Monster Ecology had at least contained things he could connect to the game.
For this, though, what was he supposed to know? Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division? Counting his money?
At first, it really was that simple. They calculated expenses, divided supplies between groups, estimated how long a journey would take, and worked out differences in distance and weight. None of it seemed particularly difficult until Vica began asking what information they had used to reach those answers and whether any of it could actually be trusted.
By the middle of the period, his temple had begun to throb.
He stared at the notes accumulating in front of him.
The worst part was that he needed everything in them and it had to be reviewed… All for the sake of maintaining First Seat and keeping Fahna beneath him for the sake of her route…
Instead, every other example Vica presented sounded like something an Arbiter could genuinely encounter outside the academy. Miscalculate a journey and supplies ran short. Misjudge distance and an attack failed. Build an argument from bad information and an entire decision could be wrong before anyone even acted upon it.
There was no game knowledge that could save him there. No items, weapons, monster traits, or character builds could compare to the challenge before him.
Just an entire body of ordinary knowledge everyone around him had apparently spent years preparing to learn.
He leaned back slightly and rubbed at his forehead.
'Fuck.'
The Main Scenario suddenly felt considerably more threatening; no wonder it became a quest of the system.
He had spent so much time thinking about surviving battles, preventing deaths, controlling routes, and preparing for disasters that he had almost forgotten one particularly irritating detail.
He was still a student and Rozenfall expected him to actually study.
After Applied Mathematics and Logic finally ended, he was no longer entirely sure whether the faint dizziness came from the numbers or from realizing how much material he would eventually have to catch up on.
At least the third morning subject offered a bit of relief.
Cosmological Studies I was taught by another familiar face, although not one Xian had ever associated with teaching.
It was Huina, Rozenfall's Head Healer, a former Vitarian priestess-in-training, and a scholar attached to the academy. In the game, she was the NPC who welcomed him every time his party got wiped, so often that he had eventually stopped paying much attention to her.
Even during the later academy years, whenever there was an expedition, she would be the healer in the tent; whenever a dangerous event occurred, she would be nearby attending to the wounded; and whenever Adrian woke up after being beaten half to death, Huina was always the reliable healer waiting for him.
It was like the game was too lazy to replace her with a different healer.
Xian also hadn't expected her to teach apart from healing. Apparently, when menu options and skipped scenes became actual subjects and occupations, she had a career besides tending to the protagonist after his defeats.
At this point, he was numb to it. Yesterday and today so far had been one long introduction to his new school life.
"I hope you've had a fulfilling morning so far, everyone." Huina greeted the class with a pleasant smile. "Vitarea, our goddess, has blessed our daily lives with plenty of wonders."
Her impression was different from the prim and proper yet soft air Vica gave, which honestly could be misleading if Xian didn't know she could pack a punch. Huina, by contrast, felt like a breath of fresh air from nature and sounded genuinely benevolent, almost like a lullaby.
"I am Huina, a scholar of Vita and a former priestess-in-training. I will be teaching you Cosmological Studies."
It was strange hearing her voice at all. In the game, Huina had only ever spoken through dialogue boxes whenever she patched Adrian and his party back together.
Huina placed a small transparent vessel on the desk before her. Something white floated inside it.
"At least some of you should recognize this."
Xian narrowed his eyes.
The object was hardly larger than the tip of his thumb. At first glance, it looked like a spot of white light suspended inside the glass, but the longer he stared, the more physical it appeared. Countless fine strands surrounded its center, densely packed together like the fur of an impossibly thick dandelion.
"It's Anima," someone answered.
"Correct."
Huina opened the vessel and carefully drew the object out. It settled against her fingers instead of passing through them, its fine luminous strands bending slightly upon contact.
"Despite its appearance, Anima is not merely light."
She gently pressed it between two fingers.
"It is a rather soft substance to the touch."
A few students leaned forward.
Xian did too.
'What the hell is Anima?' He didn't know what Anima was, but he increasingly found the vial familiar.
"When a Kin dies, it may release one or more bodies of Anima such as this one. Lesser Kin commonly produce only one. Stronger classifications may produce a larger Anima or, in some cases, two. Agrinds are considerably less modest."
Huina returned the white object to its vessel.
"The death of an Agrind can release them in great numbers. Those of you who intend to become Arbiters will eventually witness such a sight yourselves."
'Agrind... weaker ones give few and stronger monsters give more...' Xian was suddenly jolted awake and sat up.
Huina continued.
"Anima is one of the principal resources through which Emanators cultivate themselves. Once properly absorbed, it contributes to their general growth. Upon release, however, Anima belongs to no one by nature."
"It may simply be gathered by whoever takes possession of it. Hunting parties therefore commonly decide beforehand how the Anima from their quarry will be divided. Without such an arrangement..." Huina gave a mild smile. "Well, arguments after a successful hunt are surprisingly common."
