The group prepared to eat their breakfast as soon as they finished talking about everything that needed to be said.
David felt that there were a lot of complicated things going on behind the scenes which made him worry, Tobias saw that worry and once again reassured David that he had nothing to worry about at all, the academy may be in a difficult spot at the moment, but the students would under no circumstances be involved too deeply, he told David that the only thing he really needed to worry about were his studies and enjoying his academy life, he even sneakily hinted at David that maybe a bit of companionship was also something he should keep in mind before making a weird sound which seemed like a laugh and flying away to who knows where exiting through the window just as he came.
David saw the Tobias off into the skies, the last remark slightly dyeing his cheeks red as he wasn’t expecting it, he was already putting a lot of effort into not minding the looks of the others or stare at the them uncomfortably which is why the remark slightly shook his mental state for a moment.
But quickly enough he calmed down, mostly because he was really hungry and also because he could smell the delicious scent of food wafting into the kitchen from the other door which must have been the kitchen.
David still didn’t know what they would eat, but regardless what it was he was looking forward to it as he hadn’t eaten a good meal for the past few days while traveling here as he mostly ate dried rations which were very appetizing.
-So David, since we are all going to show you around for the next week…do you have something in mind that you want to see?
Conversations were still ongoing of course, particularly since David was still new here and most importantly because he was the only male garnering the attention of everyone present, David himself didn’t realize he garnered that much interested because he was male and calmly replied to Vanessa sitting near him, she was awfully close too, her breasts nearly touching him as her body heat was clearly felt by him within this distance.
-Ehm..I am not sure, I don’t really know much about the academy other then the things Caithlyn had already told me about while escorting me here, Syndra also told me about the classes, talking about classes, since the board of directors clearly don’t like the commoners and nobles mingling with each other are classes also assigned that way?
David asked, his question pretty fair by his experience, the one who answered though was Hyura, her blood red eyes looking over him as she answered with her steady and dignified voice.
-No, fortunately classes aren’t separated this way as even the board of directors can’t change something like that, as it would directly interfere with the roots of the academy, because of this both nobles and commoners will need to attend class in the same classroom, beside separating the two like this would be inefficient as well as we don’t have as many teachers as one might think to handle all of those classes if it did happen.
Her direct and reasonable answer was easy to understand, but in the next moment another question bloomed within David’s mind as he remembered why he was put in this dorm in the first place.
-So there are more commoners then I imagined attending this academy, but if that’s so why aren’t they also living in this dorm? Didn’t the board of directors use the excuse of me being a commoner to make me live here? I know they did it just to spite the headmistress, but since they did it so openly wouldn’t doing so be clearly received as them being hypocritical if other commoners right now lived together with the nobles in their respective dorms? Why aren’t they living here as well?
With another good question presenting itself, the girls and woman in the dining hall clearly knew that already, the one answering this time though was again a different girl David had only just met, her heavy accent was unmistakable as she fixed her thick rimmed glasses to her face, her voice was a bit more nervous compared to the others in fact she seemed unconfident about herself stuttering a bit but overall speaking very understandably even with all those flaws.
-Zhe board sof dyrectors understandz zhat, but zince zhe majority of zhe commonerz had already bien liveng in zheir respective zorms for a long zime having zhem zuddenly change zorms would cause outrage, in fact zhis zorm had been planned to become the zorm of the commonerz in zhe previous year while a new zorm would be built for the malez, it iz only this year that thiz rule had bien implemented though, but even zo out of all the commonerz it iz only you who came here az the new zorm hand’t been built yet, all the other zorms in the malez had been filled and the zoom you’re uzing being the only zoom available, and zince the board sof dyrectors don’t zike the headmistrezz they obviously put you in thiz zorm…again…zorry for my accent.
This time it wasn’t only David was more informed about the situation, the rest of the girls and even the two professors seemed to be surprised about this new information, Valentia in fact couldn’t help but ask how Olga knew this.
To this Olga admitted that she usually kept herself very well informed about the ins and goings of the academy, she like everyone else didn’t know about David actually coming here to live with them until he actually came, but she already knew other types of information and using them she made a extremely accurate reason as to what was going on.
