New Quest: Becoming an apprentice (50)

  [You have come to compete to be the apprentice of a powerful wizard. Prove yourself more deserving than the other contestants to earn one of the coveted spots as his student.]

  At the same time the quest message came in, Alan also received another notification.

  Party chat has been disabled

  He didn’t know that was even possible. It looked like he would be left to his own devices for this dungeon. Not that it would be that much different than normal. Since Tamee wasn’t allowed to help him much when chat was active, he would be on his own like always. Well, not exactly alone. Looking around he was standing before an even larger version of the tower that had served as the entrance. This one was at least fifty meters across and stretched upwards for over a hundred meters as well.

  The land surrounding it was green with short grass, similar to what he had found when he first arrived in the tutorial. Around the base of the tower was a ring of bushes. He didn’t notice anything growing on them. About five hundred meters away he could see a forest. Scanning around, it appeared the forest surrounded the tower on all sides. Standing before the stone edifice with him were nineteen other people.

  A quick check showed that they were human like him, or at least they appeared human. Most of them were wearing robes or holding short pointy sticks in their hands. Other than himself, two looked decidedly different. One was a woman holding a large axe and wearing some kind of armor made of small overlapping pieces of metal. The other was a large bare chested man who was wearing thick hide pants. He was at least two hundred and twenty centimeters tall. He also had a club resting against his shoulder. It made even Alan’s thonking club feel inadequate. They were all standing there in a slightly curved line casting glances at each other. One of the people, a middle aged man wearing a robe, started to speak but was interrupted by a flash of light. A loud voice boomed out.

  “Silence!”

  When his eyesight cleared there was a thirty year old man wearing a fine blue shirt and well tailored black pants standing before us. He was tall, taller even than the bare chested brute, and had shoulder length bright blond hair. On his feet were highly tooled leather boots. He had a wide black belt at his waist with a large emerald on the buckle. He made for an impressive spectacle, which he was probably going for. That entrance had been timed rather well to make sure they didn’t talk to each other and stayed focused on him. Speaking of focus, for some reason his identify skill wasn’t giving him any information even though he was downright staring.

  They all shifted nervously as the fancy looking man looked them over without even turning his head. Alan was at the far end of the line so he got to see him inspect the others first. His face showed almost nothing, but Alan could see a slight smile when he looked at the woman with the axe and a frown when he got to the bare chested man. When the appraising eyes got to him, Alan saw them briefly look down at his tattered outfit and a spark of disgust was in those eyes. Strike one for him.

  “You are not yet worthy of knowing my name. You have all come here in the hope that I would choose you to be my apprentice. One of you will earn that spot, and after today only five of you can remain to compete for it. The others will be sent home in shame.”

  There wasn’t anything about apprentices in the wiki so he wasn’t sure what it would mean for him, but at the very least it would be worth fifty dungeon points. His initial guess that this was a wizard tower was still in play, even if the guy wasn’t exactly dressed for it. Almost all of the others certainly were. That made him wonder why the two obvious warriors were here. Then again Alan was technically a mage and didn’t look the part either.

  “Now you will demonstrate that you have the basic aptitude to be considered for this position. A mage without power will never be able to defend his achievements. Use a spell to hit the target. If you cannot control your power enough to hit it, or don’t even have a spell capable of damaging it, you will be dismissed.”

  As he finished saying this he snapped his fingers and a large bullseye target appeared maybe twenty meters away. This confirmed that he was a wizard, or mage, or whatever. One at a time the other hopefuls stepped up and set a spell zooming down toward the target. First up was an older woman, probably in her forties, who had one of the pointy sticks that were probably wands. She summoned a large bolt of flames that shot down and hit the target and left a big soot stain near the center.

  Their future mentor nodded and motioned for her to step back. The next was wearing robes and sent another bolt of fire at the target. This one was smaller than the first lady, but it still left a scorch mark on the target. He was followed by another woman who caused the ground in front of the target to thrust up and hit the target. That must be what stone spear looked like.

  One after another the others stepped up. The first failure was a young man, around twenty-two with a wand who shot a light bolt at the target. Alan was initially excited to see someone else with the same spell, but he missed the target by a wide margin.

