Three days of intense language study, hanging out, and exploring with Artemis later, orientation was among us.
The new students were broken up into dozens of smaller groups, and most people had friends, parents, or sponsors with them, seeing what the School was like for themselves. I was no exception, with Artemis, Julius, and Amber all tagging along our orientation group. We were all outside the gates of the School for the start of this, our group in a little huddle like the rest of the groups. Some of them were moving around already, others were talking. Some groups were larger, some were smaller. We were in one of the bigger groups. I guess the experience changed depending on who was leading the orientation.
My language studies were going well, and I was focusing on trying to listen and understand the words being said in their own language. I still needed Iona to translate a few words every sentence, but I was rapidly achieving basic proficiency.
In a single language.
“Hello everybody! Welcome to orientation! I’m Stefan, a fourth year and a werewolf! No, we don’t bite.” The man in black robes leading orientation joked in his native language, the enchantments in the School automatically translating into four different languages - High Elvish included - and we obligingly laughed.
“I’m sure you all have thousands and thousands of questions, and on one hand I’d love to tell you all to ask them now! Except I did that once, and I spent the next four hours standing here answering questions, instead of giving a tour and orientation of the place. So! How about this. Ask questions when-”
Stefan was interrupted by the sound of thousands of chimes going off, along with a distant roar of a gigantic, primal monster, heralding triumph and success.
I snapped a shield around us all and took off, hovering a bit above the ground. My eyes were on a swivel, looking up, down, around, trying to see where the monster was coming from. Artemis had a dozen sharp stones hovering around her, and Lightning was crackling between two of her fingers, charging up a skill.
I noticed Stefan was laughing, and there wasn’t a general sense of panic and concern. I slowly drifted back to the ground, flushing with embarrassment. I dropped my shield.
“You weren’t the only one ready to fight.” Iona softly murmured in my ear. “Only difference was, I didn’t have my axe handy.”
I nodded my appreciation. It’d be all too easy to claim she knew what it was all along, instead of standing by me.
“Ok! I was going to start with something else, but that went out the window like a butterfly.”
I glared murder at him for making fun of me. I was feeling fairly down, and more than a little petty, and I’d figure out some form of petty revenge.
I didn’t know what it’d be yet, but I was resourceful. I’d find something. Maybe a nice mudhole to trip him into.
“Second things first! Let me introduce to you all the grand gate of our School, the Dragon’s Gate! The enchantments written on it were done in dragon’s blood, which lets it detect when a [Princess] enters through the gates! When it does, it’ll let everyone on campus know with those chimes and a roar, and I do believe that confirms the rumor that we’ve got royalty in this incoming group of students! Exciting times we live in! There’s a few more [Princesses] on campus, and the gates are a semi-regular thing. Questions?”
My brain just about broke in half at the start of the orientation. They used dragon’s blood for the gate enchantments!? They advertised that!? It could detect if someone was a princess, or more likely, if they had the class!?
That flew in the face of so many different things I knew, but I didn’t have time to process and understand it. Stefan was moving along.
“First thing second! As I said earlier, I’m Stefan, a fourth-year. Yes, a student is running orientation. I’ll get to that in a minute. This is the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft, unrivaled in the world! While we’re here, we’re all students. If you see a political rival? If you have a chance to kill the young master of a rival sect? If you have a chance to get blackmail on the Han faction? Don’t. We’re students here, this place is neutral. It makes it a worthwhile environment for all of us, instead of an all-out warzone. Save your grudges for when you’ve graduated, and remember.”
Stefan turned serious.
“This is the School’s territory, where the School’s rules apply. The School is perfectly fine angering the royal family of Rolland, or even messing with the elves. Fuck around, and find out.”
He cracked a grin, turning back to a goof.
“Jobs! Work! The School has hundreds to thousands of little low-level jobs it has reserved for students, all designed to make life cheaper for everybody, along with providing minor incomes to students who need to supplement their tuition. If your pockets are feeling pinched by what your sponsors give you for spending money, or if you are the second favorite child and your parents aren’t funding you enough, find a job! Make some money! All the jobs offered by the School are legit. I’m not supposed to tell you about the other jobs that exist, but they’re out there.”
Stefan winked at the few glares he was getting from said penny-pinching sponsors, along with the implication that there were more jobs than just the School. The town attached to the School was a solid bet for employment, and there had to be all sorts of black market jobs.
“Questions? Yes?” Stefan answered a few different questions about the gates and types of jobs, then clapped his hands.
“Ok! Let’s move on! A few groups are ahead of us, a few are behind us, this is the perfect time to go. Follow me!” He started to walk backwards, facing us while he moved down the central path to the Dragon’s Gate.
If I squinted a bit, and was drunk as a skunk, it did look a bit like a dragon’s mouth.
“This stretch of road’s a bit long, so let me go over the basics of how the School works! Some of you know this, some of you don’t. The fundamental idea, and the thing most people are going for at the School, are called Tracks. There’s a Track for everything! There’s the Wizardry Track, the Sorcery Track, the Legal Track, the Engineering Track, the Golem Track, the Alchemy Track, the Business Track, there’s one for everything the School teaches! Because that’s how the School works. You, what are you here for?” Stefan pointed to one of the random students.
“Music and entertainment.” He answered.
“Music and entertainment! Great! Your sponsor wants you to walk out of here with the School saying you’re competent at music and entertainment. You’ll probably be taking the Music Track, the General Entertainment Track, then probably a Track dedicated to a few different instruments, and a Track dedicated to a few specialized types of entertainment. Each Track has graduation requirements. Fulfill them all, and the School is happy to certify that you’re competent in the field. The School’s idea of competent is everyone else’s idea of genius, and it’ll open doors throughout the world! Questions?” Stefan asked as he continued to walk backwards, occasionally throwing a look over his shoulder to see where he was going.
I spent a few moments putting together all the needed words to ask the question I wanted to say. As I opened my mouth, someone beat me to the punch, asking exactly the question I wanted to ask.
“What do the Track requirements look like?”
