Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer
chapter-34

The wait for his turn continued, there's still a few students to go before it comes to him so Ashton have some time to think.

What Alice told him earlier was helpful. At least now, he could anticipate which one he would possibly be. But then again, there's also a chance that he might get a rare class which wouldn't be too bad.

Well, there's also a fact that he might just be stuck with an undesirable one. Or maybe none at all, who knows? Alice didn't mention the possibility of not having a specialty but who can say that it's impossible to occur?

'I wonder if my curse has an effect on this...'

This is really the most concerning part in this. Since he doesn't know much about Curses, he will constantly worry that it might have an effect at everything that he does.

He could ask Alice about it but he still remember Agent Theta's warning to not tell anyone unless he's completely sure.

"Hey, you look like you're plotting something again."

Ashton looked up and already recognized that it's Mary who talked to him. For some reason, Alice and Blake are arguing again and now Mary's attention was on him again.

"Don't mind me, that's just how I am in general." He replied.

"Is that so?" She raised a brow, "Oh well, don't worry about it too much. Like Alice said the initial assessment hardly means anything since it'll change soon anyways. Just take it with a grain of salt. If you don't like what you got, you can walk away from it, do something else and come back later, maybe you'll have other options."

"I get that." Ashton nodded, "I just can't help it, you know. Kinda new to the whole thing."

Mary looked at him intently and said: "I see. Well, take your time. We're here to learn anyway."

"Are your parents licensed cultivators too? You seem to know as much as she does." Ashton asked, referring to Alice in the latter part of his sentence.

"Kind of?" Mary replied while tilting her head. "Their job forces them to work with cultivators so it's inevitable for them to not know anything. They don't know everything of course, they know enough and that's it."

"What do they do for a living anyway?...if you don't mind me asking that is."

"I don't mind." Mary chuckled and waved her hand, "They're Psychologists...Therapists in other words. Most of their clients are Cultivators, if not, people who worked closely with Cultivators, that's why they know some and they told me."

"Ah. That sounds incredible." Ashton nodded, "Their job must be hard. After all, Cultivators aren't really the same as regular people."

"Right?" Mary readily agreed, "We can't use the regular standards for them because of that. Their 'tendencies' that might appear as borderline Psychopathic to us are just them behaving as expected, it's weird but I kinda get it."

"Plus, the pay is incredulously high from what I observed so far, so I can't really blame them for continuing that line of work."

"I can see that." Ashton replied, "I mean, I can imagine that being the case. After all, a mentally ill Cultivator can be potentially dangerous."

Ashton never really expected to have a decent and intellectual chat with someone from his age. Well, he's an adult on a kid's body but still...

Well, the fact that Mary grew up surrounded by professional doctors might also contribute to that of course.

Amidst their conversation, he couldn't help but be distracted by the other two arguing so fiercely at the back. He turned to Mary and asked:

"Are they always like that?"

"Uh huh." Mary nodded, not even needing to look to know who he's referring to. "That's them on their natural habitat. It'd be weird if a day passed that they didn't argue."

"Honestly?" Ashton raised a brow. "Sounds exhausting..."

"I know right, ugh." Mary rolled her eyes, she sighed and continued: "But well, them arguing means that they're alright. If they don't do that, it means that they're either mad or each other, asleep or distracted by common enemy."

"By 'common enemy' are you perhaps referring to yourself?" Ashton raised a brow.

Mary gasped and covered her mouth; "How the hell did you know?"

Both of them had a good laugh out of that. They then noticed that the line was progressing so they followed as well.

With the seats changed, Blake is now seating beside Mary, beside her was Blake and then Alice.

"Oh, it's nearly out turn." Blake noticed, "Gosh, I'm so pumped! Please, please! Lemme get the Shield Bearer!"

"I guess you can get nervous too. I thought you only have to states: dumb and dumber." Alice snorted on the side.

"Hey that wasn't nice. What did I do to you huh?"

Ashton smiled wryly, with the seats changed, he's much closer to the chaos. Even if he didn't want to pay attention to them, that would prove quite difficult since they're close.

"Gosh, sometimes I wish I could cast a Silence Spell on the two of them to shut them up." Mary rolled her eyes once more.

"That spell works that way too?" He was intrigued.

"Who knows?" Mary shrugged, "I only based it off of the name. I don't really know how it works. What I said is more like an expression you know."

"Oh, is that right?" Ashton chuckled.

"But seriously, I'm so excited to start my studies here. I always dreamt about learning in this place you know? This is like, the most famous Academy in City M, maybe even Last Bastion in general."

"Have you been to other cities before?" He asked.

"Mn." She nodded, "But I can't remember much from it since I was too young. As far as I can remember it should City C...or Z, I really can't remember at the top of my head but I wasn't so impressed by it."

"Now that I think about it, that's probably why I didn't remember it. Whatever City it was, it's lame and forgettable. We only came there due to my parents' work, we only stayed for three months at most then we returned here."

"Ah...was it far?"

"Can't remember...but it shouldn't be." Mary looked as if she's trying to recall the memory. "I mean, there's dedicated routes from City to City and traffic is strictly regulated in there so everyone will arrive fast. The travel time can distract you from the actual distance so I can't really say."

"Oh yeah. I can relate to that." Ashton pursed his lips, "Just this morning there's this guy who brought me here, he drove so fast that my soul had to catch up to my body."

Mary let out a laugh and said: "Whoever that was, they're most likely a professional racer. Those guys can ignore the traffic laws due to their license, and if they're working for the Academy, they're practically untouchable."

"...you know what, that makes sense. After all that guy wasn't even apprehended even though he was clearly driving past the speed limit." Ashton was convinced. "But that's a problem to me since I still don't know how to get here on my own. He said that he'll be my chauffeur for today, not permanently. Plus, I don't know how to get home. I don't even know if he's going to give me a ride back home."

"Oh, you wouldn't need to worry about that." Mary replied to him, "You'll get home just fine."

"How can you tell?"

"I just know." Mary looked confident, "Trust me, don't stress out to much about that. You'll be fine."

'...so she doesn't want to tell me. Probably because she's being careful about the law. Understandable.'

Ashton nodded and paid attention to his front. Just in time to see that the line was progressing and coincidentally, it was already their turn for the assessment.

"Ooh, gosh. Here we go." Alice murmured but the rest clearly heard it.

Their group was escorted in a room past the hallway. Inside, there are ten transparent chambers, each has a small podium built inside.

"Alright, kids. One room for each of you. Don't bother choosing, it wouldn't change the results anyway. Now, go." One of the consultants told them as soon they entered the room.

"Let's go and be done with this." Mary took the lead and stepped forward to pick.

Ashton was just as swift as her. He didn't bother choosing due to what the consultant said. Once he entered the room, somebody followed him inside.

"Alright, Young Man. Don't be stiff. Relax and place your hand on the crystal over there. You'll feel a slight tug inside your body, don't worry that's the mechanism drawing your Mana to read it. It's nothing harmless. If you're ready, go ahead."

Ashton nodded and took a deep breath. He lifted his hand and placed it on the large crystal that's placed on top of the podium.

He felt the tug but he didn't resist. But that wasn't all...

Much to his surprise, there's a another pull. This one is fiercer and it forced out his Magical Artifact.

Just as the Book of Infinity flew out of his body and unfurled its pages right above him, the crystal on top of the podium glowed intensely...