Leon steeled his nerves and knocked on the door. He habitually went through many possibilities in his head.
The door opened to reveal an elderly man with a long beard and dressed in robes. He was a bit surprised to see a malnourished kid there. “Sorry, we don’t give handouts,” the man cut Leon off before he could speak.
Leon’s stomach churned with unexpected anxiety as the man’s words sank in. He hadn’t considered that his appearance might be an issue.
Just as the man closed the door, Leon called out desperately, “W-Wait! I didn’t come here for food,” he said, avoiding eye contact.
The man frowned, clearly confused. “Then what are you here for? I don’t have all day, you know,” he got impatient. Leon took a deep breath, his heart pounding in his chest. Summoning every ounce of courage, he blurted out,
“I want to learn magic!” The man’s eyes lit up with understanding and a hint of amusement.
“Why didn’t you say so? Come in. We’ll start the tests right away.” The man stepped aside, making room for Leon.
[Normal Quest: Magic Tests. Accept or decline?] Leon accepted and followed the man inside. Quest Detail: Magic requires talent and focus. Those not talented cannot claim to be magicians. Objective: Pass Ice Magician Alvin’s tests. Player Level cannot exceed 10.
So he’s called Alvin? Leon noted as he read the quest details. He also noted that there wouldn’t be just one test.
Leon came to a massive hall with tables and chairs everywhere, but the most eye-grabbing feature for Leon was the absolutely massive rows of books on bookshelves along the walls. Various people in robes were sitting at the tables or couches as they read the books. It was a serene scene that Leon felt home at.
Leon had liked to read in his past life and even in this life he would study not because Rose told him, but because he truly liked it. Alvin smiled, seeing Leon’s hunger for the books. “Hoh, seems like you already have the correct mindset. Sadly, one cannot know everything.” He said with a bitter smile, confusing Leon.
“What does Mr Alvin mean?” Leon asked Alvin respectfully.
Alvin glanced at Leon. “You’ll find out if you pass the tests.” He didn’t explain. They came to a separate room connected to the major library. Inside the room was a big orb floating in the air, with a magic circle underneath it.
“Touch the orb. It’ll tell me if you have got enough talent to learn magic,” Alvin revealed. Leon touched the orb, a cool, tingling sensation spreading from his fingertips as the orb glowed white.
It felt as if tiny needles were pricking his skin, probing every part of his being. He gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the gnawing anxiety and sensory overload, focusing instead on the task at hand.
Alvin quickly received Leon’s character sheet displaying various information. He could only see Leon’s name, level and stats this way, nothing else.
Alvin nodded as he looked at Leon’s stats, “You’ve got enough talent, you can let go now.” [Quest Updated: You have passed the first test.] Alvin said, releasing Leon from his agony. What Alvin didn’t mention was that Leon was better talented than he had expected.
Intelligence and wisdom at that level? It seems like he had a natural gift even before he gained experience. Alvin mentally noted. He didn’t tell Leon because he didn’t want to inflate his ego. He had seen many talented people corrupted by their ego.
Alvin walked away, leaving Leon there. He suddenly understood he was supposed to follow and rushed after him. Just tell me to follow you. Leon grumbled mentally, annoyed by his own lapse in understanding social cues.
Alvin didn’t comment on Leon’s quick absence and only walked to a massive magic circle in the middle of the library. Leon stood next to him and Alvin activated the circle with his mana. The circle glowed with power and Leon suddenly found himself weightless as he was being pulled upwards.
It-It’s an elevator!? Leon realised what was happening and marvelled at the use of magic. Leon’s fascination with magic only grew as he watched everything happening, making him look like an excited little kid. “Magic can do a lot more than just this,” Alvin commented, seeing Leon’s expression.
Leon quickly reined in his eagerness and calmed down. This was not the time to be distracted. He still had some tests to pass. “You seemed uncomfortable during the scanning.” Alvin opened up, giving Leon pause.
“I’ve…got some sensory issues. Some things are too sensitive.” Leon hesitantly admitted, he didn’t go into detail and gave a small snippet of his autism to Alvin. Alvin looked at Leon with a look of understanding before nodding. The elevator stopped one floor higher and Leon looked around to take in the surroundings.
There were tons of wooden dummies with many people trying to cast magic on them. Leon noticed a lot of the people here were players. Players could recognise other players instantly. “Here, learn this.” Alvin gave Leon a book, and he checked it out.
[Skill Book: Arcane Missile] (Active Spell)
Requirement: 8 Intelligence
Condense a mass of mana into a missile to fire at the opponent for an additional 15 points of damage. Cost 10 mana. Cooldown 3 seconds.
A skill book! Leon didn’t expect to be given a free skill book just from participating in this quest. Still, the rational part of his brain spoke, and he guessed it wouldn’t be so simple. As Leon accepted the book and focused on it, a sharp pain stabbed through his temples. Knowledge of the spell forced its way into his mind, leaving him momentarily dizzy.
“Now here comes the test,” Alvin said as he noticed Leon had learned the spell. He pointed to one of the wooden dummies. “I want you to cast Arcane Missile successfully at the dummy. You only get three tries.”
