Chương 33: Chapter 32
The last few days passed very quickly and the time for the last exam came at last. The remaining students, 36 of them in total, were arranged into rows outside of the city on the academy's training grounds.
One student however, particularly stood out. In the back of the rows, a tall black haired man stood with his arms crossed. He seemed older than most of the other students, while the majority were only 17-20, and he also wore military mage clothing belonging to another kingdom.
The teacher in charge of the exams this year spoke up.
"Alright, listen up. This is it, the day you've been looking forward to. This final test is all that stands between you and official recognition as a mage. Looks like we have a new face too, rather uncommon for someone to join so late but the council authorized it so I'm sure you come with great references."
Clearing her throat, the teacher resumed.
"So, it's quite simple. You'll be forming up in teams of 3 and drawing a random location written on a piece of paper in this basket here. In those locations you'll find dungeons, they're teeming with monsters and your goal is to get to the end to grab a special item we placed there. Don't worry, we scouted every location and they're all of similar difficulty. Now go on, we'll give you a quarter of an hour to form teams."
Lucius turned to talk to Lucy.
"Hmmm, teams of three. That'll be a bit annoying, who else do you trust?"
Lucy thought long and hard about it.
"There's Clarice and while I trust her, I'm not so sure about her abilities though."
Someone approached them and they both turned to look at the same time. It was the older mage from another kingdom.
"Hey. Looks like you're not quite sure who to team up with and I'm also in the same situation, maybe we can work something out?"
The older mage added a wink at the end of his sentence.
Lucy narrowed her eyes and looked him up and down.
"Let's see who you are. [Analyze]!"
To her surprise, nothing happened. It was as if she did not utter the spell at all. She had only one experienced something similar, when she had tried to analyze the headmaster.
"That won't work, I've got an item to counter that. You'll just have to trust me.
"How can we trust you? We know next to nothing about you."
The mage held his chin in his hand for some time in contemplation before coming up with an answer.
"Well, you could say I have a real knack for video games. I'm quite good at them."
Lucius and Lucy's faces started out confused but the realization soon dawned on them. Seeing their faces light up, the mage gestured with his hands.
"Calm down now. Let's not give anything away."
Lucy glared at Wilfred and murmured to him.
"You and I need to have a talk later."
Lucius stepped between them and tried to defuse the situation.
"Alright, so let's say we team up. What do we call you?"
"I've been going by Damian lately, so that'll work."
The rows became small clusters as the students discussed amongst themselves and after a few more minutes of talking, all the groups were formed. Many were rowdy however and kept trying to grab the teacher's attention, likely unhappy with their group.
"Seems you're all divided into teams of 3 now, good. I'm sure some of you are wondering why we are basing the final exam on a group effort instead of your individual prowess. The truth is out here in the real world, we rely on each other. No matter how gifted you may be, you'll have to work with other people and this is where it begins. It's important to make connections with your colleagues and this will also be drilled into you when you join the army. "
Although a few still seemed upset, most of the crowd was happy with the explanation.
"Now make a line and come draw your location. When you have it, you may begin. You'll have 4 days from today to come back. Best of luck!"
The groups made ordered lines and proceeded to draw their location. When it came to our trio's turn, Lucius drew. Unfolding the piece of paper after moving out of the line, the three bent over to look at it.
"Looks like...Piantedi, it's to the east. Says to continue even further East past the city and that our target is a cave in the forest. I suppose that's why we have 4 days, might take some time to find the place."
Lucy nodded and added her insight.
"I've been to Piantedi a few times. They're near the coast but they don't have a port or anything. The trade road is often used so we should be able to get there rather quickly, maybe tomorrow early in the morning if we leave right now. We should pack supplies though, just in case."
Damian joined in the conversation after Lucy was done talking.
"Let's meet outside the city gates in an hour then? We can also discuss what you guys probably are itching for once we're on the road."
Damian headed for the gates right away and waited for his friends to come back. Thankfully, it was shorter than an hour as both hurried up the best they could. Lucius looked at Damian not carrying anything and was puzzled.
"You're not bringing anything? It's going to be a long trip."
"I've got everything I need stashed on my atv, hidden in the woods just off the main road. It'll be a lot faster than walking too."
Lucy was visibly angry.
"You think we're walking?! We need horses if we want to get there by tomorrow morning. In fact that's our next stop, the stables."
Damian shook his head negatively.
"Won't need them. Although it might be a little cramped and you might need to sit on Lucius' lap, there should be enough room on the atv."
It was Lucius's turn to interrupt and question Damian.
"Whats an atv Wil---Damian?"
