It had been a little over three weeks since Nick had started going to that world, that life was starting to feel kind of normal to him. It was amazing to him how fast humans could adapt to situations that were once unreal. Nick was also amazed at how fast someone could change their physical appearance if they could cram a couple months of intense physical training into a couple weeks. Nick had met the prince again a couple days after their encounter in the bath and the prince set Nick up with a trainer. This trainer was no joke, he had no intention of going easy on Nick.

Every day when nick showed up he would take a bath, eat, get healed, and then head to the gym to meet with his trainer. His trainer made him work all of his muscles, even ones Nick was not aware existed, until they had no more strength in them, and then he made Nick sprint to the medical ward to get healed and sprint back. This happened five times a day. The rest of his days he found things to do, he had come to know Alfonse well during that time. After telling the royal guard all about guns, he started to go to Alfonse to see if he could get clothes made.

Alfonse seemed to be completely blown away by the fashion of Nicks world, though some was just stuff Nick came up with on his own. After all, It's not like they could fact check him. He learned a lot about clothes and fabric, he had to in order to actually get the kind of clothes that he wanted. They royal tailor would make anything Nick wanted, which was surprising. Nick figured he would have more important things to do, but apparently he has people to do the boring stuff.

There was one thing that frustrated Nick, he had seen no signs of his magic and it would be a week or more before he could meet with the diviner. She, apparently, did have better stuff to do. He could not find even the slightest hint of a magical power, he had even cut his finger to see if he healed faster just in case. The captain had told him it could be extremely subtle, but it's like telling someone they will receive a million dollars and telling them that it could show up anytime, anywhere.

Nick had also figured out something strange about the relationships between the worlds, it completely warped everything he thought he knew about time. Whichever world he was in, in the opposite world the time moved half as fast. So, if he stayed in the dream world for eight hours, four would pass in the real world. The opposite was also the same, but this meant he could make a kind of schedule. It was hard to maintain, but he tried.

He had started to use his alarm clock, which would often tear him out of this dream world at bad times... A couple times he had been awoken mid-stride or in the middle of writing or reading. He had another mage put a translation spell on him for writing and reading. Today was another one of those times where his alarm woke him up at a bad time. However, this time was special...

Nick shot up, his eyes wide open and his ears being assaulted by an alarm. "Damn... Right in the middle of changing..." Nick slapped the snooze button and yawned, standing up. It was the first day of school, the first of October. Five in the morning, I'm going to miss that extra hour of sleep, but, that's an extra hour to get ready for school.

Nick took an hour long shower, he was going to skip his morning workout for the extra thirty minutes of relaxation. After the shower he began to dry off and walked over to the mirror. He tied the towel around his waist and looked at himself, he had become a little vain over this past week. He thought he looked good, especially compared to before. He had medium length brown hair and brown eyes, and a muscular build without being too bulky or too defined.

Man, it's hard to not become a narcissist when you look this good... I'm starting to sounds like those YouTube bodybuilders. I guess its true that your personality can be shaped by those around you, even if they are not physically around you. Nick quickly brushed his teeth and put on his school uniform: Black suit pants, a long sleeve white dress shirt, and a black suit jacket with the school logo on the left breast pocket which was the only visible pocket.

Nick felt good in his uniform, however the leather dress shoes annoyed him. Nick grabbed his wallet and phone, putting his phone inside the hidden pocket inside his jacket and his wallet in his pants pocket. He couldn't stand having his wallet in his back pocket. After putting his laptop in his backpack he made his way to the kitchen for breakfast. Man, I'm hungry.

It seemed like Nick was always hungry these days, he assumed it was because of how much energy he used on exercising. It meant he had to eat a lot more to get all of that energy back. As Nick entered the kitchen he noticed his plate was already on the table, six chocolate chip pancakes smothered in maple syrup. "Wow, haven't had these in a while." He said as he sat down.

"Yeah, I figured there's no harm, especially with how exercise crazy you have become. I never thought my son would become a health nut." Faith said with a chuckle, coming to the table with her own plate of food.

"Yeah, it's strangely addictive. The feeling of becoming stronger." Nick took a bite of his pancakes, the taste brought back memories of his paralysis.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, though I seek out a power different from strength."

"I hope I don't get any syrup on my suit. I want to make a good first impression on my classmates." Nick reached for his milk, the glass vibrating for a second as he reached out. Strange...

"Did you nudge the table with your leg?" Nick asked, looking over to his mother.

"I don't think so, but I might have without noticing. Why?" Faith asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"Ah, it's nothing, don't worry." Nick shrugged it off and took a sip of his milk.

