Chương 81: Settling In

"Your ID," Melody said while handing me a silver plate with my picture and name printed on it. I looked quite handsome, with golden-brown hair, an angled face, and bright green eyes.

"Don't lose that. It is a pain to replace, and it links the holder to the College's wards. The cost of a replacement is 100 gold."

"That much?"

"It is also complicated to deactivate your lost ID and create a new one. Normally, your tuition covers this, but you need to keep it on yourself. Here, use this chain to put it through the hole and around your neck." I put the chain on the ID and tucked it into my clothing. She gave a golden ID to Healer Melon.

"This one is for you."

"Why does he get gold?"

"As an accredited Healer from the Five Star Institute of Healing, that is the bare minimum. If he weren't your retainer, he would have gotten a platinum ID." His bald head in his picture was brighter than the gold of the metal.

"Thank you. This is fine," Healer Melon replied.

"Now, I will show you your room and then a quick tour of where you can get supplies, food, and where your classrooms are. After that, you are free to explore as you wish. You have the schedule for the introduction ceremony by the Dean in three days. Don't miss that. The day after the new semester starts, your classes will begin. Don't miss them. I will check on you then as well," Melody explained as she led us to one building near the wall surrounding the College.

I noticed other groups of students headed towards the interview room.

"Any type of uniform required?"

"There is an optional uniform. You are encouraged to wear it, but you don't have to. There is a dress code. Uniforms are available at the school store—your school ID links to your account. You get 50 gold worth of spending power each year. Use this to buy food and other supplies."

"Will I need to pay for classes?"

"No. The rest of your tuition covers your housing and classes. But trying to manage food and supplies is too much of a hassle, which is why you get a budget from the tuition paid. When you graduate, you can claim any money remaining." They probably required students to pay this amount so they wouldn't starve and could purchase supplies here at the College.

"As for you, Healer Melon, your balance is empty, but you can increase it at the school bank, which is next to the supply store," Melody added.

"Thank you," he replied. After a lot of walking, we reached a building and entered.

"At least I will get exercise walking around."

"Yes, you will. Running is considered a core skill for that reason. You can run in the middle of the path. The closer to the center, the faster you can go. If you are on the outside, you can walk like we did."

"Where are the other students?"

"Resting until the start of classes in a few days. There is a two-week break between each semester. Trust me, once you are here for a year, you will want to rest quite a bit during the off weeks. Now, this is your room. If you get upgraded to gold, then you will get access to the elite housing in the College's core. That way, you don't have to run, two bedrooms, a shared bathroom, and a sitting room. There is a laundry service once a week. Just leave your clothes and sheets in the basket by the door.

You can see the schedule posted."

"Staff members have access to my room?"

"Yes. However, your ID plate is required for all the doors, and each ID's use is tracked. Even if someone opens a door with their ID, you still need to use yours. That is one rule of the College." After we saw our room, she showed us around the various buildings. We finished just before noon, and Melody left us in the cafeteria to go back down to Undercraft and welcome another student. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The food was simple, but filling and tasty.

"They clearly have professionals as chefs," I said to Healer Melon as we ate meat and vegetable stew with fresh bread.

"It is one of the classes after all. Given how much this place costs, of course, they will have good food. Only ten coppers? Not bad," he replied.

"They are probably charging base cost to keep things affordable with how high tuition is. What do you think of Melody?"

"Her recommendations aren't bad. But I would suggest considering physical skills as well. I can replenish your stamina. It would be a waste not to do so for an entire semester."

"Spear skills then. It is offered early in the morning on the weekends as an ancillary course," I replied, and Healer Melon nodded.

"Then you can go all out. Really push yourself, if I am only on duty one day a week."

"Will you be okay?"

"There are books here I can study about anatomy and healing. I need to monitor you after all," he replied, clearly taking his job seriously.

"Even here?"

