Nononono this can’t be. Where has my goddess went to? She wasn’t accepted?!

“To all the 20 of you here. I present to you, your peers for the pioneer batch of Spellblades.” Professor Oak announced.

I glanced around and saw 19 other people sizing up one another, each one looking at each other like this was a gathering of 20 different nemesis. However, I really couldn’t bother about how competitive this environment is at this point in time. I still had to get over my disappointment of not seeing that beautiful young girl around.

“All of you are gathered here because your curriculum is slightly different from the rest of the school. In here, your timetable depends on your classes which is already divided into the different spines. However, because you are spellblades, you do not belong to just one spine but two. Both the East Spine for magicians and West Spine for warriors.”

Everyone looked extremely smug as they heard this, proud to have the privilege of gaining access to two different resources of the school.

“As such, I am releasing your timetable to you personally here. You will attend basic courses according to this timetable I am giving out and they will either be in the East Spine or West Spine. All of you are not guaranteed to be in the same class because there is simply no need to. Lastly, there are also spellblade specific courses which you have to attend on Saturdays. I know school is usually only from Monday to Friday, but in order to learn how to put both the warrior skills and mage skills you have learnt to good use, you have to take some time out from your Saturdays.” Professor Oak said as he passed slips of paper around.

A collective groan was heard. Everyone was excited to be Spellblades but no one wanted more school. I was still sulking over the pretty girl L

Professor Oak passed me my timetable and I looked at the neatly arranged time sheet.

‘Monday:

Morning – Magic Fundamentals

Lunch

Afternoon – Magic Theory

Evening – Spellsparring

Dinner

Tuesday:

Morning – Physical Fundamentals

Lunch

Afternoon – Weapon training

Evening – Gladiator’

The timetable was from Monday to Friday and Wednesday was a rest day for me. This meant that I had morning, afternoon and evening classes on Mon, Tue, Thurs, Fri and one course called Spellblade basics on Saturday mornings. Seemed like a pretty decent timetable.

“Alright guys now that you have received your timetables, please take note that I have packed it in such a way that you will only need to be in one spine per day so this will reduce unnecessary and inconvenient travelling time. (Lazy students cheered once more for Professor Oak) And my last advice to you is, do NOT feel privileged.” Professor Oak now changed his tone and spoke in a stern voice instead of his normal jovial one.

“Innovative classes are not something that has been never tried before. Kirin Academy had offered a few of other such classes before. Examples are the rogue class which was a mixture of assassin and archer. There was also a Berserker class for a period of time which concentrated solely on offensive warrior abilities. There is a reason why they are all discontinued now. Although in theory it is good on paper, results on the battlefield are what matters most. Other academies like Overlord Academy and Merlin Academy has tried several other classes before as well but there is a reason why they are not as famous as the legendary warriors, mages, assasins or archers. These 4 classes are the ones that stood through the trial and tribulations of time. The past 100 years, the most famous names you hear will only belong to these 4 classes. So do not take a title like ‘Spellblade’ like a privilege. Treat it like a boon. Treat it like a prophecy to fail. Overcome that prophecy. Become a class that can pull its own weight. I predict that when the first ever ranking tournament in the school starts, none of you will even be in the top 20% of the cohort but it is fine. Remember that the strength of a Spellblade is in versatility.” He announced in a sombre mood.

All the looks of confidence and smugness disappeared at once from every single students’ face. All of them who taught they were special now actually knew that this place was not a blessing but a curse. And only those who can survive from this curse can try to outshine and excel over their peers. I preferred this environment because I was not a particularly privileged child. I was lucky enough to have two nice parents with a decent roof over my house and all my basic necessities met but I have never once lived a life of luxury. A sense of entitlement was something I never wanted to have. I felt that this class suited me even more.

Professor Oak dismissed us and we went back to our rooms in preparation for our first day of classes which starts tomorrow. I managed to get over my disappointment in not being able to see the pretty girl but the last speech by Prof Oak really got me fired up. My morale and motivation was at an all time high to try to do the best I can, for the jack of all trades to finally be good at something in particular.

-The next day-

“ROARRRRR!” The Kirin alarm clock went off as I literally jumped out of my bed in shock.

