Souta, Bryan, Alice, and the rest of the students were inside a fifty meters wide room. It was the meditation room of the Ladro Institute.
All of them were sitting in a lotus position with their eyes closed.
Today, Bargan taught them how to enter inside their inner consciousness. Getting inside the inner consciousness was the basis of being a mage. A lot of adventurers already knew how to enter their inner consciousness a long time ago.
Souta confirmed his thoughts. All the spells that he learned using the skill points were already imprinted in his inner consciousness. He could see the structures of every spell that he have inside.
So that's the reason why he could cast a spell with just a thought. It was impossible to cast a spell with building up the magic circle except if a person already built it inside his/her inner consciousness.
Bargan said that he only has seven magic circles inside his inner consciousness but Souta has nine magic circles, and it will increase more in the future as he still has many spells in his skill tree that he hasn't learned yet.
After a while, Souta opened his eyes. Not just him but also the other students. They saw Bargan standing in front of them.
"Next time, I will teach you how to build a magic circle inside your inner consciousness. It is different than building it outside to cast a spell. It is also many times harder and it will consume a lot of your mental strength." Bargan paused for a moment before he continued, "Remember to choose your inner spell wisely because you can't build an unlimited magic circle in your inner consciousness. It told you that normal people could only build four or five magic circles. The difficulty is not that high if it's only your first and second magic circle but for the third and above it's hard. Also, it's better if you choose a spell related to your affinity that way it will become stronger."
'Would I be having a hard time if I build a magic circle manually without the help of the system?' Souta thought as he rubbed his chin. Since he already has nine magic circles in his inner consciousness then building up another magic circle without the help of the system would give him difficulty higher than Bargan.
He still would try it if he can. It's not gonna harm him anyway so why not try it. He's really grateful that he has a system in this world. Without it, he would still be an ordinary goblin trying his best to survive in the Undead Sanctuary.
Speaking of Undead Sanctuary, Souta planned to came back there after he reached his third evolution and gained the best feram. There were still a lot of treasures there especially in the deep floors where the high-level dungeons reside.
He was really lucky that he found the [Soul Blood Earring] easily. No one would notice that there was a secret door in that path as the door was made of the same materials of the walls. Many dungeons have dead-end so people wouldn't become suspicious of that path. Also, no one would have thought that by extinguishing the light of the lantern they would be able to open a secret door. Of course, no one would extinguish a light in a very dark place like dungeon.
...
"Dismiss, you can go to your other class," Bargan said to them before he exited the room.
"Ah! I forgot that we have another class. I thought magic is our only subject!" Bryan exclaimed loudly.
"Ah? Are you an idiot? You thought we only have a magic subject just because you enter the mage course." Souta smirked at Bryan.
"It's not that! I actually knew it before but I was too excited in learning magic that I forgot about it." Bryan complained at him.
"That's what you call dumb, right Alice?" Souta smiled at Alice.
"Hmph! Don't ask me something that you already know." Alice snorted but she still replied to him.
"See... Even Alice knows that you're a dumb one." Souta looked at Bryan and shrugged his shoulder helplessly.
"Even you Alice... " Bryan looked at the two with a helpless expression. He doesn't know how or when these two got close that they could pick up on him.
"Well, let's go to other class now," Souta said as he stood up and patted his uniform. He placed his hand on his chin and said, "If I'm not wrong, our next class is... physical strength and other course will be joining us."
"Physical Strength? I'm confident with my physical power. Did you see what I did in the entrance exam, Souta?" Bryan said while showing his muscles.
"No, I forgot about everyone's match except Alice," Souta said bluntly. He then heard Alice harrumphed at the side.
They went to the changing room and changed their uniform. The boys wore fitted pants and a navy blue tank top while the girls wore a tight blue shirts and black leggings.
...
The mage class 1-B students went to the training ground of the institute. They remembered this place. This place where the physical examination held. Here in the training ground, they met the students of the shield course.
Souta rubbed his chin while looking at the students of the shield course. Most of them have huge build and males. There were only six females among the forty-seven students of shield course class 1-A. All of them were armed with different size shields.
"Whoa! That's hot!" Souta said in a low voice while looking at the girls of the shield course. He could see that the girls of the shield course have abs.
Alice tied her long silver hair in a ponytail and she turned her head. She saw Souta casting a glance on the girls of the other class.
"What are you looking, Souta?" Bryan suddenly said beside him.
"Nothing. You wouldn't understand it even if I tell you." Souta shook his head and turned to look at the man in the front.
The man has cat ears and tails. He was wearing a white jersey. This man was their teacher in this subject. He was holding a thin notebook in his left hand. He was not as huge as the other students in the shield course. He was only a head taller than Souta but he was the most powerful person here.
"I could guess that he was going to test our strength." Souta grinned and he stretched his body.
"Test our strength?" Bryan looked at Souta.
"Yeah, he's going to test our strength." Souta nodded at Bryan.
"Quiet! Don't talk in front of the teacher!" Lumilia, the class rep, shouted when she saw her classmates talking to each other with a loud voice.
"I don't know what test it is but I'm sure it's related to physical strength. Well, it doesn't matter as I'm going all out anyways." Souta ignored the class rep and said while stretching his body. He was quite excited in doing some exercise. He hasn't used his strength ever since he obtained the [Vajra Sword Saya].
Thinking about the Vajra Sword, Souta couldn't help but caressed the sword on his waist. The [Vajra Sword Saya] was inside the custom made scabbard that he ordered.
He found a figure blocked his vision. He looked up and saw that it was the class rep, Lumilia.
"What is it, class rep?" Souta asked her.
"Can you talk without raising your voice?" Lumilia looked at him with a fierce expression. Then, she looked at Bryan and said, "You too!"
"Huh?" Souta turned his head and looked at Bryan. "Did I talk that loud?"
"...yeah." Bryan just nodded. The class rep always reprimanded him when he was talking out loud in the class. It was not the first time that class rep reprimanded him.
Souta looked at Lumilia and said, "Okay, I get it, I'm just excited."
Then, he found that Lumilia was still in front of him.
"What?"
"Nothing!" Lumilia shook her head and she walked away.
Souta looked at her back and said, "What a weird girl..."
"I know." Bryan agreed in his words.
"Okay! Everyone look at me!" A voice sounded in the whole training ground.
Souta turned his head and saw that it was the teacher.
"I'm Alex Ventilorna, as you can see I'm a cat person and your teacher in physical strength subject!" The man introduced himself as Alex Ventilorna. "This is our first meeting so I don't have any idea who's strong among you so I will test you!"
"Looks like I'm right," Souta smirked when he heard the words of Alex.
Alex opened the thin notebook in his hand and said, "We have three hours so list down all your names here in this notebook. Separate the female and male."
He handed the thin notebook in the student nearest to him.
After a few minutes, all the students finished listing down their names in the thin notebook.
Alex looked at it for a while before he closed it. He looked at the face of his students before he opened his mouth and said, "I will create a mini-tournament and the one who wins all the battle can do what they want in my subject. I will arrange your name and after this, we will start immediately so prepare yourself."
His words shocked everyone. They didn't expect such a thing to happen in physical strength class. They started to murmur among themselves.
"What?"
"A tournament?"
"We're going to fight?"
No one anticipated this thing even Souta. Souta only guess that the teacher was going to test them but he didn't know how would he do that. He didn't expect that it was through a tournament.
Souta stopped moving as he heard a familiar sound in his mind.
*Ding!*
[Quest Triggered!]
[Tournament]: Fight and win in the tournament. Rewards: (Base on your ranking)
"Oh? Then, I really shouldn't hold back." Souta grinned.