proofread by Daylius

“What the hell is this place?” I blurted out unknowingly. Numerous pairs of eyes stared at me in surprise. I was now inside the Alien Welfare Office, commonly known as AWO. The office had only a single store and looked really small from the outside. I had expected it to have at most two rooms. But when I turned the knob and opened the door what was ahead of me was way off from what I had imagined. The interior was twenty or so times larger than what was supposed to be. Inside the large room there were numerous glass cubicles and in each of the cubicles had a person sitting in front of a table.

When I carefully observed them, I understood one thing. There was none of the same race. It was then it dawned on me that humans were not the only aliens. There were elves, dwarves, giants and many other races that were considered aliens, just like me. So each cubicle was dedicated to a particular race. And so I searched for a human among the lot and finally found one. I walked towards the cubicle and when I approached it was already occupied. The human official in the cubicle was busy with another person, explaining things to the one in front. I waited for a while, standing near the wall. Almost an hour later I was able to get my chance. I walked forward to the official and bowed lightly.

“Welcome to the AWO. My name is Andrela, a resident of this world. How may I help you?”

“Hello, I am Zeph. I am new to this world and so I thought that I could gather some information here, mainly about the affinity test.”

“Ah, a newcomer. It is good to see more and more people striving to become a hero. First let me explain to you about the world you are in now. Anwol is a world of might and magic, where even the lowest insect has the ability to manipulate mana. This world is different from the world you are from but similar at the same time. Since there is no magic on Earth, it might be hard for you to use and manipulate mana. But do not worry, that is because it takes time for the mana in this world to seep into your body and fill the mana chamber inside you, so kindly wait for at least a week. Breathe in fresh air and feel the robust earth. That is do not stay in your room too much. Spend your time outside to increase the rate of mana absorption. Any doubts Mr. Zeph?”

“That means it is impossible to survive without magic in this world?”

“Not at all. Even if we say everybody is capable of using magic, there are people who have so low mana capacity that they cannot even conjure the simplest spell. Such people usually master weapons to climb up. So do not worry too much about it”

“Ho! Ok.” Zeph was not convinced but still remained silent and let the official continue.

“Now let me explain to you about the affinity test that you wish to attend. An affinity test is conducted once in every six months. The next test will be on two days from today.”

“Two days? That’s soon. What will happen if I take the test now?”

“As I already told you, your mana chamber is being filled and will take a week or so to completely filled. As you are still absorbing mana, the test will give an inaccurate reading. Say your mana capacity is 9 out of 10, if you take the test now then the reading will only show your capacity as 2 or 3.”

“Oh! I see” my mind was already in chaos, wondering whether to take the test now or not. Seeing my dilemma the official continued.

“That alone is not the problem. Since you mana circulates throughout your body, it determines the affinity you will get. The affinity can only be measured correctly if your mana chamber is full. For example, suppose your true affinity is tornado. If you take the test now the result will show your affinity to be wind”

“Is wind bad? Can I not use air to create a tornado? ”

“Not. You got it reverse. If your affinity is tornado, then you can use wind, breeze, gale and anything related to air. But if your affinity is breeze then all you might be able to do is use a very little wind. May be like a handful of it.”

I nodded. I could not care about the affinity any less. No matter what the result showed his goal remained the same, get back Nao.

“The third drawback is, you will be admitted to a weak school”

“EH? Come again!”

“If your results are poor, you will have to go to the school at the bottom of the hierarchy. Before I tell you more about the school I have to tell you about different categories of mana, affinity and existence.”

“Wait a second. What is this thing about school?”

“School? You don’t know what that is? Don’t you have schools in your place?”

“I do. But why the hell should I go to a school?”

“To study how to use magic and sword of course. Is it not obvious?” the official was a little sarcastic.

I was dumbfounded “Is it necessary to attend one?”

“Of course. There is no way around it. Everyone in this world must go to school. If you are worried about the fees and other expense, do not worry you can apply for a loan here. And if you score well in the affinity test you might even get a sponsor.”

“You said everyone has to go to school, right?”

“Yes, every one. There are no exceptions.”

That made me happy. If it was compulsory then the chances of me running into Nao was high, this was what my mind was dwelling up on. And so I urged the official to continue. The official nodded.

“Let us first go for the mana capacity.”

