In the morning, Will woke up at the sixth bell to get dressed. He made it to the dining hall. This morning's breakfast was mana-infused eggs and deer meat. Once again, Will felt his mana inside expanding. Like a river overflowing with water during a flood.
After breakfast, Will headed to the library to study more about advanced magic theory and history. Will was interested in why the kingdom did not trade with the beastmen, elven, and dwarven kingdoms.
Entering the library, Will felt like entering the Roman basilica. Chills ran down his spine. As Will entered the library, he heard someone speak.
"Ah Cadet William, I was expecting you. I am Elder Thaddeus, Master of Libraries," an elderly man in a blue mage's robe, with a long white beard, and with freckles and softly.
Not knowing to bow or salute, Will did both looking extremely awkward. Cadets were required to salute their instructors and superiors with a first across their heart, making a thumping sound.
"William vont Ballard greets Elder Thaddeus," Will said with humility. Not sure how to great a wizard at the Knight's Academy.
The old man chuckled, and said, "welcome young cadet."
Will noticed when Master Librarian spoke, he sound like his grandfather on Earth.
Then Elder Thaddeus began speaking, "I was hoping to meet you soon, although I did not expect to meet you so soon. I see you came to the library first thing in the morning, what are you interested in reading today?"
Will told the elder, how he came to learn more about earthen magic and history between the Fermion Kingdom and other races.
"The first is to be expected, the second is curious." Elder Thaddeus said, stroking his long white beard in thought.
He beckoned Will to walk behind him as he pulled various books from the shelves.
After the eighth book, he stop and said, "that's enough for now."
Elder Thaddeus pointed to an empty table and left. Will sat down and reviewed the book. Elder Thaddeus chose two earth magic spell books: one novice, and the other apprentice level. There was also a diary of a famous terramancer, Grandmaster Thomas. The other five books were a volume detailing the complicated history of the human, elven, beastmen, and dwarven kingdoms.
The novice spell book provided instructions on how to cast [earth wall], [rock spike], [rock armor], and [fertile soil]. The apprentice spell book detailed how to cast [meteor], [earthquake], [rock golem], [iron lance] and [nature's blessing].
Most of the spell names were straightforward. At the novice level and earth, the wall was mainly constructed with mud and rock. At the journeyman level, the wall would be made entirely out of stone and mortar.
Rock spike creates a stalagmite that comes out of the ground. At the journeyman level, the stalagmite can shoot out from the ground. Rock Armor is body enhancement magic that covers my entire body in rock and provides defense. At the novice level, I gain 10% defense, but at the journeyman level, I gain 50% defense. Fertile soil is a spell used to make the land fertile for growing crops.
The apprentice skill book offers one additional. At the apprentice level, a meteor sends a ball of hardening rock falling on your opponent from the sky; however, at the journeyman level meteor will become hot, and at the master level gains fire. Both pyromancers and terramancers can create meteors. Earthquake at the apprentice level creates a kilometer gap on land swelling your opponent. A journeyman can increase the gap to five kilometers.
Rock golem creates a rock golem that can understand simple commands. For example, "fight the person in front of you." At the master level, golems may gain sentience and think for themselves. Iron lance is the offense kill to rock armor, allowing a terramancer to use a metal spear. For apprentice level, the metal is iron, journeymen can make steel, and masters can make the spear out of mithril. The last spell nature's blessing allows terramancers to nourish crops and increase crop yields.
"Excuse me, Elder Thaddeus, are we allowed to take books back to our dorm?" Will asked, seeing he was the closest librarian near me.
"Why yes young cadet, but you can only take three" he replied.
"Then, sir, I'd like to take the spell books and the diary," Will said excitedly.
"The diary as well, hmm. Listen, young cadet, that diary is a treasure that I would rarely leave the shelf, and certainly not loan out to take home. But, I have a good feeling about you, something is telling me you'll find the information and treasure it as it should be used," Elder Thaddeus said.
"Thank you Elder," I said as I bowed to the waist with my salute over my heart. He smiled warmly.
"Will you be back tomorrow, if so, I can have these history books on this table at 8th bell," he questioned.
