“....While you’re visiting The Analytical Mind, I’ll be taking Eli with me to visit some of the clubs or association. When you’ve finished your business with Arthur, maybe you can call me and join us. It’ll be fun,” Aster used his fork to stab the last meat-mushroom on his plate and bring it into his mouth after finishing his sentence.

“‘kay. See you guys later then,” Rey left his seat and Hinoko jumped onto his shoulder.

“See you later, Rey,” Said Eli. Aster waved his hand instead because he was still munching the mushroom.

It’s finally Sunday. After six days of different tests on different subjects, Rey couldn’t help but felt worn out. Not because it was exhausting, it was because he felt so utterly bored. He already had a good grasp on all the subjects he chose and when he was answering those test questions, he almost fell asleep because it was too basic for him, save from some exceptions, of course. Anyhow, he told Eli and Aster his plan for studying: as long as he can learn it from books, he won’t go to those classes, he would just stay in the room or go to the library. Eli was a bit skeptical of his method, but Aster was cool with it, so there’s that.

As he arrived at the door with a huge ‘The Analytical Mind’ sign on top of it, stretching over to the other two rooms at the left and right side of it, another person showed up from teleportation beside him as well.

“Good morning, Reynard. Nice to see you right on time,” Arthur was the one standing beside him, “This three column of rooms under the sign all belongs to The Analytical Mind. Impressed?” He looked towards Rey, but he only saw a bland expression on the kid, so he marched forward to the middle door, pressed some numbers on the keypad and opened the door, “After you,” He entered the room after Rey ambled in and closed the door.

The room was much larger than a regular office. Directly in front of Rey’s sight was four fancy couches surrounding a broad table with food and beverages on it in the middle of the room, and at the furthest spot of the room from his position lies a grand, wooden working table with a table sign ‘President’ on it and a door behind the chair. There were four similar working tables at each side of the room, close to the wall. Their table signs were, from the furthest to the closest, ‘Vice President’ on both sides, ‘Secretary’ on the right and ‘Vice Secretary’ on the left, ‘Treasurer on the right and ‘Vice Treasurer’ on the left, ‘Social Manager’ on the right and ‘Vice Social Manager’ on the left. The room was also artistically well-decorated, from the elegantly designed carpet to the exotic drawings hung on the walls.

“Mornin’, Art.” A higher Cat Demi with a gothic fashion sense sitting on the ‘Vice Treasurer’ table spoke, followed by the greeting of a minotaur working behind the enormous table of ‘Secretary’ with a deep, masculine voice, “Good morning, President!”

“Good morning, Naso, Tina,” He greeted them while sauntering towards his table with Rey following behind.

“I told you not to call me that, Art.” She grumbled.

“But it suits you well, milady.” He playfully replied. A sharp pen instantly flew at the direction of Arthur, but he didn’t even need to move his head to catch the pen and threw it back in a non-harmful way. It landed perfectly onto the angry and slightly blushing cat-eared girl’s table, “Remember not to scratch the table, Christina. It’s very expensive~” She immediately stopped her hand before initiating said motion and lets out a frustrating sound.

Rey sat on the comfy chair in front of Arthur’s table while he sat on his ‘king’ chair, “So, where do we start?” Rey just stared at him impassively, “How about the story of how I founded The Analytical Mind. Objections?” Rey’s placid demeanour really reminded him of his younger days, “Very well, then.” Both of his hand met each other and formed a bridge which he rested his head on.

“When I first entered the Academy, I was an arrogant and proudful brat with an intelligence befitting to be called a genius. I wanted to show off my prized intellectual, so I entered an association similar to the one I had built. However,” He shifted his head a little to the right, “it was poorly managed and a lot of the members were upset of how they were treated. So, I strived to take control of the association and transform it into an efficient organisation. Yet, even with my mental prowess, I could not accomplish my goal. I didn’t realize my mistake and was kicked out pretty quickly. I became somewhat lost and was always alone. Until Yoro Sensei showed up. He is our current advisor/supervisor, by the way.” He lets down his left hand and used only the right to support his head.

