by Weiqi Wang
‘Oh really?’ Robert was excited to see Soarame saying so. ‘If you are sure about it, why don’t we sign a magic pact?’
‘No! Don’t you dare sign it, Soarame!’ Vivarin was feeling very anxious and burst out in anger. ‘Go away, Robert! I’ll report you to the school for this!’
‘I won’t sign any pact with you because you don’t deserve it,’ Soarame signalled Vivarin to stop and glanced at Robert. ‘But I can do it this way — you and me, we will have a match upon either your graduation or my Grade 4, whichever comes first.’
‘You got it!’ Robert was overjoyed to hear this. He didn’t think Soarame would keep his part of the bargain, but at least this boy was stupid enough to make the offer.
‘Soarame, what the heck is wrong with you!’ On the way back to the arena, Vivarin kept complaining. ‘I know you are confident and you made it into Stanfaul College, but Water simply is not a match for Fire at Grade 4!’
‘Relax, I can handle it.’ Soarame smiled but didn’t explain.
After getting back to the party, the first thing Vivarin did was spread the news to every one of her friends — including Jemario, Dileys, and Catheray. The Water students were all worried and kept trying to think of a solution; the mood of the party was dampened because of this. Soarame was sorry for being a party-pooper; he was very touched that the Water students cared about him like this.
Welcome to Water family! As Soarame recalled the scene at Aquamarine Sky, he thought that this really felt like a family. Soarame had to admit that he was starting to feel that he belonged here!
The Unique Wizard
‘Pung-pung.’
The next morning, Soarame opened the door to see four Water girls, led by Dileys. ‘Soarame, thanks for inviting us!’
‘You’re welcome.’ Soarame let the girls in; today was the dorm-flight day and the girls were coming for that. One freshman was allowed to have maximum of four guests enjoy the flight with him, so Soarame had invited Dileys, Jemario, Vivarin and Catheray.
‘Chelonad, we are ready, please take us away!’
‘Hmm… Soarame, you make friends quick!’ Chelonad’s voice sounded. ‘OK, enjoy your flight!’
‘Yeah!’ after cheering from the crew, the cell began to shake a little then float up steadily. Everyone inside the cell could feel that they were rising and saw from the window that the ground was falling away from them below.
The five were talking, cheering and enjoying the mild breeze coming from the windows. The cell was square and had two windows in the wall; usually four cells would assemble to become the second floor of a dorm building, leaving the window-sided walls as the exterior of the building, so that the other two walls would be interior.
‘This is incredible!’ Soarame marvelled and everyone agreed; but the girls didn’t really understand Soarame’s meaning — in Soarame’s special vision, the cell suddenly started glowing green when the flight started; this was not as he expected. Soarame supposed that it was the Wind magic that made the cell fly; but Wind Elements are supposed to be grey, so his eyes were telling him otherwise.
Energy of life? Soarame was astonished as he recalled his master’s words on the trip days ago. The room itself is a magigear?
Because Soarame had promised his master that he would keep his special eyes top secret, he could not share this discovery with his friends. Unbelievable! No matter how much Soarame was dying to shout, he had to keep his voice in his heart. The girls noticed Soarame’s wide eyes and flushed face, so they chuckled and told Soarame to relax; while Soarame was putting both of his hands on the wall, trying to secretly feel the energy of life within it.
The entire room as a magigear? Soarame seemed to be watching outwards and enjoying the view, but he was actually concentrating hard on the feeling from the wall. Whoever made this happen must be a genius! Is it Chelonad?
No one could answer Soarame, of course. In order to keep his special eyes secret, Soarame decided not to ask anyone, Chelonad included. The magic world was truly miraculous though, and Soarame couldn’t be more eager to level up and became capable of exploring the truth behind it.
‘Soarame, what are you staring at for this long?’ Vivarin patted Soarame’s shoulder and startled him out of his thoughts. ‘Wow, you are so focused! What are you thinking?’
‘There must be some pretty girl down where he’s peeking at.’ Catheray teased, ‘Tell us which one?’
