The stomach was filled to the brim. Darrick was satisfied both in his stomach and heart. He left the kitchen and returned to his room. Today he had to gather anything he could find about the magic exams and maybe walk around the campus if he could spare some time.

He descended the stairs and through the main hall, he left the dormitories. He was about to go straight for the staff building but there was a little problem; he did not know where it was.

This goddamn campus is so big. They should at the least put some signboards or something so people can find their way around. Now I have to roam the whole fucking campus.

Just when he was complaining about the signboards he saw one just outside the dorms. It was pointing towards the first intersection and central garden. He walked a bit more till he was there at the first intersection and there was also a signboard, two actually. One showed the path to *both* dorms and another showed the path to the central garden.

Where did this signboard come from? I swear I did not see anything like this yesterday and I definitely passed through here.

Darrick recalled the happenings of the yesterday and it did look like he may possibly have missed the signboards even though it was two meters tall. For now, Darrick chose to ignore small things.

The staff building was still nowhere to be seen but from what he remembered from his talk with Sarah, there was a map of the whole academy in the central garden so he walked fast, he wanted to return before lunchtime after all.

***

A boy with long black hair almost reaching his shoulders and roundish glasses was walking through the central pathway. Even with that long hair, he was easily recognizable as a boy and that boy was aggressively glancing around as if he could sniff out everything illegal.

He was dragging a massive piece of luggage, it was really massive, it looked like he was moving away from his home permanently and going to settle here for the life. But what stood out was him dragging that luggage so effortlessly.

That boy's gaze fell on Darrick who was going for the staff building after finding the path from the map. He waved towards Darrick, that was enough to make Darrick suddenly stop in his tracks. The look of worry passed over his face in a split second before returning to normal. He waved back, like any normal person would do.

"Hello, nice to meet you, buddy. I really needed some help here."

"Uh.. Nice to meet you too." Darrick awkwardly returned the gesture. "Do you need something, I'll help you out if I can."

"Yes, of course. It's not like you are obligated to help me but I'll ask for help anyway it's not that big of a deal." He glanced towards his massive luggage.

Darrick was relieved, he relaxed a bit with that. Oh god! I thought this guy knew me from before because of how he talked but he was just an extrovert. Phew.

"I don't know if I can help you with that bag if that's what you're about to ask."

"That's not what I was about to ask and these bags are my training tools, I train my body with that thing. I just want to know where resident assistants' buildings are located."

"There should be some signboards before you enter the central path. Did you perhaps somehow miss it?"

"Kinda? Not really, I got lost somewhere and I entered this path from some random side so I did not find any boards there."

"Okay, things like this happen sometimes but for now you should keep heading straight and you will find a lot of sign boards here and there. If there is nothing else I'll take my leave as I'm pretty busy right now, we will catch up later if we find each other again."

"Yeah, all right. Thanks for the help, see you again." The glasses boy quickly disappeared as quickly as he came.

That was a weird encounter, maybe it was normal but there was something Darrick couldn't put in words that felt weird about the thing. Whatever it was it did not linger for any longer. He walked pretty fast and the staff building wasn't that far from here so he reached there in just a few minutes.

Darrick was standing outside the staff building right now. He was absorbing everything he saw. This building was neither made of Gothic style nor modern style, it was somewhere in-between and Darrick couldn't exactly pinpoint it. The building was pretty big, maybe not as big as the dorm building but big. It seemed like it was big with its width and breadth, not height. There weren't any upper floors here like modern buildings so its height was not as much as dormitories. All of the teachers were provided with a room here to do their work or whatever they wanted academically. These rooms were provided as an office and were not to be used as a home alternative as they were provided separate residences apart from this.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Do guest professors and assistant professors also get an office? Probably not for assistant professors but I can see guest professors getting their own office.

Darrick walked around a bit while scanning his surroundings. Now that he was here he didn't know where to go next, there weren't any signboards telling him to go somewhere for something.

So now that I'm here whom should I find? Maybe I should walk a bit more and talk with some professors to clear my questions. There was no one in the immediate vicinity so he walked a bit ahead and found someone who looked like a professor.

