The next day,
As usual, after Ash had finished preparing, he woke Ezra up before finally leaving. Before heading to his destination, he first visited the canteen to grab some food, which he got for free after showing his pouch, which showed he was in first place.
When he arrived in the strategy department, everyone on the scene started talking about him. However, this time there weren't many students, perhaps only a few hundred who came to try.
"Hey, isn't that Asher?"
"Yeah, the one who had dual affinities right?"
"I heard it was light and darkness though."
"Aren't those like mid affinities?"
"They're opposites at that, I don't think they can even be used properly."
"Yeah, ..."
Ash didn't pay attention to any of them and made his way to an empty seat. Though this time, there wasn't anyone he knew.
After waiting a while, the teacher finally came in.
Clapping her hands, she grabbed everyone's attention, "Hello, everyone. You can call me Miss Willow. I'm going to be teaching the strategy department for years 1-5." The reason why there was only one teacher was that, usually, the number of students who joined the strategy department was very small.
Then Miss Willow started talking, "As is on the form, the strategy department has three divisions. First is tactical strategy, this division is where you learn how to plan and execute decisions in battle to gain the upper hand. Second is logistics, where you learn how to manage your resources, whether living or non-living things, to make sure things run smoothly. Third and last is diplomacy, which is where you learn to communicate; it is a very useful skill, whether for negotiation or leading. Now, are there any questions?"
"…" No one said anything.
"Well, alright. Since there are none, I'll teach some of the basics first. What does it mean to be smart?"
"…Knowing a lot of stuff?" A random child pointed out.
"That's correct, however, being smart isn't just having knowledge, it's knowing how to use that knowledge in the most effective and best way. Now, imagine you're on a battlefield, and your enemy has the upper hand in numbers. For example, the opposing army has 5000 soldiers and 100 knights, while we only have 4000 soldiers and 50 knights, so how can we win? The strategy department focuses on cases like this. Of course, this is just the most basic form of tactical strategy, not including the other two divisions yet."
Miss Willow continued to explain more about the other two divisions. At this stage, most of the students were already feeling sleepy. Meanwhile, Ash was fascinated by her explanations. On Earth, physical battles were very rare, so strategies like these were never taught to normal people, including himself.
After the lecture finished, Ash had decided to join the strategy department as well as the magic department.
After doing everything as usual, he slept and waited for the next day.
When he woke up, he did his morning routine and went to the crafts department for the day.
As usual, he was very popular, and the moment he entered the class, everyone talked about him. This time, the number of students was medium. It wasn't as much as the magic department, but also wasn't as little as the strategy department.
After waiting for a while, the crafts teacher came in. It was another woman. She had brown hair and eyes, indicating she was of common birth. This he had learned from Ezra.
Then she started talking, "Everyone, my name is Ivy, you may call me Miss Ivy. I am the alchemy teacher for years 1-5. First, I will show you an example of what alchemy is."
On the table in front of her were a few herbs and solutions. Then, casting some magic, she mixed the herbs and solutions into one potion. "This is the most basic recovery potion. Of course, the way I made it was not basic, but it can be easily made if you use furnaces. To be able to do alchemy, what you need the most is concentration and multitasking. If you are unable to split your mind to refine each and every one of the herbs, the potion will not be formed."
After she explained, she gave them a test: "There are three herbs, the green one is a healing herb, the red one a poisonous herb, and the brown one a neutral herb. Your task is to pick only the healing herbs from a basket. There will also be fake herbs or tricky duplicates, so be careful. You have one hour starting now."
Then, in front of each student appeared a basket full of herbs. Ash was surprised; this was the only department so far that had given a test, but he still went ahead and did his task.
After around half an hour, he had finished sorting them out.
"Wow, that's fast." Miss Ivy then collected his pile of green herbs to be marked, taking note of his fast speed.
After finishing, he felt bored waiting for the rest, "Miss, may I leave for today? I'm done anyway."
"Go ahead, the lecture today has finished anyway."
So after he left, he saw there was still a lot of time till the end of the day and decided to spend the rest of his time in the library again.
After a few hours, he finally felt tired and finished everything before heading to bed.