After the first three classes were less interesting studies that were more or less like regular school stuff. They were; Drach Science, Magic Theory, Business and Tactics.
They were given a schedule to keep record of what they would have the next day. For most days, except saturday and sunday which were free days, they almost never had all subjects in a day so they would always have vacant periods to relax or go out and explore the school some more. Today was the only day they had seven subjects in a day.
"Wow! This thing really holds a lot in it." Arina noted, keeping some books in her new Compartment Bag which seemingly never ran out of space as she and Serena headed to their dorm which was about half a mile away from the main building.
"It's the first day. I'd like to get a look at that library." Serena mesmerized herself just thinking about all that information but of course just kept a normal, friendly composure on the inside, "Of course, we can do other things as well."
"Yeah, maybe. Because I'd really like it if we were able to explore the city just a few miles away from us." Arina suggested and they decided on it. After getting to their dorm and room, they dressed themselves in their usual clothing and got ready to head out.
On campus, a lot of people were already sitting on the fields or on chairs like they were having a picnic but they were really just engaging in social activities. It was a fun set up that the place had and it really encouraged friendships to blossom.
As they walked through the forcefield, it distorted a bit, allowing them to go through but not fully being open. The feeling was a bit weird but nothing notable.
At the moment where they were about to step into the city, where they could see strangers walking around, some even stopping to look at them, did they realize that they were in more foreign territory.
"Uh, we don't know anyone here. How are we supposed to just roam around the place?" The Mech Caster whispered as they just stood there.
"Yeah, it does look kinda weird. Maybe we didn't think this through."
"I wish we knew someone who was from around here." They huffed concurrently.
But just like that, a colorful personality swooped in to save them. From behind, they heard a voice calling them while waving their hand from the Academy and running forward.
"Luz!" Arina and Serena said, feeling a bit more upbeat with her just being there.
Luz arrived in front of there and she was practically an industry for producing sweat as she bent her back, holding onto her knees with her hands as she took in heavy gasps quite comically.
"Hold on. Let me... catch..." Luz took in a huge gulp and stood up straight, "You guys didn't forget about me, did you?" She smiled and they smiled back. "Cos' I come from Solike City. It was actually pretty weird taking a bus when I could've just walked here. Bottom line is..."
She paused to build up suspense. For the two girls, watching her was fun enough.
"We're going to have an incredible amount of fun. So much that when we're done, our legs are gonna hate us."
Arina and Serena laughed, hearing that and she chuckled a bit too while rubbing the back of her head.
"Sorry, got carried away there."
"No, it's fine." The Light Caster and Mech Caster assured her.
She beamed hearing this.
"Let's go have fun." The three of them dashed into the city with the Color Caster leading them. Moving through the city, Luz moved around the obstacles in their past by mimicing parkour and even though she did every move almost always less than perfect, it looked too fun for Arina to pass up and she began doing so as well.
"Yeah, no thanks. I'll just run wherever we're going." Serena remarked, moving like the only normal person among the group. Guess she wasn't a fan of activities that made her use too much of her physical energy and that was understandable.
"Okay, enemy of all things fun and exciting." Luz poked a nerve in her with her childish comment and she quickly caught up to them, jumping over a fire hydrant, grabbing onto a pole and performing a flip, landing a feet in front of the duo.
"Wow! That would actually have felt so good if it wasn't so painful."
"Whoo! Go Serena! That was even better than us." Arina cheered. As Casters, apart from possessing magic unlike humans withing their bodies, Casters were able to evolve their physical prowess through training but upon receiving their Charm, their physical abilities would already be beyond that of the average human even without training which was a pretty amazing perk that allowed the skilled Casters to seemingly leap from building to building.
While moving through the city, their tour guide, Luz showed them the most interesting parts of the city. They found put that the city known as Solike City was more advanced the deeper they went into it.
She showed them places such as restaurants which had robots to aid the running of the establishment, a cosplay centre where people of different ages dressed like fantasy characters, a beach, it was all pretty amazing for just one city.
However, it wasn't too advanced as it didn't replace things that already worked fine and made the only difference that it hovered such as cars that ran on some sort of magic fuel but stayed stuck to the ground on better rhan wheels. It was more practical this way.
