Sylvester spent the afternoon going wherever his feet would take him . Once he left the plaza he entered what appeared to be a food market with stalls and kiosks all around and the vendors eagerly selling their goods to those passing by. Right now the area is a bit crowded due to the new students arriving at campus.

“Hmm, what a wonderful aroma!” Sylvester thought to himself as the scent of food being cooked from the countless stalls entered his nostrils and elicited an expected outcome.

“Huh, might as well take a bite, I feel rather famished!”

Without giving it much thought, Sylvester then followed his feet until he stopped in front of a stall that was selling grilled meat.

“Normally I’d for something more exotic, buuuuuut, I’d rather much pig out and have a little solo food adventure later at night.” He thought to himself as he scanned the menu, and then something else entirely caught his eye.

“Wait, what the hell are credits? 20 per stick?” He asked in his mind. “Oh no, am I in trouble? All I have on me are british pounds and oh a bit of leftover Yen I suppose. Do I need to convert my money somewhere? His thoughts continued as he frantically looked around hoping to see a teller machine.

“Oh wait, Mom and Dad never mentioned anything about this special currency. In fact they never mentioned anything about financial matters!” He was now starting to panic.

His actions however caught the attention of the lady manning the grill causing her to call out to him.

“Don’t worry! The food is free for you newcomers just for today!” The lady said as if reading his mind.

“Excuse me what? That can’t be right.” Sylvester was then forcibly taken out from his panic when he heard the word free.

“You heard me right young man!” The lady confirmed.

The woman who manned the grill looked to be someone in her mid 40s. Her hair was graying out but not too much, and the lines of age were starting to get prevalent on her face. Aside from that she looked like someone who had worked hard throughout her entire life yet still quite fulfilled.

“Since you don’t know about the ins and outs of this ol Academy yet you get stuff for free. It will all be explained when yer done with that orientation thing.” She happily replied.

Sylvester then noticed something odd about the woman, she was completely normal. She wasn’t a mage or someone who ever used magic at all.

“Does the Academy hire normal people for staff?” He asked inwardly, slightly confused and suspicious.

Deciding not to pursue that particular train of thought, Sylvester then ordered two sticks of grilled chicken thighs and one stick of grilled beef from the nice lady.

“Are you sure this is all you want?” Asking Sylvester.

“Yup.” He replied politely. “I don’t want to impose too much on mandatory kindness.” He added.

“Okaaaay.” The lady replied. “I’m sure you will regret it later though.” She then added.

“R-regret?” Sylvester asked with a bit of fear in his voice, to which the lady only replied a smile.

Sylvester took his food that was placed in a paper pag and thanked her. The bag itself isn’t anything out of the ordinary, it’s just that there was a slight presence of mana on the bag itself. Seeing as this is a place of learning for anything magic related, Sylvester chose not to care.

While on his directionless tour carried on by his whims he silently observed his fellow neophytes who were all walking about alongside him. While most of them had beaming smiles of excitement, some showed indignant stares toward their contemporaries.

“Eh typical.” Sylvester muttered inwardly.

Walking a little further he noticed a commotion brewing in the distance as a crowd of onlookers started gathering around like ants over sweet cookie crumbs. Not even attempting to resist such a primal and instinctive urge, Sylvester walked towards it and joined the ever growing number of spectators.

“How dare you, you filthy low class mage!” Said a stereotypical rich girl with her perfectly drill shaped hair and expensive looking clothes.

“Huh? What the hell did you just call me you pompous bimbo of a mage?!” Retorted the stereotypical average guy with his average clothes and general averageness.

The two stereotypes were having some kind of conflagration. No one knows how or why this is happening, but Sylvester sure doesn’t care. During this moment he took out one chicken skewer from his paper bag.

“Hmm, half time entertainment!” He said jokingly as he began munching on his snacks.

Eagerly he looked on at the escalating argument happening before him, but that isn’t really what he is waiting for. He’s waiting for the people who will inevitably stop this little spat.

“Fine then, I will simply show you just how far below me you truly are! I invoke my right to a Proving!” Stereotypical rich girl declared while raising her left hand upwards into the sky. Mana then started gathering on hand as she looked chin up towards the man who (in her eyes) wronged her.

“So be it, we are mages after all. Let our magic decide! I accept your challenge!” Stereotypical average guy declared and formed a fist with his left hand, placed it in front of him, and started gathering mana on his fists. He then stared into his opponent’s eyes with burning defiance.

Meanwhile Sylvester is…..

“Oh wow, this is getting good!” He said while finishing his first chicken skewer, preparing to take the second one from the bag.