“Great question, so glad you asked! It depends on the Track! Some are easy, just a written exam. Students occasionally come here with expert knowledge in a field, promptly take the Track exam, and get certified all without stepping foot into a classroom. Usually happens when an Immortal wants to pick up a new profession, but is still a 700 year old master in their old profession. It’s a pride thing, being able to claim more Tracks completed at the School. Others, like the musical instrument, would require a performance test. Entertainment might ask for a performance, although I’m not sure on that one. The big admin building is the place that has all that information, and would you look at that, we’re here!”
Stefan gestures to the big building on my left, the same one Yugure had taken me to when I first came.
“Now, all these buildings have super-fancy names, but nobody actually calls them that. This is either the big administration building, or the fancy administration building, depending on who’s calling it that. It’s the first thing most people see, and it’s designed to impress. Hence it being the fancy administration building. Most of your paperwork needs will be seen to there, and they have all the information you could possibly want. If you can find it. I swear, the place was originally a maze, and I know for a fact that the hallways rearrange themselves. Moving on!”
Stefan took a turn down the road to my left, and started to walk down it.
“This is the main campus. There are three layers of roads, all in an octagonal shape inside of each other. I like giving the tour of the place by starting at the outer layer, and slowly working our way in until we get to the central layer, which has the eight magical towers. Most of your classes will be in those towers.” Stefan explained as he continued to walk backwards.
“Let me discuss robes! Everyone needs to wear robes, and the color does have significance. It’s easy! They’re tied to your level, and if you ask some of the [Deans], they’ll claim it’s a reflection of how much you think you know. We start with black! The lowest level, and System-wise, you all know they have the most powerful classes. A bit of a joke, that the people with the lowest levels think they know the most. Everyone with their highest levels being level 1 to level 511 get black robes. Purple robes are for levels 512 to 1023, and I think you can see the pattern here, ending on white robes for the final 512 levels. There’s rumors of one or two of them around campus. Ah! We’re at our next spot!”
“The auditorium! The fine fellow who mentioned he was here to study music is going to spend quite a lot of time in this building. Those of you who want to test their luck can come and listen, and hopefully it’ll be an expert working on their latest masterpiece, and not a rank beginner who doesn’t know how to tune their instrument.”
Stefan shuddered dramatically.
Someone asked a question about classes.
“Classes and graduation! I’m so glad you asked, I entirely forgot! Ok, each Track has a set of classes that it asks you to take. Now, you don’t have to take any of the classes, you can just skip right to the Track test. However, there’s a guarantee that if you take all the classes, you will have all the knowledge needed to pass the Track exam! That’s the claim, we all know it’s not true. Or have sufficient proficiency to play the instruments at the level needed to pass, or to construct a golem up to the examiner’s standards, etc. The examiners are also the professors, and I’ve heard enough stories about favored students not getting as harshly examined - after all, they know the student knows the material - versus Immortals just waltzing in and assuming they know everything. Also, everyone has an advisor. They can help guide you on a personalized, one-on-one basis. They’ll give you lots of good advice, but in the end, they’re only elvenoid. They might make mistakes. Do your own thinking!”
Go to classes. Listen to my advisor… within reason. Easy enough.
“Next, we have the College of Natural Philosophy. Right after the road is the College of Business, and…”
Stefan continued to give his tour of the outer ring of buildings. The sports arena was next, where I spoke up and asked if it was the Mistor arena. It wasn’t, although Stefan said he’d point it out when it showed up. The College of Arts was after the sports arena, and the gym was just past that. Iona looked thrilled at that information.
I should go to the gym myself. Didn’t have Ranger drills keeping me in shape anymore.
The bazaar was next, a multi-story behemoth that Stefan promised sold everything we needed. Crafters could even try to sell their goods in the bazaar, and the place we’d seen on the ground in Rolland were some of the more enterprising members of the School trying to break into a new market.
“Can I go?” Amber pleaded with me.
“I’m not your parent.” The words were supposed to be flippant, but my throat betrayed me in the end. Amber looked like she’d been stabbed at the reminder.
“You can go, but this is your only chance to see the School. The bazaar will still be there after the tour’s over.” Julius gently reminded Amber.
She quietly nodded, and we continued on with the tour.
The College of Engineering was next, and that didn’t interest any of us.
A familiar building was next.
“The dining hall! About as risky as the auditorium. Dozens of different [Chefs] and [Cooks] will be working there every day with thousands of different ingredients, but heads up! They’re also student workers, most of who are practicing their class while also making money and studying at the same time. Usually they’re experts, but sometimes… well… let’s just say nagas have their own weird idea of how spices should work. Buyer beware!”
The food seemed perfectly fine when I went there, but it was nice to know. This place, like every other place, encouraged a quick check with [Identify] to see if the person I was getting food from was high level or not.
Although… most [Chefs] were [Artisans], but anyone with an [Artisan] tag would look like a chef behind the grill.
I’d avoid anyone cooking that had any of the other tags.
Hmm.
Technically, I could ask Iona to spot check people’s classes, but that seemed rude, and I’d asked Iona for so much help already.
“While I’m on the topic of cooking, that reminds me about auras! There are plenty of high level individuals here, and enough Classers grab aura skills that they start to become relevant. I know at least one [Cook] has an anti-burning aura. While he’s in the kitchen, nobody’s food will burn. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people with auras in the School. You’ll find crafts are easier to make, instruments are easier to tune, quills never run out of ink, and dozens of other little - or big! - effects here and there. Enjoy them while they last!”
“Next is the student center! It’s for all of us to relax and unwind. Parties, games, the latest invention, all of that can be found here! The social hub of the School, and honestly, what’s more important?”
Stefan let the murderous looks from the sponsors roll off his back, while Julius gave a sigh in the background.
“Speaking of social groups, let me talk about Rings!” Stefan held up his hands, showing off three rings he was wearing on his abnormally furry hands. “Rings are social groups. They could be for anything! Whatever interests you have, there’s a Ring. Dueling! Drinking! Debate! Dancing! Debauchery! There’s something for everyone!”
Iona looked way too interested in the debauchery Ring idea.
“Each Ring gives out a, well, ring to show off your membership in the club. There’s a little unofficial rule that you can only be in as many Rings as you have fingers. Nobody wants someone joining just to claim they’re a member. Of course, it’s not a rule, but when everyone does it?”
Stefan shrugged.
