Chapter 117: Secondary Utility

Chapter 117: Secondary Utility

Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; Terra; Imperia; FBC

After telling Lisa the key parts of my tale, we continue to talk for a long time. She’s very shaken by a lot of it and shows her sympathy. She now also understands why I wanted to go to college in disguise.

She promises to keep my secret, and we start talking about other things. We talked for so long, I’m almost late for my first Utility course in the evening. I turn back into my Sara Green disguise and teleport the two of us back to Lisa’s apartment. Then I say goodbye to her and promise to drop by in the future. After that, I teleport back to the FBC campus and actually have to run the last meters to arrive on time for the course.

This time it’s a big course again, and the lecture hall is already packed when I arrive. Still, the actual lecture hall is different from what I expected. Instead of tiered rows of seats, there are small seating groups throughout the room. There are hundreds of square tables with four chairs around them. Most of the seats are already occupied. I stop at the entrance and take it all in. I wonder why the room is set up like this.

Finally, my eyes catch an empty seat almost in the center of the room. I quickly walk over there and sit down. The other three at the table are two boys and a girl. They all give me polite nods, but then return to tapping their interfaces. I inwardly shrug and do the same. Let’s wait for the professor.

I don’t have to wait for long, as barely five minutes later, a man in his thirties enters the lecture hall through the main door. He is followed by a small army of younger people which immediately reminds me of Olivia, my Improvised Combat instructor.

Once everyone has entered the room, the man in the front waves his hand, and the doors close behind him. He continues to walk through the room until he stands at a slightly elevated platform opposite the doors. The other people split up, and equally divide themselves throughout the room.

Silence descends, as everyone watches the man’s entrance. Now we all look at him expectantly. He waves another hand, and a spotlight starts shining on him. He grins and and starts speaking. “Welcome students to Beginner Utility Magic for non-primary Utility Mages. My name is professor Damian Flood. I know the course’s name is a mouthful, so I’m just going to call it the Secondary Utility course.” He stops for a short chuckle. “Not that I’m providing you with secondhand magic or anything.

“Anyway, you’ve probably noticed my small army of helping hands. Those are third-year students here at FBC and are here to help you with any struggles you might have. Now I should probably tell you how this course is structured. Well, here goes…”

He snaps his fingers in an overly dramatic movement and the air behind him shimmers. Suddenly, there is a magical projection of an endless list. I recognize a few names like Communication, Cloaking, Telekinesis, and Basic Healing, which makes it easy for me to identify what that list is: It’s a collection of Utility spells!

Professor Flood grins after a short pause. “I see most of you recognized the small list behind me. It’s a list that contains almost all Utility spells that can be cast with a Junior level core. In case you’re interested in the spell behind me, it’s also on the list and is called Projection. It simply projects whatever you want in the open air and lets you forego a holoprojector.”

He waves his hand again and the projection vanishes. “Now, you might ask yourself why am I showing you that list, right? It’s rather simple and also the reason why this course is different. You can freely decide which spells you want to learn throughout the year!”

He stops after the announcement and the room erupts into pandemonium. Professor Flood does nothing to stop the cries of excitement and disbelief and just stays where he is with a big grin on his face. His third-year assistants also wear big knowing smiles. I guess they were the same two years ago.

The others at my table stay rather calm, and only mutter different things under their breath. I dare say that I stayed calm as well. At least if you ignore my loud shout of “No way!” Right after professor Flood’s announcement. Now, I’m already thinking about which spells I’d like to learn.

I’ve forgotten most of the names already as there were just that many. But I still know a few of the broader categories. There are vanity spells that sound interesting. If I’m guessing right, those are the spells that Mom used for styling and all the other things. What woman in her right mind wouldn’t want something like that in her repertoire?

Then there’s the general Utility section. Still going by the name, I’d say this is everything about Telekinesis and whatever else can make your day easier. It’s a solid category but I think I don’t need most of those spells right now. Telekinesis is enough for now. The subterfuge category on the other hand is quite interesting as spells under that category could probably help my Sara Green disguise. Next, I don’t need anything new from the Communication category as I already know the important ones…

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Before I can weigh the pros and cons of further categories, professor Flood catches our attention again. “Now, I get that this is quite amazing, but we still only have a few hours together each week, so please be quiet so that I can tell you one more thing.”

This has the desired effect, and everyone stops talking and looks back at the professor.

“Showering you with a list of spells is one thing, but even more important is that you can use them. We’re the class for second-core Utility Mages after all. So now I have to ask you all an uncomfortable question. Who amongst you doesn’t know how to properly connect their cores?”

His gaze wanders through the room and I look around as well. A few faces suddenly look a bit embarrassed. “This is no problem at all! That’s why I have my small army of assistants with me. Just lift your hand, and one of them will be very happy to assist you with your struggles. The same goes for the spells you’re going to learn later on as well. Just lift your hand and one of my assistants or myself will help you.”