“Who do you think is gonna win?” A man on his left asked, but before he could answer the lady on his right answered. “No one. Someone is sure to stop them before someone gets hurt.” he said.

“Will anyone show up though? It is a Proving after all.” Another man replied.

“Well, whoever those are, they sure are taking their sweet time.” Sylvester thought inwardly as he continued to chow down on his food.

“Hmmph, I admire your resolve lowlife!” The drills said as she continued her demeaning glare.

“I will not take any more insults from a harlot like you!” Mr Average continued his defiance.

“Ah here we go!” Sylvester said as he finished the chicken skewer and was preparing to get the beef next.

“O fire and brimstone, heed my call-!”

“Biting frost, eternal ice-!”

“Oh shit! Is this what I think it is!” Sylvester getting all excited now, exclaimed in anticipation.

“With righteous flame, purge my enemies!”

“Cover the land under oppressive white!”

“Two line spells!” Sylvester was now on the edge of his figurative seat.

“Come Phoenix embra-!”

“Glacial ti-!”

All of sudden crests of light appeared underneath each and every individual present, interrupting the climax of the battle and teleporting everyone away into an unknown location.

Sylvester who was in the middle of biting down on his beef skewers didn’t even have a moment to react to the sudden light show. He quickly swallowed the mouthful he bit and looked around desperately looking for stereotypical rich girl and stereotypical average guy, his efforts were in vain however.

“Damn it!” Sylvester said in disappointment

“And I didn’t even get to see their spells!”

“On that note, where am I?” Sylvester then scanned his surroundings again. He was surrounded by people who were just as confused as him looking around trying to figure out just where they are. Noises of confusion can be heard all throughout like an uncoordinated choir whose members are singing to their own individual tunes.

The students were arranged in descending order with those in front of Sylvester were standing on a lower platform, and the ones behind him were higher.

Suddenly a bright burst of light caught the collective attention of the confused public.

It was a beam shooting from the center of the area and quite a ways down from where Sylvester was standing. The singular beam then split itself into the seven colors of the rainbow forming a cone of light composed of the seven rays.

The cone began to spin and widen slowly for a few seconds resembling a very colorful top spinning rapidly and then it suddenly exploded into a blinding flash of light forcing Sylvester to shield his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again he saw that the entire place was now fully illuminated. Up above was a clear blue sky but something was off. The streaks of white didn’t resemble clouds but rather they seem to look like waves, waves of an ocean disturbed by the wind and yet the sun was clearly present.

“What in the?!” Were the words that Sylvester blurted out as his voice was swept and buried by the overwhelming gasps of confusion of the neophyte audience. Even for someone who was practically born into “this” world could hardly believe his eyes, and yet his confusion was overshadowed by the overwhelming feeling of excitement and wonder.

With the very generous illumination provided to him, he was now able to discern just where he was taken to and it makes even less sense than before.

They were taken into a large roman-esque coliseum or at least it should be. The seats were all cushioned and the railings were of a beautiful golden luster but the tiles on the “floor” is the most unusual feature. They were made from clear see through glass!

An even louder collective gasp can be heard from the crowd as a good portion of the crowd were screaming in panic and confusion. Not only was the floor made glass, it was what they saw from beyond the glass that broke their sense of normality.

From underneath their feet, they saw the sky.

Sadly, it didn’t stop there.

Now there was a ball of light forming in the middle of the coliseum, rising and slowly growing bigger and bigger and with it came a loud and booming voice.

“HELLOOOOO AND WELCOME MY DEAR APPRENTICES!” The voice that seemed to come from far away and at the same time close to your ear was greeting them, and without warning the ball of light burst into small particles littering the space above the center of the coliseum.

The particles then started coming together and arranged themselves and forming an image. It was the image of the upper half of a young man who was wearing white long sleeves and a black tie. He wore a golden monocle on his left eye and was beaming a bright smile.

Though his clothes and accessories aren’t what one would immediately notice upon seeing him; it was his long flowing rainbow colored hair, and it was amazingly distracting.

The man, looking very pleased with himself, waited for the audience to gather themselves a bit before speaking.

“Firstly, let me introduce myself!” The strange man with the rainbow hair declared.

“I am the headmaster of this academy!” He said as he raised his left hand in an over dramatic gesture.

“A paragon of the magic world!” as he copied it with his other hand.

“And one the most celebrated artists and minds in all of human history!” He proudly exclaimed as he moved both his hands in front of him. The strange man then held his hands close to his chest before he delivered the final blow.

“It is I! Leonardo Da Vinci! In the flesh.” The man declared as he raised his hands upwards.

“WHAT!?” The confused crowd below could only scream in unison.