>Chapter 40<

The next day…

After washing up and doing nothing, the day went by quite quickly, since school was already done for the day. The only thing they had to do was to write what optional subject they would like to study on a paper that was given to them by Caedis at the end of the day.

There are many available options, one of them being alchemy, which was taught by Instructor Vernal.

On the actual paper, there are five columns that have a class name on them.

The subjects are Alchemy, Magic engineering, Magic development, Martial arts development and Magic beast study.

They all actually sound like subject that should definitely be taught in the normal course, but if you think about it a little, it does actually make sense. A person is not able to learn all five of these at the same time.

There were also some short descriptions of all of these subjects written under them in small letters.

Alchemy is mostly about making potions and discovering new uses of the magic fruits, which aren't used that often, since they are kind of rare, after all.

Magic engineering talks about advancing new technology and creating new items with the help of magic.

Magic development is basically about uncovering the secrets of magic and its use.

Martial arts development speaks for itself. You study old and already existing martial arts before trying to create a new, better one.

Magic beast study is learning about magic beasts, teaching the students their habits, their territories and every detail about them a person could think of.

Since there were five optional subject that the boys could choose from, the boys decided to each go to one of these, so that they would later either share, or just have this knowledge in their heads. Anything for survival, am I right?

Now, the only thing left to do was to determine who should go where.

"Who should go to the martial arts class?" Tim asked the group.

"Me!" Patrick raised his hand and exclaimed excitedly.

"Sure…" The group looked at him as if they were already expecting this.

The rest continued to pick out the classes they were interested in. It ended up with David, Jacob, Phillip and Tim in the Alchemy, Magic engineering, Magic beast study and Magic development respectively.

It was pretty easy to pick, because everyone's interest was different and they would all end up in different optional classes anyway, since one man once said, "The more you know."

They all handed in their papers the next day in their first class with Instructor Vernal, which was just a normal class, talking about unimportant things.

The next class was Magic theory, which was the most exciting thing about this academy, at least for the boys. They needed answers, and they would do anything to get them… not really, but anyway.

"We see each other again, students!" Instructor Rustica waved at the students from her desk in the middle of the classroom.

Yes, she has the habit of always sitting on her desk. How do people know this only after they had known each other for only about an hour? Well, from the moment they had their first class, she always sat there and didn't move from her spot the entire time. Now, they already found her seated on her desk before the class even started.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that all of the students thought of her as weird. After all, what kind of teacher comes to class before it even begins? Though, the weirdest thing is her hyperactive personality that just doesn't go along with this kind of behavior.

"Today, I will be talking about a Magic avatar." She then questioned the students. "First of all, do any of you know what a magic avatar is?"

Silence descended upon the class. Even the so called "rich kids" didn't know what that was. Nobody could blame them though, it is only taught in secret, since its existence is very important for a magic user.

Seeing that nobody was answering her, Instructor Rustica decided to speak up.

"Very well, let me explain about a beast soul first, since it has something to do with the Magic avatar." She said. "A beast soul is the manifestation of a beast's magic particles after its death. So, if you kill a magic beast, you will see a, silhouette, if that's what you could call it, in the shape of the beast you just killed. That's what we call a beast soul."

"Now, you may be asking, what does this have to do with this Magic avatar, right?" As if she read the students' minds, she explained. "We actually use these beast souls to create it, as it is an immense help for us. Now, to get to the point, Magic avatar is a kind of immaterial device, used for us to increase our magic particle capacity."

"Instructor Rustica, does that mean that it works as a kind of storage for our magic particles?" One of the students stood up.

"Simply said, yes, but its way more complicated." She crossed her legs as she sat on her desk, her arms supporting her from behind. "It is very hard for a person to create his avatar, as you have to defeat the beast in the first place. Next, you have to create an outline around the soul, so the magic particles don't leak out. There are other conditions for creating a magic avatar, but I will only talk about the most important ones, since you won't be creating one any time soon."

"First restriction, or condition, to make a magic avatar would be the element. Your element has to be the same as the beast you had killed and plan to make a magic avatar from. You can't cheat the system by making a magic avatar from an element that is not yours. But, you can make a magic avatar from a beast soul without an element, since it is made mostly from nature magic particles."

"The second limitation…"