Chapter 135

The Program

“So it seems that we have met our quota. Twenty students, all of whom were ones who managed to generate twenty new classes.” I say, making sure to sift my face across the full list of two hundred original students.

I had to say, that I was impressed, we a lot of students take on new classes. Also of note, most were lower-level guild members, that is under level three hundred in their first main class. No one with two classes was allowed to take this training. Also, given the way the Midnight Hunters were set up finding a person out here without a class, that was under five hundred was impressive.

Yet it was the lower-level students that were the most determined to learn the lessons. I don’t know if this was their hunger to make something of the perceived chance they were given, or if there was something more to why they were so adamant about coming out and learning Qi Sensing and Qi Manipulation, but they were capable of learning the new skills handedly. Then again, I am a low level, well relatively for my main class. For all my classes combined I was over level five hundred, but for my primary class, I was considered the lower end of just becoming a professional. Which might play a bit into my ability to learn new skills.

Then those who managed to learn additional skills related to Qi, or learned to use their Qi in new ways, those were the ones to first develop a unique class. Then came the crafters, like Jayhalem, he was a crafter who could clearly see ways to extend Qi to the items and gears he would create.

In fact, everyone that I thought would get a unique class did.

Well, all except for one person that is.

“Due to limitations, and wishing to focus as much attention and resources on this first class, the number of students will be limited to just the first twenty who have awakened unique classes.” Mallory speaks, her voice firm, as no one wishes to argue with her commanding presence.

A few half-hearted hands arise, then as if Mallory has ESP or another related sense, she speaks out. “For all those of you, who were part of the 100, you will be able to get more training time with our Doctor here.”

After that announcement, most of the arms went down. There were a few others who looked like they still wanted to protest, but a few quick glances from Mallory and everyone was quiet. It should be noted that Mallory was extra protective recently, almost single handedly removing anyone over level three hundred in their primary class from my classroom.

Honestly, I liked it, the smaller classroom size was a lot better. Well mostly, as there were a few students who I couldn’t help but feel sorry for.

“If you manage to awaken your own Qi related class, I will accept you into our primary classroom.” I add, my gaze shifting directly to the person who I was referring to, Jhonny the student who had mediocre talent, but a whole heck of a lot of grit.

Honestly, I couldn’t see why Jhonny hadn’t unlocked a class yet. He had almost everything one could expect, he had Qi Sense and Qi Manipulation down. I could also see him trying to mimic the unique abilities shown by other students. The most impressive impersonation was the way he was able to replicate Jayhalem’s ability infusing Qi from his hands to his gloves, and then a little bit out to the hilt of his sword. Not much, and the entire thing vanished within an instant, likely not even long enough to unlock the Qi Infusion skill, or another variant of the skill that he himself could use and train on his own.

Mallory licked her lips, before pressing her lips together in a sign of obvious annoyance. It was clear that she didn’t want to contradict me, so taking a second to let out a breath, she spoke. “Yes, it likely should go without saying, but anyone who manages to awaken a unique class within the next few weeks can apply and be added to the first graduating class of students.”

“Graduating?” A few of the now former students asked.

“That’s right, since we have a certified doctor, we can begin the process of being the first guild to set up our own University.” Mallory noted.

At this, my ears perked up, as I was not aware of this even being a thing.

“Is that even possible?” A few blurted out.

“Yes,” Mallory said, holding up a hand to calm down the swell of voices. “For now, these will all be Associates and Bachelors degrees for the moment. Obviously the two categories will be Qi and Magic, each degree will need to be signed off by our very own Doctor here.”

Mallory said, and as she spoke, a new string of quests popped up. Quests that I didn’t even know existed.

World Quest: Higher Education (Creating a College): Create Your Own School of Higher Learning: You have been tabbed with being part of the initial teaching staff of a newly founded college. Your goal is to come up with a verified accreditation path. Requirements, a certified Doctorial member on staff (Current standing 1 /1). A curriculum that offers training for at least 10 different skills per degree (current standing 10/10). Rewards: Experience, Title, Badge, Guild Title, Guild Badge. Time limit to get first group of students to pass, one year (Days: 364, Hours: 23, Minutes: 59…)

Just seeing the messages caused a shiver to run down my spine, as I realized Mallory had done it. Somehow, she had managed to begin the process of making it so we could start our own college.

“How?” Someone manages to ask the very question that I am now thinking.

“Glad you asked. Again, it turns out that this world mirrors the one we came from. This feature has always exi….” Mallory began to say, but then was quickly cut off as yet another quest prompt appeared.

