“By the bloody Nine,” Kai whispered to himself.

Standing at the Elderward Prime Academy entrance, Kai found himself stopping to gawk at the sight. Built right into a valley the buildings looked simple at first glance. Stone built onto the stone. Nothing screamed extravagant or prestigious besides the impressive spiral tower in the far distance.

There was a certain timelessness about the Academy as if time remained frozen to keep it so simple, like it was openly deceiving those who came to visit one of the most prestigious Academies, only to find themselves in a quaint old village. It was quite beautiful, and the simplicity of it reminded Kai of home.

Stepping through the threshold, Kai was immediately beckoned over by a guard.

“Admissions or visitor?” the guard asked swiftly. Off to the side, other beings were called off the path and asked the same question, while others kept walking down the path, unbothered.

[??? - ???]

Kai blinked his eyes and identified again. Nothing. He found himself slightly unsettled by the fact that he had no idea what race or species of being he was standing in front of. The unknown being was covered head to boot in armor with the same texture of wood. The smooth armor gave the illusion or possibly reality that someone had carved it straight from a tree trunk. All that was visible of the mysterious guard were its red eyes through the helmet slit.

“Admissions,” Kai responded after probably gawking too long.

Twisting its body, it held up an armored arm and pointed to the massive grey stone building behind it. “You’ll find the admissions office inside.” Turning away, it had already begun beckoning another potential student or visitor to it.

Kai thanked the guard with a nod and walked off. To his side, Asteria trotted looking adorably confused.

Stepping inside the moderately sized doorless building, Kai had to double-take. The inside of the lobby itself was larger than the entirety of the building’s appearance from the outside. Varying species filled the lobby, some were sitting and others walking around. Decorative and exotic furniture gave appearance to a more modern and wealthier scene, the complete opposite of its outside representation. Large, marbled pillars propped up the massive room and art and paintings were against each pillar and wall. Each depiction was either of a battle or a portrait of an individual. None were human. One portrait was of a wizened male elf with extremely bushy eyebrows. On the plaque below, it read.

Arywin Telis

Inventor and Creator of the Telis Conversion of Mass Enchantment Principle

Graduate of Elderward Prime Academy

Born 3-38912, Died 4-16021

“What the...” If Kai was reading the dates right, then the elf in the portrait had lived a minimum of 16,000 years. Possibly much longer, depending on when the third age ended. The date was currently in the sixth age, of the year 2155. Humans had only arrived in the Myriad of Worlds less than 1300 years ago. To have been alive for 1300 years, let alone 16,000... The concept of it was difficult to fathom.

A stray thought came to mind. Kai couldn’t help but wonder if he would still have remained alive to this day if he hadn’t been betrayed. Statistically, the answer was no. But his blood magic class had always done a great job at healing him during fights. Short of losing a limb, he was almost unstoppable in a fight. Outlasting his opponents. Now, he had no regeneration or healing. It was an entirely different style of combat that he was still growing accustomed to.

After checking out a few other portraits, Kai knew it was time to head over to admissions and get it over with. His body felt jittery, likely full of excitement at the prospect of one of his goals becoming reality. Calling Asteria who was eyeing paintings of battles, they walked to a separate room where the Admissions Office was located.

Crossing into the room he took note of everything. There were ten glass offices. Nine of which had distorted glass, similar to the train, but cloudier. Each office had varying species assembled in front of them. Among the sixty beings in the room, only one other was human.

Placing Asteria around his neck, Kai strolled to the back of one of the lines. He tried to listen to the conversations around him, but no sound reached him. Even Asteria’s huff seemed dampened, despite her being next to his ear. It didn’t take long until he was next in line, with each individual taking ten to fifteen minutes.

The glass to the office unblurred as the door slid open. A Dwarf left the office, practically skipping to the exit.

Stepping inside the office, the room felt sweltering compared to the chilled lobby. Kai sucked in air and stopped himself from laughing as he saw a hulking Orc hunched over behind a disproportionately small desk.

“Come in, come in. And close the door,” the Orc spoke without looking. His voice was deep and clear, without the slightest detectable accent.

