Chris was sitting in a waiting room after having a short discussion with his examiner, they had not exchanged information in the end but the professor had seemed genuinely interested in the magic he had created and said he would exchange it for a suitably unique spell and it could be sold to the academy’s library for access to the restricted section. One had to prove their academic worth to be allowed access to the truly powerful information. He was intrigued to see what the instructor would bring him but was patent enough to allow the man a few weeks without pestering him, good things came to those who waited. Just as Chris’s mind turned to how long he had been waiting alone in the sparsely decorated white-walled waiting room the white door opened with not a creek to hear. At least it was a clean and well-maintained room.

“Hello Christopher, I’m the student course advisor and I’m here to help you select what courses of magic you will be taking at the academy. Despite your age have it under good advisement that you are advanced in elemental magic.” The woman who had entered so briskly was wearing a tight-fitting black suit and looked a lot like a banker, well endowed but slightly haughty, not in a rude way but she was very clearly here for business and she showed that by bombarding him with information upon her entrance.

With barely a pause for breath and not allowing Chris to speak she continued “I also heard that while having a private discussion with you examiner” she paused to wiggle her eyebrows “That you are less than proficient at meta magic and just about anything non-elemental.”

Chris winced at this, because yes. He had tried to rip that embarrassment out of his mind, but during his chat with the examiner, he had been asked to perform some simple utility magic. Usually simple for most mages he had been incapable of getting any of it to work. For example, in his attempts to use the cleaning spell, it removed and cleaned items. He could not wrap his mind around how it would work, it had been demonstrated to him and the dust and stans had simply vanished. He had to repeat the chant and the dust had simple swirled around making him cough. He had also been tested on his mental magics, trying to influence a small insect to move around the table. His examiner had had it dancing around spelling out letters while he had simple ambled about, the biggest reaction he had from the insect was when he pushed harder and scared it.

These failures at simple magic had dampened the examiner's mood and put Chris to thinking. He had a theory as to why these spells were not working, the examiner had said his affinity for them was weak, the gods having exchanged it for his high affinity in elemental magic. But Chris saw this as unlikely. The gods may be real in this world his inability was most likely his own fault. His logical mind told him that matter could neither be created nor destroyed, therefore the dust spell moved it instead. He thought of the complexity of an organic brain and how intimate knowledge was required to identify specific parts let alone control it. This was why he had mailed at mind magic. This was also the reason his elemental magic was so strong, he intimately understood and reasoned why it would work and how to make it the most efficient. He would have to find some way to learn and use more esoteric magics.

….”Mr Christopher, hello…. Can you hear me…” Oh crap. Chris was dragged out of his thought and remembered that he was about to talk to a placement adviser. From the tone of her voice she was only mildly annoyed, he couldn’t have been out for longer than a couple of seconds but must have had a vacant look in his eyes.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry miss…” He paused “Just call be Sandra, I’ve never been into all the title calling nonsense” She replied, losing some of the edge to her insistent voice.

“I’m sorry Sandra I spaced out for second thinking about my examination, the disappointment for my lack of affinity for some of the more useful magics is… disappointing” he smiled ryley as his use of the word disappointment so many times.

“That’s alright dear, not everyone had such a strong affinity as you, and what you lack in the versatility you will make up for with raw power. Not very elegant perhaps but true enough.” She smiled at him in a reassuring manner. “I’m sure if you take some classes in your weaker subject you can overcome it. I would recommend classes in enchanting, mind magic, or utility magic. This is, of course, assuming you would be taking advanced Elementalist classes. You could then choose another class to fill available slots, the elemental class takes up four periods to focus on developing different aspects and the others are viewed as supplementary.”

Chris thought about it, he was definitely going to attend all of the advanced elemental classed, his magic was powerful but the instructor showed that there was more to it than he realized, plus, he had to pass the course somehow. And he had feeling it wasn’t going to pass with flying colors in other subjects. His current mana regeneration was absolute zero, an unfortunate side effect from him basically dying. If he took enchanting he might be able to figure out how he changed his body and reverse it, or at least make some high-quality items to compensate for his new weaknesses. Already from the battles and other magical tests he was well below half capacity, not low enough to start feeling groggy, but he felt uncomfortable with such a small amount of power available to him.

“I will take all of the elemental classes as well as enchanting please, you said that would fill all five periods in the day?” He asked Sandra.

“Yes, that is the maximum allowed period hour you can take but many students decide to only take one or two classes and use the rest of the time for study, but the student that truly excel usually choose to do more classes. You have the talent to do well in elemental and if you have a passion for magic then enchantment is right up until you alley. I'll put you down for those classes “ She made a not on a clipboard that appeared out of nowhere“ and I’ll send you your schedule when it had been prepared. You can join classes immediately, your schedule will be filled out by tonight and you can join the first class tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you Sandra,” He said with a small incline to his head. “ No problem, come find me in the advisor's office if you want to change around your classes, have a good day” Just as abruptly as she had entered she left, leaving no traces of her presence. It had been a while since Chris had had such a friendly conversation, even the examiner had been more formal and mostly interested in his potential. Sur this had been about the academy but the informality had been.. refreshing.

He was not shown out of the room, but after five minutes of waiting he decided to leave anyway, the administration was perhaps a bit too informal. He felt like some last-minute applicant and not some formal student at the academy, bloody academic probably only cared about books… ha. He was only slightly irritated about being left is the boring whitewashed room.

He spoke to the clerk at the reception about delivering the timetable to his room in the city but was then told that accommodation was in the academy for student and staff, he was initially disappointed that he would have to give up his luxurious room in the city, but soon learned that they had room for rent that were equally lush. With enchantments the academy seemed to go on forever in its magnificent walls, and as huge as it was on the outside. He seemed to be waling far more than its plot of land would be able to fit. Strange, space magic? How the hell would that work?

He drew his mind back to the piece of paper lying in the mailbox outside his room, yes his room had a mailbox. This inside was more like a house than a room, a private kitchen bathroom sauna and king size bed were all present with an office and living room to receive guests. It had come at an exorbitant price, the course fee had been 20 gold. An already hefty sum to pay for facilities and staff. The room was a hefty 7 gold a month. Renting was always a money sink, but Chris was rich, very rich. He could afford to stay here for the duration of the course. He lay down on his bead, for now, he would be alone, having told Velona and his other new attendants to wait at the inn he had rented in the city. Some private time was needed one in a while.

He picked up the timetable letter and opened it, he groaned. Fire elemental class at 9:00 AM really. Each class was two houses long and gave a half-hour break to get to the next class. Meaning that his classes would finish at half nine in the evening. He could understand why people only took a couple of classes. That was going to be a long day.