I had to curse my bad luck. As Eddie happily travelled beside us around the town.
My attempt at making up what force I belonged to seemed to completely convince the old man.
He wanted to know who else was part of our forces. Where they were based. What the mission statement was.
I could only make up that even Harold and I weren't at a high enough level to know the inner details.
He seemed fully on board for Harold to call me Headmaster. Which did surprise me a little. I only said that the resistance was broken up into several schools. And that we were only the first to arrive.
That seemed to only get him more excited.
Unfortunately, he was just as tight-lipped. Citing his oath whenever I asked him a question.
He was a little surprised when I revealed that I was an otherworlder. But he did take it quickly in his stride.
It turned out that his home had quite the area in the basement, somewhere I would have never looked. But it was more than enough to keep my body safe for the next few hours.
While I did want to draw the Elite teacher. I would wait until tomorrow to see what had come from the graduating class.
The night passed quickly. After a somewhat troubled sleep, I had a quick breakfast before making my way back into the spirit world.
Fortunately, neither Eddie nor Harold were around at the moment. Giving me more than enough time to digest everything that my gift had to offer.
I first deposited the remaining Rank 4 core, earning me another 100 AP.
After that, I turned to the new graduating class.
[Congratulations, nineteen students have passed the year and graduated from their first year.]
I was very happy with the number of graduates. Before I could inspect them, another notification popped up.
[Congratulations on having twenty First Year Graduates. You may now create a second-year class.]
[Congratulations you may summon another Teacher]
That made me more than a little excited. The first-year students were already impressive enough. I could only imagine the second years to be even more so.
Having another Teacher by my side would also be a huge change.
There was now an option list on the side of the academy page. Which I could use to switch between the years.
The layout of the second year was the same as the first. With three teachers in each academy. I went to spin the teacher wheel to see what free teacher I could recruit.
I nearly cried when I saw that I had recruited my first healing teacher.
[Teacher Turner:
Speciality: Healing(Light),
Teaching Ability: Low]
It seemed that healing was a little different than the other academies. Since I didn't even have a healing academy, I couldn't place her in the second-year slot.
With her addition, the final academy was unlocked.
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[Congratulations on unlocking all four academies. As a reward the Academy Infrastructure Menu is now available.]
I was brought to another menu with three different options. All of which were currently at their lowest.
[Student Facilities][1/10](To Upgrade - 10AP)
[Teaching Facilities][1/10](To Upgrade - 10AP)
[Academy Infrastructure][1/10](To Upgrade - 10AP)
Since it only cost 10 AP to upgrade each of them, I decided to splurge a little. While I wasn't completely sure what each of them did, I was sure that they would at least be helpful.
[Student Facilities][2/10](To Upgrade - 40AP)
[Teaching Facilities][2/10](To Upgrade - 40AP)
[Academy Infrastructure][2/10](To Upgrade - 40AP)
The cost for each of them went up quickly. I would have to see how it affected the academy to see if it was worth it.
There was already a noticeable difference to the pixelated academy. It now longer looked like a complete ruin. Now it only looked a little worn down. It was quite an improvement.
With my inspection of the new menu done, I returned to the new graduates. Seven of whom were Mana Adepts, and five were Aura adepts. The final seven were the new crafting graduates. Most of whom were apprentice level in one of the two combat disciplines. It seemed that the graduation requirements were quite different for each school.
I was surprised to see that the highest-ranking Aura student wasn't even part of the Aura Academy. The only person who had managed to ascend beyond the second level was a crafting student.
[3★ Forger Jayson,
Skills: Aura Core, Forging(3★), Enchanting(1★)]
It was interesting to see that he was a graduate of the crafting class rather than the Aura class.
Not that I could complain about his Forging ability either. 3 stars was the first step of mastery for any crafting discipline.
After all, they could begin working with more precious materials of the same rank.
All of the other crafters were 2-star. It seemed that was the level to pass for the crafters.
While I was tempted to imbue Jayson, I knew that imbuing him would remove him from the selection. I wanted to see what he would become after his second year.
I was lucky enough to spin a mana class on the wheel. So I only had to buy a crafting and aura-inclined class to begin my first full year.
With my spending, I could only afford to buy two common teachers this time around.
It seemed that my luck had changed as I recruited another healing teacher.
That meant that I now had two teachers in every academy.
[Teacher Kelly,
Speciality: Healing(Foundation),
Teaching Ability: Adequate.]
At least I now had an adequate teacher in the healing academy as well.
The other teacher was a little more straightforward.
[Teacher Beasley,
Speciality: Mana(Skill)
Teaching Ability: Low]
Since I already had two Mana teachers in place, I decided to try and put her in the second-year slot.
[You may only select [Elite Teachers] for second-year slots.]
That put a bit of a dampener on my spirit.
If that was true for every year on as well, then filling up every teacher spot would be more difficult than I had expected.
I had intended to begin the second year today but that would have to change. I needed to summon the Elite Teacher to see how powerful they were.
After all, I didn't want to rely on Harold who couldn't even beat Eddie.
If Harold was equal to a Grand Knight. Then I could only imagine that an elite teacher would be equal to an Arch-Knight.
I selected the recruitment option to see what I would get for my first Elite Teacher.
[Elite Teacher Douglas,
Speciality: Aura(Skill, Power),
Secondary Skills: Archery,
Teaching Ability: High]
It seemed that I had drawn well for my first Elite Teacher. Which made me hesitate to choose him to summon.
I decided to bite the bullet.
Before I summoned him, I began my first full school year. I was more than pleased to see the hundred little dots swarm into the improved academy.
I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a reward of some sort. But I hoped that there would be some more talent in the graduating classes.
I didn't have any other options, and I didn't want to be under the thumb of Eddie for another day.
Thus I used my second summoning slot on Douglas.
He was a far slighter man than Harold. Fitting the Archer stereotype well. I had been worried about finding him a bow. Unlike Harold however, he appeared in front of me with a bow and quiver in hand.
He bowed slightly as he appeared.
"Greetings Headmaster, My name is Douglas. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
With Douglas in tow, and my work in Gaia's Academy done for the day. I left Eddies protected basement.
I was glad to see that the town hadn't been destroyed even more in my absence. That had been a slight worry of mine.
It did seem that Eddie was a little sharper than I thought. We were only out for a few moments before he and Harold appeared beside us.
"Who is the new guy?"
"Another member of our school. He is a talented Archer."
Eddie gave him a once over but didn't ask anything more.
I was a little interested to see how the two teachers would interact, but they only gave each other a nod.
"The more the merrier, come now. The first few of those beasties scouts are moving. We are going to go deal with them."