Excitement ran through Alex's veins. His class schedule hadn't been there when he returned to his room after dinner, so this had to be it, right? He nearly jumped out of bed and ran towards his door. Composing himself first, he opened the door.

  A huge golem stood in front of Alex. From the way it looked, it was clear it was one of Tildia's golems, even still wearing the cooking aprons they all wore in the kitchen. It held a scroll in each hand. Alex stared at the massive construct, waiting for it to do something. His gaze settled on the golem's face. He hadn't noticed it before, but their faces were almost completely featureless. There was no mouth, no nose, no ears, and their eyes were small black dots that slightly shimmered in the burning light of the massive fire pit.

  After what felt like way too long, it moved one hand to tap its chest twice before pointing it at Alex. Alex shook his head, not understanding what it was trying to communicate. The golem repeated the gesture. Was it trying to ask for his name?

  "Alex," Alex said hesitantly, "Alex Vansteen."

  The golem nodded and handed one scroll over to Alex. As soon as the scroll left its hand, the golem turned and walked away. Alex followed the golem outside to see where it was going. He spotted two more golems standing in front of nearby rooms, all making the same gesture the golem had made to him. The golem that stood in front of his door stopped in front of the door of the room five rooms next to his. It knocked on the door.

  One of the other golems Alex had seen on the floor headed back down the stairs after delivering its second scroll. Alex walked over to the railing to see where it went. Leaning on the copper railing, he could see golems moving around on about every floor he could see. In the center of the courtyard, by the fire pit, he could see both Tildia and Professor Ghestalt talking. In front of them stood a large bag filled with scrolls.

  The golem that had delivered its scrolls walked back over to them, and Professor Ghestalt handed it two new scrolls out of the bag. Meanwhile, Tildia made some gestures with her hands to give it new instructions. With new scrolls in its three-fingered hands, the golem turned back and headed back up the stairs. The two Hearthkins continued talking to each other, and Tildia let out a loud laugh, her hand splayed on her stomach. The two clearly knew each other well.

  Alex knew enough and turned back around to his room. The scroll was most likely his new class schedule, and they were using Tildia's golems to more easily distribute them to the large group of new first-years in the Hearth. Once he had closed his door, excitement ran through Alex's body again. It was finally time. He had his class schedule. The orb of light floated out of the stone plate as he approached his desk.

  As Alex sat down, he looked at the plate that produced the light. He hadn't tried touching an artifact again after the initialization progress reached ninety-nine percent and wondered what would happen. There was still plenty of light coming in from the fire pit outside to read the scroll in case he broke the desk light. Hesitantly, he reached for the plate, one finger outstretched.

  Nothing happened when he touched the plate. The voice inside his head didn't speak up again, nor did he drain the artifact. That was honestly a big relief to Alex. It meant he might be able to do some jobs on the Notice Board that dealt with artifacts. He still had no control over his mana like Aro had, but he doubted that even if he knew how the Kahrn had done it, that he could reproduce it without the initialization reaching one hundred percent.

  His curiosity satiated, Alex's attention returned to the scroll rolled up on his desk. It looked similar to the ones he had delivered to the board members a few days earlier, except that, unlike those, it wasn't sealed using a wax seal. Instead, a simple string of fiber tied up the scroll. He unknotted the string and rolled the scroll out on the desk.

  As Alex looked over the contents of the scroll, he realized he had no idea how the calendar of this world worked. Ignorantly, he had just assumed they used the same system as he had on Earth, but when the classes seemed to be split over eight days, he had to reconsider his assumption. He mentally filed it away to discuss with Henry when he found some time alone with the Fairy.

  The schedule wasn't drawn out like a calendar would be back on Earth. Instead, they gave him a simple list with headers for the different days. The headers didn't say exactly what day it was, just Day One Week One, and so forth.

  The first day seemed to start calm with only two classes scheduled. Alex guessed that was to let the new students acclimate to the campus. Since he had already been here for a while, that meant he had some time to pick up jobs from the Notice Board.

  His first-day classes were scheduled throughout the day, with a morning and afternoon session. The morning class was the one they had told him to look out for, Pearls, Powers, and Privilege. He didn't recognize the name of the teacher that was supposed to be giving it to him, Professor Elderwind. With everything he had learned about this world, there was at least one thing Alex knew about the professor; they weren't a Fairy.

  Unless Henry had another brother teaching at the academy, Zeth taught his second class of the day, which was called Basic Survival. The academy listed the teacher only as Professor Rixtor. Given the number of siblings the Fairies had, it wouldn't surprise Alex if there were more siblings working on campus. That was one more question he could ask Henry tomorrow. Alex was starting to feel bad about the number of questions he was asking the young Fairy, but given how many questions Henry had for him in return about Earth, he had a feeling the upperclassman didn't mind.

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  He looked back down at his class schedule. The second day was a bit fuller, containing three classes, with two in the morning and one in the afternoon. That meant he would likely still have plenty of time to do some more jobs and get a bigger cushion of Merit Credits for whenever he wouldn't have time.

