The first lesson at Karmatige Magic Academy was beyond the expectations of all newcomers. There was no recitation of textbooks, no repeated warnings, all they heard from the Master of the Holy Sword was one word, "Run!"
What does it feel like to run in never-ending blizzards at an altitude of six thousand meters at six-thirty in the morning?
The magic spells used to help Harley, Little Bruce, and Barry adapt to the high altitude reactions had not been lifted from them yet, so they temporarily didn't have to deal with the situation of oxygen lack. However, merely the snow that completely buried their lower legs was enough to make their movements difficult.
All the other students seemed to have adapted, running at full speed in a large playground constructed on a flattened mountaintop. Meanwhile, the Master of the Holy Sword, standing in the center of the playground and waving his giant sword, shouted in a strong voice.
"Run faster! Don't let me see anyone slacking off. The first principle of dealing with Demon Gods is your best bet to knock them out with one punch! Run, those at the end of the line! Speed up!"
"Run faster, you two new students! Even students younger than you are running faster than you. Move your legs, swing your arms, and you, Harley Quinn, don't let your head be turned around and stop wailing! Run!"
Of course, physical education classes are also part of American elementary school education. However, they generally do not involve such intense activities as running around in the playground. Most of the time, they don't even need to line up; they just need to go to the equipment room to acquire balls. Then they can either play basketball or soccer with their classmates. Those who don't like sports can just sit around and chat.
The intensity of the physical education class at Karmatige Magic Academy far exceeded their imagination. Just one half-hour lesson gave the three kids the feeling of having run for half a year.
At this point, Little Bruce is not yet the physically strong Batman; he's just a little master recently orphaned. Barry is not yet a speedster like The Flash; he's still a student at one of America's more lenient public schools. This half hour of exercise equals the amount they did in an entire year.
Harley was the only one among the three who did somewhat well. On the one hand, this was because she was older — girls mature earlier – so she barely managed. On the other, surviving in Gotham required fast running; not only could she survive, but she could also take the initiative to attack. Being capable of carrying four corpses at once among people her age was quite impressive.
After the Master of Holy Sword announced the end of the class, even though none among the three understood Chinese, they did not delay for even half a second, promptly sitting down on the ground.
They were too tired to speak, and what scared them even more was the fact that they could feel the magic aiding their adaptation to the high altitude climate gradually fading. This meant that if they were to have a similar class tomorrow or the day after, they might just die of exhaustion here.
"Are you okay?" Although it was snowing heavily, Helen, who was only wearing a thin school uniform, walked over to Harley. Harley had completely collapsed in the snow, looking somewhat out of it.
"It's mad." As Harley panted heavily, she spoke with a tearful tone: "It's only just after seven in the morning, and I've already used up the energy I would in a whole week. I feel like my lung cells are dancing on my ribs with steel pipes!"
Helen laughed at her analogy. Sitting down next to Harley, she said: "You'll be okay once you adapt. When I first came, I also thought it was a bit tiring, but you'll soon realize that running for half an hour in this cold weather is a quite nice warm-up."
After hearing this, Harley howled again. Helen, standing up and lifting her upper body by holding her arm, said: "Hurry up, there are four mandatory classes in the morning. Selective classes start around ten o'clock."
"You haven't chosen a selective class yet. Since I plan to skip mine, we can use this time with fewer people to go to the library and look up some information. Get up quickly, don't waste time. Aren't we supposed to leave a good impression on all the professors?"
Harley was reluctantly dragged off by Helen towards the classroom for the next class. As soon as she walked in, she saw a handsome man with black curls and green eyes at the podium, playing with the documents in his hand.
"Is that Loki Odinson?" Little Bruce shambled forward, followed by an even slower Barry. Both of them felt like their legs did not belong to them anymore.
"I wanted to ask earlier - why Odinson? In Norse mythology, isn't Loki Odin's brother? Odin's father wasn't named Odin..." Barry asked in confusion.
"In our world, Loki is Thor's brother. Both of them are Odin's children. Now Thor is the Divine King of Asgard and Loki is the Prince of Asgard."
The voice of Sheryl came from behind the two boys. She lightly pushed Little Bruce and then said: "Go there, sit in the front. I bet Professor Odinson will like you very much."
