Just like outside, John and I had a hard time not being awestruck by everything around us. “Do you think a student took that thing down?” I asked, pointing at a large lizard-like skull mounted on the wall.

  “Who knows, maybe if they were half as strong as I am going to be, they could.” John said with a straight face, before cracking a smile. Before I could give him a hard time, someone cleared their throat.

  We both looked up and there was an older woman sitting in a high top chair at a large countertop near the back of the room. She had gray hair tied up in a bun and was looking at papers in front of her. On either side of her were two other administrative staff, all wearing dark forest green shirts with a golden threaded tree near the collar.

  John and I looked at each other and walked towards the counter. I identified the woman using my Interface and got back three question marks, ???.

  “Can I help you boys?” the woman asked with a no-nonsense kind of tone.

  “Uhhh…” I didn’t quite have any words or helpful thoughts come to mind for a second before remembering why we were here.

  “We are new students, we are supposed to check in or something. I don’t quite know, we were just told that we were to register that we made it to the Acacia Academy.” I continued and John nodded his head as well.

  “Very good, I am Anita Ruth, one of the administrators here at the academy. There are a few things we’ll go over here before I send you to get supplies and to your assigned rooms. First off, welcome to Acacia. What are your names?” Anita asked.

  “I’m Jude Summers.” I said

  “And I’m John Hale.” John said right after.

  Anita nodded and looked down at a stone tablet looking thing in front of her, she took a stone looking pencil and made marks that didn’t show to our eyes.

  “What is that?” I asked

  Before answering, she made a few more marks and said, “This is a runic slate. The academy administrators and instructors have these as well. They allow us to update information about classes, student information and any notes we need to share amongst each other in one place. You will see slates like this, but more basic and larger to see information about your academy classes, maps of the academy or city, and other information you might need to access.”

  “How does that work?” I asked, amazed that such a complex system of communication and information existed.

  “Ah, this is actually quite basic compared to the official kingdom’s slates, but ours only operates within the walls of the academy. We will take a record of your Mana to give you access to the slate system. Each person has a unique Mana signature that will let you access personal information we compile for you in regards to your personal assigned classes, teams, room, etc. Please put your palm on my slate here and infuse a little Mana to register it. This will officially register you for your first year and give you access to the slate system.”

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  John reached out his hand first and asked, “So I just touch it? How do I put Mana inside?”

  Anita gave her first small smile and said, “Just think about ‘giving’ your Mana to it and it should happen naturally, sort of like using your ability.”

  John closed his eyes and concentrated before opening them widely, “Whoa, that felt strange. It felt a little tingly and I definitely knew I did it once it was done. That is hard to describe…” he said.

  Anita tapped a few more places on her slate before gesturing for me to step up and do the same as John. I reached forward and placed my palm on the slate. I did the same as John and closed my eyes before ‘willing’ Mana to go into the slate. I felt a tingle, but it wasn’t nice nor was it uncomfortable. I opened my eyes and curiously looked at the smaller view of my Interface.

  “Yeah, that definitely worked. My Interface even showed that I am missing about 1% of my Mana from that.” I said and looked closer and noticed I gained another percent of experience from 2% to 3%.

  “Well, you have both been registered. That percent missing from your Mana from using the slate will return quickly. While the Interface doesn’t give a precise number of how much Mana is needed, in general, you’ll see it back to 100% in less than 15 seconds or so. It will be even quicker to recover as you grow in levels and you gain a greater amount of Mana available to from your Wisdom attributes increasing.” Anita said.

  Sure enough, about 15 seconds later, I looked at my Interface and my Mana was back at 100%.

  “Boys, your group was one of the last ones to arrive. You have about an hour before the mandatory assembly put on by our Provost of the academy. They’ll go over some history, expectations and the plan for your first year here. You do not want to be late. Before that, make sure to go down the hall to the left to the supplies master, Ernest Bartley. He will give you your uniforms, notebooks, pens, pencils, and all sorts of things of the manner. Go straight down that left hall until it turns to the right, you’ll see a sign that says ‘Supplies’ with the door open. Good luck.” She said, clearly dismissing us.

  John and I started walking down the corridor on the left as Anita told us. There were various classrooms on the left and right of the hallway and a bathroom near the end. Right after the hallway came to a turn, there was a door that was split in two, with the top half swung open and the bottom half shut. Above the door was a sign that said “Supplies”, just as she said.

  There was a room that extended further back into a storage room of some kind that was gated off, but the front area had a table with scales, bags, threads, and other knick knacks. The ceiling, walls and floor were all stone inside and the closer I looked at the gate partitioning off the back room, I noticed it was made of thick metal bars. The counter was built into the part of the door that was open, but was cut in such a way that the door could fully shut and lock when needed. Nobody was in the front room, so John and I just sort of looked at each other and waited.

  About a minute had passed and John shouted, “Hello!? Is anyone there?”

  “Shouldn’t we have waited a little longer?” I asked him, feeling a bit awkward and not wanting to annoy the supplies master, “I’m sure he was about to come out anytime now.”

  John obviously didn’t feel awkward because he yelled, “Hello?!?!” even louder this time and looked as if he was going to jump over the counter into the room before I grabbed his shoulder and pointed at a little button next to the door.

  “What is that?” John asked and I shrugged and said, “Well, I kind of want to press it and see if it does anything.” I pressed the button, expecting something and… nothing. There wasn’t a sound and we waited another 2 or 3 minutes, but nobody came.

  “Alright Jude, your magic button didn’t do anything, I am climbing in there and figuring out how to get our stuff because I do not want to be late.” John said, feeling a little stressed about how long things were taking.

  “John, that is a bad idea, let’s just wait a little longer.” I said, but he did not want to wait anymore.

  Right as John was starting to climb into the supply room, we heard a door creak loudly and froze in place.