Bad Luck?
Stepping into the school grounds, Xander was a bit surprised to find out that it wasn't as dreary as he imagined.
The buildings and other structures were still quite minimalist in their designs, but they were constructed in an appealing yet practical manner.
'Now that I think about it, this place is structured like a fortress.' He realized. There were many high walls, and from what he could see, more than a few magical formations laying dormant in different positions, though he could see everything.
The guards, who he realized were also students, watched everything with steadfast concentration, and more than a few gazes fell on him as Mary, making him just a but concerned.
Eventually, the senior—who had drank a potion for his wound—led them to what looked like an administrative building. They entered, and an older woman sat at the front desk.
She looked up when they entered, and the senior went up to her to start explaining a few things.
After a while, her eyes widened in surprise, and her gaze shifted from the senior to Xander who just stood there calmly.
When they finished their conversation, the senior gestured for them to come closer, and the woman took out a form.
"Fill this out." She said frankly.
'Straight to the point I see.' Xander just nodded and took the form as well as the quill that was handed to him, then he started to fill out the form. It included things like his full name, what his speciality was, and so on.
Mary also had to fill a form, but it was specifically for her as a maid.
When he finished filling it, he signed and handed it back. The woman read through it, nodded, and then asked for his admission letter.
Xander looked to Mary who took out a rolled up piece of paper and handed it over.
The woman gave it a once over, nodded again, then she took out a golden card.
"Drip a bit of blood on it." She instructed.
Unperturbed, Xander simply pricked his finger with his fingernail and let a drop of his blood fall onto the card, and as soon as it did, it sunk into the metal before, amazingly, his name etched itself into the material, and under it, a single line—indicating his status as a first year—appeared beneath his name.
"The card has a map of the school with your dorm marked down. It also acts as a storage for your credits, which are the school's internal currency. Finally, it shows where all your classes are. You just need to imbue a bit of mana into it to see all of these." She explained.
'I see...' Xander rubbed his chin but was in no hurry to check out these things. Instead he asked.
"Is there any significance behind the color of the card?" He asked, and the woman nodded.
"There are 4 classes of cards. Black, Blue, Red, and Gold, with them being ranked in the same manner. Your feat of defeating a second year student means you qualified to obtain a Gold card." Xander nodded slightly.
"What does that entail?" He asked again, and the woman didn't seem annoyed by his questioning.
"A few things. For one, you will have discounts when purchasing things from the academy using credits. You also receive other benefits like better food during feeding hours, a better dorm room, priority access to higher levels of the school's library, and so on." Then her expression turned a bit serious.
"Do keep in mind, though, that people at your year can challenge you for the card. If you lose to them, you will forfeit it and have to challenge another person with a gold card. Until then, you will have whatever card the person who defeated you had." Hearing this, Xander rubbed his chin.
'I see. Using the benefits of the card to act as an incentive for those without them while also forcing those with them to keep improving. Smart.' He mused. Then he smiled.
"Alright, thank you. That is all." He nodded and decided he had no more questions.
He glanced at the senior who just nodded and stepped out of the building, and he did the same, watching the guy return to the gate to test more newcomers.
'Damn, does he have to do that all day? Is he serving a punishment or something?' Xander wondered before turning to the card and said aloud.
"I wonder if this is real gold. If so, then that's really extravagant." At this, Mary spoke.
"Not quite. Transmutation magic exists, so it can be produced en-masse even if it isn't the real thing." She explained.
'Oh yeah.' He remembered.
As it turns out, in this world, gold was very valuable, not just because of its rarity, but due to its high mana conductivity. Sadly, it was still a softer metal in this world. But even then, it was used often for things like magical engineering and infrastructure, making it very expensive.
Without further stalling, Xander imbued some mana into the card, and a mana projection appeared in front of him.
'Hm, let's see. Map.' He focused on the characters that signified the map, and sure enough, a blue map of the school appeared in front of him.
He looked through it and soon spotted the dorms that were labeled.
"Let's go, Mary." He said and started walking.
He intentionally slowed down his pace to take in the the sight of the school. He spotted more than a few training fields where students were being drilled by instructors. Whether it was physical or magical abilities, they appeared quite disciplined. Some were doing individual or group training too.
He also noticed there was a spot where students were practicing with different mounts, and there was a large forest to the side where he guessed mock battles took place as well.
'Seems pretty well-equipped so far.' Xander hummed.
Soon enough, they reached the dorms.
Sure enough, they were very plain and shaped as apartment buildings.
'Actually... it's kinda imposing.' Xander almost made a face. With how the buildings were made, it was quite intimidating.
Some of the seniors there gave him and Mary looks as they passed by, and they soon reached the first year dorm building which was pretty empty as most people hadn't yet arrived.
'Hm, it says here that the rooms for those with Gold cards are at the very top.' Xander and Mary navigated the building as they entered this world's equivalent of an elevator with was called a mana lift.
As the name implies, when they got on and indicated what floor they wanted to be on, the floor was lifted using mana until they arrived at the top of the building.
'I wonder if I prefer this to technology back on earth. At least, the issues of pollution don't seem to exist, and it's far more sustainable.'
Eventually, the two of them reached his room. On this floor, despite the width of the building, there were only 5 rooms, which told Xander that there could only be 5 gold card holders in his year.
Upon entering using the card, Xander was both impressed and underwhelmed.
