Chapter 5 – The Spirit Realms
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After basic fitness, Talin and the others separated into boys and girls to enter different changing rooms. They washed up and changed back into uniforms before heading off to their next class. Talin was all too happy to get away from the crowd. They had seen Richard and his gang holding squats beside the training field and had heard rumors about the events of yesterday. Hushed and not so hushed whispers flew about his head all period.
Rodric quickly caught up to his departing figure to walk and talk with him part of the way to his next class, until they had to part to go to separate classes. They both entered a building in the Research Department before going to separate rooms. Next Talin had Basic Shamanic Knowledge, a class which covered knowledge about the soul, cultivation and many things they may encounter and interact with as Shamans.
After he entered, Talin clasped his hands at his navel and made a small bow greeting the teacher.
"Professor Frost."
Professor Marrisa Frost was a beautiful woman who appeared to be barely in her twenties. She had a nice round face and a cute almost button-like nose with bright ice-blue eyes and dark brown hair. Being so young and beautiful she was naturally famous in the Academy. She gave Talin a smile and nodded for him to take a seat. He did as other students slowly trickled in, each of them greeting Frost before going to take their seats. They climbed stairs to one of the wooden desks facing the podium at the head of the room. After some time, they were all in place.
Professor Frost went up to the podium and tapped the screen sitting on the wall behind her. With her powering it with spiritual energy, the magic light arrays on the device sprang to life. It was a simple magic device that could only display images with light, but like most things in the academy, the average person would never see anything like it in their life. According to Jessup, Talin's cousin, only the schools and academies that had been around for a very long time had many of these devices to aid teachers.
Frost laid a small dark blue crystal tube into the side of the screen and an image of a huge library appeared on the screen. The picture was taken from the midst of bookshelves, huge bookshelves made of thick and sturdy wood, filled end to end with books and stretching upwards beyond sight. The sheer number of books was something that defied imagination.
"Who can guess what this is an image of?" Frost asked. Her eyes scanned across the room before settling on a boy who was excitedly raising his hand.
"Zed?"
Hearing his name called, the boy stood up. "I would guess that it is an image of Libraterium, the plane of knowledge. Maybe some kind of massive book vault there?"
"That's right,” Frost gave a satisfied nod at his answer.
“Specifically it is a district vault under the command of Lord Almusharif. I won’t go into too much detail about their nobility and hierarchical structure now as that will be detailed in your classes next year in Advanced Planar Studies, but since I came across this rare image while going through old records I thought it would be a good idea for us to review the subject since the exams are coming up. Those of you that pass and become second years will be able to enter Libraterium and obtain a Soul Art from the very same district archive you see in this picture.
"To prepare for that, we will review spiritual planes and go into the particulars on what you can expect while in Libraterium. To start with, who can list off a few more Spiritual planes that we know of?"
She looked around again, this time picking a girl who was sitting quietly, but attentively in the front.
"Alina?"
A very pretty girl with long dark blonde hair stood up. "Umm.. Faunesta the beast plane, Aurum the celestial plane, and the Underworld which is the demonic plane. I think that is all we have covered so far."
"Right, those are the only major planes that you will need to know about for now and honestly not many more are known to us. Records indicate that there are many more spiritual planes that exist in the universe, but finding a plane without knowing its location is a very difficult thing. Harold, tell me what is a spiritual plane exactly?"
A curly headed boy stood up now fumbling a bit as he was caught off guard by the question.
"It’s a place you can go with your mind, right?"
Frost pursed her mouth. "Well, you’re not entirely wrong, but your explanation is not complete. We exist here in the physical world, which we call Aamentia. Named as such by the ancient Lestraenian people who once inhabited it. Just as our world is physical, the spiritual planes are spiritual in nature. Physical and spiritual can interact with each other in some ways, but for the most part are separate. Both of them touch the essence, depend on it, and are ordered by it, but you will learn more about that in later years. "
"For now, the only thing you need to know is the physical body cannot go to the spiritual planes, and unless there are special circumstances the spirits that inhabit those planes cannot come here. We humans are not just physical beings though. Within our bodies of meat and flesh we house a soul. It is, in fact, the very core of who we are."
"The soul is spiritual, and therefore, if it is able to separate from the physical body, it will be able to travel to the spiritual planes. That is how you all will be able to travel there in a few weeks time. We have a special array here in the academy that can help you separate your soul from your body safely and send you to Libraterium. Normally to travel to the Spiritual Plane you would need to cultivate to the 4th stage, Soul Releasing or else your soul would be unable to leave your physical body, but through the use of the spiritual transportation array we have here you will be able to get in early. Any questions?"
A girl in the front raised her hand.
"Yes?" Frost nodded at her to go ahead.
"You said that spirits could not come over to our plane unless there were special circumstances. What kind of circumstances?"
Frost smiled. "A good question, Mana. We actually covered this last week when you were out. A spirit will need a host to be in the physical world. Normally, this will mean they must make a contract with a visiting Shaman. It is rare that a spirit will want to come to the physical world as it does not have many benefits to them, but Shamans have ways of enticing them.”
“Once a deal has been made, for example, if the spirit agrees to serve for 5 years in exchange for some benefits, then there are two ways the Shaman can bring the spirit back here. One, the Shaman can act as a host, allowing the spirit to dwell within his or her body, or two, the Shaman can create a spirit puppet for the spirit to reside in. A spirit puppet, normally called a golem, is specially built to host the spirit and can have many various features depending on what the maker needs."
"Most Shamans would pick the second if they can though, since, unless the spirit is a knowledge spirit, hosting it in your body will not bring about any benefit. To see an example of golems you only have to look around this academy. All the statue guards at your dorm are actually golems with spirits employed by the school."
The girl, Mana, gasped in realization that she had actually already been in contact with spirits and had not realized it. Talin shook his head a bit at the girl. He had wanted to know about what the moving statues were immediately after seeing them and had asked a senior. Somehow this girl had gone a whole year without figuring it out. She might have missed the class but that was no excuse
Frost did not mind though and was patient in her explanation. After she finished reviewing spiritual planes, she moved on to the specifics of what they would encounter in Libraterium. She explained that the school had a contract with the plane's Great Library. The academy had to provide a certain amount of scholarly works and knowledge to the library and in exchange they would provide access to their books and help students select the best Soul Art from what was available. The merit the academy had rendered to the library determined the rank of their contract. The contract's rank, in turn, is what determined the quality of the books and Soul Arts available. The better and rarer books and Soul Arts required higher rank contracts.
"Our academy has a rank 3 contract, which, even on the entire continent, is very rare." She said.
The class ended after Frost felt that she had told them all they would need to know about the upcoming visit to the Great Library. There would be a series of tests they would have to complete when they got there, apparently. The results of the tests would help the guide they would be assigned to find the best Soul Art for them out of the materials available.
Afterwards, Talin still had to go to his other classes. He had Flora and Fauna, where he learned to identify all the animals and plants that he might encounter around the Ilios Kingdom. It was a difficult class where they went through a great deal of specific knowledge that had to be memorized. Afterwards his last two classes were Basic Arithmetic and Literature in the Scholarly Department. They were by far his least favorite classes since the subject matter was so boring, but they were required so he still did his best.
When he was finally out he excitedly ran to his cousin's house to pick up the Gathering Spirit Pill. He truly could not wait.
AN: A bit later than I would like with this chapter. I'll try to do an extra chapter this weekend to make it up.
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