"Five-thousand-one is not bad in any way, but ten-thousand-one is enriched with far more mana than the former, so it is best for practice and for replenishing the body's mana quickly while training." The man explained quietly, "Though there are other rooms as well, like ones where you can duel with virtual monsters inside an even more potent mana-saturated environment, but those are quite pricey."
"What are the prices for fighting against virtual monsters?" Alex asked in a single breath. He wanted to save his points, but if there was a better and faster way to train, he wouldn't mind spending a little more money, unless the cost was unreasonably high.
"The room with virtual monsters features monsters that start from level twenty and scale up to level seventy, and it costs fifty-thousand points per hour. In addition to fighting virtual monsters, the room is packed with potent mana that will replenish you quickly." The man delivered the information the way one states simple facts, because to him, that was exactly what they were. But to Alex it was an entirely different thing.
Alex almost wanted to facepalm himself at the sheer absurdity of those prices. He currently held three hundred and fifty thousand points, and if he were to train in that particular room at fifty-thousand points per hour rate, he would only be able to train for seven hours. Seven hours. For god's sake, it's only seven hours. At least make it a little inexpensive.
If he really chose this room, he would be completely broke and penniless after seven hours. Did that mean he was supposed to survive on the canteen's free food and live without ever buying anything else? Well, the canteen's free food was probably not that terrible, though he hadn't had the chance to taste it yet due to the things that he currently didn't wish to remember back by talking about it. To go back to the original point, Alex had to make sure that there was always the possibility that the free food wasn't very good at all.
"Aren't there any cheaper options, …Sir?" Alex asked, not quite sure how to address the man and at the end he settled on a simple honorific.
The man raised his right brow at Alex, his eyes drifting pointedly toward Alex's golden bracelet. "I am Tyson Degraves. You can simply call me Supervisor Tyson," Supervisor Tyson replied, and Alex committed the name to memory right then and there, repeating it quietly to himself, knowing well enough that he would be visiting the training hall many times in the future.
Supervisor Tyson continued, "As for your question, there is no cheaper option for that particular room. In fact, that is the only option on the first floor. If you want other choices, you would need to become a second-year student, and I should warn you that the second floor's room prices are only higher than the ones here."
Alex listened grimly. Wasn't the academy supposed to be fair and provide a neutral environment for everyone? Didn't pricing the rooms so heavily mean that only a selective few would ever be able to enjoy these facilities? Though even as the thought formed in his mind, Alex felt he was likely missing something, some broader consideration the academy must have made long before deciding on this way of running the academy.
As a matter of fact, students could earn points by clearing gates located inside the academy that were specifically meant to be accessed by students. So it wasn't as though they had absolutely no means to afford these facilities, but it was still difficult. Maybe that was precisely what the academy had been aiming for all along. If you wanted something, you had to earn it yourself.
"Thank you for your recommendation, but I would like to go with the five-thousand-one for now," Alex said.
Supervisor Tyson's black eyes stared back at Alex without so much as a flinch, and after a second, he gave a single nod and opened a drawer from the desk. "Alright. At the end of the day, you are the one spending your points, so it is only natural that you have thought it through carefully," the man added, his words carrying no venom and no trace of irritation at having his advice passed over by Alex.
Alex nodded in return but offered no explanation for his choice. To be honest, his reasoning was simple. Extremely simple. He was likely going to spend this first half hour just feeling out his new powers and trying to use them properly. On top of that, he needed to familiarize himself with the room itself. So he didn't want to waste an additional five thousand points on the ten-thousand-one option when, as a first-timer, he still needed to acquaint himself with both the environment and his abilities. So he could always come back and chose the expensive one later.
The man placed a white orb on the desk after withdrawing it from the drawer, and in the same motion took out a key and held it firmly in his hand.
Supervisor Tyson tapped the orb and injected a thread of mana into it before turning back to Alex. "Simply hover your bracelet over the orb or tap it against it, and five-thousand points will be deducted," he instructed.
Alex had performed the same action not long ago, though he had spent considerably more than five-thousand points that time. His mouth soured once again thinking about the shopping he had done before coming to the training hall. Pushing the thoughts away, Alex guided his hand toward the orb and tapped the orb lightly with his bracelet. The orb glowed white.
"Your payment is done," Supervisor Tyson announced, no smile forming on his lips, unlike the woman at the exchange hall who had smiled more than she spoke.
"Follow behind me," the man said as he stepped away from behind the desk and started walking toward the hallway lined with rooms on either side.
Alex quickly fell into step behind the supervisor, keeping a few paces back.
Soon, the man stopped at the far end of the hallway, and Alex had to suppress the thought that the end wall itself was an illusion, because Supervisor Tyson had not slowed down once, which made Alex briefly worry that the cheapest room might have been, quite literally, the cheapest thing imaginable, tucked behind the very back wall of the hallway to keep it from diminishing the image of the other rooms.
The man turned toward the last room in the hallway and faced its door. The door looked like any other door in the corridor, which was a genuine relief to Alex, because even if he wanted to save money, he had no desire to be so cheapskate that his training room turned out to resemble a horse stable or some broken-down space with nothing in it.
The door was metallic, colored a deep gray, with a large wheel-like mechanism fixed at its center. The frame was made of the same material and the same color. A small dial fitted with a screen sat below the wheel.
The man typed something on the dial, moving too quickly for Alex to follow. Then he pushed a key into a small keyhole at the side of the door without turning back toward Alex.
Alex waited and quietly hoped the room was anything but disappointing. The man turned the key slowly in what appeared to be a deliberate pattern, and Alex would have leaned in for a closer look had he not been too busy silently praying that the room would at the very least be decent.
Finally, a sharp click rang out. The man moved his hands to the wheel-like mechanism and began rotating it clockwise, several full turns, before reversing direction partway and spinning it anticlockwise. Whether it was a trick meant to confuse anyone watching, or simply the proper unlocking pattern designed to stop intruders even if they somehow got hold of the key, Alex couldn't tell. At last the man stopped, placed both hands against the door, and pushed it open.
Alex craned his neck forward eagerly to see the inside of the room.
He let out a slow breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, the tension easing out of his shoulders as his eyes finally took in the space before him.
***
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