Lieutenant Delars put some four folders filled with documents in front of Null. To his surprise, the symbols on each folder seemed very familiar. After all, each of these symbols were emblazoned on the cloaks of four people he'd known very well.

"Alright. So, first off. Here's some documents for the Magic Academies we've coordinated with to get you started with magic use."

Null picked up the first one, parsing through it.

I see that there is a tuition cost associated with it. I think you said earlier that you all would be paying for it. Right?

Lieutenant Delars nodded.

"Yes. Government funding actually pays for pretty much everyone's tuition. There are stipulations though. Namely, that you do have to pass the courses."

Null thought for a moment.

So, what if a person were to fail?

"Well. To qualify for the tuition, you do have to show the drive to succeed. Typically, you either have to get high enough grades and pass an entrance exam to make it into college in the first place. Furthermore, not only do we have high quality education leading up to the point where people take the exams, but we also have government funded after school programs where teachers will mentor students on subjects they might not understand quite properly. Furthermore, we have educational assistance programs that do similar mentoring and tutoring for college students. The only way that a person has to actually pay that tuition fee is if they both fail to complete the course and also fail to utilize any of the assistance provided to help them pass said course. We aren't monsters you know."

Null continued looking over the documents

That makes sense.

"Yep. At any rate, let's talk about the academies. To be perfectly honest with you, the Special Production Team really helped out with this process. Most of the Magical Academies didn't want to take the risk of trying to educate a dungeon core with no idea of how to be a dungeon core in the first place."

Null would have frowned if he could.

I can't possibly be that bad.

Lieutenant Delars shook his head.

"In reality, that's not the entire picture. Several of the Academies were interested in the idea, but with then the Demon King showed up. With everything going on, they really don't want to divert resources away from training Mages, Magical Knights, and Magitech Engineers."

I can understand that then.

"At any rate, the Special Production Team pulled some strings for you with their alma maters and got them to accept you. So, let's go over the four options."

He started off by presenting the folder emblazoned with the symbol of a Magical Gear inset with a magical stone.

"This is for the Human Magical Academy. It's known simply as the Magical Institute. It's actually the one I went to as well. There are numerous professors there that are highly skilled with magic. I personally know several of them, and I can promise you that they are highly skilled. Furthermore, there are numerous dungeon guild halls in the surrounding city, which should work out well for you once you figure out how to make monsters on your own."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Null thought for a bit.

Hmm. I'd like to hear more about it. Would you mind telling me more about your experience there?

Lieutenant Delars happily obliged the request. Over the next twenty minutes, Null learned a surprising amount of stuff about the academy. First off, it turned out that Willis, Vane, and Delars had all gone to the academy together. Delars happily told Null about all the exploits they had done. All the courses they had taken. He talked about some of the professors that he liked and some of the professors he didn't. Furthermore, he talked about how they had a competition to see who could get the Academy Cloaks. As it turned out, only the top two students of the graduating class of each year ended up getting the academy cloaks. Willis had graduated top of class and Vane was in second place. That left Lieutenant Delars in third place. He happily showed Null the signet ring he had received from his achievement.

Null happily listened to the stories, asking questions from time to time, such as why only one of the members of the Special Production Team was an officer when several of them had cloaks. It turned out that there was a two-year officer training school you had to attend, and most of them simply didn't want to wait that long to get to fighting demons.

With all the questions he had answered, they moved on to the next folder. This one with the High-Tech Mountain City symbol on it.

"This would be the Dwarven Academy City. It's known as the Mithril City of the Mountain. They have some of the highest quality equipment around. Interesting fact for you, the SPAD was designed, developed, and produced in this city. There are relatively fewer Dungeon guilds around the area. If I recall correctly, there are only three in the entire city. Still, it does have cutting edge technology, and several of its graduates have moved on to work in the Sky Fortress production forges. Unfortunately, I can't tell you as much about it since I only ever did a student exchange program there that lasted a month."

Null agreed with the assessment and made a mental note to talk to Special Production team about their experiences with the Academies if he got the chance.

"After that, we have the Elven Magical Academy. This one is known as the Silver Branch Cybernetics Institute. They mainly focus on Magical computing and information technology. The Magimech suit your wearing right now is only possible due to Branchleaf and Stonehammer's combined skill expertise if I'm being perfectly honest. This one does have the downside of only containing a single dungeon guild in the city though."

Null gave it some thought. While he was having trouble with his inability to use magic, maybe he could learn how to make tech that would allow him to use magic more easily. It definitely made the Dwarf and Elven Academies much more appealing. However, he still had one more academy to learn about.

Alright, tell me about the final academy.

Lieutenant Delars presented Null with the final folder.

"Now for the Dragon Academy, which is simply known as the Dragon Academy. This one has a few key benefits for you. Dragons and Dungeon Cores have been close allies for a very long time. As such, the leading branch for the Dungeon Guild is located in this city. Furthermore, the lead office of the adventurer's guild is also located there. As it turns out, Dragons make for excellent adventurers. Who would have guessed? At any rate, the academy has a rather... brute force approach to teaching. Not a lot of theory, but a whole lot of practical use type stuff. Honestly, as much as I hate to admit it, this one is probably your best bet for learning how to use magic quickly, and there is a whole lot of support in place for dungeon cores."

Lieutenant Delars folded his hands together after presenting each of the various different options.

"Well, what do you think?"

Null sat there for a bit, contemplating the various different choices.

I'm going to need some time to think this through. Will I be able to do that?

"Of course. You'll have a few days to make a decision. I'll also set up a meeting for you with the Special Production team so you can get their input if you'd like that."

Sounds great.

With that, Lieutenant Delars began to set up a meeting.