Guild Quest: Create The First Guild Created College: The Midnight Hunters Guild has taken the first step towards being a true powerhouse in the world. The Midnight Hunters have begun the process of creating the first Guild Created College in the world of Biprism. The goal is to get the College: Spiritlight Valhalla College accredited within one year. Rewards: Experience, Title, Badge, Guild Title, Guild Badge. Time limit to get first group of students to pass, one year (Days: 364, Hours: 23, Minutes: 59…)

Then with that system message my jaw dropped as I realized the name of the college, as it was both my and Mallory’s last names. Having seen that message, I felt frozen, as my mind worked overtime to process everything. Especially the fact that my last name was given top billing in the school. Then I think I had the same question come to my mind as everyone else apparently did.

“Before you start.” Mallory began, the name had to be something that was not directly affiliated with the Guild. While it could be run by Guild members, and a board of trustees that are related to the Guild can dictate who gets accepted into the school, the school itself cannot be named after a Guild. Thus, we were left with locations, or names of famous members. Given that two Legendary bloodlines were present in the creation of this school, it seemed only fitting that we name the school after the two of us.”

Grumble.

There was a slight ominous tone to the crowd that had gathered. As by now more and more guild members had all begun to congregate here, as apparently everyone in the guild got the quests.

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“Now, if you want to know why I gave the honorific to the one and only owner of a true and recognized doctoral degree, then we should probably have a few more conversations about common sense. As without the one certified doctor on staff, then the entire program will be bound to fail. Also, it should be noted that only once the first twenty students were trained by said doctoral member and bloodline progenitor, did the quest to establish our own college truly begin.” Mallory said.

With that the majority of the crowd quieted down.

Then just as everyone was about to disperse, Mallory made one more comment that once again stirred everyone back up. “Of course, it likely goes without saying that once we establish a new college, there will be a world message sent out about the accomplishment.”

Decision Point: Establishing a Focus for Your College: The unaccredited Spiritlight Valhalla College has yet to establish a field of study. As one of the founding members, and the only member with a doctoral degree your vote has been given a weighted value, especially as you will be the one primarily in charge of teaching. First Define the Focus for this college: (ex. Magic, Adventure, Mechanical, Apothecary, Science, Arts, etc.)

Seeing this message, I paused, as did a few other very high-ranking members. It was clear though that not everyone in the guild was given a vote as most continued to move around as if nothing exciting had happened.

Badump, badump, badump.

My heart began to race, as I realized the implications of what was happening. I was one of the few members who were allowed to vote on the outcome of what the focus of our school would be. We were also given the ability to focus on one of the four major guilds, or the traditional arts and technologies. But one word caught my eye and that was the etcetera, meaning we could choose another focus that could direct the degrees our school was allowed to offer.

Then a question hit me, one that sort of seemed obvious, but with so much going on, I didn’t really know. Fortunately, the world was either reading my mind, or was answering a stated inquiry noted by others who had similar thoughts, for a detailed explanation came forth.

Field of Study: This is the main area of focus that your college will tend to impart upon those graduating. This focus is represented in the degree, offering a bonus to the chosen field of study up to the quality of education received by the individual from the school. Note: While areas outside the focus can be received by graduates, their percentages of increase will be less than those who received a degree following the school’s chosen focus. Second Note: The more words used in creation of the focus, the less impactful a degree will be.

Apparently, the answer was simple we could give out all types of degrees, but degrees that closely reflected the focus of our college, the better the efficacy of the degrees our students received would be. Thus, the degrees I received from climbing the Arcanarus Tower, were really high and primarily seemed to focus on magic.

I paused, wanting to teach both Qi and Magic, as I felt both were amazing. I also happened to have degrees related to magic, while I also managed to help twenty students awaken classes related to Qi, thus I felt both were needed. Yet, it was clear that using the words Qi and Magic would lessen the impact gained from choosing just one or the other.

Then with a moment of calm, only one word came to my mind, “Energy.”

You have chosen Energy, as your intended focus for the Spiritlight Valhalla College, is this your vote?

“Yes.” I mentally confirmed.

Then there was a pause, then we were given a readout of the votes.

Initial Proposed Focuses:

Percent of Votes

Value

Energy

50%

100%

Magic

38%

65%

Qi

12%

35%

Warning: Must achieve a 51% majority to continue.

I was somewhat surprised at first to see that Magic was just 65% added value, while Qi was 35%. Until I realized that the two combined added to a hundred percent. Additionally, I did have my two doctoral degrees in magic, while for Qi I only had a working theory. A theory that seemed to be mostly correct, but a theory, nonetheless.