  “Can I try again? I was nervous.” He meekly asked.

  “No” and with another snap of his fingers the young man was suddenly gone.

  The next failure was the lady with the axe. When it was her turn she stored the axe in some kind of spatial storage and then pulled out a bow. She drew the bow back and carefully sighted on the target. When she fired she hit just next to the bullseye, which Alan thought was impressive.

  “No magic at all? Dismissed.” With another snap of his fingers she was gone.

  Two more failed this first test, but surprisingly the man with the club was not one of them. When it was his turn he used a stone spear to strike the target. At last it was almost Alan’s turn, a young boy, maybe 18 years old, was the penultimate competitor.

  He was wearing a thick dark robe with the hood up so Alan couldn’t see much other than his face. The robe wasn’t black, but it was a shade of gray that might as well have been black. The young man held his hand palm up and summoned a ball of shadows. He stared at it for a moment before throwing it at the target. Alan couldn’t tell if the hand gesture was really necessary because it formed into a bolt the same as the fire or light version had. It seemed more like part of the goth edgelord image he seemed to be cultivating.

  He struck the center of the target with what was probably called a shadow bolt or dark bolt, the opposite of Alan’s light bolt. Their observer seemed impressed and motioned for him to join the rest. Now it was Alan’s turn. Last but hopefully not least.

  It was a little nerve racking because he hadn’t practiced much with his spell. He had used it many times but always in the heat of battle. And usually the target was right in front of him so the thought of hitting a target so far away was a little worrying. Being the center of attention was also not helping. Turns out he was right to be worried as the bolt barely clipped the edge of the target. With a condescending look, their future mentor motioned for him to join the others.

  “If all you have is a bolt of power you might as well be a fool with a bow,” there was a sneer on his lips as he said this, “a real mage must also understand his power or he will never have a chance to improve his spells.” That was news to Alan since he didn’t know spells could improve. He thought you just had to find better spells.

  Raising his hand in front of his mouth the wizard whispered something into it. A small ball of light formed above his palm. Then, like he was casting out confetti he flung the ball up. Six glowing glyphs formed in the air.

  “These glyphs represent the six elements that a quartz mage might have access to. Identify as many of these as you can. If you can’t identify at least one, you will be dismissed.”

  The process for completing this one wasn’t clear. If they took turns like last time then they would be able to see the answers of those who went before. Apparently he should have given their future master more credit. With another flourish of his arms and some whispered words a tan piece of parchment formed in each of their hands.

  On the paper were the six glyphs shining in the air. Below that were six pictures. There was a boulder, a drop of water, a flame, what looked like a gust of wind, a white sun, and a black sun. The pictures were fairly simple to figure out, even the black sun was obvious next to the white one.

  Passing this test was going to be easy for Alan. He already knew what two of the glyphs represented from the mage dungeon. But the competitor in him didn’t want to just pass, he wanted to be the best. He was still a little fuzzy on how to indicate on the paper which glyph went to which picture, but when he brought his finger towards the parchment to touch the glyph for water the page started glowing beneath his fingertip. When he touched the glyph for water and then dragged his finger toward the picture of the water drop, a black line was burned into the page.

  At first he was sure he also knew the glyph for light, the one that had matched up with the skylight in the cave. But then it occurred to him that it could have been air instead. He studied the glowing glyph in the clearing for a moment before cursing himself as an idiot. That seemed to be happening a lot recently.

  Focusing on the glyph itself Alan attempted to read its energy. After all the time he spent studying the aura of everything, he hadn’t tried it once in here. The energy of the glyph seemed almost identical to the energy he had been channeling into his items to reinforce them.

  Now that he was thinking about it, he summoned a light bolt into his hand and let it sit there. He had seen the young mage hold his dark bolt so he knew it was possible. Studying its energy he felt that it was the same as what was in the glyph. Alan attempted to reabsorb the energy from the bolt and the orb dissipated. Some, but not all, of the mana he had spent to summon it flowed back into him.

  Confident now that the glyph was light he traced the connection on the parchment. That left four. Two more were easy to recognize from the circle around the tree. They were the two that had no connection to any feature in the room. He figured they would be earth and air, two components that are necessary for plants to grow.