“Just a second, my watch shows that my mana as hundred. Then why should they test my mana? ”

“AH. That value is the mana every living being possesses. Something like the basic amount. The test measures the upper limit, that is, up to how much your mana value can rise. Mana capacity is denoted from a scale of 1 to 30 and 10 being the normal value for humans. Elves have a normal value of 13 and so. Let us leave the other races and talk about humans. Suppose your mana value is 10, then that means your mana capacity can reach up to a maximum of 5000. That being said, alien humans have a normal value of 15, a capacity of 7500. Ah, and the normal value for all alien races is 15, thus none of the races can be considered superior or inferior.”

As soon as the official stopped talking, my watch vibrated and a tab opened up before me.

MANA CAPACITY1 to 5very low(mana= value* 125)6 to 9low(mana= value* 250)10 to 15ordinary(mana= value* 500)16 to 19special(mana= value*900)19 to 23extra-ordinary(mana= value*1300)24 to 27supernatural(mana= value*1600)28 to 30divine(mana= value*2000)

“Why is it so uneven? And what is with 30? 2000 times 30 equals 60000. What the hell is that mana? Is there anything with such a level?”

“Of course, that is why it is in the table. Right now, 28 is the highest value and that belongs to a elven mage called, Alhotern, king of the elven continent”

“Eh? You meant elven kingdom, right?”

“Not at all. Right now, you are in the human continent. Similarly there is an elven continent and a few others”

“Don’t tell me there as many continents as the races here?”

“Not at all. Let me see” the official then began counting her fingers one by one and then said, “There are nine continents.”

“Nine!” I was speechless. I had considered this world to be similar to those VR games I had played and so I had thought that there would be a maximum of two continents.

‘But nine? How big is this planet?’ I asked myself.

“That aside, let us continue. The highest value of 30 was attained by only a single person, the previous hero, Ginvit, you know the one holding the golden sword. Other than him some magical beasts are said to have mana value of 30.”

“So, only a person with a value of 30 can become the hero eh.”

“Not necessary. It was said that Ginvit’s mana value was 21 when he took the test. Later he increased it 30 by some unknown method. Many tried to find out how to, but none succeeded and now it is considered as a myth. Now let us move on to affinity. Similar to mana capacity, affinity too is categorized. There are hundreds and thousands of affinity. No one knows how many. It is impossible to track down the number of affinities. So the affinities were categorized as follows”

AFFINITYAIRWind, Breeze, Gale, TornadoWATERStream, River, Sea, OceanEARTHSoil, Pebble, Rock, MountainFIREBurn, Flame, Phoenix, InfernoLIFESpirit,Being

“Andrela, why is there no lightning?”

“Because lightning is considered as the combination of air and water”

“Oh. I understand. In short, there are four basic affinities, each having four types. The rest are considered to be the combination of two affinities eh”

“No, it does not need to be two, it can be combination of all four or may be any three. For example, consider the affinity wood. From what you said, it should have been a combination of water and earth, right? But no. Wood is part of a living group, trees. So for wood affinity, three basic affinities combine, earth, water and life.”

“Life, now that you mention it, why is life the only one with two sub affinities?”

“Ah, spirit and essence? ‘Spirit’ represents death and ‘being’ represents birth. There are no other life affinities”

“How many affinities can I have?”

“Ah, the highest so far is five, a person got all five basic affinities. But that has a great drawback.”

“Drawback? Is it not good to have more affinities?”

“Not at all. What you said would have been true only if the affinities retained their original power. When a single person attains more than two affinities, the power level decreases.”

“I do not follow Andrela”

“Listen carefully. Suppose you have any three of the affinities, say earth, air and water. Now take water, suppose you get ‘sea’ affinity. Even though your affinity is ‘sea’, your water power will be only at the level of stream or river”

“Ah, so that makes the person weak. Is there no way to increase the power?”

“Train your affinity for years and it might reach it’s true level. That only is the method. Oh and training as in real combat”

“So unless we fight an enemy with the affinity there is no chance for it grow. I see, since his power level is low his chances of survival is low too. That is what you mean eh?”

“Correct. Fighting weak opponents does improve your affinity, like by 0.01% per fight. While if you fight against a person little stronger than you the affinity increases by .9% per fight. This because fighting against a weak guy does not make your body break it’s limits.”

“This world is so complicated. My head hurts”

“What are you saying? Next is the most exciting part, existence or essence”

“Why is it so important?”

“I believe you already know what existence is and how it differs from mana?”

“Yes I do.”

