After his short conversation and agreement with Max, Nick went back to his dorm room. Sam, his roommate, was nowhere to be found this time around. More interestingly though, there was mail for him in the living room, stamped with the Academy's wax seal. Opening it up, he saw the class elective signup sheet.

It had an impressive list of different classes one could sign up for including both the magical and nonmagical variety. Skimming through the list, he stopped at the section labeled 'Combat' before coloring in the box for 'Expedition Team'. The fine print indicated that signups for combat classes weren't guaranteed and a backup option should be picked. So after a brief thought, Nick settled on Alchemy.

For the first time since he arrived at the academy, Nick felt like he had a bit of free time now. Sitting back and relaxing was an option, but in a world that seemed to have limitless potential it seemed like a waste. His old world was more boring. In his mind, everyone lived essentially the same life, confined by the same rules. Though, maybe it was too early to tell in this world, but it felt like there were no boundaries. As if he was playing an open-world MMO instead of a boring visual novel with one ending.

Not wanting to waste his time, he lay back on the couch in the dorm's shared space and got to work. He took Seraphina's words to heart. Practicing his Formless magic and in turn, his Hydrokinesis skill was more significant than he expected. In his attempt to recreate the water droplet trick she had done in class, he met his first hurdle. It was a small thing to be bothered by. However, the droplets he made were bigger than the ones she had him and the class practicing with.

Attempt after attempt all failed in making the water droplets smaller. Seraphina had made it look so easy that he hadn't even noticed that it took skill to do something like this. He knew he couldn't compare to her at his level, but just how big was the gap between him and her? Knowing that he was better than the rest of his similarly aged classmates was a relief at least. His resolve strengthened. He kept practicing until it was time to head to bed.

Thursday had finally come, and Nick wasn't looking forward to it all that much. As much as he enjoyed the school environment, a class named 'Ethics' was far from the most exhilarating subject. Nonetheless, it seemed like a requirement, so he quickly entered the classroom. He sat down in an empty seat near the back before taking in his surroundings.

In terms of classrooms, this was unsurprisingly the most boring and plain looking one. The walls were lined with simple bookshelves and no windows. The instructor was the splitting image of an old wizard in Nick's mind. He was old, wrinkled, had a white beard, was almost bald, and carried a walking stick. To add to the overflowing energy in this classroom, he didn't look like he wanted to be here anymore than Nick did.

Shortly after, the class filled with the rest of the students. The instructor, Professor Edgar Wormwood, spoke few words. He passed out sheets of paper to the class containing his lecture for the class. Despite the majority of the content boiling down to common sense, some of the information was still valuable.

You leave your signature mana in every spell you cast, according to him. It leaves a lingering trace that some mages can find and identify as a spell cast by you. Your mana signature couldn't be hidden, destroyed, replaced, or altered in any way. Those who attacked civilians and even other mages were always found using this method.

The topic was a bit more interesting than he had originally given it credit for, but this instructor destroyed what bit of interest he had in the topic. With Thursday classes being shorter than other days, it wasn't long until he and the other students left the class, some half asleep by now.

As promised, he made his way over to Seraphina right away, eager to see her and eager to learn. As he approached her classroom, he saw her standing outside as her students left. As soon as she spotted him, she eagerly waved her hand towards him with a wide smile, prompting curious looks from those who were just leaving her class.

"Good morning," Nick greeted as he entered the empty classroom.

"Good morning to you, too. How was Ethics?"

"Boring. How did you know I had ethics?"

"It's a first year requirement, no one enjoys it."

Seraphine reached for a drawer behind her desk before pulling out a compass.

"You mentioned a compass last time, so I had a few of the Artificer students make this. Call it one of the perks of having such a beautiful and caring teacher." She smiled, clearly expecting some kind of praise from her students.

"Yes, yes I'm the luckiest man alive. How's it work?" Nick responded a bit flatly.

Seraphina put on a fake frown for a second, defeated by the fact that her chosen student was a sarcastic smart ass. "The type of divination I'm teaching you today is technically considered a Scrying spell. The simplest and most useful thing you can learn to do is locate something." She explained before the compass needle spun and pointed towards him.

"If you know where your target is, you can sniff it out. If you dont, then it will set you in the right direction. That's helpful, right?" Seraphina concluded as she handed it to him.

Nick was unsure what to do with the compass now, but as soon as his mind thought of any particular object or destination, the compass would point to it.

"See? I told you it's easy." Nick kept watching the needle spin in erratic circles as he thought of different people, different locations in the academy, anything that could possibly be pointed to.

Seraphine snapped her slender fingers in front of his face to get his attention. "Just make sure to charge your new toy with your mana on a regular basis, okay?" I charged it this morning myself to make sure it worked properly, but you'll see that it responds faster and more accurately when it's your own mana you're communicating with."

Not that he had needed it, but this felt like proof that he was really living in a fantasy world. A boring item that was practically obsolete in his old world was now a special tool his teacher had gone to the effort of making for him. Or at least, get someone else to make it for him.

"This is really amazing. I thought it would take a few lessons before I could get any use out of it. You're a pretty impressive teacher you know?"

"I do, and I enjoy being reminded of it."