“I say that but I still need to fix up my chain casting.” Sylvester lamented, thus rooting himself back into the ground before any delusions of grandeur could push him up to the clouds. After all, it is a good habit to be objective.
“Man that Clarence guy was kind of right I guess.” His thoughts glossed over the words thrown out to him. While he himself doesn’t care about his reputation nor does his parents, he feels the responsibility to at least answer to the expectations thrust upon him.
He doesn’t view this as a pressuring burden, but a rather tricky and worthwhile challenge.
“Thinking about this too much isn’t going to help, right now I really need to just practice until I get better.” Sylvester declared as he continued to skim through the book he was reading and then a familiar voice once again entered his mind.
“Mr. Clearsight?” Rossa’s voice once again echoed in his head.
“Yes?” Sylvester replied a bit curious as to why she reached out again.
“Thank you for answering my inquiries, despite the sudden interferences.” She said in a rather pleasant tone.
“You’re welcome, I learned quite a bit of new stuff too so let’s just say we’re even. Let’s talk again some time.” He replied.
“I see. Regrettably, I must take my leave now. Please excuse me.” Rossa said as she got up from her seat near the windows.
“Alright, see you around.” Sylvester replied in a friendly manner.
As Rossa left, she stopped to give him one last nod before leaving to return the books she had before exiting the library itself. Sylvester stayed for a little while longer to continue reading, until he started feel his stomach rumbling.
He got up to return the books from the shelves he took them from and stepped out of the library. As he got out he remembered that he promised Artian and Estelle they would each lunch together.
These past few days it has been a habit for Sylvester to go hang out with the two of them for lunch until the very end of the day. One could say at this point the three of them can be considered friends.
For now, the trio of them decided to try out a new restaurant that had recently opened up. All of them wanted to be one of the first few people to try out the new place, even though it looks a little bit fancier than normal.
Sylvester wasn’t that bothered and was rather quite confident this time because he had left over credits despite his blunders last week. He wanted to at least recoup all the nutrients he lost when he had to resort to a diet of instant noodles and canned goods.
Still, he does at the very least hope the prices are somewhat reasonable.
After a few minutes of walking he finally reached the meeting point and saw that Artian and Estelle were there waiting for him. The pair waved their hands to him upon his approach, a gesture that he all too happily returned.
“Sorry guys, did you wait long?” Sylvester asked since he was the last one to arrive.
“Nah, not really.” Artian replied.
“We just got here really, Artian needed to get something from your dorm so we had to take a detour.” Estelle explained with her usual cheery self.
And with that Sylvester was welcomed by a warm smile and an irritated scowl. But despite all this, he knows next to nothing about his new companions, though he could surmise a few details, all those were just theories and conjectures. For now, he doesn’t really want to ask them difficult questions and prefers to wait until it inevitably comes up in a future conversation.
Most of these questions are directed at Estelle, and her peculiar transformation ability. It’s something that even piqued Rossa’s interest.
Though for now, he simply resigned to enjoying their company. It’s good to have people you can treat as friends after all.
The trio then entered the restaurant immediately after.
Fortunately for them, they managed to arrive early enough to beat the inevitable lunch rush and secure them a table without waiting in a long line. Upon sitting down the three of them had a little chat while waiting for someone to take their order, sharing their own complaints and stories mostly.
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“Damn man, my morning classes are making me feel like an idiot.” Artian complained dejectedly as he slouched into his chair.
“Cheer up!” Estelle said while tapping Artian’s back. “Elemental mixing is quite a lot to handle after all.” She continued.
“Easy for you to say. You managed to do it in the first try. Even got some words of praise from the professor.” Artian continued to mope.
“What about you Sylvester? How’s your classes going?” He then focused his attention towards Sylvester.
“Please don’t ask.” Sylvester replied, his mood sinking almost instantly threatening to drag Artian and Estelle along to the depths.
“Why though?” Estelle asked.