“Brrrpt?” Auri asked, and since there was nobody around that could understand her, I spent a few moments thinking of a translation.
“What about people with no finger?” I asked, cursing as I knew I punted the plural form.
Auri flew up a bit above the group, making a small fire show and twirling herself around, making sure everyone could see who the question was about.
Also because the vain bird wanted to show off.
“Ha! Good question! Ask the Rings! Some might say two, some might not care. Ok, any other questions?”
There were a few more, and we moved on.
“Off to your left are the cheap living quarters. Most of you live in them and are familiar with them, they’re free to all students. We’ll get to the fancier ones later.”
I obviously recognized the area.
“Next! The building you need to know the location of, and pray you never visit! The hospital! It’s combined with the school of medicine, and I spot at least one [Healer] in the crowd here who’ll have her studies here!”
Ok. Fine. That did it.
I’d totally help the sponsors hide the body.
“We’ve got the boring administration building next to the hospital, and they handle the other half of the paperwork that the fancy administration building doesn’t! Now, before someone asks, I don’t know who does what, and they’re obnoxiously vague about it.”
The observatory was next, followed by the ‘lower education’ building.
Auri and I traded looks at that one.
“Brrpt.”
“Oh, he’s just being mean, I’m sure it’s a great place to learn! It’s special for you.”
“Brpt.”
Auri was entirely unconvinced, but she would be getting an education. That was non-negotiable, and I’d already gotten practically scammed on my first attempt to get her a good education.
I wasn’t failing this time.
After that was the stables for large companions and animals - we all glanced at Fenrir, even as a giraffe looked at us from over the walls - and the guard station. The theater came after that, and someone asked a good question.
“Yes! Professors have complete discretion over who’s allowed in their classes, and there's a number of advanced classes the professors won’t allow you into unless they know you. The medical classes on Miasmas, Spores, and Poisons is a famous example. The biomancy classes on How to Make Vorlers is another one, and why they still teach that I’ll never know. Golems Building Golems is another class that has extremely high requirements to get into. They won’t teach just anyone that stuff, we don’t want another set of Pekari running around! One’s bad enough.”
Make nice to access forbidden knowledge. Easy enough.
We came to the Vaults.
“Getting dark for a minute here!” Stefan’s cheerfulness was entirely at odds with the information he was imparting, like he was regaling us with a fun story instead of facts. “The Vaults! It securely contains most of the knowledge we’ve accumulated through the eons, and is the single most fortified position in the School. When an Immortal War comes to the island, it’ll be the last thing standing. Local legends have it that the School’s been entirely eradicated eight times, the Vaults being the source of knowledge that’s brought us back from some dark and ugly times after the island’s been rediscovered!”
“Is that true?” Artemis asked. I wondered if she was thinking that, yes, maybe this was her School, resurrected time and time again.
Stefan shrugged.
“It’s been ages since the last Immortal war. What, 900 years or so? How am I supposed to know! It makes for a cool story though.”
Iona muttered darkly next to me in a language I didn’t recognize.
After the Vaults were the flying fields, and Stefan hit his hand to his head.
“Flying! Right! Things are calm right now, the island’s barely moving. When the island is moving, there are some low level protections against the wind. However, you don’t want to get too high up. The wind will rip you right out of the sky, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to land before you go off the edge of the island.”
There were a few laughs at his joke, but Stefan shook his head.
“I’m completely serious. Saw it happen my first year. We were over the ocean to boot. Never saw the student again. Do. Not. Fly. Well, not outside the safe to fly areas. Like this place!” Stefan gestured to the… well, words mostly failed me. It was like a hovering obstacle course.
“It’s the flight course! Safe to fly, lets little birds burn some energy safely. Now, on the other side, we can see the fancy living area. Professors get houses here, and wealthy students can rent out a house for themselves, with significantly more room. Unfair? Yes, but they’re subsidizing the rest of us. It’s a nice area, but if someone asks you to leave, leave. It is their home, like we all have rooms in the bulk dorms.”
Stefan answered some questions as we kept walking. The Dangerous Workshop was next to the fire and magical emergency response building, for obvious reasons. The normal or safe workshop was next to that.
The events center was next on the path, a huge building dedicated to… being a building that people could set up in. The Legal College was after that, followed by the College of War.
Why the break in the naming convention, I had no idea.
The next building was a familiar one - The Wandering Inn, or as Stefan called it, the Hotel.
I liked The Wandering Inn more.
“Another entertainment building! Entertainers usually make neat mirages, or tell stories with illusions and sounds. When their stuff is good, it’s good. It’s like watching a real story in front of you!”
Sounded like a cinema! That could be fun, if I ever had spare time.
That triggered a thought, although I’d ask one of the professors at the School. Generally, leveling up healing classes required patients. With dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of medical students at the School, how did we get enough patients and injuries to get enough experience to level up?
It was less of a concern for me, but the same question could easily apply to a dozen different types of training. [Actors] got more levels doing difficult parts in front of large audiences, and I imagined most other classes needed similar conditions.
“Next up is the Tabernacle! Whatever your faith is, the Tabernacle is there to provide.”
The building was impressive, a staggering holy spiral into the sky. I should pray more often, and Iona had her head bowed.
“Last building on this layer! The place most of you will spend considerable hours, the library!”
I’d seen the building before, but I’d naively assumed it was just an extension of the fancy admin building.
No.
I had sinned. I hadn’t recognized what it was before it was pointed out to me. A travesty that wouldn’t be repeated. It was the holiest of holy grails. A reflection of my inner soul, a place that Remus technically had and practically didn’t.
A library.
A place of books, of stored knowledge. Cozy corners and musky smells, all the stories of the world in one place for me to loot and plunder to my heart’s content.
And oh! This one was ginormous. If even half of it was full of absurdly spaced books, I’d have multiple lifetimes of reading material available.
As long as they weren’t all census reports or something. Even then! There were probably enough of those reports to tell a fascinating story, I’d just have to be the one to put it together.
I knew where I’d be spending an unreasonable number of hours. I knew where I’d be trying to find a job.
Books and scrolls, parchment and ink, oh my! I couldn’t wait, but I restrained myself.
It was orientation. I was getting some special inside knowledge now. The books would be there in an hour or so.
