"You wouldn't refuse to help this poor child when he wishes to learn more about magic would you Lyrei?" Chao asked.

"What do we god's care about one mortal?" Lyrai asked before adding, "Especially one from another universe, no offense." She said to Tommy at the end as if feeling slightly guilty.

"None taken." Tommy replied, surprising Lyria.

"Interesting, you really are unlike the mortal's of Dealubies, if they heard me speaking in such a way they would be down on their knees groveling for mercy, it can honestly get rather annoying at times." Lyria commented.

"Maybe because on earth not everyone believes in god." Tommy replied.

"Oh do explain," Lyria said with interest.

"Earth the world I am from is more advanced than Dealubies even though we don't have magic," Tommy began to explain. "Instead of magic or faith we tend to follow science instead."

"Science does exist on Dealubies, it is just not so recognized according to Asten the god of knowledge." Lyria said.

"Well apparently magic has not existed for a long time on earth from what Chao tells me, though if you asked me before I came here or anyone from Earth they would tell you that magic is not real and does not exist." Tommy said, causing Lyria to gasp in surprise.

"Does not exist? How can that be? The very fabric of reality is tied to magic." Lyria argued.

"Don't blame the messenger." Tommy replied, raising his hands. "I'm just telling you how things are back on Earth, I guess Earth's god did such a good job removing magic or hiding it from us humans that we started to believe it was all fairy-tales and made up."

"Anyway in regards to faith. The faithful used to be the main faction for thousands of years and acted in the name of god, in fact the witch trials you mentioned earlier Choa where acted out in the name of god. It's probably another reason why he removed magic from humans."

"Now there are still many believes in god back on earth, in fact there are many gods that are believed in, whether they are all the same god just worshiped in a different form, or if there are indeed many different gods I don't know, all I can say is the faithful do not hold as much power as they used to on Earth and now science is more prominent."

"Science is what has allowed earth to become more advanced than Dealubies."

"Interesting, thank you for explaining that to me Tommy." Lyria said in thanks before adding. "I will be sure to pass this knowledge onto Asten whom I'm sure will want to know more."

"That's it." Chao said as if just thinking of something.

"What's it?" Lyria asked with a frown.

"Tommy can earn his right to learn about magic here." Chao said proudly.

"He can?" Lyria asked.

"I can?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, aren't you always complaining about how mortals don't research magic enough, or look after their magic tools properly or things of that nature Lyria?" Chao asked.

"I wouldn't say always." Lyria pouted before adding, "But I admit it does irk me."

"Then how about this, if you let Tommy learn about magic here in your Athenaeum, after he returns to Dealubies you can occasionally send him oracles of tasks you need him to do." Chao suggested.

Lyria took a moment to consider this while Tommy asked, "Oracles? As in those people who communicate with gods and get visions from you?"

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"Two different things with the same name." Chao replied before continuing. "You're on about an individual called an Oracle who normally holds a prominent place in a kingdom or empire advising the ruler while occasionally communicating with us gods."

"The oracle I mean is a type of communication gods can send directly to mortals, though it's true we normally only do it with the Oracle mortals."

"Oh that's not confusing at all." Tommy said sarcastically.

"Regardless you don't need to understand the specifics, all that matters is that after you return Lyria would occasionally send you Oracles or messages requesting that you do something for her in exchange for using her Athenaeum, if you do a good job she may even reward you."

"Don't go making promises for other gods Chao" Lyria snapped at him.

"I have to pay to study? "You're the one who brought me here and now you say I have to pay like a university back on Earth." Tommy snapped at Chao.

Tommy and Lyria both glared at Chao for a moment before looking at each other and chuckling.

"What is this university you speak of?" Lyria asked.

"It's a place of learning," Tommy explained. "It's for humans who have finished school but still want to learn more and in a specialized subject."

"So it's like learning all the basics of magic, then once that's done you focus on one particular element or aspect of magic." Lyria said in understanding.

"Errr I guess." Tommy replied unsure.

"This is more useful information that Asten could use, he has been trying to think of a way to increase the knowledge level of the mortals, maybe these universities can be the solution." Lyria said with a smile.

"There are many levels of education back on Earth." Tommy informed them.

"Really?" Lyria said with interest before adding with a wink, "I expect I won't be the only god sending you Oracles in the future."

"Does that mean you accept?" Chao asked excitedly.

"Yes I suppose it does." Lyria replied before turning to Tommy with a smile as she said, "Welcome Tommy Smith to my Athenaeum, as Chao has already informed you this is a place all mortals yearn to visit but very few are given the opportunity so consider yourself lucky."

"Here you can learn about any known magic in the universe with new ones being discovered all the time so there is always more to learn."

"You're here to learn the very basic fundamentals of magic, specifically how magic works, how it is manifested and in what ways it can be used plus much much more."

Luckily for you my Athenaeum is divided into sections and the fundamentals has its own small section." Lyria finished before Tommy realized they had suddenly moved to a different part of the Athenaeum.

"All the books and scrolls you see before you are for learning the fundamentals of magic." Lyria declared.

Tommy looked ahead of himself in shock, shelves filled with books, scrolls and other objects for as far as the eye could see where visible before him.

"You want me to learn all this?" Tommy asked weekly for he knew it was impossible in his lifespan.

"God no." Chao said, "There is no way you can learn all of that in your lifetime, just focus on what you think you need to learn most about magic in order to survive and then expand your knowledge from there, you have a year to spend learning here after all."

"Why a year?" Lyria asked suspiciously.

"Errr, because of the nature of how Tommy died back on Dealubies, I figured it would be best for him to wait at least a year before returning." Chao said, making up a story on the spot.

"I see." Lyria replied with that same disbelieving tone and look.

"Regardless, a year is not much time for you to learn the fundamentals of magic Tommy, therefore after you complete tasks for me in the future I will be sure to lend you more learning materials as part of your rewards."

"That sounds like homework." Tommy replied with a sigh.

"Homework?" Lyria and Chao asked, confused.

"Don't schools here give out homework?" Tommy asked.

"Most schools on Dealubies at least are only attended by nobles since only they can afford the teaching costs and the noble children would complain about having work to do at home." Lyria replied.

"Well I see two fundamental mistakes with the schooling system you gods have on Dealubies from that sentence." Tommy declared.

"It's not our system it's Asten's, he's the god of knowledge." Choa replied defensively.

"Regardless it's flawed, first of all the average intellect and knowledge level of mortals would increase if you enabled it so that all children could go to school, preferably for free." Tommy explained.

"The nobles won't like that?" Lyria replied.

"Do gods fear hurting the noble's position?" Tommy asked mockingly.

"Of course not, but our tributes would reduce if we upset them." Chao replied.

Ok then let me ask you this, what is the percentage of nobles to commoners on Dealubies if we include every race?" Tommy asked.

"Like one percent noble to ninety-nine percent commoner." Lyria replied.

"Probably higher than ninety-nine percent actually." Chao added to which Lyria nodded in agreement.

"Ok then let's say you make the nobles upset and they stop giving you so many offerings because you made the lives of the commoners better, wouldn't that mean the commoners' offerings would increase?" Tommy asked before adding. "Now take the difference in numbers between the nobles and commoners, even if the vast majority commoners can only afford to increase their offerings by one copper, wouldn't those coppers add up to be more than what you're losing from the few in number nobles?"