Retreating to my room I started something with high nerves.

Enchanter: [An uncommon class, having this skill invalidates other class type skills. This class is a master of creating powerful equipment, and by imbuing portions of their mana into an object can give it unique properties. The complexity and strength of the enchantment are based on how much mana was used. Mana imbued into a weapon can't be recovered until the caster touches the object and cancels the enchantment of the object is destroyed]

[currently rank 1, train to increase?]

[Y/N]

Though hesitant, the book I read said that the training would be specific for the skill and unless it was a fighting skill it wouldn't normally force him to fight. So I chose Y. As for why Enchanter and not Encoder the answer was simple if Encoder amplifies Enchanter we should have a strong base first. Thoughts aside a new window appeared.

[Enchant an object that fulfills the following criteria:]

O Can emit an element [False]

O Can't be harmed by emitted element [False]

Hmm, interesting. Emit an element, is this similar to how mages in games will summon a fireball with a cane? I took my trusty fountain pen out and first refilled it with ink and opened the enchantment screen. The first thing that I tried to do was make it so the ink was more flammable and sticky like napalm but that would require altering the ink and not the pen itself. While an interesting future strategy, for now, I will hold back and simply look to the very last part of the pen, the area that the actual ink came out of, and try to alter it to emit flames.

[Error: No source of flame]

That makes sense. I needed to give the pen a function that would first allow it to convert mana into an element. Seems like you can directly enchant objects' already active features like my pen's ink output or a sword's sharpness, but to make a new one something else needs to be done. After mentality noting that down I once again tried to edit the pen. After a few hours of working with it, I started to get a hang of how the enchanting worked.

Mana was something similar to simple energy, imagine electricity, to get the effect of an elemental attack the energy needed to be transformed into a different form which could be done with a specific algorithm my code window had pre-made for me. When I had more time I would pick apart the algorithm to try and understand it. Continuing where I was, the ability to convert the mana wasn't enough as it needed to first get an input of mana then it needed an output, otherwise, the mana would pool until the object broke. For the pen, I added a function to the grip allowing mana to flow from the person holding it through a specific path. Following the path, the next area was where the Ink was stored which now instead of holding was changed to convert the mana imbued into fire magic. Next, I very carefully enchanted pathways along the pen to have the fire flow to the tip of it. And finally, I redid the enchantment to alter it to activate the flame magic and shoot it out.

[Would you like to enchant? Will cost 15 mana. Y/N]

Wow, a 3 times difference from my spray. I quickly dumped the ink currently in it into the little jar I had and held my hand holding the pen outstretched before clicking Y. Nothing happened immediately but I started following what the book had said about channeling mana into something and the effect was clear, the front of the pen emitted a small flame. I quickly stopped imputing mana and looked back at the screen.

[Enchant an object that fulfills the following criteria:]

O Can emit an element [True]

O Can't be harmed by emitted element [False]

Boolean huh. Neat. Next was the invulnerability portion. This was more complicated, it seemed like I would need to do quite a bit of work to get that one down.

It took a total of an hour before I finally got it working. It was a refreshing feeling despite that as if I just rediscovered computer coding. In the end, the solution was actually stronger than what it wanted. To give it protection I selected a few points around the pen and made it so they would absorb fire mana at a rapid pace then recycle it back into the pen to be emitted. So broken down if someone shot a fireball at the pen it would absorb it and could be used as what became essentially lighter fluid. Granted depending on the size of the fireball the pen would just break so it wasn't actually that strong. I looked at the screen once more.

[Would you like to enchant? Will cost 75 mana. Y/N]

Wow, almost all of my total mana for a glorified lighter. That's expensive! Maybe just because it worked with elements but still. Regardless I can get it back by just disenchanting it.

[Enchantment takes more than 25% of mana, would you like to name the object?]

A name huh. Well, the pen only exists for the sake of clearing the training, so I won't bother. I clicked no and the training prompt showed once again.