Assuming there wasn’t a gigantic fire or something else while the tour continued. I discreetly knocked on a tree along the path to ward off bad luck.
“And we’re back where we started! The first layer’s done! Questions on what we’ve seen so far?”
Stefan answered a few questions, then moved on.
“Over here we’ve got the statue of Radras the All-Knowing.” Stephan pointed to a bronze statue of a sphinx, slightly taller than Iona. It was worn in multiple places, clearly having weathered quite some time.
“Radras supposedly reignited the School after centuries of decline, and is venerated here to this day.” Stefan explained. “Now, I mentioned before that some professors require taking their prior classes before they’ll let you into their more advanced classes. Radras here plays a role in that. Legend has it that patting the head before a major exam will get you a passing score.”
His head was indeed rubbed shiny, worn down in a way the rest of the statue wasn’t.
“However, School students usually strive to be better than merely passing. Rubbing Radras’s belly will get you an excellent mark on your exams.”
Yup.
“The School’s full of perfectionists. If you want perfect marks, there’s one more spot on Radras.”
Gods damn it all. Stefan was right. Why was the statue entirely anatomically correct!?
“Moving on! The School put all the fancy things near the front of the School, to stop tourists from getting lost. The Grand Stadium’s next up, and it’s where major events are held.”
Looked like the Colosseum from Remus, and I was slapped with another pang of homesickness.
“There’s fewer things on this layer. Let’s go!” Stefan said.
He was right.
There was a multi-storied greenhouse that Stefan claimed housed every plant on the planet, although a number were restricted. The firing range was for training and practicing skills, and it was filled with people firing off skills. Arcanite pillars dotted the place, and mages kept walking back and forth from them, topping themselves up so they could keep going.
The Illusionary building was next… although that might’ve been a prank. The lot was completely empty, and even Stefan wasn’t entirely sure if it existed or not.
The dueling arena - AKA the Mistor Arena, where practice was - came after that, and we were already halfway through the layer of buildings.
The Aquarium was next, although Stefan claimed there was only a small fraction of the sea creatures inside. It looked to my untrained eye to be dangerously close to the Dangerous Workshops, but eh. It had survived until now, right?
“The Museum of All Things!” Stefan proudly named the next building. “Ok, for those of you visiting, you should absolutely take a look around. I’m no [Professor], I’m not amazing at explaining things, but here’s the quick and dirty basic rundown of the place.”
He took a deep breath, and started reciting.
“Iona, can you translate this for me? It sounds important.” I realized two sentences into Stefan’s explanation that I needed a good translation of this, and not my feeble attempts.
“Classes work off of knowledge.” Iona translated Stefan’s words, hanging onto them herself. “The more you know, the more options you’ll get. The more options you get, the better classes you can take. Metal is the best example of what the Museum of All Things can do for you. What metal does a Metal [Mage] conjure up? Well, it depends on the mage! They’ll get some metal that works and resonates with them, that they know and are familiar with. Someone who grows up in a copper mine will conjure copper, and someone who spends their childhood in a blacksmithy will conjure up iron.”
“The Museum has a sample of everything. Every metal. Every stone. All types of glass, sand, lava, waters, oozes, flames, woods, lights. It’s all in the Museum, with their properties labeled.”
Iona broke off from translating Stefan’s speech, and was looking at me.
“I take it you’re going to want to visit.”
I grinned back.
“You know me so well.”
“Let’s all visit after orientation.” Julius agreed.
“Wonder if there’s different types of Lightning.” Artemis wondered.
“There are! Remember how I told you about Galeru?” I nudged the twitchy mage.
I’d noticed there were a few different types of Radiance throughout my travels. My skills were often sun or bug-themed, but Haka had a forge-theme.
We weren’t the only ones excited by the information. All of the other students and their parents or sponsors were excited by the news as well, and I foresaw an influx of visitors.
“Ok! Last up is the Arboretum!” Stefan pointed to the last building. “Slightly different from the Greenhouse, this has trees. The people running the place insist it’s different from the Greenhouse, and there’s some bizarre rivalry going on there. Don’t ask about it unless you want them to talk your ear off, or if you’re unlucky, throw you out.”
There were practically no questions. Everyone was still mulling over the Museum.
“Ok! That’s it for the second layer! The third layer is just ahead, and it’s the easy one! The mage towers!” Stefan gestured, and started going on about the eight towers in the center of campus as we walked around them.
Long story short. There were eight towers, one dedicated to each primary element, and they were where most of the magical education occurred, usually linked with the element most commonly associated with it. Illusions were in the College of Light, for example, while fire was in the College of Fire. Easy stuff.
Healing was in the College of Water, because apparently there’d been some feud between Light and Dark as to which one was ‘more important.’ An interesting tidbit was that Celestial healers were the most common type of advanced element in this day and age, and that just gave me warm fuzzy feelings all over.
“Last thing, then I’ll answer whatever questions you have. You’ll notice there’s space between the eight magic towers. That’s Central Park! A lovely place for a picnic, to go for a walk, or to hide in the bushes to study. I don’t judge.”
“When do classes start?” One person asked.
“What’s the class schedule like?” Iona asked at nearly the same time.
“There are eleven weeks of classes, followed by two weeks of break, for a full cycle. The next cycle starts in four weeks, although the two weeks of break are basically a non-stop party.”
“Where will the island go next?” Julius asked after quickly consulting with Iona.
“Good question! Uh. You’ll have to look it up. Some of the students from the College of Natural Philosophy claim there’s a pattern to how to island moves, and when it speeds up and slows down, but it is a mystery to those of us whose heads aren’t in the clouds. Figuratively. The boring administration building can tell you more.”
“How much longer can we stay?” Someone else asked.
“I think the island’s picking up speed already. Admissions end tomorrow, and the day after is the last day to get off the island. Oh! That reminds me! Beware of Barnacles! They’re former students who never quite left. They’re tenacious, living in the cracks. Mostly harmless, but they exist. Next question?”
With all the questions answered, and orientation over, my friends and I decided to grab dinner.
Errr.
We were on island time now, so it was more like lunch, though the sun was down and the moons were out. Changing over was weird.
I’d get used to it.
