Chapter 99: Exploration (1)
Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; Terra; Imperia; FBC
The remainder of my first Space magic course went by way too quickly. I already knew most of the things instructor Renner taught us in the second half of the lesson, but it was still exciting to see the others’ reactions when he switched off gravity toward the end of the lesson and everything started floating. The instructor stayed on the ground though, and I sensed a bit of Space magic anchored at his feet. An advanced spell? Must have been, as he looked at me curiously, as I started floating just like all the others. That probably reassured him of my cluelessness?
Anyway, now that my first official lesson is over, I grab Tim’s hand and ask him if we should take the quick way out. He happily agrees, and after a quick conversation with Clara, she supplies me with coordinates for the jump room in building 07 – the closest jump room to a restaurant with a name that sounds interesting to both Tim and myself: The Singing Beef. I do the jump, and we are quick to leave the building afterward. On our way to the restaurant, I ask Tim to start a Group Call with the others. He obliges, and I quickly ask Lucy, Lydia, Alina, and Nick if they want to join us before we head to the Exploration course.
They agree, and we decide to wait for them in front of the restaurant. “Hey Tim, do you know if I can learn the Group Call spell as well?”
He shakes his head. “No, unfortunately not yet… You need to be at least a Senior to cast it. But it’s something you can look forward to. It’s really cool! Like with all the other Communication spells, the recipients don’t need to be Mages, but if they are, it gets easier for the caster.”
Huh, that’s interesting. I didn’t know about the last part. But I have the feeling I should know. Better not show him then. “Thanks, I guess it’s your job to cast that spell then when we’re exploring things, as I’m still stuck at Junior.”
“Ahh, don’t worry, you’ll be a Senior soon enough. But I can certainly take over as our communication specialist,” he answers with a big grin.
Not long after, the others arrive, and we enter the restaurant. As the name says, it serves various cuts of beef, grilled to our preferences. They offer fries as a side dish. Luckily, none of us is vegan, and so we all order to our heart's content.
It tastes heavenly! I mean, it’s just sooo good. Worth every single credit. And even better, they were one of the restaurants to send me apology coupons. I have Clara mark it as one of my favorite spots on campus so that I’ll never forget it.
My steak vanishes way too fast, but unfortunately, I can’t order a second one, as I’m completely full. Also, it’s almost time to head back to building 07 where the first lesson for the Exploration course will be held.
The others finish eating soon after, and after paying, we walk back over to building 07. The elevator takes us up to our classroom. It’s all the way to the top this time. When we exit the elevator, there is even a sign saying landing pad to our right. Hmm, it is a course about exploration, and it includes a practical part with starships… Are we going up to a space station for our first lesson? Nah, that would be way too early. They probably tell us the rules and form groups today.
Whatever, we ignore the rooftop access and step through another door into a rather small classroom. There are fewer people inside compared to the space lesson in the morning, maybe a hundred? Something like that. The instructor, a tall woman with brown hair, is already there as well, and immediately waves us to her table.
We comply, and she greets us as soon as we are in earshot. “Hello there, welcome to the Exploration course. First things first, this will be different from your other lessons. I’m not one to stand before a class and give you long lectures and all. We’re taking a rather practical approach. Therefore, we’ll just make a short introduction today, then we’re going up to the ships, so you can familiarize yourselves. It’s where you’ll spend the most time during this course after all.”
Huh, so I was wrong! We’re going up today. Crazy. I think this course will be a good one.
“Oh, and before I forget, my name is Samantha Xyderion, but you can all just call me Sam, or instructor Sam if you are keen on formalities. Anyway, can you tell me your names so that I can check you on the list? We only have a limited number of starships for this course after all.”
Her brown eyes twitch a little at the end but her face smoothes out soon after. She’s quite pretty, I have to say, with wavy hair, and full lips. She also looks quite young, but who knows a person’s real age with Song Medical’s age treatments these days…
While I’m lost in my thoughts, Tim steps forward to address Sam. He clears his throat, which shakes me out of it. I blush a little, as he’s taking over my part. Normally it’s my job to explain our situation. Anyway, Tim doesn’t seem to care. “We’re a bit of a special case, I suppose,” he starts, and Sam raises an eyebrow. “You see, my name’s Tim Skadi, and I should be on the list. The others aren’t, though, and that’s where our special situation arises. We, or rather Sara here,” he points at me, “have our own ship, and so we’d like to join as extras.”
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Sam smiles broadly. “That’s perfect! I always love it when our class gets bigger. This also means I can include one person from the waiting list, as you won’t need your original spot.” She stops to tap a few buttons on her interface, then she looks back at us. “You can step over to the others, only a few are missing, then we can start.”
We start walking toward the others when she calls out to me. “Sara?”
I stop and turn around. My friends continue walking. “Yeah?”
“Your ship… It does fill the requirements, right? It’s not just a small shuttle or something?”
I grin back at her. “I think it’s good, don’t worry.”
