After Lanx had informed him of all the formalities of having a mentor, Ran was given a golden token resembling that of a book. As he took it, he realized it started to slowly flip itself! Shocked, he immediately asked how such a thing was possible.
"Haha, you must not get out much huh, kid?" He smiled and laughed at his new toy… ahem, his new disciple. "Such a simple thing isn't worth my attention… but if you must know, it takes a small almost imperceptible strand of juice and converts that into an illusion that the book is flipping itself. That's what sigils are all about kid. Plus, you haven't created any sigils for yourself, am I right?"
"Yes sir, I just awakened about a week ago." "Right, okay. You know that to complete the process of reaching a rank, one has to come up with their own rune and integrate with their own sigil? You know what, probably not. Let this be your first boy. Why do you think that despite everyone in this world possessing this sigil, most of them won't get past rank 10; destined to become common people, and villagers? Because they're all illiterate! Not one could comprehend the intricacies in completing the task of making a sigil. They don't deserve the title of Sigil Worker at all!" Suddenly, he paused and thought of something.
"Wait, you said you awakened a week ago yes?" Lanx seemed to have thought of something. "Yes." "And your rank 9, yes?" He already had his eyes glowing at this point. " "yes sir. My father apparently had left me a way to make me rise in rank and I had taken it just this morning." He even sounded confident in that ridiculous statement. Even Lanx was confused. "What do you mean apparently?" "Well, you see, I wasn't conscious or at least aware of my surroundings with my friend when it had just happened."
"Oh." While he still had some doubts, he quickly put that on the back burner as he wanted to finish his "first" lesson with his disciple. He told him to meet up with him, in the training field from earlier, in the morning.
"There'll be a surprise tomorrow as well so make sure to be punctual." And with that, he kicked the door off the hinges and ran off to the mentors lounge. Those must be some heavenly donuts, I guess. Anyways, Ran left as well and met up with the two other stooges.
"What?! You didn't get an offer to become his mentor Ann?" Ran was shocked when he heard that Ann was refused the opportunity of a mentorship. "It's not that. Just… I'm too high leveled to be his mentor now. I'm almost eligible to be a teacher after all! Haha." She suddenly thought of the conversation she had with the judge/mentor:
"Hmm. While your sigil is a blanket type, you chose to mainly focus on speed while almost completely disregarding the rest. Alas, your potential is all but dried out. Alright, I'll pass you, but just… don't push yourself too hard. There are more ways than one to advance in life." To his credit, the mentor did sound genuinely concerned when he spoke to her. However, there was also a hint of contempt in there as well. Clearly, because of her lack of potential, he thinks she is unworthy of his mentorship-rank 6 or not. And Ann, as well, seemed to have expected such an answer. She sighed, took the token, and left. She turned out to be the first one of the three to pass the judgment.
"Hmm, how about you Bob?" "Me? I was accepted as well." While Bob was rank 8, he was 19 years old, so he could only be considered to be an average talent. Nothing when compared to the likes of someone like Queenie who was a full rank above him despite being the same age. Even so, mentors usually accept anyone they judge as they will gain merit to anyone who grows up to contribute a lot to the school.
With that, they all left for the huge housing complex that was next to the field. This complex can hold up to 10,000 students and it is split up in three parts for each grade. Grade 1 are the newcomers and they are only allowed to stay for a year, unless they are promoted to grade 2. From there, grade 2 students are allowed 5 years to promote to grade 3 otherwise they get kicked out as well. Grade 3 students are the pinnacle of the student body in the school as they have strength equal to or even more than Ann. Grade 3 students can actually stay indefinitely in the form of teachers or staff, like researchers.
Reaching the complex, they were greeted with over a thousand newcomers scrambling to get into rooms with their friends. They looked at each other and immediately rushed as well, after all, they were most familiar with each other and they didn't know anyone else. By the time they came close to the crowd, over two thirds of the rooms, which could accommodate two people, were closed. Ann had to activate her sigil, letting everyone know of her presence and authority. The crowd looked back and instantly shivered. Well, one person just stared coldly at her-none other than the new face, Queenie!
"Well?" Ann stood there as if a queen, waiting for people to pick her off her feet and carry across the way. And just like that, they all got cold feet and parted ways for the three stooges to pass. Ann and Ran ended up getting a room and left Bob to his own devices. He was shocked at first, but immediately took advantage of his close distance to the rooms and managed to get one with a spot that just filled itself before they got there. The crowd was momentarily shocked at seeing a green, alien looking thing take a spot, but resumed their scrambling shortly afterwards.
