Victor stood before the essence converter, a device which appeared eerily similar to a crematorium. The corpse of the youngling Mossback Turtle was simply too massive, so he had to carefully cut it into several pieces and stuff them inside the converter one by one.
“Liz, you mentioned not every form of biological matter can be converted into essence… What about normal living beings?” Victor inquired, curious about the limitations.
Lizbeth floated beside him and replied, “Well, I never said that it’s impossible. Even normal animals and plants can be converted, but the process requires a large amount of them for a minuscule essence yield. It’s not very efficient, to say the least.”
She further explained, “Even extraordinary life forms have different conversion rates. Take the type of living beings, for example; the more human-like, the better the conversion efficacy — you can even get up to 50 percent conversion rate from humans at the highest… The opposite is also true: the more monstrous a creature, the lower the conversion rate. Worm-like magical creatures and tentacle abominations have the lowest conversion efficacy of less than 10 percent.”
Victor listened attentively, intrigued by the mechanics behind the essence converter. He was incubating human players, after all, so it stood to reason that the more humanoid a being was when placed into the converter, the higher the essence yield, and thus he would have more to spend on procuring players for the academy.
“So, it’s a matter of the essence density and complexity in their bodies?” Victor concluded.
“Exactly.” Lizbeth nodded with a satisfied smile over her master’s quick uptake on the matter. “As for the waste, they’re turned into mana and elemental particles.”
When the corpse of the turtle had entirely turned into essence, Victor looked at the digital screen on the converter. The number that had been depleted to “5” was now “28,” meaning it could now incubate a total of twenty-eight bodies for the same number of players. At first, it sounded like a lot, but Victor wasn’t entirely satisfied.
“So little?” he muttered, feeling a bit disappointed.
It was crucial to highlight that a Mossback Turtle — even if it was only a youngling — was a massive magical beast weighing at least two tons. Even if the conversion rate was less than 30 percent, Victor felt the amount was still too low. However, he knew complaining wouldn’t change anything, so he didn’t press the matter further.
“Hmm… Let’s put the Shadow Panther inside as well.” Victor removed the panther’s corpse from his ring and placed it into the essence converter. Dozens of seconds later, the number on the digital screen increased again to “53.”
“That’s odd,” he mused, rubbing his chin. “The Shadow Panther is obviously the stronger foe between the two, but why is it giving a similar amount of essence points?”
Lizbeth raised an eyebrow with a hint of mischief in her tone. “Oh, don’t be so surprised, Master. The mass between the two also matters, you know. It’s not always the concentration of energy we’re talking about.”
“Hrm, that’s true,” Victor responded as a realization dawned on him. “You always have an answer for the weirdest thing, don’t you?”
The fairy giggled, putting her two forefingers on her cheeks. “Of course, that’s part of my charm, Master.”
That’s not a compliment…
After processing all the magical beast corpses he’d hunted, Victor returned to the Headmaster's Building and made his way to his office. Unlike the players who had to make do with preserved food, Victor intended to enjoy a proper meal. He conjured a magic flame below the iron pan he’d acquired from the gacha and began grilling a juicy piece of boar meat. The sizzling sound and mouth-watering aroma filled the room, tempting his senses.
Although he seasoned the meat with only a pinch of salt, also received from the gacha, the natural flavors of the meat were enough to make it a delicious treat, better than any jerky. When Victor awakened his past life memory, his desire for tasty food was ignited. What a dilemma.
“Are we really going to have grilled boar meat again? Your cooking is good, but I feel we need to have more variety in our diet,” Lizbeth remarked, fluttering near the sizzling pan.
“We? Why are you so confident that I will share it with you?” Victor playfully quipped, giving her a smirk. “As for variety, I heard that fairy wings are a delicious delicacy—”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“How rude! I’m not food! Besides, as the headmaster of the academy, you have to feed your staff properly!” Lizbeth retorted, puffing her cheeks and crossing her arms.
Victor eyed the fair who was acting like a spoiled child and wondered, As a mythical creature, does she even need to eat?
Victor chuckled at the absurdity but went along with it. “Oh, my apologies, esteemed staff member,” he replied with exaggerated formality, “Please, enjoy this gourmet feast fit for the most distinguished fairy in the academy.” Not that there’s any other fairy here…
Lizbeth harrumphed, her wings fluttering faster as she flew toward the iron pan. “That’s more like it.” Nevertheless, her eyes couldn’t hide the glimmer of desire as she stared at the browned meat, and a tiny droplet of drool escaped from the corner of her mouth.
