AN: The actual sixth chapter

Chapter 6

Adam's wish came true instantly, their first lesson was 'Basic Magic Studies'. Together they entered the room mentioned on their timetable. It was a big auditorium. Adam almost ran to the first row and took a seat in the middle of it. The others followed him in a more relaxed pace. "Don't you already know what they will be teaching?" Marcel asked Stanley. "No. All my parents taught me were some basics and some exercises for my soul. They told me that it won't make a difference if they taught me more and they too aren't allowed to teach any stronger spells." he answered.

"I am the real oddball, ain't I?" Marcel thought. Using the knowledge Oliver had left behind he could use and create highly advanced spells. Those that knew that were very few and wouldn't expose him, yet Marcel began to ponder whether it had been wise that he had exposed his abilities during the test. Luckily only teaching to an audience deemed too young was illegal, not the actual possession of such knowledge while too young. Since there wasn't a teacher involved, except for his basics for which multiple witnesses existed, there wasn't anybody to judge guilty.

While he had pondered over this their teacher had entered the room. He was a man that looked like he was in his mid thirties, with light brown hair and a cleanly shaved face. He was clothed in a red robe. This rather uncommon piece of cloth was a status symbol only grand mages are allowed to wear. To become a grand mage one has to create a thesis and a greater spell based on it, which is deemed useful by the committee of the mage's guild. Marcel didn't know of these rankings and their requirements or else he would have been shocked. He had created a new magic system and numerous spells what would his rank be?

“Welcome students! I am Reynold Mercer. For the next five years I will be your headteacher and teacher for magic and most things that comes along with it. As you can see I am wearing a red robe. As most of you should know it shows my rank as grand magus, yet I am part of the warriors guild. Rather strange isn't it? At least for those that think that the guilds are formed by professions and differently talented people. But the only thing that sets apart the guilds is their purpose. As such I expect that everybody, even those that think themselves a warrior, give their best in all classes, including mine.” Reynold said.

“Now that this is out of the way we should get started with the actual class. All of you already know some basic spells and how to manipulate your soul. We will begin our lessons with learning about those spells and how they actually work. Bit by bit I will teach you the segments of the spells and how they can be rearranged to form new spells.” he explained.

With this he begun to decompose the basic light spell. It was beyond boring for Marcel. He knew all that already, he even could further disassemble some of the segments Reynold had shown them! This spell consists of a heat absorption segment a spherical form modifier and a segment to create light. This last segment wasn't as simple as the teacher explained thought!

It didn't just create light, there was a process behind that! Electrons had to be elevated into a higher energetic orbital or other position and then it had to return to its original orbital. If that is done with certain elements it will create visible light. And that elements had to be collected! A part that the teacher had completely overlooked. Marcel had to ask himself whether this knowledge was simply lost or wasn't considered as being worthy of mention.

Slowly traces of boredom and frustration crept onto Marcel's face and before long Reynold noticed it. But he continued his lesson like he hadn't, only after he dismissed the class he took Marcel aside.

“It looked like you were rather bored in my class. What problems do you have with my lecture?” He asked calmly. “As you might have heard from the Cain couple I know some rather advanced spells and not only do I know them. I made them. As such this basic lesson doesn't contain anything new to me. In fact I could add to some of your explanations.” Marcel responded. “I have heard that some worldborn are exceptional knowledgeable, but I didn't expect that one would try to tutor me about the basics. Very well I will arrange a test for you if you can pass it and teach me something new then you will immediately pass this years magic class. If not I expect you to attentively participate in my class.” Reynold said. “The test will be ready this weekend, just come to my residence here on the campus then.”

With that words they parted and Marcel followed his friends to their next lesson. He met them in a classroom that was filled with bookcases, even the tables were turned into shelves. The subject of this class was the history and geography of this country and the empire. Their teacher was an old man in a wide grey robe. He introduced himself as Professor Maxwell. He had committed his whole live to the research of the past and freely shared his knowledge. He strongly believed that knowledge not shared is lost knowledge.

They began with the history and rough geography of the kingdom of Lan. The kingdom spans an area of around 400000 square kilometre. The two southern borders borders were adjacent to the southern ocean, only in the north did it connect with the area of the empire and the realms of the alliance. This border was further shortened through the mountainous terrain in the north of Lan.

The short border with the alliance was under constant friction, although it wasn't as bad as in some other countries. The coast regions of Lan were mostly steep cliffs, only at a few places had it been possible to create and maintain harbours. The region was overall rather isolated. Which is why it only recently became a kingdom. With its 150 years of history it was the youngest kingdom in the continent of Pangria.

Lan had a long history of colonisation, as the passes had been found a 1000 years ago. Neither the empire nor the alliance had actively tried to colonize this land, as it required an overextension of forces that neither of them had been willing to put up with. It had been commoners from both sides that had colonized this lands and they had paid a hefty price for it. Many died in those years.

They only succeeded when they received help from a small settlement of worldborn.

It took 700 hundred years until the settlements had stabilized and were able to create completely self sustaining communities. Before that point they always had been dependant of trading caravans as they couldn't produce some of the advanced daily necessities themselves. It took another 100 years until a local government over all settlements had been formed.

But then a civil war broke out. The tribes that once had helped the settlers and had been created by the worldborn came into conflict with the newly established nobles. Not only had they been overlooked when the government had been created, the nobles even demanded them to be submissive and settle down as their subjects.

Although their case was just they had been the first to draw blood. They had eradicated a complete family clan. It was a prolonged war, as the tribes were specialised at guerilla warfare. After 50 years of bloody battles the tribes had collapsed and the few survivors had scattered and hid in the populace.

