Chapter 38

Impressing The Teachers

Soon enough the transaction was complete and Helen hired a carriage to take us out to my new home. It seems that several years ago there was a big international tournament and Vulcanopolis hosted the quarterfinals. The elves had demanded and gotten a separate space to dwell outside the city during these three months. The city easily agreed as they hoped it would bring better trade realtions. Later relations soured and the elven nation this section of land was given too sold it to Stephen for a very low price and left the area.

Stephen had been trying to sell it since then. It was just far enough outside the city that it was undesirable due to transportation times. However, with my ability to teleport this would not be an issue. The only reason we were taking a carriage now was that I could not teleport to an area I did not know.

“Ms. Helen, how can I ever repay you. You have done so much for me. I now have a home and I will be able to attend classes. You even had me buy things that I had heard of such as soap and explained why it was needed.”

I had added that last part in to keep the sympathy rolling. I knew that this woman ran everything at the school and I needed her to both be impressed and want to help me. With her on my side my time in the academy should be a breeze.

“Oh Mark, there is no need for thanks. I enjoyed helping you. This is the most fun I have had in a long time.”

“Well then Ms. Helen, anytime you want to have more fun and help me out please feel free to look me up.”

She laughed at this, and we chatted about inconsequential things through the rest of the ride. We rounded a hill and she pointed out a grove of trees in the distance.

“That my dear is the Old Elvish Embassy that you now own.”

I peered out the window at my new housing. It was a miniature forest. As we got closer I could see a well-worn path that led about 100 meters in to a rather large house/building that surrounded the largest tree I had seen outside the jungle where I first took the mantis shape. The best way I can describe it is as a square doughnut. Each of the four corners of the building was large tree in itself. But there seemed to be a huge courtyard in the center of the building that enclosed the base of a 20 meter or bigger in diameter tree.

I did some math in my head, this means that the building surrounding it must be huge.

“Miss Helen, this place is fantastic, but what am I to do with all the space in that building. I am going to love roaming the grounds and forest, but I only need a few rooms and this place is gigantic.”

“Mark, just because it is big doesn’t mean you have to use the whole place. Use whatever you want and the rest just keep in reserve in case you have friends over, or rent it out, or just host a party. You can hire a group to maintain it and live here with you, or you can have them come out weekly.”

“I guess I should have them come out weekly at first, until I get used to being around more people.”

I once again got the sympathetic look from Miss Helen, which to me meant that I had her firmly in my corner no matter what.

“That sounds like a good choice Mark. Why don’t we wander around and look at the state of the place before deciding who to hire to help you out. It has been abandoned for a few years now and probably needs some repair.”

“Thank you Miss Helen. I will once again take your wonderful advice.”

The next couple of hours we spent searching through the embassy. There was a few salvageable pieces of furniture and artwork, but most of everything had been removed. The repairs needed to the physical structure all seemed to be minor which was good as I did not have unlimited funds. Well, I guess I could have almost unlimited funds, I just needed to go hit some dungeons up for cores. I was about to thank Miss Helen again and send her back to town in the carriage when I had a thought. Why don’t I just teleport us both back and save the ride. I don’t have a mass teleport spell, but I could make one quickly.

“Miss Helen, would you like me to teleport us back to town so we can have some people come out and clean up?”

“You can teleport other people with you Mark? She asked in surprise.

“Well not yet but give me ten minutes to create the spell and it should be fine. Let’s keep the carriage here while I figure it out just in case.”

I closed my eyes to help block out everything. I needed to concentrate. First focus on a group of people surrounding me. Now let’s add a glowing circle of magic that encompasses all of us. Now we disappear and then reappear in a new place. I loop this set of images through my mind and now bring in purple destruction and white light mana.

You have created the spell mass teleportation.

Inspect Mass Teleportation.

Mass Teleportation: A spell that transports the caster plus a number of beings equal to the current level of the caster, from their current location to any known location. Distance travelled is limited to the level of the caster X 50 kilometers.

It is definitely more limited than my regular teleport, but it will still be extremely useful. The higher my level the more useful it will become. I can already take over 75 other people with me more than 3500 kilometers. That will definitely prove worthwhile in the future. If nothing else, I can probably make a lot of money just in the transportation industry alone. I open my eyes back up and look at Miss Helen.

“Ok, I have created the spell, should we go?”

“As easy as that, you just created a new spell.”

“Well yeah, spells are easy to create, but hard to keep track of. So I usually only make a new one if it is going to do something completely different than what I already have and know. Otherwise I would have too many spells to remember. I mean why have separate spells for lighting a fire, a candle, or a piece of paper, when you can just use a single magic flame spell.”

