Past Life Hero, ch 14

Max and Lance headed over to the auditorium where their group of newcomers had received almost all of the informational assemblies over the last few days. After Max took a seat, he noted the usual group of five staff in the middle of the floor waiting for them. Now that Max had been at the academy a few days, he knew more about them.

Interestingly enough, the red-headed professor Munka actually was not a Summoner. She was a Sorceress, and was still faculty in the Summoner Academy, just not a teaching professor.  She helped with transportation spells and such. The two martial looking types, some sort of Academy security were still present, but seemed awfully bored.  Without people in Max’s group freaking out and trying to burn down the building or something, they didn’t have much of a job.

The other new students trickled in from lunch, slowly at first, but then much faster. All of the students had been asked to be on time after everyone’s very first morning.  To Max’s amusement, every new Challenger had been given what was effectively a magic watch, and they'd all been taught how to set time on it.

That had been when the group got their first spiel about rules in the Quartet.  They’d been told that during their first few days, a few disciplinary problems would likely get a pass, but after the actual semester started, too many infractions and a student’s file would begin receiving demerits. And demerits were bad.

In addition to learning how to be a Summoner in the Summoner Academy, students would also be earning artifacts, tools, weapons, and even special instruction.  Any demerits would count against anything fortunate a student could otherwise receive, including eventually losing their standard dorm rooms.

Max had heard about disciplinary dorms elsewhere on campus.

Something like this had to be true due to the existence of the demerit system, and it fascinated Max.  The logical conclusion of some students getting kicked out of classes and the dorms suggested that those who didn't want to be taught were just kept in one area by themselves until their seven years ran out.  Like a prison.  And once their time was up and they vanished or were sent away or whatever happened–because they obviously were not going to graduate–they’d return to their home world.

Max had a long list in his head of things to find out more information about and this subject was definitely one of them.

Eventually, in the middle of the room, Professor Third checked his watch and nodded. "Head count," he asked Professor Happy.

The more friendly professor glanced at a rectangle in his hand.  "Everyone's here," he answered with a smile.

"Wonderful," said Professor Third. Then he turned to the bleachers. "What we are here to discuss today is our Quartet. This discussion is perhaps among the least important from the perspective of all of you choosing your curriculum for the beginning of the semester. However, it's also a subject that needed to wait until one of our last assemblies, or you would not have the necessary background into this new world to understand most of what I was talking about." He paused and looked at Professor Happy. "Or so some of our faculty believe."

Professor Happy shrugged and made a little shooing gesture at the senior professor, who turned back to the rest of us and said, "I'm going to tell you about the other academies in our Quartet. As you all know, we are the Summoner Academy, but in our quartet we also have the Mystic Spear Academy, the Replicators Academy, and the Elemental Shifters Academy. Each one of those schools is larger than our Summoner Academy, but they are not more important than you, nor do they automatically have more power than you, regardless of what any of their students might ever tell you." He frowned after this. "The Mystic Spear Academy people in particular."

Then he continued, "Something that you will learn about the Quartets the longer you stay here, and especially if you are talented or fortunate enough to travel to any other Quartets, is that every Quartet generally has four universities that can fall into four predetermined categories. One Martial Path, one Magical Path, one External Path or External Power, and one Transformational Path. In our Quartet, the Mystic Spear Academy is the martial Path. The Summoner Academy is a Magic Path. Replicators have an internal power Path, and elemental shifters have a transformational Path.

So now you know of the general four types of Paths.  But on top of that, every Path has its own sub-paths. For instance, Summoners can largely be said to fall into one of three groups. Movers, Screamers, and Solids. Instruction on what that actually means will wait once your school year starts. But in general, the Summoner Path is like any other path where the sub paths are offensive, defensive, and utility.  Summoners have a lot more overlap between sub paths than most other great Paths do, mainly because we are borrowing power from our contracted spirits.

Experts can combine any of the two sub-paths. Geniuses and masters might be able to combine all three, but each path has a unique, signature passage to power as well. Sometimes more than one.  And understanding the Paths to power is the first step to actually getting lucky enough to discover a signature passage yourself.

I know that right now most of you will not understand what I'm talking about, but at this point you will probably remember these words later in the school year when you're learning more about being a Summoner. These facts–that every Path has similarities–are important. Because in the future, if you are tested, or others try to make you feel like you are automatically weak or inferior due to your Path compared to theirs, don't forget that every Path is a viable way to attain power for yourself and to protect your world."

Professor Third looked around at them all solemnly and said, "Thank you for being on time today. That is all. This is it.  Now you’re going to start being on your own.  For the next two days, please do visit the library or discuss classes with your student guides, or perhaps even book an appointment with campus reps or student guides until you need to turn in your class list.  Keep in mind the opening ceremony begins in four more days." Then he said, "Good luck." He turned around and headed for the exit door. Red-headed Professor Munka followed him, as well as one of the martial staff.  Only Professor Happy and the remaining martial-looking man stayed.  The two remained in order to help the newcomers link up with the student guides who were all lining one side of the wall and giving awkward smiles.

