Chapter 4. Dragonspire Academy

"Ken! Wake up! We need to get to the dining hall soon. Free breakfast is over in 30 minutes!"

Yawning and rubbing his eyes, Ken grabbed his clock to see that it's now 8:30 and the daily free breakfast offered is indeed over in 30 minutes.

Stretching while getting dressed and getting ready, it's hard to believe that a week has almost gone by and it's already the Sunday before classes start.

"I heard today is when the rest of the students and most of the professor will return" Ken said sheepishly to Lovetta who's been waiting outside of his dorm room for him to get ready.

In under a week, Ken has already gotten famous. Rumors travelled fast and it didn't take long for the whole class to know what he looked like, and that he is that commoner who got a zero but cocky enough to thinks he is able to be better than the nobles and royals.

Due to his reputation, none of the high-class students would even look at his way while the small percent of commoners are all too scared to talk to him due to the backlash they would likely face.

To his dismay, he has not had any success talking or getting to know anyone else besides Lovetta in the week they have been at the academy. While he had failed to make any new friends, the friendship with Lovetta grew rapidly and the two are always seen together exploring the town and academy grounds while trying to get prepared for the start of their school year.

"With 10 minutes to spare!" Ken happily claimed as the pair got their free breakfast with Lovetta paying one academy point for an extra portion of food.

Each day from 6am to 9am, 11am to 1pm and 5pm to 8pm, the dining hall will provide one free meal to each student. For those that require more food, they can pay one academy point for another portion or order all types of different types of food for various amount of points.

For someone like Ken who has never been able to eat as much as he wants due to the restraints of his family, having 3 well-prepared and balanced meals daily has already started to add on the mass that's missing from his frame.

In Lovetta's case, her appetite is just abnormal as she requires double the meal every meal to be satisfied. While she is quite tall at 5'10 and obviously extremely physically gifted. Standing next to Ken, even with his undernourished body, he is still taller and has a much bigger frame and she does not have the physique of someone who eats as much as she does.

With only 100 points provided each month by the academy and her large appetite, most of Lovetta's points are spent on food and with no rich family to buy more points for her, she has to settle with the basic meal each time.

"Are you sure you are alright with eating the same food every day?" Ken asked since the free meals provided daily never changes.

"I'm not picky as long as I can get full. I do wish we get more meat with the meals. You haven't spent a single point yet have you Ken, don't you want to eat something different sometimes?"

"Of course I do! But everything expects the free meal cost so many points! I rather save up my points and sell it for money and bring it home to my family rather than eat something tastier once a while since the free meals are enough to keep me full."

For breakfast, they are provided with 2 slices of bread, 2 hard boiled eggs and some boiled potatoes. For lunch, a bowl of rice, with a side of mixed seasonal vegetables with meat. Dinner is the same as lunch except they also get some seasonal fruit.

The free meals are quite simple, especially for an academy full of nobles and royals, but at the same time, just like how the majority of the students pay for a private room, only commoners like Ken and Lovetta eat the free meals on a daily basis.

Lucky for Ken and quite a few others, even though the dorm is for 6 people, all 5 of his dormmates ended up paying for private rooms since day one and Ken ended up having the entire room all to himself. Lovetta wasn't as lucky and ended up sharing her dorm room with one other.

For an academy that's so proud of its fairness and equality for all, Ken have noticed quite a few contradictions in just the few days that they have been here.

While the academy preached fairness for all, it's easy to see just how much money and power matters. For commoners like Ken and Lovetta who don't have any money or connection, people like them are on the bottom of the totem pole.

With the 10 major kingdoms in the world having most of the power and control. It's no surprise that those who are the most talented and gifted would seek opportunities in those kingdoms.

With a large group of highly talented, while the total population of those kingdoms only accounts for 10 percent of the world's population, 785 out of the 1022 total selected students are from those 10 kingdoms alone.

Ken has noticed a definite hierarchy on how things worked. The lowest are the commoners without any connection like Ken and Lovetta. Above them are the commoners from the major kingdoms whom in most cases either know or serve the nobles from those kingdoms.

The high-class students from smaller kingdoms are the next level up and they don't get treated that much better than the commoners from the major kingdoms.

Sometimes, depending on who the commoner knows, they might even be higher on the ladder than the high-class students from a small kingdom.

Depending on which kingdom is allied with which and who has connection with whom, nobles and royals from smaller kingdoms and the high-class individuals from the top 10 kingdoms also have a complex relationship.

And of course, on the top of the hierarchy are the nobles and royals from the 10 largest kingdoms but even amount those, depending on which of the 10 they are from, they have a hierarchy even amongst each other.

Ken and Lovetta spent most of the first week exploring the academy and city and worrying about how hard the classes would be. While Ken got all the attention for getting an overall zero, Lovetta who grew up in a tribe that lived in the great forest who hunted for survival did equally terrible on every subject expect the physical aspect where she dominated.

Unlike those two, the majority of the students spent the first week learning and understanding the hierarchy and by Sunday, it's pretty clear where most of the students are ranked not just by their score but also their hierarchy.

The way most of the students behave in front of those they believe are inferior verse those they think are higher on the hierarchy has been very fascinating for Ken to witness.