“Calling Yoro Sensei an eccentric man would be a huge understatement. He always wore odd clothing and a very uniquely peculiar head mask. He saw the potential in me and wanted to guide me. I refused for the initial one hundred times or so, I’ve lost count, but he would always find new ways to convince me. In the end, I gave up and started to work under him. He trained me in a lot of ways, but the most important of them all was how to properly interact with other individuals. Not only that, I made new friends, real friends that supported me.” A sincere smile surfaced.

“After that, my trusted companions and I made ourselves a name in the unforgiving society of the Academy. That was the time when I formed new friendships with people that would greatly affect the Academy today, for example, Elizabeth and Damien. As my influence and power grew and grew, it was time to challenge the organization that humiliated me. I beat all of them hard into the ground in a series of Challenges and took the association from their hand as a trophy for my victory.” He lifted his head and now both of his arm rests on the table.

“From that point onwards, I began to pave the way for my greatest accomplishment yet. I practically destroyed the organization I won and built it from the ground up with my friends. After years of hard work, The Analytical Mind finally became what I had dreamt of since stepping into this building. Now, you sat within my crowning achievement. The end.” As expected, Rey’s expression didn’t change a bit, although his aura indicates he was quite entertained by Arthur’s life story.

“Wow, what a wonderful story. Just look at the kid, he is weeping from your touching story.” Christina sarcastically commented.

“Now, now. Isn’t this partly your story as well? How about you drink some cold soda to cool yourself.” He winked. She seemed even angrier than before.

“Speaking of soda, could you stop buying things on a whim?!” She stood up and slammed her hands on the table, “You kept buying pointless stuff and snacks whenever you want and it is making my life hell! I don’t want to wake up this early and trying to balance the accounts all morning you know?! I have things to do as well! Every time I remind you not to do this you forgot all about it a month later.”

“So, you’re using the opportunity of an important guest sitting right in front of me to make me remember because I’ll feel humiliated and will not forget this moment?” He saw her glaring at him at hard as she can. He could feel Rey’s leering as well.

“Okay, okay,” He waved his hands twice, “I promise not to do that again. As an apology, I will take you to Sakana Taste later this evening for dinner. Wear your best dress.” He winked again. This time, her expression turned into a happy one and her face blushing as she sat down. Arthur moved his lips, saying ‘You should learn how to make women happy. It’ll come in handy in the future’ without any sound coming from out. Rey understood the message and nodded in a not obvious way.

“Now, let’s get to the point. Usually, when newcomers want to be a part of this ‘prestigious association’, they would need to go through a few tests based on their occupational choice. However, that would not be applied to you for three reasons,” He extended his index finger and continue, “One, you have proven yourself to be very competent to carry the title of Solver by catching the Circulum Thief. Two,”

He stretched out the middle finger, “There aren’t a lot of Solvers in the Analytical Mind. And even for those who are currently working hard to live up to everyone’s general expectation of the title, they aren’t as good as you, or the person you will eventually become. I think you will be an excellent addition to the Solver department. And finally, number three,”

He flipped out his ring finger, “This reason is simple. You are officially one of my favourite individuals in the Academy.” As soon as Arthur finished his sentence, he could hear a laughter burst out.

“Ha ha ha! My oh my. Did I hear that right, President? Did you just said that the kid in front of you is your new favourite person?!” Naso the minotaur lifted up his gigantic body and made his way towards the right side of Arthur. He gave Arthur a big slap on his back before another came out from his mouth. The president doesn’t seem to mind that strong slap, it was like it didn’t happen at all.

“To think you would actually say it in front of the kid, that’s some huge improvement President!” He directed his eyes at Rey, “You know, kid? My dear President here hadn’t given out any sort of compliment or praise for a loong time, even the brat he’s chosen to attend the Wunderkind banquet with. Just so you know, he has been bringing up your name for an unusually long period of time during the past week, which was three times. Three! But to actually say you are his favourite right in front of you? I would’ve never see that coming. Heh.” Naso couldn’t hold back his amusement.

