Amari's first week at the academy was probably the best thing to happen to him in his four years in this strange new world. Well, excluding everything that involved his family, it was still a close second.
Books. Many books. Explanations that he never knew he needed.
It was all there.
As he headed to his Magic Theory 101 course for the first time, he instantly knew that Fuller was right to an extent.
The lecture room was large enough to sit around a hundred demons and it did just that. Amari picked out a sit somewhere in the middle of the room. Perfect enough that it wasn't completely in the front but it was still good for listening to.
Even as the class filled up no one approached him. His seat was still empty.
'This is the first year class after all. All the first years were those cowards from before, hehe.
Amari decided to hide his happy expression and looked to the front where a vacant tall podium stood.
As far as he was concerned, the only things that would matter here were the things he would learn that would directly or indirectly affect his goal of finding his dad and bringing the rest of his family back to life. Every other thing was secondary.
After a short while of waiting, the professor finally arrived from one of the side doors.
He was a tall, blonde man with pointy ears. Elf; Amari deduced from the way he carried himself and the aura he constantly emanated.
Several thoughts ran through his mind at that moment.
'It's a school for demons. Why is an elf teaching here? Is this normal?'
Several whispers rang out all around him. It was quickly evident that the man was not welcome among them.
"Hmph," the elf man scoffed before anyone had a chance to continue.
His thick, bushy eyebrows furrowed to form a large frown, and he opened his mouth to speak.
"Fools. I will not get into the specifics of why you all are fools, but let's just leave it at that. Nothing more than a bunch of ignoramuses blinded by their own arrogance. And if you do not put aside your prejudice, I'm afraid death might be your only outcome."
The elf man spoke slowly, his angry greyish-blue eyes sweeping over them with every word he spoke.
A few students behind him got angry and got up, bellowing like animals. "Hey, is that a threat? I'll have you know that my father is a-"
But the man just waved him off.
"Yes, your father is bla bla bla. As if I've not heard that same threat two thousand times this month already. Grow up. You are no longer in your father's mansion or your mother's manor. At this academy, we do not pamper. We do not cuddle."
"What would you know about a demon academy, Long Ears?" The same person said.
"I've been teaching at this school since before you were born. I think it's safe to say that I am familiar with the customs and traditions of the academy."
Amari inadvertently let out a grin as the man spoke, causing a series of glares to fall on him.
"What are you laughing at, you freak?!" One girl pointed, screeching.
His lips twitched and he was a few seconds away from slitting her throat, but he mostly held himself back and replied as calmly as possible.
"Your face."
"Why you!"
The interaction wasn't bound to last long as the elf professor interrupted them promptly.
"Enough," His voice rumbled like the sea before a heavy storm. "Now, this minor infraction may not go unpunished. Everyone who made a ruckus will be penalized accordingly. It has been recorded. So go to the Disciplinary Committee to receive your punishment. Do note that failure to do so will bring about a much worse punishment."
His words caused almost everyone to shut up instantly. Amari immediately realized the punishments were more gruelling than they sounded.
"Since that is all settled, let me introduce myself."
The elf man raised a hand and a wisp of silver light appeared at the tip of his fingers. He waved his hands in front of the board and to the student's eyes, several letters began appearing on the board.
Coryn SilverOak.
The name was pretty simple and didn't follow any of the demon's naming conventions. But Amari appreciated it. He now had a name to put to this very amusing face.
'The degree of mana control needed for that is amazing. It looks easy but I doubt anyone at our level would be able to come remotely close.'
'Observation!'
Amari activated Observation without a second thought and a large screen appeared before his eyes.
[Name: Coryn SilverOak]
[Race: Elf]
[Species: Wood Elf]
[Rank: Higher Elf (Evolvable)]
[Class: Astrologer (Level Unknown), ???]
[Patrons: Valen the Astrologer]
[Attributes - Unknown]
[Skills: Star Energy Absorption (Lvl ???), Star Fist (Lvl ???)]
[Danger Level: Avoid at all costs]
'Level up your Observation skill to learn more. Note: Skills shown have been applied to the host, by the host, or against the host.'
His eyes narrowed. Not because of the obscene amount of question marks, but because of the familiar class, patron and skills on the man's status page.
He looked back at his own status and his eyes fell upon the Star Energy Absorption skill that he'd ignored up to now. Perhaps this was a sign that he needed to pay more attention to these patrons and classes.
"Hmm?" SilverOak's eyes fell on him for the first time and he felt himself break into a sweat, but thankfully nothing happened.
He looked away from the professor and then turned down at his table. The stare lingered on for a few minutes but after that, the lesson started
"This is something you all might already know," the man started. "But today we will be talking about the fundamentals of magic. There are racial differences here and there but this applies to all the races."
SilverOak turned to the board, inscribing words with mana at a fast rate.
"First is energy known as mana. The one rule known to everyone is: All living beings have mana and can use mana to a certain extent. When is this rule broken?"
Someone answered the question but Amari couldn't care less about what the person said.
"Very good." He said, clapping "You are right. Mana can be trained to higher levels especially when the individual in question has vowed to serve a god or any other being capable of doling out permission."
"This brings us to the other rules of mana and magic in general."
"It cannot be seen except in special states. It can be channeled within the body as some people are able to do and outside the body to influence the outside world like most mages do. People who are able to do both are extremely rare."
He fell into the category of extremely rare. Amari nodded, noting that.
"At certain ranks, mana and magic can be passed down through blood. This gives rise to magic bloodlines. I don't need to explain much about it, seeing as most of you are magic bloodlines."
A visible air of pride erupted from the students immediately, but SilverOak continued without expression.
"Non-humans like elves and demons are better than humans at wielding mana and have a much higher capacity for magic of all types than the average human. In turn, they grow much faster than us."
SilverOak continued on for a while and Amari began to get disinterested.
It was pretty generic stuff. That was until the man said the last rule.
"It is near impossible to effective harm someone or something on the higher end of the rank hierarchy than you. While we might send our students to kill Higher Demon Beasts from time to time, we only do this to see their future potential and battle acumen. Many rarely complete the mission."
And that was when everything stopped making sense for Amari. Impossible? Then what about the Higher Demon Beast he'd just killed not more than a week ago? Was it a fraud? Or was he the one that had an issue?
A frown appeared on his face as he began to see a growing trend with the way this academy worked.
Each discovery he made put him in a more strange position than before.