RIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGG
Nick woke up at 3 am on a Monday morning to his phone's alarm. He jumped up out of bed despite his feelings of tiredness.
"Today's the day of the mid-year exam. I'm going to have to fuck someone up with my awesome magic spells."
Nick said that to psyche himself up but truth be told he didn't have much confidence of winning in a spar with his magic scrolls, after all, one of the cons of magic scrolls was that they were not as effective as spells cast by Magicians. Even Apprentice Magicians ought to be able to overcome spells from scrolls, at least scrolls made from a novice like himself.
SLAP! SLAP!
Nick caught himself in thinking self defeating thoughts and decided to use both hands to give himself good slaps on the face.
(It's not time to be talking about why I am going to lose. I already did the work. I should just do my best and whatever happens happens.)
Nick pushed the negative self talk aside and did push ups for almost an hour. Next he washed his face and decided to look over his scrolls, making sure that each one was free from flaws. The testing supervised by Norman went well enough so Nick was confident in the quality of their laws at least. Nick made copies of fifteen scrolls for each spell; since the exam was only a spar, it should be enough just to show off his spells a little so fifteen scrolls each should be more than enough. Nick bought 4 special holsters to hold his scrolls during battle, two for the attack scrolls, one for the movement scrolls and one for the defense scrolls. He is going to attach the attack scrolls to his arms and the movement and defense scrolls to his legs. Nick realized another disadvantage in using scrolls, one had to consider the logistics involved in using them. The only advantage that Nick saw was that he could use an unlimited amount of them provided that nothing was wrong with any of them. At 6 am Nick showered and then got dressed, putting his holsters with his scrolls into his backpack.
(Just do your best Nick, nothing else matters.)
After some self encouragement, Nick left his dorm heading for the exam venue. There were a little over 800 students in Nick's year and five exam venues. Based on the email that Nick received a week ago he had been assigned to Exam Building #1.When he arrived at Exam Building #1 there were also many other students waiting outside for the doors to open. Everyone seemed to be excited, most people were in groups discussing possibilities for the exam or bragging about their magic power. Loners like Nick were few and far between.
"It's been a while Mr. sensitive, did you miss little old me?"
Nick turned towards the voice to see a fairly pretty woman with short blond hair wearing a pair of navy blue jeans and a green blouse.
"Cindy Reece."
Nick uttered without thinking. It had been months since Nick last saw her, come to think of it she might be the first girl to ever remember Nick after not seeing him for so long.
(Sad but true.)
"Awww, you remembered this old lady here, that's sweet."
She gave a wide smile with absolutely white teeth. Nick almost squinted because of the 'brightness'.
"So, I couldn't help but notice that you still haven't formed your mindscape yet, that's so weird. Did you know that there is absolutely no magic energy coming from you, you do know that this as an academy for Magicians and that this is a magic based exam, right?"
Cindy teased.
"As a matter of fact smart ass, I am well prepared for the exam, as for my magic power, you are just not perceptive enough to notice it."
Nick spoke in his defense, feeling awkward.
"Oh, is 'your' magic power related to what I'm feeling coming from your backpack, ha, ha, fine, I won't bother prying into that but could you at least tell me why you haven't formed your mindscape yet?"
Cindy asked with an almost serious expression.
(Nosy, isn't she? Well...it probably won't hurt to try and have a discussion with her while to building's doors are still closed. She at least had the sense not to ask me what was in my backpack.)
"Well...I don't mind telling you. I'm not from an affluent family so I don't have access to good meditation techniques and I'm not satisfied with the generic one given by the academy either so I want to try to create my own before forming a mindscape."
Cindy's expression turned into one of amusement after hearing that.
"You want to create your own meditation technique? I understand that the academy's technique is lackluster but do you know what the consequences will be if you create a faulty meditation technique then use it on yourself. At best you become a retard, at worst you die. I'm not trying to play down your 'abilities' but why risk it? Wouldn't it be better to settle for the academy's technique for now and then use a better technique later, I mean, you do kind of stand out right now for not having a mindscape, but not in a good way, aren't you afraid that people might target you for being 'special'?"
Nick understood Cindy's thinking but that didn't mean that he agreed with it.
(Settle for the academy's technique? I, Nick Capitol will never settle for anything but the best. Afraid of being targeted? I'm even more afraid of being average like the rest of you, I'm not living my life in fear of others.)
Nick had experienced plenty of conversations like this in the past with people who just couldn't understand why being exceptional was more important than fitting in and being like everybody else. When he was in high school spending all of his free time studying, all the people around him looked at him like he was a freak for putting in so much effort. While all the popular guys were only half trying, getting mediocre grades and still being invited to parties, having a bunch of friends and getting with all the 'hot' girls, here was little Nick with his head in a book trying to act like he was better than everyone else.
'He doesn't have any sense.'
That's mostly what Nick heard from people's mouths when they referred to me. There were a few times when his grandaunt would catch him doing pushups in the morning and she would laugh at him saying:
'Why are you exercising, you don't even play sports? What could someone like you who doesn't even know how to talk to people do even if they let you on a team?'
Nick learnt a long time ago that most people will never understand the plain desire to be better, not in order to play status games with the people around them but because you know that you have something to offer the world that has to trained and honed to be useful; in other words you just wanted to develop yourself for the sake of just being better and it didn't matter who was watching or who liked it, it didn't even matter if you were ever acknowledged for it.
(Fuck what anyone else thinks, this is my life and succeed or fail, I'm going to do things my way.)
Nick looked calmly at Cindy and scratched his head while saying:
"Ha, ha, I hope that won't happen. I just think that being exceptional means to be an exception. I can't to what everyone else does and expect to get above average results, am I right?"
Cindy Reece's amused expression intensified when she heard Nick say this and replied sarcastically:
"You're right, I wish I could be as brave and smart as you."
With that Cindy stood quietly, putting earbuds into her ears, listening to music and waiting for the exam venue's doors to open. Nick said nothing more, Cindy wouldn't be interested in what he had to say anyway. When people think that you are the same or even worse than them, they will resent you for trying to be better, Nick didn't know why that was and he stopped caring when he graduated from high school. As long as everyone stayed out of his way while he was trying to achieve his dream everything would be great, however, if you actively tried to bring him down...
(I'll bury you.)
At 9 am the building's door opened and everyone was told to come into the main hall by the administration staff present. The whole group of students flooded into the main hall.
"Show time, huh?"