[Note from the Story Channeling System: Names were translated into their phonetical versions of the world they are channeled into. The name for females were translated to end in the letter A or E or Y, with the names for males ending in any of the other letters. The names for the futa/hermaphrodites can end in any letter.]
Everyone was told to gather, and they were teleported in another area filled with houses, but the houses were larger and had a bedroom, a small kitchen, a small bathroom, and an empty room with a fireplace and which the inner students were allowed to modify for their own use. Upon every significant advancement, the quality and quantity of the house would increase. Those in the Stone Level had access to minimal houses, like the one Sipher live in for the last few years. Now that he's in Copper Level, he has access to a bigger house, with the small kitchen and empty room being huge improvements, especially for those who decided to live together as a couple. Even those who have taken the path of melee or ranged weapons could make use of the empty room, by turning it into a training room.
After a around half of the students' names were called and they were guided to their new home where they had to use their token to register as the current renter of that home, Sipher's name was called, and he, too, got guided to a house, where he finally took everything out from his bag and then went outside next to the others who have gotten out of their new homes, and waited in silence until everyone gathered again, then the instructor led them to the a gate in a wall, above the gate on the side of the houses being a map of the areas the inner disciples of the Copper level had access to. Sip tried remembering the path to this place, and thankfully the houses were organized in a few rows, with numbers and letters, which made it easier to find one's home. Sipher's home was at D4-03. The D part officially stands for Dragon, and represents the part of the complex where guys lived, and Sip assumes it's actually referring to male genitalia and the dragon is just an excuse. The part of the complex where girls lived starts with P, which officially stands for Phoenix, and Sip assumes that, too, is only an excuse, and it really stands for female genitalia.
During the first day of the year, it is a custom for none of the students to speak without being asked. Those who had a question were required to raise a hand high above their head, and stay like that until they were asked to speak, until they found the answer to their question, or until they gave up on the question, and undoubtedly some of them gave up on the question because they forgot the question.
At the gate, everyone had to use their new token to register to get access to the housing complex. This also took a while, after which everyone followed the teacher to a class, and after everyone got inside, the teacher left, everyone staying silent, because noone wanted to be the one or ones being made an example of, when they would get undoubtedly caught talking while the teacher was entering the room. The teacher who left the room did not mention that we are allowed to speak, so we are to act like we are not allowed to speak. This makes me think of the military schools and academies back on Earth, which made sense, because people with superpowers would be the best soldiers, and orphans make good soldiers because they don't have families to miss them or want revenge.
As soon as a teacher walked in, papers started flying towards us, but no wind could be felt. At that moment, there was only one thing Sip thought of: Written tests. Nobody was allowed to speak, and the teacher didn't care to tell us anything. And so, Sipher started reading the questions in the test, and shortly afterwards he started writing.
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Name.
1. What is the difference between sigils, glyphs, and runes?
2. Why did you chose the path you chose?
3. What is the most absurd use of aura which would actually be useful?
4. Why are you a good fit for this academy?
5. List all the skills and techniques you have learned, and how much you progressed with them.
Replies:
Sipher Filk
1. Glyphs are single-character words or sentences, which are empowered with magic to produce certain effects. The written language was invented starting with the words discovered written in mana around natural spells, and in time they were adapted to be able to be written on a flat people of paper, or painted onto a flat surface, or engraved into a flat surface, to achieve a result representing the word it was associated with the spell. In time, through trial and error, it was discovered that multiple such words can be used together, either linked or next to eachother, and talismans were created to make their usage easier. However, most glyphs are unstable, which causes them to have limited uses before the medium onto or into which are added ends up being destroyed by the spells.
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Sigils are the parts of spells, which can be used together to form spells known as runes. The sigils are often the most minimal spell parts needed to achieve a result. There are 3 major levels of sigils, the first level is flat sigils which are meant to be easy to write, the second level is spread sigils which cannot be written on a flat surface but flat surfaces can be arranged at different angles and curves and in different orientations in order to write these sigils, and the third level is moving sigils which means sigils which are meant to have parts which move and/or interact with other sigils.
