Chapter 326: Entrance Exams I

The walls of Lyon were tall, durable constructs, much higher than the town walls in Remus had been. They were hewn out of sturdy grey stone, and some [Architect] or [Builder] had smoothed and merged the rock into a uniform face. Colorful banners hung over the wall, a golden lion prominently featured again and again. Guards with gleaming steel helmets patrolled the walls, and the towers interspersed on the walls supported large ballistae on swivels.

The only thing we could see over the walls was the castle. It was in the middle of the city, filled with towers and spires, with an enormous flag featuring a golden lion once again. It literally felt like it was something out of a book, and I had a strong desire to go visit the castle! It would probably be fun to explore, seeing the towers, the throne room, the library.

Ooooh, the library. They probably had a great library.

Sadly, as things were now, I was more likely to see the dungeon of the castle than anything else. If I still had the full backing of the Sentinels, and knew where they were, I’d be tempted to try and commando my way into the castle to peek around, but alas. That wasn’t in the cards.

Maybe in a few hundred years and levels from now, I could be strong and sneaky enough to just waltz in, and let them try to stop me…

…maybe I could see why Iona had some beefs with Immortals…

Magic shimmered over the entire thing, like a haze that made it a little harder to see. I’d seen similar effects atop the other towns we’d skirted on our way here, but the sheer size of it boggled the imagination. A skill that large!? An inscription permanently running!?

We talked and walked at the same time, being just another group on the road heading towards the gates.

“That’s a shield?” I rhetorically asked in disbelief.

“Among other things.” Iona confirmed. “Did you not have them in Remus?”

We shook our heads practically in unison.

“Just walls.” Julius said.

“Shorter than these.” Artemis said.

Iona looked horrified.

“But… how… why…” She short-circuited. Like Amber hearing about a million rods, but in a more horrified way.

“Brrrpt brrrrrrpt.”

“Moving on!” Amber couldn’t tear her eyes away from the city. “What now?”

“Well. I’m going to find where the School is.” Iona frowned. “Actually. I was never told how that works, I’ll have to ask one of the [Knights] here. The Order of the Golden Lion’s headquartered here.”

“You could also ask one of the guards, they should know.” I sensibly pointed out.

“I can’t believe I never thought of this earlier.” Julius griped. “How will Artemis and I get inside to register with a guild, if we’re not allowed inside?”

“Brrrpt?” Auri thought it was a good question.

Iona opened her mouth, paused, and closed it.

“I never thought of that.” She candidly admitted.

“Ok, this will be easy.” Amber asserted. “I’ll smooth talk my way in,”

Julius, Artemis, and I all coughed at the same moment. “Bribe!”

Amber glared at us.

“I would, IF I HAD ANY MONEY!!”

“Brrrpt!”

“ANYWAYS! Once inside, I’ll figure it out, and ask them if they want you. Then they can come outside, do whatever it is they do to make you a guild member, and poof! DONE! Easy peasy.” Amber nodded to herself.

“I’m going to stay with Artemis for now.” I said. “I don’t want to risk a guard that can see through my Deception Ring. Once Iona knows what’s going on with the School, I’ll see what I can do after.”

“What if the School’s inside the city?” Iona asked.

Artemis and I traded knowing looks.

“Wouldn’t be the first time I snuck into a city.” I grinned roguishly at the imposing Valkyrie.

“Please don’t. I might have to arrest you.” Iona looked pained at the thought.

Fenrir growled at me, and I could almost hear a word in what he said.

“Scout first. Act later.” Julius put his foot down, reminding us all why he’d been the team leader of a Ranger group, able to corral a number of highly individual, opinionated people.

Iona, Fenrir, and Amber headed to the gates, while the rest of us just sort of hung out by the side of the road, waiting.

“Brrrpt?”

“Did you decide what guild to go for?” I asked my friends, translating for Auri.

The two of them traded looks.

“Whatever will take us, honestly.” Julius said. “Whatever gets us food, shelter, and not getting arrested and thrown in jail by the locals.”

“My attempt at retiring sucked.” Artemis said. “Right back to it. Hunter’s Guild sounded the most like what we did as Rangers. Seems to beat standing around for hours on end protecting money. How about you?”

“Ugh. If it wasn’t for the risk of guards being able to see through my ring, I’d just… lay low. Set up a clinic, heal people, make money, and go from there. Could probably even work you two into it somehow.” I griped.

Artemis roared with laughter while Julius was chuckling.

“You? Calm, peaceful, staying at home?” Artemis was clutching her stomach. “Being a mild-mannered meek healer? Oh, thank you for that Elaine, that was a great joke.”

“What!” I protested.

“Brrrpt!” Auri was trying to defend me.

“Elaine, how many girls run away from an arranged marriage to become a Ranger?” Julius asked.

