Trent slowly blinked the sleep out of his eyes, leisurely rising out of bed. Stumbling over to his closet, he suddenly remembered the events of the previous night. Noah! I'm getting my results soon! Throwing on his nearest set of clothes, he rushed out of his room to see his whole family already up in the dining room. dropping into his seat, Trent plowed through his food while his family talked.
"Hey Trent," His mother said "Nice to see you awake." Trent paused his breakfast devouring to look over at her questioningly.
"You were super tired last night bud, you completely missed the College tester. He left a sheet of paper for you." Hearing this, Trent jumped up and ran to the front door, looking frantically for his results.
"Why didn't you wake me up? What if they already left?" He asked briskly before seeing his father holding the paper out to him.
"They leave at midday, son. You have plenty of time, and you needed the rest." His father scolded gently, placing the paper in Trent's hands. He read through the sheet as fast as he could, before spotting words that sent him rocketing around the room with joy.
93%, Vantall Magic College recommended.
"I DID IT! I GOT INTO VANTALL!" He shouted, prompting his family to start celebrating. Trent danced around his house, giddy with excitement. Pausing in the middle of his jig, he looked over to his family. I won't see them again for 4 years. Once he realized this, his excitement flowed out of him. He ran over to his family, his greatest advocates, the people who loved him the most in this world. Hugging each in turn, they all cried openly, bittersweet tears.
Once everyone had collected themselves, Trent spent the rest of his time just hanging out with his family. Playing games with Rosa, helping his mother with chores, talking with his father, Trent enjoyed just living without worrying for the first time in a long while. Eventually though, it had to come to an end. As midday neared, Trent's family lined up outside their house to wish him well. He stepped up first to his mother, giving her a tight squeeze.
"You be careful out there. It's very dangerous up in the city. Keep your money tight to your belt. Remember to learn a message spell as soon as you can. And don't forget to-" Trent chuckled, cutting off his mother's tirade of worries.
"I've got it mom. Don't worry, I'll be careful. And a message spell is gonna be the first spell I learn when I get there. Promise." He assured her.
"Good. Oh Trent, I'm just so proud of you. My little boy is all grown up." She said, gathering him into an even tighter hug. Once he started struggling to breathe, Trent broke out of his mother's embrace, moving towards his father.
"Listen son, you'll need to get a job when you're in Vantall. Your score on the test should afford you a scholarship, which means school dorms, but you'll need to buy everything for any projects you take on yourself. You should give some thought to your strengths and weaknesses while on the road, think of a job that would suit you while you're in school." His father told him, stern as always.
"Alright Dad, I'll do that." Trent thought he noticed a little glimmer of tears in his father's eye, but moved onto Rosa before he could dwell on it too much.
"You promise you'll message us every night?" His sister demanded, looking up at him fiercely.
"Pinkie promise." He said, linking fingers with his sibling. The deal sealed, Rosa puffed up proudly for a moment before tackling her brother's legs in a hug. Starting to sniffle, she yelled up to him.
"I'll miss you!!" She exclaimed before running back inside. Taking the outburst as his cue to leave, Trent headed down the road. He only turned back once, to toss out a quick "I love you!" before starting towards the caravan. He passed through the town he grew up in, a melancholy feeling giving way to excitement once more as he drew closer. Passing over the hill at the edge of town, he finally spotted the wagons. He waved to catch the attention of Noah, running down the hill.
"I made it in time!" He exclaimed, stopping just in front of Noah.
"That you did, friend. Follow me and we'll get you set up for the trip. The path to Vantall can get dangerous in places, and we want to minimize casualties." He explained, leading Trent into one of the few remaining tents in the clearing. He held up a simple metal band.
"This is an ISD, or Illusory Statistic Display. I personally would've called it the Glowy Number Band, but that's why I didn't go into artificing. Once you put it on, it'll display a bunch of number above your vision. Those are, from left to right, your health, stamina, and mana." Noah lectured, strapping the band onto Trent's wrist. True to his word, Trent's vision lit up with a bunch of numbers, not dimming even when his face impacted to the floor.
"Oh yeah, forgot about that part. Give it a few minutes and you should get used to it. Wear on long enough and you don't even notice them most of the time. They're part of the uniform at Vantall, mostly because of all the other enchantments I was gonna explain before you decided to chew the dirt. Up you go" Finally deigning to help him up, Noah placed Trent down in a chair and let him acclimate to the illusions. Now that Trent's brain wasn't being assailed by lights and colours, he could actually make out what the numbers read.
