Circe was led toward the fancifully carved marble double door of the Grand Pavilion. It stood behind the magnificent Greek building and it connected the complex webbed sidewalks to it. He kept getting kicked on his ankles by Malik, whose face was carved by a fixed malicious rictus as he treaded behind him. He stopped and backpedaled, knocking Malik to the ground.
"Hey!" Malik shouted, rubbing the dirt away from his trousers.
But this trick came at a cost to Circe because he had blindly run into an eighth year Sorcerer who had emerged out of the door. He had dropped all of his books and scowled at Circe as he started to scoop them back up.
"Sorry," Circe mumbled nervously.
"Stop playing around you two!" Ulrik growled once the eighth year left. "You've already come off the dungeons, don't give another reason to put you back."
"Malik started it, he keeps kicking me!"
"I'd like to see you prove it, Chimer. You're simply overreacting!"
"Shutup! I don't want to hear a single word from both of you," snarled the goblin.
"Where are we going, anyway? Class is that way you dumb goblin!" Malik retorted.
"First years are required to attend a General Information Assembly before the start of class. It's a chance to give you an overview of the school and the staff. Which reminds me…" Ulrik snapped his grimy, broken, green finger and two golden scrolls appeared in midair. "These are your schedules for the start of the fall term."
Circe's scroll landed smoothly in his hand as he reached out to grab it. The words were written in glowing emerald cursive letters against a golden parchment.
2022-2023Y Avalium University Fall and Spring Sem Courses
Student: Circe Chimer
RCS House: Monster
Expected Graduation Date: June 15th, 2035
Degree: Monsterology
Head: Tobias L. Raufman
Senior: Bellamy Duluth, Tenth Year
1001 Monster Studies: Tobias Raufman, 8:00-9:30 am. Taught by Tobias Lausdorf Raufman, Monster Studies is a rigorous course that delves deep into the abilities, psychology, and origins of monsters. You'll learn what a monster truly is and the many powers and tactics that they use against humans. This course is also a prerequisite for any first year Monster who wishes to start shadowing in their second year. You will attend this class with your fellow Sorcerers, Mechas, and Heroes.
1004 Monster History: David Elvengaard, 9:30-11:00 am. Taught by our very own elf, David Elvengaard, Monster History is a course that goes deeper into the origin of monsters by focusing heavily on their history, background, country, and the many wars and political decisions they've formed with humans over the years. This course is a prerequisite for Monster Languages. You will only attend this class with your Monster peers.
1010 Monster Transformation: Nate Newtdragon, 11:00-12:00 pm. Taught by Nate Newtdragon, this course aims in teaching you how to control your transformation powers as well as to build upon it by adding more agility, strength, intelligence, levels, and overall prowess to your monster. You will be competing in duels, drill exercises, power exercises, simulations, and plenty more to get a better handle on your monster transformation. You will only attend this class with your Monster peers.
Lunch: 12:00-1:00 pm. First years are not permitted to go anywhere else in the city besides Darplenty Hall or the Avalium University campus. The goblins will be monitoring the perimeters to make sure this doesn't occur. Fights or any unauthorized use of powers outside of class will not be tolerated, if this occurs you will surely be sent to detention. If this becomes a recurring habit, you will be expelled.
EC 1024 Hero Studies: Leona Summers, 1:00-2:30 pm. Taught by Leona, this extracurricular course focuses on the different powers that heroes have, the way heroes communicate, diplomacy, government and politics, and the study of the many notable heroes that Avalium has had in the past. You will attend this class with your fellow Hero, Mecha, and Sorcerer peers.
EC 1031 Tech Studies: Lewella Plus, 2:30-4:00 pm. Taught by Lewella Plus, this extracurricular course will aim to teach you about the different powers that Mechas have, the tools they use to build cities, the origin and creation of robots and supernatural androids, and the relevance of Tech Hospitals. You will attend this class with your Hero and Mecha peers.
