All eyes were turned to me. I walked fast, determined. And all eyes were on me.

  “The human is here…”

  “Is he going to torture someone else?”

  I turned to the two who spoke. “Listen, I’m not going to torture anyone, okay? I came to apologize to Mitzi.” The older girl’s eyes sparked with recognition. She was a taller emerald-diamond dragon with a sharp gaze.

  Illiaz, she was only 44 SE, she said, “So the rumors were true, you can only lie.” She frowned.

  The smaller girl near her, Olz, her VITA resembled a robe, and she was a sapphire-diamond. She touched Illiaz’s shoulder. “Illy, don’t antagonize him, he might-”

  “I can’t stand by and watch something bad happen.” She slapped away the hand. “Mitzi wasn’t a good dragon, but what you turned her into is even worse. Tell me, human, what are you really here for?”

  The blaze of annoyance and anger surged through me. These emotions struck so intensely, so unlike what I remembered. I accelerated my mind. The shifted affinities already made my responses different. I wasn’t going to let anger and sadism take control again; I wasn’t going to become Siege.

  “I’m telling the truth.” The emotions nearly broke through the calm words. “I made a terrible mistake with Mitzi, and I have to apologize… It’s for my soul.”

  Illiaz's eyes narrowed down and Olz gasped. Illiaz said, “You broke her spirit, and you’ll break her soul too?! Have you no shame?”

  My aura flared, filling the room with purple light. “How did you get that from my words? Just fucking how?” I sighed. “Maybe it was better to be in the death illusion…” And as I said those words, my stomach twisted. It really wasn’t. I didn’t think about what I said.

  “That’s it, I will not let you go any further.” Illiaz flared her aura; Olz did so, too.

  “And so won’t I.”

  I let my aura simmer, and it slowly retracted. “I don’t want to fight. Can we solve this peacefully? You can even watch me talk with Mitzi, and if I do anything wrong, feel free to kick me out.”

  “T-this is it! That’s the compulsion trait. We have to resist,” Olz suddenly shouted. A pair of glasses materialized on her face. Scouter informed me that it was a knight-level construct that analyzed starpower, likely a result of a trait.

  “Your words are useless here. Leave!” Illiaz’s hands started growing, and sharp claws grew from them. Her SE rose, it was a pseudo-transformation technique.

  Was it really that crucial for me to apologize? Fighting here would be a terrible mistake, which might make everything worse. I knew where the rumors came from. Ocoz was a second year, and she said I had a ‘compulsion’ trait. That was enough evidence.

  “I’ll leave. Can you at least send Mitzi a message? Tell her I want to apologize.” Their starpower glowed brighter, and they clenched their fists. “I see… Goodbye then.” I turned around and went straight back to the lift.

  Mitzi was off the list for now. There was an invisibility technique I considered possible; I could work on it and then apologize to her. My stomach gurgled, the sound echoed through the empty lift.

  The cafeteria was just as hostile as the second floor. There was no escaping my reputation… It was annoying. The fucking altar made me realize how bad I truly felt about being alone, and now it became an unsolvable problem.

  Solutions I concocted were either I somehow redeem my reputation – that seemed very unlikely to happen, or I just became better friends with those who didn’t mind me. I took a bite out of my sandwich and my mind went blank…

  When I woke up from my stupor, the food was gone, and I felt even hungrier. I ate until I was full enough that I couldn’t move, all under the scrutinizing gazes of the crowd. This couldn’t be healthy.

  My eyes turned up, and I saw someone approaching me. “Shit…” A first year with 41 SE, Ude, affinity diamond. She reminded me very much of Ivaldie, except her features weren’t as refined.

  “Magnus Glanzvoll,” Ude spoke confidently. “Leave this school and prevent more disasters.”

  “What?” My starpower flared against my will.

  “Leave this school if you have any dignity.”

  I shouldn’t have been smiling at that. I really shouldn’t have been laughing at that. I did. “No. Not until I get rid of this body.”

  Her eyes opened wide. “Are you a body hopper?! Is that why you’re bonding with Ivaldie?”

  Did they all know each other? Maybe they did, it wasn’t impossible with perfect memory. “What I meant to say is that I’ll leave when I grow up. I’m tired of being small and weak.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The surrounding students stared at Ude with eyes that begged her to continue. With gazes that held some sort of hope. Ude straightened her back and raised her hand. “I-I challenge you to a Game… If I win, you’ll have to leave this learning facility.”

  Games – were those enforced here? I thought those needed an arbiter. “Do you realize how serious this is?” I knew the rules. Games were a way to resolve conflicts between nobles, usually by comparing strength and other abilities. “You’re not a noble, though. You have to be at least knight for your Games to be enforceable.”

  “I-it doesn’t matter. I’m doing this for my class – you are a danger to the dragonkind. W-we won’t let another wizard be.”

  I stood from my chair. Ude was taller than me by a head. Most dragons were. I had to take a growth panacea today too… I cleared my throat. “This is misinformation. By wizard, I meant someone proficient in techniques, nothing more.”

  I smelled the distrust in their eyes. “Do you accept the Game, human?”

  I needed to practice combat. Steel wasn’t good enough for a sparring partner. “Leaving this place is a pretty huge bet. I want something if I win.”

  Boos. They booed me!

  “Well?”