Slowly, more and more people lift their hands, asking for assistance for the connection of their cores. One of the two boys at my table hesitates and then asks for help as well. A third-year student is quick to arrive and starts going through the necessary steps with him.

I’m just about to ask the professor about the spell list when a notification comes through on my interface. He’s just sent us the list. I immediately open it and dive in. There are literally thousands of spells on the list. I count alone 57 different versions of the Telekinesis spell… How am I supposed to decide?

I whisper to Clara. “Can you help me sort the list? And maybe cut out all the unnecessary and useless spells?”

“Oh, absolutely. Give me just a moment. The list is a pain to format.”

The list changes right before my eyes. After a few minutes, most of the spells have vanished, and I’m left with about a hundred spells to choose from.

“There you go. I took the liberty of deleting everything useless like those super-specialized Telekinesis spells or all the Communication ones. I also took out everything that has a much better version at the Senior and Master level as learning the light version of such spells would be wasted time for you. Lastly, I deleted everything that I thought was useless for you. I still have everything saved though, so if you’ve had a specific spell in mind that I deleted, just tell me.”

“That’s amazing, thanks a lot, Clara!”

I immediately dive into the now much shorter list. As I expected, the general Utility and Communication categories are almost completely gone. All the others are heavily thinned out as well. The single remaining Communication spell immediately catches my eye though.

“That’s possible?” I ask Clara in disbelief.

“It is, but it’s a very inefficient spell, that’s why you haven’t seen it in use yet.”

“Shouldn’t be that bad for me, right? It would be rather useful in situations like this…”

“That’s true. So you’ve found your first spell?”

“I have, yes. Can you show me the instructions?”

What I’m talking about is a spell that lets you communicate silently with your AI. As for why it would be fitting right now? Well, the other people at my table look at me as if I’ve grown a second head. Normally, people don’t have full conversations with their AIs as AIs like Clara or Maja are rather rare.

I point at my head and stage whisper the words “AI,” then I refocus on my interface and look at the spell explanation for my first new Utility spell. Its imaginative name is AI Call… The spell itself looks rather complex when I first look at it, and I have to break it down and start with a small part of it.

Before I can dive completely into the spell, professor Flood makes one more announcement. I somehow get the feeling that he likes hearing his own voice, as he always has that pleased expression when he is speaking.

“I lied earlier, as there are two spells that are mandatory for passing this course. Those are any form of Telekinesis and one of the available Communication spells. On top of that, you need to perform at least three additional spells at the end of the year.” He pauses for a short moment. “Now that’s really it. Have fun starting with your new spells!”

I shake my head and concentrate on my spell again. Half an hour later, I’m still stuck and don’t have a single clue how this spell works. I let out a long breath in frustration and finally lift my hand to ask for help.

A few minutes later, one of the third years stops by my side. It’s the same one who helped my table mate with his cores earlier.

“Hi, I’m John, how can I help you?”

I greet him back and send him a screenshot from the AI Call explanation with markers at the sections I don’t get. Let’s just say there are a lot of markers. The whole spell looks like someone tried painting a labyrinth with his foot while being completely stoned.

“I can’t make heads or tails of it,” I complain to John. “This spell looks so ridiculous… Is this even a Junior level spell?”

John looks very concentrated until he slowly shakes his head. He starts muttering under his breath. Unfortunately, I don’t catch a single word, but they don’t sound happy. Finally, he sighs and looks back at me. “I’m sorry, but that spell is beyond me… If you want, I can call the professor to assist you, but it might take a few minutes.”

The spell is beyond him, really? Just what is that spell? I mean professor Flood obviously didn’t nominate some random idiots as his assistants…

“Yeah, that would be great, thanks, John.”

He nods and taps his ear twice. Professor Flood looks up from the desk he magicked into being a while earlier. John waves his hand and after a slow nod, professor Flood walks over to my table. John excuses himself to help another student, and I start by explaining my problems a second time. This time to the professor.

He flashes me a smile. “Ahh, I haven’t seen that spell in a while. It’s an absolute nightmare to learn, that’s true, but the spell is also very convenient in certain circumstances. Especially for Space Mages like yourself. Now, let me give you a hint on where to start.”

He conjures another Projection spell which shows the spell explanation. A wave of his hand removes 90% of it, including almost all my markers. “Try this version first. This is the most basic version of the spell and lets you send basic intentions and feelings to your AI. Once you’ve got that working try adding in more and more from the original spellform.”

I stare at the spell. It looks much simpler now. “I’ll do that… Thanks, professor!”

“You’re welcome, just call me again if you need more help.”

With that, he returns to his desk, and I dive into the simpler version of my new Utility spell.