The rolling of metal carriages could be heard in front of Great Leyline Academy, the rain from Saturday had been given a small pause on Sunday. There was a now a light drizzle of rainfall that day.
It was the opening day of classes, an exciting and fun experience for the young prospects of Acetia.
Not really though, the four years in the academy was just a ticket to an apprenticeship with a skilled mage. While excelling in those four years won’t earn you recognition from the principal or an archmage, it could still earn one a ticket to the tutelage of a professional and well-known mage.
A student could pick up any amount of courses, as long as it fills up a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 6, there had to be time for lunch and breaks. Some courses required more time than others, but it was up to the student on how to manage their time.
There weren’t really any set hours for taking courses, and instructors were most likely working mages, so the times could be very flexible, but there shouldn’t be any after five, so Louis simply assumed that Llamiryl’s dialogue yesterday means ‘meet at this place after 5’.
In any case, Louis’ weekly schedule for the academy looked something like this.
Soul Weapon Management (M/W/F, MANDATORY), Basic General Magic (M/W/F, MANDATORY), Physical Education (Everyday, MANDATORY), Politics (M/W/F, MANDATORY), Arts (T,TH), Basic Enchantment(T/TH)
Yes, first-years had a lot of mandatory classes; the next year the only two mandatory ones for him would be Physical Education and Politics, the latter of which was only for nobles. He didn’t envy the commoners though, since they usually didn’t have tutors, they had to take things such as literature, mathematics and history.
All Louis cared about was the Soul Weapon Management and Basic Enchantment, he honestly did not think there was anything the other classes could teach him. Maybe the Arts class would be fruitful, his fellow Daoists always joked about him having a lack of creativity.
He did repaint the borders of an entire world, multiple times, too. So Louis could arguably say he was the world’s greatest painter.
He fixed the cloak on his neck; cloaks were a big fashion here in Invicta, he was sure it was the same for the other 4 countries as even the orcs had ragged, billowing cloaks.
The men’s uniform consisted of said cloak and a long-sleeved blue dress shirt with matching slacks. They were free to choose any footwear as long as it resembled proper boots. Louis chose durable yet comfortable black travel wear, in case he had to travel hundreds of kilometers in a single step.
As for the female’s uniform, it had mostly the same color scheme except they had blouses adorned with a vest, with a long dress for the lower part of the uniform.
There were quite a lot of students coming out of carriages near the gate, as Soul Weapon Management classes started at nine. Louis and Carlos were taken to school 30 minutes early. It would be enough to be exactly on time for the first class, as the building they had to travel to was a bit far into the campus. The building was Building S, a building dedicated solely for Soul Weapon classes, and nothing else.
A deluge of students were moving through the main gate, with a plaque attached to their cloaks that the mages at the gate gave a glance to confirm if they are actually a student.
Louis and Carlos got through with no issues, and headed up a flight of stairs in order to access a bridge that connected two buildings.
“Hey, Carlos, you’ve been busy lately, got any foothold on the capital?” Louis questioned Carlos, making some small talk and attempting to squeeze out information from him.
“Surprisingly, yes, I’ve taken an interest in enchantment, I found this merchant who was apparently a friend of our father. He sold enchanted wares and was a mage of the Warding category himself, he agreed to take me as an apprentice if I took the necessary courses in the academy. Didn’t you want to be an enchanter too, bro? Well, we won’t necessarily be in the same class, but that’s one more thing we can compare notes on!” Carlos said with a toothy grin.
‘Yep, definitely the work of my flag Louis thought, a connection to the Enchanting industry was something he already had, but something this direct? Oh, it was definitely a fortune.
He was unsure if his flag altered history and created this man out of nowhere or it just made it more convenient for the two to meet. Louis had thought a lot about the former, and it honestly still terrified him.
Carlos noticed the awkward silence, and tried to change the topic.
“I guess you’re quite eager to meet the Enchanter. Don’t worry, your younger brother is magnanimous enough to let you meet him.” He said, puffing out his chest.
Louis smiled and nodded; his brother’s arrogance was the tolerable and refreshing type, even if it was false.
