Thursday in the week
Around 5:50 AM I woke up. Felia next to me had also returned to normal.
The Ice Evolution (I) card still remained in its dark state ever since I used it on Felia.
So even after Felia's evolved form ended, the card stayed like this, meaning it needed something to recover.
Mana? Most likely, so I tried to see if it had any effect.
After a while, the card brightened up again, but I lost more mana than I expected.
However, when I tried using it on Elara, it didn't work, making me realize it has a cooldown after each use, and it only starts recovering when you charge mana into it!
What the hell is this? Nerfing me like this?
The cooldown time is still unclear so I just put the card back in my pocket for now.
"...Thinking about it, every card user has their own card box right? Keeping them in a pocket isn't very good."
So I looked at my Ushanka hat. On the right side of the hat there's a small but spacious enough pocket to store quite a few cards.
...I'll modify it later to make it my card storage spot.
Standing up, I looked at the room that was getting colder and colder, and started scratching my head.
If I don't fix this situation, the academy's stuff might get damaged and I'll have to compensate for it.
So I picked Felia up and told her to wake up.
"Wu~~"
Felia just rubbed against my hand, looking like she didn't want to wake up at all.
So I took out the card to withdraw her, but she immediately opened her eyes wide and shook her head vigorously, refusing to go back into the card.
"..."
Alright, normally you don't refuse like this? Has the evolution really made you more aware and smarter?
Then that book I bought is useless! I wasted money on something I won't need later?
But that's fine too, no need to raise alchemy to intermediate level to increase intelligence or patiently raise relationship with monsters so they unlock intelligence themselves.
Fast and convenient, a bit tiring because it costs mana but totally worth it.
What? Monsters will betray you because they're too smart?
Uh, that's a problem of whether you treat them well or not. I've watched too much Pokemon to know clearly what I should do.
So instead of withdrawing Felia, I withdrew Elara and told her to stay in the hood of my coat.
She happily flew over, landed in the hood of my coat, then leaned there and started falling asleep.
She falls asleep so fast, it seems this personality trait won't change.
Around 6:10, I went to the cafeteria for breakfast because I had skipped most of dinner the night before.
Felia smelled the food and flew out, lay down on the table and waited for me to feed her.
"Wu~"
"..."
So I took a piece of chili and shoved it straight into her mouth, making her jump in shock and spit it out.
"Next time ask properly. If you do that again I won't feed you anymore."
"Wu!!"
Seeing Felia crying her eyes out, I frowned and sighed.
This one, the moment she got smarter she became mischievous. I don't know who she learned it from...
...Probably me, since she was created based on my own nature.
Sighing, I fed her yogurt. Her eyes immediately became dreamy.
When she was first created, she wasn't very interested in eating because her nature was a monster made from alchemy.
But ever since her owner used some strange card that changed her, when she returned to normal state she started looking at the world with different eyes.
How to describe it? Magical? Anyway, she felt like she was truly living.
And this cup of yogurt is so delicious! Premium stuff! Highly rated!
Watching Felia trembling continuously from experiencing delicious food for the first time, I felt a bit amused.
The feeling of feeding a pet and seeing it enjoy itself makes me a bit happy.
...Calling her a pet feels a bit wrong, since in this world there are humanoid monsters too. Imagine calling a monster girl a pet, that's pretty messed up.
I shook my head, threw away that wrong thought, and finished eating the rest.
Today morning classes are History and Magic, afternoon is Dungeon class with only 3 periods.
Standing up, I went to class with Felia.
6:12
Kaiser was still the first one to arrive in class. I yawned and sat in my seat.
6:45, everyone had arrived fully, and the teacher also came to class.
The history teacher is a man with a neatly trimmed silver beard, scars all over his body, wearing a tight black shirt that clearly showed his detailed muscles. His right hand is a mechanical hand holding a cigar.
Hey, is this guy really a history teacher? He looks like he just stepped out of history.
"I am Bob, your history teacher. If you have any problems, just say it straight. This old man will listen to everything."
Sir, we're afraid that if we ask something you don't like, you'll pull us into your chest and squeeze tight, that would be terrible.
"Indeed, students from other classes are all silent unlike Class Beowulf. Can't blame them," he put his hand on his chin and whispered something, but his whisper was quite loud so everyone could hear him.
Teacher... Did you also come from Class Beowulf?
"Alright, to be honest with you all, I was once a student here more than 80 years ago, so you could say I'm a relic of history, someone who witnessed the fall of Demon King Furnit and the sacrifices of the heroes."
Ah yes, an old muscular man with unparalleled combat experience, whose appearance looks a bit younger than his age.
I think if I'm not mistaken he's over 100 years old already, gosh.
"So the knowledge I teach won't be the standard kind, but comes from real historical testimony. If anyone grades you low even when you write exactly what I said, just tell me and I'll beat them to death!"
Alright, this guy definitely came from Class Beowulf, no doubt about it.
Right when the bell rang, signaling it was already 7 o'clock, the teacher started his storytelling.
Since it's the beginning of the school year, we have to reinforce the most basic knowledge like the origin of monster cards, who created them and why they exist.
Since this is related to the game's lore, which I've heard quite a lot about, I'll summarize it quickly for everyone.
As mentioned, alchemy in the past was quite... dangerous because the equivalent exchange price was very, very high, as Miss Meil said.