"Yes," Will chirped, "I plan to come to the library from the 8th bell to the 10th bell. Then I plan to work on my spell casting and body enhancement from 10th bell until lunch. After lunch, I will attend my classes. On the weekends, I plan to complete some quests. What do you think of my schedule Elder?" Will asked.
"You take your studies very seriously," he said nodding. "young man, I'm sure you are wondering why a mage is Master of Libraries at the Knight's Academy. Well, the answer is that I am the Master of Libraries for both the Knight and Mage's Academies.
Since many of the books are the same, it is easy to combine the staff between both buildings. You will find knight librarians at the Mage Academy and mage librarians at the Knights Academy. Although knights use mana for body-enhancing; mages manipulate mana to alter their environment.
Here is the deal cadet, if you learn novice spells, I will take you as my disciple. And since I am an Elder of the Knight's and Mage's Academy you will be as well. Your mana pool and written exam both qualify you for entrance." Elder Thaddeus explained. He finished by saying, "I see a lot of myself in you boy."
Will felt overjoyed about the possibility, no matter how small of gaining a mentor. Mentors help tremendously with promotion and networking with other knights and mages. As someone who plans to start a business, he knew the importance of business connections and networking. This was an opportunity he could not pass up. Will bowed to the Elder twice as he slowly backed to the door as the 10th bell sounded.
Will left the library and headed to a small garden he saw yesterday as he was looking for the dorm. The garden seemed peaceful and there were students present, which was nice. Will did not mind company, but he wanted to practice in peace.
Will was not afraid of being called a loner. The garden with tall shrubs and bushes. The garden path was made of dirt and crushed stone. The garden was set in a square with benches on the inside. In the middle of the garden was sat the seal of the academy.
A shield with two crisscrossed swords behind and a spear in the middle facing downwards, with the words [The Everlasting Sword and Shield of Fermion]. The garden was majestic and simple. Will went to the garden and opened the novice spellbook trying to perform rock armor. Will figured his biggest weakness was defense.
According to the spell, Will had to visualize my body being covered with small pebbles and imagine the pebbles growing into rocks that encompassed my head, neck, body, and legs. According to the directions, I should begin by removing my shoes and covering my feet with earth.
The idea was to start with my feet and slowly bring the rocks armor up my body and finish by having it cover my head. As a pooled my mana and sent it towards his feet, Will could feel the earth slowly moving around my feet.
It was a weird sensation to control earth. Will slowly moved the ground around his feet to get the feel of the earth and his body. However, when Will tried to have the earth harden into the rock it felt like his mana pool emptied.
Will started to sweat and strain. What felt amazing before, now felt that his feet were on fire and his whole body felt itching and unpleasant. Not wanting to give up, Will followed the directions and tried to harden the earth into rock.
Trying to alter earth into rock with my mana felt like Atlas lifting the world. This was an impossible task, how was this a novice spell. Wait, if this was a novice spell, Will could imagine the difficulty with the other spells. After a minute, Will could finally feel earth harden around my toes before, he had to stop.
Will might not be a prodigy but he was happy for my first magic attempt to at least harden the earth. The spell was straightforward but difficult to achieve. That was something, I could strive for, achieve. I had a goal and I planned to march straight toward it.
After two hours of using and replenishing my mana, Will was able to cover his feet up to his ankles with rock. While that would not help him battle other students, it was an as successful start.
Will quickly left the garden and headed to the dining hall for lunch. He quickly found my dorm mates and listened to them complain about history and magic theory. Jeffrey, another first-year, told me he was lucky to test out.
He said he had trouble staying awake and was reprimanded by the elder. After they told me about class, much of it was very introductory, Will told them about my day in the library and meeting Elder Thaddeus.
He didn't tell them about a possible mentorship opportunity because if it didn't work out no harm no foul. They laughed at me, for spending two hours in the library as opposed to battling other students in the coliseum. Will did not want lunch to end. Will thought about Marshall Rolf's physical training class. The other cadets felt the same and they promised to support each other.
The 14th bell range and we ran to the coliseum, the cadets were in the brown training room. The class stood around talking when Master Rolf entered the training room.
"Fall in!" Shouted Marshall Rolf.
