25 24: Star Child III

"This is taking far too long." Iris groaned.

"Calm down, Iris. The dean is a busy man." Jane said.

Jane, Iris, and I were seated on a long leather couch against the wall across from the dean's office door. The dean's secretary was seated at her desk beside the dean's office door. She pretended to barely mind us and focused on her work, though she would occasionally and predictably at this point glance up from her work and stare at my crystal.

To be honest I was getting board at this point. I held my thumb and my index finger a few inches from each other and cycled a little mana into it. This time I paid attention to how my mana flows through my body. I could distinctly feel mana flowing from my legs and snaking its way up my body and into my hands. I stopped cycling the mana.

"Hey Tri-clops, what's the main symptom of that mana wondering syndrome thingy?" I asked.

"Mana inefficiency." She said. "Though to be honestly Star-Child, the fact that you said you don't feel like your mana is coming from your crystal probably means you have it."

"But we don't know for certain." Jane quickly added.

I cycled more mana into my finger and thumb again only this time I felt like my mana had worked its way to my fingers from my head.

"Hmmm…"I grumbled.

"What are you doing?" Iris asked.

"Moving mana to my fingers and observing how it gets there." I replied. "It never flows from my mana crystal and the place it flows from changes each time."

"That's wondering mana syndrome alright." Iris said.

A intercom on the secretary's desk buzzed and the dean's voice cracked from it.

"Unice send those students in." The dean said.

"Yes sir." She replied.

Unice stood up and motioned for us to come over. We complied and stood up off the couch and walked over to the door. She opened the door to the dean's office and shooed us inside. As we passed Unice I noticed her staring at my farm crystal.

The inside of the dean's office was small and intimate. The dean's desk sat in the middle of the room surrounded by stacks of books, tomes, and even a few sigil cards. The walls were adorned with tall bookshelves and several dioramas of evos. The dean sat comfortably at his desk with his hands folded waiting patiently for us. Uncie closed the door behind us and we were aline with the dean.

"I will admit that I did not expect to see three so soon." The dean said. His eyes darted between the three of us until they landed on me. His eyes dropped to my hands and widened to epic proportions. "Let me see your hand!"

I walked over to the dean's desk and held up my hand for him to examine. He pulled a small jeweler's glass out of his desk and used it to examine my farm crystal. I looked over my shoulder at Jane and Iris flashing them a confused look. Jane just gave me a look that told me to just wait then waved at me to look at the dean. I complied and looked back at the dean. He examined my crystal for another minute before he let my hand go.

"I never thought I'd see one with my own eyes." Dean Baxter muttered.

"About why we're here…." I started. Dean Baxter's eyes lit up.

"Yes! Of course you want access to the mana systems for the star farm crystal!"

"Yes." I said, admittedly I was a little off put by his sudden enthusiasm. "Jovia told me I would have to qualify to see them and pass some test."

"Yes and do you understand the ranking system for the mana systems?" Dean Baxter asked.

"Not in the slightest." I replied.

"Understandable, let me explain." Dean Baxter stood up from his desk and walked over to a diorama of a titan he had on his wall. He placed his hand on top of it and pulled the whole diorama down. A book case on the opposing wall slid down into the floor and a hidden bookcase took its place. This new bookcase was lined with tomes, many of them looked older than the pyramids.

Dean Baxter walked over and plucked five tomes off the shelf then walked back over to his desk and placed them down for display. Iris and Jane walked up and stood beside me while Dean Baxter arranged the tomes.

"As you may or may not know there are only four types of Farm crystals. Cube, Prism, sphere, and Star. Each type of crystal specializes in certain things and because of that splicers need mana systems that can further capitalize on those specializations. How much they enhance a splicers ability determines the grade they get." Dean Baxter explained. He motioned to the desk and pointed at the tomes. "F-grade, D-grade, C-grade, B-grade, and A-grade."

"Are those tomes for star crystals?" I asked. Dean Baxter shook his head.

"No. Please allow me to finish my examination Mr. Kingston!" He said sternly.

"Yes sir." I said sheepishly.

"In order to read any of the tomes here you have to pass a test befitting of the tomes grade. A splicer can only learn one system and must take great care when picking one."

"If we can only learn one system what is the point of the library. From what Jane and Iris told me most splicers already have a system when they come here."

"Because that system might be incomplete or a leveled system." Dean Baxter replied.

"Leveled system?"

"A partial system that has multiple parts in multiple grades. For example it's entry level part might be F-grade then the next part might be C-grade and after that B-grade." Dean Baxter explained.

"Gotcha." I said. "So what test do I have to take in order to get access to F-grade star crystal systems?"

"Um yes…about that…there are no F-grade systems for star farm crystals. Or of any other grade." Dean Baxter said. I frowned and turned to Iris then Jane. Jane had a confused look on her face, Iris had the same irritated one that I was sporting.

"If there isn't one for any grade then what was the point of you telling me all this!" I snapped.

"Chase!" Jane hissed and slapped me on the arm. "He's the dean!"

"I'm actually with Star-child on this one, Lady Jane. If there aren't any systems for a star farm crystal then he just wasted our time telling us all that." Iris said. Both Jane and I looked surprised that Iris was defending me.

"I never said there weren't any systems for star crystals. I just said they weren't any in those grades." Dean Baxter announced. The three of us looked puzzled at each other then back at Baxter. "Allow my to fully explain. Because of the rarity of Star far crystals very little is known about them. In fact in most countries any information about star farm crystals are considered national secrets. As a result star farm crystal systems fall out of the category system and are instead referred to as national treasure grade systems. Literal hundreds of millions of lives have been lost in wars over these systems."

"Son of a bitch!" I exclaimed in English. I turned to Iris and Jane to see if they knew about this but the looks on their faces reveled that this was all new to them.

"Do you understand now how important one of those systems are?" Dean Baxter asked. I nodded.

"So important that no country is going to let anyone learn the system unless they can guarantee the loyalty of that splicer." I said.

"Exactly. And even then there is no guarantee that the system will even be compatible with you. You could sign your life away to another country only to be stick with a system that can do nothing for you." Dean Baxter said.

He picked up the tomes on his desk and returned them to their proper places on the bookshelf. While he walked back over to the diorama my brain was spinning trying to think of my options.

"So Chase's only options are indenture himself to a country and hope their system works or go without a system?" Jane asked.

"Chase can't go without a system, he might have a lot of mana but it's basically useless if he can't control it." Iris countered.

'It's too much of a gamble to rely on a country to get one and thanks to mana-nana manipulation I can't go without one…that only leaves one option.' I thought.

"I' have to make my own system."