“Good. What makes affinities is the combination of these two. The more existence and mana you have the better affinity you get. This is the reason why there are innumerous affinities as the amount of existence and mana in each person differs. When I say so, you might ask that should not guys with same amount of mana and existence get the same affinity. What you are thinking is true. If there are ten persons with mana and existence of value 5, they should be getting the same affinity but instead their affinity varies from air to life. The affinity you get is determined by the flavor of the essence and mana. When you live in a hilly region, the mana and essence has the flavor of earth and so the affinity you get is earth. If you live near a river where the flavor can be earth or water, the stronger flavor turns into affinity. This does not have to be true always. Those with all five affinities are born because their existence and mana does not have flavors”

“Is that why existence is important?”

“Not even close. Existence determines your physical and mental attributes, your resistance to attacks, your ability to grow, your potential. And so there are many other things. But the most important is, the level of existence determines how strong you become when you evolve”

“Eh? Am I pokemon?”

“What’s pokemon?”

“Nothing. Andrela, I can evolve?”

“Of course, did you not read about it in the guide? About how when you hit level ten, your power term changes from ‘infant’ to ‘child’?”

“Ah that. I did read. So that is considered as evolution eh”

“Yes. As to how much your powers change cannot predicted. So the better the existence the stronger your abilities. Here, take this medicine”

“What is this for?”

“This medicine opens up your essence chamber”

“Opens up?”

“Yes, normally the essence chamber is closed for humans. People who practice martial arts open them with their own methods. Here we give this medicine for the purpose. Once you have this medicine, it will take a week for your body to circulate enough essence to fill the chamber. The essence value ranges from 1 to 26. For those of this world, 7 is the normal and for aliens the normal is 10. ”

ESSENCE1 to 3Inferior4 to 6Low7 to 10Normal11 to 14High15 to 18Exceptional19 to 23Superior24 to 26Godlike

“With this we have now finished the explanation, now to the topic about schools”

“Just a second, Andrela. What about guardians?”

“You won’t be getting a guardian any time soon so don’t worry about it”

“Why is that so?”

“Well a guardian is something rare. Every living being has a guardian. But only some forms contract with their master. Guardians are prideful and divine beings, they only appear in front of those who they consider worth protecting. No matter how strong you are, if you have even a speck of darkness in your heart your guardian will not ever appear before you. Since I already told you this much, I will tell you one more thing. In the history of this world, only 6 were able to form contract with their guardians and so I advise you to keep your hopes down on getting one”

I nodded, I was not that interested in one but asked her anyways to get more information.

“Once you finish the test you will be scouted according to your existence and mana values. Well, instead of size schools there are only three. This is because, the last category of students do not exist, means those with essence value 24 to 26 and mana value of 28 to 30. The number of students with exceptional mana and essence value are low and so for students above the normal mark are all scouted by a single school.”

SCHOOLSItiferth AcademyVery low talent, Low talent, NormalEdelnerry AcademyHigh talentAduxria AcademyExceptional, Superior, Godlike

“Andrela, what happens if I get an ‘exceptional’ essence value but an ‘ordinary’ mana value?”

“In such cases, you will go to the school which accepts ‘normal’ student. In short, if your mana and existence value are of different levels then you go to the lower value determines the school you attend.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. With this I have explained everything about the test”

“What about the duration and fees?”

“Ah, I forgot. Two years of compulsory education in Itiferth, Three years in Edelnerry and Five years in Aduxria. If you wish you can still continue studying. The fees must be paid annually, and each school has different fee structure. 200AG (Anw Gold)/year for Itiferth, 600AG/year for Edelnerry and 1500AG/year for Aduxria. That said for Edelnerry and Aduxria students, the kingdom pays half the fees if the students are willing to join the army. Most of the student of those schools are often sponsored by rich nobles”

“Why?”

“Why you ask? If the student they sponsor becomes somebody famous or gets a high position in the army, then that means the noble’s house gets more fame. Also the nobles can ask for the help of those students in time of crisis. That is what I think. None of those nobles will show their true colors to the outside world so I am not sure. You will be living in dorms provided by the schools. And as for the fees, you can earn money by working during free time. The alien office will support you for the first year of your schooling.”

“Support? How?”

“We will loan you the money you need if you are ready to repay us twice the amount by the end of two years.”

“What happened if I can’t repay”

“All your status will be revoked, like achievements, awards, properties and you will be banned by most of the countries. Everything will be returned if you pay thrice the amount after the allotted time of two years”

“I see. A double edged sword. Thank you Andrela” I stood up and bowed at the woman and then walked away. On my way to the office I had already found a couple of inns were I could spend my days till the test. I booked a room for two days, which cost me 4AS (Anw Silver). Then I ate a light dinner and the medicine then went off to sleep. For the next couple of days I wandered around the city without doing anything special.

