Past Life Hero, ch 21

The next day, Wednesday, Max woke up early.  It seemed early rising was starting to become a habit. This time, he didn't hear any sounds coming from his roommate's room. He did a light workout, went to the cafeteria, and got changed. He still decided to wear a robe, but as the day before, he wore his dagger on his belt.

His first class of the day was his homeroom class, the first-year Summoner class that he had with Lance. He saw his friend across a courtyard as he was heading to the Fire Hall and waved at him. As the two walked the rest of the way to their homeroom class, Lance and Max filled each other in on everything that had happened the day before. Lance had gone to Basic Survival and Community Defense class, and it turned out he was enjoying both of them so far.

At Summoner class, the two of them took a seat.  Professor Two-Spirit watched from the front of the classroom where he was seated. Now that Max was looking for it, he saw the professor point his tablet at each student as they came in and wondered why some of the other teachers took attendance or asked students to sign in. It didn't make a lot of sense to Max when a teacher could just point their tablet at people and update their attendance.

When it was time for class to start, Professor Two-Spirit began talking, projecting his voice all the way to the back of the classroom with apparently very little effort. He said, "On Friday, we will begin trying to open your third eye so you can be a proper summoner."

A student raised his hand, and the professor called on him. The student said, "Summoners can call monsters into the real world to fight other monsters, right?"

Wow.  He hasn’t been paying attention, thought Max.

Professor Two-Spirit smiled and shook his head. "No. Not at all. And maybe before we go further, it's a good idea to remind those of you who know, but also tell those of you who don't know how each Path generally works."

"Every Path in the universe, and there are thousands, if not millions, has three general sub-paths that any warrior can learn. And those three paths are: attack, defense, and utility or balanced combat, which is a mixture of both. So for instance, let's imagine a warrior, a mundane warrior who only uses a sword and shield. That warrior can focus on learning to kill their opponent on the battlefield by focusing on weak points. They can focus on using their shield to protect their fellow soldiers and work as a team. They can also focus on adequately protecting themselves and others with the shield, but and striking when the opportunity presents itself.  The differences are subtle using this example, but much more extreme with magic.

"For Summoners, we call the three sub paths Movers, Screamers, and Solids. Mover Summoners can utilize their summons to move physical objects in this world. This can be anything from throwing a knife, to opening a door, pushing someone, or for the most powerful Summoners, possibly even blocking a deadly strike. Summoners are highly misunderstood by other paths, and sometimes even by other Summoners themselves. Movers can easily be mistaken for tekekinetics.

“Then there is Defense.  We call this the Screamer sub-path of Summoner. Screamers are Summoners that utilize their contracted spirits to distract, annoy, or terrify their opponents. For instance, imagine you are an enemy fighting a Screamer Summoner. You are about to go in for the kill, but suddenly you hear a shriek right by your ear. Almost anyone or anything is going to react from that, and this reaction is the world that Screamer Summoners live in. Sounds, illusions, even affecting an opponent’s overall mental state for a time, Screamers run the gamut from weak to extremely powerful."

"And last are Solid Summoners. Solid Summoners are the rarest sub-path and have contracted spirits that generate ectoplasmic matter or an energy body.  This is the closest sub path to what several pet Paths might stereotypically do, except Solid Summoners have much more versatility.  Some Solid Summoners might be able to generate a shield using their spirits.  One of the most powerful Solid Sumoners in history was allegedly able to create an entire house of ectoplasm to live in while traveling.”

Wow, thought Max.  He was starting to get more excited about his new Path.  Now he also had a better idea of what Gantry Pliss had done during their duel.  He must be a Mover.

The professor continued, “Any Summoner that becomes an expert in any two sub paths is considered a Master, and any Summoner who masters all three sub paths would be referred to as a Grandmaster. This is true for any Path in the universe as well. For instance, Elemental Shifters, another academy in this quartet, has three sub-paths just like Summoners do. The name of their sub paths are Limb Elemental Shifters, Body Elemental Shifters, and Absorber Elemental Shifters."

Max furiously took notes on his tablet. This is exactly the type of information he wanted.

Professor Two-Spirit continued to talk about sub-paths in more detail until class was about to end.Then he said, "On Friday, we'll be opening your third eye. There's nothing in particular that you need to do to prepare other than try to get some rest, be in a calm state of mind, and be willing to explore outside your limits."

Max left the classroom with Lance and his mind spun, thinking about the implications of sub-paths for Summoners. He thought of his previous life as a Blade Sorcerer and realized that there had been three sub-paths for that Path too. He had just never thought of it that way, nor had it been taught that way, either.

His next class was Summoner Path Lore. He chatted for a few minutes with Lance before saying goodbye and heading to his next class.

When he arrived, Professor Brenson was seated at the front of the room and didn't even look up until the bell rang and class officially started. Max wondered when she took attendance. Maybe she hadn't. If this was  like a true university like back on Earth, there would be some professors who did not take attendance. It was something that Max hadn't really paid attention to in his syllabi yet. Most, if not all, of the professors would likely have grading criteria in there...but who knew if they were even telling the truth. The very idea of grading people on classes they were taking so they could learn to fight monsters and save dying worlds amused Max a bit.  It was ironic.  Dark, even.

Somewhat surprisingly, Professor Brenson's lecture ended up being very similar to Professor Two-Spirit's. She touched on the different sub-classes of the Summoner Path. However, instead of drilling down into what each sub-path meant, instead she talked about the history of the Summoner Path and began connecting their Path to some of the other Paths in the universe. Max actually found the lecture very interesting. He got out of class with a page full of notes he'd taken on his tablet throughout the lecture with a huge list of questions he wanted to remember.  Maybe he’d ask the professor in the future.

