Chapter 9: Chapter 9 – History

With a ‘日’ shape, the three-story building stood like a sore thumb with its unique look. Rows of tables and chairs fill the two courtyards. With an open windowed design, students entered and exited the upper floors with their magic and enhance bodies.

Open roof patios also stuck around the edges of the building, branched out like diving boards. When someone views it from afar, the building would look like a beach resort for the rich. However, what truly made it as a feat of magical engineering are the design of the main hall floors, the short halls, the bridges in the middle, and the magical formations which separated the construct from a mortal’s architectural design.

As the trio entered the building, the ground on the upper floors seemed to disappear, although not entirely as there were opaque branch-like surfaces that connect each room to others. Even the bridges and short halls aren’t exempted. Students walk freely even though the ground is invisible, suggesting the use of magic formation. What replaced the transparent floor was motes of light, showing each student’s location. Like fireflies in the night, the lights clumped with their respected groups and moved.

Lukas smiled and turned around, facing the duo. “Amazing, right? The builders called it the ‘Fairy Forest’, but the students always refer to it as ‘Fireflies’ Gathering’. Which one do you think is better?”

“B-Both.. both is good.” Noah spoke and James nodded.

They walked towards stairs. “The cafeteria on the first floor is for staff, while student cafeterias are on the second and third floor.” Lukas said and the two nodded.

In fear of falling, both couldn’t help but grab the semi-transparent railing as they traveled up the invisible stairs. Looking above, James noticed something off. “Why is there no roof?” Noah also raised his head and found the patios’ wooden beams missing, while the entire structure’s roof and ceiling appear as the crown of the ‘tree’.

“Well. The ground is invisible, so shouldn’t the top be the same?” Lukas gave a quick up-down flash of his eyebrows and continued. “Believe me, this place becomes even more beautiful when there is rain.”

“If you say so.” The duo switched their attention as they reached the second floor. In the front, students flocked the food stalls lined up in the middle of each hall. Many gaps could appear on the line for students to access the outer edge of the building, but when viewed top-down, the food court essentially forms a box. Then after receiving their food, the students would walk to the inner and outer edges, which have the patios.

The trio approached a counter. Lukas ordered a chicken curry salad, while the two got a meatier cuisine. They settled on one table at a partially occupied inner edge patio. Bright balls of light appear above, as is below, with only the exception that they can see the people above the glowing ball.

Sticking a green leaf into the dressing, Lukas stared at the two munching down their own food. “Do you guys like monster meat that much?” Noah and James paused before gazing at him with wide eyes.

“This is monster meat? No wonder they’re delicious.” Noah spoke, and James nodded in agreement.

“Thus, you should sign up for cooking class. So, you can cook food while on an adventure.” Lukas suggested.

“Sure, I might.”

…

James leaned on his chair, grabbing his bottle for a drink. “Adventure? Can I just stay and safely live here?” He joked.

“Too bad. That’s not how it works. Transported students like you stay at the academy for two or three years.” Lukas shrugged.

Noah noticed James' hands tremble at the reply. “So, what happens after we’re done here?”

Lukas sighed. “To be honest, you either go enlist in the military, joining platoons and defending cities, sometimes even doing an extermination mission. Else you can go travel around the world, meet people, and fight monsters.” Although, either way, you’ll find yourself in trouble.

“You know what? We can just travel the world and save beauties. Isn’t that great?” Noah suddenly spoke.

James pondered for a moment before nodding. “Hmm. I guess we can do that. I’m sure there will be really cool buildings like this one, right?”

Lukas smiled at his answer. “Yes. You should see the dungeons in Korea; they are definitely among the best sights with the finest craftmanship poured into making them. There is also the water capital, Atlantis, and the smaller water cities. But I’m not sure if they are accepting visitors for now.”

The duo nodded, and they became quiet, focused on eating. To ease the atmosphere, Lukas helped the two with their new classes. He gave them directions and what to expect as time went by.

 

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Twenty minutes before the end of lunch, Lukas bid goodbye and returned to his classroom. The two also picked up their timetable and headed towards another building close to the building where Lukas taught.

A mundane looking establishment, which somewhat disappointed the two after eating at the magical food court. Hurrying, the two rose to the third floor and arrived at their new history class. It was another theatre style classroom. Some students have already picked their seats, while others had just arrived. More were coming, so they promptly approached the fit-looking history professor, who was checking papers on his table.

Michael, as he introduced himself, gave them their textbooks before smiling. “You missed about a month of classes, so I’ll just teach you in your free time.” The two agreed, and they scheduled a morning routine with him for supplementary lessons.

Finished with the task, they sat on two unoccupied seats at the uppermost tables. Waiting, Noah looked around before he quickly covered himself with the history book.

Everyone's eyes was glancing their direction.

“Hey, we haven’t seen you here before.”

A man’s energetic voice resounded. “Welcome to the history class.”

Noah raised his head and saw two students—a black-haired man with an energetic smile, and a tall brown-haired man with a heavyset stature approached them. The former smiled before he held out a hand to Noah, while the latter shook James’ hands. “I’m Kevin. Nice to meet you.” “I’m Mark. Nice to meet you.”

Noah said with a smile. “Nice to meet you, too. I’m Noah. This is James.” “Hi.”

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“We’re just waiting for class, so do you mind if introduce you to our classmates right now?” Kevin asked.

Noah replied. “Nah. I’d like to do that, actually.” James added. “Yep.”

