Chapter 11: Tests-start

Today is the start of testing period. First of all is test that comes with our affinity. In my case, Void type test. I wonder what Riley will make me do. He still did not forgive me for coming late on the first day. His grudge really grows deep. Truthfully, I worry about it. I am the only one in his class and he knows what I am capable of so he can give me extremely harsh test and he is able to do it. Good old Riley.

Alice was worried too when she came today. She even hugged me and kissed my forehead. She’s really a nice girl but I won’t lower my guard before her. She is hiding something, something that makes me involved.

I am not the only one who is stressed. Yesterday night was really, how should I say it, let’s just say everyone was lively, yes, lively is a good word. In what ways I leave it to you.

The best thing is, I got a fun club. When I went out of the dorms, underclassmen, not just girls but even boys and I do not swing that way, welcomed me with a huge round of applause. Got how I hate crowds and fame. I think I will wear mask in the future. I could use Phantom steps to get out without them even noticing me but I need to keep appearances. So I just thanked them and few girls fainted and even one guy. Seriously, what the hell is happening?

When I left, my expression was really nice. I did not even reach classroom and I was already tired. Now that I think about it, when I was leaving, Alice was smiling. I thought it was to encourage me but she must have known about them. Damn you Alice.

No reason to dwell on it. Such petty things are useless anyway and soon, the will leave me alone anyway.

As always, way to make Void class is empty not even one person in sight. See, I’m completely alone. When I need to hide, I just need to come here I just mustn’t ever tell Riley about it or else he will smother me to pieces. Almost literally.

When I finally reached class and opened the door, Riley was smiling with such a BIG smile I shuddered a little. What the hell will he let me do? *grin* I can’t wait. It will be such a fun.

“Hi, Riley. So what did you prepare for me?”

“Student Risiel, sit down first.”

Oh is he doing role-play as a teacher? He never acted like one only when he was giving his extremely long and detailed explanations. God, you just have to love them. They will make your brain melt.

So I sat down and looked straight at him.

“Good good. Now then, your test will be quite simple really. You do not need to do anything, just tell me one thing.”

Oh boy, making explanation to explanater? I’m doooooooooomed. God, this will be fun.

“And what will it be?”

“As I said, it’s quite simple. This black ring here is spatial ring. You must explain me in detail how it was constructed, what it hold, how big is the space and such without binding it.”

Ha ha ha, Riley really isn’t going any easy. Normally, to find out such things you need to bind with the item, making a connection with it and just knowing it with concentration. Because spatial rings are created with Void magic, it should be possible to find such information without binding it. Those who do not have Void affinity would never be able to do it. Problem is, to create spatial ring, you must be genius with at least 15% in Void and normal people need 20%. And I am just at 6%. This will really be fun.

“You can begin now. If you will be cheating, you fail the same goes with you binding it. You have 3 hours to find out. You can start whenever you want.”

I have a certain way in mind how to make it work but let’s try to think about it a little.

I took that ring and placed it on the ground before me and I took a meditative posture. Meditation is the best way to sort through thoughts so it will be indispensible.  I did outer meditation, trying to concentrate on the place I placed the ring. I could feel it, black spot around which mana revolved like a vortex that sucked and dispersed at the same time. But what does this mean? I need to concentrate on it more.

And so I concentrated for quite a while. I was able to understand its workings. It’s quite simple. The ring is created with Void mana so it isn’t technically in our realm you could say and everything that is in our realm is soaked and penetrated with mana, but this ring can’t be but mana still tries it, that’s why it sucks and disperse at the same time. So one question answered.

The other question that arises to me was, if it can’t absorb mana, how can you will it to store and release objects you placed within? It took quite a while to figure this out. Mana cannot do anything with it so it must be the ring itself that makes it happen so I concentrated on its surface and then I found it. On its surface were waves. They were static, always the same at the same intervals. I figured out this is the answer. By changing the waves, you can will it to store, release or be in sleep. How you changed that is beyond me for now. Maybe it is can only be done by binding it or maybe your own will in mana will make it work, it’s hard to say without experimenting with it.