Hearing this David was impressed by her intellect and resourcefulness, David already knew that Olga was the genius potioneer Valentia described, but it seemed as if potioneering wasn’t her only talent, rather then calling her a potioneering genius just calling her a genius would have fit her more in Davids opinion, but that was just him.
With those questions out of the way, they returned back to the original question, what David wanted to see, Syndra in particular was going to guide him today, which is why David tried to think about what he would like to see.
He didn’t have any particular hobbies that could help him answer that question either, but while thinking about it intently, he couldn’t help but remember how he lamented the fact that he didn’t have any books about magic other then the one he original was gifted back when he was young, to this day David only knew that single book about mana control practicing it every day, when practicing he always sometimes thought about what other things he could do with mana, and ever since experiencing a spell on his body and being able to mess with it, this desire only grew as he couldn’t help but exclaim.
-Library! Do you have a library where I can learn about magic!
His enthused question pulled the attention of everyone even further, especially since it had to do with magic as that was what everyone was here for in the first place, but since it was Syndra who David was talking to no one could just say something without looking rude, Syndra liked that as she had David’s complete attention to herself which felt very in front of everyone.
-Obviously the academy would have a library where you can learn magic, it is the biggest building in this academy the most popular and it is open 24/7 as well, but the thing is other than the very basics and lowest ranking spells everything else above that, you will need something called points to actually acquire access to.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
-Points?
David mumbled in confusion, his face showed it too, Syndra seemed ready to explain as well, but before she could do so someone else had already started which was Cassandra.
-The points she is speaking of are given out at the end of each month, the amount of points you get each month depends on the rank of your student id which you can only increase through raising your grades and competing with others on the leaderboard, doing missions given out by the academy or other students, or trade unknown magic knowledge to the library, points can also be directly traded between students and teachers, in general points are used to trade for whatever the school has for sale, spell models and magic research are commonly what the people here spent their points on, but magic items are also in demand, speaking of the id it’s a blue crystal card, master Tobias must have given it to you.
-Are you talking about this.
David pulled out his student id, keeping it within his breast pocket as it glowed a faint blue light, he wondered what this card was used for, but now that he knew he couldn’t help but feel how important it was, even without them telling him he already knew how important points must be in this school since it was directly connected to what kind of magical knowledge you had access to and much more.
Increasing your student rank was likely the most important thing as it directly influenced how much points you would get each month, thinking about it how many points would he get, he wondered.
Vanessa who sat beside him clearly understood what he was thinking through his gaze and quickly told him what he wanted to know.
-As a freshman you obviously will start from the lowest student rank there is which is why you will only get a 100 points of now, which is only enough for you buy a single rank 1 spell model on the low side of the quality, but don’t worry as long as you do well in school and do some simple missions you will easily be able to raise your student rank, furthermore as a freshman you are eligible to a certain welcome present, you get to choose one rank 1 spell model of any quality from the library, the time limit is 1 year as well which is plenty time for you to choose a suitable spell, in fact I recommend you to use this opportunity to choose a talent spell that will be one of your cores for when you become a rank 1 wizard, many students make the mistake of wasting this chance by choosing a random spell they fancy, since you are one of us you shouldn’t…
-Vanessa I don’t David here fully understands what you are saying, don’t forget that he is still just a freshmen, a commoner at that, Olga and Hyura may be at the same level as him on the practical stand point as they all have zero experience using magic, but when it comes to theory he hasn’t even began, remember don’t put David on the same level as Olga and Hyura, I don’t want you to meaninglessly make the boy feel bad when he has no idea what your saying and expecting him to be a scholar at his age.
Cassandra almost sounded as if she was scolding Vanessa and while Vanessa looked like she understood, she also looked a bit bitter as if she was unjustly being berated by her coworker.
Vanessa had a good reason for that too as the memory of David dispelling her spell last night was still very clear in her mind, ever since she saw that she assumed that David had already some magical ability together with basic magical knowledge which is why she was explaining everything so well to him.
She felt that David was extremely talented for his age and wanted to make that known by telling Cassandra about it.
But David quickly came between them, not that he already wasn’t, not liking that they looked like they were quarrelling over him, Valentia and Syndra quarreling was different as that seemed more like rivalry that everyone was used to at this point, while Cassandra and Vanessa looked a bit too heated in comparison making everyone slightly anxious from their looks.
