Specialization - Part 1

The class which was nothing more special than a little bit more magical history went by in a jiffy. But before the end of the classes professor Leipeg reminded them all that they should pick a specialization by the end of tomorrow. Although one could do it today already if they wished for it.

Samuel like most people had long since scouted out just what kind of specializations existed. Specialization classes was something that the students had to squeeze in during evenings if they did pick them. Not every student did, many just went with the general courses and were satisfied with that.

Samuel and his teammates however seemed to already have a pretty good idea of what to do. One could pick 1-3 specializations. But time consuming as they were, the reccommended was usually only one. Only madmen or geniuses picked three and sometimes passed all of them.

After leaving class they made the way to the specialization signup building, which was actually just the main administration building in the center of the city. Arriving upon the scene there were quite a lot of second years that were there to sign up. Forming different queues depending on specilization.

There were dozens of specilizations to pick from. The more popular ones had very long queues while the less so had almost no queues at all. "Well... Wish me luck!" Sonya said with a big sigh and walked to the longest queue. 'War Mage' was the queue she joined.

1. War Mage. 2. Elemental Master. 3. Versatile Mage. 4. Support Mage. 5. Artillery Caster.

These five specializations were the most popular among all the different specializations in that order. Meaning they had the longest queues. Erica sighed as well and nodded to her friends as she stood in the Versatile Mage line... She had mentioned that she was going to take both Versatile and Support, the two specializations were not too different from one another and as such were a lot easier at taking the both at the same time.

Obviously Erica wasn't the only one that was doing so, which meant she would probably take even longer than Sonya to be done. Having to stand in two queues would take some time, Samuel felt a slight tug on his hand and Ulma gave him a wink as she went to stand in her own line that was pretty short. Samuel knew that Ulma had intended to take Support Mage and Healer Specialization. Two also fairly simillar specializations.

Samuel gave her a nod of luck and he turned to look at all the different specializations. He had only told his teammates which ones he was going to take. It would take him some time to stand in three queues, but thankfully they were almost completely empty. All three of them.

It took him a little bit of time but eventually he was done signing up for all three and he walked off toward the nearest bench to sit down and wait for his teammates. He sat down on a marble bench and slowly saw the students signing up leaving one by one as he started almost dozing off as he sat there by himself.

"So what specs did you pick?" A new voice jerked him awake and he turned to look at the person... A human with green eyes and a ton of freckles on her pretty face, her face had sharp edges but soft features at the same time which made her smile quite the alluring one. Her golden hair almost like a sun. "Sorry! My names Amanda.. Amanda Switchtrix. I am a second year as well!" She smiled at him brightly.

Samuel recognized the last name, Switchtrix... an almost founding pillar of the Republic, an esteemed noble house which had several seat takers in the senate. Renowned for their fair reforms of taxation and fair handling of tax matters. The House of Anti Corruption. Dangerous enemy but reliable ally. Amanda could almost see what he was thinking about and she took a step back.

"Sorry, I approached you because I saw you take the Blademage specialization, just like me!" She revealed a shortsword and dagger on her hilt.

"I didn't approach you because of any other reason...." She trailed off and started twirling some of her long hair that reached down half her back. Samuel stood up and stretched from the bench which revealed that she was just as tall as him. "Yeah Blademage specialization. The art of the blade song, the ability to cast most spells with one hand and wielding a blade in the other!" Samuel confirmed out loud.

"Mmhm, thats the one!" She confirmed with a nod. "Well, It is indeed the first one I picked!" Samuel chuckled and Amanda raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Really? What else did you pick???" Her curiosity knew no bounds and she shamelessly asked. Samuel raised an eyebrow but was kind enough to humor her.

"I picked Blademage as my first choice, my second specialization was magical history and bloodlines... and..." Before Samuel could continue she snorted and chuckled... "Magical history? Here I thought you were something interesting! Not that I have anything against history because its important to my family, but the rumors about you made you seem a little bit more interesting." Amanda shook her head with a smile and started walking away. "I will see you in class!" She waved her hand.

