Useless General Courses

Late at night.

Orendo returned to the apprentice dormitory alone, exhausted.

Aside from attending a largely meaningless general course, he had spent most of the day in the Grand Library again.

During this period, the young lord had "flipped through" over a thousand tomes in the library. They included everything from spell scrolls to all manner of books related to the occult.

He read anything and everything.

This reading habit was clearly different from that of mages who focused solely on magic-related material.

Nerlas Aran, a friend he had recently met, found this habit rather novel.

Nerlas Aran came from Stormwind in the South. According to him, his family was one of that kingdom's great noble houses.

Every tome on the first floor of the Dalaran Grand Library was immensely valuable to ordinary people. But for the descendants of great nobles like Aran, whose families had close ties to the royal court, they could read as many as they pleased.

The collections above the library's second floor were what truly interested great noble heirs like Nerlas Aran.

Thus, Nerlas Aran, who had no interest in the first-floor collection, found Orendo—a maniac for "flipping through" books—extremely strange.

What he did not know was that Orendo had no choice but to do this. To make the Eye of Truth more powerful and useful, he had to provide it with as much information and knowledge as possible.

His tireless "book-flipping" in the library was meant to build up the Eye of Truth's store of knowledge.

Nerlas Aran did not know this, so naturally he was surprised. And because he did not know, after accompanying Orendo on the first floor of the library for several hours, Nerlas Aran could no longer bear it and left.

Once again, Orendo read alone until late into the night before returning to the dormitory in exhaustion.

Today's general course had been dull. Instructor Abel was merely an ordinary mage as well. Orendo planned to check out the other two classrooms tomorrow and see whether he could learn anything from the other instructors.

When he returned to the dormitory, he found a dark figure sprawled on the floor of the brightly lit corridor.

Orendo froze for a moment before remembering what had happened in the middle of the night yesterday.

He walked over and lightly nudged the black-clad thief on the floor with his foot. "Hey, are you all right?"

"I'm fine..." The response was somewhat weak.

Orendo hesitated.

"Eye of Truth. Is there any way to remove the spell binding him?"

[The host is currently unable to remove it.]

"I understand."

Having received the Eye of Truth's answer, Orendo decisively left and returned to his own room.

After washing up, he lay on the bed, closed his eyes, and sleep swiftly overtook him.

Yet in the final moment before he fell asleep, a hazy thought crossed his mind—the powerful, unfathomable, beautiful, and aloof female mage seemed to live next door?

The next day.

Orendo was disappointed again.

The instructor for the second day's general course was not Abel from yesterday. But he was another ordinary mage, and the very first thing he taught was a different textbook—Karyl's Compendium of Minor Elixirs.

It was a tome related to alchemy. Its author was a High Elf mage named Karyl, and it was an introductory alchemy text.

Orendo had finished reading this book long ago. Compared with the little alchemical tips taught by this instructor, the conclusions drawn and analyzed by the Eye of Truth were several times more effective.

He had wasted an entire gnome-hour for nothing.

Thus, after the general course ended, Orendo spent the entire day once more on the first floor of the library, soaring through the sea of knowledge.

Late at night.

He returned to the apprentice dormitory again.

The black-clad thief, Moros, was still lying on the floor. The binding spell the powerful female mage had placed on him was frighteningly strong and enduring.

"Are you all right?" Orendo nudged him again.

"Not very well..."

His voice was even weaker.

Orendo could do nothing to help.

He could not remove the spell from the black-clad thief. There were only two ways to save the burglar: one was to have the female mage remove it herself, and the other was to tell the academy instructors.

As for the first method, if the female mage had been willing to release him, the black-clad thief would not still be lying on the floor.

The second method might save the thief's life. But afterward, the black-clad thief would be unable to explain why he had appeared in Dalaran.

The consequences would not be much better than his current situation.

Shaking his head, Orendo decided not to concern himself with this thief he had met by chance and returned to his room once more.

He washed up as usual, then lay down on the bed in exhaustion and quickly fell asleep.

The third day.

Orendo was disappointed once again.

This time, it was yet another instructor.

The subject was On the Benefits of Magic. It was actually an essay—an essay written by some Kirin Tor mage!

Teaching an essay in class, and one with such broad, generic content at that—who did not know that magic had countless benefits? Otherwise, why would so many noble heirs and geniuses gather here?

This instructor was more than ten times as eloquent as the previous two. He delivered a dazzling stream of praise from the podium, increasing the apprentice students' interest in magic severalfold.

Hmm... Just listen to what he was talking about!

"Nervous when giving a speech? Even imagining your audience in nothing but underwear does not help? What if you imagine them as sheep? Still no good? As mages, we can turn your entire audience into sheep."

Easy for him to say! There could not be more than a few mages in all of Azeroth capable of mass polymorphing an entire crowd, right?

"If you have a mage friend, or if you are a mage yourself, then you will never feel hungry or thirsty. Food created by magic contains no fat!"

That was not wrong. But Orendo felt that unless they had no other choice, no one would willingly taste magically created food a second time.

"As a mage, you can cast a slowing spell on your friend, allowing him to stop and smell the roses. It is also very useful during races!"

Only mages could make cheating in a race sound so fresh and refined.

In short, neither the essay On the Benefits of Magic nor the eloquent instructor offered Orendo the slightest benefit in his pursuit of the arcane.

He had nearly walked out midway through.

After enduring the entire general course, Orendo decided that he would not return to the general classrooms on the fifth day.

He finally understood.

These so-called general courses were really nothing more than basic education for apprentice students.

Everything taught there was preparation meant to guide ordinary people onto the path of the arcane.

With the Eye of Truth's help, he had long since surpassed this level. Rather than waste time attending so-called general courses, he might as well use that time to "read" a few more tomes!

One more thing: that day, on the first floor of the library, he saw the young Kel'Thuzad. What Kel'Thuzad was doing made Orendo feel that this world was truly interesting!

That young mage, cold toward others and sparing with words—Orendo actually saw him squatting on the library floor, feeding cats! Not one or two, but a whole group of them!

The Dalaran Great Magic Library kept many cats, supposedly to prevent mice from damaging the tomes within the library.

The cats Kel'Thuzad was feeding were the library's working cats.

After seeing Orendo, Kel'Thuzad nodded at him, tossed out all the cat food in his hand, and headed upstairs by himself.

Did the first lich's fondness for cats start this early?

That was what Orendo thought.

It was merely a small interlude.

On the fourth night after arriving at Violet Academy.

Late at night.

Orendo once again dragged his exhausted body back to the apprentice dormitory.

This time, the unfortunate black-clad thief in the corridor was finally gone.

Perhaps he had escaped on his own. Perhaps the female mage had finally released him. Or perhaps Dalaran had ultimately discovered him.

If it was the last possibility, Orendo felt that he ought to observe a moment of silence for him.

"Do you come back this late every day?"

Just as he was opening his door.

A cold voice suddenly came from beside him. Orendo immediately turned to look.

It was her. Her arms were crossed over her chest, making the front of her mage robe bulge prominently—her future children would definitely never lack milk during infancy.

"Yes," Orendo said softly.

[Host, this female of your kind has used a detection spell on you again.]

Orendo felt helpless.

If the Eye of Truth had not warned him.

He would never have noticed that she had cast a detection spell on him!

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