A very tiring day
Silence ran through the room for a moment as Jay looked at what hed had done to the orb. Even Mazen Mac'Nadir looked alternating between the young man and the remnants of the orb.
"That...That's impossible... What was your name again?" MN.
"If you read the letter in front of you, you'd know. My name is Jay." J.
Looking slightly irritated, the geezer looked down on the letter and opened it.
After he read the first few lines he looked up to Jay with even more irritation written all over his face.
"I should clear this misunderstanding I guess. I have been sent here by Field Marshal Whitmore and Commander Haggard for you to look at something. If you thought I've come here to enroll the academy, I have to break it down to you..." J.
"B..But that result... May I at least ask how old you are?" MN.
"My Adventurer ID states 16, so..." J.
"Sixteen? And spell-power over measure as a mere Adventurer? You have to enroll!" MN.
"As I said, I have no intention..." J.
"I have to report to the Principal. That's bound to be a new record. At that age...." MN.
Letting the old man blabber on, Jay rose from his seat and stepped forward. Taking the latest totem out of his inventory and crashing it onto Mac'Nadir's desk, Jay looked the man into his eyes.
"Read the letter, please. And when you are done, concentrate and investigate this totem. I need all the information you can gather on it as soon as possible." J.
"But... fine, but I still need to report your results, okay?" MN.
"Fine. But the Principal won't change anything. I am still investigating on those totems and other things, so I can't enroll even if I wanted to." J.
"Oh, that's a shame. But she will want to meet you for sure when she comes back.
At the moment the Principal is reporting to the magic association and will be back in a week earliest. Until then I am sure to have some results regarding this..." MN.
"I need them now!" J.
Until then, Jay had been very patient.
Whenever the old man had cut his words, he had accepted. But at that point he had to do the same.
The matter of the totems had been to urgent to let the man drift off to anything else, may be even forgetting the totem all together.
"I'm sorry, but this matter is urgent.
I am willing to leave it here if you want to check on it further when I'm gone, but you need to look it up now." J.
"The youth today... no time at all..." MN.
"So, can you help me please?
Lives are depending on this as every bit of information is crucial." J.
"Yeah, I'll do it. But in return, You go to Misses Pierce and fill in your contacts." MN.
"Was the result that special?" J.
"Well, given that affinity for every basic elements appears only about once each century... YES!" MN.
The slightly angry glint in his eyes, had Jay stumble backwards.
Going by what the geezer said, Jay was some king of prodigy for magic.
It was not that big of a surprise, given the modifications of his body and mind he had gone through. Something told him that the different feelings in his body during that torturous time had something to do with this elemental affection...
Following the instructions of Mac'Nadir, Jay went out to the reception and had a small talk with Misses Pierce while filling in his contacts. Suddenly a loud grumbling came from his belly.
He had not eaten anything since this morning and the experiences until now had made him hungry.
The mature lady only smiled to that and hinted him to the academy's cafeteria. She even offered to tell Master Mac'Nadir about it and made another appointment for two hours later.
Jay took her up on the offer and went straigt out of the building and towards where he was told the cafeteria was.
It seemed the lectures and practices had finished and now all the students spent their spare time on the campus. On his way to the cafeteria he met quite a lot of students on the campus, with most of them greeting him friendly.
Most of the students were human, with some other races mixed in between, but nearly all of them wore the same blue robe with yellow sashes. Only some wore different colored robes, mainly Elves with pinkish ones or Dwarfs with white ones.
While some of the latter smiled at Jay, the elves only spared him a glance and showed their discontent. It seemed to Jay they held themselves higher than the rest, as most of the students were intrigued due to him not wearing a robe like them.
One female in particular raised her brow with scorn at him.
Smiling towards her, Jay analyzed her and learned her name was Elsharin, a level 30 Pyromancer Shin'dorai-Elf. She was one of the few wearing a different robe, a purple one with silver embroidery, but surrounded only by other elves.
In the cafeteria he saw a similar picture as most of the tables had been occupied already. The whole campus was so full, Jay was sure all the buildings had to be empty at that moment.
With the nice, mild weather at the afternoon, it would have been a shame to sit indoors for studying though.
Picking himself some fruits he had never seen and a sandwich, Jay went back over the park like campus.
After finding himself a bench in a not so crowded place, he took his fist bite. The small purple berries tasted like sour grapes, but sugar coated. With a prickling sensation on his tongue, Jay noticed additional mana circulating trough him.
With a new idea in mind and some spare time left, Jay hurriedly ate the pretty tasty sandwich and went over to the spell shooting stage.
There, he instantly spotted a face he would have liked not to see again.
His misfortune was that the person himself had seen Jay as well and walked over, bringing his group with him.
"Look who we have here.... isn't this the delivery boy from this morning?
What are you still doing here, huh? Have you gotten lost?" C.
It was Collin Mauren, and he was accompanied by a group of five fellow students, all male humans. They all laughed at Collin's mocking, looking at Jay with pity or scorn.
Most of the people around turned their faces away to the group making fun of someone they don't know.
Only a certain group with another person Jay remembered seeing not long ago walked over. They kept a little distance though, far enough not to interfere, but close enough to listen the mobbing.
The slender, white-blonde Elf leading the mostly female entourage was Elsharin, the elf that had looked at him with scorn.
"Well, it's not like you helped me, though you probably should have... No, I got some spare time waiting for my second appointment with Master Mac'Nadir." J.
"Haha,...nice joke. As if a lowlife like yourself would be allowed to meet the academy's representative!
What – are -you – doing – here?" C.
"None of your business." J.
Light chuckles were to be heard from the surroundings.
It seemed to Jay, no one here has had the guts to antagonize the male group in front of him. He himself had no fear of the consequences though and looked Collin directly into his eyes, showing exactly that.