The problem is, how to find out about insides? I don’t have any idea. The only thing I can think of is still the same I came up with at the start. The answer is status. By willing mana inside us to our brains with a will to know about ourselves, we can see our status. Why couldn’t it be done in opposite way? Why not by willing mana in our bodies to an item with a will to know about the item I couldn’t see its status? The problem is, all objects are soaked with mana and 2 different manas cannot be inside the object at the same time. The main mana will always prevail.

I had to use inner meditation to figure this out. I tried to sort all my knowledge I was able to get since I came here. I tried to thing about many ways and when I thought about control classes, I found an answer.

The answer isn’t much different from what I thought about before. It’s just how I will use my own mana to flow into the object. I won’t use my own mana to fill the object, oh no. I will let my own mana to mimic the mana of the object. That way, there shouldn’t be too much incompatibility and my own mana should be able to process the information of the item, the same way as my own mana had to permeate my whole being to unlock full status. And so I tried it.

If you think it was easy, think again. Theory is one thing but practice, completely another. To will mana into object was quite easy but to mimic the mana of the object? Insanity itself. It took quite some time and after many trials and errors, it was simple. You must not force to change position of your own mana. You must let it flow naturally or else it will disrupt itself. Still, easier than done.

I don’t know how long it took me but I prevailed and was able to do all the steps. The reward for my attempt was………….nothing. Nothing happened even though all steps were done. I’m missing something. Think think. It must be something trivial, just think, think.

Something clicked inside my head. The answer was simple. Items do not have brain so they cannot show status to me. I must use my own brain to decode the information from the ring. So I experimented a little by making the mana I used for the ring to come out of it and back to me, in fact, to my brain. The problem is that the mana that came back to me was overwhelmed by my own and it dissipated. Incompatibility again. There must be a way.

So I extracted mana from the ring and compressed it into the ball and when it came to me I used mana to create barrier around it, blocking interference of my own flow and made a way for it into my brain. When it reached it, it WORKED. Status of the ring was shown to me.

Training Spatial RingSpace1m3RankFInventoryToken

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I was so overwhelmed by it and I could feel something was unlocked to me. I focused on that feeling.

SkillMagical identificationRankBasicUnique and original skill never seen before.

By using multiple steps, you can understand the state of any object like it would be part of you.

The better your rank, the faster and more detail information access.

I wanted to cry. This skill will be immensely useful and what’s more, I think I am done with everything. I know how it was created, how it stores items, what it holds and what type it is.

Now that I look at Riley, he has inquisitive look. Was I doing something strange? I don’t even know how much time I have left.

“Hey Riley, How much time already passed?”

“2 hours 13 minutes”

“No kidding?”

“No kidding.”

Damn, trial and error took a lot of time. I think I’m still missing something, something about creation process. I just don’t know what it is. Let’s just explain what I found out.

“Ok, I think I’m done for now at least.”

“Really? Then start explaining.”

“Spatial rings are simple. By using Void mana, you penetrate the whole ring with it and it gets abilities of spatial and time manipulation. Because it is made with Void mana, mana around us cannot penetrate it and that’s why mana is trying to be sucked inside the ring but is being dispersed. How the workings of the storing and releasing are is simple too. On the surface of the ring are static waves. By changing their configuration, you can store or release items. Which item you want to store or release is beyond me for now. It must have something to do with binding and willing of mana. Now, what this ring store is a token and the space in the ring is 1 m3. It is F rank ring and the name is training special ring.”

When I ended with my explanation, Riley’s jaw was on the floor. I wonder why?

“H-how the hell did you figure all of this? And what the hell do you mean by waves? And name of the ring and rank? That shouldn’t be possible.”

Huh? Shouldn’t be possible? It wasn’t so hard, when you got the hang of it that is. Without learning proper use of raw mana it really would be impossible. God, I really love control.