  The classes were Basic Melee Combat and Basic Ranged Combat in the morning. The first being taught by a Professor Nightsong and the second by Professor Ghestalt. He hadn't heard of a Professor Nightsong either, though the second name he did recognize. That was Marcus, the Hearthkin who had first showed him around campus. He was relieved to have at least one professor he recognized besides Zeth.

  In the afternoon he had a class called Arcane Sigils. He did not know what that could be about, but it sounded like it had something to do with actual magic, so he was looking forward to it. A Professor Rhyme, which was another name he didn't recognize, taught it. He wondered how many professors this place actually had.

  Deciding to take it mostly one day at a time, Alex stopped looking at the rest of the schedule. It was already hard enough to keep in mind his classes for those first two days. Especially since he had no idea where they were taking place. Sure, the Basic Combat classes were likely taking place at the training yard, but the other three he had no idea where on the massive campus they could take place. There were room numbers stated behind the names of the professors, but that wasn't much help.

  As he continued to unroll the scroll, that was about to change. A piece of paper fluttered out of the scroll and slowly floated to the ground. Alex bent down in his chair to pick it up. As he turned it around, he saw it was a beautifully drawn map of the entire campus. Someone wrote the room numbers in every room with a familiar penmanship. Unless there was another calligrapher on campus, Mister Klynth likely made the map.

  Alex studied the map until he knew exactly where to go both tomorrow and the day after. As he was already decently familiar with the campus by now, he tried to mentally walk the route he would need to take tomorrow. When he could do it without looking at the map, he headed to bed and take an early night. The sooner he could get up, the better his chances would be at some good jobs at the Notice Board that would fit in his new schedule.

  The next morning, Alex headed straight towards the Notice Board. It seemed he wasn't the only one with the idea of picking up a few jobs before classes started as there were already close to ten students arguing over jobs. He stood there for a moment; he didn't want to worm himself into that mass of people, but he did want a job. A sudden hand on his shoulder startled him.

  "Runts, pick a job and scram!" Aro shouted from beside him.

  The first-years by the board opened their eyes wide and did as he asked, quickly grabbing a job and heading into the kitchen. It didn't work on all of them as the few second and even third-years scoffed as they turned their attention back to the Notice Board.

  "You didn't have to do that, Aro," Alex said to the Kahrn. While he was glad for the upperclassman's help, he didn't want to get the reputation of scaring away fellow first-years.

  The Kahrn shrugged and let go of Alex's shoulder. "Thought you could use some help. You were staring at the board like a prey caught in a corner."

  "Thank you for trying to help, but maybe next time, don't scare them away. Most of them are going to be my classmates," Alex thanked the Kahrn as he walked over to the board. "I don't want to get a reputation."

  "A reputation for what?" Aro raised one eyebrow. "For being friends with me?"

  "No, of course not. Just, please don't scare people away from me." Alex's head snapped towards Aro as he realized something. "Wait, are we friends?" The Kahrn had helped him often, though Alex had thought that was on Professor Ghestalt's orders.

  "Of course we are, runt. You and Henry seem to be getting along, and any friend of Henry is a friend of me," Aro laughed as he walked over to the board. "So, what kind of job are we thinking?"

  Alex was glad to count the Kahrn among his friends. The lion-boy might seem a bit nonchalant at times, but Alex knew he always had the best intentions. Besides, both he and Henry seemed really capable, though in different disciplines. Alex was sure they would be a boon to have with him if he ever needed to actually go out in the world.

  "Not sure, something that doesn't take too long," he answered Aro's question as he continued to scour the Notice Board. "I've got my first classes today, and I'm not sure how much time I'll have."

  "Makes sense, first day is always hectic for first-years," the lion-boy said before ripping a job from the board. "How about this one?"

  Alex's eyes widened. He just pulled it off. Didn't Henry say you couldn't just put it back on? He hoped the job was something he could actually do and not impossible. What was he supposed to do if it was?

  "Why did you just rip it off?!"

  "Why not?"

  "What if I can't do the job?"

  Aro shrugged. "Then I'll just do it. I'm not stupid. I picked something I might do if you weren't going to take it."

  "Oh, okay," Alex almost whispered as he took the piece of paper. He felt bad for doubting the Kahrn after he had just told him he considered him a friend.

  The job itself was actually something Alex could do. And in fact, it was something he had done before. It was another courier job. If he grabbed the deliveries before class, he might even be able to deliver some of them on the way there. But was this really something Aro would do himself? Or did he just say that to cover for his mistake?

  "You would do this? I saw you at the training yard. It seems below your skill set," Alex said, showing the piece of paper to Aro.

  "If you don't want. It might be below my skill set, but that was exactly why I picked it," The Kahrn shrugged again. "With my speed, this thing would be done in a snap. Would barely take time out of my day. Why? You don't want it?"

  "No, no, it's actually perfect. I was just curious about why you picked it. Thank you, Aro." Alex pocketed the piece of paper in his uniform.

  "Don't worry about it. In exchange, you can buy me my breakfast. How does that sound, runt?" Aro said, grabbing onto Alex's shoulder again.