"It's pretty big." He remarked as he looked around. There was a living room, a kitchen, a storage room, as well as two bedrooms. One for him and one for any servant he brought. Lastly, there was a training room. The whole thing was practically the size of a decent apartment back on earth.
'But it is plain. Geez. I never paid much heed to decorating my personal spaces but this is just sad.' He shook he head. Perhaps he would look into interior decorating soon...
"On the bright side, there is a room for you, Mary. So you don't have to be too far away from me." Xander said to the older woman who just nodded.
"Yes, it makes things very convenient," Then she paused. "I sensed you were interested in exploring the school grounds properly, milord. You can go and do so. I will set things in order here." Hearing this, Xander beamed.
"You're the best, Mary!" The maid just bowed.
"It is my duty." She said in response, but Xander thought he saw a small smile at the praise.
He made her farewell and soon left the building. As for his first destination?
Naturally, it was the training grounds where his seniors were getting to work.
Xander quickly arrived at one of the training grounds he had seen before, and it seemed like the students there were undergoing some sort of endurance training.
There were about thirty of them running around the large field. Xander judged that this group consisted purely of mages as he saw them with either wands by their sides of staffs hanging off their backs. They were also carrying heavy bags, and lastly, each of them wore a strange ring.
When Xander focused on these rings, he was surprised to see that the rings were causing their mana to leak out profusely. After a moment, he figured out its purpose.
'I see. The endurance training isn't just physical. It's also forcing them to control their mana and prevent the leakage as much as possible.' He realized as the students were being yelled out by a drill sergeant as they ran.
'It really is a military school.' Xander thought with a wry smile. The scene was just too similar to what he had seen on earth, just with the added magic element.
He was about to go to his next stop when a voice stopped him.
"You there!" He paused and turned to see the drill sergeant from before gesturing for him to come over.
'How did he notice me???' Xander was taken aback. While he wasn't trying to be particularly stealthy, he was at least a hundred meters away from them, and the guy hadn't looked his way once.
Barely suppressing a sigh, Xander jogged over, and as he got close, he was able to observe the man's features better.
He was a tall individual with bronze skin that had seen a lot of sunlight. His posture was straight like a ramrod, and his facial features were rough, his a neatly trimmed beard and a military hat.
Once Xander got close, he looked him up and down before saying derisively.
"You look like a baby. Are you seriously a student here?" Xander nearly choked.
Instead, he hesitated before giving his best Military salute.
"Xander Lowell, sir. I just entered." Hearing this, the man raised a brow and scoffed.
"A Lowell? With black hair? What, are you an illegitimate child?"
'How the f*ck did you figure that out???' Xander was flabbergasted inwardly but gave a positive response outside.
"Huh," He glanced at Xander's sword. "Do you even know how to use that thing?"
'Better than everyone on the planet apparently,' Xander lampooned before responding. "I'd like to think so, sir."
"Oh? You'd like to think so? Do you lack confidence or are you just trying to be needlessly humble?"
"The second one, sir."
"Say it louder!"
"The second one, Sir!" The man stared at Xander for a few seconds before asking again.
"What is the color of your card." Xander lingered for a moment.
"Gold, sir."
"Show me."
Xander took out the golden card with his name inscribed on it and gave the sergeant. He inspected it for a few seconds, and there was a flash of something across his face, but it was gone before Xander could properly identify it.
"Hm. Maybe you aren't so useless." He gave Xander the card back, then he turned to where the students had finally stopped running and called one of them.
"Zachary! Get over here!" He yelled, and soon, one of the students came over. He wasn't very tall, just a bit taller than Xander. His build wasn't anything crazy and he had a slightly crooked nose, slightly sweaty from the previous exercise.
"Sir?" He asked while glancing at Xander curiously.
"This kid over here managed to get a golden card after entering. So that means he beat one of your peers. Do you know what that means?" The senior, Zachary, answered immediately.
"He's a talented individual, sir!"
"WRONG!" The sergeant roared, drawing the attention of the other students who were resting. Zachary didn't flinch, but Xander noticed he was sweating more now.
"It means that you lot can't even handle someone that looks fresh out of his mother's womb."
'Yo that's a weird thing to sa—'
"So here's what's gonna happen." The sergeant continued, looking between Zachary and a very confused Xander.
"The two of you are gonna have a duel. If this illegitimate Lowell kid loses, he's gonna have to clean all your quarters by himself. But if you lose, Zachary, you and everyone in this unit are gonna to ten extra sets of exercises. Is that clear?!"
"Yes sir!" Zachary said in affirmation, and the sergeant looked at Xander who gave a similar response. He seemed calm outwardly, but inside he was questioning what the hell just happened.
"Good. Now got to the field. I'll act as the referee."
The two of them quickly went to the field, and as they walked, Xander heard some whispers among the students who had been resting.
"Uh, isn't this a bit overkill? Zachary is one of the strongest people in our unit. Gold card or not, it seems a bit excessive."
"I think sergeant is trying to prove a point. Maybe beat down any arrogance the kid might have before it can become problematic."
"Hm. Maybe." There was confusion, but Xander detected little to no worry from them.
'They must be pretty confident in this Zachary guy. Maybe he is stronger than the senior at the gate?' He wondered, and he suddenly felt a bit of anticipation.
If that was the case, they perhaps he would get a chance to glimpse what the upper levels of Avoma looked like.