'Is she talking about... Exp? Is Exp considered Anima in this world?'
That was different from how the game worked. EXP was automatically distributed among participating party members, although contribution still affected how much each received. It was enough that lower-level characters could be dragged along on what players called a 'bus trip.'
Of course, it made sense that reality did not give a shit about who deserved what.
Huina turned to the board and drew two simple figures.
"Beyond that general growth, a portion of absorbed Anima may also be deliberately cultivated toward particular qualities. The difficulty lies in directing it somewhere the practitioner has poorly prepared."
"Someone who has spent years cultivating physical strength will generally find further development in that direction easier. Asking the same person to suddenly cultivate agility may prove considerably more difficult."
She paused before adding, "It is possible, but martial artists generally consider it inefficient."
A few of the Aura students straightened with greater interest.
"Consider two practitioners. One has spent years developing almost nothing except raw strength. The other has trained strength, movement, stamina, and resilience together. If both later decide that they urgently require greater agility, which one do you suppose will adapt more easily?"
"The second," one student answered.
"Right?" Huina nodded.
"This is one reason physical cultivation remains important to Aura practitioners even after they begin wielding Aura. Training does more than improve what you possess at that moment. It prepares the directions in which later growth can be used effectively. Specialization produces remarkable results, but it also makes sudden development outside that specialization more demanding."
Xian slowly leaned back.
'... Is she referring to Bonus Points?'
That made considerably more sense than he wanted it to.
The game had separated character progression into two convenient things. Gaining enough EXP increased a character's level and produced general growth, while the Bonus Points received alongside it could be placed into individual statistics.
Strength. Agility. Stamina. Endurance. Mana.
To him, it looked like the game had simply turned the entire process into convenient numbers.
Absorbing Anima strengthened the Emanator as a whole, while whatever usable essence remained could be cultivated toward particular qualities. There was no menu asking where to place it, and someone could not spend his entire life developing nothing but strength before casually deciding to become absurdly agile overnight.
But his body might not be prepared for it.
An all-rounder, meanwhile, had already cultivated several different directions and could make use of that remaining growth more easily.
'So that's how stat allocation works for the people here.'
The System simply allowed him to skip the troublesome part and choose. It turned out he had a convenient cheat after all, except his zero Luck meant he received fewer Bonus Points to make use of it…
'Fucking... Still doesn't make any sense. Are the entities just trolls?'
Huina went on to explain that mages generally faced less pressure to cultivate every physical quality evenly.
Most favored Mana, while those expecting to fight at closer ranges might deliberately cultivate their speed, stamina, or endurance as well. A mage who spent most of her life casting from behind prepared defenses had considerably less reason to develop her body as evenly as an Aura practitioner.
That explained quite a bit too.
Aura practitioners trained their bodies like lunatics because having a powerful body gave them more useful directions for future cultivation.
Mages could afford to be pickier.
Then Huina resumed her attention to the vessel.
"One final matter before we move to another topic. Anima need not be absorbed immediately."
She lifted the container.
"With the proper method, it may be preserved, transported, and stored for later use."
Xian stared at the glass. He finally remembered the little white object.
The container's design, stored Anima that could be used later for growth, and the variations it had.
He had seen it before and had hundreds of them in his inventory during the late game.
There had been an item players farmed whenever they wanted to raise a character's level without repeatedly hunting enemies. Different grades held different amounts, and players stockpiled them before raising new party members or preparing builds.
The 'bus trips' were just an alternative, and once the Exp given by high-level monsters became insufficient, these were utilized around the third or fourth year of the game.
The icon had shown pale white lights stored inside a container and he had never questioned what they actually were.
Why would he?
But it turned out what Huina showed was the thing inside the Exp modules.
'No fucking way.'
Monsters released Anima when they died; stronger monsters released more, and then Emanators absorbed it to become stronger.
Some of what remained after that growth could be cultivated toward particular qualities and Anima could be stored inside the same kind of objects players had spent hours farming for Exp.
Xian stared at Huina while she continued speaking as though she had not just torn apart one of the most basic assumptions he had carried into this world.
'Exp became Anima. I must say, those entities were creative when turning the game's world into reality.' The Mimic Minotaur's core had contained something he recognized as Exp too. 'Was that Anima as well?'
As it accumulated towards a level, it provided the player's stats with general growth. Bonus Points represented the portion that could be directed wherever one wanted, except the System had reduced cultivation to clicking a statistic.
Even his Luck affected how many Bonus Points he received.
How closely the rest of the System followed the actual process was another question entirely. The game's automatic distribution already differed from what Huina had described.
Whatever rules it was using, they were not a perfect recreation of reality.
Xian frowned.
That question could wait.
For now, the fact that his precious EXP items had apparently been fuzzy white balls floating inside jars was already enough new information for one morning.
