Chapter 29: Passion
[Edited By: Arthur300000, ArchmageNaoki]
Once I arrived at lecture room, I tried to look for any familiar faces, of which there were none. Some people stared at me, but I did my best to ignore them.
The classroom was theater styled and quite large. It looked to be able to fit about 80 to 100 students, most of the seats are currently occupied. I noticed that in front of the desks was a metal plate with a name and rank displayed on it. I tried to look for one with my name on it but I found none, so I sat at a blank one.
The tables are made of a white and shiny material, Its surface about 1.5 square meters of the sloping display. I saw a white-haired elder guy on my left browsing the internet and a young girl in front of me playing a farming game. It seems there's no age limit on the enrollment.
"Just put your ID card on the table." A good-natured girl on my right told me when she saw me tapping the table. Her name is Maria Van Haenraets, Rank 1D. Most people in this room also have a student-adventurer-rank of 1D which is what ordinary people got when they enroll in this school. I saw some people with rank 1C next to their name, but those were in the minority.
"Thanks, this is my first time attending a lecture. My name is Kuro. Is there a way to not show my rank on my table?" I started small talk with Ms. Van Haenraets. This girl looks about 13 years old, her cheek is still puffed with a bit of baby fat, and she had long dark violet hair with big purple eyes, of which weren't common in this town, but not that rare.
"Nice to meet you, Kuro. I also just enrolled here school this week. Sorry to say but I don't know how to do that. May I know why don't you want to show your rank?" Maria has introduced herself and asked.
"I already have a high rank, but I just started taking my magic studies seriously. You know, I get by with close combat and pre-programmed devices." I quietly told her the reason, getting a raised eyebrow in responses.
"Ahem! Good morning everyone! Welcome to Basic Magic Theory! Before we learn about magic, let's begin with what reality is..." The lecturer announced the beginning of the course which stopped our conversation in its tracks. The nameplate on his podium read: "Professor Jonathan"
While everyone's attention is on the Professor, I sneakily put my ID card on the desk. But even then I also got second glances from the professor. The display immediately turns on and showed my current status.
Name: Kuro Velvori Age: 15 years
Race: Human Gender: Female
Institution: Royal Adventure High School
Rank: 3B Score: 1740/4000 Points
Credits: 13,695 Energy: 9.872/9.872 KJuiz
Oi! Just one day of helping my mom, my energy capacity increased by more than 5%. I touched my head to confirm that I still have my hair on it.
"...What we can observe with our senses is that the world has four dimensions, x, y, z, and time. Some elves, for example, exhibit the ability to sense more than four dimensions but for simplicity's sake let's just say that you sense only four." He took something that looked like a trampoline flipped vertically from his storage device. It's a thin membrane stretched over a steel frame.
"Ok, in front of this theoretically indestructible membrane is what you can sense while behind this membrane is an extra dimension." He put his hand through the stretched membrane. "Now you can sense my hand. But in reality, what you see or sense is not a hand but a projection through the membrane. This is what people call real." Then he holds a wand in his other hand then cast something. The portion of the membrane was deformed and turned into the shape of another hand. "And this is what people call magic. The magic itself is a manipulation of the membrane, but the thing that's magically created is hollow." While he was lecturing, the fake hand was making a rude gesture, making the students laugh. As the lecture went on, he asked the students one by one to answer a question. I hope that none of those questions lands on me, I don't want to be the center of attention. However, before the break arrived, the professor asked me a question.
"Here comes the important part. Ms. Kuro Velvori, what would happen when I try to melt magical ice?" Damn! Well, it can't be helped. At least, I already tried this experiment. "It won't melt." I answered. However, he smirked and cast a fire spell on conjured ice, and it melted. Why?
"What Ms. Velvori said is not totally wrong. Some conjured ice won't melt. The difference is how you construct the spell. When you understand the structure of magic spells, you could even make a piece of ice that will turn into a marshmallow when exposed to heat. However, there are several reasons why people aren't doing that. The most important one is spell integrity. The more the spell conforms with reality, the more integrity it has. However, to add more properties to the spell, it becomes more complicated. There are also other methods to raise the spells integrity such as creating an exothermic reaction with magic" Professor explained before the 10-minute break bell rang. Thanks to that question now everyone saw my rank. Luckily no one approached me yet. They were just gossiping by themselves while looking at me.
