Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Opportunity is a locked toilet door and you’ve had bad seafood.

The students trickled into the class slowly, their tension mixing into the terse atmosphere. There was no test this time, only an elderly man sitting patiently behind his desk.

He watched us walk in, one by one, tapping his finger against the wood in front of him. When the last of us arrived and sat down, he coughed.

The sound reverberated around us. The students stopped their conversations and straightened their backs.

We gave him our full attention.

“Good afternoon, my name is Alistair. The faculty prefers I be called Mr Black.”

He gestured and a piece of chalk wrote his name on the blackboard. I could sense mana gathering around the chalk, but it felt strange. I activated my mana sense fully and saw that it was strung together in a complex pattern, something I had never seen before.

“I am the single most important person you will meet this semester.” The confidence in his voice enveloped us and I shivered. “My mind will mould your future and my knowledge will reveal your future paths to you.”

“However, I will not be doing this alone. You are just as important to your future as I am.”

“Classes do not waste time with those who are unprepared.” He leaned towards us. “They are alive, and grow alongside you, even if you cannot see them. Every challenge you face, every movement you make, and everything you achieve are all helping your class options adjust to your needs.”

He stopped tapping the desk and pushed back his chair. He stood up and waved his fingers, pieces of chalk flying into his hands.

He moved to the board and wrote a single word on it.

‘Classes.’

“I will guide you to the crossroads, but you are the person that needs to step onto the path you choose.”

His gaze swept across us, his eyes meeting mine and then moving on. Beside me Gold lowered his head, and his body went still.

He was concentrating on everything Mr Black said.

“I see the usual things I expected to see.” He finished his examination. “Overconfidence, lack of preparation, and worry. All of these will hold you back, and I will destroy them by the end of the semester.”

His hand moved across the blackboard and his name was replaced by a new word.

‘Luck.’

I could feel the hatred my teacher felt for the word as he stepped back from the board.

“There is no such thing as getting unlucky with class options.” Mr Black’s tone was vicious. “Every year I have people tell me that they got unlucky. Luck in this subject is an excuse spouted by people that didn’t put in the work and failed.”

He turned to face us.

“You make your own opportunities, and your preparation determines the classes you are offered. Nothing more, nothing less. There are no excuses, only lies to cover your failure.”

He crossed his arms. “Now then, any complaints?”

I chuckled at his words, and then I heard the grumbling. Some of the students around me had frowns on their faces. A couple weren’t hiding their anger.

None of them spoke.

“I see.” Mr Black regarded them. “How many of you have already chosen your class?”

Two of the students raised their hands reluctantly. One of them was angry, the other was quiet and sunk back into her chair.

I looked at them curiously.

“There’s always one or two of you.” He walked back to his desk and jotted their names down. “See me after the lesson. I will help you use your classes to their full potential.”

I saw relief cross both the students' faces.

“Now then, we will go over a variety of topics this semester. Our focus will be on accomplishments, skills and class myths.”

Mr Black raised his hand and a stack of papers appeared in the air. Two pages dropped in front of me, and I could see sheets of paper moving towards the other students.

I held the piece of paper curiously. It wasn’t linked to an element. The mana had wrapped around the objects and brought them to us.

“Who doesn’t know what an accomplishment is?" Mr Black looked around.

Nobody put their hand up, but a few students looked uncertain.

"Some call it an achievement. I will use both.” He prompted. He nodded to himself. “Okay. An accomplishment is exactly as it sounds. You have succeeded in completing a task of some kind. Congratulations.”

“Accomplishments unlock different class pathways. They are also weighted differently so not all accomplishments are equal.

“What I’m about to say is extremely important.” He paused. “If you focus on one area, then your classes will be weighed towards that field. Your other achievements will lose their influence over your class options, and some may become non-factors. That is why it is important to decide on what area you wish to work towards early on.”

He gestured and the chalk wrote the word ‘accomplishments’ on the blackboard.

“Today’s task is simple. Make a list of what you think your accomplishments are.” Mr Black sat down. “Don’t be humble. Write what comes to mind.”

None of us moved and he rolled his eyes.

