There was a short moment of silence between the two after the rest of the class had left, a moment that felt like an eternity to Nick. He just watched his professor looking at him from her side of the classroom with a slight smirk.

"...Something I can help you with Ms. Azurelith?" Nick spoke, if only to break the somewhat heavy silence between them.

"Not exactly. But there is something I can help you with." She told him with a smile as she closed the gap between them and sat firmly on his desk. "You're pretty impressive compared to the rest of your class. Did you know that? Of course, you did, you've likely practiced the most out of your classmates, and for good reason."

What exactly was she implying? Nick did his best to hide his confusion but it seemingly showed on his face anyway. "Out of everyone else in this class, you've firmly got the lowest mana pool. Now, while it can grow infinitely, it's something that takes a long time. So it makes sense that you would compensate for this weakness with good Formless skills."

"Because that lowers the cost of my spells?"

"Mhm! And while you're not the most impressive student I've ever seen in any of my classes over the years, I can sense your talent and ambition." She crossed her legs as she looked back at Nick for a response.

"Thank you, Ms. Azure-"

"I'll let you call me Seraphina~" She interrupted with that same sultry look on her face.

"Well, uh- Miss Seraphina, thank you, but where are you going with all this?" He asked, feeling slightly awkward about using her first name, something he would avoid doing with others in the class.

"Hmph, I thought you'd want this moment to last longer so you could keep staring at my legs. Well anyway, it's still really early in the school year, so you might not have heard. There's a tournament that occurs at the end of each semester where students compete in a variety of categories and challenges. Would you be interested in participating?"

New Quest!
Participate in the end-of-semester mage tournament!
Reward: Xp based on the result
Bonus objective: Reach first place
Bonus reward: Potential System Upgrade

It's been a while since he had his last quest. It seemed like these things weren't very common but the rewards looked worth it. "Sure? I'm not sure how qualified I am for something like that. This formless stuff and water magic is my only talent at the moment."

"That's the part where I come in!" Seraphina responded with a wink. "Not everyone can participate anyway. Only those who have been selected by a teacher to represent them can. So I'm offering to let you represent me~ I'll help teach you those skills you're lacking and you'll go and win us a prize. Full disclosure, there's a reward in it for me too, so it's in my best interests to get you in the best shape I can."

Put this way, it sounded like she was offering to be his own personal tutor outside of what this class provided. For someone who felt behind in most things, especially level, Nick knew this was a damn good offer. Though part of him wondered what were the actual rewards for the tournament, aside from the ones his quests were giving him.

"That sounds like a good deal."

"It is! There are only so many teachers here at this academy, and not all care about participating. I don't give out specialized instruction to just anybody you know. So I'm assuming that's a yes?"

"It's a yes," Nick replied, not sure what he was getting himself into but willing to test his luck considering his quest rewards.

"Perfect! The end of the semester is still a ways away, but the sooner we get started the better. Make time to see me a few times a week after classes alright?" Seraphina finished as she got off the desk with a happy smile. "Stop by this Thursday after your class. Ill teach you hydromancy. Divination is an important skill to have even at its most basic level. Lucky for you, it's pretty compatible with water magic. Hydromancy isn't too difficult to get a grasp of, especially with such a capable teacher by your side~"

Divination? Nick wasn't sure what he was expecting but it wasn't that. He'd played many games that had it, but even in fantasy worlds, it felt like it was pushing the limits of what was possible. Yet here he was being told that learning it was easy.

"How useful is that in a competition? I mean don't get me wrong, Id like to learn how to tell the future but that doesn't seem urgent."

"Very useful. You're thinking of the kind of divination that is very prone to failure. Telling the future is an extremely difficult task, and gets even more difficult the further you try to look. Even those who manage to get some sort of result will not see that future set in stone. Think about it, if person A sees a future they don't like, and person B sees the same future that they do like, person A will attempt to change the future. This means at no fault of their own, person B saw an incorrect result. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. I'll teach something much more simple and reliable, something to help you when you're lost."

"Like a compass?"

"Like a compass. If a compass can help point you towards anything you can think of with some degree of accuracy."

Part of Nick wanted to ask if it would be rude to use such magic to find things that he might have lost or misplaced. This kind of magic would have been a godsend back in his old life with how messy his room was.

"Don't worry you'll learn everything else you need to know soon. Until then, keep practicing that thing we did in class until you can do it in your sleep. The only thing more important than learning new things is mastering the things you know."

"That sounds like sound advice. So is this everything for today?"

"Don't let me keep you here all day!" She told him with a smile as she went back to her desk, occupying herself with a stack of papers.

Nick nodded and made his way out of the classroom and towards his dorm. It was a bit of an ego boost for him to excel so much in one of his classes that his instructor would want him to participate in some sort of competition. If he wanted a fair chance at winning, he would have to find a way to get to level 20 or so. It seemed like the average of the students was somewhere between 13 and 18, though students chosen to represent other instructors were probably on the higher end of that spectrum.

The more time passed the more urgent it seemed for him to find a way to reliably find and kill monsters. Maybe he should have asked Seraphina about it. Then again, maybe not. She probably wouldn't want her champion getting himself into dangerous situations. There was someone else he could ask.

"Oh shit dude you're serious?" Sam asked him, laughing with disbelief in his eyes.

"Yeah, you have any ideas?" Nick responded, already regretting asking his roommate.

"If you get killed ill have to get another roommate you know, and they might want the room with the bigger window."

"Oh gee thanks for having so much faith in me, my dear best friend."

"I'm just covering my ass, man. If you really have to scratch that itch, you can join the school's expedition team."

"What's that?"

"You know these weird gates that have been popping up recently? Well, the school has a team that deals with the ones in the area. It's dangerous and you'll probably get your ass kicked but there are other people there. At worst, they'll bring back your corpse with them."

What was up with this guy? That was some roommate he had.

"Relax, I'm exaggerating." Sam continued. "I don't know if they take first years though, but it's one of the elective classes, so try asking around when the signup sheets get mailed here.

"Are you gonna sign up?"

Sam let out a hearty laugh, comically slapping his knee to make his point. "No way dude, fighting isn't for me. If you find anything cool there you can bring it back. I work with tools and equipment and I'm pretty damn good at it if I say so myself. I can even do basic enchantments on your stuff. It's temporary but it's better than nothing."

"You want a souvenir from someplace you just said could kill me?"

"Yeah?"

"Sounds good."