Past Life Hero, ch 18

Summoner Academy operated on a five day class week, with weekends being two days.  Seven day weeks similar to Earth made the system easy for Max and Lance to adapt to.  Classes were staggered.  Some classes were Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and some were only on Tuesday and Thursdays.  This meant that three days a week Max had three classes for somewhat shorter amounts of time, and two days a week he had two classes and both lasted longer than the others.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, he’d have Homeroom Summoner Class, then Summoner Lore 101, then Monster Knowledge 101. His next day would consist of Challenger Path Lore in the beginning half of the day and then Basic Group Combat in the latter half. Although he'd still be getting out of class a little bit earlier on Tuesday and Thursday, he wasn't quite sure how schedules worked for people that took more than five classes. But he really didn't care, so he never found out. It was likely they just had to stay in classes for longer.

A lot of Max’s classes were either core classes or seemed to be fairly popular too, so that might have been why it worked out so well with his schedule.  He’d never even really needed to move anything around or replace any classes.

Lance's classes were very close to what he had originally wanted to sign up for as well. He ended up taking five classes just like Max. Lance had homeroom class with Max, then Mind Strengthening 101. Beginner Combat would be the end of his day today. Lances Tuesdays and Thursdays would include Basic Survival class and he had chosen Community Defense, which actually sounded like a pretty interesting class.

Max would be seeing Lance three days a week for his first class of the day, effectively.

The way his classes were laid out, he luckily wouldn’t need to meet and try to remember all five professors in one day that he’d have his first semester. And on the first day they wouldn’t keep everyone in class very long either.

When he first arrived at the Summoner homeroom class with Lance, their professor was standing outside the door and greeting every newbie in person before they even entered the classroom, introducing himself. His name was Professor Two Spirit.

In class, everyone got a syllabus for the coming semester and a brief question and answer opportunity with the professor. One of the other students actually asked Professor Two Spirit about his name. The kindly gray-haired older man smiled, making his face turn into well-worn wrinkles, and he'd explained that some Challengers were given nicknames based on things that happened in their lifetimes that stuck. M thought to himself, So it's basically a nickname.  Probably similar to Max being called the Hero of Albion in his first life.

After the class got dismissed early, Max talked to Lance about their first class. Lance said, “I think it’ll actually be easier for me to remember the professors that have nicknames, but it's also weird that some go by nicknames and some of the other professors go by their names. In fact, now I wonder if Professor Happy is Happy’s real name or not.”

Max nodded and said, “Yeah I know what you mean.  Not sure about Happy, but I don't think just anybody can go by a nickname.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, remember what Professor Two-Spirit said? That they had some sort of event or notable occurrence where they got their nickname? My guess is it's because they had some sort of martial achievement back on their world or it's also maybe a sign of respect from other summoners or even other challengers.  I highly doubt it’s just a simple nickname, at least not in this setting.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” But then Lance scrunched up one eye and asked, ”What about the headmaster? Didn't he go by his own name? And he's probably the most powerful Summoner here, right? Or at least I would assume so.”

Max nodded. “Good point. Maybe my assumptions are all wrong. I guess we'll find out, huh?”

“Yup,” said Lance. “So I have to go to Mind Strengthening 101 next, and I think it's on the opposite side of campus from your next class, right? Don't you have... What do you have?”

Max held up his tablet and said, “Summoner Lore 101.”

“Oh, that’s right.  Anyway, I'm gonna head over to my next class now just to figure out where the place is. I'll see you later on today.  If not lunchtime then after classes and stuff and maybe we can talk about everything.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

Max continued on alone to Earth Hall where Summoner Lore 101 was held. Unlike with his first class, the professor was not outside greeting everyone, but the doors were open. Technically it wasn't time for Max’s class yet, but he stuck my head in anyway just to see what was going on.

There were no students sitting inside, but a woman was sitting behind the desk, presumably the professor. She looked up and said, “If you're going to be in one of my classes, you can either grab a paper copy of the syllabus off the table over there.” She gestured at a table in the corner. “Or you can just work off of your tablet. I've already sent a copy of the syllabus to the network and it should show up on your device. Otherwise, just make sure you sign in on the clipboard over there and I will note you down as having showed up. There's no point trying to get anything else done on the first day of the semester.”

“Okay, thank you, Pofessor…Brenson,” Max said, reading the crystal board behind her. She nodded at him impersonally and went back to the tablet that she'd been writing on. Max did what she'd said, noted that he showed up to class, and he took the opportunity to grab a copy of the syllabus too. As soon as he did so, he realized quickly that he needed some sort of pack or bag.  At the moment he didn't have either.

Most of his informational needs were going to be met with the tablet, but he would probably have other things to carry from time to time, and his robes were not going to be enough.