Closing the door, Kai blinked when the glass didn’t blur like before. Just as Kai was about to grab the door and try to open and close it again, the Orc said, “Leave it. The enchantments are working. It’s not frosted from the inside.” There was an amused smirk on the tusked Orc’s face which was still facing toward the papers he was writing on.

Taking the seat opposite the Orc, Kai took the time to examine the Orc while the being finished his task. Even with them both being seated the Orc easily towered two feet over him. He might have been intimidated if not for the silly tunic that had been cut at the sleeves to give room to his bulging muscles that would even put Sven to shame. A hexagonal insignia of a pair of hands with some kind of spell between them rested at the center of the tunic, above and below which read “Elderward Prime Academy” and “Admissions.”

The office was filled with piles of papers reaching the ceiling that seemed to have no reason or order. Mana gave life to the glowing lights above.

“Sorry about that. This time of year, there is always a lot of paperwork,” the Orc said as he shuffled some pages into a desk drawer.

Offering a massive hand across the desk he completely enveloped and shook Kai’s hand with a gentleness that he would not have expected in such a muscular and hulking specimen.

“My name is Timothee, an admissions specialist here at Elderward Prime Academy. To get the ball rolling, will you please tell me your name?”

“Kaismo Cineris and this is Asteria,” he placed his hand on top of the small fox’s head sitting on his lap. With his other hand, he subtly pulled at his collar to alleviate some of the heat and sweat forming below his clothing.

“Pleasure,” Timothee let out a toothy smirk. “I apologize for the heat. My blood boils. It’s not something I can control. We will wrap this up quickly and get you out of here. Kaismo, I take it you are trying to enroll here. First-year?”

“Yes, and no” Kai shook his head. “I already completed my first year at the Ashbourne Academy on Eris.”

The Orc’s eyes widened. “Ashbourne Academy you say? Ah, I was sorry to hear about its destruction.”

Kai’s went wide for a second before narrowing. “You know about its destruction?”

“Of course. Even the destruction of capital on a low world is big news in the Myriad of Worlds. Normally we would require enchanted paperwork to provide proof of first-year completion...” Timothee ran his large hand under his chin, causing his arm muscles to swell even more. The tunic looked like it was about to rip apart. “But it is obvious you wouldn’t have any with the academy being destroyed.”

Opening the top desk drawer, he placed a crystal cube on the desk between them. “Because you are enrolling as a second year, we will have to perform a small test. Before enrolling, students must not have had access to their magic longer than three years. Tis the rules. The Prime Academies are education systems aimed at the newly awakened. Because you are entering the second year, it will be four years for you.”

Tapping the seamless crystal cube at the top it generated a small hum for a few seconds before stopping. “Excellent!” Timothee exclaimed. “According to the cube, your skeletal structure is only 17 years of age, bringing you within the appropriate age bracket for your species. Forging Level 24. Not too shabby for one year of magic and coming from a frontier world.” Timothee nodded to himself. “And your companion, Forest Fox, between one to two years old. Foundation Level 65. Good.”

Kai reached for Asteria who had jumped onto the desk to examine the cube, but the Orc waved him off without looking.

Gingerly Asteria placed her paw on top of the mysterious cube only for nothing to happen. Dejected she hovered near Timothee, taking interest in what he was writing down.

“Bringing in an additional companion, even a noncombatant pet will cost additional fees,” Timothee said.

Kai chuckled and mumbled, “nothing new there.”

Timothee let out what looked like a menacing smile, but Kai assumed it was just the Orc’s normal smile. “Sounds like an interesting story.”

“A very long story,” Kai answered back. “Before I forget, I believe someone is sponsoring my attendance here.”

Timothee whipped his head up, his hand frozen over the paper. “You should have mentioned that. We could have skipped the last few minutes. What is the name of your sponsor?”

Pulling out the piece of paper his father gave him, he read the name, “Niles Endo.”

“Paragon Niles is sponsoring you?” Uncertainty in his voice. He gave Kai a more critical gaze as if he was looking deep to find something he couldn’t see.