‘No, no way.’ Soarame blushed, and glanced at Jemario subconsciously. This sneaky action did not get to escape the girls’ attention; they all looked at Jemario, winking and chuckling.
Jemario blushed too as a consequence; she had to change the subject right away. ‘Look, that’s the lake! My favourite part of campus!’
The flight was a really nice one; the friends enjoyed themselves so much looking over a big part of the campus, even the town zone far ahead. There were multiple hills, lakes, lawns and playgrounds that looked beautiful, as well as the seven different departments that were of completely different styles — dear lord, they are just gorgeous. Besides those, they saw dorm areas here and there — they belonged to different colleges, and the girls recognized their dorms one after another, thus screaming all around.
‘Hi!’ The friends waved at students down below, and they waved back in excitement. This meant the trip was about to end though, because the cell was approaching the Stanfaul dorm area and was coming in to land.
‘Welcome!’ the students down there knew that there was another Stanfaul freshman in the cell above, although they were not sure which one.
‘We are about to land! How do you like it, Soarame?’ Dileys asked.
‘It’s amazing.’ Soarame looked at the wall once again.
‘There’s more amazing things ahead!’ Jemario cut in. ‘See that house there? I bet that’s where we’re landing.’
‘Oh yes, it seems everyone is waiting for us,’ Vivarin said. There was a group of students surrounding a house not too far away — it was the lower part of a complete house — with its first floor a square shape but the roof wide open; Soarame could see the furniture and everything from the air. Beside the house there were three cells that looked similar to Soarame’s; the doors on the cells were open, so the group must be from those cells.
‘Look, he’s here finally!’ just then, a loud voice sounded from somewhere among the students. Although there was still quite a distance to go, the voice was already clear enough to Soarame. The next second, a chubby boy walked out from the crowd, followed by two others.
‘Hey man!’ the chubby boy shouted really loudly as Soarame’s cell floated closer.
‘Hey guys, how are you?’ to the applause and cheering from the crowd, Soarame’s cell landed beside the house. Soarame was suddenly shy, but he had to walk out in front because he was the focus right then. ‘My name is Soarame, nice to meet you all!’
‘Soarame, it’s good to meet you! My name is Kardiac, your roommate.’ The chubby boy with golden hair immediately came up and blinked at Soarame. ‘All girls, really? You are the man!’
‘Err…’ Soarame blushed and everyone was chuckling.
‘My name is Halgon, nice to meet you all.’ A boy with square features came up from behind Kardiac. He had bright, piercing eyes, bushy eyebrows, and healthy tanned skin, looking quite masculine and rough compared to Soarame’s white, delicate appearance.
‘Omifo.’ The last roommate was a handsome boy in fashionable dress, looking gentle and quiet. After everyone introduced themselves, the students quickly got to know each other, especially the four roommates. Four freshmen brought sixteen guests; that made a good size for a house-warming party — the school deliberately made this happen to develop the students’ social life from the very beginning of their school life.
‘Soarame, if you are from Corrugon Peninsula, it must be easy for you to come here,’ Omifo said. ‘You are practically local people.’
‘Not exactly, I travelled in a carriage for a whole month!’ Soaram
e couldn’t help sighing; Filton must be still on his way back.
‘Only a month and you are complaining?’ Halgon shook his head. ‘Do you know how long it took me to get here? Eight months… that’s more than half a year!’
‘Are you kidding me?’ Soarame was surprised. ‘Halgon, where’re you from?’
‘Moniton Empire, Knighton Continent,’ Halgon sighed. ‘Between Knighton and Thundeross, there’s the Azure Ocean. My family hired a mercenary force to help with the travel. First, we reached the closest point between the two Continents, then crossed the Ocean, and finally arrived here.’
‘Halgon, eight months is also lucky. I took more than one year!’ said Kardiac. ‘I was just a kid when I started travelling.’
‘You still are,’ Catheray came over and cut in. ‘Oops, I just overheard it, didn’t mean to spy on you, sorry.’
‘Well, apologies accepted, as long as you tell me how old you are.’ Kardiac blinked at Catheray, ‘I’m a kid? I’m 13! I bet you are younger.’
