Black Magus

‘It's about fucking time.’ I rose from my seat with a groan and strode out of the common area with Zakira tailing just behind me. I had woken up, eaten breakfast, smoked and smoked some more, and waited around for 8 to roll around. And finally, it was here.

It was an understatement to say I was excited to learn what the academy kept behind its walls. And so too was the rest of my party, as we were essentially traveling as a mob to Doyle’s classroom. Inside- or outside, rather, was another district-sized pocket of earth, surrounded on most sides by the towering root structure of the Bodhi Tree. Just through the threshold, however, the ground was tiled and shaded by an A-frame roof to provide space for twenty desks to face a large work surface cluttered with paper and ashtrays.

While he took roll, I did a bit of ocular exploration and saw that, first, Doyle’s court was huge. The center of the space was dominated by an elevated central arena, ringed by tall bleachers. Beyond that was a zone of relatively unclaimed land sitting between the racquetball court-like stalls repeating along the outer rim. And the ambient mana was back at full strength in this area, much to Peter’s visible discomfort.

“Alright.” Doyle slapped his clipboard on his desk and stood before us. “Welcome to your Magical Aptitude Training Course. Here, you’ll learn how to take care of yourselves in the greater realms. There are many beings and creatures out there that will cause you trouble during your travels. It’s up to me to prepare you as much as possible so you’ll survive those encounters and live to see others. It’s also up to me to train you in accordance with the classes you’ll pick next year. But we’ll gut that pig at the market.” He seemed to chuckle at his joke before looking around at the mute students and taking in a sigh of disappointment.

“To put it simply.” He rebounded with a grin. “The purpose of my class is to train your combative skills in magic and might. Regardless of what you do or where you go, as Ranked Mystics and alumni of the Bodhi Tree, you need to be able to protect not only yourselves but the people around you at all times. My class is the first step to getting each of you there. For this first week, the focus will be on learning your limits with and without magic. Once you understand that, you’ll be putting that knowledge into practice as you learn the basics of magical combat throughout the rest of the quarter. We’ll put putting that knowledge to use in the second quarter, so make sure you train hard. Because each of you will be challenged in the mid-year matches.” He grinned excitedly. “But I don’t want to spoil the surprise.” He waved it off a moment later. “By the second half of the year, you all should more or less know what Classes you wish to take up. So the focus then will be on adapting to those styles.

“As such, today’s agenda is an aptitude test.” His grin widened as he pointed to the stalls lining the complex. “I’m sure you all read the metrics on which you’re graded.” He turned back to us. “We’ll be gauging all but intelligence for the first half of the day. After lunch, we'll test your endurance. You don’t need to worry about me being present to monitor your progress, the tree itself will document everything and share it with only you. But I’ll be nearby to give out any pointers if needed. So, if there are no questions, pick a station and get started.”

I was one of the first ones to pry myself from my seat and walk off to the furthest end of the compound. Mostly as a way to survey the rest of the area, but also as a means to separate myself from the other teams. As far as mine went, I paid little mind to everyone but Peter. In this dense mana, he was still struggling, but as he said, he was pushing himself to not drag us down. But I was sure he had other reasons as well.

With that out of my mind, I stepped past the threshold of my alcove and felt my eyes bulge after seeing the space distort before my eyes. As if I'd used my magic, the hundred meters of space before the wall stretched into a distant track filled with writing vines, stumps, and tree trunks.

‘Is this… from the tree?’ I asked myself. ‘Or the headmaster?’

Knowing I was wasting daylight, I tossed my questions aside for later and began walking down a worn path toward a wooden sign placed before eight large boulders.

[Use power or ingenuity to destroy the boulders. First with your natural strength. And then with each of your abilities.]

"Sounds simple enough." I shrugged on approach to the first stone. And, half-knowing the outcome, I reached back and punched the boulder with what little power I had.

The result didn't even crack the stone, yet left my hand nearly mangled. After healing, I sat for a moment and debated using a tool or making a pulley to lift and break the stone. But there was nothing around me tall enough to lift in the first place, and it’d take me days to break a big boulder into a pile of stone. So I moved on to the next boulder and spawned a mass of Shade Tendrils around the base. Then sat back and watched them writhe around its surface. Crushing and grinding it into a small hill of chunks and pebbles. Under the influence of Necrotic Decay, the next boulder met a similar fate. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed. I’d long since grown proficient with those spells from my time training and executing with Grandpa Lich. So, with that in mind, I moved on to the next with a different mindset.

But I also looked around me and thought. About this tree and how it coincided with the mark on my chest. I thought about the void within me. And about the seed I regurgitated last night. With all those thoughts compiled in my head, I merged them with the mass of void mana gathered in my hand and struck the boulder with an open palm.

When I stepped back, I saw a small palm-sized jewel of emptiness on the stone’s surface. It was like space itself had been erased in that spot alone. But then, it began to move. Snakes and tendrils of the energy began… reaching. Carving in and under the boulder’s surface at a panicking rate until it reached the other side. Causing the stone to lose its integrity and fall into the branches and trunk that sprouted from the Void Seed. When all was done, the void remained suspended in space like it always was. If I left it, it’d keep destroying the air around it until it formed a vacuum that threatened to swallow everything. Since the beginning, that was the reason I always dispelled it quickly after. But this was the time to do things differently. So I reached my hand out to the void and let it flow within me.