Lance and Max exchanged a glance. He whispered, "Do you know what classes you're going to sign up for yet?"

Max shook my head and said, "I'm about eighty percent there, I think, you?"

"I have no clue."

"Well, it's a good thing we have two more days to think about it then," Max said. The two of them got up along with everyone else and went down to talk with the student advisors.

***

Max sat in a corner of a study room with Lance, and the two of them compared notes.

Lance said, "This is the weirdest college I've ever heard of in my life. But then again, we are in another dimension and learning to fight monsters." He chuckled without humor at his own joke.

Max shook his head.  "It's not really that weird, just don't think about it as a college."

"What do you mean?"

Max pointed at his notes and said, "Instead of thinking about it as a college like back on Earth, think about it as a combat-oriented high school instead. Like, yes, we can pick classes, but they're more like electives.  Most anyway.  And some of them are classes that we need to have, like required classes. We all basically have homeroomm, too. They just don't call it homeroom here."

Lance nodded slowly. "Yeah, I see what you mean.  Summoner class is basically homeroom for everyone."

"Exactly," said Max. "And it's the only class that everybody will take year after year for the entire seven years unless they eventually graduate early and leave."

Lance pursed his lips.  "Isn't that kind of weird though? Like if the class is there for seven years, how can you graduate before it's all done? Like graduate early?"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure about that. But I'm pretty sure that the last few years are either optional or maybe remedial training or something like that. But to be honest, I don't think either one of us have enough information yet to say either way. The only thing certain is that I've heard of people graduating after only two years, but the majority of people seem to take around six."

Lance said, "That's what I've heard too. So, what are you going to do?"

Max tapped his notes and said, "Well, one thing that is like normal college here, maybe even like some high schools, is how we can sign up for enough classes that we’d basically have no free time. But I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not? Time?”

"That's exactly it.  For me, probably some of the more interesting classes are the ones that we'll be leaving this Quadrant for. Extracurriculars or field trips or homework or however we’re supposed to think of it.  Like going to dungeons or hunting or whatever.”

“Why?”

“Because I think the practical skills will probably be more useful since we're basically training to fight, not fill out paperwork in a future office job."

"This is so trippy, man," said Lance. "Every time I feel like I've got a handle on everything going on, I hear something like what you just said and it throws me for a loop all over again."

"Well, this is reality," said Max, and he shrugged.

“Yeah you’re right.  Sorry to be a drag.”

"No, I'm not upset about it, especially not from you. Especially since at least I've got somebody to talk to from Earth. It's grounding, you know? If I didn't have anybody here who knew anything about Earth, I think I'd feel much more lost than I already do."

"Gotcha," Lance gestured at Max. "What about you though? You're younger than me and you still seem to be taking all of this super casually."

"Well, maybe I'm just hiding it well," said Max. "I'm worried about Earth too, and especially my family, but I guess you could say that I have an old soul."

Lance gave Max a skeptical look and pointed to his notes again. "Okay, Old Soul. So let's say I agree with you about practical stuff being the most important. It looks like a lot of those classes aren't even available for our first year or at least not in our first semester. So what are you going to do?"

Max tapped his chin.  "The way I figure it, you're mostly right, but if I get a few classes out of the way in the first semester, I can get more practical classes in the second. So right now, I'm thinking that I can have a few other Summoner-related classes along with the Summoner homeroom class just like everybody else. And instead of taking the maximum number of seven classes per semester, I think I'm going to take five. That gives me enough time to do any extracurricular activities I want to do or maybe training on my own. The days here are a little bit longer than Earth but not that much longer."

"Yeah, that's weird too," said Lance.

Max shook his head. "Maybe a little bit, but think about how lucky we got. At least a week is seven days here and a day is still somewhat close to what we're used to. There are probably people here who have weeks on their home worlds that are super different than here. So from a certain point of view, it's easier for us to get used to some of this stuff than maybe some of the others."

"I hadn't thought about it that way before." Lance chuckled. "We're basically going to school with some actual aliens. That one guy who had that one really quiet guy in our new group even has horns."

Max nodded and the two of them quietly went through the lists of classes again.  Even though he was trying to be encouraging for Lance’s sake, the fact he knew so little about what it meant to actually be a Summoner was frustrating.  He felt like he was shooting in the dark, trying to fill his time in this strange new place in a productive way.  There were just too many unknowns.

At least he’d gotten some more information from the student advisors.  It seemed that four or five classes per semester was about normal for people that took Summoner Academy seriously, so he’d decided to default to that. Some of the classes were still very interesting to him, but didn't have tons of practical value, like some of the art classes. And some of them wouldn't be very useful to him, like the self-defense courses. However, he was trying not to be arrogant.  If he saw anything that might change his mind, he was open to changing his opinion on the matter.  But one thing he’d been doing over the last couple days wass seeking out the upperclassmen students acting as advisors and asking what certain classes were actually like.

