Brick by Brick (2)
As Aiden woke up from his sleep, checking the time. "It's still early for the meeting with Lila" said Aiden, staring at his phone.
He was thinking of going back to sleep for a bit, but he decided to stop being a lazy bum and got up.
He then started his normal morning routine. He went to the toilet, took a shower, brushed his teeth whilst rubbing his abs. After brushing his teeth, Aiden went to his kitchen made some egg omelette with some orange juice on the side and ate.
After eating, he headed out of his dorm room.
"Since there is a lot of time left before the meeting with Lila. I might as well, do something productive and train."
He called Mark to see if he would come with him to train, but he did not respond. "He is probably sleeping, its a 10 am on a Saturday."
The academy offered a myriad of facilities for student training. It featured a combat arena where students could spar with one another, as well as a training building with private training rooms for more focused practice.
Aiden was heading towards the training building, he wanted to keep improving his body. Moreover, the missions were unavailable because it the system was upgrading, so he had no way to increase but through training right now.
He could have used the Mana Crystals to enhance his strength, but it's widely known now that using them before the Talent Birth yields less overall improvement.
The Talent Birth, which Professor Elara had mentioned, would occur in the second semester. Aiden wasn't in a hurry to improve his strength, so he didn't need to use the Mana Crystals yet.
As Aiden arrived at the training building, he always marvelled at its futuristic design. The building housed numerous rooms, each tailored to different training needs. These rooms were categorized by the strength of the training dolls, and the cost of using each room varied accordingly.
He wasn't able to use these training rooms before due to their expensive cost, but now that he has enough money which he got from exchanging one High Mana crystal into some Mid Mana crystals , Low Mana Crystals and some Nanos.
Nanos was the currency of this world, it was founded by the Council of Elders due to many currency issues and inflation.
1000 Nanos = 1 Low Mana Crystal.
100 Low Mana Crystals = 1 Mid Mana Crystal
100 Mid Mana crystals = 1 High Mana Crystal
After exchanging, he had 90 Mid Mana Crystals, 500 Low crystals and 400,000 Nanos. He did this because rarely did anyone accept the exchange of Low Mana crystals to Mid Mana crystals, so he kept majority of his currency in Mid Mana crystals.
Moreover, 400,000 Nanos was enough to get him most things that aren't magic enhanced. As the receipt of Star café from yesterday was about 100,000 Nanos and that was considered expensive for students.
Inside the training rooms, everything was highly configurable. Aiden could adjust the gravitational pull to make the exercises more challenging, or modify the temperature to simulate various environments. The training dolls could also be programmed to fight back, acting like a real instructor to test and hone a student's combat skills.
There were many perks to using these rooms. Some rooms offered advanced analytics to track progress, while others had virtual reality enhancements for immersive simulations. Aiden knew that these features would help him push his limits and prepare for the Talent Birth. As he walked down the hallway, he considered which room would best suit his training goals for the day.
As Aiden approached the reception desk, the receptionist greeted him with a warm smile. "Hi there, Sir! How are you doing today? How can I assist you?"
"I'm doing well, thank you," Aiden replied. "I'd like to book a training room for three hours."
"Of course! Which type of room would you like to reserve?" the receptionist asked.
"I'd like a room with training dolls set to the strength of a novice mage," Aiden said. A Novice mage means that they can handle tier 3 spells or output the power of a tier 3 spell.
The tiers of spells are classified based on the circle of the spell, the first circle spell is a tier 1 spell and so on.
Mages are also classified as initiate, intermediate, proficient, and prime. Which also corresponds to their power, the power gap is usually from either the amount of connection points the magic circle has, or their mana capacity or stats.
Initiate novices are the ones that just advanced, they have the weakest power among novice mages. Prime novices are at the pinnacle of novice-level capabilities, only geniuses reach this level in novice and they can rival some weaker apprentice mages, they usually have a 4 connection point magic circle, or high stats and high mana capacity. They are very rare, there are at most 1 or 2 in one generation.
The classification for mages goes as follows :
Tier 1 spell users are known as non-magic users.
Tier 2 spell users are known as beginner Mages.
Tier 3 spell users are known as Novice Mages.
Tier 4 spell users are known as Apprentice Mages.
Tier 5 spell users are known as Adept Mages.
Tier 6 spell users are known as Great Mages.
Tier 7 spell users are known as Grand Mages.
Tier 8 spell users are known as Archmagi.
Tier 9 spell users are known as Magus.
The receptionist nodded and quickly entered the details into the computer. "For a room with novice mage strength, the cost will be 60,000 Nanos, which is 20,000 Nanos per hour," he explained. "This rate is a bit on the expensive side, but it's designed for those who can use tier 3 spells. Most first-year students usually opt for rooms with tier 1 or tier 2 power levels."
Aiden considered the price for a moment but nodded, unfazed. "That's fine. I'm ready to make the reservation."
The receptionist's eyes widened with a mixture of awe and disbelief. It was rare for a first-year student in their first semester to have this power. Only a handful of students had ever achieved this level of strength so early, and they could be counted on one hand.
"Maybe, he is just trying to see the power of a novice mage. I don't think he has that power yet." thought the receptionist.
"Alright," the receptionist said, "Let me check availability for you. Just a moment."
The receptionist quickly scanned through the schedule on the computer, still visibly surprised by Aiden's request. "You're in luck! We have a room available for the next three hours. I've reserved it for you."
"Great, thank you," Aiden replied, smiling. "I appreciate your help."
"You're welcome. Good luck with your training!" the receptionist said, handing him the key card to the room.
As Aiden walked away, he could feel the receptionist's eyes still on him.
Key card in hand, Aiden strode across a sleek, high-tech hallway in the training building until he reached the door belonging to his reserved room. He swiped the card, and the door slid open as smooth and quiet as can be.
Entering the room, Aiden spent some time appreciating the ultra-modern features of this workout facility. Along the walls stood softly glowing panels, awaiting his will to simulate an environment that would fit the exercises he was going to perform. In the middle, a training doll changed its appearance to imitate a foe with a level of skill of a novice or below.
Aiden walked over to the control panel and began to set up the room settings. He increased the gravitational pull slightly because he wanted to push himself a little out of his comfort zone. Then he set the temperature to be mildly cool to keep himself awake during the session.
After playing around with the settings, he also realised that he could voice out his requests to the AI butler that was available for use. Wanting to try it out, Aiden voices out his request.
"Butler, set the strength of the doll to a initiate beginner mage." Said Aiden.
"Done! The strength of the doll has been set to initiate beginner mage, anything else you would like to change" responded the butler with a cute little girl's voice, which was the default setting.
"No thanks" replied Aiden.
"Alright, let me first check out my physical strength against an initiate beginner mage." Said Aiden, whilst preparing to launch an attack at the doll. As he threw a powerful punch at the doll, the doll had a slight dent near the belly."
After several punches, Aiden figured out that initiate beginner mages should have beginning overall stat of 10 , and up to 20 or 25 which he can not tell yet.
His Strength stat was 17, so he was close to having intermediate strength stat, when he does he will able to tell the limit of initiate beginner mage.