Chronicles of the True Wizard

The classroom for Mana Structures was located in a building adjacent to the library building and as Felix approached, not yet open.

He spotted a group of just over 20 loitering about, sitting against the walls, leaning on pillars and socializing with each-other.

A few stood off to the side, avoiding the conversations and keeping themselves separate from the rest. Felix joined them, standing a dozen or so meters from anyone else around him.

Surveying the waiting students, Felix first noticed that almost everyone was on the edge of or just within the C grade. It seemed as though being around level 500 was more of a minimum and less of a standard. He was totally fine with that because it meant they would all likely be as strong or stronger than he was. It gave him room to grow, people to learn from and possibly even, a challenge.

As he briefly glanced at each of the students in turn, Felix’s eyes settled on one student in particular. She was a young looking woman, not that that actually implied anything about her age, with raven black hair, barely pointed ears and a very stern expression. She was as pretty as everyone else who had gone through two evolutions of ironing out wrinkles and adjusting flaws but Felix barely noticed any of that anymore.

She wore tight leather armor that looked very functional with scarred metal plates on her shoulders, forearms and legs. It was nothing special, especially compared to some of the ridiculous outfits and gleaming armors that screamed for attention he had ignored elsewhere on campus.

On each hip, she had two holstered handguns that radiated magical energy and even reached out into the anima around them, essentially having auras of their own. They were possibly the most interesting items Felix had seen on anyone to date and possibly the most impressive but they didn’t scream for attention and he didn’t really focus on it much.

What really drew his eye to her in specific was something else entirely.

Everyone had some kind of influence on the anima around them. Everyone’s soul influenced it in some way, Felix’s much more than others. Though he wasn’t great at reading it, Felix was sensitive to the changes in the anima. It was like he was aware of but constantly ignoring them.

Her soul, though it didn’t affect nearly as much of the anima as Felix’s did, the way she affected it caused Felix to stare. Everyone else here, now that he was paying attention to it, gave off desire for power, popularity, safety, knowledge. They had insecurities that some were trained better than others to hide. They were human in every respect, or sentient, in the multiverse.

The raven haired woman didn’t feel human at all to Felix. Her soul radiated an inhuman need for power. A hunger and determination unlike any he had felt before. An insatiable need to be stronger. It was like she was screaming to everyone around her which was completely dichotomous with her reserved posture.

Underpinning it all though, like a whisper that Felix could just barely hear through the screaming and insistence of her soul, was a deep rooted desire to protect others.

He couldn’t be certain what specifically drew his eye to her, why he found her particular soul so fascinating but even beyond the customary curiosity of a novel sight, he couldn’t help but stare. It definitely didn’t hurt either that, despite her levels not necessarily being the highest in the group, Felix’s instincts were screaming she was powerful even amongst everyone else around her.

[C] Adaline (Lvl 1336)

Adaline had long since noticed Felix staring but she dismissed him after a quick glance. Felix never stopped looking though, he didn’t overly care what people thought of him and her soul was just too interesting to him.

Eventually he drifted over to examining the revolvers at her hips and something about them was even more interesting the longer he examined them.

He was cut short though by the classroom door opening and the students slowly filing in.

Felix waited for there to be space, having no desire to bump shoulders with the other students as they entered the room.

As one of the last students to enter, Felix was just hoping to find a seat far from the others but he immediately realized that wouldn’t be a problem. The classroom was set up like an auditorium with a stage and boards for writing at the bottom and cascading rows of seats all surrounding it.

In total, Felix saw a few hundred seats which was completely excessive for the class of what appeared to be about 25 students.

Felix chose a seat closest to the aisle and door near the back and simply waited with a dour expression that he hoped would repel any looking to socialize. Whether or not his expression had the intended effect, no one sat next to Felix during the few minutes it took for the professor to walk out of a separate door and onto the stage.

[?] Amelia: Director of the Eramith Enchanting Department (Lvl ?)

The Mana Structures professor appeared to be a halfling woman or some derivative of one. Her pointed ears that curled upwards towards the sky and her nose was flat and boxy like an animals with a single horizontal slit for a nostril.

She briefly glanced at the class as she walked up to the stage then behind the podium. With a slight flourish, she began writing on the podium and behind her, text began to appear on the board, as if written by an invisible hand.

When she was finished, there was simply a list of 4 items written on the board.

“This class will be split into 4 sections. For those of you taking the recommended paired course, Spell Formations, this arrangement with align with the structure of that course. For the rest of you, this will simply seem like the natural progression.”

“While Wards, Enchantments and Rituals are likely the topics you are most interested in, we will instead begin with Fundamentals followed by Mana Computers. For all Mana Structures exceeding a certain level of complexity, a Computer is often required and therefore, teaching you how to construct and use them upfront will aid our later lessons.”

“Following this section, the Spell Formation class will have gotten through their fundamental knowledge and the curriculums will begin to overlap between these two courses. While the fundamentals here and there will overlap somewhat, the focus between them will greatly differ.”

“We will begin with the basics of all Mana Structures. The only guaranteed commonality being mana but most commonly, channels and nodes as well. The most basic of…”

Tuning out the lecture a little bit, Felix started to focus on other topics. The lecture would essentially be recorded and stored in his mind if he needed to watch it later but for the time being, he was familiar with at least this level of content.

Hey Grim, how’s it going up there?

Grim took a few moments before he responded, Felix sensing he wasn’t entirely sure how to respond, It’s… fine?

Is something wrong?

Not exactly. Let’s just say these constructions you created are… odd.

Felix mentally shrugged, he wasn’t expecting them to be normal, I mean their personalities were essentially randomly generated.

I know. Let’s just say that was a really bad idea but by a stroke of immense luck, it doesn’t overly matter right now.

Felix’s brow furrowed slightly, Why not?

They are not nearly smart enough to do any real damage.

Felix winced, How dumb?

It’s hard to compare to the average human because your memories and perception and all that but… maybe half that? Maybe less?

Well… it’s working for now… right?

Yeah, the work that needs doing in your observatory and whatnot is not complicated so, that isn’t an issue but… The majority of them have been trying to make things and they all resemble the masterpieces of children. Very young children.

I guess I’ll figure it out later. For now let’s lock down any modifications of the things I’ve built then I can just raze everything they’ve made later.

Already done. I’ve locked the library as well so they don’t touch your memories.

Good call.

Refocusing on the lecture, Felix found they had wasted no time and in a matter of minutes, they were already talking through common fundamental patterns that reoccurred across wards, rituals, enchantments and spells.

While Felix had seen some of them, there were many he actually hadn’t and so he paid attention and took mental notes on the patterns shown so he could reference them later.

“Before you leave, as this is our first class it is my duty to introduce you to a tradition amongst students over the past few cycles. Many of you are already aware of this but, for those of you who are not, start thinking about how you wish to modify your registration rings. As this class is Mana Structures, you may wish to enchant it or grant it a specific effect. This will not in way change your grade in this or any other class and is merely a way to compete with each-other and compare abilities. With that out of the way, I will see you on the first of the next dekad.”

Walking back out of the class, Felix’s mind was bouncing around with all the information he had just gained. They had moved from common patterns to node theory and channels. They even talked about intricate interactions between nodes, channels and mana, something that had seemed like one of the most advanced topics in Inscripticae.

They hadn’t yet moved onto Mana Computers but Director Amelia, as she preferred to be referred to by, had assured them that that is where they would begin with next lesson. The fundamentals would be a recurring topic as they learned but she claimed that they much more sense with the context of the other topics in mind.

