The train had reached the Astoria Grand Station, even though Astoria was a massive city it did not have more than one station. He threw his bag on his bag to make it easy to carry and also brought down Hailey's luggage. On one hand, he had his own luggage and on the other was her bag, he was just giving her a helping hand, he moved ahead towards the door, and Hailey also got out shortly after. Some people were waiting for her, so Darrick placed her luggage there.

"Bye, Hailey. Have a good day." Darrick said and left the scene without giving her any chance to even say a thank you but he turned back once she smiled at him while directly staring at him and waved at him, he also waved back with a smile.

The train station was crowded with all the people, the station was massive but it was still pretty crowded, the spacious concourse was bustling with activity, mainly around the centre of it where the ticket counter was there. The waiting seats were already full of people. Even with so many people, there weren't many students here beside him, which he judged based on their age, but still, there was a lot of traffic of common people. As the capital, Astoria had a huge engagement of people.

He weaved through the crowd and barely got out of the station. He would have called for a carriage like many others but like many others, he could not spare money for the carriage so he decided it was better to walk.

Yeah, walking is also good for health and I can literally see the academy's main gates so I'll be there in no time.

He did not reach there in no time. It took a painstaking one hour, the gates were not visible, and he just hyped himself up to walk when there was an alternative although expensive. He thought it would be just around the corner for some reason and he was already exhausted. Darrick was panting hard just from this simple walk.

I could have walked that much with ease, no breeze back there but now it took all the air out of my lungs already. So unfit, ugh.

At the entrance, two guards were checking something from all the students. Some students showed the rectangular card, most probably an ID card, and other clueless-looking students held out a piece of paper, likely their admission certificate so he also pulled it out from the bag.

"Good morning, I'm a new student. I just arrived at Astoria today. Can I go inside?" asked Darrick, even though he already guessed he did not just give them his admission certificate. He just wanted to confirm if it was really what he thought it was, it was pretty embarrassing to be wrong sometimes.

Thankfully they confirmed it. "If you are a new student, then show us your admission certificate please."

Darrick quickly gave his document, the guards took it and compared it with some documentation of their own, they ticked something in their note and extended it towards him.

"Sign here, exactly where the box that's in front of your name is."

After Darrick scribbled his name in cursive as a sign, the verification process was completed and the documents were returned to him.

"You have to go to the resident assistant's building first before heading to the dormitories, so you can get your room number and keys." Darrick just nodded and left the scene towards his new place.

Those guys refused to talk about anything but business. Some nice words would have kept the conversation but nope, too businnessy with their conduct, understandable but not really. Nothing noteworthy was exchanged in my first campus conversation. Very nice.

Darrick was absorbing everything he saw when looking around, as an ancient architectural wonder, it was worthy to be lost in its beauty. The academy campus was absolutely massive, it may have been expanded over the years as the Academy grew, it was just a guess but the contrast between the outer buildings and inner buildings showed it.

The main buildings of the academy followed the Gothic architectural style while most of the outer buildings followed various architectural styles throughout the last 1500 years, the architecture showed the era it was built in, not like Darrick knew which era it was but he could guess with how similar these styles are to the ones from his previous world. Why were the facilities built later? Likely because of the time the main building was built all other facilities like dormitories looked unnecessary somehow or maybe they didn't have enough budget for them at that time.

Either way, the dormitories buildings he could see from here were built with pretty modern-looking styles by their shape and craftsmanship. It was beautiful only if you don't compare it with the great architecture of the old eras. While wondering about the difference in the architectural era he had reached the resident assistant building in no time.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

This was also one of the newer buildings. The building's main hall was empty possibly because how he only saw too few students on the campus, and that was none of his concern. He went straight for the one guy he first saw after entering the building. There was a middle-aged man whose hair was whitening, wrinkles were starting to form on his face, maybe because of the problem with his eyes he was wearing glasses.

The man peered at Darrick through the top edges of his glasses as he was facing down writing something. He raised his head to look directly at Darrick, adjusted his glasses and asked,

"You must be a new student, give me your admission certification and any proof of identity so I can quickly check you in."

"Why did you think I'm a new student and came here to check in."

"Are you not?"

