Chapter 8: Campus
After that they took the lift down to the ground floor and entered a huge foyer. There were quite a bit of people moving through the foyer and all of them wore the same uniform as himself.
"They are like yourself, just new recruits from this year or last year. Many mentors aren't as thoughtful as myself and won't lead their disciples around.", his mentor smugly said. "Well besides that many of them won't need as much help as you.", he then followed up with a unnecessary comment.
He then continued along towards the front door which consisted of three big glas doors wich opened automatically if someone approached them. Behind the doors one could see a lively street which moving objects.
"Wow, there is a lot more activity then I thought."
"What do you expect, after all there are more than fifty thousand living on this campus and even through most of them are servants, they still have to move around."
"Then what are these objects on the street?"
"I guess you wouldn't know them, since only the rich can afford them. They are cars, a type of magical device which can be bought in the system shop for an exorbitant price."
"System shop?", Ivan took a look at the icons of his interface, but saw no shop icon.
"You won't see it on your interface until you get a voucher. That's another reason why the cars are so expensive. Besides the price in the shop you need a voucher to buy them and they are one time use only and only drop in one weird dungeon which is monopolized by the Tang family, so if you want to buy a car you can do that only from them."
"And nobody tried to take the dungeon away from them?"
"Sure there were some who tried, but the Tang family is quite strong and the really strong powers have no interest in it as long as they keep the prices rational."
He then lead Ivan out of the door and towards a staircase. "This is the subway, which connects all the important places on campus. Be aware that you can only travel to a few of them since your rank is so low."
After descending the staircase they enter a long hall with entryways on both sides and panels, similar to the phone besides them.
"You can choose your destination on one of the panels and then have a few seconds to enter the gateway to board your capsule which will then transport you to your goal.", after explaining the procedure he then stepped to a panel and choose library. "Come on enter. If you are fast enough you can enter a capsule together with another person, so always watch out this only happens if you invited them."
After entering he finds himself in a spartan looking room with only two banks and a screen which displayed the destination and the time that would be needed to arrive.
"For now you can only take this subway, since you can't afford a car and mounts are forbidden, since there are always problems with them if you put more than ten of them together. Later you should buy a car, even if you learn a flying skill since they are just more comfortable."
He then talked a bit more about how it was to live on the campus until they arrived at the library, which was a surprising amount of time later.
After they left the capsule they found them self in a hallway which lead towards a big foyer which was luxuriously decorated with a mosaic marble floor and a big dome which seemed to have inlays made of gold which formed complex but beautiful diagrams. On the sides of the hexagonal room there were two entrances, the one they had come from and one that lead outside, while to other sides were taken up by counters behind which women and men in uniforms stood, which served the guests of wich there were only a few, so most counters were empty.
"Wow", Ivan couldn't refrain from displaying his astonishment regarding this sight. Van Bergen let him admire the view a bit before interrupting him.
"Not bad right?" "Mmm, I just expected it to be fuller."
"I guess the name library has mislead you a bit. Even though we call it that and there is really a large collection of books and scrolls available, most people will use the digital library for that, since it is much more comfortable. So the main point of the library is the large collection of skill books, which can be bought or sold here."
Ivan once again took a good look and was even more impressed of an organization wich would build something like this, just for the few people wich seemed to visit.
"It just seems a bit wasteful."
His mentor smiled and suppressed his laughter, "Normally there are even less people here, but since today is recruitment day, many new people come here for their initial skills."
He then slowly made his way to one of the counter with a middle aged woman manning it.
"Hey Mary"
"Hey Carl, we haven't seen you in a long time", they cordially greeted each other and you could feel that they had known each other for a long time.
"It were at most five months."
"I know, but still you should come more often."
"I will try."
After getting a promise from him she then moved her focus towards Ivan.
"And who might this be?"
"My new student."
She looked at him in surprise, "What? So you have finally given up your resistance and went out for recruitment."
"I had to, these old guys wanted to decrease my rank if I didn't go. I even went to the school with the worst track record but who could have guessed that they had someone talented this year."
Even through his word were spoken as if he was really unhappy about it, the smile on his face betrayed him.
"Tsss, I never would have guessed that you would get a student and even be proud about it."
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