“Welcome, aspirants. Today, all of you present in this classroom shall take an evaluation test to see how much do you understand about magic. Remember, this is an assessment of your knowledge, not a competition. Cheating will not help you in any way, so please keep in mind that you have to answer truthfully. Your results will not be used to judge you, rather it will assist the Academy to understand how to maximise your ability to learn. You may begin by pressing ‘Start’ on your desk.” The voice vanished and the classroom went back to silence. Rey touched ‘Start’ once his desk has analysed his Circulum, confirming his identity, on his finger lying down on the surface.

“#Q1 What is magic?” The text appeared on the screen above the desk and in front him. Rey swiftly typed out his shortest definition for the word.

“Magic is the study of the utility of Source (on in this context, Mana), predominantly in the form of spells.” He hit enter and the second question rolls in.

“#Q2 What is Source? What is the difference between Mana and Source?”

“Source is the ‘energy’ which flows through everything on this planet, but some say it’s a gift bestowed by Aether, Gaia, and Pontus. The difference of Mana and Source is simply a matter of context. The word ‘Source’ was coined during the dawn of The Great Age of Technology when scientists saw the potential of Mana, the original term for the ‘energy’, can be used not only in magic, but as another ‘source’ of energy to power their newly invented devices.

Source is used when we are referring it as a type of energy and Mana as the ‘energy’ stored within our body to be utilized by magic.”

“#Q3 Please write a short summary to explain what is Mana density and how it affects a mage’s spell.”

“Mana density is a measurement of the intensity of Mana resides within a person, an object or an area. The higher the Mana density, the more powerful a spell will become.”

“#Q4 What are spells? What is the difference between traditional spells and modern spells? Please give a short summary of both types of spells.”

“Due to the nature of Source, or Mana, that has the capability to alter the fabric of reality, spells were created as a mean to manipulate this power. Despite the differences between traditional spells and modern spells, both of it have the same origin.

Traditional spells are the languages of Deities, spiritual beings worshipped by people who believe it controls or exerts force over some aspect of the world. Some of those Deities, after being worshipped thousands of years and have amassed incredible amounts of believers, would descend into the material world and teach the worshippers their language. However, there were significant limitations. The time to learn the languages of every single Deities who were willing to share their knowledge is simply too long and each Deity only has a single particular ability. Thus, modern spells were born.

Modern spells came into existence when a group of scholars gathered all the spells they could find and breaks it down to their constituents. Then, they invented ‘spell programming’ by combining those broken down parts and string them together into codes before translating it to their own language. This way, they don’t need to spend most of their lives learning the languages of different deities and worshipping them with their heart and soul.”

“#Q5 Please list out all known traditional spells.” Rey typed it all out in an incredible speed while ensuring the students beside him won’t be able to have a look at it. “#Q6 Please list out all known modern spells.” He pressed skip.

“#Q7 What is a grimoire?”

“It is a tome which contains all the spells learned by a mage. With a grimoire (in the context of traditional spells), mages can easily invoke their spells by chanting a part of it through verbal means or recite it inside their mind, that is, if one has complete mastery over the spell. When it comes to modern spells, grimoire act as a computer to perform spell programming, but still retain the traditional usage.”

“#Q8 What is the function of a staff and a magiculum?”

“A staff have two major functions. It can widen a spell’s range significantly without the need for additional Mana. The other function is to lessen the burden of a mage when using a powerful spell or cancel its side effects by acting as a substitute.

A magiculum exists to replace the usage of a magic wand. It has the same properties and utility of a wand, to enable a magic amateur to temporary enlarge their Mana veins so that they could learn using spells. As wands are incredibly inconvenient, magiculum, a ring made from the same material as a wand, provides a safer and faster alternative to cast spells.”

“#Q9 What is a Mana vein?”

“A Mana vein is an intangible vein within every living being to transfer Mana throughout the entire body.”

“#Q10 What is the correlation between a humanoid’s stamina and Mana volume? Please list out two ways to expand a humanoid’s Mana volume.”

“A humanoid’s stamina and Mana volume can be influenced by each other. When a humanoid’s stamina decrease due to physical activities, their Mana will also be drained; if a humanoid use too much spells and emptied their Mana volume, they would be physically tired as well.

