The Soldier Mage 5 Chapter 5

I grabbed a uniform and a schedule from the secretary, Geneve, and headed off to a cla.s.s called "Origins of Magic".

Walking down the corridors, Wilfred drew many stares from both staff and students alike. Going down the stairs to the bas.e.m.e.nt, where the cla.s.s was located, a hand suddenly grabs his shoulder and stops him.

A girl, a student it seemed like, with long blonde hair and a red mage's robe, crouched down and sat him unto her knee.

"Oh my gosh, you're so cute!"

After squeezing his cheeks and patting his head, she composed herself.

"Hey there little fella, are you lost? Let's go find your parents. "

If there was one inconvenient thing about reincarnation, it was that small body, Wilfred thought. The embarra.s.sment from being treated this way by most everyone, as a child, was starting to get to him.

"No, I'm fine thank you. I'm actually heading to Origins of Magic. Cla.s.s starts very soon and I don't want to be late so I would very much appreciate it if you would unhand me. "

Wilfred managed to pry her hands off and headed off, leaving her looking confused in the corridor.

The hall for this lecture was a medium sized room with a few chairs and tables. The room was quite dusty, giving a feeling of how many attended this particular cla.s.s. In truth, if one aced the practical exams, which gave much more points, the academy ignored the written scores. As such, only the most devout of students or those that needed the extra points actually attended these lectures. Some cla.s.ses had specific requirements such as what year you were in but others were much more open. Origins of Magic was one such cla.s.s, being open from first years all the way to third. Some of the students who chose to ignore the written exams would end up failing and would only get one extra chance. They would then usually opt to take theoretical cla.s.ses to manage to pa.s.s the second time around.

Wilfred took a seat, his uniform still in his arms and not changed, he hadn't had the time. The teacher entered the room a short while after, a middle aged woman with gla.s.ses. She took a look around the cla.s.s and sighed, preparing her papers.

Three more students arrived thereafter, two boys and a girl. Upon closer look, Wilfred noticed the girl was the same one that accosted him earlier.

The teacher closed the door and then spoke to the cla.s.s.

"Well, looks like the usual bunch. We have a new face, why don't you introduce yourself? "

I had once hated being in front of people. It had made me shy and uncomfortable. But that was a long time ago, before the JTF2. I stood up and talked clearly.

"Hi. I'm Wilfred Lamarche. I'm 8 and started being able to use magic last week, so I decided it would be good to join the academy. I hope we can improve ourselves together and I look forward to the day we'll fight together against Leganon's enemies."

The reaction of shock and surprise from the students was about what could be expected. But the teacher seemed to have been informed about it, causing no fuss about his age.

"Word has been getting around fast yes. I'm glad you decided to join us and get a proper magical education unlike those yokels outside playing at war. "

She cleared her throat and resumed.

"So starting off where we left last time.."

The teacher opened up her tome on the lectern, glanced a bit and then looked at the cla.s.s, resuming her lecture.

"As most of you know, our capacity to use magic is mainly tied to 3 statistics. Int, Wil and Wis. Intelligence is the main statistic for the damage output of your spell or in other cases, the spell's length or magnitude. Willpower serves to help you focus, completing the spell even while under attack and make the spell do what you want it to do. Wisdom on the other hand deals more with learning spells or creating new ones."

She took a drink of water and continued on.

After Cla.s.s

Wilfred picked up his things, aiming to find an empty room when he could change quickly before the next cla.s.s. It was a more practical one, 'Ranged Spells Practice' but one he looked forward to. Most of his cla.s.smates likely already knew how to cast magic, which put him pretty far behind in terms of learning. He was grateful for the teacher to have gone on a quick revision of past content before resuming with her regular teaching. Now he knew about how his attributes worked. It did seem like it was easy to cast magic he reflected. Most mages had only said the word of the spell from what he noticed.

Turning around and looking at the cla.s.s, he saw the girl who had previously treated him like a child come out of the room. She had done so inadvertently but it had irked him.

Might as well give it a shot he told himself and tried casting magic.

"[a.n.a.lyze]!"

Without delay, a status window appeared above her head.

