World Sphere - 47 - The New Class

Chapter 47: The New Class

I had to put up with Gareth constantly bragging about his meal at the estate of the magistrate. What hurt the most was his claim the food was as just as good as mine. The magistrate even offered to sponsor Gareth to the Naval Academy in the capital city in return for serving on his personal skyship for six years. 

During the meal, he was seated next to his youngest daughter. She was almost thirty, Gareth professed, but she was pretty. I was glad Gareth was getting his just recognition, but his head was getting too big, and I was having trouble containing it. 

In the two weeks leading up to the start of the academy, I made some progress on learning the lightning reflexes spell. I was hiding the spellbook from Gareth as I wanted to surprise him when I finally learned it. It was not an easy spell to learn. I had no idea how long it would take, but there was good news—the spell forms made a weird kind of sense to me. 

I knew this was partly from being a dungeon created spellbook and the fact that I had affinities for both lightning and healing, the aspects of this spell. The spell was pretty insane when I looked at it. It increased movement speed by around 50% at the cost of a relative aether per second. Being a dungeon spell, there were no evolutions detailed in the book, but I was already puzzling some things out. Reducing the aether expenditure and increasing the speed seemed the obvious ones.

I had a few other spell advancements. My obfuscate abilities spell reached level 5, and I chose to edit my healing and lightning affinities. I had both showing just tier 1 now to anyone attempting to read me. This would hide my tier 4 healing affinity and tier 2 affinity for lightning.

My dimensional closet hit level 6 because I had been using the exchange property of the spell liberally. At level 5, I confirmed that space was increasing at a rate equal to my aether core growth, so it made sense to increase the depth of the space by two feet for the evolution. With my core growth, I estimated it would translate to more than three feet of growth when my core fully matured. I planned to reach level 7 as soon as possible to extend the space again to take advantage of the bonus growth from my greater aether core. 

At level 3 in my alarm spell, I selected the silent alarm option. This evolution allowed me to tag up to three people who would hear the alarm go off in their heads, but no sound would be made when it was triggered.

Of course, in the two weeks after Gareth won the tournament, Callem also put us to work to get barracks ready for all the students. I didn’t voice it, but I found it irritating that not only was I paying for the upgrades, but I was also doing the physical labor of painting and moving in furniture as it was delivered o skyships. 

Gareth, for his part, was ‘reserving’ the larger room across the hall for Mera and Fera. I didn’t know if students were going to be assigned rooms, but I would be adamant about taking the larger room we had been using while working on the facility.

We were not the only ones helping to get the improved facility ready. Pascal and his group of friends were clearing bushes to extend the practice yard and expand the already daunting obstacles on the obstacle courses. 

One thing I did manage to secure was upgrades to Gareth’s and my room in the shipments by talking with one of the traders and giving him a few coins directly rather than them be invoiced to Callem. This included nicer furniture, better mattresses, and softer linens. 

When the day finally came, the 23rd day of the new year, it was like sending off your children to college in my old world. Callem was the currently the only instructor here as families dropped off the students for a year of instruction. 

Each new student brought a large pack of clothes. Some brought weapons and armor. The one theme persistent among everyone arriving was that the incoming students were here to learn how to defend themselves and possibly gain admission to an advanced academy. Many of the students would never to return to their families, going into a profession or onto an advanced academy after the year.

If Callem kept the same structure as past academies, then we would spend half the day training, the afternoon in classes, and have our evenings free to socialize. The age of 17 was considered the adult age in Skyholme. This meant we were not going to have any of the teachers living at the barracks. The first-year academy taught you not only to fight but also how to develop long-term relationships. 

As soon as Mera and Fera showed up they moved across the hall. Gareth had been guarding the room since the first person arrived. Gareth dragged me across the hall to help them unpack. Gareth did most of the talking, and I just lounged on the bed while the twins moved their clothes to the chest and armoire. 

I was playing with the spell forms in my head for the lightning reflexes spell, so I was distracted. “Storme. Storme.” Mera had been trying to get my attention for a few moments and she finally succeeded.

“Sorry, I was working on imprinting a new spell,” I said. Her interest was instantly piqued. 

“What spell, Storme!” She sat excitedly next to me on her bed. I looked around, noticing Gareth and Fera had left the room, leaving us alone.

“Well, it is a secret, so you can’t tell Gareth.” She nodded. “It isn’t that impressive of a spell,” I said, downplaying it. “It just makes me faster for a short time. Hopefully enough to defeat Gareth in a friendly duel.” I let out a smile-smirk just thinking about it.

“We went to see you fight in the qualifiers. You were amazing. We had to promise father quite a bit of extra work on the farm to go to the second day, but it was worth it! You are amazing! Am I going to be able to fight like you after the academy?” She asked while looking into my eyes. Was she about to lean in?

“If you work hard enough, you can. It will take a lot of investment on your part,” I said supportively,ignoring her closeness.

Mera grabbed hold of my arm, “Will you help me?”