“Lots?” I hazarded a guess. “Most just don’t make it?” I hadn’t seen too many other options. Although… thinking about it more, who did I know who’d actually ran away from home? There was…

Hmmm…

I’m sure there was at least one other person I knew, besides myself and Artemis…

No, there wasn’t, was there? Shoot.

Julius was shaking his head.

“It’s rare. Even rarer that they stick around. Even rarer that they elect to go through Ranger Academy, and then pass? I know of three, in all the years I was a Ranger.” He squeezed Artemis’s hand, who squeezed back.

“I didn’t have much choice.” I muttered.

“You took to it like a fish to water.” Artemis gleefully poked at me. “You’ve had multiple chances to retire. Heck, with your skill, you could’ve retired incredibly wealthy at any moment. What did you do? Happily showed up to every single Sentinel meeting, ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

My jaw dropped.

“Auri?”

“Brrrpt.” She was staying firmly out of this.

She was also a reminder that I’d grabbed her out of a dragon’s lair. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Sooo… you don’t think I can do quiet and peaceful?” I asked tentatively.

“Oh, for a few years, sure.” Julius waved his hand. “Maybe even longer as you get older. But I think you’ve got the itch. The need to go out and find people to help. You wouldn’t stay still for long, even if you have a nice home. You’d want to find new people to help. New emergencies to solve. New… everything.”

I fell silent as I contemplated his words.

I did like seeing new things. Exploring the world. Finding new magic. Heck, [Butterfly Mystic] was all about that.

If I heard about a plague in a town I could reasonably get to? I’d absolutely go there to help. I was a healer, that was my job. It was what I’d sworn to do, but more importantly, I’d be there.

Interesting magic? Same thing, but more fun.

But I didn’t think it was impossible for me to settle down and live happily ever after…

Was I just deluding myself? This called for some introspection. Another day. I had dozens of pressing, more important needs that needed to be seen to first. Like getting reliable shelter and food, being able to speak with people, and generally being able to live in a town, instead of a cave in the woods.

“I’m still hopeful that the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft can help orient me to the world, get my third class sorted out once and for all, figure out what the heck happened to everyone, and… yeah.”

I kept the part about having ALL THE BOOKS to myself. I could also learn more languages, I could dramatically improve my [Butterfly Mystic] skills, and…

… and I never managed to get to college. It wouldn’t be the same here, but it’d be a chance. Remus had categorically denied me anything I’d recognize as an education - I had to sneak into the library as a kid, reading by the light of a skill to try and get something. Ranger Academy had been more about preparing me to be a soldier, and less an education on the world. I had to admit - I felt slightly robbed, and some of my motives for going to the School were entirely impure.

Heck.

I didn’t even know how they operated, and I was building up a big fantasy in my head. I was on track to being totally disappointed. Either way, I wanted to go.

I played with Auri a bit while the power couple got some downtime together to just be sickeningly cute.

Iona came back first, no Amber in sight. She was probably fine.

“How’d it go?” I asked her, while Auri zipped a flower over to Fenrir.

“Brrpt!” She tried to feed him the flower.

I was no good at reading frost wyvern body language, but he looked doubtful.

“Great! The World Bank recognized me, so I was able to get some money, and go shopping.” Iona grabbed some jerky from a new bag of hers, and tossed it at Fenrir, who happily ate that instead of the flower Auri was trying to feed him. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if Auri was being nice, or trying to screw with him.

“The School has set up a little to the east of Lyon. Amber knows we’ll be there. Let’s go?” Iona pointed her thumb over her shoulder.

I stretched and hopped up.

“Let’s go!”

“Brrrpt BRRPT brrpt BRPT!” Auri called a charge, sitting comfortably on Fenrir’s head.

Fenrir galloped off on all fours, using his legs and wingtips, charging as quickly as he could. Given how young he was, and the fact that wyverns weren’t meant to be running on the ground, combined with his low speed stat?

The rest of us were able to keep up at a leisurely walk, chuckling at their antics.

“What’s the School like? How hard is it to get in? Is it expensive? What kind of classes do they have? What’s the dominant language? Do they speak Hakka? Sanglo? Do you think they know Creation? What about English, is there any chance that somebody knows English? There’ve got to be medicine classes, right? Are-”

I was excited, rapidly shooting questions to Iona as quickly as I could think of them, not bothering to wait to hear an answer back.

After an absolute eternity - five minutes, tops, we were still close to the walls of Lyon - we were approaching the area where the School had set up. It was like a fairground. A small, entirely magical fairground that seemed eager to let the whole world know they were there, as loudly and as colorfully as possible. A quick wooden palisade marked the borders, and a dozen overlapping transparent shields, each with a subtly different color, protected the entire enclosure. Sparks and magic were flying everywhere, colorful fumes were rising from various places, and some birds constructed out of various elements were flying in flocks overhead, putting on a show.

