Chapter 16: Birds of a Feather (Part 2)

It must be said that everything in Rexorli satisfied Jiang Zhe immensely—whether it was the magnificent ancient castle, the facilities with their long histories within it, or even their residence: the tower in the west. Although the lighting was poor due to it being on the lower floor, the “illumination” in the room solved this issue perfectly. Calling it illumination was only because of the countless stars on the ceiling—though, unless something unexpected happened, they were likely just murals.
“Magic has been used!” After staring at the stars on the ceiling for a while, Scott finally came to this conclusion, though Jiang Zhe saw no value in it at all.
Their dormitory was quite large, consisting of several rooms: a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom, and even a study—designed for magic apprentices to research magic. Glancing at the grayish-white sheepskin rug on the floor and the bookshelves in the corner, Jiang Zhe wondered: He hadn’t realized the room was this big before entering.
Out of curiosity, Jiang Zhe stepped outside and estimated the distance. Indeed, from the outside, it seemed no larger than a single room. Seeing Jiang Zhe return, Scott pushed up his glasses and said confidently, “It seems space-folding magic has been used—a spell at the level of a grand mage…”
Jiang Zhe nodded in agreement, about to say something when a plaintive voice came from beside them.
“Hey, guys, can you please stop acting like I don’t exist?”
Alan Skander, Jiang Zhe’s other roommate—a roommate who didn’t seem quite normal…
Frowning at Alan, Scott sighed and asked Jiang Zhe, “Sos, what did Lady Tilda say?”
Jiang Zhe shrugged and replied, “She politely refused our request!”
“That’s probably because you called her ‘Miss Tilda’…”
“Then why don’t you go?”
“Hmm… forget it!” After thinking for a moment, Scott decided to give up. He was originally a calm, almost cold person, born into a noble family—flattery wasn’t something he would resort to.
“Hey, guys, we’re in the same dormitory after all. There’s no need to act like this, right?” Alan, around the same age as Jiang Zhe and Scott, helplessly reminded his roommates of his existence once again.
“Can we at least put on our clothes first?” Scott, who came from the upper nobility of the empire, found this unacceptable.

“Okay, okay!” Allen surrendered. He went to the bed in the bedroom and put on a set of clothes for a mage apprentice—those issued to every student at Rexx Academy.

It seemed this guy was really talkative. As he put on the clothes, he kept talking nonstop: “To be honest, I didn’t want to come to Rexx at first. I wanted to go to the Imperial Royal Knights Academy. But that old guy just ordered someone to tie me up and bring me here without saying a word…” He patted his not-so-strong body and chuckled, “The Empire should regret this, because they’ve lost a future great knight.”

A great knight referred to a powerful knight, roughly equivalent to a grand mage. But in terms of strength and respect, the two were in completely different leagues. A great knight was at most a leader in a knight order—how could they be compared to a grand mage?

“So it’s not that we got the room wrong, but you came to the wrong academy?” Scott said with a hint of mockery. “But the Royal Knights Academy doesn’t accept just anyone, like you…” He suddenly stopped speaking when he saw Allen lift the long table in the living room with just one hand, seemingly with ease.

That was a long table! If Jiang Zhe were here, he might not even be able to lift it no matter how hard he tried. But that guy… just with one hand…

“Like me?” Allen chuckled at Scott, who was speechless.

He looked thin, but who would have thought he had such strength? Jiang Zhe stared in shock for a moment before saying in a strange tone, “It seems you’ve really been wronged to be here…”

“Bang!” The table was put down. Allen said regretfully, “Exactly! I thought about escaping once, but sadly, that old guy sent several people to keep an eye on me. What a shame…” He chuckled mysteriously and added, “Actually, I’ve come to see that there’s nothing wrong with coming to Rexx. You know what, guys? I’ve come up with another way out!”

“Oh?” Not only Jiang Zhe but even Scott became curious. He pushed his glasses up and said, “Go on, tell us!”

Allen gave a strange laugh and said slowly, “I want to become a battle mage!”

“A battle mage?” Jiang Zhe twitched his eye corners and turned to Scott. “What’s the difference between that and a mage?”

“None at all!” Scott rolled his eyes at Allen and put on his own magic robe.