"I am"

"There, you said it yourself. Now give me the documents and take that pamphlet which has the rules and regulations of the dormitories and also the punishments for breaking them." He pointed towards a desk at the side of the room where there was a stack of that pamphlet.

While checking the room he neared the desk and picked it up, folded it twice and kept it in his left pocket.

"Is it done? Am I free to go now? Can I ask you something else now?" Darrick asked three questions in a single breath.

Man, I don't know why but I can't think of anything to start a normal conversation, am I a bit grumpy? I should sleep, I'm just spouting gibberish now. How am I supposed to collect information if I can't even talk normally? Maybe I'm tired from the train ride so my mental capacity is diminishing, I definitely should rest the first thing after reaching my room.

"Yes, for all."

"What I wanted to ask was about the magic test."

"What about it?"

"I had some complications the last time the exam was conducted, I attended all other exams but not the magical one, maybe because I was a different person back then but now I suddenly changed my mind, so is there any way I can take that test to see if I have potential to be a mage."

"Yes, you can."

"And.....?"

"And you can consult the concerned authorities like staff members. For anyone who is studying in Caladric, they can ask to take the exam whenever they wish once a year, it is free and available 24/7."

The man placed a slip and documents on Darrick's hand and said,

"Keep this piece of paper with you, come back a week after to get your ID with this slip. If you don't have it then you have to ask for another and it will take some time to get your ID and then you may be fined for various reasons. Keep it intact. And als-"

"So what about my dorm room, where should I go?"

"I was answering that just before you interrupted me. Your dorm room is in building C, 2nd floor, room no. 463. Find it yourself."

Darrick was impatient with his conduct and the man was like a machine, simply answering the bare minimum. Who knows maybe he really was something like a robot wearing human skin.

After technically getting kicked out of the building and just walking somewhere with his absurd thoughts, he remembered how he had a room of his own to sleep in, very nice. He left with light steps with the hopes of finding dorms.

Just a few steps out of the building the sign board ahead showed there was a path to the left with DORMITORIES being written boldly and an arrow mark showing direction. His destination was already set but now even his path was set and he was walking through it.

***

He was lost in his quest to search for the dorm buildings. Half of the dorm buildings were nowhere to be seen. The A, C, E and G buildings weren't here at all, only B, D, F and G buildings were here.

What's with this shit, Where did four fucking buildings go? I searched for an hour and a half but still no fuckin clue. I'm hella sleepy right now and I can't think straight. Did I miss something on my way or am I just stupid?

"What the fuck am I supposed to do now?"

"Hello"

While Darrick was swearing around, a girl heard his voice and came out of their way to talk to him.

"Oh hello, you literally startled me there."

"Really? I did not mean to do that but why are you here?"

"Uh.. I was trying to find my dorm rooms but I could not even find my supposed building. Do you mind helping me out a bit?"

"I don't mind and I'm Sarah Corvus, 3rd year magic spellcraft major ." She extended her hand for a handshake.

"I'm Darrick Vental and I'm a new student" He shook her hand.

"Come follow me, I'll show you the place where you wanted to go."

"Ok but where are we going now? I did not tell you my dorm buildings letter."

"Well, it does not matter actually. All of the male dormitory buildings are at a different place from the female ones. So I was just showing you the common area." She talked while walking.

Darrick suddenly realized his mistake that he was never searching in the right place from the start. "So you are telling me that I was wrong from step one."

"I never said that, wasn't it you who said that?" She asked with a small smile.

Wow! She is really beautiful with that smile of hers but now I could care less about it. I gotta sleep otherwise I would go insane.

They talked some something on their way here but Darrick was not in the right mind to give any proper attention to the words she said or whatever he said, it was all kind of blurry.

While talking they reached the place where they could see all four dorms now. They looked the same as the other ones but with different letters in front of them. The dorms were calling for him to give a sweet embrace of sleep. He didn't waste a single second after that or he he wished didn't because he couldn't just storm off without saying a single word of gratitude to Sarah.

"Thank you, Sarah. I owe you one. I'll get you something to eat sometimes if you are ever free. For now bye, see you later."

Darrick left the scene as fast as he could, without even giving her a second to reply. She did say something when he was storming off from the place but it wasn't clearly heard. And now he had very important things to do like catching up on some sleep.