Dirin tried to hide from Zack, but he kept on screaming Keith's name, which made Keith wave him over. Dirin looked at Keith with alarmed eyes, which got him a questioning tilt in return. "Is there something I can help you with?" Keith glanced over at Dirin as he asked Zack.
"Uh, not you. I was calling for Keith..." Zack was confused as he pointed at Dirin, which caused Keith's eyebrows to rise.
Keith glanced over at Dirin, who was now palming his face as he looked away from the scene. "Okay, yeah, my bad. Talk to... Keith... as much as you want. I'll actually use the bathroom as you two ta-"
"NO!" Dirin stopped Keith by grabbing his arm. "Zack, my name isn't Keith. It's Dirin." Zack nodded and waved his hand absentmindedly.
"I don't care what your name is. Tomato tomato as they say. Where were you at the last magic class? A lot of serious things were covered, and missing them will cause you to fall behind!" Zack waved off Dirin's lie very easily.
"I had a couple of other classes I had to attend." Dirin glanced at Keith before turning his attention back to Zack. "I didn't even know there was another magic class." Even if he did know, he wouldn't have attended compared to the classes that Tillie suggested.
Zack's eyes narrowed in confusion as he looked at Dirin. "Why would a mage attend any other classes? There are a few magic classes to begin with, or are you going down another path as well? I guess that would make sense, so are you just going to learn a bit of both?"
"I'm going to learn everything," Dirin said as he took another bite of his pasta.
"Everything of both?" Zack's eyes widen a bit as he slowly nodded approvingly. "I guess everyone has their own dreams and goals. I, personally, am just going to do a couple of things with magic and coast my way through."
Keith cleared his throat as he interjected into the conversation. "He's actually doing everything." Zack was confused by that, so he clarified. "Everything. Elements, magic, aura, spirit stuff... everything."
Zack's eyes narrowed in a different type of confusion as he looked at Dirin as if he were stupid. "Why? That seems like it's going to take forever. Have you even made any real progress? There are so many classes, and so many things you'd have to do."
"I know, and I have people who are helping me with it, and going through all the different classes isn't that hard. My notebook is getting full, though." Dirin said as he took the final bite of his pasta and threw it away into a trash can on the sidewalk.
"I guess." Zack shrugged and then took a picture of a paper and handed the paper to Dirin. "I guess you can have this. I don't plan on learning everything about magic and mana, so you're on your own on that part." Zack then left back towards Falem.
How did he even find me here anyways? Did he just happen to come across me, or did he actively look for me? I honestly don't know. Dirin and Keith talked a little bit more before heading back themselves.
***
Keith separated from Dirin after they got back. Keith already had all of his classes for the day done and didn't have anything else to do except explore Falem a little bit more. After learning about the various departments from his brief interactions with people, he decided to go and walk around to find some himself. There was a music studio where a couple of people were goofing off. He wanted to join them, but he wanted to learn as much about Falem as he could.
He found a gym north of the training field. It looked like a large gym building with multiple types of machines and lots of people using them as well. "That dude is benching five plates on each side..." Keith watched, stunned as he looked at the various weights and the heavy lifters.
Keith shook his head and kept going. He finally found the library and went inside. The shelves were neatly organized as he started to look at the different genres. "Why is fiction separated from spicy fiction? Actually, what is the difference?" Keith opened one of the books, and his eyes went a little wide. "Oh, that's the difference. I wonder if Dirin would like this type of book?" Keith imagined Dirin reading the books and shook his head. "If he did, I would probably send him to his room..."
Keith put the book back and noticed people were staring at him again. He brought his head down and went over to the nonfiction section of the library to look at what they had on shadows. "Dirin should probably visit this place soon. Classes can only teach him so much before they get repetitive. I think they will start going over the same material not too far into the future. How do the Rank 1s train? They must have different classes or something."
Keith browsed the library a bit more and found a couple of books to check out for himself before heading back to the dorm. Markus was finally back and was sweating like crazy as he drank multiple bottles of cold water. "Put more water in the cooler, please..." Markus had a raspy voice as he pointed towards the pack of water bottles in the corner. "I think I might die..." He took a step towards the sofa before his legs locked, and he almost fell if it wasn't for him catching the counter. "I swear she was trying to kill me today... Keith, you stare at girls often, right? Do they always try to kill you?"
"Were you staring at Hammer? Those people can tell if you stare at them, Markus!" Keith scolded as he helped him over to the sofa. "And who told you I stare at girls? That's a lie. Don't listen to those people ever again."
"I might've stared a bit..." Markus admitted as he clutched his side. "I didn't think I would be rewarded for getting done early with running two miles. She made sure I rank them as well..."
"Maybe she just wanted to see your body move..." Keith tried to hold back his joke, but it was a failure. "Anyway, don't stare at people. Especially people you are into, and maybe avoid going to that class for a couple of days."
Markus nodded before laying his head on the shoulder of the sofa. He took another big drink of water as he closed his eyes. Keith went to one of the chairs and started to read the books as he idly made random shapes with his hand to make simple things with the shadow. The shapes weren't anything special, but the book was. It went over the experiences of people who have previously trained in the element of shadows and let others know how they trained. Keith did this for a couple of hours until Dirin got back.