[Solstreus Magic Academy: 1F - East Corridor C]

The sun was shining through the glass window in the corridor of the Magic Academy.

In the empty corridor, a petite girl with short blue hair wearing ceremonial clothes was walking around. There was no one other than her because right now was class time for the academy.

The girl, who was of course Hecate, was currently taking her time to familiarize herself with the academy. At this moment, she had a very complicated mood.

She looked at the notification window in front of her speechlessly.

The quest was supposed to be just about delivering the letter but somehow ended up being about enrollment into a magic school. She who was about to finish her compulsory education in the real world and enter college life, how could she allow herself to spend a few more years attending another school, especially that it was a magic school in the game world.

What was the use of attending magic classes if the real her is a muggle?
Can those knowledge even be used in the real world?

If she really dared to write those magic knowledge to her resume at the job fair, the most likely conclusion was that she would be recommended to a mental hospital instead of a company.

"This is really ridiculous."

Fortunately, she was able to maneuver the situation a little bit.

Instead of joined as a student, she changed the flow of event direction and joined as a special staff.

But still, Hecate felt that it wasn't that simple.

In the two years since Ascension launched, this is not the first time Players stepped their foot in this Academy. Sometimes there are job recruitment that hires Players to perform some tasks or conduct experiments. The recruiting was by no means a secret, as there are many posts from those recruited Players with screenshots and videos on the forums.

And this is definitely a first that a Player is recruited to enroll as a student, much less, a special staff. As for the conditions of this recruitment, she still couldn't fully understand.

But after seeing her loliness in the reflection of the corridor window, Hecate couldn't help but think.

'Don't tell me... Does he think I'm around middle school age with my height?'

Now that's the most possible answer.

With her loli appearance, she would most likely be mistaken for a middle, or perhaps elementary school student at first glance. Except for acquaintances, no one would really think that she was an 18 year old girl about to enter college.

However, thanks to this, she was able to obtain so much opportunity.

'As expected, appearance was the most important thing, more important than skill and effort.
After all, people do judge others by their covers.'

Hecate could only sigh by this revelation.

She then took out the silver badge that Frederick gave her and equipped it.

This badge is the proof that Hecate had become a special staff at this Magic Academy.

"This is a good stuff."

The badge has such a nice effect that increased her INT by 8, MP regeneration by 10%, and more importantly, Max MP by a whooping 10000 points. Now her MP has reached a staggering amount of 77.5k.

There are hierarchy ranks based on the contribution in this Academy, mainly Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Her joining as a special staff had given her a direct jump to Silver rank, and even the Silver rank badge had given her such effects. She wondered how much effect she can got from a Gold rank badge and above.

'Perhaps reaching 100k MP is not really just a dream!'

There was also the Warp Portal spell. Although it has a fixed destination, but it can be used once a day to directly open a portal with the destination straight to the Academy. This also meant, this Solstreus Magic Academy had become another base for her.

Moreover, it is a brooch-type accessory so it can be directly worn above her +8 Ceremonial Blouse. The drawback is, this brooch has been soulbounded and can't be used by any other person besides Hecate. There's also overwrite protection on the badge so its effects can't be changed, which means it can't be soul enchanted, and upgrades won't have any effect.

The fact that it is a brooch-type accessory also means that this badge will always be automatically removed whenever Hecate changes her blouse. This is a minor issue and can be fixed by including the badge in the hotkey, but the 10000 MP that comes with the badge will inevitably be reset.

So, if Hecate has 77570 full MP, by changing the blouse, her MP will be 67570/77570, with 10k MP missing for no reason.

'Well, it's just a minor issue. The badge is secondary, the most important thing is the benefit I get.'

Hecate let out a satisfied smile.

The reason why Hecate agreed to join was because the offer that she can use the facilities in this Academy for free, including smithies, meditation room, training room, healing spring, and many others.

Of course similar facilities also existed in Brynhildr Fortress, but the facilities in this place were of a higher level.

For example, the Furnace inside the fort can only generate heat up to 1000°C, compared to the Furnace here which can generate up to 8000°C. This leads to shorter melting time as well as the reduction of difficulty for processing superalloy like Adamantium and Vibranium.

Moreover, even if it was only once a day, she could go to this place at any time with the badge, without having to go through the troublesome journey like before.

Hecate's steps suddenly stopped in front of a room with double doors.

"Arrived!"

And the most important benefit that she obtained is of course, the library in front of her.

♠♠♠

 

[Solstreus Magic Academy: 1F - Library]

Hecate was greeted with the sight of countless books when she entered the library.

This place was where the Sages and Scholars of the Gemmerio Empire gathered knowledge throughout the continent of Rodinia. The number of books was astounding, with the scale several times higher than the public library in the Rosenweil Capital City.

There are a total of seven floors with many towering bookshelves on each floor. From 2F to 7F there is an open space in the middle which is connected by an elevator, so that each floor can be seen from the librarian's desk in the center of 1F.

Counting the number of books on each shelf was very difficult, because there were too many of them.

"The layout of this room... seems a bit like Panopticon."

Hecate was impressed by the arrangement and positioning of this library.

She then walked to the middle of 1F towards the direction of the librarian. There were a few Natives wearing robe uniforms of various colors in the library, most likely students of this Academy who glanced at Hecate curiously.

Well, that's understandable, since it's not an everyday sight that there are loli wearing ceremonial clothes of the Cantaria Tribe, hanging around inside the Academy. This was also another reason why Hecate chose to wear this outfit, as this outfit seemed to have the influence for the Natives to create a mysterious atmosphere.

Hecate ignored those curious glances and directly asked the librarian.

"Excuse me, is there a list of books in this library?"

The librarian, a middle aged man in a blue robe uniform that must likely a Scholar, glanced at Hecate and about to say something. Maybe she thought that Hecate was an outsider because she wasn't wearing their uniform.

But when he saw the silver badge in her chest, his attitude changed.

"Miss, which class are you from? You must be very talented to reach Silver rank at your age."

 "That's a secret. Well, if you really want to know, maybe you can ask around."

Hecate answered with a smile.

She didn't really know the talent standard he was talking about, as she jumped straight to Silver rank as soon as she joined. However, there was no need to tell the truth.

Maintaining a mysterious atmosphere is also good approach when interacting with the Natives, because they mostly won't ask much afterward.

"Ahaha, that's quite cold. Well, that attitude is quite normal for someone with talent like you."

"Thank you for the compliment. So, can I see the list now?"

"Oh, yes. Here it is."

And so, the librarian took out a plate-shaped artifact which Hecate touched with her hand.

Immediately a window appeared in front of her that shows a list of all the books in the library. A total of 18,430,426 books in the list sorted by various categories. The books are "free" to read, since it seems the cost is already covered by student tuition.

Of course for Hecate who joined the Academy for free, those books are really free for her to read.

"I want to read about these, Basic Spell Introduction from volume 1 to 5. Can you take them?"

"You can simply click on the title and infuse your mana to the window, and the book will fly to your position. When you're done, just leave the book somewhere and it will fly back to the shelf. Remember that the books here has been enchanted and you can't take them out of this library, and damaging books will be punished by the Academy."

"Thank you."

Hecate thanked the librarian and went to one of the empty tables.

The notification window was still in front of Hecate and she poured her mana into the window as the librarian said. This window wouldn't disappear unless she closed it herself or left the library, so it didn't matter if she didn't take the plate with her.

Not long after, five books flew off their shelves and headed for Hecate. She simply caught the flying books one by one with her hands and placed them on the table.

"Well then, let's see what is the content of these books."

Hecate opened the first book and began to read.