A Seer (1)

After looking at the list of subjects, he once again checked it but was still dissapointed.

Not a mention.

There was nothing written about spatial magic or time magic in the list of subjects. Aren looked at the auxilary subjects. Alchemy, enchantment and magicraft; all of them looked important but he could not learn them all.

If he was asked to become a jack of all trades or a master of one, then he would definitely choose the latter. Only if he excelled in one subject would he progress. If he became arrogant and try to master all of them foolishly, he would lose his way.

Aren then carefully read the descriptions given below for these auxilary subjects and after a while, he understood what they were.

'Hmm Alchemy... its very much like chemistry. Mixing, boiling and experimenting various chemica- no various magical ingredients and herbs. But the reaction procedures are written in an unknown formula and these various types of runes...

Its a very respectable job as Alchemists are always needed everywhere. The versatility of the potions and their various uses are its good points. It looks like being an alchemist brings about money and fame very easily.

Too bad, I was not a chemist. Also, Alchemists seem to very vulnerable without their potions and reagents...'

Aren inwardly put a cross mark for alchemy in his mind and read the description for enchantment and magicraft. After he finished reading, he decided which subject to choose.

He would become an Enchanter!

Why? because out of the three professions only an Enchanter didn't need any materials to enchant something. For a magical craftsman, they would need lots of ores, alloys and magical gems to craft even a low level magical item. Even if the item would sell as fast as they made it, more than half of the money would be spent on buying materials.

For an mage who studied magicarft, only when he or she became a magical craftsmaster would he or she shine. Its because then they would be able to craft Artifacts which would be bought at an insane price no matter where it was sold.

Some were not even available to mages no matter how much money they forked out. They could only get their hands on it by exchanging it with precious magical gems and herbs of higher grades.

For Aren, this job was only possible if he was super rich. He would also need some luck to create those magical items. If there was one misstep then all his investments will go down the drain.

But an enchanter was different. An enchanter could use his or her spiritual strength to enchant anything as long as he or she has the right enchantment array in mind. And if there was a failure? They he can try again as long as the spiritual strength was not depleted.

As Aren read more and more, he didn't realize when time had passed. When he finally averted his eyes from the book, he noticed that he was the only one left in the classroom. Looking the hourglass which showed that it was already the 11th hour of morning, he closed the book and stood up.

After he decided on his auxilary subject, he was only left with the main subject. He didn't know what type of rune he had engraved so he planned to ask miss Monica tommorow.

When he exited the classroom and was about to head to the dorms, his stomach started gurgling.

'Uh...I haven't eaten my lunch yet. I guess I'll go to the dining hall first.' At this thought, Aren increased his pace and headed towards the dining hall.

.....

The next morning, after the class was over, Aren called out to miss Monica.

"Teacher, I have something to ask." he said while running towards her.

Monica, who was already outside the classroom, stopped in her tracks and turned around.

"Huh...Oh Aren. You are that new student. What's the matter?" She had that same cold expressionless face.

Aren stopped in front of this teacher who was only slightly shorter than Cowen and said "It is about the engraving of my rune."

Hearing this, Monica frowned and was about to say something when Aren again spoke "Ther...there seems to be a rune already in my spiritual space."

"What!?" her voice was a little loud this time as students passing through the hallway all looked towards them. Noticing this, Monica led Aren to an unobtrusive area and asked in a soft voice. "Is it true?"

"Yes. It was already there when I first entered my spiritual space. Its just that I didn't know what it was at first." Aren answered without any stiffness and hesitation. His lie was flawless. As someone from earth, he was a master in this type of thing.

If that wasnot enough, he could even use techniques like reverse psychology and face reading to a certain extent. In this world where human mind and behaviour was not researched that much, fooling someone was a piece of cake for him.

"What does the rune look like?" she asked another question in a sedate manner.

"It looks like a circle...green light always flows in it."

A circle? It can't be. A divination rune! Does he have the bloodline of some great Diviner?... Monica contemplated silently, completely focused.

Aren looked at his tutor who seemed to forget that he was there and inwardly heaved a sigh of relief.

'Good, she bought it. Although I want to know what those space and time runes can do, I shouldn't tell her about it. Even that circle I just made on a whim made her have this grave expression.'

