I still couldn't believe it. . .
My dear parents had abandoned me in the capital, to go out on some quest which they'd have me believe was given to them by the Emperor himself. What was more concerning though was the reason I'd been left behind, which was to attend the most famous academy in the entire empire, the Alterron Royal Academy. Known for it's extremely competitive style of educating students in magic, and attended exclusively by nobles and those whose families were deemed to have contributed significantly to the empire, the Academy consistently produced many powerful mages. The most talented scions of the 6 high noble families, and those from the most prodigious families of the empire would be attending this academy with the intent of proving themselves. . . annnndd then there'd be me, the girl who'd used magic a grand total of once in her 15 years of life and gotten the title of "Natural Disaster" for it. How was I meant to stand shoulder to shoulder with those my age who stood at the apex of our generation?? Trained in their families magic since birth, and all too eager to start making a name for themselves now that they'd be entering the academy.
"At least father taught me how to fight and defend myself." I'd had practice in martial arts in my previous life, but unfortunately my knowledge didn't translate particularly well here. Melee fighters in this world could use the mana within them to boost their physical abilities far beyond what I'd ever been capable of on earth, and as this was not considered a spell or even magic, it ended up being all my parents had been permitted to teach me that related to mana. My parents did also provide me with a generalized education about various things such as how to read and write, mathematics, basic history, about monsters and dungeons, etc... While my parents would definitely be labelled as highly intelligent, their knowledge of the empire felt strangely lacking, that or they intentionally withheld certain things from me. Most of the things they ended up teaching me were at least in some way related to adventuring, leaving me feeling wholly unprepared for life in the capital and all that it could entail.
I was currently en route to the campus for my orientation, with mom and dad having left the day before, I was truly on my own for the first time since coming to this world. "Well I moved out at a young age on earth as well, I doubt this could be any worse."
My mother had arranged for her sister (who I had yet to meet) to send a magical carriage to drive me to the Academy, apparently magic made the creation of self-driving vehicles much simpler, their design distincly reminded me of those from a certain steampunk game about an assassin I'd played before. The burgundy leather seats, wood paneling, and sleek curves cutting a distinct figure as it raced through the capitals' streets to deliver me to my destination. I wondered if people thought I might be the heir to some wealthy house, riding around in such luxury as I was.
I began to go over what little I knew of the Capital and the Academy in my head before I unintentionally made a fool of myself. The capital city was located in the center of the Emprie and called Alterron; it was comprised of three islands, similar in shape to the wi-fi symbol on earth, with the largest outer island of Astris curving around the slightly smaller Lunis, and Lunis doing the same around the centermost island of Solis which was where the Emperor reigned from. The islands were named from smallest to largest after the Sun, the Moons, and the Stars. There being one Sun, signifying where the Emperor lived; two Moons, signifying where the Nobles and those who'd been personally acknowledged by the Emperor lived; and infinite Stars, signifying where the rest of the innumerable masses lived. It was a rather pretentious wya of phrasing things I thought, but at least it made it simpler to get a decent understanding of the city, serving as a mnemonic tool of sorts. The architecture of the capital was surprisingly similar to the Victorian style on earth, just with more metals used, as well as more colorful buildings overall. It seemed most of the nobles took such pride in their respective elemental affinities that it was often displayed in the colors of the materials used to build their homes, and even the color of the plants and flowers of their gardens.
The Academy, though I had yet to see it, was supposedly built to mimic the three islands in it's layout. With two concentric rings of buildings surrounding and partially encircling a central tower that was built in the shape of the greek letter Φ. The central tower, called the Emris tower (named after the Emperor), was where I'd been told most of my classes would end up being held in. Other than that I knew there were dorms, and even restaurants and some shops for students within the campus. It honestly sounded like some prestigious college campuses from earth, "Here's to hoping I don't have to take out any student loans though, I might just cry if I couldn't escape from them even in another world."
