"What is it?" Aiden asked, wiping some of the icing off his fork.

Lexie sighed. "Just scroll down a little on my screen. You should see it."

He nodded and while Lexie focused on eating her cake, Aiden went back to reading her system screen. She knew the second he saw it because his entire body stiffened and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

"I don't understand," he murmured like he was talking to himself.

"Me either," Lexie said, almost casually.

"I don't..." He shook his head again, trailing off. "What on earth are these...Special System Points? And why did you get ten of them under the [Hero] affixation?"

"Again, I have no clue. I'm guessing this is something that has never happened before too."

"Never heard of it." His eyes met hers, their hazel depths murky with his confusion. "I've never heard of anyone getting two roles either. I mean it's most likely a system error and the system notes that as well but…" He didn't seem to know what to say next, only exhaling. "I just don't know, honeybee. So much about your affixation, and your abilities, simply do not make sense."

She nodded. She felt the same way. And now she was even more worried that it had to do with the ISTS and being a Chosen, whatever that meant. The welcome manual had mentioned something about her doing her 'civic duty' once she was of age, but what did that even mean? What was she supposed to do now that she'd awakened?

"So now what?" she asked her father. "I have two role pre-affixations and an abnormally high level in two disciplines. What do I do with that?"

Aiden gave himself a few seconds to think about it, then he shrugged weakly. "Well, I suppose you can do anything you want at this point. You can pick whichever role you want–"

"[Researcher]," Lexie said immediately. "That's what I want."

Her father looked like he wanted to argue but he nodded in resignation. "In that case, I suppose you could just continue with that pre-affixation and ignore the other one."

"I can do that?" It was what she'd planned on doing anyway, but she wanted to make sure it was feasible. "The [Hero] thing isn't going to cause me any problems?"

Aiden shook his head. "Not unless you affix it, which I definitely wouldn't advise you to do just yet, with any of your pre-affixations. In the meantime, I'll poke around, and see if maybe I can figure out what's going on with your awakening. Because it's very unusual and it worries me."

Lexie nodded slowly. She was also mildly worried, but she was more worried that by looking into it, Aiden might stumble upon information about the ISTS. Should she try to dissuade him from poking around?

On the other hand, she also wanted to know what was going on, because so far, she was lost and just going off feelings and assumptions. And if Aiden found out on his own, and told her, she wouldn't be punished for breaking ISTS rules, because she hadn't technically revealed her association with the ISTS, right? So it was a win-win.

Also, there was no way for her to realistically tell him not to look into such a weird situation without seeming suspicious.

"What school do you think I should apply to?" she asked instead. "Arcadia?" She had a list ready of course, but she wanted to hear Aiden's opinion.

Worry still rumpled his forehead, but he seemed to accept her change of subject. "Arcadia has a good card magic program. Donington has a better one, with fewer core classes on their syllabus. Come to think of it, Victoire has a good research program too."

"Victoire?" Lexie frowned. "The hero academy you attended?"

"Yes. As I told you before, they do take on a handful of scholars on a case-by-case basis to conduct individual research, just like I did. It's great because they're quite hands-off with it and you get tons of funding to do as much research as your heart desires."

Lexie's interest was peaked. That did sound more appealing than sitting in dark rooms and studying. "But you said it was really hard to get into that program."

"It is. For normal people." He gave her a wry smile. "But you are a Level 7 scholar, and a Level 7 mage. Not including the fact that you have dual roles. I'm sure Headmaster Journeyman would be very interested in that." He chuckled, as though he'd said a private joke. "In other words, yes it's hard to get in, but I don't think you'll have a problem. The only issue is, you would have to be willing to do [Hero] work on some level."

"Oh." That put a damper on things. She didn't plan on doing [Hero] work at all. Still, she wanted to find out more. "You think they'll take me even though my research is in Card Magic and how it can help mundane populations?"

Her father nodded. "I don't see why not. My research was quite obscure and controversial as well. Plus I heard through the grapevine that they were looking to expand their research program into a full-fledged campus apart from their [Hero] program, but I'm not sure how far they've gotten with that yet."

"Hmm." Lexie chewed the inside of her lips. She'd never even considered Victoire because of its reputation as an elite breeding ground for [heroes]. And she'd wanted to stay away from anything heroic until her pre-affixation changed.

But now that she had both pre-affixations, that might be an option to consider. It was just difficult because she'd spent the entire year eschewing anything remotely heroic, and didn't feel suited to heroism at all. So now it was like reopening her mind to a path that she'd immediately shut away long ago, and that was difficult.

"You don't have to figure it out right now," Aiden said, clearly seeing the struggle on her face. "We'll look through and create the list of schools later."

"I already have a list," she said. She'd ranked them based on their commitment to pioneering magical discovery and also their proximity to home. Arcadia was currently number four on her list. It was indeed a good research college, but they were a little small and their funding was limited.

"Good," Aiden said, not pursuing the matter. "It looks like you've figured it out. Let me know if you need my help. Also, have you picked a starter deck yet?"