Runes are spells written in a medium. Most spells people use/make (not discover, and not invent) are written either inside their body, or inside the air, or included in enchanted items. Talismans are a type of runes which uses gliphs as the type of sigils.
2. The first time I tried to advance, I used the Sword Aura book, but the failure told me that it is not the path I am meant to take. So I decided to try again with alchemy, and due to the significant costs of developing alchemy after the Stone, Copper, and Iron levels, I decided to then start learning rune making.
4. I am not a good fit, I am merely at an acceptable level. A good fit implies levels of both talent and karma with progress onto the paths most beneficial to both the school and the student. I fit neither of those criteria, which means I am not a good fit. But I managed to fit in in this academy, to fit into the role of a student of this academy, which makes me a good fit for not dragging down the name of the academy by being a student of the academy.
5. From the Sword Aura book I learned to have a better control of the aura inside my body. From the Alchemy book I learned to have a better control of the aura outside my body. From the Aura Eyes book, I learned to better sense aura and better control the aura both inside and outside my body. From the public education while at the Stone level, I learned to read, write, calculate things, I learned the history and a low-level map of the area around the academy. From failing to advance using the Sword Aura technique, I learned to think for myself, and I heard some adults that it is a skill not many people have.
3. Making aura-powered enchanted items which are meant and built to be used by people who cannot control aura, including people who have little to no aura (either naturally by being born that way, or unnaturally by becoming that way). Normal farmers and fishers and other citizens who cannot use aura would need to use cattle to move their products to the market, but that limits the distance they can travel with their goods, because every day spent not working is a day which could have been used working. This means that normal merchants often buy the products at a price significantly lower than if they went to the shop themselves instead of selling to the merchants, and the same with buying from the merchants instead of going to the markets. When an affordable way to get normal people to travel at high speeds and with heavy cargo appears, and once it spreads to the normal people, a lot less time and money will no longer be lost in order to get their products to the market, which would allow more time and money to be used to improve the normal people's lives and to make their work easier or higher quality or all of the above. But getting from the current situation to the situation I explained would need a level of effort and money which makes achieving this nothing short of absurd, at least before it is done and made popular and spread around.
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image [https://www.royalroad.com/dist/img/ornaments/22.png]
Finishing the test, Sipher placed an empty page above the file (two pages, a page on each face of the page), then waited in silence until everyone else finished. Fortunately, he was the second-last to finish, so he did not have to wait long. After everyone finished, the pages flied away towards the teacher, and stacked themselves neatly in front of the teacher. And while Sip did not have to wait long for everyone to finish, he and everyone else in the class needed to wait until almost the end of the day, for the teacher to finish grading/scoring the files we submitted, and when the class finally ended with the teacher speaking bored and/or tired "Class dismissed.", there was barely enough time to eat, before the end of the curfew.
After the classes without a break which ended around sunset, but with the sun still in the sky and the sky illuminated, the whole class rushed to the cafeteria to eat, ate in a hurry, then rushed home because the curfew was rapidly approaching and nobody wanted to be late, because they would be used as an example of why they shouldn't stay out past the curfew, which meant worse punishments than usual.
The first day ended, and almost everyone went to sleep, but a few of them actually meditated the whole night. As the curfew began, only one light stayed up, and a guard came to check why, and a 12 years old kid said that he cannot sleep without the light turned on, and he was told to close the window cover, so light cannot be seen from outside so easily. A short while after the guard left, Sip was sleeping soundly, which would also help stabilize his aura after his advancement.
After a good sleep, Sipher woke up as a baby. He realized he died that night. He doesn't know how or why, but still, he died again. And so his day began by being walked around the back of an old house, after which he was placed in a baby bed outside, so he can get some sunlight, while the woman who carried him started working on something on a table. Time passed idly, with Sipher trying to remember if there was any information on whether or not using aura or mana on babies would have negative effects. After a few hours of thinking and doing nothing, he finally went back to sleep.
As he woke up, he was very disoriented, because he was no longer a baby, and after half an hour of being confused, he finally realized he did not die, but instead he dreamt that he died and that he was reborn as a baby. A very strange dream, indeed.