We all filed out of the train on the platform once we’d reached our destination. I noticed that this wasn’t the same train I’d boarded back in the city in that subway station. It had been replaced by a sleek train reminiscent of the bullet train I’d ridden on in Japan when I was a child. Except this one ran on tracks.
Let me clarify that fully. This train had at least 12 sets of legs instead of wheels. I turned to Octavia who was lugging a rather large suitcase down the stairs behind me. I helped her and realized the bag weighted what felt like a literal tonne. “O, what the hell is in here? Bricks?” I said, straining under the weight of the thing.
“No, Just books.” She said hardly straining at all.
“Jesus. Did you pack the whole library?” I said finally getting the back off the steps and on to the platform so I could push it using its own wheels.
“Just a few essentials. Only the ones that I couldn’t load into my inventory.” She said. I took a moment and examined her stats.
NAME: Octavia H. Quinn
AGE: 18
SPECIES: Human
HEIGHT: 159cm
WEIGHT: N/A
LVL: 04
JOB: Initiate Magi*
CURRENT STATS -
HP - 200
MP - 100
Strength - 10 (+5)
Intellect - 15 (+6)
Awareness - 6 (+3)
Endurance - 3 (+2)
Dexterity - 3 (+2)
I was surprised by her strength stat. It was sitting at double what I had. No wonder she wasn’t struggling with the bag. However, it looked like her base Endurance and Dexterity were only 1 point. I was a little confused until I realized she was likely sitting on a bunch of points to spend, but she hadn’t been given the option to allocate them yet. She was only one level away from gaining access to that particular benefit.
“Hey, what do you think you’ll spend your points on?” I asked her. “When you hit level 5, I mean.”
“I’m not sure. I think I’ll get a better picture when the QuarterMaster gives me my bonus points.” She said. She furrowed her brow. “I think I might be a disadvantage for that.” she added.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, the QuarterMaster takes time to assess you as you climb those first 5 levels, right? But us Legacies don’t actually get as much time being analyzed. We start automatically start with a boost to our experience earning rate for the first 5 levels. We earn twice the amount as a normal Magi. So, the system has far less time learning about us. I’ve heard most of the time it just gives you a +1 to all stats.” She said with a somewhat sour expression.
“That’s not the worst thing. Extra stats are probably always good.” I said trying to cheer her up.
“Yeah. You’re right.” She said smiling back at me. We joined the rest of the group as Professor Cyrus led us up the path towards the main gate. He stopped just before it and turned to address us.
“Is everyone ready?” Cyrus asked.
“Ready for what?” Luca asked, he sounded a little scared.
“For the first day of the rest of your lives! Once you pass through this gate you’ll be heading to your very first exam that will decide how you kick off the school year.” He looked down at his wrist watch. Luca looked like he was about to throw up. “We’re actually running a little behind time.” Cyrus continued. “Some of the students were a little late.” He looked directly at me when he said this.
“We’re likely the final group to take the exam. That’s a good thing aaaaand also a bad thing.” He said and crouched a little lower gesturing us to come in closer. All of us except Dos and Xavier huddled in.
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“Being last means all the Professors and students will be gathered to watch. All of those that passed will be there and eager to watch. Also a lot of your upper classmen will be there to watch too. They’ll be scouting talent, so it’s best to try and impress.” He said in a hushed tone.
“Great. Everyone can experience my brilliance.” Julia said. “How’s that a bad thing?”
“Its bad, Miss Wessel, because it means most of the easy exams will have been taken. We’re likely going to be left with some of the hardest exams.” The professor said. Everyone looked nervous, even the over confident Julia.
“It doesn’t matter. We just have to pass whatever’s left.” Xavier said. “We’re graded as a group right?”
“Yes.” Cyrus said, surprised. “Xavier is right. It’s a group assessment. So, if one of you isn’t able to pass. It doesn’t mean you’re out of the school. Another member can pick up that slack. So don’t push yourself unnecessarily if you’re not sure you’ll make it through. Leave the harder Exams to the more capable of the group.” He placed a hand in the center of us. “Hands in. Magi on three.” We all put our hands in. I looked at Xavier who just scoffed and rolled his eyes. If this was a team sport, he was going to particupate. I grabbed his arm and yanked him in placing his hand on top. He tried to pull free, but I just placed another hand on top keeping his in place. He shrugged and relaxed into it.
“One, two, three.”
“Magi!” We all yelled. We all seperated and most of us began looking through menus. I looked at Xavier and gave a smile. He just returned a blank expression back at me.
“If we’re going to be a team, you should at least join in. We’ll sink or swim together.” I said. He looked me up and down clearly considering me for a moment.
