- Institution's Next Stage

'Stats'

[STATS]

Name: Sphar (Rank 1 Basic Mage)

Species: Half-Life Nyre (2nd Evolution)

Level: 17 (1,213/9,139)

Hp: 355/355

Stamina: 103/103

Mana: 230/230

Strength- 90[+]

Agility- 65[+]

Dexterity- 65[+]

Intelligence- 89[+]

Vitality- 90[+]

Attribute Points: 26

Condition: Bored/Tired

'Man I'm bored, but thankfully class is almost over.' I thought while sitting in class, spinning my pencil on my thumb and back in between my pointer finger and thumb tips. It's Friday, meaning that Sphar, Lily, and Corey can finally accept some E ranked quests and go out on an expedition for the weekend.

The only thing they've done the entire weak are a bunch of boring F rank quests to save up money. Sphar leveled up a few days ago when they were competing to see who could find and kill the slime king boss first. Of course, Sphar won, but Corey almost beat him surprisingly. His magic prowess was still greater than Sphar's.

'I've only accumulated a total of 57 silver in the past 4 days. F rank quests are a joke.' I thought while blankly staring at my stat page without any equipment on. The teacher, Brolin, requested that no one bring their weapons or any accessories today to class for some reason. 'He must be planning to explain how the institute will work from now on after our lesson ends.'

One thing I learned while repeatedly accepting the same F rank quests was that you can do the same quest twice but the system will assign different rewards each time. It was quite strange, but there must be some sort of logical explanation for why. I ended up dismissing the information since pondering the answer wouldn't be a very valuable use of my time.

I pulled up my skills page and started assigning the 11 extra skill points I had earned through the guild quests and leveling up once. I put 2 into each magic ability I had, raising them all to level 6 and leaving me with 3 skill points remaining. 'I'm getting closer to hitting the next rank. I could just quickly level up one ability for each element, but all these beginner abilities seem useful.'

I also used 20 of my 26 attribute points I had available. I put 10 into dexterity and 10 into agility to balance them out a bit. That Basic Weaponship passive skill I got greatly raised my strength and vitality as well as my understanding of using normal weapons, but it left my other stats in the dust which had been driving me crazy.

My thoughts were interrupted as Mr. Brolin was calling my name repeatedly, louder with each one. "SPHAR!" He nearly yelled, finally getting my attention. "Ah, sorry. What were you saying?" I responded, quickly dismissing my stats and skill menu. "I asked if you could name one of the few aoe skills the wind element has." He replied, obviously disappointed that I wasn't paying him or the lesson any attention.

"Wind needles is my favorite," I said as I stretched my back. The uncomfortable chairs sucked to sit in for several hours every day. "And can you tell me the tier of that spell and how much mana it costs to cast?" He asked me. 'Now he's just quizzing me as a punishment.' I thought.

"It's a tier 3 spell, but I'm not sure how much mana it takes to cost. If I had to guess, maybe around 300?" I told him as I stopped stretching my back and sat in a comfortable position. "It takes 325 mana to cast. Good job." He said before shifting his attention from me to the entire class.

"Now that we have finished teaching you all of the information you will need to know for a while, we are switching our routine, as we do with every beginner class. From now on, the Institute will be open all day until the sun sets and we will still have daily lessons, just on more complicated topics."

"However, after those lessons end, you are free to decide what to do with the rest of your day. You can stay and train with the teachers, you can buy skills and magic abilities from us, or you can leave and pursue whatever goals you have outside of this school. It is completely up to you." He continued.

"The Institute will remain like this for five weeks, and after that time is up, we will go on class expeditions to get you some real world training and experiences. I strongly encourage all of you to try your best to become a rank 2 mage before this month is up so you are not left behind in the competitions and adventures we will be going on. You are all dismissed." He finished before walking out of the class.

"Yay! We can finally take harder quests in the guild!" Lily celebrated while jumping out of her seat and stretching her body, obviously excited to become stronger. 'Who would've thought such an innocent-looking girl would be such a battle maniac.' I jokingly thought to myself while joining her. Corey stood with us as we discussed whatever random topics we would bring up.

'I'm glad I met these two.' Was the only thought that went through my mind as I listened to them debating who would hit rank 2 mage first. Lily said that the boy named Trip who sat in the front of the class would get there first as he seemed to have the strongest and most control over his 1st tier spells based on what they've seen during their training time.

Corey proclaimed that it would be him as he has felt like he could breakthrough at any moment. His earth wall was getting quite large and sturdy, however, he hardly ever practiced with his poison dart spell. The damage was quite small and it would take too long for it to effectively hinder his opponent he complained.

'He's not wrong. I'm glad I chose the elements I did.' I thought while we walked out of the classroom together. We let all the other students go first since we always sit in the back. As soon as we stepped out we saw the principal waiting for us, or rather me. "Took you long enough. I was beginning to think you had already learned Shadow Step and teleported out of the school." He said while approaching me.

"Shadow step? You really think I could be a tier 3 mage already?" I asked in a half-joking, half-serious manner. "We're getting off track. I came here to tell you that your trainer is in town finally and she'll start teaching you personally whenever you're ready. Is there a specific time you want your lessons to be with her?" He asked while staring directly into my eyes.

'I swear if I didn't know any better I'd think he's reading my mind.' I thought for a moment. "Can she train me for an hour every day after our weekly lesson ends? I'm busy on the weekends." I politely told him.

"Sure. Just be sure you have the payment on time." He said before walking away, back to his office I assumed. "Alright you two, let's go do some quests!" I said which shot a new layer of excitement through their very being. "Before that though, you two need some gear. How much have you saved up?" I asked them.

"Together we have 64 silver," Corey replied as we walked to our locker room. We all split up to get what equipment we had and put it on before meeting back up in the main room. Corey pulled out the pouch full of silver and some bronze. "Let's go out and eat and we can discuss what gear you two should get with that budge," I suggested and the other two agreed without any complaint.

We hadn't eaten lunch and the institute wouldn't be feeding us for free for the next five weeks, so of course we were hungry, except for me of course. I just pretended to be all the time to lower suspicion of what I am.

We walked out of the institute and were greeted by the sun shining down on the pavement, making it extremely hot. However, the strong and cold gusts of wind counteracted the sun's intentions, making the weather quite enjoyable.