‘The fuck is this?’

‘Purple spaghetti?—no, it’s cold. Soba noodles?’

‘This sauce is thicker than glue, how am I supposed to—oh. Oh!? it’s not bad!’

Despite the thick consistency, the sauce was surprisingly not at all greasy and had a little sweet sourness to it. Because of the way the sauce flowed, it stuck equally onto every strand making it so that each bite wasn’t overwhelming. Any excess would fall off on its own when brought off the plate.

‘I can fuck with this.’

The aftertaste left me craving more.

I had brought three whole trays plated with food like the greedy bastard I was. They were all filled to the brim. Everyone else was a lot more conservative with a single dish.

I couldn’t give two shits about what everyone else was doing though, since this was all new cuisine for me. It was new territory begging to be discovered. It was disappointing that I wouldn’t be able to try everything in one go, but I’ll get to the other foods another day… Or at Dinner.

“Is this seat open?”

I gave a nod.

Come to think of it, the cafeteria was packed beside the table I was on. It must have been because I was hogging all the space with my trays of food so no one wanted to come. Being a slob had its own benefits I guess. I honestly don’t know how I managed to carry three trays with my two small arms.

“So how’s your day?”

I looked up at the speaker.

It was a girl, and anyone with half a brain could figure out which girl would approach me. As for why? No clue. I thought she would have done the opposite of confronting me.

Instead of speaking directly, I sent a glare that told her not to disturb my conquest.

All the food I ate the entire week consisted of steaks. It sounded luxurious—and it was—but anyone would get tired of eating the same damned slab of meat every day at every meal. Seriously though, who the hell served steak for breakfast? It was a good protein source of course, but it wasn’t fun to eat. There was also the same side of vegetables and some grainy imitation of rice with a texture too pronounced to enjoy.

“I heard you were going to be on the team too, so allow me to introduce myself formally…”

Let’s see, so this deconstructed sausage dish is next. The meat was grounded into small pellets with blue and orange pearls of a similar size. There were also crumbs of bread scattered in the pile. They were much larger than the pearl pellets, about the size of croutons. So… About half the length of my middle finger.

“...blah blah blah blah blah…”

I pushed the back of the spoon against it, and instead of resisting with a crunch, the bread sank like a pillow.

I scooped it up, making sure to get a bit of everything: meat, pearls, and bread.

‘Mmm.’

I didn’t know how a Michelin experience was, but this would probably be how it tasted. The pearls exploded in my mouth to form a mixture that I assumed was a sauce. While the bread was soft like a good German pretzel. The slight bit of crust left on the side added an extra hint of complexity. It complemented well with the meat and pearls as the bread sucked up the savory juices released by the pearls, further elevating the experience.

“Blah blah…”

‘Oh shit, she was talking to me?’

I turned my ears back on; and with the break in immersion, the chattering from every other table rushed at me.

“... Let’s get along from now on,” she said.

“Mhm, let’s get along.” I bobbed my head, pretending I was following the conversation that somehow started without my knowledge. I guessed I kind of asked for it when I let her sit here.

“Melissa, right?” I asked not to make sure, but to layer on the pretense.

“Mhm—ah, I’ve got to head to class now. See you.”

She left like that. Only now that I looked at it, she didn’t even bring a plate of food. Did she really just come up to me to spout bullshit pleasantries?

I took a glance at my watch and figured I would be able to finish the food in time if I went beast mode. The toilet wasn’t going to like it, and neither did I. But as any classic cartoon villain would say, “I had to do what I had to do...”

My asshole was going to kill me after this.

‘Sorry sir toilet.’

As I gulped down the food without chewing, I couldn’t help but regret not tasting every dish on its own for the best experience. It was still good, but the conflicting flavors made it hard to enjoy when the textures kept morphing.

With that over with, I stacked the plates and trays and dropped them off before getting a good stretch in and making a break for it.

Every step I took made me more and more aware of the food churning in my stomach. If it was about my gag reflex, I was confident that I could hold the vomit in.

After dashing up the emptied stairway, I entered the room of my next class, Elementary Magic.

Much like College, there was a podium against a blackboard. And with every class, the lecture hall had seats aligned in rows with only two walkways. There were two seats on the side columns and however many more in the middle columns. I didn’t bother to count; either way, I went all the way up to the window-side seat nestled in the far corner.

“Alright, get in your seats everyone.”

It looks like I arrived just in time.

The professor looked around the room, seemingly eyeing the unfilled seats.

“It looks like we have some stragglers, anyway, you should all know me from this morning’s introduction so let’s start immediately.” She grabbed a pair of glasses on her podium and put them on.

“You are all aware of how to interact with mana, correct?”

“Hmm, very well, I’ll do a quick run-through of how it works so everyone is on the same page here.”

She tapped the blackboard with a finger and a sketch of a human body manifested itself. It was drawn in a white chalky substance.