Now Marcel finally understood the open hostility he had occasionally encountered. At some point the worldborn had become the idols for the tribes and some nobles still believed them to be the leaders of their old enemies. Some of them even grew up hearing stories about the bloody battles their parents or grandparents had fought in and the figureheads of the enemies in those stories had been worldborn.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

After the civil war the two opposing forces, the alliance and the empire gave the newly formed kingdom an ultimatum to join a side. A majority vote among the populace decided that they would side with the empire. Although most people didn't really cared about this. They had been and still were mostly isolated.

As they had caught up to the current date the lesson was ended, the next topic would be a rough history of the two neighbouring kingdoms. But now it was time for their lunch break and after that they would have their first guild specific classes.

The six friends walked to the cafeteria while talking about their first lessons. Especially Stanley couldn't stop talking about their first magic lessons and all the possibilities he could see in the future. Thankfully eating still took priority over talking and Marcel could enjoy a bit of silence. The history class had been interesting for him, but the magic lesson? Pure boredom! He wanted to ace the test this weekend and get some more time for his work on the armours and weapons. He was full of anticipation for the new materials that would arrive soon.

They quickly settled down at the same table as at breakfast and ate in silence. The meal was so delicious that this was a rather common scene. Suddenly Marcel turned around, he had felt that something had quickly closed in on his head. He almost always used his soul to sense the world around him. It had long since become a habit. Marcel quickly used his soul to negate the objects movements and finally he saw what exactly it was. It was a ball of brown sauce.

He quickly scanned his surroundings to find the perpetrator, but he couldn't find the prankster in the mass of people around him. Seems like his presence finally led to some actions from the nobles around him. Since he couldn't find his adversary he evaporated all liquid in the ball and tossed the remaining powder into an empty bowl on the table.

He would be more careful in the future, as to prevent any more serious 'pranks' from happening. His friends weren't as calm as him, they heatedly discussed about revenge and trying to find the culprit. Only Stanley had another theme. He wanted to know what magic Marcel had used. To this question Marcel gave him a quick demonstration of his spell and begun to levitate some unused cutlery around them. This drew way more attention than Marcel had anticipated thought. It was already surprising that he had been able to stop the sauce ball, which had been a spell only a few of the first year students were capable of. Now he also levitated multiple objects at the same time.

Some of the young nobles showed envy, others rage and only depressingly few astonishment on their faces.

“You will definitely get a good ranking in the tournament at the end of the year!” Paul said. “Tournament?” Marcel and the others asked. “Oh yeah you didn't know about that, did you? I only know because my father is part of the committee that arranges it. It isn't exactly a school tournament as it isn't part of the curriculum, but only students are allowed to participate. The prices are also oriented towards students. One can win guild points, weapons, spell tomes and so on.” Paul explained.

“That sounds rather interesting. Especially the guild points are a good reward for me. They can be used to gain influence, wealth, positions and even nobility.” Marcel thought. Many families had gained nobility through the guilds. First they served as commoners and when they gained the privilege to send their children to the academy they had began to accumulate guild points until finally they had been bestowed nobility. This practice had become increasingly rare thought, as such Marcel was the only one with a commoner's background.

After they had finished their meal Marcel was finally able to flee the obnoxious attention and together with Laura and Steve he was on his way to their first guild specific lesson. The class room for this lesson looked like an exhibit for the local fauna, although Marcel had never seen creatures like that before. Bulky humanoid child sized creatures with a mouth full of needle teeth and a greenish skin colour, overgrown wolves, which looked like they could easily bite off ones skull and some strange reptiles could be seen as life sized preparations.

It looked like this lesson would be around commonly found creatures and dangerous pest, at least the words on the signboard stated that. The three friends quickly sat down near the front. Three minutes later the professor entered the room. Unlike the other two they had seen until now this professor wore armour, to be precise leather armour. And she was the first female professor they had seen.

But the most prominent feature about her was the big red bird that rode on her shoulder. It was a majestic creature that had a wing span of one meter. It had stripes of different colours and overall looked rather similar to a parrot, only its beak and claws looked more like that of an eagle.

“Welcome dear students, I am Fera Leraugh. Yes, as some of you might have recognised by my name my grandparents were from the tribes, although ours didn't side with the rebels. It actually still exists and is settled in the northern mountain range. We fight the monsters there on a daily basis. Which is exactly what I am going to teach you in the coming years. Additionally I will teach you geology and herbalism. An adventurer mostly hunts monsters or searches for resources.” She introduced herself and her lesson.

In the first class they spoke mostly about the definition of what a monster is and what sets it apart from magic creatures. Magic creatures are all creatures that have a certain degree of sentience and are capable of using magic. Most of them are as intelligent as a child and are mostly peaceful. Although some are rather territorial and don't tolerate humans in their vicinity. The red bird for example was of a magical species that had been domesticated by the tribes in the mountains and were used to deliver messages and to scout.

A monster on the other hand was always hostile towards any organism other than its own kind. They were known to destroy everything in their vicinity. Whole forests had been eradicated by them. They craved flesh and mana. The areas they lived in were mostly barren and had a decreased mana density as an effect.

They were mostly without rulers, but they weren't dumb. Sometimes their common hate against all living made them band together and flood towards the nearest settlements. Luckily their dislike towards any fabricated goods was bigger than their destructiveness, as such they very rarely used weapons or tools. But even without such aides they were a threat since their bodies were way stronger than that of average humans.

To prevent large casualties the adventurers constantly hunted monsters and tried to completely eradicate them from the lands. Sadly they weren't very successful in this endeavour. Sometimes in regions that had been peaceful for decades monsters suddenly appeared again. No one had ever found the cause or the source.

With that introduction to monsters the lecture ended. Since he now had some free time Marcel left towards his new workshop area.