Ok, I am having trouble describing our morning classes. First off, we have professor Albert as a morning teacher which is at least good.
What he made us copy at the start was school rules and regulations. After that, he left around 8:20 when the first teacher entered. The morning classes work in 1 hour intervals between four classes and it works in the Day 1 Day 2 fashion where we have four classes in one day and the remaining three plus a free period the next day.
As for food. Because of the number of students, the stadium from yesterday is used for seating and all around the outer area before reaching the seats was the food court. If you think of a soccer stadium it would be like that.
During lunch I spent time with our group in the morning. I asked what optional classes the others took. I was shocked to find that the princes and princesses, including Eleanora, had only 1 option since Dungeoneering was an obligation.
The reason is because each royal family contains a dungeon under the royal palace that is controlled by the king and used to train the royal guard and city guard. These dungeons have been around since the academy was first built.
Well if I ever get bored of what I have or I completely mastered what is taught I can change it next year.
With today being monday my extra course was taming. Besides me, only those from Elunia needed to do that. Taming has become required since taming has been used by the royal family since a long time ago.
The tamer class is situated outside near the woods far from the dorms. In the class there weren’t just us but included all of those who did taming. In total there were about 50 kids which around half were from our country.
The teacher was an elf and she began talking about how we should have good relationships with our tamed animals and not just tame them for profit or abuse them because when the time comes it will come back to bite you.
During this class we can summon our tamed animal so I summoned Rama to let him stretch since he barely fought during the ranking tournament.
The others sat in the shade with their pets as well. Or at least those from our country. It seems that taming in other countries is taught differently and uses them more as pawns to outsmart the enemies.
Peach and Glop were also summoned and I let them rest on my head like I always did. The teacher couldn't have been more surprised when the huge fox boss monster willingly laid down and let me rest up against it while the slimes took the space between my shoulder and the fox.
Oh and Rama is very clean, I’ve made sure of that. Other students had critters like a rabbit or a fox from around the city. One that was luckier had a goblin his father caught for him. Seems like it was the smartest of the tribe and for a while it was being taught magic so that when it grows into a hobgoblin it will be experienced in magic.
After about an hour the teacher wanted to test our tamed animals. All of them. Mainly their strength and to see how well we trained them. They will have one hour to hunt and bring back the carcasses of the animals from this forest.
Animals and monsters here range from level 5-30. We were given 5 minutes to get them ready and summon the rest.
I summoned all three sets of slimes and armed my three main fighters. Other kids summoned small packs of one animal. Asher simply summoned his only red slime and gave it the sword he gave before. It was probably all it needed.
After that we all gave them the same order. Go hunt the strongest wild monster you know you can kill and bring it back, the time limit was one hour.
With that all the tamed monsters and animals ran into the forest. We were given the hour to talk among ourselves.
I sat next to Asher and asked something that I had been wondering for a while. “Hey Asher, why did your slime have a gem mixed with its nucleus?”
“Oh that?” He grinned in a smug manner, “Well gemstones are capable of holding a lot of mana. Father gave me a raw ruby gemstone about half the size of Drake's nucleus to merge with it. The rough edges were refined leaving the pearl like gem and a large enough mana capacity that was near my own which is around 3400.” He said.
“Wow, that is amazing. It’s a shame I can't copy him since for me it would need a hell of a lot of money for such a large gemstone.” I thought.
After a while the tamed animals returned with the catch. The fox packs brought back a good number of rabbits. And the rabbits took down a wolf.
Asher's slime brought back several goblin and black wolf corpses and my three pets got the most attention. They returned dragging a large bear.
Rama was quite injured so I pulled out the herbal slime potions and fed him that before I gave him some meat. The armor slimes he had on were badly beat so I had them jump off and one by one I checked each of them.
I pull out small pellets and feed each of them one pellet. These pellets are condensed herbal nutrients the herbal slime produce. It eats its fill of herbs and on my order I have it mix until it's at the proper potion consistency and have then compressed it into this pellet while draining the liquid.
It leaves all the nutrients and works as a good potion for the slimes because they require nutrients to rebuild their bodies.
When I’ve done checking, I gave Peach and Glop one for each before finally settling down and checking the catch.
It was a large level 15 bear. Though they are large they are fast and strong. Goblins and hobs are stronger mainly due to numbers and they use weapons like us but if alone it's not too difficult.
