I joined the rest of the group on the train in the bar car after stowing away my things and putting my new uniform on. It felt quite light and airy even though the fabric seemed quite thick. It also seemed to have a fair amount of stretch to it beyond what I thought should be possible. I also noticed it had and extra pocket on the upper arm that housed a small window cut out that I didn’t know the purpose for yet. It almost looked like it was sized for the black card. I would have to ask Cyrus about that later. As I poked my head into the car I immediately caught the scent of hot coffee. Thank god, I desperately needed that caffeine hit. I also noticed a couple more people here than when I came in last night. Tom, the bartender was there still standing behind the bar and Cyrus was also sitting in the same spot. He sipped from a small cup with a tag hanging out which I assumed my be some kind of tea, until he pulled the tag up to dunk in the cup and I saw it had a small red frog attached to it. I guess it could still be tea… All tea really contained was hot water and something to brew and infuse flavor in it. I tired my best to ignore it as I looked at the others in the room. A taller figure sat next to him, Dos, the hellhound. Almost comically he held a even smaller cup and was dunking the same yellow frog. Next to them sat the first student I saw. He seemed to a boy around my same age and wore the same uniform as me. They were dunking their own frog into a cup, but they seemed far less eager than the two Professors. Behind them, sitting at a low table sat 2 more students. Both were female and each had a plate of what looked like a standard full english breakfast and a cup of black liquid that I hoped was just normal coffee. They each wore feminine version of the uniform that had a slightly different cut of blazer and a skirt and no waistcoat. The one that was facing me looked up and smiled. She was quite pretty. The other one turned their head to regard me and just cocked an eyebrow and looked back down at their plate. Further back sitting alone at their own table was another student, again female. She had a large thick glasses on and was buried deeply into a book which I noticed was a copy of ‘The Guide’. She looked up from the book, made eye contact with me as I walked inside and quickly shyed away returning to the book. I looked around doing the mental math. Last night there were several cabin’s occupied and if we didn’t count Tom the bartender that meant we were likely waiting on one more person to join us. I wondered if they would be a student or professor. I zeroed in on the source of the coffee smell and found a small beverage cart in the corner near the bookworm girl. I moved over there and picked up the pot and began to pour.

“That’s not coffee.” A soft feminine voice said. I turned to see the girl’s emerald green eyes peeking up from behind the book. Her brown fringe hung just above the frames of her glasses making it look like she was looking at me through a slot in the door.

“It smells a lot like it.” I said holding the cup of the black liquid to my nose.

“It’ll taste like it too, but it’s produced from a special breed of lizard.” She said.

“It’s lizard water?” I said recoiling from the cup.

“It’s their saliva to be specific.” She started to ramble out an explanation. “It’s called a Hopp’s Lizard. Usually their saliva is acidic enough to melt flesh, but they like to chew on a specific bean that’s pretty similar to a coffee bean, but much much more potent. Deadly amounts of caffeine for a human. But the lizards don’t swallow the bean, they can’t digest it so they spit it out along with all their saliva. They absorb most of the lethal levels of caffeine and the resulting saliva is safe for human consumption.” She said. I stood there holding the cup.

“And one day someone just thought, ‘Hey maybe I’ll just drink some of that lizard’s spit?” I asked. She giggled. It was actually quite a pleasant sound.

“Yeah. When you say it like that. Alexander Hopp, discovered the lizard, that’s why it’s called a Hopp’s Lizard. Story goes he observed a group of birds sipping the spit and behaving differently. It’s really no weirder than someone trying Cows milk for the first time if you think about it.” She said smiling at me. She’d lowered her book slightly and was able to see her face clearly now. I looked back at the cup of liquid and shrugged. I took a sip. It was a lot thicker than coffee which would take some getting used to, but it tasted better than any other coffee I’d had in my life.

“Wow. That’s fantastic.” I said taking another sip. “Beats starbucks for sure.” She giggled again. “I’m August by the way. Great to me you.” I stuck out a hand for her to shake. She lowered her book and took my hand squeezing it softly.

“Octavia.” She said smiling. I gestured to the seat across from hers.

“Mind if I join you?” I asked politely. She perked up and nodded.

“No, Please, go right ahead.” She cleared some of her plates from the table to make room for me to set down my cup. I took a further sip.

“What’s it called? The lizard spit.” I asked.

“Hopp’s Venom. You usually just ask for a cup of Hopp’s.” she said.

“Cool.” I said. “So… Does no one drink coffee?”