The first method to expand a humanoid’s Mana volume is to constantly use magic to entirely deplete a humanoid’s Mana and repeat the process. The second method is to exercise the humanoid’s body every day until all their stamina has been sapped away and repeat the process.”

“#Q11 What is a soul reservoir?”

“A soul reservoir is a living being which possesses an infinite amount of Mana. These beings, according to the Soul-Body theory, are essentially immortals and cannot be destroyed by any means necessary unless they completely lost their will to live.”

“#Q12...” Rey spent another hour answering even more detailed questions which range from asking the major laws governing every mage to listing specific branches of spells.

“Those who had finished answering the questions, please step up to the desk in front of the room.” Rey and almost half the people inside the classroom stood up almost immediately and followed the voice’s instruction. When they reached the desk, the professor behind it spoke again, “Please grab the crystal in front of you and hold it for ten seconds. This will determine your Mana density.”

There were a few humans alongside him, a larger proportion of elves and a small number of other humanoid beings. When the crystal revealed the Mana density of elves to be 4, they had a proudful expression on them. Rey could tell the other people on the spot was annoyed by it because the elves just have to show off their aptitude for magic. When it’s Rey’s turn, he quickly grabbed the crystal, waited for ten seconds, and the moment the crystal had a reaction, he left the classroom ASAP. He already knows what was his Mana density before arriving the Academy, thus he didn’t want to waste any time and rushed off to his next class.

“Hello everyone! My name is Jenny and I welcome all of you to this session of familiar training!” A female elf with a small octopus latched on her right arm introduced herself in front of the open and spacious classroom to draw the attention of all the newcomers in the room. The sunlight was fierce in the room due to the room’s closeness to the bordering room in the First Ring. The students, along with their familiar, gathered around her and stayed at their position, listening to whatever she has to say.

“Before we start, you guys should know about my colleagues right beside me. There’s John,” The male higher wolf Demi, with his furball familiar on his shoulder, at her right waved his hand and smiled, “And there’s Colette,” The short female changeling with twintails and her butterfly familiar at Jenny’s left said, “Hello!” while waving her hand as hard as she can before it came to a stop.

“Every year, there are newcomers, even though they had chosen to attend this class themselves, that has no idea what is the purpose of this course. It’s fine! When I was your age, I attended this class as well, not fully understanding what all this is about. So, for those who didn’t know why they are here,” A few of the students chuckled, “I will explain to you what we do in this course. Listen carefully now, I don’t want to repeat and waste everyone’s time.

The aim of the Familiar Training course is to teach students how to better understand their familiars and teach familiars how to better control their innate abilities to potentially benefit their, *ahem, owners,” She lowered her tone, “We don’t use the word ‘master’ here,” Then she raised her volume back up, “So, now that all of you have understood the purpose of attending this class, we’ll begin separating all of you into different groups according to your familiar’s ability. Look at the signs on the wall of the room and you’ll know where to go. For those who doesn’t know your familiar’s ability, please come closer.”

As the crowd slowly dissolves, there were a few who seem reluctant to move. For that, Jenny spoke again, “Not knowing your familiar’s ability is nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes familiar’s abilities can be hard to identify while some might have incredible powers hidden within them, but they didn’t show those powers because it could be dangerous. Or maybe even the familiars themselves don’t know about their abilities. That is what we also do in this class, to discover latent abilities of your familiars. So step up, people!” Her sudden burst of enthusiasm surprised a few students, “We have a lot to do today!” She shook her fist in the air for a few seconds before letting it down and put up a big smile on her face.

“Also, if your familiar have more than two abilities, please come forward.” Less than ten students left their group immediately after the announcement and walked towards the elf.

“Whoa. Is that a Kitsune?” A student behind Rey asked. They were standing in the ‘fire element’ section. It seems that the groups were separated by the type of elements their familiar possess. There is the basic ten elements category; fire, water, air, earth, metal, electric, plant, light, darkness, ice, and non-elements category like mind control, telekinesis, etc.

“Yes,” Rey answered, though he didn’t turn his head back. Hinoko, on the other hand, jumped atop of his head from the shoulder and stood proudly whilst facing the student, telling him she is indeed a Kitsune.

“All of you! Please switch on your Circulum and fill up the form that will pop up on your screen. Colette and I will go through all the groups while you write to test the strength of your familiar. Thank you.” He didn’t need to shout because he had a microphone sticker beside his mouth to amplify his voice.

