Waking up, the first thing I hear is knocking.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

The person outside is Nelton.

„Come, the assembly is going to begin any minute now.“ He said.

I followed him outside, then we made our way to the arcane hall. When we arrived here, there were already more than 200 people around and more were still streaming into the hall.

A lanky, man stood on the podium, He looks like some kind of zombie. He has a slight hump on his back, very skinny his hair looks like a birds nest and his eyes are like geeks from the earth after a 3 day non-stop gaming session. All in all, he looks like an evil guy.

„Alright when everyone is here, we are going to go to dragon back mountain. You cannot imagine what a chance that is. It is a relatively newly discovered ruin“ he said. Sure just 300 years old. Young my ass. At least he tries to motivate the people with very mixed success.

He continues „So everyone is here right? Then let’s move on, everyone, a flying ship is going to take us to the mountain. Go to the scare“

He made his way through the crowd and leads the rest into the place in front of the tower.

Outside, a ship of massive proportion floated. I mean it isn’t really big. Is 90-100 meters long and 40 meters wide? It isn’t the biggest ship I have ever seen, but looking at a floating ship from the bottom gives one a whole new perspective about the sizes of this thing.

The outside was layered with different runes. Those runes were even more complicated than those of the tower. Some of them were a bit familiar, I couldn’t read them, but I was fairly sure that it had some connection with minor swiftness, others were extremely foreign and complicated. From those I understood nearly nothing. Some parts resembled the weak teleportation a bit, but I can’t be sure.

„Alright everyone line up. Everyone is going to get a small cabin, you get the access amulets when entering.“ He said then floated on top of the ship.

We were a bit confused until a hatch opened on the side of the ship. Two strongmen were arranging the entrance. Then we lined up and entered the ship. Inside, it was similar, but very different than a normal ship. Most ships from earth were pretty stuffy, not much room, thin walkways. Now this one was very different. The hallways were wide with plenty of light.

„Albright guys, there are the amulet, The first number is about the floor and the two afterwards are about the room number, for the idiot's amulet 254 means, second floor 54th room.“ He said then gave out the amulets. Mine was 365.

Before walking into my cabin, I explored the ship a bit. The top resembles a modern yacht. It had a small tower at the front, where I presume the bridge is located, then there was a wide space. To be honest, not very much in the way of entertainment, but what did I expect? Continuing my exploration, I continued to descend the floors. The ship had 8 floors. 5 of them were cabins floor 200 to 400 were for apprentice and the floor of 500 and 600 were for mages. The fifth floor had 10 suits and the 6th had only 3. The person who led us here is taking one of the rooms in the 5th floor. The first is for storage I believe and the 7-8th floor for the engine(or something with a similar purpose) and other installation.

I also met a lot of other people from other towers in the ship.

I made some talk with a couple of them. It seems like that the order took nearly all of the apprentices available to them from all of the towers.

While watching everything under us from the railing, Nelton approaches me.

„It is nice, isn’t it? It should be you first time“ he said.

Surprisingly, I had the mood for some idle chatter.

„Yeah it is. Never know a ship could fly.“ I Said in, this time not played, awe. It is like flying on an aeroplane, just with a lot slower and more room to look. The engineers of the ship also took into account the wind while travelling on the deck, so I only felt a slight breeze.

„Yeah, I was similar at my first time. Tough this flight should take only half a day or so. We are making a detour to take some other apprentice from a resource zone tower, then we go to dragon back mountain.“ He said.

„Is it going to be an exploration? With so many people I imagine an army more easily“ I Said.

Nelton burst out laughing from my naivety.

„Oh Osric, this is not yet war. Maybe you a misconception about the ruins. It is huge it could house more than 20 thousand people in its prime time, that’s the reason. The other is that this war is very important. We are a subordinate of the Order of the Elements, while the other is a member of the league. This war isn’t really about us. You could look at it like an entertainment for the big Organizations. The Mumons are neutral, but they are the guys, who build the best stuff. The Tower in Osmor? It is an entry-level tower. Only there to watch over the border before The one where we are heading was build. Now it is simply used for recruitment. You don’t have to worry about that Isaac guy that much. The Ones with the best affinity are shipped to better Towers in recourses zones.“ He said.

I asked him about something which popped up after his statements „Then what about me? I have the strongest affinity than everyone I have met so far“I asked very puzzled.

Nelton laughs „That’s because they can’t do anything with your affinity. Our Order specialises in dark, shadow and similar affinities. Not even the Order of elements can do anything with your arcane affinity. There are simply no, or very few spells for that affinity. You might be able to use any affinity, but that isn’t very useful for the Order. You are born on the wrong continent buddy.“ He said.