"Snack?" Maria was holding a chocolate coated biscuit stick to me, so I thanked her and took one. Right now I'm trying the spell design application the professor suggested. I bought the student version of it for 45 credits and tried it on my magic from the Skyrim.
"Oh? You already know how to construct a spell?" Maria asked while looking at my display, on which I'm trying to disassemble my Skyrim's flame spell. Well, I have to start with the simplest, right? After a short while, I found out that the flame spell just created a jet of fire purely from my magic energy.
"No, this is just a simple spell that I learned as a whole, so I'm trying to understand its structure." Why does Skyrim magic have to be like this? I doubt it was the intention of the game designers. It might be something or someone that summoned me to this world filling in the blanks.
"Hmm, let's see. Yes, that spell is quite simple. However, if you create or gather fuel and make it oxidize with the oxygen in the air you would gain more output and integrity with the cost of a bit more symbol." Professor suddenly appeared behind my back making me jump a bit. I guess I was too preoccupied to notice but still...
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"It's ok Ms. Velvori. I'm just curious. It's rare for someone to skip my class and do so well in this line of work. What changed your mind?" The Professor asked.
"It's not that I don't want to attend this class. I was just enrolled in this school last week, so this is my first class." My answer made him pause for a while.
"Velvori, Velvori, Velvori... Oh! So you're team up with Aunos, huh? That would be possible." His words before he walked away made me think my brother might be some sort of celebrity around here. Is that really the case?
After the break, it was about the basic structure of spells and how to design it. The Professor also showed me how to simulate the spell on the magic design application. As expected, I only need to remember the small parts of the basic structures. However, the way to join these structure together needed a lot of practice.
The half hour before the lunch break he let us try the program, so I used that time to improve my Skyrim spells. I began with the destruction branch. Fire spells being the easiest to improve. While the ice spells I could improve a bit of the intensity by adding more properties of ice like a melting point and vapor pressure. However, the lightning spell is problematic. I tried to change it from a ray of light to the movement of the electrons, but the simulation warned me that I would hurt myself if I cast the spell like that. Time flew by, and the lunch break signal sounded while I was working on fireball, and the result was quite satisfactory. Just an improved fire bolt spell, the power is a bit lower than the normal bullet I used in the forest. But with the burning and knock back property, I would say it's comparable to it.
The program is quite easy to use and helps me learn new spells faster. It might be a good idea to buy a new computer to work on the spells at night. Well, compared to what I'm doing on the school's desk, my phone display is too small. However, I would need to find computer store after school to do that.
"Let's go Kuro, or do you already have someone to go with?" While I'm planning my after school shopping, Maria invited me to lunch and looked at me expectantly.
"Sure, but where would we go?" I replied. Both of my sibling's courses made them unavailable during lunch with me today so I would welcome a new dining friend, especially a cute girl like her.
"Hmm, what about trying the new cafe near the school?" ... I asked which school cafeteria should we visit, but this girl suggested the shop outside the school. What an outgoing person. She asked a lot of questions about my last field assignment while we walked to the cafe. Well, I think it's normal for a newly enrolled student to be interested in these things. On the way to the outside of school, we met with one of Maria's friend.
"Eva this is Kuro, Kuro this is Eva." Maria introduced us. Eva is a short dark blue haired girl in a stylish dress. Her dress looked like the ones on the cover of a women's magazine. Huh? Why did I read those magazines? I don't read it. It's just a pop-up advertisement I see on the internet.
"Yo." , "Nice to meet you." While I was formally greeting her, Eva just said "Yo." at me. Is this how girls introduce themselves or am I just getting old? Anyway, both Maria and Eva looked about my age, but they are stylish people. You know, wearing the latest brand name clothes and face full of cosmetics. Walking with them made me feel like I’m a country bumpkin. However, my self-confidence came back after Eva was told about my student-adventurer-rank by Maria. ~hah~ Yes, yes, yes, please, praise me more.