At least she wasn't a complete jerk or anything, a little rude yes a little ignorant yes. But there were plenty of worse people out there. Samuel sighed to himself and Ulma returned shortly thereafter, "How did it go?" She asked with a tired yawn and she leaned herself on Samuel using him as a pillar.

He quickly placed his arms around her and whispered, "It went great, what about you?" She yawned again and just nodded to confirm it had gone well. A short while later they were standing there still together and Erica came walking back looking tired and annoyed. "Finally that annoying shit is done, I had some prick in front of me for like half an hour because he had so many questions... ugh!" She angrily looked at Samuel for a few seconds.

"How come you stood in four queues and were done so fast, were they really that empty? I can't believe they allowed you to pick four, even if one is mostly reading and theory... like how are you gonna have time to complete them, you are like literally insane. Three specializations that are rumored to be very difficult and one about history... like by all the gods of magic you are truly a madman!" Erica ranted and ranted venting out her frustrations on Samuel who just stood there with a smile.

Samuel had after all picked, Blademage as his first, Magical history as his second, Martial Magic as his third and Transmutation Specialization as his fourth.

Blademages were quite uncommon, very few ever learned the secrets of the blade. It was almost like they could hear their blades sing and engrave their bodies with special magic using the blade, they were battledancers of the battlefield. Able to wield their blades in a dance while casting spells. Truly dangerous opponents to face.

Magical history was mostly because Samuel wanted to help realize Alsian's dream that had also partly become his own, to find out more about his people and their origin, and to find if there were any still alive. But he also wanted to learn about other rare magical bloodlines and just magic history in general while he was at it. He doubted he would find anything about children of mana from the specialization itself anyway. Alsian had said the secrets were as good as lost to time.

Martial Magic was one that was slightly popular, according to some new thinking minds among the mage communities mages needed to know how to defend themselves in melee or ultimately they would just bring everyone else down if they needed to be protected. The art of using weaponry to defend themselves and the magical arts of strengthening oneself with elemental infusion was martial magic.

Transmutation was popular as a general subject, but few ever specialized in it. Because most of transmutation could already be learned without the specialization and by reading about it. But Samuel knew that true transmutation could be very different, he had long theorized about transmutation being a founding pillar in many forms of magic, so he wanted to master it.

Funnily enough the officials had allowed him to choose four, but they all assumed he was probably going to fail at least two of them because of the time it would consume, but nevertheless they allowed him to try. One could always cancel if one felt they were falling behind too much.

Finally Sonya rejoined the group. She should have been done before Erica, but for some reason she came back last with an annoyed look on her face. "My father apperantely has signed me up for magical history as well, he said something about it being important for me to understand myself better and that it could help give me insight... bla bla bla... fuck." She rolled her eyes and Samuel couldn't help but put a hand on her shoulder.

"Well, welcome to the magical history club! At least you will have me by your side!" He said with a wide grin and she tried to punch him several times, but each time he moved out of the way. "Hey you aren't supposed to dodge. Hold him girls!"

"What?" Samuel suddenly exclaimed and felt both Erica and Ulma grab him from behind making it so Sonya could easily bonk him on the head, but she eased up the strength of her punch only making a small bruise not actually angry with her best friend.

Together they had a laugh and walked back home for the day. Enjoying their dinner and chatting away about the plans for the future. They could begin specialization classed already the next day, since the specialization classes were part of the second year and the second year would be sometimes away on missions, some students would be gone in intervals.

So the specializations had a system where six days a week they had two hours during the evening where one could join any one of them freely. Hence why most people only picked one. It meant that Samuel had to alternate between them with the limited time he had. Which made learning things from scratch hard, but even so... he had picked four of them.

Seemingly having some plan in mind, and thus the group went to bed for the night and eventually the next day began.