Realization dawned on me. This was a trap to get me to spend more time with her. It wouldn’t be a bad thing, but it would take a lot of my time. I ran through the possibilities but decided it was not in my interest. “Gareth is a much better fighter and teacher than me.” A mask of disappointment was on Mera’s face. “Magic is really my thing. If you wanted to learn magic, I could help.” I tried to salvage the conversation as she didn’t take the rejection well.

Mera looked somewhat sad. “I do have a very small aether core, as does my sister, but it's difficult to learn magic….”

I was torn as to what I should invest in this relationship with Mera pushing so hard. We were both close to age, about 16 physically, but in reality, I had foggy memories from a past life and it felt wrong and I didn’t want to lead her on.

Mera was attractive in a tomboy kind of way, with her best attribute being her constant, bright smile. “Callem has a magic instructor coming to teach at the academy. I am sure you could learn from her if you have an aether core, no matter how small.”

Slowly her eyes brightened, “I could learn magic? Fera too?”

“Definitely. It just takes time and lots of focus. We should find out tonight at dinner about the classes,” I said. I cast my cleanliness spell. The smell of vanilla hit her, and she looked at me in question. “Magic,” was all I said, and she giggled.

Our conversation turned to more mundane topics as we talked about the other students. Twenty-eight was quite a large number for Hen’s Hollow. Gareth and Fera returned, with Gareth looking like the cat that got the canary. Fera also had puffy lips—so I assumed they had been kissing. I looked at Mera next to me, and she looked away, embarrassed. I think she was supposed to kiss me while they were gone. 

With Gareth and her sister in the room, she lost confidence, and soon the conversation went to speculation as to what would happen at the dinner. I doubted there would be any sorting hats.

The dinner was catered from the tavern in Hen’s Hollow, and plates of food were on the table with pitchers of water. I knew the pantry below the kitchen was now mostly stocked, as Gareth and I had spent a few days carrying down the barrels and meats. The fact that I did not see any cooks had me extremely worried about my fate. 

The tables were positioned so that one head table faced the others. Callem and Aelyn were sitting at this table with a middle-aged man. Callem stood once everyone was seated. Some people were already nervously picking at the food before them. 

Callem stood, a smile peaking through his beard. “Welcome!” Callem’s command voice rang through the room. “This will be your first year of the academy, and I, Callem Dregalla, will be your Head Instructor.” The room broke into chatter as everyone was obviously excited as they all knew who Callem was now. I could see Mia sitting two tables away, grinning. 

“We will be doing things slightly differently than past academies in Hen’s Hollow. The year will be divided into three terms. For the first term at dawn break, we will start with two hours of conditioning administered by Aelyn Imiduis,” He pointed to Aelyn at the table with him. 

Her cold stare swept over the room, sending chills down my spine. She was looking forward to this. “If anyone one of you attempts to order her around based on her mark, then she has permission to beat some sense into you.” Aelyn smirked, and it held a hint of wickedness. I held Aelyn’s ring, so technically, I was the only one who could order her, but Callem had made it seem as if he were the holder of Aelyn’s contract to protect us. 

“After conditioning, will follow breakfast. Breakfast will be prepared by local women and girls in town, so treat them with the respect they deserve and don’t complain about the food.” Relief flooded through me as I wouldn’t have to cook. It made sense that conditioning was first as well, otherwise the training would likely result in our breakfasts being left on the obstacle course.

“After breakfast, you will be broken into four groups for classroom instruction based on your needs. The classrooms will be for 3 hours in the subjects of reading/writing, mathematics, dungeon delving, and spellcraft. For spellcraft, you need to have an awakened aether core.” 

There was a lot of buzzing going on now. I don’t think there had ever been spellcraft taught in Hen’s Hollow. Typically, just one in ten people had an awakened core. With the twins having small cores, the math suggested that, at most, just one other person in this room would be able to cast spells. But I would have to wait and see.

Callem continued over the murmurs, “After morning classes, will have lunch followed by weapons training. We have four weapons masters. Aelyn here is a master of the rapier, instructor Elora is a master of the staff, Elijah Habriel is a master of the axe, and I will cover the remaining weapon classes.” 

Whispers of awe rang through the dining hall as weapons masters were rarer than awakened cores. I thought calling Aelyn a rapier master was a bit of a stretch—since Gareth could beat her, did that make him a weapon’s master? I just imagined his head swelling. Was Elijah the monster hunter Callem had talked about? He hadn’t mentioned whether he was successful in tracking him down.

Callem raised his hands to quiet the crowd, “After weapons training, you will all be bathing in the town bathhouse before evening classes.” Callem looked at me and grinned, knowing I would have a free one-hour block of time while everyone else rushed to the bathhouse. “Evening classes will be your choice of artificing, history, herbalism, or monster hunting.” It was clear that Callem had recruited Sana Velin and Aldon Aethon to be my teachers. For Gareth, he recruited Elora Cassior and Elijah Habriel to help him master different weapons.

“Following classes will be dinner. During dinner, you will be lectured for one hour on Skyholme law and politics,” Callem finished. The last was a requirement in order for the first-year academies to get funding from the Triumvirate. There was a lot of buzz at the tables at the schedule.

