The first contact with the monster school

We are back to Nessa’s bedroom. She points at a chest in the room. “You can put your school uniform in there and tomorrow you’ll get it cleaned.” After telling me that, she proceeds to strip like she was alone at her home. I should have expected this; judging the way she was unaffected when I burned her clothes earlier in our match… I guess beast-folk don’t need to use clothes, having their fur and such. I am curious if wearing clothes is uncomfortable for them, so I asked her. “Well, at first yes but now I grown used to them.” she answers.

It is my turn to put my uniform in the chest. My mind is running crazy at the image of both being naked and sharing the bed. Well it is a giant bed. It’s that big that a full-scale dragon can sleep there comfortably, so the probability of being close to each other is almost zero, but still. I try to disregard those thoughts as I open the chest and feed it with my school uniform. When I took out my hands, I see that they grabbed a set of pajamas. Good, that’s one thing less to worry about.

“What are those clothes?” The naked humanoid wolf says.

“These are pajamas. In our world we use them to sleep at night.”

“Ah, I get it. You would be freezing without these.”

I am thinking about how every garment I've worn could be perfectly from my world. Those clothes don’t scream other world at all. Yet the rest does. No point at dwelling; I need to sleep. We both went to sleep at opposite sides of the bed. It was very comfortable although the pillow isn’t nothing to write home about.

***

A soft sensation is tapping on my face. Its slow but constant beat isn’t enough to wake me up, but it still annoys me nonetheless. I subconsciously move my arms to try to catch whatever is hitting on my face. After a few (or maybe quite a lot of) attempts, I manage to catch it. It also feels soft to my hands. Good! Now I only need to throw it away. Still half asleep, I motion my arms and throw it at my opposite direction with all the force I can muster. I can hear a whine and, a few seconds later, a thud. Afterwards, silence. Now I can sleep at peace. Or so I thought.

“Do you think that’s an appropriate way to wake me up?!?! Even more, I don’t want to be woken up that early!!”
Ah, so the whine was hers. That makes sense. I check the window and saw that it’s daytime already. “Sorry, what time is it?” I ask while yawning.
“It’s not 8am yet! Classes won’t start until 9! I could have sleep one hour more!”
“Then, why don’t you do just that?”
“Uh… Okay!” Immediately after saying 'Okay', she just up and went to sleep! I wish I can sleep that quick, though. What I shall do? I ask myself. Well, first of all I’ll change into my school uniform. Nessa was right: the uniform was squeaky clean. I change clothes and step outside.

The familiar creature from yesterday came flying towards me. I can hear the principal voice. “Since you don’t have anything to do now, please help out our librarian. You can tell her that I sent you.” Well, I can’t say no to that, can I? I would be grateful if the principal at least gave me directions to find the library, though. Complaining won’t solve anything, so I started walking. I find myself in the same square from last night. It seems like it could be a good landmark. I can see a signpost a few meters away from the square. Cool, now I can get some directions, assuming I can read the info there. Surprisingly or not, I am able to read the text. Now I can find the dorms (well, that was easy enough without reading the post), the main building, the canteen and the exit. I’ll try the logical option to look for the library in the main building. It isn’t like I was in a hurry, but I decided to go straight to business.

The main building is as big as you can expect. Seems that I was still on time as I see only a few monsters here and there, everyone with their school uniforms on. I am now in the main lobby looking for somebody to give me directions to the library or at least a map of the facility hanged up around somewhere. I scan the lobby walls and after some time I find the map. Okay, it says that the library is in the seventh floor. I don’t see any staircases drawn on the map. However, I see some small areas marked as warp spots. The name is self explanatory enough to tell me that I should head to one of those.

As you could already guess, there is a big magical circle painted on the ground in the mentioned area. I am not sure how to operate this. How does it work? Is this working with imagination like the elemental magic? If so, should I imagine a library or the number seven? Just to be safe I imagined both things when I stepped on the circle. Magic flows upward covering me and I find myself in another area. Looks like I was teleported elsewhere.

I can see a door straight ahead with a plaque reading “Library”. That was easy. I think while entering the room. I cannot see anybody inside. Did I go too early? There’s a desk nearby with an owl on it. It isn’t moving. Since I don’t have anything else to do I decided to approach it. Its dark feathers seem real. I want to check them if they real or not by the only way I can think of: by touching them. Yeah, they feel as feathers should. Touching them makes me very relaxed somehow, so I keep doing that. The quietness in the library is interrupted by a sudden voice “Oh, yeah! That’s the spot. Keep going.” It doesn’t come from the owl, that’s strange. It must be coming from further in. That being said, I don’t feel that bothered so I continue with my relaxation time with the owl’s plumes. A minute or so passes and the voice, still sounding from far into the library says “I’m coming!” Immediately afterwards, the owl emits light from its body. When the light fades away, the owl turned into an avian lady!

