Chapter 95: A Walk Through the School (3)
Aurus’s letter and gifts took William by surprise. He hadn’t expected Aurus to go to such lengths to help him. He wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to obtain those points, but he didn’t rule out that it might have been all of Aurus’s savings. Although he should have felt happy, a premonition kept gnawing at his mind, as if something was wrong, though he couldn’t pinpoint what.
When he finished reading, he looked up at Lía and Neri, who were staring at him in silence.
"Sorry, I was just checking the prize details," William said.
"How enviable! I’ve barely managed to reach Level 2. Level 5 is reserved only for those who have made valuable contributions and have also reached Rank 3. In the entire academy, there are fewer than 5 people with that privilege, congratulations!" Neri’s words sounded quite sincere, as if she herself had achieved the feat. Throughout her life, she had seen all kinds of people, so she had a sharp sense for recognizing hypocrisy, but Neri didn’t exude that feeling; instead, she seemed very genuine when she spoke. Besides, no one asked him how he had achieved it, so William preferred not to say anything and keep it a secret for now.
The group entered the library, and from the moment they stepped inside, they could see endless shelves filled with books.
"This is just Level 0, also called the Ground Floor. All new apprentices have access to this level so they can study the fundamentals during their first year. In general, apart from studying in classes, it’s almost certain that you’ll be living in this building. Level 0 has all the theoretical magic fundamentals and some basic spells for you to learn. Level 1 has simple spells that are categorized as harmless, like condensing water or making sparks—spells that serve no other purpose than training and understanding them. Level 2 already has true spells like Fireball or Water Sphere. Each level increases the difficulty of the spells and the theories behind them. There are also books on botany, alchemy, engraving, runes, forging, among others; meaning, whatever you want to know, there’s surely a book here about that topic. Normally, on each floor, you’ll find this book, which is a directory of how the books are distributed, and your collars also have a description of each area."
The amount of information they observed was incredibly vast, so much so that it seemed endless, as if they were standing in a sea of information and they were just a tiny drop in the entire ocean.
Neri instructed them to follow her and said, "Now I’ll take you to the second place where you’ll spend most of your time outside of classes: the Practice Hall. In this place, you can use the spells you’ve learned without harming others, which is why most of the time, all students are here training. Right now, it’s probably empty since it was vacation, and apprentices were allowed to return home to rest. Today, in a few hours, this place will turn chaotic with everyone trying to get back to the academy at the same time."
The three arrived at the Practice Hall. Unlike the library, it wasn’t small and spacious; instead, it was very large, like four football stadiums joined together. In the center, there were multiple mannequins, or archery practice targets. There were also different types of targets that varied in size, some as small as a thumb’s diameter. The hall seemed reinforced; everything looked very sturdy; it was certainly not easy to destroy.