Huina moved on from Anima toward the subjects Cosmological Studies would examine throughout the year: Aura and Mana, Agrinds, Omens, historical cosmologies, Vitarian traditions, and the many explanations humanity had produced for phenomena it could observe without always agreeing upon what those observations meant.
Xian listened much more carefully than he had expected to.
For once, the familiar urge to skip through the healer's dialogue never came. As if he could do that in reality anyway.
***
Lunch Period.
Xian brought Carmillia to one of the private pavilions, something he had similarly arranged the night before, all by the grace of the book authored by the head butler. It turned out the vast academy accommodated dining establishments exactly for these noble personages, but Xian never knew because those facilities were neither explorable nor functioning parts of the game.
Currently, it was contributing ninety percent of the proper service he was giving as a butler. It was like every question a butler would encounter could be found in the book.
Beyond its tall windows, the academy continued in every direction.
Students moved between lecture buildings and dormitory grounds. Smaller cafés occupied quieter corners along the stone walks. Pavilions stood farther away from the busiest student traffic, while attendants and household personnel had their own facilities threaded between the larger academic structures.
There were numerous students frolicking to and fro during the lunch break, and from where Xian sat, one thing was quite apparent.
Among the Arbiter students, the division colors tended to stick together.
Common Class students mostly moved in groups of their own, often keeping to the less crowded edges of the walkways. Elite students occupied the busier paths in tighter circles, while Royal students were rarely alone at all, usually surrounded by friends, attendants, retainers, or whoever had already decided it was beneficial to remain near them.
They were only part of the crowd, however. Most of the students passing through the grounds were not even part of the Arbiter Course. Rozenfall accommodated plenty of other courses and professions, making the academy far larger than the game had ever suggested.
Training halls rose beyond them, along with administrative buildings and the distant sections reserved for faculty.
The more he actually moved through Rozenfall, the less it resembled the collection of maps and event locations he remembered.
People could live here without leaving for their entire lives, solely dedicating themselves to the academy. It was akin to a city's society, much like the city parts of Rozenfall.
Three academy maids served within the pavilion while Miri remained beside Carmillia, serving palatable light dishes according to Carmillia's taste. While watching her, Xian decided to excuse himself for a moment in order to deal with a small matter.
After walking for a while, he stopped in a rather empty garden nearby, making sure that neither Carmillia nor the maids could see him.
"What do you need from me?" Xian asked, as he sat on a marble bench.
"My~, why do you think I need something from you? Maybe I'm just about to give you a letter?" Fahna popped out from one of the trees with a few small leaves in her hair.
Her bright smile and cheerful facade were as pretty as Xian remembered. He was particularly fond of Fahna, who tried her best to be perfect but charming at all times. In his opinion, people who make an effort to lie in order to appear better are at least better than those who can't be bothered about how they're viewed.
Suspiciously enough, Fahna and the two girls she had recently begun associating with had chosen to eat not far from the pavilion Xian arranged for Carmillia. Carmillia herself paid them no attention, wholly occupied with her meal and the book open beside it, but Fahna had been sending occasional, deliberate glances in his direction for some time.
Not at Carmillia.
At him.
By the fourth or fifth glance, Xian had understood well enough.
"Is it a confession letter then?" Xian knew what words would come next from her teasing tongue. As of this moment, she was wearing a different mask.
[A Scenario has Been Activated!]
[Fahna Ela del Alinde — Royal Class Rose Holder Third Seat]
[Alliance Proposal]
[Fahna Ela del Alinde has approached you with a proposal concerning herself, you, and Carmillia Montagne.]
[O Dedicated One, the outcome is for you to decide...]
'Now this system has the gall to talk? Also, what's up with the exaggerated quest pop-up window?'
"Aww, that's supposed to be my line!" She pouted at Xian, who suddenly frowned. "U-Uh, why do you look like that? Do you hate pretty girls?"
"No, I just saw a bee behind you, that's why," he said, knowing full well that Fahna hates bees and bugs in general.
"Hwah! Where?" Fahna quickly jumped to her feet and hid behind Xian's huge frame, looking around. She had already grasped his arm tightly when she realized that there weren't any bees at all.
"You're actually scared of bees?" Xian smirked, feeling satisfied with taking advantage of his knowledge and with the fact that Fahna was still the same Fahna from the game. The contact was also a welcome bonus as a result.
Beet red, Fahna slowly let go of Xian, having lost her composure.
"Y-You got me, I guess. Ugh…" Fahna could only facepalm to hide her embarrassment. She didn't expect that she'd lose her cool over something as trivial as a bee…
'But I really hated those! It's not fair!' She peeked between her fingers to see that feral butler smirking at her.
"Anyway, here." Fahna finally produced the envelope. "I was hoping you and Lady Montagne might join me for tea next week. Somewhere a little quieter than this." Xian looked down at the letter.
"Both of us?"
"Naturally. It would be rather pointless to invite Second Seat while pretending her butler isn't First Seat."