He was lost in thought as he ate lunch by himself.  Max pretended not to notice when a couple of people acted like they wanted to sit with him. He hadn’t been intending to be anti-social, but he'd noticed the glances they stole at the dagger on his belt.  Since their motivations were suspect, Max decided to hold off on being too buddy-buddy with anyone else right away.

His last few conversations had kind of helped him understand better how important the martial competitions in the Quartet were. They were tied to money and prestige, too.  He wasn't sure if there were any group competitions or not, but even if every tournament were an individual thing, he could imagine why some of the winners would have groupies.

And he was already getting a reputation.

He could imagine that some other students might want his input if they believed some of the rumors about how he'd beaten Prince Regal. He'd overheard one person earlier in the hall saying that a freshman had beat a third year Mystic Spear Path student while both of them wielded a spear. It was bullshit and the story kept getting more embellished.  Max had a and idea that his relative anonymity was going to end very soon.

His third class of the day, Monster Knowledge 101, started with a lecture too.  Max was pleasantly surprised to learn that some of the monsters mentioned were creatures that he was familiar with. He'd been half afraid that all the other demons and monsters in the universe were completely different than he'd encountered on Albion. It hadn’t been the most rational fear he’d ever had, but it’d still been good to find out otherwise.  And knowing of a decent number of monsters already meant this subject was one less thing that Max had to focus so hard on learning. All he had to do for the next semester in his Monster Knowledge 101 class would be to just fill in the gaps he had in his knowledge.

Professor Willison ended up being a very friendly man, much more so than Max had assumed after their first meeting, and his teaching style was very animated and hands-on. Max was happy to learn that he'd been correct about the class, that in addition to types of monsters, he’d also learn weak points and notable ways to kill them.

For the first time since he came to the Quartet, Max began to wonder what would happen to the notes that he was taking. After all, they couldn’t take anything with them from the Quartet, or at least that’s what he’d been told.

After class got out, he asked another students if he knew. He was a man with a beard, somewhat tall with glasses, and Max had noticed in class that he’d seemed very sharp.  Whenever called upon he’d always seemed to know exactly what the professor was talking about. Because of the man's extra interactions with the teacher, Max had actually caught his name.

"Charles," he said, "I have a random question if you have time."

The bearded man gave a lopsided smile.  "Then I might have a random answer, and I have time. But first, let me ask you." He pointed at the dagger on Max's waist and said, "Are you the rumored student that beat snot out of the Mystic Spear Path student in the central area before this semester started?"

Max shrugged.  “Yeah, that was me, but don't believe all the rumors. I think that some people are blowing it out of proportion. I got lucky." He thought about his duel with Gantry Pliss and accepted that his win over Prince Regal really had been lucky, or at least heavily influenced by circumstances.  The other man had been only wielding a dagger and had been arrogant.  If he'd taken Max seriously from the start, maybe it would have gone differently.

The loss to Gantry was still on his mind.  It had been a long time since Max's confidence had been this shaken. He knew the only real solution for the problem would be to work hard, train , and not only develop his mana body but also learn to be a Summoner.

Charles walked down the hallway with Max. He nodded and said, "I thought it was something like that, but still, that's pretty amazing that you were able to win a duel only a few days after getting here. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out the layout of the halls I have classes in. Anyway, what's your question?  I sure hope it’s random.  You promised."

Max pointed at the tablet that he'd folded up and put around his wrist like a bracelet. "Do we get to keep these things when we leave? Or is there another way that we can take the notes out or something?"

Charles snapped his fingers. "Ah, I actually know the answer to this random question! Yes, we get to keep these tablets. Are you from a technological world too?"

"Yeah."

"I heard somebody else saying that on technological worlds, our tablets can actually interface with the local technology, too. These are really amazing devices. And probably, actually, have you heard about the..." he stopped himself. "No, if you're asking me this question, you wouldn't know. I'll just tell you. The greatest benefit of these things when we're back on our home world is that every other returnee that has a tablet of their own, people on other Paths will be able to communicate with us using their tablets. So we can actually talk and coordinate."

Max lifted his eyebrows. "That's actually kind of amazing."

"I know, right," said Charles. "And the other thing that I've thought about ever since I got here is that this Quartet language that we all know is going to be a language all the returnees will have in common."

"That's a good point too."

The two of them talked a little bit longer before parting ways. Max thought about the interaction on his way back to his dorm. When he'd been the Hero of Albion, there hadn't been very many people that he could rely on. Of course, hindsight being what it was, he could recognize that he'd never really given many people a chance, either. Now he was going to do things differently.  He vowed to recognize other people who were good at things or who knew things Max didn’t know.   People he could learn from and rely on.

With a head full of new knowledge and a heart full of resolution, Max got ready to train.

He went out to a small copse of trees behind the academy where he didn't see anybody else. When he sat down, he felt the world around him, sensing the mana swirl to and fro. He began refining the mana using the secret technique he'd discovered by chance in his first life. Slowly, ever so slowly, his mana body began to form more fully.

As usual, he used his quiet time to do more thinking.  Being strong of body was important, but so was being strong in mind.

Losing a duel with Gantry and fighting Prince Regal in the central area had rekindled a competitive spirit in Max.  He’d been aware it was still there deep inside, but maybe not quite to what extent.  Now that it was alive again, it was growing quickly.

When he thought about his last few weeks on Earth before coming to the Quartet, he had to admit to himself that it had been manifesting itself there too. Getting involved in martial arts again had reawakened part of who he was.

Deep down, Max admitted to himself that he was actually fairly curious about all of the martial competitions in the Quartet and, more importantly, what prizes could be won if a student performed well. He also wondered if it might be possible for him to go back to Earth with even more power than he'd already been planning. It was a nice thought, and he stayed outside cycling mana until after it got dark.