33 Chapter 9: The School Test

[??: Hey! Hey Alice wake up! Hey Alice! ALICE!!]

Alice jumps at the shouting of her name. Still unable to clearly see what's happening, she starts rubbing her eyes.

[Alice: Wha- What is it? What time is it?]

She remembered that today was the day of the test, and that today was also the day she was suppose to be able to write the alphabet, so that she could get that cloak.

[Orion: We have two hours before we have to go. I'll give you an hour and a half to practice the alphabet, then you'll have to write it with no help. The other half hour is what you're going to use to get ready.]

Orion sits on his bed again.

[Orion: You got no time to waste.]

Alice immediately went to her work.

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An hour and a half past and Orion got out of bed and headed towards Alice.

[Alice: I think I can do it.]

[Orion: I'm sure you can. Since it was kind of my fault for you unable to work last night, I'll allow three mess ups.]

Alice takes the empty sheet of paper and with her pencil, began her small test before the bigger one. The first few letters she went through with a breeze, but after that she started slowing down dramatically. After a minute she was only half way through. Another minute passed and she's now 18 of 26 letters. Until three minutes later she yelled out.

[Alice: Done!]

Orion picks up her paper.

[Orion: Start getting ready while I go over this.]

He gets back on his bed and turns towards the wall while he goes through the sheet he got from Alice.

A few more minutes has passed.

[Alice: Alright, I'm done.]

Orion gets out of his bed, grabbing his bag.

[Orion: Congratulations, you've earned yourself a magic item! You've gotten 24 of the 26 letters right, mixing up the "b" and "d", but I said it before the test. You were allowed up to three mistakes.]

He hands the mantle over to Alice.

[Orion: The cloak gives you a little protection against anything that is magical. Like if you got hit by a non-magical fire you would take the entirety of, but if it were magical flames, then the mantle will give you a bit of protection. Or you could sell it, whatever you do with it, it's your choice.]

Alice grabs the mantle and put it on top of her other clothes.

[Alice: Thank you for all of your help. I'll be sure to cherish this reward.]

She looked down at the floor, thinking about all of the things that he has done for her, and how little she has done for him. In fact now that she thinks about it, she's been nothing but a burden to him, but not once has he ever complained about it. Despite all of that, she still wants him to do this for her, she wants him to take care of her, she doesn't know what the feeling is. So she thinks that this is her own greed, and nothing good will come of it. She pushes the feeling deep down, for it to never surface again.

[Orion: Well, we got somewhere to be, so lets not waste anymore time.]

With that Orion and Alice steps out of the room, with all of their stuff, they cancel any further payments with the inn and went off to the school.

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They've arrived at the school. There were four tents in front of the school gates, all of them having a line of anywhere from ten to thirty people. They jumped into one of the longer lines on the left.

[Orion: Seems like those tents over there are only for those who are from any nobility. The lines are also bigger over there.]

He points to the two lines on the other side of the gate. It seemed like he was right. Everyone who was over there was wearing some kind of fancy clothing. Actually, if anything, Orion was the one who stuck out. He wore the neatest clothing in the two lines they were in. Many people from the commoner lines were staring at Orion, but none said anything to him.

[Alice: You know. With the clothes you're wearing, you could probably fit into the nobility lines.]

Alice giggles to herself as she envisions the thought.

[Orion: Perhaps, but I'm not a noble, so I'm not. Who knows what they do to commoners like us?]

[Alice: I guess you're right. From what I heard on the streets, nobles are either really nice to us commoners, or very nasty. There doesn't seem to be an in between with them.]

They wait in line for a while. Until finally they were next.

They walked into the tent, and surprisingly enough, it was the same woman as before.

[Woman: Hello again you two.]

[Orion & Alice: Hi.]

The two walked up to the table that the woman was sitting at.

[Woman: I'll need your papers.]

Orion hands over both sets of papers to the woman.

[Woman: Excellent! Now I'm going to send you off into the campus and you'll wait for your instructions there. Piece of advice, don't even look at the nobles, they'll find any excuse to get a commoner out of the school.]

[Orion: Thank you! Oh and before I go, do you have any idea what the test will be about?]