“Over the next few weeks, I will be sacrificing my nights going through your accomplishments and figuring out your likely class options. This means that if you give me incomplete or incorrect information, my analysis will be wrong.”

“However, I understand that you don’t know all the possible accomplishments or what defines them.” He tapped the side of his head. “That’s why I’m here. I will teach you about accomplishments over the semester so that you learn to recognise them. For now, guess.”

His tone left no doubt that his word was final. I stared at the piece of paper in front of me and doubt crossed my mind.

This was an impossible task for me.

I had accomplishments. I didn’t know if they would be classified as such, but if they were, then they were amazing.

I had reincarnated.

I remembered the first night.

My body held the Mark of the Crijik.

Each one of these was an event or achievement that I was sure would influence my class options. The problem was that I couldn’t write any of them down. Nobody knew about my reincarnation, and only select people knew about my Mark.

The first night was even more complicated. I could tell people that one, but I could foresee the impact of telling a religious society that one of their beloved gods was killing babies.

I’d be laughed at, or worse.

I was waiting for the right moment to be able to survive telling people that piece of information. If I didn’t have proof, then I needed a stronger position, or nobody would believe me.

A publicly acknowledged Marked one’s words held a lot more impact than a rural child’s, but even then I would have to be careful.

In other words, Mr Black wouldn’t be able to help me figure out my class options.

I shook my head and erased my doubts. I couldn’t give up on such an important aspect of my life. A class would follow me forever and if I could work out at least some of the options then that would be great.

I put pen to paper and wrote down the accomplishments that came to mind.

Earth attunement.

Metal attunement.

Defeated a gold mask in battle.

I am still (barely) under three years old.

Intelligence over 100.

Helped analyse a new symbol.

Memorised 150 symbols.

Memorised 250 symbols.

Memorised 500 symbols + variations.

Created a single layered symbol.

Created a double layered symbol.

Created 1000 working symbols.

Created 2500 working symbols…

… Created 100,000 working symbols.

Bloodline awakening.

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Writing down everything that I had accomplished since I’d been born in this world made me feel good. I might even have missed a couple and I didn’t include any skills I’d unlocked because those had their own category. My dad had been able to tell me quite a bit about classes, but only with a focus on symbols.

I had numerous symbol accomplishments, and I knew those existed because my dad had gone over them in detail. We had taken down notes as I broke through the various achievement walls.

There were a couple of other achievements that I could gain as well.

Regent creation.

Original regent creation.

My dad was preparing me for both of these. The first was easier to accomplish, I just had to create a regent. The second was tougher. I would have to create a mix of symbols that was both new and formed a working regent.

I had spent almost two years non-stop at work scribbling symbols onto pieces of paper. It had been fun, and tedious, but now it was paying off.

I hesitated on the last item on the list.

Bloodline awakening.

My Mark counted as a bloodline, so I knew that this would be one of my accomplishments. My achievements would be private, that was guaranteed by the years of reputation the academy had in this area, but could I risk it?

I came from a bloodline household. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that I had unlocked their bloodline. It centred around intelligence, and I had also listed my high number in that area.

I crossed out the words and then re-wrote the list on a new piece of paper. It was a risk I couldn’t take.

There really were too many secrets I couldn’t reveal.

I put the paper in front of me and saw Amanda was still scribbling. Out of courtesy I didn’t peek at her list, but I could see it was long.

After a few minutes had passed Mr Black tapped his desk and the papers with the final lists floated in the air. Then they came together in front of him and folded over each other.

“Good.” He tapped his hand against the stack. “Let’s see what we’re working with.”

The papers shimmered and glowed in the air. Mr Black had cast a spell on them, and I could see his mana flowing through the air.

Then all but three of the papers turned red.

“Only three of you told me the whole truth.” A murmur broke out across the students. “That’s not bad. Usually everyone lies.”

I stared at the glowing papers. He’d had a spell that let him tell if we were hiding information. I wondered how it worked.

I wasn’t surprised to see that most of the people had secrets they didn’t want to reveal.

Three of the papers glowed blue And Mr black took them out of the pile. He pointed at three students.

One of them was Amanda.

