Chapter 68 - Mana Network and MIDs

With the assembly finally over, the students were dismissed. Every student began heading towards to their assigned classes.

Cecil was walking with Lucia when she suddenly asked him.

"Hey stupid, did you have a look at your MID yet?"

"MID?"

"...it's the device that was delivered alongside our uniforms."

"Oh! It's the phone-like thingy!"

"...don't tell me you don't know how to use it?"

"Nope! Not a clue! Hehe," Cecil laughed while scratching his cheek.

Ainz, who was on the side, joined in and exasperatedly added, "He tossed the MID aside when he couldn't turn it on..."

Fina who was just about to talk to Lucia immediately went speechless hearing this. She couldn't help but give Cecil an odd look. Lucia somewhat expected this and chuckled.

"Cecil is Cecil afterall, stupid beyond redemption!"

"That's uncalled for Lulu... I'm not that stupid. I just didn't know how to use it!"

"Despite having read the manual 10 times over?" Ainz said with a distant look.

Lucia immediately burst out in laughter. She took a moment to calm down. Fina who had been quiet finally spoke up after Lucia calmed herself.

"Everyone, did you already register what classes you're going to be taking?"

"Of course, I have! The great Ainz would never commit such a blunder like forgetting!" Ainz said loudly.

Lucia also responded with an affirmative and only Cecil remained silent.

Seeing this, Lucia sighed and held out her hand.

"Give it."

"Hehe, thanks Lulu." Cecil took out his MID from his uniform pocket and gave it to Lucia who immediately turned it on and started fiddling around with it.

Cecil couldn't help, but take a second look at her. He thought that she looked rather splendid in her uniform.

The academy's uniform had a white and blue theme. Everyone wore a white robe that had a blue dragon head with a sword and staff crossed over it imprinted on the back. It was the academy's symbol.

For the boys, they wore a white button up long sleeved shirt on the inside with a blue and silver gilded vest on top. They wore long navy blue pants and had to choose between wearing a blue tie that had the academy's symbol imprinted on it or a white and blue striped scarf over their shirt and vest.

For the girls, they wore almost the same thing as the boys, except their colors were inverted. The shirt was blue while the vest was white. Instead of pants, the girls wore frilled miniskirts with thigh high socks white socks that had the academy's symbol imprinted on the sides. They too had to choose between wearing either a scarf or a ribbon over their shirt and vest.

Every student had academy issued foot wear and every student had a small silver ring on their fingers. On the ring was a small black gem on it, this gem was called the spatial gem.

It was an interspatial ring. Every student in the academy was given one. The space inside was about a cubic meter in size. They could store all their books and school supplies inside the ring as well as anything else that the students deemed important.

To use the ring, all you needed to do was inject mana into the gem. Then a detailed projection would be sent into the minds of the wearer and all you need was a thought to deposit or withdraw an item into or out of the ring.

Cecil admired Lucia's figure. She was wearing the academy's uniform quite fashionably. She opted to use a bow while Cecil himself used a scarf. Lucia had her 3 tails wrapped around her waist and seeing the kodachi that was strapped onto her right leg and the katana that she hung outside her robe made her look heroic.

"Your uniform sure looks good on you Lulu!" Cecil complemented.

"Hmph. Of course!" Lucia said smugly. She twirled a bit and continued walking forward while fiddling with Cecil's MID.

"By the way Lulu, do you have any detailed info about the Mana Network?" Cecil asked. When he found out about the network, it immediately drew in his interest.

He wanted to ask Lucia to moment they met up before the assembly, but unfortunately for Cecil, Lucia was in a foul mood. Seeing as Lucia wasn't in such a bad mood now, Cecil finally found his chance to ask her.

Lucia who was busy trying to input his classes into the schools mana-network data base responded without looking up.

"It's a network that connects all the MIDs together."

"Details Lulu!" Cecil exclaimed.

Lucia sighed and then began explaining.

MID or Mana Network Integration Device, as the name implies, was a device that connected the owner to a mana network that was set up in Angla City. The one in Cecil's possession was a MID that was connected exclusively to the network set up in the academy's district.

The academy's network was also integrated with the mana network that spanned the entire city so the students could also access the city's network through the academy's network.

There were plenty of things one could do with the MID. Access the latest news that circulated around the academy and city, accept adventurer quests, as well as many other things.

Of course this wasn't something that just everybody in the city had. The only reason why Cecil was able to have one in his possession was because the academy graciously gave every student that was enrolled in the academy this device.

After Lucia explained in detail about this mana network, many of Cecil's unanswered questions were finally resolved. He finally found out what those tablet-like devices that the guilds, shops and inns used. Unlike that academy issued MIDs, those were the standard issued MIDs and they functioned similarly close to Earth's computers.

Also, from the information that Lucia relayed to Cecil, the mana network wasn't only present in Angla City. The network actually spanned the entire Urrugdrasil Continent, and Cecil's immediate thought upon learning this was, "It's the Internet!"

This network wasn't only present in the Urrugdrasil Continent, the mana network was present in every continent except for the Non continent. Each continent had separate mana networks and each network was encrypted with a unique mana signature so a continent's inhabitants couldn't just connect with the network of a foreign continent's.

In the city, practically only high ranked city personnel and well off citizens would have this sort of device. But, even with his experience back on Earth, Cecil still did not know how to use the modern-like device.

It functioned similarly to the smart phones back on Earth, but it was tragedy for Cecil since he's never touched or even used one! He's only ever seen his siblings use them.

Due to his training, he's never had the need to use them thus far. It was only after Cecil finished inheriting his family's martial traditions would he then learn more about the modern era. Too bad Cecil didn't get this chance since he was teleported to Alterna a couple years before his training finished.

Lucia finished her explanation as well as inputting Cecil's classes. Other than the mandatory classes, Lucia took the liberty of inputting classes that were aligned with the ones she picked. The only courses that she didn't let Cecil take that were the same as hers were the elemental class and the magi-tech class.

Cecil had no use for learning the elements since he was a non-elemental to begin with and considering how hopeless Cecil was with anything that had to do with technology, she tacitly didn't input these classes. She gave the MID back to him and left the last two classes for Cecil himself to pick.

"Hrmm... magi-tech looks interest–"

"No! Not happening Cel, pick a different class."

"Eh?! But! This looks–"

"Like I said, no, with how stupid you are, you're not going to learn a thing there."

Although it was harsh, Ainz and Fina could only second Lucia's opinion. Cecil could only groan in complaint before having to choose a different class. He browsed the course selections and finally chose two that he found interesting.

"I guess I'll go with Mana Forging and Live Combat Class."

Ainz who was on the side was surprised to hear Cecil choose Mana Forging.

"Mana forging? Hey, Cecil, that class demands a pretty a high requirement in mana manipulation!"

Lucia perked up hearing this and she exclaimed.

"Now that's a class that's pretty much tailor made for you Cel!"

"Haha, I know right. It looks interesting so might as well learn it."

"Hey! Didn't you here what I just said?!" Ainz exclaimed after seeing how laid back Cecil was, although he did find it odd that Lucia supported him and even said it was tailor made for him, Ainz still decided that it was right to advise his roommate.

Lucia turned to Ainz and said.

"Don't worry about Cecil. If it's about mana manipulation, then all I can say is that there's no one on Alterna who could possibly be better than him!"

"What?"

Fina who was quiet immediately realized what Lucia meant.

"Are you saying that Cecil has an elemental constitution?"

"You could say that~" Lucia replied vaguely.

The group finally arrived at their class. When the group walked into the class, they immediately garnered everyone's attention.