[Woman: It has something to do with magic affinity, you'll find more about it when they tell you. Now shoo, I got other people to take care of. Next!]

Both Orion and Alice walk out of the tent and head inside the school grounds.

[Orion: Magic affinity?]

[Alice: You know, we never asked for her name. Both times.]

[Orion: No, no we haven't. If we see her again, I'll ask.]

They arrived in the area everyone else was standing in, in total they numbered about 100 people and it seemed like the ones at the tents are the last ones that are arriving.

A few minutes later, the people from the tents arrived and the gates closed.

Then in front of everyone a platform appeared. With an old man on it, he had an eyepatch over his right eye, and was bald. He also had a very dark tan.

[??: Listen up! Out of the lot of you that are here, over half of you aren't going to make it into the classes! With the test that you're about to take is going to see if you make it of not! If you read through the paper then you should be fully prepared to fail, and have wasted two platinum coins just because you couldn't make it through the test! Now you wouldn't want to make a fool of yourself and fail! So everyone do your best! We will make two lines! One will be to my right, which will be the nobles, and to my left, will be the ones for the common folk! That is all!]

Everyone started to form the lines. Some getting confused and going to the wrong line, those getting confused were all commoners. They got pushed, shoved, and yelled at by the noble people. If it weren't for Orion's intellect, Alice would've also been in that confused group. Luckily, the two were quick on their feet, one being highly trained to hunt, and the other being a demi-human, physically built stronger than normal humans. They were first in line for their tent.

But it seemed like they were going to only go one at a time. So the two weren't going to be with each other during this. Knowing this, Orion gives Alice two platinum coins, ten gold coins, twenty silver, and twenty copper.

[Orion: Give whatever you don't spend back once we meet up again.]

He turns and goes into the tent.

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Orion walks into the tent. Then a masculine voice spoke out.

[??: As you can see, there are three orbs in front of you. You'll grab onto each of them, one at a time. Going from left to right. The first one measures mana capacity, second one sees which two magic types you can use. The third is one that if you pass a certain requirement, it'll glow, if it doesn't then you'll have to continue down to the next tent to your right.]

Orion looks confused at the first one.

[Orion: Didn't I already do the first one?]

[??: Yes, but it's to make sure it wasn't faked, or it misread it.]

[Orion: Oh, okay.]

Orion grabs onto the first one.

[??: Mana capacity of 29,860. Continue.]

This orb seemed more accurate than the one from before. He grabs onto the next. It starts to glow a dark blue with a tint of black in the middle.

[??: Primary magic affinity, water. Secondary magic affinity, dark. Continue.]

Orion hesitantly grabs onto the last orb. It began to glow a very bright white.

[??: More than one blessing. Alright. Will you come this way?]

Behind the table a flap opened, revealing another part of the tent, and the man. It was actually the man who was on the platform.

[Man: Go to the woman over there and pay for your stuff, she'll tell you what to do.]

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Alice walks into the tent. A manly voice spoke out to her.

[??: As you can see, there are three orbs in front of you. You'll grab onto each of them, one at a time. Going from left to right. The first one measures mana capacity, second one sees which two magic types you can use. The third is one that if you pass a certain requirement, it'll glow, if it doesn't then you'll have to continue down to the next tent to your right.]

Alice grabs onto the first orb with no questions about it.

[??: Mana capacity of 11,493. Continue.]

She grabs onto the next orb. It glows a bright red, with a bit of white in the middle

[??: Primary magic affinity, fire. Secondary magic affinity, light. Continue.]

Alice grabs onto the next orb. It glows dimly.

[??: One blessing. Alright. Will you come this way?]

She goes to where the tent opened, revealing a new area she didn't know about.

[Man: Go to the woman over there and pay for your stuff, she'll tell you what to do.]

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Alice walks out of the tent and she saw Orion, walking towards the big area separated from the school, the dorms.

[Alice: Orion!]

He looks over his shoulder.

[Orion: Oh so it appears you have a blessing as well. That's nice.]

Alice rushes up to the standing Orion, and they walked with each other to the dorms.

Both passing the test.