There was a lot to think about. Marie, Ms.Green, Inter, Cel, and most importantly, my quest. The next three days were the most relaxing days I’d had in school so far. Cel’s hadn’t pestered me (as much) throughout these days.

I walked over to the bench Imo had told me to meet at. This was going to be my last lesson before I got my quest assigned. Imo told me that this was his regular meetup spot with Clara. I wondered what they did here, I mean other than play violin. Imo tried to hide it, but I’m sure he liked Clara. Whether those feelings were reciprocated, I was not sure.

I smiled. That was new? Usually I’d only smile when Clara spoke, not just when she was around.

“Hey Sol!” Clara spoke in an interesting manner. It was like a command, I had to respond.

“Oh, h-hey.” I broke out of the trance, suddenly becoming hyperware of my surroundings.

“How’d you like my new magic?” Clara had a sly smile,with her arms behind her back.

“Woah, that was really interesting. It was like I had to do whatever you asked for a moment. Is this a new type of magic you created using that charm of yours.”

“Yup! If I concentrate my magic into words, it’ll charm the victim into doing what I said, though it is still in its development stages.” She didn’t have to tell me it was still in development. I could tell how scattered it was when she used it on me. If it hadn’t broken right there, I probably would’ve been the victim of some weird command.

“Interesting…” I suddenly noticed the mark on her head. I took note of it when I first saw Clara, but I had never really given it as much attention as Cel’s mark.

“Listen Clara, I’m just going to ask you straight, do you have a spirit inside of you?” There was no need to sugarcoat it. She probably had one anyway.

Clara stared at me for a few seconds and then said “What the heck are you talking about, with spirits?” I was dumbfounded. She wasn’t lying. I’ve seen Clara lie, and she was pretty bad at it.

“Do you ever have voices in your head, or times when you feel like you're not in control of your own body?”

“How did you know? There are these weird times where I black out. When I regain consciousness, everyone’s telling me I embarrassed them and made them do weird things.” Clara tilted her head.

“Clara” I put my hand on her shoulder, “I never considered you the dense type.”

The first thing I saw was an intense scowl by Clara. Then I felt my whole world turn upside down as I was judo flipped to the floor.

“Don’t touch my shoulder like that.” She growled. That was the most angry I’ve ever seen her.

“Sorry…” I groaned, “I just saw Imo tapping your shoulder, so I thought it was ok.”

Clara then suddenly blushed “Well, uhh- yeah, that's different,” Looking at her blushing, I thought, Imo, you have a chance.

Just then, Imo walked in to see one hell of a sight.

…

It took a while to clear things up with Imo, but when he understood, he pulled out his violin and started playing. Clara was blushing too much to really listen to him play, so I knew I had to be the critique for today.

This was the second day I was training Imo’s magic control, and the first day hadn’t gone that good. Well, unless you call being slammed by thorns for one hour good.

This time it actually went much better. I only got slammed by thorns once every 5 minutes. Well, I probably would’ve gotten hit less if I hadn’t kept diving in front of Clara to protect her.

“Listen,” I told Imo, “The key to magic control is imagining barriers to block your thorns. If you want your thorn to just be as tall as you, imagine a wall where your head is.”

We went like this for another half hour, until…

“Woah, I did it!” It was truly surprising. In only 2 days of practice, Imo had already created his first perfectly controlled thorn.

My phone vibrated. “Oh, what's this?” I said that, but I already knew what it was.

“A quest call for an A class quest!” I looked at Clara and Imo, then back to my phone like I was surprised.

“That's amazing!” Clara and Imo said it in unison, looked at each other, and then both blushed. I headed out, wishing luck for Imo in his magic control, and also whispered to him that I was rooting for him, which turned him beat red.

…

I entered Ms.Green office and saw her, Cel, and San? I knew I was going on the quest with Cel, but why was I left in the dark about San?

“Hello, you 3 have been the first ever Freshmens selected to go on an A class quest.”

“WHAAAAAAT!” Cel immediately bursted out into yell. Inter started his annoying talk. Back to his annoying usual self… we should kill him-

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And you should shut up, I snapped back.

“Well, why did you specifically set up us three?” I already knew why she picked Cel, but I wanted to find out about San.

Ms.Green pursed her lips, “Do you remember the entrance exam you had to take to make it into the school?”

Of course I did, one physical exam, and one mental exam. These were supposed to see where you would place in the school.

