Honestly, after that crazy night, I was expecting to wake up with more insanity, reality-destabilizing shenanigans, and stuff like that.
Instead, when I woke up, everything felt startlingly… normal. Mom was cooking breakfast in the kitchen, Dad was hurrying off to work mining coal, and I was sitting around, because I had finished Mining School years ago, but was not old enough to legally mine coal yet.
I ate a delectable breakfast of pancakes and walked out of the apartment building I lived in to see… normality. Children were running around, as usual, younger children were being hurried to Mining School, as usual, and the fountain was malfunctioning, as usual.
I walked to the Merchant’s District, seeing a bunch of stalls buying coal, selling coal, buying coal futures, selling coal futures, and doing some weird “forex trading” or whatever. I was just walking past, on my way to the Forest to explore, when I saw a pair of rapiers labeled as “Training Rapiers”. They were five gold, which were a bit expensive: however, now I knew I had a future beyond staying here and mining coal, I bought it to try to gain the Basic Rapiers skill. I had plenty of gold, after all.
It took a week to get the Basic Rapiers skill, and it was another month before it got to level 20. It was when I was looking over my status for the hundredth time that I saw I had never spent my attribute points, and I was up to sixty-four unspent Points. I looked at my Class Requirements, and decided to put my points into Strength, Dexterity, and Agility equally since I didn’t know any Spells yet. Speaking of Spells,
“Hey Sarah, how do I get Spells?”
“Spellbooks are the only way.”
“How do I get those?”
“You can buy those. Tier-1 Spells are rare, but they’re not that rare. Tier-2 Spells are the real problem. Those cost about five hundred Silver Marks each.”
“What are Silver Marks?”
“Each one is one hundred Copper Marks.
“What are Copper Marks?” She was getting on my nerves now.
“One thousand Gold each.”
One thousand gold for a Copper Mark meant one hundred thousand gold per Silver Mark, so I needed fifty million gold. Suddenly, the hundred gold that I had did not seem so plentiful anymore.
I would need a lot more Attribute Points to get the Class. In fact, doing the calculation, I would need one thousand two hundred and fifty points, or a whopping six hundred and twenty five Levels. However, I had an idea that would at least solve the Gold problem.
“Sarah, how do I get Quests?”
“I can give you some if you want.”
“Okay.”
I clicked Yes, then frowned.
“Sarah, what’s the Academy?”
“It’s a school for magic users.”
“Where is it? I’ve never heard of such a thing in Capres Town before.”
“In Vartur. The entrance exam is there, as well. Here. I’ll give you another Quest.
I clicked Yes to this one as well, then another notification popped up:
“Sarah, what’s a Waypoint?”
“It’s a marker that tells you where something is.”
“Should I set one for this Quest?”
“Yes. How else are you going to know where Vartur is?”
I clicked Yes. Suddenly, a blue circle appeared in my vision. A screen popped up before I could get a good look at it.
Was I really going to do this? Was I really going to abandon everything I’d known for the unknown? Head to this Vartur and go into magic?
Yes. Yes I was. Ever since I’d graduated Mining School, I’d known I’d have no place here, where half the population were mining coal.
Time to head out towards the unknown.
The first part of the journey was pretty uneventful.
I bought some supplies, and started walking towards the first sub-waypoint, Txald. About an hour in, I realized how surprisingly easy this was. I realized this was probably my Agility near G-Rank. I didn’t want to waste time, so I tried to pick up and level Dual Wielding by swinging both of my rapiers at the same time. I got the Skill around hour 7, and by the time we got to Txald, it was already Level 3.
Txald was a small village, famed for its lumberjacks and lumber, and visited from faraway places for the aformentioned lumber was what the pamphlet said. The reality was about the same, if you replaced famed with kind of well known for, faraway places with about a 5-mile radius, and small village with three huts and an inn.
Nevertheless, it was a place to stay at.
The next five villages had me appreciating how unique Capres Town was, not just for its size and prosperity, but also for its profession. Up until the border between the Forest and the Plains, every single village had been a lumberjacking one. Even Gamei, the border town, has half its economy dedicated to lumber and lumber-related products.
The most interesting thing that happened those five days was that Dual Wielding got up to Level 8, which netted me 8 levels and 16 attribute points. I chose to save them for later.
In Gamei, however, there was a stall selling Fireball and Thunder Shock. Those were tier-1 spells, which cost 50 Copper Marks each.
Luckily, I asked Sarah for some side quests, and she gladly complied, leaving me with an additional 20 levels and 10 Copper Marks, which was enough to apply for a loan of 100 Copper Marks, with a promise to pay a guy in Vartur 120 Marks when I arrived.
I bought the two spells, and learned the spells to a flood of Notifications.
I first looked at my Status. After pondering upon what I wanted to put points into, I decided to raise Dexterity and Agility to G-Rank, then level Intelligence and Wisdom with my remaining Points.
I felt the difference, alright. My arms and legs felt a lot more… mine. It’s hard to describe the sensation, but think about it as when you wake up lying on your arm all night, then you get up. That was what it felt like, only ten times more intense.
