Chapter 19
The Classes
Learn what you want, when you want. Study what you want, when you want. Perform what you want when you are ready. That was this school’s modus operandi in fact if I could see, I would almost expect this to be the words carved into the blocks making up Arcanarus University.
I couldn’t see, nor were any of those the actual motto of the school. The school had an even odder statement in Latin as its motto, “Disce ad terram ante fugis.” Which loosely translates to “Learn to land before you fly.”
In a way, I guess that is as good of a motto as any for an elite magical university. Also, it is one that is basically its own safety briefing. You crash and burn, well they warned you to think about the next step before rushing ahead.
Of course, the motto seems like a catch-22, where you can’t actually learn to land without at least trying to fly. Still I think this motto also helps to show the true breadth of what my first few courses here at the university were.
“Welcome to magical theory. This is the first of your core classes that every mage must go through. Realize that since you are here there are two things that happened. First, despite being taught incorrectly how to use magic, you still managed to show something truly unique to the evaluator that let you get your entrance exam.” A professor began speaking, they were an Orc by build and by diction, but I for the life of me couldn’t tell if they were a male or female teacher. I am sure if I had normal sight I could tell, but as it was, all I saw was the distinct outline, muscular but still slender thankless. Arms that were smaller than one might expect from a male orc, but slightly larger than those of a female. Then finally there was the overwhelming green and brown magical aura that seemed to radiate from the professor.
I took the magical colors to imply a deep tie to earth and nature magic, but I could not tell for certain.
“The second major thing that happened was you managed to surprise your evaluator, despite being taught completely wrong. What you may have previously learned. Whatever tricks you might have developed over the years, forget them, as they are likely wrong. This class is designed to see where you are, where you are going to go, and how much we have to make you forget to get from point A to point B.” The professor said, as several other students who were here shook their heads and focused on reading books before them.
They all seemed to be on different sections of the same lesson, though I noticed the words seemed to change as each one read individually.
Was this a way of weeding out people? Make it so the books changed from person to person? Or was there something deeper to this?
I didn’t quite know, but I decided to try to figure it all out.
“Here is your textbook. Memorize it and be able to quote it perfectly to me, and you will pass this class.” The orc professor stated, and at this point I could almost swear she was a female, though that was still a bit up in the air.
Nodding, I grabbed the book and took it over an empty seat and sat down.
The entire time I was moving, I focused my attention on the different students who were reading. Some students looked like they had given up and just held the book closed by force, as if somehow expecting the book to open at a random page. Others seemed to be sleeping, though I guess a nicer term could be meditating with circadian rhythm influences.
Still, I chose not to read my own text. Instead, I tried to read the text of everyone else around me.
The more I watched, the more I realized something was off with the text books. For they all seemed to have a slight variation related to magical frequencies.
Looking at them, I could see how the books would slowly shift, first starting with red for fire. Then moving to orange shielding and kinetic movements, then to yellow, then green, blue, indigo, and finally when it switched to a dark violet I opened my text book.
At that, I couldn’t help but see the professor who was silently sitting at their desk give an almost imperceptible nod of their head.
With that, I realized I might have passed my first quiz of this class, noticing the patterns of the book. At first this made no sense, until I began to think slightly deeper about what she had said. If this entire class was about where I was, where I was going to go and how to get from point A to point B. If the book was a sign of where I was, basically could I first notice the pattern of magic, and understand myself enough to realize where I wanted to go. In this case, I wanted to pursue my two schools of magic Spirit and Shadow, which was a minor school of Darkness as a whole. This book would help me get there, so long as I focused on the basics.
First, I had to know what magic was. From there I would need to know the way my magic appeared in the visual spectrum. Then finally, I needed to absorb the words of this book as they pertained to me.
Realizing that I would need to read this book not just once, but at least twice once for Spirit, and a second time for Shadow magic, I began my first class.
Swip, swip, swip.
Of course, reading was super easy for me, thanks to my unique skill that I have had six years to max out and master, Blind Eidetic Speed Reading. The skill not only was past the standard 100 point cap, but thanks to my Unbound merit was at the 125 cap. I had heard there were ways to increase ones skills beyond even these thresholds, but they would take a lot of research and planning. Still the skill was perfect for me. Not only was I able to read my page, but I was able to read the pages of everyone else around me.
I noticed that the longer a page was open, the more the words would change on the page. One person who was clearly meditating, had the words all but dancing around on their page. Trying to read that page was like trying to read the scales on the back of a twisting headless viper. Still even in that chaos there were two or three concepts that seemed to appear randomly around the page. Unfortunately the concepts of conservation of energy, balance of the forces, and harmony of events didn’t seem to pertain as much to spirit magic as they would for nature magic. But there was still some underlying note of universal knowledge that seemed to be important to grasp.
