Specialization - Part 3

"COME ON YOU WEAKLINGS!!!" Was not the first thing Samuel had expected to hear when he walked through the doorway into the Martial Magic specialization. But never the less, it is the very first thing he heard and the very first thing he saw made him really confused. Each and every student were down on all fours and doing pushups.

Samuel could only stand there and admire the scene of all the second years slowly doing their best, of the slightly more than two dozen students in there, only about five of them looked like they had well trained bodies while the rest were scrawny looking students.

"Ah, Whats this? Someone who is late?" The professor of the class had noticed Samuel and talked loudly to him, like a drill instructor. The professor was a human man who was built like a mountain, he didn't have the regular teacher outfit, instead he wore a mix of military clothing. Thats when Samuel saw the military tattoo that represented the ranger corp on his arm.

"Got something to say for yourself?" The teacher now angrily started marching up to him, Samuel had been confused and dreamt himself away in thought that he had completely forgotten to answer. The moment he saw the angry man approaching he did what Faleah had taught him from all the rigorous training.

He made a fist and placed one arm over his center while the other saluted and he made his boots clack together as he stomped his feet into a perfect salute. "I regret to inform Sir that I have multiple specialization introductions to attend Sir. Therefore I am regrettably a bit late Sir!"

Samuels instant switch made the teacher completely stop and looked confused for several seconds and he wasn't the only one. The entire rest of the class stopped what they were doing to look except for one larger guy in the back who kept doing pushups.

The teacher stood at attention in front of Samuel suddenly and looked at him up and down. "Very Good Cadet! All is in order!" The professor suddenly yelled and saluted him back to relieve Samuel from his salute. "Unlike the rest of you maggots! WHO SAID YOU COULD STOP?!?" He instantly turned around to the rest of the class. "Thats another 100 pushups on the double! Except for you Markar, Keep up the good work!" The teacher nodded to the one in the back that had not stopped.

The professor, teacher, commander turned around to Samuel in a more relaxed stance. "Faleah's kid huh. You won't get any special treatment here, but from the looks of it she has already pounded into you the basics." Samuel looked at the man with more interest since he mentioned Faleah's name. They must have known eachother from the Ranger Corp.

"You will call me Sir or Professor Randall when you are here! And you will just like the others strengthen your body. The introduction to this class will be to build up your body and get into shape. Otherwise you won't be able to handle martial magic!" The professor turned to the class as if he was talking to all of them at the end.

There were some groans from students mixed in but nothing more when he squinted his eyes at them. "I understand sir! I will do my best!" Samuel replied to the professor who nodded at him. Glad to have someone else with some prior military training. "In that case! Get down and give me fifty pushups and situps... after that you are dismissed to leave!" Randall ordered him.

"Only fifty of each, you said to the rest of us 200!" Someone complained from the back. "Well in that case I will make it an additional 50 of both for you, a special exception just for you, NOW GET YOUR ASS BACK IN GEAR!" Randall was a typical drill instructor.

"If you are wondering why I give him less than you, its because he already has more physical training than any of you lot! Deal with it!" Samuel was a bit surprised that Randall had seen that he was so physically fit just from looking at him for a few moments. Samuel was the type whose body blended in with clothing, making it hard to discern if he was actually well trained or not.

But a master is a master in the end.

Samuel quickly accomplished his task, but with both the running and the exercise he had worked up quite a sweat, that lasted for an entire ten seconds before the cleaned himself with simple cantrips. He saluted the professor a goodbye and thanked him for the lesson before heading back out to go to his next specialization.

Transmutation was not too far away, only a five minute walk and he had at most spent 20 minutes at the martial class. So he still had plenty of time, so he decided to walk instead of run to the next specialization. Transmutation was funnily enough the one he was most excited about, to reshape material and transforming one thing into another. Sometimes bending the known laws of magic itself with ones imagination.

Magic was limitless, and the so called laws of magic were mostly there for the safety of others as one wrong move could hurt so many innocents. But mostly transmutation was the safest bending of laws because often only the caster would be hurt by it. (Which still was pretty bad, but safe for others)

Samuel finally arrived after his short walk and saw that instead of only a training hall like the others, this place was like a laboratory as well, with large workstations and magic circles set up. He quickly walked around the hall to the entrance and saw that there was only about a dozen students. He seemed to be the lucky number 13 that arrived late.

He walked inside and quietly took a stance a bit further back. The gnome professor was in the middle of explaining the basics of transmutation and how they evolved into advanced studies. One would think a gnome would have a hard time explaining or writing on a board for everyone to see, but like most teachers a mage could easily hover and write.

The professor finally turned around, which allowed Samuel to see that he was an old gnome with graying hair that stuck out of his nose and ears and formed a funny looking crazy gnome. "AH It seems our number 13 and last member of this year has arrived!" The professor said in a squeaky voice. "I am professor Gubtrut and welcome to the transmutation class. Please do take a seat or stand at an empty workstation!" The professor pointed to any of the empty ones around and Samuel did as instructed.

At least none of the other students here looked at him funny, instead they seemed to be really inversed in the studies and what the professor was going through. 'Finally! Some fellow nerds!' Samuel inwardly sighed in relief. Others that shared his interest was a sight for sore eyes. Whenever he talked about transmutation with his teammates they only groaned at him.

Because Transmutation was like the math of the world, and only a select few liked the subjects. Finally some likeminded people that wouldn't complain about theories.

Samuel was so engulfed in the introduction class that he almost completely lost time and realized there to be only a few minutes left and he still had to run to his last introduction, thankfully the transmutation introduction had ended so he could run like a madman. Magic History wasn't too far away thankfully so he would make it there but the question was if he would be able to learn anything.

Samuel had simply had too much fun with transmutation and had dreamt himself away in the studies the professor was going through. One could understand losing time when one had a lot of fun after all.

He ran quick as he could with his things in tow and finally he arrived at the classroom, where all the students had practically left already, the last of them were walking away from there except for one that was waiting outside the doorway. It was Sonya who also had picked it.

"There you are! Finally, I asked the professor to wait a bit for you so you could at least come pick up your own books, I guaranteed her that you would be here..." Sonya sighed and patted his shoulder while giving him a wink as if saying 'You owe me one.'

Samuel could only sigh and nod, "Yeah yeah! I owe you one!" He smiled at her before she turned around and swayed her booty seductively. "I swear to the gods, that woman..." He sighed loudly and entered the classroom to find the teacher.

He was not expecting to find what he did however and he stopped walking in disbelief as he saw who stood there waiting for him. "What are you doing here?"