Axel woke up early the next morning, considering he was an early bird. The sun was already up and pouring through the windows of the dorm complex, hitting him and everyone else in the face.
He first groaned and rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head before finally giving up and sitting up on the bed.
That's when he remembered his last night 'extracurricular' activity. For the first time since he became a teenager, he was genuinely excited. Excited about the fact that he had finally unlocked his mutant gene. Even though a glowing screen that only he could see seemed rare or odd, it was something.
Half his life, he only imagined what it would be like to possess real power and now, he might relish in that feeling. He still couldn't believe what he saw himself do. An Infernal Slash. Just thinking about it made him grin a little.
He looked around the room. Rick was still fast asleep while Ares sat by the window with his eyes half open, looking like he hadn't slept at all.
He had also gotten a new mission that was worth 10 Exp so today was perfect to figure out what the hell a Halfling was. The digital library should have something, some kind of mythical record or story, anything.
As he reached for the door handle, a voice stopped him.
"Came back late last night, didn't you?" Ares said, with that usual smile on his face.
Axel paused for a second before turning around. "You're awake?"
Ares shrugged before answering.
"I don't sleep easy. You alright, man? You didn't get jumped or anything, right? Scaredy cat."
Axel couldn't help but smile at that. If anything, he was the one doing the jumping last night. Who knows? Maybe that carbon skin student was still lying on the floor.
"Yeah, I'm good," he said simply.
"Good. I'm taking today to gather some strength, maybe train a bit. You and Rick stick together, alright? If anything goes wrong, just give me a beep on your device."
"Got it," Axel said.
Ares grabbed his own jacket and left the room without another word.
"Wh-where's he going?" Rick asked as he sat up slowly with his hair sticking up in every direction
"I believe he said 'gather strength' he could have just said trainning..." Axel almost facepalmed.
"You up for going to the library?"
Rick rubbed his eyes and groaned. "The library? What's in the library?"
"Uhh... cookies..? What'd you think is at the library?" Axel sassed
"Okay okay. But if I fall asleep in there, don't wake me."
"Sleep much?"
They stepped out together out of the apartment complex and as usual, at 8 in the morning, the entire academy was already crawling with students.
Axel and Rick got to the library not long after. The place looked massive up close, more like a tech lab than a library. When they reached the entrance, a small scanner light flashed red across their collar tags, then the doors slid open with a click at the end.
'Guess these fancy collars aren't just for decoration.' Axel thought.
"Man… this place looks way too serious. What if we're not even allowed in here yet?" Rick asked paranoid
"We've got tags," Axel said, shrugging. "That's enough."
Inside was quiet as every library should be. There were big screens lined up on the walls, showing live news feeds, student leaderboards and system updates. Axel glanced around, already thinking of how to get some time alone.
He couldn't exactly bring Rick along to go do some research about Halflings. That'd sound weird.
They walked in a little deeper, and Axel noticed a group of first year students gathered around a glowing table. There were about four of them, all laughing and arguing over some simulation stats. Their tags read Lumina 1s and Lumina 2s.
Perfect.
Axel gave Rick a small grin. "Come on, let's go say hi to them."
Rick blinked nervously. "Wait...what? I don't even know them."
"Yeah, that's the point," Axel said, already walking ahead.
He waved casually as they approached.
"Yo, you guys running a sim match?"
One of the students, a tall boy with bright blue hair, looked up. "Yeah. You two new as well?"
"Pretty much," Axel replied. "Just trying to figure out how all this works."
"Same here," another said smiling. "We're testing reaction speeds for Lumina rankings. You two got your tags scanned yet?"
Rick froze beside Axel, his hands awkwardly in his pockets.
"Uh...yeah, yeah we did. I mean, not… like that but… we did."
They all laughed lightly.
Axel grinned, clapping Rick on the shoulder.
"Don't mind him. He's still trying to wake up."
Rick gave him a look but said nothing. After a few minutes, they all got into an easy conversation about classes, powers, and what training would be like. Axel made sure to keep the talk going, slowly easing Rick into it.
Rick started to loosen up, even laughing a bit when one of the students told a story about accidentally teleporting his own shoes.
Once Axel noticed Rick was actually getting along, he gave a small nod to himself.
"I'll grab something and be back," he said casually, waving a hand.
Rick didn't even look up, he was too busy talking.
That was Axel's cue.
He slipped away quietly, moving deeper into the library until the chatter faded behind him. Soon, he was standing in front of the Main Library – Year One.
Inside, rows and rows of sleek computers filled the room, their screens glowing faint blue. Some students sat silently typing, others wore headsets, muttering commands to their systems.
Axel found an empty booth in the corner and sat down. The chair adjusted automatically to his height. Pretty cool tech.
He turned the system on, and the Oval Academy's logo flashed on the screen before loading into the school's main search system, the Ovalpedia.
"Alright… let's see what I am," Axel muttered.
He typed in Halfling and waited.
Instantly, hundreds of results popped up. Pictures, diagrams, ancient history entries. But everything looked… off. According to Ovalpedia: Halflings were "humanoid creatures half the size of normal humans."
Axel stared at the screen, blinking. "What?"
He scrolled down, checked the next one, same thing. A tiny, smiling, short figure holding bread. He checked another, same story. Half sized humans living in mountains.
Axel groaned and leaned back in his chair.
"What the hell? That's not me…"
He scrolled again, hoping to find something that actually made sense but all he saw were more images of short people doing short people stuff.
He rubbed his face, frustration was already boiling. None of this told him anything about what he turned into last night.
"Great…" he muttered. "Guess I'm officially a fantasy dwarf now..."
***