Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Chapter 91: Introduction to College

Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; Terra; Imperia; FBC

I stare down at the headmaster and wait for his next words in anticipation. All the people around me are the same, and the whole stadium falls into complete silence. You could hear a pin drop, despite the 50,000 of us in the room.

“This course will take place for the remainder of the week and provide you with all the information you will need to have a successful time here at Ferdinand Benson College. Some of you might already know most of it. Either be it from siblings or you found some other crafty solutions to get you information beforehand. Therefore, if you feel that you already know enough over the next few hours, you are free to leave and use the remainder of the week for other activities until normal courses start next Monday.”

He pauses for a short smirk, and I notice a lot of people eyeing the exits. Not that I plan to leave, as I’m absolutely clueless about magical colleges. “I do have one request for you, though. If you decide to leave, please do so during our scheduled breaks or right now before I start. If you leave during the explanations, it will only cause unnecessary distractions for your fellow students. Now before I begin, does anyone want to leave?”

The noise goes up a few notches again, and a lot of people stand up from their seats and start walking toward the exits. I guess it’s a few thousand, but despite them being gone some ten minutes later, the stadium still looks packed.

Headmaster Benson clears his throat again. “Now that we’ve got this over with, let’s dive into the actual topic. I’m sure you’ve already noticed while browsing the available courses, that we at FBC offer two kinds of courses.”

There are voices of agreement throughout the stands and Lydia leans over to me. “He means magical and non-magical, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. But isn’t there a third kind? Like our Exploration course?”

Alina chimes in from my other side. “My cousin was here a few years before me and told me that as long as it includes magic, it’s classified as a magical course. As the Exploration course does include magic, you have your answer. Oh, and the non-magical courses are often held across multiple colleges, so there might be a few normal people visiting as well.”

Huh, that’s good to know… Probably similar to what I learned from my family that I might meet some people from RMA during my time here. “Thanks, Alina. I have to ask though, why didn’t you leave when you already had a cousin attending here?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know everything… And if it gets boring, I still can leave during a break.”

We missed a bit of the headmaster’s speech with our talking, but from the things I’m picking up, he just finished explaining the things Alina just told me.

“… one of the premier colleges in The Empire. That’s why I expect your best behavior when you share courses with students from other colleges. Now with that out of the way, let’s dive a bit deeper into the courses we’re offering you in the next few years.”

He pauses for a moment, a hand goes to his ear, then he looks around in the stadium. I follow his gaze and notice someone in the back rows lifting their hand. They are sitting on the opposite side, so I can’t recognize them. “Ahh, we do have a question. One interesting enough is that the school’s AI decided to change today’s topics to answer it. Young man, do you know the Project Voice spell, or should I come up and repeat your question?”

That throws out a lot of questions in my head. Is there an AI listening in to everything we’re saying? Or how else did the college staff become aware of his question? “Clara,” I whisper under my breath. “Is there someone listening in?” That would cause a lot more problems. I would have to be much more careful with my fake identity and everything.

“There is always someone listening in… But don’t worry, I take care of any slips you might make. As for the current situation? Your good friend Tim specifically contacted the college’s AI to ask his question.”

The hell? That’s Tim over there? My thoughts are interrupted by his voice ringing through the stadium. “No need, headmaster Benson. I’m quite versed in Utility magic.”

The headmaster chuckles. “Very well, then please go ahead and ask.”

“Okay, so we’ve all noticed the long lines and everything at registration. And I’m sure more than one of my fellow students got rewarded for doing something on their own initiative or thinking outside the box… My question is why. Why are you rewarding this? Hell, why are you creating situations like that at all?”

Headmaster Benson suddenly smiles broadly. “Ahh, that’s why the AI was so excited. This is going to be a superb year. To answer your question. Yes, we do this on purpose. The reason is simple. We don’t want to settle for mediocrity. We want to have the best students! Therefore, for every single one of you, I encourage you to exploit the system, find loopholes, and take advantage. Everything is fine but one thing. Do not cheat! Cheaters don’t have a place here at FBC, and if I, or anyone of the staff finds you cheating, you’re going to be expelled immediately.”

He turns back to Tim. “You Mister Skadi are a prime example of what we try to achieve with this reward system. Not only did you manage to skip the queue at registration, but you also used the tools at your disposal and found your room without help, as have many others of you. And now you even called out and questioned the system directly.” He smiles even more. “You can expect another reward after this lesson.”

He's quiet for another moment, clearly listening to the AI again. “Ahh, another good question. It was asked by multiple people, so I’ll just say it myself. What’s the difference between exploits and cheats? The answer is simple. Everything you manage on your own is fair game. If it requires external help, be it your AIs or other people, it’s cheating. You might have noticed that your AIs already avoid cheating, as none of them told you to circumvent the line earlier.”

Wow, his explanation makes complete sense in hindsight. Clara already explained it to me but now that I have some context… And Tim as well. He was only allowed to tell us about his line-cutting after we waited through the line. Yeah, the system is genius. I wonder if I am able to find an exploit in the cheating rule? I guess that would be worth quite a big reward.

Headmaster Benson continues to answer further questions about the reward system and clarifies a few more things. I’m only listening halfheartedly, as I’m thinking about possible exploits I can use in the future. Another clap snaps me out of it a while later and the headmaster announces the first break for the day. I look at the time on my interface and am quite surprised that it’s already time for lunch. That was quick!