“Fine. Just don’t ever touch me again without my consent.” He said. He walked over and stood close to me. “I’ll play along for now. Just don’t get in my way.” He shoulder checked me as he walked over to the main gate ignoring the rest of the group, including Julia who scowled at me. Professor Cyrus walked up next to me.
“He used to be such a nice boy you know. Now he’s just so…” He looked down at me and clearly realized he wasn’t saying this to a college, but to a student and adjusted his expression. “Are you ready, Mr Adams?”
“As I ever be.” I said, completely lying.
“Good, because you’ll be going first.” He said as he slapped me on the back.
“I’ll be doing what now?” I said.
-----
Professor Cyrus and I stood at the gate with the other’s standing behind us. He was findling with his menus as I nervously tried to not freak out. I knew I’d be going through an exam today, but I sure as hell didn’t want to go first. He looked at me and must have noticed how tense I was.
“Hey.” He said quietly. “Just do your best. No one is expecting very much from you.” I assumed that was his attempt to try and deflate the situation and relieve the tension I felt. Instead, I started to get annoyed.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I said with a slight edge to my voice.
“Oh no. What I meant was, you’ve just learned magic was real less than a week ago. Everyone will be expecting you to fail. If you pick the lowest ranked Exam no one will hold it against you.” He said smiling, not realizing how he was being slightly patronizing.
“Right.” I said flatly, attempting to hide my frustration and rising fury. “So what’s your recommendation, Professor?”
“Pick anything below D rank. If there’s only D rank Exams left, pick the one with the lowest stars. They usually put one or two fetch quest exams in there. Try to avoid any Bounty Quest or Boss Quest Exams. Did you have a wand?” He asked.
“Yes. Just a starter wand.” I said.
“Okay. You don’t know it yet, but you can already use spells, but without a rank you’ll have to cast them like our founding families did.”
“And how did they do that?”
“I have no idea.” Cyrus said. I was about to lose it when he pushed open the gate to the entrance courtyard. A riotous cacophony of applause hit me like a wall of force as they open. I saw Cyrus waving and smiling as he walked down towards the main building like some kind of celebrity doing a red carpet walk. He turned and gestured to me and beckoned me to come inside. As I did I saw them, the hordes of students of all kinds standing in rows on raised tiered seating. I corrected my metaphor. Not a celebrity. It was more like what I imagined being a gladiator would have been like. I was dumbfounded. Most of the students in the crowd were human, but there were many that weren’t. There were cat people like Tom the Bartender. Some looked a bit like they had tanks of water on their necks and blue skin. Maybe some kind of Mermaid? Then I zeroed in on a group of them looked like reptiles.
“Holy shit, are those dragons?” I said out loud.
“We don’t use that word here.” Cyrus said.
“But are they?!” I said. This was easily the coolest thing I’d seen so far. As I child I was absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs. That was until I discovered that dragons existed. From then on I was a massive fan of anything with dragons. Even later in my teens when it wasn’t as cool, I was a closeted fan.
“Yes.” Cyrus said sighing slightly and pulling me towards the main building. I managed to peel my eyes off them and went back to taking in my other surroundings. I noticed several screens set up here like the kind you’d see in a football stadium. I guessed these were probably about to display my exam for all the students out here to see. I turned back looking for the rest of my group and they too were slowly making their way down here. Julia of course revealed in the crowd’s affections and acted like she was the star attraction and Krista bounced along close behind. She waved at a few of the crowd, but she wasn’t nearly as enthralled. Xavier didn’t acknowledge the crowd at all, clearly trying to keep up his bad boy persona. Luca came in next. He still looked like he wanted to puke. Finally, Octavia entered and something strange happened. I didn’t think it was possible, but the crowd actually got louder. Julia scowled as all the attention was now focused on Octavia. She moved to join me and Cyrus in the main building’s entrance hall.
“She thinks she’s all that because her great grandmother is so famous.” She sneered. “I’ll show her one day.”
“Jealousy is an ugly colour on you, Ju Ju.” Krista said joining our group.
“Shut up, Krista.” She said crossing her arms. Krista kept nudging her and the two of them moved aside and headed further into the hall.
“Who’s her Great Grandmother? Are the Quinn family that famous?” I asked Cyrus. He laughed back and realized I was being serious.
“Sorry, For us Magi, that’s like asking who’s JFK. Have you heard about Hopp yet?” He asked with a smirk.
“The lizard spit lady?” I said. His laugh was so violently loud that I actually jumped.
“That’s her Great Grandmother. Alexandra Hopp. Her full name is Octavia Hopp-Quin. She basically Magi royalty. You see why I said no one is expecting very much from you? Your luck must be incredibly high. We can’t see that stat by the way, but it’s definitely there. You managed to be placed in the group with 3 legacies. One of which is Hopp’s direct descendant. They’re the real stars of the show.” He said. “Come on. Let’s go select your Exam.”