“You’ve been busy too, though, aside from reading books you also went out to meet the third princess of Elvus Dominica. I wonder, are you plotting against our glorious kingdom?” Carlos looked sternly at Louis, hoping to coax something out of him.
“Not really, not unless you consider joining a club with her friends who also happen to be from Invicta, whose club activities are actively monitored by the principal a plot for a coup d'etat.” Louis sarcastically voiced.
Carlos’ smile grew wider.
“Oh? So are you interested in her? Marriage between you and a princess of Elvus Dominica would definitely strengthen our alliance.”
“That’s a actually a good idea, but father told us not to plunge our wooden swords into caverns of insanity. So I will heed that advice, Carlos.” Louis said bluntly.
Carlos sighed, still smiling.
“Nothing gets you flustered except father and Lucia, huh.”
Shame is a very different concept for 10,000 year olds.
After a few more flights of stairs and bridges, they reached the first floor of building S, where their class would be held.
Confirming that they got the right room, they opened the door to a room.
There were 39 different classrooms for Soul Weapon Management in the first year, and this was only one of them.
Looking around the room, they both checked if there were any familiar faces such as other dukes or well-known nobility. There were none, so they simply went to the back of the room.
Not because they wanted to be inconspicuous, but because they wanted to look down on everyone.
It was a minute before class, and it seemed there were no other students; being late on the first day would not sit well with the instructor, and give of a very bad impression that reduces your chance of getting a good apprenticeship.
Unless, of course, you were fashionably late enough to enter the room at the same time as the instructor.
It seemed there was one more member of a duchy in this room, surprisingly enough, it was the fiancée of the crown prince, Elyssa Enriquez. She was in fact, chatting with the instructor, who didn’t seem to mind. Forming relations with possibly the future queen was more important than such a silly thing as timeliness.
Taking a glance their way with her red eyes, Ellysa decided to take a seat right beside Louis, who didn’t seem to mind.
"I hope your investigation was more fruitful than my fiancee's" Ellysa whispered to Louis.
He nodded, knowing what she meant.
Everyone was silent, they were all excited to learn more about soul weapons, including Louis, in fact, it was as if some unknown entities from beyond the fabric of reality were viewing the classroom as if it was a piece of literary text, eyes shining with expectation.
“Good morning everyone, you may all call me Professor-“ Louis did not care about who the professor was, a source of information and nothing else. He did not care how many beasts he had slain, nor how many wives he had throughout his life. So he simply went autopilot throughout the introduction that lasted a good fifteen minutes. A sizable part of the 1 hour and 30 minutes allotted for the class.
He only listened to the basic overview of the curriculum; apparently they did not have to actually take their soul weapons out during class. They would only be given general guidance on how to operate the soul weapon, how it all worked and how to improve upon the soul weapon. Of course, the instructor would still appreciate a practical demonstration from a willing student.
The instructor finally got to the actual lesson.
“The power of a weapon, does not come from its shape or form.” The instructor pulled out a blue looking spear from his abdomen.
He thrust out the spear, but as soon as he thrust it out a jet of water pierced through the air, going beyond the range of any ordinary spear. He thrust it out again and again, each time a jet of water cut through the air. As Louis observed, the water seems to form up into the razor shaped form, and then immediately evaporate. It was strange, the water vapor in the room didn’t increase at all.
“As you can see, I can control the water in the air to form into an attack.” The instructor spoke with a smile, a commoner raised a hand.
“No, I cannot control blood; I can’t comprehend the blood enough to be able to control it.” The instructor was spot on with the answer, and the commoner immediately put his hand down.
‘That’s bullshit, there’s not a lot of water element in the air, and I don’t feel it going down at all.’
Louis thought for a moment, qi relied on converting available elements into the cultivator’s preferred element, so if soul weapons did the same…
‘What do they convert? Certainly not a part of my soul.’ Conjuring a roasted chicken for Rufus did not eat up his soul at all.
Saving the thought for later, Louis paid closer attention to the discussion.