“So we have mana particles here.” She tapped the board again, and white specks appeared, surrounding the sketched person.

“Now when the mana particles enter the body, if the person’s will is strong enough, they will be able to absorb the particles and turn them into mana. Does anyone know the difference between mana and mana particles?”

“Your name and answer.” She pointed.

“Melissa Eisenhower. While they are both similar, mana particles are a raw form of mana which means it is smaller and harder to control. Mana particles occur naturally, but mana can only be formed with a manipulator. Because of that, mana tends to break back down into mana particles over time.”

She bowed before taking a seat.

“That isn’t necessarily correct and isn’t necessarily wrong. While it is true that mana does revert back into mana particles, the reason is usually because of a magicians’ ineptitude, not because of natural phenomena. A general definition of mana is compacted mana particles.”

She tapped the board again creating another change. This time, there were multiple dots congregated at the center of the body. It was right next to or maybe even overlapping the heart.

“Now with this mana, the number of things we can do with it are infinite. But a majority of magicians never become wizards so their abilities are limited.”

She tapped the board twice, once to remove all the white marks, and twice to create a whole list of notes. I couldn’t read it, of course.

“So here is the path it takes to become a full-fledged wizard. First, we have the Apprentice Mage…”

‘What kind of mumble jumble is this?’

All I understood was that there was a lot of jargon I didn’t understand. I’ve heard of some of the terms in fantasy books before, but other than that, nothing came to mind.

“After that is becoming a full-fledged Mage. Then there’s the realm of Arch-mage, Sorcerer, Sage, and finally Wizard. Most people who graduate from here end up becoming Sorcerers and Sages. But above all, there is the blanket term, Magician, which refers to anyone who practices magic. There’s another term that used to be used in ancient days, but hardly anyone says it anymore.”

‘I don’t understand.’

[Running keywords…]

‘What?’

It’s been a long time since the system came around for a chat. I almost forgot it existed.

[Five matching words. Is the Host interested in the names for every level increment?]

‘What do you mean by level increment?’

[Levels is the way the System quantifies the Hosts abilities. There are names for the Host’s Physique and Magic levels.]

‘I see… Can you translate what’s written on the board?’

[The Host needs to learn the language on his own.]

What a useless parasite.

[Does the Host want to see the names of each Magic level?]

‘Nah, just give me a brief explanation.’

[There are Five key realms in magic. The first being the realm of Apprentice Mage. The Host has yet to reach this realm. The second realm is a Mage.]

‘I know that already, tell me what this realm means.’

[A realm is a ranking for the general scope of power a person can wield. Someone who can cast weak first circle magic can be considered in the realm of an Apprentice Mage. Each realm is separated by large leaps in power. The same concept of realms also applies to Physique.]

‘If there are realms, then what are the levels on my status about?’

[The levels are a more accurate system of measurement than realms because levels account for minor increases in the Host’s strength and ability. Outside of the System, most people use realms because that is the most accurate system of measurement they have.]

‘I see…’

It was flaunting the fact that it was superior to this imaginary construct.

In essence, it could be thought of as a ruler. Were centimeters more accurate than inches?—the dreaded American metric system versus the rest of the world? If you approximated to an inch, it wouldn’t be as accurate as using centimetres or measures smaller like millimetres and micrometres. Eventually, you get small enough to the point where every individual atom is accounted for in a measurement.

In this analogy, the levels recorded in my status were more accurate than these “realms.” It was like saying there were 1 million moles of water compared to about 1 litre of water or saying 100,000 centimetres instead of 1 kilometre.

Realms were in a sense measured like kilometres while these levels that the system used were centimetres. It was smaller and more accurate—at least that’s what I understood.

‘Status.’

~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Daniel

Race: Human

Title: Masochist

System: Crouching Dragon System (Mythical)

Merit Points: 2,400

Life Force: 80/80 (8 years)

Strength: 8

Physique: Conditioned Physique - Lvl.1

Magic: Mana Sense - Lvl.1

Techniques: Mana Channeling (Common - Lvl.2), Draconic Swordsmanship (Rare - Lvl.2), Draconic Thrust (Rare - Lvl.0), Draconic Sense (Epic - Lvl.0), Sweeping (Transcendent - Lvl.1)

Active Skills: Blurred Eyes (Epic)

Passive Skills: Dragon Hearted (Epic)

Curse: Unnoticed Potential (Legendary)

~~~~~~~~~~

So the levels and realms were concerning the “Physique,” and “Magic.” If that was the case, then what about the levels of the Techniques?

‘What about Technique levels?’

[Techniques level up depending on the Host’s ability or experiences.]

I looked over my status again and noticed a slight change.

‘When did Sweeping level up?’

It didn’t answer.

‘Strange.’

I tried going through my memories of the past few hours until I narrowed it down to that sparring demonstration I had in the morning.

‘I’ll have to figure out what this Sweeping is about.’

I had a feeling it had something to do with that stick.