Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 86 - 11 Going to Class_1

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"Catherine, I need to go out the day after tomorrow." Pannis came back to the mansion’s living room with Vivian and found Lina had returned. She was leisurely leaning on the couch lazily, flipping through a book in her hand and said to Catherine, "The Harvest Festival is coming, the temple priest is not well and can’t host the festival, so I am going to help host it."

"How long will you be away?" Catherine was seriously maintaining her chainmail and asked without lifting her head, "Do you need help?"

Lina thought for a while and answered, "About three days or four. Ideally, I won’t need help, but it would be great if you could come. After all, this is my first time hosting the Harvest Festival and I am a bit nervous. It would also be nice to have someone to discuss with in case of problems. Actually, all four of us could go, the Harvest Festival is a lively event, so we can take some time off and have a bit of fun."

"No way, I can’t go." Vivian, who just came out of the basement, strongly objected, "Next time say it earlier, if you had told me a day earlier, I could have joined."

"So you two came up." Lina asked, "Do you have something to do these few days?"

Vivian answered in a disgruntled tone, "Yes, I have a seven-day course scheduled at the academy. What a pain, you’re telling me this now, making it impossible for me to go and enjoy the festival. I’ve never participated in the Harvest Festival."

Pannis was surprised, he looked at Vivian and asked, "You still have to take classes? Are you still a student?"

Vivian gave Pannis an idiotic look, "Don’t you know that besides students, there’s also another creature who needs to go to class called the teacher?"

"Oh, right, I should’ve guessed." Pannis stuck out his tongue and mumbled quietly, "With your personality, even if you wanted to be a student, what teacher would dare to teach you."

"That’s really regrettable." Lina said regretfully, "I only found out this morning that I had to go. Don’t get too upset; we have plenty of opportunities to participate in the Harvest Festival in the future."

"I guess that’s the way it goes." Vivian sat nearby, muttering lowly, "I don’t even know if I’ll ever have a chance to participate in the Harvest Festival, I really want to go just once."

Catherine tossed the chainmail in her hand and went over to hug Vivian, affectionately pinching her nose, rubbing their foreheads together gently, "Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future. Give me a kiss."

"Get off." Vivian pushed Catherine away with a giggle.

"So it’s settled then." Catherine hugged Vivian and said, "Tomorrow, Pannis, you accompany Vivian to the academy, and I will accompany Lina to prepare the things she needs. The day after, you’ll depart with Lina to the Harvest Festival. No objections, right?"

"The academy?" Pannis was stunned; a slow smile began to stretch across his face, "No problems, no problems."

"We think there’s a big problem." The three girls shot a sideways glance at Pannis, echoing in unison.

"Let’s set this straight," Catherine sternly fixed her gaze into Pannis’s eyes, "Absolutely, absolutely no hitting on female students, or else I’ll divulge your name, address, hobbies, all to the girl from today."

"Isn’t that a bit too much?" Pannis was sweating bullets, his voice trembling, "Isn’t that a bit too cruel?"

"I mean what I say." Catherine wore an evil expression, "Think it over."

"As you wish, Boss." Pannis solemnly raised his right hand in oath, "I definitely won’t hit on female students tomorrow."

Catherine rubbed her temples and heaved a pained sigh, "I feel like your oath is full of loopholes, but whatever, just remember the consequences."

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The southern district of the City of Knowledge is known as Magic Paradise, where various mage guilds congregate. Each and every building in this district bears distinct mage characteristics - sharp rooftops, towering structures, and mysterious magic patterns. Among these, the most eye-catching are the seven Mage Towers, which stand tall and proudly amidst the countless mage-stylized structures.

The colossal Tower of Colossus represents the School of Magical Mechanics; the Tower of Magic Patterns stands for the School of Arrays; the Tower of Alchemy signifies the Alchemy School; the Crystal Energy Tower embodies the School of Crystal Energy; the Tower of Destruction echoes the Elements School; the Tower of Obscurity encapsulates the schools of Transformation and Illusion Magic. These six magic towers, each nearing eighty meters tall, are evenly distributed in the six directions of the southern district. Rising in the center of these six, reaching up to one hundred and twenty meters, is the Starshine Tower, the headquarters of the Mage Guild. It symbolizes all mages, a powerful and mysterious group. The master of Starshine Tower is the president of the Mage Guild, Antuin, a demigod mage elf who is over one thousand five hundred years old and joined the Mage Guild during the time when humanity was easing its relations with other races five hundred years ago.

The seven magic towers are arranged in a hexagram shape and share energy. They draw the inexhaustible, vast magic energy from beneath the City of Knowledge to form an impregnable defense system. Even a demigod, a being at the pinnacle of all creatures, would choose to avoid such a formidable magic defense system. Thus, the Seven-star Magic Towers within the City of Knowledge offer a unique power accessible to common beings that can potentially constitute a threat to demigods.

Aside from the Zeus Declaration, when examining the reasons why surrounding countries dare not invade Neutral Lands, which has no armed forces, the City of Knowledge relies on powerful upper-rank adventurers and the seven-star magic towers, which, when fully activated, can annihilate several large armies. In desperate times, the Seven-star Magic Towers can even levitate the surrounding affiliated buildings to launch devastating attacks from the air.