But when she was only an inch away from the meat, Victor raised the pan out of her reach. This action was supposed to prompt her to get angry again, but she was so focused on the food that she only exclaimed, “Please gimme!” and flew higher.
Victor was not one to be taken advantage of, so he wouldn’t give her the meat so easily. As a result, he kept doing this — each time she got close, he would effortlessly lift the pan out of her reach, leaving her empty-handed and exasperated.
“Just give it to me! Stop playing around…” Lizbeth exclaimed, her persistence showing no signs of wavering. But Victor was enjoying this little game of cat and mouse with his mischievous companion, so he did it again.
“Ah, you stupid Master! Do you get off on teasing a cute little fairy?”
Victor smirked, thoroughly amused by Lizbeth’s antics. “Hand it over!” she demanded, her frustration reaching its peak.
But Victor wasn’t going to give in just yet. He continued to playfully dodge Lizbeth’s attempts to snatch the meat, laughing all the while. Their little food chase had turned into a delightful spectacle, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had so much fun.
Finally, with a grin, Victor relented and lowered the pan, offering the delicious meat to Lizbeth. “Alright, alright, you win,” he conceded, still chuckling.
Lizbeth wasted no time and dove right in, her mouth already watering in anticipation, her tiny hands grabbing it with glee. “Hmph, finally!”
As Lizbeth enjoyed her hard-earned prize, Victor cooked up another chunk of boar meat for himself… For some reason, he had grown a bit fond of this little fairy of his. In this cold world that valued power above all else, such moments were a welcome reprieve.
***
With the class still an hour away, Victor knew he had to prepare. To tell the truth, he was far from being a proper mentor or a professor. Although he had some experience thanks to tutoring acolytes for mana crystals, he lacked the ability to explain things concretely without books. Thankfully, as he searched around the Headmaster’s Office, he found a collection of books on the shelf.
Bizarrely enough, the Master Shadowlink Mark on his wrist had one peculiar ability. With a mere touch, it could record and store any book in a digital format, similar to an e-book. Victor realized that the potential of this ability was immense and would be incredibly useful when he couldn’t print physical books and it would help with spreading information. Alternatively, memory crystals could do an even better job as they had the ability to input information directly into people’s brains, though were too expensive to be practical and required an official Magus to make.
At any rate, Victor’s excitement grew as he imagined the possibilities. “If I can access the library in the Arcane Radiance College… wouldn’t that be a dream come true?” He could have an abundance of knowledge surpassing high-ranking Magi at his fingertips!
One had to know that not everyone could access the library, even acolytes had to use their limited monthly privilege or pay mana crystals just to extend their time there. Other than that, the library had an absurd amount of books in the hundreds of thousands, easily dwarfing any local libraries on Earth… Magi were existences known for their insatiable thirst for knowledge, and preserving their findings in books was a way to pass down their legacies for generations.
Finally, the time had come for class to begin. Victor had instructed Lizbeth to set up one of the meeting rooms for the session. While there was an auditorium inside the building, teaching just five people didn’t require such a large space, especially when he was starting with the basics.
As Victor opened the door to the meeting room, he was met with expectant gazes from the players, all sitting at the table arranged neatly like a university classroom, ready to learn.
They’re way too eager!
Granted, acolytes in his former Magus academy showed a similar level of enthusiasm for learning magic because of certain circumstances, but these were players — gamers! The kind of people that would slack in college classes and only put in the bare minimum effort, or at least that was the stereotypical belief.
“Silence!” Victor’s voice resonated through the meeting room, even though the players weren’t making much noise. “Now that the five of you are here, we’ll begin with the class. But first, I will tell you the rules when studying here: When the professor speaks, you must remain quiet. Unless I’ve given you permission to talk, you may not raise any questions. Failure to comply may result in punishments, and in extreme cases, expulsion.”
Victor’s smile turned faint, but his aura radiated with a powerful mana force that enveloped the entire room. While it might be minuscule compared to what an official Magus could do, it was more than enough to show that he was serious and didn’t want any sort of undisciplined actions from the players.
Compared to his own academy, he was already being generous. Back when he was studying, there were no classrooms and except for pricey private lessons, there were only impersonal public lessons taught to classes of over hundreds of acolytes. The professors always had dark expressions, and they hurriedly left right after the period ended. Not only did they never answer the acolytes’ questions, but it also seemed like everyone owed them mana crystals.