“Alright, big guy. Are you done embarrassing me?” He aimed his eyes up to meet his colleague’s eyes.

“Of course, especially when I had a rare chance to witness the great Arthur Bell to compliment a freshman only after meeting him twice. And I assure you, Chris has not recorded the entire thing and send it to our other fellow companions,” Arthur immediately shifted his attention towards the higher cat Demi and saw her sending something to other people via the holographic screen, “We would never--”

“Alright, that’s enough sarcasm. *Sigh. You guys are not going to let this go anytime soon, are you?” His two subordinates instantly replied, “Nope.” “Like hell I would.”

“My dear President,” He placed his large hands on Arthur’s shoulder, “I’ll have you know none of us has forgotten what you did during last year’s Genus Day,” As the bulky minotaur walked back to his table, Christina added, “And don’t think we’ll go easy on you this year. All of us will make sure we get our long awaited revenge. The clip I sent to the others just now is merely a prologue to your DOOM.” The higher cat Demi and the minotaur went back to their work with a grin on their face.

“Sorry you have to see that. But I won’t take back what I said. I am indeed very interested in you, Rey. Or rather, I’m interested in what you will become one day. Maybe someone like me? Or an entirely unpredictable outcome will take place? Anyhow, let’s talk about your recruitment into The Analytical Mind.

Before we dive right into the topic, in case there were others that were upset with my decision, you’ll have to take one test, which is the final test for new recruits, to prove yourself worthy. Although, you don’t need to worry too much about that, after all, I am indeed very hard to impress.

Now, about your wish to become a Solver. As you already know, being Solver has a great resemblance to being a detective, save for the aim of the jobs. Hence, both of it shares the same rules and pretty much the same required permits. We’ll talk about the permits later because right now, you have to know what does it take to be an official Solver in my association.

First, you’ll have to work under an already registered Solver as his or her ‘sidekick’. It will allow you to learn the many functions of this organization, all the information you need to know to become a good Solver and perhaps even the knowledge of how the Academy really works. As you spend your time with your designated Solver, he or she will record all your actions and put it into a report which will be sent to the committee to be evaluated, but in your case, the report will be sent to me. Once I have decided that you are capable enough to become an independent Solver from the reports, I will meet you right back here and conduct an interview. Once you pass the interview, I will grant you the right to undertake cases as an official Solver and a member of the Analytical Mind. Usually, this process would require a year’s time for an average person, but I expect you to take up that title within this semester.” He put up a sinister smile as he spoke.

“Next up is the permits. As a Solver or a detective, when you undertake a request, you would often need to break the rules of the Academy. Permits are the solution to this problem. It tells other people that you are mature and responsible enough to do whatever the permit allows you to do. Detectives had it easy, they only need a few permits to get their job done. For a Solver, however, since you are required to accept even the most bizarre requests the students of the Academy can come up with, you’ll probably need more than ten permits to satisfy your clients’ needs.

The most important permit is the Investigation Permit. This permit will allow you to question suspects, search a private room or performing other usually illegal actions. The permit has ten levels in total, each giving the owners different kinds of clearance. As you advance upward through the levels, it goes without saying that the difficulty of reaching higher levels increases. While it usually involves taking tests when moving one level up, it heavily relies on your reputation and the relationships you forged when doing your job.

The Student Council issues all of the permits, except club or association exclusive ones, but they will often call upon experts to help them in their assessments. What I’m saying is, when you are applying for the Investigation Permit, you are very likely to meet one of the members of the Analytical Mind. That said, we aren’t the only agency which have detectives or Solvers under our name.

I will provide you some assistance during your submission of the Investigation Permit form. However, for the other permits, you will have to deal with it yourself. The most obvious permits you should acquire are the Firearm Permit, Ingenium Permit, Familiar Permit, CQC Permit and your Mage License, both scholar, and combat.” Rey was surprised that Arthur knew what talents he has. Perhaps the president has used his resources to keep tabs on him, or his aura reading skills are...godly.

