Ashrosaliera walked out of the infirmary but stopped after closing the door and leaned against it to catch a breather. Then Ash would rest her arm on her hips and sigh heavily with closed eyes.
"System," she commanded, "Minimalized Version."
===
Opening the system interface in [Minimalized Version]
Name: Ashrosaliera Inmopotalten Empyreanel Säpphroaleryst
Age: 18
Unallocated System Point: 0.00
Status:
- HP: 150/150
- MP: 300/300
Skills:
- Fireball: SSS
- Fire Flight: B
- Blazing Blade: F
- Flame Pillar: F
Ongoing Quest: The Long Way
Details: Defeat a Fourth Year student, an extra reward shall be granted if the user challenges [The Poet]
Reward: 0.30 System Points (0.60 if defeated [The Poet])
Status: Ongoing
Ongoing Quest: Warrior Humility
Details: Befriend the three roommates.
- Zofia Adinberg: Ongoing [S-Rank difficulty]
- Cinderella Twilight: Ongoing [B-Rank difficulty]
- Tarnisha Smithdottir: Ongoing [D-Rank difficulty]
Reward: 1.00 System Points
Status: Ongoing
Ongoing Quest: An Honorable One Always Pays Thy Debt
Detail: Run errands for "Luciana"
Reward: 0.10 System Points
Failure: [Low] punishment
Status: Ongoing
===
"Can you stay like this until specified? All those brackets requiring this and that amount of system points to unlock are hurting my eyes!" Ashrosaliera said, rubbing her eyes to exaggerate her point. Which caused another system pop-up to appear right next to that.
===
The Quest System acknowledges the user's wishes
[Minimalized Version] will be the default mode.
===
"Alright now…" Ashrosaliera stretched tall, hands interlaced above her head. "Luciana, the strongest second-year, huh?"
Ashrosaliera closed her eyes, her mind filled with vague images as she attempted to visualize everything she learned about the academy layout.
Ground Floor: Grand Entry Hall
First - Fourth Floor: Dormitory
Fifth Floor: Cafeteria
Sixth Floor: Park
Four days had passed since the day she enrolled, but Ashrosaliera barely got to explore the endless wonder of the Royal Magic Academy. She heard the first ten floors were some of the academy's most amazing and memorable parts. In contrast, the eleventh floor onwards were classrooms and less interesting stuff.
"I should begin my search on the 2nd floor, where the second-year dorms are."
Ash left the side building where the infirmary was and entered the main building again. She looked up to the seemingly infinite number of floors with great worry and wonder.
Ash's breathing got abnormally faster; she inhaled and exhaled shorter breaths and hyperventilated in sweats, thinking about searching for a single man among thousands of students. She could not compare this to finding a needle in a haystack because she could just burn all the hay and pick up the needle later.
"But I obviously couldn't burn down the school…! I guess?"
Standing in the middle of the grand entrance hall, where students regularly trafficked, she began getting weird looks and pointers from them when she stood in the middle of the hall and started talking about burning down the academy.
She thought again of how the academy's main building was structured:
One ground floor: a simple, elegant giant hall with nothing to discuss.
Then there were two round staircases, spiraling up to the sky with no end.
Platforms were leading from the staircases to each floor, the floors were engineered in an absurdist way where each floor was curved into a ring, with a massive open center like a vertical coliseum—students from the highest floors could look down and see the ground below. Kind of.
On each floor were a lot of doors, leading to the real interior of the floor.
Ashrosaliera squatted down to the ground and let out a deep breath with her head looking down on her knees, confused and afraid all of a sudden, with some newfound stress that she had never really experienced. After a good ten seconds or so, she finally recharged her "battery," and a smile was once again brought to the cheek of the young, fiery kettlehead.
"Fire Magic: Fire Flight!"
With a loud roar similar to an engine, she thrusted high into the air. The sounds continued as she landed safely on the second floor and deactivated the skill. She immediately entered her signature pose, with hands on hips, chest full of air, and chin to the sky.