“I will reward you three.” He smiled. “Your class options lists will be ready by next week. We’ll work on modifying them together as the semester progresses.”

My friend broke out into a radiant smile, and the other two students held their heads up high. I could see a couple of our classmates shooting them envious glances. Most of us didn’t react.

We had brought that upon ourselves.

Mr Black put the papers on his desk and then ruffled through them. After he was done they disappeared.

“Trust is earned and not given freely. It will take some time for you to trust me fully. A few of you never will. This is okay.”

The chalk moved towards the blackboard. They wrote down two words.

‘Elemental attunement.’

“This achievement is a prerequisite to join the magician section of the academy. All of you are attuned to an element, some of you with more than one. This will automatically open up the pathway to magician classes.”

This time I was prepared for the words. Indra had told me that this was how the magician classes were obtained.

It was also why there were so few magicians.

Given enough time and access to mana it was possible for people to learn a spell or two. However, they wouldn’t unlock elemental attunement.

Some people believed attunement was there from birth, and others had proven that it could be obtained with hard work and talent. To do so would take time and effort that many people couldn’t afford to put towards an uncertain future.

Most of the people attuned to an element would also be able to communicate with it. This meant that they had the advantage when learning an elemental manipulation skill.

From there, the advantages that attunement offered only grew. An attunement was a gift that most people dreamed of obtaining, but never would.

“This class option you have all unlocked is represented by the phrase ‘X magician’. The X represents the element you have attuned with.”

I nudged Amanda with my elbow.

“I told you math would be important.” I whispered to her.

The rest of the lecture focused on the elemental magician classes, with general outlines given for the basic elements. There were two class options I had already unlocked.

Earth magician and metal magician.

The class finished and I stood up to leave.

My eyes were drawn to the stack of glowing red papers on the desk. Mr Black was going to organise my future and read it out to me, but he didn’t have all the information.

He had explained that every achievement was weighted differently, and if a person focused in a certain area, then those achievements would begin to mold the class options to be suitable to that field.

Would my reincarnation and first night be worth focusing on if they counted as achievements?

I sighed. As always, I needed more information.

“What’s got you down?” Amanda’s bright eyes appear in front of me. “Our class class on classes is over, but you’re still standing here. It’s kind of creepy.”

She poked her tongue out at me to show that she was joking. Agni was on her head and Gold chirped at her from my shoulder.

“I’ve got a lot on my mind.” I admitted.

“Anything I can help with?” Amanda walked out with me into the corridor.

I shook my head.

As the school day came closer to an end a feeling was growing in my chest. I knew that when I got home I couldn't accept my mum avoiding the questions I had.

We needed to have a talk.

“Then I’ll help you relieve some stress.” Amanda gave me a pat on the back. “Give me a day and I’ll think of some awesome jokes.”

“That’d be great.”

We parted ways at the entrance to the school and I walked through the portal back home. There were butterflies in my stomach as I approached my house. My dad had his reservations about me visiting my grandma and I didn’t know how he would be feeling after the events of yesterday. He hadn’t sounded happy in his texts.

I wasn't happy in my heart. I wanted answers, and I psyched myself up as I stepped in front of my house. I needed to confront my parents. I wouldn't rush it, or be rude, but I did need to stand firm.

I opened the door to the sound of silence. I paused. Usually, my parents would be rushing to greet me, especially after I’d been away for a full day.

Gold and I looked around warily.

“Is anyone home?” I called out.

The church knights wouldn’t allow harm to come to my family. Not willingly.

“In here sweety!” My mum’s voice echoed across the house.

She was in my room.

Gold flapped into the trees the moment he heard my mum's voice. I made my way inside and saw my mum sitting at the edge of my bed. Her shoes tapped nervously against the ground, and I could see bags under her eyes.

She held a letter in her hand, and I recognised the familiar stamp on it.

It was from my grandma.

“I asked your dad to stay at work a bit later today.” She gave me a radiant smile as I came into view. “I know I’ve been avoiding your questions, but after yesterday…”

"We need to talk." I finished the sentence for her.

She had been thinking the same thing I had.

"So Mum, where do we start?"

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