The two of them returned home quite late that night after the storm had finally cooled down. Cæ couldn't help but think about the topics that they had covered as he lay on his bed that night, staring at the pristine white ceiling of his spacious bedroom in his dorm room in the Elendir Institute of Magic.
The air tingled with a comfortable chill from the sheer storm that had washed over the entirety of the city, as the pitch-black darkness and the pin-drop silence of the moonless night allowed him to immerse himself in the conversation he had with Seliphaz.
She had a point. He ought to have given the courses some more serious thought. The Elendir Institute of Magic had such an absurd diversity of magical paths to pursue that it would be a shame not to give the thought and consideration that such an important choice deserved.
FLAP
He got out of bed, ditching his sleep as he pulled out the pamphlet that all apprentice students who had passed the exams and were accepted for a spot in the senior program got. It detailed a list of the academic coursework that one would have to register for and the choices that apprentice students had.
There were virtually no limits to the combinations of magical courses that one could choose to learn. However, there were bare minimum thresholds for the number of courses that one needed to complete when it came to the number of courses in a given field that one needed to pick in order to specialize in the subject.
He was aware that most students picked one, or at most two, subjects to ensure that the value of their specialization in that field remained high. Seliphaz herself had specialized in alchemy and structural engineering in order to pursue non-magical engineering.
He also knew that there were others who specialized in three or, in some rare cases, even four fields of magic in order to partake in more hybrid fields of magic, such as medical diagnostic-surgical artifacts that rely on divination, enchantment, healing, and alchemy. These fields were often niche but also at the very forefront of magitechnology.
However, not a single person chose to master a vast variety of fields of magic as an apprentice mage like Cæ.
"Combat is definitely number one on my list," he reiterated his number one chosen field. "I have also chosen to master enchantments and artificing. These are two powerful and popular fields around which a lot of commerce and trade occur. Divination is also one that I have fully decided on. But…"
His eyes grew engrossed in thought. "Those account for only four electives."
He had far more to choose from before he finally got into it.
"…I should consider mastering elements and fundamental forms as well."
The six greater elements and the fundamental forms were very important in the fields of magic. As long as he sharpened his mastery of them, he would be able to readily enter any of the applied fields of magic and magindustry much more easily because they all utilized the elements and forms.
Those made six electives.
The senior program had a total of eighteen courses in total, of which two were mandorily centered around mana and eidos. Another six were centered around mandatory courses that were required for becoming a licensed senior mage.
The remaining ten were electives that senior mages could choose for themselves.
Cæ had another six electives that he could choose to master.
He flipped through the various electives that he could choose with an uncertain expression.
[Body Enhancement Magic]
[Martial Magic]
[Alchemy]
His eyes lit up with interest as he skimmed past three of them with a curious gaze. He already had a little mastery over body enhancement magic, just the basics that they taught in the apprentice program and his own applications of them.
However, he wasn't particularly interested in the field of magic all that very much. It had limited utility outside of combat, and he had already chosen to pursue some specialization in combat magic.
"Martial Magic is what Senthil has already pursued. It's a bit redundant since I have chosen combat magic."
His eyes lit up at the sight of the alchemy course.
[In the alchemy course of the Senior Program here at the Elendir Institute of Magic, you will learn about the field of alchemy and gain some elementary proficiency in it. You will learn about the fundamental process of alchemy, of creating new substances and new matter, and will be expected to be able to conduct alchemy, industrial, or combat-oriented alike.]
He hadn't even been aware that alchemy had direct combat application, but he supposed that was because he was exposed only to Seliphaz, who had pursued industrial alchemy where she researched and developed new mana-active substances, as she had for the haven HMU-HS23 model.
"Alchemy is definitely filled with incredible potential and power," he remarked. "It's definitely worth pursuing."
He added that to the tentative list of electives he had chosen to pursue, before skimming through several more electives that were worth pursuing.
[Healing Magic]
He had initially been very interested in a particular field of magic. However, it demanded a prerequisite in the form of an Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology that he would also have to choose. This made him a little hesitant about the field that clearly had a high barrier to entry.
"Still… medicine is an enormous and fundamentally necessary industry in the world," Cæ noted, heaving a sigh. "If I gain proficiency and knowledge in this domain, it will give me a great opportunity to explore potential business ideas, as compared to if I didn't have any understanding of this field."
He reluctantly added healing and human biology courses to his tentative list of electives before moving on to the rest.
[Magical material science.]
This one was important as it was the basis of much of the magitech sector; he couldn't allow himself to not gain some understanding of these miraculous substances that, by virtue of the magical energy they possessed, allowed them to have magical effects that could shape the world.