JESUS CHRIST! I guess this was the alarm clock I always needed.

I got up and adorned the new uniform for the first time and looked into the mirror.

Kirin Academy’s uniform. The most prestigious Legionnaire school in Zeta and I was a student enrolled in it. I have proven my potent-

“CHILDREN OF THE LOKI DORM YOUR BREAKFAST IS RUNNING OUT! CAN YOU HURRY UP AND GRAB SOME BEFORE YOU HAVE NOTHING TO EAT!!!” A voice hollered from downstairs, interrupting my self-psyching speech I planned for myself the night before.

You don’t have to emphasize Loki…. Tsk…. Am I really at the bottom of this school?

I went down for breakfast in the shared lobby and realised more things about how the halls work. The hierarchy of halls were as follows: Odin, Freya, Magnus then Loki. This was the order of how breakfast, lunch, and dinner would be entitled to the students. Of course this order was not determined at random. Every year, the school would host an inter-hall competition between all 4 halls with a series of challenges and events. The halls will be ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th and the results would determine a number of things. Firstly, as mentioned, the order in which students get their meals. Secondly, the winning hall gets the privilege of having pantries and additional facilities like a pool in their hall. We could only use it if a resident of that particular hall brings us in. A student from Loki could not enter Odin’s premises without someone from Odin bringing him around. The Kirin collar badge also registers our halls. Thirdly and frankly I think most importantly, the winning hall gets to host a celebratory party which is sponsored entirely by the school as long as the cost of the party is below 10,000 gold.

In Xector, 100 bronze is equivalent to 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold, 100 gold = 1 platinum. Therefore, 10,000 gold is basically 100 platinums. The school would give 100 platinums to the winning hall to celebrate their victory. The parties and celebrations were usually the epitome of craziness and one year, when Odin hall won, they used a portion of the winnings to build a fountain of ale that they still use regularly in any parties they throw. It literally never runs out of ale and anyone can take a swig from it anytime they wanted as long as they were from Odin.

This obviously resulted in a lot of hall pride. Members of Odin would commonly be seen having a blue bandana draped around a certain part of their attire, be it their school bags, their wrists, wearing it on their heads, the blue bandana was synonymous to Odin. It was their identity. This was because in the 247 years that Kirin Academy has been founded, Odin won the inter-hall games 150 times, Freya won them 54 times, Magnus won them 42 times and Loki won once. Just once. I have to find out more about the one time we won but for now, Loki hall was the hall that everyone looked down on. And people in Loki didn’t really seem to care.

This was all I knew about the hall culture so far. As I went down to eat breakfast with Chippy, I saw that he already had a blue bandana attached to his bag.

“Wow that was fast.” I said, pointing to the blue bandana.

“Yeah it was in my room. There was a note saying ‘attach this on any part of your school uniform and feel the Odin pride.’ Pretty cliché but I think I better do it since it’s part of my hall culture.” He said.

I nodded and agreed because the last thing you would want to do in a school environment was to make enemies and appear to be someone who did not care much about the culture or people around you.

We finished up our breakfast and I headed for my class. I would never have the same class as Chippy because he studies in the North Spine while I needed to alternate between East and West. We said our goodbyes and I went to the East spine with a clear mind, motivated to try my best to realise my dreams. Being just some Legionnaire would be good but not good enough. I wanted to be SOME Legionnaire.

I reached the East Spine and found my classroom which was thankfully situated on the fifth floor. Imagine if it was on the fifteenth or sixteenth floor. Jesus. The classroom was decorated almost entirely with wooden interior designs and even the large jointed desks and chairs were made up of wood. The layout of the classroom was like that of a small auditorium. Four long rows of desks and chairs, with each row having a higher degree of elevation than the previous one, in order not to block the students sitting in front of the row you are sitting in. I was one of the first few students to reach so when I went in, there were still plenty of seats available for me to choose from.

I decided to pick a spot in the second row because I did not want to seem to be overeager and pick a spot directly in the front but I did not want to be at the back of the entire class as well. I went to the middle of the second row because the teacher would be standing in the centre in front of the class, I presumed from the location of the teacher’s table and whiteboard.