Lucy Avarte [Lv. 8]

HP: 55/55

Mana: 320/320

Str: 8

Con: 9

Agi: 13

Dex: 14

Int: 18

Wil: 13

Wis: 12

Lck: 6

Skills & Spells: [a.n.a.lyze], [Shock], [Ignite], [Barrier Lv1]

"Wow, it's that simple?" He quiet muttered to himself.

However, his a.n.a.lyze was a bit louder than he expected and an angry Lucy came his way.

"You know, a.n.a.lyzing someone without consent is pretty rude!"

Before he had time to reply, she had also done the same.

"[a.n.a.lyze]!"

She stood in disbelief for some time and Wilfred also stood somewhat still, unsure if he should say something or just move on. She's a bit high strung but maybe I should try to make a friend?

"Uhh, well no one's asked me before. Everyone's a.n.a.lyzed me like a dozen times, from the Headmaster to the Councillors. So I thought it was fine."

She broke out of her stupor and looked down at him, her eyes meeting his.

"You really are a prodigy. Those stats are insane for your age and level. Who are you?"

"I'm just me. I don't know what to tell you? I'm from a normal family, we're not n.o.bles or anything. I really have to go though, I have to get changed and then get to the Ranged Practice cla.s.s. I'll see you around again some time."

But before he could go, she tried to talk to him.

"Wait! I don't think that's a good idea.. "

Wilfred found an old cla.s.sroom not in use and quietly went inside to change. He donned the green robe they had given him, it's length being too long for him, almost dragging on the floor. He then quickly went outside, where practice would likely be done.

I should try those other spells too.

Casting [Wind Aura], he noticed it boosted his agi and dex, increasing his speed and reflexes and hurried along. Doing a quick mental status check, he was able to calculate it.

Wilfred Lamarche [Lv. 2]

Health: 35/35

Mana: 5988/5990

Str: 4

Con: 5

Agi: 3(12)

Dex: 3(12)

Int: 45

Wil: 40

Wis: 52

Lck:???

Skills & Spells: [a.n.a.lyze], [Wind Aura], [Construct Artifact]

Effect: [Wind Aura]

It seemed the [Wind Aura] drained his Mana slowly over time and granted him either a 4x increase on his Dex & Agi or a straight up +9 bonus. He would have to try and find information about it in a library he concluded. If it was the former, it would scale insanely high he thought.

He went down corridors, up stairs and around corners. For an academy of it's prestige, it was awfully quiet here. It was either that there was a low amount of mages attending or that it was built for a much higher capacity.

Finding his way out onto the field, Wilfred saw a couple of students heading towards an instructor outside and made his way to them hastily as well. A number of targets, wooden and painted, stood at different distances from where the group of students is located. A few sent stares down at Wilfred, curious as to why he's there but didn't say anything.

The instructor counts the students present, noting it down on a pad.

"Well, looks like we're missing 2. But time's up, so let's get started. So we got a new face around here, everyone this is Wilfred." He pointed at him.

"Wilfred here is 8 and has been accepted into the academy. Doesn't mean I have to like it or give you any special treatment kid. You'll be treated like every other student and I have the same expectations for you as of them. If you can't keep up, come back when you're older."

A few of the boys chuckled, looking down on him with contempt.

"Now, like yesterday. Start with the 5M target and move on to 10M and so on until you can't hit it anymore. Ranged spells only. Why don't you show us how it's done Wilfred?"

(I blinked rapidly in confusion. d.a.m.n, he's picking on me already.)

"Well sir, I don't think I actually have a ranged spell?"

The instructor acted surprised.

"Ohhh, you don't? Well what a shame. WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY RANGED SPELL PRACTICE THEN!"

The instructor put a hand to his head and sighed.

"Hovard! Why don't you start and show him how it's done?"

The boy named Hovard nodded and stood in front of the 5M target.

"[Earth Lance]!" A 3 foot length of earth and stone materialized in the boy's hand and when he did a throwing motion with his hand it flew impaling the target right down the middle. The boy grinned mischievously and spat in Wilfred's direction.

"You don't belong here, go do some theoretical studies and come back when you can actually use magic, kid."

Rage boiled inside Wilfred. Never would he have stood up to that kind of derision in his old life, it would have ended in fists to the face. But, in this world, right now, he did not have the power to fight back, nor would it have done much. So, Wilfred shut his mouth, grinded his teeth and stayed to watch how the other students performed.