After two more disappointing tiny little villages, I finally arrived at Vartur.
The towering bronze gates with dual-headed dragons was not what drew my eye. Nor was it the system notification that popped up when I used Inspect on it, informing me it was of Unique rarity. What did draw my attention, however, was the huge towering 20-storey castle that twisted and turned, making up at least ninety percent of the actual town. Five more percent of that was a huge obstacle course, that stretched as far as the eye could see, featuring a rock wall almost the height of the castle and jets of fire that you had to jump over as they rotated periodically. The other five percent were actually normal houses and inns and shops and everything that a town needed in order to survive.
The Level 306 Iron Knight guarding the gate let me pass when I said I was going to go to the Entrance Exam, with a rather ominous message of, “Good Luck”.
What exactly needed luck, I didn’t know. It turned out pretty much everything.
Signing up to the Exam was no simple affair. I had to put my hand on this machine that averages out your talent for everything, and I got White, the second highest grade.
That was when the whispers started happening.
At first, it was no big deal. Just an occasional glance at my direction, and some whispering covertly between friends.
However, as the Exam neared, I heard whispers of “Fraud”, “Cheat”, and, worst of all, “Blank”. Wherever I walked, people started whispering and falling back, muttering about how “being near him when he inevitably gets kicked out” was “bad luck”.
It was time for the Exam. I lined up, ready for the first elimination stage, which was the obstacle course.
I first had to balance on a narrow balance beam with pendulums swinging around me. Then, I had to duck and dodge fireballs that were coming at me from four directions at once. Afterwards, I had to climb an extremely high wall while boulders were falling down at me from above, then jump down into water, and swim while magical fire was swirling around. Finally, I had to run as fast as I can through a mile of hurdles. Needless to say, I passed that round with flying scores.
Then came the pain tolerance test. That one I miserably failed at.
With my measly one point of constitution, the first test - the ice water one - broke me. While watching other people swim in a sea of fire like it was nothing, I wondered not for the first time what people in the highest Tier would be like. If somebody with Basic attributes was like this, what would a person with Bronze, Silver, Gold, or even Platinum attributes be like?
After the torture came the physical/magical combat test, where we were to fight against waves of progressively stronger dummies using no magic and only magic respectively. I got to the fifth wave in the physical test and the fourth in the combat test.
In the breaks between tests, I again heard whispers of “Contraband”, “Cheat”, and “Impossible”. Slowly, however, the crowd was turning in my favor.
The last test was something called a “Mixed Cooperative Environmental Combat Test”. Basically, you and four other people had to kill progressively stronger waves of monsters in a simulation.
I waited with bated breath to see who my teammates were. Displayed on the screen on bright blue letters were, “Team: Everlon, Francine, Chad, Waras, Hary”. I had no idea who any of them were; however, I hoped that they would turn out to be good teammates.
I was the first to stand in the glowing blue circle that said “Team Everlon”. Just as I thought my teammates had all given up on the exam, a short, chubby red-headed man who had the face of a boy strode in.
“Hello, I’m Chad. Nice to meet you.”
“Hello. Nice to meet you too. I’m Everlon.” I used Analyze on him.
Seems like a nice guy.
The next person that walked in was another fat guy; this time, he appeared Asian in nature, and he was a stereotypical Asian slouch, fat, slow, and with glasses.
“Hello. I’m the leader of this team now, I’ve decided.”
“Why?” Chad asked.
“Because I’m the strongest one here, “ he puffed.
I used Analyze on him as well.
Okay, not so nice a guy.
First of all, how was I already at animosity? We had literally met thirty seconds ago. Secondly, he did not seem like a nice guy to have around.
So, politely, of course, I told him to “get out of here or I’ll shove a pencil up your butt“.
He started muttering about “Underappreciated Talents”.
At this moment, a fourth person walked into the room, followed by a fifth person.
The fourth person was clutching desperately onto the arm of the fifth person, whining.
“Why won’t you be my girlfriend! Please!”
“Stop stalking me, you pervert!”
The fourth person sniveled, then spotted us and said: “Guys! Help! I’m trying to-“
What exactly he was trying to do was unknown, as Hary threw herself at the girl and said: “M’lady, may I-“
“First of all, my name is Beatrice, not ‘M’lady’. Secondly, NO, and thirdly, will everybody stop stalking me!” Beatrice snapped.
“Lady Beatrice, I will protect you from this-“
“STOP!” I bellowed. Everybody instantly paused. “Chad, good job. Hary, weirdo-“
“Actually, my name is Waras.”
“Hary and Waras, stop being creepy,” I continued.
Hary snorted. “What makes you able to order me around?”
“Actually, nothing. You can go, if you wish.”
Knowing that he’ll never actually leave, he continued sulking in a corner. Waras started sulking in an opposite corner.
Suddenly, a large number appeared on a wall. It read five. Then four. Then three. As it ticked down to one, my surroundings began to fade to black.
Should I cut down the System boxes?