I admit I grimaced a little, I am not used to see monsters yet. At least she isn’t naked. She isn’t wearing the school uniform, though. Instead, she wears a long purple skirt and a blue top. I am still shocked about the body swap and don’t know how to stop it. I remembered her saying “I’m coming!” and my dirty mind is running throw the other definition of the verb come. The words “Did you come?” escaped from my mouth. Wow, brain, that’s a nice way to leave a good impression. I said to myself sarcastically. “Yes. I came, therefore I am.” I am surprised that she didn’t interpret it the funny way. But her sentence is way too funny. That so that I cannot avoid laughing on the spot.

This doesn’t improve the situation. She asks me what is wrong with her statement. Think, brain. And fast! While trying to contain my laughter, I answered "It’s funny because it’s similar to a famous quote that says <<I think, therefore I am>>" Surprisingly, she is satisfied with that explanation. Moving on, I tell her that the principal has sent me here to help out. She wants my help in picking up books that the monster students didn’t return to the shelves and she will point me where to put them. Not that I have any other options… 

While working I think that I can take the opportunity to get properly informed. "Could I ask you a favor? I would like to know more about magic. Nessa told me that it's just imaging things but there should be more than that, right?"
"You are right. The exact process is that you use the mana within yourself to transform the magic found in the air."
"If I remember right, she also said something about I must only learn the first type of magic from her before I can attend class. How many types are there?"

"There are 7 types of magic."

She starts to enumerate them:

"First is called offensive magic: it's the one that consists in dealing direct danger. You can use elemental attacks to take advantage of your enemy's weakness. It is best to learn different elements as you may already have guessed. It will also be useful for your test." She proceeds with the second type:

"Then, there is summoning magic. In your class you will learn how to make a pact with a familiar. You already have seen mine." She summons the same owl as before. "She's called Solamu. My senses are shared with hers, as you know heh heh; that's why I use her to guard the room."

"Hold on. Isn't summoning magic a complex one? It must be very difficult to summon living beings using imagination only." I said.

"Well, it is not as easy as offensive magic but it is not that difficult. Most of the work is done by the familiar. How should I put it… Imagine if you are just outside of a cave's entrance. The familiar is inside. They need to go where you are to exit the cave. The cave is made of the familiar's magic too. Using that example as a reference, you only need to tell the familiar where you want to appear and the rest is done by them."

"I understand, thanks!" So if I only need to master the first kind of magic, that means that Nessa was learning the second type when I was summoned. I wonder if it was a magical prowess or a magical blunder of epic proportions.

The librarian continues.

“Now I will tell you about the advanced types: the third kind are blessings, that means increasing your —or another one’s— attributes, both temporary and permanently. Then, it’s healing magic. The fifth type are the curses: like blessings but the other way around. The six type is called space-time magic. As the name implies, it consists in magic that manipulate space like teleportation and time like slowing the opponent movements or making yours faster. The last type is almighty magic. It’s magic that cannot be canceled and has no weakness. Almighty magic is still in research state, so it is not being taught at this time. And that is everything.”

“That was very helpful. Thanks, miss!” I don’t have anything but words of gratitude to her. I must make sure to remember everything. I shouldn’t bother her with more questions so I leave it as this for now. Tidying up the library took me all the morning. After it was done, I waved goodbye to the avian beast-lady and left the room.

It should be lunchtime already so I return to the main lobby so I can exit the main building. I want to see how the canteen is like and also how is the food in there. Nessa was waiting for me in the lobby. “Hey, Reivax! Do you wanna go to the canteen? It’s lunchtime already!” Yeah, sure, why not? It’s better to go with her rather than alone.

Nessa guides me to the canteen and explains how it works: you put your hand on a crystal ball and think about your desired dish (damn, it’s just she said: magic is simply imaging things), go to the collecting point, grab your dish and sit anywhere free. The concept is simple but I find it hard to decide what to eat. Maybe something very elaborate could get me in a spot and I would have to deal with uncomfortable questions. Or maybe they don’t care at all about me, who knows? I think a safe bet would be steak with fries, so I’m choosing that. Ah, and a glass of water too.

We picked up our meals and start having lunch. I can see some monsters but none of them seems to care about us. Great. “I can see that you ordered meat, but what are those sticks thingies?” Nessa inquires.

“They are fried potatoes. A potato is a vegetable.”

“Eh, not a fan of vegetables. I can eat them as a last resort if I didn’t eat for days. But if I can choose… Meat all the way!” That sure is typical right? You won’t expect her being a vegan, will you? Despite the food being generated with magic, it retains the same flavor as the one from Earth. Maybe that or it’s programmed to trick my brain into feeling it. I don’t know and I should not care. And so, we spent the lunchtime with small talk while eating magic.