"The school in only five miles from here, I could buy you a bike on my way home so you can add the commute to school into your workout if you want."

"Yeah, that would be nice. I haven't been focusing on my legs as much as I should. I used to focus on them a lot because I know a lot of people get ripped on for ignoring their legs. Luckily, I'm not big enough for that to really apply to me."

"I'll get one on my way home, then." Faith said with a happy smile. "You will have to put up with me driving you for today. Man, I never thought the day would come where I would drive my boy to school... I hope I can keep it together."

"Try to, for the sake of what will soon by my reputation."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Faith laughed it off and they continued to eat.

Faith looked at her watch as they finished eating. "Oh, wow, it's seven already. We should get going, you will be a bit early but that's a good thing. You will be able to get a feel for the place. You are supposed to arrive thirty minutes early on your first day anyway so you can meet with your guide. It should be another student in your year, so a sophomore."

"Man, I'm nervous..." Nick's voice shook a bit as he stood up, he could feel his heart pounding and butterflies in his stomach.

"Yes, as you should be. Let's get going." Faith said, leading Nick to her car.

It took ten minutes to arrive at the school, though to Nick it felt like ten hours. He is more nervous than he was when facing possible execution in the other world. Probably because this feels a lot more real than that. Faith slowly rolled to a stop and looked to Nick. "This is it, try not to look so scared." Faith patted Nick on the back as he opened the door.

"No promises." Nick got out of the car and stood up straight, which was hard with how shaky his legs were. He took a deep breath to try to compose himself and started to make his way to the door. There were a few other students around, one was a group of four that were pushing the limits of what the school dress code would allow and a couple of smaller groups of students. They all seemed to look at Nick, though not for more than a couple seconds before going back to their conversations.

Once Nick entered the school he could feel the nervousness lessen slowly, as if a huge weight was being lifted. Though, the nervousness did not completely leave. He made his way to the office, telling the receptionist his name and the receptionist told him to sit down and wait for the student he was to shadow. The student would have the exact same schedule as him, meaning that if he followed the student around he should get the hang of this place. I wonder what kind of person it is.

A couple of students came and went during the next fifteen minutes, every time one entered his heart would begin to race in anticipation. At 7:30 on the dot a student entered, he seemed to take the dress code as more of a suggestion than anything. He had black hair, the hair on the top of his head seemed styled as if he put gel on his hands and then just ran it through his hair a couple times to spike it up. His uniform was a mess, his jacket was unbuttoned, his shirt untucked, his tie loose, and his shirt had the top two button undone.

I wonder if it's him. The man turned to look at nick, he had bright blue eyes that seemed to light up as a large grin stretched across his face. I hope so, otherwise this guy is a complete psycho... The receptionist waved Nick over, which confirmed Nick's suspicion that this man would be who he would shadow. As he approached the counter he looked at the other man, he seemed to be a few inches taller than him.

"This is the student you will be following, Markus Wolfe." The receptionist said, turning back to her computer which seemed to mean that was all she had to say.

"Sup, Nick? You can call me Mark." Markus reached out his hand for Nick to shake, he had a large and seemingly friendly smile on his face. But... Something felt off to Nick. He felt extremely intimidated by this man, as if it was a pit bull bearing its teeth.

Must just be my imagination. "Nice to meetcha, Mark." Nick gave Mark a firm handshake, smiling back.

"Wow, a firm handshake. Seems you were raised right. You can tell a lot about a man from a handshake." Mark said, turning and motioning for Nick to follow.

Nick thought about the handshake for a second, Mark also firmly shook his hand but he couldn't tell anything from that. "Ah, I guess I never got that skill."

Mark laughed. "Don't worry about it, man, it's something you learn from experience. I'm sure you will notice it if you meet enough people. For example, your handshake was one of confidence, but your hand was sweaty. You were nervous, but you still shook my hand firmly to make a good impression. You care about how others think of you, but meeting new people still scares the hell out of you."

Mark looked over his shoulder at Nick, the look on Marks face sent a chill down Nick's spine. It was a confident and cocky look, but his grin seemed devious and his eyes seemed sinister... Nick could tell there was something off about this guy. "You must have been home-schooled, this is probably your first time actually coming to school... Correct?"

"Y-yeah, how did you know?" Nick asked, trying to stay composed even though he was honestly nervous, though now it was a different type of nervous.

"As I said, you can tell a lot about a person through a handshake." Markus turned his head back to watch where he was going, Nick felt a wave of relief course through his body. "I was home-schooled too, though as the heir to my father's business I met a lot of people. Meeting so many different types of people, I quickly learned on how to tell what type of person they were with nothing more than a greeting."

