Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4566 - 3648: Magic Academy Revisited (Part 2)

"I'm still considering the candidates for the professor position," Strange said.

"Don't look at me, I'm not going," Shiller said, "Teaching students is too much of a headache."

"But you're great with kids," Strange said, "You always manage to connect with the young ones. We need teachers like that."

Shiller wanted to argue, but Strange continued, "You should know that boarding schools aren't that great. If it were adults, it'd be fine, but a group of kids leaving their hometowns, studying far away from their parents and families, in a relatively closed environment of a school, psychological issues won't be scarce."

Shiller sighed, knowing Strange was right. Boarding schools can be very terrifying.

Boarding schools are different from boarding at school. When you stay at school, you can go home on weekends, but at boarding school, you stay for a whole semester, sometimes even during holidays without permission to return home.

The trouble is, the age range in boarding schools is long. Some combine elementary and middle school, while others combine elementary, middle, and high school, lasting over ten years.

This means that if you can't get along with teachers and classmates, you'll live in a bullied environment from childhood to adolescence.

Parents who can thrust their kids into boarding schools usually aren't so responsible. Most just want to have children without the burden of raising them, expecting schools not to let their kids run away, offering no help themselves. This means kids will be completely isolated for over ten years, it's inevitable they'll have psychological issues.

Even if everyone at the school is nice, and teachers are responsible, starting group life too early can lead to children being overexposed, either becoming excessively sensitive with internal conflicts or having low self-esteem, which is a problem.

Though Shiller doesn't believe every universe would send ordinary kids over, mostly they'll be prodigious children with a legendary background like Damian, that doesn't mean there won't be problems.

On the contrary, precisely because they are so capable, the issues might expand infinitely, reaching a point where even adults may not be able to sort them out.

"Alright," Shiller said, "How about I become the school doctor then."

Strange immediately laughed, clearly he was waiting for Shiller to say this. He definitely didn't have the patience to appease those rowdy kids.

"Have you decided on a location?" Shiller asked again.

"Not inside New York City, but can't be too far from New York either. I think maybe Massachusetts might be a good choice. There are many higher educational institutions there, adding a magic academy wouldn't be too much," Strange said.

At that moment, Shiller suddenly remembered that in Harry Potter's universe, America's magic academy seems to be in Massachusetts.

It's fair to say this setting still makes sense, because Massachusetts can be considered a representative of a relatively prosperous yet not overly developed state.

If the prosperity level is too high, like New York, there's actually no space to build such a large school. Given New York's land prices, even Stark might not be able to buy such a large piece of land.

If the prosperity level is too low, heading to the central states, the exchange between students and professors becomes troublesome. Moreover, the people there are relatively conservative, perhaps mistakenly considering the magic academy as some kind of heretical gathering place. If it threatens the local people's lives and feelings, it wouldn't be appropriate.

Massachusetts is a compromise choice. With Boston inside and New York outside, the industrial foundation is solid, the infrastructure even better than in New Jersey State, not to mention MIT and Harvard, globally renowned schools with a strong academic atmosphere.

Being in the northeast, with a temperate continental climate, the winter temperature won't drop below 0 degrees, summer isn't hot, and most days are above 20 degrees, making it a place of warm winters and cool summers.

The most important thing is that this state has vast expanses of forest, and the northwest corner's Greylock Mountain is essentially an uninhabited area. The Ilvermorny Magic School is located on this mountain, perfectly striking a balance between bustling activity and natural tranquility.

Unsurprisingly, Strange noticed this mountain too. But Shiller felt a bit of a headache, he said, "Greylock Mountain is Massachusetts' most important natural resource, bar none. They've established a state protection area there, and haven't really developed its tourism resources. The land there cannot be bought."

"Then in the Berkshire region," Strange had clearly investigated thoroughly, he said, "Greylock Mountain is the highest peak and the most famous one, but next to it are many less known small ranges. I know there's actually a private sanatorium nearby, proving there are commercial plots. I'll have Nick look into it."

"Let's hope it goes smoothly," Shiller said, "If not, we'll just buy a small island on the West Coast, like the one Tony got married on."

"The superheroes mainly operate in New York, I don't agree. If it's too far from New York, if something happens, we might not be able to get there in time. It's better to keep it under our noses. We must start strong," Strange said.