Three days of intense language study, hanging out, and exploring with Artemis later, orientation was among us.
The new students were broken up into dozens of smaller groups, and most people had friends, parents, or sponsors with them, seeing what the School was like for themselves. I was no exception, with Artemis, Julius, and Amber all tagging along our orientation group. We were all outside the gates of the School for the start of this, our group in a little huddle like the rest of the groups. Some of them were moving around already, others were talking. Some groups were larger, some were smaller. We were in one of the bigger groups. I guess the experience changed depending on who was leading the orientation.
My language studies were going well, and I was focusing on trying to listen and understand the words being said in their own language. I still needed Iona to translate a few words every sentence, but I was rapidly achieving basic proficiency.
In a single language.
“Hello everybody! Welcome to orientation! I’m Stefan, a fourth year and a werewolf! No, we don’t bite.” The man in black robes leading orientation joked in his native language, the enchantments in the School automatically translating into four different languages - High Elvish included - and we obligingly laughed.
“I’m sure you all have thousands and thousands of questions, and on one hand I’d love to tell you all to ask them now! Except I did that once, and I spent the next four hours standing here answering questions, instead of giving a tour and orientation of the place. So! How about this. Ask questions when-”
Stefan was interrupted by the sound of thousands of chimes going off, along with a distant roar of a gigantic, primal monster, heralding triumph and success.
I snapped a shield around us all and took off, hovering a bit above the ground. My eyes were on a swivel, looking up, down, around, trying to see where the monster was coming from. Artemis had a dozen sharp stones hovering around her, and Lightning was crackling between two of her fingers, charging up a skill.
I noticed Stefan was laughing, and there wasn’t a general sense of panic and concern. I slowly drifted back to the ground, flushing with embarrassment. I dropped my shield.
“You weren’t the only one ready to fight.” Iona softly murmured in my ear. “Only difference was, I didn’t have my axe handy.”
I nodded my appreciation. It’d be all too easy to claim she knew what it was all along, instead of standing by me.
“Ok! I was going to start with something else, but that went out the window like a butterfly.”
I glared murder at him for making fun of me. I was feeling fairly down, and more than a little petty, and I’d figure out some form of petty revenge.
I didn’t know what it’d be yet, but I was resourceful. I’d find something. Maybe a nice mudhole to trip him into.
“Second things first! Let me introduce to you all the grand gate of our School, the Dragon’s Gate! The enchantments written on it were done in dragon’s blood, which lets it detect when a [Princess] enters through the gates! When it does, it’ll let everyone on campus know with those chimes and a roar, and I do believe that confirms the rumor that we’ve got royalty in this incoming group of students! Exciting times we live in! There’s a few more [Princesses] on campus, and the gates are a semi-regular thing. Questions?”
My brain just about broke in half at the start of the orientation. They used dragon’s blood for the gate enchantments!? They advertised that!? It could detect if someone was a princess, or more likely, if they had the class!?
That flew in the face of so many different things I knew, but I didn’t have time to process and understand it. Stefan was moving along.
“First thing second! As I said earlier, I’m Stefan, a fourth-year. Yes, a student is running orientation. I’ll get to that in a minute. This is the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft, unrivaled in the world! While we’re here, we’re all students. If you see a political rival? If you have a chance to kill the young master of a rival sect? If you have a chance to get blackmail on the Han faction? Don’t. We’re students here, this place is neutral. It makes it a worthwhile environment for all of us, instead of an all-out warzone. Save your grudges for when you’ve graduated, and remember.”
Stefan turned serious.
“This is the School’s territory, where the School’s rules apply. The School is perfectly fine angering the royal family of Rolland, or even messing with the elves. Fuck around, and find out.”
He cracked a grin, turning back to a goof.
“Jobs! Work! The School has hundreds to thousands of little low-level jobs it has reserved for students, all designed to make life cheaper for everybody, along with providing minor incomes to students who need to supplement their tuition. If your pockets are feeling pinched by what your sponsors give you for spending money, or if you are the second favorite child and your parents aren’t funding you enough, find a job! Make some money! All the jobs offered by the School are legit. I’m not supposed to tell you about the other jobs that exist, but they’re out there.”
Stefan winked at the few glares he was getting from said penny-pinching sponsors, along with the implication that there were more jobs than just the School. The town attached to the School was a solid bet for employment, and there had to be all sorts of black market jobs.
“Questions? Yes?” Stefan answered a few different questions about the gates and types of jobs, then clapped his hands.
“Ok! Let’s move on! A few groups are ahead of us, a few are behind us, this is the perfect time to go. Follow me!” He started to walk backwards, facing us while he moved down the central path to the Dragon’s Gate.
If I squinted a bit, and was drunk as a skunk, it did look a bit like a dragon’s mouth.
“This stretch of road’s a bit long, so let me go over the basics of how the School works! Some of you know this, some of you don’t. The fundamental idea, and the thing most people are going for at the School, are called Tracks. There’s a Track for everything! There’s the Wizardry Track, the Sorcery Track, the Legal Track, the Engineering Track, the Golem Track, the Alchemy Track, the Business Track, there’s one for everything the School teaches! Because that’s how the School works. You, what are you here for?” Stefan pointed to one of the random students.
“Music and entertainment.” He answered.
“Music and entertainment! Great! Your sponsor wants you to walk out of here with the School saying you’re competent at music and entertainment. You’ll probably be taking the Music Track, the General Entertainment Track, then probably a Track dedicated to a few different instruments, and a Track dedicated to a few specialized types of entertainment. Each Track has graduation requirements. Fulfill them all, and the School is happy to certify that you’re competent in the field. The School’s idea of competent is everyone else’s idea of genius, and it’ll open doors throughout the world! Questions?” Stefan asked as he continued to walk backwards, occasionally throwing a look over his shoulder to see where he was going.
I spent a few moments putting together all the needed words to ask the question I wanted to say. As I opened my mouth, someone beat me to the punch, asking exactly the question I wanted to ask.
“What do the Track requirements look like?”