Man, maybe that's why he feels so intense. I wonder why I don't feel this kind of intensity from Marshall. "I see, I never really met many people."

"There are many ways to learn about someone without them ever speaking a word, its a skill that's important but can be hard to develop. You will pick up on many things when you start to meet people. Little things like eye movement, how they move their body, what kind of expression they have, etc. So, did you not get out of the house much, or?"

"Oh, I was paralyzed since birth. I had a birth defect in my spine, I was unable to move anything below my neck. The doctors couldn't explain my sudden recovery, what I think happened is that it gradually went away as i grew and eventually got fixed. But, yeah, it was hard for me to really go anywhere. When I did have to go somewhere it was always a hassle." Nick explained.

Mark was quiet for a few seconds before speaking again. "Wow, no wonder you haven't met many people." Mark went quiet again. "What's your locker number?"

Time passed slowly as the day progressed. His locker was directly next to Marks, which seemed to be because Nick was shadowing him. He got some looks, being the new kid and all, but none of the looks seemed hostile. Everyone seemed curious about who the new kid was, but nobody tried to approach him. He started to wonder if it was because of Mark.

"I need to use the rest room, man, wait here for me." Mark said, running off. It was the beginning of the thirty minute lunch break. Nick nodded and put his laptop and binder in his locker and then locked it. When he turned around and leaned on his locker he noticed a group of three students approaching him.

"Ey, yo, new kid." The one in front said. He had short blonde hair in a style similar to Mark and had brown eyes, which made Nick assume his hair was dyed.

"Yeah?" Nick looked at the other two, they looked similar to the man who stood in front of them but had different hair styles.

"We forgot our wallets, think you could give us fifteen bucks so we could get some lunch?" The man asked. He was acting strange, he had a kind of cockiness about him, but it was much different from what he felt from Mark.

"Yeah, sure." Nick took out his wallet and opened it. He always kept some paper money in his wallet just in case. "All I got is a twenty." Nick said, taking it out of his wallet and showing it to them.

"Shit, that'll work." He said, snatching the bill and walking off without another word.

"Ok..." Nick mumbled, putting his wallet back in his pocket. That was strange, but whatever.

After a couple of minutes Mark returned. "Aight, let's get some food, bro." Mark and Nick made their way to the lunch line and got their food, Nick had to pay with his card which didn't seem to be a problem. "You should carry money, the machine goes down sometimes."

Mark showed nick to a table, once they sat down people who were sitting at other tables began to flock around them. "Hey, Mark, who's your friend? He's pretty cute..." One of the girls said, a blonde with her hair in a ponytail and a nose ring.

"Not as good as Mark, though." Another one said, she looked similar to the blonde but without a nose ring and black hair. She also seemed to be a lot more... physical with Mark than the other girl. A couple other girls and a few guys came over but they didn't say anything.

"This is Nick, the new kid. Go easy on him, he's shy." Mark winked at Nick, it made him embarrassed to be called 'shy' in front of these girls. It had been a while since he felt embarrassed. He could feel himself blush when the girls looked at him, only making him more nervous than he already was with all of these people crowding around him.

The blonde walked over to Nick, placing her hand down on the table and shifting her weight so she was leaning on it. "Aw, he's blushing. That's adorable." She and the other girls giggled, which only made Nick's face even more red as he began to sink down into his chair.

"Don't tease him, Melanie." Mark said, though he was obviously joking.

"Yeah, Mel, I think he's going to melt." The black haired girl added.

"Alright, Alright. He's just so cute when he's blushing that I couldn't help myself." Melanie, or Mel, went back to Marks side and talked with him. The focus quickly shifted away from Nick, which he was not too sad about. School like was a lot more stressful than he thought it was going to be.

The rest of the day went by relatively painlessly. Mark and Nick said their goodbyes before Nick left the building got in his mother's car. "So, how was your first day of school?" Faith had a large smile on her face, as if she had been waiting her whole life to say that.

"A lot different than I expected, but overall... I would say I had fun." Nick returned her smile with one of his own.

"That's good... Hey, want some Taco Bell?" She asked, Nick watching as the school grew small in the distance as they drove off.

"You read my mind."

The rest of the day was business as usual, the only thing that was different was Nick doing his workout when he got home instead of when he woke up. He changed into his pajamas and fell asleep at around nine o'clock. When he woke up in the other world he fell over, he was in the middle of putting on his pajama bottoms when his alarm went off, meaning he was off balance when he showed up and was not prepared. "Ack! Damn..." Nick hit the floor hard, groaning.