‘You wish, I’m not telling you my age.’ Catheray refused right away, chuckling. She knew that Kardiac was right, though; their grades here did not reflect their ages — in fact, Catheray had just reached 13, but she came to school early and became a Grade 3. Among Dileys’ best friends, there was an age span from Jemario at 12 to Vivarin at 14; and the only one in Grade 4 was Dileys, who was also 14. Similarly, Soarame’s roommates were all about the same age.
‘Guys, shall we call Chelonad now? The house is still not assembled yet,’ Vivarin ran over to suggest.
‘OK, guys, you ready for the new house?’ Chelonad’s voice sounded soon enough. ‘You can get into the house or the cells and watch from inside, if you want.’
Everyone picked their preferred spot and got ready to watch. Soarame and his roommates ran back into their cells, and most of the guests got into the ground floor of the house. The boys picked their favourite corners for their cells, and Chelonad allocated them accordingly onto the first floor; the cells then became bedrooms of the house. Soarame opened his bedroom door and found himself next door to Kardiac and opposite Halgon — on the other side of a gap. Looking downwards, Soarame saw their guests spread out on the ground floor and looking up at them.
‘Now what?’ Soarame asked, ‘How do we get down there?’
Right after the question, Soarame found his bedroom slightly shaking and green light (that only he could see) glowed out of the walls — the floor began to stretch out and connected to Halgon’s stretching floor, and thus filled up the gap in between. The boys then walked out of their bedrooms and into the corridor; Soarame carefully jumped around and stepped hard on the floor, to test if it was strong enough to hold them. At the same time, they saw the roof of the house was forming too — the top of their bedrooms also stretched out and attached themselves to the new roof, so the house became dark after that. Soarame touched the magic symbol on the wall, so that the ceiling lit up and the house became bright again.
‘This is awesome!’ Kardiac marvelled. ‘We actually built the first floor just like that!’
The next second, Soarame’s and Kardiac’s bedrooms split from each other, and a gap emerged in between; the edge of the corridor by the gap began to extend downwards, forming a staircase to the ground floor. The boys stepped down the staircase and saw their friends waiting in the living room, all cheering. ‘Welcome to Libral!’
‘Wow!’ the four freshmen boys were excited. ‘So the house can actually change shape?’
‘Not only that. Your bedrooms can move around once a year, if you want to swap positions later,’ a student explained. ‘And if any of you grade up, you can choose to upgrade the style of the house a bit. For example, you can choose to add a fireplace in the living room wall — that’s a popular option.’
‘You can change the exterior, too.’ Jemario followed up. ‘Remember the dorms we saw during the flight? They all look different because most of them have been upgraded.’
‘We can even change the dorm to be round?’ Omifo asked. ‘I saw some round ones during the flight.’
‘Yes you can, but you don’t want to,’ another student chuckled. ‘My friends did that, and they regret it now; a round shape doesn’t really work that well for rooms. And changing shapes is a major upgrade, so they cannot change it back until they all grade up one more time.’
‘That’s sad.’ Soarame was amused. ‘We’ve only got five more grades for each of us, which means we can only upgrade the house 20 times. And if we go for a major upgrade it will be even less, right?’
‘20 times are a lot,’ Vivarin cut in. ‘Also, if you win prizes from the school, that sometimes gives you extra chances.’
The house-warming party went on for the whole rest of the day and the guests did not leave until late evening. After seeing the guests off and the roommates had all gone to bed, Soarame could finally do something that he didn’t have a chance to do during the day. Putting his hands on the wall, Soarame tried to focus and feel the energy of life rippling inside the wall. As his master once mentioned on the trip, the energy of life did not belong to the seven magic elements; however it was still a type of magic energy and Soarame’s special eyes could see it, which meant Soarame might be able to do something with it. Soarame thus decided to give it a try.
