“You wanted to talk to me?” Delta said, a peculiar expression on his face

 

“Just get your cheeky ass over here”

 

Once the rest of the class had left, Angus said, “I don’t know what you’re doing in your free time, but I can tell you that rushing through your rank ups will be catastrophic later. You need to build a solid foundation before you rank up, or you’ll be unable to break the barrier to reach the level of mage.”

 

Looking at Delta’s face, Angus could understand that he could partially understand what he was saying, but he was still rather confused. 

 

“A Magic Practitioner has 3 levels to magic. Initiate, Mage and Archmage. An Initiate is what all of you are, a mage with a minuscule shred of magic power. You became an Initiate when you first awakened your magic in the assembly earlier this week. Every time you rank up, your mana will form an orb inside your core, strengthening the magic you can call on, and once you have 5 orbs, you’ll be able to attempt a Mage Awakening, where you try to fuse the 5 orbs into a single, larger orb. Try to have a look for your own two orbs now.”

 

Delta focused on his core, seeing the strange galaxy he had seen before again. When he focused more, however, he could see a pair of swirling orbs orbiting the galaxy. They were full of multi-coloured mists that appeared to be continuously swirling around, yet never mixing.

 

Angus watched Delta stare into his own core, ridiculing everything he had ever known as the young boy did what many struggled with easily. 

 

Clearing his throat, Angus said, “We haven’t properly proven anything, but the Capital’s studies have found that the longer the body has to get used to the level of magic in the body, the more likely the Mage Awakening is to succeed.”

 

Delta listened carefully, understanding more about the process that was ahead of him. 

 

‘When he says the body needs more time to adjust, he must mean that the body has to raise the rest of its ‘stats’, so I don’t have to worry about it as long as I train properly according to the system’s guideline.’

 

“Just don’t rush yourself. I don’t want to see talent like yours go to waste.”

 

Delta smiled. He had to admit, Angus had taken good care of him over the past week, assuming you didn’t count Angus attacking him in the first actual lesson.

 

“I’ll keep that in mind, Mr Goldriver.”

 

Angus smiled hearing Delta speak to him so respectfully compared to before.

 

‘I definitely need that raise,’ Angus thought, clearly pleased with himself.

 

Delta turned towards the door, walking out to where Diana was waiting for him.

 

“One more thing. There’s a tournament coming up in a few months, and I’m considering registering you for it, but only if you’re strong enough to compete when the time comes.”

 

“Is there a reward for winning?” Delta asked, a glint of greed seeming to flash across his eyes.

 

“Of course there is! These tournaments happen every 5 years, and they’re hosted by the King himself. The prize changes every year, but last year the winner was given the noble title of Viscount, along with being privately taught by the Sword King, Duke Verigold for a week.”

Delta was excited to hear about getting a noble title, but part of him was still wary about getting tied down to politics. His utmost goal was to be entirely free and to settle down somewhere peaceful and quiet with his loved ones. It was a distant goal, though.

 

“I’ll consider it,” Delta said, sighing as he walked out. 

 

“What was that about?” Diana asked

 

“He was just telling me about how awesome I am. Nothing you’d want to hear about, don’t worry,” Delta teased.

 

She punched him lightly on the arm, a mild face of annoyance on her face. 

 

Surprisingly, her punch was met with what felt like a brick wall, injuring her more than it did Delta. 

 

“I’ve been working out,” Delta said smugly. 

 

She started chasing him around the campus, but he always remained just a little too far ahead, grinning as Diana repeatedly tried and failed to grab him.

 

“Just… stay… still… so I can… grab… you”

 

As they turned the corner and reached the outside walkways, Diana crashed into a larger figure, falling to the floor as the figure turned around, looking for the person that had run into them.

 

“What the hell is your problem, First year? Do you have no respect for your seniors?”

 

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention and I accidentally ran into you. I won’t do that again,” Diana said, doing her best to diffuse the situation. 

 

“Won’t do it again my ass! I’ll forgive you if you get on your knees and beg me to!”

 

Diana looked at a loss for words, so Delta stepped in. 

 

“Listen, man, it was an accident and she apologised for it. Can you not just let her off this once?” 

 

“This is what I said would happen when that bastard Gilroy started seeing the first years as equals…”

 

He raised a hand, pulling it back as if preparing to slap Diana. 

 

“You dare?” said Delta, a hint of killing intent crossing his voice as his mercenary demeanour crossed across his face. 

 

“Oh?”

 

Suddenly, his hands flashed down towards Diana’s face, aiming towards her cheek with enough force to terrify even some of the greatest fighters back on Earth.

 

Delta struck forwards, grabbing his wrist before thrusting his hand towards the boy’s throat, holding him at a deadly standstill. 

 

“Fine, I’ll let you go this time. N-next time, I won’t hold back…”

 

The boy gulped, before grabbing back his hand from Delta’s grip, rubbing his sore wrist before walking away slowly. 

 

“I’ll remember that.”

 

Delta replied, plucking a small twig off the tree beside him and flicking it towards the boy, aiming it so that it cut his cheek as it flew by, leaving a bleeding cut that slowly trickled down towards his chin before dripping slowly onto the floor. 

 

The boy looked down at the ground startled, gulping before turning tail and running. 

 

Delta turned to Diana, helping her back onto her feet as she stood before him with a terrified expression on her face.

 

‘What was that about…’ Delta thought to himself, ‘I wonder if the other seniors are like him…’

 

Delta made a mental note to look into this Gilroy person, before heading towards the next lesson. 

 

Looking at his timetable, it seemed to have switched to something more regular than the spontaneous sessions he had before. 

 

His first lesson had been Geography and Politics from 9:30 to 10:30. Now, he had Etiquette Classes until 11:30, before something called ‘Guided Training’ until Lunch at 1:00. 

 

The other days had other rather standard subjects like History, a Foreign Language and Maths depending on the day, and Delta figured they were probably the same across all the magic types. 

 

He was also looking forward to the 5th Day’s ‘Free Study’ period, as it would give him some time to research the world he was living in a little more, as well as figure out where his knowledge from Earth could help him as it did with Ipsum earlier at the store. He also had to look into the Magical Contact Lenses he had gotten from Mana during the Initiation. 

 

After lunch finished at 2:30, however, he had something more interesting. Since it was currently the 3rd day of the week, Delta had Combat Training in the afternoon, however, it would probably be quite boring as he would be required to go through all the basics again. 

 

‘I wonder if it would be okay for me to reveal my fighting prowess…’

 

Leaving those thoughts aside, Delta and Diana headed towards their next lesson.