  Without anything else to decide between them he again studied the energy contained in the glyphs. The first glyph contained a hard, rigid kind of energy. It would be difficult to force it to do what you wanted, you would instead have to coax and cajole it to do something. The other glyph’s energy had the opposite problem. It had almost no structure to it, the lines were constantly shifting around, and it would be a struggle to get it to maintain its form.

  The first was most likely earth and the second air. That left two more that he didn’t recognize. There were similarities in one of the glyphs to the fifth and final one he had encountered in the magic circle. That glyph was attached to the glowing crystal which made him think it was somehow related to fire. Fire obviously wouldn’t be good for plants, but heat maybe? The other glyph was totally new, but just based on the process of elimination it was a simple matter to determine its meaning.

  Since it seemed time was not an issue he decided to make sure. Alan focused on both of the remaining glyphs. One contained an abundance of energy. It was almost eager to be released, straining at its form. The other was difficult to sense. It didn’t seem to have a pattern to it, instead it was omnipresent. Something about what he was sensing disturbed him. That pretty much confirmed his choices, unless of course he was hallucinating the whole thing. He assigned the last two glyphs to fire and darkness respectively.

  Now that his own task was completed he took the chance to look around to see how the others were doing. There were still a few looking between their papers and the glyphs but Alan was one of the last to finish.

  When the final hopeful made their selection, all of the papers disappeared from their hands. “Congratulations to those who passed. Goodbye to those who did not.”

  With another wave of his hand, two more people disappeared. The club guy was still here. He didn’t look like a mage, but he must have a good head to go with that big club. Or he got lucky. Just guessing randomly you had a good chance of getting at least one right. While he was considering his fellow competitor something formed in Alan’s hand. Looking down he saw another paper, this time with a drawing of a magic circle.

  “Each of you will now demonstrate your ability to follow directions. On this page is a simple magic circle that protects those inside from being teleported. Two hours from now I will teleport you all away. Only those who have successfully completed their circle shall remain. This is the final test, if more than five of you remain I will pick based on the sum of your trials.”

  Another snap of his fingers and they were sent to locations spread out around the tower. Before Alan was a seven meter square section of ground without any grass growing on it. The dirt was smooth and loose, like a sand box. Next to the bare patch of ground was a sack containing crushed quartz.

  Feeling somewhat confident, he studied the diagram in his hands. It was thankfully much simpler than the one from the mage dungeon. There were only two circles for this diagram, instead of three. An inner and an outer. Between them was a series of zigzagging lines connecting them. He was about to start drawing the larger circle when he realized he didn’t know how big to make it.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Flipping the paper he looked on both sides and couldn’t see any kind of scale. With nothing else to go on, he sent his senses into the paper and there was a spot where the energy seemed locked up somehow. It was almost like what he felt when cultivating after his body added new pathways. He sent his will towards the snarl and suddenly it smoothed out like it was never there. He was getting pretty good at this aura stuff, if he did say so himself.

  Refocusing his eyes on the page he noticed that there were now words at the bottom. The outer circle should be five meters across and the inner one should be three point three meters across. Hopefully there was some leniency in those measurements since Alan didn’t have a tape measure. He paced it off as best he could and used the powdered quartz to draw the two circles.

  It was slow going because he wanted them to be as perfect a circle as possible and he knew how hard it was to undo mistakes. Almost half of his time was used up now and he still had to do all the lines connecting them. With his aura senses active he could already feel energy moving through the two circles. As he carefully drew the first few lines the energy between the circles started to interact with each other. He had gotten about halfway through the connecting lines when their testor shouted ‘ten minutes’. He was taking too long.

  Alan was never going to finish in time if he had to keep consulting the diagram. While he had been drawing, a growing sense of understanding of how the energy was forming had been taking shape in his mind. For the previous line he drew, Alan had known where it needed to go before consulting the diagram. Convincing the persnickety part of his brain to trust in himself, he set the paper aside and followed his instincts. His mind and sense told him where the line would need to start on the outer circle and then connect to the inner circle.