“Alright. I am Kevin Sim. I have Wind and Fire elements.” He made wind swirl on one of his hands, and his other hand became warm until they could see fire above it.

“I’m Mark. I have Earth and Water elements.” Sand particles gathered on his right hand, while water condensed from air on the other.

Noah’s and James’ eyes widened at the sight. Then James came forward. “I’m James. I have Wind and Earth elements.” He closed his eyes, and soon, the wind gently moved around him. “Haven’t gotten much practice on it, so yeah.” He didn’t show off his earth element, but the other two nodded and faced Noah, who came forward as soon as James backed up.

“I’m Noah Royer. I have Ice and Space elements.” The two made a gasping sound as Noah raised his right hand and concentrated. Eventually, he created a deformed ice sculpture and raised his shoulders. He shrugged. “I’m still working on that one. As for my space element, I haven’t used it.”

Kevin and Mark clapped as the former praised. “Nah, it’s already great. Both of you have good elements and synergy. Also…” He leaned closer to Noah and James and spoke in a hushed tone. “Dimensional magic is pretty rare, so it’s understandable, since we only have two more students apart from you who have it.” He gently pointed to a short girl watching them, who waved at them before focusing back on her book.

Kevin remarked. “She’s Kim. She has the Stasis element, while him…” He moved his hand towards another person—a black-haired man wearing dark-blue clothing. “He’s Ben. He has the Space and Shadow elements.”

Kevin called Ben, who stared in their direction and nodded before ignoring them once more. Kevin shrugged. “He’s always nervous around people… anyway, I’ll introduce you to the others. Come.”

The group advanced from one table to another and greeted other students. Noah noticed that most of them have elemental magic, though some had black and white magic as well. Pondering for a moment, he left the ongoing conversations with the other students and made a beeline to Ben’s location; when the ball rang out, so he stopped and plopped back in his seat along with James.

The professor, Michael Simmons, left his table and stood at the center of the stage. He clapped before speaking. “Good afternoon, everyone. Today, you have new classmates. Noah Royer and James Williams. Welcome to the History class…”

He pointed at the duo above. “Just now, I saw everyone talking with them earlier… That’s good. But please answer their questions and help them with their studies as much as possible.” After seeing acknowledgement on their faces, he continued.

“With that, let’s move on to another topic. Since we have newcomers, we’ll talk about humanity’s switch from non-renewable and renewable energy sources to magical energy.” He pressed the button on his hand and the projector screen showed a panel of pictures. “After the Renewable Energy Conference on February 2042, humans began a full transition from coal and fossil fuel sources to nuclear and renewable energy. This lead to…”

 

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Time seemed to pass quickly as Noah became engrossed in the lecture.

He knew humans are extremely intellectual with their weapons, resulting in shorter wars, but he never thought they could replace the global electric grid to run on magical energy just thirty-five years after the magic system was established.

Though they had problems with locating good places to hide and keep the formation generators, as well as avoid mana deficiency on cities, it was still amazing that a simple two-step spell formation fixed a fundamental problem in the world. The processes of the magical formation were also easy to understand.

First, to power the magic formation, mana gathering lines are needed, which are carved via authority, just like magic circles. Just like their name — the line gathered mana from the air, the soil, every place where mana could reach. Afterward was the actual spell. The first part of the spell converts the mana into lightning in the first process. But the lightning was the product of a lightning spell, so it is too violent and hard to contain. That's what the second part is for; It divides the lightning into a usable form with then forms into alternating current or direct current, allowing electric grids to use the energy.

Some cities place the lightning generators below, while some have it outside the city. Most of the time, it was just a matter of decision between security and mana quantities. Underground placements lead to better security but less surrounding mana, while outside placements are vice versa.

 

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The ball rang, and it kicked Noah out of his reverie. Kevin and Mark approached him and James before leaving the room and moving down a floor for their Magic Beast Hunting and Survival class.

It was another boring theatre style classroom. They approached the black-haired lady instructor. James introduced themselves, and Sana Parlk, the instructor’s name, gave them a survival booklet in tandem with the magical beast encyclopedia the vice principal gave them earlier. Afterward, she turned to face her computer, signaling the two to dismiss.

Noah and James sat in the same seat as before, as with everyone else. Waiting for the class to start, Noah glanced at the survival guide.

Titled ‘Surviving in the Wilderness filled with Monsters’, he chuckled. Why did they have to name it like a novel? He opened the book and skimmed through the table of contents. It certainly had many of the aspects a person would see in a generic survival guide: building a simple shelter, procuring food and clean water—the basics. The only difference was it had topics like watching out for magical beast territories, deciding which magical plants are edible, and so on.

Bored, he closed it and opened the book that had a fearsome looking flying creature on its cover, the magic beast encyclopedia.

The book contained various magical creatures ranked from the Soldier to the General tier. Size of a house… skills include wind slash, pack behaviour, and an instantaneous leaping skill. As he imagine the monster from its picture, Noah shuddered. Maybe one shouldn’t skip to the end, and actually start from the beginning.

Oh, Jackal-Dogs. Slow speed, large numbers, pack hunting behaviour… just like what James said. They look grotesque, though. Noah closed the encyclopedia in disgust.

Soon, he noticed his professor lean on her table, while flipping through the pages of the survival guide. When Sana stopped, she looked around before opening her mouth. As with the last professor, she welcomed Noah and James.

“Open your survival booklet. I hope everybody had time to learn about our next topic, finding directions. It’s on page 125.” She said. Everybody began flipping their own booklet while she watched.

Sana spoke after everyone was ready.

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