“You see, soul weapons powers aren’t limited by talent or how they manifest, it’s limited by comprehension. The reason a sword soul weapon that can cut through steel cannot do the same to concepts such as space and time, is because your brain cannot comprehend how a weapon can cut through space and time.” The instructor revealed.
“And because I know how water can be concentrated enough and shot out to cut through steel, I can do just that.”
A student raised his hand.
The instructor nodded, ready to answer the student’s quarry.
“Sir, if it’s like that, can’t we just imagine a sword that can cut through anything?”
The instructor let out a hearty laugh.
“If comprehension equated to imagination, this world would have collapsed eons ago! The concept is more clear with an unconventional weapon, Mister Louis de Leon, do you mind showing your soul weapon?”
Louis stood up, bringing out the purple canvas and paintbrush that he fooled everyone into believing in yesterday.
“Not at all.”
Then, the instructor spread his arms wide.
“Use it on me. Whatever use you have in mind. Just make sure it doesn’t kill me.” The instructor said carefully, he would not bet his life on the heir of an infamous family not being able to kill him just because he got his soul weapon last week.
“Yes, sir.” Louis raised the ‘canvas’ as if visualizing the cheek of the professor on it, then immediately, the glow of the paintbrush changed from purple to blood red.
He did a stroke on the canvas, painting what looked to be a cut wound on the purple surface.
The cut appeared on the instructor’s face, he was a little taken aback by the burning pain, but he nodded in satisfaction.
Grabbing an ointment from his desk so that he could cast healing magic on his wound, the instructor thought.
‘It looked like a cut, but why was there a burning sensation?’ Shaking his head, he continued the discussion.
“Excellent work, Mister Louis de Leon, you may sit down now.”
Louis nodded, withdrawing his soul weapon. Ellysa and Carlos where absolutely shocked, they had amazing comprehension skills too, but no one could learn THAT much over the weekend and no weapons, especially with such an unorthodox weapon.
In reality, Louis applied a hot sauce, yes there existed a hot sauce(it’s really just poison!) that cuts through your tongue in the cultivation world. Many masochis- body cultivators put it in their food to temper themselves against the sword.
And since he knew with all his body and soul that such a hot sauce existed, he could conjure it up.
Of course, the instructor had a totally different idea of what happened.
“Class, as you can see, Mister Louis de Leon put out an impressive display of comprehension. Red is usually the paint used for paintings that depict injury, bloodshed and death. That’s why when he applied red on my cheek; he knew it would cause injury. I know it sounds confusing, you may ask how can paint injure a person? To that I ask another question; doesn’t a painter bring their ideas and understandings into reality? Since Mister Louis de Leon understood that red paint will cut my cheek, then red paint did in fact, cut my cheek.”
The lesson continued with those who wished to show their comprehension about their soul weapon. Although it was implied that you did not need to bring out your soul weapon in the class, it was heavily encouraged for you to do the opposite.
The corners of Louis’ lips twitched, from what he understood about the lessons, strengthening your soul weapon was like progressing in your dao. You had to comprehend it.
He, who had reached the peak of his dao in his old world, had to comprehend another one. It was a different dao, but his capacity for it was large.
If the average person couldn’t comprehend how and why it is possible to turn the world into a sandwich, he could.
Louis wasn’t very impressed with the progress of the students, Ellysa’s gun could already poke a hole through a goblin, but unless she added any special properties to her projectiles, it was most likely going to end with just that.
As for Carlos, well, he could increase the weight of his greatsword, but he needed the physical strength to wield it. It was lucky that Carlos chose to go down the path of enchantment. Louis also thought of having General Alchemy test out some experimental drugs on Carlos.
The last few minutes of the allotted time were about explaining the various responsibilities that came with soul weapons, and the multitude of laws that they needed to keep in mind. As ‘Louis’, he put a lot of attention into that part, but as his true self, he didn’t care about such laws if they contradicted his goal.
It was now 10:30, and Physical Education class would start in 30 minutes. It only lasted for about 40 minutes, but it was a daily activity for all students. Despite what stereotypes would tell people, mages did have to be in a fit physical condition, well most mages who didn’t dedicate their lives in secluded research.