By the looks of it, the only thing that Circe felt would be worthwhile were his first three classes. He was especially looking forward to Monster Studies, but then again, Monster History couldn't be that bad if Elven would be teaching it. Perhaps strange, but it definitely wouldn't be boring. Circe frowned, tossing Malik a glance, It sucked that they had to share classes with the other houses because by the tight conventions of the schedule, he would have to share two classes with Malik, and one of them was speculatively his favorite.
Circe had forgotten how vast and white the Grand Pavillion was as they entered the marble halls. It had a lot of huge mullioned windows that permeated a soft, pearly morning glow into the extensive establishment. The building was ornamented by the bulwarks of the chalky sculptures that stood garishly tall against the stairway elbows and the four corners of the building, by the mahogany oil painted portraits, the abstract cracks of mosaics on the walls, and the colorful lockers of purple, red, yellow, and blue. Circe felt as if he was inside a museum and a massive high school all at once. Circe noticed the typical purple banners with the single silver eye in the middle dance in the breeze attached to the dual white columns that stretched magnificently high toward the ceiling. Ulrik, Circe, and Malik swept down a spiral of stairs that led them into another large sweeping room, but this chamber was a bit dimmer and lit by torches. The flambeaus stretched along the dim hallways until they disappeared at the very war wing of the building.
"This level of the building is where the older students take their classes, you'll never need to come down here unless it's for an assembly," said Ulrik knowledgeably. "You guys probably won't be sent down here until your fifth year."
"Why's that?" Circe asked.
"The classes are much darker. They deal with more dangerous occultic lessons, stuff that younger students shouldn't have to think about. Like dualities, for instance."
"What's dualities?" Circe and Malik asked, their eyes bobbing out of their sockets.
"My point exactly. You'll figure it out one day. This way now,"
They entered an arched door that led them into a dark room. The blackened mouth suddenly became lit with torches again and Circe could make out the population of tiny heads below them and a large monitor floating into the darkness. It appeared the assembly was just about to begin.
"Quickly find your seats you two," the goblin goaded.
Circe saw two hands waving frantically at him, he hastily stripped down the dark aisle, past the sea of seats, and found his way to the row Avery and Zebulon were sitting in. He plopped himself in the middle.
"Where were you?" Avery asked. Circe could make out her gentle, slim silhouette. The faint torchlight smeared her abundant dirty freckles and her tender blue eyes squinted unsettlingly.
"I had detention, remember?" Circe said.
"Bro, I heard you got sent to the dungeons," said Zebulon incredulously. "And that there was—"
"A Dragon? Yup and yup. His name's Dragos, and he was pretty nice–erm calm, actually. But then Malik fucked it up by insulting him and we almost got burned alive."
Zebulon gulped. "And here I am thinking that detention is just a walk away from our dorm."
Avery rolled her eyes. "You're overreacting. It looks to me like the dragon seemed pretty peaceful until it was provoked."
"Oh, you try staying in the same room with a fire breathing dragon without making it angry!" Zebulon retorted. "It's a cakewalk."
"Shhh! I think the assembly is starting," Circe said, motioning with his hands. The hovering monitoring displayed Zenithclad and Professor Sempra, staring rather grimly at the students. The flaming torchlights and the unrelenting darkness made their gazes and their overall presence all the more sinister. Circe had always found this school sinister and strange, concealing a dizzying maze of dark secrets within its walls. He still hadn't told Avery and Zebulon what he'd seen inside the Hall of Mysteries, and he wasn't planning to anytime soon.
It wasn't until Zenithclad had grabbed the mic that he forced a smile on his face. He wasn't wearing his hood, so the exposure of his animallike face was a bit galling and scandalizing for some of the students and it earned a bout of murmurs, gasps, and silent snickers. His black eyes twinkled behind his matted black hair and the torchlight grazed his harsh sallow skin (sprayed unforgivingly with pink craters), his curly black beard, and the two hoary bull horns which poked out of his forehead.