The two adults started from the non-elemental group first because there were lesser people in those groups. Fire, water, earth and air elemental groups have the most people in it. Anyway, Rey started to fill in the form. It asked a lot of basic questions like when and where do the familiars and owners first meet, what is the familiars’ height and weight, and what is the familiars’ second ability, which Rey wrote ‘size manipulation’. He filled up the form relatively fast, so he walked towards the closest wall and stood there, listening to people’s conversation, hoping to catch any valuable information.

“Hey, you know, this situation reminds me of that manga where people uses some sort of balls to capture cute monsters.”

“Huh, you’re right. I don’t read it anymore, though. Some of the familiar protection association got upset with it because its idea of capturing monsters and enslaving them to fight their kin for their masters’ selfish gain.”

“What?! I never saw the story with this perspective. My childhood is ruined!” Maybe there weren’t any valuable information in this room after all. A person suddenly showed up in front of Rey and introduced himself.

“Hi, my name is Joe, nice to meet you.” A male elf, and a maroon coloured lizard with black spots on his shoulder stretched out his hand with a clear intention to shake the impassive boy’s hand.

“Rey.” He has been standing against the wall with both his arms crossing in front of his chest and he does not want to want to move a single inch. The elf doesn’t seem to be offended by Rey’s cold attitude and laid down his hand.

“That is a nice Kitsune you got there. Do you live in the Outer Regions? Because getting a Kitsune in the city is--”

“None of your business.” Joe was clearly startled by his angry words. When he was about to list Rey in his mind as a ‘bad person’, he saw the Kitsune doing some sort of apologetic motion on his head. He then realized he made a mistake by thinking everyone is willing to share bits of their personal life.

“I’m sorry for offending you. I got too enthusiastic to make new friends. Seeing so many familiar owners in one place made me very excited. Once again, I am sorry.” Upon witnessing the stranger’s earnest apology, Rey softened his attitude and forgave him by asking a question.

“......What’s your familiar’s name? This right here is Hinoko.” The blue-eyed elf smiled and answered, “This fellow here is Feuer. Say hello, Feuer,” the salamander waved its front leg at Hinoko. She waved back. The two of them had a short conversation about their respective familiars before the higher werewolf came to their group with a device on his hand.

“Everybody, please step into a line in front of me.” He ignored Joe and swiftly made his way into the line. He was at around the tenth spot, which is why he was able to see what was happening in front. It seems that a few girls were attracted to the ‘hot’, male higher wolf Demi. He wasn’t very different from a normal human except for his wolf eyes, pointy ears, sharp teeth, wolf tail and large hands. While Rey waited until his turn, he saw the group beside him was handled by the beautiful changeling. She looks more like a teenage girl than a young adult. It was her fairy eyes and rounded ears that told Rey she is a changeling.

“What is your familiar’s name?” The higher werewolf asked. Rey gave him the Kitsune’s name.

“Alright, Hinoko. Put your paw on the pad.” The device he was holding has a screen on one-half and a scanning pad on the other. Hinoko did as he said and words started to appear on the screen. After the ‘teacher’ saw the results on the screen, his expression turned confused.

“How old is your Kitsune?” Rey didn’t see this question coming.

“I don’t know, neither does she.” Initially, the ‘teacher’ was doubtful of his answer, but he recalled something and went towards the kid behind Rey.

“Howdy, Rey! Just calling to check how you’re doing. Is everything going well?” Rey was sitting in the Academy Mall’s cafeteria eating his lunch. He didn’t go back to the dorm to eat lunch there because his schedule was too tight. He didn’t regret it, though.

“Good.” He took his final bite on the burger and threw the wrapper on the table. Hinoko, in her humanoid form, sped up her eating speed after seeing that Rey had finished.

“Nothing special happened?” “None.” “Do you want to join me for dinner later? Along with Eli?” “No. I’ll only go back to the dorm after 9.” “Jeez, Rey. You’re pushing yourself too hard. This isn’t good for you, even if you’re a genius.” “I can handle it. Tell Eli I say hi.” He hung up before Aster could express his shock.

