"a sheath?"

Mars picked up the sheath and examined it, but besides the high quality leather and excellent craftsmans.h.i.+p he couldn't find anything special about it and gave a questioning look to Info that soon explained

"what you hold in your hand might just be a sheath to you, but it was once a prized partner of a living G.o.d of the sword"

"a living G.o.d?"

"yes, and while it seems normal it might help you break though the level cap on the [Swordsmans.h.i.+p] skill"

"really?"

"yeah"

Info gave a smug smile like she was saying 'I'm amazing right?'

"thanks for the gift Info"

"your welcome Mars, now with that done why don't you tell me what you have been doing since last we spoke"

"hmm... well first off you remember the whole 'kick them in the s.h.i.+n, if they fight back kick them in the b.a.l.l.s' strategy I made?"

"ugh, don't remind me"

"well it turned out i didn't have to use it, the people are really civilized in this world so talking sense to them is easy"

"really..? that's good"

"yeah and then I---"

for the next 30 minutes, much like a child telling their parent what they had been doing for the day Mars told Info about what he had been doing

"so your here because of that child, Hanna?"

"also because the academy seemed like fun"

"I see... what are you going to do with the 3rd prince?"

"...that depends"

"on what?"

"...my mood mostly"

"...I see, well then go and do your worst... also send away that priest spying at the door on your way out"

"I will, see you Info"

Mars stood up form the tale that disappeared along with the chairs and watched Info lay down on the altar

[DECEDENT ENDED, LIFTING ISOLATION BARRIER... COMPLETE, ENTERING STANDBY MODE...]

Mars walked out of the prayer room and sure enough the priest that had showed him the way stood right outside the door

"spying on people is a bad habit, bad for your health too"

"w-w-what are y-you talking about?"

Mars gave the priest a pat on the shoulder with a wide smile on his face before he punched him in the stomach making the priest pa.s.s out on the spot before he walked away

"let's go Victoria"

"why... did you... punch him?"

"because he annoyed me"

"okay..?"

Victoria tilted her head slightly as she followed after Mars out to the waiting area where Hanna was waiting

"are you finished?"

"yeah let's go"

"okay then follow me"

Hanna lead the way and soon Mars saw a big gate where student with mantles like the one Hanna was wearing walked in and out of

"this is the main gate"

"...neat"

Hanna walked in the gate while Mars and Victoria followed after as both of them looked around, Mars focused on a student that was looking at Hanna with wide eyes

"hey, isn't she the one that got hurt?"

"no way the student that got hurt is either dead or dying"

"yeah your right"

having lost interest the students walked away

'well they right, kind of right anyway'

Mars decided to ignore the other students as he followed after Hanna and soon they walked into a administration building

"it's just over there at the counter"

"thanks Hanna, see you later"

"see you"

Mars watched Hanna walk out of the building before he walked over to the counter and asked the person behind the counter

"I would like to become a student at this academy, is it possible to register here?"

"certainly, please take a seat while I call the professor"

"okay"

Mars took a seat and soon a man with a blue mantel on showed up and looked at Mars with examining eyes before he asked

"your the one that want to register?"

"yeah, is there a problem?"

"no not really it just depends on your skills, you need to take a little test before I can register you"

"that's fine"

"okay follow me then, I'm professor Steven you can just call me Steve

"okay, my name is Mars"

"okay then Mars follow me"

Mars stood up and followed after Steve out of the building and onto a empty practice field that was covered in formation engravings

"normally anyone can register at the start of a new year, but since it's mid year now you need to be at least a combat cla.s.s mage to sign up"

"combat cla.s.s?"

"here at the academy we cla.s.sify mages based on their raw magic output, form basic, apprentice, combat, strategic and finally tactical"

"I see, then I need to cast a spell?"

"yes your strongest spell, aim in the middle of the field please"

"okay step back..."

Mars confirmed Steve stepped back before he summoned a small flame a tip of his index finger

"now for the real thing..."

Mars took a breath and raised the flame into the air where it rapidly expanded to the size of a carriage before it suddenly started condensing and getting smaller, meanwhile the heat the flame gave off rose exponentially as it's size got smaller and smaller until it was the size of a ball

"that's one... now for the rest..."

Mars summoned another 2 flames that, like the first first got larger before they condensed

"now for the hard part..."

Mars had learned this spell from Chloe, but had never managed to figure out the last hardest part which was to fuse the 3 fireb.a.l.l.s together into 1

"let's give it a try..."

Mars raised his hands and gradually the 2 outer fireb.a.l.l.s started to fuse into the middle one, meanwhile Steve looked on in half horror half expectation

'he's at the critical point now, if he fails then the formation might not hold and half the academy might go up in flames'

Steve started to sweat, but the expectations on his face kept him from running away

'I am the one that pushed him to use his strongest spell so I might as well see it though to the end'

as Steve was praying Mars finally managed to fuse the fireb.a.l.l.s together, now only one bright white fireball was floating in the air

"go!"

Mars pointed ahead and sent the fireball flying as he himself fell back just as the fireball hit the center of the formation and exploded with a deafening roar

*BOOOOOM*

the shock wave moved out form the explosion but was stopped and contained by the formation as a transparent dome seemed to form with the explosion in the middle, that is until the dome shattered but luckily it was replaced by a back up dome as the safety of the formation kicked in and ensured the explosion was contained

"well, how is it did I pa.s.s?"

"...yeah"

Steve looked at Mars with a weird face before he asked Mars to follow him as they both went back to the administrative building where Steve stopped and asked Mars with a awkward face

"can you pay the fee?"

"sure, no problem"

"okay good... wait here I need to go get someone"

Mars waited and soon Steve showed up followed by a old, frail looking woman that wore a triangle pointed hat and a golden mantel, seeing Mars's confused face Steve quickly explained

"this is the vice princ.i.p.al, she is also your new teacher"

"nice to meat you, I'm Mars"

"...follow after me I'll show you to cla.s.s"

"sure"

Mars said goodbye to Steve and followed after the vice princ.i.p.al that remained silent until they reached the cla.s.sroom where she walked up to the blackboard

"...introduce yourself Mars"

Mars looked around the mostly empty cla.s.sroom and saw a total of 4 other students, 2 of them seem to be a young pair of beastmen twins

"well then, my name is Mars I might look human but I'm not... also I'm a steel ranked merc, I use fire and darkness magic"

"good now take a seat, now where were I..? oh right"

Mars took a seat in the front

'wait where did Victoria go..?'

Mars suddenly realized Victoria had stopped following him at some point and got a little nervous

'hopefully she's with Hanna or one of the others...'

unaware of her new student nervousness the vice princ.i.p.al started speaking while she drew on the blackboard

"formation, or arrays if you will are in essence what drives most of the advanced tools in this world, they are often drawn with magic beast cores or molten down mana stones, but more ancient cases has shown us its possible to use metal, although we don't know how... some examples of formations are simple amplification formations in wands and staffs the academy's clock tower is also powered by a formation witch draws in od form the surroundings and converts it to mana witch powers the timepiece other examples include---"

Mars did his best to follow along and as he did he got more and more interested in formations, he even started daydreaming about carving a formation on his armor