[Enchant an object that fulfills the following

criteria:]

O Can emit an element: True

O Can't be harmed by emitted element: True

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

[Chose a reward:]

[Magic intelligence + 1]

[Enchanter rank up]

[reduced cost of fire magic-based enchantments by 10%.]

I had been prepared for this. In a book, I read about the basics of the system. When you complete a training you get a few options. A related stat boost, a rank up, and a boost based on what the training was. The rank increase would make the training harder but would also make the increases you got significantly better. for instance instead of a 10% boost if I was rank two it may be a 25% boost. This increase would only get higher and higher until you reach a rank cap. From what I read everyone's rank cap is different but a high-rank enchanter could probably make weapons far beyond the scope of earth. Maybe.

I couldn't be sure of anything right now. I had a lot more information but I'm not a genius. I didn't know everything because I read a few books. Not to mention that the sources weren't exactly reliable. I had to ignore quite a few obvious exaggerations. That or the Undying empire is full of mindless barbarians who are of equal intelligence to wolves. Doubtful.

Putting unnecessary thoughts aside I decided to go with a rank-up. The enchantment I just used only took half of my mana, this may seem like a lot but if I played around with it slightly I was fairly sure I could drop it, and getting the higher boosts early would be most profitable.

[Are you sure you want to rank up? Y/N]

As I clicked Y nothing changed but checking the status showed the 1 in front of the skill had turned into a two. As it stood the mana used on the lighter pen hadn't returned and I couldn't help but feel somewhat bad about destroying the enchantment. I had worked so hard on it! But I needed the mana.

[Remove enchantment? Warning this cannot be undone! Y/N]

Y

I watched as parts of the pen started to glow then fade and it was returned to a normal fountain pen. Using my brain and mana as much as I had thought I was tired. I looked to the uncomfortable bed and with a small groan, I dropped onto it. And as I closed my eyes, the world faded away.

I slowly tore myself from my bed. It seemed to be sometime near dawn. I guess the former owner of this body would normally get up around now and I got stuck with the sleep schedule. I grumbled slightly as I sat up. Which was when I remembered something that put me in a bad mood. Today was my first day of class.

Throwing on the uniform, the typical school uniform which somewhat contrasted the old style of the school. It made it somewhat hard to get a good read on the technological level of the civilization. It also led credence to another theory I had, but that wasn't relevant right now. What was relevant was navigating the halls of the school. I had a makeshift map on me that I was filling out as I walked. But I was thinking that I had done some parts wrong as I took a wrong turn into a dead end.

"...Why does the school even have a random dead end."

As I was standing there lost I heard the noise of footsteps behind me and turned to see a girl wearing a panic expression while looking at the wall. She looked at me as well.

"...It's a dead end."

"Why!"

"I wish I knew. Here I drew out a map of the area but it's freehand and led me here."

Deciding two heads were better than one I gave her the map to inspect. After a second of thinking her eyes lit up as if she had an epiphany.

"I think I know the way! You've got a stretch of area left undrawn!"

Looking somewhat sideways at the map in her hands I saw the area she was talking about. Seeing that it was almost halfway across the school from where we were the two of us looked at each other for a moment. Then in perfect sync, we both started running down the halls. We had to dodge an occasional person who was still in the area but did so with relative ease. While running alongside her for less than 30 seconds I started to run out of steam. Curse this body! I curse its low physical stats! Not that my states in my past life would've been much better. Despite my complaints, nothing was changed and she burst through the door of the classroom several seconds before I did. As I caught my breath from the running, a teacher walked in.

After looking at me funny as I just about crawled to my seat while panting heavily she started a lecture deciding not to bother saying anything. I listened in during class intently.

She then explained that she was our homeroom teacher, an Enchanter by the name of Ms. Nat. Also, she offhandedly mentioned that except for homeroom and a few specific electives the school wasn't separated based on class. It also seemed that the first day would be spent going over class rules and doing introductions, I could handle regular school things.

