Lina and Thane's newly chosen home was located in the second-to-last dormitory building of the apprentice quarters. The environment here was more secluded, making it better suited for their meditation and magical experiments. Even the rooms in this dormitory were significantly larger than their previous one. Besides a brand-new, spacious experiment table, the room even had a private bathroom.
Resource distribution among the apprentices of the Black Magic Academy was highly unequal. Most entry-level apprentices were crammed into narrow dormitories shared by three or four people—rooms even smaller than Thane's previous dwelling, with barely enough space for bunk beds and a few clothing racks, let alone an experiment table.
In contrast, the dormitory Thane and Lina had chosen was a six-story building where most floors remained sparsely occupied. It wasn't uncommon for a single apprentice to claim multiple rooms for themselves. Their new residence was on the fourth floor, which originally housed only four other apprentices—three living alone and one pair cohabiting, much like Thane and Lina.
The second-to-last dormitory building was split evenly between intermediate and advanced apprentices. The upper floors (fourth to sixth) were dominated by advanced apprentices, while the lower three floors were mostly occupied by competent intermediate apprentices. Thane and Lina had carefully considered their strength and needs when selecting their new home.
On their second day in the building, one of the intermediate apprentices on their floor voluntarily moved down to the third floor. The other three households remained undisturbed, but as days passed, Thane noticed something that left him stunned.
"Today, I realized those two cohabiting apprentices are both men!" Thane muttered in a low voice as he prepared dinner, glancing at Lina, who sat at the table engrossed in a magic tome.
"What's so strange about that?" Lina replied without looking up, her tone indifferent. "In the ten years you've been at the Black Magic Academy, haven't you seen similar cases before?"
Thane chuckled awkwardly as he sliced into a piece of blackscale fish. "I thought only those idle junior apprentices indulged in such things. I never expected even advanced apprentices to..."
It was well-known among senior apprentices that few junior apprentices lived past thirty. Many of those with abysmal talent, still stuck at the junior level well into their late twenties, gave up on their prospects and resorted to depravity, using their limited power for malicious deeds.
The academy's toxic atmosphere was partly due to the indifference—or even encouragement—of the official black magicians. Yet, the despicable behavior of these low-level apprentices only worsened the situation.
Intermediate and advanced apprentices, though equally cold and ruthless, at least directed most of their energy toward magical research and academy missions, leaving little time for bullying the weak.
Thane's response made Lina close her book. She walked over and began assisting him with dinner, her movements clumsy. "There are exceptions among advanced apprentices too," she remarked casually. "Those two next door aren't simple."
"That intermediate apprentice, Mari, has won academy rewards twice in a row. He's a strong candidate for promotion to advanced apprentice."
"As for the other one, Stenson—despite his brutish, dim-witted appearance—he's mastered several rare and unique bloodline magics. If not for his lack of intelligence, he could've been among the top advanced apprentices."
Since Thane's return from his last mission, injured and weary, Lina had changed. She had never helped with dinner before—not out of unwillingness, but inability. Her inept handling left fish scales sticking to her arms. It was baffling how someone so unskilled in household chores could possess such profound magical knowledge.
Their joint efforts resulted in a hearty, warm dinner. Yet, as they sat at the wide table, their conversation strayed far from mundane daily life, revolving instead around the typical discussions of magicians.
After briefly discussing their neighbors, Thane and Lina shifted to recent experiments and magical studies. Thane shared his insights and progress in alchemy. Though Lina hadn't specialized in the field, her status as an advanced apprentice allowed her to engage in the discussion.
When it was her turn, Lina—who rarely spoke at length—mentioned the magic tome she had been studying: The Ankhad Annotations, one of the books Thane's mentor, Mosido, had given him.
The notes were scribbled by a formal magician named Ankhad and included the spell model and knowledge for an intermediate magic—Telekinesis. Thane had assumed the book's primary value lay in this spell, which was likely why Mosido had handed it to him.
But Lina had uncovered something more.
"According to this book, Magician Ankhad's true profession was that of a wizard," she explained. "It also mentions that magicians in the wizarding world are further divided into specialized roles—summoners, necromancers, elementalists, bloodline sorcerers, and more."
"Each magical profession has numerous branches. For example, we could currently be classified as fire elementalists within the elementalist category."
Lina's revelation sparked both understanding and curiosity in Thane. Having nearly mastered his intermediate spells—Fire Wall and Flaming Hand—he was ready to delve into Telekinesis. Inspired by Lina's suggestion, he decided to study The Ankhad Annotations more thoroughly as well.
The warm, fulfilling dinner passed in the quiet hum of their magical discourse. It was an ordinary day—one of many in Thane's life at the Black Magic Academy.