So I read everything about Spirit magic.
Though I will say that spirit magic seemed to be a lesser-known art form. Tending mostly to deal with ways to interact with and control greater spirits. There were warding circles, summoning circles, and most importantly domination circles. All of these seemed extremely stupid, as there was a glaring pitfall with all of these concepts that were being identified. Namely once the spirit got free, and they would always get free, you would be stuck with an spirit who would be forever annoyed with you. Why you would want to do that, made no sense.
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There of course were other concepts like going to the spirit world, but that was quickly ended due to the way the spirit realm was apparently deadly to non-spirits. Of course, this could be said for anyone who didn’t have an inherent resistance to the alternate realm they were going to. In fact, this seemed to be par for the course with different realms. Even my familiar would get torn up if I didn’t exert my protective barrier to her when she was here.
Still there seemed to be some sort of commonality, each realm had people that would slowly be torn apart if they did not have some type of protection. In fact that was what the summoning circle provided, a realm of protection. A better way to think of it would be a mobile break of protection that could be made anywhere to facilitate the safety of an alternate spirit.
Reading the other books around me it was clear that elemental summoners had similar limitations. The only difference was that the summoning circle they created was continually made and maintained by the summoning mage as summoning elementals was considered a Passive spell. Similar to the way I could continually both create and feed off of spirit mana, elemental mages used their mana to continually create and feed elemental summoning portals. Portals that would apparently shrink down after the initial summoning was completed, in order to perform the bare minimum of sustainment for the elemental. Of course, this shrinking down of the portal and never increasing it meant that the summoner would eventually lose said elemental over time, as the flow would never be increased to allow for the natural healing processes of the realm they came from to fill them. Realizing this fact, I began to piece together more and more pieces of what this class was meant to teach.
This meant that if I summoned my familiar, I would need to worry about the damage they took. Or I might need to create a new portal to heal my familiar, or I might need to learn to let my familiar feed off of my own spirit energy in a way that would heal them as well.
There was just so much to comprehend and to try to practice, that I found myself quickly slicing my finger through the air and letting my familiar through, before I fully understood the ramifications.
“Wha?”
People called out.
The professor at the front of the room was up on her feet in a second, golden light flying forward wrapping around my familiar and then disappearing in a second. This was the same thing that the butler guy tried to do. This time just like the last the golden energy did nothing to my familiar. If anything, they seemed to purposefully avoid the barrage of spells.
“They do not seem to appreciate my appearance here.” My familiar said, speaking directly into my mind, before she gave a quick glance towards the source of spells, but then turned her attention back towards me.
“Right, well there weren’t any signs that said I couldn’t practice summoning you.” I responded back mentally.
“You didn’t summon me. You just opened a portal, and I came through on my own. Summoning implies a forced pull on me. Which the dispel magic being cast could easily break, if I was being pulled here against my will.”
“True, I also think that would be the number one way to get a spirit completely angry with me.”
“Yes, generally my kind does not take well to such a forced arrangement.”
“So why do you come?”
“Probably the same reason why you will come back to my realm, curiosity mostly. Though I doubt most spirits will have my sense of curiosity.” My familiar responded back mentally.
“Oh that reminds me, do you have a name?”
At that my familiar paused and truly tried to comprehend that question. After a point I had to share the concept of what a name was, and how it was a way we could identify ourselves. I also pointed out how most people tended to grow towards their name and the original meaning behind their name. There was a brief pause, as she seemed to contemplate that for the moment.
“I do not believe we have such a convention of growing towards an external marker placed on you by others. Though I guess if anything you could name me something you wish me to grow towards.”
I paused at that statement, not quite realizing the true ramifications of a name, or what having or rather bestowing a name could entail. Still I couldn’t help but realize this was likely an important moment, as I would literally dictate the growth of this spirit. I was just as certain of that, as I was that I was now granted permission to name said spirit.
Oddly I felt it harder to name this random spirit than it was to name my children. Though in the case of my children I did have a few months to think about the names. Whereas with this familiar I felt a sort of quick turnaround, as in I needed to name them based on what they were and what I wanted them to grow to. They were a spirit dragon, I also wanted her to both be amazing and independent. There was the draw back of trying to have a complex name that tried to be too cute and link together too many distinct concepts. I could also go the boy named sue approach, and name her something that would make her strong despite me, but that seemed confrontational. For a dragon spirit, I ultimately decided to name her after one of my favorite ghosts of all time, mentally coming to the thought I applied it and made it official.
“Zero?” My familiar said, as they began contemplating the concepts that went into the name.