  Pouring the quartz sand out of the bag, he quickly drew the lines and his vision actually made it easier to keep the line straight. He set the bag down as he finished with less than a minute left, happy with what he had accomplished. In the distance he saw the mage begin to move his arms in a spell when Alan realized he was standing outside of the circle. He hurriedly hopped into the interior as the teleportation spell was completed. Tamee would have never let him hear the end of it if he failed for such a stupid reason. Flashes lit up all around the clearing and afterwards there were six of the humans left in their circles. Another flash and they were suddenly standing before the tower again.

  “I know I said those circles would prevent you from being teleported, but did you really think anything you could do would stop me if I really wanted to?” He paused to smirk. This guy was really laying it on thick. Alan couldn’t tell if it was an act or if he was just that full of himself.

  “We seem to have more of you than we need. I will now pick the five who will remain. When I point to you, walk into the tower and wait for me there.”

  The first he pointed to was the young boy who used the shadow bolt. The second was the older woman who had gone first in the target practice. Third was the club guy. At the start Alan would have bet money against him making it, but clearly there was more to him than meets the eye. There were now three of them left for two spots.

  There was Alan, a woman about his age holding a wand, and a much older gentleman in a brown robe with the hood down so his grey hair shone in the sun. He matched the image of a distinguished wizard quite well. The eyes of their possible mentor paused on each of them before he pointed at the woman. She looked back at the other two before hurriedly skipping inside. The last two looked at each other.

  Alan had seen their examiner’s look of disgust when he first saw him so he had no hope in being chosen. But then he saw that perfectly manicured finger pointing straight at him. With another flourish the Mage made the older man disappear. Before Alan could walk into the tower his new mentor held up his hand.

  “I was impressed that you could identify all of the glyphs. However, I have a certain image to maintain.” With that he reached toward his belt and pulled out a fresh clean set of trainee tunic and pants and tossed them at his feet. “Try not to ruin these.” And with that he was gone.

  Quest Update: Becoming an apprentice (100)

  [You have passed the first series of tests. Survive the next culling. Reward: this opportunity is its own reward and 50 dungeon points.]

  Standing there in the open Alan quickly stripped out of his filthy rags, not caring who might see, and changed into the new clothes. Even if he left now this dungeon had been worth it, fifty dungeon points and clean whole clothes! Worried that he would be punished for delaying, he then ran inside. He needn’t have worried.

  After passing through the door he entered a large open room that was over six meters tall. Tapestries hung from the walls showing scenes of battle or magical forces swirling and combining. One tapestry showed what looked like a dragon flying through space with people riding on its back. They all seemed to be of high quality, not that he was an expert on tapestries, and they gave the space an elegant feel.

  The other chosen were walking around the room taking in the sights. There were no windows or other doors here, and no stairs leading up or down. When Alan came through the front door it disappeared leaving them trapped in this large stone room.

  “Welcome to my home.” the man from outside’s voice called out. Looking around he saw an opening form in the ceiling near the far wall. A pair of feet appeared, stepping down from the hole, and with each step a stair formed beneath them. He spoke to them as a staircase formed under his feet all the way down.

  “By coming this far you have earned the right to refer to me as ‘Master’. However, while I am your Master, you are not my apprentices, not yet. Only one of you will earn that title. Over the next year I will slowly winnow you down to one. That one will then earn the title apprentice.”

  That was a bit of a shock. This was going to take a year? Even with the time dilation, just earning the spot would take three days of real time. Although, Alan wasn’t actually sure how long a year was in the Network, and he couldn’t ask Tamee with his chat blocked off. He wasn’t sure if this was going to be worth it, but he figured he should at least give it a try. Anything with this rigorous an entrance test should have some good stuff for rewards.

  The Master continued, “on the floor above us you will find five rooms. These will be your sleeping quarters. Each of you should choose a room and leave all of your stuff there. Don’t worry, your rooms are secure from theft. Then make your way up to the next floor where you will find the dining and common area. I will explain what comes next while we eat.”

