Days passed back at the academy, and Leon, Zeke, and others continued to faithfully attend their classes. There were friendly teachers, stern teachers, and creepy teachers.
To Leon, the creepiest teacher would be Madam Roselle, the alchemy class teacher. She was overall friendly, but her obsession with alchemy somewhat offset Leon's perception of her, making her resemble a witch or something who made candy to trick kids and cook them for a feast...
That aside, Leon found it pleasant to be in the main campus of the Imperial Academy. The atmosphere was lively, and the students here were given greater advantages over those in other campuses!
One of the advantages that they had over the other campuses was the greater concentration of mana around the campus. There were specialized mana concentrating formations scattered around the campus grounds, and students could exchange merits to meditate there for a certain amount of time.
Merits were the currency that was utilized by the Imperial Magic Academy. Upon admission, each student was awarded 10 merits as a kind of welcome gift, but they would have to subsequently earn merits through completing tasks that were available in the Academy.
The issue of tasks was another important point to note. The Imperial Magic Academy was an organization that was deeply entrenched in the affairs of God's Sanctum. Not only did the Sanctum possess valuable minerals, herbs, and other materials, there were also a lot of requests that required the acquisition of materials from the wild magic beasts that resided within the Sanctum.
Occasionally, the academy would release mission requests to its students, who would then receive the permission to enter the Sanctum and retrieve those materials. When the mission was successfully completed, the students would then be awarded merits depending on how hard the mission was, or how long and time consuming it was. Easier missions generally awarded less merits.
Completing missions was not the only way to earn merits, though. Every six months, a competition between the Caster and Combiner classes would be held. The top twenty students in each campus would be awarded a decent amount of merits depending on how well they performed.
Similarly, once every year, a much larger test that pitted different campuses against each other was held. The best in each campus, and their runner-ups would be awarded a large amount of merits for being the top of their campus. This was generally to encourage the students to work harder.
With enough merits, a student could book for a meditation session at one of the mana concentrating formations for a maximum of twelve hours. Only the stronger students in higher years could get a longer amount of meditation time.
Currently, Leon and Zeke were in front of the administration building to exchange their merits for two hours in the meditation chamber. Each hour cost five merits for the chambers with the lowest mana concentration, but even that would be beneficial to their growth, so they were willing to throw in all their merits for the chance to make some headway faster.
"Back in Magair, there was a secret room where I was allowed to meditate. Because of it, I was able to form my mana core by the age of seven, but after that, I was sent here to Earth. I can barely remember what it felt like." Zeke told Leon as they walked into the large administration building.
"I'm a country bumpkin who has never even seen a mana concentrating formation. Kill me." Leon sighed dramatically with his hand on his chest. They laughed as they walked to the secretary's table.
At this time, the person on shift was different from the person that they had met on the first day when Leon enrolled.
"You want to exchange merit points for two hours in the mana concentrating chamber? Well, let me see your comms." The secretary, Estelle, was a very friendly sounding Elf. She also looked very friendly. If Leon had to say, then she certainly filled in the post of 'secretary' very well...
She made a few changes between their comms and her own device on the table where she was seated before nodding at them.
"Okay, so you can head over now. Your comms have the locations of the chambers that you have been assigned. Also, you don't need to come all the way here if you want to book a chamber again. You can do it from your comms." Estelle smiled warmly at the two boys, pushing a lock of her bright blond hair behind her ear before turning away from them.
"Ahem!" Zeke coughed, and Leon quickly pushed him out of the building. His cheeks were red and his eyes were wide.
"Who the hell hired her as a secretary?" Leon whispered furiously, "That person sure has good eyes!"
Putting that episode aside, the boys quickly regained their composure as they made their way across the campus and to the section of the campus that housed the massive structure where the mana concentration chambers were located.
When they arrived at the gates of the large building, a security guard stopped them.
"Passes?" The middle aged man was already used to this routine, and his tone was casual as he asked for their passes to enter the building. Unless given express permission, no one could enter the building without a pass.
"Here they are." The two boys tapped on their comms to bring up their passes.
"Alright, you have two hours. Five minutes before your time is up, your comms will alert you so that you do not violate the rules." The guard told them and let them pass when they showed his pass. The two boys nodded before walking into the building. They could immediately feel the difference between the mana inside and the mana outside of the building.
"The mana here is so rich!" Leon exclaimed with wide eyes. In his entire life, he had yet to experience such a feeling. He felt like he was walking through a hot spring, and the steam in the air was actively soaking into his skin and purifying his body.