"Gahorem? That's right! Sha mentioned we were supposed to meet you." Puck said staring up at the weird giraffe
"Uh huh. Now cmon upstairs. I wasn't expecting to take a student today, so you'll forgive me if your room isn't prepared. But we'll get that sorted out." Gahorem said coolly
"Uhhh.. yeah. About that. I'm down to have you train me or whatever, but without that floor holding me down I don't think I can control my strength enough to not crash through another wall. That's sort of how I got in here in the first place" Puck lamented, gesturing toward the rubble on the other side of the room
"Already taken care of my guy" Gahorem lifted his hooved foot and pointed at Pucks forehead.
"I sealed your power. That's sort of my specialty, though far from my only talent." He said smugly
"Oh dang! That's great!" Puck said excitedly, he hopped and smashed hit head into the ceiling 15 feet above.
SMACK. FLOP.
"Damn dude I guess you're a pretty strong guy!" Gahorem said witch a chuckle
"Ugh, I thought you sealed my power??" Puck groaned from the floor
"Well, I did, 80 percent of it. You notice you didn't go *through* the ceiling? It's just that you're *so* strong, that even 20 percent is enough to still let you jump around like some kind of freak" Gahorem shrugged "Don't worry, after training here you'll be able to control what you've got much better. Besides, at this level you'll fit in with the rest of the junior class just fine." He smiled, which was weird, because you know, giraffe.
Puck perked up at that last sentence "Junior class? There are other people here?" He sat up carefully and pulled himself to his feet, he could manage keeping this much power in check, he just shouldn't try jumping indoors again he thought.
"Of course, you thought you were special or something?" Gahorem grinned with a raised eyebrow, which was again, weird coming from a giraffe. "Just kidding haha, you're something else. But with that seal you'll be able to train with my other students until you're able to control more of that power. I think you'll like it here, just don't talk back to your sensei, and we'll all get along fine."
Puck was excited about all of this, first Sha, then super strength and wicked armor, now he was being taken on as a student at a school run by a freaky talking magic giraffe? His confidence was growing as he smashed into this new life, happy, he felt pretty happy. He loved reading and watching these sorts of stories in his previous life, he never imagined he'd get to have his own super powered adventure one day, much less after he died. His thoughts again turned to Heaven. "Hey, sensei, or whatever-"
"You will call me Master, or Master Gahorem from here on. Don't call me sensei in front of the other students. I only spoke like that earlier because I was offended by your arrogance, and a bit of my previous life's slang slipped in." Gahorem interjected, forcing a sophisticated tone, which, still funny, because giraffe
"Wait you were a person too?" Puck asked in disbelief "How!? You're a giraffe?"
"Of course I was a person in my past life, I still am in Magna, this is just my soul form. Your soul form is some kind of armored humanoid creature, the pointy ears and grey skin are nice touches, you got pretty lucky, going from human to giraffe was a huge adjustment" Gahorem said thoughtfully "Everyone's soul form is different, with the exception of some ancestral traits."
"I have pointy ears? And I'm grey??"
"Yep"
"Okay... what are the other students like? Are they all animals like you? Is this going to be like some big petting zoo" Puck asked sounding a little depressed
"You little shit. No. There are only 3 other full beast soul forms enrolled currently. The rest are all at least semi humanoid in shape, except Steve, Steve's weird. Anyway there's 6 other full humanoid souls, but don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to get along with everyone. If you don't, watch your back. I know you're strong, but everyone here is training because they have their own power as well. You'd do well to not underestimate anyone you meet in this life, or any for that matter. There are always bigger fish, like me" Gahorem grinned
"Right on, that's.. interesting." Puck said, his mind raced at the thought of what kind of people he was about to meet. Could there be centaurs and mermaids here? The possibilities seemed endless. He was also curious about Steve.
"Great, so get your ass in gear, let's go upstairs so you can get settled in. Oh yeah, what's your name?"
"I'm Puck" he said, giving a thumbs up
"Ok Puck, don't do that, you look stupid, cmon, you go up first. Try to make a better first impression on your fellow classmates" Gahorem said with a low chuckle
Puck stepped forward through the open door, as he looked up he saw thousands of steps leading up at a very steep angle. "Dang dude isn't it tough for you to get up and down these things? Why would you build a staircase like this?"
"Hey man it seemed like a good idea at the time! I base my architecture around everyone's needs, not just my own" Gahorem said sheepishly
"Seems like a pretty big oversight, I'm excited to see how you get up these stairs" Puck laughed
"God I'm already so tired of you." Gahorem said exhaustedly
"Welcome to the club" Puck said, shooting finger guns "pew pew" Pucks fingertips suddenly lit up, blue bolts of energy shot past Gahorem and exploded into the rock wall 500 feet away, leaving 2, meter wide craters where they impacted. "Holy shit I'm so sorry! What was that!"
