It was now the second day that Ray was spending studying at Uclaria Academy.
The first day hadn't been really impactful after the first class. General Studies was a whole subject dedicated to teaching its students various subjects that normal academies and schools teach.
Things like Language, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, among others. Subjects like that could not be taught in the Hero Course like they normally would, and normally they would be completely discarded in order for the students to focus on more important aspects of being a hero, like Combat Classes.
However, it would be quite embarrassing for a hero to be an uneducated moron, no? Besides the fact that certain aspects of these subjects could be implemented in the day-to-day life of a hero.
Language and reports, Mathematics for certain duties that needed to be done, like logistics, Physics and combat, as well as Chemistry and certain processes that happen in the wild that need to be evaded on the field.
So they couldn't be ignored, but they shouldn't become the main focus, either.
There were other classes that were also taught in normal schools that were also taught in the Hero Course, like History and Geography, however, those two were not incorporated into the General Studies, instead, they were their own subjects.
Today they were going to have Geography in the morning and, once again, General Studies in the afternoon.
Ray was walking alongside Cù Sith to class. Tiana had gone ahead of them with the rest of the girls of the class, while Jynn and Zillah were still getting ready. They weren't going to arrive late, but they would've had to run a little bit for that.
When they arrived at their classroom, the girls were already there talking to an older woman, who both Ray and Cù guessed was their Geography Teacher.
The woman had long white hair that reached her waist, her eyes were of the purest black, and staring at them was the same as staring into an abyss. She was smiling, however, that expression was weirdly uncomfortable. It was like a doll, with her face completely frozen in that expression.
Her gaze landed on Ray, interest obviously reflected in her dark eyes.
Ray felt a shiver travel up his spine.
'She is unerving.'
She was not dangerous, he didn't feel a drop of mana, aura, or anything else in her, and yet he felt that it would be better to keep his distance.
He looked beside him. Cù was also frowning, seemingly perturbed as well.
Ray looked at the girls. Tiana, Mara, and Arianne didn't seem to notice anything wrong, but Stelle was also frowning. Her eyes crossed with his, acknowledging that he was feeling the same as her.
'I need to pay attention to anything weird.'
Not long after, Ray heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching.
"It seems that it is time for class to start. Let's go, everyone inside, please."
Following her orders, everyone entered the classroom. Ray, Stelle, and Cù discreetly gave her a studying side glance.
It didn't take long for everyone to be in their seats, waiting for the teacher to start the class.
"I'm Amelia Dollia. I will be your Geography Teacher. You might be wondering, 'Why do we need geography to be heroes?', and in a sense, you are not wrong for thinking that such knowledge is not really useful."
She moved from side to side as she spoke. Her steps always covered the same length every time, always in the same rhythm, in an oddly chilling display of control.
"After all, you will be mostly fighting or investigating. What use is there to know about geography? There are several reasons. Context, Culture, History, and Terrain."
She finally stopped pacing around, stopping exactly at the center.
"Context is needed a lot for investigation. Where can we find this context? Political maps and the changes over the years, as well as other types of maps, like demographic ones."
She started walking through the seats, passing by every single student. As she passed by Ray, her gaze drifted away from her path towards him.
"Culture can be used to have a better understanding of how certain actions can influence the local populace, this will help you tremendously in your professional life. As well as bringing certain benefits to your fighting styles."
Her gaze went back to the path ahead, and she quickly reached the end of the room.
"Historical knowledge is greatly useful, not just for investigation but to understand what you shouldn't do, as well as to get a clear picture of the political game."
As she reached the end of the classroom, she turned around with a twist of her heels, her empty gaze fixed on the backs of the students.
"And, well, terrain goes without saying, knowing the characteristics of different places like jungles, deserts, mountains, volcanic islands, and others will help you survive, no matter which situation you are in."
Once she finished talking, she once again started walking, returning to the front of the classroom.
"In this subject I will teach you how to read and create maps, how to gather statistics, talk about the geographical changes caused by history, the different biomes that cover our planet, and what differentiates one from the other."
As she gazed once more at the silent students, she noticed a raised hand.
It was Tiana who was raising her excitedly.
"Yes, Miss Bellator?"
"Are we going to study The Spot?"
"No. The Spot, as well as other mystical places like The Gap, The Fae Forest, and Amazon Island, is second-year material."
"Awww. I was really excited to study it."
However, as if saving her, a voice was heard.
"Excuse me. What is The Spot?"
It was Cù Sith. He was still frowning, however, it seemed he was much more interested in what The Spot was.
Professor Amelia seemed to be reluctant to talk about it, but seeing some confused gazes, it seemed an extra lesson was needed.
"Who here has heard about The Spot?"
A few hands rose.
Tiana's, Ray's, Arianne's, and Zillah's.
Ray indeed had heard about The Spot. It was a great source of mystery as old as his own birth. That is, it had appeared at the end of the Age of Heroes.
It was also known as the Dark Curtain. The reason for that was actually pretty clear. Once someone navigated west far enough, they would reach what seemed to be a black void with a bright white sun.
If you tried to cross into this mysterious realm, or fly into it like he had tried, you would ended on the other side of said realm. If you kept navigating west after that you would reach the eastern coast of the continent.
In other words, no one knew what exactly laid inside it.
"The Spot is an unexplorable place, fated to stay uncharted forever. From ancient times, humanity and the other races made unimaginable efforts to determine what laid inside it. You see, whenever you entered it's space you would just end up on the exact opposite side of it."
She leaned towards her computer and typed something. Soon a satellite image was projected for everyone to see.
"You might already have heard of the conspiracy theories surrounding the fact that governments of several nations refuse to disclose what lays on the other side of our planet. The truth is, it was mearly to hide The Spot from puplic knowledge."
She stayed looking at the projecting with her empty gaze for a second before once more adressing the class.
"No one knows it's true nature and the only thing we know it's that it appeared around the end of the Age of Heroes, nothing more."
That matched what Ray knew about it as well.
'It seems that in three hundred years, humans still haven't figure anything about it.'
"Besides that we also discovered not long ago that it is actually expanding."
""!!!""
Everyone's eyes widened. This was a bombshell of news.
"Indeed. Apparently, in the last fifty years, which was the year of the first collected image of a satelite, The Spot's radius has increased by a full 500 meters."
Five hundred meters in fifty years. Around ten meters per year. Meaning that since he had been sealed the radius had increased by 3 full kilometers.
This also meant that The Spot's radius had increased by 8 kilometers since it's appearence.
It was a suprising set of news, but not really the kind that left you feeling scared. It was like knowing that the sun was going to explode in a billion years, although Ray, in his dragon form, was confident in tanking that.
(Author's Note: Cap!)
The Spot would only reach land when it first reached the coast of one of the eastern islands of The Gap, which at the moment was around 1000 kilometers from its current location, meaning that would only happen in 100,000 years.
"This knowledge was kept from the masses to prevent any type of panic to create radical groupings that might want to make use of said panic, like the common scams of 'The world is about to end please buy this trinket that will secure your safety in Heaven.' You might've heard about it?"
Ray noticed Arianne, sitting a few seats away from him, showing a displeased expression. That made sense, a Saintess hearing about people using her religion for profit is expected to cause such a reaction in said Saintess.
"It was also to prevent any idiots with too much money from trying to mess with it."
That was a good call. Switching from one point of The Spot to another meant going to a different type of water. Different currents, weather, and positions can lead to failures that the crews of ships might not be able to deal with on the spot.
Sinking ships were littering the sea floor around The Spot, some might have already been swallowed by it, and since he was sealed, there could be even more ships around it than before.
Truly a mysterious place.