novelraw Chapter 936: All Courses
Chapter 936: All Courses
The gloomy morning was indistinguishable from a moonless night.
For just two short hours each afternoon, the earth's surface would be bathed in a dim glow.
Ever since the primordial darkness from unknown outer realms enveloped the world, humanity had lost control of the surface—though, in truth, it had long since been surrendered to the anomalies.
The Academy of Giant Trees had been forced to relocate from its former position in the treetop canopy to the very heart of the great tree itself.
After resting until morning, following the old-world schedule, Lu Li left his treehouse dormitory. The junior students were already making their way unhurriedly toward the assembly hall for breakfast.
“Morning, Exorcist!”
“Hello, Mr. Lu Li.”
The friendly, curious, respectful, and polite greetings from the students along the way seemed to wash away some of the oppressive sense of crisis brought on by the apocalypse.
Breakfast was surprisingly hearty, at least by the standards of the era: a cup of knot-milk, unlimited servings of mashed potatoes and pork stew, and a small slice of blood-wheat bread.
The dubious prefixes attached to otherwise familiar foods hinted at their altered nature.The students ate with their heads bowed over their plates. Lu Li spotted Dogmeat; he already had two empty plates of the unlimited mashed potatoes beside him and was working on his third.
Fudot, who had intended to sit next to Lu Li, stopped in her tracks with a look of disgust at the sight of Dogmeat and chose a seat further away.
As he ate, Lu Li observed the junior students in the assembly hall, a diverse group of all ages.
The majority were young adults, but there were also boys and girls like Fudot. The youngest was only eight or nine, dressed in a wide, dark, wizard-like robe that concealed his arms and legs.
“Hello, Mr. Lu Li.”
A young student carrying a stack of thick books sat down next to Lu Li. Undeterred by Fudot’s disapproving glare, he couldn't help but ask:
“They say you have close ties to Vinnelag. What happened to them in the end?”
“They’re building a shelter underground, trading for resources supplied by the Merchant and the mole-people’s trading guild.”
“Do they still hold to their ideals of purity?”
“Yes.”
But not as fanatically. Their dealings with the mole-people's trading guild are proof of that.
“Without the protection of anomalous powers, they’re nothing but canned meat,” Fudot, who had been eavesdropping, remarked with feigned indifference.
“Canned meat? Where’s the canned meat?!”
Dogmeat, who had been greedily shoveling down mashed potatoes, lifted his head from his plate.
Breakfast came to an end, and the students made their way to a classroom on Chatter Street to begin their first lesson as freshmen.
The first class was Mysticism.
The other junior students were surprised to find that Professor Haig's lectures were no longer the usual dry, uninspired affairs. While explaining the origins of mysticism, he constantly deferred to Lu Li, asking him to answer questions and elaborate on points. Eventually, Lu Li had to ask him to stop with the frequent questions to avoid further interruptions.
The second class was Alchemy, which had been rescheduled. To accommodate the new students, the core courses for the following week were no longer held at the same time. Instead, electives were now offered daily, though for shorter periods.
The alchemy professor, Ruberhro, introduced the students to the origins of alchemy and how it had flourished in the Age of Anomalies. However, due to time constraints, the freshmen didn't get to witness an actual alchemical process.
The Divination professor was an eccentric woman who insisted her students call her the Nameless Lady. To demonstrate the wonders of her art, she called a freshman up to the podium and performed a reading for him.
“You are about to suffer a misfortune...”
The stunned freshman clutched the note the Nameless Lady had told him to open later and started back to his desk. But he suddenly tripped on a step in the aisle. The note fluttered from his grasp, landing open to reveal a single, hastily scrawled line.
[You will fall on the way back to your seat.]
The Nameless Lady scanned the classroom, her gaze lingering on Lu Li for a moment before she spoke, her tone heavy with meaning:
“We foresee the future. That does not mean we cannot change it.”