  Some of the others were in a rush to go upstairs and get first pick of the rooms. The boy with the dark magic was the first up the stairs, his gangly legs pumping as he sprinted up. The two ladies followed at a more reasonable pace. Alan wasn’t worried about it, he would approach this with his eyes open, so he took his time. The last candidate must have been of a like mind because Alan found himself walking up the stone steps next to the bare chested man. Being so close to him he could tell that the guy was easily two meters tall. He decided to introduce himself so that he could finally get a name for at least one of the others.

  “Hello, my name’s Alan. What’s yours?” He wasn’t sure what to expect from him, but the man’s deep voice was full of energy. His words came like an avalanche rushing down a mountain.

  “My name is Simon. Welcome Alan. This is not what I expected when I came here.”

  It was nice to know he wasn’t the only one in the dark about the dungeon when coming here. “I didn’t know what to expect either, so I guess we’re in the same boat.”

  Alan wasn’t sure how much he should share about himself. He wasn’t sure if this was a dungeon dweller next to him, or possibly another recruit from a different zone. No one had said anything, but the fact that his chat cut off and something about the way the others had held themselves made Alan think they were not just NPCs. The staircase wasn't long and they arrived at the dormitories while he was still trying to come up with something to say.

  There was a small open area by the staircase and then a hallway with doors leading off of it. There weren’t any other stairs, but something about the empty space near the stairs down suggested there should be some going farther up. He said goodbye to Simon and picked the first open room he came to. It ended up being the one right by the stairs. It would probably be the loudest room, with people going past, but it would also make his trips a little shorter. He didn’t mind, focus, even before it became a stat, wasn’t something he struggled with.

  The Master had said to leave everything in the room, but he wasn’t sure what that meant. He wasn’t carrying anything or wearing a backpack. Was he supposed to take off his weapons, his pouches, all his clothes? Probably not the clothes. He stood there for a moment before there was a whisper in his ear.

  “Just leave it all here. The only things you will need are your clothes and yourself.”

  Spinning quickly he was surprised to find there was no one there. It was the Master’s voice, but apparently he didn’t need to be physically present for them to hear, or for him to see. That was an unsettling thought, although if he was a wizard who knew what his powers were. Alan took off all of his pouches and his daggers and turned to go. It was a little hard to leave the spatial storage pouch, but there honestly wasn’t much in there anymore other than some animal carcusses.

  Stepping out of the door and back into the hallway he found everyone else standing in front of their doors. They glanced at each other, none of them seeming to want to make the first move. Shrugging, Alan turned and led the procession up to the next floor. Sure enough, there was now a stairway up, right where he had expected one to be.

  The next floor was another large open space, similar to the first floor, but this ceiling was only two hundred and forty centimeters high. There was a long table on one side of the room with a bench on either side and one large wooden chair at the far end. Alan figured it was some kind of dining area. The other side of the room had a couple of smaller tables with a few chairs scattered around them. There was also a pair of couches with a coffee table between them. The couches were some kind of wicker construction with fabric cushions to sit on. This side looked more like a lounge.

  Back on the dining side there were five place settings around the table. Each one had a ring on top of the plate. As the students made their way closer Alan could tell that they all had a polished quartz stone set in a band of wood. Each ring was made with a wood of a different color. His eyes immediately were drawn to the ring that was a pale but luminescent color. The plates on either side of that one held a ring with a rich red color and another that was a dark brown.

  On the opposite side of the table was a lighter brown ring and another that was made of ebony or some other dark wood. Each of them was drawn to a different ring and they all took their place in front of them. Once more they looked around at each other, unsure whether they should sit or wait for the Master but that decision was suddenly taken away from them.

  One moment the head seat was empty and the next the Master was sitting in the fine chair. “Please take your seats.” All of the students crawled their way onto the benches. Simon had some trouble getting his legs to fit under the table and over the bench. One of the drawbacks of being tall apparently. Once they were settled, the Master gestured at the rings.

  “Please put those on. They each have a small storage area. Inside are the materials you will need for the next month. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the contents before we begin dinner.”

  Alan picked up the ring and slid it onto his left pinky. It was too small to fit on any of his other fingers. He was about to try and access the storage when all of the students simultaneously gasped in pain. Looking down Alan found a large splinter in his finger that must have broken off from the ring. Pulling it out a spot of blood welled up, pushing against his new item. He wiped it off with his other hand and surreptitiously licked it off so that he didn’t wipe it on his new clean clothes.