"I do not want Supreme Legend Elena to find me lacking. Rather than cut corners, I prefer doing things properly. That's how accidents happen, and we learned to avoid them at the Five Star Institute of Healing."

"How does this place compare?"

"Bigger. Much bigger. Both in size and in people. The Five Star Institute of Healing focuses on Healing and, to a lesser extent, Fleshcrafting as disciplines. I can almost sense the tension in the air."

"You are right, everyone looks super focused and tense," I said while looking about the cafeteria at other students. Most were wearing school uniforms. Black with a gold tower embossed onto the chest over the heart, surrounded by the outline of a golden sun.

"You think you will keep up your leveling speed?"

"I will try. Book learning is a headache. You can only go so fast. Even with the skill Speed Reading, I still have to process the information. My increased stats help, but it will take time."

"Runes aren't easy and you're starting from the absolute foundation with the languages. So, runes or spells?"

"I will build up the foundation for runes, but will probably not get Rune Mastery during my time here. Learning spell skills is far more important. Also, that should boost my Mind stat up quite a bit to handle a lot of skills later on."

"Good thinking. I am glad you are paying attention to the number of skills you have and the skills you will get while here," Healer Melon said.

"After all the suffering that has happened in the past, I will not be foolish with my health. I gained one new skill over the last three months, Driving. I can gain three tier 1 skills and still be fine."

"Any headaches or discomfort?"

"Even when I keep Pain Immunity off, there is nothing."

"Good. Your body and soul have adjusted to the Tier 4 skill."

"If Soul Resistance is mastered, should I increase it to Soul Immunity?"

"That should be fine, but getting through the breakthrough point at level 99 won't be easy."

"Would it allow me to go past Meldor's Threshold?"

"No, don't even think about that. Your soul instinctively understands the danger. While it isn't unexpected, don't try to get past it or even think about that. The risk is too great. And if you get Soul Immunity and it fails, it will fail all at once, not gradually. Then you will die," Healer Melon said with a glare.

"Got it. Just checking,""It is reckless how many skills you have, but you have made it work. But with your Alchemical Toxicity, there is very little margin for recovery if an accident happens. My skills can do only so much."

"Was just wondering if a Soul Immunity skill would help."

"Possibly. But I would imagine it is keeping things stable right up to the edge of Meldor's Threshold. Just like your stats are discrete, many other effects are discrete instead of continuous. That means things can go wrong quickly with no chance of recovery. We are too far from the Five Star Institute of Healing to get back there quickly," Healer Melon said, and I nodded at this.

"Don't they have healers here?"

"Of course, the College does. But the kind of experts who could save your life are not among them. They might be skilled, but soul injuries are incredibly complex. It is best to avoid them."

"Just thinking about how to keep leveling up Soul Immunity once I get that skill."

"Something like that is nearly impossible. The danger is far too great. One mistake and you would be dead. To go through 100 levels to reach mastery is impossible. Soul damage isn't something you can heal."

"But if you could?"

"If you've got a soul-healing skill or other soul skills, sure. Anything is possible, since there are hundreds, if not thousands, of skills. But the risk would be insane. That might help with the leveling, but surviving is impossible. You will probably get Soul Immunity and then be stuck at level 1 for a very long time, occasionally gaining a level if at all."

"Well, who knows? I might figure something out."

"I wish you luck. However, wait until I finish watching over you before you do something like that. I can't take the stress."

"Don't worry, I won't do anything foolish."

"You say that…" he muttered quietly. Well, I would take my time looking around the College and learning where everything was located. I would need to plan out my route between classes as quickly as possible. There was very little allotted travel time between classes, only five minutes at the start of every hour. Melody wasn't joking when she said Running was an important skill to learn to make it to all of one's classes on time. Everyone was trying to make the most of every moment to level up their skills.

That was another reason things were quiet. Everyone was working incredibly hard while they were here at the College, even during the break, as far as I could tell. While there was pressure to be at the top of my class, I would assess the competition before getting worried.