"Filthy human, you dare to ignore me? Not only are u vulgar and without tact having abused our princess Licht, but you even associate yourself with those disgusting drow vermin?" the elven male spat out venomously, his forehead showing a bulging vein about to burst open.

Dunkel jumped up at the insult to his race, moving closer to the elf boy until he was stood so close to him that their faces almost touched. Dunkel's eyes felt like a black hole, sucking the elf into an abyss of chaos and rage. "How dare you!" he replied to the slander.

The relationship between elf and drow was clearly stained into a blood feud that would never be solved, evident by the sheer hostility Dunkel exhibited against the elves. With Dunkel's face just centimetres away from his own, the boy cowered away, shuffling backwards towards his group.

"If you two aren't afraid then come to the colosseum so that we can exchange some notes. The loser will have to lick the feet of the victor." He mustered up the courage to speak only once he was back in the vicinity of the other elves, feeling protected by their larger number.

"What do you think? I'm getting really pissed off by that pretentious prick already, so there'd be no harm in us teaching a lesson Favian." Dunkel exclaimed, making sure his voice was loud enough for the opposing group to hear.

Hearing the name Favian, the elf boy's face turned as white as diamond. He had heard rumours that Favian had killed a mountain lion by himself when he was only 3 years old. Most people didn't actually know what Favian looked like, therefore he became a complete ghost, a myth.

"Fa- Favian? I didn't realise that you're THE Favian. I'd like to apologize for my rude behaviour just now. How about we cancel the pointless competition, we've all got better things to do than fight each other." The boy now was frightened. He no longer felt safe within the protection of his group, and needed to weasel his way out of this situation however he could, regardless of whether he would lose face.

Favian thought about what to do for a moment, and even though a part of him was urging him to just let bygones be bygones, he for some reason felt compelled to reject the offer. 'Not only has this a**hole been a d*ck to Dunkel and me, but I bet that he'd try to escalate everything if he didn't know about my strength.'

"Huh? So, you're scared about me and a lowly drow now are you? I didn't realise the elven kingdom bred such weaklings who are all bark and no bite. I mean sure we can cancel our little spar, but I can bet my life on it that Dunkel here will find a way to make sure EVERYONE at the academy will hear about your cowardliness." Favian said as he looked straight at the gorgeous Licht, not once breaking eye contact with her throughout the whole exchange.

"Fine. I will arrange for our friendly match to be held in 5 days." Immediately after saying this, the elf boy left with his group, making a hasty retreat.

'Oh sh*t what have I done; I was staring at her for so long. She probably think's I'm a creep. Why did I even act all tough right there, that's not like me at all.' Favian was baffled by the events that happened today. Everything escalated so quickly, and was completely out of his control for the majority of the time.

Dunkel had now calmed down enough to joke again with Favian. He made fun of how much bravado Favian displayed earlier, before they both bid each other farewell. On their way back to the dormitories, Favian asked, "So who is this Licht? She doesn't seem like a first year. I can't exactly explain it but she's a lot stronger than the rest of our peers." He'd been curious this whole time why somebody whose strength was greater than his own would hang out with the cannon fodder from earlier.

"Oh Licht? She's the youngest princess of the Elven Kingdom. To answer your question, yes, she is only a first year like us, however she, the same as I, has been trained in magic since birth. Us elves and drow are just fine-tuned to magic in a way most other races aren't. And I'm not sure if you noticed earlier, but there's some serious bad blood between us." Dunkel went on to explain the 10-thousand-year war and how the feud between drow and elves began. At certain parts of the story he couldn't help but get teary eyed, the amount of blood that had been shed between the two races had been pointless in his opinion.

The two bid each other farewell as they reached the dormitories. It seemed that Favian and Dunkel would have lessons together in martial arts, monster hunting and dark magic. 'Guess I've really made a friend haven't I. Well I have a fight coming up soon, so it's probably smart if I start training for it.'

The living quarters within the academy were completely randomly allocated. The only known quantity was that professors lived in their own space separate from the student living quarters. A kitchen could be found within each section of dormitories, which usually housed about 100 students. This meant that the preparation of food was extremely quick, and food could even be ordered 24/7. It was highly known that most magicians would work for days or even weeks without sleep, therefore food was available at all times. There'd be nothing sadder than a mage making a breakthrough, however dying immediately after as they couldn't get food quickly enough.

Once Favian got back to his room, he immediately went into what he himself dubbed 'crazy study mode'. He would usually enter a frenzy like state before midterms and exams back on Earth, to make sure he did as well as possible. Right now, instead, he went to meditate.

An idea entered Favian's mind, 'I've not yet tried this out, but what would happen if I actively meditate and also let my system passively meditate as well.' He had only actively meditated once before, and he felt that it hadn't been extremely useful in improving himself. It helped to keep him invigorated, but it seemed like the energy particles he was absorbing were just pulled into a void inside himself which he couldn't interact with.

Immediately after he had gotten the idea, he went over to his bed and rested in a comfortable position. The usual meditative position wasn't feeling comfortable for him, so Favian decided to just lay with his back against his bed frame.

'System initiate activate automatic arcana assembly.' With this command, swirls of energy particles started to enter Favian's body. The dark energy particles entered him the most efficiently, and light particles were the next efficiently processed.

'Weird, I thought that shadow particles and dark energy particles would be taken in at the same rate. System, what is the reason for no shadow energy particles being absorbed into me body?' he questioned, baffled at the current outcome. Favian had never questioned the lack of shadow particles being absorbed by himself whilst he was held captive as he was preoccupied with just increasing his strength quickly. 'Maybe more advanced particles aren't so easy to absorb.' he thought to himself.

[Ding! System unable to grasp at particles of intermediate and advanced levels. Host will have to manually target and absorb them.]

This answer made him feel a bit let down, however, it was well within expectation. His system wasn't perfect after all. 'Maybe the system will be able to absorb them once I upgrade it. I still need another 7000 experience before I can upgrade the system though.'

Slowly Favian tried his best to locate the shadow particles in the vicinity. He was able to grasp them, but it was difficult to control them once they entered his body. They seemed to be getting pulled in by some unknown force.

'Strange, why is everything I'm absorbing not nourishing my body. The feeling of growth I get from the system's absorption isn't here.' Favian then decided to turn off the absorption by the system, to test whether this was just a by-product of him trying to absorb too many particles. To his disappointment however, this wasn't the case. He still didn't feel any growth coming out of his manual meditation.

'System, bring up all information related to absorption techniques.' he commanded.

[Ding! 'Darkness and Shadows' has an excerpt which was hidden from host until he reached upper initiate level. Passage reads out as follows:

"To train in the shadows means to live in the shadows. Practitioners of shadow magic will be forced to invest tremendous amounts of energy into breaking through to a Level 1 Mage. A second arcane core will be formed in the user's body, with breaking through to Level 1 signifying the successful creation of a second core. After reaching the realm of an upper initiate, all meditation and absorption of world energy will not improve a practitioner, and will instead be used to improve said arcane core."] The system read out.

'Well f*ck.' Favian thought to himself. 'Bright side is that my system still absorbs the world energy as usual, so my body will continue to grow.'