Another fact proves that as long as your teacher is strong enough, you will constantly be threatened by the phrase, "I'll tell the teacher."
Even though Strange has become a universally renowned Supreme Magician, and even historians throughout the cosmos generally believe his achievements surpass this, Strange still possesses a fundamental fear for the teacher named The Ancient One.
But this wasn't to say that he was overly cowardly, finding a few people within the universe who didn't fear The Ancient One would actually prove difficult. Saying she had a notorious reputation would be somewhat conservative.
Seeing the few others show a slightly curious expression, Strange could only let out a sigh, and said, "My teacher, The Ancient One, oh, her real name is 'Yao', born about four hundred and seventy years ago in a small village at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains, that village is called Kamar-Taj."
"She came into contact with magic unintentionally and, with her immense talent and supreme patience, achieved enlightenment in almost complete isolation, then embarked on a particularly brilliant life journey...
In the rest room of Kamar-Taj, three children lay side by side on a big bed which occupied half of the room. Each of them had pale faces and looked stupefied, although they already had magic bubbles providing them with sufficient oxygen above their heads. Nevertheless, their bodies, being more delicate than adults, required a longer time to adapt to all of this.
The Indian girl known as Sheryl brought three cups of hot tea on a tray, placed them on the small table in the middle of the bed, and tried to converse with them in both Chinese, Indian dialect, and English. Eventually, Harley, who was in the best physical condition among them, responded to her.
"Hello, you can call me Harley, can you tell us where we are now?"
"Has the Supreme Magician not explained to you in advance?" Sheryl adjusted the hem of her skirt, sat on the edge of the bed next to Harley, and said, "This place is Karmatige Magic Academy. The Supreme Magician said that you are new students here, and you would be reporting today. Ade was originally supposed to be in charge of your reception, but we didn't expect you all to end up here."
"I am responsible for helping the Supreme Magician clean his study. I was really scared when I saw you all lying here, but don't worry, this kind of situation has happened before."
"The altitude of this academy is very high, and students also need this high-altitude environment to strengthen their bodies, so there's no magic that can completely eliminate the effects of altitude sickness for this school."
"The vast majority of new students will spend about two months acclimating to a slightly lower altitude at the foot of the mountain, they call this period 'preparatory'. They only come up the mountain afterward, when the Supreme Magician explained hurriedly, we all assumed that you had already completed your preparatory period."
"Did you say... that this place is a Magic Academy?" Little Bruce lifted his head with all his strength and asked somewhat arduously.
"Yes, this is Karmatige Magic Academy."
"You just mentioned... the Supreme Magician, what is his name?"
"I don't know his name, but I know he's last named 'Strange,' an American, which differs from the nationality of most people here."
The three children looked at each other, Little Bruce lay back down again and said quietly amidst ceaseless dizziness, "There's also Dean Strange's assignment..."
"You said that most people here are not Americans?"
"There are some, but after all, the academy is established in Asia, and most masters of the previous generation were Asians. Their activities were also mainly in Asia, so there are more students from various Asian countries, like me, who come from India."
"But your English is very good."
"Because my family is well-off, though I don't like to talk about the past too much, but I belong to the high caste, from Kshatriya, which is why I could go out and study alone."
"Are there people from other countries?" Harley kept asking desultorily, given that they could do nothing but play corpses right now, they could only strive to gather as much information as possible.
"There are many, China, Japan, India, Singapore, of course, there are also Americans, Europeans and not a few exchange students from magical organizations all around the world." Sheryl's voice was very soft, and quite soporific. Under her quiet narrative, the three children generally understood how this magic academy was different from Gotham Magic Academy.
First of all, this was an Eastern Magic Academy, although the students hailed from many countries, at least more than half of them were Asians. Thanks to Strange, there were also quite a few Americans, followed by Europeans, and a very small number from Australia.
But this wasn't strange, because there wasn't just one magic academy in this world, the vast majority of countries have their own magic organizations. Some are tied to popular beliefs, others exist individually and live in the shadows.
Secondly, this academy does not adopt a college system, but rather a regular grade and class system. There were no specific majors, but there were elective courses. Currently, there were five grades in elementary, three in junior high, three in senior high, a total of eleven grades. There were far more students than in Gotham Magic Academy, and altogether there were over a thousand students now.
And the dean of this school was the Dean Strange they had seen at Gotham Magic Academy - clearly, the title "Supreme Magician" was from this cosmos.
After laying in bed for a while, each of them dozed off a few times due to dizziness, the hypoxic situation was finally relieved. They were slightly conscious, but were still asked not to exert themselves vigorously, so they could only lay on the hard giant bed, which was like a heated brick bed or a planned old-style, tatami mat. They sat around the small table in the middle, drinking tea and eating snacks.
Sheryl helped them peel seeds on the side, then introduced them, "Without any unexpected circumstances, you should all go to elementary school, what grade were you in regular society?"
