Ethan lost track of time in the library. Since reading about the attributes the other system had access to, his mind raced. Something in his soul pushed him forward, diving down the path with the concept of circles, rings, or domains. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it yet, but with each new shape he drew in the air, he knew he was getting closer. The sun was dropping below the horizon before he snapped to his senses. Checking a nearby clock, he realized the dinner line would close in only half an hour.

  “Crap,” Ethan said, snapping his book shut and stowing his pen away in his soul. Despite his desire to get this part of his system developed, he realized it would take some time for this concept to settle in.

  There were quite a few students who were late for dinner, but the line moved quickly. Ethan craned his neck, looking for Barry’s unmistakable form amongst the crowd. But he saw no one. When it was his turn to pick some food, he plucked a thick sandwich from a tray and rushed to exit the building. He had no plans to stick around, and made directly for the storage shack. Under the gap in the door, he saw a blue light shining. It was too intense for the dull crystal lamps he saw everywhere.

  Ethan used his badge to gain access to the building, opening the door to find Barry standing there with his arms outstretched. A blue barrier shimmered before him, faltering as the man turned to smile.

  “Check it out!” Barry shouted. “I dunno what this is called, but I’m casting a barrier thing!”

  Ethan blinked away his confusion, trying his best to figure out how this was possible. He had been given a set of rules and this flew in the face of all of them. The only way he could cast a spell like that was through the primordial method. That was the same path the newly minted scribe was going down… That’s what he thought, anyway.

  “So, you’re just some genius?” Ethan asked, placing his hands on his hips. He tried using his new ability to sense mana, but couldn’t tell what was going on. “How are you doing that?”

  “Bro, just pool the mana right outside of your soul and shape it to look like the diagram that little lizard guy showed us.” Barry let out a breath, and the barrier dropped. “This magic stuff is all about visualization.”

  “I don’t know a lot about magic, I’m happy to admit that.” Ethan leaned against the door, pointing an accusatory finger at Barry. “But that ain’t normal.”

  “Yeah. Means I have a powerful class with a powerful system. That’s what the headmaster told me, anyway. He says my system doesn’t want to come out yet, because my soul is too strong.”

  Ethan tapped his chin. “Okay. I think this is important to talk about. There’s an interesting connection to make here…”

  Ethan explained how he had researched how the system used by people in Gale House worked. While building the rules for his own system, he had decided there were two facets to advancement. “I won’t claim to be the one who figured it out. Amelia told me about working with mana outside of her system, which means people without systems can do system stuff. The system just helps.”

  “Means practicing like this is like putting together a War Cruiser without a blueprint.” Placing his hands on his hips, Barry smiled wider.

  “Still, I don’t think you should be able to do that.”

  “Come on. I’ll show you how to do it.” Barry gestured for Ethan to come over, assuming a crouched stance.

  No matter how many times Barry ran through the instructions, Ethan couldn’t get it working. Sure, he had the technique to move mana into his pen with little effort, but creating that formation outside of his soul? That process was so alien, he could hardly wrap his head around the concept, let alone executing it. Hitting a roadblock like this should have been disheartening, but Ethan was fairly certain the thing keeping him down was the errors still in his class screen. Sure, Barry did not have his system fully unlocked yet, but it was apparently just under the surface. He wouldn't beat himself up too much about it.

  "This is what I need to work on." Ethan pressed his fingers into his chest and withdrew the pen. "There’s a lot I don’t understand about how this is supposed to work, but I think I’ve taken my first steps."

  Right, the magical soul pen. Barry finally dropped his stance, rolling his shoulders out. He looked as though he had been practicing all day and was exhausted.

  "Looks like we're already taking distinct paths, huh?"

  Ethan smiled to himself. He wasn't sure what Barry was to him. He couldn't tell if they would become long-term friends or if this was a situation of convenience. There was the possibility that he would be sent to another academy on the planet. But he decided not to think about that for now.

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  “Well, I'm going to go to bed. Try not to be too noisy.” Barry stretched out, finding his bedroll in one corner of the storehouse and plopped down onto it.

  Ethan stifled a laugh, looking around the storage room and trying to determine how tired he was. Although the sun was currently setting, it hadn't set completely. There was still a small amount of light flitting through the tiny window.

  Checking his schedule for the next day, Ethan realized that his class wasn't until later in the day. It happened at noon and didn't have a listed end time. More confusing than that, it didn't have a listed professor. That section was simply blank. But since the class started so late, he figured he could sleep in a bit. Besides, he wasn't tired. Thinking about the structure of his attributes was the only thing going through his mind.