Leon was confused. Was it really this simple? He looked around to notice that the other players looked at him in anticipation. Recalling the struggles he had seen earlier, Leon braced himself. This task would not be as simple as it seemed.
He tried to ignore the masses and focused on the spell. He put his hands together and activated it. Leon could feel a warm current leaving his body and gathering in between his palms. He realised quickly that this was his internal mana.
An orb quickly gathered in his palms. Leon’s elation grew as the spell worked, but suddenly the orb in his palms became unstable and exploded with a loud bang, leaving Leon with a frazzled expression. [Arcane Missile Spell Failed] Was a message he had got.
Laughter erupted from the hall. Everyone had first-hand experience with the spell and the fact that it was much harder than what they first expected.
Leon felt embarrassed by the laughter and tried to suppress his anxiety. Alvin noticed Leon’s discomfort resurfacing and swiftly glanced at the other players, resulting in their immediate silence.
They knew not to mess with the NPCs. Earlier in the day, some idiots tried riling Alvin up only for him to impale them with ice spears. Players, unlike NPCs, were immortal and could respawn. When the troublemakers reappeared to taunt Alvin again, he trapped them in ice instead of just killing them.
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They tried to first log off only to find that they would wake up in the same place. When players logged off, their bodies would slump and appear asleep.
After realising that couldn’t escape, they started begging for mercy, but Alvin simply took them to the basement where they likely still stayed.
It was a rude wake-up call for the players not to mess with the NPCs. Leon already knew this lesson because of having read the novel. The NPCs were lifelike, and they each had their likes and dislikes. It was never a good idea to antagonise someone with power.
Leon gave Alvin a thankful nod as the hall got quiet again. He then analysed what went wrong. He noticed Alvin didn’t admonish him, but looked at him calmly with an expecting look.
Leon opened his character sheet to study the spell again. Hm? He noticed something. It wasn’t his spell, but he noticed his mana was at 95/100, taking another look at the spell showed that it should have cost him 10 mana, so why did it only cost him 5 that time?
Did it blow up because it was too much mana than I can handle at the moment? Leon had a theory. If his experience with ‘Stab’ told him anything, it was that skills were as the name implied skill-based. He calmed himself down and put his hand together for another try.
He could feel the mana leaving his body again, but now he maintained a close eye on his mana and suppressed the feeling once one point was removed from the pool. His sensory issues finally came in handy, as he could feel it far better than someone else.
Leon could feel his mana slowing down until it stopped when two points of mana had gone into the orb. He wanted to only have one point, but because of his lack of experience, another point escaped into it.
The orb was a lot smaller than before, but it was stable in his hands so he could mould the orb into the preferred missile shape; he felt the invisible hand guiding him, showing that he was indeed on the correct path, which caused his confidence to surge.
Once the construct took shape, he pushed his arms forward and fired off the spell. He fired off a small purple arrow-like spell that hit the wooden dummy in the chest. [Quest Updated: You have passed the second test.] The message came as Leon fired off the spell.
-8
[Arcane Missile Spell Completion 70%, Tutorial bonus +5%, 83% of the skill’s power displayed. Mastery +1]. The message came, and Leon’s elation soared as he succeeded on the second try. He smiled and let out a sigh of relief. The spell lacked full utilisation of Leon’s magical attack power because he fired it off at low power.
The entire hall was speechless as they watched Leon succeed on only the second try. They had tried for hours, but then Leon showed up and surpassed them all in a flash. They wanted to ask how he did it, but with Alvin there, they didn’t dare to make a move. Alvin nodded with a smile, “Well done. You picked that up quickly.” He complimented Leon.
“Thank you, Mr Alvin!” Leon nodded respectfully to the man. He wouldn’t get arrogant just from being able to cast the spell at 20% capacity.
Alvin nodded at Leon’s modesty, “Follow me for the last task.” He led the way.
“Hey, you there!” A female voice came from the hall, getting Leon’s attention. “How did you do that?”
Leon was about to answer them when Alvin’s serious tone cut him off. “Don’t answer that. They need to learn.” Leon’s mouth snapped shut as he gave an apologetic look to the woman.
Leon followed Alvin, and he tried to think why Alvin stopped him. Another thing that he realised was that all these people had to have done over three tries, right? He debated asking Alvin about this, but he didn’t want to get on the man’s bad side by asking him annoying questions.
“You’re wondering why I said that, right?” Alvin suddenly inquired with a smile on his face, as he looked at Leon. He was in a good mood because of Leon excelling in the tests. Leon nodded at the question.
“They have all failed the tests, but we don’t allow people out of here unless they can control the spell. Letting people out and having them not be able to cast the most basic spell would look bad on us.”
Isn’t that pretty much imprisonment? Leon assessed with some criticism but didn’t voice his opinions. He was lucky enough to pass the test with flying colours. Leon and Alvin went up the magical elevator, reaching a hall with a single door.
Alvin opened the door and Leon could see it was a dark room with nothing in it except a magic circle. “Step on the magic circle.” His tone was serious, making Leon nervous. Leon stood in the circle and soon it lit up.
