Author Note: Sorry about the delay, people! Power outage in my area yesterday caused me some problems. I almost lost the list of students I’ve been working on! (It’s massive, that would have been crippling.) I’ll see if I can post the chapter after this one in a few hours, depends on if I can finish polishing it quickly!

---

Temsello continued. “Or rather… how should we go about hiring people?” Temsello rephrased his prior statement. I suddenly noticed that he seemed completely lost. He looked from Arianne to my box in desperation, obviously hoping one of us would throw out an acceptable answer.

I mentally sighed. Of course, what had I been thinking? When I had assumed that they would accomplish anything in the five days I had been nearly comatose with power acquisition, I had forgotten that Arianne would have to deal with Temsello. Poor girl.

“We should begin by listing the subjects which you want the Academy curriculum to cover. Are you hoping to make each of the students into a master of every discipline of magic?” I asked. It sounded like a tall order, based on what Arianne had been saying earlier.

Temsello looked startled, and then he burst into laughter. “Ha! Ha. Ahem, no. Such a thing would take decades, in fact, I don’t think that anyone could possibly learn everything there was to know about magic, or even everything currently known about magic, in a human lifetime.” He wiped a tear of laughter from his eye. “Heh, I suppose that sometimes it takes such a bold statement to ground oneself. When you put it like that, I suppose we should test new students for their aptitudes towards certain disciplines…?” He asked, while looking towards Arianne for approval.

Arianne nodded. “Yes, that sounds acceptable, we could sort the students into certain classes based on how they perform in the tests, and should new information about their abilities arise, we could move them from one class to another” She suggested.

I didn’t quite like the sound of that. Shouldn’t the students be allowed to choose some of their own classes? I may have had a talent for programming, but I sure didn’t enjoy it too much. I only had myself to blame for going with the flow of things, and look where that got me. As a child, I once dreamed of becoming a musician. However, family circumstances had denied me the opportunity. In time, that dream faded, though I could still remember the disappointment I had felt when I was told that there was no way we could afford to get me lessons.

“Suggestion: While students should indeed be tested for aptitudes, they should not be forced into classes they do not want based on latent talent. Students should be informed of the results of the aptitude test, and then given the choice to enter classes for any discipline they desire. Free will is paramount.” It was a bit strangely worded by the voice, but it got my sentiment across.

Temsello and Arianne looked slightly perplexed at my statement, and remained quiet for a moment, before Temsello nodded. “I suppose I agree. I’ve always been predisposed to destructive magics, but I’m going against that nature in this work… If someone wants something, they’ll work harder for it, whereas if we tried to force them to become someone they dislike, they would do poorly. Thank you for that insight, Adam.” I remained quiet.

Temsello shook his head. “Hmm. I suppose that coming up with a list of classes and then finding a teacher for each one would be unrealistic, seeing as magic is such a personalized field. Perhaps I should attempt to gather teachers, and then creating a class for each one? I have a few friends from my adventuring days that might want to settle down a bit for a calmer life!” He laughed at this.

Arianne held her chin thoughtfully. “We should provide a general education as well, though. Magic is, of course, the purpose of the academy, but that doesn’t mean we should neglect the mundane subjects as well. I’ll return to Triapora and ask father if he can spare us a few experts from the castle to teach those.” She said firmly. Triapora? Ah, that must be the name of the royal city. She was a princess… it was easy to forget that. She must be quite an important person, and her father allowed her to come here? He must really want this academy to succeed.

“I will proceed with construction while you are gathering instructors.” I stated. The fact that I couldn’t speak freely was a major annoyance, as always, but I had to endure. What else could I do, after all?

At this, the two of them nodded, and began to pack up their tents and other items into the cart. I watched them for a few moments. I missed my old body. Sighing mentally once more, I turned back to my work. ‘Land mode.’ I thought. Leaving Temsello and Arianne to the world I no longer lived in, I entered my realm of shadow and power.