“It’s mostly due to my mana capacity. I can’t seem to tone down the amount being used and it’s overwhelming my capacity refresh. I have improved slightly, but using chain casting effectively is still a ways off.” Sylvester explained.
“I see, I guess capacity refresh does have its limits.” Estelle replied seemingly in thought.
“Well, at the very least, you aren’t like this bonehead over here who thinks that adding more mana will solve everything.” Estelle joked at the expense of Artian.
“Heyyyy. That was an accident!” Artian defended himself.
“Yes, but you nearly blew up everyone near you. It was a good thing our professor was able to react in time and stop your magic from going out of control.” Estelle explained.
“Yeah yeah whatever.” Artian then simply deflected the statement.
Soon a waiter came by and gave them a menu and soon took their respective orders. Sylvester was thankful that the prices were relatively fair though a little bit on the expensive side of things. Cheapest one He could order was worth 170 Credits but sadly he really didn’t feel like eating pasta today.
So instead he opted to go for the slightly more expensive steak that was priced at around 200 credits.
Once they were done with their orders they noticed a familiar figure sitting at a table adjacent to theirs. It was Rossa sitting down for lunch. She also noticed their presence and simply nodded in acknowledgement.
The trio had idle chatter while waiting for and eating their meal, continuing to complain about their current problems with their respective subjects. They were so occupied that they didn’t even notice Rossa had left the restaurant altogether.
In just a few short minutes the trio finished their meal and headed towards the lecture room.
As they expected Rossa was already there before them sitting on the same spot beside the windows, her eyes still staring far off into the distance.
The three of them assumed their seats as well, Estelle sitting next to Rossa, Sylvester and Artian sitting on the rows behind them and soon after, the students started trickling in.
As the minutes came passing by, Artian and Sylvester then took out both their phones and started a countdown on them.
“Yah think he’ll do it again this time?” Artian asked while chuckling.
“Dude, he’s been doing it every single meeting. You think he’s suddenly just gonna stop now?” Sylvester replied trying to contain his laughter.
The numbers on their screens then started counting down.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0-
All of a sudden the door at the front opened at the exact moment the counter reached zero. A man with a bronze complexion and a dragon tatoo on his face then entered the lecture hall. This time he was wearing a white lab coat paired with dark blue jeans, two watches were strapped to his left wrist.
This was professor, Paleo X.
When he first introduced himself to this class he didn’t even mention his real name, only a stern request, which sounded more like an order, to call him by that name.
Professor Paleo X class teaches MageoPaleoArcheology, a discipline focusing on different artifacts, fossils, even legends that are related to mage history.
Today the professor brought a sword with him for some reason. He conjured up a rock using earth magic and then stabbed the sword through it.
“Alright class!” He exclaimed in a rather excited tone. “What comes into your mind when you see the image of a sword stuck inside a rock or boulder?” He asked the class
The students altogether chanted only one name.
“King Arthur!” They shouted in reply, as if saying it as something so obvious.
“Good, but we won’t be talking about King Arthur today, our topic for today will be the stories and myths concerning different magical swords and their possible origins and creation.” Professor Paleo X declared.
The mood of the class became giddy and excited except for one person.
As Sylvester reveled in his excitement he shot a glance towards his seatmate Artian. He thought that because Artian was a magic knight he would be the most knowledgeable on this topic.
Sylvester wanted to ask him questions in advance but immediately stopped himself from doing so when he saw the bitter and angry scowl that was present on Artian’s face.
Eyebrows furrowed and eyes livid filled with anger as he stared at the sword stuck inside the rock that professor made.
Without knowing Sylvester’s eyes were on him he continued to look on until he muttered something underneath his breath, scoffing at the sword sealed into the stone by the professor in front.
“King Arthur? What’s so god damned great about that piece of shit?” He asked in a barely audible voice, laced with anger and resentment.
Sylvester then quickly diverted his attention towards the front, trying to process what he just observed and at the corner of his eye he could see Estelle staring back at Artian, her face painted a picture of worry.