Chương 138: Classes 1

The welcoming ceremony helped Damion better understand the full scope of Silver Spire Magic Academy and the magic world in general. In every book Damion had ever read, mages were extremely rare. However, gathered here in one of three magic academies were over ten thousand student mages. Damion knew most of them were probably not that talented, but seeing such a large gathering of mages was eye opening.

If the other two academies had a similar number of students enrolled it left Damion wondering how mages were considered rare. After the ceremony was over, Damion sat with Elicia in his dormitory asking new questions that had come to mind during the ceremony. The first was about attendants.

"Are standard students not allowed attendants?" Damion had been seated amongst the elite students, which turned out to only be 400 students in the elite class, and he noticed that among the thousands of standard students, none of them had attendants standing beside them.

"Yes, it is a benefit of being an elite student," Elicia answered.

"What happens to the attendant when an elite student is replaced by a standard student?"

"Depending on the family the attendant is from and the family of the newly promoted student, the attendant could be asked to stay on and try to recruit them. It is also possible they will be out of a job as the newly promoted student's family will send their own attendant."

"That makes sense I guess," Damion said as he snacked on a pastry.

"Did you graduate last year?"

"Yes, I finished my required courses, but since I can't learn high tier spells, none of the White Zone guilds wanted to recruit me. Without any good prospects, I accepted my grandfather's request to be your attendant."

"I have one last question, this one about your family, so feel free not to answer if it is something you are not allowed to share. Silver Spire excels at Water and Fire magic, why is the Headmaster a Wind mage?"

"That is a bit of a long story, but not really anything secret. Wind is one of the most common affinities and it is true that Beryl School of Mystic Arts dominates the ranks of Wind mages, but each school has a number of students with affinities the other schools claim as their own."

"But why not go to the school where you can get the most out of going?"

"For most, it comes down to who can afford to go to a different White Zone to study. Some families will, but most will just stay closer to home and attend the school in their area, that way they don't have to pay anything."

"Wait, so if I had gone to one of the other schools I would have to pay tuition?"

"Perhaps not you, since they specifically were trying to recruit you, but for others yes. The Mage Council only provides funds for students to attend the academy of their own White Zone. This is to try and keep the types of mages balanced across the zones."

"So, you are saying, despite what they claim, each academy is not better than the others in their claimed magic fields." This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"When it comes to high tier spells there is a difference, since those are closely guarded secrets, but tier 1 and 2 spells have all been around so long that every academy has the same sets of them."

"So, your family has just always been in Argentum and that is why a family of Wind mages attends Silver Spire? I was thinking it was something juicier."

"A few ages ago it would have been juicier. It has been a long time since my family left Viridis. Our family history claims our ancestor was spurned by the woman he loved and so he left Viridis and formed a new family with a new name here in Argentum." In the morning Damion got up at his usual time and set out with Elicia on their morning run. Damion had half expected to see other students out training in the morning, but it was just him and Elicia on the path around the school.

Despite growing stronger in the past days from training with Damion, Elicia still was not able to keep up with him. Since she could not complete a lap of the school nearly as fast as he could, Elicia only ran about a quarter of the way before turning back and heading back to Damion's dormitory. When Damion finished his lap and returned to his dorm for a shower and breakfast, Elicia was already there, dressed for the day in her normal outfit with breakfast ready for him.

Once it was time for Damion to head to class, Elicia ushered him out the door while she carried his schoolbooks for his first class, Magical Theory.

"Good morning, Mage Wells," Mage Teft said when Damion entered a small classroom. Damion knew he would be learning Magical Theory from Mage Teft in a special format to fill in the gaps in his knowledge, but seeing the empty classroom made Damion feel a bit nervous.

"Mage Sorin, why don't you join us as well," Mage Teft said as Elicia was handing Damion the book for this class. The two took seats at the front of the classroom while Mage Teft stood at the head of the class with the textbook in her hands.

"Since this is a hybrid course, we will be learning about a range of topics. From bloodlines to how magic seals work. Some subjects you may already be familiar with, such as why will affects magic, but we shall also discuss less familiar topics such as the curse of multiple affinities."

"Curse of multiple of affinities?" Damion blurted out.

"Yes, people who have multiple affinities are considered cursed."

"Why?"

"This wasn't the topic I was planning to start with, but it ties into the origin of magic fairly well. Let's begin with a clarification, people with multiple affinities are not actually cursed, but because of the different affinities they tend to have a more difficult time advancing. Can you tell me why?" Mage Teft looked to Damion and then to Elicia who politely raised her hand.

"Go ahead."

"The spell limit," Elicia said.

"Very good. Magic seals, when learned, are imbued onto your magic core. Since your magic core is only so big, it limits the number of magic spells one can learn. This means that all mages are limited to being able to learn 20 magic seals and even that limit is debated as only S Rank mages have ever been able to learn 20. A Ranks are usually capped at 15 and B Rankers at 10 magic seals.

"This means, any mage with multiple affinities will have to either split their learning into different affinities of magic or have a smaller array of spells available."

"But wouldn't having multiple affinities mean they can use a greater variety of spells?" Damion asked confused by how multiple affinities was a bad thing. For him it certainly would not matter since the Magic System had long ago informed him he had different limits on learning magic seals. Combined with the Magic System's Shop, where he could buy more spell slots, Damion did not think having different affinities would be bad at all.

He simply had not purchased an additional affinity from the Shop since he was trying to focus on his Ice magic.

"Not only are you forced to split your spell knowledge, but you also have to split your mana capacity," Mage Teft told him.

"With only one affinity, all the magic in your core is that affinity, but with multiple affinities, your core is split between them, and you have to learn to gather and grow both."

"You can't focus on one over the other?"

"Mages have tried in the past, but that only imbalances the core and prevents you from advancing until the forces are in balance again.

"This brings us to the topic of the origin of magic. Why do some people have magic cores and some do not. Why do some people's magic cores not form properly leaving them without an affinity?"