The lecture had lasted for an entire 10 hours and based on the interest level of the other students, it seemed to Felix like they all knew most if not everything they had learned already. Adaline, who had chosen a seat on the other end of the class seemed to be the least interested and was busy writing something completely unrelated into a notebook. She didn’t look up at the board once during the entire class.

Not that he was specifically looking for her, but Felix noticed she was already gone as he exited the class.

His planning ahead and sitting at the back of the class nearest the door proved to be the correct decision when he saw a few students trying to socialize and discuss with the others on their way out. By the time they had left their seats, Felix was already through the door and walking back towards the dorms.

Felix only really had one thing he had to do before tomorrow and that was to finish adjusting to his body for combat. He figured he only had another hour or two until he was ready though so instead, he headed right back to his dorm room, opening the door and stopping right in the doorway.

“Uh… Melody, how did you get in my room?”

Melody hopped up from the couch in the sitting area and turned to him in one movement, like a spring being released, “I brought desserts.”

Felix stepped into the room and the door closed behind him, “That doesn’t answer my question. I thought it would only open to my registration?”

“I asked Nova to open the door. Now, do you want to try them before they get stale?”

Felix’s eyes darted to the opposite couch where Nova was completely upside down napping and his brow furrowed, “When did you meet my familiar?”

“A half hour ago, I don’t know.” Melody fell back onto the couch and reached out towards the table in front of her, bringing a pastry of some kind with a yellow jelly to her mouth.

It took him a few moments to process then Felix sighed and walked over, taking the arm chair adjacent to the couch. As soon as he sat down, Melody tossed a dark bready looking desert towards him which he easily caught. Taking a bite, it reminded him of a donut but only really in texture. It was savory and not the flavor he had expected from a dessert.

Swallowing, Felix looked at Melody, “So why did you break into my room?”

She snorted, “I didn’t break in. I basically just asked. How was your first day of class?”

Felix shrugged, “Fine. Lot of fundamentals, still learned a lot though.”

“Glad to hear it. I had botany today which was pretty boring. Lots of stuff about soils, seeds and plant care, not enough flowers. Anyways, I headed by the baking classes on the way back which is where I got these.”

Remembering the relevant course on the list he had memorized, “Did you take Botany & Herbology just to see flowers?”

Melody shrugged, “All the other classes were boring.”

Felix sighed, “Why are you here?”

“You ready for tomorrow?” Melody asked as she took another pastry from the table.

“For Group Combat?”

She just nodded as she bit into the small tart.

“I guess. Is there something specific I should be preparing myself for?”

Melody spun around and laid back on the couch, placing her feet on the arm rest closest Felix, “Probably just think about how you want to play it.”

Felix’s face immediately contorted with confusion but Melody continued without even looking, “Basically, they’ll stick you on a team with some other students in a mostly scripted match against another team of Adepts. Based on how you do, they’ll stick you in a specific class.”

“Then what do you mean, ‘How I want to play it’?”

“If you want to try and take control by directing them or just listen and adjust to what they do or try and do your own thing.”

Felix nodded along in understanding, “How many classes are there?”

“Ten classes of about 32.”

“I take it placement is based on performance?”

She nodded.

“Well, there isn’t much I can do about it right now. Does it matter where you’re placed?”

“Sort of. It will matter for your grades mostly. They’re trying to pair you up with others at a similar level to you. You can move up and down the classes as the epoch progresses though.”

“I see. How do you know all this stuff anyways?”

Melody shrugged, “Family.”

She clearly didn’t want to elaborate so Felix left it at that.

Melody turned her head towards him, “Did you see the application tournament champion by the way?”

Felix shrugged, “I don’t even know who it is.”

“Adaline.”

“Oh. Yes actually. She seemed… different. Her… soul? vibe? was just… almost inhuman.”

Melody nodded knowingly, “I’m surprised you picked up on that. I mean it’s interesting but it isn’t… unheard of. She is causing quite the commotion though.”

“How so?”

“She’s the first applicant champ in… at least a few thousand cycles? To not have already been accepted.”

“Wait…” Felix shook his head as he caught on to the implications of her statement, “So you’re saying all the kids of the rich and powerful were beat out by… is she from some powerful faction?”

Melody shook her head and smiled as Felix caught on, “Nope. Some random.”

“So she beat all these other kids in… one on one combat?”

Melody nodded confirming his guess.

“I take it the ones who were already accepted only apply to the tournament so they have bragging rights when they win and can actually say they’re the best?”

“Yuperoo.” Melody nodded.

“I guess they aren’t really happy about that then?”

“Noooooo. Just today I heard multiple conspiracies and a few accusations of cheating.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Cheating? Nah. He’s just making shit up cause he was the favorite to win.”

“Who?”

“Zeraxes.”

“Anyone else I should look out for?”

“Everyone here is someone. It depends what you’re looking for.”

Felix sighed and shook his head, “Never mind, I don’t care.”

Melody laughed her way off the couch and to her feet. Snatching one more pastry, she stepped over the table to pat Nova on the belly then walked out of the room, “See you tomorrow.”

As the door closed behind her, Felix quickly turned to Nova, Don’t let people in here without my permission.

Nova looked up at him with her giant kitten eyes, and meowed.

No, I’m not mad. Jus- No don’t be sad, it’s ok. In the future, just ask me first, ok?

She meowed in agreement and he sighed then started going through more of the books he had in his library.

He wasn’t ready to look at what the half-born projections in his mind were doing until he had a path to fix them so he decided he would wait until after some of his other classes. In the meantime, he had just had his first Mana Structures class and so it felt appropriate to do some work on that outside of class.

Sitting in his time dilated Soul Garden, Felix read through one of the enchanting books he had scanned, doing his best to decipher as much as he could to actually understand the content. In order for him to understand it though, he needed practical examples and so Felix switched back and forth between his Soul Garden and his dorm room as he tested new enchantments.

With no need to sleep and longer days, Felix felt like he was making solid progress and had found minor improvements to plenty of his previous enchantments.

After spending a couple hours before class getting used to his body and massive stat differences, Felix was feeling a lot better about Group Combat class.

The class itself was located in one of the buildings in the main complex which was surprising to Felix because it was combat class. However, as he arrived and filed into the room with the other 319 students that were registered for the class, he realized why.

In the middle of the room they were directed to, there was a large portal that everyone was filing into. As Felix followed the crowd and stepped through himself, he looked around and admired the massive arena he stepped into as everyone picked out random seats for themselves.

There were easily enough seats to hold millions of people and the center area in the middle, where the combat would take place, was big enough to hold multiple football games at the same time.

Massively increased Perception made it so the seats didn’t need to be as close and the balconies, that would normally hold important figures, were easily the furthest seats from the action.

Felix filed into the middle of the emptiest section he could find and looked around, taking in the arena and watching the students as they filed in.

“Hey.”

Felix jumped and turned to his left, both surprised but unsurprised to see Melody sitting next to him.

Melody looked around in confusion, “Where’s Nova?”

“Left her in the dorm room. She can get out and wander if she wants.”

“You don’t fight with her?”

Felix shrugged, “Sometimes?”

Melody shrugged then adjusted herself in the seat and joined Felix in watching the people stream in. She was wearing the tight leathers Felix had first encountered her wearing, likely her combat garment, considering the situation.

As the students streamed in, Felix saw people wearing everything from full plate to leather armor and many that he suspected would summon their armor from spatial storage later on. There were many weapons brandished as well but that was evidently for show and the majority of people seemed to have their weapons stowed.

The students filing in this time were far more magical than anything Felix had seen before. Back in Telviras, he saw the slight glow of enchantments from people as they flew by and various tools and weapons. Here, everyone was bright and the glow was multicolored and shifting indicating much more complex enchantments utilizing various attunements.

