66th of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

Newt felt like banging his head against a rock. Lady Woodhopper may have appeared like she was enjoying the spring of her youth, but she was his master's generation. The whole situation felt absurd. He had a crush on a woman who was at least a couple hundred years his senior.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he muttered and saw the Chamber of Tomes.

Rocks. Champion. What else was there?

He turned and marched over to the door, his cheeks still burning.

"Good day," he greeted the librarian, and spent the next couple of hours studying geology, focused on igneous rocks. There were two more types of rocks, but they were incompatible with the concept of magma or lava. And why the different names? They were basically the same molten rock as far as Newt was concerned.

An interesting fact he learned was that lava was rich in metal, much richer than the earth element on average. Newt knew the tidbit could prove useful one day, and he might be able to add metal to his arsenal.

The mundane books proved fascinating and boring at the same time. The ideas and general concepts tickled Newt's mind, then devolved into irrelevant tripe about the specific weight of volcanic rocks found in different regions, and their application in metallurgy, masonry, and other aspects of life.

Newt was additionally disappointed because he expected that the denser rocks had a greater concentration of mana, but that was not the case. In fact, the data he had glossed over suggested there was no correlation between the rock's physical properties and the density of mana.

Newt's stomach thundered, and he snapped the book shut in embarrassment. He glanced around the reading room, catching a few odd glances before rushing out.

"Sorry," he whispered to Lady Thunderwing as he returned the books. "Could you please tell me where I can get something to eat?"

The old librarian trained her gaze on Newt, making him want to shrink back. She took a moment to decide Newt was not joking. "Your master hasn't shown you around? We have mess halls and restaurants."

Newt nodded. He knew where he could eat, but had no idea how he was supposed to pay for his meal.

"Master has shown me the mess halls and the restaurants, but I don't have any money—"

"I see. Meals at the mess halls are free of charge. If you want anything fancy, you will have to pay for it with merit points. But you've been here a couple of days, how come you haven't eaten at the mess hall yet?"

"Um, I'm a mageknight, so I don't have to eat and sleep every day, and then, when I was supposed to eat, I hurt myself and ended up in the Chamber of Healing, and they kept me there for a few days and they even gave me a meal…"

Lady Thunderwing nodded, then asked questions, and the more she asked, the more she frowned.

"Get out of here before I give you a beating," she said in exasperation, and Newt obliged.

He walked out into the night, his face so crimson, Newt was certain it glowed in the dark. He wasn't alone in his endeavor. Fireflies kept him company, bobbing up and down in the air, probably making even bigger fools of themselves than he was.

Why am I thinking such stupid things? Newt bit his cheek on the inside and tried to clear his mind while hurrying towards the main road.

He followed it back into the central district and entered the nearest mess hall. Despite it being night, the corridor ahead was well lit beyond the obscured threshold, seemingly stretching the entire length of the building. The air was thick with the mouth-watering aroma of fried fish and smells Newt couldn't identify, but found tantalizing nonetheless.

Newt reached the end of the hall and turned left, following the only path available, and entered the large dining room. Despite the late hour, or perhaps because of it, he only found a mere handful of third and fourth realm students sitting at the tables, chatting.

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Newt recognized none of them, but since they were sitting in three groups of four and one of eight, Newt concluded teams stuck together. After scanning the people, Newt took in the room itself. It was large, covering at least two-thirds of the building.

Newt counted fifty identical wooden tables, large enough to fit twelve, and the vast emptiness made twenty people sitting in the corners like a near-empty tavern. The walls were plain, window openings looking into the street with a hint of sky at the top.

Newt didn't know what to expect, perhaps a server like in inns and taverns he had visited, but instead found a large wooden counter with five sleepy men and women working behind them. He focused on them as he approached and found them all first realm awakened. Given their advanced age and plain white clothes, they obviously weren't members of the order.

"Good evening, Sir," the nearest server greeted Newt.

"Hello, I wanted to have some dinner."

The man nodded. "Is Sir expecting company?"

"No, I'll eat alone." But maybe I should eat together with others. I need to eat once every two to three days, might as well make it a team meeting, if the team is willing.

"Very well." While the man spoke the rest of the servers moved and after several sounds of porcelain clicking on wood, Newt got a platter with a bowl of soup, an unknown oval fried fish the size of his palm with fingers spread, three large crackers, and a bowl of crunchy greens.

The only thing Newt confidently recognized were the crackers, the rest of his meal was a mystery. A tasty, pleasant mystery, but a mystery regardless.

As Newt ate, he kept an eye on the other patrons. He wasn't spying on them, but kept them in his peripheral vision to get a feel for the atmosphere and how others behaved in the establishment.

This would've been so much easier if Obsidian had taken me out for lunch.

Still, Newt got the gist of it. The first thing he noticed was that most people crushed the crackers into bits and crumbs and added them to the soup. It seemed weird to Newt, but he first tried the soup without them. It was spicy with generous amounts of fish chunks. Then he added a bit of a cracker to his spoon and loved it.

He proceeded to crush them and enjoyed his soup. There were no secrets with the fish and strange salty lettuce, but they made a good pair, and by the time he was done, two more parties had entered and started eating.

Newt got up and left. Instead of going back to the library or Chamber of Instruction, he decided to take a walk around the fortress island and check out other public areas.

He followed the street towards a wall and reached an open gate. Four guards stood in a small house with large window openings. Unlike most of the buildings around the order, Newt could see through these ones, and he very clearly saw the guards playing cards inside, paying no attention to their surroundings.

That's very different from the guards standing at the gate leading towards the inner students' district.

Newt decided the lax guards were none of his business, and just as his attention slipped from them, he spotted another difference. There was no jungle beyond the gate; the outer students' district started so abruptly, buildings were almost leaning against the wall.

Large dormitories were close to the wall, to his left, while to his right the wall stretched into the distance, ending with a beach and the sea. The sight was strange, but several hundred yards into the water, Newt noticed the wall rise again with a large opening to let the ships in.

Newt scanned the dark horizon for several moments before spotting the pier and dozens of docked ships.

Outer members seem to have their own harbor. Which made sense. There was no need for all those goods to pass through the administrative district. Especially considering that Explorer's Gate had considerably more outer members than inner ones, even when taking into account the "champions" or what Newt had found out were successful graduates who had reached the fifth realm or higher.

Close to the docks, Newt saw warehouses and other large buildings, while inside the district he noticed several buildings marked as outer branches of various Chambers. Newt saw more than one sign declaring the building associated with the Chamber of Commerce, while nearby stood an infirmary, naturally a part of the Chamber of Healing.

Newt strolled down the clean and fresh-smelling streets, which put the imperial city of Thunderbluff to shame. There were no fireflies, though. Those stuck to the jungle.

Newt passed the shore, listening to the quiet rustle of waves and much louder sound as most of them crashed at the walls standing in the middle of the sea.

Newt walked aimlessly, just taking in the sights until he reached another gate guarded by four sentries as disinterested as the ones guarding the gate to the administrative district.

"Excuse me, where does this gate lead to?" Newt asked through the open window.

"The workers' district," the guard looked at Newt and hesitated before adding a "Sir," just in case.

Newt nodded and thanked him. The majority of Explorer's Gate's students failed to attain a high enough realm and remained to work off their debts, Newt found it mentioned in the same book as the one which discussed champions, even if he needed the librarian's help to find the exact title he was seeking.

Curious, Newt went through and found a district similar to the one he had just left, but five times more massive.

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