Well, I guess if I look at the bright side, I'm already half undressed. Nick took off his pajamas, threw them in the basket he used for dirty clothes, and put on the clothes he would wear for the day. A sleeveless hoodie, long basketball style shorts, and sneakers. All made possible thanks to the royal tailor. Though, Kane, his trainer, told him it made him look like a bum. Nick thought he looked good in these clothes.

Nick sighed, leaving his room to head to the bath. After a quick bath and some breakfast he dropped by the medical ward to get a quick heal and then headed to a gym to meet with his trainer. "You're late." Kane said as soon as Nick entered the gym.

"I'm, like, five minutes late..." Nick had noticed a couple days after he started training with Kane that his complaints about there being no clocks was invalid, there were multiple grandfather clocks placed around the castle he had completely overlooked.

"Late is late. I'm doing this for the prince, but my time is important. Be punctual or find a new trainer."

"Fine, fine. I'll try to eat my breakfast a bit faster and get here on time."

"Good, now for wasting five minutes of my time you get to run fifty laps around the room and give me fifty push-ups." Kane's voice was deep and commanding, a voice that let you know you don't want to test him. His body was a pretty good indication of that exact same thing, as well. He was tall, muscular, extremely tan, had short white hair and a goatee, had green eyes, and always wore hand wraps that went all the way up his forearm. He was an extremely tough looking dude.

"Yes, sir!" Nick began to run his laps around the room. He was glad that Kane's training sessions were done in a private gym instead of the ones everyone else used, it would be uncomfortable to be yelled at in front of other people.

"Any hints on what your affinity might be?" Kane sat down on a chair in the center of the room as he watched Nick do his laps around the room.

"No, nothing yet. I wish something obvious would happen, like my hands randomly catching on fire or something..."

"You aren't the first person I have trained who started off without magic, one of them went without knowing for years until he drew out his magical energy by accident in a life and death situation. Maybe if I locked you in a room with hungry wolves it would help..." Kane went quiet for a few seconds, as if actually considering it.

"Please don't joke about that..."

"Who said I was joking?"

"Ha ha... I hope I can figure out soon, it will be cool to see what I get. Even if I get just one affinity and it's some lame affinity like wind I will be a lot happier than without it."

"Lame, huh? Wind is arguably one of the strongest affinities if you are skilled enough with it. It doesn't matter which one you get, what matters is how you use it."

"It just seems like a boring element."

"Whatever. Just shut up and run your laps." Kane rolled his eyes, which he only did when Nick said something particularly stupid.

Kane worked Nick to complete exhaustion several times before deciding to let him off the hook for the day. When Nick was finally done with his training it was already two in the afternoon. It was time for a post-workout meal. In other words, two servings of whatever kind of food they were serving. Today seemed to be some kind of BLT sandwich that had a lot of B and a lot of L but not a whole lot of T, which is just how Nick liked it.

Nick didn't like sliced tomato, so he peeled it off and ate his two sandwiches. After an hour long lunch he officially had nothing left to do. He would usually go and hang out with the royal tailor, but Nick knew today was going to be an extremely busy day for Alfonse and Nick really had all he would need for a long time. Nick came to a fantasy world but so far it has been pretty mundane. He had seen people using magic which was cool and all, but it's not like he's going on adventures to faraway lands and slaying monsters or anything.

Who knew you could become bored in this kind of world? Nick laid down on his bed and turned over onto his side. "If only I knew what kind of magic I had..." Nick was under the impression that once he was able to use magic something would change, but that wasn't true and he knew it. Nothing was stopping him from grabbing a sword and going on some kind of adventure, he was just scared. He wasn't a fighter, he wouldn't last a week if he just wandered off under the delusion that a grand adventure was waiting for him.

Maybe I should learn combat... Combat was a large part of this world, seemingly everyone but him knew how to fight in some way. The only problem was that a lot of the time a person's fighting style was shaped around what kind of magic they can use. Come to think of it, Trak mentioned an adventurers guild... That might be cool to check out. But I haven't even left the castle yet so I would need some type of guide...

Nick sighed and decided he would just read. There was a surprising amount of fiction to read in this world, but even most of the non-fiction was like fiction to him. Stories of heroes slaying dragons, some of those were non-fiction here. It was quite a surprise to find out that dragons existed however, even in most fiction they tend to be near extinct or endangered. In this world they just seemed to live far away from humans and rarely interact.

Nick got lost in a book he had started the night before, getting lost within a fantasy world even though he was already in one. It was a depressing concept to think about, to think that he needed escapism in a world full of dragons, magic, and adventure... Hours seemed to pass by in a flash as he mindlessly read through the book, before he knew it a familiar sound was invading his ears as his eyes shot open and he was back in the real world. "Shit... what page was I on?"