It was like several dozen students were all competing to have people look at them, and the total effect was riotous.

There were long lines to get into one of the many entrances to the place. Iona and the rest of us got in line at the back.

“Why are there so many people here?” I asked, looking around.

“Is that… a frog?” Julius asked, pointing and gawking.

I looked at where Julius was looking. There was a… gigantic frog-like person wearing clothes, standing in line with everyone else. They were extremely colorful, like a poison-dart frog.

“Beastkin.” Iona said. “Calling them a frog is quite the insult, you shouldn’t do that.”

“I shouldn’t call the midget abelisaurus a dinosaur, right?” Artemis subtly jerked her head over to where a dinosaur-person was standing.

“He’s a saurian. Tyrannosaurus Rex-based, not abelisaurus.” Iona corrected.

Julius and Artemis stared and looked at the huge variety of different species that were present. I also took a look around - there wasn’t anything else to do while waiting in line - but I liked to think I was a bit more discreet and polite than my traveling companions were.

The longer I looked, the more elvenoids I saw. People coated in colorful lamellar and plate armor, with a number of sharp plates were mostly dullahans. Some were giving each other the stink-eye, to the point where I expected a fight to break out in the line. A muscular cow-man wasn’t a beastkin, but a minotaur, dressed like a scholar in long, flowing robes, with a sword at his waist.

A group of dwarves got in line behind me, and I resisted the urge to tell them I was part of the 94th generation. That would get them all sorts of riled up - and have a lot of people get the wrong impression of me.

The line was predominantly human though, and most people seemed to be coming here in groups. So did we, to be fair.

“Why are there so many people here?” Julius asked Iona.

She shrugged.

“It’s the School.” She stated like that explained everything.

It didn’t.

We queued for what felt like hours, Amber eventually finding and rejoining us to the glares of the other people in line.

“Any luck?” Julius asked her.

“Some, but it’s not looking great.” She grimaced. “Everyone wants money or guarantees. The Adventurer’s Guild doesn’t want you without a sponsor. The Hunter’s Guild wants evidence of your prowess. The Merchant’s Guild will only take you if you already have an agreement with an existing member. The stories are similar everywhere I went.” Amber complained.

We all looked at Iona.

“Doesn’t a vorler hunt qualify as prowess?” Artemis loudly mused. “In front of a recognized member of a well-respected group?”

Iona rolled her eyes.

“No need to go about it sideways, sure, I’ll happily talk to them for you.”

Iona continued to act as a tour guide, gently explaining the various races we bumped into, where they were probably from, and more.

In Remus, all humans basically had the same skin tone. However, waiting in line, we saw dozens of different skin tones on humans, from incredibly pale to pitch black.

We finally made it to the front of the line, where a gnome and a gorgon were dressed in fancy black robes. Long sleeves, swooping skirts and huge, pointed hats were on their heads - well, relative to their size. The gnome’s hat was tiny, and I kept my eyes down and away from the gorgon’s snake-hair, hissing like a nest of vipers.

Iona had a quick conversation with them, flawlessly switching between two different languages to the gatekeepers’s obvious delight. She came back to us after a short conversation.

“Applicants to the School can come in for free, but need to go to the examination area. Tourists need to pay to get in.”

Our faces fell at that.

“Brrrpt?” Auri asked if she was allowed in.

“I actually don’t know. Let me check.” Iona turned back to the gatekeepers.

“Well. I wish we could come, but I think this is it for us. Good luck Elaine! Let us know how you do!” Julius said, patting my shoulder.

“Wish we’d known this before we spent all this time in line.” Artemis griped. “Ah well, she’ll crush it.” She had a lazy faith in me. “Although, here, you might need your gear for the exam.”

“If the exam involves a life or death fight, I’ll be properly annoyed.” I didn’t stop Artemis from taking off my poorly-fitting armor, and handing it back to me.

One of the moonstones fell out of my arm bracers, and I nimbly caught it.

“Seriously? It’s already falling apart?” I griped to nobody in particular.

“You only wore it for a year and change. You know. The usual workout it’s expected to get.” Artemis teased me.

Amber had her eyes glued to the Moonstone, and the unfairly tall beanpole leaned over to whisper in my ear.

“Hey. So. Nobody can understand us here, right?”

I turned to her.

“If you want to ask me something secret, remember that Iona can totally hear us if she wants to.” I reminded her.

Amber looked crestfallen.

“Well, ok. Short version that can be overheard. We’ve got nothing right now. I can’t get into the Merchant’s Guild without being able to pay their fee. I can’t do things properly without being part of their Guild. Too many stories about Guildless merchants running into… bees? It was hard to understand them, my language isn’t great right now.” Amber said. “However, gemstones are the currency. I hate to ask this, I know they’re yours, but… a single gem can kickstart everything for me.”

