Alonzo woke up early in the morning; this had become a habit for him. He stretched a little, opened his spatial ring, and took out the tier 1 void spell. He knew he wasn't qualified to conjure it, but he wanted to have a look inside the book. The cover of the book was black, with a skull symbol in the middle, named "Null Bolt." This spell lets you shoot black lightning that turns anything into nothing. Alonzo became ecstatic. He read a few pages before he realized he was going to be late for class, so he stored the book back and ran toward the classroom.
He arrived at his destination, went inside, and saw that everyone was in their seats and the teacher was already there. It was teacher Joana. Alonzo apologized for being late, and with the teacher's permission, sat down. The entire class was eyeing him, which made him feel a little unwelcome, but he didn't mind that much.
"Pay attention to the class, everyone!" said teacher Joana, catching the students' attention. "Your time allocated is up; I will call you up to see if you succeeded!" she continued.
The first called in front of the class was a girl. He managed to recognize her — she was actually Evelyn's sister. He became curious if she had learned anything special; after all, her sister was a prodigy. She chanted something, and a bunch of ice appeared in her hands.
"Nice job, Clare, you get an A+. Next, Marien!" said the teacher, clapping her hands.
More and more people got called up to show their results. Finally, Alonzo was called up. He decided not to show off and used the Shadow Puppeteer Spell. He conjured the spell, but through chanting — he didn't want the spotlight. His shadow started to move around the room and picked a random rule.
"Very good, you mastered a spell from a hard element for beginners. Also, an A+ for you!" said Joana.
It was easy to master a tier 0 spell in a week — nothing special, especially for talented young noble Luminari. At the end of the first year, you choose your specialty. If you're not gifted in magic, you can choose to become a beast master and tame beasts. Becoming a knight in the Luminari Kingdom was looked down upon; that's why there weren't many knights in this closed space.
The last who was called up was a kid named Claude, short with long black hair. He got in front of the class and summoned a giant black sun without chanting. The teacher stepped in and canceled the spell. Claude received black lashes from having his spell canceled and fell to his knees. Joana moved fast to heal him.
"Dammit! I thought I said only tier 0 spells! Why did you conjure a tier 1? Just know you passed!" The teacher helped him move toward the academy's medbay, and the students remained temporarily alone, unsupervised inside the classroom, until the teacher came back.
The students started conversing among themselves about what happened. All of a sudden, Clare came to his table and looked at him with clear aggression.
"You're the one who left my sister behind to suffer, just so you could escape like a coward! You better give me a reason not to beat you up!"
Alonzo looked unimpressed at this young girl and said in a flat tone, "I don't know what you're talking about."
The girl got angry, grabbed him by his collar, and yelled at him, "You bastard! I'll make you pay for what you did!"
Alonzo didn't fight back — he just stared into her eyes. Clare got even angrier and hit him with a punch, but his bones were already strengthened by his core and the strengthening pills, causing her hand to break on his head. Clare dropped him to the ground and held her hand in pain. Alonzo got up and sat back in his chair, unfazed.
Clare was unsure what to do next. It seemed she couldn't affect Alonzo using physical spells, so she decided to conjure a spell and throw ice at him. Alonzo conjured the Shadow Puppeteer spell without chanting and used his shadow to catch the ice shards thrown at him.
"Are you still going to throw that trash at me?" said Alonzo with a mysterious voice.
Clare remained dumbfounded. She tried again and again, but the result was the same.
After some time, the door opened — teacher Joana entered the class. After she saw that Clare was attacking Alonzo, she immediately restrained her.
"Are you crazy? Fighting between students in a non-designated area is against the rules!"
Clare soon calmed down, and the teacher cautiously let her go.
"Are you aware you're going to be sanctioned for this?"
Clare nodded.
After this incident, the class ended. The students were gossiping about Alonzo, but he turned a deaf ear. He didn't need to concern himself with the opinions of sheep.
The next class began after a 30-minute break. Everyone was present on the training field outside the academy. The PE teacher soon arrived.
"Hello, my dear students. Today we'll start the training with 50 laps around this field, so get to running!"
The students at first thought they didn't hear correctly — the field was at least 400 meters long — but soon they were forced by the teacher to run. Alonzo could outrun them but decided to stay in the middle of the group to avoid drawing attention to himself.
After many laps, the class ended. Alonzo went to the canteen, where he met Julien and his friends.
"You better be careful with Clare and Evelyn's families; they're very influential. I heard her father will be promoted to the next noble rank! But as long as you stay in the academy, you should be safe from any potential threats."