Of course, Shiller understood what he meant. The magic academy is merely a beginning, there will certainly be more multiverse exchange activities in the future.

With varying levels of development across universes, less advanced ones will surely want to learn from more advanced universes. Because no matter which universe it is, the human race faces high survival pressure.

The American Comic World is no fairy tale world. Dangers lurking everywhere in the cosmos, countless disasters arriving one after another. Under such intense pressure, it would lead them to desperately seek resources from outside, hoping to obtain more survival essentials.

Even if others don't want to, Batman certainly will. Because he's smart and decisive. In the era of grand cosmic communication, those who can decisively seize this opportunity will definitely be at the forefront. So the establishment of the Multiverse Magic Academy is just the beginning.

Perhaps, there will be other schools in the future to teach human technology. There will be many inter-universe organizations and alliances, united to combat cosmic catastrophes. There will be many people from different universes standing together for development and progress.

In the end, they will certainly form a broadly defined human alliance, not just humans from Earth in one universe, but humans from many universes coming together to exchange development outcomes.

This isn't really science fiction. If you consider the human race in a universe as a separate individual, it's merely repeating the history of human development.

When humans were still on trees, they were social animals. When they came to the ground walking upright, they formed settlements, then larger tribes, city-states, and nations.

Socializing and aggregation is human nature. If they don't know about other universes, they can only explore alone in the dark cosmos. Once they discover other universes with beings like themselves, they will definitely want to communicate. The desire for communication is one of the cornerstones of forming modern society.

Some people tend to think that opening the channels of inter-universe communication will lead to a multiverse war. But Shiller asserts it won't, for the two reasons above: individual survival pressure and human instinct.

Now it seems everything is moving in a positive direction. The trend of multiverse integration is becoming increasingly evident. Perhaps one day, when a human civilization in a certain universe encounters a disaster, countless human civilizations from other universes will lend a hand. novelbuddy.cσ๓

In the past, human ancestors relied on their social groups and relay hunting to kill all the creatures they could. Repeating this process again wouldn't be a bad thing if possible.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Shiller sat in his office writing and drawing for a long time. He thought Strange was right; they need to make a good start, so those offering the olive branch of communication can have confidence.

Especially since most of the promoters are Batman. Convincing Batman isn't that easy. Since the other party first showed sincerity, naturally, they must also demonstrate professional standards.

Unexpectedly, Strange might build a castle. This isn't really about recreating Harry Potter, but if they're going to get materials from Asgard, a castle is indeed the most suitable.

After all, according to the Asgardians' understanding of architecture, the materials sent over might be similar to those used for building the Fairy Palace back then. The Fairy Palace isn't a solitary palace but a castle complex.

You can't expect this group of God Clan to understand what modernism is. The materials they send are more likely to be some kind of magical stones or wood from magical trees rather than sheet metal and painted hardware.

If possible, Shiller hopes to build a structure with a style similar to the Fairy Palace because it's not only grand but also very splendid, which would definitely meet investors' demands.

Of course, it shouldn't be too heavily styled like Asgard, and the details need human modification. But Strange probably won't draw the design himself; by hiring professional designers and revising it several times, they can surely achieve the desired effect.

Shiller thinks he might not need to find a professional architectural designer but instead look for a game modeler. With the existence of magic, there's no need to worry too much about structure and bearing, so aesthetics can be elevated.

A little later, Strange called and said, "I forgot to ask you, what's the name of the Magic Academy?"

"Isn't it called Kamar-Taj?"

"Every universe has a Kamar-Taj; this doesn't reflect the uniqueness of our universe. So we need a new name."

"What do you think it should be called?" Shiller really couldn't come up with anything because he wasn't interested in all those mystical magic words and complex mythologies.

"How about Hogwarts?"

"I told you not to name it after something famous!" Shiller raised his voice, "Besides, Hogwarts is a school in England! America's isn't called that!"

"What's the difference?" Strange appeared indifferent.

"No, it can't be called that." Shiller's OCD kicked in, "That's British. Unless you plan to build one in England too, it definitely can't be named that."

"Then how about Massachusetts Magic Academy?"

"That's so tacky."

"What's the magic school in America called?"

"Ilvermorny Magic School."

"Then let's call it that."