Compared to the first three popular subjects, classes like Botany, History, and Languages were far less attended. There were very few upperclassmen present, and those who were seemed to be dozing, as if they hadn't slept well the night before.
“They must have snuck off to the lower levels...” a girl with short hair muttered.
Even though getting caught leaving their designated level meant earning demerit points, the students still couldn't resist the allure of the magnificent, fantastical world on the levels below.
After class, the Botany professor complained to Lu Li, treating him less like a student and more like a fellow faculty member.
He lamented that his students were usually attentive, but the arrival of the freshmen had forced him to start his curriculum over from the very beginning, causing many of the older students to doze off in class.
Only the freshmen were paying close attention.
“The students sneak off this level?” Lu Li asked.
The Botany professor was taken aback for a moment before nodding. The junior years were the best time to acclimate to the environment. The schedule was flexible, there was plenty of free time, and it was relatively safe. Starting in the middle years, the danger level would rise, and there would even be a mortality rate.
As for the demerit points?
“The professors tend to turn a blind eye, letting them slip past as long as they aren’t caught by the wardens.”
Nearly every student had tried to sneak off the level at some point, and 'level-hopping' could almost be considered an unofficial course, separate from the core classes and electives.
The Languages class was a significant improvement over Botany and History. Professor Sesar was quite experienced and knew how to lecture in a way that kept the students engaged and prevented boredom.
In the afternoon's Anomaly Studies class, the professor brought in a candle-rat.
“The candle is part of its body.”
“When the candle-rat dies, the flame goes out as well.”
A thin, root-like wick protruded from the head of the filthy, hairless rat in the cage, burning with a steady flame.
“And what if the flame is extinguished?” one of the freshmen asked, raising his hand.
“The candle-rat will also die. It’s a fragile and bizarre form of life,” the old professor replied, though he didn’t demonstrate. “Candle-rats are exceedingly delicate. They can kill themselves simply by squeezing through a narrow crack or running too quickly. Catching a live specimen is no easy task.”
During the class on the In-Between, the professor, who was dressed in the robes of the Midnight Church, invited Lu Li to give a demonstration.
Lu Li obliged, summoning the Merchant who oversaw the Wastelands, allowing the professor—a devout follower of the Midnight Lady—to use the being as an example to explain the creatures of the In-Between.
The final class of the day was Combat Arts.
Professor Maven, his face a roadmap of scars, led them to the Dueling Hall for the only practical session of the day: dueling.
The freshmen, of course, were only there to observe. Lu Li, too, was not invited to participate, owing to his special status.
The first duel was between two students from the Mysticism department who had enrolled eight or nine months prior.
The two students stood thirty meters apart. As the student on the left advanced, he released a swarm of spider-like, fingernail-sized anomalous bugs. The student on the right fell back, scattering a trail of sparkling phosphorus powder.
The moment the student on the left and his spiders crossed the phosphorus powder, the student on the right took a deep breath—
The powder ignited without any visible flame, instantly engulfing the student who had charged into the area.
Professor Maven blurred into an afterimage and vanished, reappearing an instant later as he burst from the raging sea of fire, carrying the limp form of the student.
“Na Morton wins.”
The raging flames died down as quickly as they had appeared, the phosphorus powder having burned itself out.
Next up were the students from the Divination department—whose performance had none of the solemnity or fervor of a proper duel.
The two Divination students loudly berated their opponents, hurling curses at them like “trip and fall flat on your face,” “lose your shoes,” “get dizzy,” and “your arms and legs will turn to jelly.”
Given that divination was also known as the art of curses, this could, in a way, be considered a form of casting.
After the volley of curses, the two Divination students simply charged at each other and began to brawl.
Occasionally, one of the previously cast hexes would even come true.
Though the duel was as crude as a street brawl, some of the students seemed genuinely intrigued by the concept of curses that could be made manifest through words alone.
After the day's classes, the students returned to the assembly hall for dinner.
And so, the freshmen's first day of classes came to a close.