185 Again

Wallace woke up early as he asked Avalon to be his alarm clock. It was the first day of school and he doesn't want to be late.

'Should I use Void Phase?' Wallace thought after fixing himself.

He already planned to purchase a car from a dealer but it would still be on the coming weekend. The only other problem was his license. He was 16 and still minor. He must be at least 17 years old before taking the license exam.

He looked at his watch and since it was still early. He decided to ride on the bus.

It didn't take long before he arrived in front of the academy's gate. He can see that there's a lot of new students coming in.

As a third-year student, the border of the uniform's logo on his left chest was different.

Their academy logo, a lion with an open wings, has a crimson color at it's circular border unlike the second year's pale blue. For the first years, it was green color. There has been some changes but it was probably due to merging with the other school. Wallace had also read that due the addition of new curriculum, the division of students, Sun or Moon Class were also abolished. Anyway, it was only a way to differentiate Combat Path Magicians to Engineer's Path. Now that there's four courses available, the headmaster removed this method of differentiating instead of adding more method of division. Percival wanted a more united student as it seems.

Most of the students at Materia Medica and Idol Training came from the closed down school so he wanted to make sure that everyone can easily adapt in the environment.

As Wallace was about to enter the gate, he heard many students exclaiming at the back. He looked behind and noticed a crowd of students peeking at a certain direction. He didn't have to ask what's happening as he heard them talking.

"Isn't that Miya's manager? What was she doing here?"

"She's Miss Diana Humeray, right? Ahh... She's a mature beauty. A perfect pair with another beauty."

Many had recognized Diana who was in front of a parked van.

"Maybe... Miya will perform at the ceremony?"

"What are you saying? Are you not watching news?"

"I heard that she'll be attending her last year in training here."

"Mhm... Right, she's on her 5th year as an idol trainee."

"Urgh... But I can't see her..."

"She's in the van. There's no vehicle allowed to enter the academy, right?"

Soon, they saw Diana opening the sliding door of the van as Miya step out.

The student's exclamations had only gotten stronger and there was even a sign from some students that can't hold their urges to approach Miya. It may cause some trouble if there will be more students who will follow.

'Urgh... So this can really happen, huh.' As Wallace was about to ignore the situation and head to the academy but everyone had suddenly managed to keep calm and not be overly excited. They still kept their smiles and eyes of admiration towards Miya, but they look a little more composed than a few moments ago.

'This... Isn't magic affecting minds should be prohibited?' Wallace had suddenly thought but after a moment, he immediately realized that it could be different since they practice a different art.

He glanced towards the culprit and noticed the great difference when he had met her at the town. During that time, the lady wore a make up that makes her a bit more mature. But this time, she even cut her hair short and dyed her hair black. She looks more innocent and approachable this way.

Wallace then recalled the news he read before and he was sure that Miya still has a longer hair that time. It seems that she wanted to change her image while she was still attending school.

After realizing that he was kept here for more than a minute, he quickly ignored the people behind him and walked to his classroom. Information about his classmates, instructor, and others were already given to them online.

Their classroom was on 2nd floor of the left-wing building. He immediately found it and met with his friends.

'Sigh~' He couldn't help but notice the missing members of their group. Tracy was no longer here. She was together with Ross Schien attending at Skywalker Academy instead. Kazimir had also returned to his country.

"Yo~ Wallace!" Gilbert greeted him and gestured to come over next to his seat. Wallace went over and returned his greetings.

"How about Ericka?"

"She won't be present for this first day. I heard that she got stuck on her vacation and will only return home this evening."

"Mhmm..."

Soon, they were joined by Kenneth and Katherine Cummings. They were a bit more attached to Wallace's group now that not only Mark went missing, even Tracy and Ross decided to move away.

After a few moments. Their instructor came in. She was a familiar person to Wallace.

"Only one is missing?" That voice sounds very soothing to hear. The lady was Elaine Hazelrink, the person who had given him a chance to meet with his previous seniors and learn a lot of things through helping them on their project.

'Oh, she's wearing it?'

***

Since this is the first day of school, there wasn't much to do. Many of the students went home early after being dismissed and some others went to their respective clubs. The academy promotes other healthy activities aside from Artifact Forging and Combat Practice.

There are clubs used for their hobbies like sculpting, painting, archery, fencing, other similar sports. This is also a way to have a better control of their Mana aside for being a source of enjoyment.

But there was group of five who had another goal by forming a club. It was to be used for a more intensive discussion about the Alien Invasion that was giving them a headache.

"Senior... isn't the mission too difficult for us?" Hilda asked her senior Shirley.

"Haah~ I'm thinking of that as well. But I already confirmed that it should be doable."

"Where did you get that confidence?" Escanor, the young man who looked like their senior student, asked.

"Well, I sent a review on their website and someone answered that it can be done. It seems that the group of Beta Testers at Desert Fortress had manage to do something similar to it."

"Is that so? Isn't that impressive?"

"Yes... Too bad, I couldn't ask for their help." Shirley said after recalling it.

Their group was stucked on their quest as they couldn't come up with a method to fight against Assault Gears if they weren't being assisted by an NPC. Their only saving grace was that this mode can be completed anytime they are ready. They are not bound to complete that quests at all cost and they could still complete other missions. It is just that the reward for completing it was very tempting. The reward was having method to assemble a Silver Knight. A humanoid machine that can be piloted by a magician. They suspected that it contains information that can be used in real life.

***

Wallace went home early as he didn't really have that much to do. He wasn't even needed at the student council this time. Even the new president was still not decided.

He remembered Elaine's words as she introduced the plans for their third year. Aside for having them group up and create their projects just like how he assisted his seniors for the Armor Tech he made, he was interested at the mention of creating their own "Series".

Although Elaine didn't elaborate. They will surely be taught with a more comprehensive method of creating "Series" compatible to them. They may copy or even use an existing "Series" for their own good but it's normal. It was difficult to create an original.

That's right, the Royal Series, Enchant Series, Archon Series, and many others weren't just made on a whim. Wallace had been planning on creating his own "Series" and even had a name for it. This thought came in when he made those magic spells for his junior Hilda and for Shirley.

"Urgh..."

Wallace cleared his thoughts as he continued to study the Celestial Fragment. He has been doing this for the past days and his progress has already reached 90/100.

He was almost there. He couldn't help but be excited at the rewards he will be receiving from the Pathfinder.

Based on his tests and probing on this item, it was similar to a form of energy that was entirely different from Mana. It made Wallace realized why it was called a Celestial Fragment. It seems that the item wasn't even from this world.

But he doesn't have any basis on that. As he was stucked at this stage for a day, he has been feeling a bit annoyed at the fragment.

He wasn't sure what was missing on his study. Should he really determine the origin of this item to complete the progress? Or even use it to improve himself?

No one was able to answer for him and can only try other methods suggested by Avalon.

But suddenly, there was a bit of shaking on the ground and Avalon had quickly notified him of what was happening.

[ Your house is under attack. Activating First Emergency Defense Strategy. ]

[ 1st Emergency Defense System destroyed. ]

[ Activating secondary Defense System. ]