He even spotted Adaline who, like he had, found the most empty section and sat far apart from everyone else. No one tried to sit near her and luckily, she didn’t have anyone who was following her around, like Felix did.

Felix was pretty sure that, had Melody not sat next to him, no one would have bothered him. Instead, over the course of the 15 minutes or so it took for all the students to file in, both Felix and Melody were approached no less than 17 times by 28 people.

The majority of them greeted Melody and asked if they could sit next to her, all of which she politely rejected and expertly manipulated into not sitting near them. There were some groups that were more annoying by trying to talk to Felix, as a way to get to Melody he suspected. Felix was much shorter with them though and often too blunt for Melody’s liking, causing her to jump in and soften his less than polite refusals.

The last group were the most annoying, despite the fact that they weren’t talking to Felix directly.

A rather tall elf equipped in very expensive looking scale mail bowed in Melody’s direction, “Melody. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”

She cocked a brow and smirked, “Finally? You’ve been waiting for a particularly long time to meet me? I should feel tickled pink, I suspect.” Melody shrugged, indicating she definitely did not.

“I would hope so, although we wouldn’t want to make your partner too jealous now.”

Felix sighed through his nose at their obvious attempt to coax out information. Melody smiled wide, “I wouldn’t worry about that. I think I’d actually have to care for that to be a concern.”

The man mockingly brought his hand to his chest, “You wound me oh fair lady.”

This individual seemed particularly insistent and was either oblivious to her playfully repudiating or was just purposefully annoying. Everyone else had gotten the message around this point and Felix was ready to get up and find a new seat but before he could, Melody stood, her nose just a few inches from his.

She very slowly leaned forwards, her head tilting just a little as she whispered something into his ear that Felix was surprised he couldn’t hear. Melody fell back into her seat and crossed her legs, looking away from the individual.

A few seconds passed as they stared off into the distance then just walked away.

“The hell did you do to that guy?” Felix looked over at Melody.

“Kindly told him to fuck off.”

“Can you teach me how to do that?”

Melody pouted, “You’re thinking about using it on me, aren’t you?”

In all honesty, he hadn’t thought about that yet because he was too focused on learning what she’d done, not that he wouldn’t use it on her, “No, I hadn’t thought about that yet.”

She sighed, “Why would I keep hanging out with you if all you want to do is get rid of me?”

Felix shook his head, “I don’t know why you’re here at all.”

She looked at him and smiled, completely unfazed, “Wouldn’t you rather have me here to answer all the questions you will inevitably have?”

Felix thought about it for a second then just shrugged and turned back to the arena floor where the Adepts were setting up lines in the sand.

“Or maybe you’d rather have me around for some other re-” Melody whispered in his ear in a seductive tone.

Felix grimaced then hopped over the arm wrest into the next seat over, one further from Melody and she just started laughing. He didn’t bother responding but wasn’t bothered enough to actually leave. He knew she was just teasing him and having her answer questions for him was actually useful.

As his mind started thinking about questions, Felix turned back to Melody and almost jumped when he saw her in the seat next to him again. He hadn’t even noticed her move. He figured he should be used to that by now but it still surprised him.

“I need to know the range of normalcy for a caster.”

Melody rested her face in her arm on the arm rest between them and looked up at him, “You’ll be one of the last anyways so just watch what other people do for now then I can fill in the blanks later, when you actually know what questions to ask.”

Felix nodded, “Ok, that’s logical. How do you know I’ll be one of the last ones?”

She shrugged, “It’s in order of registration.”

Seeing Felix’s confused expression, she explained, “Alphabetical doesn’t make sense because which language, translation and alphabet would we use? Could do age but that’s just as random as the order we registered with the school.”

“Alright, makes sense.”

“Peace, Berakeel, Kevrum, Zeraxes,” and 7 other names were called out before they finished with, “Melody!” A booming voice echoed out from the stage below, surprising Felix as he hadn’t realized they were ready yet.

“Well, that’s me. See you in a bit. Maybe try to start a chant or something. Mel-o-dy! Mel-o-dy! She’s so cute! She’s so hot! I love her! Or you know, whatever you come up with.”

Felix just shook his head as she giggled and flew down into the field, meeting with the Adepts down there. He saw three others from around the room hop down as well, joining the group in the middle of the arena.

They spoke with each-other for just a few moments then a number of the Adepts walked off and into the stands. Melody split off towards one of the quadrants the arena had been split into along with two of the other students and one of the Adepts. They were easy to pick out because they all wore bright red hats to distinguish them from everyone else.

There was already a group of four Adepts in her quadrant waiting along with all the other four quadrants. Three other groups just like Melody’s split up and organized themselves into the other quadrants then the groups spent a minute discussing with each-other.

After the minute was up, a mostly translucent barrier shot up into the sky between the sections, fully splitting them off from each-other and around them, separating them from the stands. The matches in each quadrant consisting of 4 Adepts against 1 Adept and 3 students.

Once the minute of initial discussion was up, the groups faced each-other and the matches began.

Felix mostly paid attention to Melody’s group who rushed at the opposite team in a fairly tight formation. They weren’t side to side but only a few meters separated each of them with Melody taking up the rear most position.

The team of Adepts had an arrangement of two fighters, a mage and an archer. They were happy to slowly fall into formation and allow the other group to rush into them.

The Adepts seemed to be limiting themselves for the purposes of the test. The students on the other hand, were far more impressive.

Before Melody’s team reached the Adepts, Felix’s attention was drawn to another field where a man was leaping into the air and throwing a javelin at the Adepts. The javelin itself was too fast for him to follow and every time it struck, a Lightning Bolt descended from above, striking the same spot.

The rest of his team seemed to be just as wary of the Javelin as the Adepts.

In another field, a warrior with a massive sword engulfed himself in flames before jumping around like a meteor. They crashed into the walls and bounced around the room making it kind of hard to actually follow what was happening.

Melody’s was much calmer and as the frontline clashed, the ranged attackers started trying to harass each-other which proved more difficult than Felix had thought it would be. There were far more misses and dodges than hits. The same was true for the brawlers in the front who seemed to be matching each-other fairly equally.

Suddenly, one of the fighters on the Adept team faltered and made a mistake. They got caught by their opponent’s blade and were almost immediately taken out. They tried to back off and recover but Melody’s team all seemed to speed up at once, pressuring and keeping them from doing anything.

Only then did the students on Melody’s team really stand out by flying forwards in a whirl of blades and leaping into the air with a barrage of arrows. Melody herself was still in the back but Felix suspected she was having a much larger effect than was obvious. The Adept’s formation fell apart and they were quickly dismantled, taken out one by one in a matter of seconds. As soon as a fatal blow landed, the bodies disappeared, saved by The System and an agreement it had with the school.

Looking back over to the other arenas, Felix saw that none of the other student teams were winning. The javelin thrower’s team was gone, leaving them alone against the full team of Adepts. The giant sword wielding comet on the other hand seemed to have gotten themselves eliminated and the full team of Adepts was slowly whittling the rest of them down.

The matches ended less than a minute after that and the barriers dropped. Melody’s team was the only student team remaining and they all hopped out and headed back towards their seats as 12 new names were called.

As the next students arrived in the arena, all the Adepts had returned and the process began anew.

Before the barriers rose again starting the second set of matches, Melody fell back into the seat next to Felix and lifted her feet onto the seat in front of her.

“Well done. You guys beat the Adepts.” Felix couldn’t help but congratulate her. Logically, the feat seemed very impressive to him.

