After only a few hours of sleep they set out again. The prior night’s attack had rattled them more than they cared to admit, so everyone slept restless. Luckily they didn't encounter any more problems on the remaining way.

They moved slower than the last days, the exhaustion of the last days finally taking its toll. Even though they reached the town surrounding the academy a two hours before midday. After emerging from the forest into the fields surrounding the town, they saw the academy for the first time.

There wasn't that much to see from their vantage point though. Mary was able to bypass that though, inspecting her new home for the first time.

The town was a uncharacteristic for its size. While most small towns in the empire were surrounded by a small wall just to keep all the small monsters out, the town had a seven meter tall wall surrounding it. Unlike the big cities, small towns were largely self sufficient, only importing ores and other resources not locally attainable.

With the immediate proximity of a magic academy, the fields that held the crops were way bigger, because the school most likely doubled the town's population, even though the aspiring wizards helped growing the crops. Despite the increased size of the fields, a relatively small percentage of the townsfolk had to care for crops, leaving a bigger amount of them able to work on different jobs.

Because the academy’s students all were eager to improve their craft or get some fighting experience the townsfolk had easy access to many eager crafters, enchanters and aspiring adventurers. So unlike many other towns, there was little need to get outside adventurers to take care of the surrounding monsters.

The houses in the town were uncharacteristic as well, all having at least two stories. Once again, the students were eager to improve their craft and built up the town's infrastructure and housings for only a small fee.

With many of the normal needs of a town taken care of by the academy, it was specialized in supporting it. As such, the crafts that were not taught by the academy had some very skilled craftsmen available, just to fill the needs of the nobles that came to study.

Furthermore the town had a huge complex of stables just to take care of the students mounts.

The academy itself grandiose, located on the far side of the town, it was surrounded by a high wall, going up to fifteen meters

Most of the inner courtyard was part of a large park, where the students could relax. There were four big dormitories fitted against the walls, about seventy on thirty meters and three stories high, enough to accommodate all of the academy’s one thousand fifty students.

Next to the garden complex, Mary could see several other smaller courtyards that had more specific purposes. Located to the left of the gate was the smaller stable. Next to the stables where all the different crafting stations required for the students that wanted to learn a specific profession.

The academy’s architect had placed several smaller sections within the gardens, several small arenas, dedicated gardens to grow herbs, a few archery ranges, a few squares for physical training and several small pools of water probably for swimming.

There were several bigger buildings fit against the outer walls, though none were as big as the dormitories.

The biggest building was the central tower though, reaching an impressive one hundred twenty meters in height, with a square base forty meters in length. Located right in the middle of the walls, the tower stood proudly among the surroundings.

While the design was quite simple, just a hexagonal tower with a pointed roof, the material it was built from spoke of the wealth of its builders.

The tower was surrounded by a round square with about eighty meters in diameter.

It was built out of marble, imported from the eastern mountains of the empire. Mary counted twenty stories of windows going all around the tower. Several large pillars went around the towers exterior, standing on the six corners. Another, smaller pillar then separated the exterior walls in two. While the first five floors only had small windows, they got increasingly bigger the higher Mary looked.

She really liked the design of the tower and its surroundings. While it was obvious the school hadn't been build to repel intelligent invaders, the wall of the town and school were enough to stop most intelligent monsters from attacking.

She and her team, exhausted from the march and lack of sleep put down their packs and waited for the teacher to appear.

Arajes watched as her group started to wait for her after reaching Agora in only four days.

She had been surprised when they took the direct route, something only eleven other groups had chosen since the opening of the academy fifteen years ago. And only eight of these had managed to save time with the route.

The forest had been uncharacteristically dangerous, the group shouldn't encounter a bear, animals like that didn't attack without cause, so something had to have angered the beast beforehand. Even more strange was the way of attack it chose, normally bears were quite stealthy despite their mass and while her spells had alerted her of its approach, the Falconbridge girl heart it coming, something that was exceedingly hard normally.

