Halfway through his lecture marathon, Fate stopped his study of the memories granted by the Memory Ball and leaned back on his couch, staring at the clock as if it could tell him why he had devoted so much time to this.
He had spent two and a half hours on this already, making it through all the classes he missed on Monday. Due to the Memory Balls, he didn't have to go through them in real-time, instead being able to cut each one down to about forty-five minutes apiece to make sense of them.
It was at this point that he realized he couldn't continue without a break or he might very well go insane. No one had told Fate about the importance of pacing oneself, which was especially important with the method of studying he was undergoing.
Memory Balls seemed like an easy way to learn information, but they took a toll on the mind. While recordings could hurt one's eyes if you watched them for too long or held the screen too close, a Memory Ball's contents could very well skew your perception of your Facet.
A Memory Ball worked off of Mana, just like pretty much everything in Ziobrun. While the Facet didn't physically exist inside one's body, their comprehension of it does.
Foreign Mana, inserted directly into the brain and focused on above all else for hours on end, could lead one astray and cause them to draw inaccurate conclusions about their own Facets. This wasn't a concern for Thought Mages, the Mana of which these objects ran off of, but for other Mages, it was a legitimate cause for worry.
Fate hadn't reached that point yet, but the Memory Ball had another side effect. Unless you were a Thought Mage, you would be unable to fully comprehend the Mana that held the information and as such would start to develop a headache that got worse the longer you tried to understand the information within.
If it weren't for this, every class would be condensed into a ball and used at the leisure of the students. But as it was, Memory Balls were reserved for cases like Fate, where there wasn't much choice.
Pushing the info swirling inside his brain into a corner and walling it off with some of his own Mana, he groaned and stretched. The Memory Ball's Mana would dissipate in three hours, taking all the information he hadn't made his own with it. He'd have to finish what was left before then or else the knowledge would be lost.
He only had the knowledge of one inside his head right now, the Wednesday lecture of his history class. The Physics and Etiquette recordings were still inside their own spheres, ready to be used at his convenience.
'Guess I should get some lunch.'
The Royal Mage Academy offered three free meals a day to every student, something Fate made sure to take advantage of. Throwing on a brown robe, he made his way to the cafeteria and rejoiced when he found Dracok wings on the menu.
Keeping yesterday's meal in mind, he made sure to grab food enriched with Mana from the enchanted screen and took a seat at an empty table. Since nearly everyone that attended this school was rich, the Academy cafeteria tended to be empty half of the time and only partially filled when it wasn't empty.
Right now it was the former, which suited Fate just fine, as it meant no one would bother him this time around. He didn't know why Indran and his lovestruck followers were in here when they were sure to able to afford their own food, but it wasn't his business either way.
As he bit into a Dragon Chicken's fried wing, which was as large as his head and chewier than what he assumed even steaks would be like, he couldn't help but turn his attention to the Mana within his mind.
His headache had eased up by now, not even a dull throb present, so he figured it would be fine to delve back in. Once he finished the last thirty minutes it would take to understand this one, he would give himself another hour or so to truly relax.
He listened to his history teacher explain, at the speed of thought, how the Empress and her army had subjugated the demons thousands of years ago.
"Instead of wiping out the demons, our benevolent Empress gave them their own land to live on. To this day, the fregog and the succubi offspring, the kitsubi, still live on these reservations, and the Empress has deemed them civilized enough to coexist with us in our cities, should they wish to do so.
"Unfortunately, the aesh and the imps rejected our Empress' generous offer, and the latter have been plaguing our cities and towns with attacks ever since. The Empress wiped out the aesh in this struggle, deeming them too dangerous to keep around.
"One of your classmates actually comes back from a trip to exterminate a tribe of imps today, perhaps you can ask him more about them."
"Also, this year, we actually have three kitsubi among the student body, one freshman and two juniors. If you wish to learn more about their culture, I'm sure they wouldn't mind answering some questions. But keep in mind, unlike what you might have heard, kitsubi often have sex drives that are weaker than our human females.
"While some may be hornier than a perverted old man," the professor paused to let the laughter pass by, "many more disdain the strong sex drives humans have. So if you try to proposition them, be prepared for a kick to the groin or a slap to the face.
"And the Academy does not tolerate cultural ignorance either. That kick to your baby factory will be followed by detention if you're lucky, and suspension if you aren't. The kitsubi are a proud race, prouder than even the aesh and imps who refused our Empress' peace offering.
"The difference between the kitsubi and fregog from their fellow demons is that they aren't as stupid as a Dragon Turkey. So be sure to give them the proper respect, or you'll be sprawled on the ground with half your teeth missing before you can even blink."