I was pretty nervous about attending the Academy, the only one I'd been to being of the non-magical variety as well as on earth, from which I'd promptly been expelled from, so I couldn't help but wonder what it was that I should expect from the Royal Academy. "I wanted to be expelled from that place though," I reminded myself, "whatever the Royal Academy holds for me, I plan to do my best. It could also be my only chance to learn how to use my magic," For my own sake, as well as to uphold my parent's reputations, I strengthened my resolve. Father and Mother were apparently much more famous than I'd originally thought though, my enrollment alone proved that to me. I shouldn't even be allowed on the island of Lunis normally, let alone becoming a student of what is considered to be the top educational facility in the entire empire.
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Rone's POV:
"Do you think it'll be ok?" I ask my wife as we look down into the entrance of a dungeon that'd recently had quite a number of people disappearing inside of it who should've been more than strong enough to at least escape according to the dungeon's rank.
"You're worried about the dungeon? It likely just needs a reevaluation, it's likely just that some monster or some such wandered in, giving it access to something it normally wouldn't have been able to spawn." Ali replied, we'd both done this several times before and the reason for the sudden increase in danger usually wound up being fairly simple.
Dungeons were always growing after all, so usually the danger increased incrementally, there really weren't many things that caused a deviation from that. "And most of those things are highly illegal and hardly worthwhile." Either way that wasn't what my question was about, "I meant our daughter in the capital.."
"I know, I was just trying to put those thoughts out of my mind. Y'know suddenly I think that maybe we should be extra thorough on this mission, we have a reputation to uphold don't we? I'm sure any problems she does cause will fix themselves if we take long enough, right?" Ali says with a slightly nervous laugh\.
Looking back, I should have known better than to teach Syllara how to fight with mana, what's scary is just how oblivious she is about her power, and how incapable she seems of holding back. "Ahem, I think you may be right. This quest was on request of the emperor after all, we need to be as thorough as possible."
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The Emris tower truly was an imposing structure, it reminded me of a sundial of astronomical proportions, the front of the tower had a fairly modern look, like a high-rise office completely covered in reflective looking windows. The sides were made up of two, what appeared to be giant triangular sheets of silver, framing the tower in a slightly curving "L" shape where the base was wider than the top, this structure then extended back as it decreased in height which is what gave it the appearance of a sundial. The "tower" portion of the Emris tower really only made up the central "I" portion of the "Φ" with the "O" portion being where I assumed all the classrooms themselves were located in. The rest of the Academy seemed to share the more modernized architecture as well, although it did still have some of the arches and pillars I'd come to expect from other large structures I'd seen throughout Lunis.
I gathered myself up, taking a brief moment to straighten out my black sundress before taking my first steps down and out of the carriage and onto the campus which would likely be where the majority of my life would take place over the next several years. Taking another deep breath I began to make my way towards the entrance at the front of the tower where the Academy's opening ceremony would be taking place, "Alright Syl, it's just school. You've done school before, this'll be a piece of cake. We may even graduate with some fond memories this time," I say slapping my cheeks in an attempt to psych myself up.
"-what is that girl over there doing..?" One girl quiestly asks the girl next to her as they walked by me.
"Shhh, what if she hears you? Didn't you see her pracitcally glowing eyes, she must be a direct descendant, which could easily cause no end of trouble for us. We should just ignore her. We don't want to be late, let's go." They pick up their pace, making their way into Emris tower.
My cheeks flushing, I follow along after the two girls who'd apparently been paying attention to my attempts at self motivation. The welcoming ceremony was to be held in the lobby area of Emris Tower, once it concluded the students would then be split off by year to get tested in order to determine which class we'd be placed in. "They seem wary of me for some reason, am I being mistaken for being a noble?" I knew mother's and my own eyes' tended to stand out, but even with a casual look around I'd already seen plenty of others you could easily say the same about.
Arriving inside the tower, I made my way to an empty seat towards the back of the room. It looked like the seats further up were primarily for those considered to be of a higher social standing, and it seemed that various groups had already been formed prior to attending the academy.
