The Briefing
Name: Marilyn Althorn
Race: Human
Titles: Mage-in-training
Discipline: Elven Magic
Strength: Level 5
Willpower: Level 2
Essence Aptitude: Level 5
Esoteric Traits:
- Generalist Caster
- Eyes of Heaven
Equipment List:
- Althorn Heirloom Staff
- Mage Outfit
"Hmm...it's a bit low huh...?"
Those were the words said by Marilyn Althorn, the moment her tome had been updated to identify her attributes. Generalist Caster seems to be obvious enough as a trait, as she doesn't generally put a focus on a specific category of spells.
Even the detail of Marilyn using Elven Magic is well understood by her. Humans don't have their own racial magic system, so they use another race's own and adapt it for their use.
But there are some details left out that the magical piece of technology may not have been able to track, such as her immortality. But still…
"That's a bit disappointing." She said to herself.
She's currently in a school restroom of sorts, readying herself, magical staff in hand, for the entrance exam so that she could actually study in the Royal Academy, looking in the mirror. The people that she knows, Cecilia, Adrian, Elysia, and even Vincent, are all outside waiting for the eventual briefing.
The system that she had been discussing with herself, and the one that she had been told to by Helena, was the very thing that identified her attributes as subpar at best.
It's a piece of magical technology, a product of Arcane Science from the magical revolution during the present era of this world. And for a brief history lesson, it was first used to streamline logistics and the trading of magical items, but the technology has been expanded since then. It's now used to transfer and identify all kinds of information, but it's not necessarily integral to the world of magic and other powers, as it's simply used to better understand it.
The Royal Academy, as well as almost all academies of equivalent from what she had heard, uses this particular type of technology to identify and help track the progress of their students, and it's used by said students quite extensively, including Marilyn.
"I wonder though…why so low…?" She said to herself.
As said by her father, her talent in magic is very high, pretty much the highest in the bloodline by far. But the information that is now given to her contradicts that fact. So how does it even calculate her attributes?
It's certainly not capable of calculating a person's innate maximum potential, that's for sure. The intricacies of one's level of skill and training, one's own intelligence, and level of knowledge aren't necessarily capable of being known by the 'tome system'. It really only identifies one's current potency, it seems.
Simply put, in a context of a battle, skill and intelligence are more often the deciding factors when compared to raw potency.
This would mean that it doesn't know the extent of magical knowledge Marilyn does have at her disposal…despite her lack of battle smarts. She's still quite creative with the usage of the spells that she does know, but she couldn't exactly fight very well as of now.
It's like a comparison between two books that have the same amount of pages, it necessarily wouldn't be able to analyse the contents and quality of the book. The tome system is only capable of knowing the number of pages and a summary of its contents, not its intricacies, its full extent, and any sort of subtext contained within.
So, despite her Strength rank being level 5, which is considered to be quite mediocre from what she had looked into, it doesn't necessarily mean that her potential with magic is limited to mediocrity. It only calculates the current maximum strength of her offensive capability, not the extent of her true potential.
Same goes for Willpower. From what she could see, it's an attribute that calculates one's constitution, capacity for defence, and to survive and endure something.
"Hmm…"
It's probably because of how aggressive and reckless she is in combat. Not minding to defend herself against an attack barring the bare minimum of barriers, to ensure that she wouldn't have to exploit her immortality when it's not needed. That might be a mistake on her part.
As for Essence Aptitude, the capability to gather and control essence energy at once, seems to be on track with her Strength rank.
"Well then, it says nothing about my maximum potential, so that means I just have to study hard to raise them!" Marilyn said those words in a rather confident tone towards herself, as if to try and inspire her own mind and heart to work hard.
But one more question lingered within her.
"How does it know that I have Eyes of Heaven…?"
[Inquiry Detected. Answering…
Eyes of Heaven have automatically integrated itself with the tome system, giving the user an advantage in information analysis.]
"...oh, thanks!"
It seems Eyes of Heaven had saved her a headache of research there. And from what Marilyn could now know, this would mean she could use the ability to scan other people more efficiently and effectively, which is quite good on her part.
But nonetheless…
"Marilyn, are you done there? We're about to hear the briefing!" The voice of a young man, it's Adrian, muffled by the closed door.
"Right! C-coming!"
Marilyn would close her tome, putting it in her backpocket before exiting the restroom. She meets face to face with Adrian again, who seems to be dressed very ready for combat.
She thought about how she could probably ask his attributes, or maybe even use Eyes of Heaven to potentially take a peek at it, but she's not that rude. So…
"I'm ready now, let's go." She stated.
"Took you long enough." Adrian said, with a smile.
The two would walk down the hallway leading to the designated briefing spot of the exam. It's quite a wide area, though around half the size of the main hall. About a thousand or so students of the same faculty as her are present, and the duo would soon approach their rag-tag group that they've coincidentally formed ever since they got here.
"There you are, Lyn-lyn!" Elysia said, turning towards the girl.
"Lyn-lyn?" Marilyn responded.
"It's a nickname I came up with myself! Cute, right?"
"It's dumb, that's for sure." Cecilia said in turn.
"That's just totally unnecessary of you. You don't like nicknames?" Adrian asked her.
Cecilia stuck a glare at him, "I do! It just sounds dumb."
"I like it, Lyn-lyn. Yeah." But Marilyn didn't care about her opinion, despite how 'caring' of her it might seem.
"Why thank you! I'll definitely call you that from now on!" Elysia responded with a toothy smile, before turning her head towards the podium that's present in front of the crowd of people they're in.
Vincent is present next to them for some odd reason, but he seemed to be quite disinterested with their presence. But the rest turned towards the podium also, as a person would walk on it, who's a—
"That's the person from before! Mr. Wednesday's assistant, wasn't it?" Marilyn exclaimed, turning towards the group to ask for confirmation.
"I am Hilde, the new combat professor of this academy." The person said.
Marilyn was a bit disappointed at her wrong guess. "Oh, so not an assistant."
"I will be your examiner for this entrance exam, and I will keep this briefing short and simple." Hilde said, "Your main objective is to clear your designated scenarios in the simulation rooms, whatever goal there will be shall be given to you on the field through your tomes automatically. That device will act as your compass to prevent you from being lost, and each of you will be randomly selected into teams in order to also test your knowledge of teamwork in battle. Any sort of failure will force you out of the room, and you will be teleported out immediately. Understand?"
The crowd gave their approval, Marilyn herself being silent as she's quite deep in thought. But it was for mostly a trivial reason, about her capability to pass this test or not with her stats. The difficulty of the tests are a well-kept secret of the academy afterall.
Hilde nodded, and Marilyn swore she could see a small smile plastered on her cold face there. "Within exactly ten seconds from now, the teleportation circle below you all shall transport you to your designated posts. Good luck."
And the floor began to glow a brilliant hue of azure, causing slight panic and awe from the crowd around her. Marilyn herself experienced those same feelings as well. In front of her, dozens of doors opened up with shining light, all lined against the wall. The simulation rooms are activating.
She looked at her current group of acquaintances and friends around her. They seem to have mixed reactions, but all of them are not fearful of this. So, why should she fear it?
Adrian wished her good luck with a two-fingered salute, Elysia waved at her as a sort of 'see you later!', and Cecilia focused mostly upon herself and closed her eyes, as if to meditate. As for Vincent…he just stared at her with a condescending look the moment she observed him.
Truly, it shouldn't actually go wrong…hopefully. Marilyn really wouldn't want to mess this up for either herself or her potential teammates. She'll do her utmost, for she must.