Luke introduced himself in a friendly manner and joined the 'Control Practice' community. There were five other freshmen who had joined the community along with Luke.
Luke walked towards them and introduced himself. He already knew who these five were, but he made it a point to act as if he had never met them before and trying to form an acquaintance with them.
The five were a group of ordinary background Initiates, just like him.
Bill, a brown haired and bulky looking man with an average height and a square face was the de facto leader of this group.
Greta was a black haired girl who looked plain and simple, but from Luke's memories always seemed to try very hard at the assignments.
Jean was a blonde man with a love for painting and fashion. He wasn't from nobility, but his merchant family was fairly affluent. His dressing sense was exceptionally gaudy. His Initiate robe had diamond shaped glittery substance plastered over it, making him look bizarre. His fashion sense could be considered an eccentric misunderstanding by a nouveau riche.
Christine was the second woman in this group of five. She was a rather fashionable and fairly attractive young woman. However, she was rather quiet and introverted, and Luke found that he had some kinship with her in this aspect. As he greeted her, he nodded in understanding as the two exchanged very few words as an introduction.
Dmitri was perhaps the most unique person on the campus in terms of his background. He was originally from a tribal Shamanic family that lived in an isolated environment deep in the frozen Tundra that made up the hollow northern border of the Kingdom of Roses. He was unsettled by the sudden change in environment, while Luke tried to shake his hand, Dmitri raised on hand up to his chest. Clearly it was his way of performing a greeting. Luke then imitated him and the two had a chuckle.
Interacting with the five students, he gained a new perspective about them. In the original timeline, he had been too busy being blackmailed. He had no ease to interact with others and when he met this group of five, they were close knit and looked at others with hostility. However, at this moment they seemed to be genial and friendly.
"I wonder, if something happened to them during the month to make them hostile to others?" He wondered to himself, but he didn't show any hint of it later.
After strolling through the hall, Luke turned to leave. At the moment, he had two immediate goals. Don't die. Get stronger. "At this moment I'm too weak, and the consequences of some powerful mage discovering that I have the ability to loop in time would be unimaginably harmful to me. For the foreseeable future, I need to keep my calm and work on improving my ability.
In the original timeline, I tried to rush through to form my 'Ingress' and adapt a core spell, however, I failed. Now I can focus on improving my control to an extreme until I think about choosing my first core magic."
The process to become a Mage wasn't a simple one. As an Initiate, one had to train hard to both sense mana as well as improve one's control to the limit. An initiate isn't yet a mage. To become a mage, one had to form an 'Ingress'. The Ingress was like an inner world within the Mage, which fused with the core spell.
Choosing a core spell was a careful process. The choice would determine what sequence one chose, to lead the spell towards becoming a 'Magick'. A Magick was a performance, a sequence of spells. When a person forms an Ingress and embeds a core 'Magick' within, they would become a Rank 1 Mage.
The effectiveness of the embedded spells which form a core Magick within the Ingress have incredible efficiency, effectiveness and passive effects. This is the main reason why most mages have specializations, what magic they frequently use depends on their Core Magick. Although students are taught all kinds of simple spells in the first year, the efficiency is low, however, they will ofcourse have their uses in aiding versatility to a mage, to reduce the direct weakness to their Magick's core attribute.
For example, the sequence of spells - Small Flame, Fire Ball, Incineration, Blaze, Explosion - form one of the most powerful commonly known Magick sequence. Any combination of these spells, even one of them alone, would create a Magick. However, a Rank 1 Mage having a Magick of the fire element would be weak to the water. Thus they might also learn, so called, external spells, or spells which aren't part of the Core Magick, to counter the direct elemental weakness.
For now, Luke put all his focus on practicing control exercises. In classes, he was mostly a decrepit mess, thanks to the near constant self abuse he went through by practicing control exercises to the limit. This kind of practice was usually never done, because it would damage the mind. However, that was a part of Luke's goal.
The professor, Melinda seemed to have pills made by an alchemist which not just healed the mind, but as a result of the healing, the extreme stress of the over exertion by control exercises would make his mind improve rapidly and there was a considerable increase in his calculation and processing ability.