I put down my bag and waited for class to start. While waiting, I decided to read up more about the history of the school and what normally happens in each spine, each class and each hall as they were all included in the introductory book that the school put in every student’s room yesterday. As I was reading, someone sat down in the seat beside me and I decided that I should introduce myself. It was after all the first day of school so everyone would like to make new friends I presumed.

I looked up and saw the person seated next to me. And my jaw dropped so hard I swore that I heard a thud when it reached the floor.

IT’S HER!

Long red hair, pale face, brown eyes. I could recall everything from that day I accidentally met her and I was damn sure as hell that this was the exact same girl seated beside me.

“H-H-Hello.” I stammered.

STAMMERED?! FUCK YOU JINX

“Hello. Oh! It’s you isn’t it? The guy who banged into me on the day of the interviews.” She smiled at me.

Wow I don’t know if she remembering me is good or bad when the first thing that comes to mind is me banging her (No sexual innuendo intended. Just kidding)

“Yes! Wow we’re in the same class! Small world eh?” I asked.

“Yep. My name is Jenny by the way. What’s yours?”

“Jinx.”

“As in unlucky?”

“Yeah it’s my nickname since primary school and it stuck since then but don’t worry! I’m not unlucky its just a go to name my friends address me by so you can call me Jinx too.” I replied.

“Sure Jinx. Haha Jinx. That’s a pretty cool name. So are all your Spellblade friends in this class as well?”

“Nope. Professor Oak said all of us would be taking the same courses but not necessarily in the same class. So maybe there will be one or two more or even none in this exact class. I didn’t see you in the Spellblade briefing yesterday. Were you sick? Or are you a magician now and not a Spellblade? I hope this isn’t too sensitive!” I asked

“No worries. I am a magician now! Professor Oak said my scores were not bad but they were too heavily inclined towards the magician side and my physical abilities were significantly lower than my magic abilities so he did not recommend me to be a Spellblade.” Jenny explained.

“Ohh.. I think Professor Oak knows what he’s doing though so maybe a magician will be a better match for you! And magicians are super cool too.” I added.

“Thanks!” Jenny smiled.

That smile can melt mountains oh lord.

At that moment, the door opened and it was not a student that walked in. A woman clad in a red dress walked to the teacher’s table to put her items down and everyone knew this would be the teacher in charge of our class.

She was decked out in red lipstick, red dress, red heels, red accessories and her hair was also red.

“Good morning class. I am your teacher in charge of Magic Fundamentals, Magic Theory and Spell Sparring. My name is Athena. Yes Athena as in the goddess of war and obviously I love the colour red. My nickname is Scarlet Witch. I love that nickname. I am a fire magister. I have done 20 years of service on the battlefield and finally decided that I would want to pursue my second passion; Teaching and mentoring. I have also personally did a dungeon conquest with a party and cleared it successfully.” She announced in a powerful, confident voice.

Everyone stared at her in awe. Completing a dungeon was one of the highest achievements one could do as a Legionnaire because the degree of danger you face in a monsters’ personal lair is ten times more treacherous than normal monster hunting. Furthermore, a magister is the third highest rank of magicians.

In every Legionnaire class, there exists rankings. For warriors, the highest rank a warrior can achieve is the War God. For magicians, it is the Grand Magus. For assasins, it is the Dark Lord. For archers, it is the Chief Arcus. Below the Grand Magus is the Archmage and below an Archmage is a magister. The number of magisters in the entire city could be counted with your fingers. There is probably only one or two Archmages in Zeta despite it being one of the biggest cities in Xector already and for the Grand Magus, there were only 2 of them in the history of mankind.

“Alright enough about me for the self-introductions then. Personally, I have no interest in knowing all your personal lives so I will remember your names based on how well you perform in my class then. I am known to be quite radical in my teaching because I prefer you to learn from experience and trial and error. Not to spoonfeed you a step-by-step way to surely get an answer. So for this first class of mine, I will require all of you to cast your first ever spell already. Get your notes out.” She ordered.

All the students were immediately excited at the prospect of casting our first ever spell so we immediately took out our notebooks to write down how best to do it.