The same two girls who I'd overheard outside were coincidentally seated one row in front of me and were currently whispering to each other, the one seemingly doing her best to answer the questions of the other. "-see how those gathering in the front rows tend to have brighter colored eyes? Although not everyone from the high noble houses will have the distinctly bright color to their eyes, it's usually safe to bet that those who do are people you shouldn't risk offending."
"I don't see the violet eyed girl from earlier over there though, and there doesn't seem to be anyone else with her eye color either. . ."
"No shit, cus my parents are adventurers and not nobles." I stopped paying attention to the two, instead beginning to focus towards where several older students who were all exceedingly attractive had began making their way onto the stage. "Oh no, this is starting to look like some school anime," I think to myself before I start looking around for anyone who could blatantly be labelled as a protagonist. Thankfully no one seemed to stand out to the same degree that I'd expect from an anime protagonist, but I'd have to keep my eye on a couple of people just to be safe. Just in case I was somehow the protagonist I decide to get the attention of the girls in front of me, "Pssst, hey! Weird question but do you two think I stand out abnormally? Like I should be the main character of a story or something?" Although I certainly didn't feel like a protagonist, I had been reincarnated, which made me fairly unique as far as I knew.
The two girls froze for a second before turning to face me wide-eyed, looking like they'd been caught doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. "U-Um, no..?" the first girl chokes out suddenly seeming like she's on the verge of tears for some reason.
"-She means yes! O-of course someone like yourself would stand out, f-forgive us for not giving you the proper attention you deserve." The other girl quickly interjects seeming like she can't decide whether to run away, abandoning her friend, or throw herself at my feet and beg for forgiveness.
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"So which is it then? Either I do or I don't, I don't know how to feel if you both give conflicting answers. Also what's with your attitudes? It's not like I've given either of you a reason to be afraid of me yet, right?" I give them my best smile in an attempt to seem friendly, which strangely enough causes them to look even more terrified of me.
"We're sorry!!" they both say in unison before literally getting up and running away from me.
"What the fuck was that about?" I ask looking around me, seeing several students seemingly doing their best to ignore me while others seemed to suddenly find the idea of sitting somewhere else appealing. "Am I really so bad at interacting with others? Surely I'm not that socially incompetent right?" I decided that I'd have to find those girls later and make sure they understood, and then I'd make them into my friends! Yes, smiling to myself now at the idea, I was sure they'd just gotten the wrong impression and next time would go much better. For now though, it seemed the people on stage were done gathering and would soon start the welcoming ceremony, so I settled in doing my best to pay attention.
So apparently, when they said they'd test us to determine which class we'd be placed in, they meant a magical test and not a written one. All of the first year students were currently gathered in one of the courtyards located to the side of the tower, while one of the four teachers who accompanied us explained the premise of the test we'd be required to take.
"In my hand is a specially crafted marble, strengthened against the effects of mana. In a bit I will give each of you one of these marbles, your goal will be to use your magic to destroy your marble, the time this takes you will determine which class you're placed in. I'll offer a word of advice to you all though, those of you who try to rely on their above average mana stats and/or high affinities to brute force the marble into breaking will likely fail this test. Raw power isn't everything, the most important part of spellcraft is to have a sharp mind." The teacher speaking was a rather diminutive lady, sporting an impressively large witches hat, with short teal hair in a bob-cut that framed her surprisingly youthful face, her voice gave the impression that she was quite a bit older than she appeared though. Excepting her large dark blue hat, the rest of her attire matched that of the other first year teachers, looking to be a sort of dark grey overcoat with buttons, giving the impression of a rather fancy cloak, under which was worn a simple silver colored shirt. Both the male and female teachers just had on black slacks to complete their outfits.
