A wizard finally visited the village.
It was time for everyone to get their aptitude tested.
There was less then 30 children in the entire village.
Every five years, an acolyte would take up the task to visit a village.
They would be rewarded based on the aptitude of the people they brought back.
Zero was excited to see what his aptitude was.
Hopefully it wasn't as low as it was in Owtz's universe.
The Acolyte set up a tent right outside the village.
The teens and children lined up and went in one by one.
Soon it was Zero's turn.
He was told to put his hand on a crystal ball.
"Magic is based on the strength of your consciousness. This will tell us that."
Zero felt his independent consciousness get sucked in.
He felt nine of his sublime artifacts rotate.
The crystal shattered.
"Impossible! You! You...! A level 5 aptitude..."
[ECHO]: Analyzing book
[ECHO]: "Time Walker"
[ECHO]: 3: Chapter 10: Aptitude
"Is that good?"
"..."
"It is the highest aptitude..."
Zero was surprised, he expected the highest to be 13.
The person looked quite excited.
"If I can bring you back... the amount of task points I'll get! I'll be rich!"
"Do you wish to join Dark Fire Academy?"
"Sure."
"..."
"Let me test the others."
Zero's brother was also tested after Gat found out that Zero had a brother.
If he also had an aptitude of five...
That would be excellent.
But unfortunately... it seemed to not be related to genes.
His brothers consciousness was ordinary.
He had a level one aptitude.
This was the case for every other villager.
There was one person with a level 2 aptitude.
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Gat didn't invite any of them to join the academy.
His minimum requirements was having a level 3 aptitude.
He wouldn't get any points for bringing back someone lower.
Although if they offered a good price... he might be willing.
Zero's 'parents' were very sad to see him leave.
But they wished him luck on his journey.
Zero had grown fond of this random village.
But it was time to explore the world!
Zero asked Gat:
"So... where is Dark Fire Academy?"
"It is located in a secret pocket dimension."
The acolyte took out a pendant
He begin to move it back and forth.
As it swung it began to shine.
He grabbed Zero.
Zero felt his TE draining.
He allowed himself to teleport.
They appeared outside of an academy.
A bald man with a white beard looked at Gat.
"You managed to find someone that met the requirements?"
"Yes. Level five!"
"Really? Among the commoners? Very unlikely..."
"The crystal shattered completely. He could be peak level five!"
"Well done, roping him in. What conditions did you have to agree to?"
"None! He agreed just from me mentioning the name of the academy."
Zero:
"..."
"Very well. Welcome to our academy. Where are your things?"
"Oh... I don't really need anything."
Zero could create things using his law of Cosmos.
Or his law of Creation
He also didn't really need to bring sets of clothes or money.
The man turned to Gat.
"A thousand task points! Congratulations..."
Gat bowed.
He then left.
The old man walked up to Zero.
Looking him up and down.
"You will do well here. Would you like to be my student?"
"Sure."
"... you agreed quite quickly..."
Zero laughed.
"..."
"Follow me, we have some paper work to fill out."
They did a thorough background check on Zero.
Making sure he wasn't a spy or some rogue wizard.
Zero passed the test with flying colors.
They even sent another acolyte to his village to verify the information.
There were no holes in his origin.
He was allowed to join the academy.
Zero was introduced to the rules of the academy.
He was shown the cafeteria; shown his room.
He was then giving a scroll.
"This is the visualization technique."
"It also has information on practice. I'll leave you to it. Once you've broken through to an acolyte. You can come find me at my office. You don't need to worry about mortal affairs, just focus on your practice."
"Good luck Zero!"
"Thanks."
Morti left.
Zero sat down in his meditation pose.
He read through the scroll.
So it seems this worlds magic system is entirely different then Owtz's system.
Instead of leaking energy from the matrix over the world through the persons soul.
Instead of setting up passive spells as you get deeper into the layers of the soul.
Instead of having templates and a 'knife'.
You tap into something entirely different.
They call this energy 'Source'.
It is nothing like the source Zero used to pay for things in constant time.
This source is energy from the persons very consciousness.
In other words...
These wizards don't get their power from the environment at all.
These wizards despise using the environment.
They believe doing so is using borrowed strength.
Their power was entirely from the internal.
This is also why they despise Warlocks.
Using the mental energy in their sea of consciousness.
What separated an ordinary person from a wizard was the generation of mental energy.
You must transform your sea of consciousness into a source generator.
Taking this step takes a different amount of time depending on ones aptitude.
A level 5 would take a month.
A level 4, two months.
A level 3, six months.
A level 2, five years.
A level 1, a decade.
This is just the time it would take to become an acolyte.
Unlike with Owtz's system.
Runes don't matter here.
Well they do, but there isn't multiple levels of acolyte.
There is acolyte -> wizard -> rank 2 wizard -> and so on.
Similar to Owtz's system... the difference between a wizard and an acolyte is passive spells.
Spells in this system work entirely different.
They work based off intent, with minimal runes.
The only spells that require runes are passive spells.
In order to breakthrough to a wizard, you require a passive spell model.
Zero began to practice the visualization technique given to him.
But something weird happened...
He needed to transform his sea of consciousness.
He only had two right now.
His independent consciousness.
His mysterious consciousness.
He couldn't use the sea of consciousness of his mysterious consciousness.
Since it was located in the cosmic order and wasn't even a part of this multiverse.
He wouldn't bother developing consciousness of his soul.
He didn't feel like caring about a mere soul.
What if something happened to it? It'd be such a pain to recreate.
So that left him with his independent consciousness.
Zero was using the sea of consciousness within his independent consciousness.
The problem was... it was entirely full.
It had millions of mechanisms from his nine sublime artifacts.
What if he used temporal energy instead of mental energy?