Wasn't this what I needed to do? I was about to speak up when she interrupted me, "I'll take your silence as refusal. We will not contact you henceforth, or approach you when you call for us. Please forget about the world of magic."

'No, no, no,' my mind raced, 'I need this! I can't let her go!'

"Wait!" I stopped her.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'll do it," I said. "I'll learn magic."

"I see." What a boring reply! At least be a little happy that you managed to coerce me into this stuff! Or maybe I'm too easy of a guy.

"Well then, I suppose I should show you how to get to the University, so that I don't have to knock yo- I mean, bring you in each time." She proceeded to walk away from me, towards a nearby residential block. I followed wordlessly. She was definitely about to say 'knock out!' What's the point of such secrecy if you're going to tell me the way in anyway?

She walked towards the entrance and stopped right in front of the main door. It was a normal entrance door, except it was made of glass. What kind of rich freaks live here? Wouldn't they freeze their asses off in winter with this parody of a front door?

"The University is protected by a barrier that allows one to pass if they use magic. To do this, you will need a wand. Since you do not have one yet, I will allow you to enter along with me."

She proceeded to stab the glass in the main door with the wand, but instead of shattering, the wand just phased through. "A wand is enough to demonstrate one's ability to use magic," she explained. She plucked out her wand, and then proceeded to casually walk right through the glass. She pulled on my hand, and I followed.

The barrier led to a completely different place than the one that I could see through the glass. It seemed like the entrance to some sort of grand mansion. The hallways were expansive, and there were stairs to a second and third floor a little bit further down the main corridor. The entrance area itself was huge too. How was the ceiling even holding itself up?

"This is the university building. It is in an undisclosed location in the wilderness of Siberia. Do not try to get out of the main door, or else you will die of cold."

I couldn't see any windows around me, but I decided to go along with her explanation because there wasn't much logic in what was going on anyway. I decided not to ask why the Moscow University of Wizardry was nowhere near Moscow in the first place.

"First, I will guide you to the room of the Five Mages to greet Alexei and Lena," she said. 'Lena? Probably one of the other mages,' I thought. I followed in suit to the third floor, down a long winded corridor.

Upon reaching the door, she opened it and said to the people inside, "Roma has arrived." She gestured for me to enter, and I walked into the room.

I immediately recognized my surroundings. I was brought here when I first met these guys. I also recognized a familiar face. Alexei. I looked to his right, and recognized another familiar face.

It was the witch who attacked me.

"What the fuck is she doing here?!" I exclaimed. I rushed to grab Alexei's hand and pulled him away from her. "She attacked me a couple of days back! She's dangerous! Don't just casually stand near her!"

I looked at Alexei for a reaction, and in response I got... silence. He stood there with an expressionless face, and stared at the witch. The witch threw an amused giggle at me and said, "We meet again, dear."

I had all kinds of danger signals going off in my head, but my legs would not move. They weren't under the effect of a spell or anything, they were just stood there, frozen in terror.

"Don't you dare touch Alexei, you witch!" I yelled. My voice squeaked, full of terror.

I heard a faint laugh coming from Alexei, and then he said to the witch, "Lena, I've told you countless times that your methods are too cruel. Look at him, he's shook down to his very soul."

"Dear, is he not willingly ready to study magic? I have merely done what you asked me to," Lena retorted.

"Still, there may have been a kinder way to do this," Alexei cautioned. "He is my friend, after all."

So that was Alexei's doing too? This is turning out to be a real pain in the ass.

"Treat him with kindness, from here on. We can't have someone of his caliber going rogue." Alexei got his hand out of my grip and placed it on my shoulder. I turned to look at him. "Hello again, my friend. I'm glad that you have decided to study magic, after all. You have made the correct choice."

"It wasn't really my choice, but you better teach me well, now that I'm here," I told Alexei.

"Don't worry, we will do our best to assist you."

He guided me to a seat, and with the four of us gathered in the room, we started talking about things. Alexei introduced me to the world of magic and explained why he was after me this whole while. It was a long talk, so I'll tell you what he told me in short.

He was part of a society of mages called the Five Great Mages. These guys were basically really powerful magic users who were responsible for the running and protection of the University. Occasionally, when in a pinch, they'd seek new members who seem to be good candidates to learn magic. That happened to be the reason he scouted me back in middle school. However, he decided that I was still too young, and the problem was resolved in time, so he left me be.

That was until a few months before. One of the Five Mages, who dubbed himself Apophis, went rogue, chasing after personal desires. The remaining Mages tried to fight him, but Apophis grew immensely in power for an unknown reason, and left the attacking Mages in terrible condition. It was then that Alexei remembered about me and my abnormally high magic aptitude, and decided to get me in on this stuff, in hopes that my high magic defense would somehow help them beat the rogue Mage.

Apophis was a mind control magic user, and I had deflected a magician-level mind control spell without even acknowledging it. That reinforced their belief that I was capable of beating Apophis.

Speaking of magician-level magic, Alexei also told me a little bit about magic levels. There were three common levels: magician, wizard and mage. Magician-level magic is what you would call beginner spells, wizard-level magic would be intermediate, and mage-level magic would be advanced. The difference between these levels, however, is enormous, and it takes years of experience to move from class to class.

"Your magic aptitude places you at wizard-level already, so with practice, you will easily achieve great power," is what Alexei told me about my own ability.

I had a rough idea now of this new strange world, and how things worked. The Mages decided to provide me with a dorm room, even though my home was probably 10 minutes away by walk from the entrance to the University, so I decided to stay over for a night.

Lena sent me off to my room with a "I expect great things from you, young wizard~" and Alexei waved and let me go. Natasha guided me to the room. I found it hard to understand why one of the Mages would act like the guide of some dork like me. I was sure she could just ask some other student to show me around. Maybe they were trying to hide me from people.

After depositing me in my dorm room, Natasha promptly shut the door and left. 'Training starts tomorrow, I guess,' I thought. I was getting sleepy after that long talk, so I jumped right onto the bed and fell asleep.