“In case you weren’t aware of the difference, licenses are the permanent version of a permit and are also effective outside the Academy as well. I would suggest you getting licenses instead of permits, but their applications work on fairly different systems, so you’ll have to look into those yourself and make a decision.”

“That’s about it. I’ll send the details about all the things I mentioned earlier into your inbox so you don’t have to waste your time asking around how to do this or that. I’ll notify you once the paperwork is done. It won’t be long, given that you filled in the form I sent you a few days ago quite fast despite your supposedly tight schedule. Now then,” He stood up, Rey followed “It’s time for you to leave. I’ve got work to do and you should relax yourself during your only day off. It’s not ideal for your health if you keep pushing yourself without some rest. Take it from someone who knows this very well,” Rey stepped out from his chair and turned around with the intention of leaving. But, before he could leave, Arthur called his name.

“Rey, a short question please?” Rey turned back and looked at him, “Do you have any big plans for today?” He shook his head, “I see. If that’s the case, allow me to suggest you visit the Alchemy Guild. Oliver has been wanting to meet you ever since the banquet and he asked me to tell you that he would be staying at the Guild for the whole morning. You should go, maybe you’ll learn something interesting there.” Rey bowed his body at a small angle before he exited the room.

“Tada! Pretty cool right? Old guilds like these have their own unique design to set it apart from the much modern ones.” Aster said to the duo in front of the Alchemy Guild. The medieval design of the entrance made it looked like the guild doesn’t belong to the Academy but was rather slotted into the space between the normal classrooms.

“....Rey? What’s wrong?” Eli noticed that Rey’s body tensed up and his expression turned grim.

“.....Nothing.” He forgot to ask Arthur which room Oliver was in. He cannot believe he just made such a simple mistake. He definitely does not want to call Arthur and embarrass himself. Luckily for him, when Aster approached closer to the door, it opened from the inside and the kid with a bowl cut jumped out. The door closed a few seconds later.

“Hallo!” Rey’s body immediately soften and let out a sigh of relief, “Rey! I’ve been expecting you! And your friends too. Come in!” He entered numbers into the keypad and opened the door once more. He kept it open with his hand pushing against the door until all three of them entered the room before releasing his hand from the door and followed behind.

The interior design was completely opposite from the one outside except for the alchemical signs. The walls of the room were all white and were covered in either complete or incomplete alchemical circles of various sizes and colours. There was one student standing upside down on the ceiling and drawing a large and complex circle. Directly in front of Rey’s vision was a separated floating ‘room’ of some sort in the center of the (about 16mx16mx16m) room.

There was a few meters’ distance between all the walls of the room and the ‘room’ in the center. It was actually a floating floor, which looked like as if the ground was sliced into a super thin sheet and hovered in the air, with invisible walls and another similar floor floating about 5 meters on top of the first one. Anyone could tell it there were invisible walls and not it has no wall because there were shelves with stuff in it standing on the very edge of the floor. About 1m in front of the trio, there lies a big glowing, green patch on the ground.

“Arthur told me he forgot to mention which room I was in! Can you believe it?! He’s so smart but he can’t remember such a small thing! Hahahaha!” Oliver lead them towards the green patch, which has the size that allows five people standing on it side by side, while he talked. The moment Oliver stepped on the green patch, it turned red for a split second as he teleported to the first hovering floor. The trio followed and found themselves standing in front of a few vertically arranged, elongated tables with what seems to be papers and diverse drawing instruments on it.

“I should probably introduce myself. My name is Aster, Eli’s and Rey’s guide.” Said he as his eyes met with the unfamiliar kid in front.

“Nice to meet you then, Aster! My name is Oliver! I met Eli and Rey during the Wunderkind banquet!” He stretched out his hand with the intention to shake Aster’s. The goat Demi went along with him and they shook hands.

They settled down on the closest chairs, with Oliver sitting across the three of them, Rey on the right, Aster in the middle and Eli on the left, “Why do you want to meet me?” The familiar owner asked bluntly.

