"Have you ever taken a magicka reserve test, Joseph?" Jason asked, as Volex parked the van in our newly-designated spot in the Uy's portable home district.

  "No," I said. "Mom said it oio try to quantify something like that, because of how much it'd ge over the course of my life, and that I shouldn't bother chasing big numbers; that way lies insecurity and madness."

  "Well," Jason began. "While I see her perspective, I don't think you have much to worry about, regarding insecurity about yicka reserves. By my estimation, you have deeper magicka reserves than any other student we've ever had."

  "...Wait, what?" I asked, blinking. "How does that- Jason, I'm an elf. We don't- we don't grow that fast, and I'm oeen."

  "Well, yes, but," Jason said. "When women with rge magicka reserves give birth, their children typically have an easier time developing their own magicka reserves. And you are the son of one of the most powerful Wizards alive."

  "That's..." I trailed off. "...Huh."

  "Do... Do Bards use magicka, too?" Emily asked, tentatively.

  "They do, yes," Jason said, nodding. "Why do you- oh, oh! I uand now- your mother, Melody Thompson, is an alumnus of this very uy! If I recall correctly, she actually earned herself a Doctorate in Bardic Studies- I didn't sit on her ittee, but I did read her dissertation, and it was truly inspired work. So, to answer your real question, young dy, yes, your mother likely did have substantial magicka reserves when she gave birth to you, and you will likely have an easier time developing your own magicka reserves as a result."

  "Okay, okay," I said, ping the bridge of my hat's enough dramatic revetions for one day, Jason. You are not helping the headache I only ighanks to years of autohypnosis. you please give us a campus tour without any of those?"

  "Ah, I, ah, shall try my best?" Jason said, more than a bit bashfully. "Ahem. If you'll follow me?"

  He led us out of the van through the back door, and into the wide, open space of the Uy's mobile home district, where adventurers who preferred to live inside ented caravans and the like could park their vehicles. The district itself was... weird, a artificial. Mage-fed roads of monolithic granite formed a grid, seing off the area into thirty foot squares where all the adventurers could park their portable houses. Someone, somewhere, looked at this and thought this aradise. Me, I just felt like it was a waste of space, and couldn't help but think about the densely-packed high towers of starlight my people had once built.

  Looking around, I could see some people milling about, and there were a few things I noticed pretty quickly.

  Ohere was a gradient to how outndish people looked that probably correspoo seniority. At the bottom of the dder were people like us, who wore fairly normal clothing with maybe one or two odd accessories- a big bck leather duster, a sword at your hip, a shield on your back, a staff in your hand- but, as you moved up, people dressed more and more bombastically, until we had what must be a group of seniors, who wore these absolutely baroque outfits that I struggled to parse, all of which found a different way to include at least a dozes.

  Two, people teo be clumped up in groups of three to six people, with many of the solitaires looking even more outndish than their peers.

  And three... while the Uy of Mount Fate wasn't a purely human institution, it was quite visibly a mostly human institution, with only a few scattered elves and dwarves around, and precisely two ord one goblin that I could see. Men were also far more on than women, with most adventuring parties having only one or two women, and unfortably many having all. I saw one party that was exclusively women, but I got the impression that they were a special gimmick party, rather than just an anifluence of four female adventurers who happeo work well together.

  "Here," Jason began, "we have the Portable House District. We've already filled out the paperwork for your spot, E15, and the grid yout should make it quite straightforward to find it again. Right over there, we have the main gate, and its rapid transit system, and attached to that, we have the issary. Now, you buy food, toiletries, and other ables from the issary, and it is in fatirely possible to live fortably off of what the issary iven its emily reasonable prices, but most students prefer to make trips down to the town at the base of the mountain to buy groceries, due to the town g the Uy's restris on alcoholic beverages and their ption."

  "So, just to crify, we aren't allowed to have beer up here?" Faith asked.

  "The rules state that the possession and ption of alcoholic beverages on campus are prohibited," Jason said, in the manner of a man who thought it was a stupid rule and was very aware that the rule got broken with great frequency. "I do not reend breaking the rules, but I am not about to lecture you about them, either. Now! If you've sulted your maps-" He created an illusory image of a campus map in midair, so that we wouldn't have to dig ours out. "-you may notice that the campus is quite ring-shaped, and behind us, you will find the tral administrative office, along with the dormitories, the cafeteria, and the entrao The Abyss, which you'll likely be visiting at least once during your studies here."

  We all made noises of uanding, with me and Emily even nodding along.