With this test of strength and checking each student's pets the teacher went one by one telling the students what they needed to know to raise their pets better.
When it was my turn she thought for a long while. “Well your pets are remarkable to say the least. The weapon and armor ones I can only say, keep using them and try to get better sets. As for the mimic slimes, I will see if your reinforced PE class teacher is willing to train them in the art of the sword. Now this big fella will probably be following your example and will need gravity weights so it can work his muscles more.” she said.
I make sure to make a page in my notebook with what she said. I had already written down their stats and I showed them to her. She further suggested a few other things like enhancing the diet for better results or feeding stronger animals which is how animals grow a bit. Animals eating their prey can extract some exp from their food as well as from just killing.
Anyway, the animals that were caught were soon transported by the teachers tribe of goblin workers. All the animals will be skinned and butchered and used by the school for food and materials.
The last two hours of class the teacher began talking about the known habits of the basic animal found around cities where it's safer. It was quite informative since I didn't know a few of the facts.
Soon class ended and it was already 4:30PM so I needed to head up to the cooking class.
The teacher told us about the elevators but also said it would be heavily packed. For me, she wrote me a pass that allowed me to use Rama as a mount. He was the size of a pony and because I was small I could very well ride him.
Though others were jealous because of this they couldn't complain because only I had a monster capable of this. The teacher said once one of their pets grows enough to be a mount then she will permit it.
Asher had a different class he wanted to do, blacksmithing, so we split up there.
I sit on Rama's back and lay down with my arms around his neck. The classroom was on floor 8 room C.
With my orders being to take me to the eighth floor he ran off surprisingly fast. Much faster than I have seen him. He crossed the field between the forest and school and quickly entered the school grounds taking long strides.
The corridors were somewhat full but it seems because the others use mounts as a means to travel too, there are some elevated paths along the wall which I never noticed. It had space for two medium sized mounts to pass. Though Rama was big, he was still small in terms of a mount. Still using the platforms that were two and a half meters up the wall and in all corridors with an arch bridging gaps he quickly found the stairs and climbed. Soon we spotted several others doing the same as me but they were much more comfortable since they had harnesses and so on.
When we finally reached the eighth floor my knees were shaking and Rama took deep breaths. Looks like it will take a while for both of us to get used to this.
I walked the rest of the way to class and entered room C. I was met with a very large room that had 25 kitchen stations. Rama was still behind me when we entered and the teacher noticed me.
It was a middle aged man with a small black mustache in a french style. He wore a white cook’s apron above a simple gray short sleeves shirt and a pair of navy blue jeans. On his head was a white cook’s hat.
“Ahh~! Madam mussel, are you, eh, Madam Kuroko Ginshiro?” He asked with something akin to a French man’s accent when speaking english. I nod as I walk in. “I must tsank you and your pets for catching the zee brown bear. Zee meat is perfect for zee class.'
“Will we be using the animals we caught?” I asked.
“Of course, zee small beasts shall feed zee masses but zee big one we use here.” He was saying all of this in an over the top manner. He sure has an eccentric personality, he feels more like an artist than a cook.
Still we don't pay much attention and look around. When I suddenly hear the sound of something hitting the floor and the sound of a tongue hitting water I turn to see the cook had put a bowl of water for Rama.
“So zis is one of zee beasties zat took down zee brown bear. Quite strong and zee leg muscles are developed. Vhat did you feed him?” he asked.
I was wondering about how to answer but before I could answer, a certain halfling appeared behind the man and held a bottle over his eyes.
“It would be this professor. Kuroko, you can now show this around without hiding, already we have made a deal with Mr. Halt so that we will gain the slime extracts and some of the products.” the halfling maid said.
I nod and sigh. The professor, though, is wide eyed.
“Slime… milk?” He said those words in a serious deep voice as his face hardened and looked directly at me with a much heavier aura similar to professor Albert but less murderous.
“'How do you get zis?” His tone wasn't asking, it was demanding. The other kids had already noticed the disturbance and were coming over to see what was happening.
“Did my father tell you or whoever that I can show how it's obtained?” My question was to the halfling maid who nodded and confirmed the approval.
I summoned Peach the next moment. “Peach, fox form, I need some milk.”
The little slime jumped a few times before her body expanded and took the form of a fox. I removed an empty vial from my inventory and put it under one of her tits. The slime took hold of the top of the bottle and soon a creamy light green slime poured in filling the glass vial.
