“So you really are the new combat instructor I’ve been hearing about,” the women’s track and field instructor, Leena— who stubbornly insists I refer to her on a first-name basis— says once she’s been revived and is back on her feet. “I hope you’re prepared to get that reaction a lot here in a couple of weeks.”
I try to laugh her words off. “I’m actually a little surprised. I figured after that conference a couple of months ago, everyone and their mother would recognize me on sight. Frankly, I’m still shocked that I can go anywhere without getting either fans or detractors swarming me.”
“Well, you know how it is with kids these days… Oh, sorry–” Leena blushes and covers her face with her hand, looking away from me.
“No, no, it’s fine. I didn’t choose to be as young as I am. It’s probably going to be a huge pain in the… in the neck.” I catch myself from saying ‘ass’ at the last moment. “A lot of students my age and older who are going to feel some kinda way about being instructed by someone so young.”
“Oh, but there’s a trick to all this. As someone who’s been coaching for a few years— really, since right out of school myself. You just need to act like you belong. That doesn’t mean being some nasty authoritarian who lays down the law or anything. Although, you probably will have to do that with combat training. But just, being in control and acting like you know what you’re doing. Especially when you don’t.”
“Any specific tips?”
“If you don’t have a good answer to something in the moment, be willing to admit that you don’t know and that you’ll see the student after class or get back to them in office hours or similar. You all are adults now— if young ones— and they will understand that you might not have all the answers right then and there. But being able to admit as much and carry on with your lesson is going to earn the respect of your students a lot better than either bullshitting them or stammering like a deer in the headlights for God knows how long.”
“Thank you for the advice. Sadly, I do have to get going to figure out… well, everything. I’m teaching three classes in three different departments and I’m going to be running around all morning. Oh, and, before I forget, if you accidentally blinked the System notification away already, that buff should be good for another half hour. Feel free to show off, or, whatever else you think might motivate your athletes best.”
Leena grins. “Oh, Seraphina. I have a feeling that you and I are going to get along just fine.”
With that I make my way over to see Nora, the secretary of the Mechanical Engineering department, and the woman with whom I’ve been in occasional contact with regarding my new position here.
Unlike the last time, when she was idly playing Minesweeper on her computer, this time, she’s in full ‘business’ mode, fielding questions from students— and a few parents, too— about class schedules, prerequisites, schedule conflicts, and everything else that comes from the headaches of dealing with an institution of higher education. She handles each matter with practiced ease, at least two administration-related Skills helping the otherwise rushed administrator resolve conflicts with a degree of grace.
I wait in line with the rest of the students— some more patient than others— until Nora catches my eye. She hands me two keys and a manila envelope, the contents of which I’m already reading with [Archangel’s Gaze] before it even makes its way into my hand. A lot of information about syllabi, passwords, login information, expectations for each course, information on how to access all the, and I can’t believe some administrator typed this up with a straight face— the student online learning platform. Okay, maybe it’s not so farfetched, but it feels like such a grandiose title for the cloud software.
Skillfully making my way through the crowd of students, and taking Leena’s words to heart about acting the part, I make my way to my office. Barely eight feet by eight feet, the space goes beyond ‘homely’ and into ‘cramped’, and the lack of an outside window here in the basement doesn’t help much. There’s a desk, a pair of chairs, a whiteboard, a couple of dry-erase markers— one black, one red, both faded— a computer, and an empty bookshelf.
In the coming weeks, I expect this entire office to be filled with student papers, various personal projects, maybe some joint assignments with other staff. For now, however, it’s a great opportunity to buckle down and get all the busy work out of the way so I can actually start doing the fun stuff once the semester starts.
I’m going to have at least one makeout session with Chloe in here, aren’t I? Thank the goddesses that my office door has a lock, the walls are heavy, and there’s no security camera in here. As I sit down at my new desk and get my computer set up— no, I don’t want to sign up for another free trial. I don’t know if the university is paying for this, and… goddesses damn it, don’t they realize that the whole ‘you must change your password every six months’ thing is no longer recommended by experts in the cybersecurity industry?
I draw Filia out of my inventory, partly for the occasional idle conversation, but mostly because they are a resource I can draw upon while writing my syllabus. Which, again, praise to the goddesses, Nora included some samples for me to draw from. Unfortunately, there are no texts I can use as a reference. Well, other than my own works on the subject. Which will be the primary reference material for Introduction to Ethertech and Spellcraft, although that doesn’t really do all that much for how to teach Introduction to the System.
It takes a long time, including multiple restarts while the computer initializes, before I’m able to get into my computer’s desktop. And then it takes an equally long time to get all the customizations in place. Downloading my preferred web browser, getting all the bookmarks I need set up, customizing settings— these damn monitors are way too bright considering how sharp my eyes have become–. Oh, well, at least I probably don’t need too much about most conventional forms of cheating— [Archangel’s Gaze] is powerful enough to see passed notes, hidden writing on pens, probably even answers etched into one’s glasses or maybe even into one’s retinas, though I haven’t tried that last one.