  Finally getting to check out the ring he received a nice surprise. The ‘small’ storage space was larger than the one inside his pouch. It could easily fit up to fifty cubic meters. Once again he was incredibly thankful that he had entered this dungeon. The clothes were already a fine prize and this ring was a precious reward that was probably worth the three days he might lose. And the ring wasn’t empty either. Inside were a few books and a sheaf of parchment. There were also pouches that contained various flowers and plants and a pouch containing crushed quartz.

  “I realize none of you actually know why you are here. You are all inside of a dungeon you found on your tutorial disk.” There were startled looks from the others, but this just confirmed Alan’s earlier guess. “Yes, you are all recruits from your planet. This is a very special dungeon that links some of those zones together. You might be worried about the time you will lose here, but trust me, if you put your effort into learning what I have to teach you, it will be more than worth it.”

  Knowing for sure that these were not dungeon dwellers, but instead other contestants presented him with a golden opportunity. Being alone had provided him advantages, but also some serious drawbacks. Here was a chance to network with others from Earth. He could find out how some of the different zones were doing and maybe they could come up with strategies to help them all out. It would also allow him to compare notes on some of the things Tamee had been unwilling to discuss.

  “Before you get too excited, you are not allowed to talk about your experiences inside the tutorial, other than your classes and talents. You may discuss your lives before coming to the tutorial, but that's it. I want you focused on magic while you are here, not the upcoming trials. For now, let us enjoy some food in silence.”

  On their plates appeared a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and gravy. It was nice to enjoy a meal with others from Earth, but it would have been nicer if they could talk to each other. Maybe there would be a way to find some unsupervised time where they could get around the Master’s restrictions.

  “Now that we have finished our main course I will share my expectations of you before we have dessert. In your rings you will find four books. One is a spellbook. These are incredibly valuable because they have the ability to teach someone spells without being consumed. The drawback is that you have to work for it. Unlike a scroll where the knowledge is imprinted directly into your brain you will have to learn how to cast the spell yourself.” Alan didn’t know enough yet to understand what he meant by learning how to cast it, but he figured he would find out once they had a chance to look the book over.

  “Being new recruits you probably don’t have a good understanding of magic. That is what the other books are for. One is a book containing one hundred glyphs for you to memorize. The second is a book of translation. This book translates between galactic standard and the magical symbols.” He must have seen their looks of confusion because he paused his speech.

  “Galactic standard is the language we are all speaking right now. You may think you were speaking your native language, but you will find that your brain is actually interpreting what you want to say in your language and then sends the galactic standard to your vocal cords. The same happens in reverse with your ears. You can think of it as a kind of universal translator.”

  This was both mind blowing, and obvious with hindsight. The complex difficulty inherent in what he was describing was incredible. However, Alan had interacted with two completely different races in dungeons and was expected to compete directly with three more in the tutorial. It would be weird if they all spoke English, and it would make things difficult if they couldn’t understand each other.

  “The magical symbols are the graphical representation of magical concepts. It is through these symbols that we can cast spells and impart magical knowledge to others. This is what scrolls and spellbooks are written in. Glyphs are a complicated form of magical symbols.”

  He paused for a moment before continuing, “I hope that clears up some of the confusion. The last book is a kind of magical primer. This will help you to decipher the concepts that the spellbook explains. At the end of this month you will all be tested again on your knowledge of the one hundred glyphs and your ability to cast the spells in the spellbook.” With that he tapped his glass and a piece of chocolate cake formed on everyone’s plate. They all dug in except for the teenager. He sat with his hands on his lap staring at the cake.

  “I hope you all enjoyed dinner. Shortly after sunrise tomorrow I expect you all back up here for breakfast. After that I will show you to your workspaces so that you can begin your studying. I suggest for tonight that you all return to your rooms and get a good night’s sleep.”

  He gestured for them to stand and they all got up from the table. With nowhere else to go they made their way back downstairs and without saying a word to each other, ducked into their rooms. The Master wanted them to sleep, but there was no way Alan was going to be able to until he checked out some of those books.