“Good, I trust you at this. If you lie, I have to kick your group off the course though… I can’t magic a new ship out of my hat. Anyway, does it have an AI capable of flying the ship? If yes, I can send you the coordinates so that you can bring it over to our space station. Then we can take a look at it together with all the other ships for this course.”
Hmm, the Stargazer doesn’t have a separate AI, but Clara should be able to do it, right? I lift my finger. “One second… Clara, can you?”
“Yeah, that’s no problem. I have a very stable connection to the Stargazer. Just tell her to send you the coordinates.”
“Okay Sam, I’m good, can you send me the coordinates? Then the AI can take care of it.”
“Yeah, sure, here you go.”
I nod in thanks and return to the others. Meanwhile, another group of students enters the room, and Sam immediately calls them to her. They talk a bit, and a few minutes later, they join all the others. The process repeats itself another time, then I suddenly catch Sam snapping her fingers.
The sound magically carries throughout the room, and all chatter dies down. I focus on Sam, and she grins. “That’s everyone. Our course is now complete. I am happy to announce that we managed to fill out all fifteen team slots, and we have an additional 6 teams with their own ships joining us.”
She pauses as if waiting for us to clap. Someone to my left does exactly that, and all the others quickly join in. When the clapping dies down, Sam continues to speak. “With that out of the way, let’s continue with forming teams. I’m sure a few of you already did so.” She looks around and winks at a few students, our team included.
“Those of you with complete teams, please move to the right and wait a bit. As for the others, I’ll send you a link to a document where you can put in your abilities, qualifications, or whatever you want to share. This should help you find your optimal teams. The document will be projected behind me shortly. Oh, and please remember that you can hire a seventh team member if you don’t have your own Space Mage.”
Her words cause quite a lot of activity, as about half of the students move to the right, while all the others look at each other with a bit of uncertainty in their eyes. A few shrug, sit down and start tapping on their interfaces. Soon after, the first names appear behind Sam in the air.
There are lots of Utility Mages, some even mentioning abilities like cleaning or healing. Some even mention ship-related spells like Engine Enhancement or Remote Control. One catches my eye. She says in her profile that she specializes in Navigation. That’s interesting and I whisper to Clara to save her name and ability. Who knows when a good navigator will be handy?
When a Space Mage appears on the list, everyone almost jumps at them to try to get into their team. I have to suppress a chuckle, and Tim wears an amused smile as well. If they knew that we have not one but two Space Mages in our team.
There are also a few A&D Mages on the list. While no one is at Lucy’s power level, they all have something we don’t have yet: Attack spells. When I ask Lucy, she tells me that she’s working on it. She actually has the first one almost ready. That’s great to hear.
Finally, the list stops expanding and now features 60 names. That’s ten teams! Sam nods and joins those 60 people. First, she singles out the Space Mages, there are seven of them, and makes them provisional team captains. Then she asks for three more who quickly step forward. Now with the ten captains ready, they start forming their teams. It happens without any cries of outrage and doesn’t take longer than fifteen minutes. The newly formed teams with Space Mages quickly join us while Sam talks a bit more to the remaining three teams. When she finishes, they all wear big grins and come over to join us as well.
One of them stands pretty close to me, and I lean over to tap his shoulder. He looks at me with a questioning gaze. “What did Sam say to you guys at the end?”
He grins broadly. “She sent us a list of Senior and above Space Mages who are looking for employment. That’s better than we all expected. I mean travel without wormholes… That’s huge for exploration!”
Huh, he’s right. How can you explore new places when you have to rely on wormholes? I wonder if the others can hire stronger Space Mages as well. There wasn’t any Senior on the list just now.
Sam clears her throat, and we all look at her again. “That was the easiest team building I’ve ever had. Thank you all for that. Therefore, I’ll give you all a free hint. Even if you already have a Space Mage on your team, I strongly recommend looking for a second one. That will allow you to speed things up by a lot. It’s best if you find a Senior or stronger Space Mage, as they aren’t confined to wormholes.”
That causes another round of chatter while I grin in satisfaction. Nick nudges my arm. “Why are you grinning?”
“Oh, just that we already have everything we need and the fact that I figured out Sam’s reasoning before she told us.”
Nick rolls his eyes while Lydia face-palms, the others all start chuckling.
Tim starts with a joking tone. “Yeah, who knows, maybe we manage to find the ruins of the destroyed Earth.”
Nick and Alina start laughing with Tim while Lucy, Lydia, and I all have to suppress a wince. We manage a weak laugh with a small delay. The others don’t seem to notice. That was close… Actually, when Dad manages to open the vault, Tim’s idea doesn’t even sound too far off…
Meanwhile, Sam starts talking again. “Alright, now that we’re done with all the organizational stuff, how about we head upstairs and take a look at our beautiful starships? That’s also where I’ll be explaining the rules and what you have to do to pass this course. We’re a practical course after all. It’s best to explain everything at the place of action.”
With that, she turns around and walks toward the exit. “Come on, our shuttle is waiting.”