“Weeell, I wanted to show you something!” He removed himself from the chair and ambled towards one of the shelves at the far side of the floor. Rey could vaguely saw bundles of white papers neatly placed on the shelf. Oliver took one and proceeded to head back to his seat.

“I’ve been working on this for the past week. It took a looong time but I am satisfied with my work and I wanted to share it with you! Here!” He handed the paper to Rey before taking his seat. Rey carefully unfolds the large paper from its cylindrical shape on the table. There was nothing on the paper, because it wasn’t just a piece of paper, as one would assume from the first look, it’s a ‘smart paper’.

Made from the combination of magic and technology, the ‘smart paper’ was invented to stop common folks from using ordinary papers which were manufactured from organic material. The ‘smart paper’ is essentially a drawing software on a paper, but it offers much more flexibility to artists, or in this case, alchemists than using a Circulum.

Rey tapped on the folder icon on the top right corner of the paper and it revealed a few save files. He tapped on one of the save files and opened it. When he saw the alchemical circle presented in front of him, his eyes widen in awe. It was the first time Eli and Aster saw that expression on him.

“Did you really draw this within a week?” Anyone could tell that Rey’s voice was packed with admiration. Rey couldn’t peel his eyes off from the masterpiece. No wonder Arthur would be impressed, Rey had greatly underestimated the genius who drew this.

“Yeeees! And a few more!” At this point, Rey was so absorbed into the circle he didn’t hear Oliver’s reply. Oliver noticed Eli and Aster were getting bored, so he asked them a question, “Saaaay…Did you two know about Alchemy?” Aster expressed that he knew only a little about it while Eli shook his head.

“If that’s the caaaase, I’ll explain it to you while Reynard is appreciating my work. Let’s seeeeee… Alchemy is like magic, but it requires ‘hands-on work’. It was said that alchemy was created by a generous deity, who wishes its worshippers and worshippers of other deities to have their own ‘language’ that would not be restricted by its kind. Although the other deities were mad at the generous deity for creating alchemy because it mimics the way magic and potionry operates, they looked the other way when alchemy was able to serve a unique purpose.” The two non-humans listened closely whilst the only other human perused at the second drawing.

“Okay, so, alchemy has two major branch, one of which is a mixture with other fields of study. The ‘real’ branch alchemy teaches us how to draw and use alchemical circles to directly manipulate matter, either creating it, destroying it, transforming it, combining it and et cetera. Of couuurse, you can’t just draw random circles and expect it to work, it has to obey certain rules to be functional. Like magic, there’s the traditional circles and modern circles.

The traditional circles are identical to what traditional spells are, except the circles came from sages or old and powerful individuals who practice alchemy for their entire life. Those people are considered as ‘living deities’, wielding mighty powers yet still lingers within the material world. Each of those masters invents new circles with their own styles, creating ‘languages’ in the context of magic, which is why these circles are known as ‘Magic Circles’. These circles cannot be modified in any way, just like traditional spells!

Aaaaas for the modern, or should I say alchemical circles, it has a few rules one has to follow in order to establish a new circle. Just to clear up some potential misunderstandingsss, when we mention ‘circles’, we don’t mean it literally. Alchemical circles stand for ‘drawings which, through the power of Source or Mana, carry out specific processes to reach the desired results’. It’s called a ‘circle’ because it was the first shape used to perform this alchemical ritual.

Now, alchemical circles are really easy to create. You need to draw three layers of circles, or whatever shape you prefer. For the most inner circle, you’ll have to write down the ‘core function’. For example, if you want to combine two materials together, you’ll need to write ‘combine’ at the center. Most of us prefer to use Han symbols as the default language because it saves a lot of space.

The next step is to draw or write or whatever on the second layer to really make the circle do what you want. Imagine if you want to light up a fire and maintain it, but you don’t want using magic to do it because you’ll need to concentrate on it. SO, you write ‘fire’ as the ‘core function’, then at the second layer, by using whatever method you want and just list how you want the fire to present itself. You gotta write it down or draw it out how hot the fire is, how big it is and other stuff like that.

