Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Unknowing of the poor trolls suffering abuse, Milo stared at a piece of paper in front of him, looked left, looked right and seeing that everyone was approaching this test with confidence, deemed that the questions he had just read weren't traps.

Perhaps he was just traumatised by Helena's shrewd and inhumane idea of what a test was supposed to be, but the questions were rather straightforward, fitting of their teacher, who always approached every subject like doors that needed to be kicked open.

The first few questions were about mana crystallisation and cores, though that was the name the lesson was called, it also covered other things in relation to them as well.

In this case, crystallisation referred to that of a mage's own mana, rather than the crystals that could be found in the wild, it could occur naturally or by the will of the mana user, the first question pertained to the difference between the two.

'As long as the mage is skilled enough, both are equally harmless and useful, however, if the person crystallises their energy in a wrong place, it can lead to health issues, or even damaging one, or multiple organs…' the natural crystallisation was nearly alway exact, of course, it was possible for it to go wrong nonetheless but it was surprisingly rare, still, Milo made sure to mention the eventuality anyways.

The second question was about cores, those were basically an advanced application of the same principle as crystallisation, but certain much more potent, although, having a core damaged and having a crystal broken was completely different, one was nothing but a mass of mana for one to use as an extra reserve when necessary, it wouldn't blow up if damaged, cores on the other hand…

They had many benefits, such as speeding one's mana circulation, granting an extra oomph to spells in many departments and even allowing to inscribe at least one spell to allow for extra quick casting.

But were much more costly to have, they were like an extra organ and were incredibly pain sensitive, so much so that the pain of having a core damaged was said to be able to make a grizzled and emotionless murderer cry like a little baby.

Most importantly however, they had a tendency to blow up when hurt, the explosion was rather strong and would send shards everywhere like shrapnel, considering the bomb was inside of you, and generally close the heart in particular, such commodities where only sought after by poorly talented mages in need of a boost and long distance casters that didn't risk getting struck at all.

Rosemary had spent much time dissuading them of going for such a thing, they were more of a blatant weak point that a real help, they were actually mostly used for powering arrays and as materials.

Milo couldn't imagine growing a core, and then cutting yourself open to get it but it was a rather common practice since monsters rarely grew cores on their own.

It really was just a test to see if they had properly absorbed the information, next were questions revolving around energy organs, gates and mutations as well as transplantation, Milo would spend most of his time outside of classes studying with Helena, so he the details of each subjects were well ingrained in his mind.

He wrote down everything he could think of, feeling confident in himself, Rosemary had told them that the main grades were all practical anyways, but that she still wouldn't let anyone just avoid the theoretical side of learning.

Some students who finished up before the end of the hour left early, but most stayed until the end, rereading their answers, probably changing good responses in the process.

The very first test of this first year ended without much stress for anyone, their teacher was just leaning back in her chair, reading a comically large book without paying much attention to the students, although that probably was far from the case.

Milo and Helena hadn't known much about Rosemary before coming here unlike everyone, so they had gotten the fresh experience of how mind bogglingly amazing she was, even those that had been well aware couldn't help but open their mouths wide open when she demonstrated something incredibly difficult with intense ease.

There was no doubt in anyone's mind that she could spot any attempt at cheating with nothing but her mana senses, fear kept everyone in line.

Handing over their papers, no more classes followed this one but it was still bright out, Helena bumped him in the shoulder, staring at one another, he could tell she was giving him the look. Continue your saga on empire

"Feeling like it?" she asked him, a playful smile on her face.

"Always" came the reply, not an inkling of hesitation.

Another student sent a confused glare, the same student that had been humiliated by Rosemary during the first exercise lesson.

"Damn, already? The year barely begun" he muttered to himself, honestly impressed, but he couldn't allow himself to be jealous, his parents had already arranged a marriage for him, he had to stay pure until then.

The two lovebirds moved away, in a completely different direction to where the rooms the students resided in were situated, prompting an eyebrow to raise from the young man, now he was just confused.

'Hold on a second, weren't they going to…?' he stood in place for a few moments, looking to the sides to see if anyone else had witnessed this scene and would be willing to assist him in trying to understand the deep meaning in all of this, but no one else had been paying attention.

'Oh, I am too curious now' he took rapid strides and followed the direction the two lovebirds had left in, arriving before an open room he was rather familiar with.

"Whoa, you exploded your previous record Milo!"

"Looking big!" she praised him, as he lifted weights, they were working out together, and somehow, this made the young man infinitely more envious than anything else he could have possibly seen.