“Ready, Hinoko?” She wiped her mouth before transforming back into a fox and leaped onto Rey’s shoulder. He typed in the next coordinate into the app and off he goes. The trash on the table slowly floated its way towards the nearest trashcan and the stains on the table slowly faded away.

“Welcome to the Firearm Training course! My name is Jacob, the main instructor for this batch of students! Now! For those who doesn’t know a thing about firing a gun, please go to the back! For those who do, please go to the weapons counter!” It was incredibly odd. Why was there weapon counters on the right side of the mind-blowingly expansive room? And why was it set up like a flea market, a person standing behind each counter with different guns on it?

“Today, we’ll be collaborating with the Firearm R&D class! All of you will choose a gun and fire it at the shooting range! Although this is against our usual routine of letting newcomers use standard firearms, but I’ll allow it! I’m sure a lot of you will be excited to use these uniquely crafted guns! Because I am! Don’t worry about safety, these guns are 1000% safe! Also, your performance will be recorded, so do your best!” It was really weird for Rey. The instructor acted like a child and allowed newcomers to use these firearms made by older students. Although, it’s not like it was a big concern. Everyone that’s here knew what they are doing, which was why only about ten students went to the back while the other 80% were going nuts to see their favourite guns from video games came to life.

“You can only spend ten minutes to show your skills, so don’t mess it up! And don’t you dare spend extra time in it! Once your time is over, return your weapons to their original counters, or you’ll be punished! Don’t try to steal either, or you’ll be kicked out from this room PERMANENTLY!” Speaking of the room, it was located at the very border of the building; you can look outside and see the gigantic gate. It was also a combination of a dozen room, as seen from the small number of horizontal rooms (Exp: Room 12-3 ← This number of the room Rey is currently in is really small compared to other rooms) ↑

Rey sauntered over to the counter with the least amount of people, which was a guy daydreaming behind his counter with a handgun on it. When he arrived at the counter, he found out that the tall guy was actually a dwarf based on his ears, eyes and hair style. Even though the dwarf was staring at Rey, Rey could tell that he wasn’t concentrating what’s in front of him at all. He probably didn’t even ‘see’ the boy with a Kitsune on his shoulder. Rey snapped his finger and the dwarf blinked his eyes a few times before greeting Rey.

“Oh...hello….my name is Emery….nice to meet you….” This has to be the most peculiar person he met today. The ‘dwarf’ was 170 cm high, wore a t-shirt with a pizza on it and a pair of red shorts. His expression was perpetually in a daze, but his grey eyes, black hair with a few hair bangs covering his forehead, innocent looking, handsome face, and a small number of dwarf-culture-style hair braids on the side of head made him look nothing less than a supermodel that girls would scream at the sight of him.

“My name is Reynard. Nice to meet you too.” He picked up the gun from the counter and began examining it. At first glance, it was larger than regular a handgun and had a futuristic aesthetic to it. Rey knows how to fire a gun, but he wasn’t very knowledgeable about them, especially this custom crafted firearm.

“Can you tell me more about you gun?” When he raised his head up from inspecting the gun, he found Emery daydreaming again. He had to snap his finger once more and ask the question again.

“...oh…wait a sec...” He slowly activated his Circulum, clicked on a document and read out the contents, “...this gun...does not require...real bullets...it functions by absorbing….the Mana of the….user. The fire rate….the stopping power...and the distance of the bullet can travel...depends on...how the user…..manipulates the Mana flowing….into it. The bullet….is intangible….but it has the same effect….as a real bullet….it can cause pain…..but not death….the element of the bullet….can be chosen by….selecting the option at….the grip...it also doesn’t…..have recoil….thanks for…..listening….” Rey didn’t want to be rude and just walked to the guy’s back to read the entire thing himself and so he suffered the consequence. However, this gun was perfect for Rey. It’s like a gun for a magic user. There were quite a lot of option at the grip, but he didn’t care about it.

He took the gun with him towards an unoccupied shooting range. There weren’t any gun sounds bouncing around the room because it has silence spells cast at the area of the shooter position. There were a lot of individual shooting range as well, normal people might take it for granted, but Rey could tell those ranges have dimensional-perception spells on it; the ranges might be half the length when seen from an outside perspective, it became full length when someone steps into the position; the spell distorts the actual size of the range like a corporeal illusion. It saves a lot of space by using this technique.

