A month later, the teenagers felt almost at home inside the fortress.

  The food was free and surprisingly good, and every day brought something new. Magic had a way of doing that.

  It was strange how quickly people adapted. Their room already felt familiar, as if they had lived there for years. The walk to the cafeteria had become routine. Even the fear that magic might awaken inside them – and land them in the lower levels as “donors” – had faded into the background.

  There were incidents, of course.

  One day, a classmate named Borya – a big, curly-haired guy with glasses – suddenly awakened wind magic in the middle of class and destroyed half the room.

  It happened during chemistry, though the students called it alchemy. They worked with local reagents infused with magical energy, and the effects were unpredictable but always impressive. Magic gave substances strange additional properties.

  Kristina loved alchemy more than anything.

  Nothing she did followed the instructions exactly. She constantly mixed things the wrong way. Yet somehow, she always produced interesting effects. Not explosive, thankfully. Magic seemed to respond to her in its own way, even though she had not bonded with any element and had no ring.

  That day, Borya – who had apparently hidden the fact that he had already formed a core – activated his first wind ring during the lesson.

  A blue ring appeared around his chest.

  As everyone already knew, once a core formed, gaining the first ring became much easier. Sometimes the core and the first ring manifested almost at the same time.

  A burst of wind tore through the classroom. Cabinets slammed into walls. One fell directly onto the teacher. Glass containers shattered across the floor. Several tables flipped over. The chandelier lost all its hanging crystals.

  Fortunately, only the teacher was injured.

  “I still don’t get why we need alchemy,” Max muttered as they walked to lunch afterward.

  “It’s fun!” Kristina replied brightly.

  It was strange. She feared darkness, insects, even loud noises – but not volatile magical substances in her hands.

  There had never been explosions. Magic usually expressed itself in unusual ways.

  Still.

  “It’s dangerous,” Max said. “They’re giving us materials filled with magical energy. What if someone blows something up? Or sets something on fire? Or gets seriously hurt?”

  “You’re boring, Maxim. Borya handled wind-infused material and awakened magic! That’s the point. I want that too.”

  “We’ve discussed this,” Max replied, tired. “We are not awakening magic. Not now. The consequences aren’t good. You’ll have to give up magical energy. And that doesn’t look pleasant.”

  “I know, I know,” Kristina said, puffing out her cheeks.

  She was tempted. Maybe she could awaken magic quietly. But she trusted Max. He was usually right.

  “Right, Ruslan?” Max asked.

  Ruslan shrugged.

  “No magic, fine. The food’s good,” he said honestly.

  That was what mattered most to him.

  They still had math that day – no magic involved – and then swimming, which replaced physical education.

  Ruslan loved swimming. He loved water. Even magical water.

  And speaking of water –

  The coffee in the cafeteria was incredible.

  It was brewed with water lightly infused with magical energy. You could actually feel it. All three of them had become slightly addicted. There was even a coffee machine in the lounge near their rooms.

  They knew the risk. The coffee didn’t just energize the body – it might accelerate magical awakening.

  Still.

  It was worth it.

  By now, they knew exactly where they were allowed to go and where access was restricted. Every open corner of the fortress had been explored.

  The place felt almost familiar.

  Familiar room. Familiar schedule. Familiar walk to breakfast.

  They had even made a few acquaintances among the other kids.

  And that, more than anything, made it easier to forget that this fortress was built on something darker.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Lately, Max had almost forgotten what real sleep felt like.

  While his body rested, he wandered.

  It didn’t take him long to learn how to slip out of himself and drift through the base alongside Julia in ghostly form. A few times he even ventured back to the other side – the realm of the dead – but returning proved far more difficult than leaving. If he strayed too far from his body, it would go numb, as if something vital had been unplugged. When he forced himself back, it took at least half an hour before he could properly move again.

  So for now, he limited his explorations to the base and the surrounding area.

  “Hey. Could you help me with something?”

  The voice came from a nearby table as the three of them entered the dining hall.

  Max turned and recognized several classmates. He hadn’t grown close to any of them, preferring to keep his distance, but he already knew most of their names. A fairly pretty blonde girl with a calculating look in her eyes was watching him carefully.

  “Hi, Nastya,” Max said, narrowing his eyes slightly. “What are you planning this time?”

  It wasn’t the first time he’d run into her tricks, though he still hadn’t figured out why she seemed so determined to make his life difficult.

  “Why ‘planning’ right away?” she replied sweetly. “I just wanted to ask for a small favor.”

  “I’ll remind you,” Kristina cut in sharply, “last time my brothers handled your friends just fine. Stop bothering us.” She nodded toward one of the boys at Nastya’s table – Valera – who still had a fading bruise under his eye.

  Nastya squinted at Kristina, irritation flashing across her face.

