Lucas was wandering through the school, looking for the two places he wanted to visit first. He didn't know where he was going since most of the signs used abbreviations. He came across a few students that passed all the tests looking for their teachers. They had a plan and knew exactly which teacher to choose before starting the tests. Only thing was, they could gather information about teachers and tests beforehand, but a blueprint of the building was classified, so they had as much trouble as Lucas had.
About half an hour later, Lucas found the place he was looking for. In the Blue Fire Academy, each teacher had a specialized room they could use for whatever they deemed necessary. Classroom D-4.2O said the sign above the crooked door that looked as if it was about to fall apart at any moment. Lucas was a bit irritated by the deliberate confusing system of the school, as long as he knew where to go he wouldn't have any complaints...or at least not as many.
Entering the classroom revealed a dark and damp room. There were candles to give light, but they weren't lit, nor were there any windows.
'Maybe we shouldn't have put this teacher on our list.'
Thinking of the teacher, he wasn't present at the moment, even though they were supposed to be. Looking around he finally found the man in question in a room adjacent to the classroom. It looked like a separate room for materials or supplies, but inside it was a skinny man that had skin so pale it looked sick.
"Excuse me, sir, are you the teacher of this classroom?", yet the man wasn't answering, he was moving in a certain way. It looked like a dance but slowed down and felt erratic. Lucas could only see the back of the man, but the long greasy hair showed that the man had been in there for quite some time. The smell wasn't the worst he had smelt, but even Lucas found that hygiene was something important.
The strange movements continued for a moment, Lucas simply waited it out. This was a teacher that asked for a body as payment for his lessons. He was the only one that openly stated a dark desire, so there must be something that the man should be able to give. It had to be of value, after all, every student would know which students killed a person in order to get a teacher.
All the other teachers asked for a currency or a herb or mineral that was hard to get, so in theory, this man had the easiest fee to pay. Simply kill someone and you were done, no money necessary. Lucas was curious as to why he would ask for such a thing so openly, the other teacher he wanted to visit had an unknown price in the form of a request. The teacher could have hidden his desire for a body in a request, but would rather be transparent.
The man was done with his strange dance and looked at his visitor. His face was as you would expect, long, pale with red beady eyes. The only thing missing were elongated teeth or he would be mistaken as a vampire.
"Who are you?", the voice crackly and sore, as if he hadn't spoken in months.
"I'm a student who was interested in your lessons.", Lucas didn't bother with keeping up a good appearance. He was serious and simply wanted his answer in the fastest way possible.
"Hihihihi, then do you have a body with you?", the teacher seemed to be very glad to have received a student.
"Before I give you what you want, might I first ask what I'll be receiving? what kind of lessons do you have, sir..?", Lucas first wanted to know if it was worth killing someone for his lessons. If they were about the basics, he would have no reason to bother with him.
"You don't have a body with you? What a disappointment. My name is Gilbert, Master of Death, address me as such."
Lucas' eyes sharpened for a moment, why is there a teacher with such a title in this city? It didn't make much sense to him. Wondering about the title, he also thought that it had to have been self-proclaimed. Lucas couldn't differentiate the power levels above him, but his teacher couldn't have been any stronger than a Rank 2, so how would he be the master of death?
"I can teach you whatever you want."
"That doesn't help me, what were you planning on teaching your students? At least give me some subjects so I can decide whether or not this is worth the investment."
"Why should I tell you? You won't bring me a body will you!", Gilbert said with a bit of disdain in his voice. Lucas felt that if he wanted answers he would have to play along with his little game.
"No, I will bring you the body, one of the nobles from this city. But I still want to know what you can teach me."
Gilbert looked at Lucas with a hint of surprise, Gilbert was someone that absolutely hated the hypocrisy of the strong. Protecting the weak while taking advantage of them. He had mastered the art of the dead in order to bring the ones who had been abandoned by the strong back to life. Toying with humanity was looked down upon, especially human experiments, but there was a fine line in the legalities. Experimenting on a dead body doesn't count, otherwise, it wouldn't take long before he was imprisoned. To hear one of his possible students be so open and direct when it came to the death of someone with undeserved power, he was elated.
"Oooh great! If you can bring me back one of those hoity-toity types I'll gladly teach you about my work. I can raise the dead into undead, and bring back spirits from the beyond filled with hostility to unleash upon your enemies. Tell me, are you interested?"
Lucas had to think for a second, using the undead could bring along a lot of trouble even if you're powerful. Just one look at Gilbert showed that even if he could use the undead, it might come with some nasty side effects and social disdain for him. Was it worth the risk?
'Absolutely, don't even bother discussing this with me.'
'We must think ahead, if the world knows we use magic that is hated, won't we also be a target for some?'
'Just make sure no one finds out, hell, this country won't last long, to begin with. Perhaps they'll all be dead and then you won't have to bother with any witnesses.'
He could discuss this dilemma with himself for the next hours or so, but leaving the teacher waiting wasn't a good idea. Lucas resigned himself to enroll in Gilbert's class, though he didn't have the payment on hand. He had a few people in mind that could serve as payment, but he still had to do some research before going after them. Besides that, he wanted to visit the other teacher that he could possibly join.
His other teacher was the one at the very bottom of the list, the lowest of the low. Definitely not recommended or not, he was one of the only teachers where Lucas could pay the fee, although the request might be a lot harder than the other fees, it was worth checking it out. The classroom simply said Garden, so Lucas had to find his way back to the outside. The maze of a school was a mess to navigate in, he felt like he kept seeing the same corridors and places, but the signs above the classrooms showed that he was indeed moving.