“Great question, so glad you asked! It depends on the Track! Some are easy, just a written exam. Students occasionally come here with expert knowledge in a field, promptly take the Track exam, and get certified all without stepping foot into a classroom. Usually happens when an Immortal wants to pick up a new profession, but is still a 700 year old master in their old profession. It’s a pride thing, being able to claim more Tracks completed at the School. Others, like the musical instrument, would require a performance test. Entertainment might ask for a performance, although I’m not sure on that one. The big admin building is the place that has all that information, and would you look at that, we’re here!”
Stefan gestures to the big building on my left, the same one Yugure had taken me to when I first came.
“Now, all these buildings have super-fancy names, but nobody actually calls them that. This is either the big administration building, or the fancy administration building, depending on who’s calling it that. It’s the first thing most people see, and it’s designed to impress. Hence it being the fancy administration building. Most of your paperwork needs will be seen to there, and they have all the information you could possibly want. If you can find it. I swear, the place was originally a maze, and I know for a fact that the hallways rearrange themselves. Moving on!”
Stefan took a turn down the road to my left, and started to walk down it.
“This is the main campus. There are three layers of roads, all in an octagonal shape inside of each other. I like giving the tour of the place by starting at the outer layer, and slowly working our way in until we get to the central layer, which has the eight magical towers. Most of your classes will be in those towers.” Stefan explained as he continued to walk backwards.
“Let me discuss robes! Everyone needs to wear robes, and the color does have significance. It’s easy! They’re tied to your level, and if you ask some of the [Deans], they’ll claim it’s a reflection of how much you think you know. We start with black! The lowest level, and System-wise, you all know they have the most powerful classes. A bit of a joke, that the people with the lowest levels think they know the most. Everyone with their highest levels being level 1 to level 511 get black robes. Purple robes are for levels 512 to 1023, and I think you can see the pattern here, ending on white robes for the final 512 levels. There’s rumors of one or two of them around campus. Ah! We’re at our next spot!”
“The auditorium! The fine fellow who mentioned he was here to study music is going to spend quite a lot of time in this building. Those of you who want to test their luck can come and listen, and hopefully it’ll be an expert working on their latest masterpiece, and not a rank beginner who doesn’t know how to tune their instrument.”
Stefan shuddered dramatically.
Someone asked a question about classes.
“Classes and graduation! I’m so glad you asked, I entirely forgot! Ok, each Track has a set of classes that it asks you to take. Now, you don’t have to take any of the classes, you can just skip right to the Track test. However, there’s a guarantee that if you take all the classes, you will have all the knowledge needed to pass the Track exam! That’s the claim, we all know it’s not true. Or have sufficient proficiency to play the instruments at the level needed to pass, or to construct a golem up to the examiner’s standards, etc. The examiners are also the professors, and I’ve heard enough stories about favored students not getting as harshly examined - after all, they know the student knows the material - versus Immortals just waltzing in and assuming they know everything. Also, everyone has an advisor. They can help guide you on a personalized, one-on-one basis. They’ll give you lots of good advice, but in the end, they’re only elvenoid. They might make mistakes. Do your own thinking!”
Go to classes. Listen to my advisor… within reason. Easy enough.
“Next, we have the College of Natural Philosophy. Right after the road is the College of Business, and…”
Stefan continued to give his tour of the outer ring of buildings. The sports arena was next, where I spoke up and asked if it was the Mistor arena. It wasn’t, although Stefan said he’d point it out when it showed up. The College of Arts was after the sports arena, and the gym was just past that. Iona looked thrilled at that information.
I should go to the gym myself. Didn’t have Ranger drills keeping me in shape anymore.
The bazaar was next, a multi-story behemoth that Stefan promised sold everything we needed. Crafters could even try to sell their goods in the bazaar, and the place we’d seen on the ground in Rolland were some of the more enterprising members of the School trying to break into a new market.
“Can I go?” Amber pleaded with me.
“I’m not your parent.” The words were supposed to be flippant, but my throat betrayed me in the end. Amber looked like she’d been stabbed at the reminder.
“You can go, but this is your only chance to see the School. The bazaar will still be there after the tour’s over.” Julius gently reminded Amber.
She quietly nodded, and we continued on with the tour.
The College of Engineering was next, and that didn’t interest any of us.
A familiar building was next.
“The dining hall! About as risky as the auditorium. Dozens of different [Chefs] and [Cooks] will be working there every day with thousands of different ingredients, but heads up! They’re also student workers, most of who are practicing their class while also making money and studying at the same time. Usually they’re experts, but sometimes… well… let’s just say nagas have their own weird idea of how spices should work. Buyer beware!”
The food seemed perfectly fine when I went there, but it was nice to know. This place, like every other place, encouraged a quick check with [Identify] to see if the person I was getting food from was high level or not.
Although… most [Chefs] were [Artisans], but anyone with an [Artisan] tag would look like a chef behind the grill.
I’d avoid anyone cooking that had any of the other tags.
Hmm.
Technically, I could ask Iona to spot check people’s classes, but that seemed rude, and I’d asked Iona for so much help already.
“While I’m on the topic of cooking, that reminds me about auras! There are plenty of high level individuals here, and enough Classers grab aura skills that they start to become relevant. I know at least one [Cook] has an anti-burning aura. While he’s in the kitchen, nobody’s food will burn. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people with auras in the School. You’ll find crafts are easier to make, instruments are easier to tune, quills never run out of ink, and dozens of other little - or big! - effects here and there. Enjoy them while they last!”
“Next is the student center! It’s for all of us to relax and unwind. Parties, games, the latest invention, all of that can be found here! The social hub of the School, and honestly, what’s more important?”
Stefan let the murderous looks from the sponsors roll off his back, while Julius gave a sigh in the background.
“Speaking of social groups, let me talk about Rings!” Stefan held up his hands, showing off three rings he was wearing on his abnormally furry hands. “Rings are social groups. They could be for anything! Whatever interests you have, there’s a Ring. Dueling! Drinking! Debate! Dancing! Debauchery! There’s something for everyone!”
Iona looked way too interested in the debauchery Ring idea.
“Each Ring gives out a, well, ring to show off your membership in the club. There’s a little unofficial rule that you can only be in as many Rings as you have fingers. Nobody wants someone joining just to claim they’re a member. Of course, it’s not a rule, but when everyone does it?”
Stefan shrugged.
