Chapter 83: Magic item club
"---So thereby breaking the circuit an electric spark is produced that ignites the paper, making for a cheap and convenient firestarter!"
Mike gave a nod, the scales had fallen in front of his eyes, he now understood what magic items were
"...So in essence magic items use the ambient mana in the air by forming artificial pathways and points?"
"Exactly! You really are a natural at this Mike"
Mike showed a smile before he complimented James
"Well it helps when you have a teacher that makes it easy to understand"
James reminded Mike of a biology teacher he had in primary school, he too was a nerd in the subject he taught, and the young Mike had clicked well with that teacher
"Let's continue, the igniter paper was made by reusing a rune made for storing charge in magic items used for lightning resistance and altering it slightly… Like this"
James drew on the blackboard first he drew the old path, then he showed Mike how it had been altered steep by steep, Mike found himself absorbed in the process and began taking notes, there were only Mike, James and the three servants in the clubroom which looked like a normal high school classroom but after the bell rang other students began showing up, first was a young non-human woman in her early 20's with rabbit ears on the top of her head, next came a pair of human students that seemed to be siblings, possibly twins as they looked quite alike, then came a brawny human with a pair of round glasses and last came a human male that had a rather unhealthy complexion as he was really pale, he also had black circles under his eyes
"Looks like everybody's here, let me introduce the newest member of our club, MIke"
Mike stood up and gave the other five students a smile as James spoke
"Please introduce yourselves"
First were the twins that simply said
"Henry"
"Mary"
Next the brawny man gave a nod to Mike
"I am Karl"
Then the non-human woman with the rabbit ears spoke rather shyly
"My name is H-Hila"
And finely the guy with the pale complexion spoke with a beaming smile on his face
"Name's Hinrich"
They all had one or more servants but they didn't introduce themselves so Mike didn't introduce Elian and the others, then James spoke
"So Mike tell us a little about yourself"
Mike gave a nod
"Sure, I am 29 and lead an adventure family in Tursk… Besides that I have a lovely girlfriend who will be arriving here at the academy in a few months"
James gave a nod as one of them twins muttered
"An adventure family huh…"
Mike gave a nod
"Yeah perhaps you have heard of us… What are we called again Rebecca?"
"The bloods"
Mike cringed, hard… But he didn't let it show as he kept a poker face, meanwhile Karl the brawny man spoke up
"Ohh the bloods, I know you guys, my father has hired some of you before to escort a caravan, he only had good things to say about you guys!"
Mike gave a smile
"Thank you at the kind words, since we are clubmates I can give your father a discount next time he uses our service"
Karl's smile widened
"I'll tell my father in my next letter, I'll hold you to it!"
"Sure"
Mike shook hands with Karl as the twin's Henry and Mary gave shrugs
"Rebecca will iron out the details of the discount and send a letter to our family later today, just give her the name of your father's company"
Rebecca gave a slight bow and Karl gave a nod
"Sure I'll tell her after club"
After the introductions, James began teaching class and around midway though he looked at Mike
"I think it's about time I show you all our newest object up for study, Mike if you please"
The other five looked to Mike and wondered what magic item Mike had brought with him
"Sure, Rebecca if you please"
Rebecca gave a bow
"Yes master"
Then she pulled out her necklace and tapped it showing her armor to the other students and James that let out gasps of admiration, especially James that took several steps forwards to study the armor up close, however Rebecca quickly unsummoned the armor before she walked up to Mike's table and took off the necklace and put it on the table. From there the students, as well as James, studied it while explaining advanced concepts to Mike when he asked about the things he didn't understand, the club hours quickly passed and so club for the day was over, Mike went back to his dormitory in the evening sun, he planned to spend the entire evening reviewing his notes and writing them out cleanly as he prepared for the next day of class…
As Mike reviewed his notes the group of now only six male students was let go from discipline committee after a long talking too after they had instigated a fight in the canteen earlier with a warning each, they all looked lost, having lost a near friend to 'accident' earlier in the day, one of them muttered
"It's all that dirty non.humans fault…"
The other five gave nods before one of the ones that were higher ranked in their group spoke to one of his servants
"Go investigate that non-human… Even if the discipline committee said he had nothing to do with it…"
The servant left as the group talked about how they wanted to skin that dirty non-human alive, they eventually decided that they had to lure it off campus somehow, one of them then spoke up
"...What about the field trip?"
Another swiftly protested
"But there's half a year until the field trip!"
The group fell silent again before one of them muttered
"...10 years isn't too long for a gentleman to wait for revenge"
The others nodded
"If that's our only option then that's what we'll do… But it has to be perfect"
"Yeah with no chance of it escaping and time for us to torment it too…"
As the dawn broke Mike was doing pushups in his room, he had decided to some basic training while he was at the academy as to not get soft while he couldn't go into the dungeon every day as he used to and no it wasn't normal push ups, it was the kind Mike only had seen done in his past life by pro athletes and Shaolin monks in his past life, He had his body vertical with nothing but the palm of his hands touching the floor with his fingertips facing away from his face as he lowered his body to where he touched the floor with his nose before he lifted himself up again to a full arm's length, he did each motion slowly using all of his muscles as he breathed deeply inwards while he raised himself up as he mentally counted
'... 814… 815… 816…'
Also while he did his pushups he had his mana circulation slowed down as much as possible, this was only something he felt comfortable doing because he knew the room was guarded by Elina and Rebecca
'Well, Snow's there too… For moral support… 890… 891…'
Mike continued his push-ups until he reached 1.000, then he did some weighted squats before he began doing curl-ups, when he was done with his training he took a quick shower in the bathroom that was connected to his room before he wore some clean underwear and his uniform, then he looked himself over in the mirror to cheek his appearance
'Looking slick as always…'
After making sure he had fixed his bed hair he spoke out loud
"Enter"
The door opened and the three servants walked in and lined up before they bowed
""Good morning master""
"Yeah Morning Elina, Snow, and Rebecca… Let's get going, I don't want to be late for class"
""Yes master""
Mike walked out of the room and soon he was on the main road to the school buildings from the dorm, as they did yesterday today they too gathered a lot of looks as the other students whispered about him, most was about the fight yesterday in the canteen so Mike tuned them out when suddenly someone greeted him
"Good morning Mike"
"Oh… Karl, Morning"
Karl looked brawny as he did yesterday, he gave Mike a smile and asked
"So I have a question for you Mike if you don't mind?"
"Ask away"
Karl gave a glance behind him at Rebecca before he asked
"Why is it that you have given such an expensive magic item to your servant?"
"Oh… Yeah, I can see why that would be confusing, it's because Elian and Rebecca handle most of the operation of the family, so they need the protection, meanwhile, I have been… away for some time, besides I don't wear armor like that, I use leather armor"
"Oh… I see, almost forgot you are an adventure… No good, my father would scold me if he was here"
"Well such is a merchant's life"
"True that"