As it turned out, not bad. The building itself was comparable to the one they’d had back at the sect, and when Kai and Brewan entered, they could immediately see rows of bookshelves. There was a disheveled-looking older man sitting behind a small counter near the entrance, and a few more desks visible past the first row of bookshelves.
There were quite a few students milling around inside- either looking for books, and quietly discussing the contents of their study materials with other young mages.
Not bad. It’s a lot more active than ours back home, but I guess that’s to be expected. Magic does seem to be a bit more academic than cultivation was.
Instead of immediately heading for the bookshelves, Kai turned and walked over to the older man at the counter. The last wisps of the man’s hair were struggling to escape from his head, and his unkempt mustache had long-since turned a salty gray.
“I don’t offer tutoring.”
The man didn’t even bother looking up from a book resting on top of the counter. He seemed entirely disinterested with Kai and Brewan.
“Sir, I’m new here. Where can I find books about fighting or movement techniques?”
“Aisle 4, section 2 for knight books. It says it above the aisles.”
Kai looked back over at the bookshelves, and a frown started to grow on his face.
I can’t read that.
[Mage… Basics. I think. They look really similar to the runes that control magic. If it’s stuff related to magic, I can probably translate for you. Anything beyond that, though…]
Kai rubbed his forehead in frustration, then turned back to the clerk.
“Thank you for your help. Are there any children’s picture books here?”
The old man finally looked up, his eyes widening a little as they swept over Kai’s robes. He quickly hid his look of surprise.
“Section 3.”
Good. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had to learn a language just from a bunch of abstract mage texts. At least now there might be pictures.
Kai ignored his initial goal and headed straight for the kids section. Picking up a book about techniques would do him absolutely no good if he couldn’t understand the first word in it. His only hope was that the short amount of time he spent trying to figure out the runes back at the sect would assist in his learning.
Section three had considerably fewer people than the rest of the building. There weren’t any walls sectioning off the area, but no one paid any heed to the area. Knowing that there wasn’t anything he could learn from children’s books, Brewan split off from Kai and headed for the basic magic area.
“Well, it doesn’t matter what I start with, right?”
Kai grabbed a couple random books that looked like they would probably have pictures. Surprisingly, there were even desks here- and one of them was even occupied. There was only one cluster of four desks in the kids area, pulled together to form a table. On the far side of it, a lone student sat with their elbows pressing against the table, and their head pressed into their hands.
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Looks like he’s having fun.
The other student- a first year like Brewan, based on his clothes- looked up as Kai approached. His eyes were reddened and tired.
“What, are you here to mock me, too?”
Kai ignored the kid, instead pulling out the chair furthest from him and setting his small stack of picture books down on the table. Kai opened up the first page, then stared down at the content.
Yeah… this is going to take a while. I have a bad premonition that I’m going to look like the other student pretty soon.
…
“Yo, Kai. Let’s head to the dorms.”
A couple hours later, Kai’s torture was finally broken. He picked his head up, two red handprints still left on his forehead.
It’s almost as bad as Halia’s research sessions. Sure, I don’t have her stealing all of my mana, but her constantly yapping and trying to get me to read faster is still giving me a headache!
The other student reading picture books had already left roughly an hour before, so the table was left empty as Kai stood up and stretched his legs.
The rest of the library was also starting to empty out as other students headed for their dorm rooms. Kai hadn’t been told anything by Golal about where he was supposed to sleep, so Brewan just had him come to the dorms.
“There’s an extra bed in my room, stay there. It’s a lot better than going down under the academy and having to spend money to stay at an inn.”
Definitely a lot better, considering I don’t have any money. Heck, I don’t even know what they use for money here.
“There will be classes tomorrow. I can show you where the first-year mage ones are, but you might want to attend the knight classes instead.”
“I’ll check out both. I’m looking into blending magic and sword fighting.”
Or rather, my old techniques and fighting. Learning the basics of magic might help more with that, though.
“Eh? That’s not a very good idea. Mages only put a small amount of mana into their muscles so that they can escape from beasts. It’s a total waste of mana to split between the two.”
Brewan pulled out his grimoire as he continued explaining.
“Spells will be a lot less effective and harder to cast without using one of these. It’s almost impossible to do if you’re in melee combat with a beast though. You need to focus on the book, and that’s impossible if there’s a bear trying to rip your throat out.”
Brewan tucked the book back into his robes as they continued walking.
“I’ve heard that before the beast wave, spellswords weren’t uncommon. It’s almost an extinct path now, though. You sacrifice half of your magic to be physically stronger, and half of your physical strength for some mediocre magic that is a struggle to make useful in combat. If you split your resources, you’ll be less useful than both specializations.”
A bit like if someone focused solely on body cultivation, or if they only utilized techniques… I know a few people like that. The other three core disciples all were good in different combat situations, but in a plain, unprepared battlefield, I would still win against any of them. A standard cultivation like mine would be considered a generalist here, right?
Kai rubbed his chin as he thought.
Though, those three aren’t necessarily disadvantaged against someone like me. If they got the jump on me, any of them would win… maybe with the exception of Lilli, the fourth disciple.
A small shiver ran down Kai’s spine as he remembered Lilli’s cheerful smile as she stared up at a sunset.
If she finds mana as easy to manipulate as Halia does, she might become the most terrifying of all the disciples. I’d probably still have a chance in a one-on-one fight, but even prayers won’t be able to save her enemies in a large-scale battle.
The duo entered the dorm building, squeezing past a small crowd of mages who were gathered in the hallway.
Still, I think splitting my stats is the best path. Maybe it hasn’t been effective here in the past, but has there ever been a cultivator who tried it before?
Kai paused for a second. If he could travel between worlds using the tokens, was it possible that there were others?
I’ll have to watch out for that. Still, I’m not changing my path. I’ve spent most of the last decade training as a cultivator, and I’m not giving up on either my strength or techniques. I’ll forge my own path.