Dirin kept glaring at Keith. Keith had a smug look as he flipped through the classes and their days as his smile grew bigger and bigger. "You know, since I'm going to do everything, I will probably have many ways to make light and make you practically useless, right?" Dirin said as his own smile grew.
"If you go down the path of everything, then you'd counter everyone. I'm just one of the people that you counter. Use your head!" Keith wasn't bothered at all as he flipped through the book. "You do have to attend each. And. Every. Single. One. Of. These. Classes though. So that way you learn everything, then you have to try everything. It's going to take forever. I'll definitely be Rank 1 by the time you are done. Maybe even Rank 2."
Dirin opened his mouth but kept it shut. He didn't have anything to say to that. If he cut corners, then he wouldn't be able to say he's progressing in everything, but if he did progress in everything, it would take a long time. His only hope was that after doing it, he would be strong enough to easily do everything else for Rank 2 and up. Thankfully, I won't have to worry about getting kicked out since I'll be doing a bunch of classes, though. I also don't need to worry about not having anything to do. I'll just leech off other people's knowledge as well. Dirin thought to himself. "Anyways, I want the room farthest from the bathroom." Dirin took his luggage and headed to the room that was farthest down the hall.
"He doesn't like the smell or sound of someone using the bathroom," Keith explained to Markus. "I don't mind since I have a bad sense of smell anyway, and I just wear earplugs."
Before Dirin fully left the room, there was a knock on their door. Markus moved to open it, but Keith stopped him. Dirin let out a groan as he already guessed what was going to happen. "I want the number of people, the genders, and their purpose!" Keith shouted.
Dirin had an annoyed expression on his face as he sighed and started to think. "Let's see. Three people. All of them are men. They are here cause they are our neighbors and just wanted to say hi."
"Too easy. I also want to know if they have their academy blazers still on as well." As Keith said this, there was another knock that was quieter than the last time.
"Two of them do while the other doesn't. They aren't fully unpacked yet. They were assigned random dorms." Dirin said while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Alright, overachiever." Keith clapped a bit before finally letting Markus go check on who was knocking.
When Markus opened the door, he saw three people. Just like what Dirin guessed, two of them were in their blazers while the other one behind them wasn't. They all had darker hair and were quite short compared to Markus. "Hello. We are your neighbors, and we just wanted to get acquainted now before it becomes too late." The man in the front looked around Markus and saw the luggage. "Ah. You guys still need to unpack. We got that done about an hour ago and watched the video. Anyways. It was nice to meet you, and maybe we will see you guys around."
After that, Markus closed the door. "Congrats, I think you got about 2 of those guesses correct." Keith clapped.
"Four. I got gender, number, the blazers, and purpose." Dirin corrected.
"You're guessing as part of your training?" Markus inquired. "What category would that be considered?"
"Category?" Dirin was confused by what he meant for a bit. "I guess it would be like magic and under Mind? It's simple to train as well. I just guess and hope I get some of the details right. Not that I need to get them all right anyway, since you only really need to try sincerely."
"How does it determine whether it's sincere or not?" Keith asked? "Is there like some force or something?"
"How does it know that I'm doing anything? How does it make us get special powers and abilities? I don't know? I'm just going to use it." Dirin replied.
After that, they all decided to start unpacking in their rooms. Dirin didn't have many things other than clothes and other necessities. He wasn't big on decorating since he didn't plan on staying in the room often. His schedule was going to be busy from today onwards anyway, with all the classes he has to attend.
Keith had a couple of posters of movies, games, and books plastered all over his wall. He had little figurines as well spread across a shelf, and replaced his curtains with blackout ones. He put his toothpaste and toothbrush in a cup that he would move into the bathroom once he was done unpacking.
Markus put his clothes away neatly, folded from his suitcase. He was planning to go buy more sometime during the following days, but if he didn't, he would just wash his clothes often. He put some books onto multiple shelves and put up a calendar that had an inspiring quote for each day. He was overall proud of how his room turned out, giving it an approving nod. The quote that was for tomorrow, January 18th, was, "Ships are safest in the harbor, but that's not what ships are made for," by James H. Fischer.
"Classic," Markus said as he went over to his bed and lay down. His feet dangled past the edge, which bothered him a lot. I'm going to need to buy a new bedframe and mattress. I'll do it tomorrow.
