Chapter 19: Orientation

    “Let’s go!”

    “I’m coming!”

    “We gotta get good seats!”

    As I walked to the Magisterium’s massive stadium, I could hear hundreds of students running past me with excited faces.

    The whole thing caused me to smile. This was basically high school for all these kids, so I could understand their happiness.

    The stadium was basically a huge colosseum. It had one massive field that was bigger than a football field and was surrounded by rows and rows of stairs and seats.

    The place could easily fit tens of thousands, more than enough for the entire school and then some.

    I entered and found that they divided the seating by year. Walking up, I was planning to follow the very few fourth year students in when suddenly I was stopped.

    “ID please.”

    “...You didn’t ask for theirs.”

    I pointed to the other fourth year students who were walking through. They just waltzed right in.

    He smiled wryly.

    “Sorry sir, I reognize them, but not you. I need to check.”

    “Eh, fine. Here.”

    I retrieved my ID, which he took and saw a big number 4 on.

    He handed it back with a slight bow.

    “Sorry about that. Please, go ahead.”

    “Hm.”

    I hummed while walking past.

    Then, I entered a reserved section for all the fourth years. Before I sat down, I glanced over.

    I could only see about 40 students here. Without a doubt, they were all powerful, at least an Authority or so higher than myself. But there were so few.

    Compared to the freshman seating that was already jam packed, each person was basically taking their own row, if not grouped up in small cliques.

    I was pretty casual as I found myself a seat, but I still couldn''t help but notice the not so few stares.

    Nobody in this school knew who I was, and I suddenly jumped into the fourth year class. It would naturally raise questions, and some might not take kindly to it it like that one guy who disturbed my already unpleasant morning.

    But I couldn’t think that much about it. I was really just here to cultivate higher power and train myself against monsters instead of humans.

    “And now, a performance from the College of Enchanted Arts!”

    An announcement was suddenly made as a few dozen people walked into the middle of the field.

    They seemed like a big marching band, or perhaps an orchestra. Either way, they had many instruments and dancers.

    It wasn’t long before I heard music, and the dancers began going through their routine.

    There were lights that lit up with waves of their hands and feet, and the music reached my ears rather pleasantly, both upbeat and soothing.

    But I wasn’t too impressed. I had seen too many of these displays during the auction days in the Black Spider Market. And those people had such amazing skills, easily dwarfing these newbies.

    Still, I enjoyed the entertainment that all the freshmen were going nuts over.

    It lasted quite a while, but when it finally ended, a figure of authority stepped out along with waves of applause.

    “Allow me to introduce myself.”

    His voice reverberated through the air. It was deep, but more than that, it carried actual power. His words commanded attention and respect.

    “I am Yottra Carrion, the President of the Magisterium and Duke of the Kingdom of Dragon Tongue. I welcome everyone to this most prestigious institution.”

    Everyone went dead silent as he spoke. You could practically see the tangible reverence coming off those students in the other stands.

    Truly, he was a great man who stood at the pinnacle of this kingdom. And not just socially.

    To rise in this world, power was everything. This Duke was only below the King, and that meant he held power that was capable of dominating damn near the entire world of Magi.

    He was at least Authority 10, if not 11. And although Authority 10 was only 2 levels away from Authority 8 where Rayla stood, truly, the difference was insurmountable, not to mention Authority 11.

    It was said that Authority 12 was the highest peak of power. I wondered if the King was at that godlike level.

    Yottra went on to speak about the Magisterium and its great purpose. He spoke of the Evil Scourge and how we were the greatest hope of humanity to put an end to that extinction-level threat.

    This place was not only an institution to cultivate powerful Magi, but to encourage competition and growth through adversity.

    Through fighting monsters and sparring with our fellow Magi, we would learn how to better our skills and spells until all of us could become a force that turned the tide of the everlasting war.

    It was all motivational and inspiring, which was nice, but I couldn’t help but see the darker side of it.

    Not only was he captured by the Scourge, but he was demonized, and then reappeared on the battlefield, confirming his demonization.

    Was he killed? Or is he still one of those monsters?

    I was pretty sure he had been killed. If not, there was no way that Rayla would have recovered as much as she had seemed to. She probably would have remained in the military until he was relieved of his monstrous existence. Only his death could allow her to move on, even if only a little.