“From the magical entrance examination, all of you must have been able to feel your mana pool before you could give the orb colour. However, the orb you were touching was acting as a catalyst, a tool which helped you sense your mana pool easier because it has certain properties inside. A mage though would need to be able to draw mana from his or her mana pool without relying on such tools. Of course such tools can be incorporated into your magic weapons but frankly, it is not necessary and a waste of space. A magic weapon should be embedded with gems that help you to increase your quality or quantity of mana. Not some gem that helps you sense your freaking mana pool. Locating your mana pool is the most basic and simplest of steps so let’s start with that.” Scarlet Witch explained.

“Deep within your core, try to remember the feeling you had when you sensed your mana pool for the very first time. Once you can feel it, you will feel a type of surging power, like a torrent inside you waiting to gush out the water in any particular direction. When you are able to feel that torrent of power inside, that is your access to what we mages call mana. Mana can then be channelled through any part of your body to emerge from your skin and using that power, you can then elementally and spatially compress your mana to give it shape or certain elemental power. These are the basics of utilising mana. Let me teach you the most basic spell, Mana arrow.” She said.

“I will now draw out my mana towards my hand, and picture the mana seeping out of my hand to be in the form of an arrow. The incantation to cast this spell is ‘Mana come forth as my arrow!’” And in that moment, a clear arrow, about the length of 15cm appeared in her hands.

“You can of course spatially recompose your mana to make the arrow into different lengths, shapes or sizes. There is also chantless casting that requires no incantation to cast spells but it generally happens only after you become very familiar with the spell. However, all these are more advanced and of a higher difficulty. It is just for your additional knowledge. For today, I would like everyone to try making their own mana arrow.” She announced.

I immediately closed my eyes and pictured the scene of the magic examination. I tried to remember the feeling of the magical torrent within me and I visualised a space inside of me, beside my heart, filled with raging torrents of mana. It took me a few more seconds but I was able to sense where it was. I immediately tried to draw out some of its power and channelled it through my right arm. I tried to compress my mana into the shape of an arrow and chanted “Mana come forth as my arrow!” I opened my eyes.

Sure enough, there was an arrow that was about 10cm long, a pale blue colour because that is the original colour of mana.

I looked beside me. Jenny had already made an arrow as well but hers was twice as long as mine and bigger as well. I was impressed. I looked around the room and found out that many students were still trying to look for their mana pool. Less than 5 of us in this classroom of twenty have already done it. As a jack of all trades, one advantage that I had over others was that I pick up things extremely quickly, thus my ability to learn many things fast. Even though the amount of talent I have for that thing is never extremely high.

Suddenly deep down within me, I heard voices near where I was channeling my mana from.

My mana pool can talk??!

“Let me play, let me play!” A childish voice sounded out from my soul.

I tried to dwelve and sense deeper into my mana pool. I tried to locate the source of the voice that I heard and I finally found it. It was a pegasus which was seated within a very queer room beside my mana pool! This room of space situated within me actually had sofas, tables, chairs, beds, television, pool table, dining table, kitchen and everything!!! It had six other creatures. I curiously looked at all of them. There were 7 small figures which all looked cute cute. They were a red phoenix, a blue dragon, a black tortoise, a white tiger, a silver roc, a golden pegasus and a black devil. All of them were snoozing around sleeping and only the pegasus was talking to me now.

“Oh wow! You can hear me already! Let me play!!!!!” the pegasus started jumping up and down.

“How do I let you out to play?” I asked, wanting to grant this cute little pegasus her wish.

“Just picture sending me into your arrow as well! Don’t worry I won’t literally leave the room and go into the arrow. My powers will be able to be channelled through you and into the arrow so I can feel what it’s like in the outside world as well!!” The pegasus said with a voice so cute it could please any soul.

“I’ll try.” I said as I pictured sending the Pegasus from that room into the arrow as well.

My arrow suddenly changed. Previously, it was pale blue in colour which was the colour of mana. Now, it was pale blue with a layer of bright golden light around it. It didn’t take an observant person to notice it because the golden layer of light was shining quite brightly.

“STUDENT! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!” Scarlet Witch screamed at me immediately as the whole class looked at me.

Oh lord what did I do now why do teachers like to scream at me?????!