As Aren was looking at her in a relaxed manner, Monica's expression changed. It was as though she suddenly realised something.

"Come with me."

She abruptly held his hand and started marching towards the stairway. Holding his hands, she was moving extremely fast. Aren even had to jog to keep up with her. In no time at all they reached Miss Monica's room in the second floor. He looked around the room.

It was quite big if he had to say. There were many flowers near the windows and it was completely different from the mysterious magicans room. It kinda felt more... girlish. Like a lovestruck girl's room. It definitely didn't match the personality of the strict miss Monica.

'Is she a tsundere!?' Aren wondered.

He didn't have time to think about that though as Monica quickly made him sit on a chair and brought a book from her shelf. Turning the pages hurriedly, she showed him a certain sketch on the book.

"Does it look like this?"

It was a circle but the difference was that it looked like a ring. A very realistic ring; like he could grab it with his hands but when he touched it, he only felt the rough surface of old paper.

Aren compared the circle he'd engraved with the one in that book and found it identical. If that hexagram star inside the circle was removed then both were the same.

"Yes, it is exactly like this."

As I thought... Monica had a savvy look on her face. She then looked straight at Aren and said, her cold look once again restored. "If what you said is true then you have an inherent rune. That rune is a divination rune. A very unique rune."

'A divination rune. So thats what it is. lets see if she knows something other than its name.'

"But isn't it just a circle?" Aren asked, putting on a very curious expression. If anyone looked at him now, they would surely think ''What a genuine student. He is certainly in the pursuit of truth!''

"Not just any circle. This circl-ahem* I mean rune of divination exists in all dimensions so that it can recieve the premonitions of fate. As a result, all divinations are done using this rune. I suggest that you choose divination magic as your main subject. If you choose this subj..." As Monica was explaining why he should choose divination as his subject, the door to the room in which they were abruptly opened.

From the other side of room, a small girl came inside. She looked to be about 8 years old. she was wearing white fluffy clothes in that chubby body of hers. With a flowery hat on top of her head and that innocent expression on her face, she looked incredibly cute. Looking at her appearance, even Aren had the urge to cuddle her and pinch her tomatoes like red cheeks.

After entering, she slowly closed the door and turns towards them. She sized him up for a moment but then, as if she lost her interest on him, walked up to Monica.

"Master! I'm back." she threw her arms towards Monica only to be stopped by her.

"What happened? You don't like katty now~" She acted like a spoiled child now.

"Mind your manners." He reply was very cold but there was also a hint of panic in her voice. It was like she wanted to avoid this girl from getting close to her right now. Then she told katty to sit on another chair opposite to Aren and looked at him.

"Ahem! This is my apprentice, katty. I took her under my apprenticeship last month."

'...Apprentice huh?' Aren was slightly suspicious but didn't say anything. As he looked at the opened book in the table in front of him, his sight fell on the activation process of rune. There was written that to activate the rune of divination a diviner had to rotate the rune in clockwise direction.

"Ah yes, you haven't activated your rune yet, right? Try to activate according to how it is written on the book." Miss Monica instructed him seeing him looking at the book.

"Yes." as Aren was also curious about what would happened if he activated the rune, he quickly looked straight and willed the rune to rotate in clockwise direction. But the problem was that not only the circle but the whole hexagram star started rotating.

After each rotation it became faster and faster. In about 10 seconds, it was already so fast that he could only see a purple disc in his spiritual space. Looking at the furiously spinning rune, he exited the spiritual space and his sight first fell on katty who was also looking at him. Just then....

"The results of the examinations are now..." An old mage was talking.

"Katty, you can't go there. You know there is..." the voice this time was Monica's.

"Lalala, I managed to learn another spell. I wonder if master will give me a kiss..." katty was cheerfully humming.

"Ah no! don't kill her..." An ogre was about to smash the little girl. The one who spoke this time was Aren.

As he saw those strange fragmented visions, his head started to hurt. He felt like his eyes were burning and suddenly his vision blackened, then he fell from his chair. He had lost his consciousness.

The last thing he saw before fainting was Monica's glowing spellbook and her grave expression.

NOTE: 'tsundere' means characteristic of a gap between acted out actions and feelings in mind.