Now, on the FINAL LAYER, you write down how do you want the circle to be activated. Maybe a time limit? Or when someone steps on it?? You decide! Unlike spells, you can make your circle work in a way that its function can be swapped between a few options on the fly, unlike spells! If ya want to alter big sections of the circle but still retain a few parts, you don’t need to redraw the whole thing, just change one part of it and you’re good to go, like (modern) spells! But, of course, to properly draw a circle, one would have to memorize all the constituent symbols and all types of arrangements. Otherwise, anyone can be an alchemist!” He detached the PDS on his belt, brought out a bottle of soda and gulped down one fourth of it before putting it down and let out a satisfied ‘Ah~’. He put the bottle back into the PDS and continued, seeing that Rey was still immersing himself in those drawings.

“Alrighty! Let’s move on to the other branch! This branch usually associates alchemy with chemistry, potionry, mineralogy, technology and any other field of study that have stuff you can touch with your haaaands. In this case, alchemical circles are often used to overcome lots of limitations and or enhance items, like forging a super hard magical sword! Magic can do it too, but it requires tons of hard work to deal with the detailed parts whereas alchemy can easily do those things!

Take potionry for example. Sometimes, even after dumping all the weird materials into a pot, it needs to meet other specific conditions like one of the herbs needs to dissolve faster than other herbs. Alchemy can do that very easily with magic circles or alchemical circles!

Let’s see, what else should I mention….Ah! I know! Okay, Eli, you saw light-producing-circles floating on the air during the Wunderkind banquet right? Those were created by using special drawing materials. Thaaaat’s right, there are more factors affecting the circles! In the past, when people encounter dangerous situations without any of our fancy modern tools, they need to be able to draw circles on different surfaces, or no surface at all!

In other cases, there are circles that require an enormous amount of Source or Mana, but can’t be activated due to the low density or volume of Source or Mana. By using these special drawing instruments made from legendary beasts or super old trees, those problems can be solved. But the most important usage is to increase the intensity of magic circles, seldom alchemical circles. I guess this count as the third branch of alchemy, where people research what material or what mixtures of material can allow alchemists to do this or that. OH! Rey! You’ve finished admiring my works! Any commeeeeeeentsssss?” Rey handed the paper back to Oliver with a blank face, like he couldn’t believe what he just saw.

“It’s...amazing.” An understatement, but Rey wasn’t one to enthusiastically express his reverence, “Thank you for your praise!” He raised up both of his arms excitedly, “I’ll be sure to work super hard!”

“We’ll..take our leave now. Until next time, Oliver.” Rey returned to his original self and stood up. The other two followed him and left their seat as well, “See ya next time Rey!!!” The three of them proceeded to leave the room.

Although nobody spoke of it, Eli was quite curious about the bracelet Oliver was wearing on his wrist. The bracelet holds a small blue gem, with a symbol he couldn’t see on its surface, similar to Rey’s red gem pendant. He was getting a little envious of both of them because he can’t wear any accessory with those gems due to the reason that those are dated Mana containers that will disturb the seal ring’s capability. Anyway, the thought crossed his mind for a few second before disappearing.

“Hello, what can I do for you?” Behind the counter was a female automaton. Her voice was soothing rather than monotonous. Rey could see her soft metallic skin, unlike an android, which was created with the sole purpose of being a real humanoid despite the inorganic body instead of being just an intelligent machine. He didn’t feel repulsed by her robotic look because her overall appearance can make a male humanoid fell in love with her instantly.

“I would like to take two license test. One for the Mage: Scholar license, free range, 100 questions. Another for the Battle Mage license, traditional spells only, free range, no tools, first knockdown.” He heard that despite automatons were designed to be a perfect, walking, talking supercomputer, thus supposedly having no emotions, some of them do, after interacting with real humanoids after a long period of time. He hopes those are just rumours, or else whoever made or design them is going to lose their job and cause another unnecessary uproar.