It’s really energy of life. Soarame took the necklace out and compared it with the wall, finding the feeling of the energy and its green colour the same. But how’s that possible? There are so many dorm houses on campus, and Chelonad is the owner of all of them, as Epic magigears? That kind of makes sense, because he’s the security guy…
Soarame had noticed that, during the flight and assembly of the house, the energy of life in the house was strengthened a lot — the green colour was much more obvious all over; as a comparison, right now it could hardly be noticed even by Soarame. If not for the flight, Soarame would not have realised this secret that was obviously unknown to everybody else. It seemed to Soarame that the house was ‘hibernating’ most of the time, but could ‘wake up’ for flying, shape-changing, and so on. Soarame marvelled and pondered for quite a while, but still could not understand all this; he tried to communicate with the energy over and over again in different ways, but all the attempts failed no matter how hard he concentrated. Feeling a bit frustrated, Soarame realized that it might not be possible to summon this special kind of energy in the same way as the magic elements, so he finally decided to give up.
It’s okay; I’m living here from now on, so no rush, Soarame comforted himself and pressed the magic symbol beside the bed. The ceiling light switched off and Soarame took a deep breath, falling almost instantly asleep.
The next day was a bit quiet compared to the day before. The only event for this day was in the evening — the Dean of each college would personally welcome the freshmen and hold an event for them.
After dinner, Soarame and his roommates arrived at Stanfaul Hall. There were already quite a few students there, both old and new, standing around chatting in smart suits. Soarame’s crew did not know anyone here yet, but the old students were all very warm-hearted and out-going, they came up to talk to the freshmen to make them feel comfortable. Soon enough, Soarame got to know quite a few new faces and made friends.
‘Soarame, someone is waiting for you outside, he said his name is Casavin,’ just then, a student came by and delivered a message. ‘He’s from another college, so he can’t come in here.’
‘You are popular!’ Omifo patted Soarame’s shoulder. ‘The school hasn’t really started yet, but you already have so many friends from other colleges?’
‘Yeah, especially yesterday, all pretty girls!’ Kardiac was excited.
‘No, this one is a troublemaker, not a friend.’ Soarame wondered why Casavin had come for him, but he still stood up and walked towards the door.
‘Wait, a troublemaker?’ Kardiac stood up too. ‘We will go together, then.’
‘No, don’t worry, I’ll be back in a minute,’ Soarame
was surprised and happy about Kardiac’s sense of the brotherhood.
‘Are you sure?’ asked Halgon. ‘We will go check it out if you don't come back soon.’
‘Alright, thanks!’ Soarame felt reassured and walked towards the door with confidence.
‘Soarame, I’m here to apologise! I’m sorry, okay?’ the minute Soarame got out of the dining hall, Casavin’s words surged into his ears out of nowhere. Before Soarame could even see him clearly, Casavin had already turned and walked away, leaving a puzzled Soarame rooted to the spot.
‘Dean O’heven sent him to apologise,’ another voice sounded from behind. ‘Soarame, I must say you surprised me.’
‘Rodka?’ Soarame turned around and was surprised to see Rodka standing there.
‘Remember the other day at the college application?’ Rodka walked over. ‘I went after Casavin after I left you guys, but it’s so hard to get an apology from him, even for me. However, you just made it happen.’
‘I did?’ Soarame puzzled. ‘How?’
‘By what you did the other day in the interview,’ Rodka smiled. ‘You’ve been keeping yourself busy, huh? I heard you even took the challenge from Robert.’
‘How do you know all this?’ Soarame asked.
‘People talk,’ Rodka smiled. ‘The school hasn’t started but you’re already famous.’
‘No way,’ Soarame wasn’t sure if this is a good thing. ‘How do you know about the interview, anyway? Plus I didn’t say Casavin’s name in there.’
‘I know, our Dean told me. But locating Casavin is not hard for Dean O’heven.’ Rodka patted Soarame’s shoulder. ‘Oops, the event is starting, let’s go.’
‘You are familiar with the Deans?’ Soarame was surprised but didn’t have time to ask, because in the hall Romboton was already stepping onto the stage and about to host the event.
‘Everyone, attention please,’ the Dean’s voice sounded from the stage. ‘Tonight is the welcoming night for the new students. Let’s start this with our warmest applause to them!’ Cheering and applause erupted as the new students stood up and bowed to the others. Everyone was excited to see the newest members to the strongest team within the Institute of Libral; each and every one of them was the future of the world.