“Is it something strange?”

“Yeah it is. I never even heard of such thinks, but it would explain a lot. Anyway, you figure most of the thing and so I could let you pass, but I won’t let you. You still missed one point, just at the start.”

Start? Creation process! Just as I thought, I really missed something. I don’t have any idea. The last hurdle in my path. Item is filled with void magic to permeate it. What is wrong with it? I get. Such stupidity. Mana around us cannot interfere with spatial ring because of void mana but opposite is true too. You cannot force mana from the item with the void mana in the same way. So to fill this ring with void mana, you must first force out mana of the item and at the same time change it with void mana. Now that I think about it, the amount of space created must depend on type of material ring is made out of, purity of your mana, void understanding and the changing process. Maybe even more.

I explained all of this and Riley smiled.

“You little rascal, you really did it. But say, how did you figure out the name of the ring and its rank?”

“Let’s just say it’s my secret.”

“Sleezy kid.”

And I grinned.

I won’t say anyone about my Magical identification. It is gold mine in itself.

“Now then. Bind this ring and get your token out. It will work as a sign you passed my test.”

Binding, spatial ring. Hell yeah! This rings, even F ranks are so pricey and I got one for free. It only has 1 m3 of space but that’s enough for me and I should be able to upgrade it in the future.

How to bind spatial ring? Just prick your finger and let your blood with mana in it drop on it. I say with mana in it but all blood that comes from you has mana in it, just trace amounts but it is still there, just if there wouldn’t be any than nothing would happen. So, no mana in your body, no binding.

And so I binded it and a light came from the ring. No some blinding light just some small light signalizing it being bind. When I concentrated on the ring. I could feel what is inside. Starnge feeling but not uncomfortable. I took the token out.

It was a hexahedron with a violet ball in the middle. The ball was white in the middle and the farther you went to the edge, the violet became darker. It looks intriguing.

“What does this symbol mean?”

“Oh yes, you know, we Void mages wear black robes but it’s just to distinguish us, the main sign is, however, this emblem. All elements have one. This is for us Void mages. All magical Void books have this sign, the same with other elements. The reason why you did not hear about it is because only now, when you finished your basic training you became a magician, even though just the lowest kind. Ha ha ha.”

Interesting.

“Now, you are done here but there’s still some time left. Do you want to talk about something?”

Talk about something with Riley? The grandmaster of explanations. Sure.

“Why not? You can start.”

“What part of a women body do you like?”

Perverted Riley. Let’s use this chance, maybe in the future I can blackmail him with it.

“Which one do you like?”

“It’s BUTTOCKS! Those squeezing pieces of meat, with that soft on touch texture and just those eye catching parts are what make them so delicious. When you think about ……..”

*Some time later*

I don’t know how he did it, but he did. To speak about buttocks for so long that I needed to go already without even having chance to say something, only Riley could do it.

“Well, it looks like I need to go already.”

“Wait! And what about you?”

As I was slowly going out of the door, I looked back a little and said

“The upper part.”

And left. We really are 2 opposites, but he is a nice guy. Nice funny guy. There will be much more fun with him in the future. Maybe I will start teasing him now too. Maybe even a nickname? What about Butt guy? No. Butt man is better? Don’t know. I will think of something.

Now, it’s time to take a nap, next to Alice if possible. She really is good hugging pillow.

And so I went back to the dorm, my fans still there and so I just use Phantom steps and past them without them even noticing me. It’s great to have silent steps, presence manipulation and sprint as sub skills for it. I still make a lot of noise and wasted movements but it will be fixed in the future. Now, it’s time to take a breather and get ready  for tomorrow, for my Enchanting and Beast taming.

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This was fun. To write this, I had to go through destroyed HDD, lighting storm and the surgery I will get tomorrow. Yupi ya yey.

Anyway, took longer to do this and I will do 2 tests per chapter or so. Void was main class so it took whole chapter and finally, I can use sci-fi parts and I mean like science parts.

Hope you enjoyed.