I slept in on the weekend, waking up around 8 instead of 5. That was around 12 hours of sleep. I felt much better than I had the previous days. After getting a shower and changed, I went out to the sitting room. Healer Melon was waiting for me with breakfast.
“I figured you could use a relaxing meal instead of walking to the cafeteria,” he greeted me.
“Thank you.” I sat down and began eating.
“So, Monster Processing from 11 to 1 and then an auxiliary class for Spear Skills after that for five hours. I guess I am on duty again,” he said.
“That is the plan. I need to work on my other tier 1 weapon skills. And since you are here, I am going to take advantage,” I replied, and Healer Melon shrugged.
“I am getting a lot of studying in on my own. And practice,” he said. I had noted the pet rabbits he had in his room. He was clearly working on improving his skills as well and just sitting around all day. Unless I had a fighting class, there was no reason for him to follow me around.
Also, retainers were discouraged from constantly following their students around the College. The point of retainers was so young people didn’t get into trouble while away from home while they were at the College. The attack on me by the Dark Cabal was a very rare occurrence from what I had been told.
There might be one attack on a student inside the College every five to seven years at most. The security was quite tight, and everyone was regularly questioned with truth orbs when they returned after leaving the College.
The College had apologized to me for allowing the attack to happen in a letter and letting me know they had deposited 1,000 gold in my account. Just a short letter of apology and a large amount of gold and that was it. I wanted to know more about the Dark Cabal and the people who had attacked me along with their leader who had cursed me. But even my father didn’t have much information to share with me.
The Dark Cabal was a mysterious organization that enjoyed terrorism and dreamed of remaking the world into a hellscape of some kind to bring about their prophesied messiah who would lead them to a promised land. Their members, methods, and almost everything about them was hidden, since the moment it was known they were targeted and killed.
No one liked the Dark Cabal and the only reason people joined up was due to their promises of quick paths to power. Of that I had no doubt, if they had skills like Experience Siphon. It had felt weaker since I had been attacked. My mother said she had wounded their leader, but he had escaped.
I could feel the curse had weakened and it was tempting to check my status, but I held myself back. Checking once every three months was an important mindset to have to keep some discipline. While I might pick up some useless skills, I wasn’t about to completely fall apart and constantly check my status all the time.
If I didn’t earn enough levels in certain skills over the course of a day, that would impact my mentality in terms of future leveling. Also staring at numbers constantly didn’t make my skills level up, only working on them did. Still, the temptation was there.
I got some looks in my Monster Processing Skills class for wearing armor instead of the school uniform, but no one said anything. Everyone was focused on earning skill levels and focused on improving themselves. No one had the energy or time to worry about other students.
After my Monster Processing Skills class, I made my way to where auxiliary fighting classes were held and met Healer Melon. I made my way into the large training hall for Spear Skills. “Hello, I am Justin Burstock, first year student,” I greeted the Assistant Professor, who had a more martial school uniform like the school guards.
“Assistant Professor Tallow Sharppoint,” the elf said while twirling a spear.
“Healer Melon, here to watch over the session,” my bald retainer added.
“Well you have booked my time for the next five hours. Since there is a healer present, I don’t need to hold back as much. We will spar for five hours and I will correct you.” I pulled out my spear from my spatial pouch and handed the spatial pouch to Healer Melon so it wouldn’t get damaged during the spar.
“I was wondering where you kept your weapon. Come, let us dance,” he said. I moved out and we began exchanging blows.
“More power behind your thrusts.”
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“Manage the distance better. Watch your footwork.”
“Deflect and keep moving. Think in circles and lines.”
After an hour Tallow Swiftwind called our spar to a halt. “You are around level 70.”
“Level 71,” I replied and he nodded.
“You have a decent foundation. But you clearly prefer a sword to a spear. Mastering multiple weapons is difficult. Especially with a second weapon that is when your instincts and other skills will confuse you the most. Try to suppress your other weapon skills while training with the one you are using. Now I will switch to a sword and shield, you will keep using a spear.” I nodded at this and steadied my breathing while the Assistant Professor switched out his weapon.