Lance said, “I feel like my head is swimming.  You have anything more nailed down yet?”

"Well, we still have a few days to figure this out, but I think that right now, Basic Group Combat, Monster Knowledge 101, Challenger Path Lore, and Summoner Lore 101 are the classes I want to take."

"Summoner Lore, what's that one?" asked Lance.

Max brought out his pamphlet listing available classes and found his bookmark for the appropriate page. He opened it and pushed it over to Lance. "It's basically a class about all the various entities that a summoner can contract with."

"Wouldn't that already be in Summoner class?" asked Lance.

Max pointed at the page and said, "Obviously not. Why else would the class exist?  My guess is that Summoner class, at least at first, is just about how to be a Summoner. But this class that I want to take is about all of the different options we have.  It’s more advanced.  I like the idea of knowing more about Spirits, figuring out what kind of contracts I’d want."

"Thinking big already, huh? Isn't it already pretty lucky to get a contract with a good spirit in the first year as it is? You want to look for options already?"

Max shrugged. "Go big or go home.”

Lance thought about his options more  while Max continued to look through his handbook, double and triple-thinking his decisions. Finally, Lance announced, "I think I get why you picked the classes you listed.  But…Beginner Combat. That’s probably a must-have for me.  I'm also going to take a survival class and a mind strengthening course…Mind Strengthening 101."

"Oh really?" asked Max, somewhat surprised.

"Yeah," said Lance. "That Basic Group Combat course is only recommended if you already know how to fight, and I don't. Weren’t you like military or something?  Back on earth?"

Max laughed and shook his head. "No, I told you I was a student."

"Pretty confident for a student," said Lance. "Maybe MMA or something?"

Max nodded. "Yeah, something like that."

"Okay, well I've never even done martial arts, so I think Basic Combat would be a good class for me.”

“What about the mind strengthening?" asked Max.

Lance absently tapped his own handbook as he said, "It's kind of about what you said before, how what we're learning here is maybe stuff we can take back to Earth and teach people. It's the same reason I'm taking the survival course too. I figure that food and water and all that good stuff will probably be scarce after we get back, at least for a while. I want to make sure I can take care of my family.

“But about the mental stuff…There are a lot of people that I saw freeze up when monsters attacked or when crazy stuff  was happening back on Earth. So maybe if I learn how to have a stronger mind in a course like this, I can also learn how to teach that to others."

Max gave Lance a respectful look and said, "That makes total sense to me. So you're pretty sure about all of this?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I guess that means that you and me are in the same position now," said Max. "If we've already figured out what we want to do, we just have an extra day to kill, huh?"

Lance stood up at the same time as Max. "Seems like it. Didn't you say something about how you're going to start working out tomorrow?"

"That's right."

"Well, would you mind if I joined you? I'm thinking since I'm taking the combat class anyway, that it would be a good idea if I started working out again too. I haven't done anything like that since I was in high school."

"Really?" asked Max. He looked at his new friend and raised an eyebrow.  "I just assumed you worked out."

"Nah," said Lance. "I just got good genes from my parents. Some of my friends back in Canada hated me for it."

"Well, can’t blame them," said Max. "You lucky mofo."

Lance laughed and said, "Yeah, really lucky." He looked around him with a meaningful glance.  His voice fell.  "Actually, that was kind of a shitty thing to say, wasn't it?  We have good food.  I mean, I'm still alive and I got an opportunity to learn magic and shit– Uh, stuff here."

"Well, one of the weakest magic shits," said Max. "But yeah, still better than the folks back on Earth who aren’t learning  magic and probably having a hard time."

“Exactly," said Lance. "Sometimes I just need to remind myself this kind of stuff to keep perspective.  Feels like I get tunnel vision sometimes, just thinking about my girlfriend and my kid.  But it’s a big world.  Damn."  He shook his head.

Max nodded and the two men left the study room. "So what now?"

Lance looked around them at small groups of students talking and said, "How about we explore a little? Like we don't have any money yet, but I would like to know what I'm working towards, you know? I also need to find out more about making money. Can't we get jobs or something?"

"Now that I do not know," said Max, "but yeah, I like the idea of exploring. Do you want to go check out the central area the Quartet? That square or whatever between the four schools?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking," said Lance. "It's not an off-limits area or anything like that, is it?"

"Not that I know of. And I've gone over the entire pamphlet on the rules of the Quartet."

"I only skimmed it," admitted Lance. "Alright, I don't have any money but I suppose it won't hurt anything to go window shop to kill time."

"Alright, I’m game."

The two of them walked through the entire academy, heading to an area that Max hadn't explored yet. When he got to edge of the Summoner Academy he began to wonder if they might have made a mistake.