767: First Day

First Day

2Ning entered the school along with nearly hundreds of students that walked in as well from all four sides of the school.  4

Saphandra and Trevain had their own separate class, so Ning couldn't go with them.

Ning arrived at the class that taught summoning circles and entered. There were about 10 different students inside the massive hall.

Ning thought that was quite a low number, but the class wouldn't start for another 15 minutes, so he waited.

A few more students came, but none more than that. In the end, there were only 15 or so total students altogether that were taking this course.

"Hey man, you new?" a young man next to Ning spoke.

"Yes, I just enrolled yesterday," Ning said.

"Why did you choose this subject?" the young man asked.

"Uh… because I am good at this," Ning told the man.

"No one is good at this. It's so hard, and there's barely any reason to learn it even. If its your first day, you should change it. I am already stuck with this for the next 7 months since I already paid my fees, but you should be able to change," the young man said.

Ning chuckled a bit. "Thanks for the warning, but I will be fine," he said and continued waiting.

The old woman Verina walked in without warning and the students scrambled to get back to their seats.

She looked around quickly and noticed Ning.

"There you are. I was hoping to see you in the faculty, but you didn't arrive at all," the old woman said. "You don't have to take the class. Go do whatever you want for this period."

The students all turned to look at Ning who just shook his head. "It's alright. I have nowhere else I want to be," he said.

"Well, if you say so," she said and started teaching the students partway through where she was in the summoning circle.

Most students that did not join during the biannual opening of the school had to sit from halfway through the syllable and try to understand.

It wasn't like they didn't know the early subjects either way, since they couldn't enter the school without any knowledge of it. So, if the students did enter any time other than the biannual opening, they were happy to sit through some rather confusing times in the classes.

Ning watched Verina try and teach the class about the various symbols that belonged to the elemental skills of the beasts, but none of them were paying any attention.

They were bored, to say the least. Some were even regretting taking the class. 

However, they couldn't just leave as they still needed to pass the class and if they didn't, it would cause trouble for them.

Ning understood that but still seeing so many bored students left him feeling bad for the old woman. She was teaching the best she could, and it wasn't wrong info either. 

It was just that she was giving too much theoretical info, and these students just weren't grasping the idea of it.

Was there even a way to make this fun though? Ning couldn't think of any. 

So, he stayed with the old woman and watched her teach them without break.

After nearly 2 hours of teaching, she finally stopped and told the students to learn a few things on their own before ending the class.

"Come with me," she told Ning, who stood up and walked beside her.

As they walked, Ning asked, "is the class always this bored?" 

"Yes," she said. "You can't help it. Learning about summoning circles is entirely about being able to remember, and that isn't the most fun for most people. There are a few in my other class later on that are more enthusiastic about this, but mostly it's just students who think it will be fun to learn about the circle and find that they have a million things they need to remember."

"That's one of the reasons I'm so surprised with you actually," the old woman Verina said. "You somehow learned so much at only the age of… what are you? 22?" 

"Something like that," Ning said.

"If people could really learn and remember what you did in just these few years, they would be very much excited. But it's not very interesting when you have to just sit there and listen, is it?" she said.

Ning thought for a moment and asked, "what about doing outside teaching then? Have the students come out give them a basic model of a summoning circle and tell them to add some things to it. Then, tell them that they have to summon a beast that is as close to it as possible."

"That might work, or it might not. I have tried practical teaching once, a long time ago, but it didn't work as well as I would have liked," she said. "Students ended up summoning something that was completely different from what they were intending to summon and that ended up causing them to think that learning this was useless."

"I lost about 60% of my student base at that time to the incident and was nearly made to choose a new subject to teach because I just didn't have the necessary student for the next few years."

"Only when the students from that time and the following years left did the rumor die down and more people chose to take my class. So I don't think I will ever go with a practical lesson, ever," she finished.

"Well, that's a shame. I think they will at least get less bored, but I can see where you're coming from," Ning said.

The old woman reached a building on the eastern side of the school and entered it. It was a rather large building, so Ning was curious when he got in as well.

When he was finally inside, he realized what the place was. 

"Oh, we're in a library?" he asked.

"This is where I do most of my research," the old woman said. "Come, I want you to tell me everything you know."

pqdm.com