Melody shrugged, “We won’t be the only ones. Just got lucky with our team.”

Felix nodded and looked back down at the arena as the matches started. This time, with no investment in anyone particular, Felix looked around for any mages he could spot amongst the students or even the Adepts.

There were mages in the last fights but he was a little distracted seeing his fellow classmates fighting for the first time. It was his first indication of how he would stack up against them right now. So far, they all seemed to be much faster than he was, stronger and more durable too on top of some that stood out as particularly flashy. The mages though, were much harder to judge.

The mages in the battles tended to be careful and strategic with their spells but he didn’t know if that was forced on them or a choice they had made. For Felix, he could easily harass the enemy team with a near constant barrage of spells. Just because he didn’t see anyone doing so, didn’t mean they couldn’t do it though.

As long as it was technically possible, he wouldn’t look too out of place when he stepped into the arena. He was also surprised to not see anyone flying in the fights. That changed in the third round when a mage flew around to try and get the right angle but before they could cast anything, they were shot out of the sky by a pair of Adept archers.

Every other mage he saw played the careful game until an opening presented itself and they launched a massive spell to capitalize. A number of them had familiars but far less towering behemoths than he had expected given the advantages they offered. It seemed to him like the melee brawlers were the ones who made the openings most often while the archers tried to pick people off, often succeeding, and the mages capitalized on the openings presented.

Not all mages were straightforward attackers either, Felix saw multiple mages summoning walls, blocking projectiles, casting haste spells and generally providing aid and area control for their teams.

Felix though, fell mostly into the straight forward blast mage. He could create barriers to support his team but that was just about it. He hadn’t worked with teams much and the spells he had focused on, reflected that.

The fights were otherwise exactly as he expected, fast, brutal and high level. Everyone, even the students, were clearly formidable opponents and Felix was starting to think he was near the bottom in one on one combat ability at the moment. He would find out in half a dekad anyways but he couldn’t help but estimate.

As they reached around 80% of the way through the groups, Felix turned to Melody, “Ok, casting multiple spells at once?”

Melody responded without looking, immediately picking up on what he was talking about, “Normal.”

“Spell list size?”

“25 to 30 I believe, for most people here.”

Felix nodded in relief, “Anything else I should know?”

Melody shrugged, “Just have fun, don’t worry about beating the Adepts, that mostly comes down to luck.”

After watching a few more matches, Felix’s name was finally called as the very last one, right after Adaline’s.

Melody blew him a kiss, “Good luck.”

Felix shook his head as he hopped down the stairs and into the arena.

The floor of the arena was surprisingly somewhat elastic rather than hard and rigid like the concrete it resembled. Felix joined up with the congregation of Adepts and other students.

“… Alright then you two will go with those two Adepts to field 1. You three field two.” Felix saw Adaline on the team of just two students and leaving just as he arrived.

The Adept turned to Felix, “You must be Felix Kade. You’re with this group,” He gestured at two other students, “You can choose what archetype you’d like for the Adept that joins you. Otherwise, no equipment that is more than 1 grade above you unless it’s enchanted, then it has to be your grade or enchanted by you. No batteries either and no spatial storages that aren’t a part of your weapon or armor.” They added as they spotted the charm attached to his waist.

Felix quickly tapped and stowed it, not worried at all about his mana reserves, then walked over to join the other two students on his team.

[C] Wylen (Lvl 1103)

[C] Marphos (Lvl 1092)

Felix nodded to acknowledge them as he looked them over. Both were clearly in their full combat gear, Wylen wearing full plate mail with a sword in hand and a simple buckler on his arm. Marphos wore leather and had many daggers strapped all over her waist, ankles, forearms, chest and thighs.

“Alright, Felix I take it you’re a mage or a healer? What kind?” Wylen looked at him, his eyes showing just how seriously he was taking this.

“Fully attack focused mage. I can do barriers on myself but not buffs or control spells.”

Wylen nodded, “I take it you mostly fight alone then, so you can protect yourself?”

Felix nodded, “Yes.”

“Alright, any problems with taking another front liner then? Marphos plans on disrupting the Adepts as much as possible, flanking and interrupting them. We already know we’re up against a great axe wielder, a duelist, an archer and a support mage. I want someone else to stop the other melee fighter so they can’t just run through us.”

Felix shrugged, the logic was sound to him, “Sure.”

Marphos nodded and Wylen walked over to the group of Adepts organizing the matches. He walked back just a moment later with an Adept wearing scale mail, wielding a longsword in one hand and wearing a metal gauntlet on the other.

[B] Trellem (Lvl 2832)

“Hi.” Trellem smiled and waved to Felix and Marphos.

Felix returned the nod.

“I can’t offer anything tactical but I’ll follow whatever you tell me to and take some initiative, just limited.” Trellem looked to each of them in turn making sure they understood the parameters of the fight.

“Oh and don’t worry about the difference in grade, we lower our speed and strength to match you guys as best we can.” Trellem looked mostly at Marphos who Felix didn’t even realize looked worried a moment ago but her sigh of relief in response gave her away.

Wylen looked to Felix and Marphos, “Any issues if I take point?”

They both shook their heads in response so Wylen dove into the plan he had clearly already been working on for the last few minutes, “Alright Marphos, your job is to disrupt that support mage as much as you can. Trellem and I will try to hold the two melee fighters back. Trellem, can you take the duelist? It’ll be easier for them to get through my armor.”

Trellem nodded, “No problem.”

“Felix you help Marphos, if she isn’t on the support mage you can attack them. If she is, focus on the archer. Block their arrows if you can, distract them if you can’t, it makes it much easier for us if we don’t have to dodge those too.”

The logic was sound and Felix had no arguments. He figured everything would fall apart pretty quickly once they were in there but having an initial plan was better than nothing.

Following the rest of his team onto their field, they set themselves up in a basic position though they weren’t allowed to move more than a meter away from each-other at the start.

A countdown started as Felix surveyed the Adepts on the other side and after a few short seconds, everyone raced towards each-other and into their formations.

The Adepts, lowering their speed to match the students, ended up moving very slowly in Felix’s mind and he saw their steps in slow motion as they arranged themselves in an expected formation. The support mage stayed far back while the archer leapt into the air to get an angle on Felix and Marphos.

Felix also jumped into the air using a burst of Force with the exact same plan as the Archer. Right as his line of sight passed over Wylen’s head, Felix unleashed a barrage of concentrated Fire Balls, his best scaling spell at the moment, overpowered by 10.

He didn’t bother aiming directly at any of them because they were more than fast enough to dodge but he did use all 5 of his available spells to launch them all around one of the melee fighters before they reached Trellem and Wylen. With 5 infernos each 5 meters wide, he was pretty sure he would hit and when the ground was covered in a thick cloud of fire a moment later, he was certain he had.

As he was casting those spells, the Adept archer had taken the opportunity to launch a barrage of her own at Felix, who was stuck in the trajectory of his jump. With no focus left to cast a barrier of any kind, the arrows all hit him, smashing into his cloak and falling harmlessly to the ground.

Between blocking the arrows and the concentrated Fire Balls, Felix had already used 5 million mana. He still wasn’t worried about running out right now, but he was realizing in the ample time he had to think while their bodies slowly careened through the air, that his pool wasn’t nearly as big as it seemed.

Catching himself as his focus returned, Felix flew off to the left and briefly caught sight of Marphos slinking along the right side of their field before vanishing a moment later.

As Felix prepared to cast more Fire Balls, he caught sight of the great-axe wielder he had just attacked and saw them looking hurt but still completely functional. Their skin was clearly burnt and charred and they had bruises already forming, rapidly turning their flesh a purple color as they met Wylen.