Rey was contemplating whether or not he should use his Ingenium. If he did, he could get 100% accuracy as long as his Mana wasn’t drained out by using the Ingenium and the gun first and everyone will praise him like a Deity. Although, he might accidentally gather too much attention or get kicked out for cheating (though the instructor didn’t say he couldn’t). He decided to use his raw ability in the end.

When it was finally his turn, he wanted to see if he could extend the range’s length. He could because everyone was using different guns. He didn’t want to think too hard about how to accurately measure a person’s aptitude to fire a gun when some were using rifles and others were using shotguns…? He had his rough answer a few seconds later when he noticed he was required to let the table below his arms to scan his firearm.

Ten minutes later, he regretted not using his Ingenium. It was the gun’s fault, he should’ve chosen a gun that fires tangible bullets despite its recoil because he failed to properly inject his Mana in a way that the bullets would go the way he expected. It was a disaster for the first five minutes, he could barely hit anything with it. Nevertheless, he gets moderately used to it pretty fast (maybe because he had some magic training) and earned a ‘C’ when the results showed up. Truth be told, he really enjoyed using this gun, it’s way better than anything he used while at the Outer Regions. He saw the potential of this gun and would love to use it as his own if the Emery guy could sell it to him.

When Rey walked back towards the ‘dwarf’, he was still standing in the same posture like he’s a statue. Rey would go crazy if he did absolutely nothing for a solid 5 minutes, he just has to do something to keep his mind busy. So, as anyone could imagine, he was dumbfounded by Emery’s ‘ability’ to do nothing. He snapped his finger and brought back the dwarf to reality.

“Here’s your gun.” Emery nodded slightly as an acknowledgment. Before Rey could spat out another word, his Circulum notified him of a new message in the inbox. It turns out the message was actually a questionnaire, asking if the user was satisfied with the gunsmith’s firearm.

“...this is….our assignment….for this semester….I hope you can….answer truthfully….” The survey asked a lot of detailed questions like ‘Is the grip comfortable? If not, please state why.’ and stuff like that. After a handful of minutes, Rey completed the survey and asked his question.

“Can you sell this to me?” He waited for awhile, but there was no response. He snapped his fingers again and Emery answered.

“....after the….assignment is done….then….I can sell it…..to you….” “I see. This is my contact number. Send me a message when you’re assignment is completed.” Rey sent his contact number to Emery and turned to his back, preparing to leave.

“...wait...” Rey swerved back and stared at him, “....tell me….do you….like using….my gun…?” “Of course. Why do you think I want to buy it?” Emery finally had a change of expression. He smiled for a few seconds before reverting back to his usual face.

Hinoko tapped his forehead a few times to make sure he was still awake. Rey was lying down on the ground, facing upwards, finally not gasping for breath like a drowning person. He opened his eyes and saw her fox face upside down. He stared at her for a minute before pulling himself up, used two spells to sweep away the dust behind his back and dried up his clothes so it won’t smell like sweat. He casually strolled back to the Academy building to grab his afternoon snack.

Half an hour ago, Rey attended the Wing Chun (詠春) training course. He wanted to train his quite physically weak body and learn some martial art, so it was a ‘hitting two birds with one stone’ decision. The test was as he imagined it to be, run around the Training Ground while the instructor records the newcomers’ performance. However, the instructor wanted them to run until they cannot move any of their muscles for ten minutes to ‘accurately’ measure their abilities. The instructor gave each of them a sticker-like measuring instrument, attach it onto their arm and off they go.

Rey just hoped that the next few courses wouldn’t be as exhausting as this.

“Hello everybody! Welcome to the Ingenium Training course! My name is Brendon, the main instructor for this batch of students. I hope all of you are humans because I sure can’t teach anybody who isn’t one to use Ingenium! Amiright?!” The entire field, dedicated for various training that involves the use of Mana/Source, was so quiet, only the sound of the whistling wind remained.

“....Goddammit.” He whispered the word under his breath before stepping away and let a young woman continued.

“My name is Stella. I’m sorry all of you have to listen to that idiot’s terrible joke. Alright, for those of you that have Ingenium that will cause damage to your surroundings, like the ability to manipulate fire or explosion, you will follow the instructions of my colleagues at my left; for those whose Ingenium that won’t do that will follow the instructors at my right; and for those who don’t know whether or not their Ingenium can cause serious damage, stay right where you are, I will decide which category you fall into. Is that clear?” The crowd answered yes and began to split up. Rey followed the group to the right and entered the building. The instructors gave the group the room number and they teleported there.