Surrounding the seven magic towers are numerous affiliated buildings. Among these, the Magic Academies, which are dedicated to training talents for the guild, are of utmost importance. Once individuals with magic talents agree to study at the academy, they are assigned to the academy of the corresponding school based on their talents. Talented individuals with more than two talents are sent to Starshine Academy, affiliated with Starshine Tower. As for tuition, wealthy students can choose to pay with gold coins, while less affluent students can serve at the academy or the Mage Guild for a certain number of years after graduation as repayment. Under such a mechanism, a large number of magic talents join the Mage Guild each year, providing fresh blood for the ancient guild.

Upon entering the simple and elegant gate of Starshine Academy, you are immediately greeted by a giant stone sculpture over ten meters high. The sculpture is straightforward, it just displays one huge word - Knowledge. This is the motto of Starshine Academy and the ultimate pursuit of all mages. Behind the sculpture are thirty-six arenas arranged in a square grid. The academy encourages students to duel on these stages. As long as the participants agree and the duel is supervised, any school, aside from the Colossus combat, can have a duel. All conflicts and grudges are resolved through battle. Any method with the use of magic is allowed, and there are no restrictions on judging victory or defeat.

Legend has it that twenty years ago, two gifted female students had a duel on the stage to showcase their skills in Transformation and Illusion Magic. The criterion for judgment was the reactions of the male students watching the duel. The result of the battle is lost to history, but the aftermath of the duel still remains a tale worth telling - the battle ended with all male students who watched, needing a month to recover from the blood loss. Surrounding the arenas are several teaching buildings arranged in a concave pattern, and behind the teaching buildings are various experimental classrooms and laboratories.

"Look at me, look at me." In one classroom, a flamboyantly-dressed male student stands on a desk, surrounded by his classmates, flexing his muscles. He throws his arms in the air, creating a bewitching seal with his fingers, tilts his head back, and spews a ball of fire from his mouth. The fire extends about half a meter into the air before slowly extinguishing: "Hahaha, I am a dragon, you foolish mortals."

A group of boys and girls burst into laughter and applaud. The male student on the desk winks at a pretty girl in the crowd. Seeing her smile, he becomes even more enthusiastic, throws his head back, and spews out another pillar of fire.

"Splash!" A large amount of water suddenly appears out of nowhere and falls on the student’s head, extinguishing the fire he was spewing out. Along with the water, hailstones rain down from the sky, causing the male student to stumble off the desk.

"Who is it?" The student, dazed from the influx of magic, stood up in annoyance. When he saw who had cast the magic, he immediately lowered his head and dared not utter a word.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself." The speaker was Vivian. Today’s Vivian was not clad in her adventure gear. Her blue hair still styled into two short pigtails, but instead of her blue jumpsuit, she wore a deep blue robe, and she no longer carried her signature oversized backpack. Despite still being short in stature, Vivian now radiated an aura of authority, no longer bearing any trace of a child: "What’s so fun about this? Tell me."

"Teacher Vivian." A group of students, all taller than Vivian, bowed their heads in fear and awkwardly returned to their seats without uttering a word.

Vivian looked at the soaked student, her voice became gentler: "Mars, you have your own ideas, which is good. You are not sticking rigidly to existing forms, and you have rich imagination, which is also good, and commendable."

"Thank you, teacher." Upon hearing Vivian’s praise, Mars, the student slightly relaxed a bit, nodded, and waited for Vivian’s upcoming lecture.

"However, I need to tell you two things." Vivian pointed at Mars, her tone turning stern: "These two things, you, and all of you, should remember clearly. Never forget them."

"There’s a record in the academy, about a hundred and twenty years ago, a prodigious young lad, also enjoyed experimenting with these atypical casting methods. Mars, your trick just now, was this prodigy’s favorite. Do you know what became of him?" Seeing the silent group of children, Vivian’s cold smile emerged: "One time as he was casting his magic this way, his nose tickled, and he sneezed. Then, well, everyone else was fortunate enough to smell the scent of a 70% cooked brain. Do any of you wish to experience that?"

Seeing the children’s expressions change from simple fear of the teacher to genuine respect, Vivian continued: "So, the first issue is no matter how many ideas you have and how rich your imagination is, as long as your power hasn’t reached a level where the magic you wield can’t harm yourself, stick to the standard fixed methods. Many of these so-called rigid dogmas that seem tedious to you all were taught through countless forerunners’ bloodshed and sacrifices. You may have your own thoughts and understandings, but before applying them into practice, please consult with your teachers first. The second issue is about knowledge and magic. You can use it to make a living, for research, or even to attract the attention of girls and please the opposite sex. That’s all fine. But as a mage, as a seeker of knowledge and magic, please maintain reverence for knowledge and magic. You can use knowledge and magic for entertainment, but never make light of it. Remember that, okay?"

"We will remember."

"Very well, I hope you never forget. Class begins now."