Suddenly, Felix saw a green glow erupt around Trellem and Wylen with a trail running back towards the support mage. The spell was still mana so he had time to interrupt it but he still didn’t know where Marphos was. It was possible she was on the support mage already but he couldn’t risk losing the match over this so he switched one of his Fire Balls over to a 10 times overpowered Lightning Bolt.

Arcing through the air the Lightning almost instantly struck a barrier around the support mage, damaging the barrier but not interrupting them.

Completely ignoring the barrage of arrows as they thumped into his cloak’s enchantment, Felix continued to launch a barrage of Lightning Bolts at the support mage in the hopes of destroying the barrier.

The spell surrounding both of the melee fighters cast just as Marphos appeared and destroyed the barrier around the support mage.

Both Trellem and Wylen started to slowly rise into the air, like gravity just didn’t affect them anymore. Without their feet on the ground, they had nothing to brace themselves and the fights quickly became unmanageable for them.

Instead of killing them outright though, the melee adepts swung and kicked at Wylen and Trellem respectively, knocking them further into the air and sending them flying outwards. Neither of them seemed to have the ability to fly so they were completely out of the fight.

With the melee fighters temporarily disabled, the Adept with the great axe and the duelist split up. The duelist ran over to help the support mage and deal with Marphos while the barbarian looking great axe wielder leapt into the air straight at Felix.

As soon as he left the ground, Felix started to prepare a Force Spell and once he was just a few meters away, about to swing his axe, Felix knocked him back and sent him flying into the barrier on the opposite side.

Another spell reached out from the support mage as the archer switched from futilely shooting arrows at Felix to harassing Marphos instead. The spell created a sphere of glowing purple mana around Felix which he almost absorbed but didn’t.

Instead, he simply cast Phantom Step, kicking off the invisible platform just before the spell finished casting and launching himself out of its area of effect.

Shooting his eyes back, he couldn’t actually tell what the spell would have done because it was invisible but he was glad to have dodged it nonetheless.

As he scanned the battlefield though, he saw Marphos was gone, likely eliminated considering she had had three harassing her just a moment ago. The archer was focusing down Trellem and Wylen who were still floating through the air with no way to dodge. They were parrying and blocking the arrows as best they could but the barbarian and duelist were also running over to whittle them down so they wouldn’t last long.

With them all focusing on Wylen and Trellem though, that left the support mage all alone and from a glance, they seemed to be repairing the barrier around them.

Felix launched himself in their direction, firing a constant stream of shrunk down but 10 times overpowered Fire Balls around them. The explosions were only a meter wide but Felix had increased the ratio of Fire so high, that they were devastating if they hit.

Though Fire and Force were currently his best spells because of the nodes he had gotten from the Lich, he still much preferred Lightning because it didn’t obscure his vision the way fire did. Force had the unfortunate issue of launching his target around making it hard to hit them multiple times consecutively.

Stopping the stream after 10 Fire Balls, right as he flew over their position, Felix had to wait just over a second for the flames to subside so he could confirm they were out of the match.

Once he had, he cast Phantom Step, kicking himself into the air and away from the mage, turning himself towards the rest of the battle.

Trellem was gone and Wylen was a fraction of a second from being beheaded so Felix was the only one left on their side.

Singling out the Archer because they were the biggest threat to him, Felix kicked off in their direction and launched a barrage of Lightning Bolts and concentrated Fire Balls. The Lightning Bolts ideally slowed or even stopped them to make it easier for the Fire Balls to hit.

Unfortunately, they were ready for that and suddenly jumped in midair, off to the side.

Before he could retarget them, Wylen was already gone and the two Adept brawlers were circling around to flank Felix and attack him from both sides. He had no idea how they would attack him while he was in the air but he had no intention of finding out so he launched himself directly to the right and over the duelist, who he hadn’t seen jump yet.

Shooting Lightning down at them as he flew, Felix was just hoping to halt their movements long enough to fly past them. Looking down though, Felix was completely shocked when he saw the duelist seemingly parry his Lightning Bolts with their rapier.

That’s just not fair.

Immediately switching over to Fire Balls, seemed to be a better call but they were just too fast to hit as they easily dodged the orange beads flying in their direction.

Suddenly, Felix felt a huge weight on his back and plummeted a dozen meters before catching himself. Thick arms wrapped around his torso and squeezed, his cloak doing its best to resist but his mana was dropping by thousands per second.

Casting bursts of both Fire and Force around him didn’t seem to do anything as the barbarian just held tight and tanked the damage. He didn’t just tank it and hold on though, adjusting one arm to hold Felix as tightly as possible, they used their other to beat on his cloak a few times before stopping and chuckling.

Felix wasn’t sure what that was about but he found out a second later when the barbarian’s hand slowly pushed through his cloak enchantment and wrapped itself around his head.

They only squeezed for a few seconds before Felix panicked. He knew he wouldn’t die because of The System managing the arena but the idea of his head being crushed was so visceral he couldn’t not panic.

Massively overpowering a burst of Fire from his body, Felix repeatedly surrounded himself in flames, taking damage from his own spell as it originated from beneath the cloak. While the spell was directed outwards, it still generated enough heat and fire to sear his own skin.

His new robes didn’t seem to take much damage from the spell which was nice but he still burned through over a quarter of his own health just to get the barbarian to let go.

Finally free again, Felix realized he was flying directly at the barrier on the opposite side of the field without enough time to stop himself. Mihto’s training kicked in though and Felix swung his legs out, bracing himself against the barrier and kicking off in a different direction. He still took a few thousand damage and fractured his leg bones but it was better than pancaking himself against the wall.

The archer resumed her harassment as a stream of arrows ticked away at his mana pool, each direct hit consuming over 10k.

Seems like the duelist isn’t much of a threat because they have a hard time getting to me. The archer is annoying but what matters more right now is the barbarian, they can actually reach me and get through my defensive enchantments.

Tracking the barbarian as he flew, Felix quickly modified some Fire Balls and prepared them, making sure he knew where the other two were just in case.

Confident they wouldn’t be able to reach him, Felix released his barrage of 4 beads and watched the barbarian smile then simply leap straight up, the spells exploding into the ground harmlessly.

They were too fast for Fire Balls and Lightning just didn’t do enough damage with the terrible nodes he had unless he pumped them up to 2 or 3 million mana, not something he could sustain. That left Force Bombs which were just as easy to dodge as Fire Balls.

Since he had to take out the barbarian first, Felix decided to do something stupid to break the stalemate. He prepared a few spells that he would need as he flew backwards and circled around, baiting the barbarian and duelist who were chasing him into position.

They were smart enough to stay a few dozen meters apart but as Felix dropped himself the ground between them, they reconsidered. Both of them clearly knew it was a trap and so the barbarian leapt at him while the duelist waited to see what would happen.

Felix took a move from the support mage’s play book and cast his Force Shield at a 10 meter radius right before the barbarian hit it, slowing them to a stop in mid air.

Releasing a stream of Fire into them, Felix turned and stared directly at the duelist, daring them to try as arrows slowed and fell to the ground to his left. He felt the mana expenditure from holding the barbarian still, vanish and quickly confirmed they had fallen before dismissing the overpowered Flame Thrower and running at the duelist.

Instead of fighting him like Felix expected, the duelist simply backed up, keeping themselves just outside the range of the spell as the archer continued to harass him from the side.

Felix dropped the Force Shield to let his much more efficient cloak enchantment block the arrows and as soon as an arrow struck his enchantment, the duelist kicked the ground and leapt in his direction.