-Thanks professor Cassandra for looking out for me, but I think that professor Vanessa only means well, a professor having expectations for her students is only natural, and it’s true that compared to everyone else I have simply no knowledge regarding magic other than how to control my mana, but I will work hard and I am confident that…
-Wait what did you just say? Did you just say you can control your mana?
Before David could even finish what he wanted to say, Cassandra suddenly interrupted him with a surprised look on her face, everyone else for the manner was just as surprised as they looked at David with odd eyes as if they had misheard him, David found their surprise and odd looks to be weird as he didn’t understand what was weird about him being able to control his mana when they were all wizards greater then him, this entire time David was under the assumption that something basic as being able to control your mana was something everyone with enough training could do, even though Syndra had explained before that everyone started out the same when it came to magic, that they would all first learn how to sense their magic, he didn’t connect magic to mana at all as he thought that controlling mana was the basic while sensing magic was casting spells.
Never could he imagine that he was already way ahead of every freshman his age and that what he thought of as a given ability was not actually given at all.
Everyone else in the room had a lot and more complete knowledge in regards to magic which is why they knew that if what David was saying was the truth that this could be big.
The only person who thought so otherwise was Cassandra and Vanessa, both thinking on the opposite side of the spectrum as Vanessa thought that David already had certain capabilities which is why she was so excited for him and his gift, while Cassandra thought that David may be just bragging or lying as she never saw an individual like him who could control mana at his age.
She had a reason to believe so as well, as every wizard knew from reading the most elementary book about magic that when magic is practiced before your coming of age which was 15, it could have devastating effects on the soul, the reason for that was because a soul matures roughly the same age as the body, it is widely believed that it is the soul that gives a creature the ability to think and reason, and that if a person who hasn’t a matured enough soul uses their mana that they could irreversibly damage their own soul with their lack of a strong soul, at the minimum turning them into a vegetable while at worst killing them instantly.
After maturation of the soul, learning how to control your mana also roughly takes 4 to 12 months depending on how gifted you are with the lesser gifted taking at most an entire year.
And even when you are able to control your mana it doesn’t mean you can start casting spells, you would instead start training on how to shape that mana on how to cause phenomena with it like telekinetically raising objects, creating lights and minor illusions or causing small flames, spells in the end were simply programs that ran long lines of commands a human mind couldn’t possibly do on their own, the brain is used like a computer for execution of these programs while the person just chooses when they are going to activate the program, having prior knowledge on how to control mana and how to induce phenomena with it is simply like knowing on how to utilize a program to its fullest.
Cassandra believed that there was no way David knew something like that when he had just merely turned 15, she was sure that he was just bragging or mistaken, but then again for some reason she couldn’t help but doubt herself as the way David looked so confident confused her instincts.
In the end the only real way to know for sure was for David demonstrate it himself.
And just in time the door to the cooking room opened, coming in was a food cart with loads of food on making its way into the room, the delectable smell of all kinds of dishes enveloped the dining room and as the cart came closer David finally saw who it was that was pushing it which turned out to be a wooden mannequin, David immediately recognized it to be a type of golem of some sort, a being created from magic immediately pulled his attention, but in the next moment seeing all the dishes on the cart an idea sprouted within David.
Using his mana, David immediately made all the dishes together with the cutlery float and fly towards them, seeing the dishes so suddenly raise into the air caused everyone a shock as they watched each dish gently land onto the table, there were more than 10 dishes with numerous cutlery all being placed in meticulous order right in front of them, it didn’t even take a minute before everything was in place and everyone had something to eat.
But even when was right in front of them, no was eating, they were all too shocked about what they just witnessed as they all knew who had just moved those dishes and numerous pieces of cutlery, the person in question didn’t notice and was rather occupied with enjoying what he had in front of him already starving and being able to control himself as he ate.
It was only after taking a couple bites and feeling the deliciousness of the food that he noticed that it was only him who was eating, everyone else was simply too busy staring at David to care making him wonder for a moment.
-(Were my table manners a bit too much?)
========================================
If you want to read more, over 10 chapters of this series is on my site https://kakemonoko.wordpress.com/ please check it out if you like.