Reborn With a Magic System

Damion's question caught everyone at the council table off guard. Did he have a say in his own future? Of course Damion had a say. Even 15-year-olds when transferring to a magic school had a say in which school they would go to, though most choose the school closest to them. Damion was 18 and already a licensed adventurer. If he did not want to attend a magic academy, no one could force him.

"Are you saying you don't want to go to one of the magic academies?" asked Chairman Hathaway.

"Not at all," Damion answered. "I'm aware that what I know and understand about magic is limited and am eager to learn more. But I want to make sure I go to the best place for me to learn and I know very little about any of the magic academies."

"Then perhaps some one-on-one interviews with each of the headmasters is in order," Chairman Hathaway offered. "That way you can access what each of the academies have to offer you. However, first I would like to officially test your magic talent and affinity."

Chairman Hathaway motioned with his hand and from the shadows emerged a man holding a box. The man quickly approached Damion and opened the box when he reached Damion's side.

Inside the box Damion saw two crystals about the size of his fist. One was clear and the other was greenish. Both looked similar to the one Dean Thorn had all those years ago, but these seemed to be of higher quality.

"Take the greenish one in your hand first, do not channel any mana, just let it probe you. It will test your magic talent," Chairman Hathaway said.

Damion did as instructed. Almost immediately after holding the greenish crystal in his palm Damion felt the crystal send a pulse of mana through his arm and to his magic core. After the pulse reached his core it was reflected back down his arm and returned to the crystal.

When the pulse returned to the crystal, the crystal projected an image into the air for everyone to see. The entire room, even Ms. Teft, gasped when they saw the result. In the air hovered a large S with a plus sign after it. S+ Rank talent. This was something none of them had ever seen before.

Damion of course knew from the Magic System that he had EX Rank talent. This left Damion with the question, was EX Rank the same as S+ Rank or was S+ the highest Rank this crystal could test?

"Quickly, the other crystal," Chairman Hathaway cried out as he regained his senses.

Doing as instructed, Damion took the other crystal in his hand and let it send its own pulse up his arm to his magic core. Just like the first crystal when the process finished it projected the result into the air, once again causing the people in the room to gasp.

Ice S+.

"I think I can speak for everyone here when I say that as much as we had expected an S Rank Ice affinity, seeing S+ Rank talent and affinity is shocking. Mage Teft was quite right in believing you are the most talented mage of this generation."

"Yes, quite shocked," Damion could hear Mage Bianco saying as she eyed him closely.

"I believe Damion should be excused while we turn to the matter of Dean Thorn. I will be happy to coordinate appointments with Damion and the headmasters for them to discuss the benefits of their schools with Damion tomorrow."

"Yes, that will be acceptable," Chairman Hathaway said. "Mage Wells, you may go. I'm sure Mage Teft will be in contact with you soon."

Not needing to be told twice, Damion stood up and headed out of the council chamber. Once Damion arrived home he found his parents and little sister still had not been there yet. Remembering what Ms. Teft told him about some of the shelters, Damion tried not to be worried, but it was difficult.

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Given that he was home alone, Damion decided to take a moment to see what changes the Magic System underwent with its upgrade. Damion saw the experience needed to level up, now from level 2 to level 3, read 2,900/10,000. He guessed that much experience would take him a while, though it was good he was already more than a quarter of the way there.

On the Magic System status screen Damion saw he now had two new options, [Inventory] and [Equipment]. Damion quickly selected [Inventory] in his mind and a grided screen opened up. At the top of the grid read 0/20. Damion instantly realized what this was. His own personal storage inventory. Even though it only had 20 slots, it would still be incredibly useful.

Damion quickly grabbed a plate off the kitchen counter and started to figure out how to put it in his inventory. Once Damion realized all he needed to do was ask the Magic System to store the item or to bring the item out, making use of the inventory was a piece of cake.

While playing with the inventory, Damion found it worked mostly as he expected it would. Each item he stored took up one slot, though identical items, such as the fistful of spoons he took from a drawer to test how the inventory worked, would stack in one slot and had a number added to the corner of their slot, indicating how many there were. Damion also found that he could store something that was inside something. He was easily able to put all his gear into his backpack and store the backpack.

Of course, the downside of having everything in his backpack was that he had to take the whole thing out if he wanted one item inside of his pack. The one thing Damion did not test was if there was a limit to the size of what he was storing. Could he, for instance, store a ground car or even a house in his inventory? Conventional wisdom told Damion no, but this was a function of the Magic System, so he thought he might test the theory out later.

As much as Damion liked this new ability of the Magic System, it still was not as powerful as Arica's spatial affinity. Arica could store dozens of Ferocious or Demonic Beasts and their parts, Damion was limited to 20 slots. Even if he could save slots with identical items, the limitation was still a hinderance.

The other new menu option the Magic System had was the [Equipment] menu. Damion opened it and just as he suspected, it showed an outline of a man with hollowed out areas where different pieces of equipment could be placed to be equipped. Damion did not want to try "equipping" his normal armor, for fear that he would not be able to get it back, but it did bring to Damion's mind that the Magic System might also sell gear for these gear slots.

With the thought in mind that the Magic System might be able to sell him gear that could be equipped by the system, Damion navigated to the [Shop] page to see if he had any new options. There were now several different sections, [Upgrades], [Items] and [Spells].

Damion opened up the menus in turn to take a look.

[Upgrades]

[Awaken a new Magic Affinity - 50 Credits]

[Increase Magic Power - 10 Credits]

[Increase Magic Regeneration - 10 Credits]

[Increase Mana Capacity - 10 Credits]

[Increase Magic Affinity - 1,000 Credits]

[Random Attribute Potion - 50 Credits]

[Strength Potion - 100 Credits]

[Dexterity Potion - 100 Credits]

[Vitality Potion - 100 Credits]

[Intelligence Potion - 100 Credits]

[Increase Inventory Slots (10) – 100 Credits]

[Increase Spell Slots (5) - 1,000 Credits]

The [Upgrades] shop menu was mostly the same as the original menu options, with the addition of being able to buy more inventory slots and spell slots, which Damion thought would be very useful in the future.

[Items]

[Health Potion]

[Mana Potion]

[Attribute Anti-Regression Potion - 100,000,000]

[Purchase Equipment Artifact]

[Purchase Accessory Artifact]

[Purchase Utility Artifact]

[Purchase Weapon Artifact]

Under the [Items] shop menu Damion found he could buy items for the equipment slots, as well as health and mana potions and a very interesting potion that Damion hoped would do what he guessed.

'System, what does the Attribute Anti-Regression Potion do?'

{The Attribute Anti-Regression Potion prevents hosts attributes from permanently falling. Attributes will still drop due to injury but will always be fully restored once host is healed.}

The Magic System told Damion exactly what he thought and hoped would be the case, so he quickly opened up the final new menu.

[Spells]

[Random Passive Spell - 50 Credits]

[Random Active Spell - 100 Credits]

Being able to buy spells from the store was something Damion had never considered before. The prices seemed reasonable, but Damion had to wonder what his chances of getting a useful spell were. Passive spells had no limit to the number he could learn, but if he purchased active spells, there was a limit and if he ended up with spells he didn't like or couldn't use, he might have to resort to buying more spell slots.