If that was the part she could ask, what wasn’t she asking?

Ah.

She probably wanted a skill-charged gem, and I had one skill in particular that would command an insane price. Something that Amber always wanted to sell.

There was no way in hell I was handing Amber a live grenade of an Immortality-granting skill gem. Maybe a few dozen charges of my main healing skill, a way to backstop Amber’s healing skills, or something she could directly sell.

A topic for another day.

“Let’s talk later.” I told her as Iona turned around.

“Auri’s allowed in, but she’s gotta stick with you.” She said.

That seemed to take quite a bit longer than I’d expect for a simple question and answer, although she had spent a bit of time waiting while Amber and I had our quick talk.

We said a quick farewell to each other once again - after all, we were holding up the line - and Iona, Fenrir, myself, and Auri swiftly entered the School’s grounds.

The grounds were both obviously temporary, and at the same time, dozens of [Mages] had clearly worked hard to make their own special thing. It was clear who was part of the School, and who wasn’t. Members of the School were all wearing robes and pointy hats, and nearly all of them were in black. I spotted the occasional purple robe in the crowd, and a single dark blue robe. They had to mean something, but I had no idea what.

“Entrance exams are this way.” Iona started to gracefully squeeze through the crowd, and I followed her broad shoulders.

It was interesting to watch Iona move through the crowd. She moved with grace and poise, never shoving or bumping into anyone, but hard as a rock when someone else tried to shoulder her away.

The people who weren’t part of the School stuck out by their outfits, a hundred different outfits that were all different. They were predominantly human, although occasionally we saw someone from a different species. I already was noticing something of a divide in the people here. There were those who were hurrying along with a nervous, frantic energy in the same direction Iona and I were going, and those casually browsing the fantastic wares on display.

The School people had dozens of small stands set up, each selling something different. A whole table of brightly painted music boxes. Another table had miniature golems playing house, next to a set of golems that were busy beating each other up. The next table was selling jewel-encrusted staves and wands, which was fascinating to me. I started looking for them, and saw the occasional School member with a wand in their belt, or using a walking staff with a bright gem at the top.

What could that be for? Magic didn’t need a staff… or at least, that’s what I knew.

Clearly, my understanding was lacking, and I got incredibly distracted by someone selling a stack of magically sparking books. They might be able to tell me what was going on?

“Price?” I asked in my crude Hakka.

The man running the stall tilted his head, not understanding me, and tapped the board next to him. There were two black octagons on the board, which I assumed was the price. Iona had mentioned something about Obsidian coins, and…

“They do eventually close, you know.” Iona’s words in my ear made me jump.

“Whoops! Sorry!” I reluctantly tore myself away from the stand.

I tried to keep a million thoughts in my head at once. Obsidian coins were tied with Feldspar as the second-least valuable gem, which wasn’t saying much. An Obsidian coin was worth roughly, if I’d done all my conversions right and a loaf of bread was still worth the same, about 5 Remus coins.

I got distracted by an alchemist’s cauldron exploding in a massive cloud of black smoke, the student in question emerging a moment later with singed eyebrows, looking like she wanted to cry, but otherwise fine. A quick sweep of my healing fixed a scratch on her forehead, but I couldn’t do anything for the emotional, financial, and social harm she’d just self-inflicted.

Amulets. Rings. Talismans. Dozens, hundreds of items that neither Remus nor the dwarves nor elves seemed to have or even thought of, on display and for sale by students. It made me wonder what the real powerhouses of the world could make.

And there, on a half-forgotten table, just sitting out with a bunch of other fruit, practically ignored by the shoppers, was the holy grail. The creme da la creme. My raison d’etre.

A few mangos were present, and I’d never felt the sting of an empty wallet so acutely before. I don’t think I’d ever been this broke in my life, without a single mangy coin to trade for the divine fruit of the gods.

Sure, I could probably rip out the Arcanite in my armor, but that would be just plain dumb. As much as I loved mangos, the idea of cannibalizing my only asset just to experience a few minutes of bliss revolted me.

No.

It was not to be.

Not here, not today.

I tore my eyes away from the sweetest nectar on the planet, hurrying ahead of Iona to the back of the examination line that I could see.

I got in line, steadfastly keeping my eyes on the back of the head of the person in front of me, studiously not thinking about mangos. I forced my mind to go to my appearance, since the person in front of me looked like they’d come from the street.

I probably looked just as bad. It’d been ages since I last got a proper bath, miles gone, living on the road, and most recently got caught in an explosion of icky, stinky smoke. The examiners would take one look at me and throw me right out, as they should.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Iona holding out one of the mangos for me.

“Here. Looked like you wanted one.” She gently offered it to me.

I might’ve fallen in love just a tiny bit.