By the time the last professor walked in, the students were still cold but they were at least no longer freezing.
"Hello, everyone. I am Prof. Carr. I will be in charge of teaching you all about the spells of the Arcane School of Magic," the person said. This professor was a young adult with short hair and looked to be in their 20s. And they were so androgynous that no one could tell which gender they were from looking at them.
Before they had even begun introducing the class as the other professors had done, several students raised their hands.
Professor Carr looked at the students and smiled in a way that caught many of them off guard and caused both genders to blush.
"I know what you wanna ask but sorry, I can't reveal that. Everybody has some secrets," they ended with a wink. This move caused even more students to blush and some even began to fantasize about the teacher before them.
Wyne looked at the scene indifferently while Mil was gritting her teeth and wanted to jump over the desk and smack the professor over the head.
'This damn trap! I thought it was an androgynous beauty with large, bound breasts! I can smell it! I can smell that you're a fucking man! Don't you dare try to steal my prey!'
Professor Carr could feel someone shooting daggers at him from the front row. He looked down and saw that Mil appeared angry while Wyne didn't have a particular expression on his face.
'Oh, yeah. We have two Beastmen this year. They can probably tell my gender. And here I was planning on finding myself two cute pets,' the man was disappointed but cheered up as he saw Mil's glare. Whenever he was around beastmen, they were able to sniff out his true gender and looked at him in disgust. Unfortunately for them, they did not realize that Carr was a huge M so their looks of disgust only made him more interested in the beastmen.
Although he wanted to flirt with Mil and Wyne, he knew better than to tease two students alone in front of the entire group. So he got down to explaining arcane magic.
Arcane magic's strength was also its weakness. It was neutral against all other elements and magics. While necromancer's undead were not weak to it, they were also not immune to it. Although it could not extinguish a fire like water spells, it would not be consumed by the fire like most wind or plant spells.
Each tier of arcane magic only had 4 spells to them. The 4 spells that they were required to learn during their first year were Magic Arrow, Weak Mana Shield, Magic Hand, and Mana Sense.
Magic Arrow was the most basic of basic spells. It formed up to 5 bolts of mana that could be shot at a single target or multiple targets.
Weak Mana Shield created a barrier made out of pure mana that could resist a moderate amount of physical damage and several low-tier spells.
Magic Hand was similar to Shadow Hands except that it only created a single hand instead of making multiple. It also had the same strength limit as Shadow Hands as well, only being able to use 1/4 of the mage's physical strength.
The last was Mana Sense and the most useful in Wyne's eyes. This not only allowed a mage to sense those with magical energy around them as well as the amount of magical energy inside of those beings but it could also sense the location of magical objects. This was how mages were able to tell whether trinkets were real or not, something those without mana couldn't do. Another benefit was that this told mages what school of magic the individuals it sensed used.
And while it seemed that these spells were easy to use, which they were, that was not the only purpose of the Arcane class. The main purpose was to also teach students runes. Runes were used to enhance spells in various ways when creating magical circles.
An example would be Magic Arrow. A normal Magic Arrow had a limit of 5 arrows. But by using the rune of double casting, it would create 10 arrows for only slightly more mana instead of using twice as much mana and the mage having to focus on creating two spells at once. Runes not only enhanced spells but also helped mages save mana and last longer in battle or in the wild.
When the class was over, Wyne felt very confident about most of his classes.
'Even though these were only the most basic classes to introduce us to them, I think I have an idea about how these are going to go. There are those like Prof. Thebih and Winter who prefer hands-on demonstrations and experimentation along with lessons in class while Carr and the other two will be more lecture-like and will teach the logistics and background of their fields while asking us questions afterward.
Either way, these things are mostly self-study. We will be taught the basics and given some examples but we need to learn the real essence by ourselves and get assistance from the professors if we are coming across troubles. Just like our martial and Ranger training.'
Wyne didn't mind self-study. In fact, he preferred it. Not only would he be able to move at his pace but he could also judge others based on how fast they improved. This was a better way to compare his progress than waiting on exams like he had to do with his management and mathematics classes.
Even with the final class completed, none of the students got out of their seats. Instead, they all sat patiently and stared at the man who held their grades in his hands. Wyne knew that they were waiting for him so he walked back onto the stage
"Alright. We all know what you guys were waiting for and I am not going to give you all another chance if you leave the room. So what do you have to offer?"
Everyone turned to each other. No one wanted to be the first person to volunteer since they were not sure what the minimum bid that Wyne would accept for a ranking was. Koxa stood up and went first.
"I will offer you one grimoire that has a low-tier Black Magic spell not in the textbook in exchange for the 3rd place ranking," Koxa placed down her safe bet but Wyne was not willing to take it.
"Nope. You didn't say it earlier which means you must have more to offer. If you want the 3rd place ranking, I want more."
Koxa grit her teeth and cursed Wyne several times before she changed her offer.
"Fine. I will offer both of my low-tier Black Magic grimoires but I want 2nd place and an additional 40 points. All before the first ranking comes out and I will pay you back 360 of those points."
"Deal," Wyne accepted her offer without giving her the chance to change her mind. He wasn't sure how much low-tier grimoires were worth but that didn't matter. The important thing was that he would have an advantage over others by having spells they did not have access to.
"Um... can I offer to be your assistant for a ranking placement? I am good at cooking and cleaning, and can fetch stuff for you," a commoner girl made the best offer she could. She knew that she could afford it if she tried to trade items but she was confident in her cooking and cleaning skills. She had to help out around the house all the time.
"Agree to do it until mid-terms and you have a deal. You get 5th place," Wyne took up her offer. He didn't need an assistant or servant but a follower. The girl was smart enough to know that she couldn't offer what others had but she was willing to lower herself, even as a mage in order to get ahead.
Those who could be in such a lofty position while making the offer she did, and publicly at that, were those with a thirst for power. Even if she had a small amount of talent, she showed that she was ambitious.
Other students started throwing out offers one after another, even Nesterin. And in under 15 minutes, all the rankings for the first month of the Curses course were decided. A few offered various items but most others offered promises.
Wyne purposely chose people he believed wouldn't follow through with their deals. These were potential rivals who would also want to lead the class but by doing this, he had control over them. By submitting to do whatever he asked, he showed that they were subservient to him and not capable of leading. If they didn't follow through, they were untrustworthy.
Whether they paid him back or not was not what mattered, he had already won in his mind.