Every hour he would switch to a different weapon. Healer Melon kept my stamina topped off and the couple of times I was hit, he healed me right away. Even wearing some basic armor, I couldn’t avoid all the blows that were sent in my direction. While he wasn’t trying to kill me, he wasn’t going easy either. Auxiliary classes cost a silver an hour, they weren’t cheap and the Assistant Professors knew if the students didn’t gain levels, they would get kicked out.
Registering my ID allowed the College to track my progress regarding certain skills in relation to the auxiliary classes. Any levels in Spear Skills I gained would be attributed to Tallow Swiftwind and improve his rating as an Assistant Professor.
Only results mattered in this place. Both students and faculty only cared about how many skill levels students gained. Nothing else mattered. It didn’t matter if the course was brutal, the only metric was skill level gain.
Five hours wasn’t long, but it wasn’t short either. I had dinner afterwards and then went straight to sleep. I slept 14 hours that night after pushing my Mana into the monster egg.
“Is it concerning, I am sleeping so much?” I asked Healer Melon the next morning.
“No. You are young, and your soul is under a lot of pressure from all the training you are doing. You don’t want to burn yourself out. While you could try to squeeze in some more studying, it would be of limited use. From what I can tell, you are at capacity for learning and are close to being maxed out. Get the sleep you need on the weekends,” he said.
I was almost through my first week at the College of Advancement. It was completely unrelenting. Nothing my mother would suggest would be simple. But this was a place of learning, not a place to make friends. At least not in the lower years.
Melody had explained that there were more social events for the top ranking students every semester along with more social events for students in years 5 through 7. The idea being that these students were capable and were worth knowing. Some would go on to become Assistant Professors and Professors at the College or Legends.
For those who weren’t as capable, then they would get a piece of parchment detailing to what year they made it to and have to go seek a living elsewhere. This place was focused on actual accomplishments instead of social connections, instead of the other way around.
It would be interesting to see how I compared to other students after six months. I hadn’t bothered to check the initial ranking board. It didn’t matter anyways, just gave a vague estimate on how students would rank. Supposedly the various math Professors used a complex analysis to predict how new students would do, comparing their initial guesses to the results after six months.
The idea being to create some kind of mathematical divination of future events. I wasn’t sure if such a thing were possible. Such math was far beyond me at the moment.
Thinking about being here for seven years was mentally exhausting on its own. While I was taking it one day at a time. A week of being at the College and it was as tiring as training with my mother in the dungeon.
I hoped she was okay. She was probably cutting her way through monsters with ease and enjoying it. A descent to the bottom, I might never see her again. I regretted that I hadn’t given her a hug before she left. The more I thought about it, I wasn’t sure if the monster egg was worth it, but I wasn’t about to back down.
If I gave up after the slightest bit of pressure I would never advance. A pet might not be the most useful, but it was something I wanted. Something that was mine. From what my father had told me, Winged Serpents were powerful, normally found in deeper layers of the dungeon.
While it would be naturally skilled in Alchemy, my hope was that it could learn healing as well. I had spent enough time with healers and talked to Healer Melon quite a bit to understand that studying healing beyond the basics took time, a lot of time. Thɪs chapter is updated by Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
My mother might know a simple healing spell, but that paled in comparison to the knowledge a professional healer needed along with other support skills. It wasn’t something one could pick up casually. A simple healing spell was enough to handle minor injuries, but for anything more serious, my mother would need a professional healer to deal with.
That was why she had to take me to the Five Institute of Healing when I had issues. She wasn’t a specialist. While I would probably pick up a basic healing spell one day, having a dedicated healer always watching my back would be incredibly useful. Even more so when training up immunity and absorption skills.
Healer Melon wouldn’t be by my side forever with his shiny head. Having a pet that could possibly heal and act as support while fighting, would be incredibly useful. While my mother only saw the downsides, I saw the possibility of a unique synergy. A pet hanging in the back and supporting me while I fought. I wouldn’t have to worry about its betrayal or running away like I would with another adventurer.
If my mother had something constantly boosting her, then it would provide a lot of help while fighting. Sure the monster would be vulnerable to being attacked, but that was why I would need to improve in terms of fighting. It would allow me to progress more quickly than if I had to fight through the dungeon myself.
And if it did become a hinderance, or slowed me down, I would rethink things then. I wasn’t being irrational, but my mother and I had different views of combat. While I would count on myself, having support wasn’t a bad thing.