John and I looked behind us, with John having put his shoulders through the doorway already and saw an older, scruffy and heavy set looking man exiting the bathroom. John stepped away from the door and I stepped further to the side of the supply room.

  “Anything in there catch your fancy, boy?” the man said with a small chuckle as he looked at our faces that were already turning red with embarrassment.

  “Sorry sir, I just thought we were missing something obvious. We had been waiting a bit and did not want to be late. I don’t know what came over me, but I was going to climb in there and see if I could find you.”

  “Ho, ho!” the man said with his chuckle turning into a booming laugh. “You wouldn’t have found anything interesting and you would not have been able to get past those bars locking the back storage room. I am usually here during normal school hours and if the supplies door isn’t completely locked up, just press that button next to the door. It will chime a bell in the back of the room so I can hear ya here.” he said as he walked up to the door and turned that handle.

  It just opened, it wasn’t even locked.

  “I told you that button did something” I said to John with a hint of superiority in my voice

  “Jude, you didn’t know what it did and neither did I, but I do feel a bit foolish now.” John said, looking away and still embarrassed.

  “You boys wouldn’t have been able to get into anything anyways. I had to step away for a bit longer than I thought, something from breakfast didn’t agree with me belly, if you know what I mean.” He said with a wink and another laugh, “These bars in the back would keep out almost anyone and anything. Only my Mana signature, the Provosts, and the Chancellors can open it, so it is as secure as could be. I’m a Level 29 Warrior, so I have a good amount of strength, look!” he said as he grabbed the bars with both hands and pulled so hard his face turned red. They didn’t creak or budge. “All I need to do is put a little Mana into it and down they come!” he said and sure enough, the 6 metal bars securing that back storage room disappeared into the ground, almost melting away.

  John and I stood there wide eyed at just how much Mana could be used in unique ways like this. I began to think about how much else our Mana signatures could be for and it was overwhelming.

  “I am Ernest Bartley, but everyone calls me Bartley. Nice to meet you both.” He said, shaking both of our hands. “I assume you are new students, ah well yes, of course you are. I am guessing you are here to get some of your first year supplies.” Bartley was nodding to himself and started talking to himself a bit.

  I identified him using my Interface and got back two question marks, ??.

  “Yes, we were hoping to get everything we needed for first year students. Sorry, but if possible, we are in a bit of a rush, will that be a problem getting the uniforms ready?” I asked, not sure how the sizing would work.

  Bartley raised one eyebrow and said, “Uniform sizes won’t be a problem. We have a nifty rune that fits the uniform to the proper size. It is very basic and uses a good chunk of Mana, but hopefully you won’t grow that often that you are using it too much, ho ho!” he laughed at his joke a little too much and then made a “1” with his hand and headed to the back storage room.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “A bit of an odd duck, don’t you think Jude?” John said, gesturing in the direction Bartley had gone.

  “Shh, John, what if he hears us?” I asked, but knew he probably couldn’t. “He is a little strange, but he is nice though… he didn’t yell at you for basically climbing into his room.” I conceded.

  A few minutes later, Bartley laid out two separate piles for each of us.

  “Each stack has three uniforms, underwear if you need it, a toothbrush, tooth paste, soap, two towels, two sets of shorts and undershirts. The uniforms like I said will form to your perfect size if you infuse a chunk of Mana, but the other stuff is just one size, so if you need smaller or larger sizes, bring em back and I’ll exchange them for ya. On top are three notebooks and a box of pens. If you need other supplies, let me know, but if you keep losing pens and notebooks, I might decide to stop giving you new ones.” He said with a little less enthusiasm.

  Bartley pushed a slate like the one Anita had used earlier and each of us infused a little Mana to mark that we received our initial first year supplies.

  We picked up our things off the counter/door and Bartley said, “Use any slate you see in the hallway to see a map of where to go and what rooms you were assigned. The first year boys should be up the next stairway on your right.”

  Continuing down the hallway, we eventually came to a stairwell that led upstairs and we followed it up. Once we were on the second floor, we still didn’t know where to go and I found one of those bigger public slates near where we were standing. I infused a little Mana in it and sure enough, text and images appeared on the slate, visible to just me. I couldn’t tell if it was using the Interface or if it was something completely different because John said he couldn’t see what I was seeing.

  There were various menu options for:

  CLASSES:

  MAP:

  TEAMS:

  ROOMS:

  I selected, “MAP” and it pulled up an almost three dimensional view of the school and showed a yellow blinking dot with a “YOU ARE HERE” underneath it. We were on the second floor on the western side of the building and actually very close to where it showed, “1st Year Boys Dormitories”. The next two floors up had 2nd Year Boys and 3rd Year Boys respectively. On the complete opposite side of the building on the Eastern side, there were the Girls Dormitories.

  “All of our information is already on the slate, that is pretty slick.” I said to John as I continued to scroll through it. I noticed there was a time listed above all of the menu options too. It showed 11:30am. I clicked over to “CLASSES” next and it showed “Academy Wide Assembly, Mandatory. Meeting in Main Auditorium at 12:00pm.

  “Alright John, we have to hustle a bit, the assembly thing we have to be at is in thirty minutes. Let’s find our rooms, drop this stuff off and head that way.” I looked at the “TEAMS” section quickly, but it was blank. Next, I looked at “ROOMS” and it showed me in room 203.

  John looked at the slate after me and saw almost the exact same information, except his room was 206. The map showed the dormitory rooms further down this corridor we were in, so we followed it until we started seeing rooms with the 200’s listed. I found my room and John’s was a little further down and on the opposite side.

  There was a large bathroom that had fancy “showers” that I had only heard about, but never seen and toilets with good privacy. I couldn’t wait to take a hot shower and get some rest, but the day was not over yet. I walked to my room and went to turn the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. John was also shaking the door handle to no avail. I tried infusing a little Mana into it and sure enough, I heard a ‘click’ and the door opened.

  “Try infusing a little Mana into it, mine opened right away.” I said and John got into his room too. Stepping in, the room was small, but had a small desk, a little closet with hangers, a nightstand with a small Mana lamp, a bed with sheets and blankets already made up on it, and a window looking out. It was pretty bare bones, but sitting on the bed, it was comfortable. It was also a bit of a nice surprise I had a room all to myself. I thought for sure I was going to have to share a room with another first year.

  Looking out the window, I saw a tree. And that was it because there was just a large tree blocking any other view. If I stretched to one side and looked out at a far angle, I could just make out part of one of the quads we saw walking in, but that was it. I wasn’t going to complain though, this was my very own space and I felt a tingle go up my spine.

  “This is the start to my very own adventure. I don’t know what it is going to be like, but I am going to do whatever I can to have fun and grow strong.” I said to myself, making a fist. “I don’t want to think about what things will be like here anymore until I hear what the professors and Chancellor have to say about it.”

  I was about to collapse down on my comfortable new bed before I remembered: A. I am super dirty and B. I need to get ready for the assembly.