I remove it and unsummon the slime and put a cap on the newly acquired milk and show it to the professor.
“Amazing. Zee slime mimicked to zis extent?!” He said.
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“I was told to warn you in particular, this slime this child just extracted is even stronger than the first bottle. What we will get is about 10 times weaker.” the maid said.
“And why is zat?” He asked.
The maid shook her head and sighed, “You are a cook yet you’re lacking in monster studies.” she said.
“Oi oi, this is the first time I saw her insult a teacher and he obviously reacts because a few veins appear.” I thought in shock.
“As you saw, the mimic slime was a pink slime. Pink mimic slimes are the rarest kind because they have greater quantities of mana in its body. If we were to buy a bottled of milk of a pink slime it would cost us 20 gold coins. As for the blue slime milk it’ll only cost 80 silver coins.” She explained.
As soon as the price was given his eyes opened very wide. It's like she said. Unlike Peach’s milk which I drink and still need to train heavily for a regular kid, the same number of drops being fed over a long time will turn him into a hero.
When mixed into food in low doses the blue slime milk grows weaker but lasts longer.
On the other hand, Peach's just grows stronger as time passes. To use this in food is as simple as making normal food than dropping it into a pot of soup and mixing it in. Or whichever point in the process that contains the use of water or liquids to cook or spice whatever food it is.
The cook stares at the vial in his hand before storing it. “I vill test zis slime out before allowing zee kids to use it.” he said
“We have 100 vials and the child there can't make blue slime milk so don't try to get any since it's fruitless.” the maid said. He flinched which meant he had that in mind already.
“Miss. Ginshiro, the headmaster says that if your cooking teacher starts mistreating you or saying your cooking is bad without cause just tell me and we will deal with it on the administrative side.” she said openly.
“Thank you for your work, is that all?” I asked.
“Yes, I will take my leave.” She nodded and bowed slightly, turned around and left. She crossed the room's threshold and looked once more with a small smile on her face and winked my way. I chuckled at the mischievous halfling.
The teacher just ignored it and told me to choose a station and that once Rama had refreshed himself I was to unsummon him.
I chose a seat in the middle second row. The seats were separated in five columns with ten stations on each column of seats.
One by one more students came in. To my surprise Margaret, the redhead fighter girl, came in. Less surprising though was Emily, the elf that summoned the nature spirit and Princess Stephanie.
When they came in they were followed by a large number of students. At that moment the teacher stood up and addressed everyone.
“'Everyone! Partner up vith someone. Zis class has more student zan ze stations.” the teacher said
With his command the empty stations were occupied. Emily went and took the station beside me. Partnering with her is a blushing redhead. Seems she wasn't used to asking for partnering up for something like this. For me though princess Stephanie came up to me.
“Would you like to partner with me.” She asked with a blinding smile that looked brighter than the sun.
“Alright princ…” Before I could finish she rested her hand on my head and looked me in the eyes.
“'Friends call me by my name and close friends call me Steph. Call me by name.” She was smiling but her eyes were serious. I nodded and she smiled brightly again and began petting my head.
I felt the eyes of the others on me so when I suddenly looked back they all looked away and began moving about.
“Hey can you two stop the little lovey dovey stuff between girls. It’s weird.” Margaret said.
“Oh my, are you jealous, you did like the petting when I did it during last class.” Stephanie asked, grinning.
“N-n-no way.” Margaret denied with a beet red face. A complete tsundere and it was shown just the next moment when Emily put her hand on her head and began patting.
“Now now, you don't need to deny it so much.” Emily said with a gentle caress.
“Wha-What! Uhaa~~! Sto~p~!” Margaret quickly melted in Emily’s petting and even then tried to fight it out. It was like a baby puppy that barked a lot but when it got petted it can’t help but melt in their arms.
I swallowed hard and looked at the princess that was smiling. The gentle patting on my head was slowly turning into a pleasant feeling but I quickly found out why. She was using mana covering her hand to gently caress my own, causing great pleasure.
Not wanting to end up like the redhead I covered my entire body in a mana coat which made the elf princess frown for a moment before a devilish smile crossed her face.
“If that is how you wish to do things, I can do it your way.” With her smile I felt her hands being covered in a lot of mana and she began petting me but just before she got to start the sound of a large bang came from the teacher.