The next day, Dirin woke up around seven in the morning. He had to get ready early since his first class started around eight thirty, and he didn't want to be late for it. He pulled out his phone and looked at the schedule he set for himself. His first class was going to be "Elemental Basics". Keith was going to attend that one tomorrow since he was more interested in the "How Light Moves," which was a lecture instead of a class.
Dirin got dressed in the blue blazer over his dark gray shirt and bright blue jeans. He wore basic black shoes. By the time he got out of his room, he saw Markus doing pushups in the living room. "What are you doing?"
"Pushups," Markus said with a wheeze.
Dirin tried not to roll his eyes at the answer. "Fair. Why are you doing pushups then? You're going to be an enchanter, are you?"
Markus's knees made contact with the ground as he caught his breath. "Yeah, but I still need to be in shape. What if I want to make a sword, but I'm too slow and weak to properly hammer it?" Markus's explanation made sense to Dirin. "You should do them with me, Mr. Everything."
Dirin was revolted that he would offer such a thing and made a dramatic face to let Markus know, but after clicking his tongue and checking the time to see if he had enough, he got up and started to do pushups with Markus, who still beat him by a lot even though he was already out of breath. His lungs hurt a lot, which was a painful reminder of how out of shape. "You should take a job after your classes as well. Build that endurance of yours up. A healthy mind is a happy mind."
"I'm very happy when I get to eat my donuts in peace."
"Now, how are you going to try everything, yet you don't even want to do some basic pushups and a jog every day? You'll have to do them anyway since they definitely are a requirement for something. So might as well smile as you do it."
"Well... shut up." Dirin sighed to himself before he saw Keith walk out of his room, tired and still in his pajamas. "Keith should do these with us."
Keith turned his head over slowly with obvious tiredness in his eyes. He looked horrified at the prospect of doing pushups before he smiled. "I don't need to train in that since it has nothing to do with shadows!"
"Yes, but we are doing pushups in a dark room, meaning we are doing pushups in the shadows. If you want to get stronger in the shadows, then you need to train in the shadows." Dirin said with a sly smile as Markus thought about it before nodding.
"That makes no sense whatsoever! You are just making things up to torture me!"
Markus then chimed in with a happy voice. He was very pleased with having another training buddy. "It makes perfect sense. If you revolve everything around shadows, then being stronger physically in the shadows would also fall under that. Come on in, buddy, and if you consider pushups torture, then you need to do pushups because that is just sad."
By the time Dirin left, he and Keith were sweating mildly, but they were breathing very heavily. They both went to separate buildings after a while, with Dirin asking Keith to send him a message about what the class was over and a summary of what he learned.
The class was in a lecture hall with multiple rows of seats that got higher as you went further in the back. Dirin sat in one of the closer rows to make sure he had a good view of the board. He wasn't the first one in there and seemed to arrive with the rest of the class as they all filed into it. There were three people up front near the desk, all three of them teachers. One of them was a woman, while the other two were men. The woman wore a long black dress and had her brown hair in a bun with gray streaks from age in there. She wore thick, round glasses and was looking through some papers as she sat down.
The two men were chatting and wearing suits. The older one was a bit taller and had a straight posture. He had a gruff black beard and was bald as well. He was well-built and had dark skin. He had a happy expression on as he talked to his colleague who was more relaxed and wore a gray suit instead of a black one. His light brown hair was swept to the side and shone a bit due to the gel he put in it that morning. He had lighter skin and looked friendly with he way he was talking to the other man.
As Dirin was opening a notebook and was wondering what to label it, a girl sat beside him. She had long red hair that seemed closer to scarlet, with bright blue eyes, and was wearing dark black jeans and a white shirt under her blazer that she decided to button. She was beautiful to Dirin, and he could only stop staring as she gave a polite nod with a neutral face. Dirin was tempted to ask Keith how to talk to girls after that, but decided to focus more on his classes than romance. I can't deal with romance just yet. I am still in school and I'm practically broke, and if I dated a girl, it wouldn't be practically! Dirin nodded to himself to reaffirm his ideal, but as he kept thinking his thoughts drifted. If she were to engage with me, though, that is a completely different story. I'm focused but not stupid. Keith would approve.
After putting his thoughts back on track the woman up front spoke up. "Morning, everybody. My name is Mrs. Burk. I'm a Rank 4 who specializes in manipulating light to bend around objects, making them practically invisible. I was also awarded five medals for teaching about this subject so please listen to me carefully. I will be assisted by Mr. Till who is also a Rank 4," She gestured towards the older man, "And Mr. Gray. who is a Rank 3." She gestured to the man in the gray suit.