The book had only about thirty pages, which didn't take very long to read. A big part of the book was about rules regarding fighting, attending lessons, how to obtain Contribution Points, the functions of the room, and some general information.
From what Shang had read, fighting with one's weapon was forbidden, but fighting without a weapon was fine. The reason for such a choice was to preserve the killing intent in someone. If someone used their killing tool to spar with others a lot, they might lose their killing intent.
Because of that, the academy tried to preserve the killing intent of the weapon. One should only draw one's weapon when one intended to kill someone.
Of course, there were exceptions. For example, two students could schedule an official spar at any of the training areas. In that case, they could use their weapon.
But wait, how did that differ from just fighting normally? After all, it was also just a spar.
The difference was that the students had to fight with the intent of killing the other person. It was not in their responsibility to keep the opponent safe. The observing teacher would be responsible for keeping the loser alive.
So, the student would still be fighting with the goal of killing their opponent. It was just that the opponent would survive due to outside intervention.
Attending lessons was surprisingly completely optional. No student was forced to attend the lessons.
This rule existed to teach students responsibility.
On earth, something like this wouldn't really work. After all, the consequences of getting bad grades weren't immediate as long as someone didn't fail the grade. This made the danger distant, making the student feel like they weren't actually in danger.
But here, it would have very real consequences. Due to the first rule, bullying and ganging up on others were allowed. If a teacher saw five kids beating up a younger student, they wouldn't intervene.
However, the survival of that student would also be under the assailants' responsibilities. If they killed a student without a good reason, the assailants would be executed by the academy.
Even more, if someone didn't have a warrior's body, they would need to go to the resident Water Mage to get themselves healed, and the cost of the treatment would need to come out of their own pocket.
So, it was literally possible to push someone into impossible poverty. If someone made some serious enemies, they could be suppressed into always being forced to remain in their rooms in the academy. This would stop them from attending lessons, earning money, and training.
How did one get out of such a situation?
That was not the academy's problem.
Strength ruled supreme. Either the students would become powerful or break.
As for earning Contribution Points, there were three ways.
One was to attend lessons.
Yes, the students got paid for attending lessons. Of course, they had to seriously attend them and not just be present. Teachers could deduct the pay for a lesson if they thought that a student slacked off.
Another method was doing a mission. There were a couple of mission boards around the school that offered different missions. The rewards for these missions were many times higher than attending lessons for several reasons.
First of all, this was practical experience. The student would be sent out without supervision or protection. There was a very real chance of the student dying.
Second, the people commissioning the missions were paying the academy in exotic materials, which allowed the academy to keep its marketplace going. Of course, the student had to be adequately rewarded.
The last way to earn Contribution Points was simply for a teacher to assign them. A teacher could assign Contribution Points, but they would have to justify that decision to one of the Vice-Deans. If the reason wasn't good enough, the Contribution Points would be deducted from the teacher's personal account.
The next thing was the function of the room, and Shang was thankful that they actually wrote about it. If they hadn't described the room, Shang would have made a horrible mistake.
That empty bucket?
It was imbued with Magic.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ What kind of Magic?
It was Transportation Magic.
The bottom of the bucket was connected to a space with a couple of Water Apprentices and Water Adepts. Their job was to create water for the students.
As long as someone tilted the bucket into a position that was impossible for it to be in with no interference, water would flow. This was to stop an accidental activation of the Magic Circle. Without that, the Water Mage would fill the entire room if the bucket fell over.
In short, someone had to lift the bucket and slightly tilt it to activate the Magic Array. Then, a stream of water would come out of the bucket until the bucket was put back into a normal position.
If Shang had shat into the bucket…
Shang imagined a log coming out of a Magic Array in front of a Water Mage.
That would have been awkward.
The other bucket was simply a normal bucket.
The water coming out of the bucket was for both washing and drinking. Surprisingly, there was also a drain for exactly this reason.
Shang looked to the corner of the room and saw a slightly lowered circle.
It was a Magic Circle, and it was responsible for dumping the dirty water into the Wasteland.
'Why did they not just make a normal drain with normal pipes? Why did they even use Magic to transport shit?'
Shang didn't know it, but there were two reasons, one more ridiculous than the other.
One, the Earth Mages assigned to develop the city had been bored. So, they simply created a huge magical sewer under the entire city and gave everyone access to it.
Second, because they could.
Wouldn't it be funny if they transported such unimportant stuff with Transportation Magic, which was a subcategory of Space Magic?
That was the reason.
Lastly, Shang looked at the description of the uniforms.
In total, there were seven different colors.
The first one was the azure uniform, which Shang had two of.
The azure uniforms were for special occasions and were forbidden from being worn without explicit permission from a teacher.
In short, those uniforms were for impressing visitors. That was also why Shang had only two of them.
Bronze uniforms, which Shang had eight of, were general uniforms. Those were for people that didn't want others to know about which class they were in. Usually, one would think that this was pointless. After all, wouldn't everyone realize which class everyone was in based on which lessons they visited?
No. Everyone could literally visit every lesson, and there were plenty of students attending plenty of classes due to the Contribution Point reward.
The green uniforms, which Shang had eight of, were for the Caterpillar Class.
Yellow uniforms were for students aspiring to be soldiers in Duke Whirlwind's army. Initially, when students joined the academy, they would wear bronze uniforms until they reached the Late Soldier Stage. At that point, they would have to decide on their future.
Becoming a member of Duke Whirlwind's army was the most common goal. The pay was good. The status was good. There wasn't much work to do.
It was simply a good and stable job.
Blue uniforms were for people aspiring to become officers. Many students initially wanted to go that route, but the requirements were far more stringent than for the people wanting to be normal soldiers. Because of that, most people transferred classes rather quickly.
Red uniforms were for people aspiring to be Mage Hunters. In this world, it was nearly impossible to kill a Mage on their level alone, but that didn't mean that warriors became useless. With a lot of warriors, one could still take care of a couple of Mages.
This world wasn't peaceful, and Duke Whirlwind's enemies also had Mages.
Sadly, there weren't many students interested in becoming Mage Hunters. The reason was obvious.
They didn't want to die.
Attacking a Mage was about the most dangerous thing one could do.
It was scary to fight against someone that could turn someone into literal dust just by saying a couple of words.
The last color for uniforms was black. This was for scouts and normal hunters.
That one scout that had brought Shang to Warrior's Paradise had probably graduated from that class.
The people from that class learned how to kill beasts and how to stay hidden.
According to the book, most assassins also came from this class.
After looking through the rulebook, Shang looked at the schedule.
And his eyes widened in shock.