This close to the duelist, Felix had little hope of matching them in speed but what he did have, was a prepared burst of Fire that was impossible to dodge at this range. The duelist cut through majority of the spell but still seemed to take some damage as their flesh charred before they leapt forwards again.

With all his prepared spells used, Felix jumped backwards to try and keep his distance but the duelist was easily faster. Having seen the barbarian get through his cloak enchantment the duelist moved back and forth, perfectly matching Felix’s movements and carefully maintaining the exact distance between them as the rapier slowly approached his cloak.

Felix quickly switched directions with a burst of Force, causing his cloak to stop the rapier then cast another prepared spell, this one another Force Shield at 10 meters in radius. The duelist was trapped as their every movement was resisted but they still wasted the time to smile right before Felix felt a sharp pain in his side as a short sword was slowly inserted into his body from behind.

With their other hand on his shoulder and the weapon already through his cloak enchantment, it only took a few seconds for them to inflict enough damage for Felix to vanish.

Calming his breathing down as his nerves reset, Felix just laid there for a second, recovering from having died just a second ago.

He had forgotten about the archer because they had spent so long firing arrows at him to no avail. They were just waiting for him to be distracted though so they could sneak up on and actually kill him.

Quickly repairing his robes with a few million mana, Felix sat up and turned to get off the bed but stopped as soon as he spotted Melody standing there.

Her eyes were wide with excitement and she wore the same warm smile she always did which was a stark contrast to Felix’s dour mood from having lost.

“That was awesome.”

“I lost.” Felix stood and walked over, heading out of the recovery room as Melody walked alongside him.

“You aren’t expected to win, especially not 1 against 4.”

Felix shrugged, “Doesn’t mean I didn’t want to. It also wasn’t nearly as impressive as some of the other students I saw. Throwing javelins of lightning, turning themselves into comets…”

“I mean… they look cool I guess. I’m a little jaded because I’ve seen… things.” Melody shrugged.

“I guess. Just wish I could have… found a way to win.”

“I don’t think it would have made any difference, you’ll start in the bottom class no matter what along with Zeraxes, the javelin thrower and that comet dude.”

That shook Felix out of his self chastising train of thought, “Wait, bottom?”

“Yeah, you and especially those two suck at working with a team.”

Felix opened his mouth to argue but realized he didn’t actually have any argument against that. He hadn’t fought in a team much at all and when he did, he simply dominated all by himself, completely ignoring the others around him.

He also immediately realized there was a lot he could have done differently to help the team rather than take on the fight like he was alone. He also knew exactly why. He just didn’t trust his teammates and he didn’t see that changing any time soon.

Instead of trying to entirely deal with interrupting the support caster’s spell and piercing their shield, he could have called out the spell so his melee fighters could move themselves. It would have been much simpler and wouldn’t have caused the fight to end then and there. He also completely ditched their plan basically the instant the fight started.

He didn’t coordinate or even really pay attention to his teammates at all.

Shrugging, Felix sighed, “Does it matter if I’m in the lowest class?”

“If you make lots of progress and make it to the first class, your progress grade will be great, so there is that.”

Felix shook his head, “I’m starting to regret having taken this course at all. Why did I listen to you on this one?”

Melody giggled, “This isn’t going to just be about fighting in a team. It’s also going to help you fight against a team. So even if you stick to being Mr. Macho-fight-everything-by-himself, you’ll be much better at countering groups.”

Felix sighed knowing she at least somewhat had a point, “Fine, whatever. When will we know the rankings?”

“You’ll get a new schedule after Solo Combat placements on the seventh.”

“Any idea where you’ll be placed?”

Melody shrugged, “Placements don’t matter. I’m only in this course cause my parents were adamant about it.”

“I see.”

Mood flipping, Melody excitedly jumped a little, “That was so cool though. You cast spells so fast and you don’t even need verbal, somatic or a focus to do it. Oh, and you knew what the support mage was gonna cast before they did anything, even though they were a stealth caster like you.”

Felix’s brow furrowed as he feared he had given away too much, “Wait, is that not normal?”

“Not normal no but, it isn’t too crazy. It is super cool though. Makes you look so much more impressive than those casters who are all” Melody proceeded to wiggle her hands in the air and make a series of incomprehensible noises from her mouth as she mocked casters everywhere. While Felix didn’t disagree, the fact that she looked like she might be seizing made the performance more mocking than she likely intended it to be.

“I’d have switched to being a fighter a long time ago if I was stuck with verbal and somatic components.”

Maybe.

“No kidding. Oh and that jumping through the air thing is pretty sweet too, what’s that called?”

Felix shrugged, “I’ve been calling it Phantom Step, learned it back in Telviras.”

“That’s a good name. Your other spells kind of… suck though?”

Felix winced, “Yeah, for now. I’m hoping Spell Formations on the sixth can alleviate that for me.”

They continued to talk about the fights with Melody doing most of the talking while Felix asked about specific people that had stood out to him.

As they approached the dorms, she waved and walked off towards some other building, “Save me a seat on the fourth, yeah?”

Felix sighed and continued up to his dorm where he laid down on the bed and entered his Soul Garden. He still didn’t want to look at the city just yet because he knew as soon as he did, he would feel forced to fix it. Instead, he summoned the memory of the fight in his Soul Garden and watched it back, finding his own mistakes and trying to figure out how he could have won.

Somewhere around his hundredth watch through the memory, he spotted Grim walking over to him, “So I lost.”

“You did.”

“I know I wasn’t expected to win that…”

“But you desperately wanted to, I know.”

Felix sighed as he restarted the memory from the beginning, “I’ll learn to fight better, learn what to expect and all that from class but I also really need better spells.”

“Yeah. Fire Balls are slow and the Lightning nodes you have are shit.”

“I should have updated them from the books we scanned.”

Grim shook his head, “I already checked, they don’t have better nodes. At least not drop in replacements.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I suspect you’ll learn why in class but it’s just about patterns, channels and node theory. The ones I found were way too complex for you to maintain the same casting speed.”

“Damn.”

“What are you gonna do before class tomorrow?”

Felix sighed, “I don’t want to look at the city until after Constructs & Elementals, I’ll try to talk to Professor Ked about it after class. Probably read more I guess. There seems to be a pretty major flaw in my cloak enchantment at the moment.”

Grim shrugged, “It’s not that major, it only applies if they get really close to you, which you want to avoid anyways.”

“Still a flaw.”

“Of course.” Grim nodded and vanished, moving back to the city while Felix watched the memory a few more times before reluctantly dismissing it and moving back over to the books he had on hand.

Once again, he spent the night enchanting, experimenting with everything he read in his Soul Garden and figuring out how to implement them.

The Constructs and Elementals classroom was much like the auditorium Felix had Mana Structures in except there were even less students so it was even emptier. Professor Ked actually seemed to be excited by the 11 people in his class though as he walked in.

“Welcome to Constructs and Elementals. Unfortunately all official classrooms here are this big but, we won’t be in here too often. First things first, what is a construct? In simple terms, it’s a constructed creature and creatures, consist of three things, a body, a brain and a soul.”

“We can manipulate these three aspects to create all kinds of constructs, something we will be doing a lot of in this class. We will briefly be spending some time on Elementals but just a few classes as they are more volatile and almost everything we talk about applies to both.”

“First things first, let’s make a construct, shall we?”

Felix noticed everyone in the class was similarly confused and surprised by that statement. Professor Ked smiled as he got exactly the reaction he had expected then turned to the right as someone, or rather something, walked into the classroom through the door.