"Good morning first years, I'd like to happily welcome you to Avalium University and wish you a wealthy congratulations for successfully being sorted into your house, I'm sure you guys will be a great addition to the school and make this university proud in the years to come," said Zenithclad, his voice booming across the vast auditorium, crinkling down to a fine echo. " My name is Professor Oswald Zenithclad or simply Zenithclad, and I'm the Dean of this fine school. The purpose of this assembly is to do some groundskeeping and go over some general information about the school and some safety procedures. My dear Professor Sempra will be sure to hone in on any information I forgot to add or simply supplement any information I might proffer."
The white blonde outline of Professor Sempra stood oddly rigid. A single cough echoed from the audience and the fiery torches were beginning to lose their dance. Circe could've sworn that he heard a strange humming coming from the walls.
"Let us begin with safety; students are not allowed to go frolicking on their own into the city. We've had many students do that in the past and they've either ended up dead, lost, or simply gone and never to return. We value each student here so we implore you to stay inside the campus."
"And if you refuse to listen to this warning, the goblins will be out on deck to track you guys and if they catch it's in the dungeons you go," boomed Professor Sempra's shrill warbling voice. A few students shivered.
"When it comes to fights and using your powers outside of class, we kindly advise you to abstain. We prefer for every student to feel safe and we want to prevent as many accidents as possible. When you're in class, be sure to be respectful to your professors, be kind and accommodating to the older students, be sure to keep the tables clean when you've finished eating in the Darkplenty Hall, don't stay out too long at night, and overall be sure to keep a pleasant attitude all around. A happy people is a happy place,' said Zenithclad.
Circe snorted. He was sure the last rule would go unchecked. People didn't always tend to follow the rules anyway. He could see a couple of Sorcerers a few rows down from him lolling back, snoring.
"And by no fights, we mean no fights. If we catch you fighting more than once, you will surely be expelled," Professor Sempra snapped, her teeth grinding.
"Please do," said a black girl. She had been sitting stoically behind Circe and her friends were snickering. "With your bitch ass of course we would."
"Now that we got that out of the way, let's get on with the information that we're all assembled here for. Students should note that at Avalium we don't grade exams by letter grades but instead by stamped seals. You'll either receive a cum laude which is a passing grade, a magna cum laude which is an above average grade, and a summa cum laude which is a perfect or an almost perfect passing grade. If you fail, the stamp will simply just tell you that you failed."
"As if it would say anything else, otherwise," Avery muttered.
"It is also worth mentioning," said Professor Sempra, "that once you have graduated your first year, you will receive your alma mater badges. This will give you license to perks such as the permit to explore the city without supervision, free food in the city, a free working license to do dangerous work with cops, and plenty more. But you only get this once you have finished your first year. And it can be easily taken away when used irresponsibly."
"You may have heard that we have a dungeon where we keep a dragon, so please be most prudent and try not to get into too much trouble in class," Zenithclad said, grinning. "And my final announcement is that the Games are coming up. Monsterball, Heroball, Sorcererball, and Mechaball applications for tryouts will be handed soon later this week by your Seniors. That is all! If you have any other questions about Avalium University or you need any type of assistance, be sure to contact the Fates at the library, they'll be more than happy to help. And now, please enjoy this quick promotional video about Avalium, you'll find it's quite entertaining!"
It wasn't as fun as Zenithclad promised it to be. The video showed a clueless fifth year actor walking around the campus with a hefty voice skulking behind him narrating everything he sees. Then it cut to a bunch of third years, sixth years, and fourth years who talked about their rousing experiences at Avalium. Circe's favorite was Nayala Taylor who wore such a gray deadpanned expression that it was hard to take her seriously.
Finally, Zenithclad announced to the juvenile masses that it was time to go to class and they were all led by Professor Sempra back into the huge halls of the Grand Pavilion until they had been properly escorted into their classes. This tricky act also came in great aid from the goblins who helped lead the lost students to their classes.
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