“Acknowledged. Please place your Circulum on the pad.” The translucent pad on the counter lit up with a green light. He placed his right hand on the pad for a second before the green light vanished, “Please enter the room behind me to proceed your Mage: Scholar license test.”

Rey was currently in the grand Mage Association ‘room’. It technically counts as a building because a section of rooms was dedicated for the original Mage Association’s (or guild, to be precise) decision to open an Academy branch inside, well, the Academy. When entered from the main entrance, one could see there was an elevated floor beginning at the middle of the lobby; there were two flight of marble stairs covered with carpet at each end; a long counter with several automatons were situated between the two 5m high stairs and artistic, pillar-like railings at the edge of the elevated floor.

The actual floors above the lobby were enchanted with the same alchemical circles that were used in the hallways between the Rings to create the illusion that the entire collection or rooms were connected, especially because there were titanic shelves filled with books on both sides of the wall. Different tables and chairs filled up most of the spaces in the multi-level association, dubbed as ‘The Second Library’.

Residents of other worlds, once familiarising themselves with Speir and maybe had a chance to step into the Academy, will wonder why books still exist if the technology here can help scan the contents of the books and upload it to the large network. There are a few minor reasons, but the most important of it is certain societies prefer to use books.

Aside from the rare books that have magical properties and so being preserved for its value or uses, most books which are still not in the network are books that have strong ties to Source or Mana, like magic or alchemy. Books made from organic materials were treated as ‘sacred’ in those societies, hence they were perpetuated. Some of the other books stored within the walls of the Academy have sensitive topics in it, so it’s understandable that the government won’t be uploading those anytime soon.

“Aster, Eli, I’ll be taking my license test now. Could be an hour or two before I finish. I’ll call you when I’m done. You don’t need to stick around.” Rey walked away from the counter to his friends sitting on a couch.

“Nah, Imma spend some time here. Got a few books I want to check out. What about you, Eli? If you don’t want to stay, just say it. I’ll accompany you wherever you want to go.” Said Aster in a chill mood.

“I’ll..I’ll stay here too. Maybe it’ll help me decide whether or not to take up self-defence magic lessons.” He didn’t have any plan in mind anyway.

“See you guys later then.” Rey sauntered towards one of the few doors located beneath the elevated floor and entered it.

Eli’s attention was drawn towards tales and fables of heroic mages, instantly forgetting his real reason for staying. Aster, on the other hand, hand-picked a few advance spell books to see if he could learn any new interesting spells. He still attended magic classes which teach how to use both traditional and modern spells, though seldom. He uses another type of magic, one which humanoids might find it hard but an irregular [*Reminder, irregulars are the native residents of Niflheim] would find it easy.

He was the one that taught Rey a lot about the Mage Association, including what types of license he could apply for. Usually, when one takes a license test, they would state the rank of the license they wish to obtain. As for the ‘free range’ option, in the case of Mage: Scholar license test, the computer will decide one’s rank after calculating the amount of the correct answer from the random difficulty questions.

“Hey, did read the manga I’ve been telling you to read for the past month?”

“Oh, yeah, about that, what was it again? I remember it has something to do with alchemy and, two brothers?” Aster laid down the book on his hand and listened to the conversation behind him.

“Argh, seriously? It’s a story about two brothers travelling the world to search for the philosopher’s stone. They tried to resurrect their mom when they were young but everything went wrong and the younger brother lost his body. The philosopher’s stone can fix that, so they went on an adventure. It was set on in an alternate universe and their alchemy had slightly different rules. Trust me, you will not regret reading it.”

“Didn’t the alchemist community complained about it because it teaches the young generation that human transmutation will only end up badly? They were going well with the human revival technique but then this manga showed up and slowed down their process.”