Health: 250/150
Stamina: 150/175
Mana: 100/100
"Why is my health 250 out of 150? And also why's it blue?" Trent asked.
"150? Damn, you must work out a hell of a lot. The reason you have more health than your max is because of the main defensive enchantment on your ISD, Mage Armor. You'll learn to make a much better one in Combat Magic, but for now you'll be stuck with this. It'll provide a buffer from attacks before you start actually bleeding and shit, hopefully letting us get to you first. It's standard fare for any mage worth their salt, and used for duels." Noah responded, before snapping his fingers. He held his hand out in midair, letting it catch the knife that had just appeared out of nowhere.
"Here, check this out." He said cheerily, before violently stabbing Trent in the chest. He tried to dodge out of the way, but was trapped by the chair. He could do nothing but watch as the knife slammed into his sternum... and was stopped by a glowing blue barrier.
"Neat, right? Check the display." Noah said, as if he hadn't just stabbed Trent. His eyes moved up to his health despite his indignation, noticing the number had dipped quite a bit, but was slowly going back up.
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"I'm glad to see I'll be safe on this trip, but couldn't you have done that any other way?" Trent asked, exasperated.
"Oh totally, but where's the fun in that? I mean, you should have seen your face! Anyway, there's a few more enchantments on that bad boy. You've got the usual self repair and cleaning, there's tracking in case you get kidnapped by the summoning department. Always happens to someone. And there's a light enchantment, in case you're scared of the dark." He finished, holding his own, now glowing, wrist up next to his face and smiling innocently. Trent let out a sigh before standing up.
"Is that all I'm gonna need? I'm suddenly very tired for some reason." He asked, throwing a half-hearted glare at Noah.
"Just gotta meet your fellow freshmen, and you should be good. There's usually quite few people along this route, or so I'm told, but there's only 4 people this round. Should speed up introductions at least. Here they are! Have fun getting to know each other, I've gotta finish pulling down the tents." Noah said with a flourish, drawing Trent's attention to 3 people around his age sitting at a burned out campfire.
At the far left was a rather skinny man, quietly doing... something. He had light brown hair, freckles sprinkled across his face. He tossed a small wave towards Trent before going to back to whatever he was doing. Next to him was a very energetic looking girl. She looked to be about a head shorter than Trent, with curly, light brown hair and bright green eyes. She wore a simple rope, with lots of pockets. The last man was standing, looking disdainfully at him. He had black hair, dark blue eyes, and expensive looking clothes. He snorted derisively and sat down without a second glance. Then the girl ran up and stuck her hand out.
"Hey there, my name's Joan, what's yours?" She asked rapidly as Trent shook her hand. She was almost vibrating with energy, to the point that he worried she might explode.
"I'm Trent. Nice to meet you. Are you... okay?" He asked, growing a little concerned.
"I'm fine, I just get like this when I'm excited. Speaking of, I can't wait to get to Vantall! I've never been out of Rutherford before!" She reassured him, though it was slightly undermined by her quite literally bouncing up and down.
"Oh, you're going to Vantall too? I'm a little nervous, I haven't left Tatesworth either. It'll be nice to have someone I know there." I said, my eyes following her increasingly rapid form. She opened her mouth to speak, or possibly take off, but was cut off by a harsh voice.
"I can't believe they let commoners like you into Vantall. It's a disgrace." The rich looking man said.
"That was entirely unprompted and unnecessary. Why would you come out with that before even your name, dude? Trent asked, surprised at the sudden interruption.
"Anyone who does not know the name of Baron Cedrick Norbury is a fool. Though that's to be expected of commoners." He said the last word as if it was acid on his tongue, biting it off harshly.
"What do you have against commoners, Cedrick?" Joan asked, demonstrating a politeness he was entirely undeserving of. Clearly Cedrick himself agreed, because he spun on her, stalking towards her until he was standing directly in front of her before starting to speak.
"They are weak, foolish, incapable, filthy, loud, and useless. They possess no desirable traits, as you should know yourself. to even be allowed to step foot onto school grounds is a privilege they. Do. Not. Deserve." He punctuated each of his last words with a poke to the chest, each one pushing Joan back slightly. Before he could finish his final poke, Trent grabbed his arm, stopping him cold.
"Personal space, asshole." He said, in true teenage fashion. Cedrick, clearly unhappy with being touched by a 'filthy commoner', ripped his arm back before throwing the momentum into a quick backhand. Trent caught the hand before it could reach him, stepping sideways and pulling Cedrick towards him. Stumbling, he tried to throw a punch at Trent's side, but his elbow came down to block it. Trent spun on his heel, slamming a palm into Cedrick's back, causing him to stumble once again before falling to the ground.