“No they do. This is just more premium.” She said. She hadn’t stopped looking at me since I’d sat down. It was clear she was studying me intensely. “You’ve really never heard of it?” She asked.

“No. Why would I? I didn’t even know magic existed a week ago.” I said. Her smile broadened.

“I knew it! You’re a wild card!” She said a little too loudly. The other people in the bar car seemed to notice her exclamation.

“The wild card?” I said.

“It means you were picked by the school from the normal world. Basically, you’re kind of like a scholarship student.” Another voice called out from behind me. The female student that had given me the cocked eyebrow look earlier had shouted that out to me. She had stood now and her and the other female student she was sat with were now making their way over to our table.

“There’s one every few years, but I heard they never make it beyond the first year.” She smiled, but it was a cruel looking smile. I swallowed hard. The other female peeked out from behind her and smiled genuinely.

“Is it true that you’ve never used a wand before?” She asked pleasantly.

“Yeah. Like I was saying. Magic wasn’t even real until a week ago.” I responded.

“Oh, you’re so dead.” The cruel looking girl said chuckling.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I was just saying, there’s no way you make it beyond the entrance exam. You don’t even know how to wear your emblem correctly.” She said and showed off the upper arm of her blazer which held a gray colored version the playing card I had. Hers had a stylized symbol of a B on it. I knew that card went there.

“Don’t be mean, Julia.” Octavia said jumping to my defense. “He’s still learning.”

“Shut up. Nobody asked you asked. Piss off back to the library where you belong.” The Cruel looking girl, Julia, said.

“Jules, chill. There’s no need to fight. Come on.” The other girl said trying to pull Julia away and back to their table. She huffed and obliged after shooting an angry look at Octavia who I noticed despite being soft spoken towards me hadn’t backed down like I’d assumed she might and was scowling back at Julia.

“Well.. Isn’t she a delight.” I said attempting to defuse the tension. Octavia sighed and took a sip of her drink.

“She used to be a lot less… abrasive. Recently she’s just been so…”

“Bitchy?” I said.

“Yeah.” Octavia laughed. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my black card and moved a little closer to her.

“Could you help me put this in my sleeve?” I asked. “I don’t want her to give me anymore reasons to mock me.”

“Oh, uh sure.” Octavia said. She had returned to her more soft spoken self now. She tucked the card into the sleeve holder and as she did I revealed a large minus symbol on it that I hadn’t seen previously.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get a your rank today after the exam. We’ve only got them because we’re Legacies.” She said and flashed me her arm which was a similar colour to Julia’s and had the same B letter. “We get a bit of a head start, but Luca and Krista are starting from black just like you.” She nodded to the boy at the bar who was now sipping the tea he’d made. “That’s luca.” Then she nodded at the girl with Julia. “That’s Krista.” I took mental note of both of their names. I took another sip. Damn, this stuff was strong. I was already feeling quite a buzz.

“What’s a Legacy?” I probed.

“Okay, so all students before coming to school spend their time in the normal world like you, but, unlike you, the existence of magic or the magical world isn’t kept a secret from them. They’re taught mostly theory and history and some minor practical uses of magic. It costs a lot of resources to train a single Magi, so the university needs to be certain it’s worth the investment. Most people work their entire schooling career and don’t make it in. Unless you’re like me or Julia. We both come from a family that founded the school. We’re basically promised admittance since birth. We get introduced to QuarterMaster early and jumped up the ranks as an added benefit.” She said quietly.

“That hardly seems fair.” I said.

“I agree with you, but I couldn’t exactly say no to having an extra leg up.” Octavia said now avoiding making eye contact.

“Oh I can’t blame you. I’d have done the same.” I smiled. Octavia seemed to ease at that admission. “So why are you reading the guide? Shouldn’t you have that equipped by now?”

“Oh, I’ve never actually used QuarterMaster until a week ago. I still like to read the physical thing. I’ll have to break the habit eventually. But books are just so tactile. I feel more at ease with them.” She said with a somewhat far off look. I wasn’t quite sure, but it seemed like there was a story to that look. I tired to focus on the main topic of QuarterMaster for the time being.

“Oh, so what about your dream last night. Was that your first time with it too?” I asked.

“Yeah, It’s so exciting being in that void every night.” She said. “Soul Oceans are so fascinating, don’t you think?”