    It was a mind numbing thought to have. I couldn’t fathom that kind of grief, to know that the person you loved with your heart and soul had been warped into that kind of monstrosity. And to have to kill him even after that...

    I suddenly felt a wave of sorrow for Rayla. I almost wanted to call her up the instant I inferred these things, but it wasn’t like I could explain that I knew about her husband. Libitus had gone behind her back to tell me that before she did.

    “...Shit.”

    I cursed under my breath in the middle of class, earning a few glances.

    Now my mood was ruined, and I had a new irreversible hatred for the Scourge.

    If they were simply an enemy, then I could sympathize since there were always two sides to a war.

    But this monstrous entity was nothing but a demonic stain upon the world. Nothing but a parasite that wrought ruin.

    It seemed I now had another reason to get stronger, other than mere survival.

    And I was glad that I could wreak my own retribution with the most lethal weapon in two worlds.

    ......

    ...

    The first day passed, and I walked to my new on-campus residence with a neutral mood.

    After learning about nothing but the Scourge, the last class of the day lightened the darkness with a lecture about the body.

    It was here that I learned that anatomy, or medical science, was just as advanced in this world as on Earth.

    The knew everything I knew and more. They knew about cells, the components of cells and their functions, along with all the myriads of biological functions that riddled our impossibly complex bodies.

    Not only that, but they had learned about how the magical forces of this world interacted with the body. Of course, that stuff only appeared in the more advanced classes.

    I had expected a primitive or vague detailing on the body and medical care, but I found quite the opposite. In fact, this class of mine was looking to be more of a paramedic course than otherwise.

    We would learn not just about the body, but all about the types of medical care. They would teach us how to similarly respond to various injuries, making us EMTs in training.

    This also seemed to be the most difficult class in the Magisterium, obviously because of how complex it was and how much there was to memorize. But when all of these people were going to be specialists on the battlefield, it was rather important that they at least knew some stuff.

    I was similarly in distress during the class. I wasn’t cut out for memorizing all that information, a reason I never even fathomed becoming a doctor. Too much to learn.

    But I found myself keeping up, especially in my other courses.

    And I knew why.

    Psyka, the power of the mind.

    Summoners, although generally known for being weak, were also known for one other thing.

    Being the smartest people in the kingdom.

    With minds that became sharper, faster, and stronger with every Authority they gained, Summoners received many boosts to their cognitive abilities. They were the most successful in academics, even beyond Warlocks who studied magic spells.

    This would naturally help immensely in regard to my classes. I almost looked forward to it.

    Beyond that though, I only had one thing to focus on.

    Cultivating my Authority was my most important task. With a greater Authority, I could unlock bigger and badder guns. Those would secure my survival, especially since I was sure my first hunting trip wouldn’t be an easy one.

    I was hoping that I could advance in a month, like I had been, but upon opening the book to see the formations I needed to use, I couldn’t help but lose a bit of hope.

    “This is absurd. What am I looking at, a circuit board?”

    The book was filled with all these impossibly complex lines and symbols. It was hard to even look at, let alone use.

    It seemed Authority 4 was a rather massive jump.

    But I had a better mind! I knew I couldn’t be held up for long by this complexity, so I dedicated at least a few hours to studying the formations.

    Besides, I found it oddly enjoyable.

    Studying the formations wasn’t as simple as tracing the lines in your mind. If it were that easy, everyone would be able to advance.

    No, it was what the lines and symbols represented that halted people’s progress.

    The formations were a guide. By trying to mimic them, people would come to understand the formation within the magical realm and learn how to use it in order to cultivate greater power.

    It was like learning a language, and whenever I studied the formation, I would slowly gain understandings.

    It was like a bar that slowly filled up with progress, as if I were downloading information into my mind from the file that was the formation.

    And the feelings of progress were nice, even if tiring. But I quickly figured out that it would take much more time for me to so much as decipher the formation, let alone cultivate the power. A month wouldn’t be enough.

    But up until now I had been cultivating every day, so I had gotten used to the slow but steady progression.

    So I stuck around in my room, waiting for the end of the day where I would go to bed early and catch up on sleep.