“Yeah, I remembered my granddad talked about it. They were about to publish the results of their research that confirms any living being can be revived within the five-minute timeframe before their soul leave our world forever. But who cares about that?! Sure, the announcement got delayed a few weeks but everyone was okay with it! Just shut up with your excuse and pull some time out to read it! Or else you’re getting kicked out from the club!” It’s was a bit amusing to hear a conversation about alchemy in the Mage Association. Aster then wondered if he should take some alchemy classes. It might come in handy when he returned to his home world. He put away that thought for later and focused on the book again.

“What rank did you get?” Aster and Eli walked over to Rey, who was standing in front of the same counter.

“C” He removed his hand from the pad. The automaton then continues to search for a suitable tester for his second trial.

“Impressive for someone of your age. However, you should’ve waited after you begin your modern spells lesson, even if you have a perfectly good reason to rush it.” To that, Rey replied, “I need to be prepared when I officially become a member of The Analytical Mind. Didn’t want to potentially disappoint Arthur.” The female automaton found a match as he finished speaking.

“Mr. Reynard, please proceed towards the door at the far right and enter ‘026’ on the keypad.” Before Rey took his leave, Aster quickly asked the automaton, “Can we go and watch him while he’s being tested?” The automaton peeked at the screen for a second before she said yes. Some mages dislike others knowing their skills, but it seems that the one testing Rey was okay with it.

“Still, you could’ve save that money for better purposes. Now you have to spend more to take another test.” The goat Demi commented, though Rey didn’t reply. He trusts the young mage knew what he was doing, especially taking a free range Battle Mage license test.

The trio stepped into a training room, padded with comfortingly white, incredibly damage resistance tiles on every inch of the surface. The door they entered was at the right side of the lobby, between two gigantic bookshelves, but when they found themselves in the training room, they were standing at one of the horizontal ends. A male elf can be spotted at the other end, staring at the first challenger of the day.

The floor has a clear red rectangle drawn on it; the distance between the lines and the walls were only enough to fit two people. The limited space behind the lines was apparently designed for a small number of spectacles. Aster dragged Eli to the sides, making sure every part of his body wasn’t crossing the line.

“Well, well, well. Two weeks into the Academy and you’re already taking a free range license test. I wonder if you’re just another stupid, enthusiastic kid or a serious, trained young mage. By the looks on your face, I’m going to guess it’s the latter.” Contrary to what fantasy RPG depicts, the experienced mage only wore a casual t-shirt, a pair of short trousers and sandals. He had a distinct green coloured short hair and blue eyes.

“My name is Jay, by the way. A rank mage. Nice to meet you, Reynard. Also, you might wanna tell your Kitsune to stay out from the lines.” Rey whispered to Hinoko and she leapt towards Eli. She settled down beside his leg. Rey has been trying to read his aura, guessing what are his personalities and which element he has the strongest affinity with. As Rey anticipated, he couldn’t get anything. Seasoned mages know a secret technique to hide their aura, not giving their enemy any information on them. Rey hasn’t learned how to do that (but he will someday), which was why Jay has already smiling like he’s a winner.

“Training Challenge activate.” A tiny, murky black box appeared in the center of the room and expanded with lightning speed until it reached the red lines. Now, when Aster, Eli, and Hinoko perceive whatever’s inside the lines, all the colours were dimmer, as if someone turned down the lighting. The same goes for the two inside the lines.

“Take a look at the wall,” two red 100 showed up on the right wall, “100 HP for the both of us. The test is over when your HP goes down to zero.” Jay gazed into the challenger’s eyes. He saw determination, tranquillity and not one bit of any sort of agitation or fierceness. The youngster knows he can’t defeat the veteran, but he would try his damned best to achieve that.

“You have my respect, Reynard, even if it’s only a little bit. You aren’t like the others who challenge the free range test. All of them just mindlessly throw their spells at me and hold on to their crappy belief that if they put their heart and soul into it, they can defeat someone who is higher ranking than them like some sort of comic hero. You have a strategy to take down as much of my HP as possible and I’m eager to see what you got. Ready when you are.”

Rey gets into his stance, face with a confident grin and word out of his mouth.

“Ready.”

✵End of Chapter 7✵

Advisor: Jigoku Shounen