"So, meditation is essentially just an intake of world energy into the vessel of my own body. The amount of particles I can take in is limited by the capacity of the vessel, and the speed of pulling in these particles is limited by my knowledge, familiarity and attraction to the particles. My knowledge of dark, light and shadow particles are the greatest out of all of the particles, however I seem to be most talented in taking in dark energy particles." He thought to himself.

"System, create a standardized method for calculating affinity to all known arcane particles, and rank my affinities." Favian ordered. He wanted to closely track whether any changes occurred in the future.

[Ding! Initializing computing function. Computing complete. Known arcana particles have been processed, 1 unknown anomaly found. Ranking particles from greatest to lowest affinity.

1. Unknown particle

2. Dark u0026 Shadow particles (Both show host to have same affinity)

3. Light particle

4. Host affinity in all other particles is equally abysmal.]

"Abysmal?? Since when did you get such an att.i.tude?" He said as he fell back onto his pillow. Favian was feeling slightly underwhelmed by his natural affinities. He seemed to only have 4 particles he showed strong affinity towards, and of those 4 particles his strongest was unknown.

"Well I mean look at the bright side Favian, your strongest particle has to be one of the intermediate or advanced arcana particles then if its currently unknown." He thought to himself, hoping that these words would lift up his mood. They did.

Realising that he had nothing better to do right now, Favian decided to meditate. It was much more useful than sleeping, as it would refresh the host as if they had slept, and would also aid in their improvement. However, it was well advised in the book "Meditation Techniques" to get some real sleep at least once a week, else lethargy and nausea would overcome oneself.

Favian spent the next 8 hours meditating, after which he got himself ready for his first official day of magic academy. That feeling of unease you would get from the first day of school was also one of the reasons he decided to meditate throughout the night. It was always scary having to meet new people and make friends in a setting you weren"t used to, and despite Favian having already lived for over 20 years previously, this emotion was something that was difficult to part from.

After drinking some tea, Favian checked himself out in the mirror next to his desk. He hadn"t noticed at all that his hair was turning more purple. It was now almost half black and half purple, whereas before it had been mostly black with hues of purple spread across. Not giving it too much thought, Favian sped out of his room towards the location of his first lecture, The Barracks.

The Barracks was a large stretch of land in the academy which housed everything to do with beasts and combat. A medium sized colosseum was also built in the Barracks, and this was where disputes between students were held. The academy firmly believed in letting students take care of their personal issues by themselves, as this would create independence for them. It would be pointless to create a magician who relied completely on society and other people when a lot of the time studies would take years of isolation. This was the Dusk Academy"s philosophy, which contrasted with the Dawn Academy"s in almost every possible way.

Favian arrived at his destination. A training hall within The Barracks which housed the lectures for martial arts. The building looked very bland from the outside, with there being only a few windows around it, and a dull marble being used for its construction, which gave a real rustic atmosphere to the place.

Once he entered through the front door, a waft of blood and sweat invaded his nostrils. The sounds of "KA" and "CHA" resonated through the large room. There were heavily muscled males and females littered around ma.s.sive main hall of the building. Most of the people were either working out on mats or practicing fighting techniques and the energy in this room was pretty intoxicating, with everyone present trying to improve themselves. Some people were even practicing a combination of physical and magical exercise. What caught Favian"s eye was an Elven looking girl, whose white curly hair looked like the waves of an ocean. This girl was currently practicing some weird style of combat art with a sword whilst also using wind magic to levitate a small boulder in the air.

This girl was exhibiting such strength and had a prestigious air around her, but all that Favian could think about was one thing, "Wow your lips are so gorgeous."

….

Silence.

Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked at Favian. The silence was so deafening, that dropping a single grain of sand would have sounded like a volcanic eruption. "Oh f*ck, what have I done. I said that out loud didn"t I." Favian knew of no way to navigate out of this awkward scene. His blood started to sprint towards his face, and a fight-or-flight reaction was initiated by him almost immediately. Favian ran towards the room within which his first lesson would happen in about 10 minutes, and decided to sit himself down straight in the middle of the cla.s.sroom.

Favian had been in tunnel-vision as he ran away from his blunder, so he didn"t notice that the professor was already sat behind a desk in front of the cla.s.sroom. The professor was a rather imposing man, with his muscles bulging to the extremes. He looked like a bodybuilder, yet almost as if he had altered his whole musculature to look as perfect as possible. If he had not looked human, any person would guess that he was a goliath or a giant just based on how huge he was.

"You there! Come spar with me!" the professor growled. His rough voice called out the challenge to Favian who was still in a daze.

"What on Earth is going on now?" Favian was having the worst first day of school possible. As he looked at the professor with a clearer mind, he realised that in between the desk up front, there was a 10-metre radius of s.p.a.ce that was just open ground filled with mats.

"Come! Don"t be shy, I won"t hurt you boy." This time he didn"t speak as aggressively, instead asking in a more neutral manner. The professor saw Favian"s dazed expression, yet still wanted to get his muscles moving. All of the paperwork he had to do since the start of the academy year was making his mind go crazy.

Favian looked at the formidable professor, before shaking his head in defeat. He would not, or rather could not put up any sort of fight with this man. "If all of the students that took Martial Arts as a subject are like this teacher, then I"m going to have a loooooong stressful time here." His emotions were completely turbulent on this day, and Favian became even more dejected.

"I"m sorry professor, sorry I don"t know your name, but I have no martial arts experience at all. I was hoping to learn how to defend myself in case I run out of magic, and because my body is really weak right now."

The professor looked on at Favian and had a complete change of heart. Initially he made things hard for Favian as he had been stressed out by his workload, and because of it he was generally more irritable. In this state of mind, he saw a scrawny young boy coming into his cla.s.s, and thought it to be a joke. He only wanted to test what type of individual this boy was, and it seemed to be the right kind of person to be taught. Somebody who wanted to improve themselves was worthy of any cla.s.s taught by himself.

"Well met boy, I am professor St-Pierre, and I"ll be taking you through beginners martial arts. I"ll be honest, your foundations in martial arts are very weak even considering this to be a basic level cla.s.s. Usually the people that join have already had some form of experience. But don"t worry, if you are dedicated and work hard, I"ll make sure that your dream becomes a reality." Professor St-Pierre exclaimed, placing his hand above his chest in the military salute common on the continent of Ortu Solis.

"Now we have a few minutes before cla.s.s starts, so drop down and give me 100 push-ups boy!" he exclaimed. His eyes drilled into Favian, making sure that he knew "No" to not be an acceptable answer.

"...…" Favian"s mind went blank. "Did I just enter the military?"

….