At 7:00 A.M. Jayce hops out of bed to get ready to go to the academy. He lives in the city of Monterey, about a two-hour magi-train ride from Resco which is in the city of Milbenkase. As he starts to get ready he realizes he doesn’t actually have that much he wants to bring. Besides some clothes and learning equipment, he isn’t allowed to bring weapons and all the books he needs will be available at the library. He quickly puts the clothes he wants and a single book about rare elements into his pack for the train ride and heads downstairs.
Thankfully his mom had to leave early for a meeting with a potential client this morning so he doesn’t have to deal with her bringing down his mood again; last night was bad enough, a simple well done was too much to ask for. Instead, it was all “Well at least you didn’t waste all the money I’ve spent on you” worded ten different ways. Jayce quickly grabbed some food to go and his bags before heading down towards the train station.
Once there gets on the train and finds his seat before pulling out the book titled Rare Elements And Their Use Cases. He finds the section on Space users first and begins to read.
Space: An element very rarely seen, Space has the capability to let someone become very wealthy. The ability to make portals make them some of the best messengers and travel assistants around. Beyond that, the only recorded ability is to shorten space where useful applications are not discovered.
Common Paths:
* Travel Assistant: Space users ability to create portals between locations makes them the ideal travel assistant. They can shorten a trip that would normally take weeks to be instantaneous.
* Messengers: the ability to create portals once again shines as the primary function of Space users. Moving people takes a lot of world energy while moving objects or mail is much easier.
Important Note:
Space is an element so rarely seen that portal usage is the only ability that's known to be useful. There is one other known ability that has no known useful functions, the ability to shorten space between objects, however, based on the amount of uses other elements have, it is theorized there are many undiscovered abilities.
Not the best news but at least it's a useful ability. Some dungeons can be the size of a country so having a faster way to travel could be very valuable to some parties. Unfortunately, there are no known combat abilities but hopefully, Resco is able to find an instructor that can help theorize some applications with him. Jayce continues on to find the Void entry:
Void: The only element more rarely seen than Space, Void has only been seen a handful of times throughout the records I’ve been able to peruse. Creating some of the most dangerous attacks that have ever been discovered, along with being able to negate many common attacks makes void one of the most powerful combat elements to exist. Outside of combat, there are no known usages.
Common Paths:
* Delver/Explorer: As mentioned above, Void is an incredibly powerful combat augment. For both delving groups as well as exploring groups, adding a void user makes the excursion much safer for the team.
* Elite Guardsman: For the exact same reasons Void users would make excellent guardsmen.
Important Note:
Given the lack of recorded Void users, it is theorized there are many abilities that have not been discovered. If you receive this aptitude and want to help contribute to research, send data about what you learn to the Hilzaryan Department of Aptitude Research.
The exact opposite of his Space aptitude, Void is only known for combat. While this will help with being useful in dungeons, the true power of combinations is the ability to do things unexpected. Jayce will have to work to discover ways to make Space and Void work together to reach the level he dreams about.
As Jayce continues his musings a voice comes over the speaker announcing the arrival at the Milbenkase main station. He repacks the book and heads over to the Resco administration hall. Since it is still a week until classes start he doesn’t have to wait in line and goes right up to the front desk.
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“Hello, I was told to come early due to my unique circumstances, the Headmaster should be expecting me,” Jayce says.
“Are you Jayce?” the attendant asks.
“Yes, Jayce Beltenborn.”
“We were told to expect you, head up to the fifth floor and he should be waiting for you.”
Jayce heads over to the stairs and climbs quickly, you don’t wanna make the Headmaster wait on you after all. As he walks through the doors to the top floor, Headmaster Artiuo comes over to greet him.
“Good morning Jayce, thank you for coming a bit early. Giving us this extra time to ensure we bring in the correct resources to help you grow will certainly pay off.”
“My pleasure, sir. Couldn’t be more excited to be here and get the chance to learn from the best.”
The Headmaster smiles and gestures for Jayce to follow him, “Come into my office and let’s go over your scores, what you want out of your education here, as well as a potential favor I will ask of you.”
Once they sit down the Headmaster picks up the sheet on his desk and continues, “You scored almost perfect on the knowledge portion of the exam, perfect on the physical portion, and turned out to have two of the rarest aptitudes known to us. Scores like that only come once every few years but this is both exactly what Resco thrives off, getting the chance to learn about something new, as well as a headache in that there are no teachers to accomplish everything. Diedre said you wanted to go into delving, correct?”
“Yes sir, I’ve been dreaming about becoming an S-ranked delver for as long as I can remember.”
“We can certainly put you on the path to make that happen. With scores good enough to get you a free ride, we will certainly be providing you, and your team, with lots of extra resources to make sure you realize your potential. With that said, I do expect that you choose a team that will be able to keep up and help push you as well. The favor I have to ask is also related to this. How do you feel about non-humans?”
Non-humans were an interesting topic in the kingdom of Hilzarya. Until just 50 years ago they were treated as second-class citizens if not outright slaves. Many of the older generations, Jayce’s mom included, still view them with distrust and refuse to work with them.
“I have no issues with them. I haven’t gotten the chance to interact with them much but, as with other people, I expect I’ll get along with some and not others.”
“Well, we are starting a program with a couple of Dwarven and Elven nations this year and are bringing some exchange students in. I’ve talked to the students and the ones sent are some of the most promising candidates from their countries. If it’s alright with you I want to put Hugnol Earthforged, a dwarf, as your roommate. I also would encourage you to talk to and perhaps party with Adina Threetree. She is a dryad from one of the elven kingdoms. Both Hugnol and Adina have aptitudes that would complement what we know about yours well and it would leave you needing to only find one other party member. They also have more rare aptitudes and whether you party or not you would likely end up sharing several courses with them. What are your thoughts on that?”
“I’m definitely ok with rooming with Hugnol, but I want to meet and discuss with them before committing to partying. That’s a big decision and I want to make sure we will work well together.” Jayce says.
“Very reasonable, we do expect there to be some issues with a few of the students and the non-humans so just be aware of that. I’ll bring someone to lead you to your dorm where you can meet Hugnol right after this. He can then introduce you to Adina later on. We are looking to bring a few teachers in for you: first, someone who specializes in uncommon usages of aptitudes. We want him to help think of ways yours can be used outside of the known usages as well as work with you to show how the known abilities can be used effectively. Second, a world energy specialist. Space and void are both notoriously energy intensive and learning how to use as little as possible for what’s needed will be a massive advantage in the long run. Finally, a Space user. There are only a few around and it might be hard to find one to teach but we think we can entice one. Outside of those we believe the standard courses we have can provide what you need but once we see the full extent of your education we can make adjustments if needed.”
“That sounds great to me. I don’t deal well with speciests or bullies so it will be a good way to see who to avoid.”
“Excellent, it was great talking to you Jayce. We expect great things from you and will do our best to get you there. If you have any issues please don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment with me and we can try to figure it out. Otherwise, enjoy your time here and learn everything you can. If you head just out the door there will be someone waiting for you to take you over to the dorm.”
Jayce thanks the Headmaster and heads out to the attendant. As she starts to lead him to the dorm he can’t help but admire the campus. Multistory buildings all over, tons of green space to walk through between buildings, and only a few minutes walk from the shopping district make this the ideal location for an academy.
They head up to the second floor and at the first door, the attendant hands him a key and gestures for him to go ahead. Jayce takes a deep breath before opening up and starting the scariest part of going away to school: meeting the roommate.