Kinkaru was awakened only to see an ugly red face hovering over his. Tenue was staring him in the face eyes while pulling his ears aggressively. “ wake up boy, I’m here to escort you to your first class “. This surprised Kinkaru as he hadn’t even informed the school that he finished the quest given to him. Maybe this means that when a quest is complete the giver of the quest is noticed of its completion. Kinkaru decided to ask Tenue as they walked to the classroom. “ when a quest is assigned the completion awards are stored in a virtual and unreachable space until it is completed. This is so that the quest awarder can not take back or lower the prize after completion. That means that negotiations must take place before the acceptance of the quest.” Kinkaru couldn’t help but be amazed at how far ahead the designers of the quest engine thought.

The pair arrived at a classroom marked 450 to 550 class. This must mean that the classes are also assigned based on ranking. The unique thing was that the door to the room was beside the next class up with virtually no space in between. This must mean that all the rooms are attached to the same space or they are also portals. As the pair entered Kinkaru arrived in an auditorium type classroom but instead of walls, there was a vast empty white space. It was like someone designed a room with nothing but the seats and a teacher's desk but put infinite space around then objects. Kinkaru turned to ask Tenue about their current location but the chimp seemed to have vanished. Kinkaru sat at the desk marked 500 as that was his determined rank. A thin male with black hair walked to the teacher's desk and stood behind it. He was middle-aged and had a suit on, he looked super professional. “ my name is Michael I am the teachers of this class. This class is the magical affinity class and you will remain here until your affinity or affinities have been discovered. This may affect your ranking. You will also notice we do not have school years here, you will be assigned by rank and courses completed. Your fellow student body may be as young as 6 and as old as 45. Avoid manipulation by your peers”. Kinkaru gazed around the room and saw there were several people far older than him in the class and also noticed that one row up was Garth signifying he was ranked above Kinkaru. As he looked around a piece of paper appeared in the front of him. The teacher then spoke “students you need to draw a drop of blood and place it on the circled part of the paper If your magical level is high enough the paper will react and your status menu will be marked with your affinity. However, if the paper reacts and turns white again you must complete the process again as you have a second affinity.” Kinkaru lifted the paper and a small needle appeared under it, he took the needle and stuck it into his thumb. After the pain subsided a drop of blood came forth. He pressed his finger onto the paper and watched it closely. The paper began to darken slowly than it rapidly speeds up and turned black. The paper then turned white. This meant Kinkaru had a second affinity and he again squeezed the blood onto the paper. However, his paper did not change color. It simply ignored the blood and remained normal looking. This upset Kinkaru as he was excited to have two affinities.

Kinkaru opens his status menu and indeed saw the writing that said affinity. Right beside the word, it said “dark, ???.” Kinkaru was puzzled as his second affinity had been blocked from sight. He also had assumed he had a lightning affinity due to him learning shock with ease. He also wondered what dark affinity could be useful for as to his knowledge it couldn’t be destructive. The teacher then waved his hands in an upward motion. As he did a large whiteboard with numbers from 450 to 550 appeared. Names began filling the slots next to the numbers. At rank 460 he saw the name Garth and at rank 480 he saw his name. He had jumped 0 rank slots by simply having the dark affinity. Then as he looked around he saw a few students begin to vanish from the class. “The students who have vanished failed the magical affinity class and are doomed to repeat it or be expelled. Their rankings have dropped due to their inability to manifest magic at this time. Kinkaru finally noticed how brutal this school was. The students weren’t even notified of the likelihood that they would fail. Kinkaru summoned his menu and saw his rank at the bottom of the screen. But he was left floored when he saw the number was 480/500. He thought this might mean that the student body had decreased by 50% on the first day. He instinctively raised his hand “sir, does this mean that only half the students are remaining?” The teacher nodded his head and spoke: “ yes every year we allow students to the renter and attempt the exam again, however, most never make it in or take a very Long time”.

(Status Menu)

Inventory

Quests

Settings

General Information

Name: Kinkaru

Level: 2

EXP: 100

Affinity

Dark/???

Skill Points: 13

Class/Job

NA

HP: 100

Mana: 400

Stamina: 200

Status Information

Stats

Spells

Skills

Strength:4

Shock

Reading: 4/4

Agility: 4

Speech: 1/4

Wisdom: 11

Wisdom of Another Life?

Endurance: 4

Critical Thinking 4/4

Dark Manipulation

Kinkaru thought the book he read said that most could magnify this level one magic so he was confused why this wasn’t being shown here. The. He realized the book may have meant most established magic users could and not most of the population. Maybe the book was written under the assumption that the reader was already an established magic-user. “The teacher spoke out-loud, you will partner with your roommates and begin magical training. Check your quest menu you will use this open space to spread out and experiment within your affinity.” Kinkaru then raises his hand again” what does it mean if you can cast spells out of your affinity.?” The teacher looked at Kinkaru and said “anyone with magical abilities can cast any low-level spell however the mana cost is usually higher and the magic is harder to control. The more demanding of the spell the less likely it would be at being cast. If you attempt a spell too hard it could turn on you and kill you. Do not attempt spells of the opposite category as it will consume vast unpredictable amounts of mana.” The elemental affinity break down goes like so. Fire -fire>Earth>Lightning>water Dark=Light and are neutral to all other elements. In a magic fight, the person using the weakness of the other has an advantage. That is why mages with two affinities tend to do better as their weakness are spread.

