Book 2, Growing Up, Chapter 15 – The Bros of Dorm 1987 (part 2)
Most of the students of the Ernst Academy would stay at the Institute for decades, so usually by the time of graduation, fellow dormmates would be extremely close friends. Although Yale, Reynolds, Linley and George were all more mature than most others their age, at heart, they were still children.
After just chatting for a short period of time, the four of them immediately grew very close.
“Everyone, let’s spend the day getting to know our campus better. Tonight, I’ll treat you all to dinner! Haha.” Yale slapped his chest and said enthusiastically.
“This guy even has a magicrystal card. If we don’t take advantage of him, who else would we take advantage of?” Reynolds laughed.
George and Linley were both still children, and they immediately grinned evilly.
“Squeak squeak!” At this moment, the little Shadowmouse, ‘Bebe’, suddenly popped his head out from within Linley’s clothes. Having just woken up, the little Shadowmouse was feeling lonely, so he popped his head out.
“Whoah, what’s that?” Reynolds was so startled he jumped.
“Bebe, you woke up?” Linley laughed as he stroked Bebe’s little head. Bebe closed his eyes in contentment, and then opened his little eyes and peered at Reynolds, Yale, and George. His little nose snorted three times, as though he looked down at them.
“Magical beast, it’s a magical beast! I’ve seen them in books.” Yale suddenly shouted.
“Linley, you have a magical beast companion?” Reynolds and George were also shocked.
They were all children. How could one of them make a magical beast submit to them?
“Bebe is just a baby magical beast. I just gave him some food, which made him like me. So I entered a soulbinding contract with him.” Linley laughed.
“Good heavens, that’s a magical beast! Linley, you are really formidable. I’ve dreamed of having one since I was young.” Yale stared at Bebe, his eyes shining. “Although I have access to soulbinding formation scrolls, I don’t have the ability to force a magical beast to submit to me.”
Yale said in a depressed voice.
“You aren’t able to subdue a magical beast? Not even an infant?” Linley laughed.
Yale shook his head. “I’m not even a magus of the first rank yet. Based on my strength, maybe I could train a magical beast of the first or second rank, but what would I do with such a weak critter? And the infants of magical beasts of the seventh or eighth ranks are extremely hard to acquire. What’s more, the infants of those beasts are more powerful than me, even as babies.”
Linley agreed with him silently.
The little Shadowmouse, ‘Bebe’, currently was as strong as a magical beast of the fifth rank. He was far stronger than Linley. But having been together with Bebe for half a year, he could tell that Bebe didn’t grow larger at all. This was what confused both Linley and Doehring Cowart.
“Linley, this little Shadowmouse is named Bebe? Can you have Bebe allow me to cuddle him?” Reynolds gaze was glued to the little Shadowmouse.
“Bebe?”
Linley immediately asked Bebe through their soul link.
“No, no way.” Bebe could also express some simple intentions to Linley through their soul link. At the same time, Bebe flashed his fangs towards Reynolds. “Squeak squeak!” He squeaked loudly, clearly very angry.
Reynolds couldn’t help but pucker his lips in disappointment.
“Reynolds, I’ll tell you a secret. Bebe loves to eat roast meat. If in the future, you can feed him some roast ducks or roast chickens, I believe that he won’t be very hostile to you.” Linley laughed upon seeing Reynolds eyes shine.
“Can do.”
Reynolds suddenly frowned as he turned to Yale. “Yale, if in the future I run out of money, you’ve got to lend me some. When Grandpa Lomu comes, I’ll pay you back.”
“No problem.” Yale said magnanimously.
“I bet everyone hasn’t had a chance to get a good look at the campus yet, right? Let’s go for a stroll and familiarize ourselves, shall we?” George smiled as he spoke.
Of the four bros, George was the most amiable and steadiest boy. Reynolds was the most childish one of them. Yale...was the playboy type. As for Linley, in the eyes of the other three boys, he was the most mysterious.
Dual-element magus, exceptional affinity, and a magical beast companion.
He really was mysterious.
The ancient Ernst Institute was filled with countless buildings which were thousands of years old. In front of some of them, there were even introductory placards.
The youngest of them eight, the oldest of them ten. The children stared worshipfully at each famous name, especially at the histories of the Saint-level combatants, which caused their hearts to beat faster. All of them dreamed of one day becoming a Saint-level combatant.
But a voice right next to Linley’s ear kept on grumbling. “Nothing more than some promising latter-day youths. This guy is actually bragging about killing a Violet-Tattooed Black Bear? A Saint-level combatant who can only kill ninth level magical beasts and not Saint-level magical beasts can only be considered a newbie Saint-level.”
Many famous graduates of the Ernst Institute were bashed by Doehring Cowart as not worth mentioning.
....
The four bros of dorm 1987, along with the little Shadowmouse ‘Bebe’, strolled about the entire campus, gaining a basic level of familiarization. That very night, the four of them went to a lavishly decorated hotel next to the dormitory area and had themselves a feast. But of course, all they drank was juice.
The next day. February 9th. School started.
There were no classes this day; those would start on February 10th. February 9th was meant to go and listen to the exhortations of school management to work hard. This group of six-to-twelve year olds filled the auditorium. They didn’t know exactly who the people speaking to them were, so many of the children began to daydream. When the ceremony concluded, all of them happily departed.
After dinner, the four bros of dormitory 1987 were all seated on chairs inside the dorm and discussing their classes.
“It’s so easy here. Just one class a day. Oh, Linley is dual-element, so he has two.” Yale sighed. “But the Ernst Institute is really relaxed. If you want to attend class, you can. If you don’t want to, you can skip.”
George calmly smiled. “Yale, don’t grow complacent. Although there aren’t formal requirements for students, every year, there will be an ability test. Only if you advance a rank in power can you advance a grade. If you don’t work hard, do you plan to stay here for a century? What’s more, the Ernst Institute has a rule that if one does not become a magus of the sixth rank in sixty years, one will be expelled, no exceptions.”
Reading the various regulations of the Institute written on the introductory packet, Linley nodded silently.
Although the school had lax supervision, allowing one to not study at all for sixty years, once you reached the end of those sixty years, if you still had not become a magus of the sixth rank, you would be directly expelled.
“Expelled?” Yale stared. “If I really were to be expelled, my old man would probably kill me.” Expulsion by the Ernst Institute would result in an unbearably humiliating reputation. No one would be willing to shoulder it. After all, to have been accepted meant they were all talented people.
“Class starts tomorrow. I wonder how the teachers are. If they aren’t even as good as my Grandpa Lomu, I’ll have come for nothing.” Reynolds mumbled.
“Reynolds, your Grandpa Lomu is a magus?” Linley asked, somewhat surprised.
“Of course. On the long road from the O’Brien Empire to the Ernst Institute, Grandpa Lomu had already begun to teach me magic.” Reynolds said proudly.
When Linley and the other three were chatting with each other, they all felt very excited.
“The earth element class isn’t that important. In terms of understanding the earth element, how could any of the teachers at the Ernst Institute compare with Grandpa Doehring? The most important class is the wind element class. I wonder what wind magic is like?”
The day had already begun to grow dark, but the sounds of laughter and chatter continued to sound out from the four children within dormitory 1987.