Without losing much time, Zack quickly wrote down the necessary information to find his mother on the piece of paper that Letine had given him.

"Well, I guess I'm not needed anymore around here, so I will go and return home. It's been a pleasure, and I hope we meet again, young man. If you ever need someone to lend you a hand, just search for me and I will do my best to help you," Edwin smiled as he left the headmaster's office.

After he left, Zack was left alone with Letine, who quickly tried to get him out of her office.

"Well, if you don't have anything more to say, take this scroll and go to the secretary to deliver it. There they will tell you where your provisional room is and will give you an identification that will allow you to use some of the basic academy facilities, including the first floor of the library and the training areas. You will be allowed to stay here for a month at most. After that time, you will have to decide if you want to join the academy or find somewhere else to stay," she said as she gave Zack a paper scroll.

"Thanks for everything," Zack said while doing a little reverence.

Zack quickly grabbed the scroll and left the room, as it looked like Letine had work to do and didn't want to be disturbed.

But he soon found a problem, which was that Edwin had guided him to that office, but he didn't know where the secretary was or how to get to it.

At first, he tried to walk around, hoping that with some luck he would manage to get to his destination, but after a quarter-hour, he decided to give up and ask someone for directions.

With the help of some kind strangers, he managed to find his way toward the secretary, and in less than five minutes, he got there. At the secretary, an elderly man took his paper scroll, and after carefully reading it, he took out of nowhere a key with the number 374 inscribed on it and gave it to Zack.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Your room is in the residential area between the red and blue towers," the man said with a smile as he gave the key to Zack.

Zack thanked him and quickly tried to get to his room, but after walking three steps and realizing that he didn't know where to go again, he asked the elderly man for directions and quickly arrived at his room.

When he got to his bedroom, he found a simple room with a bed, a desk and a chair, a chest, and a closet. There was a little window above the desk so natural light could enter the room, and the walls were made of stone, while the floor was made of wood.

Zack quickly dropped his baggage around the room without ordering it and quickly left the room again.

He'd been on a ship for a few weeks and hadn't been able to leave, so he wanted to explore the academy before retiring to his room to cultivate.

With those thoughts, Zack began to explore the academy while trying not to get lost. Before it got dark, he managed to find the nearest dining room, a few training areas, and the library, with the last one being the one that caught his attention the most.

Even though he was only allowed to enter the first floor, he found a lot of documents about various topics, from history to magic theories and spells. Even though the topics related to cultivation, magic, or martial arts were very limited on that floor, he still took his time to read a few of those documents just to see what he could expect from there onwards from the academy.

After spending a few hours in the library, the image that he had of the Ventar Academy changed a bit. On one hand, every document about magic or cultivation studies was impeccable and pretty easy to understand, which showed how good the scholars of the academy were.

But on the other hand, he found the documents about martial arts lacking, and most of the time they were underestimated by their authors, as most of them were mages that had studied some martial arts, or they were simply transcribing the words of a martial artist, and as the authors didn't practice those techniques themselves, the transcription was not as good as it should be.

Zack, being himself a swordsman who also used magic, felt pity seeing that martial arts were underestimated by the scholars of the academy, and even if it wasn't a serious matter, it showed him that maybe the academy wasn't truly made for martial artists.

With those thoughts on his mind, he returned to his room and soon went to sleep.