A loud beeping filled the room, pulling me from a nightmare where I was stuck repairing the same machine over and over. Every time I fixed something, the last part somehow reverted back to the way it had been but moments ago. No matter what I did or how often I did it, I was unable to make any progress.
So, it was a bit of a relief to be jarred out of the dream. And while I was a bit confused by the size of the room, it took me only a few seconds to remember where I was. Another series of annoying beeps drew my attention to the nightstand and the pad that was on top of it.
Due to a lack of response, your electives have been decided for you. Here is your final class schedule. The two I picked are prerequisites. If you find that any of the classes are too easy, you are allowed to ask the professor to allow you to test out of them.
-Professor Ulrick
Monday:
6 AM – 8 AM – Physical Fitness
9 AM – 11 AM – Weapon Basics
11 AM – Noon – Lunch
Noon – 4 PM – Magic 101
6 PM – Dinner
Tuesday:
6 AM – 8 AM – Physical Fitness
9 AM – 11 AM – Monster Biology 101
11 AM – Noon – Lunch
Noon – 4 PM – Introduction to Machining
6 PM – Dinner
Wednesday:
6 AM – 8 AM – Physical Fitness
9 AM – 11 AM – Weapon Basics
11 AM – Noon – Lunch
Noon – 4 PM – Magic 101
6 PM – Dinner
Thursday:
6 AM – 8 AM – Physical Fitness
9 AM – 11 AM – Monster Biology 101
11 AM – Noon – Lunch
Noon – 4 PM – Introduction to Systems
6 PM – Dinner
Friday:
6 AM – 8 AM – Physical Fitness
9 AM – 11 AM – Weapon Basics
11 AM – Noon – Lunch
Noon – 4 PM – Magic 101
6 PM – Dinner
Saturday:
All Day – Gathering 101
Sunday:
Free Day
I had a whole week to decide on electives, yet forgot. I don’t think I even gave the options a single glance. The worst part was that I had no one to blame but myself. Specifically, the part of myself that allowed me to get pulled into a project and forget about the rest of the world.
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With a glance at the clock, I was a tad surprised by the time. Then, a bit alarmed as I had twenty minutes to get up, eat, and find wherever physical fitness was to take place. Thankfully I had someone I could ask.
As I quickly got dressed in some comfortable clothes, the soft sounds of my pad calling Bert filled the room. And, as expected, he picked up within moments. Fucking morning people.
“How hard was it for you to wake up?”
I might have growled at the question. “Where is this stupid class?”
“Tap on the class and it will give you all of the information you need.” He let out a deep chuckle. “And you are going to hate it.” The call ended with the menacing laugh. And sure as shit, the moment I tapped on the Physical Fitness class, I let out a curse.
Class: Physical Fitness
Group: 1
Time Slot: Morning 1 – 6 AM to 8 AM
Location: Field 1
Attendance: MANDATORY
Pre-requisites: NONE
Slots: OPEN
Description: No matter who you are or what powers you have, there will be times when you will need everything your body can give you. Times when you need to run for hours. Where you need to shove something out of the way to open up an escape. This class is designed to push your body. Not enough to kill you, but there will be times you wish it had.
Well, the description wasn’t wrong. Still, that didn’t stop me from praying that it was a complete exaggeration.
Dressed for the torture, I made my way to field 1. Unlike yesterday, there were no holographic walls or even a sign of the machines that projected them. There was, however, a crowd standing off to the side. Inside of which, I saw Bert and his girlfriend.
“Hey Marcy.” I called out as she caught sight of me. “What brings you to a freshman class?”
“I had a free slot and figured why not.” She shrugged. “Plus it gives me a chance to push fluffy here.” Her fist hit Bert’s shoulder and caused him to stumble back a step. Sometimes I was jealous of his power. That punch would have done some serious damage if it had been my shoulder that she had hit.
Before any of us could say anything else, a loud whistle cut through the air. “LISTEN UP!” It wasn’t a yell so much as a booming voice that pulled the crowd's attention to a trio of older-looking people standing in the field.