  “Let’s be honest. It wasn’t you – it was your brother,” she said, clearly referring to Ruslan, who had shoved half of them aside during the fight. “How was I supposed to know he had that much brute strength? And I didn’t mean anything bad. I had no ill intentions.”

  It was strange to hear that from the girl who had stirred up her “admirers” against Max in the first place.

  “Maybe you could just bring me some tea and sit with us?” Nastya suggested, her smile warm and entirely fake.

  Max stiffened.

  “No.”

  Without another word, the three of them headed for their usual table under a cluster of watchful stares.

  He had enough problems already. Figuring out how magic actually worked was far more important than getting dragged into petty conflicts.

  As he scanned the dining hall, he sorted the people around him into categories. There were plenty of other teenagers and children on the base – those who had not yet awakened magic. Among them, Max saw two clear groups.

  The first group he privately labeled the “elite.” These were the children of scientists, as well as wealthy families from Earth who had used connections to enter the project. They were allowed to explore rare and unusual forms of magic and were not required to surrender magical energy. They had privileges. Freedom. Options.

  The second group – the one Max, Ruslan, and Kristina belonged to – were the “debtors.”

  They were here against their will. They supposedly owed something to the State. The expectation was simple: awaken magic and surrender magical energy “for the good of the country.” These debtors underwent daily awakening procedures, except on recovery days – because injuries happened often.

  Very often.

  Max’s procedure had been scheduled for that morning.

  He entered a small room designated for the process. There was nothing unnecessary inside: two uncomfortable metal benches, bare walls, no windows. The ceiling held reinforced lights and an automated fire-suppression system – precautions against uncontrolled bursts of fire energy, which were common during the activation of a fire ring.

  Max sat down and looked at the man opposite him. A severe burn scar covered part of the man’s face.

  “Relax. Let the energy move freely through your body,” the man said calmly. His voice was steady. Max couldn’t quite remember his name – Anatoliy, maybe.

  Holding hands with a grown man like this felt awkward, but physical contact was part of the procedure.

  Then it began.

  A wave of energy surged through Max’s body, scorching new channels into existence. In his chest, something twisted – a small vortex forming, gathering, almost –

  Almost.

  It felt as if something was about to ignite.

  But his body did not respond.

  The core did not activate.

  The sensation was unbearable, like molten lava rushing through his veins. By the end of it, Max felt as though he’d been fed through a grinder. His entire body burned from the inside out.

  Still, he endured.

  “Sooner or later, it will work,” the operative said evenly. “It works for everyone.”

  Repeating the procedure that day would have been dangerous. The body required time to recover.

  And that was when the next procedure came into play.

  Procedure #2 – Meditation on the Enchanted Stone

  In a round chamber stood a large stone platform at the center. It was uncomfortable but warm. The instructors explained that it was a fire artifact, crafted from a fragment of a meteorite purchased in this world. No one specified from whom, but it was clear that trade existed between worlds.

  This room was usually safe. Nothing exploded. The task was simple: sit on the stone and feel the fire energy flow gently through your body, stabilizing the magical currents within. That was why they mostly tried to awaken the fire ring first.

  Max knew it wasn’t the only artifact. Julia had told him there was at least one more – a water artifact.

  Procedure #3 – Meditation in the Fire Chamber

  Sitting for an hour beside a massive bonfire with closed eyes was harder than it sounded. The heat was overwhelming. If you opened your eyes, they dried out almost instantly. Max had never felt particularly drawn to fire magic, and maybe that was why it still refused to awaken in him.

  He always left that room exhausted, dehydrated, and sometimes with minor burns. It felt less like training and more like standing inside a furnace.

  Normally, once the first ring activated, its energy was enough to fully awaken the core. After that, a person could accumulate magical energy and convert it into fire magic. A rune for energy accumulation was immediately inscribed onto the ring, and the person was sent for “voluntary” energy extraction.

  Refusal was not an option.

  There were rare cases when the core awakened but no ring manifested. That usually happened when someone had a strong affinity for another element rather than fire.

  Such cases were studied closely. Researchers tried to determine the person’s true elemental alignment. Sometimes the lucky few were allowed to remain for further research into a different element. It was almost like winning a lottery – a chance to avoid endless fire procedures and discover something better suited to them.

  But most of the time, the outcome was the same. They were sent back to the fire procedures. Eventually, a fire ring would awaken anyway, even if the element felt completely foreign.

  The reason was simple.

  A ring was required to inscribe the energy accumulation weaving. At the moment, this was the only known weaving that significantly accelerated mana accumulation near a fire source. Such enhancements multiplied the speed of energy gathering, which in turn increased the overall supply of magical energy.

  That was what mattered to leadership.

  No one cared about the comfort or preferences of those undergoing the procedures.