“Brrrpt?” Auri asked, and since there was nobody around that could understand her, I spent a few moments thinking of a translation.
“What about people with no finger?” I asked, cursing as I knew I punted the plural form.
Auri flew up a bit above the group, making a small fire show and twirling herself around, making sure everyone could see who the question was about.
Also because the vain bird wanted to show off.
“Ha! Good question! Ask the Rings! Some might say two, some might not care. Ok, any other questions?”
There were a few more, and we moved on.
“Off to your left are the cheap living quarters. Most of you live in them and are familiar with them, they’re free to all students. We’ll get to the fancier ones later.”
I obviously recognized the area.
“Next! The building you need to know the location of, and pray you never visit! The hospital! It’s combined with the school of medicine, and I spot at least one [Healer] in the crowd here who’ll have her studies here!”
Ok. Fine. That did it.
I’d totally help the sponsors hide the body.
“We’ve got the boring administration building next to the hospital, and they handle the other half of the paperwork that the fancy administration building doesn’t! Now, before someone asks, I don’t know who does what, and they’re obnoxiously vague about it.”
The observatory was next, followed by the ‘lower education’ building.
Auri and I traded looks at that one.
“Brrpt.”
“Oh, he’s just being mean, I’m sure it’s a great place to learn! It’s special for you.”
“Brpt.”
Auri was entirely unconvinced, but she would be getting an education. That was non-negotiable, and I’d already gotten practically scammed on my first attempt to get her a good education.
I wasn’t failing this time.
After that was the stables for large companions and animals - we all glanced at Fenrir, even as a giraffe looked at us from over the walls - and the guard station. The theater came after that, and someone asked a good question.
“Yes! Professors have complete discretion over who’s allowed in their classes, and there's a number of advanced classes the professors won’t allow you into unless they know you. The medical classes on Miasmas, Spores, and Poisons is a famous example. The biomancy classes on How to Make Vorlers is another one, and why they still teach that I’ll never know. Golems Building Golems is another class that has extremely high requirements to get into. They won’t teach just anyone that stuff, we don’t want another set of Pekari running around! One’s bad enough.”
Make nice to access forbidden knowledge. Easy enough.
We came to the Vaults.
“Getting dark for a minute here!” Stefan’s cheerfulness was entirely at odds with the information he was imparting, like he was regaling us with a fun story instead of facts. “The Vaults! It securely contains most of the knowledge we’ve accumulated through the eons, and is the single most fortified position in the School. When an Immortal War comes to the island, it’ll be the last thing standing. Local legends have it that the School’s been entirely eradicated eight times, the Vaults being the source of knowledge that’s brought us back from some dark and ugly times after the island’s been rediscovered!”
“Is that true?” Artemis asked. I wondered if she was thinking that, yes, maybe this was her School, resurrected time and time again.
Stefan shrugged.
“It’s been ages since the last Immortal war. What, 900 years or so? How am I supposed to know! It makes for a cool story though.”
Iona muttered darkly next to me in a language I didn’t recognize.
After the Vaults were the flying fields, and Stefan hit his hand to his head.
“Flying! Right! Things are calm right now, the island’s barely moving. When the island is moving, there are some low level protections against the wind. However, you don’t want to get too high up. The wind will rip you right out of the sky, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to land before you go off the edge of the island.”
There were a few laughs at his joke, but Stefan shook his head.
“I’m completely serious. Saw it happen my first year. We were over the ocean to boot. Never saw the student again. Do. Not. Fly. Well, not outside the safe to fly areas. Like this place!” Stefan gestured to the… well, words mostly failed me. It was like a hovering obstacle course.
“It’s the flight course! Safe to fly, lets little birds burn some energy safely. Now, on the other side, we can see the fancy living area. Professors get houses here, and wealthy students can rent out a house for themselves, with significantly more room. Unfair? Yes, but they’re subsidizing the rest of us. It’s a nice area, but if someone asks you to leave, leave. It is their home, like we all have rooms in the bulk dorms.”
Stefan answered some questions as we kept walking. The Dangerous Workshop was next to the fire and magical emergency response building, for obvious reasons. The normal or safe workshop was next to that.
The events center was next on the path, a huge building dedicated to… being a building that people could set up in. The Legal College was after that, followed by the College of War.
Why the break in the naming convention, I had no idea.
The next building was a familiar one - The Wandering Inn, or as Stefan called it, the Hotel.
I liked The Wandering Inn more.
“Another entertainment building! Entertainers usually make neat mirages, or tell stories with illusions and sounds. When their stuff is good, it’s good. It’s like watching a real story in front of you!”
Sounded like a cinema! That could be fun, if I ever had spare time.
That triggered a thought, although I’d ask one of the professors at the School. Generally, leveling up healing classes required patients. With dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of medical students at the School, how did we get enough patients and injuries to get enough experience to level up?
It was less of a concern for me, but the same question could easily apply to a dozen different types of training. [Actors] got more levels doing difficult parts in front of large audiences, and I imagined most other classes needed similar conditions.
“Next up is the Tabernacle! Whatever your faith is, the Tabernacle is there to provide.”
The building was impressive, a staggering holy spiral into the sky. I should pray more often, and Iona had her head bowed.
“Last building on this layer! The place most of you will spend considerable hours, the library!”
I’d seen the building before, but I’d naively assumed it was just an extension of the fancy admin building.
No.
I had sinned. I hadn’t recognized what it was before it was pointed out to me. A travesty that wouldn’t be repeated. It was the holiest of holy grails. A reflection of my inner soul, a place that Remus technically had and practically didn’t.
A library.
A place of books, of stored knowledge. Cozy corners and musky smells, all the stories of the world in one place for me to loot and plunder to my heart’s content.
And oh! This one was ginormous. If even half of it was full of absurdly spaced books, I’d have multiple lifetimes of reading material available.
As long as they weren’t all census reports or something. Even then! There were probably enough of those reports to tell a fascinating story, I’d just have to be the one to put it together.
I knew where I’d be spending an unreasonable number of hours. I knew where I’d be trying to find a job.
Books and scrolls, parchment and ink, oh my! I couldn’t wait, but I restrained myself.
It was orientation. I was getting some special inside knowledge now. The books would be there in an hour or so.