And when it did I felt… nothing.

Like when I tasted poison. There was no reaction or effect from it. Not even an appearance from my grimoire. “That's bullshit!" I spat a little too loudly. Rightfully so. I expected at least something. But nothing was ever within my realm of possibilities, foolishly so. Thus this outcome wound up adding dozens of questions to the already endless list of questions regarding the void. But I had other things to worry about. Namely, four more boulders and possibly dozens of more tests. So I dutifully approached the last boulder and used Body Swap to spatially displace it a few meters away and watched it explode in a cloud of dust after becoming superimposed with air.

For the next boulder, I decided to copy Toril and charged electricity into my hands before thrusting them out in a concussive wave. It was more than enough to send a shower of pebbles cascading down the track. But I still couldn’t get over the ridiculous name Toril gave the technique. Thunder Wall. Nomenclature aside, I moved on to cast a gravitation spell I conceived long ago, Roche Spread. To start, I flicked a Gravity Bullet at the boulder to lift it into the air, then send out twin Artificial Wells on opposing sides of the boulder. Within seconds, the tidal forces saw the boulder rip itself into a band of large stones. In a way, it was beautiful. Like Saturn’s Rings. Only, brown and gray and poised behind a blue sky. But beautiful all the same. I made sure to capture a few images in my Eternal Eye before letting it fall gently to the ground. Then moved on to use my radiation magic to enact a little nuclear transmutation to unceremoniously change the stone into iron.

The next station was a lot more simple in nature and only grew simpler as time went on. After walking a dozen or so meters, I came to an all-too-familiar sight. A painted target was placed ten meters away from a basket filled with palm-sized stones. I didn’t need to read the sign to begin in full earnest, only managing to achieve anything notable with my Shadow, Gravity, and Space-Time magics. After that, I was tasked with lifting a heavy stone and carrying it a few meters. A task I struggled with on all but a few fronts. The others, however, I excelled at.

The agility assessment consisted of a simple sprint, standing jump, and long jump. Things that many of my magics couldn’t even aid me in. Not that I needed them to go through the course with ease. The last exercises, however, were undoubtedly my favorite. Like I did during the Association’s Assessment, I was tasked with dodging a shower of sharp acorns as best I could and scaling a wall before dropping over the other side. The addition of magic made it all the more exciting. Which made me skip through the rest of the stations at a pace faster than I otherwise would have.

Dexterity was tested in a similar way as agility. Only, dull sticks and hollowed rocks were sent flying my way so that I could catch or deflect them at an ever-increasing pace. Following that, I was handed weapons one at a time and tasked with attacking and defending against an animated wooden dummy. Daggers, swords, spears, axes, hammers. All the common weaponry one could think of spawned from the growth near the wall and disappeared in much the same manner. Including bows, crossbows, and; interestingly of all, a relatively short pipe stuffed with a stone and filled with a volatile powder.

It was just before lunchtime when I came upon the last station. Elemental Mastery. That said, the tasks were simple. Allowing ample time to give my all for each one.

My hold over fire was measured by a thick steel rod that I needed to heat. I supposed I cheated, mixing in a little bit of air manipulation as I focused a torch on the center. But nothing happened and nothing was said, so I continued heating the rod until started bending under its own weight. Water was done by drawing groundwater up to the surface. A relatively simple task, if one I’ve never attempted to try before. Similarly, I was asked to draw a one-meter square of dirt into the tallest pillar I could muster before being tasked with blowing a boulder across the ground.

Upon completion, I turned to see the space behind me distorting. Warping. Shrinking while the vines once again writhed and slithered away into the walls until I found myself standing on the threshold of my alcove. Staring at most of the class gathered around Doyle.

He dismissed us for lunch not long after me and a few stragglers arrived. After spending lunch with Zakira to continue our talk of the Hells, we were back in the complex to test our endurance in the most direct way possible. We sparred against the wooden dummies until we collapsed from exhaustion. And after catching our breaths, we sparred again. For two hours. To test our magical endurance, Doyle studied us with a manic grin as we emptied our Wells over and over until we succumbed to mana fatigue and shuffled to the seats to rest for the remainder of the period.

“Alright.” Doyle clapped to gather everyone’s attention. “I hope you all understand what your limits are. This is invaluable knowledge going forward, so hold on to it and remember to test yourself in similar ways periodically. Our next class will be more formal, for the most part.” He chuckled to himself. “ We’ll start with a demonstration of the species-specific abilities present in your party. Then we'll move on to measure your minimum and maximum power output. We’ll close before lunch with a short lecture on the different Classes and the fighting styles associated with them. After lunch, you’ll use that knowledge to pick fighting styles and choose weapons for yourselves if you haven’t already.

“Now.” He scanned his eyes across us. “Any questions, comments, or concerns?”

A short period of silence ensued before a single hand rose from the crowd. Like many of us, my eyes fell on a freckled face staring back at Doyle with a disgruntled frown.

“Yes, Winston?” Doyle nodded to him.

Without removing his eyes from Doyle, Winston’s arm fell over to point at me just before he spat. “I would like to challenge Amun to a duel.”