  "Now, around the outer ring, we have a number of facilities, each dedicated to a different field of study; going clockwise from here, the first building we have is the Luminous Hall, where all subjects Are are taught, followed by..."

  "Hello, Jason," a Kitsune said as we exited the Hall of Measures, where all of the sd sce-adjat courses were taught. We were about halfway through the tour, and I was thhly regretting the decision to agree to this. "I see you're esc... ah, yrandson? How fasating. Hello, children. I am Professor Takeda Kiyoko, and I teach a number of advanced courses in the Occult arts, as well as a handful of beginner courses. I look forward to seeing you in css, Mister Iro."

  "I..." I turard Jason, who looked more ahan anything serious. "...Fair enough, Professor Kiyok- wait, did you use the Su or the Hikaano ?" A quick t was all it took to firm that, yes, Professor Takeda Kiyoko did have ails, and was thus quite old- and quite powerful- for a Kitsune.

  It was, therefore, a very bad idea to annoy her.

  "Su ?" Emily asked.

  "In the Su Kingdoms, it is ary to introduce yourself by your family name, followed by your personal he Professor politely expined. "As such, I would more properly be Professor Takeda, although in a more informal text, I might permit you to call me Kiyoko."

  Meaning that if I called her that without permission, I would be made tret it.

  Kitsune- who were, if memory served, not fully in agreement on being called "foxgirls"- were one of a wider category of being known to the High Elves as "non-humanoid people." The term "humanoid" was imperfect, as it was often misused to refer to the body type of "biped with opposable thumbs," but more properly, it meant "desded from humans." As such, despite the fact that Professor Takeda was in fact shaped like a (rather beautiful and matronly) human woman who simply happeo have fox ears and nine geously fluffy red tails fanned out behind her back, the fact she was not actually desded from huma she was not properly humanoid.

  The specifics of non-humanoid people, and how they ied with humanoid society, were quite fasating, albeit not always without their share of horrors; just ask the unis and the dragons how well they got along with the humans who sughtered them.

  "Do you have any advice for a dabbling Occultist to move up to a prrasp of the principles at py?" I asked. "Csses you'd reend, things like that?"

  "That depends," Professor Takeda said. "How much of a dabbler are you?"

  "I've used Occult magic to charm an unsuspeg Wizard, to put resisting people into hypnotic trances, and to find a little girl's lost housecat," I said.

  Volex emerged from her reliquary, already speaking.

  "Don't fet the time you disrupted a Succubus Hellknight's narrative of victory and killed her in a single blow," Volex added.

  "Okay, yes, but that wasn't that impressive in text," I said. "Her narrative was the sort of goddamhat pisses me off so badly, which was more her being bad at this than me being particurly good at this."

  Professor Takeda blinked a few times.

  "...You don't sound like a dabbler to me," she said. "You have a Succubus as a Familiar, after all."

  "She was bound five turies ago by Terpsichore Iro," I said. "All I did ick up Volex's reliquary and strike a deal."

  "I've been tut him further in the Occult," Volex added. "He already had a solid foundation, and frankly, at this point, the only thing keeping him from being a middling Bard right now is the simple fact he 't py an instrument."

  "That's not pletely-" I began.

  "No, no, that sounds like a reasonable summary of what you've admitted to," Professor Takeda said. "I uand your perspective, of course- I presume you've never had any formal training in the Occult, and have beeaught until your acquaintah Volex?"

  "Well... Yeah," I admitted.

  "Right, well. For you, I would suggest taking an introductory course in pying an instrument- my reendation would be for something small and simple, like a harmonica or an ukulele, but it's more important that you pi instrument you're ied in. I would also suggest taking the Occult Arts Pt Test, to determine how far along you are in your studies of the Occult, so that you don't waste time on csses teag you things you already know."

  "I... Well, if you think that's wise, I suppose-"

  A searingly bright fsh of blue light blinded me for a moment, and the hing I knew, Professor Takeda was on the ground several yards away, lightly smoking. Volex had, naturally, retreated inside her reliquary, wanting nothing to do with this mess.

  "You stay the hell away from my grandson, you bitch!" Helen Rosewood angrily yelled as she approached.

  "Father," I prayed silently, "please let today end soon. I don't want to deal with this shit anymore."

  AnnouAs always, if you like Iro and wao keep making it, the best way to do that is to leave a ent, here or on my discord server.

  Also, I'm taking suggestions for publius chapters iween books. The ideas I've currently ge from "The remaining Kings of Hell react to the political upheaval caused by Paimon's death" to "Joseph Iro visits a neighbor and pys dominoes." Anything goes.