It took only ten minutes to reach the cafe called Polar Bear. In front of this cafe was a giant male polar bear statue standing on its hind legs. Considering the shop’s name that is normal, but why in the world is it wearing a yellow snake pattern shirt, golden necklace, golden frame glasses, and long tiger pattern scarf? And the entrance is between its legs. The scene makes me began to doubt this world's common sense all over again. Luckily the inside of the shop is normal. Well, it's a cafe, so they have coffee, desserts, and basic meals on the menu. However, the price is impossibly high. Holy shit, just the price of the cheapest cup of coffee I could eat ten pieces of fatty tuna sushis. The only coffee I know is an instant one, so I have no idea what the difference between Cappuccino, Mocha or Americano is. And what with the sizing unit. The menu has three different sizes tall, grande, and venti. Which one is the biggest and which one is the smallest? Hmm, maybe tall is the biggest because it's... tall? Wait, it's cheapest so it should be smallest. Why doesn't auto translation work here?
"What would you like to order miss?" The good looking waiter in a tuxedo came to take our orders. While Eva and Maria ordered their coffee and food, I was frantically looking for something within a reasonable limit. In the end, I ordered a mushroom pie and strawberry cheesecake shaved ice as dessert. I know it's winter, but they're the cheapest things on the menu I could find. Even so, they cost me eight credits. These girls here are needlessly wasting their money.
"Is it really alright? I mean these things are expensive." I quietly asked my new friends after the waiter walked back to the kitchen.
"It's ok. We don't do this every day. Actually, this is our celebration of passing the entrance exam. Oh, I'm sorry, is this too expensive for you?" Maria explained.
"No, It's not a problem. But please tell me ahead of time if we're going somewhere expensive." Well, with the money I had this amount is almost insignificant but expensive is still expensive.
The mushroom pie quickly came after that. It's like the waiter just walked back to the kitchen and picked it up. However, the pie is so tiny. I could fit it all on my petite hand... Well, it was nicely decorated and tasted wonderful, but too small for my appetite. So I wait impatiently for the shaved ice.
"By the way, did you really kill that spider bear by yourself?" Eva continued to ask me more questions about the monsters I faced in the forest.
"Yup, but you should start with something simple first to know your limit, a thunderwolf for example." I'm not that dense, you know? From people's reaction last time I'm aware that I'm stronger than an average adventurer.
"Yeah, easier said than done. Thunderwolves always come in packs." Eva retorted. Oh yeah, I forgot that. Well, one or two packs of them don't feel any different to me but for newbie adventures a pack of wolves might pose problems. Maybe I should suggest that giant grasshopper instead?
While I was thinking, a big bowl of soft shaved ice was placed in front of me. It looks beautiful, and the ice flake was super fine, and it felt nice to the touch. It melted as soon as I put it in my mouth, and the fresh strawberry syrup made it taste refreshing. On top of that, there is a super delicious cheesecake is in the middle of the bowl. While I was enjoying the dessert, Maria and Eva giggled so I looked at them.
"You have a cute face when you're content. So, you don't like the pie huh?" Eva said.
"Well, it's too small." I answered.
"Yeah, that's the problem with this kind of shop. They think that girls only eat little, but it turns out some girls like us have quite an appetite." Eva agreed while Maria was sipping her coffee. I think this shop was Maria's idea because she seems to be enjoying her fruit tart, and she's the only one at this table with an appetite matching this shop. Eva must've gone along with her idea, huh? What a good friend.
After we had finished, a waiter came and let us draw a lucky coupon for our next visit. I got a two credit discount on coffee, which I doubt that I'll ever use, so I gave it to Maria who only got a one credit discount. Eva is lucky. She got a free cake.
While we were walking back to school, I asked them about the IT shop. It turns out that Eva is good at it, so she volunteered to bring me to her favorite store after school.
We split and head back to our classrooms while Eva goes back to her lessons about traps and drones called support class. She might be in the same line of work as Marcus. Speaking of him, I haven't heard anything about my equipment accessory I ordered from his group yet. I plan on calling him after school.
"Huh?" When I came back to my desk, I saw a letter envelope placed neatly on my desk. On top of it was a purple rose.
"Wow! You got a love letter, Kuro." Maria exclaimed. Oh, so it's just a love letter... Wait, WHAT!?