There was a pause as Mallory looked at me, then asked, “Energy?”

The question was simple to infer from her tone and inflection were clear, did I choose Energy, and did I want her to switch her vote.

I nodded, not certain if I really wanted to speak up about my decision.

Mallory had a look of concentration fill her features as she focused for a moment. Then we were met with a new system message.

Tally has been updated. Current voting, going once…

Initial Proposed Focuses:

Percent of Votes

Value

Energy

75%

100%

Magic

13%

65%

Qi

12%

35%

Going twice.

DING!

There was a crisp chiming bell that was heard echoing throughout the open air training area.

Notice: The unaccredited Spirlitlight Valhalla College has chosen a focus of Energy. All degrees involving energy will be increased by 100%, in addition to the bonus gained by the students through their hard work and efforts to understand the curriculum provided.

Seeing the message my heart began to race slightly as I realized this was something really cool. I also realized that Mallory had effectively trapped me here with her for several years, particularly with the tying of my own name to the school, thus all but forcing me to want to stay and see it succeed.

Pausing, I look at Mallory.

Seeing my attention to her, she just raises one eyebrow slowly and asks, “what?”

Though there was a lot of subtext to that what, so much that I didn’t want to get involved, at least not here in front of so many perspective students.

Then with that out of the way, I was inundated with row after row of texts. If I thought the logs that were involved with my getting a degree were cumbersome originally, they were nothing compared to what I had to do next.

Setting Academic Standards: As one of the primary instructors, it is your job to create a curriculum and related degree path, complete with comprehensive skills that the student must possess to pass said class, at least two of the skills must be rare or higher. Minimum number of degrees: Three.

At this point, it was clear that I was the only one still getting these updates. Well I could tell from they eye movements of Mallory and a few others that they could see the newest message, but they could not interact with them.

“Well, I will leave you to planning out our noble career paths.” Mallory said, while patting me on the shoulder, before she began shooing everyone out from the area.

***

(Six hours later)

Four classes. Well not classes, but full-on degree paths. That is all I managed to get submitted to the system that was fully acceptable by the system. Apparently, what I considered a rare skill and what the system considered rare skills were two entirely different things, thus the initial problem as apparently, I was making the course curriculum too hard. Especially after I realized that while ten unique skills were required for the degree in question, a proficiency of 50 was required to receive the degree. I of course thought that was too low but was overturned as I later found out that 60s were required for a Masters, while 70s and above were needed for doctoral degrees. Thus my 175 maximums for a lot of skills were exceptionally high.

Also, the school system was kind of nice, in that my giving a grade didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting all ten skills up to level fifty and boom they met the minimum requirements for a degree. The rest were me signing off my name that they attended the school, and I was okay with their level of participation during their time at school.

“So what degrees programs does our little college offer?” Mallory asks, having watched me work in a meditative state for a while. Only now that I have started to stretch and flex my back does she even speak up.

“You know, I think I am going to make sure to offer the same crawl, drown, swim program that most colleges offer.” I state.

“Don’t you mean crawl, walk, run?”

“Nope, going to throw them all into the deep end and see who can come up for air.” I state, even going so far as to paddle my arms to make it look like I am trying to swim myself.

Chuckle.

“But seriously, what are we going to offer our perspective students?” Mallory asks.

“So far, we have been approved to teach the primary four disciplines: Qi Manifestation, Magic Fundamentals, Magic Resonance, and Enchantment.” I state, listing the four-degree programs that I managed to get accepted with the skills I had that also met the required seventy or higher rating in each skill being taught.

“Enchantment?” Mallory asks.

“Yes, I am particularly proud of that one.” I state, and mean it too. Granted my Bloodline also gave me a boost to Master Enchanting that went well over two hundred. But I could apparently only add regular Enchanting as the rare skill for the degree. Everything else was related to mana circulation, and resonance. There was also a bit of Magic Theory thrown in, which did overlap with the other two magic degrees, but the system seemed okay with me using multiple skills in multiple different disciplines.

“Does that mean that Rahul and the Maiden will be required reading material?” Mallory asks, her words pulling me from the mental fugue that is beginning to settle over me. I have to say creating an entire education plan for four distinct majors that are then measured and evaluated by an all-seeing system is rather draining. Then I realized the true gravity of her words.

I bolt upright, as if realizing the fact that I might be expected to either force teenagers to read smut, or worse, read smut to teenagers. Then just as quickly as my contented aura arrived it instantly evaporated, as I realize I might have made a mistake in pushing so hard to get that path pushed out.