Squinting and leaning forwards instinctively, Felix, along with the rest of the students in the class, peered down at what appeared to be animated armor. He knew logically it was a construct but the armor walked and moved similarly to a human with slightly less grace than a high grade individual, more like pre-integration human. They carried a large bin and walked over to the center of the stage and placed it next to the podium then stood off to the side.

“This is H-1 one of the constructs I made a few epochs ago.” Looking down at the bin, Ked nodded, “Thank you H-1.”

Turning to the class, “This bin is split into three. In one section there is a soul gem, in another there is a very simple mana computer and in the last there is a ball. In a moment, you will all take one and assemble these components together to form a construct. If you’re already familiar with Animancy, you are encouraged to modify them and show off a little.”

“I will be walking around and helping those who need it but, the goal of this is simply to increase your understanding of how constructs work, how you can create them, modify them and so on. Don’t stress about how elegant they are.”

Professor Ked stepped back, clearly indicating to the students they could walk up and collect their components. Felix waited until everyone had already grabbed theirs so he could avoid interactions then sat down in his seat once again.

Looking down at the three components he was given, Felix realized what they were doing was essentially child’s play. The three pieces were made to fit together like building blocks for children.

He simply twisted the ball, that would act as the body, open then slid the computer, which was a small box, inside followed by the soul gem. Both of the computer and soul gem fit perfectly into the sphere as it was clearly designed specifically to house them.

Closing the sphere back up, the construct was complete. Looking around, he saw almost everyone else was done assembling their constructs as well but none of them were doing anything.

“You’re going to have to wait a bit while the computer powers up and the soul affinizes the construct. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes so while we wait, we will continue the lecture.”

As Ked proceeded to explain various combinations of brains, souls and bodies for constructs, Felix got distracted by one of the other students. While everyone else had simply assembled the construct and waited, this student in particular was fiddling with every piece.

Felix couldn’t actually tell what they were doing but they seemed to be modifying the pieces to some unknown end. After just a few minutes of modifications though, they assembled the construct and placed it in front of them, finally joining the rest of the class in their waiting.

After a long awaited hour of lecturing, the constructs finally began to awaken. The first to move was a student’s near the front of the class and her construct rolled itself around, bumping into her feet and startling her.

Within the minute or so that followed, most of the other constructs awakened, including Felix’s. The ball constructs rolled around and bumped into things, evidently completely unaware of their surroundings. They were little more than children’s toys, as their construction indicated, with no real use and yet at the same time, everyone in the class including Felix was fascinated and jubilant as they played with them.

After the initial novelty wore off a little, Felix briefly looked up and saw the student who had been modifying their construct still waiting. Felix continued to experiment with his ball and occasionally glance at the, now only inactive construct, waiting for it to do something.

Finally, the last construct awakened and rather than roll off the edge, it immediately smacked itself into the ceiling, bounced off then flew around the room.

Ked saw the construct and smiled, nodding in respect at the student who had modified it while everyone else in the class simply marveled at it.

“As Phelirin has demonstrated with their construct, even minor modifications require extensive planning ahead of time. Many of you may think this simple modification was simply a modification of the enchantments on the body to allow it to fly rather than roll, you would be wrong. Phelirin, would you mind giving a vague overview of the modifications you made to your construct?”

“Oh uh…” The student, Phelirin, who had made the modifications looked to be in a state of complete shock at being called out, “Well… the body enchantments were the start… redirecting the force but… I had to also rearrange the computer and modify some of the layers… flying requires different… Then just affinizing the soul…”

Ked nodded, “Yes. The enchantment of the body is just the beginning. The computer acting as the brain along with the soul gem need to be modified as well to work with the enchantments and to handle the various senses.”

“The constructs most of you constructed, the ones I prepared, are programmed to react when they hit something and to roll in a different direction. Phelirin here had to expand that entire process from beginning to end to be three dimensional rather than simply two. For example, try dropping or hitting your constructs from above.”

The entire class except for Pheliring proceeded to follow his instructions as he waited to explain.

“They will change direction but they are confused as to where they were hit so they appear to almost seize before one direction wins out at random. Feel free to continue experimenting with the limits of the constructs and you are all welcome to take your constructs with you. In the meantime, we will continue discussing various combinations of mind, soul and body for constructs and the subtleties of how they interact with each-other.”

The rest of the lecture was interesting enough that Felix paid attention but not interesting enough for him to dedicate all of his focus on it. Instead, Felix spent a few minutes poking his construct before finally stowing it and reaching into his main Soul Space.

Given he was in a construct class and he was definitely going to be making constructs in the future, Felix started creating another mana computer. He targeted the same density and structure as the one attached to his brain and simply worked at improving the process so it, hopefully, didn’t take nearly as long to create.

By the end of the lecture, he had a tiny computer but it was more than he had before and would hopefully be enough for a construct sooner rather than later. A huge side benefit as well was that he was improving his mana control at the same time.

As the lecture came to a close, Felix flew up, out of seat and over to Professor Ked before he could leave.

“Professor.”

“Ah, Felix. It seems as though you managed to fix your problem then?”

“Sort of. While the solution was- is functional… there are issues.”

“I see. I’m not sure how I might be of assistance without further information…”

“As you said, I created filters around soul seeds from my own soul but the… constructs I ended up creating as a result are… like children?”

Ked’s brow furrowed which was an odd expression that took Felix a few seconds to decipher on his alien face, “How did you create the filters and like children how?”

Felix winced, “I just randomized everything a little bit. They can speak very simple sentences but… they’re… I’m not sure how to explain it. They can’t seem to process anything complex? They’re imagining things but their imaginations are like a very basic child’s drawing?”

The Professor’s face contorted even further, “I believe I know the solution but I must ask, what medium or body is housing these constructs?”

Felix instinctively scratched his head as he thought of a lie or diversion but Ked immediately picked up on the gesture, “Ah. Not terribly uncommon. I’m impressed you made multiple, it also validates my concerns as to your issue. Your constructs have no brain.”

Felix tilted his head to the side in confusion, “They’re attached to… my head though?”

“Did you bind them to or give them access to your brain in any way?”

“No… I see. Thank you.”

“Some advice, if I may. Do not bind them to your brain. Using the same brain for two constructs always results in catastrophe. I’ve tried countless experiments with two constructs in one body and they always need their own brains. What you can do however, is have three brains. Two bound to constructs and one that facilitates the communication between the two. You can even have the central brain perform all the complex thought and transmit it to the other two, but they must have their own for basic functions.”

Felix nodded, “Understood, thank you I appreciate it.”

Ked nodded, “Of course. I am always happy to answer any questions my students have to the best of my ability.”

Hesitating as he turned to leave, Felix asked one last question now that Ked had already figured things out for himself, “How common is it to have constructs in your mind?”

“Not… unique? It is not common, I’ve heard of it before but I’ve never met anyone doing so for myself. I’d be happy to give more advice if you would be willing to share more with me in the future, think about it.”

Felix nodded noncommittally, “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

Though they had learned essentially nothing so far about mana computers, Felix spent the rest of the night constructing the computer in his Soul Space while he iterated through construct designs he would one day create. He knew he should be looking at his Mind City and its inhabitants but he still didn’t have the necessary computers to fix it yet so he welcomed his excitement as a distraction for now. He was constructing a computer he could test with soon at the same time anyways, so he didn’t feel too guilty about his procrastination.

Nova was missing from his dorm but Felix briefly checked on their soul bond then moved on. She wasn’t trapped in the dorm and she was smarter and stronger than a pet so he had no issue with her roaming around.

