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1.54% Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King / Chapter 18: 18 For A Moment

Chapitre 18: 18 For A Moment

The thickly armoured gates of the Mega City stood open in front of them, and for the first time in their eighteen years, Wolfe and Cassie saw natural sunlight with their own eyes.

The guard popped open the top hatch to let the light into the vehicle, and Cassie immediately stuck her head out the opening.

"Grandmother wasn't teasing me. It really is warm. You can feel it on your skin." She called back into the personnel carrier.

"I'm glad you enjoy it, but always have someone less vulnerable check for safety first. It is one of the first combat lessons we teach in the Academy during your second semester." Professor Ashcroft admonished her.

"Sorry, Professor. I will keep it in mind." Cassie apologized, pulling her head back in.

The carrier trundled slowly along the dirt path for most of an hour while the guards watched carefully out of the windows. Wolfe didn't think that they would meet up with monsters this close to the city, they had only recently passed the last of the farms that surrounded the city walls, but the guards were definitely on edge.

"Stopped vehicle ahead." The driver reported, bringing their transport to a halt. Both armed guards, followed very reluctantly by Wolfe, who the Professor shoved out, exited through the top hatch and moved forward to check out the obstruction.

"We have the flanks. Check the vehicle interior." The guard ordered, and Wolfe jogged forward, on alert for any signs of motion. He didn't know what shapes the wilderness monsters could take, but a poisonous snake wasn't out of the question.

The area looked clear, and all of the armoured windows were broken on the SUV. It had at least one flat tire and a lot of body damage. Whatever did that was not human. The body panels had deep gouges in the steel in a four-clawed pattern.

But the shattered remains of the windows were slightly melted, and they were blown outward, not in, as they would be by an external attack.

Checking the roof, the top window was broken inward, and the interior was burned out, with three visible bodies scorched beyond easy recognition.

"The monster attack that destroyed the vehicle's body was secondary. The roof was breached, and a thermal charge was detonated inside. Possibly a grenade. Three confirmed casualties, identity unknown." Wolfe reported with his best impression of a professional while trying not to gag.

He had seen some stuff on the lower floors, but not like that.

'As long as I don't vomit, I can keep my dignity intact.' He told himself, moving away from the vehicle.

"Wait on the roof of the Transport. It might have been magical." One of the Guards instructed, pointing back at the Personnel Carrier.

Wolfe hadn't considered that it might be a magical attack since Witches didn't really come to the levels that he lived on. But why would they be attacking each other out here in the middle of nowhere?

Could this have been the work of some surviving magic-using mutants who were living in the wilderness? The only spell in the surviving Magi Records the Noxus family had was a Fire Circle, and it was from the introduction to the textbook, so it should have been one of the most basic skills in the distant past.

The two Guards took out some sort of measurement device, then shook their heads, not liking what they found or not finding what they wanted. Then they took photos of the damage and made a phone call to someone.

Wolfe considered running, but with that large gun mounted on top of the vehicle, he wouldn't make it very far if they took offence. Not to mention that there was still a Witch inside who seemed to be going easy on him for the time being.

When they got back, it was clear the two men weren't going to give away many details, but the more talkative of the pair leaned over to whisper to him.

"You were right the first time. Non-magical, brute force through the roof followed by an incendiary device. Some monsters can use fire magic, but they didn't do that."

The disturbed looks made more sense now. It would have been less alarming if it had been just monsters.

When the vehicle started moving again, it travelled noticeably faster than it had been moving along before. Cassie seemed not to notice the difference, just happily looking out the window at the grassland and scattered stands of trees, but everyone else seemed a bit more nervous.

They all had the same question on their minds. Who was in the burned-out vehicle, and who launched that attack?

After two more hours of travel, they came across another vehicle. Only this one wasn't alone or destroyed. All of the vehicles in the group were heavily damaged, though.

"Hold at a distance. That convoy has also turned into the final path to the Academy, so we should all be headed to the same place. They have been attacked, and we don't want to alarm them before we can make contact." Professor Ashcroft instructed the driver.

"Don't the cars all have radios?" Wolfe asked, certain that he had seen them featured in every single wasteland survival-themed movie he had watched.