***
"Good. Good. You are actually here early." Lanx was currently looking towards a dark eyed Ran while holding onto a powdered donut. Clearly, he was enjoying his morning; completely opposite to Ran who couldn't get a single lick of sleep yesterday.
"Yeah well, that's what I came here for, haha." Said Ran in a sluggish voice. He pinched his eyes a couple times to remove any redness in them. " Okay, okay. Well we can't truly start until my other recruit comes, so just, I don't know, show me your fetal organ then. I'd like to see it." "Oh, okay."
Ran honestly was excited despite his tired face. He reached into his mind when he found that familiar sensation of his left arm extending again.
"Hmm. Okay! Now show me its power." Boom. A sound resounded in his ears as a block of wood suddenly appeared next to his face. He had enough time to cut it in half, but he found that it was at such an unusual angle that his arm locked in place, unable to go further. Bang! It hit his face, leaving some redness but no injury. It wasn't thrown sufficiently hard enough to actually hurt him, but he still couldn't cut it.
"Ah, I forgot that you hadn't actually created any runes yet, so you're still not powerful enough; sorry about that." Honestly, Ran wasn't even angry as it had woke him up some. He found that he wasn't as tired as before. Amazed, he touched the redness on his face when he suddenly heard someone speaking.
"Greetings, mentor Lanx." Queenie gave a slight bow, when she looked towards Rans location. She had clearly seen a slow moving block of wood smack him straight on the face. She showed some disdain but chose to just dismiss him in the end.
"Ah, Queenie, you're here. Great! Now, to start, how about a showdown between you two."
"Uh…" both Ran and Queenie looked at each other and then she laughed. "You must be jesting mentor. He's just a pseudo rank 9. How can I fight that?" She pointed towards his slightly red face and looked at their mentor. "Do I look like I'm jesting to you?" Lanx's face darkened upon hearing her words. He was fully serious about the duel! Rans face darkened as well. He recalled his fight with Bob and his face darkened even more now. He was traumatized after fighting that indomitable man.
Haha. If only he knew what Bob did while he was unconscious, haha.
"Relax. It's just a battle of weapons okay? No sigils. Just skill." Ran nearly keeled over now. His power gave him an innate advantage and now he took that away from him. He just awakened a week ago, no, maybe for just two or three days as he was unconscious most of the time. He had no time to discover any of his powers, not to mention his own weapon. And true enough, he couldn't even last one encounter with Queenie. While he didn't faint, his face was so flushed red that he would rather hide in a hole than appear in front of them again.
"Haha, you understand now right?" Ran was confused at his mentor's words when he heard him speak again, "2 months." "2 months?" He didn't repeat it out loud but confusion was apparent on his face. "You have two months to be an equal match for Queenie in your swordsmanship. Otherwise, we're over." "What?!" Ran was panicking now. The whole point in being here was to come here in search of protection while slowly growing in strength. Once he was powerful enough, he could be on his own and carry out his revenge and he's going to lose it all in a measly 2 months. No!
Lanx looked at Rans glowing eyes and nodded. He already figured something about Ran from their encounter yesterday. While Ran seemed nonchalant when accepting his mentorship yesterday, his eyes were relieved when he heard those words; like he was needed. Thus, he set this up in order to motivate this student in improving, knowing full well he couldn't hold a candle to Queenie right now. While Ran was practically overflowing with potential, he couldn't access even 10% the way he is now.
After all, in this dangerous world, you couldn't count on anyone except yourself! And Ran had figured that now as well. That was the first change in Ran that would inevitably change his lives forever.
"Oh, I suggest the mountain range just west of here. There are many low ranked spiritual beasts there. Now go! I don't want to see you here for next two months or else…" He gestured with his finger sliding across his neck.
Boom! He kicked Rans ass and he flew all the way back to the housing complex. If anyone looked up, they would be confused at seeing such a huge bird flying over their heads.
***
"Phew, I'm finally here." Ran wiped some sweat off his forehead as he looked at the mountain standing before him. He was only for this adventure. Ann was busy studying to be a researcher and Bob was… being Bob. No, he had actually joined the magicians division.