"What the hell was that?!" Gahorem spat "Ok new rule, no finger guns AT ALL until we figure out what your deal is. Now act normal and get the fuck upstairs you super powered freak" He said with authority. But in his head he was thinking that this guy was some kind of monster, no one could control their energy like that without years of training, and it usually took some extensive spell crafting to do anything like what Puck just did accidentally. He was very interested to see where this guy went in life. He just hoped he could keep his power in check long enough for him to learn to control it properly, not all of the walls in his home could regenerate the way the walls in his gravity prison could after all.
Puck stared at his hands like a little boy would at his first BB gun, this was too cool, but he had to be careful, he didn't want to hurt anyone that he didn't have to. While he enjoyed fighting, and was quite good at it in his past life, Puck was an honorable man. He was no bully, and only really fought when a poor bastard was dumb enough to push him and leave no alternative. He'd only lost 2 fights in his previous life, once to his best friend during his time in the military, the other at a bar many years later, against 4 guys that had been harassing the bartender. The first loss was a good one, the man he'd fought then was the only person who'd ever been better than him in training exercises, they became rivals, and eventually squad mates. Puck learned a lot and became a better soldier following that man. The second loss stung every time he thought about it. He'd held his own against 4 really tough guys pretty well, but then they surrounded him and tackled him to the floor. He didn't remember much after that until he woke up hours later, the bar had been trashed, the bartender was dead, and Puck was being loaded into an ambulance. He later found the guys of course. One by one he applied his military training to sneak up on them at their homes. He didn't outright kill any of them, instead he just kidnapped them during their most vulnerable moments, took them all out into the desert, untied them, and told them he'd like to fight them again 1v1, you know, for closure. He then beat the living dog shit out of them, left them bloodied in the sand, and drove home to a peaceful, well deserved rest. He never saw those guys ever again. He wasn't sure if they had died that night, but if they didn't they sure wouldn't be coming around his way ever again. In fact 3 of them did live, but the experience shattered them, they buried their friend in that desert, and never hurt anyone ever again, for fear of retribution from some freak stranger.
As Puck reflected on his old life, he suddenly snapped back to reality and made his way up the staircase. As he looked behind him he saw Gahorem crawling backwards up the stairs, he gingerly grabbed the door handle in his mouth and pulled it shut as he clumsily scrambled backwards up the steps "oh my god this is hilarious" Puck couldn't help but laugh at the sight
"Would you shut up and just go upstairs already! Geeze, I think you're probably the most annoying person I've ever met" Gahorem sighed
As Puck reached the top of the staircase he was greeted by a huge courtyard that was open to the sky. He could see that the whole structure had been built into the mountain, there were craggy peaks jutting up all around them. In the courtyard itself he could see around 50 or 60 different creatures, each one of them was unique, and they were all practicing some form of martial art or meditation or spellcasting. It was an incredible sight. Suddenly Puck was pushed from behind with a great force.
"Would you MOVE?" Gahorem shouted as he rammed Puck with his butt in an attempt to get through the doorway
The students in the courtyard all looked over in the direction of the shout, their eyes fell upon Puck, who had stumbled forward and was falling down the bleacher like steps towards the training lawn, he landed on his butt with a thud. When Puck looked up he saw that the students had gathered around him, looking at him with a collective disdain.
"Master Gahorem, who's this guy?" A humanoid man with deep red scales and a hawk like head asked curiously
"Ask him yourself Rake, he can talk" Gahorem laughed
"Uhh Hi, I'm Puck." Puck stood up and gave a little wave to the crowd around him "I'm excited to meet you all, and to train here. I hope we can all be friends!" He didn't mean to sound so childish, but he was nervous, and he got a little weird when he got nervous
"Great, another dweeb like Steve" a Minotaur looking guy with a spiked tail grumbled from the crowd.
"Hey I'm not a dweeb Marcus! You're just an asshole. Don't listen to that guy Puck, it's nice to meet you." a voice gurgled from out of sight
"Uhhh who said that?" Puck searched the room
A blue gelatinous tendril shot straight up in the middle of the crowd, a blob flowed up to the tip of the tendril, and a strange face formed on the blob "Hey man I'm Steve" another tendril shot up next to the face and waved at Puck "I think the only open bunk is in my room, so I guess that makes us roomies!" Steve said excitedly
"Ahhh that's right, ok, Puck you go with Steve for now, he'll show you where you'll be staying" Gahorem said with a grin "You all get back to your training, you can talk to Puck at dinner. Steve, go show Puck his bed, help him get settled in"
"You got it boss" gurgled Steve "Cmon new guy, our room is pretty swanky."
Puck was a little lost for words, so he just said "oook" and followed behind the rolling gelatinous mess that was Steve