On a normal day, for one of his Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes, he would have lunchtime before the third class. But he'd gotten out of both of his first two new classes so quickly that he had some serious time to kill. Max briefly thought about heading to his third class for the day, Monster Knowledge 101, in order to see if he could get that knocked out quickly too.  He decided not to. After all, there was no real rush. Instead, he headed towards the library, which was an incredibly fascinating place.

The library was huge. It was probably one of the, if not the, nicest areas in the entire Summoner Academy and the only one that didn't come across as at least somewhat shabby. Then again, if Summoner Academy had a library this nice, Max wondered if the other Quarted schools had an even nicer one. Probably, he decided. The library was an absolute treasure trove of information and he really liked the cozy quiet of the place.

Max had been looking for information on Earth and Albion.  But he’d also been searching for anything he could find on the monster portals and worlds being attacked.

There were several floors in the library.  As he went higher, there was more security. He couldn't get past the third floor. The librarians wouldn't let him. Every time he tried, there was a barrier and the staff informed him that books on higher floors were too dangerous, especially for new students like Max.

Today, he thought about his dagger that he’d won from Prince Regal.  It seemed appropriate to do some light reading on enchanted weapons. He was familiar with enchanted weapons from my first life on Albion, but he was quickly coming to learn that the universe was much larger than he’d ever known before.

Every time he came to the library, he also kept an eye out for texts on reincarnation or anything else that might shed some light on his current situation. So far he couldn’t quite find anything that answered any of his questions.  It’d been a while and he didn’t have the aching frustration or anger about it anymore, but his death had truly been violent. When Max had been Chasa de Milo, he’d been murdered by some of his closest friends and most trusted people in my life.

Get it together Max, he told himself, slapping his cheeks.  Ancient history.

He made a face as he started flipping through the new stack of books he’d placed on a table.

Most books he;d read in the library so far about theories on reincarnation or anybody coming back after death involved dark magic and circumstances that didn't apply to him. More importantly, they involved entire groups of people working to preserve a soul or otherwise allow a person to keep their memories while inhabiting a new body. Meanwhile, Max had been murdered and apparently just…reborn on an entirely different world.

The library was a great way to make a few hours pass in a productive manner. When lunchtime came around, he went and quickly grabbed some food, not looking too hard for Lance. He just scarfed something down as he was leaving the cafeteria, something easy to eat that looked sort of like corn dogs on Earth.  Then he went right back to the library. Max set an internal alarm using his mana and continued reading during lunch time.  He was pouring over a fascinating book on enchanted weapons that covered an entire class of devices that he had never heard of back on Albion.  His horizons were definitely expanding.

When it was time for his third class, Monster Knowledge 101, he was both pleased and somewhat disappointed.  His new teacher, Professor Willison, a middle-aged bearded man, had set up something like Professor Brenson had. Max just signed in that he had showed up and got a hard copy of his syllabus.

Just like that, he was done for the day.

Max went back to his dorm room and glumly looked in the closet. It was nice that he had at least one pair of decent clothes now, even though he hadn’t actually worn them yet, but he still didn't have any workout clothes.  This was becoming a problem since he had gotten back into working on his fitness. Working out in a robe was somewhat awkward, he had found, but there wasn't any other choice right now. Summoner students apparently weren’t really big on working out as a group.  Max decided that as soon as he could, he was going to figure out how to make some money and get some real clothes.

After working out for a bit, mostly doing sprints and exercises using his body weight, he headed to the rear of the Summoner Academy campus.  He left school grounds, heading for a forest that was behind the college. This would give him a little bit of added privacy to practice martial arts. Working out was fine where other people could see him, but some things should be done alone.

As usual, once he was in the forest, he found a handy stick on the ground and proceeded to practice weapons forms. This was basically a second workout session for him, but he also used the opportunity to do fine mana control practice and use his physical body as a catalyst for his mana improvement efforts.

Max was not naive. Because of what he had done in the central area a few days ago, consequences were guaranteed.  He expected someone else would eventually challenge him, or even try to murder him.  This was likely to be dangerous and annoying at least at some point.  However, if he got into enough fights and was lucky enough to steal  enough people's belongings, that might actually solve his money problem.

He grinned at the thought and focused on his sword swings, imagining that his half-rotten branch was the same beautiful, powerful weapon that he wielded back in Albion.

What was done was done.  Max had made enemies.  The best thing to do now was to get stronger.  In the future, his enemies were sure to be more dangerous.

This reality worried Max, but also drove him, gave him a reason to push forward.

Max shook his head, remembering his friend Ven in his past life.  Maybe Ven was right.  Maybe there is something wrong with me.

He shrugged.  Too late to change now.

Max practiced harder.