"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Some idiot smashed the door early in the morning, interrupting my sleep. Fortunately my mother was a deep sleeper, remaining unaffected.

I opened the door to find Blondy standing there, grinning.

"Blondy, why the fuck did you wake me up so early in the morning?"

"Hey! I have a name you know? The name's Isaac!"

"Whatever, get to the point Blondy."

Blondy looked exasperated.

"Well basically, I teach the people I recruit for first day they are here. I teach them the ropes of the academy and advise them on which path they should take."

"Alright, get on with it."

I was mildly irritated but it was still a good idea to learn more about the school.

Flung into the air yet again by Blondy, unfortunately without being held by him this time, which was very scary, we flew into a plain looking room in about a minute or so. There were contraptions that resembled featureless wooden puppets slouching on the wooden floor in heaps all over the room. Three other people were there too.

One of them approached me.

"Hi! I'm Bobby, let's be frien-"

"Shut up!"

Bobby looked hurt and frightened by my outburst. I felt a little bad but I wasn't in the mode to deal with this mushy crap after being woken up early in the morning. You'd be grumpy too if your sleep was interupted. The other students recruited by Blondy looked vexed and didn't speak to me after.

Blondy's expression looked a little awkard after that but the lesson got on quickly.

He spent a lot of time describing in detail about what the school was about and the paths we could take as mages. The school's main attraction was the library, the place where all the students were expected to find their information. There were classes with experienced mages teaching, but they required high fees.

To ensure students would contribute to the school, there was a request board, filled with many, many tasks. Completing a task would yield contribution points (CP), which could be used to trade for just about anything sold in the school, including the lessons. A hundred CP was required to renew the studentship every month, or else the offender would be kicked out of Lumious.

The total amount of CP you earned would also affect your student rank, and higher rankers were allowed to access higher levels of the library and purchase better items in the trade market. The best students were even entitled to monthly rewards.

To be honest, it didn't seem to be much of a school if you ask me. More of some sort of company, really.

Up next was more about the paths mages could take. Lumious primarily taught the Core Refining path and the Miasma path. Core Refining focused on compressing all the mana from the body into a single core in passive form, allowing powerful attacks with highly compressed mana when the power from the core is unleashed.

The Miasma path consisted of forcing huge amounts of active mana into the bloodstream of the mage. Miasma mages could unleash stronger attacks than that of the Core Refiners and also spam spells rapidly, but if the mage lost control, he would blow up in the spot. It was a dangerous path that was not recommended.

There was also a supplementary path known as Body Refining that could be practiced by Core and Miasma mages. It consisted of infusing mana into all parts of the body, making it faster, stronger and more resistant to damage. It was a required path for Miasma mages to reduce chances of the body blowing up.

Mana had two primary forms. Active and passive. Passive mana had the tendency to gravitate. This form of mana was very stable and safe. Active mana repulsed all forms of mana, making it unsafe to keep in the body.

With the advice given, I decided on the Core Refining path. I certainly did not want to blow up in the middle of combat. I headed to the library and had a good read about how core cultivation was done and how to identify my rank and took a book about Body Strengthing as well.

I borrowed the books after the session and went to the office to accept requests.

"Boy, I'm afraid you didn't fill up the registration forms yesterday because of them. Come here and fill them up now."

I spent some time filling up the form, writing my name and signing some paperwork that I didn't read. I then recieved a card with my name, room number and my student rank which was the lowest of the low. No surprise there.

Edward showed me a list of current requests that could be taken at my current rank when I asked him for it. I skimmed through it and found one that I liked.

Hunt Gulward Boars

Requirements: Bring back the corpses of 10 Gulward Boars

Reward: 20 CP

Time Limit: 1 Day

It had a great reward compared to many of the other low ranked quests. In addition, I wanted to test my combat prowess. I had read that Gulward Boars were very fierce and capable of taking down a low ranking mage easily. Despite that, I didn't think that a stupid pig would be able to take me that down easily!

Edward handed me a storage bag that I had to return after the request was completed and gave me a odd look but didn't say anything. Realising that I had forgotten to put the books back into the housing, I decided to temporarily keep the books in the bag.

I left the capital and headed to Gulward Forest, prepared to take down ten of those boars alone, excited to fight yet again!