Assuming there wasn’t a gigantic fire or something else while the tour continued. I discreetly knocked on a tree along the path to ward off bad luck.
“And we’re back where we started! The first layer’s done! Questions on what we’ve seen so far?”
Stefan answered a few questions, then moved on.
“Over here we’ve got the statue of Radras the All-Knowing.” Stephan pointed to a bronze statue of a sphinx, slightly taller than Iona. It was worn in multiple places, clearly having weathered quite some time.
“Radras supposedly reignited the School after centuries of decline, and is venerated here to this day.” Stefan explained. “Now, I mentioned before that some professors require taking their prior classes before they’ll let you into their more advanced classes. Radras here plays a role in that. Legend has it that patting the head before a major exam will get you a passing score.”
His head was indeed rubbed shiny, worn down in a way the rest of the statue wasn’t.
“However, School students usually strive to be better than merely passing. Rubbing Radras’s belly will get you an excellent mark on your exams.”
Yup.
“The School’s full of perfectionists. If you want perfect marks, there’s one more spot on Radras.”
Gods damn it all. Stefan was right. Why was the statue entirely anatomically correct!?
“Moving on! The School put all the fancy things near the front of the School, to stop tourists from getting lost. The Grand Stadium’s next up, and it’s where major events are held.”
Looked like the Colosseum from Remus, and I was slapped with another pang of homesickness.
“There’s fewer things on this layer. Let’s go!” Stefan said.
He was right.
There was a multi-storied greenhouse that Stefan claimed housed every plant on the planet, although a number were restricted. The firing range was for training and practicing skills, and it was filled with people firing off skills. Arcanite pillars dotted the place, and mages kept walking back and forth from them, topping themselves up so they could keep going.
The Illusionary building was next… although that might’ve been a prank. The lot was completely empty, and even Stefan wasn’t entirely sure if it existed or not.
The dueling arena - AKA the Mistor Arena, where practice was - came after that, and we were already halfway through the layer of buildings.
The Aquarium was next, although Stefan claimed there was only a small fraction of the sea creatures inside. It looked to my untrained eye to be dangerously close to the Dangerous Workshops, but eh. It had survived until now, right?
“The Museum of All Things!” Stefan proudly named the next building. “Ok, for those of you visiting, you should absolutely take a look around. I’m no [Professor], I’m not amazing at explaining things, but here’s the quick and dirty basic rundown of the place.”
He took a deep breath, and started reciting.
“Iona, can you translate this for me? It sounds important.” I realized two sentences into Stefan’s explanation that I needed a good translation of this, and not my feeble attempts.
“Classes work off of knowledge.” Iona translated Stefan’s words, hanging onto them herself. “The more you know, the more options you’ll get. The more options you get, the better classes you can take. Metal is the best example of what the Museum of All Things can do for you. What metal does a Metal [Mage] conjure up? Well, it depends on the mage! They’ll get some metal that works and resonates with them, that they know and are familiar with. Someone who grows up in a copper mine will conjure copper, and someone who spends their childhood in a blacksmithy will conjure up iron.”
“The Museum has a sample of everything. Every metal. Every stone. All types of glass, sand, lava, waters, oozes, flames, woods, lights. It’s all in the Museum, with their properties labeled.”
Iona broke off from translating Stefan’s speech, and was looking at me.
“I take it you’re going to want to visit.”
I grinned back.
“You know me so well.”
“Let’s all visit after orientation.” Julius agreed.
“Wonder if there’s different types of Lightning.” Artemis wondered.
“There are! Remember how I told you about Galeru?” I nudged the twitchy mage.
I’d noticed there were a few different types of Radiance throughout my travels. My skills were often sun or bug-themed, but Haka had a forge-theme.
We weren’t the only ones excited by the information. All of the other students and their parents or sponsors were excited by the news as well, and I foresaw an influx of visitors.
“Ok! Last up is the Arboretum!” Stefan pointed to the last building. “Slightly different from the Greenhouse, this has trees. The people running the place insist it’s different from the Greenhouse, and there’s some bizarre rivalry going on there. Don’t ask about it unless you want them to talk your ear off, or if you’re unlucky, throw you out.”
There were practically no questions. Everyone was still mulling over the Museum.
“Ok! That’s it for the second layer! The third layer is just ahead, and it’s the easy one! The mage towers!” Stefan gestured, and started going on about the eight towers in the center of campus as we walked around them.
Long story short. There were eight towers, one dedicated to each primary element, and they were where most of the magical education occurred, usually linked with the element most commonly associated with it. Illusions were in the College of Light, for example, while fire was in the College of Fire. Easy stuff.
Healing was in the College of Water, because apparently there’d been some feud between Light and Dark as to which one was ‘more important.’ An interesting tidbit was that Celestial healers were the most common type of advanced element in this day and age, and that just gave me warm fuzzy feelings all over.
“Last thing, then I’ll answer whatever questions you have. You’ll notice there’s space between the eight magic towers. That’s Central Park! A lovely place for a picnic, to go for a walk, or to hide in the bushes to study. I don’t judge.”
“When do classes start?” One person asked.
“What’s the class schedule like?” Iona asked at nearly the same time.
“There are eleven weeks of classes, followed by two weeks of break, for a full cycle. The next cycle starts in four weeks, although the two weeks of break are basically a non-stop party.”
“Where will the island go next?” Julius asked after quickly consulting with Iona.
“Good question! Uh. You’ll have to look it up. Some of the students from the College of Natural Philosophy claim there’s a pattern to how to island moves, and when it speeds up and slows down, but it is a mystery to those of us whose heads aren’t in the clouds. Figuratively. The boring administration building can tell you more.”
“How much longer can we stay?” Someone else asked.
“I think the island’s picking up speed already. Admissions end tomorrow, and the day after is the last day to get off the island. Oh! That reminds me! Beware of Barnacles! They’re former students who never quite left. They’re tenacious, living in the cracks. Mostly harmless, but they exist. Next question?”
With all the questions answered, and orientation over, my friends and I decided to grab dinner.
Errr.
We were on island time now, so it was more like lunch, though the sun was down and the moons were out. Changing over was weird.
I’d get used to it.