The circle lit up the entire room as stars shone on the dark roof. Four figures came out of the circle and they all bore a strong resemblance to Leon.
“Magic has hundreds of paths. It is why I mentioned one cannot know everything. There’s simply too much for a lifetime.” Alvin explained to Leon with a bitter look. It was clear he loved magic and wished to know it all, but there simply wasn’t enough time.
Leon kept quiet and led Alvin to continue, “As a result, one can only specialise in one form of magic and learn all of its secrets while learning only what’s necessary from the other forms of magic.”
“As I’ve said, there are hundreds of paths, but there are four major categories that stem from these paths.” Alvin walked to the first image, which depicted Leon being surrounded by the elements.
“First off is an Elemental Magician. As the name implies, they use the elements to cast powerful spells. I fall in this category as an Ice element specialist.” Leon nodded attentively.
Alvin proceeded to the second image, which depicted Leon being surrounded by holy light. “Second is a Cleric. They mainly focus on healing spells, while some also specialise in holy spells and overall boosting skills.” He explained about the role of healers and supports.
Leon knew Paladins were also a thing that used holy magic with weapons. “Third is a Hexer. Hexers specialise in darker types of magic to hinder their opponents and powerful darkness elemental attacks.” Alvin had a clear dissatisfaction in his tone of voice. However, he didn’t allow his opinions to sway Leon.
Alvin moved to the last image, “Last off is probably the unique one, Summoners. Summoners would bond and sometimes create familiars to have them fight or fight with them.” He explained to Leon, as he moved to the sidelines after talking.
“Now, it’s time for you to choose a path. Let your instincts guide you and choose a path that you seem fit for in the future.” To Leon, it was the single most important choice a mage would make.
Leon fell silent as he carefully analysed each image. Elemental Magicians were strong DPS mages. Clerics could heal and even buff others. Hexers could dabble in dark magic and debuff the enemy. Summoners could use powerful familiars.
Should I go with the simple Elemental Magician? Leon questioned himself when he felt something tug at him, confusion apparent on his face. He focused on where the feeling came from. He noticed that there were actually four tugs on his body, each at a different strength.
Is this the instinctual feeling that Alvin described? Leon tried to guess as he glanced at Alvin, who looked calmly at him, not giving him any hints. Ignoring the outside, he focused on the tugs. Hexer and Cleric had the least amount of pull on him. He wouldn’t excel in either.
He ruled them out to focus on Elemental Magician and Summoner and, to his surprise, the Summoner image was tugging at him the hardest. Elemental Magician wasn’t too far behind, but the difference was noticeable.
Leon thought about it for a moment. Summoner? It’s true that although I’m not vegan, I still like animals. In his past life, he used to search frequently for fun facts about animals to learn, and he always enjoyed reading them.
Do I follow this feeling? Leon wrestled with himself for a moment before finally trusting himself.
Leon walked towards the Summoner image, each step feeling like a confirmation of his decision. The tugs grew stronger, almost jubilant, as if celebrating his choice. When his body finally overlapped with the image, the other three dimmed, leaving him standing in a soft, ethereal glow.
The image gathered in a small grey orb. The orb was smaller than the soul he had seen earlier in the day, but the orb quickly flew into Leon’s inventory, where he checked it out.
[Summoner Class Soul Seed] (Normal Class)
Requirement: Classless Soul, Level 10
Upon use will consume the Classless Soul and become a Summoner Class Soul, onetime use.
Soulbound: Tempest
Now I just need to get to level 10. Leon could only use it once he hit level 10. It wasn’t a bummer, as he had already expected this. Still, getting his class soul this early was already a good thing.
Alvin came over with a smile on his face. “Well done, future summoner. You have successfully stepped on the path of magic.” A message rang out for Leon. [Normal Quest Completed: Magic Tests. Obtained 150 EXP] The EXP was enough for Leon to level up to level 4.
Leon didn’t put any of his free attribute points on his stats yet, as he was still in conversation with Alvin. “Thank you for your guidance, Mr Alvin. Without your tip, I wouldn’t have picked this path.”
Alvin nodded, “I see your sensitivity to your senses helped you identify the instinctual feeling.” He knew about Leon’s sensory issues. Leon nodded. It helped him a lot at that moment. Guess autism has its perks. Leon had long accepted his autism, and now that feeling reinforced his acceptance.
They went down the elevator, and Alvin escorted Leon to the door. As Leon was about to step out, Alvin halted him. “Ah, hold on, put this on,” he grabbed some clothes from a nearby room.
[Mage’s Robes] (White)
Equipment Level 4
Physical Defence: +1%
Magical Defence +5%
Passive Skill: Recover 1 point of mana every second.
Durability 20/20
Leon threw away his pants and shirt as he put on the robes, feeling the soft fabric against his skin. He immediately looked a lot better. Gone was the malnourished kid, and now there stood a young apprentice magician.
After bidding farewell to Alvin, he left the Wizard’s Tower. He could stay here and read up on some books, but he pushed it aside for now because there were more pressing matters.