---

I scoped the land across the grid. Deciding where would be the best place for a dormitory, I paused while considering something. What should I make the buildings out of? I had control over the land of my territory… but making the houses out of dirt did not project the image that I believed Temsello wanted to convey.

The solution to this, was that I needed to create a quarry… I think? I haven’t actually done construction work before, or anything like that. I was just going to use my magic (Man is it awesome that that is an option!) to peel up the skin of the world, and we’d see where I could go from there.

I moved a fair distance away from the chosen site for the dormitory, because what I was about to make was going to be an eyesore. I did care about the aesthetics of the academy, after all. I claimed some more territory along the way, and once I was about half a kilometer away, I ran out of magic power. Time to rest…

---

I came awake once I had restored my magic. My Magic Capacity had reached just shy of 500 now. Good. I was going to need to keep increasing that in order to do the things I had to. I kept claiming territory in a line towards my destination: a rocky outcropping jutting out of the ground. It looked out of place in this grassy plain, but it was perfect for my purposes. It was about 2 kilometers away, if I was any judge, so I’ll have to rest a few more times, but once I reach it, I should have enough magic power to begin. I claimed more territory. Naptime…

---

I woke up once more. Wow, nearly a full day had already passed since they had left. I hope that I can have something to show for the time that they will have been gone. My magic power is over 650 now. I should make it to the quarry site in one more rest. I proceeded.

---

Waking up to 900 magic capacity was nice. Reaching the rocky outcropping was more so. I still had about 120 Hekares worth of magic power left, so let’s see what I can do with it before I need to rest once more. I considered the stone. I didn’t want to blow it up like I had the tree, shards of stone were worthless to me. I needed big blocks of it for the building.

After failing to budge the stone with my magic enhanced ghost hands, I paced for a bit while thinking. Apparently, being a ghost with magic-based telekinesis, kinda, was not enough to break massive slabs of rock away from their base. It was a long shot anyways, but it would have been nice.

Hmm… Maybe I could create a cutting edge of some sort with my magic? I focused on the edge of my hand, focusing power into it. My pinkie finger was growing warm. I attempted a chopping motion on the stone. It rebounded, but chipped a chunk of rock away. Hmm! I was on the right track, it appeared, but I wasn’t trying to carve a sculpture here. I placed the edge of my hand on the rock, and tried to gently push my hand through the rock. Slowly, my hand melted through the stone.

I jerked my hand away reflexively, even though I no longer needed to worry about heat. Wow. I could melt through rock like this? Incredible, but still not quite what I was going for here. I guess that I should now try to apply magic directly to the stone. I couldn’t flood the stone with magic like I had the tree, as I didn’t want to make another bomb. I placed my hands against the rock. I imagined lines of power cutting a cube away from the stone, and tried to focus the power into that image.

A massive groaning and creaking sound tore through the air, but faintly, as if from a great distance. It was probably much louder in the real world, though it would also be happening quite quickly there. If an ordinary person were around, perhaps they would hear a loud snap?

After a moment of this, the sound stopped, and I felt the last bit of resistance to my magic vanish. Had I succeeded? I removed my palms and examined the stone. Certainly looked like it! I applied magic to my fingers and attempted to extricate the stone. Perfect! I had a fairly large brick, about two feet to a side, of solid rock. I guess my ghost body was a great deal stronger than my ordinary body, because this thing probably weighed a lot. I didn’t feel the strain on my muscles in this body, though there was a strange sensation of tugging on the magic I was applying to my fingers. I increased the flow of power to my fingers, and the tugging sensation shrank.

The more magic I put in my fingers, the stronger my magical strength became. Fascinating! Suddenly, I felt exhausted, and the brick fell through my grip. I checked my magic capacity. Magic Capacity: 0/885

Ah. Time for another nap, I suppose.

---

Author Note: Wow, it's been a week already? Crazy! Hope I can keep this up guys, I enjoy writing this!