“There there, lad.” Geistig patted my back. “Maybe the afterparties won’t be as fun, but there’s nothing stopping you from going on the actual adventures.”

“You’re not wrong, but every story my father told me about being an adventurer involved getting drunk afterwards. I’m just a bit disappointed that I’ll never be able to experience that part of adventuring.”

Geistig stroked his chin. “Perhaps, perhaps not. I know an alcohol detoxification spell, so it stands to reason that it should be possible to produce a spell with the opposite effect.”

I stared at him in awe. “You can do that?”

“I’m not sure. But if it’s that important to you, I’ll do some research and let you know what I find.”

I wrapped my arms around Geistig. “Thank you, sir.”

“Geistig, lad. Call me Geistig.” He rolled his eyes and pushed me off of him. “I’ll let you see what I find when I see you in a week.”

“A week? Why aren’t we training or going on another quest tomorrow?”

Geistig raised an eyebrow “Why would we do that? You were right in saying the pay for our mission was good, but I was also right in saying that it was dangerous. Neither me, nor most adventurers you’ll ever meet, go on quests every day. A few quests a month, or one and a side-gig is usually more than enough to get by.”

“But what about training? Getting stronger and ranking up?”

“Sure, quests and killing monsters is the fastest way of ranking up and getting combat experience I know of, but there are very good ways to do both without risking your life. I’ve taught you some of the basics, like mana detection, mana crystalization, body enhancement, and some basic spells, but there’s so many more things you can gain and learn elsewhere. I don’t need to be the one to teach you. Why don’t you find a class you want to take at Aurelia’s academy? You’ve completed your mandatory monthly quest, and another quest on top of that, so you should be eligible for two classes next month. More if you pay.”

Right. I’d forgotten all about taking classes since Geistig was doing so much to teach me. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll check it out tomorrow morning.”

After spending two mana crystals on my monster’s daily expenses, and going into my subspace to gather another 6 mana crystals,I went to sleep. After waking up, I headed for Aurelia’s academy, stopping by the library on the way to do some quick research.

I Still need to research artificial powers and figure out if there’s a way to track down whoever gave them to me, but that's going to be a very long project. It would be better to build up enough funds to ask IKE about that. Updating my encyclopedia, on the other hand, is a simple task.

‘

Caprae Nimbos:

Nickname: Cloud Goat

Size: 5 feet long, cloud size based on rank

Alignment: Stormcloud

Rank: E-C

Description:

The Caprae Nimbos is known for its blue horns and fluffy white cloud coat that grows gray as it becomes more electrically charged.

Although the Caprae Nimbos appears at a glance to be a sheep, its species traces its origins back to Husaramian goats.

Personality:

The Caprae Nimbos are cowardly by nature, only stopping to fight when cornered or when its herd is in danger.

Mountains are their preferred climate, though when they encounter a predator in their territory, or food grows scarce, they will descend their mountain for weeks or months at a time.

Diet:

Caprae Nimbos are true herbivores. They eat neither meat, nor plant-based monsters.

Combat:

Although Caprae Nimbos use electricity as their primary offence, they can’t directly use their mana to generate it. Instead, they use their mana to create and move their cloud-coats, which build up a static charge over time, and discharge it all at once. Due to this, they tend to be vulnerable to enemy attacks for a short period after discharging.

Origin:

The Caprae Nimbos trace their origin back to the Husaramian Goats which were brought over through gates. Interestingly, most natural born goats on Husaram metamorphosed into Gravitas Caprae, a gravity aligned monster. It was only after being imported to Elos that the Caprae nimbos became a species.

‘

Finishing the passage, I descended the gate/stairwell to Aurelia’s academy. Thankfully, this stairwell’s design was a lot more tasteful than the one going towards the ranch. It was made entirely of stone, with a handrail on either side, surrounded by a stone hallway that opened up into a mountain view a hundred steps down.

Though Aurelia’s academy is designated as Elosian territory, it is actually built on Husaram, in the country of Haven, towards the base of mount Alexandria. Most Interplanetary Government-run schools are located around this mountain, partially as tradition, partially for ease of sharing resources, and partially so that Alexandra, who resides at the top of the sky-piercing mountain, can watch over them.

The school grounds for Aurelia’s academy were about a mile in diameter, with roughly one hundred thousand students at any given time. Though the buildings and surroundings were grand, there were no statues in Aurelia’s academy grounds. There was no need for statues when anyone could simply look up to find the abode of Alexandra: the first S rank powered, the slayer of monsters, mover of mountains, builder of cities, and savior of humanity.

Finally reaching solid ground, I shuffled past the crowds towards the admissions building. I won’t be able to join any classes today, but I should at least come up with a plan for what I can take. The admissions worker, a human with what could quite possibly be the blandest face I’d ever seen, handed me a pamphlet listing all the classes available.

First on the list were general courses. Your normal, non-powered, non-specialized courses such as history, architecture, math, monster identification, and whatnot. I’d gone to a powerless school for most of my life, so these weren’t necessary for me anymore, for the most part.

Next was the alignment courses, divided into subsections for each month of class. Most of the early classes, like space 2 through 5 only had prerequisites of the space class directly preceding it. But some of the later classes had more complicated requirements. Space 6 required algebra, space 12 required calculus, and space 18 required government clearance to take. Later fire classes required thermodynamics, earth classes required structural engineering, nature classes required herbology or spirit classes, etc.

Then were the class courses. The Druid course was straightforward, with a single progression from 1 to 12. The warrior course had prerequisites later on for internal mana pathways and indirect mana manipulation. The mage course required alignment combination courses past a certain point, as well as one class of every alignment.

The blue mage course was rather interesting, as it had several branching paths, based on what kind of blue mage one was. Summoners had to take monster taming. Shifters like me and Kaz would take alignment combination, though not every shifter was capable of using multiple monsters or alignments. I’m able to use multiple alignments, but the jury is still out on whether I’ll be able to partially shift at a higher rank.

Last were the specialized courses. Things that one had to be a powered to take, but not necessarily of a certain alignment or class. Enchanting was listed here, though it did require at least -2 and -1 to take even the first class of. Magical Engineering and Monster Engineering branched off of it, along with a dozen other classes. Monster taming was also here, as a prerequisite for monster engineering. Alignment combination was here as well, though it did require either mage or blue mage classes. Over a dozen different fighting classes were also offered here: dueling, team tactics, monster hunting, etc. There were also classes like architecture, farming, and whatnot that aren’t necessarily power related, but were too specialized to be put in the general courses.

Quite a few of these courses are interesting to me. Space and Blue Mage are a must for obvious reasons. I’d like to take enchanting, and especially monster engineering later on, but they have prerequisites that I don’t yet meet. I’m set on herbology from working on my mother’s farm, but monster taming could be useful for establishing better, more sustainable ecosystems. In addition, now that I know the Caprae Nimbos’s cloud-fur sells for a mana crystal each, learning to handle them could give me a viable option for money making. I really need combat practice as well, especially that monster hunting class.

Since I’d only done two quests this month for IGAG, I can only take up to two courses next month, unless I pay a fee. I’d like to take more, but I can’t afford to at the moment. I’ll take the blue mage and space courses now, and save the others for a later date.