The mental capacity of a mage was an extremely important criterion for the potential of the mage's growth. Mental capacity was usually measured in thoughts per second. To have a potential to reach Rank 1 mage, one needed at least a 1000 thoughts per second. At the moment, Luke quickly calculated that his mental capacity was only 700 thoughts per second. It was probably why his control was so low and also why he struggled to learn quickly and had to rely on excessive hard work to improve.
However, Luke remembered that in the initial timeline, his mental capacity was 490 thoughts per second. While high for ordinary people, it was not at all good for a mage. He would struggle to learn, instinctively calculate and compute the complex Magick formulas or derive weaknesses with such a weak mental capacity.
Clearly, just a month and a half's worth of crazy training in the first control exercise had rapidly improved his mental capacity, no small thanks to Melinda's amazing pills.
As usual, Luke had ended up under the guidance of Professor Alok, who was not present at the Academy. Luke made his way to Melinda's office. On being led in, he discovered Melinda reading a book, however, it was not about the celestial equinox.
"You are... Luke, from the train. But you look terrible!" Melinda said in surprise shock.
Luke nodded. "I have been desperately trying to improve my control by exercising, but in the process, I feel like I'm becoming muddle headed. My guide is absent from campus and I could only think of asking your help."
Melinda nodded. She took out a white pill and tossed it into the air. The pill then gradually floated towards Luke, who grabbed it from the air. "Your mind has been damaged from constantly exceeding your limits. However, that isn't a bad thing. Consume this pill, it should heal your mind."
Luke nodded and consumed the pill. Immediately, as always, his mind began fusing rapidly and all the damages were healed and his mental capacity increased rapidly. His eyes glowed as if displaying shock.
Melinda laughed. "So you can feel it. These pills sure aren't ordinary. After much nagging, my alchemist friend forged these for me."
Luke showed a shocked expression. "If they are so expensive... I will try my best to repay Professor!" He bowed.
Melinda nodded. "Actually, I was looking for someone to help me out. If you can do it, I'm willing to give you some more pills as a payment."
"What do you need me to do, Professor?" Luke asked with befuddled eyes. However, inwards he was calm and calculating the events. "Is this related to the Celestial Equinox?" He wondered. "It seems she hasn't discovered any anomaly yet, but this job might be related to that."
"I want you to kill someone." Melinda calmly spoke, but her eyes glinted like a gem.
"...are you serious?" Luke asked. He was totally sidestepped by her request. He had never killed anyone before, moreover, this might all be a big trap. "Why has Melinda's behavior changed so much compared to the previous loop? Just because of Norman? She wants me to... kill someone?" Thoughts were running like lightning within his mind.
Melinda continued. "Your emotional undertones are extremely complex. Even though you hide it well, I can see the mana of death's linger on you. Are you willing to do my job?"
Luke inwardly sneered. "Looks like one of Melinda's Magick sequences is related to emotions... lingering mana of death, it is probably from seeing the bloody massacre of the apocalypse. Do I really have to murder someone?" He was quiet, his thoughts running wild.
Eventually he opened his mouth to speak, but his voice suddenly turned hoarse. This was part real and part exaggeration. Killing someone was a bottomline he had never considered crossing, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that in his situation, such things are unlikely to be avoidable and also there wouldn't be a lasting result since the loop would reset. At the same time, he exaggerated it a bit to accentuate his dilemma in front of Melinda.
"...Who?" Luke asked in a hoarse voice.
Melinda turned serious, but her eyes were filled with murderous intent. "I want you to kill Norman Grunn."
Luke found the situation even more ridiculous. "So this really is all because Norman entered the cabin?" He thought.
"Norman Grunn? The senior who was in the train cabin?" Luke asked bewildered.
"Yes. Take this magic device. I have already filled it with mana and targeted on Norman Grunn. You must go ten meters near him and activate the device. He will be cursed and die." Melinda said as her murderous intent disappeared and her mind turned calm.
Luke audibly sighed. "I will do this. But I need to know the reason."
Melinda grinned, though her eyes didn't. "He is from Evil Sect."
Luke suddenly heard Melinda drop a bombshell. Norman Grunn was from Evil Sect! What is Evil Sect? It is the mysterious evil organization that had been causing mage-terrorism around the Kingdom of Roses. It's members were extremely powerful and hidden mages and had caused the death of almost a hundred thousand citizens.