A middle-aged man walked in through a side door. He walked between seats and stopped, leaning against his table.

His brown eyes raked over the class and persisted a little longer on Dale. That wasn’t surprising though, he was new.

The teacher had a head full of dark brown hair with grey strands attesting to his age.

"Welcome back students to Theory of Mysticism and as for the new students, welcome. I am Mr Finn and I hope my teachings will dispel the blight of ignorance in your lives."

Dale’s jaw dropped. Was he insulting them... or rather him?

Mr Finn’s eyes flicked off to the side where those who hadn’t managed to acquire a chair piled together. "Yes?"

The boy stepped forward and into Dale’s range of view. It was the boy whose chair he had taken.

He walked to the front of the class and pointed an accusing finger at Dale. "He forcefully took my chair from me."

Mr Finn tilted his head. "Ream, are you sure of what you’re saying? He forcefully took your chair from you?"

The boy — or Ream, apparently — nodded and gritted his teeth, speaking through them, "He forced me."

The teacher’s eyes flickered to Dale but he didn’t ask anything, instead, he directed his questions back at Ream.

"So did he hit you?"

The sudden question caught him off guard but he answered, "Well, no but—"

"Did he threaten you or your family?" Mr Finn interrupted his response.

Beads of sweat ran down Ream’s face. "He didn’t but—"

Mr Finn raised his hand, cutting him off. "So if he neither hit you nor threatened you, how exactly did he forcefully take your chair?"

Ream opened his mouth and closed it, turning his eyes away from the teacher, "He told me to get up."

The teacher raised an eyebrow. "So the new student, who most likely doesn’t know the rules and nature of my class, asked you to get up so he could sit and you did?"

Dale almost burst out laughing. The entire situation was funny.

It was clear, at least to him, that Mr Finn knew that Ream was saying the truth but he seemed to be teaching him a lesson.

Ream swallowed a lump in his throat. "Technically—"

Mr Finn interrupted again, "So technically, you willingly gave him your chair and technically, he didn’t force you. Technically, you falsely accused an innocent recruit of doing something he never did."

Ream clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. He clearly hasn’t expect the public humiliation.

Despite seeing this, Dale wasn’t pleased. Not because he was going scot-free but because he had seen Ream’s type multiple times in the slums.

No matter how long it took, they’d always seek out their revenge and now that Mr Finn had made a point of showing that a lack of proof is as good as something not happening, it would definitely motivate him.

He felt a headache coming on. ’Come on, I have barely worn a day here.’

Enemies were the last thing he wanted but alas, life was seldom fair.

Now that Ream had received his slice of humble pie, Mr Finn started his lesson.

His eyes traced over the class one last time before he started his explanation.

"In the last class, we started talking about the discovery and possible sources of the Awakening pools."

Dale’s ears perked up. Knowledge was tightly interwoven with power and if he could gain more of the latter by learning, then he’d pay rapt attention.

Mr Finn continued: "About a century ago, the first awakening pool was discovered. You wouldn’t believe the wonder those archeologists felt at the discovery. To them, it was just a silvery pool."

"The issue started when a spider in the dig fell into the pool. Before the sight of everyone, it grew giant and murdered all but one of them."

Dale’s eyes widened. He knew that the first discovery was followed by a tragedy but this sort of detail was unimaginable.

"The sole survivor barely managed to reach the pool and dove in. It took him roughly three days to emerge — his wounds were far too dire so the pool healed him first."

Pieces of a puzzle clicked together in Dale’s head. The pain that had been ravaging his body vanished as he gained his ability.

’So it is the same mechanic? Interesting.’

In general, he had always hated learning but this was different. The class continued in this trend until the two hours were over.

People piled out and Austin ran up to him.

"So you threatened him?" His roommate asked despite already knowing the answer.

Dale shrugged. "It wasn’t like it’s strange."

Austin shook his head, "It actually is. We were sort of running a ’first to sit’ type of thing. So much for that, I bet from now on it’ll change."

He couldn’t care less as long as he had a seat.

As he walked to his room to rest before the next class, he saw Ream and a small group of people glaring at him.

’Just like I thought. Enemies.’

Austin seemed to also notice but said nothing.

Dale turned to the redhead, "So where were the awakened trio?"

His roommate placed a hand under his chin.

"I honestly don’t know. Those people don’t really bother to attend most classes except combat and training."

He leaned closer to Dale and whispered, "Rumor has it that they’re a special task force for the military so it gives them certain privileges."

Dale didn’t take the information to heart because it was most likely cooked up by some bored teenagers but that doesn’t mean he ignored it.

Behind every rumor, there was some level of truth, no matter how twisted.