Little Bruce looked around and did not find a familiar face in the crowd, so he sat down confidently in a seat on the second row by the aisle.
"I am pleased to see some new faces among you."
Standing in front of the lectern in a magician's robe, Loki, his hair neatly combed back, has the prince's crown on the front of his bundled hair, and a gemstone ring sparkling with magical brilliance on the hand that holds the magic wand. Anyone could see that every detail of his appearance was carefully groomed.
Loki didn't mix four or five languages like the Master of the Holy Sword in his lectures; instead, he addressed each person with slow, clear American English, saying, "I'm very pleased that fresh blood is continually being infused into this school, and I have another piece of good news to tell you."
"Last night, I had a conversation with some of the professors at the school, and we all agreed that we should conduct a periodic test of the progress you've made so far."
Loki started off pacing a small area in front of the lectern, a hint of playfulness always on his face, and continued, "But don't assume I'm going to hand you a stack of test papers, competition in the mystic world has always concerned one thing — who has the stronger fist."
The students were immediately stirred up, like a sudden boiling kettle of hot water. Apart from the three newcomers, all the other students seemed not to have been battered by the previous PE class, their faces beaming with excitement.
"Karmatige Magic Academy is going to host over twenty rounds of magic duels in the indoor gymnasium next to the sports ground in the next three weeks. Any student can sign up, and the competition isn't limited to wand casting."
Loki stopped and turned, his gaze sweeping over a few of the larger guys in the classroom, "if you've got the ability to knock the other guy out with a punch, that kind of violence can be temporarily forgiven but remember, only within the ring."
"Of course, some smart little ones who have taken my Magic and Illusion Technique class in advance, some of them who did well have already learned to become invisible and create clones, of course, you can use these techniques, are you ready to make your opponents dizzy?"
The discussion below became louder, but Loki appeared not to hear, he continued, "And, of course, I won't forget, even though the magic world is no longer short of energy for casting, but if you guys can trick more from the Demon God, we will definitely give you an 'excellent' during the final exam grading."
"I know that many of you have started sporadic communication with some of the mysterious existences in various celestial worlds. Some of you have just heard the call vaguely, and some of you have made up your minds about your contractual objects. Some talented students have even made a two-way rush with their chosen Demon God."
When Loki finished, some students in their seats arrogantly held their heads high, apparently, they were the top students Loki was talking about.
"But what you think of as leading may not be leading." Loki gently shook his head, changed his tone and said, "Whether the cooperation and compatibility with certain Demon Gods can really help you has to be tested in practice. Now, the opportunity is here."
"This will be the first major event of Karmatige Magic Academy since its official establishment. I believe you should be able to see how much the school attaches importance to it, and it may be related to your future development in the magic world."
"So, children, I will give you self-study time in this class. You have plenty of time to consider whether you want to take a further step in gaining power, or continue to consolidate your foundation step by step, how the final result will be, it's all up to you... Class dismissed!"
After Loki finished speaking, he rolled up the scroll in his hand and walked out of the classroom with the same elegant and slow pace, but all the students in the classroom did not move. After a few seconds of pause, heated discussions erupted.
Little Bruce understood very few Oriental languages, but he could just barely sense what they were discussing. It was nothing but the competition system, schedule, whether teammates were needed, and so on. But all he wanted to do now was go back and sleep.
Last night, in the last few seconds before leaving the Dreamland School, Little Bruce asked Stark not to blur his dream memory like other students, because the knowledge about the Ark Reactor and magical energy that Stark narrated was very inspiring to him, and he didn't want to forget it.
But it caused a troubling aftereffect, which was that his brain could not handle twenty-four hours of operation without rest. If he could just barely act out of instinct before the morning PE class, the PE class had exhausted all his physical strength, and it was a great talent that he could still stand now.
Barry was very perceptive and saw that something was wrong with Little Bruce, but he didn't know what he had dreamt about. So, out of kindness, he helped Little Bruce back to the room to rest. Watching Little Bruce sleep, Barry did not plan to sleep; he planned to go find Harley and ask her opinion on the competition.
But on his way to the girls' dormitory, Barry ran into Jennifer Maw again. This time, however, the girl was not shy, but appeared fearful and flustered.
"God, what are you doing here? There's another madwoman in the girls' dorm, she's screaming and running towards the single room, I'm going to find a professor!"
"What?!"