  Her voice barely overshadowed the boos of the crowd. “You can have my heart…” And it all became silent. The little document Varaxis gave me…

  “Are you crazy? Am I really that dangerous in your eyes?” Bile rose in my throat, together with the chunks of the sandwich. Then my rational side took control. Maybe this was an opportunity for redemption. Before she could respond, I said, “I accept. When and where?”

  She gulped. Ude calculated something. “The dungeon floor arena, near the Diamond tower. Fight me in three hours or leave this place forever.”

  This was quite depressing, yet I couldn’t stop smirking. “We will fight. I will make you regret your decisions…” My blood boiled, and I felt jittery. I will use magic again. “See you then, hero… Hahahaha!”

  No, this was exciting. I had so many things I wanted to do. And with each moment here, I was reminded of them. With a wave of the force form, I spread apart the crowd of students. I dashed right through them, my cape fluttering behind me.

  I left the cafeteria, and all the emotion evaporated. “Oops.” I scratched my head. I was in such a fucked up position, and I made it even worse. Because I wanted to fight. Oh, how I wanted to blow everything around me.

  The next step I took cracked the metal floor. “Too excited, maybe.” The tribulation altar messed me up. “I need help…” There was a place where I could receive help.

  __

  There was a certain smell in the medical hall. Not quite like Earth hospitals, but still similar. This place made me nervous in the past, but today I was relaxed. A pleasant surprise awaited me behind the counter. “Hello, Mellissa. Long time no see.”

  “Magnus? It wasn’t long.” She plainly stated. “Are you here for a weekly check-up and a growth panacea?”

  I nodded. “I also need help, the mental kind.”

  She tilted her head. “Do you want to be placed into the mental healing queue? I don’t think anyone will want to help you,” She said with a plain face.

  “I guess I should’ve expected that. No need then. Do you have anything that helps with insanity?”

  “I don’t think that’s an actual condition. The translator doesn’t pick up the word.” Of course, it didn’t. It was an English one.

  “Something to help me with mental stability. I had an extremely traumatic experience recently.”

  She nodded. “I’ll give you a tonic. Go into the examination room.”

  “Question, why aren’t you as aggressive as everyone else is towards me?”

  “I am a healer.” Melissa shrugged. “My job is to heal, not to judge.”

  “Thank you…” I walked into the examination room.

  It took only thirty minutes for her to use all the examination techniques on me. The results were not good.

  “You have a severe hormonal imbalance, the stress levels are off the charts, and your neural pathways are bordering on overload. How did you mess up so badly?”

  “Training requires sacrifice. Sometimes more.”

  “You’re lucky I can’t force a medical rest.” She sighed. “Your soul has recorded an abnormal amount of mutilation… Frankly, I don’t think there is someone with metrics that bad in the database.”

  I didn’t need to be told that. I really didn’t. “'Cause I'm the sun, I'm the sun. I can move, I can run, and you can’t stop me burning.” I sang the song.

  Melissa remained silent at my outburst. “I’ll just add severe mental damage to the list.”

  “What I meant is that I refuse to let myself stop.”

  “You should stop.” After writing everything down, she left me alone.

  Should I stop? I still wanted to grow up fast, and I had to save Kory, if not me, then who else would? And here, I could browse the Archive all I wanted. The thought of simply leaving didn’t enter my mind for a second. I could leave… Somehow. Varaxis would let me leave.

  Melissa returned with even more potions. Potions on potions, and there was even a bottle of pills. There was a growth panacea there, too. She told me to drink everything in order. Those were the things that would fix my body. And the bottle of pills, she told me, if I took them once a day, they would lessen the mental burden, somehow.

  Mental Panacea

  Description: A pill created to improve general mental condition. Infused with Sapphire starpower and unknown starpower constructs. We should research alchemy someday… someyear.

  I felt better. I really did. The pill went down my throat, and a pleasant warmth spread through my brain. A pressure I didn’t notice disappeared. I just had to endure less than three years. Maybe even less than a year.

  Another regret shone on my stupid list. I went to the biocrafting class.

  “Simona.” I waved.

  “Hello, Magnus. How are you? Did you find anything interesting? Oh, let me tell you about the trait a student of mine created, it was the most peculiar thing…” She kept talking. Yeah, it was a bad idea.

  “Professor. Professor!” She shook her head and stopped talking. “Can I look at the plum tree? I really want to see it.”

  Her eyes snapped open, and she turned away from the hologram. “Of course, it’s on the dungeon floor. Ask around for the garden, it’s the only one there. The fruits for the cafeteria are grown there; this is a secret, but you can take any you want instead of going to the cafeteria. I used to do that all the time… Just sitting in the garden, reading through my data-pad. Those were different times.”

  “I understand. Thank you.” I nodded. “No, really, thank you.”

  Her smile wavered. Before I could blink, she embraced me in a hug. “No need to be so sad, Magnus. It’s going to be okay. Varaxis will get rid of the Betrayer, and you’ll study normally.”

  My throat hurt. I couldn’t force out a word.

  She let me go. “It will all be okay. If you want to talk, come to me.” She petted my head.

  I was a grown man, and yet I cried. Pathetic. I hid the tears as best as I could. Simona noticed everything anyway. This messed-up life was going to ruin me someday. I smiled despite the sadness.

  Today I would see the last fruit of Earth…