“You three were the top 3 for the physical exams. Sol was #1, Cel was #2, and San was #3.” What truly surprised me was that I was higher than Cel. Was he holding back in some way?

“Ok, but what’s the quest?” San asked. I realized I haven’t ever seen San’s magic in action.

“You have to go to a village where a master toolsmith named Aedi lives. This techsman can make magic tools that can be as powerful as nukes in just a few days of development. Of course, you would also be set up with a tool just for you from him as your reward.”

Cel and San’s eyes beamed with excitement. Getting a magic tool from a master toolsmith was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“Wait a minute,” Cel looked confused, “Why didn’t you let the student council do a quest this important?”

“Well, the student council right now is busy doing an S class quest, and you're some of the best students we’ve seen in a long time.”

I looked over at Cel, and then San. We were probably some of the best kids in the school, all prodigies. There is just this lingering feeling that something is going to go horribly wrong…

“By the way, do you all have your weapons for your quest?” Ms.Green asked

Cel looked innocently at us, “What’s a weapon?”

…

As we were walking to the armory, I just couldn’t fathom Cel’s stupidity. Didn’t this man score 3rd on the mental exam? How could he not understand what a magic weapon is?

The hall on the way to the armory was dotted with classrooms. I counted them as I was walking down.

201.

202.

203.

204…

“We have arrived,” Ms.Green stopped as we arrived at the armory.

When she opened the door, at first I didn’t see anything. It was just a chasm of stairs, leading to what seemed to be nothing. However, the further down I went the more clearly I saw a doorway. Once we reached the doorway, it seemed to be a dead end, with no handle or anything to open the door.

Ms.Green simply walked over to the doors. She placed her hand on it and chanted something inaudible, probably a spell, and then the doors started to open.

“WOAH!” Cel yelled “HOW DO I DO THAT!”

“Trust me, you will learn as long as you pay attention in class.” Ms.Green smiled, “Welcome to the armory.”

The armory was amazing. It had weapons stacked in neat and orderly fashion. There was a whole full set of pristine armor, most likely with an insane

Me and San really didn’t need any weapons considering our magical abilities. I could create most weapons I wanted, and San could literally copy any weapon he wanted by drinking that person’s blood. However, Cel was bouncing from wall to wall individually looking at everything he could.

“Cel, just one question, if you really didn’t know what magic weapons were, why were you so excited when they said you could get one from the master toolsmith?” I asked.

“Oh,” Cel said while trying out a bow, “I thought it was some toy or something imbued with magic energy.”

Cel was smart. He understood how to create magic tools, it was in fact one of his specialties. In smithing class, he would get whatever trinket we were making before class even started, then he would spend the rest of the class speedrunning the whole course.

“Oh wait, this is really nice.” Sam held a tool belt with vial pockets.

“That was used to help chemists hold their vials in a neat place.” Ms.Green stated, “It doesn’t have any magic energy to it though.”

“Don’t really care about the fact it has no magic, just needed something to store my blood vials.” San put the toolbelt on his waist, it fit perfectly.

Off the corner of my eye I saw a backpack. “What’s a normal backpack doing here?”

Ms.Green chuckled, “Oh no, that’s not a normal backpack, put your hands inside of it.”

I placed my hands inside of the backpack. Just as it seemed like I was reaching the end, my hand grasped out for nothing. It was like an endless inventory in a video game.

“I think I’ll take thi-” I was cut off before I could finish my sentence.

“I FOUND THE THING FOR ME!” Cel looked insanely happy. Out of all the comical joy faces he made, I had to say, this was the best.

Ms.Green looked surprised “Oh wow! Those are some of the best magic katanas. They were made in Japan, then were exported to America. They then were upgraded. During the day, you will get a power boost. During nighttime, any hit that lands on your opponent will make them temporarily lose a little of their vision. ”

Cel held both katanas in his hand with absolute giddiness. “I know exactly what to name you! THE EQUINOX BLADES!”

Woah. That was actually a pretty cool name Cel came up with. I wonder how he thought it up.

“Why that name Cel?” I asked.

Cel shrugged, “I dunno, just sounded nice I guess.”

I felt my veins bulging out of my body, like they were ready to explode. This man named “The Equinox Blades”, his first magical weapon, something that might stay with him for life, because it sounded nice.

‘We should kill hi-’

Stop! Just… stop. I’ll get you Papa John’s today, okay.

‘Yippee!’

With that, we took our selected gear, and headed back up the stairs.