Paragon? Wait... Paragon!? Does Dad have a Paragon realm person sponsoring me? Kai frantically read the paper over one more time, but nothing indicated the sponsor’s realm. “My father set up the sponsorship. I don’t know if this Niles Endo is the same one to whom you are referring.”

Frowning, Timothee stood up. “Stay here. I will be right back.” Now standing, the Orc was even larger than Kai had imagined. The small desk did no justice to the small titan of an Orc. Stalking out of the room, the doorway barely seemed big enough as he quickly left.

The door remained open, and Kai could see other potential students spying on him from outside in line. After a minute of sitting quietly, he decided to question Asteria. “You know anything about this?”

“I’m one and a half. You think they told me any of this?” she rolled her eyes.

Just as Kai was about to retort the door slid open with Timothee came back inside carrying a file he didn’t have before.

“I’ve found it,” he said slapping a folder against his palm. I was certainly surprised. We only get about 50 to 100 sponsors a year.”

Sitting back in the chair, the orc sunk back to manageable heights so that Kai didn’t feel an ache in his neck having to look up.

“Yup, it’s all here,” Timothee said reading the files inside. “Your classes have already been settled, along with payment. I think everything is in order. We can skip a few steps it seems.” He passed Kai the file after slipping in a packet of papers.

Kai accepted the file and opened it up to take a look. The first page included nearly everything about him His name, description, class, and magic type. Even his unfinished finals appearance from a few days ago was included inside.

Intrigued, he flipped to the next page which included his courses for the trimester. They all revolved around fighting and monster hunting, except for the Myriad of Worlds history class. He noticed there was nothing similar to the field training course from the Ashbourne Academy. How are the students supposed to grow in levels?

“All relevant information is inside the packet behind the page with your dorm location and class location. Please make sure to read over the rules.” Timothee reached down out of sight and grabbed a thick metal plate, placing it on his desk.

Kai took the file and papers and placed them in his ring of storage. He had taken a few minutes on the train to figure out how to store items. It proved easy at first but placing an item exactly where he wanted inside the ring wasn’t something he had been able to figure out before they arrived.

“You’re in an odd situation being a transfer. Inside the Prime Academies, we have a different type of currency strictly limited to use across all campuses called prime points. A little on-the-nose name, but its purpose is an academy-issued currency exchange.

Prime points can be used to buy material, armor, weapons, labor, issuing quests, instructors and guidance, access to training simulations, the trial tower, or other utility and training areas.”

At the beginning of each month, an individual will receive prime points dependent on their current rank inside their academy grade. At the beginning of the first year, we would have assigned a rank based on your realm and level, but because you are a transfer you will be starting at the last rank. 6,238.”

He must have seen the frown on Kai’s face because Timothee let out a hearty laugh. “No need to worry. Your sponsor has already allocated 500 prime points for you to start with. 100 times what you would have earned tomorrow at the beginning of the month being in last place. There are plenty of ways to earn prime points.”

Questions filled Kai’s mind, but he figured most of them would be answered by reading the packet inside.

Timothee’s reached out to the metal plate he had placed on his desk a minute prior and waved his hand. Immediately, the plate began glowing with beautiful glyphs. It looked more like art than the language of magic to Kai’s untrained eyes.

“Touch the plate and it will record your mana and biological signature. Then you will officially become a student of Elderward Prime Academy.”

Kai placed his palm against the metal. It was hot to the touch and kept getting hotter until he had to rip his hand away. Holding his palm to his face there was nothing to indicate he had just been burned. Even his health hadn’t dipped despite the pain.

Timothee’s waved his hand again next to the plate. “You next little Asteria.”

Asteria placed a paw against the plate and held it there for longer than Kai until she jumped back. Still, on the desk, she lowered the front of her body and growled at the plate.

Waving his hand once more, the plate stopped glowing. With a nod to himself, Timothee stood and shook their hand and paw. “All done. Allow me to congratulate you on enrolling at the Elderward Prime Academy. I wish you both the best of luck.”