“For those who wish to keep their Ingenium as a secret, please stay here. An instructor will be paired with you.” One of the instructors said in front of the door. Then, a few instructors took most of the students into the room while three remained. Rey was chosen to pair up with Brendon. The three instructors entered different numbers into the keypad and took their designated students to go into different rooms.

When the two of them stepped into the room, Rey found that it was much less like a room but a rather large cubicle with glass walls in front of them, though the other walls were completely opaque. They could see a setting sun at the furthest end of the glass wall. The instructor closed the door and both of them advance towards the center.

“I should reintroduce myself. My name is Brendon! If you wish to continue this course after today, I will be your personal instructor, or at least I would be if you don't request to switch me with another instructor or if I am not capable of teaching you, since you wanted to keep the nature of your Ingenium as a secret. Don’t worry, I am obligated to not say a single thing that happens in this place, so rest assure. What’s your name?” The young man before him was around the age of twenty-five. He had a short, normal, hazelnut hair, brown eyes, a tall stature but a slim body, and wore a set of common clothes.

“Reynard.” “Reynard, eh? That’s a pretty nice name. Can I call you Rey? For short?” Rey nodded, “Is that fox on your head, I mean, that Kitsune your familiar? What’s its name?” “Hinoko.” “Cool! Never saw one in real life. Can it transform into a humanoid form?” “......” “....Okay, let’s get down to business. Hinoko, you might wanna get down from his head.” She reluctantly jumped down, “First, show me your Ingenium.”

Rey’s iris slowly became dark with tiny blue streams connecting the pupil and the edge of the iris while he activated his Ingenium. Strips with the same colour/pattern as his iris appeared from his sleeve and made its way towards his palm.

“Wow! I never see any Ingenium like this! It looks very mesmerizing.” Brendon gawked at the strips cross-crawling on Rey’s skin and covered some of his hand with it, “So, what does it do?”

“My Ingenium has two main functions, as far as I can tell,” He stared at his hands as more and more strips almost blanketing the entire hand, “The first function is to transfer any kind of energy from one end of the strip to another instantly. The second function requires a demonstration.” His hand was completely shrouded by the strips.

“Just tell me what you need. Or do you need me to back away a little bit?” “No. I only need to touch your head,” Brendon felt a little creepy the way the kid looked at him while saying that. He kinda wanted to say no, but this is his job and it’s not like the kid would do anything bad anyway. Plus, with his Ingenium, he would totally be safe, “Okay. Let’s do this,” He bent his body so that Rey’s creepy hand could reach his head. When he felt the sensation of a hand touching his head, he found himself suddenly appeared in a white space with Rey in front of him.

“Woah. Impressive,” He looked around the surrounding, “So, your Ingenium’s second function is entering other people’s mind? That’s kinda odd, considering it has a totally different function from the first one.”

“Yes. My Ingenium’s second function allows me to create a bridge between the minds whom I touched with the strips, or at least that is what it seems to be. It is too annoying to explain it with words how it all works, hence I invited you to this bridge. I can ‘show’ you what I what I know without using any words, the same goes for you too.” Rey then ‘pictured’ his ‘explanation’ into Brendon. All of the information flooded into the instructor’s mind. To his surprise, he didn’t find it overwhelming, rather he could understand all of the information immediately.

“Wow. This Ingenium of yours is incredible! Okay, so let me get this straight. The second function of your Ingenium is actually a branch of sub-functions which allows you to manipulate your mind and other people’s mind, yes?” Rey nodded,

“From my assumption made from the information, if explaining through the context of your first function, since souls are a form of energy, these ‘strips’ can create an instantaneous connection between your organs, based on the Soul-Body Theory, and enhances your physical senses. Not only that, if you used those strips in your own mind, you could dive into your unconscious and essentially create a virtual space, or as you ‘said’, a ‘super-library’ to organize all your knowledge neatly and so when you need to consciously brought up these information, it would be very easy. In this sense, what you did when you came in contact with my head is that you transfer your ‘energy’, your thoughts, into my mind while the same thing happens to me, hence a ‘mental bridge’. Right?” He nodded again,

“Let’s see...when you created a bridge between minds, the time on the outside is frozen from our perspective in here, but when you use it on yourself while you’re lucid dreaming, you can control your perspective of time inside your dream to accommodate the moving time outside. And...when you intrude another person’s mind, you could ‘shut down’ their mind by forcing their unconscious to surface and causing their psyche to collapse. Is that all? I think that’s all of it, right?” The third nod, “Hmm. Let’s talk about the weaknesses then. Please don’t do the ‘forcing information into my mind’ thing. It’s not bad, but I prefer the old fashion way of talking.”