“Wrong, wrong, wrong! How can there be no difference?” Seeing his two roommates staring at him with strange expressions, Allen grew anxious and defended himself, “Mages focus on magic, while battle mages focus on combat…”
“That’s nonsense. Don’t listen to his crap!” Scott sneered as Jiang Zhe looked puzzled.
“How can it be nonsense?”
“It’s just your random guess. I’ve never heard of mages and battle mages being understood this way!” Scott already classified Allen as someone with an abnormal mind.
However, Jiang Zhe was somewhat curious. While changing into his magic robe, he asked, “So what do you plan to do?”
Seeing that someone finally listened, Allen seemed pleased. With a weird grin, he spoke in a solemn tone, “When facing an enemy, first grant yourself ‘Bull Force,’ then ‘Gale Force,’ and then…”
“And then…” Jiang Zhe licked his lips.
“And then charge at them, throwing punches left and right until they can’t even recognize their own family!”
“…” Jiang Zhe was stunned. It took him half a minute to recover before he said strangely, “Is this what a battle mage is?”
“Yes. What do you think of my idea?” Allen asked eagerly.
“It’s good…”
“I told you not to believe his nonsense,” Scott said coldly, now dressed in his magic robe. “Let’s go, Thors. Being late is very rude…”
Shrugging and fastening the collar of his robe, Jiang Zhe looked down at himself.
A mage apprentice?
“Let’s go, Scott!”
“Hey, wait for me, guys!”
※※※
Ryox is a magic academy with a long history. It has produced countless mages, including even two Archmages. Of course, for now, that’s just history.
But it’s undeniable that Ryox is extremely powerful, serving as a guarantee for the empire’s future.
Among Ryox’s professors, eleven hold the title of Archmage. Eight of them teach at the academy, while three are out researching their own magical theories. In addition, there are several professors whose strength is close to that of Archmages.
It’s no less impressive than Professor Salonia’s academy for white magic.
In recent decades, both the empire and the church have been focusing on training mages. The empire even allocates huge amounts of money to Ryox every year to strengthen the country’s magical power. Even if they’re just mage apprentices now, who knows what they might become in the future?

The Empire is a powerful human nation, but it is not the only human state… This was something that successive Saxon kings wanted to achieve but failed to do—the iron heel of the royal knights and the mighty black magicians were repeatedly halted by the white magicians of Salonia. It was because of the strong support from the Empire that Jiang Zhe was able to get admitted with just a set of words. The Rexox Academy wasn’t short of money, but some of its senior magicians were concerned that the academy might gradually become controlled by the Empire. Anyway, for Jiang Zhe, this was all too distant. What mattered to him was whether he could become a magician and how to repay the 500 gold coins owed to Rexox as agreed upon a year ago… The banquet was held in a large hall inside the ancient castle. To be honest, the hall was indeed huge—by Jiang Zhe’s estimate, it could probably hold thousands of people. Did Rexox really have thousands of magic apprentices? The answer was yes! The first-year seats were on one side near the wall. Jiang Zhe chose an inconspicuous corner to sit in. Scott, who never took his eyes off his book, glanced at him curiously, as if he’d discovered something interesting, and sat down to his left. But Allen couldn’t understand this. He whispered, “Hey guys, why choose a quiet spot? Isn’t that place better?” He pointed to the tables in the middle. “Then go there!” Scott replied indifferently while flipping through his book. “What about you, buddy?” Allen asked Jiang Zhe. “I don’t like crowds. It’s quieter here…” Jiang Zhe’s answer made Scott smile slightly. “Okay…” Allen said helplessly and sat down to Jiang Zhe’s right. “Oh, by the way, my name is Allen Skander. You can just call me Allen…” “Scott!” “Thors!” “Alright, then let’s consider us acquaintances. By the way, have you decided what major you want?” “Hm?” Jiang Zhe’s heart skipped a beat as he asked softly, “What majors are there? Are there any restrictions?” Glancing at the embarrassed Allen, Scott knew he didn’t know. With a faint smile, he said, “As far as I know, Rexox doesn’t restrict students in choosing their major, as long as they meet the required credits in the annual assessments. As for the subjects, I only know of curses, prophecy, illusion magic, pharmacy, enhancement, summoning, enchantment, defense, attack, magic history, and body control. Oh, and curses can only be learned in the sixth grade because they’re quite dangerous… Thors, what major do you plan to take?”