“Alright you kids, stop playing around, zee class shall begin. Today you vill learn zee remedial basics of zee art of cooking.” He said.
With a frown the elf princess sat down while pouting. I, on the other hand, sighed in relief and smiled warily at the princess. I turned to find a flustered redhead and a smiling elf sitting while looking forward.
“Note to self, beware of petting elves. Highly dangerous!!!” I warned myself mentally.
After that the class was rather monotone for the first half hour but it was mostly how to mix and so on. Mainly instructions on how to make cookies. After the black board was filled with the instructions which were labeled from step one to the final one we were told to make them.
Each station was a table with a sink on the far left. Under the sink was where all the pots and pans were kept inside the cabinets. Next to that one was a smaller cabinet with all the utensils and some magic items used for cooking. Yep, machines run on magic power were here as well, especially the cake mixer, the kind held by hand. Like the pens we have, they have a small gem which you fill with mana so it can run. In the center of the station was the oven and next to that was a cabinet for pans that you used to put in there. Finally on the far right was a fridge that held all the ingredients.
We each split up and prepared the ingredients. Since it was cookies it would be similar to cake baking but less liquid I think.
I haven’t cooked much and mostly bait to catch a few animals for requests I did. Stephanie showed me what to do since she was more experienced with this. Also, those wondering, I never cooked in my previous life extravagantly, only enough to fill my fat ass father.
Anyway, after a good few minutes of preparing the stuff and mixing it all we finally finished the batter and we put it in the oven to bake.
By the end of class they should be done. With the rest of the time we take the time to clean up our station and finally relax. Unfortunately by doing that the princess made her advance rather fast this time not giving me time to react. She hugged me from behind and petted me like you pet a cat. On the head near the ear and on the chin. Normally humans don’t have sensitivity here but using mana you can make it sensitive since you are petting the mana inside the person's body. Don’t ask me how it's done. I was far too preoccupied trying to feebly get away while I was melting in her hands.
It was only a few minutes before the cookies were done that she let me go so I could recover enough to help pull it out and leave class normally.
When I recovered enough we removed them and grabbed a few small pots we stored them. Yep, we keep them for yourself to eat. This class ends at 6 pm so it’s already dinner time so we get to enjoy what we made.
There is a short 30 min break after this class and the next because of this. With the teacher having prepared drinks we enjoy our cookies. Our cookies were double chocolate chip cookies. The classic that will never fall to any other cookie. I will say this truth. COOKIES ARE LIFE and the only thing that can match it is Peach and Glop’s squffiness!
Well the snack was great but we had to end it soon. Each of us had a large plate full so we still had some to spare. Storing them in our inventory we finally leave for the last class. For me it was Alchemy. The class was one floor above. The class was set up just like the previous one and was set up in tables for two people and on the tables was a complete alchemy set. The tables had cabinets under that held the supplies and materials we would use.
This class was much more monotone. We didn’t do anything because alchemy was far more dangerous so we needed to learn the basic rules.
In the end we ended up just taking notes. There was only one other person from the top 20 in this class but she sat in the back while I sat in the front taking the same spot as the cooking class. Middle column second row.
As soon as the boring class was done we were told to go to the dorms. Curfew was at 10 pm so we had the remaining time to do as we like.
For me, I headed down the stairs on Rama. The tamer teacher’s pass allowed me to summon him for this. It was good training for both of us because it was physically exhausting for me to hold on to the fox without any harnesses.
In the dormitory lobby I found the four royalties plus the elf and redhead. The seven had a small glowing gem in their hand.
“Hey guys, hmm, what's that?” I asked.
“It's our dungeon heart bud?” Asher said, showing me.
“Bud?” I said, confused.
“It's like a seed, we need to cultivate this by feeding it a lot of mana until it’s the size of our fist. When it's nearing its final size it will begin to form an ego. We are supposed to think of how we want it and the ego will normally take that route. We were told to think of a nice peaceful being with a butler's personality and loyalty to its maker.” Owen explained.
“Here look how it's made?” Asher said.
They showed me their books. There were 5 pages describing it and I read it all intently while they chatted away. When it finished there was a detailed drawing at the end that showed a diagram. To make the bud I needed to gather my mana in a ball like you do for a mana bolt.
After that you need to compress this mana while adding more. While you add more you need to have the ambient mana also called nature mana absorbed by the ball. The bud will crystalize when it has 1000 points of your mana and 250 nature mana.