“Welcome to Physical Fitness.” While the voice still boomed out, it wasn’t as harsh or as loud as before. “Thanks to the tests you completed yesterday, we now have a picture of how much work you have put into your body.” Several people around me straightened up in some sort of pride. I shook my head, already anticipating what our instructor was about to say.
“And I have to say this year is the worst I have ever seen.” What can I say? The drill instructor trope is fairly accurate. He took a moment to look around before continuing. “Which is fucking impressive because last year was terrible.”
“None of you is worth the time or effort I will have to put in to whip you into shape.” He took a second to glare at everyone. “BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN I WILL NOT TRY! NOW I WANT A FIVE MILE RUN!”
At his command, a sizable chunk of the crowd exploded into motion. Some ran to the left while others ran to the right. Those who ran to the left were redirected by the person on that side of the instructor. Not that any of us knew how long five miles was. Thankfully, one of the instructors called out, “Three laps per mile.”
I joined the crowd and found my rhythm fairly quickly. Even as the crowd started to spread out, I kept my pace steady. No point in pushing myself at the start. Especially seeing as I wasn’t even the slowest of the group. There were at least a dozen people behind me. Each of whom struggled for one reason or another.
If I had to guess, they got an invite into the academy based on their power. Well, except for the more rounded person. He looked like he was just stupid wealthy and loved to throw it around. Even his shoes had the gleam of mana embedded circuits. I mean, why? What would those circuits even do for him?
Actually, maybe if one were to capture the force of the foot hitting the ground, one could store and use it for the next step. With nothing else for my brain to do, I started to map out the possible circuits and mechanisms that might do the job.
Or at least, I tried. A sudden shout from right behind me caused me to jump. “Is that your top speed? My grandmother runs faster than that, and she has been dead for a decade!” My head turned enough to see the instructor right behind me. His eyes bore into mine.
With a grimace, I increased my pace. “I said RUN!” he boomed as he started to crowd my space. While I worried that he was close enough to get in my way or cause me to trip, he managed to maneuver in such a way that it didn’t happen. Still, having him right on me was uncomfortable enough that I increased my pace once again.
My speed kept ticking up until, finally, he moved on. At that point I was huffing and puffing. Both my lungs and legs screamed at me to stop. That what I was doing was going to kill them. With the instructor focused on others, I debated at least slowing down. A single glare from the man had me tossing that idea into the incinerator. Something about it dared me to do it and I didn’t want to know why.
In what felt like an eternity, the instructor called for me to stop. I didn’t argue, complain, or cry. I didn’t have the energy for any of that. I didn’t even have the energy to stand. My body crashed to the ground.
“Now that we are nice and warmed up.” That was a fucking warm-up? Oh, god. “I want you lot to drop and give me twenty. And for those of you who feel the need to use your power, we will be coming around to give you a few weights.”
At first it had only been a few people who let out a groan, but with his information about weights, the groan became universal and echoed across the field. Still, most of us started to roll over as we got into position. Those that didn’t, the trio were on within moments.
“You think you are too good to listen to me?!” I watched out of the corner of my eye as the instructor appeared next to the rich idiot. I didn’t have to hear what the idiot said to know he was a dead man walking.
The instructor's voice dropped, and he sounded almost caring as he spoke. “Oh, I am sorry. Do you need your daddy to come save you? Think he will keep all those monsters away?”
Before he could respond, the instructor's voice grew even harsher than before as he stood up. “Lindel Tran Von Iris,” the instructor spoke slowly, taking time to emphasize the idiots name. “Has oh so graciously offered to demonstrate all of the exercises for this class.” With a gesture, one of the other two instructors brought him a piece of equipment.
I didn’t get much more than a glance at it as my arms pulled my attention to their plight. With effort, I pushed my body further. To keep going as long as I could so as to not draw any attention.
It was a good thing that I didn’t stop at twenty. As soon as the first person dropped, the instructor was on them. “I don’t remember giving you permission to rest! All of you, on your backs!”
Pained grunts and groans filled the place as people gave one final push and rotated to their backs. “Legs up.” Oh, god. Why did he have to target the legs again? The feeling of pain had only just started to diminish. “And HOLD!”
It would be a mercy if they just killed me already.
