Chapter 25: 25

The five apprentices, excluding Adam, gathered together, clearly excited about their new life that had begun to take shape. Becoming a mage was now in their grasp and they weren't about to lose it so quickly.

After all, they were teenagers. Temporary conflict was resolved as quickly as it started -- Randy put his solemn mood behind him and focused on the path -- Curse Magic.

Obviously, curse magic is unorthodox -- not because it's powerful, but because it's effectively useless.

Quentin patted his back, "The Black Mage once said that even though you are talented in a specific kind of magic, it isn't the key factor of you becoming a mage -- don't worry, besides, I think I'm the one who has to worry. He's right after all."

Everyone in the group knew what 'he' refers to -- Adam. Crystal, who felt bad for Adam, expressed her worries, "Is it really alright for us to distance ourselves from Adam? I mean, we come from the same country, isn't it better for us to stick together? The Black Mage didn't blame Adam for anything either," the blame Crystal referred to was when he destroyed the runes attracting the beasts.

Randy snorted, "It's not that we want to isolate him -- did you see how we looked at us? He is clearly looking down upon us! He will pay for his arrogance. I swear!"

"But..."

"We are about to encounter things that are way outside common human knowledge -- those local apprentices look down upon us, so I'm sure Adam will come to us begging for help one day," Quentin said sarcastically.

Ophelia frowned. She remembered when Adam said that the alliance back on the ship was completely pointless, and knew in her heart that he was right, "Let us rest. Being late on the first day will definitely leave a bad impression on the mages' heart."

After Ophelia said this, she returned to her room with Crystal. When she closed the door, Crystal whispered behind her, "Miss Ophelia, we threw Adam under the bus, didn't we?"

Ophelia stopped walking. She remained silent and Crystal nodded.

The next morning came, and Adam had just finished sketching his optimised runes. After countless studies on the rune, he has a vague idea of how it works now -- if magic is composed of groups of runes, could this mental strength solidification rune be used in other groups of runes? Perhaps, he could add this rune into more complex patterns, making it more efficient.

Thinking of this, Adam couldn't help but look forward to the upcoming course. From today onwards, they will be guided by a Mage, which is far more efficient than learning on your own.

The same senior apprentice from yesterday gathered the apprentices and distributed some necessities for the academy -- robes, tokens representing their identity, maps of the campus -- of course, these must be paid for.

Later, the six apprentices' payment for killing the beasts had arrived. Everyone was green with envy when they saw that Adam had more stones than everyone, including the crystals that Mage Erin had given him.

Adam carefully read his timetable. It seems that the first year is indeed a compulsory education stage. The course was incredibly tight to ensure that the apprentices will not miss one course because of another. His first class? Rune Studies.

The map marked the various facilities of the academy, and Adam was attracted by a building called the Mission Hall. The senior apprentice then announced, "True to mage culture there are no free things in the academy. Moreover, if it were free a greater price has to be paid at a later date. However, the academy encourages apprentices to gain resources on their own -- if you are short on money or resources, go to the task hall to accept a mission, and a reward equivalent to the mission will be awarded to you."

His expression turned weird, but Adam couldn't decipher what emotion it was, "Moreover, some tasks are... exciting, to say the least. However, your group is lucky -- the tower had just failed in the recent war, and the number of apprentices have drastically reduced compared to the previous years, resulting in a large number of tasks. You can probably survive pretty easily here."

He continued, "Now, take this identity token and enter your room information. From now on, your dorm will be private to you only and you have the undeniable right to kill any trespasser who enters your room. The power stones in your hands are your money, and it can be stored at the canteen for a small fee."

After the senior apprentice's long explanation, he left. The apprentices hurried to the cafeteria to eat breakfast before class began.

The cafeteria was extremely large -- it was divided into two areas, and was filled with apprentices. Obviously, mages won't eat with apprentices.

Meals provided by the cafeteria were monster meat containing special energy. A huge projection above the food items marks the price of each food, and explains the benefits of the food.

For example, a Bright Bird costs ten stones, and replenishes some mental strength; a fish costs four stones, and eliminates mental fatigue. There was also ordinary monster meat, which is available for half a stone.

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Adam placed his power stone into his identity token, showing that he has about 800 stones. Obviously, this wasn't enough to last him for a long time. He needs to find a stable source of income, or he will starve.

The other five apprentices looked at their balance, and it was clearly lesser than Adam's. Even if they only ate the most basic monster meat, they had to ration it out.

The local apprentices noticed them, and held greater disdain for them. Their parents worked for mages, and the compensation they received were also power stones. Naturally, this means they had more income compared to them.

"Poor outsiders," someone said, jeering.

This made the apprentices look down in embarrassment, and William and Ophelia sighed softly. The two of them couldn't let their companions be publicly embarrassed.

"Follow me. Everything will be fine," William patted Quentin and Randy on their backs.

Adam sat down alone, and curiously ordered a Bright Bird on the menu projected on the table. A strange device popped out of the table, and Adam swiped his identity token on it. His balance was automatically deducted, and a mechanical puppet served him food.

"Seems like this identity token works similar to a card," Adam thought to himself. The puppets serving food were the academy's alchemists' masterpieces. Although they were mere service workers, Adam could feel that they were incredibly powerful, being powered by magic. Adam definitely couldn't fight it even if he wanted to.

Soon, his food was served, and this Bright Bird was bigger than a Thanksgiving turkey back on Earth! Adam cut a piece of meat and put it in his house, and strong flavours exploded in his mouth.

"No wonder the mages rarely eat at banquets -- if you have food like this, regular food tastes stale," Adam thought.

Adam never really cared about the pleasures of being a human, but now, he basked himself in carefully tasting the food before swallowing it. The special energy in the food integrated into his body, replenishing his mental strength. Although the effect was weak, it was better than nothing.

The five apprentices swallowed their food slowly, feeling regret for spending precious money on good food.

After devouring his food, Adam left the cafeteria to look for his Rune Studies classroom.

Because it was an introductory course, there weren't any senior apprentices inside. He was half an hour early, so the teacher wasn't there yet. So Adam randomly chose a seat and waited quietly.

Soon, other apprentices entered, and later, the tutor walked in right on time, "My name is James and I'm a high-levelled mage apprentice. There is no need to refer to me as Teacher, so James is fine. I will only explain the lesson once, if you don't understand anything you can meet me after class, but a fee must be paid for additional explanations."

Adam stared intently at James.

"Today, we will learn about rune qualities and meditation."

Adam didn't expect them to be learning about the most basic thing.

Sure enough, what James taught was no different from what the Black Mage had told him in the beginning. Obviously, this was merely the foundation of magic.

"Next, we move on to meditation."

"Meditation is what ancient mages call the mental strength solidification runes -- most mages think that this is too lengthy, so the term 'meditation' stuck around."

True to Adam's prediction, there wasn't just one mental strength solidification rune.

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