Little Bruce's skeptical nature prevented him from entirely trusting those at the school, so he purposely shrugged and said, "That doesn't matter, we all don't much like school. Maybe a magic academy will be a bit more interesting. There shouldn't be as many irritating rules, right?"
Sheryl turned her head and looked him up and down. Her light brown eyes were very calm. She let out a light sigh and said, "You better not get your hopes up. Nearly every American student who comes here struggles quite a lot during the first few weeks. The academic pressure here is much higher than back home."
"I've heard that schools in Asia are especially terrifying," Barry said, shrinking back slightly. "Their senior students have twelve hours of classes a day. If I had to do that, I'd go crazy."
Sheryl's movements paused momentarily. She pursed her lips and said, "I know you probably have many beautiful fantasies about a magic academy, but I'm afraid it's quite different from what you imagine here."
"What exactly do you mean?"
"You'll find out when you start your classes."
Soon, Master Song led the other mages in. She bowed slightly towards the three children with her hands folded, saying, "I'm sorry, that was our mistake for making you suffer, but don't be afraid. It won't cause you any harm. Once you're used to it, it will even be beneficial to your cardiovascular function."
"The Supreme Magician has informed me of your situation. The two boys will be in the second grade of elementary school, and the girl will directly be in fourth grade. If you feel you can handle it, or even excel, you can choose to skip grades afterwards."
Finishing, Master Song waved at the two mages behind her. They brought over school uniforms, magic wands, and necessary supplies on trays.
The uniform for Karmatige Magic Academy was dark brown, like a simplified version of a Chinese dress with tied sleeves. The cuffs and trouser ends were tied tightly. The belt was tightly fastened too. While it was not as luxurious as a wide-sleeved robe, it gave an impression of being sharp and agile.
"Sorry, but your magic wands won't be activated right now. However, you will likely have your first wand usage lesson in about three days. Now come with me, I'm going to take you to the dormitory."
The three children followed behind Master Song, traversed through prolonging suspended corridors, crossed terrifying wooden paths, and after braving some harsh winds and snow, they arrived at the second floor of the main building on the left. Standing in the corridor, Master Song pointed to both sides and spoke.
"This is the boys' dorm, and that's the girls' dorm. They're all four-person rooms, but they're not full yet. You can either share a room with others or use a room by yourselves."
Then they visited the dorm rooms, which were vastly different from Gotham Magic Academy's dormitory. Generally, it was all of oriental style - wooden floors, walls, and doors, Ming Dynasty furniture, solid wood beds. Every part was austere, giving an impression of hardness and inflexibility, yet carried a special kind of charm.
These three children had never lived in the East before, so they were quite intrigued. They touched everything and looked around. At least Harley seemed satisfied with her future life. She stood at the corner of the corridor and said,
"Although I know this is probably part of the professors' plan, it's not bad here, right? Moreover, it looks like the magic here is completely different from our world."
Little Bruce stared thoughtfully at the magic wand in his hand, which looked more like a small stick. He nodded and said, "I agree. We should first get familiarized with the situation here, but we do need to find a way back."
"We should go and sort out our rooms first," Barry said, glancing at the weather outside in the snowstorm. "Then let's quickly adjust to the time zone; otherwise, we won't be able to get up tomorrow morning."
Then, the three of them separated. Little Bruce and Barry went to the boys' dormitory, while Harley went back to the girls' dormitory by herself. She chose to use one room alone because she couldn't speak any Eastern language yet. In this school, that was quite rare, so she had to learn Chinese or Japanese first before she could communicate smoothly with others.
Just when Harley was worrying about her bed, which felt too hard for her, she suddenly heard a knock on the door.
Harley walked over to open it. There stood a girl who looked much younger than her, also she was white, but with black hair and green eyes.
"Hello, I heard you moved in next door. Are you American too?"
"Yes, my name is Harley Quinn. I come from... um, a city on the East Coast." Harley tried to swallow the word "Gotham" after thinking for a bit, mainly because she didn't want to scare the girl.
"Nice to meet you, Helen Stark. I'm a first-grader and just started school this year. Since I also can't speak Chinese, I had to live alone. It looks like we can keep each other company. I'm from New York."
"New York? Alright, come in, do you know any way to make this bed a bit softer? I'm pretty sure my back and shoulders are protesting," Harley said.
Harley took Helen to her bed. When Helen heard her, she immediately shook her head and said, "Oh, I forgot you're transfer students. You probably can't use your magic wands yet, right? Let me do it."
After speaking, Helen reached out and pointed, a ray of purple light shot from her fingertips, and with a 'thud', a soft large mattress landed on the bed.
"Wow! That's so cool! Is that your magic?"
"To be accurate, it's Divine Power. I have God Clan blood, but I usually just tell them it's advanced 'wandless magic.'