I could not handle it. I was so tired. The classes were full of the same people and having to re-introduce myself several times has left me drained. Some of the teachers even made us do icebreakers. I think I'm in hell. I was snapped out of my thoughts as both the guy, who I learned was a fighter named Ceff, and the girl who I ran with who was a weapon specialist named Malta. While a fighter was self-explanatory, I was rather curious about what a weapon specialist was. Something like a weapon-based enchanter? They were both walking in the same direction as me to the last class of the day, training. It was a vague name but I could roughly guess it would be something like a self-study class but specified for planning out your class upgrades and skills. Malta and Ceff were happily conversing right next to me.

Despite my previous conversation with Ceff being a somber one, he was quite a high-energy guy. "Ah, I'm just so excited! I was here earlier in the year for the training for a dungeon permit but it all seems so new with the extra people!"

However in terms of energy if Ceff was a battery Malta was a nuclear reactor. "I know I know! All the teachers seemed chill so it's going to be a blast training here! Ah, I'm not saying it'll be easy or anything like that though! Just that it's... Eh, you get what I was going for! Also, did you see all of the magic projectors, so cool!"

That was something else, this school was weird. Generally, you'd think that they would be trying to turn us into the best fighting machines they could but in actuality, the majority of classes encouraged self-discovery and "Letting the voices speak to you personally." I got the point but they could phrase it less ominously! I felt like I was joining a cult. Also, thanks to the technology brought about by the magic but young age of the world it created a weird contrast of high and low tech areas. For instance, instead of a whiteboard, most teachers had a sort of interactive hologram, but all of our chairs and desks look like they came from an antique shop.

As I was pondering the weird state of the school the conversation somehow came to me.

"That was some self-intro though Prab." Malta said before putting on a mockingly cold voice to make fun of my one-word introductions. "...Prab." Having completed her poor impression as Ceff tried and failed to hold in laughter she returned to her regular voice. "I mean I knew you were the silent type but geez, only one word?"

I didn't even have time to respond as Ceff naturally filled the silence. "Hey Malta, at least he didn't have to have a teacher stop him." He countered with the homeroom teacher having to silence her during math due to her introduction lasting too long. The banter between the two of them lasted until we reached the training room. I opened the door to a very strange, but also very massive room.

The room was an all-purpose training room for several different classes and was thus full of what looked like random junk. For enchanters there were lines of large desks with wooden blinders, each also had drawers to its side filled with a random assortment of things to enchant. Anything from masks to fingerless gloves to rocks was all in the drawers. Other non-combat classes had a similar setup with desks and ample sheets of parchment in the area. The non-physical area was on the near end of the room and in the middle was an obvious divide where the physical side began. On the far side of the room the tall wall was completely covered in various weapons, the massive weapons rack then quickly led more towards the middle of the room where a small pit of sand was. It looked like a tiny arena with only enough space for 3-4 people to stand in. then a little farther was a few areas taped out to give anyone standing in them enough room to move. If I had to guess the little arena would be for fighting while the taped areas were for self-based training like swinging your sword.

While my face remained stoic as ever my two companions made no effort to hide their awestruck faces. We all broke off with Ceff running to the taped-out areas. Malta ran to the massive rack of weapons to inspect each individually. And finally, I also went over to an enchanters station and inspected the drawers and desk. It was an expensive-looking piece of carpentry that was probably unnecessarily expensive. Criticism aside it was still impressive and neat, I'd be spending a lot of time here.

As I was inspecting the area the door opened once more and a teacher with a comically long mustache that curled up at the ends walked in. He stood tall and looked down on all of us, Ceff, especially for some reason.

"My name is professor Serco. And I will let you all know now, if I catch any of you slacking off even slightly then I won't hesitate to have you removed from this class. Especially those of you with more to prove."

As he said that final part he looked dead at Ceff. I might be dense as a rock but even I could recognize the professor had some issues with him. Seemed like he was waiting for a chance to kick him out. I sighed internally as I watched our teacher pick a fight with a high schooler. This was going to be a long year.