All of this made sense as it was a common RPG mechanic. Kinkaru opened the quest menu and it stated “manifest your affinity and help Garth manifest his” when Kinkaru clicks it, it said, “reward is the use of magical affinity, classroom upgrade, experience, and title of beginner mage”. This almost made Kinkaru jump with excitement as the rewards were huge in comparison to his reading quest. He could probably jump a few levels if he does this. “Begin your training class” as the teacher spoke the classroom became vibrant with noise as everyone scrambled to find their partner. Kinkaru already knew where Garth was so he beelined to him with excitement. “Garth I’m glad we both made it. Let’s hurry and begin so we don’t get left behind.” Garth nodded his head but seemed less enthusiastic. The two-headed a good ways away from the class into the white space. “Kinkaru how did you jump up 20 spaces, what exactly is your affinity,” Garth asked with an upset look on his face. Kinkaru then spoke “I have the dark affinity “ he decided not to mention his second one as he didn’t know what it was. “I have fire and I only moved up one space. Dark must be rarer even though I doubt it is as useful in combat “ Garth responded. Kinkaru hadn’t thought about the fact that they could be training for combat as his old life was rather peaceful. “What do you mean combat?” He asked. “Well, most people with magic take up jobs as soldiers, mercenaries, or adventures. That’s how the world works and you can make massive wealth doing so “. Garth explained to Kinkaru. Kinkaru realized his knowledge of the world as small as the farm was pretty isolated and they didn’t have any visitor. “Alright let’s begin,” Garth said.

The two sat down beside each other and began extending their fingers. Thinking hard they were trying to express their elements with their mind Garth began to chant “Feel my rage as it burns hot and releases it as Embers” a single flame smolder into existence for an instant the. Disappeared just as quickly. “ how do you know what chant to use?”Kinkaru asked. “You try to express what you think the magic embodies and it will respond, “ Garth said in response. Kinkaru was glad his partner knew so much otherwise he’d be pretty screwed. “Take away the vision of those who seek to harm Blind!” Kinkaru said out loud and forcibly. Suddenly darkness erupted from his fingers and surrounded the two. However, they could see perfectly fine as the darkness was see-through. Kinkaru felt defeated that his spell did virtually nothing. Maybe this element is as useless as Garth says. The two began to repeat the process over and over slightly modifying the words. As they did so the embers that Garth used got bigger and extended put further. It was like shooting a small projectile of sparks. Garth opened his menu and clicked the quest icon. Suddenly energy wrapped around his body and the message level up displayed 3 times. The attire he was wearing also changed, he now had on what appeared to be a school uniform. This signified he had completed the quest. Kinkaru wondered what he was spending his stat points on, he assumed it was likely wisdom so he could progress further and quicker. He did think it would be rude to ask for some reason so he kept his thoughts to himself.

The teacher's voice could be heard through the classroom “Return to your seats “ Kinkaru dreaded his return because he felt as if he failed the quest. The pair returned to their spots and sat awaiting further instructions from the teacher. The teacher waited until everyone had taken their seat and spoke again “class you have done well to ask it this far, don’t worry no one else is being removed from school at this time. Most of you have figured out how to manifest your element in some way. You will be given a month to grow your element before the next exit exam. Those of you failing to make tier-one progress will automatically fail out. You will also attend classes on magic theory during this time. Those should help you develop in a faster manner. This made Kinkaru feel better. He wasn’t as worried about failing now but the pressure was beginning to mount. “Those of you in school uniforms will not have to take the next exit exam. However, it is highly encouraged that you continue your growth to reduce risk in the future.” The teacher spoke in a way that seemed to be giving a hint. A young girl in the back raised her hand “what exactly is the next exit exam?” The teacher grinned and raised his hands again. A giant arena filled with horrible monster appeared where the text once was. “It is a practical combat-based test, where your application will be tested in real-time. The school plans on bringing the number of students down to 250 with this test.” The class became an uproar of panic as it seemed only a handful were wearing uniforms. This would mean half of the remaining would be removed as there were already students in uniforms. The teacher dismissed the class and everyone departed. Kinkaru decided to sit in his chair pondering his next plan. He pulled his menu up and decided to explore the setting and see what it could do. He noticed he had an inventory tab, a settings tab, and the player status menu. He clicked the settings tab and turned on the option for active monitoring. When he did so his health appeared in the top corner of his vision it also notated his mana and name. Now he could monitor his basic status at all times.