The final road to the Vikito Beach was the almost peaceful, a few sand worms had attacked us here and there but it was nothing compared to the deadly raid of the wolves. The death rates has gone done considerably as only a few died from walking away from the convoy to play in the sand, only to be swallowed up by a sandworm. These monsters of the dessert are not very strong; although, their main most terrifying ability is appearing right beneath you and swallowing you whole! The long final stretch was otherwise quite uneventful aside from socializing and gathering information about the upcoming academies.
It appears that there are about 14 academies, with 4 prestigious academies that only accept magus applications if you have an a level 7 aptitude and higher! Each of these academies each represented the main elements of the world, Fire, Water, Earth and Air, 2 other academies represented the darkness attribute with 3 representing the Light elements and the rest had specialization in magic such as magical science, alchemy, potioneering, magic smithing, and finally magical beast taming. Each of these academies also had a dab in the other magical arts although the others would be able to provide more and better information.
Having a good aptitude level of 7 with a good attributes in Fire, Andre felt that the best thing for him would be to enter the prestigious Phoenix Child's Academy that specialize in all fire related magic while Juliene having a dark specialization and only having an aptitude level of 5 he felt that his only chance would to enter one of the darkness academies or join a magic specialized academy. Although these magic specified academies seem weak on the outside, they are extremely necessary and can be just as powerful as other magic academies.
A great example would be potioneering; although the cost of ingredients as well as the apparatus's to create a magical potion can be considered insane, the return for these potions are just as high if not more! These specializations are the best in making gold! As a magus, the ability to go through resources such as gold and magical ingredients is insane; without proper families and a reliable source of income magus's can find themselves broke and unable to continue their research and themselves!
A common currency that magus's uses are magic gems that are slightly rainbow color if shined under sunlight, these stones emit a small dilution of mana and they help magnus's with their development of mana. Although gold can also be used these gems are quite more expensive as a few of these gems can be only acquired through lots of gold and proper channels if one does not have a magnus in their families.
Almost all of the children on this particular convoy had no magic gems as they were all from farmers or people that were able to live by comfortable; none of them could even imagine the possibility to get their hands on this magnus currency!
As the journey had almost come to an end with a breather, few monsters had shown their faces. There were small groups that had formed after many days and nights of socializing as well. These groups usually branched off to people with high aptitude levels and similar affinities; while there were lower aptitude people with similar affinities, they were usually put with less importance and almost treated as inferiors! After all, what teacher would waste 7 years teaching one student when they could teach another in half the time! Although many magnus after reaching certain level of magic can attain longer lifespans, it simply is not worth their time; however, many do trick these lower aptitude acolytes as their lifelong assistants or just flat out guinea pigs.
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Andre and Juliene had mostly still stuck together while traveling on different carriages like many others did. They had long since moved from the carriage with Ruth and Beth who had joined a small group that were aiming to join the academy of magical science and development, safe and reliable and many kingdoms would seek out these magical scientist's in hope they would be able to achieve new ways to be stronger than the others, in other words; a government job that would have a steady life but almost no chance of truly become a great magnus. This job was usually taken by people who have low aptitude for magic but great intelligence overall but to be a magus not only would one need to have a high aptitude, intelligence but also wisdom and the desire to seek out all the mysteries of the world. The drive and passion is what seperates a normal magus to a great one. While the small group will most likely get into their field of magic; Julien and Andre had joined a larger general group that had average aptitude levels.
They will most likely get into their desired academies; however, there might be some discrimination so it's always good to make connections and friends as early as you can! The highest aptitude such as George had formed a small clique to discuss their magical futures although their attributes were quite varied almost no more than 3 had the same attributes and in some cases there were only 1 person with a specific attribute with a high aptitude!
It was finally in sight, almost like a festival of some sorts there were banners and a large parking area where many carriages had already been parked, with tents, lodging as well as stalls that were selling food and other magical items such as textbooks and trinkets. The eyes of every young soon to be acolyte was filled with dreams and amazement as most of them had been raised in poor villages and medium sized towns, never would they imagine such a grand event to be in front of them!
As the convoy of carriages had finally stopped and the disembarking was finally happening Andre and Juliene could hear a few magnus's conversations.
"How many deaths did you get on your convoy?" a magus was asking another with a grin on his face and a piece of paper that seem to mark different routes and convoys with how many casualties.
"There were around 12 that didn't make it, although i had a bet that we would lose twice as much! I'm surprised we only lost half of that amount..." a grey beard magnus had sighed.
"Better pay up those 2 magic gems hehe" smirked another in the group. He seemed to be the magnus that had killed the alpha wolf in the forest. To think these magnus's were betting on the lives of children and future acolytes is truly despicable.
Andre and Juliene's heart sank after hearing that, were their lives simply just up for others to bet?
"Julien, let's change this world, it's absolutely disgusting and this is one of the reasons why my father had left the guilds... people like this!"
"Andre I agree with you but in this world, I think Power is key, and that key rules all. If you hope to change anything you better become a magnus as soon as you can!"
"That's ... true... I guess i simply have to suck it up and learn as much as I can in the shortest amount of time! Look! there's the tents for the Phoenix Child's Academy, the line up seems super long... I'll have to go line up quickly! Look for me later at the lodging area Julien!" Bolting off to the lineup hoping to beat as many people as possible Andre disappeared into the crowd.
"Well.... I guess I'll find the two dark attributed academies." Julien strolled off and looked into the skies, bright sun and clear skies, almost looking for something in the distance, Julien walked into the crowd towards the dark attribute academies.