Luckily the Falconbridge girl was no fool and took the right measures to defend themselves even before Arajes could intervene.

What had her really worrying was the monster they killed in the second night though, a Vegfox was a rare and dangerous evolution of the common fox. As the students left it behind, obviously shaken by the stealthy monster, she instantly sent a message to her colleagues, telling them to take extra care. Normally they cleared the forest of anything that could endanger a group of beginner mages, but they obviously had missed the beast in their sweep.

She waited for another few minutes before stepping out of the forest, just as the Beavergor noble looked like he would abandon the group and go into the town against her instructions.

“Congratulations you are the ninth group to take less than six days to complete the trial. I will show those of you who managed to pass the academy of Agora. The one who failed will be accomodated in the town's inn and escorted back to the capital later, after the other groups have arrived.”

The town had two gatehouses, both of which led to the main road which ended at the academy’s gates. Mary really liked the finer details the walls of the buildings displayed as well as the overall feeling in the town.

“Wait here!” The teacher told them and went inside. Shortly afterwards she came out again, accompanied by an aging man. She pointed at Beavergor.

“The first son of Count Beavergor will be your guest for the next week!” She told him.

“Of course, if you would accompany me, my lord, I will show you to your room.” Beavergor looked at the teacher with disbelief in his eyes.

“Surely you must be mistaken?”

“No I'm not, you are not suitable to study at our academy!” Mary could see the gears turning in his head, and slowly the irritation turned in anger.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M NOT SUITABLE, I'M TEN TIMES BETTER THAN ALL THESE LOWBORNS COMBINED.” He yelled at her.

“That reaction shows I'm right, you are to full of yourself to fit together with our students!”

“AND WHO ARE YOU TO DECIDE THAT, I DEMAND A NOBLE JUDGE ME, NOT SOME LOWBORN WITCH THAT DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE IN THE COMPANY OF HER BETTERS!” Mary could only shake her head, he was really digging his own grave. The innkeeper shuffled uncomfortably, he really didn't want to be here, attracting the ire of the noble once the teacher dealt with him, though he probably was used to scenes like this.

“Now there is no reason to lose yourself, I'm sure you are a capable mage but there is more to the academy than talent!” The teacher attempted to defuse the situation.

“WHAT SHOULD THERE BE! I'M AM A NOBLE AND A MAGE, SO I HAVE THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT QUALITIES YOU COULD WISH FOR, IN YOUR PITIFUL BACKWATER SCHOOL!”

“You know, you really behave like an uncontrolled raging barbarian, not like the noble you claim to be!” Mary said as he drew a breath to resume his shouting. That gave him a pause, he looked around, spotting all the people around them that stopped to watch the spectacle. He drew in a few breaths, turned to the innkeeper and told him.

“You may now show me my room!” And marched in the inn.

The teacher turned to her.

“Thanks for that, my lady, it’s always a chore to tell nobles like him they failed, you just spared us an hour of being yelled at.”

“No problem, my father taught me how to deal with nobles like him, a very important skill if you want to survive the capital!”

“Yes, very important indeed, now that we have the unpleasant part of the day behind us, let us proceed to the academy! Follow me!”

They continued following the main road, passing several restaurants, tailors and other shops that would be frequented by the academy’s students. The quality of the items or food displayed respectively was way above what a small town like this had to offer normally.

Ten minutes later they arrived at the academy’s gates.

“Welcome to the Academy, right now, most older students are still visiting their homes, so it’s quite empty.”

After they arrived in front of the dormitories, they were told to wait for someone to take care of them.

“You are free to explore the surroundings for now, just be here in an hour, someone will come to take care of you!”

With that she vanished. Mary and the others didn't really want to explore now though and just went to the next clearing, happily chatting with each other for the next hour.

"Hey there, I'm Avao and he is Ebrim, we will show you to your room and then give a tour of the academy to you together.” They were separated by gender and led in two different buildings.