That person's whole body was screaming he was a professor. His body language, the dress code and his walk showed off his professor quality. Darrick did not waste any time and asked the professor directly.

"Excuse me, professor."

"Yes"

"I wanted to ask about the magic potential exam and I don't know who to ask."

"Then you should go look for Professor Zelkrat, she is the only right person who can answer most of your magic-related questions. You should go straight and turn right on the first intersection you get, at the end of that path there is a grandiose door and you will find her there."

"Thank you, professor, have a great day."

"You too."

The professor left for whatever work he was on but he gave the answers to the questions and showed someone who could answer the remaining question.

The room wasn't far. When Darrick reached out his hand to knock, the door opened slowly on its own. A voice followed shortly after, "Come in."

He didn't even need to ask for permission. Inside the room, an old lady was sitting on the sofa sipping tea.

"Come, sit here." She gestured her hand towards a chair, motioning him to sit.

Darrick did as he was instructed, he just wanted to ask about the magic exam but the pressure and feeling he was getting from her indicated that it wouldn't be as simple as some question-answer session.

"Hello Professor, I was directed towards you here to clear my doubts. If you're not busy-" Darrick was cut off in the middle of his sentence.

"Mhm... This tea is quite something. It has a unique taste to it. It clears your mind and cleanses your soul. You should try it sometimes, Darrick."

Darrick was feeling a bit wary towards her. It hasn't been 24 hours since he entered the Caladric and someone whom he hasn't met yet already knew his name and assuming the worst she may know more about him than he himself knows.

"Don't be wary, I know everyone who enters the Caladric campus. By the way, I'm Selena Zelkrat, if you didn't know."

"Was that supposed to make me less wary?" Darrick asked still on guard.

"It does not matter, I was just saying. So what was the reason for your visit? Is it about your unusual state of soul?"

Now Darrick was beyond terrified. His soul was in an unusual state, that sounded clearly troubled but the thing that some people could even gaze upon someone's soul was more troublesome. That was really an easy way to get caught as a transmigrater, but he tried his best not to reveal anything about his secret with his expressions and asked,

"What?! Is there something wrong with my soul?"

"Not anything detrimental, it would fix itself in a few days. Three days to be exact. Now it looks like you are here for something else." She said it with an amused smile on her face. She was enjoying something about him and he couldn't quite place what it was.

"Thank god! I was quite worried there for a minute. So the reason I came here was about magic potential determining test."

"Hmm. If I remember correctly you did not take the exams at the time of all other exams and now you want to take the test, I reckon?"

"Yes, at that time I did not know better but now somethings changed my mind," Darrick answered truthfully albeit partially.

"Some 'life-changing' events must have happened to you so minor or even some major decision changes are completely natural I would say. But unfortunately, you can't take the test because of your soul damage so you should come for the test after three days. How does that sound?"

"I'm totally fine with that. If it can't be helped then there is nothing I can do. So I'll take my leave now, thank you for giving some of your time." Darrick cut his conversation short and was ready to leave.

"Oh yes, come around if you have something else to ask." She waved him a bye with a broad smile across her face.

Darrick made haste back to his room as fast as he could. He was facing someone who felt unfathomable to him. He couldn't find many words to say in front of her. He was barely keeping his face straight throughout the conversation.

Somehow it felt like she was onto something like mentioning some parts with more stress to it and all but I don't know what she caught on and it looks like she doesn't see me as some kind of threat. Or else would she have acted the way she did. I don't know. I don't know enough about her to make a judgement.

Darrick shook his head to shake off the unnecessary thoughts and quickly strode off towards his dorm room.

***

Selena's smile did not fade even after Darrick left the room. She got up and took out a file from her desk cabin.

"Darrick Vental. What an unfortunate fate you have. If only you weren't tangled with so many threads of fate. It all starts with the law of fortune and it ends with the law of fortune. If you can't untangle them quickly then they will strangle you until you have no room left to breathe. Every single choice of yours will lead to the eventual destiny and I can't wait to see how it goes."

Alone in the room, she kept saying things incomprehensible to most people and she disappeared from her room after a second with a flash of light.