Was I really supposed to be here? Surely the teachers had been informed that I was banned from using magic, so I supposed it must have been alright so long as I was only using magic under the direct instruction of a teacher. "Also this test seems fairly straightforward, I'm sure nothing will go wrong if I participate." my infallible logic reassuring me, I continued to pay attention to the teacher who was speaking.
"Although we typically encourage competition in nearly all forms amongst students at the academy, for the today's test, if anyone is caught interfering with another student they will be immediately assigned to the lowest ranking D class for the duration of the semester, regardless of their personal performance during the test. Are there any questions?" she asks, pausing for a moment to look at the students and give them a chance to speak up, although most of the students look fairly confident and no one speaks up to ask a question in the end.
I decide not to say anything as well, "Better to ask for forgiveness than permission after all." I'd be damned if I missed out on the oppurtunity to once more practice my magic after it'd been so long, and what better excuse than to have a teacher directly telling me to participate in a test where magic was required? I'm smiling now in anticipation.
"Alright then, since you all seem prepared and eager, let us begin. Once a marble stops in front of you and begins to glow you may use your magic." And with that she opened bag from her side that I hadn't noticed she'd been carrying and marbles like the one she'd shown us earlier began to pour out, but instead of falling to the ground they began to float there until presumably the number of marbles matched the number of students present. Then, once enough marbles had flown out of her bag she waved her hand and they all began to fly out towards individual students, pausing in front of them and then emitting a faint glow to signify that the students test had commenced.
Around me, several students had already started working to break their marbles: one rather muscular boy in front of me using his magic to create a drill out of stone, trying to pierce the marble in front of him that way; an especially petite girl off to my left had summoned some sort of ice elemental which was continuously breathing freezing cold air onto her marble; a red headed boy a little farther away had created a small white hot flame at the tip of his fingers and was holding it up to the marble, "Is he some sort of industrial grade welder or something? I guess magic really can be used in all sorts of ways..."
I no longer had time to watch any of the other students though, because finally my own marble had dropped down in front of me, it's light glow appearing but a moment later. I took a few seconds to think about how I should go about this test, my options limited as they were, "It seems like even those confident in the test are expecting their particular methods to take a fair amount of time and I don't think there's way I could mimic any of their techniques even if I have a decent amount of time to watch them. I just lack both the knowledge and the finesse, the only things I can do is control the mana that's within me, or [create water] but even if that worked I'd surely end up interfering in everyone else's tests with that... hmmm. Maybe inserting my mana into the orb and manipulating it is possible for me? Then I could potentially get it to break from the inside out?" With those thoughts I slowly reached out towards the marble with my left index finger, doing my best to coalesce a small amount of the mana inside of me at the very tip of my nail, imagining my finger as some sort of mana needle.
As my finger made contact with the marble, nothing immediately exploded or otherwise went wrong, and it did feel like my mana was being pushed inside of the little glass orb. I decided that this method was probably my best bet at getting a decent result on the test, so I began to push more and more of my mana up through my body, into my index finger, and out into the marble. Maybe I was imagining it due to how intensely I was focused on controlling my mana, but was the marble starting to vibrate a little bit? And was it glowing brighter as well? Moments later my suspicions were confirmed as the marble began glowing brighter and brighter and vibrating at such a frequency that it was now emitting a slight humming noise. I eagerly continued to force more of my mana into the marble at an ever increasing rate. Now the marble was glowing like a bright LED light akin to the ones that rednecks love to put on their trucks, and emmitting a noise like that of a car engine that's been revved up to the max, the surface of the marble was also beginning to rapidly increase in temperature so I jerked my finger away before I ended up burning myself. Surprisingly even though I was no longer injecting mana into the marble, it continued getting brighter and brighter, now looking like a miniature sun, it's light was near blinding to behold. I smiled to myself in anticipation, surely this was a sign of the marbles eminent destruction, even as I thought this, the marble already looked to be expanding in size in a way similar to how I'd imagine a star would go supernova. . .