It took a few seconds for Cedrick to regain his bearings, unused to failing. He pulled himself up, running towards Trent once again with a roar. Trent, not wanting to drag the fight on much longer, simply sidestepped the charge and kicked Cedrick in the back of the knee, dropping him to the ground. He then wrapped him in a bear hug, not wanting to get accused of trying to choke him when an authority figure inevitably showed up. This proved to be a good idea when Noah ran into the clearing, the skinny kid from early in tow. He must have slipped out when the fight started.
"It's been barely 10 minutes guys. How have you already had a fistfight. While I am a little impressed that you wrapped it up before I had to do anything, I won't tolerate fistfights in my caravan. I don't particularly care who started it or why, you are both getting punished because you were both dumb enough to try and beat the shit out of each other. No dinner tonight, latrine duty, and stay away from each other for the rest of the trip." Noah declared before marching away. Trent had released his hold on Cedrick the moment he heard Noah show up, and he now stood next to Joan.
"What an asshole." He muttered under his breath before turning to Joan.
"Why don't we continue our talk a little ways over here? You wanna come with us dude?" Trent called to the last kid. He hurried over, clearly not wanting to be around Cedrick if at all possible.
"Sure, thanks. My name's Terrance." He said, holding his hand out for the two to shake.
"Where did you get accepted to?" Joan asked, clearly trying to change the subject from the fight.
"Oh, Vantall, like you guys. Kinda neat that everyone here got accepted to Vantall, but no one else got accepted at all." Terrance observed.
"Honestly, I prefer it with less people. Clearly, I'm not great at making friends." Trent joked, the others chuckling good-naturedly.
They suddenly hear a bell ring out, and Noah's voice suddenly shooting through the clearing.
"Get ready folks, we're moving out in about 15 seconds. Go go go!" He exclaimed, leaving the trio wincing. Regardless of their ringing ears, they headed as one to the wagon at the back, guessing correctly that Cedrick wouldn't deign to seat himself at the back of a caravan. They got settled right as the wagons started moving, the horses slowly plodding along. After the first hour, they collectively came to the decision that nothing was going to happen and chose to sleep. Their sleep was unfortunately disturbed 3 hours later as their wagon was impacted by something.
The bump having woken him up, Trent looked outside the wagon to see what had caused it. He was not prepared for a very large squirrel, red-eyed and slavering, repeatedly body slamming the the undercarriage. Seeing as it was still only up to Trent's knees, he decided to try and deal with it on his own. Stepping out, he pulled out his sword. He still didn't know how to use it, but he didn't think it could be that hard. You just out the sharp end between you and the thing you want to put a hole in. Typically this wouldn't work, but the enraged squirrel wasn't doing too much thinking. Thus, when Trent planted his feet and held the sword out, it chose to leap directly at him, and subsequently, his sword.
Having just impaled a fairly large woodland creature, Trent was a little unsure as to what to do. It was bleeding a whole lot, and he wasn't all that used to blood that wasn't his own. He shook the sword, trying to dislodge the creature, but splattered himself with even more blood in the process. Finally removing the furry carcass, Trent grabbed it and decided he might as well bring it along. They would rest in short order, and having some meat to eat would be great.
Unfortunately, his companions were heavier sleepers, so they woke up to their new friend absolutely drenched in blood, trying to teach himself to skin a squirrel. Of course, the subsequent screaming brought Noah over to see what the issue was. He thought the whole ordeal was hilarious, Joan less so. She refused to talk to look at him until he washed all the blood off, apparently unused to gore. Noah did assure him that they could eat his acquisition, snapping his fingers to make its skin simply peel off.
Nothing more of note happened until they rested for dinner. They stopped at a river, letting everyone bathe, so he could fully get rid of the blood traces. They ate grilled squirrel while going around telling scary stories, while Cedrick holed up in his wagon. Trent regaled them with the epic tale of him defeating the squirrel, while Joan told a story about living trees that left everyone huddling close for protection. Terrance shared the first chapter of a story he had read in his home town. Finally, Noah told them stories from Vantall. He had quite a few, from golems going rogue and smashing things, to summoned creatures going rogue and smashing things, to the Void Studies class just up and disappearing the all of their chairs.
Heads filled with ideas of what the would do at Vantall, and plans to avoid getting crushed by giant inkpots, the trio went to sleep for the night. As he drifted off, Trent thought he heard a low hiss through the night, but brushed it off and fell asleep.