Kian Goldmaul POV

  A month has passed since the teacher taught us how to make a compressor.

  Just a week ago, I finally finished making it, so I could now say I have a Perfect core.

  It wasn’t a difficult task, but it had too many steps involved, which made the process take this long to complete.

  It did hurt a little during the construction since I had to make it connect directly to the tube. But after I finished, I noticed that coupled with the core having a way higher capacity, the speed at which I recover Veythar has become noticeably faster as well.

  I am currently in the cssroom sitting in my usual seat.

  The teacher has just asked if we all finished the compressor. Unsurprisingly, everyone in the css had finished it.

  “Alright, perfect. Now you all can start doing the real work. Since this is finished, from today forward you will be actually learning combat and magic while still learning the foundations,” the teacher says. “Although I say magic, you will still be only learning support magic and not much of the offensive types for now.”

  “As for combat, you will be improving your current fighting style by integrating it with magic and fighting experience. The fighting will mostly be simuted in the VR.”

  One of the students raises his hand. “It is hard and differs a lot from real life, so why should we use VR?”

  “It’s just for gaining fighting experience, and plus, integrating VR experience into real life is easy,” Otso expins. “Anyway, I will now be expining the magic you will be learning for the following period: Human healing magic, Healing magic, Shield magic, and Analysis magic.”

  “Human healing magic works by speeding up the regeneration speed of a human. It can also be used to regain stamina or lose the feeling of hunger by gaining energy back.”

  “Healing magic is the actual healing magic. For example, if an animal that can't naturally regenerate a limb lost its limbs, you can regenerate it. But you need a physical object of the same weight as the lost limb, for example, a rock or wood.”

  “Shield magic has multiple types, but the one I will be teaching you for now is Kinetic shield. This shield is strong enough to block low to medium grade bullets and arrows. Later you will learn other types of shield magic, but Kinetic shield will work as the foundation.”

  “Now, analysis magic. This magic is different from others, as this one isn’t just purely changing atoms. This one needs a special storage device item to use it. It will connect to the database in the item for you to see what the object is, whether it was created by magic or not, and the information it can provide is down to the atoms. There are other analysis type magics, but for now, this is enough to get used to this path.”

  “The analysis magic is learned just in case you lose all your gears and items, as it will find a way to connect you somehow, even if it is through the internet, your phone, or a public magic database.”

  “Now I will expin the basics on how to do each of them. As for the storage device, I will hand it to you after you have learned the magic.”

  After he finished expining it all, he sent the full version to the cssroom group chat and said to come to him if anyone didn't understand something. Coupled with the magic instructions, he sent combat examples and scenarios.

  “After you finish this, I will teach more foundation level magic, and after around two months from today, you will start learning your custom magic. The custom magic will be assisting each of you in combat.”

  “I will be telling each of you what your custom magic is going to be and how it operates. Before I start talking, make sure you don’t tell anyone outside this css what your custom magic is.”

  “Secrecy is a good thing for this kind of stuff. The longer your combat knowledge stays secret, the more advantage it gives you during battle.”

  Someone raises his hand and asks a question. “Can we mention it to our parents, though?”

  The teacher nods. “Yes, and please do.”

  Afterward, he started expining each custom magic for that specific person.

  As for Rhaelor, he didn’t expin anything to him. When other students asked why, he answered that the Royal family has its own custom magic and it suits them more than something the Academy can provide.

  When it was my turn, my custom magic was expined as string-like magic.

  It enables me to manipute and create strings, controlling everything from the sharpness and weight to the length and width. It is quite suitable for me as it can be used for defense, close combat, and far combat as well.

  I could even use it as a temporary bow if mine broke, or even as a sword, although doing the tter would be hard until I master the technique.

  He also said I can channel other types of magic into the strings, like fire magic, but only after I get the Knight core because of current normal core limitations.

  After he finished, he started making notes on his tablet, giving us some free time.

  After a while, I remembered the races lesson from a month ago. I click the button on my table to ask a question, as he isn’t staring at us, making it unlikely for him to notice me if I just raise my hand.

  “Hmm?” He looks up. “What is it, Kian?”

  “The races other than humans, do they use different magic from us? Like how we have custom magic, do races have their own race-specific custom magic?” I ask.

  After hearing me, he nods. “Yes, they do. It is mostly used to cover their weaknesses or to assist in daily life. Even their knight magic is different.”

  After saying that, he looks at the time. “You can go to eat lunch now. There is something in the afternoon, so come back to css before 12:20.”

  After hearing that, we stand up and leave the cssroom.

  I am heading out with the other members of the css. Since we are all returning to the cssroom together ter, there’s no need to separate now.