Callem raised his hands again to silence everyone, “This is instructor Aldon Aethon,” he indicted the middle-aged man. He will be teaching history and artificing. “The other three instructors will be introduced at breakfast tomorrow.” Callem grinned widely, the old man seemingly full of energy. “Also, I almost forgot! In order for you to select which classes you wish to take, we have the esteemed readers, Wynna and Ennet, here to give each of you a private reading.” We all turned to see the two women in the doorway. Callem’s voice boomed, “Do not share your results with anyone! If you need help selecting your two classes, then talk to either Aldon or me this evening.”

Every student here would have been too poor to afford a reading normally. Callem was going all out to create the perfect learning environment. I don’t think many of these teens would understand that until they reflect on it later in life. Even though he was obviously doing this for our benefit, he would do his best to prepare the remaining students as well. 

“One final announcement!”  Callem bellowed again, seemingly having forgotten something. “Normally, you would have every seventh day off, but not this week.” The students went quiet. “This seventh day, there will be a field trip to the capital to watch two of your classmates compete in the first two rounds of the Pre-Academy Annuals!”  

The apprehension about losing a day off changed into cheers. I didn’t think any of these students had ever been to the capital before. I knew the town had rented an entire skyship to go watch us compete. So Callem must have reserved seats for everyone in our academy class. 

While the excitement raged around us, I ran through the entire schedule in my mind. Damn Callem. If you added up the time, we would not have any time in the evening to do anything but sleep! Which was perhaps the point. Unfortunately, I needed to study my spells, and learning how to be a good enchanter was also a priority for me, so I hoped to practice artificing.

As things quieted down the line to get a reading started to form and Gareth and I retreated to our room. Since the twins had already had a reading recently, they left the dining hall with us. They joined us in our room. Mera said, “Why is your furniture so nice!!” She was going around and exploring every nook. “Storme, why is your side of the room so bare? I thought you had been living here for the last two weeks?”

Gareth answered her, “Storme purchased us nicer furniture and mattresses. I convinced him to get the same mattresses for your room.” Was Gareth taking credit for their slightly better mattresses? Why not just scream from the mountaintop that I was spending silver like water?  

Mera and Fera thanked Gareth instead of me with a hug—and I was slightly jealous. “So, Storme,” Mera started, “Where are all your spell books? I thought you were a mage. And you said you were working on a new spell?” My side of the room was quite bare since I stored pretty much everything in my dimensional closet. 

I didn’t plan to leave my spellbook lying around because I didn’t want Gareth to see the spell. “Everything I need is in my trunk,” I indicated the closed trunk at the foot of my bed that was locked and actually empty. 

“Oh,” Mera sounded slightly disappointed. “Can you clean our room with your vanilla spell? Maybe we could do you favors for keeping it clean for us,” she suggested with a half-smile. 

“Sure,” I committed to the simple request—no payment required. My range was one and a half feet, so it just took walking around the room and casting the spell a dozen or so times. She smiled at me. Excited students kept coming back from the dining hall. 

The twins and Gareth started getting into a conversation about what weapon would be best for each of them. I really wanted to study my spell, but didn’t want to bring the book out around Gareth. I lay down and focused on my dimensional space. I found the book quickly and tried something new.

I tried to manipulate the book on the shelf, changing its orientation and opening it to the page I wanted to study. I minor drain of my aether, and the book was on the desk in the space. 

I got excited, but it took about 30 minutes before I could get the book open to the correct page. Then I focused close to the page, like zooming in. It was a success. I could see everything clearly and study the spell this way! The only drawback was that I was not aware of the things happening around me in the real world. I could hear muffled conversations while my perception was focused inside my dimensional closet, but that was it. The best part was I hadn’t needed to use an evolution on this trick.

I don’t know how long I spent studying the spell, but when I returned to awareness, the twins were gone, and Gareth was on his bed reading one of his dungeon books with a light stone. 

“Back with us, Storme?” Gareth asked. “You know, I think Mera really likes you. You should make more of an effort with her,” he said off-handily. 

“I know.” I decided to be a little honest with my best friend. I whispered, “You know my past life knowledge. Well, it makes me feel a bit older, and she is young,” I confided in him.

Gareth rolled over on his side to look at me, “Storme, by the time the first-year academy is over, most everyone here will have been intimate. Fera and I are already kissing.” 

I reflected on his words. According to the books, mages, particularly the powerful ones, had suppressed my hormonal urges during the time their aether cores developed. “Perhaps it’s wiser for you to avoid relationships, Stormy,” Gareth interrupted my thoughts, “as it means there’s more for me.” I threw a pillow at him, which he effortlessly caught and added to his collection with a smirk. 

I was definitely going to have to figure out how I was going to approach my relationships in the next year. I lay down, using my one remaining pillow. I liked Mera but as a friend. I liked Aelyn too, but she thought of me as a boy who held her leash because of the indentured mark. She was also four years older than me. I decided Gareth was right, it was best not to become too involved with anyone.