"Playing tough, huh... This is a training ground for mages. Get your dumb warriors ass out of here!" C.
"Oh, I know. I was just going to try out something. The dummies are for spell shooting practice, right?" J.
"Yeah, for something like this...." C.
To that, Collin turned around and shot a Fireball towards the first dummy.
His casting was extremely fast and as the fast ball of fire hit, the target incinerated and burned on for a couple of seconds.
Jay watched the dummy burn and come out charred but mostly unscathed.
Yelps of astonishment and approving nods could be heard and seen from the surrounding students.
Only the Elves looked at it with disdain.
Taking the last steps to the line from where to shoot spells, Jay concentrated on his own casting.
Not uttering a single word, a Fireball appeared in his hands and grew to a size only a little bigger than Collins. The whole process took no longer than three seconds and the moment Jay let go, the Fireball shot towards his target with a swoosh.
The sound of impact could be heard far over the campus as the dummy exploded and the burning debris even incinerated the targets close to it.
Behind Jay, not a single word could be heard.
Not even movement.
"Well, I was thinking more of something like this..."J.
Stuffing one of the berries inside his mouth, Jay did what he came there for.
He wanted to know if the berries could restore his Mana.
And that they did.
Not minding the dumbfounded students surrounding him, not even Collins pale face with eyes and mouth wide agape, Jay took out another one of the fruits.
Glad he didn't put even more magic energy into the spell, he watched the flames. It took more than a minute for the last magic flames to extinguish, leaving only ashes where they touched.
Turning around to leave, he heard slow clapping from a single person.
"It was about time someone taught this guy some manners, ...though I'd never guessed it to be some ...one like you." E.
It was the female Elf that spoke up.
Though she might have looked pretty with her small and delicate features, her smooth pale skin and those long, thin ears pointing skywards, her expression ruined everything.
She was conceited and snooty through and through.
"...Someone like me? You mean a Human?" J.
"I'd have said someone so ...primitive, but yes. Your magic is not bad, but don't compare your all out spell just now with someone like me!" E.
To that she simply turned around and strode away, having her group split a path for her. Looking after her a little baffled, Jay couldn't help but watch her small butt swinging while she left.
One day, maybe one day he would teach her a lesson...
After strolling around for a couple of minutes, Jay decided it would be best if he went to the office earlier.
Back at Mazen Mac'Nadir's office, Jay was told by Misses Pierce that his show at the spell training area had gotten noticed by herself and some teachers.
Even Mazen himself had come out to inquire what had happened.
Entering said man's office, Jay greeted him again and walked over to the desk where he left the totem.
He had left the previous reports and finds about it and two more similar totems with the old geezer.
"Good that you are back, take a seat! We have no time to loose, so I'll tell you directly. There are forbidden Spells imbued into this magic... tool. Those are...." MN.
"Yes, I know. That's all in the reports I gave you." J.
"Then do you even know which ones th...." MN.
"Have you even read the reports?" J.
"Y-Yes? I only thought you might need a refresh..." MN.
"Cut to the case please. As you said yourself, we are a little short on time. Anything new?" J.
Somehow, Jay had fun cutting off the old geezer as he himself had done it to Jay way to often.
It wasn't that the matter was too pressing, seeing the totems took time to have an effect. The then following overpopulation took even more time to have an immediate effect on the kingdoms inhabitants.
Still, the origin had to be found and stopped.
"The spells imbued are not cast by a human." Mac'Nadir blurted out with a victorious grin.
This really was something new to Jay.
He had gotten hints to that, but until now, no one stated it clearly.
"Are you sure of that?" J.
"Yes. The spells imbued, all hold traces of blood magic. It's a rare magic class aside from the elemental magic that is only used by a certain category of beings..." MN.
"And those are?" J.
"Anything vampiric. That's more of History and Tales than actual knowledge. It's said that those beings had last been seen at the war with the north." MN.
"Then how do you know about that magic?" J.
"Oh, there are records on that. But aside from the magic that has been recorded, I can't help you any further." MN.
Looking out through the big window behind Mac'Nadir, Jay noticed the sun already setting. The whole scenery was tinted in a yellow orange.
"Then have you any idea as to who could help me find out more to those totems?" J.
"As you know the materials and spells with their origin, what more is there to find? In the end, it's still just a magic tool with a very special function." MN.
"So you say it'd be more efficient to catch the distributors than investigating the tool further...?" J.
"I think you got a lead to that, remembering your last report." MN.
"Thanks old man, I guess you're right..." J.
"Wha...who's an old man?"
Grinning at each other, Jay took the totem and his reports together with a new one and stuffed them into his inventory.
The inquisitive glance of the old geezer only had Jay smile even more, when Mazen suddenly spoke in a soft tone.
"You know, I'd really love to have a student like you here. But from what I learned today, I will give my recommendation to have you enter the university directly. Say, can we talk about this once the story with the totems comes to a close?"
"I'm alright with that... still no promises. Goodbye." J.
"Goodbye, and stay safe!" MN.
With this, Jay turned around and walked through the door.
Saying his goodbye to Misses Pierce as well, he noticed just how tired he had gotten.
The task for the day was done, but all those talks and the irritating people he met made Jay want some time for himself.
Crossing the campus that was nearly empty by that time, he soon left the Academy of Arcane Arts.
It wouldn't be his last visit there, that much Jay was sure of.
But for today, he summoned his trusted horse and rode out of the mages district.
The lights in the buildings already started to shine and Jay spotted some taverns here and there even in this magical structures quarter.
Soon he arrived at the bridge crossing the canals and leading to the trade district.
From the middle of the bridge he could even see his targeted location and hopefully lodging for tonight.
The backside of the Gilden Roses Inn with its balconies, stretched all the way to the canals.