We’ve got a whole hour, so we decide to eat at one of the restaurants on campus. I look toward the exits and notice a lot of people trying to get out. That should count, right? “Hey Clara, I’m allowed to teleport, right?”

“You are, but only to your room or to one of the jump rooms across campus.”

“Perfect, then get me to one close to a nice restaurant.”

Clara provides the coordinates, and I look at the others. “Ready to skip another line?”

Lydia laughs. “Oh, for sure!” The others nod as well, and I grab the four of us with the Teleportation spell. Then we disappear with a purple flash. Inside the jump room, a voice asks us to leave as soon as possible, and we quickly comply. Once we’re outside, I get a ping on my interface. Another reward! I laugh out loud. My guess was true!

This time it’s a coupon for a free massage. I like that very much. “What is it?” Lucy asks.

“Got another reward just now.”

“Nice! Congratulations. But now let’s eat.”

I quickly agree, and we enter the next restaurant we can find. It’s a fast-food chain, but none of us cares, we only have an hour after all. I turn to Lucy again. “Have you talked to Nick about the Exploration course?”

“Yeah, he didn’t want to at first, but I managed to convince him. So, we’ve got our full team. He’s only a Junior Utility Mage though.”

Alina snorts. “Only, she says. That’s completely normal. Not everyone is a genius like you two with one core already at master and let’s not talk about all the money you probably had funneled into your advancement.”

Lucy blushes a bit. “Sorry about that… I didn’t mean it negatively, but we have to consider it during the course. We want to be the best exploration team after all.”

“And we will,” I cut in, “Junior in Utility is no joke. I’m the same, and you know what Jack managed with the same power level.”

I immediately hear a “careful” from Clara in my ear, as Jack isn’t part of Sara Green’s life, but Alina doesn’t seem to notice.

Lucy does though and nods furiously. “Yeah, sorry, I get it.”

“Should I call them over, so that you can talk a bit more about the exploration course?”

I relay the question to the others, but they all agree that it’s probably too early to talk about courses when we haven’t finished our first introduction lesson yet. With that, we finish eating and slowly make our way back toward the underground stadium as the hour of break is nearing its end. Unfortunately, there is no teleportation involved this time, and we have to retake the stairs. The room is already quite filled up when we return, and we don’t bother with finding our old seats again and simply sit down where we find four empty seats.

A bit later the doors close again, and Headmaster Benson reappears on the stage down below. “Welcome back, I hope you all found something to eat, as we’ll be diving right back into it in a minute. Now that we’ve cleared your questions about the reward and exploitation system, I’d like to return to our original topic of the day. Courses. The most important for you is probably the grading, so I’ll tell you a bit about it, even though, I think the things you are learning are way more important than your grades,” he pauses for a short chuckle.

“Anyway, to put your minds at rest, grading will follow the same principles as you know from your junior schools in both the magical and non-magical courses.”

That causes a collective sigh of relief while my friends and I, barring Alina are quite confused. “Clara?”

“I’ve got you. It’s pretty simple. For non-magical courses, you simply have to hand in assignments or do written tests, and for magical courses, you are graded according to your competence in the taught spells. Things like casting speed, stability of the spell, and power wastage. Like I said, basic things you won’t have to worry about.”

“Uhh, spell stability and power wastage? Those are things that can be measured?”

“Of course, don’t you know that? But you don’t have to worry. Your spells are some of the most efficient I’ve seen. Stability is just a matter of doing enough repetitions. You’ve got this!”

“Well, I’ve never heard of those terms before… Mage-hating nation, you know?” I whisper under my breath. “But thanks for the reassurance!”

“Ah shit, they didn’t even cover the basics? I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I get it. And yeah, they told us what class to choose and taught us the bare minimum to be able to cast spells, nothing more.”

Clara is silent for a long moment, and I start listening to the headmaster again. Looks like he’s explaining the different levels of the courses at the moment, as he’s currently talking about power requirements for the advanced Space magic course.

He stops for a short laugh. “Now I’ve told you all those things, but do we even have students here that qualify for the course? Can all the Seniors and above lift their hands for a moment, please?”

Why is he asking this? He should know the power levels of the students… Still, I lift my hand, just like about 500 other people around the room. That’s not many! Reality hits me hard. Space Mages are really rare people. I’ve been spoiled with my family! Ugh, I suppress a grimace, as suddenly many people look at me with awe.

Luckily, headmaster Benson starts to continue. “Good, we’re a bit above average for this year. That’s fortunate for all of you who registered for the Exploration, Practical Diplomacy, Security, and all the other courses that include excursions! If you manage to include a Senior Space Mage in your teams, they can speed up your trips considerably with the signature spell Starship Jump. In case you don’t know about it, it allows the Space Mage to jump starships without the help of a wormhole. So, I encourage you to seek them out. And to you, Space Mages, don’t forget to ask for compensation. It’s your time after all and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to play taxi for all your time here at FBC.” He ends with another chuckle, and I suddenly notice even more gazes directed at me.

Did the Headmaster really say that? He just announced us Space Mages as glorified taxis! Oh my, I guess I’ll be busy in the future…