"...Surely not, right? I mean there's no way, it's just a marble..." I glance around a bit nervous now, glimpsing the terror stricken faces of my fellow first years. I turn the other way to see all four teachers surrounded by an assortment of magic circles, working in tandem to cast some sort of spell. "Oh fuck me, why does magic have to be so difficult?" I ask no one in particular before deciding now would be a good time to create some distance between me and the still expanding marble that was now releasing what appeared to be bright white arcs of solid plasma, disintegrating the ground wherever it made contact.
"~Greater Barrier~!!" The voice of all four teachers yell out simultaneously, a magic barrier in the shape of a sphere with a diameter around 7 meters abruptly appears around my "marble" just in time for it to suddenly expand seemingly exponentionally, filling up the entire sphere in a mass of swirling plasma, the heat of which can be felt even a dozen meters away through the barrier which was containing it. Finally, after around 10 seconds of the giant ball of plasma pushing against the barrier, it begins to shrink, my mana which had sustained it finally running out. As it disappears it leaves a perfect spherical depression in the ground, the sides of which are continuing to burn molten hot.
"Ehehe, whoops... Guess I went a little overboard, that totally never happens by the way." I valiantly try to defend myself as I feel everyone's stares piercing into me now that the danger was over, "So uh, not to change the topic or anything, but I was the first one to pass the test wasn't I?
The four teachers briefly share looks with each other before the three who hadn't given the test seemed to telepathically decide that since the other teacher had done all the talking so far, she may as well continue to do so. They quickly walked off in a way that definitely didn't bring to mind the idea of someone fleeing. Eventually just the petite teacher with the teal bob-cut remained, which for reasons I couldn't possibly fathom her hair now seemed rather disheveled. "Should've known an Illionan attending the academy would make my life harder," she muttered under her breath before beginning to walk over to where I'd been standing. "Congratulations," she gives a smile that only looks slightly pained, "for being the first student to pass, you will not only be placed in Class A which I am the teacher of, but you will also start as the Class Representative. A very high honor I can assure you." However the way she says it has me feeling like I was about to be thrown to the proverbial wolves.
I gulp, uncertain if I truly want the answer to what I was about to ask, "What does being Class Representative entail miss-?"
"Alysia. And the Class Representative is the one who takes the lead in all class activities where you'll be competing against the other classes, as well as taking charge over your fellow classmates for any class outings. Also if another class wants to challenge us for some reason or another, they'll have to go through you. Additionally, it's your responsibility to maintain our classes standing, if I deem your actions to be unbefitting of Class A then the entire class will be punished alongside of you until the problem is fixed." She explains, seeming to take no small amount of joy as my expression becomes more and more despaired, "I have the highest expectations of you, miss Illionan."
She walks away while I'm sitll deep in thought over everything that I'd just gotten thrown into. "Well at least that makes it clear that they knew who I was, so I guess despite how it looked for a second everything was more or less under control." I had no idea how I was going to handle this representative business though, it sounded like no end of trouble on its own, not even considering how my magic seemed to excel at causing problems for myself just as much as it did for everyone else. I guess one way or another we'd all be along for the ride, on another note though, something interesting had popped up ever since the miniature supernova I'd made earlier had disappeared.
Congratulations! For the incredible feat of creating a vast amount of plasma with your own mana and without the use of a spell, your Air and Light affinities have risen by 1.
Name: Syllara Illionan Current Title: Natural Disaster (1 bonus effect) Stats: Affinities: Strength: 11(+1) Air: 2 (+22%) Dexterity: 16(+2) Water: 1 (+10%) Constitution: 10(+1) Earth: 1 (+10%) Intelligence: 16(+1) Fire: 1 (+10%) Wisdom: 15(+1) Light: 2 (+22%) Charisma: 11(+1) Dark: 1 (+10%) Mana: 999(???) ???: 11(max) (+220%) Total Points: 1,078 Total Affinity Bonus: 304% Unspent Points: 0 Mana Stat Bonus: 99.9% Level: 21 Total Magic Bonus: 403.9%