Chapter 184: Orientation Complete

The room was suddenly filled with hushed whispers at the mention of necromancy. This was a hot-button issue due to the recent fall of Laconia at the hands of a large horde of undead and the sudden emergence of the Necropolis in its place.

"Silence," The teacher ordered after a few moments, causing the room to quickly quieten down. "While yes, even though it may be considered controversial, the dark element is still a very viable source of magic."

"Now, moving on to how one acquires that source. Let's briefly talk about attunement," She said, "Now, I've previously mentioned that attunement is the act of infusing your body and soul with your chosen element, now how we go about this is somewhat of a complicated process."

"There are a couple of steps that a wizard must take before acquiring attunement. The first step, and arguably the most important one, is that your soul must achieve proper resonance with the elemental magics of your chosen type," The teacher explained, "Some of you may know of this as the elemental trials, but for those unaware, it will be better explained once it is your turn to take the trials."

"After completing your trial, the next step is to then infuse your soul with the chosen element," She explained, "You will be given a list of items that you must collect for the attunement ritual. Once you return with the items the attunement ritual will commence."

Upon her first explanation ending, Merlin received a quest notification.

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[Common Quest]

Attuned to the Elements I.

You've learnt that the next step in your wizard journey is to acquire attunement to a chosen element.

Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light or Dark.

These six elements make up the primal force of the world and learning to harness one of them will increase your power exponentially. The first step is to conquer an elemental trial, but to challenge it you must first improve your control over magical energy.

Speak with an instructor in the attunement room about taking an elemental trial.

• Requirement: You must have a level 2 or higher magic soul with the ⟪Attuned Element⟫ skill equipped to challenge a trial.

• Reward: 200 Wizard EXP

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Merlin clicked the accept button on the quest window before continuing to listen to the lecture.

"With that, does anyone have any questions before we move on?" Elore asked before glancing around the room. It seemed as though nobody raised their hand, so she moved on to the next topic.

"Next up, we'll talk about what most of you are excited for," She said in a somewhat sarcastic tone, "The library."

"The library of this school is incredibly vast. Not only does it contain a wide variety of magic tomes, grimoires and spellbooks. It contains a copy of almost every book that had been circulated around the major cities before the crisis." She explained, "There are also thousands of original copies of documents and research notes that you can access, some more dangerous than others."

"Now, all of these resources are free to access, of course, but a large majority of them have been sealed away until you improve your rank within the school, as indicated on your badge." She said.

A couple of groans could be heard from the crowd, it seemed as though some people weren't fond of the idea that they wouldn't be able to learn incredibly powerful magic out of the gate.

"This is for your safety, so don't be too disappointed... The last thing we need is another beginner wizard trying to learn gravity magic before mastering mana control." She muttered out loud, "Our poor cleaners have enough work as it is without having to scrape the flattened remains of students out of the crevices of stone brick."

"Now, do we have any questions in regards to the library?" Elore asked. "And before anybody asks. No, I will not explain the gravity magic situation in further detail."

It was at this moment that Merlin raised his hand, causing the instructor to look at him.

"Just the one question then, very well," Elore said. "What would you like to ask?"

"Of all the books and documents within the library, would any of them hold information on the ruins of this city?" Merlin asked.

"Oh? You consider yourself a bit of an archaeologist?" She said with a surprised look, "I suppose there would be some, although most of the information from that period has already been lost to time, so I'd doubt it'll have exactly what you're after, but you may be surprised."

"If you're truly interested in the ruins, stick around after the lecture." Elore said with a cheeky smile, "There may be a teacher here who would love to meet with you."

Hearing these words caused yet another quest notification to appear before Merlin.

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[Hidden Uncommon Quest]

Archaeology Club.

Your question posed to Elore during the orientation lecture had surprised her but seemed to also give her an idea. She claims that she wishes to introduce you to a teacher and that if you're interested she would do so after the lecture ends so long as you remain in the room.

Speak with Elore after the orientation lecture ends.

• Reward: 50 Wizard EXP

• Failure: The quest will be removed.

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Merlin was a little surprised that his question gave birth to a quest, but after reading over it, he accepted the quest and gave Elore a nod, indicating that he had no further questions.

"Very well, now if nobody else has a question, we'll move on to the next topic." She said, "Extracurricular classes and activities."

"This school holds a large variety of classes that you can take. Our most popular ones are alchemy and rune crafting. Enchanting is rather high on that list as well." Elore explained, "Apart from those, some teachers occasionally hold classes to teach certain spells, although this may be restricted based on wizard rank or an appropriate price tag."

The mention of wizard rank caused groans once more.

"Something I failed to mention previously, but will bring up now since it's still relevant." Elore said, "You can learn and use spells outside of your attuned element."

"If, for example, you decided that fire was the path that you decided was suited for you, any fire spells you learn will be influenced and benefit from that attunement." She explained, "If you also knew a spell from the air element, you would still be able to use that spell, however, it would be cast as if you weren't attuned at all."

"There is however an exception to this," She said, "Spells of the opposite element to your attunement will become harder to cast."

"Using our previous example, a fire wizard attempting to blast an enemy with a torrent of water will have to use twice as much mana to cast the spell." Elore explained, "This is due to the fire element within the user's body fighting against the water element infused mana."

"The two elements are diametrically opposed and in most normal cases can never truly coexist." She said, "Although exceptions are always the case, such as the existence of an undead priest."

"Magic is truly a paradoxical existence that humanity will no doubt struggle to fully comprehend even hundreds of thousands of years from now..." She muttered before inhaling smoke from her pipe once more.

"Finally, we'll cover extracurricular activities," She said, "I've spoken plenty about wizard ranks, but never mentioned how one may go about upgrading their rank. Well besides just attending classes, here's where extracurricular activities come into play."

"Here at the wizard college, both students and teachers engage in research to further their understanding of magic. This research oftentimes requires materials or labour, and you may obtain points towards your wizard rank by providing them."

"Teachers often require an assistant or two during their research, experiments or rituals. If you're up for the task and meet the requirements, you may be temporarily hired to participate." Elore explained, "Other times, they may need materials that cannot simply be found within the city, or a specific task completed and may request that someone perform the task in their place."

"Lists of these requests can be found in the task hall, and every completed task can be exchanged for points, along with any other rewards stated on the task sheet." Elore explained, "Students can also submit requests at the task hall, as long as they have the points or other items to submit as a suitable reward."

"And finally, once you've received enough points, you can spend them to upgrade your rank." She exhaled another cloud of smoke, "This will grant you access to more advanced classes and resources. Perhaps even better tasks if ranks are listed as a requirement."

「You have completed the quest, "Orientation day!", rewards have been delivered.」

"With that, your orientation is now complete," Elore stated, "Now go research the world of magic to your heart's content."

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[MOD] Quinntessential: Man, this game really is realistic.

[MOD] Quinntessential: That felt as long as an actual lecture.

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