“Offensive type, right!” Jiang Zhe shrugged. In his past life while playing games, he had always been the one dealing damage. “What about you, Scott?”
“Hmm… I’m very interested in illusions, curses, and prophecy!” Unusually, a cold glint appeared in Scott’s eyes.
Seeing that their conversation didn’t mention him at all, Allen said oddly, “Guys, aren’t you going to ask me anything?”
“What’s there to ask?” Scott sneered lightly. “I guess you’ll choose enhancement magic, right? A battle mage?”
“Wrong!” Allen’s reply surprised Scott slightly, though only for a moment. “I also need to choose healing magic! I want to become a versatile knight—no, a versatile battle mage!”
Watching his smug expression, Scott quickly shut him down with one sentence, “Unfortunately, dark magic isn’t good at healing. You can go to Salonia to study that.”
“Huh?” Hearing Scott’s words, Jiang Zhe was puzzled. “Do you mean dark mages can’t heal?”
Since it was Jiang Zhe who asked, Scott’s tone became much gentler. He shook his head and explained, “It’s not exactly that. Offensive dark magic includes green magic, which is natural magic. The water element within it has healing effects, though of course it’s nowhere near as good as the Church’s white magic. Besides that, ordinary dark mages rely on medicinal drugs, so pharmacology is a subject every dark mage must choose…”
“You said there were no restrictions, but there are still required subjects? Which ones are mandatory?”
“Well, generally, defense magic, pharmacology, and the history of magic are mandatory. Then it depends on the individual—whether to learn offensive spells like you, Sos, or choose illusions, prophecy, and curses like me… Actually, curses are also a very powerful offensive magic. There’s also summoning and enchantment… Of course, you can also choose enhancement like that battle mage. In short, that’s about it. Oh, right—offensive dark magic is basically the same as green magic. Green magic has many classifications. I suggest you pick one for now.”
“Classifications? Like fire, water, wind, etc.?”
“Yes!”
“Then I’ll go with fire!”
“Hm? I thought you’d choose earth…”
“Why?” Jiang Zhe was very confused.

“Generally speaking, mages choose the earth element, because there are some spells in that element that can be used for summoning. You know, mages are quite fragile…” As he spoke, Scott glanced at Allen and changed his wording, “Most mages are fragile. Even just a stone golem can greatly protect a mage’s life…”
Rubbing his chin and nodding repeatedly, Allen asked in surprise, “You know a lot, buddy!”
Scott glanced at Allen and said calmly, “The key to a mage’s success lies in knowledge, not in a strong physique…”
Just as Allen was about to retort, the hall suddenly fell silent—the students had almost all arrived.
At that moment, a group of professors from the academy came in from the entrance. The old mage leading them looked familiar, which puzzled Jiang Zhe.
“Who… who is he?”
“He’s the head of Riox, the respected Archmage Grade Kaines. It’s said he possesses holy-level power,” Scott said in a low voice, seemingly thinking of something interesting. “You saw him outside the academy…”
“You mean…”
“Yes, you even talked to him back then, didn’t you?”
“He’s the head?”
“Yes!”
“…” I thought he was just one of the professors here. Jiang Zhe felt embarrassed and was glad he hadn’t done anything rude.
While Jiang Zhe was in a daze, Scott seemed to notice something and nudged him with his elbow, saying, “It seems I was right. You’ve probably gotten involved with some annoying nobles…”
Confused, Jiang Zhe followed Scott’s gaze and saw the blond boy from the same carriage, who was glaring at him menacingly. Not far away, the red-haired girl also gave him an unfriendly look.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jiang Zhe said with a faint smile. “I’m more interested in what magic I’ll learn tomorrow…”
“Magic? Heh,” Scott smiled slightly and shook his head. “I told you, ancient magic history is a required course. According to Riox’s usual schedule, for the next week starting tomorrow, we must memorize this…” He closed the book in his hand. Jiang Zhe noticed the title on the cover: *Introduction to Magic*.
“A week?” Jiang Zhe frowned, then shrugged. “It’s a shame, but it’s only a week…”
Seeing Jiang Zhe’s relaxed attitude, Scott shook his head and said, “Hmm, maybe I wasn’t specific enough. The premise of a week is that you have to pass this exam first…”

“What if I fail?” Allen asked in a low voice.
“There’s nothing to fail at,” Scott said calmly, looking at Jiang Zhe and Allen. “Either pass the test or leave Riox—simple as that!”
“You wait until now to tell us about something so important? You’re too sneaky!” the future battle mage complained unhappily.
Jiang Zhe was stunned.
Damn it! Even here, do I still have to memorize textbooks? I hate memorizing textbooks—more than I hate milk!
Never mind, for the magic I desire, I’ll just memorize them…
Glancing at the book that was about half a finger thick, Jiang Zhe sighed softly, “It’s a lot, but if I hurry up, I should be able to do it…” As he spoke, he noticed Scott’s strange expression.
“Thors, I think you might be misunderstanding,” Scott said, placing the book on the table and pointing to the lower right corner. “This is just an index…”
An index? Jiang Zhe widened his eyes, staring at the extremely thick book in disbelief.
Before Jiang Zhe could speak, Allen’s voice came from beside him. His expression was even more desperate than Jiang Zhe’s. “This is impossible!”
“Is that so?” Scott replied calmly, with great confidence in his tone.
At that moment, Jiang Zhe still hadn’t recovered from this shock. A book half a finger thick was merely an index—was it even possible to handle this?
Ignoring the respected archmage Grade Kaines, who was delivering a speech welcoming the new students, Jiang Zhe stared intently at the tableware.
If I fail, I won’t be able to learn magic?
Although mages need a strong memory to record the history of magic and important matters…
It seems I need to come up with a plan…
Should I use that trick? Jiang Zhe pondered deeply.