This didn't really comfort Alonzo, but he took his words seriously. After finishing eating, he bid farewell to them and went back to his room.
He seriously considered joining one of the academic clubs — he might learn something new. He started browsing through the manual for information about various clubs. After some thinking, he decided which club to join — the alchemy club. Joining this one had many advantages like resources, knowledge, and most importantly, prestige. Everyone wants a good alchemist in their faction, making them hold a lot of political power.
So it was decided. He went to the ground floor and was met by multiple recruiting students trying to attract others to join their respective clubs. Alonzo went to the alchemist recruitment table and spoke to the person behind the counter.
"Hello, I would like to join the alchemy club."
The person looked at him, sizing him up, and said in a flat tone, "We don't have any particular test required, but keep in mind alchemy is hard. You should join us in the second year when you choose your specialization."
Alonzo shook his head and explained, "I believe I will still do well, even if I am not a second-year student."
The student behind the counter didn't argue, just gave him a piece of paper to fill out.
"The club is situated outside the academy in the south. Go get accustomed — we have our meetings after hours."
Alonzo went to the training grounds to do his daily exercises, after which he went back to his room and read the tier 1 spell book.
The next day after class, Alonzo went to the alchemy club. It was a structure independent from the academy. He entered inside and saw the entire room was a giant lab. Inside, he was greeted by a lovely young lady.
"What do you want, idiot? Can't you see I'm busy?" said a muscular woman in a lab coat.
"I'm a new member of this club," said Alonzo, scratching his head.
"Damn it! Just go browse through the lab's books and stuff, but don't break anything or you'll regret it, I promise!"
Alonzo didn't reply, just started reading books from the shelves in the lab. He read book after book, from botany to how to use magic in creating pills. The woman in the lab coat approached him and said, "Huh, you're still here? I thought you would get bored. It's already dark outside, but you're still here."
Alonzo put the book he was reading on the table and said, "I didn't notice it was already closing time. I'll take my leave."
"Wait!" said the woman. "If you come back tomorrow, I might be able to show you how to properly create a pill!" she continued, and also gave him a bunch of books to read.
Alonzo went to his room and went through the books she had given him, not finishing them.
The next day after courses, he went to the alchemy club. There he found the woman in the white lab coat and went up to her.
"You're here, good. Watch me closely; I will create a low-tier magic pill with the effect of increasing mana capacity."
The woman approached a cauldron, and some herbs floated inside. Sparks were created, and the process lasted for 5 minutes until all the herbs combined into one gray pill.
"Try for yourself too!"
The woman handed him the herbs. According to the books, he needed to use his magic to make the cauldron hot while also maintaining the temperature. He put the herbs inside the cauldron and used his magic to control it while combining the ingredients. After roughly 10 minutes, a gray pill like the other one appeared.
"Did I make it good enough?" said Alonzo.
The woman's mouth hung open in shock. She quickly regained her composure and said ecstatically, "You did it perfectly! You're a talent that must be cultivated! Come, let's make more pills!"
For hours, the two of them combined herbs. He also learned to make potions — he first made a potion of speed that temporarily granted its user speed. The procedure was different than when making pills; you just needed to know the ingredients and their quantities perfectly. Knowing many potions at the same time is very difficult considering how many ingredients you need to remember, and you can't look in the books during the process because you must combine them right one after another to achieve the desired effects.
He became acquainted with the muscular woman — her name was Roana. She was one of the older students, tasked with welcoming newcomers to the club. The other students were minding their own business somewhere in the laboratory. Alonzo's way of handling herbs and potions made the club very interested in him; after all, he was a first-year student.
Abruptly, a person came before him.
"Very promising! I hope you choose the alchemist domain in the second year. It would be a waste if you chose something else!"
The person who spoke was the leader of the club. He had scruffy ginger hair, lazy eyes, and wore a purple robe.
"I am Dawn, your club leader. Nice to meet you!" he continued.
Dawn shook hands with him.
"I also expected to meet you sooner or later, club leader," said Alonzo as he looked at Dawn.
They talked for a bit, but soon left.
Word got out about his talent in the academy — he knew it because of how people looked at him, and he also heard gossip. He didn't mind them. He went to his room and wanted to train, but he realized it was already late, so he decided to sleep and compensate tomorrow.
In the middle of the night, he was woken up by screams and explosions.
"We are under attack!" Alonzo thought.
He looked out the window and saw fire, corpses, and fighting.
"The academy is losing!" said Alonzo to himself, shocked.
He put on his clothes and went to the armory. When two are fighting, the third wins. He wanted to take advantage of the situation and grab as much stuff as he could — but he still needed to be careful.