“Have you finished reading?” Asher asked.
I nod, “Yep, but… are only people in your class allowed to make it?” I asked.
“Well, no, as long as you have a teacher or one of the maids present when you make it so they know you have one then you can make it.” Stephanie explained.
“If you are going to make one then I would suggest walking outside where there is more nature mana.” Out of nowhere the halfling maid appeared. She had a smile on her face that showed she was planning something.
“Um, well I don’t do dungeoneering so I doubt I need it.” I said.
“Well, if you show great promise the teachers can add it as extracurricular, you won’t need to go to class as long as we pass you what we write down and you take a test every month to prove that you are properly learning.” Emily said.
“Is that so? But… I see dungeoneering as something that will keep me from traveling.” I said the reason for my reluctance.
“Hey hey, are you planning to be an adventurer? You know tamers are the best dungeoneers right!” Nova exclaimed.
Owen nodded, “She is right you know. Unlike us who use the royal dungeon for training, tamers use the dungeons in the place of the pocket dimension to keep your tamed creatures. It offers them a real home as well as a training ground.” He explained.
I was slowly getting tempted, “Well, I can’t overturn that reasoning, but I still don’t know where I would place it.” I said.
“Well under your home.” Asher said.
“I lived in the capital, remember, it would probably invade your dungeon and make a safer exit for the monsters.” I replied.
“Well it’s not like it will matter. We will be planting our buds here like every other person. At the end of the year we get to take it with us?” Owen said.
“Don’t dungeons die if you remove the heart?” I asked.
“Not when you use dungeoneering skills. When you remove the heart you kill off all the monsters by draining them of mana and the dungeon is destroyed leaving only the original cave that is made, all that mana is stored up in the heart for the next location it’ll be planted in.” Asher said
Finally giving in to the growing desire, I show an excited expression, “Wow, so it’s like that. Well I don’t see why not. I can make a home for my pets so they can stay outside, then I might do it.”
“If that is what you want then follow me outside. I will be your supervisor.” the maid said.
I nod and we all exit. It seems they want to see if I can make it. We walk out of the gated area and stand in the middle of the road.
I take a breath and do like the diagram showed. I stretch my hands out while facing them together and form a ball of mana out of 100 points. Then I close my eyes and feel for the mana in the air.
Soon the sensation of the air changed and became vibrant as energy was coming off everything.
I expand my mana out and grab at this mana before drawing it in slowly. I mix the nature mana until there are 25 points for 100. With that mix I then started expanding my mana out releasing the remaining 900 and grabbed the remaining 225 points of mana and slowly drew it into the ball in a proportion of 1:4.
After 10 minutes the last bit of mana entered the now massively compressed ball of mana. When the last drop entered the ball, the ball compressed, becoming the size of the top digit of my pinky and forming a crystal around the mana and then working its way inside until all the mana turned into a crystal.
When it was done I breathed a sigh of relief and opened my eyes and grabbed the little gem that was on the ground now. It was a tiny pearl like marble that had a fantastic white glow to it.
When I turned around the others, they were staring at me. “What?” I asked.
“You did that on your first try and in so little time!” the maid's voice was in a flat tone.
“Is there a problem with that?” I asked.
“It took us nearly the entire class to make our own and we failed countless times.” Asher replied.
I blushed and looked down seeing how I overdid it again.
“I guess it’s a given considering your rank five. What keeps you from being number one is the blessing these four have.” Emily said.
Those who were below my rank just laughed but the top four were stunned stiff. Even the elf princess, who had a blessing that improves her magic control. Sorry though but I guess having this body makes me better than elves and maybe the goddess of mana’s blessing could also have something to do with it.
“I seriously wonder if Miss. Ginshiro isn’t from the original royal family of Monville.” The little maid said.
“I don’t know, I was never told anything like that as a kid. I also never remember anything related to Monville.” I replied, shaking my head.
“Well, if you awaken a second god's blessing we will know then.” Asher said.
“Anyway I think I will go to sleep. A lot just happened and I’m tired.” I said.
The others agreed and I retreated to my room and changed. I lift the small gem above my eyes and stare at it intensely.
“An ego that is similar to a butler. Nah too stiff, maybe a childhood friend that is obsessive about being a maid is better.” I thought.
I built the image with my knowledge of anime and manga and gathered all my mana and poured it into the little bud before going to sleep.