"Ours does. All the vehicles that staff use do, and they're never turned off. But anyone else is free to prepare their own transportation. Many among the younger generations see them as outdated and a security risk since they can be located when you broadcast. So if those are students' family vehicles, they might not have them." The Professor explained.

"What class do you teach, Professor? You seem to have a pretty wide variety of knowledge." Cassie asked.

"I teach potions from the first year through graduation. Only for Class A, though. The other classes rotate between teachers." She explained.

"So Class A is a special one? For the children of upper Nobility, I am guessing." Cassie replied, a bit sad that this laid-back professor wouldn't be her teacher.

Sure, she apprehended Wolfe, but she hadn't done anything to harm him, at least not after he crashed his bike through a storefront. She had even had her team collect it, and the slightly damaged cycle was in the rack on the back of their transport vehicle.

"Close. It is special, but we don't separate students by parentage, at least not officially. The initial sorting is done by Potential, as measured by our staff, then after that, the students are grouped by progress."

Cassie looked confused, but Wolfe nodded happily, as this was how his school had done things. The smartest kids were put in the best classes with the best teachers. The rest got to fight over used textbooks and the few chairs and desks that survived the previous year.

"So that the losers and slackers don't drag down the best and brightest. If my guess is right, school-supplied resources will also be reduced with performance, and if you don't meet the minimum, you are expelled at the end of the semester." Wolfe told Cassie to clarify the situation.

"For the first year, resources are the same for all students outside class A. From the second year onward, they are scaled. For example, during the second year, those who don't meet the standards for Nobility are separated from the more talented Witches.

They can take the third year as a remedial class to try to make the lower nobility or drop out during the second year and still be Commoner Witches. But only the Nobility can attend the fourth year and the placement exams." Professor Ashcroft added.

"The final year placement exams determine your rank and where you get settled. Nobles get territory, but it's not automatically inherited, so you might be placed in a different city or village under the Morgana Coven as a successor to an aging noble without an heir that has passed the Academy.

Or you could even be given the option to reclaim wilderness land. A few even choose to return home as landless Ladies." The Professor continued once she recalled that they likely didn't know much of anything about how the senior years of the Academy, or the Nobility, worked.

"How are the entry tests ranked?" Cassie asked.

Melody had gotten the lowest possible score, as she couldn't cast a spell to save her life, but to Cassie, the ranking mattered.

"Spell Power and Casting Time, measured by a magical device. Magical aids like your talisman are allowed, but outside assistance, like the young Magi here, are not. Doubling your mana draw rate with his help would be too much like cheating, especially when Talismans are allowed." Professor Ashcroft explained.

That was incredibly biased toward the wealthy families, but Cassie had a big smile on her face. The Professor had acknowledged Wolfe was a Magi, and she didn't sound like she wanted to kill him.

In Cassie's mind, that was a good start.


Chapitre 19: 19 Wands are Creepy

"You can measure any spell, right? It doesn't have to be something specific?" She asked, and the Professor nodded, wondering where she was going with this line of thought.

"You can use a spell, or you can simply have your aura tested. Both are fine, depending on your skill level, but demonstrating an actual spell is the only way to get into the top class. Everyone who qualifies for Class A will have at least that much talent." Professor Ashcroft explained.

"Wolfe, can you carve this symbol into something for me? Your writing is better." She asked, handing Wolfe a piece of paper.

It wasn't a circle but a string of runes written vertically. Proper Witch Magic, not something that adapted Elemental Magic to their needs. Just looking at it made Wolfe's skin crawl a little, but it would be easy enough to carve if he had a stick to carve it in.

"Can we stop for a second? I need a stick to do this." Wolfe asked, but the Professor had come prepared and removed a thin wooden branch, bark and all, from her handbag for Wolfe to work with.

"You have thirty minutes if you are going to make a wand. Since Wolfe probably doesn't know, a wand enhances a Witch's innate magic, so it is only usable by the one who created it. We usually have new students make one in the second Semester once they have all learned the technique to stabilize their aura, which allows them to cast innate magic."

"The stronger the aura, the stronger the Witch. You will learn to recognize it in your training." The Guard told Wolfe with a smirk.