And it was indeed a working mage that oversaw the classes. Louis didn’t meet anyone he was keeping an eye on during the ceremony, nor was the class any interesting to him, or anyone else for that matter.
The mage just gave them some repetitive stretches and exercises to follow, and yelled at anyone who slacked off. Granted, that was pretty much his job description in this class. Most of the Physical Education instructors taught more interesting subjects, so they felt the same as Louis.
The next class would be Basic General Magic at 13:00, which similar to Soul Weapon Management, lasts an hour and thirty minutes. Then it would be Politics at 15:00, which lasts for an hour, ending Louis’ classes at exactly 16:00, he had to meet with Llamiryl and whoever her friends were at 17:00.
In the downtime, students are expected to be socializing, slacking studying at the library, or doing the assignments given to them by the instructors.
With that in mind, Louis decided to head into the library and after deciding there were way too many sections of books in the library to find one that would be most useful to him; Louis simply decided to do that the next day. No, he did not have any magical qi touch to instantly receive the information, what he did have was a mind that could go through a reading session at far faster than any ordinary one.
He went into the school cafeteria, well, one of the school cafeterias and Llamiryl, Ellysa and Ellysa’s sister eating with each other at a table. He wasn’t interested in interacting with Llamiryl until 17:00, nor trying to investigate who her friends were.
So instead, he checked if Carlos had gained any friends, unsurprisingly, he did not, just a bunch of people trying to suck up to him. Louis decided to let Carlos just handle the situation on his own while he silently ate his own food while skillfully driving off anyone trying to eat with him with a few words.
He was unsure whether or not the principal had surveillance over the whole school, so he did not go to find a deserted corner somewhere to use his “real” soul weapon.
Qi could sustain his nutrients, but that was obviously off the dinner table.
After an uneventful luncheon, Louis decided to show up at the Basic General Magic class early. He yet again did not meet anyone interesting, and merely took a seat at the back while waiting for the instructor.
For now, he contemplated his new dao – his soul weapon.
His first cultivation session since coming to this world was interrupted by the screeching voice of an old woman. An expert mage, Louis could tell from her wardrobe.
“Attention class!”
Louis and everyone else fixed their posture and paid attention to the instructor.
“Goodmorning, you can call me-“ Once again uninterested, Louis sat through the instructor’s introductions pretending to pay attention, while not actually paying any attention.
The instructor presented her credentials and achievements, coming off as the strict, arrogant and no-nonsense type of teacher. Louis didn’t really care, as long as she got the point across and didn’t spend more than half of the class giving a sermon to her students.
Luckily, she didn’t.
“As you all probably know, a spell is described using three different components – category, level, and type.”
The instructor scanned the classroom, checking to see if anyone was slacking off. This brought her to a female student who was disinterested in the lesson. Unlike soul weapons, magic was usually taught through tutoring.
“You there, mind telling the class about the basics?”
The female student stood up, and started her explanation.
“Yes ma’am, category is divided into 6 types. Offensive, Utility, Warding, Mind, Healing and Control. Offensive magic are magic spells obviously focused on offense, such as fireball and cryogenic ray. Utility spells are spells that are generally useful for things such as logistics and construction, this category is the broadest of them all, to the point where mages are contemplating on whether to split it into multiple categories or not, things such as Teleport and the elves’ food magic belong here. Warding are spells usually built towards defense, which includes alarm spells and protection against various things such as blades and elements.
Mind magic covers spells that affects the enemies’ psyche and messes with their thoughts, it likewise helps boost your allies’ cognitive capabilities, illusions and telepathy spells are examples of this. Healing spells are self-explanatory, and are used for healing wounds and illnesses, some illnesses are actually aggravated by healing, though, the standard heal and cleanse spells are a part of this. Control spells are spells that seek to bend reality in ways beneficial to its user, its most commonly space and time that one bends, this is the most obscure school of magic with the least spells, spells like Eldritch Bolt and Aim are examples of this.” The female student recited with robotic accuracy, there was a reason she was disinterested in the lesson.