"It's one of my creations. Remember that ability? Well, it can carry a bunch of stuff and goes fast. Really drains my Mana though. I tried to make a bigger one but I just couldn't. "
Unconvinced, they followed Damian down the road and into the forest where he proceeded to remove a large piece of cloth that blended in seamlessly with the surroundings, revealing a strange metal contraption beneath it.
"So what is this exactly?"
"Well Lucius, if you want the exact details, it's an M-Gator. It's a small all terrain vehicle that we mainly used to transport medical supplies to get to hard to reach places. Also works for other tasks but this was pretty much the largest thing I could create with my current Mana pool. We can put our supplies in the back, mine are already there, then come and sit up front. Like I said though, maybe Lucy can squeeze between us or sit on your lap. We should reach our destination a bit before nightfall. Could go quicker but I don't want this to be spotted so I won't use the main road. One of the advantages of using Mana as fuel is that I was able to remove the engine noise."
They both looked at him like he was a madman speaking gibberish but it was then that they were truly sure of who he said he was.
Damian's creation was moving them rather rapidly even considering the difficulty of the terrain but they still had a lot of time before they reached their destination. Being rather certain that no one was listening in on them, Damian began talking.
"We have a lot of catching up to do, I know. Let's get it out right now since we have privacy and time. What do you want to know?"
Seated on Lucius's lap, Lucy was barely managing to hang on as the atv went up and down hills, partially tilting to one side when rocks would come in the way and all manners of rough driving but still managed to get her words out.
"You left so suddenly, we could have helped you! Although we aren't on the best of terms, my father is still a prince in this Kingdom, I'm sure they could have protected you. Especially considering how much of an asset you will be to this country."
"It wasn't that simple. I couldn't simply remain under supervision and I needed time to think also. When I first came here, I thought I'd try and adapt to this world, fit in and forget what I used to be. I found it very hard though, since I still have all of my memories you know, not to mention the vast differences between our worlds."
"That didn't quite work out however and I ended up opposed to some pretty nasty people. Before I took the time to think things through, I was acting rather irrationally. Maybe it's because I wanted to try and be a mage more than someone from another world but I realized it's not the way to go. I should be wanting to show this world the benefits of these amazing things from my world and embrace being myself."
After seeing the worried looks on his friends' faces, he explained further.
"I know, I know. Needs to be done slowly and the right way. The old me would have just tried to face the Society head on and things may have turned out badly. They're still the enemy and I'll need to deal with them before I can start introducing technology to the general population. For now though, I've likely fallen off their radar and It'll need to remain that way for some time."
This time it was Lucius' turn to ask a question.
"Never occurred to you to reach out to us in all these years? How did you even manage to change your looks like that?"
"I wanted to be sure that there'd be no one who could recognize me and didn't want to drag you both into this. It took some time and there were a few ways to do it, like using Mental magic but that wasn't available to me so I used alteration. I was able to learn a spell called [Disguise] and while it only initially changed my facial features and voice, after extensive use and having leveled it up, it also allowed me to change my age and the rest of my body. But enough about me, what have you both been doing?"
Lucius replied first.
"Well business has been good for me. I've also started enchanting things while still doing my [Inspect] service. I've gotten most of the shops as customers now and I'm so busy. I haven't gotten much stronger sadly."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Added Lucy.
She then slightly elbowed Lucius in the ribs.
"Oh, errr yes. Me and Lucy have become a couple."
"Oh wow, congrats to you both. I think you make a great couple."
Both replied at the same time.
"We do? You're not jealous?"
"What, no. I mean Lucy is great but it'd feel a bit too weird for me. Although I look young, I'm more than double her age remember. So are you just dating or engaged?"
"I'm not sure what dating means but we're not engaged. I've been doing rather well and am at the top of our year right now, which has made my family really proud of me. They're considering acknowledging me officially after graduation. I'd be eligible to hold a high noble title and everything else that comes from it. They won't let me be engaged to someone from a small noble family though."
Damian grimaced.
"Is that what you really want? Feels a bit like they're manipulating you."
Lucy sighed.
"I do agree with you but there's so much good I could do, like finally taking good care of my mother, if I could actually be treated as my father's daughter for once."
"I'm not trying to make you change your mind or anything, it's a problem not many of us face in life where you have the choice of sticking with your ethics or doing something wrong in order to do something right."
Damian sighed and resumed.
"Anyways, enough of that. Glad to see not everything went downhill after I left. Not that I thought it would, just happy everything is going good. We're really close now by the way, we passed the village a few minutes ago, so we'll get off and walk the rest of the way. Fueling the atv on Mana is efficient but does it ever drain me whew. "
"Alright so we do have a rough estimate of where this cave should be so let's start there and work our way around."
Covering up the atv once more with the camo tarp, they headed east towards the forest.
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