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~ Artemis University, The Art of Magic Enchantments Classroom

Halt. Stop. How I wish I could reverse time now.

“Eh? Who is this peasant? I’ve never seen your face before.” A long purple-haired female student with a rather aggressive attitude called out to me.

“Yeah, what a low order, even peasants are more powerful than you!” Another one from Fenjel’s female-only entourage spewed out baseless slanders, followed by mindless laughter from the rest.

It’s rude to not return someone’s greetings, mother once said, so I gave a smile before replying, “Nice to meet you again too, Fenjel.”

Silence.

Everyone just looked at me like I just declared that I am a genderless homosexual.

I simply walked over to an empty seat, put down my things, pulled out the chair, and sat down. I left all the panic to background processing, in its very own, separate space. This body is apparently not very good when dealing with attention.

*Clap clap*

“Good afternoon my dear students, shall we start our lesson?” A teacher with a classy moustache came in, breaking the creepy silence and lightening the psychological pressure.

“Ah, a new student~ you’re Earth aren’t you? Do you want to give an introduction to the class? I’m sure they are dying to know you!”

“Oh, it’s fine. Looks like all of them know me well enough to want me dead instead.”

“Hahahahaha! That was a nice one. Well then, let’s start the class.” He just laughed off all the tension like it was nothing. Well, most of them. At least now I know what having ten armed nuclear missiles being pointed right at my soul feels like.

The lesson went on, while many times I had to adjust to his rather weird and eccentric style of teaching, I quickly caught onto the train as he recapped the past lessons just for me. I parsed his information through a decoder then wrote it down into my notebook to fully commit it to memory.

Basically, enchantment works like this:

Enchantments works through magical circuits made of a special mana-conducting material called bluestone.

The circuit is usually embedded throughout the weapon itself, and it delivers magic from a source, usually a mana-crystal which is basically a battery, and it applies the magic through the circuit.

There are many designs for such circuits, some allow for increased damage on the edges by running the circuit near the edges of the weapon. Some focuses on the tip of the weapon, others can be evenly spread throughout the weapon.

More mana-crystals can be used to store more magic (different from mana as mana is the most basic form; raw mana → different types of magic), or different types of magic, where the latter would make the circuit more complicated with every addition of a different type.

Well, that’s the basics. It’s really cool as far as I can see. Maybe one day I will get to make my own enchanted item? As I thought about that, my mind has already formulated multiple different designs for different types of weapons, but the lesson is still going on, so I had to focus on that instead.

“Remember when I said that multiple types of magic make a circuit more complex? Actually, that isn’t the hardest part. You little damsels are going to have some trouble with this one, it’s rather nasty. That is, magical runes. These things are the core of the art of enchantment. We can use these magical runes to use and cast any magic techniques, well, only if you know how to design and implement it of course.”

Mmm. Magical runes. That makes everything even more interesting. I wonder how they work!

“These runes use different patterns to apply different magical attributes when cast. You combine these different patterns……”

…

Whew! What a refreshing class. That was the most fun I’ve had in a while, and we even had a try at designing our very own circuits for a simple iron sword, where I tried to create a circuit that features a simple miniature neural network and multiple sensors, that can store four different types of magic, and is able to analyze them and switch its type and change its focus to suit the situation.

In theory, you can inject four different types of magic into the sword, and it would be able to effectively change the sword enchantment and where the magic is focused in to suit the situation. For example, when fighting a dark-type enemy, the sword will change its enchantment to light magic if possible, else it will use the next most effective type of magic that is stored. And if the sword is swung sideways at an enemy, it’ll focus the magic on the edges, and if it is a stab, the focus would be on the tip of the weapon.

However, that is but a theory. It may or may not work in reality, but it was just a fun thought. The neural network may just be seen as a meticulous scribble to anyone else, but if you look closely and think hard enough, everything would make sense. The research on magic circuits in this world is quite extensive as it is very important and useful, but not extensive enough to be able to create artificial intelligences. Not yet, anyway.

Actually, I did figure out how to create logic gates before the teacher mentioned them, but at least I don’t need to go through the trouble of testing my own ideas.

The rest of the class were busily discussing in their own groups or thinking hard by themselves, trying to design the circuit they had in mind. I look at my work and try to spot any errors, if there’s one in the first place. I thought I should write a simple description on how it works, but there are still many words that I don’t know how to write in their language, so I drew the sword in different scenarios as the description instead.

I was drawing one of the scenarios halfway when I realized the weird teacher was looking at my work intensely, as if trying to scrutinize every detail into his brain.

“Oh, oh, I’m sorry if I had disturbed you, but that design… it is beyond amazing. Is that a magical rune in the middle? It looks so complicated… wait, it’s something else. Please, when you are done, allow me to view it at my own pace.”