The cadets quickly tried to form a straight-line saluting Master Rolf. The marshall walked by the cadets, analyzing and complaining about our stance or crocked salute.
He offered only criticism no compliments. After posing militaristically, Marshall Rolf told the cadets to run five laps around the coliseum to warm up. The coliseum was two kilometers in circumference. Inwardly Will cursed.
Vincent was the first to complain about the unreasonableness of the Marshall's request.
The Marshall shouted, "make it six laps, as motivation to Vincent to shut his trap and learn to follow orders!"
The entire class looked at Vincent with daggers. Vincent immediately shut up, realizing he had to live with his classmates for at least another six months. As the class ran Master Rolf shouted helpful tips.
"Use your body-enhancing magic to help you run. Circulate your mana through your muscles," Marshall Rolf advised.
While body enhancement magic helped, by the time Will was done with the laps, his muscle and mana pool was hurting. Even worse, he had a leg cramp.
After running six laps around the coliseum, the cadets had to do calisthenics: various jumps, lifts, squats, sit-ups, burpees, and other exercises to tone their bodies and increase muscle.
All the while if a person complained he would double the exercise, if you fell behind you still had to complete the workout.
All the while the Marshall would shout out "you're only as strong as your weakest knight, pain is weakness leaving the body."
And other things sports coaches say to motivate athletes. Will could not believe he signed up for this, he felt like an idiot who signed himself up for torture. In all his years on Earth and Terra, he never felt so much pain. He felt like my lungs were trying to leave my body to take in more oxygen, and now his other leg was cramped.
After a 20-minute rest and rehydration, the Marshall asked each cadet to choose a training weapon from the weapons room in the coliseum. There was a range of different spears, swords, maces, and gauntlets.
Will chose a short sword because that is what he used back home in the barony. However, Will almost grabbed the katana. On Earth, Will had a katana that was one of my most prized possession as a present from the Japanese Emperor.
Whenever Will did business or consulted with a country, leaders would offer him items. Will remember first holding the katana and immediately signing up for sword lessons on his return to the United States. But, alas Will never had time. Eventually, he just put the katana in a glass case in his study. Maybe this life he'll have a chance to learn how to use a katana.
When everyone held a weapon, the Marshall invite the cadets to show our form and techniques. After each student, the marshall would provide guidance and correction.
After everyone had presented their weapon skill, the marshall proclaimed the cadet to be the class with the worst form and technique since the founding of this academy.
For some reason, Will felt the Marshall's criticism grating on his nerves, but Will held it in and said nothing. Along with his criticism, he brought in different fourth-year students to help us train.
The marshall trained each cadet. However, Will felt the marshall used 'training' as an excuse to give each student ass whooping. After each student was thoroughly beaten, the marshall would tell them what they did wrong and how to improve.
He also provided information about different manuals we should loan from the library. Luckily, his training with the barony's knight commander deflected a lot of the Marshall criticism. He instructed us to continuously train our body enhancement every day.
"Everyday circulate the mana in your body to relieve stress and increase muscle capacity. Push yourself every day. You never know when that extra training will pay off, but when you need it, at least you know it's there" He shouted.
"Dismissed!" Marshall Rolf commanded.
Will fell to the ground thanking the Goddess Gaia for being done with class and leaving that sociopath behind.
After class, the cadets walked slowly to the dining hall. They ate dinner in quiet. Will ate to recover mentally and physically. The second and third years students laughed at the exhausted first-years and our miserable countenance, dirty appearance, and disgusting sweating smell. Next, time Will told himself I'd visit my dorm and bath first before coming to lunch.
Today, though, Will felt making it to the dining hall was all his body could carry him. Eating dinner, filled his mana allowing him to regain some strength and improve my gloom facial expression.
Usually, Will could only eat half his food before he felt full. But today he ate his entire portion and asked for a second helping. My body felt empty. Every bite of food felt like a miracle descending into his mouth. Now, he understood why he could only eat half portions, my mana pool was still full.
Leaving the dining hall, Will bathed and fell asleep. His bed felt like a warm embrace of my mother's arms. It was the happiest moment until he realized had the same routine tomorrow.