The Perfect Specimen

The teacher sighs and hangs his head down, "This happens every year... You would think they would prepare these kids for this." He looks back up at the students standing at the entrance of his class.

"Okay kids, come on in. Class is starting soon." He says with a smile as he is covered in blood. All of the students start to slowly back away from the teacher due to the sight, leaving him feeling slightly exasperated.

Alistair on the other hand is confused as he doesn't get any urges or d.e.s.i.r.es towards the blood. Feeling this to be a unique situation, and not feeling any blood l.u.s.t from the teacher, he strides in next to the body to take a closer look.

The teacher feels grateful that one student seems to have the common sense to know that a teacher wouldn't randomly slaughter anyone on school grounds. The teacher smiles at Alistair and says,

"At least someone understands, this is fake blood. We are using a substitute for today since we are focusing on Anatomy class and finishing with History class today. We will be exploring the inner workings of the human body with this test dummy."

The students hear then and then get embarrassed at their squeamish nature. No one has seen actual bloodshed while preparing before coming to the school. All the students take their seats and the lesson proceeds naturally.

This is a class that Alistair felt most comfortable in. The talk of the blood, tissues, bones and more. The teacher even went so far in depth as to give a cursory description of the parts of the body magical energy is stored and how it came to be.

"Magical energy is believed to be introduced into society when the cataclysm happened. The generally accepted theory of the cause of the cataclysm is a giant asteroid colliding with the planet and terraforming the exterior. As of right now, humanity is confined to small settlements as ninety-nine percent of life was wiped out from the blast."

A student raised his hand and asked, "But teacher, I heard that the cataclysm was the result of the devil coming to earth and going on a rampage before suddenly disappearing. I never heard about an asteroid." He asked with a puzzled expression and from the expressions of a few other students it would appear that they have the same notion.

The teacher smiles and nods, "Yes you are talking about the belief that the devil tore open a the boundaries separating hell from the mortal plane and the two merged. Though that is all just superstition since there is no actual proof of the devil being here."

The teacher continues on, "That is just an exaggerated rumor that people spread due to the huge changes in the lay out of the planet. The planet as a whole is roughly still the same, with the only exception being the portals being opened by the asteroid."

"However, that is purely speculation. We have no way to tell what the rest of the planet looks like outside of the safe zones that our cities stay in. Monsters are not only blocking the areas around us but also the skies every time we try to launch satellites. The satellites we had previously were all wiped out by the previous asteroid. Humanity can at least take solace in the fact that we were not exterminated and given a chance to live on."

Alistair raises his hand and asks a question on a topic that caught his attention. "Teacher you said cities. Does that mean that there are other cities besides Utopia out there? Also, how do we designate these areas as safe zones?"

"Excellent questions Alistair! As of now, we have four minor cities located within two hundred miles of each other forming a circle around the major city in the center. Utopia to the east, Shangri-la to the west, Eden to the north, and Paradise to the south. These four cities form the perimeter around the major metropolis of Heaven."

The teacher takes out a very old antique globe and points to a land mass.

"Before the cataclysm that happened a few hundred years ago, where we are at used to be call The United States of America. They used to be surrounded by oceans on the east and west, however now there is no traces of any oceans in sight. The impact from the cataclysm is said to have caused massive tsunamis and fissures in the planet so now we are just surround by nothing but land."

"As for how we are able to find out which spots are safe to set up? If you could figure that out then you would have a easy life ahead of you in the future. People still have no idea what causes these spots to be virtually free of monsters. After much speculation turned up no results, humanity decided to mark it up as one of the natural wonders of the new world after the cataclysm."

After looking at the clock, the teacher noticed that the lecture went on to long and that class had to end.

"Alright class, we will pick up on where we left off next class. Your homework assignments will be to study the old geography of the planet and the maps that companies have confirmed for us. There will be a quiz next class on it."

After digesting the information with a satisfied look on his face, Alistair then looks over at Michelle and sees her looking back at him. She nudges her head towards the two boys who were following her before.

He decides that although his body is tougher from before and that he would feel no pain from fighting them. The injuries he would sustain during the fight would be too severe to pass off after healing himself the next day. He also can not afford to miss out on classes while recuperating due to the vital information he would miss out on.

As he racks his brains on the issue of how to get away from them for now, at least until he is able to practice more with his techniques. In the middle of brainstorming, a man comes walking into the classroom and walks up to Alistair.

Alistair recognizes the man as the attendant from the mission hall who gave him his mission. The attendant smiles softly at Alistair and after looking at him hard for a few seconds he finally speaks up.

"Young man, are you okay? The mission hall has recently raised the difficulty rating of the mission we gave you as we suspect that it might risk physical harm. This is an oversight on our part so we will do what we can to correct this mistake."

He asks seriously. Alistair is taken slightly aback and is about to reply until he remembers his earlier dilemma and looks at Michelle, then back at the attendant.

"I..Uh.. I'm fine, but I would not like to discuss about this here. Can we speak somewhere else about this? Also my partner helped me in the quest so can she tag along?"

"Of course! Let's go back to the mission hall and discuss things properly!" The attendant lets out a sigh of relief as he realizes the mistake of giving a rookie a high class mission did not cause any trouble.

Alistair looks back at Michelle and smiles victoriously. She looks back at him slightly shocked thinking, "Did he just get lucky or was this planned?"