Hoho, this weird teacher is indeed something to be able to see through all these seemingly random scribblings of mine, and actually start to understand how the simple neural processing unit works. That is impressive in itself.

“Sure, of course. To have such a great professor such as yourself examining my minor work is already a great honour for me.”

‘No, you have the potential to become something much more than me… I know it. Ah- time’s up. Class, stop writing and hand in all your work to me. Don’t forget to write your names on your work, this will all be judged and marked.”

Silence again.

As if all their minds were connected, the class said in sync, “Huh?”

“Oh? Didn’t I mention that? Anyway, why would it matter if you have put in all your effort and listened to the class, right? Now, put down your pens and hand them in.”

For a moment I thought I saw an evil grin coming below the classy moustache. As I looked around the class, I could see the victims of this plot, those that are biting their lips and scribbling on their paper as if the world is ending today, trying to fill something reasonable their empty papers.

The weird teacher, clearly not taking this lightly, took out a pen from one of his pocket, and as he pointed at the victims one by one, their pens just got ‘stuck’ and it wouldn’t even budge a millimetre. Some laughed at the poor victims, where some just couldn’t give up and were trying to pull at their pens as hard as they could in an attempt to free them, but the rest already knew that it was futile and just handed in their incomplete work. Ah- that one still trying to pull the pen was that female student who was angry at me previously. Serves her right.

“Ooh, impressive circuit, young lady.” The teacher said as he collected Fenjel’s work.

“Oh no, please. I have still much to improve in to reach his level.” As she said that, the entourage glared daggers at me again, and the killing intent increased even more than before.

“Hahah, if you do say so.” The teacher moved on as he continued to collect other classmates’ work.

*Ding dong*

The bell rang, and since I have no more lessons afterwards, it would be time for me to clean up the city, starting from the south-east area of the city, then moving clockwise around the city.

Of course, it would be great if I am able to get to the task immediately, but seems like that wouldn’t be very possible with the calculated probability of the entourage trying to stop and kill me being 99.99%.

As I was trying to step out of the classroom and to the outside world, a few of the girls from the entourage stood outside the door, clearly blocking my way. This looks like one of those typical bullying scene. And of course, they would also use their numbers to their advantage and block the other way out, effectively trapping me. Well, I could easily break out of this situation with a little magic, but that would cause a lot of destruction and possibly casualties, so I would rather choose the peaceful way.

I turned around and pointed at the aggressive girl, who I assume to be the leader of the entourage. “Say, little girl, why don’t we have a duel? If you win, I will submit to you and Fenjel for the rest of my life. However, if you lose, then you and your friends will have to, well, submit to me as well.”

“WHAT?! How dare you call our lady by her name, and why would I need a duel? And I’m NOT a little girl! My name is Lily Halfengard, YOU BETTER REMEMBER IT!”

Woah... chill there girl, but hey, this helps anyway. While keeping myself cool and composed, I taunted her. “I’m sorry, Lily. I was sure that your were confident in your strength. I thought I was weaker than a peasant. Surely you can beat a peasant right? Or are you saying that you are weaker than a peasant? How could somebody so weak be following Miss Fenjel, right?”

Fenjel just watched on without saying anything, clearly amused by this situation. I guess I shall entertain her for now, she’s an important player in my plan.

“Of course I am more powerful than you, more than you can ever imagine to be. I thought I was sparing you by declining the duel, but now I’ll make you regret ever making that statement. I’ll show you just how big our gap is, and how weak you are. Peasant. Meet me in one hour at the stadium. If you’re late, then you will lose by default. Hmpf!”

“Why wait for so long? We’ll meet there in ten minutes.”

“Fine, I wanted to give a chance to write your own will, but seems like you just want to hasten your death.”

At this moment, Salty telepathed to me, “Are you sure? Despite how she she looks and behaves, she is really powerful, at least a few times more than you, and she probably has much more experience at fighting with magic than you…”

“Oh, don’t worry Salty. Today isn’t the day I die, and definitely isn’t the day I lose.”, I replied to her in my mind.

“Hmpf…”

I flipped my lab coat as I walked past the blockade, and went around the corner to somewhere I can’t be seen, then quietly flew my way through the campus at a low altitude back to the dormitory. I quickly put down my bag, cleaned the leftover teacups from before, and while I was heading to the stadium, I asked Salty to use long-range telepathy to ask Ed, Hylia, Pion, and Lloyd to witness the battle if they are free.

I reached the stadium with 3 minutes to spare, so I booked the stadium in Lily’s name, so that all the fees go to her. Ed and Hylia quickly arrived after me, both worried and asking what in the world I am doing.

Well, to that, I just said,

“Cleaning up weeds that have grown too long.”

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