Knowing how Cassie responded to his touch and mana flow, Wolfe suspected that this so-called training might be a particularly exhilarating one for both him and the Witches.

"There is more to it, but we will save that for the academy. With your credentials, you will be busy from the moment that you arrive. Just don't let any favourable treatment cause you to forget your predicament." The Guard told him.

A predicament was a rather kind word for it. Though the professor and the guards seemed more than happy to bring him on as a security staff worker, Wolfe was well aware that male magic users were usually killed if they were caught in the city. Their attitude did give him some hope that things might be different out here in the wilderness, though, since they seemed to be adamant that all skilled fighters and witches were needed for whatever it was that they were doing beyond training.

Wolfe carved the nauseating runes into the stick with careful precision, then looked it over, realizing that it wasn't right or complete. The incantation was correct, but the wand needed something else.

The runes weren't a language he knew, but once they were carved, they made sense to him, thanks to the Inheritance. Wolfe read the text in his head [I draw the power around me] and thought about the movies. The main characters always repeated a chant for emphasis.

Carving it more than once shouldn't hurt anything, and the teacher would probably let him get a new stick if he messed it up. She seemed to like Cassie quite a bit.

With three copies written, Wolfe was struggling not to throw the wand away just from the feeling of wrongness and revulsion, but he carefully handed it back to Cassie, who giggled happily and began filling in the runes using a gold paint marker.

It was also a bit rose-coloured, and he suspected that the little Witch had put the remainder of his blood in it that she hadn't used in the silver pen. He would have to be careful about allowing anyone to gain possession of his blood in the future, so others didn't find out.

When she finished, the talkative guard offered her a talisman, much like the mana storage one she was wearing.

"Since it's carved by the Noxus Family, for the Noxus Family, I think it's only right if our talisman completes the process." She told him, then placed her free hand on Wolfe's bare arm.

The man gave Wolfe a sly wink, suggesting that he knew there was something between Wolfe and Cassie, but didn't say anything.

The wand began to glow black, with purple sparks flickering in the darkness, before the spell completed and something around Cassie changed.

The darkness lingered, not as a physical thing, but more of a sense of power, one that Wolfe had come to associate with Professor Ashcroft and Witches in general.

"Oh, not bad at all. Did your grandmother teach you that?" The Professor asked, and Cassie nodded happily.

"But since I couldn't use magic before this week after my birthday, there was so much to do that all I had time to learn was the theories, preparing me for the academy. She said that in her day, the test was done naked to ensure there was no cheating."

The Professor laughed out loud at Cassie's blushing face. "We haven't done it that way in nearly fifty years. Twenty years ago, they began allowing magical devices since everyone would be using them in class anyhow."

"I was as disappointed as you when I found out that nudity was no longer a requirement." The Guard whispered to Wolfe, taking a smack from the Professor for his comment.

"And that's why we changed it. The tests are done in front of the whole school. You are free to work naked if you prefer, I doubt any of the young ladies would object, but I will warn you, the Academy is air-conditioned." She informed Wolfe with a straight face.

That meant that shirtless was an option, even if it wasn't the best idea since any Witch who touched his bare skin would know he had an affinity for magic. Plus, he was still hiding the extent of his abilities, even though he was captured. If whoever they sent to judge him thought he was like the other Elders and relatively harmless, they might let him go with a less severe punishment.

But who could have guessed that strategic nudity was actually an approved tactic to help keep the young Witches in line?

Once Cassie was holding the wand and her aura became noticeable, it seemed to stabilize and soon blended into her presence as if it was always part of her.

Her hand was still on Wolfe's arm, though, and he could feel something between them, not a flow of mana, at least not directly, but it did feel like the contact was helping to balance them out.

The Professor noticed the continued contract. "You catch on quickly. Yes, she can use your power to increase her own. It's a matter of compatibility, though. Even if you have an affinity for mana, as many of the Noxus men do, how well a Witch can manipulate it makes all the difference in how much power is shared."

How well she can manipulate it? For a moment, Wolfe almost forgot that a man who could manipulate magic was so taboo that they hadn't considered his abilities in the equation. But it also meant that since he could, he would be able to work with a Witch's aura to strengthen himself and that they were going to teach him how to do it, but not intentionally.


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