Oliver woke up and sat up. He stared straight ahead of him then turned to his right and stared out the wide window. The city was doing its own thing; always moving on and never stopping. The morning light was not even out yet; Oliver turned towards his clock and it read 5 o'clock am. 

Oliver had a long baggy shirt with some boxers underneath as boxers. He did not feel embarrassed to go out of his apartment to go to the common room with just this on. Oliver brought his single lonely glass cup; and walked into this threshold. 

He knew when he was not wanted, and unfortunately it was not often when he was wanted- so Oliver never really stepped in due to not wanting to encounter assholeness and tomfoolery.

Oliver leaned against the sink and filled his lone cup; he knew he shouldn’t be thinking about itty bitty details, for he has bigger objectives to achieve by the end of this whatever anti hero shit he set out to do. He knew this goal was not really achievable, but before he dies or anything surprising happens, he might as well try.

The common room was set bout like a break room; all awkward and janky. But there was this small window, facing the city, it was small and cramped. Oliver stepped up and peered through it, and thought, at least I do not have to pay for a view like this. The city outside was like shimmering Christmas lights, whose lights never seem to go out. The hopefulness from it did not extend to Oliver.

Enough thought Oliver; it was time to get ready.

This time around before entering the campas and before being seen by the security booth; Oliver took a detour around the campas to scope out the border of the campas. It was a huge forested mansion with huge dark oak trees giving it enough coverage from prying eyes. The trees were even taller then the mansion by a couple of stories, (the mansion was at least eight stories high), so it provided great spots to observe from above.

Oliver crouched down and touched the damp dirt from the ground and took a giant leap to one of the branches from the dark oak trees. Swatting off the dirt from his cloak; the people seemed like little speaks of ants in a colony. No one seemed aware of his presence, but it seemed suspicious. How can it be this easy to sneak around? What is the catch?

Oliver looked around to the other branches and did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Though he could not ignore the eerie stillness around the trees. No wind, no birds chirping, and no leaves bustling.

TRINGG TRINGG TRINGG 

A weird ringing noise echoed around the trees and everywhere else around Oliver. It seemed to be the bell of the school; though there was no source of device or source to originate from. 

Oliver took another look around and jumped tree to tree to the original pathway.

It first period and Oliver arrived ten minutes late, so he quietly opened the door to Mana Origins to take a seat in the back.

”Oh if it isn’t the rumored boy.”

”Why don't you introduce yourself to the whole class? Do you think this place is somewhere casual?”

An older male with grey hair and a cloak passive aggressively mentioned.

Oliver did not want to make a bigger problem out of this, so he spoke out.

“First name, Oliver—“

A sudden crash came from the second level of the class; light long blond hair fluttered in the moment of standing up abruptly. Blue almond curved eyes widened in surprise as he could not sum up words.

“Damien, sit down.” The teacher abruptly shouted out.

At first Damien did not sit down till his buddies around him pulled him to his seat. Which fell with the sudden standing up, but his buddies kept their hands on him as they did not trust the blond haired man.

Oliver did not breath for a moment as his head was running with thousands of thoughts; he gritted his teeth and finished his introduction.

“I wish you guys the best year.”

He sat down in the front corner as people around him snickered and whispered. You could still hear faint rustling and struggling from the back; the teacher cleared his throat and introduced himself.

”Hi again, my name is Gunther Steward, but you could call me Mr. Steward. I’ll be your Mana Origins instructor”

“Everyone has Mana. Even if you don't refine it; you’ll still have it hidden in your heart chambers and the gland that produces it. Mana is the same as energy that you get from food, but its from the body for spiritual journey.”

He picked up a small vial from the front table in front of a chalk board. 

“Mana gets stored in small amounts every when in your body; that’s why it is so easy to access it at any point during your day. But of course, you need proper training to access this mana and the mana storage. But usually you only tap into these storages when your gland is to tired to produce.”

He placed down the vial and looked around the class.

”Your gland never really stops working unless you put yourself in high stress situation and use it to its maximum capacity, therefore tiring it out. So the next option for your body is to tap into your storage, at this point you have to be careful. Any strain or over usage of your storage could have radical effects. Side effects differ person to person, but the most commen symptom is fainting and losing your mana for a couple of days due to your body needing to recover the loss of mana. Of course not having mana is normal; not everyone is born with the ability to have mana.”

“That’s why people train and work to become clerics to protect the common people against the demons.”