  We arrive at the cafeteria, and the boys and girls are seated at separate tables.

  We put our orders into the tablet and after around two minutes, multiple server robots bring the food to us.

  “What could we possibly be doing in the afternoon?” Marek asks.

  “Dunno, but from what it seems, it could be some physical training or something like that,” Lucien answers from the side.

  “Yes, physical training is most likely,” Rhaelor says. “And since he let us eat lunch half an hour earlier than usual, we will likely be training somewhere outside the academy or the capital.”

  After finishing lunch, we head back to the cssroom. After that, the teacher took us outside.

  Upon arriving, we see three buses stationed there. We follow behind our teacher and get inside one of them.

  After taking our seats, we look outside. We notice our teacher talking with two others while their students are getting inside the other two buses.

  After a while, the teacher enters our bus and we start moving. As they drive along the road, we easily notice that we’re heading outside the city limits.

  “Where are we going?” Eina asks the teacher.

  “We are going to a forest owned by the academy for some training,” he answers, looking back from his seat. “You probably noticed them, but there are two other cssrooms joining us today.”

  After a few minutes, Rhaelor breaks the silence. “Although it isn’t uncommon for different csses to join in a training activity, it is still weird. After all, the academy-owned forest is massive. There is no need to do joint training just for space.”

  We gnce at him as we start thinking.

  It is weird in some way. I have seen csses going in a bus before, but joint training is unusual. I don't know exactly how big the forest is, but Rhaelor is royalty, so he likely knows the details.

  “We should probably keep an eye on them,” I add in. “Who knows what the academy has pnned for us.”

  After hearing me, all the students nod in agreement.

  “Let’s not make it obvious that we're spying on them during the training. Kian, Crispin, you both know magic that allows you to see things from behind or other directions, right? If so, please you two spy on them. Anyone else who can use this magic, please do so as well. As for the rest of you, try not to look at them directly.” Rhaelor says.

  We nod after hearing the pn.

  After a while, we arrive at the forest. We come out of the buses and form lines divided by csses.

  Afterward, our teacher starts talking.“You lot will be doing a cross-country run. You all have a decent foundation, and so doing this should be no issue. You will all be maintaining a steady pace following behind me. The other two teachers will be positioned in the middle and at the far back.”

  “You will be given gear which you will wear while running. The running will st until we go through a loop which will take over an hour, so prepare yourselves mentally. After this, you will be training in other activities.”

  “Now go pick up your gear. It is in the bus luggage compartment. Each of you take one bag according to you gender and pick it from the bus you came here in.”

  After hearing that, we head back to the bus and pick the gear up. They weigh around 45kg. That is way heavier than the gear from my past life.

  I gnce at the other csses; their bags look smaller than ours, maybe around 35kg if I had to guess. The girls from our css have bags that seem to be about 7kg lighter than our own.

  After preparing, we start running.

  We had decided on the bus to stick together as a group if possible.

  Me, Crispin, and two other girls are in the back of our group. Our css was put in the very front by the teachers for some reason.

  They seem to be spying on us and on the other css too, I say telepathically to the other three.

  Yeah, I noticed that, and they seem to not know how to use the same magic we are using, Nefeli says.

  They seem to know telepathic magic as no one among them is talking out loud, Crispin adds in.

  This pace seems to be easy for them, but since their gear is lighter than ours, we can assume they’re weaker physically than we are, I say.

  We continue spying on them for the rest of the run. After an hour and a half, we finish. we are tired since we had to keep the same steady pace the entire way.

  We were allowed to rest for a while, but no healing magic was permitted, as if anyone among us even know how to use it.

  After resting, we did other activities. It wasn’t all physical; for example, we did command receiving training and response, scouting training, and other military activities.

  After another three hours of training, we return to the bus, finishing what we had scheduled for today.

  We made sure to keep an eye on the other csses from the start to the end. After all, you can never know what they have pnned for us. As far as I can assume, at one point we might be fighting in teams divided by cssrooms.

  After arriving home, I saw my grandpa was already here watching a movie on the television. It seemed to be a horror-comedy movie.

  After sitting down, I mentioned to him the custom magic the teacher told me about. He nodded, saying he was the one who told Otso which magic would be best for me.

  “By the way, grandpa, what was with today's training? The part where it was a joint training with two other csses. Is there something special about it?” I ask.

  “No, there is nothing special. Just normal training,” grandpa responded, still staring at the TV.

  Nothing? There was something off about his tone, but I am too tired to think about it. It doesn't really matter if there is anything behind it; it isn't like we will be put in any real danger either way.

  I y on the couch more comfortably, watching the movie with him.

  Chapter End