Along with the hierarchy, the division between the races at the academy is no different from anywhere else in the world. Humans, elves, beastman and lizardman all exclusively make friends within their own race. While respect is shown for those at the top of the hierarchy, day-to-day interactions between the races are rare to none.

At first, Ken thought Lovetta was like old man John whose personality didn't fully match their animal traits but as the two grew closer, Ken began to understand the wolf girl better.

Instead of been shy, Lovetta is very wary of strangers but if you can gain her trust as Ken did, she is extremely loyal and protective.

In the short time they have been at the academy, countless beastman have already approached the pair trying to discourage Lovetta from hanging out with him due to his reputation but more importantly the racial difference.

While Lovetta acts like she is intimidated and shies behind Ken every time someone approaches them, the moment they speak badly about Ken or that a beastman shouldn't be so friendly with a human, she would instantly get fired up and defend him and their friendship.

Even though Ken is slightly disappointed that due to his poor score and reputation most are avoiding him, and he couldn't make any more friends. The fact he was able to have a friend like Lovetta is the biggest blessing he has received since been selected.

Even though he will never admit it to her face, every time someone talks down to him, while he puts on a brave front like nothing ever bothers him, he is still human after all but the fact that she would be there to defend him would instantly give him the strength he needs to believe in his conviction that he does indeed belong here and just as worthy.

"Last day we get to relax before school starts. You want to go to town and explore around or what?" Ken suggested as the two finished up their food.

"We can hang around the school and check out the classrooms for now since you got up so late. We can go explore the town after lunch." Lovetta responded.

"You just don't want to miss the free lunch." Ken replied playfully.

After leaving the dining hall, the pair once again verified what classes they would have and walked around the campus to verify those locations and mark them on their bracelet map, a function that they find to be very useful.

As the pair have learned, building relationships and making alliances seems to be much more important than actually studying, especially for the first three years of their school life. Most of the subjects that they would need to pass are basic things for the high-class and they would have had years of schooling to master those subjects.

While none had perfect scores like that Clare girl did, a large number of the class have already passed the advanced level on the written portion and intermediated on the practical portion. Only the commoners like Ken and Lovetta who didn't have the proper education struggled with the exam.

Since everyone entered the school with different levels of ability, no one has a set schedule to follow, and no class is required for the students to attend.

Classes are held 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday with Sunday off for the students. Different lessons are simultaneously taking place at different buildings and each student is free to go to any lesson or skip any as they wish.

The only requirement for the students is to pass the exams before their time is up for each level. For beginner, intermediate and advanced, one year is provided. Once they have reached an advanced level in all the basic subjects, the objective changes for the students.

From that point forward, since each level of improvement is double the previous, the students are encouraged to choose a field to focus on to lessen their burden of advancement.

Two years are provided for them to reach expert level on any subject and three more to reach master level. Once you are at master level, you will have five years to reach divine level and if divine level is reached, you will forever be allowed to study at the academy.

Ken heard that there is one student here who is over 90 years old! He reached divine level and just stayed at the academy and was never able to graduate.

Most aren't as extreme as this 90-year-old since with divine level magic or physical abilities, it's easy to get great employment in most kingdoms and just been accepted to the academy would offer a lifetime of luxury from many kingdoms similar to the marriage proposal that was offered to Ken back at home.

The dropout rate for the first three years is extremely low and mostly it only happens to people who purposefully drop out due to the environment or is in Ken and Lovetta's situation where they are starting from scratch on many subjects and just couldn't catch up.

After five years and reaching expert level, the dropout rate starts to increase as it gets exponentially harder to improve and most of the high-class students have already built the connections they needed and had no reason to improve any further. Only around 30% of the students will ever reach master tier and less than 10% will ever get to divine level.

Each year, around one thousand with the highest potential will get selected but having 50 graduates is considered to be a good class. While all one thousand selected each year technically have the potential solely based on one's max potential, the end result is often much less than desired.

For Ken and Lovetta, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they will be attending beginner language at 8 am, beginner Math at 10 am, beginner history at 2pm and beginner science at 4pm.

On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Ken will be attending beginner physical magic at 10am while Lovetta will be joining the expert class, and both will be taking the beginner elemental magic class at 2pm. While physical training, martial arts and weapon techniques are all classified as expert level courses, the pair also decided that they will attend martial arts at 8am, physical training at 4pm and weapon techniques at 8pm.

"You know Ken, each class is 90 minutes long, don't you think we are trying to do way too much?"

"We can always cut back if we get overwhelmed and focus on the beginner courses that we need to pass by the end of the year. But I definitely don't want to be dead last and have people look down on me thinking that I don't belong here so I will try my best and hopefully prove them all wrong."

"You know, for someone who needed me to wake up since day one, it's hard for me to believe you will be able to be get up by 7 for breakfast and be ready for class at 8."

"That's just a bad habit! My sister has always woken me up ever since I can remember, and I just developed a dependence for someone to call out for me before I get up. As long as I can depend on you, I'm sure I will be able to make it to all the classes."

"Of course, you can depend on me." Lovetta responded matter-of-factly.

After making their final preparation and having their lunch, the pair went and explored the town until it got dark and returned to the academy to have their dinner.

For the first time since they arrived, the massive dining hall is more packed with new faces and felt much livelier. The pair said goodnight by Ken's dorm room after returning from the dining hall and turned in for the night feeling anxious and excited for the final start of their academy lifestyle.