Embarrassed, the instructor told her to sit down and continued the discussion by herself. Picking up a piece of chalk and writing on the blackboard.
“Keep in mind that all mages learn at least the basics of all of this. Next is the level, there are five levels of spells. Low, Medium, High and Peak, then there’s the legendary spells, none of which are disclosed to the public. Low-level spells generally used finger-sized mana crystals; Medium-level spells generally use fist-sized mana crystals; High-level spells can reach up to the size of a person; Peak level spells reach up to the size of a house. Spells in the capital require less mana, so all spells that aren’t in peak-level generally have less cost. You can cast lower level spells at higher levels, as long as you have the expertise.”
She paused, allowing everyone to absorb the information, before erasing the writings on the blackboard for newer information.
“The last one is Type. There are three types of spells, characterized by when the mana crystal breaks. Instants, where the mana crystal breaks immediately, the spell usually produces an immediate effect, but it can last for a time. Durations, where the mana crystal breaks when the spell ends, this affects the area around the mage for the duration of the spell, hence the name. And finally, rituals, which require a very specific set of long and difficult instructions before casting a spell, these spells always require magical ink.”
The instructor raised the chalk, writing some big words on the blackboard.
“So spells should be written like this, name-category-level-type."
‘TELEPORT-UTILITY-HIGH-INSTANT’
‘TRANSLATE-MIND-LOW-RITUAL’
The instructor put down the chalk, ending the basic introduction.
“Now, all of you are still fledgling mages, so you will all be casting low level spells, probably until the end of your second-year.”
Louis lost interest at that point.
Politics class was just like the real thing, mentally exhausting and takes forever to get anywhere. Louis couldn’t find any piece of knowledge that he didn’t already know, but he did find an interesting conversation after class. Between Ellysa and the crown prince.
“Do you really have to get close to that girl? It might ruin your public image.” Ellysa complained to the crown prince.
“I do, father told me to. He says that I need to pull her into our faction, the royal family. There’s probably more to her than just inhuman strength, whatever it is, father does not want her in the hands of the principal.” The crown prince reasoned.
“Why you?” Ellysa questioned.
“Because I’m around her age, becoming her close friend is the easiest way to pull her into our side.”
Ellysa sighed.
“Ugh, sorry. I just feel like my position is being threatened here.”
The crown prince gasped, and immediately began to comfort Ellysa.
“Don’t worry; I doubt I’ll have to resort to marriage to tie her down.”
The two had this conversation in a corner with a silence ward, but that didn’t stop Louis from hearing about it anyways.
After the Politics class ended, Louis immediately left the classroom and went to the student lounge of building G. There weren’t a lot of people around, since the building was reserved for clubs, and those weren’t in effect until the second week.
He took out his soul weapon’s fake form, and sat in a non-questionable meditative posture. He intently looked at his weapon, studying every corner of it to comprehend it. His eyes were extremely focused, as if he was trying to fire a laser beam from his eyes.
40 minutes in, he felt something in his soul flare up, like a fire being ignited. He sensed a golden glow in his soul, was that… his previous life?
His eyes were wide-open, he thought he made a breakthrough, but he was wrong.
“So you are really one, huh.” The voice of a boy was heard behind him.
In the academy’s uniform, he had a numeral that symbolized three; he was a third year student.
The boy had black hair and black eyes; he was likely a commoner or wealthy merchant. His face was not bad, but his grin had a sense of… ugliness to it.
Still grinning, the boy outstretched his hand, and for the second time since coming to this world. Louis’ soul was once again directly spoken to.
“Yo, would you like to join the Secret Society of Reincarnated Souls?”
“That’s a actually a good idea, but father told us not to plunge our wooden swords into caverns of insanity. So I will heed that advice, Carlos.” Louis said bluntly.
i lost my sh*t at a starbucks and got some weird looks after reading this
Well I'm glad that piece made someone laugh. I actually googled if there was a medieval equivalent of 'don't stick your d*ck in crazy', seemed that there were none, so I had to make one up sadly.