Finally the day of the test arrived, Andrela had given me the location of the test which was a little away from her office. I knew that my results would not be accurate but I did not mind. I wanted to find Nao and bring her back, I did not care in the least what level of power I had and which school I will go to.

I reached the place where the test was to be held, it looked like an arena. An arena for gladiators, that was what came to my mind when I when I say the building from the outside, a colosseum.

“What the hell? Why is a roman structure in middle of a fantasy world? Sigh” shrugging my soldiers I approached the entrance where there were two separate queues of people. One of the queues had only children while the other were made of both children and adults. All types of races were occupying the second queue and so I understood that the queue was for aliens while the first queue was for natives. I could see the poor and rich standing in queue for their test. The children were accompanied by their parents and were being encouraged by them. That made me feel nostalgic. I missed my parents very much. But I could not think about them much as voice of an old man rang all over the place.

“Stand in line, the test will now begin. Aliens to the right and the natives to the left. Do not mix up”

I went and stood behind the second queue in wait for my chance. Ahead of me were more than fifty people so was the case behind me too. Those who entered the colosseum were seen to exit from another way and each of them were holding different colors of paper, three colors to be exact. When I saw that, I understood that each color indicated a particular school. Some were crying while others were laughing out loud.

Hours passed and finally I was summoned in. I walked in timidly for I could hear the chattering of thousands. Every time there was a tests, many came to witness it. Some came for the thrill while others came to scout potential candidates. When I walked in to the huge arena, I was welcomed with a round of applause. On the middle of the arena there were three separate platforms on the ground. A man in white robe stood near them. He gestured me to walk forward.

“Name?”

“Zeph”

“Age?”

“Fifteen”

“Race?”

“Alien Human”

“How long have you been here?”

“Two and a half days”

When I answered the last question he glared at me and then asked,

“Did the AWO official explain to you the consequences of taking the test before the required time of one week passed?”

“She did. But I still want to take the test”

“Do not regret it boy”

“Step on the platform to your right”

I stepped on it just like I was asked.

“This platform will measure your mana value. Close your eyes. Then picture the energy of the surrounding flow into you”

I did exactly as told. It was pretty much easy. The man has no idea how many anime and manga I have gone through. Ufufufu. Closing my eyes, I picture the energy in my surroundings flow through me. I have done this many times when I was much younger. But this time it was difficult for I could really feel something flow into me. A minute or so passed and then I was asked to open my eyes. The old man had a look of surprise in his eyes. He then called out loud,

“Mana value 13”

‘What the, why is he surprised? It’s just normal’ I thought to myself not comprehending the reason for the surprise in the man’s face.

“Now move to the second platform. Let us measure you existence value. You just have to stand still and concentrate on feeling the energy inside you”

As ordered, I closed eyes and the tried to feel the energy inside me. For some reason my entire body began to feel warm and I felt as I was not touching the ground, like I was flying.

“Essence value 10”

‘Good, I am normal. This way I won’t stand out. Now for the affinity. I wish I could use lightning. It would be so cool.’

“Boy, now on to the last. Just stand there. Drop a blood on to the hole on the platform and step out.”

I was given a needle for the purpose. A small prick and a drop of blood oozed out of the wound in my finger. I dropped it into the hole and then stepped back. The platform gave off a glow with a mix of colors and then died out.

“5 basic affinities”

That was a disappointment. Even though my essence and mana value were decent, the affinities I had were not. As I had five basic affinities at the same time, my spell power will decrease a lot.

“Normal” the robbed man shouted and then turned to me,

“Boy, if you had taken the test the next year you could have easily gotten into Aduxria. Why are you in a hurry?”

“There is someone I must find no matter what and so I cannot waste even a second, even if I am branded as failure by the world”

“I like you boy and so I will tell you this. Train well! Now off you go”

I thanked the man and walked out. At the exit of the arena, another man in white rob approached me.

“Hello Mr. Zeph. My name is Holdos, the principal of Itiferth. I am here to recruit you to our school.”

“Hello Mr. Holdos. Thank you, when can I start?” I asked flashing a smile.

“Please come here in two days with the prescribed fee of 200AG and then we will officially proclaim you as the student of our school”

“Thank you Sir. Then let us meet in two days” I bowed and walked away. A new life awaited me.

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