“If you insist,” Rey sighed with a scowl. Brendon could see the annoyance in his eyes. His request was probably not a very good one, “The strips can’t move very fast, especially if it’s travelling through the air. If I use it to enhance my senses, I can’t use it for very long because I would be addicted to it. If someone knows what is the functions of my Ingenium and prepared for it, I could be suppressed when entering their mind, or even be expelled instantly.”

“Anything else?” The instructor took a mental note as the boy speak. Rey shook his head, “Very well, then. Can we exit this place now?” As soon as he finished, he was brought back to reality. He stood right back up and switched on his Circulum, “Since today was only planned for figuring out what your Ingenium is, you can leave now. I’m sending you my time slot, you can decide what time do you wish to attend the course.” Rey’s Circulum vibrated as a notification that he just received a note in his inbox.

“Until next time, Reynard.” He winked at Rey before leaving.

“Rey! You’re back! Aster told me you would be late.” Eli was about to leave the room for dinner when Rey came back.

“The tests were easy. Are you going for dinner right now?” “Yes. Aster is waiting for me in the cafeteria. He told me this month’s food is all about traditional elven cuisine. Can’t wait to try,” Eli said as he and Rey made their way out of them room and towards the hallway. They then chatted about what they had experienced during the day.

“......Yeah. They separated us, those who didn’t know a thing about magic healing, to another room and gave us a short introduction into what the course is all about. The-the teacher Elizabeth recommended was there and she was very good at teaching, at least in my opinion. I think I need to thank Elizabeth,” They finally found Aster’s table and walked up to it. Aster was very happy to see Rey could join him.

“Rey! I’m so glad you can join us. I would love to hear your story of the day as well.” Before they launched into a lengthy conversation, Aster taught them how to order the food via the Circulum. Once they selected their meal, their Units were immediately deducted. The goat Demi told the duo that the food will automatically float its way to their table once the cooking process was done.

Rey didn’t notice his Units increased, comparing to yesterday, when he paid for his food. This is probably what Aster mentioned during the second day after his arrival, Units were given when attending classes. Although, it was quite a lot more than he expected, perhaps it also takes how good he did during the tests into account? It’s all beside the point for Rey anyway because his main concern for wasting time to earn Units has vanished.

“Hey, do you guys considered joining a club or an association? I know that Rey,” He aimed his hand at said junior, “will eventually join The Analytical Mind, but did you look into other options?” He retracted his hand, “If not, you guys should really check out all the clubs, associations and other stuff in the Academy. There’s a saying in here, ‘As long as you can imagine it, there’s a club for it.’ It’s not really a stretch, I heard there was a club that collects the sounds of heartbeats from any living being that has a beating heart.”

“Really? Wow, that is really weird.” “Huh, interesting. Does that mean a club or association can be easily created?” The food they ordered descended from above and landed before their respective ‘owner’. It was faster than Rey and Eli had expected.

“It depends on what kinda club you want to make. If it’s something like ‘Experimental Magic Club’, you would need to do a lot of paperwork to get approval from the Student Council. But if it’s something like, ‘Drawing with Crayon Club’, you can get approval the minute you send the application form, that is if you’ll have some sort of achievement in the future to keep it running. FYI, both of those clubs really exist.” They then enjoyed their meal. After that, they talked about their day for an hour or so before going back to their rooms.

“Ahh~Today went better than I expected.” Eli had changed into his pajamas and lied on his bed with a delighted expression. Rey switched off the light and went up to his bed, “Goodnight Eli.”

“Goodnight, Rey.” The smoke-white haired boy switched on his Circulum and began his little research on Jack.

✵End of Chapter 6✵