I had quite a bit more knowledge about the local area by the time I went back into the spirit world. This time with six hours to use. With none of the timers gone, I left the tablet asleep.

I tried to come up with some way to use my earth magic to increase my walking speed. But all of the attempts failed.

While I had hoped that Harold might have been able to find some horses or something of the like. It seemed that he had no such luck.

He did return to show that he had obtained a few more cores in my time away. But he did say that there wasn't much left to hunt in the local area.

There was only a growing bandit camp that he had left alone.

While that did make me interested, it wasn't enough to go out of my way to try and investigate it.

Harold seemed sure that it would destroy itself due to the infighting of their quick growth.

While I couldn't be sure of that, as long as they didn't affect me. I wouldn't worry about them.

With the few hours in the Spirit world being uneventful, I returned to Blue Star.

The moon was deep in the sky by this point. After making myself a quick meal, I managed to fall asleep soon after, looking forward to the next day.

I did manage to wake up in time to have breakfast with my siblings before they went to school.

Both were still extremely excited about my gift.

After making sure that they left the house within a reasonable time. I returned to the Spirit World.

This time ready to do more with my gift.

I had taken one of the Rank 4 cores from Harold the day before. I had to see how much my gift would give for depositing such a valuable item.

[+ 100 AP]

I wasn't sure if I should have been disappointed with the amount. While it would allow me to do quite a few things. It somehow seemed lacking.

Before I bought anything, I first needed to see how many of the random students had graduated.

[Congratulations. Four Students have passed the year and graduated from their first year.]

I couldn't be too surprised that a random class had fewer graduates than a mana-inclined class.

Two of the students had been Mana Adepts. While the other two had been Aura Adepts.

There was nothing special about the new mana graduates. But I was a little interested in what the Aura Adepts would look like.

[Adept Toppin:

Skills: Bronze Skin]

While he hadn't managed to develop an Aura core. His skill was still impressive. Bronze skin was one of the more powerful basic defensive skills.

The other Aura Adept hadn't managed to learn a skill. That I did find a little interesting. As all of the Mana graduates did have a skill.

Before drawing the new teachers and classes. I decided to imbue Adept Toppin. To see what the effect would be.

I was a little worried that imbuing them would overwrite the Mana student.

As the raw power of the new student was funnelled through my body. I brought up my spirit sheet.

Stolen story; please report.

[Title: None,

Gift: Gaia's Academy (SSS),

Skills: Magus Core, Earth Magic, Bronze Skin]

I felt near invincible for those few moments. I immediately tried to exercise my new power and found moving far easier.

While the power of the Mage had been intoxicating. This was something else. My body felt truly alive.

I would have no problem reaching the nearest town before the end of my time in the spirit world at this rate.

It took quite some time for me to get down from my high. While I tried to practice Bronze Skin. I didn't notice much of an effect.

I was far more impressed with my more powerful body. I imagined that I would need to be hurt to truly see the effect of my new skill.

I turned my focus back to the Academy. Having used three of the students to imbue power. I had only five students on the list. Only one of them was an Aura user.

Spinning the wheel for the next class. I was a little surprised when I drew a crafting class.

That was now two classes that I didn't have a single teacher for.

[Random Students X 0]

[Mana Inclined Students X 0]

[Aura Inclined Students X 0]

[Healing Inclined Students X 1]

[Crafting Inclined Students X 1]

It seemed that I would have to purchase my next class, as I didn't want to waste either of them.

I had a little more hope for the Common Teacher.

It seemed that today the tablet wanted me to focus on crafters.

[Teacher Lorena:

Speciality: Crafting(Enchanting),

Teaching Ability: Adequate]

I was glad that I had another adequate teacher in the Academy. But her speciality was interesting. Enchanting was one of the most valuable skills in the Spirit World, but also one of the most expensive.

Even learning a single rune would cost the average person a fortune.

The chance for the students to learn it without any cost on my part made me more than a little excited.

With the hundred AP points I had earned from the deposit, there was a lot to do.

With three Academies Open, I could now have up to seventy-five students in one year.

The first thing I bought were the two speciality classes. One Mana inclined and the other Aura inclined.

With both costing ten AP, I was left with 88 AP to use.

While the Lesser Time Skip did look valuable. I wanted to have a few more teachers in the Academy. With three uses. I hoped that luck would be on my side.

[Teacher Hull:

Speciality: Mana(Foundation),

Teacher Ability: Low]

While I wasn't happy with the level of teaching ability. Having another Mana teacher could only be good news. I had somewhat understood what the different subcategories of the Mana and Aura teachers were. But this was a first. Power and Skill I could roughly understand. But Foundation seemed a little more esoteric.

Looking at the next teacher it seemed that my luck was quite good.

[Teacher Rowe:

Speciality: Aura(Skill),

Teaching Ability: Adequate.]

Another adequate Teacher was a pleasant sight. With two teachers in both the Mana Academy and the Aura Academy, I was looking forward to the results of the class.

With the final teacher, I hoped for a Healing Teacher.

But it seemed that Luck wasn't on my side.

[Teacher Steele:

Speciality: Crafting(Forging),

Teaching Ability: Low]

Another Crafting Teacher. It seemed that I wouldn't be adding any healers to my graduates any time soon.

I decided to save the remaining AP. Not that I would be able to afford all that much with them.

After selecting the three different classes I was a little excited. After all, it was my first year with multiple batches.

I was quite happy with myself as I watched seventy-five little dots begin to make their way into the Academy.

I was also glad to see that the timer for the year was the same. I would be a little worried if more students affected the length of the year.

With seventy-five students. I hoped that I would have quite a few graduates come tomorrow.

With my gift done for the day, it only took summoning the Stone Golem to attract Teacher Harold's attention.

I hoped the time that I would be able to summon another Teacher would come soon. Even one Teacher was an incredible boon. I couldn't even imagine more.

He was quite a bit happier with my speed this time around. While it was still a challenge to keep up with him. I did manage to make it to the next town before the end of my time in the spirit world.

It was a close call, but I did manage to secure myself a nice area to stay while in the abandoned town.

It was quite a bit larger than the village had been. Which meant that I was a little more worried about keeping my spiritless body safe.

I told Harold that I would be back in eight hours and to not leave the town.

I would feel a lot less confident without his protection in this new area.

Returning home, I was met with an empty house once again.

With only the message that the twins wouldn't be coming home that evening and that my parents would be working late.

It seemed that even with my new gift, they were still working hard.

I had been a little worried about the state of my spirit body, but I was still okay when I returned that evening.

I wouldn't yet have the time to make it to the next town. So I spent a few hours exploring the town I was now in.

Once again there was little of value to be found. Anything essential or valuable had been stripped away.

While there had only been one man who had stuck around in the village. There were a few other stragglers in the town.

My first meeting with a native started quite a bit worse than I was expecting.

"What in the seven hells are you doing in my house?"