Therefore, alchemy was not as popular as the versatility of magic that could do everything.
Moreover, the origin and power of magic was always proven, like the one who created magic, Merlin, who made a beautiful flower garden.
Magic at that time was king, everything had to be related to magic, so things like power not related to magic such as the immortal arts from the country inspired by China, alchemy, spiritual arts, blah blah were all rejected.
Well, everything would have stayed that way until one guy made the mages lose face.
Demon King Furnit.
This guy... how to say it? He had a giga chad body.
Even though saying that in this world is no different from being considered anti-human and executed immediately, but honestly, this demon king looks extremely similar to a giga chad in physique.
Imagine a kingdom with very strong offensive magic suddenly encountering a guy standing there completely naked, with two quite long demon horns, showing everyone his package.
...Alright, a bit perverted, but hear me out.
At that time, humanity was very, very arrogant. They thought they had the right to enslave any race if they wanted, even enslaving their own kind was fine.
So the demon race and humans were very similar in terms of cruelty, unfortunately the two sides hated each other.
The demon race saw humans as a bunch of hypocrites full of moral pretense, while humans thought demons were evil beings who liked to stand in their way so they used all kinds of excuses to blame the demon race.
But it can't be denied that the demon race is purely evil, very few demons can be considered moral and if there are any they usually aren't born in the demon kingdom.
In short, humans may not be liked by all races, but demons are even more despicable than humans in every way.
Back to Demon King Furnit, he walked completely naked towards the fortress of the human kingdom without fear of anything.
Humans saw that and laughed mockingly, attacking him with magic.
And then history happened, that kingdom turned into a forgotten piece of land in history, while Demon King Furnit rose as the one who resisted all magic in the world, the main power system of the world from then on.
And yes, humanity at that time was extremely panicked.
Military strength, large population, powerful magic, all the strengths of humanity were nothing in front of Furnit.
Other races, although they didn't like humans, were in the same boat so they cooperated, finding ways to resist the expanding demon army.
And so the war more than 500 years before the first monster card was born.
Needless to say, those 5 decades only managed to stop the demons from invading the last strongholds of humanity and other races, everything at that time was very, very bad.
...Until a miracle appeared.
Ed, an alchemist, created the first monster card.
Because alchemy wasn't developed yet at that time, Ed made the card using traditional alchemy.
And yes, to make a monster card, he needed great knowledge, so he reached the final threshold of alchemy.
The Truth.
If you want something from alchemy, you must pay an equivalent price.
Ed sacrificed everything.
To obtain the key to save the world from the demon army.
The Truth answered.
From then on, Ed gained the knowledge of everything, and he created the first monster card in the world.
The Supreme God, the creator.
After 500 years of painful and exhausting resistance came 300 years of rise and hope for all living beings.
Monster cards are pure alchemy, even surpassing alchemy itself to reach something higher that Furnit's body couldn't understand.
In those 300 years, countless heroes appeared and sacrificed, the number of deaths even increased compared to the previous 500 years, however to grasp hope, all races, especially humans, would rather die than lose that hope.
To the point that the cruel demon army that showed no mercy to anyone had to retreat when seeing the determination of humans, the ones they considered weak.
The nickname the demons gave to humans at that time was The Mad Ones.
Losing family, losing limbs, losing all senses, losing everything.
Those people still fought, those eyes filled with madness had found the light and would die for that light.
And yes, in the final years of the war, the heroes trained from Bacillus Academy defeated Demon King Furnit.
However because Furnit could not die even though there was a way to counter him, they cut Furnit into 5 pieces and sealed each body part in places where even the strongest people would die if they weren't lucky enough.
The demon race was then completely exterminated, almost no one left to prevent the appearance of a second Furnit.
The alliance ended after that, and human relationships improved from then on.
The slavery system was abolished. Humans, although still retaining their evil nature, doesn't mean people who believe in justice and hope disappeared. Even thanks to them, those with bad intentions had to be careful and not go too far.
And after more than 30 years, I sat here listening to the teacher tell the story.
This is the basic lore of the game. It sounds very heroic and grand, doesn't it?
Furnit is looked upon by all races in the world no differently from that painter guy who got reject by art school.
Ding dong ding dong
"Oh? Already finished 2 periods?" Teacher Bob saw the academy bell ring and stopped.
The students who had been listening attentively to his story also complained because the bell rang.
Honestly, the story he told was very captivating, everyone could barely take their ears off it.
"Alright, let me remind you of a few things before I leave. Always remember the contributions of those who came before. Thanks to them you can be here and live a much more comfortable life. So if your family has someone who participated in that war, please thank them."
Hearing that, some students started pondering while Bob just smiled and left decisively.
"That was indeed an interesting subject," Kaiser next to me said contentedly.
I then looked at Felia. The monster was sleeping very soundly because the teacher's words made perfect lullaby material.
Wow, the starting lore before all the events of this game is built quite well when talking about the origin of magic, alchemy, monster cards and the important events that happened.
Yeah, now preparing for future events, exactly the random bullshit go style when all kinds of things appear.
I took out the Ice Evolution (I) card to check.
It seemed to have fully recovered, usable immediately but I held back and put it away.
There's still plenty of time. I don't want to reveal my trump card in front of the whole class so quickly, or even to those who are watching every corner like Principal Mirlen.
Except for the dormitory room where privacy is put first, so I'll be patient.