I could see that I had shocked Miss Helen with my abilities. This is a good thing. I want her to not only want to help me because I am needy, but because I am talented also.

“Well then Mark, let us be off after we send the carriage driver back. Can you teleport us to my desk?”

“Sure no problem.”

A few minutes later after arranging things with the driver and paying him, I teleported the two of us back to Miss Helen’s desk.

“Wait right here Mark, I have to go and have a word with the headmaster.”

A few muffled shouts later I saw Miss Helen come back down the steps.

“The headmaster has moved your testing to 9 a.m. and will be attending personally. I believe the head of each department will also be there. Are you prepared?”

Wow, she really did have some pull in the school.

“Yes ma’am. I am going to use the illusion array to show off my fighting ability and spells.”

“Make sure to pick a terrain that demonstrates your abilities the best Mark.”

“Yes ma’am”

The rest of the day was spent arranging cleaners, repairmen and furniture for my new home. We had bought some earlier, but now that I owned a much larger building I would need some more. Evening rolled around soon enough and Miss Helen set me up in a suite at one of the local inns no charge as a favor from the proprietor to her. One day I am going to figure out just why everyone treats her with so much respect. Is she politically connected, rich, powerful, or what. The sheer number of people that know her and owe her a favor is amazing. I bid Miss Helen good night and thanked her once again. I had to promise to come by after the testing tomorrow and tell her all about it.

When morning came I cleaned up and headed towards Vulcan Academy. No need to teleport while in town. I enjoyed the morning stroll and picked up breakfast from a couple of different street side food vendors. When I reached the academy I pulled out the map that Miss Helen had given me just as she left. We had done so many other things that we had never actually taken a tour of the campus. Luckily she remembered that before she left and gave me a detailed map. I followed the map and ended up at what looked like a miniature coliseum.

Standing next to it were several middle aged gentleman and the headmaster.

“Greetings headmaster. I take it I have come to the right place for my testing.”

“Yes son this is the illusion fighting arena. I realize that you have never used it before so if you will tell me what you would like for your scenario I will program it in for you.”

“Thank you head master. I feel that I perform best in forests and jungle so if you could make that the terrain choice I would appreciate it. As for the opponents, all I know of monsters are the ones that I have killed. I think it would make for a better challenge if you and the others were to select my opponents. I would ask that you start them at level 50 so I can warm up though. If you would start with one opponent and then double them each time. After 16 opponents you can start over at one opponent but jump the level to 75. If I make it through to 16 opponents again then bump it up to level 100 and so on. I am curious as to how long I can hold out.”

I could hear some muttering amongst the others that were gathered. Many of them were stating things like I was overestimating my abilities. Rookies shouldn’t get cocky and other semi-derogatory things. I decided that instead of holding back a little I was going to go full out, just to shut them up.

“Very well Mark, please step into the illusion arena and when you are used to the terrain raise your right hand and I will start sending in your opponents.”

“Thank you, headmaster.”

I stood in the center of the arena for about 60 seconds and then noticed a tree to my left that had not been there a second ago. Soon the entire area was populated with trees, vines, and the background sounds of forests and jungle. I could no longer see the stands. If I had not known this was illusion, I would have believed it to be real. Time to test the illusion arena. I walked to the nearest tree and placed a leg on it and was relieved to note that it was solid. The arena must make use of magic to allow the illusion to have substance. I quickly raised my right hand. It was time to show these old people what I could do.

I scurried up the trunk of the tree as soon as I had raised my hand and spread out my awareness as much as I could. I want to show my ambushing abilities along with everything else. My first opponent, a level 50 goblin, soon came wandering through. It was off to my right hand side, and since this was a magic test and my warm-up I decided to just kill it with an improved elemental spike spell instead of ambushing it. I lined up a perfect shot and fired off an improved Earth Spike at the Goblins head. One shot one kill.

Hmm, I expected the opponents to be a little tougher. Had I improved that much or were they a little weaker due to just being illusionary? Oh well, it is only to my benefit. Soon enough, two goblins, four goblins, eight, goblins and finally sixteen goblins went down for the count. I did not even have to move from my spot. I just upped the number of spells and showed a good variety of my elements. Even the sixteen goblins only made it to the base of the tree I was perching in. I feel that these things are definitely weaker than real life version. They probably do give normal academy students some vital fighting experience before venturing out into the real world.

I hear the headmaster’s voice drift through the arena, “Now starting level 75 opponents.” All right, even if they are weaker, these should give me more of a run for my money.