"Well, we're here, folks. The main attraction. Well, for me." Luz pointed at a mall that was huge and was sure to have varieties of different items and things to buy. From where rhey stood, they could already tell it had seven floor levels and a transparent glass or ceramic showing them rom the exterior of the building.
"This is Starlight Mall!"
Being girls, Arina and Serena couldn't help but stare at it completely wonderstruck and gave in to their female instincts.
"What are we doing still standing around here? Let's get in there." The girls rushed into the mall.
* *
Meanwhile, Yuri was in one of the stores inside the mall, specifically one that sold clothing and he was lookong around, trying to pick out a new jacket.
But then, he noticed something was off. His sixth sense told him that two figures were lurking from behind and following him too.
Knowing that, he moved around the clothing isles that looked like they were designed like mazes. Hiding behind a clothing rack, his eyes laid upon the two figures approaching but all he could really see with his fierce crimson eyes were their shadows.
A woman working on the desk looked at the security cameras and watched the Shadow Caster in utter confusion as he hid like he was playing a game of paintball or something.
As the mysterious characters took steps forward, the black-haired, dark-skinned teenager mumbled to himself, preparing a Spell as his brooch came out of its camouflage mode.
He raised both his hands in the air and chanted, "Shadow Casting: Black Gloves."
Pure darkness began to envelope his hands from his fingers to his wrists and gave off an ominous aura.
"Got ya." Yuri jumped out, shadows taking the shape of tentacles and extending from his black hands, restraining them in the air and his eyes gazed upon them in shock and chagrin, vexation or whatever you wanted to call it.
"You?! Why are you two following me? You stalking me or something." Yuri halted his Spell, nulling its effect and allowing them to fall on the ground rather roughly.
It was Ayato, the red-haired fiery boy who sat close to him in class and was his partner in Potion Class along with another boy who gave off a completely different vibe from the Fire Caster.
He was shorter with delicate features and a cute face wit snow white hair and blue eyes that perfectly complemented it. He wore shirt and jeans with snow-flaked patterns.
Although almost completely different in every aspect as the snow-haired boy had a shy demeanour as he could barely look Yuri in the eyes, they looked like they were cut from the same fabric on the part that they both wore clothing that could make one easily deduce what kind of casting trait they possessed.
"We thought we'd help you navigate through the city. We can tell that you don't come from here." Ayato stopped as he noticed the snow-haired boy was hiding behind him, failing to mask his presence, "This is Kuro and he's kinda shy when it comes to meeting new people."
"Ohh, hi." Kuro stepped away from Ayato's back and came into view, still a bit bashful.
However, Yuri was already walking away from the duo, "Sorry, not interested." He said, clearly displaying that what he stated was true with his actions.
"Hey, wait!" Ayato chased after him along with Kuro.
* * *
Arina, Serena and Luz came out of the mall, having had a great meal and buying a few things but in an hour, they had already left Starlight Mall. They didn't want to waste time there and had just explored the place a bit.
They were still students after all and they had classes tomorrow so they couldn't afford to be tired, unless they wanted to neglect in their performance.
"Let's just do something fun and quick. A simple activity."
And it was as if a supreme being had answered their simultaneous prayer as they saw advertisements all around about a car race that was about to take place that both Casters and Humans were free to join.
"That seems fun. Let's do it." They paused before chuckling at how they had said the same thing out loud before Luz leaded them to the location where rhe race would take place.
They arrived at some kind of underground tunnel where people had their vehicles lined up at the starting line with the officials getting ready to declare the start of the race.
"Oh, damnit. We don't have any vehicles." Arina pointed out, realizing that the trio had not thought things through but Serena didn't have a look on defeat on her face and they wondered why.
"You guys must have forgotten, I'm a Mech Caster remember and I've been thinking about being able to do this since I was a kid. And with my boost in magic, I can manage something like this."
She stuck both her hands out and really concentrated, releasing blue magic that began to take on shapes until three race cars had been formed right in front of them. The people around looked at her in astonishment before focusing back on themselves.
"Wow, I did not think that would work at all." The three girls jumped into their race cars as the officials made it known to them that they were about to begin.
"On your mark." Engines revved up in preparation.
"Get set. GO!!!" The official shouted and all the vehicles zoomed off, leaving behind dust.
Author note: This chapter felt a bit rushed for me. Please contribute to this story if you like it by gifting me power stones or reviews.