Chapter 83 Spirit

The opening of the school was a great event for many of the students. Students with rich parents could enjoy many services that the school provided, but for all the rest they had to live with what they could get for free.

Hence why some students skipped the event entirely since they couldn't afford the prices. Lucas was one of those students. Entering his classroom he was confronted by Gilbert's other pupil.

He was clothed as an assassin, only the eyes were visible. Lucas sent his willpower forward to check his strength but was knocked back by the student's willpower.

"Don't be rude to each other now, no need to start fighting.", Gilbert said, he wasn't amused by any sort of internal struggles. They were his only students, they needed to work together if he wanted to keep them alive.

'I guess everyone in Rank 1 can use willpower?'

'Most likely yes, which makes us weaker when it comes to certain tasks.'

As part of Lucas was always negative, he learned to ignore it at a certain point. Gilbert was as pale and skinny as ever, and Lucas felt compelled to give him a meal or two. You could see the outline of the bones, which couldn't be healthy.

"Alright, everyone is here, first let's introduce ourselves. My name is Gilbert, Master of the Dead."

"Conrad."

"...Eleven"

The fact that it took so long to say his name tipped Lucas off. He himself was using a fake name, so there wasn't any hesitation in his voice, but Eleven was almost tripping over his own words.

'Did he not practice it? Is his whole outfit just that? An outfit?'

Eleven fitted perfectly in this class, a teacher that looked to be missing tons of blood. As an assassin he couldn't find a better place, Lucas was the odd one in here, surprisingly.

"Now then, let's start our lesson. I hate to wait and I have things to do. First, what do you think happens when you die?"

'Marie used to say that the souls of the benevolent people go back to nature's domain to be reborn.'

'Sure, and the Order of Light would say that the damned go to hell or whatever, he's asking what actually happens.'

Neither Lucas nor Eleven said anything, opting to stay silent and stare back at the teacher. "Ugh, if you won't answer, there's no reason for me to be here. So say something will you?"

"They turn into spirits.", Eleven said with conviction.

"Correct, when people die, they turn into spirits which then roam around the world looking to fulfill their desire. If a person dies with no desires left then the spirit vanishes into thin air."

"Does the same happen when you grant a spirit's desire?", Lucas asked. He wasn't as well versed on the topic as Eleven. He could grasp the fundamentals, but the idea of spirits was lost on him. In every book he read any magical occurrence was always extremely scientifically explained. Now that he was faced with almost ritualistic beliefs, he needed some time to wrap his head around everything.

"Yes, when you grant a spirit's desire, it vanished, but that would be the most stupid thing you could do Conrad. Think before you speak. The spirit that is left behind is a tool for us to use. We can make them inhabit items or other things we can use for our benefit. Besides that, if the person who dies was strong enough the spirit can fight back, so don't even bother approaching a spirit unless you want to use it."

Lucas listened closely, there were tons of things he didn't know in general, but the theories that Gilbert was talking about did interest him. After some more explanation, he knew why it was a very useful practice and why it was looked down upon. Imbuing an object with a spirit will make you capable of giving orders to it. If you shot an arrow at a man that was hiding behind a wall, you could force the arrow to seek the man out. There were tons of things Lucas found that could be useful in a fight or even outside of fighting.

Gilbert kept on talking and talking, and his interaction with his students dissipated the longer he was talking. Lucas was interested, for sure, but even he started to get bored, he needed to do something. Sitting around just listening to someone made him want to just leave and practice some things by himself. Gilbert when very in-depth with his theories on how spirits lived and existed, but since they couldn't see them in the first place, there was little use for it.

'Besides that, we still haven't found a way to increase our Rank.'

'We'll get to that, first, we need to see what the teachers can give us, this will be useful in certain battles. If we're lucky that the other one can teach us his circulation method.'

The lessons continued and just when it started to get interesting, did Gilbert decide to quit. They were just about to learn about how to see spirits and converse with them, but Gilbert was too tired to continue.

"For your assignment, I'll give you this." Gilbert grabbed two sheets of paper before writing some things down and handing them to Eleven and Lucas. "These are the magical formulas you'll need in order to see spirits, I won't give you the pronunciations of the runes, nor where they are divided. Figure it out by yourselves."

'What does he mean 'divided'?'

'Look at the paper, all the runes are written over each other, there's no way to figure out how many there actually are.'

'Great, so that just means more work.'

Before Gilbert left, he added that they had a week to figure it out and return. There were no rewards or punishments stated, but Lucas felt like he shouldn't let Gilbert down for his own health. Gilbert looked weak and skinny, like a twig that could be blown over by a gust of wind. But even Lucas couldn't sense his powers, so antagonizing him won't have any good results.

Eleven left the school as quickly and quietly as he could, but Lucas still had another teacher to see. Slowly but surely he started to know the school's layout, he got to the garden in record time, only about twenty minutes. He wasn't in a hurry, as the teacher didn't give him any kind of indication of when he should come.

But there he was, lying on his bench in the exact same way as before, eyes closed. "Ah, you're finally here, I was waiting for you. How was your lesson with Gilbert?"

"Wha- how did you know?"

"Hahaha, anyone can smell his magic from a mile away. Haaah, anyway, let's get started, shall we? Your first lesson, carry me to that place.", Elam said before pointing to somewhere in the distance. Lucas followed his finger, only to see that in the distance there was a mountain.

"You've got to be kidding me..."