[09] Wizardry Orientation II Quiz

"Mhm."

'Your mother! Why the hell does it feel like a wrecking ball is pressing on my body? Not to mention my stomach is aching the same as my throat as if it's on fire.'

Xael grew pale as beads of sweat started rolling down his forehead. He curled up instinctively as he felt immense pain in his body. With Difficulty, Xael opened his eyes as he saw the dim lighting of the room.

'I swear, it's intentional. All I've experienced ever since arriving in this world is constant pain and suffering.'

Xael complained in his head as his blurry vision finally regained focus. It was dark inside the room that appears to be Xael's dormitory room. It was pretty much the same as what he saw in Xael's memory. One thing he noticed before is that. Even though Xael was born with a golden spoon in his mouth, he lived a very simplistic life. He wasn't very frugal nor was he a big spender. Just what your average normal person would spend.

With his body still aching. Xael fought the pain and weakness that he felt as he pushed himself to sit-up. It took him a few seconds to stabilize his breathing before pushing himself out of bed.

"If I remember correctly the bathroom seems to be this way." Xael stepped towards the door on the side.

He's very thankful that the dormitory rooms assigned were all to be occupied individually and is not like any other college dormitory on earth where you have to share the space with various people. Xael entered the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. The bathroom wasn't dark and was illuminated by a gold pearl situated on the ceiling, having the same function as an automatic light bulb back on earth.

"You look emaciated. Not to mention your stomach has been protesting since earlier. I'll make sure the both of us get to have our fill later and in the days to come." Xael promised himself as his sky blue eyes gazed at his reflection. His hands reach out towards the mirror.

[The world's will remind you to not OOC.]

"Ah!" Xael took a step back in surprise when a text suddenly appeared on the mirror's surface.

[???]

Xael's lips twitched in annoyance before approaching the mirror again. He patted his fastly beating heart as it calms down. "Oh it's just you. I thought it was a ghost for a second."

[...]

"Can't you appear more normally? Y'know its always giving me a heart attack seeing your message suddenly appear out of nowhere." He complained as he stared at the mirror.

[How would you like the message to appear? Would you prefer this way?]

After seeing that message, the text suddenly disappeared. A see through light screen appeared in front of his face causing Xael to blink a few times as he saw the text on the screen.

"Yeah that's a bit more like it." Xael rubbed his chin as he nodded approvingly to the light screen that appeared in front of him.

[Through scanning your memory, we have come up with a way like this. It seems pretty popular in your world. Game interfaces or what they call systems.]

"Oho. Nice. By the way, I'd like to ask. Why was Xael's memory cut short to his high fever? Also I was expecting to wake up the same as last time. Tied up inside a wooden wagon." Xael couldn't help but ask.

[Because what you experienced was something that hasn't happened yet.]

Xael tilted his head by what the Text said. Hasn't happened? But he did experience it though? He escaped and survived for two days there. "What do you mean by that hasn't happened yet?"

[In your world. It is similar to a game's... Bad End. It wasn't simply Xael, the original body's bad end but also your bad end.]

"So my future huh..." Xael muttered as he pondered what he experienced before. Looking back to it, the memory seems very strange now. He wasn't as affected as before.

"Then my experience before?"

[It hasn't happened. The world's will has set up an unreal illusion of the bad end for you to live through. Think of it as similar as a nightmare that you're lucid dreaming to.]

Xael finally breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn't help but pressed his face on his palms as he keep thanking god. He hasn't killed a person. It wasn't real. It felt as if a weight on his shoulders has finally been lifted.

"Then will you always be guiding me? Are there any other people who are like me?" Xael asked curiously to the screen in front of me.

[Negative. We will be overseeing multiple events to reach the end. We will not contact you from now on, we are only here to clear up things for you.]

The screen flashed the long message to which Xael nodded his head. Well it seems plausible. If it really is the world's will then it must be overseeing the fate of countless beings in this whole world. "Then how do I know if I've completed my hidden role?"

[You will be issued a task to complete. Asides from that you are free to do whatever you want in your own volition as long as you achieve the task.]

"I see, I see. I've got the gist of it now. Thanks." Xael nodded to which the test replied.

[Great! Then the World's will wishes you good luck on your journey. Goodbye.]

After that, the text disappeared leaving only Xael and a dim light screen inside the bathroom. "Well that was a very quick good bye. They must've been busy."

Xael sighed feeling ridiculous as he felt it was a similar feeling a mother sending her child to preschool. And he's the child. He rubbed his hair in frustration before facing the mirror.

"Okay Xael. First, you need to freshen yourself." Xael smiled to himself before walking towards the shower head. After taking off all his clothes he opened the shower to which he exclaimed when he felt cold water splash on his body leaving him shivering.

'Fuck, I almost forgot. Xael wasn't able to receive his allowance for two months now. It means no more warm water for him.'

Xael cursed as he endured the biting cold. He hurriedly cleaned himself before wrapping himself with a towel and scurrying outside the bathroom. With his teeth chattering, he opened the wardrobe and chose Xael's uniform based on the memory he saw.

Good thing the academy's uniform consists of a white shirt and Blue blazer with matching brown pants. It's also mandatory to wear leather shoes for all students. Unlike on earth, they don't have personal identification cards, instead they use a brooch inlaid with magic stones that has a record of a students identity. Originally the magic stone's color could be seen varying for each student which was based on their level however due to the school's new policy of inclusiveness, they changed all the brooch to only show a gold color which was the academy's official color. It was said to be implemented so that there will be discrimination inside the academy grounds.

After he finished clothing himself up and was wearing his shoes. He was thinking of what to do next when the screen lit up with a message.

[Due to the timeframe, there are no major tasks to be issued. However minor tasks are available which are optional for the host to complete.]

