As Carter and Blake were walking down the staircase, Blake suddenly asked. "Why did you go into the forest if you planned on coming here?"
Carter furled his brows before realizing Blake thought he was a young master like everyone else. Laughing a bit he said, "Because I was broke and needed gold to use the portals."
This answer threw Blake, who tripped when he turned to look at Carter while walking backwards down the stairs. Thankfully, when Blake realized what was happening he just jumped off the side of the cliff and chanted for half a second. Carter was about to freak out, he hadn't even been admitted to the school and he'd already killed a teacher! Then, he laughed at himself as he saw Blake start floating up to him lazily.
"You're serious?" Blake asked in surprise.
"Completely, I spent most of my life in an orphanage. I was lucky enough to become a scholar immediately upon awakening and gain a special skill based off hand to hand combat so I decided to take advantage of that." Carter had decided not to hide the skill Hand to Hand Savant a while back, without backing having talent was important.
"Damn, no wonder you only have a first name!" Blake laughed a bit to himself, "I thought you'd run away from home and hidden your name so your family would have a harder time finding you."
Carter frowned, "I thought stuff like that only happened in shitty bards tales."
Coughing, Blake looked a bit embarrassed as he said, "It happens more often than you might think."
It was all Carter could do not to laugh when he realized Blake was talking about himself. Thankfully they were nearing the bottom and he was instantly distracted by the massive tower standing in front of him. From the cliff Carter hadn't realized just how tall the wizards tower's were. Each was at least 1,000 feet tall, and this one was at least 2,500 feet tall and 500 feet wide with massive stone and metal golems guarding the entrances.
"That's the administrations building." Blake said, noticing Carter's look of amazement. "After we get you signed in you'll stay in one of the dorms." Blake pointed to an apartment building that looked like it could house at least 500 people. "You're lucky, tomorrow is a test day so you won't have to wait for long."
"Test day?" Carter asked in confusion.
"Yes, we're different than the other schools. We don't just accept anyone as long as they're a scholar or noble, they have to meet our standards. To ensure that we hold tests once a month, any prospective new student is put up in the dorms until the next testing date." Blake said as he lead Carter towards a massive green door.
"What're the qualifications to enter?" Carter asked, he hadn't read anything about needing to pass a test to join the Temple of Thought in the book. On the other hand, it hadn't even mentioned the difference between the Temple and School of Thought so the book wasn't exactly a qualified source of information.
"Well, the first part of the test is to make sure you haven't used any of your free attribute points yet." Blake said as he pulled out a wand. Taking a step forwards, he started chanting while waving the wand creating a rune out of light. A few seconds later the chant ended and the rune shot forwards transforming into a blast of green energy that slammed into the door melting it.
Taking a deep breath, Blake waved for Carter to follow behind him as he continued talking. "This is because there are several treasures that can be used to raise attributes and the school has found it's best to hold onto free attribute points until you need to select your classes. This isn't an issue if you decide to pursue only one class but most of us here decide to pursue at least 2 classes. The craziest pursued 4 classes simultaneously, we don't let anyone do that anymore though because the growth rate is just too slow."
As soon as Blake lead Carter through the door that he'd blasted apart the door started glowing and reformed.
"What the.." Carter yelped in surprise.
Blake smile wickedly as he said, "The doors are a part of the test. If you want to register you have to convince someone with the power to open them for you. New teachers usually spend time in the dorms waiting to find someone worth teaching, when they choose someone and they pass the tests they get extra resources. Of course those from powerful families just have someone from home blow the doors open for them."
"BLAKE!" A young woman suddenly shrieked as Blake and Carter walked into the reception room. Before Carter could react a blur rushed past him and dove into Blake's arms hugging him tightly.
"Where have you been?!?! Do you have any idea how much you worried me!" The woman yelled at him even as she hugged him tighter.
"Come on sis, don't make such a racket." Blake hissed, looking around in fear.
"Oh you don't have to worry so much." The woman said, as she finally released him. "You've been gone so long your fan club moved on. Did you know a Chosen entered the school a couple years ago?"
Carter suddenly stiffened when he heard her mention Chosen.
"Yes, I got word from master. Unfortunately, it was someone from another plane who was chosen and so he couldn't teach us how to earn the title." Blake said, thankfully missing the look of surprise on Carter's face.
"So, I'm not the first after all!" Carter thought to himself, a smile slowly appearing on his face. "I wonder how much longer it'll be before the world is overrun with us."
"Enough of that." Blake said, waving Carter over to join the two. "Carter, this is my baby sister Kathleen. Kathleen, this is Carter. I met him in Warren and have decided to sponsor him."
"Sponsor?" Carter asked in confusion.
"Yes, since you don't have the money you have to sign up for scholarships. In order to qualify you have to have at least one teacher say that you're worth the money."
Kathleen turned to look at Carter, holding a hand out to shake even as she appraised him. "My brother has never sponsored anyone so if he's willing to help you out you must be something."
Carter blushed a little as he shook her hand, finally getting a good look at her. Kathleen was perhaps the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Suddenly, an image of a certain spoiled princess appeared in his mind, "Well, maybe second most." Carter thought with a smile.
"Come on!" Blake said, "We have to get you signed up before the office closes tonight or you'll have to wait a full month."
A couple minutes and several flights of stairs later, Carter was breathing heavily as he cursed his lack of points in constitution. "Don't worry about it." Kathleen said with a smile on her face, she didn't look like she'd even broken a sweat. "The easiest stat to raise artificially is constitution. You'll be able to run up and down these stairs for days without any trouble soon."
Carter snorted at that, remembering all the hell he'd had to go through to raise his constitution in the game. Constitution was the only stat that could be raised through training, the others requiring titles, treasures, alchemy, or free attribute points to raise. However, in order to raise your constitution the most effective method is to constantly drain your stamina and push through the pain over and over again.
When the players had complained about not being able to raise the other attributes through training Stray Gaming had responded by saying that, "All constitution does in enhance your HP, HP Regeneration, and Physical Stamina. The other attributes all have special abilities that can be gained at certain milestones, and so they are harder to raise."
Earning titles that can raise other attributes is easier than raising your constitution through training in most cases but all the best players still went through with the training. Carter wasn't looking forwards to repeating the process though.
While Carter was thinking, the group had pushed open a door on the 28th floor and walked into what a large room that looked a lot like a DMV office from Carter's last life. He almost broke out in hives just remembering how long it'd taken him to register his first car. Thankfully, they were the only group in there and got waved up to the desk of a middle aged woman immediately.
"Blake, isn't this a surprise. It's been what, 5 years since you ran off?" The woman said blandly.
Blake just smiled nonchalantly, "Now, now Ms. Ramsey is that anyway to treat your favorite pupil?"
The woman just snorted and held out a box with a small hole in the top to Carter. "Put a drop of blood in the hole. It'll create an identification card and automatically register you for the entrance examinations."
Using his rusty copper dagger, Carter made a small cut on his index finger and dropped the blood into the box. A moment later a card flew out of it and Ms. Ramsey caught it, examining it closely. A copy of Carter's entire status screen minus what was hidden appeared.
"Qualified." Ms. Ramsey said, handing the card over to Carter. "The card will lead you to a room in the dorms, someone will be by to collect you for the test tomorrow morning."