Choosing Classes

Fran stared at the packed course schedule before her, lost in thought.

Was she trying to take on too much? She'd already picked more than twenty classes, and quite a few of them conflicted with each other.

Fran sighed.

"Looks like I'll have to drop some."

She swiped her little hand across the screen and first dropped the classes that conflicted with most of the others.

"'Introduction to Magic Crafting' has to go. What kind of crazy class has more than sixty sessions? I'd be better off just grinding proficiency."

"I'll drop 'Rune Exploration' too. Sure, I can earn Contribution Points, but I bet the teachers don't know more about runes than I do."

"'Analysis of Common Metal Materials'... How did I even end up picking this class? Wouldn't it be better to just learn blacksmithing?"

At last, Fran finished dropping all the classes that conflicted with others. When she looked at the schedule before her, she saw just eleven classes, with no conflicts between them. Relieved, she relaxed.

"Hey, Fran."

Fran looked up and saw Bela and Lai, who had arranged to meet her to compare schedules.

"Um... hello."

Bela spotted Fran's schedule at a glance and said in surprise:

"Why did you pick so many classes?!"

"Is that a lot?"

Fran was a little confused. Back in her previous life, taking more than ten classes had been perfectly normal during her university days.

Besides, back then she'd taken more than ten classes in half a year. Here, students at the academy picked more than ten classes in a whole year, so it didn't seem like that many by comparison.

"Here, take a look at mine."

Bela handed over the paper she was holding. She'd put a check mark beside each class she planned to take.

Fran glanced over it and saw that Bela had picked four classes. Curious, she asked:

"Why did you only pick four?"

"I joined the Sword Chant School, so I only need to study the related subjects. You have to spend Contribution Points to pick these classes, too."

Only then did Fran understand why she'd picked so many classes.

Ordinary apprentices were lucky to get the chance to join a school. Once they learned about its requirements, they studied only the classes they needed. If they succeeded, they could join the school and become an Advanced Apprentice; if not, they had to leave the academy.

Most apprentices weren't even sure they'd qualify to join a school, so naturally, they couldn't pick a whole bunch of classes like she had.

But Fran had the Panel to rely on. She believed that knowing more skills could never hurt, so she'd picked classes that taught skills she didn't know and that weren't listed on her Panel.

Even after figuring all that out, she stuck to her choices. The important thing was to make the most of her Panel. She didn't have the time or energy to focus on just one thing.

"Instant Casting Techniques, Material-less Casting Instruction, Elven Swordsmanship Instruction..."

Fran looked over the classes Bela had checked off and wondered why she hadn't seen any of them on her course list.

And their content was completely different from the classes she'd picked. Judging by their names, hers were all theory classes. Words like "analysis" and "application" could easily be tacked onto the end of their titles.

But the classes Bela had chosen were all instructional courses—the kind that taught you how to do things.

"This is the course list only members of the Sword Chant School can get. Other apprentices can't see it. If you want to take any of these, I can get you a copy."

"Can other people take them?"

"Sure. Anyone taking these classes is either a member of the Sword Chant School or someone they know. That's just how it works."

Fran couldn't help giving a bitter smile. There it was again, that damn nepotism. Even picking classes required connections.

"Then thanks."

Fran canceled one of the classes on her schedule, "Application of Combat Skill Release." She'd heard that students who excelled in the class received a rare Combat Technique, which was why she'd picked it. But now that Bela had access to better classes, she might as well take one of those instead.

School instructors were always better at teaching than other teachers, and classes offered within a school were mostly taught by Formal Mages, to boot.

"I'll pick this one, Elven Swordsmanship Instruction."

Fran knew that a style called "XX Swordsmanship" was actually a combat school that included many Combat Techniques, along with footwork and attack rhythms.

Generally, it took a matching Breathing Technique to make a style complete, but she knew it was impossible to learn an entire style just by taking a class.

In this era of rampant nepotism, they'd put up barriers to keep people without connections from getting their hands on even a single Combat Technique.

She guessed they'd teach at most two Combat Techniques, then show her some footwork and call it a day. After that, whether she could continue learning would depend on her connections.

But what mainly interested Fran was her Panel. After she'd trained the incomplete Breathing Technique until she mastered it, she'd discovered something:

Now, whenever she wanted, the Swift Wind Breathing Technique activated automatically, as though she'd been born with it. The effects of its incompleteness had disappeared completely.

She still didn't know what the missing parts were supposed to be. She felt like she'd learned the technique completely, but she'd have to think carefully about how to teach it to someone else.

So she wanted to see if she could absorb the entire Elven Swordsmanship style the same way she'd learned the Breathing Technique.

Meanwhile, Lai seemed to have noticed that Fran wanted to learn all sorts of other skills.

"Are you planning to learn these first, then look for another school?"

"Yeah. I want to see what the other schools are like first, too."

Lai didn't seem to think much of her decision.

"But you're trying to learn way too much! You've got potions, and now you're taking some course on the basics of construct spells. Who picks classes like that? It takes a normal person two or three years to learn even one of these things, and you want to learn all of them."

"What if I manage to learn them all?"

Lai didn't respond to that. Instead, she brought up something else.

"I still think you should drop most of your classes... Haven't you been trying to find information about the other schools?"

"Yeah. Do you know where I can find a collection of information? I really need one."

"I don't know of any, but I do have some big news about a school."

Fran perked up. She was very interested in anything related to the schools now, and she'd picked a few classes based on rumors she'd heard.

For example, one of the classes she'd chosen, "[Introduction to the Basics of Construct Spells]," supposedly recommended outstanding apprentices to the Construct School. The teacher of "[Lectures on Common Creatures of the Alliance]" occasionally recommended students to the Necromancy School...

"Let me think... It should be a class open to students from every academy, and it doesn't cost Contribution Points. I think it's called 'Weapon Forging.'"

Classes were divided into those offered by your own academy and those taken together with students from other academies. Generally, you could get into classes offered by your own academy, but classes like this one...

"I checked. It looks like this class filled up a long time ago..."

Fran had seen the class, too. She'd wanted to take it and learn how to forge weapons, but it had already been full, so she'd given up on the idea.

"Use Contribution Points to force your way into the class. I heard this is the first time the school has ever come to the City of Apprentices to recruit students."

Once a free class was full, apprentices could use Contribution Points to force the addition of their names to the roster. It was one of the small ways Contribution Points could come in handy.

Bela's words had swayed Fran, too. If this was the first time the school had come to recruit in the City of Apprentices, maybe its magic was powerful!