“And that is what happened,” Gaius told the guards when he returned as he kept reading the book about the courses.
The book also had a map of the academy and it showed the location of the classes and the dormitories as well. Apparently, the place could house thousands of people since the dormitories were underground. It looked like the place had been carefully designated to teach as many people as possible, and since everything looked brand new, it shouldn’t be more than a few years old, but it was hard to say since we were in a magical state.
“Once we leave tomorrow, we will only have a day off every six days.” Gaius added. “We can’t leave the magic school during that time and with the rules there, we won’t have many issues regarding danger.”
“Still, you need to be careful.”
Gaius didn’t pay attention to what the guards were saying and just kept reading the book and the fields he was interested in. Fortunately, they didn’t have any requirements to join. They were quite interesting. All fields looked pretty useful to learn, there some obscure ones too that made him furrow his eyebrows.
Healing Magic: Restoring physical health, curing ailments, and mending injuries.
First Year: Basic Healing Spells: Healing small wounds and curing light illnesses.
Second Year: Advanced Restoration: Healing severe injuries and regenerating lost limbs.
Third Year: Life Essence Manipulation: Manipulating life energy to heal or strengthen others.
Holy Magic: Purification and protection against dark forces and curses.
First Year: Purification Rituals: Removing curses, toxins, or dark magic.
Second Year: Smite Evil: Channeling holy energy to banish demons and undead.
Third Year: Blessings and Wards: Protecting areas or individuals from harm with divine wards.
“I guess they are taught together… I don’t care much about holy magic. The first-year lessons should be enough,” Gaius thought as he passed the pages of the book. “Still, I wonder if I can learn everything faster. At least regarding these fields…”
Spending three years was too much of a pain to learn everything… Gaius wanted to go home, too. His baby brother or sister was about to be born and he didn’t want to return when they were already three years old.
Alchemy: The creation of potions, elixirs, and transmutations through magical chemistry.
First Year: Potion Brewing: Creating potions with various effects.
Second Year: Transmutation: Changing one substance into another.
Third Year: Elixirs and Poisons: Creating powerful potions with healing or harmful effects.
Runecrafting: Using runes to store magical power and create enchanted objects.
First Year: Rune Magic: Learning the language of runes and imbuing objects with power.
Second Year: Sigil Creation: Crafting protective or enhancing sigils.
Third Year: Rune Enchantments: Applying runes to objects for long-lasting enchantments.
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Enchantment: Imbuing items with magical properties for various effects.
First Year: Item Enchantment: Learning to enchant weapons, armor, and tools.
Second Year: Spellbinding Objects: Creating magical artifacts with permanent enchantments.
Third Year: Magical Item Crafting: Crafting items from scratch with innate magical properties.
All that seemed interesting for Gaius…to the point that he wondered if he would truly be taught about that. Still, with his high wisdom, he should learn the basics eventually with the books alone, if they were easy to access.
“Well, it would be a real issue if they decide to stop us after coming this far.” Gaius thought. “I want to study Arcane magic too since those two months of travel are too much. Maybe Angela can help me with that, but I can’t say for certain.”
It was getting late and Gaius had to prepare mentally to make the most of the situation, so he decided to go to bed earlier after making up his mind. He decided to study light magic and alchemy magic for a week before trying to take any other courses.
The next day, after having breakfast, Gaius equipped his cloak and couldn’t help but feel weird. Even with simple clothes under the cloak, anyone could look like a mage, but he still felt that it was kind of cringe.
“At least they didn’t force us to wear pointy hats…” Gaius thought.
The previous day, Gaius asked the maids to buy them some notebooks, pens, and ink for them to use… those could be found anywhere, since they were required for the lessons, so they were pretty cheap. After receiving those at the entrance of the inn, Gaius found Aisha coming from her room in a hurry. She looked really excited about all that. He wondered if she would be fine without servants.
Gaius wasn’t much for studying, so his mind took him to dark places to make him learn things faster, but he did his best to shake those thoughts out of his mind… cutting corners most of the time was never a good idea.
In the end, they headed together to the magic school carrying small backpacks after saying bye to the guards and the maids.
“Are you still going to focus on light and alchemy magic?” Aisha asked.
“That is the plan,” Gaius replied.
“I am going to focus on studying elemental and battle magic,” Aisha declared.
Gaius silently nodded. He didn’t think that she was planning to study those courses just to avoid him, but to become an asset for Ekirenton, with his plans of expansion. Until now, Herac didn’t say anything to him, so Ekirenton was probably going to focus on defense until Gaius and Aisha returned with power to become really powerful assets.
This time around, they entered the magic academy without any issues, and after reaching the main corridor, they split up, since their courses took place in very different areas of the magic school. The light magic sector was on the left side of the entrance.
It was a bit early, but a lot of students were already heading to their classes after having breakfast. Thanks to that, Gaius felt a bit worried about leaving Aisha alone… she looked excited and she was a pretty girl, so she probably wouldn’t be bullied.
“Why the hell am I thinking this?” Gaius furrowed his eyebrows.
Rather than Aisha, Gaius was the one who was receiving stares, probably because he was pretty buffed for his age and everyone around were too slender. In any case, he soon found the class of the first years of light magic, and the entrance was open. The place was big enough to house hundreds of students and a few were already there, but there were no signs of the instructor, so he decided to wait for a bit.
Much to Gaius’ surprise, not many kids showed up to the class… the instructor showed up, and it was a middle-aged woman wearing glasses as well. Since her long blond hair was messy and her glasses were pretty thick, she looked like a mix of an overworked doctor and a crazy scientist.
“Oh? A new student?” The instructor asked, while fixing her glasses. “I didn’t expect to receive any this time of the year… what is your name?”
“Gaius,” Gaius replied.
“What an unusual name… are you perhaps one of the two the Archmage talked about?” The instructor asked, and then yawned. “I didn’t expect that you would be a child of this age. Anyway, my name is Arlana. You can call me just that. It is time for the lesson, so let’s stop wasting time.”
Gaius wondered if healing magic wasn’t that popular… wasn’t that magic that could save lives? In any case, he got inside the room and sat at the back behind everyone and a few lines behind the closest person. He suddenly felt at home doing that. He also felt like a moron since there were some seats in the front that were empty. In any case, he could only count fifteen students, even though the class had room for three hundred of them.
“Good day, everyone,” Arlana said while fixing her glasses. “Today is a good day since we have a new student with us. His name is Gaius. Treat him well.”
No one looked toward him… now that Gaius thought about it, he didn’t feel many eyes on him when he got in the class, either. After looking around, he realized that everyone looked pretty unmotivated and tired, like the instructor as well, and that didn’t seem a good thing.
