Brandon Michaels had just arrived home from work and had dinner before going to bed. He had been working for months without a single day off of work and he was working 16 to 18 hours a day. When he went to sleep he was expecting to wake up the next day and go back to work again, however when he woke up he felt weak and had a splitting headache.
When he looked around the room he didn't recognize where he was.
"where is this?"
he asked himself, not expecting to get any answer. But right after asking that question memories flooded his mind. He had arrived in a world that was the same technologically as his, however this world had magic. The body he inhabited was 13 years of age and that is the age at which people would have their talent tested to see if they were able to become mages. For those that could become mages they would move on to learn about magic and related topics, for those that could not they were destined to be at the bottom of society and work menial jobs as a normal human.
This world wasn't very kind to normal people, it was a world where the strong and wealthy ruled over everyone else. He was not looking forward to being 13 again since in his previous world he was already 30 years old. The only thing he was looking forward to was being a mage since he had always liked the fantasy stories and games when he had a chance to read and play them.
He followed the memories that he received and went to class around 09:00 so that he could get his talent tested to find out if he could become a mage. The way the mage system worked was simple. Once you had your talent tested and you had the talent to be a mage you would be placed into a class to learn magic theory and become an mages apprentice. Once you learned enough theory and could gather mana to do simple tasks such as cleaning and starting fires they were considered novice mages. Once they could condense a core and cast spells that could cause real harm or help others they would be considered a grade 1 mage.
(note: please refer to auxiliary chapter 1 for more information on power levels.)
Once he was in class he waited for class to begin.
"Good morning class, I am Adath Seer, a grade 3 mage, today we will be testing everyone's talent for magic. Once tested those who have a talent for magic will be moved into a new classroom, while those who tested to not have talent may return home for the remainder of the day and come back tomorrow to resume regular studies. Now let us begin."
Adath Seer was to be the teacher for those students who had talent for magic, while those who didn't have talent for magic would likely only ever see her in passing.
"We will be going in alphabetical order based on first names, first up is Adam Johnson."
With that, the boy named Adam went to the front and stepped into a machine that scanned his entire body, before it said in a mechanical voice
"Adam Johnson, age 13, talent: none"
Adam stepped out of the machine dejectedly and left to go home as Mrs. Seer said to do.
"Next is April Jones"
The girl named April stepped into the machine and it said in a mechanical voice
"April Jones, age 12, talent: Superior"
April stepped out of the machine with a smile on her face and went across the hall to the next class room to wait.
"Next Brandon Michaels"
Brandon stood up and went to the machine and stepped in nervously. The machine started churning before saying in a mechanical voice
"Brandon Michaels, age 13, talent: unknown"
Brandon stepped out of the machine and didn't know what to do because the talent showed as unknown. The teacher Adath Seer also wasn't sure what was wrong so she had him take a seat back at the desk until she could have him checked again by a high caliber machine.
While he was sitting there waiting he heard a sound in his head.
[Farming System binding to host... binding successful.]
[Host has been found to possess basically no talent for magic, hosts talent is above having no talent, however below inferior talent]
[Host must select a plot of land for the system to bind within 48 hours or the system and host will both be obliterated.]
The last message gave him a headache because his family didn't own any plots of land, they rented a small apartment in the city. The only vacant plots of land were outside of the safe zone of the city, meaning he would have to leave the city and find a vacant plot of land to bind with.
Luckily he had saved enough money to be able to purchase a small plot of land outside of the city himself. He had saved up around 50,000 credits.
Credits are the universal currency of this world. 1,000 credits were equal to a single low quality mana stone, 100 low quality mana stones were equal to 1 medium quality mana stone, 100 medium quality were equal to 1 high quality, 100 high quality were equal to 1 superior quality, and 100 superior quality were equal to 1 perfect mana stone.
Mana stones were the currency widely used on this planet by mages and those in power. Land outside the cities safe zone typically wasn't purchased, however it was still owned by the city and could be bought at a low price if anyone wanted it.
While Brandon was musing over purchasing the plot of land outside the city another student was called up.
"Next, Sarah Holden"
Sarah was considered the class beauty, she came from a background similar to Brandon however she seemed to still exude a noble aura similar to those children who came from a wealthy family. Both her and Brandon got along well because of their similar status, and this caused jealousy among the other male students.
After Sarah stepped into the machine it responded in a mechanical voice
"Sarah Holden, age 13, Talent: Mythic"
This was the highest grade talent one could receive. Sarah stepped out of the machine with a smile and cast an apologetic and sorrowful look towards Brandon. She seemed to have guessed he had basically no talent for magic based on his results.
....
Finally the last student was called
"Last, Zach Riley"
Zach stepped into the machine and it responded with
"Zack, age 14, Talent: high"
Zach stepped out of the machine and went to the next room as all the others who had talent did.
Brandon was the last one in the room and Mrs. Adath brought him to another teacher who was a higher grade mage. This teacher was a Grade 8 mage, and one of the most powerful people in the city. His name was Beln Ghal and he had the ability to check talents without the machine.
"Mage Ghal, I have a student here which the machine was unable to detect the talent of, it gave an unknown talent level for the result" Adath said.
"Very well, come here young one." Responded Beln Ghal.
Brandon stepped forward already knowing what the result would be. When Beln was checking his talent he simply placed a hand on his shoulder to do so.
"His talent is basically non-existent, its not quite no talent, but he hasn't reached the level of even an inferior talent." Beln said to no one in particular.
Brandon already knowing this was the case didn't show much of a reaction. Adath seemed a bit disappointed however.
After his talent was determined he was told he wouldn't be learning magic with the other students since his talent was to poor, he would be going to continue general studies. With this he left the school and headed to the nearest government building for purchasing land. He wanted to purchase the largest piece of land he could outside of the city for the lowest price he could.
"Hello young one, what are you here for?" the receptionist asked.
"I wish to purchase a plot of land outside of the cities safe zone. The cheaper the better, I only have 50,000 credits." Brandon responded to the receptionist
"We have a few plots of land available, the cheapest ones are 10,000 credits."
"Do you have any of those plots that are next to each other so i could purchase more than 1 of them together?" he asked.
"there are 3 that are close together totaling 35,000 credits for 5 acres." the receptionist informed him.
"Great, I would like to purchase those please."
With that he had purchased the plot of land and was left with only 15,000 credits or 15 low quality mana stones. Afterwards he left the government building and went to the plot of land outside the city. It was not far from the city gates which was lucky for him since that meant that should anything happen the guards could get to the area quickly.
Once he arrived he asked the system to bind with the plots of land.
[Detected 5 acres of land owned by the host, does the host which to continue with binding?]
"Yes" he said resolutely.
[Binding successful. Beginners Package has been given to the host for successfully binding with the system and a plot of land. The package can be found in the system inventory.]
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I have a discord server for those who want to join and chat.
https://discord.gg/j3YP7HY4cA