“That’ll happens every night now?” I asked. I wasn’t really sure why, but I really did like chatting with The Guide, But to be in that room instead of my own dreams each night would be an adjustment. I didn’t feel exhausted physically, but I did feel like I’d mentally expended a lot of energy.

“Yes, unless you opt to skip it, which you can now. You’ll skip the white void and wake up straight away and any benefits will be displayed in an info window when you wake up.” She explained.

“Oh mine wasn’t white. It was a kind of blue shade.” I remarked. She was suddenly alert.

“Your Ocean had a shade already?” Her eyes were going wide and it looked like she was starting to tremble. She started to fumble through her bag at her side and then she pulled out a small laminated piece of paper with over 100 different coloured squares. “Tell me which shade of blue it was? Was it more of a sky blue or a cobalt? Or maybe closer to a turquoise? How bright was it?” She started to rattle off questions. Before I could answer her the door at the end of the car opened and another student entered the room. This was another male student and possibly the most handsome 19 year old I’d ever seen. Something about him seemed familiar to me and when he moved over and stood next to Professor Cyrus I recognized the resemblance.

“Is that the Professor’s Son?” I asked in a hushed tone. Octavia was still holding her soul shade cart and she looked up.

“Yes. That’s Xavier. He’s not a true legacy, but he’s still got the same benefits we do.” She said.

Damnit.

He even had a cool name.

I noticed the card on his arm was the same gray colour, but his was an S. “Wait, why is the letter on his arm card higher.” I asked.

“Arm card?” She said confused. I tapped the black card on my sleeve. “Oh we call them Emblems. And I don’t know actually. It’s up to QuarterMaster to assign the ranks. He’s still in the Iron bracket, but he’ll definitely move up to bronze after the exam today.” I stared at the symbol on his arm for a moment.

“And if I wanted to get into bronze?” I asked Octavia. She sat up straight and looked at me through squinted eyes.

“You can’t be serious.” She said amused. I returned her response with a completely blank unblinking stare. “Oh, you are serious.” She sighed and opened up The Guide, which she’d put down as soon as Xavier had entered the room. She flipped through a couple pages and slid the book over to me. “This is the second volume of The Guide. You’ll get a copy when you’re ranked at least Iron C. This details a rough guide to ranks. It doesn’t say how much experience you need to earn to reach each rank, but it does give a guide on what level you should be before attempting each rank entrance exam. When the professor turns your system on you’ll realize how foolish that statement was.” She explained.

“Experience? Like you get points for completing certain objectives?” I asked.

“Yes. The harder the exam, the better the reward. They’ll be ranked with letters, but their ranking is a little different. They go all the way to triple S rank and even then each quest has a difficulty rating from 1 to 5 stars and they come in all different types. The most common are bounty Exams where you have a target and all you have to do is kill or subdue it.”

“So what does The Guide say is recommended for a bronze rank Magi?” I asked wanting to know my odds.

“At least level 5.” She said. “I’m level 4 for reference. And Xavier is probably at least a few points away from to hitting level 5.” It was clear to me in the way she talked about him that there was some history between them and possibly a hint of… was that reverence in her tone of voice?

“So what’s his deal? Is he some kind of asshole like Julia or is he more of a sweetheart like you?” I asked probing for information.

“You think I’m a sweetheart?” She stuttered and blushed slightly.

“Sure. You’ve been nothing but friendly since I walked in here. You even warned me about the lizard spit.” I smiled.

“That’s… I mean anyone would have done that I’m sure.” She continued to blush and went back to hiding her face behind The Guide.

“Julia wouldn’t have. She’d probably have put her own spit in.” I said a little louder than I should have. I noticed Julia about to get up likely to stomp over here, but Krista pulled her back down as Xavier sat down and slid his arm around Julia and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“Ah, well that answers that question. Asshole for sure.” I said.

“No… He’s better than her. He’s just a little misguided…” She said again with a distant look that was just asking to be explored. I tried to reign in my need for answers for the moment. As much as I wanted to explore their interpersonal relationships, I needed answers about these exams even more.

“So, what did The Guide tell you about the exam?” I asked.

“Huh? Oh just the basics really.” She said.

“The Guide’s advice to me was ‘don’t hold back’. It said I should shoot for at least the upper Iron ranks. I’m going to shoot for Bronze.” I said.

“What? Don’t be silly. The Guide can’t give advice. It’s not programed to allow for that.” She said.

“No. Mine really di-” I was interrupted before I could finish my explanation by Professor Cyrus standing and clapping his hands supernaturally loud. It seemed like it was finally starting.