"Alright, super detective Säpphroaleryst on the case! I'm going to find this Luciana if that's the last thing I do! For the academy's future! I will fulfill a snobby kid's wish, avoid getting expelled, and become the Elemental Empress!"
Ashrosaliera started asking around and getting more information from the second-year students.
"Luciana? I refuse to talk about that weirdo."
"People are calling who the strongest of what year now? Don't make me challenge him!"
"Last I saw him, he was walking with that other guy in the library."
"Oh, I think his dorm room is over here, but that's the male section, so you're not coming through… You're saying you're a guy? Just cute? Very funny, get out."
"Hey, aren't you the one who got into a fight and burned the park just one day after the opening ceremony?"
"Luciana Bloodforge? I know him… He's either at the library on the seventh floor or the [Common] training grounds on the eighth floor. I don't recommend getting involved with him, though."
"He's cute, you won't miss him, or you will."
The mystery deepened. After asking around, the keywords that popped up a lot were "Weird", "Library", "seventh floor"
Ashrosaliera flew her way on top to the seventh floor, passing the cafeteria on the fifth and park on the sixth, to where the Library was.
The school library was… Extremely boring, at least that was what Ashrosaliera thought, and she didn't enjoy reading and learning.
"It'd be much more convenient if their dads just taught them how to use magic similarly to what dad did for her, like… Your assigned attribute on birth is basically inherited, right?" Ash whispered, giving it a good thought, "Dad did say something about how around 20% of people will get an element not from their parents, but still."
The library was giant, around the same size as the 6th-floor park, and the last time she went to the park, it took her five minutes to get to just one end of the circular-shaped floor. So nope, Ash's not looking in there, looking at books will bore her to death.
There were only two doors on this floor, one to enter the library, the other to exit. Ash used the entrance door, saw the size of those shelves, walked out, and immediately went to the exit door. She asked the students who were leaving if they knew anything about Luciana.
Out of the 14 people she asked, 10 knew who he was, 8 were willing to talk about him, 3 acknowledged that he frequented the library, and 0 saw him there.
"Great, conclusive enough, eighth floor, here I go!"
This would be more interesting, Ashrosaliera thought.
There were 4 doors, each imprinted with the four common elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air.
Ground Floor: Grand Entry Hall
First - Fourth Floor: Dormitory
Fifth Floor: Cafeteria
Sixth Floor: Park
Seventh Floor: Library
Eighth Floor: [Common] Training Grounds
Ninth Floor: ?
Tenth Floor: ?
Ashrosaliera opened the door to the [Water] training grounds.
She saw a giant plain of greenery, trees, a vast open skyline, multiple different ponds in the middle of the hills, and random target practices popping up occasionally; if no one attacked, it would pop back down.
Many people were there, varying in height, gender, age, and background. Yet they were very similar under the same roof, and when they all diligently practiced next to one another, with sweat running down their faces.
Ashrosaliera didn't know who to ask, so she glanced around the "room," all confused. Then, she met someone's eyes.
She saw a cute girl who was short compared to everyone else, yet still a bit taller than Ashrosaliera. She had long hair with bangs. Her hair was honey blonde, with a lighter tone that leaned towards the golden shade. The girl was also wearing a giant sunhat with the academy's uniform.
"Hi there! I'm looking for a Luciana Bloodforge?" Ash spoke up.
What surprised Ash the most was that the girl had pale, lifeless skin, sharp fangs exposed when she smiled, and two sharp ears similar to those of Cinderella Twilight, the half-elf.
The girl was a [vampire], a race that feeds on blood instead of regular food.
"You're at the right place."
She answered Ash with a bright, warm smile.
Ash suddenly widened her eyes, flinching back in confusion and alert when she gazed upon the elemental badges of the person behind that soft, cute, feminine voice.
She, or rather, he had two badges: [Wind] and [Water]
"You are looking at him."