“Yes, you are non-divisible, unique and ultimately a wild card. Now if you do something you will be beyond expectations, while also not forcing you to live up to any preconceived notions.” I mentally responded.
“Except you are also comparing me to this mental idea of a ghost dog you have from a childhood story?” My familiar states.
“Well yeah, you must come from something, but at the same time you need to be your own person as well.”
“Person?”
“Okay, maybe entity?” I correct.
At that my familiar seems to come to an agreement with my last thought. Of course, we were exchanging ideas and concepts at the speed of thought. This was a lot faster than most people could react, which was why it was odd to see the professor standing right by my side.
She had a glowing eye that all but radiated with power.
Of course, the professor’s glowing eye rested squarely on my familiar, which just took the moment to look back.
The two just stood there staring at each other for a moment, then the professor turned her attention towards me.
“She isn’t taking damage by being here, nor is she part of micro summoning portal.” The professor stated.
I nodded.
The professor paused as she turned from Zero, my familiar, then to me. I could see the same magical viewing energies running over me for a moment, as I could tell she was gaining a magical profile of me. Then after a moment, she nodded to herself and seemed to come to some sort of conclusion.
“I can see how you were accepted. Though I will have to inform you that summonings, even if they are your familiars, are not allowed to be manifested in the first year classrooms.”
At that Zero and I looked at each other and once again at the speed of thought a lot of information was exchanged before she nodded to me. At which point, I infused my finger with magical energy and created a rift that Zero could travel through. Once she was through, I waved my finger back over the hole in space, sealing the rift back once more.
Seeing the display my professor paused and stared at me for a moment, before nodding to herself. “Very well then. I expect great things from you.”
I paused, wondering if she said that to all the students, or if it was something the professor was slated to say to every student, or if she truly meant her comment. Thinking about the statement, I couldn’t help but think that it was ultimately meaningless. If my magic or ability to perform said magic was based solely on the belief of others, I might as well be called a Cleric and go worship in some shrine somewhere. As it was, I was here to learn about the true magical theory that made up this world.
With my resolve to improve myself, I paused, mentally recalled every page and passage of my Spirit section of the magic book. Then began reading again from the start.
Only when others would change their pages, would I pause for a moment to read their pages, before continuing.
At the front of the class my professor pulled out a pen and paper and wrote her own evaluations.
Student Potential:
Earl Ferdinand Von’Degrum: Talented Pyromancer, unable to understand the concept of the book.
Lord Irene Cloy: Talented Mentalist, thinks she can mind read her way to victory.
Cassiopeia: Talented Void Walker, understands the basics of the lesson. Likely cheating even now.
At that, I pause from reading her notes, trying to keep my poker face on. Of course, I did pause if only for a second, which she likely caught.
I could feel her gaze upon me, even though I had my body tilted to the side and away from her entirely. Still, she was observant enough to know I had at the very least been spying on her.
For a moment, I thought that would be it, she made a note and then that would be all. It wasn’t like my reading all of the other books at once could be considered cheating. If anything, I figured it would make it so I just managed to stay ahead in class.
Then my professor pulled out a separate parchment of paper and wrote a note that was clearly meant for me.
If you can read this, then meet me after class. There is something I need to discuss with you, Shade Touched.
Reading that last line I paused, as I reached up to my face, only to realize that I still had my goggles off. I paused, only realizing that I had taken them off when the butler guy asked to see my face. Then it was the test, then finally my quick teleport to the advanced spirit classroom. Then finally my walking here.
Realizing my mistake, I quickly put them back on, but the damage had already been done. This orc and all of these other students in the classroom all saw me.
Worse, my fellow spirit class students, the ones I met by teleporting into their spirit chamber also saw me for what I was. While I didn’t mind being known as being a Shade Touched, I knew it would make things a little more difficult with certain people.
I guess in a way I was lucky that I had an orc as my professor, rather than a dark elf fanatic, or worse, a light elf that might harbor a grudge against my kind.
Shaking my head, I realized I needed to do better if I wanted to succeed in this world. Especially one filled with unseen magical missteps. A world where magic was constantly growing and evolving all the time.
Realizing I was effectively a prisoner in the classroom, I did the only thing I could. I read, then reread the spirit section of my book. Then closing the book, I paused and waited as the colors slowly changed from deep purple, to dark black. Once there, I figured that was either the section on Dark magic in all, or hopefully just my section on Shadow magic.
Unfortunately I was not so lucky to have an entire book devoted to just Shadow magic, but the new book on Dark magic did have a lengthy arc on Shadow magic and the basic tenants thereof.
I read the entire section, then the entire book, along with my section. Then I re-read the entire book on dark magic again. Only then was it time for class to be over and for me to have a conversation with my professor.