“Just deposit your stuff and come out again, it’s nearly lunchtime and inspecting your room is something you can always do alone.”

After uniting with the other groups again, they were led back to the entrance.

“Let's get the boring stuff out of the way first. To the left of the gates you can see the stables where the teachers keep their mounts, as the villagers were scared by some of them.” Avao explained.

“Subsequent to the stables are the crafting station, behind the small wall you can see. The wall is there to hold the noise canceling enchantment so the rest of the academy isn't disturbed.” Ebrim continued.

They followed one of the paths leading through the gardens and arrived at a part that was separated by hedges. Inside they could see herbs growing in orderly rows, taken care of by enchantments in their surroundings.

“This one of five herb gardens in the academy, they are all somewhere within the gardens! You are free to use the herbs growing in here for whatever you want. Though we mainly grow the herbs for the aspiring alchemists to better their craft.”

They exited the herb garden and followed the path again, arriving at one of the small arenas Mary saw out of the air, though now that she was near them she could see the magic radiating off it.

“That's one of the arenas, you are only allowed to use them with a teacher present, at least in the first three years afterwards you are expected to be mature enough to know how to deal with them. The arena is perfectly safe for everyone using it normally, as you don't actually fight with your body, but as an illusion, so you do not damage the surroundings even with the most powerful of spells.”

“There are several small targets for archery practice as well as a few small pools of water for swimming scattered all throughout the gardens as well, but we will show you these later, now we are nearing one of the dining halls. Dinner is between five and six pm, breakfast between six thirty and seven thirty and lunch is between twelve and one pm! If you are to late you don't get anything!”

After eating a lunch which tasted way better than everything they were able to eat on their journey, they continued the tour around the academy grounds.

“The most of the buildings on the edges contain classrooms, except the dining halls and the houses for the teachers, but I'm confident you will be able to differentiate.”

“Now let's get to the central tower, shall we?”

“The tower is surrounded by the gathering plaza, where you will be officially welcomed by the headmaster at the start of the term.

Some basics first, the tower has a height of one hundred and twenty meters, is forty meters in diameter and has twenty stories. The top two floors are occupied by the headmaster which I'm sure you have heard about. The eight floors below are used by the teachers and administrators of the academy, you can be invited by a teacher to help them with said research, which is the only way you want to get in there, the other possibilities are all undesirable!

The lowest ten floors have several other interesting uses, the second, sixth and eighth are all libraries which you can access in the first second and fourth year. The adventurers guild is located on the first floor, as we work together closely. The rest of the floors contain some more classrooms for the older students, the tenth is the garrison of the guards. The first floor displays all the achievements the students visiting the academy acquired.

The ninth floor is occupied by the hospital. You will learn about the rest in time, though none are of immediate concern now.”

“Changing floors is possible in two ways, you can either take the stairs or the supply mana to use the elevator!”

“Well that's it for now, you can always ask more questions when you see us, make sure you don't miss dinner and welcome in the Academy of Agora!”

As they turned to leave, Mary went forth.

“What about my pet falcon, is it allowed to built a nest within the grounds?”

“You have a pet falcon? Well you will have to register him at with a teacher so he will get a mark so he can pass through the academy’s defenses once they are on, but there is no need to stress it, just ask a teacher in the next week and you are fine!”

After the two guides vanished they explored the gardens a bit more, and just relaxed for the first time in weeks. Shortly before dinner Mary had Valamin create a small home for Starshadow, she called him down so he knew were he could sleep and went in her room. She could have created the hideout herself, but if she start to throw around wizardry before the term had even started her disguise wouldn't hold up for long.

Luckily her room had a window, so Starshadow could visit her whenever he wanted.

The room was keyed to her manasignature, so only she could enter.

It was about four meters wide and five long, and had a small bath to the left of the door. Her bed was located on the left side of the room, near the window. She had a desk directly in front of the window and a small tree stood on its right. The closet stood to the right of the door, only accessible with the door closed. There was a small nightstand with a magical lamp in front of the bed.