[Minor tasks!]

Xael turned his head and tapped on the screen. He was amazed for a few seconds that his hands were actually able to touch the interface.

[Minor Task: Earn a perfect score during the assessment in Wizardry Orientation II]

[Rewards: 10 VP and 100 Rehyas.]

Xael licked his lips before turning to the door after reading the information. Okay. He can do this. Probably. He turned the knob and successfully went out the dorm room. He locked it before proceeding towards the stairs. He was the only one present right now at the dormitory building since everyone's already at the cafeteria building taking their breakfast.

Sadly he can't have breakfast. Due to not receiving his allowance. The money he saved up from way before was already used up. Not to mention that his pockets was zeroed from his stay at the clinic where he was charged for using the bed for a night.

Xael tried his best to ignore his grumbling stomach as he exited the dormitory building. He walked along the quiet path with trees swaying by the side walk due to the cold morning breeze.

In desperate need of distraction, he turned towards the light screen and started fiddling on it. Aside from the mission tab. There was also an icon similar to a user interface. He tapped on it and immediately his info appeared.

—Basic Information

[Name: Xael Eitan Laurhette ]

[Age: 16]

[Sex: Male]

[Currently attending the Grehan Academy.]

—Personal Stats

[Strength: 19]

[Endurance: 34]

[Stamina: 12/50]

[Speed: 16]

[Mental: 80]

[Magic: 0]

[Mana: 0/0]

—Skills

[None.]

Xael couldn't help but kneel down when he saw the pitiful numbers describing his personal stats. It's not wrong for others to compare him to a weak chicken at this time. Because boy is everything in it was in an all time low except for his mental ability. It was probably courtesy to Xael's genius mind.

'Hmm there's also and extra information here.' Xael commented as he pressed on the extra mini tab. From there he saw information about Xael's current schedule.

"Whew good thing it's a self study period for two hours before the Wizardry orientation II class." Xael muttered in his mind as he walked passed the cafeteria. He couldn't help but shed an imaginary stream of tears as he smelled the delicious aroma wafting in the air.

He hurried his pace until he finally couldn't smell any food at all. He entered the academic building and went towards his locker room. Not caring about the various vandals on his locker door. He opened it to retrieve the notebook and fountain pen inside before closing the locker again. He then proceeded towards the room for self study.

Since he was now in the academic building, it wasn't rare anymore to see some students loitering around. Xael just kept his gaze steady on the path as he felt the stares of the people around him.

He felt uncomfortable as he could feel ridicule, sympathy, and pity in those gaze. However the most prominent of all was the disdainful comments made by the people around him.

'You actually survived being treated like shit for almost a year. You amaze me man.'

If there wasn't any people around Xael would've given himself a pat on the shoulder. He was very strong to endure this environment for almost a year.

It wasn't long before he arrived on the room. The people there were busy digging their heads through their textbooks while some are sleeping on the side while snoring. Xael couldn't help but breathe in relief that there was no attention casted on him.

He picked the farthest chair on the back and opened the notebook in his hands. The notes written inside were neat and very informative. You could see how attentive and diligent the person who wrote it. Along the main text where some small notes or footnotes in explanation or additional information for easy understanding.

Xael focused on learning this new knowledge as he read the note. Through the span of two hours he was rereading the whole notes, familiarizing, learning, processing and analyzing the topic.

It was very new to him, an ordinary person who lived on earth, to learn about the basics of magic and it's context. Basically, each person were born with natural vein in their body. It has functions similar to blood veins however instead of the heart, a person has a core to which it pumps a stream of essence throughout the body just like blood circulation.

Just like oxygenated blood, essence needs mana, to which a person could obtain from the environment just like oxygen. However there are also other items that could supply mana to the person's veins just like pills conjured by alchemists, relics, foods and other treasures.

The core has a main passage which separates to various veins. It also corresponds to the person's ability. For example clerics who have holy light have their essence pumping only the the middle vein. War cry whichare practiced by berzerkers have their essence pumping only on the 2nd to the left vein only. When a person comes of age, their vein would develop and open up dictating which ability they could harness, although it isn't unheard of that a person opens up 2 or more veins it was only written in historical records dating back to millions of years ago.

The development of veins has been assumed to be affected by genes due to the observation that two mages could yield a newborn with magic ability. Same with a paladin and an elf, if the paladin has higher level than the elf then it is highly likely that their off would be a person with sword aura and vice versa if the elf has a much higher level than the paladin.

Xael couldn't help himself but immerse in the new knowledge he learned. He was so fascinated by the concepts of abilities in this world that he didn't notice the classroom piling up with students.

They also notice Xael sitting on the back however they don't have enough time to meddle with him. Rather than messing with him it's best to take the time to review more. Their current professor in Wizardry Orientation II was notorious in the whole school. It wasn't unknown that he already failed various students to which the students have to spent another year in the academy and retake his subject.

He was simply a demon in a teachers clothes! The students couldn't help but shudder as they saw that there was only an hour left for self study. Silence could be heard inside the room and only flipping of pages and scribbling of pen was the only noise that could be heard.

After familiarizing, Xael started to note down important pointers in a blank paper as he memorized concepts and definitions. Although he's not that smart, he was very good in memorizing back in his world. Not to mention with the original bodies mental stats of 80, it only became much more easier for him to comprehend and remember the contents of the lesson.

As all of them were busy with their own business, the clock chimed. It was a cuckoo clock. The clock was pointing at 8:45 am. There was a cuckoo clock distributed in each room and all were inlaid with an array for it to chime fifteen minutes earlier before time when it comes to self study room. It was so that students could use the 15 minutes to go to their next subject which was situated in another building. All of them stood up and walked out the building with Xael trailing at the back, his gaze still focused on the notes at hand.