Though, uh, that does beg the question. If someone has an [Eidetic Memory] Skill, or some [Answer Talker] or [Good Guesser] Skill, does it count as cheating to use them? More importantly, if it does, can I detect it, and should I care? My instincts lean toward no, for the simple reason that people with eidetic memories pre-System weren’t maligned for having an easier time absorbing information, nor people that just naturally had higher intelligence, faster recall, or more creative ways of processing new knowledge.
And cheating here will, in the long run, only lead to cheating oneself. It’s not like the pre-System world, where you can simply fail upward… Oh, by Chloe’s name, I sure hope not. But then again, there’s probably a Skill for that, too. Some sort of [Social Lubricant] or [Smooth Talker] Skill probably exists. And I don’t know much of anything about social Skills. Or social skills with a lowercase ‘s’, but at least I’m not expected to teach those.
This class is going to be a learning exercise for me as much as it is for everyone else. Which means a class that’s heavily discussion based is going to be a lot better than something lecture based. One where we all learn from each other. Actually, come to think of it, I think this class could be pretty good to livestream and learn from each other, discussion board and forum style. I’ll need a good webcam… Ooh, this could be a chance to buy something fancy and charge it to my research funds. It is for teaching and bringing prestige to the university, which means more donations and research grants and… Oh, goodness, I need to meet with my colleagues and try to figure out how in the nine hells I’m supposed to apply for those.
I don’t want to do that with my Ethertech and Spellcraft class, though. Too many untested things, too many opportunities for our discussions to be used in unsavory fashions. To an extent, that cat is already long out of the bag. But at the same time, I don’t want the whole world to know everything I’m capable of, no different than how other people are expected to keep their levels, Skills, stats, and specifics about their combat proficiencies a secret.
For hours I work, copying and pasting the various policies and expectations. To the university’s academic integrity code, I affix addenda describing what I consider cheating versus acceptable uses of Skills… but even then, there are going to be exceptions and gray areas. Copying notes onto note cards is an obvious no-no, but what about enchanting a magic pen that will always write the correct answer? If they can do that much, they probably deserve to just graduate and start teaching alongside me. Hells, I’ll gladly cede this position to them if they can produce some [Pen of Divine Truths]. They will deserve it.
“Filia, do you have any particular suggestions or other things I’m overlooking?”
“You’ve already listed Skill mergers, evolutions, and upgrades, but have you mentioned synchronizations?”
“Like how my former [Wings of Icarus] got their effects boosted by the Skill [Overland Flight] before I subsumed both of them together into [Angelic Form]?”
“One specific type of a much broader classification of taking related Skills together. The better example, to my understanding, is the synergy between your [Ether Manipulation], [Glyph Manifestation], and [Glyphcasting] Skills. All of them work together in tandem to allow you to manipulate the flow of [Ether] direct it toward specific objectives by harnessing glyphs.
“In short, an individual with a number of Skills all geared toward a similar direction will lead to far better results than one who takes Skills haphazardly, with no attention paid to how they work together. The [Warrior] with a general [Weapon Proficiency] Skill will be competent with using a wide variety of weapons and have slightly more flexibility, but she will lag behind the dedicated [Halberdier] with four Skills all devoted to the handling of polearms, swordstaves, and similar.
“In addition to this, in the world from which I hail, it is well-documented that having synergistic Skills and learning to use them in tandem leads to an increased likelihood of merging together. Not only is the individual Skill which remains often stronger than the sum of the constituent components, especially upon reaching higher ranks and evolutions, but the individual also frees up valuable Skill slots for later use.”
“That’s good to know. I will make sure that that makes its way into the appropriate lecture.”
As I’m typing all this into the two documents— one for my syllabus, the other for general lecture notes and things to discuss— I’m interrupted by a knock at the door. I’m tempted to ignore it, focusing on this mindless busywork that nevertheless is modestly important and does need to get done. But when it continues a second time, followed by a woman’s voice specifically calling for a ‘Dr. Mortensen’— ego boosting, if not entirely accurate— I reluctantly Manifest [Unlock] and invite the woman inside.
“Dr. Mortensen?” the short redheaded girl says. “Do you have a few moments you can spare?” She looks down for a moment, before popping back up with a frazzled look on her face. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I completely forgot to introduce myself. My name is Amalia Bradford, and I’ve been assigned to be your teaching assistant for next semester.”
Sensing a bit of a kindred spirit already, and wanting to better understand how we’re going to work together over the coming four months, I invite her in for a conversation I expect to be interesting and hope to be enlightening as well. For both of us.