Magic Academy System

Chapter 2 - Magic Academy System

After Alyssa took a seat at the mage tower's most elementally active location and started her daily meditation, Zwei breathed out a sigh of relief.

Nowadays, the girl was no longer as ignorant as when she began learning magic. Her questions regarding magic increased by the day. As someone who had abruptly become a magician without prior training, Zwei was starting to have difficulties pulling the wool over the girl's eyes. Moreover, Alyssa's ability to draw inferences also left Zwei speechless. At this rate, he would run out of material to teach the girl in another one or two months.

However, seeing as Alyssa was his student and the girl herself was both cute and obedient, Zwei felt happy about her progress. This way, even if he really passed away 11 months later, the girl could still rely on herself to make a name for herself.

While taking a long look at Alyssa sitting cross-legged on the floor, Zwei smiled.

Afterward, he focused his attention on the tattoo on the back of his hand.

As he gradually melded his concentration with the tattoo, his consciousness entered a certain mysterious space once more.

The first thing that appeared before his eyes was the ultimate goal set by the Magic Academy System—establishing the world's number one magic academy.

However, due to time constraints, fulfilling this goal simply wasn't realistic.

Although Zwei had once thought of mingling his way into a powerful magic academy, and then figuring out a way to usurp the position of dean, he eventually gave up on this idea.

Any magic academy capable of ranking at the top of this world would definitely have a Master Magician or above serving as its dean. Trying to replace such an individual with his meager abilities would be tantamount to suicide.

As for the smaller academies with little to no fame… Well, even if he succeeded in usurping the position of dean in such an academy, developing said academy into the best academy in the world wouldn't be possible overnight—or even within a year.

Not to mention, what did the system mean by the world's number one magic academy? Would the academy need to have the best facilities in the world? The best teachers in the world? The most number of students in the world? The most fame and prestige in the world? Or was there some other judging criteria?

If he didn't even know which direction he should develop his magic academy in, how should he proceed?

"What a fraudulent goal," Zwei sighed.

With the disappearance of the panel displaying the ultimate goal, several other panels appeared. However, a portion of these panels remained locked. Currently, the only ones Zwei could see were the panels for Academy Resources, Magic Book, and the Trial Gate.

In the Academy Resources panel, resources were divided into eight categories: Stone, Wood, Metal, Leather, Gem, Money, Potion, and Alchemy Material. Aside from Gem starting at 10, the other resources had a starting value of 100.

Zwei deemed that these resources were for the construction of his magic academy. Unfortunately, after searching through all the available panels, he did not find any options for building.

However, he discovered that the system's Money could be exchanged for real currency, with an exchange rate of one point for one silver coin.

It should be noted that the lunch Alyssa brought him earlier could already be considered luxurious for ordinary villagers. Even so, the meal would cost, at most, 20 copper coins. Hence, the opportunity to obtain 100 silver coins posed a huge temptation for Zwei.

Fortunately, he had been sensible enough to ask the rate for reverse conversion first—and found out that it actually cost one gold coin to exchange for one point in Money.

A bloody difference of a hundredfold! This already goes beyond profiteering! Thank goodness I had the brains to ask in advance!

In short, he would leave his Money resources alone, for now. As for the other resources, they were currently only available for display. Even if Zwei felt unreconciled, he could only set aside the Academy Resources panel and move on to the Magic Book panel.

The Magic Book was basically a skill tree normally found in games. At the moment, he could only flip to the first page of the tome displayed on the panel. There were about a dozen skills displayed there. However, aside from Magic Bullet, everything else was grayed out. Moreover, before Zwei found the necessary skill points, these skills were only window-dressing.

Lastly, there was the Trial Gate panel. At a glance, the panel was a map densely covered in red dots, as well as a particularly eye-catching green dot amidst the rash of red. When he selected the red dots, nothing would happen. However, if he chose that green dot, the words [Night Forest · Outskirts] would appear.

During his month of recuperation, Zwei had tried selecting this green dot countless times. However, aside from the dot's name, the only other thing that appeared was a bright red reminder with the words [In a weakened state. Unable to activate the Trial Gate.] written on it.

Originally, Zwei had anticipated the same outcome. However, there was a change today.

The bright red reminder did not appear. In its stead was the option of [Enter/Cancel].

"What…" The unexpected change stunned Zwei.

Could it be that the Academy System, which he considered a defective product, was finally functioning properly?

After hesitating a little, Zwei raised his head and checked the meditating girl before him. Gritting his teeth, he then chose the "Enter" option.

In the next moment, darkness surrounded him. When light returned to his world, he found that he was no longer in his familiar mage tower. Instead, he sat inside a small, open-air tent.

"What…happened?"

Zwei looked around in surprise. The scenery behind the tent was obscured, but the front wasn't.

There was a small open space in front of the tent, and in the center of this space was a burning bonfire. Two large boxes flanked the bonfire, one blue and one red. Meanwhile, beyond the open space was a dark and primitive forest.

Aside from his surroundings, Zwei found that even his clothes had changed. Instead of his black robe, he was now wearing burlap clothes like what ordinary male villagers often wore during summer. The bandages on his body had also disappeared. If not for the scar the arrow porcupine left on his chest, he would've almost thought he had transmigrated elsewhere.

While he was admiring the exquisite workmanship of his new attire, fresh information suddenly appeared in his mind.

…

[Villager's Burlap Set (Normal)]

Armor/Temporary Item

Defense: 0~0

Set bonus: Collection (Level 1)

…

"What's this? Equipment? Am I in some third-rate game?" Zwei muttered to himself, unsure whether he should laugh or cry.

However, a thought suddenly flashed in his mind.

"Game… Don't tell me this so-called Trial Gate is like the dungeons found in games?"

At this thought, he walked out of the tent and looked at the thick, white mist behind it.

He then carefully approached the mist and reached out to touch it. However, before he could do so, his hand encountered something hard. It felt as if he had just touched a wall.

"A barrier?" Taking two steps back, Zwei studied the mist.

If this really was a dungeon, then the area the white mist enveloped should be outside the dungeon. The barrier he touched should serve to separate the dungeon from the mist outside.

Having figured things out, Zwei no longer dwelled on the mist. Instead, he focused his gaze on the forest.

Since this was a dungeon, he should receive a reward for clearing it, right?

He had a hunch that his lifeline might lie within this dungeon!