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In another class, there was a handsome tall man surrounded by tens of students. He was the most popular teacher in the school. He had a respectful attitude and was one of the more polite teachers. His fee was also one of the lower ones, making his colleagues dislike him for being the commoner's teacher.
The students were talking among each other while the teacher of the class, Vires was discussing the literature with one of the female students.
"Have you heard? That Gilbert fellow has gotten two student visits."
"What? Isn't that the psychopath of the school? Why would anyone want to study under him?"
That's when Vires interjected their little rumor-sharing.
"Are you certain that teacher Gilbert has received two students?"
The sudden attention to the two students put them in a bit of an awkward position, luckily they were used to it.
"Of course, sir Vires. I know someone who saw that a student entered his class and since then that student hasn't come back to the campus. So, we know that he has chosen his teacher and didn't see the need to be here for another couple of days. And today another one entered his classroom, both were male, we believe one to have carried a space artifact while the other entered empty-handed. So we think that there are two students interested enough to follow his lessons."
He kept on prattling and prattling, and most of the students already got tired of his tirade. But one was listening very closely. Vires held his hand out to stop the student from continuing his speech.
"That's quite enough boy, thank you for the information. It seems that there are two sheep that have chosen wrongly. How pitiful..."
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Lucas finally found his way outside, glad to be outside of the maze of hallways and corridors. He wasn't sure if he could find Gilbert's classroom again, but he knew the general direction which was something. The garden that the paper spoke of was a simple little garden, which surprised Lucas.
"If the school is so big, why is the garden so small?", Lucas said to himself while walking inside the garden. There was a small fountain surrounded by four hedges. One of those hedges was cut into an archway so that you could enter the center. A few benches were there, but that was it. Nothing special for a magical academy.
"Because they need it for training.", the sudden voice surprised Lucas, because he couldn't even sense that he was there. A man was lying on one of the benches, trying to sleep.
"Are you the teacher I'm looking for?"
"Depends on who you're looking for.", Lucas had to sigh, tired of what he had been through this day. Fighting and scheming felt a lot simpler than talking to these people, it was so exhausting.
"Are you Elam?", to which the man nodded, before positioning him a bit better so he could sleep better?
While Lucas was simply watching the man try to get comfortable on a bench a few other students joined him. They asked if they found the right place which Lucas could only approve of. Meeting students who were having the same navigation problems did make him a bit happier.
"Hey, hey, hey, what's all this noise? Are all of you here to become my students?"
The group that joined Lucas was about 5 big, and all 5 answered positively, Lucas didn't say anything since there wasn't a need to.
"I only take a single student, I don't need 6, so let's have some fun shall we?", he positioned himself so that his head can be supported by his hand. His other hand was scratching his belly, not the most positive impression, but to Lucas, who had met Gilbert, this was close enough to normal. Elam was a teacher who clearly didn't care about teaching, ironically.
"If I had to pick between all of you I would want the smartest. So tell me, I'm long when I'm young but tiny when I"m old, who am I?"
'A basic riddle, there are multiple answers that could fit.'
'I know, question is, which one would be deemed to be correct?'
"A glacier?", said one of the new students, hoping to get this teacher to help him out. Most students that pass have a plan and the funds to actually execute them, but some succeed by luck and need to find a suitable teacher without going into debt. Many choose the teachers that ask for experiments since they are quite cheap, but the results from the experiments may vary.
"What are you talking about? No, of course not! A glacier can even grow bigger if the circumstances are right, you're out, I don't accept wrong answers."
The student felt sad but knew not to debate with the man, not because he would retaliate like most teachers, but because it wouldn't change his attitude. Elam was lying down, not even bothering to open his eyes to look at who visited him.
"A pencil.", said another student. Lucas had the same idea, but wouldn't risk it. If others can sacrifice themselves for him he would be glad.
"Great, at least one of you has a functioning brain, next..,", he paused for a second because he could hear the tongue clickings from the students. "Hahaha, what did you think it's over, no no no, we'll keep going until you're all out. New rule, you only get five minutes per riddle. Here's a fun one: Sometimes I am born in silence, other times, not. I am unseen, But I make my presence known. In time, I fade without a trace. I harm no one, but I am unpopular with all. What am I?"
The students racked their brains for the answers and came up with multiple ones that could fit somewhat, but never truly. One answered with 'the truth' but was shot down by the teacher. Now they were only left with four, Lucas included. Since they only had five minutes, they needed to be fast.
Lucas himself had an idea but wanted to keep quiet, there was no upside to giving your answer early. Another two fell out, now they were only two left. The other student was a lot more desperate than Lucas since he already had a teacher, not a fantastic one, but he did have one.
The student suddenly jumped for a second, his eyes darting between places as he was double-checking the answer in his head. "Euhm, a fart?"
"Hahahaha, correct, wasn't that a good one, hahaha!"
The other students that were standing at the sides held their heads in frustration. Even Lucas was amazed by the stupidity of that answer, he was thinking it would've been along the lines of truth or a lie, but the answer exceeded his expectations.
"How many are left?", the teacher never opened his eyes, as he could simply sense them from afar. "Two huh? Alright, here's an obvious one, what is it that given one, you'll either have two or none?"
there were only two people left to guess, Lucas found the answer after a few minutes, but the almost visible steam coming from the other student's head showed that he was having some trouble.
Five minutes passed but no one gave an answer, Lucas wanted the other kid out of the competition. The student was being consoled by his friends as they left for another teacher, one that would experiment on them in exchange for lessons, an unhealthy trade.
"I see you haven't left, can you tell me the answer?"
"A choice."
"Correct, " the teacher stood up for the first time. He opened his eyes revealing dark red pupils and a black iris. "Are you willing to become my student?"
"With pleasure."