It was thought that all material and substances in the world possessed some minute amount of magical energy just by virtue of the fact that there was some minute demand for them in some obscure context. This meant he was essentially studying the very magical nature of the world in this course.
There was no doubt in his mind that this was very useful in his path to harnessing magic in his commercial ventures to cultivate as much magicapita as possible.
He had two more electives to add to his tentative list.
[Information magitechnology]
[Magineering]
He didn't even think about it.
He immediately added the two of them to his list of electives.
These two fields of applied magic defined the world order at their very fundamentals. Both fields of technology had created a revolution that changed the very fabric of human civilization to the highest degree possible.
Magineering was an applied field of enchantment, alchemy, magical material science, and engineering to create the modern field of technology that was responsible for virtually all forms of magitechnology. It was something that he simply couldn't afford to miss.
Information magitechnology was also a field of applied magic that redefined the world order, connecting all of human civilization via the maginet and allowing for a profound degree of the processing and storage of information.
His eyes skimmed through the remaining electives that he could have possibly chosen.
[Illusionary Magic]
[Necromancy]
[Domain Magic]
[Sealing Magic]
[Summoning Magic]
[Contract Magic]
[Exorcism]
[Astral Magic]
His eyes lit up with interest and regret that he wasn't able to choose more electives beyond what the program allowed for. However, just because he couldn't choose to learn all these electives within his senior program didn't mean that he couldn't learn them ever.
Mages generally gained more diverse magical mastery as time passed, and they began naturally branching out, and Cæ intended to be the same.
"I won't let these remain out of sight for too long." His eyes sharpened with determination.
He was even more attracted to the novelty in some of these fields of magic, but unfortunately, he couldn't just allow his passion alone to dictate his choices.
Every choice he made also needed to bring him as close as possible to achieving his ultimate ambition as possible.
Gaining an understanding of the fields that defined the very world order that he sought to destroy was more important than playing around in novel but otherwise niche fields that the world could very much live without.
He could pursue them after he graduated from the senior program that he would soon be joining in about two weeks. There was plenty of time in his lifetime to pursue higher-hanging fruit once he got all the low-hanging fruit.
"…Having decided my list for now, I should simply register and put the topic of the electives aside," Cæ decided. "I still have far too much work on my hands."
He still had the Outer District Talent Acquisition Program that had now entered its final preparations. The strategies and plans of action that they had chosen were quite unsophisticated due to how little time they had in advance. Headmistress Lenolia had truly caught everyone off guard, after all.
More importantly to him, Marshall's Manufacturing would very soon begin aggressively manufacturing the Haven housing units.
As high as the demand for the haven units was surely about to get, the sheer industrial capacity of the massive factory they saw, and those of others, would easily be enough to fulfill all the demand that existed in the forty-eight districts of the slums.
Just the initial response to the haven units had been just as, if not even more, enthusiastic as Cæ had envisioned, and he was confident that he would have all forty-eight districts completely seized and grasped.
"…The hard part comes after that," his eyes sharpened with seriousness as he rolled back into bed, facing the pristine white ceiling of his bedroom in his dorm room. "I will need to time the slum operations of the Elendir Institute of Magic perfectly and ensure that the talent acquisition program and Trinity Housing's expansions into the slum markets occur simultaneously to ensure that we can benefit from the Elendir Institute of Magic's security."
The details of his agreement with Headmistress Lenolia were such that Trinity Housings would need to be operating almost side by side with the slum talent acquisition team of the Elendir Institute of Magic and ensure that they could both be covered by the same security to prevent redundancies.
This was why Headmistress Lenolia had made the offer to him in the first place.
She knew that it was possible to extend security to Trinity Housings without necessarily increasing the security expenditures much. This way, she could get her hands on a highly successful program execution by an expert from the slums for a minimal cost in return.
Cæ understood this, but was very happy to play along, he was getting for too much from the deal to possibly complain about all of it.
"The next month is going to be brutal for me," Cæ's tone was severe.
Flooding the forty-eight districts of the inner ring of slums with haven units, commencing slum talent acquisition, and simultaneously expanding deeper into the slums to sell even more haven units once the interest rate cuts and sub-prime lending commenced and began to truly take off.
If he nailed it, it would be nothing short of a brilliant success that would accelerate a process that would have otherwise taken years to achieve with Trinity Housings. It would also set him up for so much in the future with other potential business ventures.
"Focus."
He almost commanded himself.
"I can't afford to make a single mistake." His dichromatic gray eyes flared with determination. "I can't afford to squander this golden opportunity."