Walking into Soul Manipulation, Felix took the same seat he always aimed for, closest the door and next to an aisle so it was easy to get out. As the rest of the students filed into the class, someone actually sat beside him, though he was expecting her at some point.

“Nice, thanks for saving my seat for me.” Melody smiled as she wiggled herself into the seat and placed her feet on the seat in front of her.

“I didn’t do anything, no one tried to sit there.”

“Ok but what would you have done if someone had?” Her brow cocked as she smirked.

“Probably moved to a different seat.”

“See? You do care.” Melody smiled and Felix knew, she knew, that he wouldn’t have moved for her sake.

As the last few students filed in, Melody held her hand out in front of Felix and produced a bowl of what looked like ice cream. He looked over and saw she already had her tongue buried in a bowl of her own.

He hesitated before taking it and just looked at her tonguing it before shaking his head and producing some starmetal he morphed into a spoon. She looked at him like he was weird for using the spoon and refused when he offered her one of her own.

As weird as Melody was, the dessert was phenomenal. It wasn’t like ice cream at all and was actually warm but the texture was nothing like he expected. It was flavored with something adjacent to chocolate and caramel with crunchy bits on top.

Walking into the class from the Professors door and onto the stage, Felix saw what appeared to be a cat. As soon as they got to the stage, the cat rose to their hind legs and Felix watched in fascination as he expected the cat to morph into a person. They did not though.

[?] Fen: Director of the Eramith Soul Department (Lvl ?)

The feline professor wore a pair of silk pants, a loose shirt and a cloak along with a pair of glasses and a hat all atop their striped black and brown fur.

They hopped up to the top of the podium then turned towards the class, “Good afternoon class. My name is Professor Fen, Ms. Fen or just Fen and this… is Soul Manipulation.”

All of the students in the room except for Felix and Melody immediately winced and hunched over. Felix felt something pushing at his soul as well, it just wasn’t nearly enough to affect him.

He caught Melody watching him and smiling with crazy eyes before winking and turning back to face the professor and tongue her dessert.

“This is the power of Soul Manipulation. In this class we will discuss cultivating, strengthening, manipulating and reading souls. Specifically we will be dealing almost entirely with your own soul in this class though, Soul Manipulation II will dive into other souls and how we can affect them in depth.”

“We will begin with methods of cultivating and strengthening one’s soul as they go hand in hand. Can anyone tell me one of the ways in which we can do so?”

Melody looked at Felix but he had no intention of answering and it appeared, neither did she. Luckily they didn’t have to as some of the other 40 to 50 or so students were willing.

“Adding anima to your soul to increase its size?” One student called out.

“Correct.” The professor wrote ‘collecting anima’ on the board without moving at all.

Emboldened by the first correct answer, other students started just blurting out responses, “Making it denser?”

“Layers?”

“Structure?”

“Reaping.” The student that had blurted that out was sitting over in the front row and Felix could almost swear they were looking at him. They were faced away but there it was a faint feeling he had. He dismissed it as his imagination though due to his familiarity with the response they had given.

The professor jumped in upon hearing that response, “While yes, that will increase your soul strength, it will also drive you insane and likely lead to soul death. I advise you all to avoid reaping as much as possible.”

“Afterlife.” Felix realized for the first time that Adaline was in the class.

“Not exactly relevant to anyone outside of the peak of S grade trying to ascend to godhood and therefore, not something we will talk about much in this course but yes. That is correct.” Fen nodded to Adaline.

“Convictions.” Melody added to the responses.

“Correct Ms. Melody. Convictions are a very important part of one’s own soul strength. In fact, let us begin there as you will need time to decide which convictions you will pursue because it takes a very long time to develop them.”

“The generally accepted guidelines for convictions are that you want them to be broad and far reaching. Being specific does not give them strength and just makes them harder to actualize. However, they must be specific enough to follow and enact. Your own convictions must be clear to you. You will want to develop three of them that are synergistic. Making sure they do not interfere with each-other, ever, is important but on top of that you want some overlap. Too much overlap and they will merge together though, so be aware.”

“Some examples include Peace, Love, Protection. Alternatively, Lethal, Efficient, Powerful. They do not need to have anything to do with fighting either if you are a pacifist. You do however, need to be careful with what you are targeting. While the word you use is not overly important, the intention matters. Are you aiming for peace or pacifism? What are the implications of both? Is it possible to fight in the name of Peace? Is it possible to kill in the name of protection? Your ideals are what define the conviction here.”

“We will talk more about the subtleties of creating them later on but now I want to talk about how they can be used to try and influence you so you can start thinking about them as soon as possible.”

“The largest benefit is that when you actualize your convictions, your soul becomes much more aligned and therefore stronger. This helps in just about everything you do. Your will power is stronger, you are more in control of your body, your mind and you may even gain stats though, often the power gained is not represented on your status screens.”

“What does this mean? All you need to do is embody them. If you have the convictions to be Lethal, when you are fighting you will be stronger if you embody that. You can still be merciful in certain situations but your soul will be unaligned in doing so and you may even find yourself weaker than normal.”

“There is risk however. If you were to completely divert from your conviction, defy it in many significant and important moments or, if you were to fill yourself with experiences that were antithetical to the conviction, you would risk shattering your soul. While this is extraordinary and rarely ever happens, you should be aware of it. Were you to change as a person, you should spend time to remove the conviction carefully before living out too much of your life with your revised stance.”

Felix actually raised his hand for the first time in any class, completely against his nature but he couldn’t resist in this moment.

The professor immediately noticed him, “Felix?”

“I had heard your soul shatters immediately if you deviate at all?”

“No. That is only the case for imposed convictions which are… Not something you have to fear unless you dive very far into Soulbinding and wished to restrict the actions of your creations.”

Felix nodded and sat down.

Grim addressed Felix before he had the chance, Sorry-

Felix mentally shrugged, Not like that misconception changed anything for me. It is good to know for the future though. Relieving too.

Felix could tell Grim was grappling with having been fed misinformation and was processing so he left him be and returned his attention to the lecture.

She spoke on convictions for another half hour or so before diving into basic cultivation techniques. The majority of the lecture was not applicable to Felix given reaping was more efficient but he vaguely listened anyways as he continued to grow the computer in his main Soul Space.

As they walked out of the class, the first through the door due to their seat’s proximity to it, Felix turned to Melody, “I know it was just the first day but how did you do that suggestion thing?”

“That’s Soul Manipulation, we’ll get to it. I was just kind of… born with a talent for that… and Soul Reading.”

“I take it that’s more about knowing if people are lying?”

“That and knowing their intentions. It used to be impossible for my dad to lie to me. Just white lie stuff at first like stories. It became harder when he had to go away and couldn’t lie to me as to why. He’d be upset and I’d know it, then when I asked him about it he had to just avoid answering.”

“Does this have anything to do with… You’re a bard right? Does it help?”

Melody nodded, “Yeah. It helps but it’s… a specific kind of bard.”

“Is that why you became a bard?”

Melody sighed, “Kind of. My mom is a bard too and she wanted me to be one, hence my name, just got lucky I was born like this I guess…”

“I think this was a good recommendation of class to take either way, so thank you for that.”

Melody shrugged, “No problem. You have tomorrow off, right?”

Before Felix could answer, she cut him off as she had already seen his schedule and the question was rhetorical, “I’ll meet you at your dorm and we’ll go walk through the Shadow Market.”

Felix was wise enough to know she’d insist and curious enough not to bother refusing so he just nodded, “Ok. See you then.”

Melody smiled and waved then flew off into the distance as Felix headed back to his dorm where he spent the night reading through Soul-Binder textbooks he had memorized and fantasizing about the future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .