Lord of Charm

After a few days' travel in the airship, Gale reached the academy and Alice came to talk to him.

"The academy is divided into two precincts. One is meant for those under 25 and one for those above. As a mage, I recommend you go to the one meant for the older students since you won't have much to gain and learn in the one meant for magicians."

"Then I will follow your advice."

Alice's countenance turned thoughtful for a moment, and shortly after she revealed a smile.

"We have a few ranking lists in the academy. I will put you into the one for ages 25-35 at the fourth rank, but you'd still be unranked in the full list because of the advanced mages. The full list includes the top 100 in the whole academy regardless of age."

"What are the benefits of being on the list?"

"Most of it is meaningless for you since I granted you full access to the training rooms and potions, but it gives the other students mainly those things."

She continued before Gale could give up on his spot.

"But, there are still a few important things. First is the accommodation. The dorms have magic circles inscribed on the walls, the floors, and the ceilings. Those magic circles collect mana from the surroundings but require constant maintenance. The rooms meant for the top students have the best magic circles which make the mana density in the room much higher."

"So I will live and sleep in a better environment. Is that all?"

"No, the best training rooms are only available for the top 10. Although you have unlimited time in the training rooms, you'd have access only to the normal ones if you aren't in the top 10."

"Do the students have any duties?"

"Of course, but you have 3 months of acclimatizing to the new environment in which you don't have to perform your duties. Come, I will take you to your new apartment."

"If I take the apartment of the fourth rank, does it mean everyone under my rank needs to change apartments along with their ranking?"

Gale wondered out loud.

"Haha, it's not as bad as it might sound. The rooms are inscribed with a space magic circle that was made by a few magi. When we announce a change, it teleports all personal belongings to the new apartment of the individual."

Then she explained further.

"Besides, it's not like every apartment is different. It's generally divided into ranks 1-3, 4-10, 11-100, and 101-500. You probably got the apartment of rank ten who got the one of rank 100, who got the apartment of rank 500, who probably doesn't exist, so it was free."

"How many students are there in the academy?"

"The number isn't fixed since at least a few hundreds die every year, but it should be around 25,000 if we include only those above 25."

"What can we use gold coins for in the academy?"

"Mainly extra classes, better meals, and materials if you want to train a second profession. However, the main currency is magical gold. Each is worth around a hundred normal gold coins. As for what magical gold is, you will see soon."

They reached Gale's apartment and Alice stopped outside.

"That's your apartment. You can explore it today and rest. Tomorrow, a student will come to fetch you and you will choose your personal teacher as promised. Don't expect them to teach you everything though; all the magi here are busy with their own training and research. They will only give you pointers once a week."

Gale thanked her and entered the apartment.

"Hello Gale Stormborn, I'm the support system, Alessa. You can ask me questions regarding the accommodations and the academy. You can also request me to buy food and materials from the academy's store."

Gale heard a pleasant genderless voice as soon as he closed the door.

"What? Alessa? Where are you?"

He looked around confused, looking for the person who just spoke.

"I'm everywhere."

Gale started worrying when it cleared some of his misunderstandings.

"I'm part of the apartment, I'm not a human. My job is to alert the staff in case of damage that needs to be repaired and help students with miscellaneous tasks. Other than that, I don't monitor the students' actions."

Gale nodded and found it reasonable. He walked around the apartment and inspected the different facilities. First was his bedroom. It was a large room with a king-size bed in the middle. To the side, there was a chair and a desk with a few shelves, but they were all empty.

He left the bedroom and visited the bathroom. It had a 5-meter-radius round bathtub. He could already imagine all the steamy activity that could take place with so much space. Other than that, there was a toilet and a shower that seemed standard.

"Alessa, can you fill the bathtub with hot water one hour from now?"

"Yes."

In his mind, Alessa was an invisible maidservant. When he tried imagining it, he would see a weird genderless version of Nina.

Other than that, he found a large kitchen with a dining table that was enough for 5 people, and he guessed it meant he could invite other students to his apartment.

"Alessa, what is on the menu for today?"

"Checks permissions for Gale Stormborn… can eat the meat of third-rank beasts and plants of the same rank for free. Fourth-rank food is 10 IMG and fifth-rank food is 100 IMG per dish." (A/N: IMG – magical gold)

"What?! But I was told I can have as much fifth-rank meat as I wanted!"

"Checks again… permission denied. Requirements to exercise your rights to eat better food for free: hold 1 record for fourth-rank food and 3 records for fifth-rank food."

"What records are there?"

"Please be more specific. Which record would you like to know about?"

"Never mind."

He decided to ask the professors the next day about it. Apparently, although he was promised benefits, he had to show some achievements first.

He explored the last room in the apartment which was a personal training room where the mana density was a few times higher than outside.

"Alessa, how is the mana density here compared to the normal environment outside?"

"Outside, the mana density is 1 MDU (A/N: mana density units), and here it's 3 MDU."

Gale decided to have dinner, take a bath, and call it a day.