  The foundation for his attributes had been laid, although he couldn't explain how he knew it. He knew it. He could feel something of a connection between those few attributes and his soul. It was as though the circles he had been drawing were more defined. He decided that it was more than a matter of repetition before the features of his system would unfurl like the system itself. He figured these parts would take time to come out.

  Making sure not to disturb his roommate, the scribe left his hovel, heading out into the brisk air of the developing night. He avoided places that seemed to have fewer guards. The people here were all friendly and chipper, but he knew better than to walk down a dark alleyway in the middle of the night. Instead, he found his way near the docks, where a small park with decent lighting provided benches and a pleasant view of the bay. Ethan withdrew his pen and began working the same way he had before. He used the technique Amelia taught him to draw mana into the nib and then drew his shapes.

  The X-13 system only had Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, and Wisdom. These were aspects of a person. But in Ethan’s mind, there were four more attributes of a being that were needed to fully describe them. Strength was fine in his mind. It described how hard a person could hit and how much they could lift. Easy enough. But Dexterity was problematic. In the X-13 system, it described both a person's ability to manipulate things with their hands and their general agility. The scribe split that into Dexterity and Agility. Next came Endurance, which was a mark of a person's energy levels or stamina and their physical endurance. He split those into Vigor for health and Endurance for stamina.

  Those were the easy attributes to address. As Ethan went through these, he created circles before him for each one. Before long, he had five circles hovering, each with different patterns along the outside. He still didn't completely understand what those patterns meant and had to hope there was an interpretive layer to all of this. Now he faced the two difficult attributes to describe. Intelligence and Wisdom covered a range of effects that could easily be divided into two each. As he looked up at his five circles, he wondered how many more he could handle.

  The Intelligence attribute increased a person's ability to cast magic. It didn't make them smarter or anything strange like that. It also deepened their connection with that magic, making it easier to cast. Ethan didn't like the name and thus changed it to Affinity, which seemed more pleasing. He drew the circle for that one and moved on. Wisdom increased the depth and breadth of a person's mana pool and also had some minor effects on resisting spells. Ethan drew a circle for this one and renamed it Mind. That left him with seven total attributes to work with. He began drawing and redrawing each as time passed in the park.

  The more the scribe committed these circles to the air, the more he felt it resonating in his chest. It was the repetition that convinced his system that this was what he wanted to happen. Although he could only feel it happen and had absolutely no feedback from the system itself, he just prayed his efforts would bear fruit. He shook out his hand, feeling the pain of gripping a pen so tightly for so long before leaning back against the bench. His butt and back were sore from sitting there for so many hours. Checking a nearby clock, he saw that it was one in the morning. Where had the time gone?

  Ethan took a leisurely stroll back to the shack, considering what he had learned from his session in the park. He felt the greatest connection with the Affinity and Mind attributes, making him think perhaps he was some kind of mage. All the physical ones, aside from Endurance, felt distant. When he drew them, it was harder to get the internal shapes just right, causing much frustration. When he arrived back at the shack, he paused at the door, taking a moment to practice a few more times.

  He hardly noticed the dark shape lurking nearby until it was close enough to fall under the light of a nearby lamppost. Ethan nearly jumped out of his skin when he spotted the dark, hooded figure that wore a midnight-black cloak, its face obscured beneath its folds.

  “I have that effect on people.” The figure leaned against the wall opposite the door and let out a heavy sigh.

  “Do you often lurk in the shadows outside a destitute student's shack?” Ethan might have been on guard, but it wasn't as though he could do anything. He couldn't even summon the basic barrier spell if he wanted to. Not that it would help.

  “That depends on the prey I'm stalking. You may call me Silvain, although others in the academies would have you use a string of honorifics that become more annoying with each utterance. My nephew placed you in the Anomalous Materials class, and I had to come see why. It's interesting to know someone could be so close to the source and yet be so clueless."

  Although Ethan wanted to consider the implications of this guy being related to the other bigwig who had put him in that class, he was too afraid. The inner politics of the academies still eluded him.

  “You may stop cowering whenever you wish. I am bound by oath never to harm members of the Academy, but know this: several people have put their faith in you. I just don't see it. Perhaps I can't see anything that isn't death and destruction.” The hooded man pushed off against the wall, pausing for a long moment. He turned, flashing dark eyes from under that hood. "Please prove me wrong."

  As the figure departed, Ethan was left with only his thoughts and quaking knees. He took a steady breath, pressing his badge against the brass plate on the door and gaining entrance. Barry was snoring away. After locking the door, the scribe climbed into his bedroll without removing his robes. He needed a better understanding of what exactly was going on here if he wanted to survive.