Lexie shook her head. She'd spent time researching decks online and in the World Library, but she wasn't super excited about most of her options. Most decks were lame. Perhaps she would just stick to her Party Planner's deck for now, until she felt a pull one way or another.

Or until she made her own deck. That was an option that she had been working towards too, making a Lexie Deck full of all the things that she might need.

But she needed to make the cards first.

Another thing to add to her seemingly never-ending to-do list.

Aiden smiled like he could read her mind. "I understand. But again, there's no rush. You have another few weeks before you even have to send out applications."

"But the earlier the better isn't it?" Lexie said. "As most of the academies work on a rolling admission basis."

"Most, but not all," he'd said. "Well, just let me know if you need my help with that too. I can provide insight on some of the cards that are...well, let's just say there might be more to them than meets the eye."

Lexie nodded. "Thanks, Dad."

"Of course, bumble bee."

After a few more bites of cake, she helped Aiden clear the table and finally moved to her room to lay on her bed and process the day.

In a nutshell, she had good news and bad news.

Bad news, base mana was pretty low. Barely above what she had as a pre-awakened kid.

The good news was that her intellect was high and it would help her get into any research school she wanted. She was pretty much guaranteed to become a [Researcher] and then she could gain Travel Points. She thought she would be happy being one step closer to her goal but she felt…well, she wasn't actually sure what she felt.

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She supposed the closest feeling was how she felt on that day when she'd received her admission to MIT. A sense of accomplishment but also a sense of loss. Loss of what? That was what she couldn't figure out.

She mulled over it for a few seconds and then realized what it was.

The loss of an option. She was more than a little upset that she'd never had a real choice.

She'd been locked into the card thing from day one, and while she liked cards, she'd been looking forward to maybe attempting to explore more magical techniques with spells or unbound arts. Or heck maybe even something physical although the idea didn't really appeal to her. But she simply just wanted options. Or at least the illusion of choice.

Over the months, she had toyed around with spells here and there and while she got the hang of it, using spells always wiped her out because of her mana capacity. She figured that when she fully awakened as an S, or A, or even B-Rank, then she could do more experimenting with spells. But complex spellwork, which most combative spells were, was going to be difficult as a C-Rank Mage. And unbound magic was impossible.

So she had no other choice but cards. The System had pretty much decided from day one. It was frustratingly similar to how her parents had planned her entire life on Earth 2. She felt like she was simply following a script someone else had written and she truly had no idea what she herself wanted to do.

Even with this research thing. She should feel accomplished that she'd been able to get that pre-affixation through all her hard work, but she also felt a little hollow about that too. Was her becoming a [Researcher] truly an act of rebellion against the system's initial pre-affixation? Or was she just clinging to what she was familiar with already? Sticking to the prison she knew, rather than risking the one she didn't.

"There's a difference between the prisons others make for us, and the ones we make for ourselves. The former sucks, but the latter is a lot harder to break out of."

Her Grandpa Morris' words still rung in her head from time to time, and right now, it felt like an accusation. She'd been through so much since she got here, but she felt like she hadn't changed all that much at all.

She was still the same old Lexie stuck in her cage.

She sighed.

Well, no use in stressing out over it now, and her thoughts would simply depress her more. The choice had been made and she had to live with it. Plus at least she liked card magic and saw the potential for its expansion. She was also choosing to follow this path because it was the most straightforward way to make it back home. That was that.

Is it? She thought to herself. When was the last time you even thought about going home? Is that still your goal? Have you taken the time to think about who and what you're truly doing all this for?

Or are you simply still lost?

She didn't know the answer to those questions either. But what other option did she have? She hadn't tried anything else because there was nothing else that made sense to try. The simplest way to access the ISTS was by becoming a [Researcher] and she needed the ISTS to even just contact her brother, to let him know that she wasn't really dead.

Logan, she decided. That was who she was doing this for.

The melancholy didn't leave, but maybe it was just the highs and lows of today that were making her feel that way. She'd probably process better in the morning. Right now her head felt like a moth ball rolling and picking up stray thoughts. She needed to distract herself and focus on something else.

She decided to take the time to look through the school options given by the system which had helpfully organized everything into a ranked list of the best card programs. Just like Aiden said, Donington was on top, located three hours North of Arcadia. The second school on the list was Lantian Academy from District 6. The third school was all the way in District 3. There was no mention of Victoire, which made sense since their program was probably not as official and was on a case-by-case basis so Lexie was pretty sure they had a separate application for that.

Lexie began glancing through the general application. To her pleasant surprise, it didn't look as tedious as applying back on Earth 2. The System already had most of her information and all she had to do was tick relevant boxes of what she wanted to get forwarded to which school. Some schools had an essay portion where they wanted her to provide short write-ups about why she'd picked those schools in particular, but that didn't take a ton of time either. She just had to do some quick research on the school and then write a hundred words tops. Easy. She could finish the entire application in less than an hour if she wanted to. But not today. Maybe tomorrow.

When she was done with that, she opened up her card inventory. There was now a button there, blinking to alert her to choose her Starter Deck. Underneath it, it warned her that she would not be able to level up as a card mage without choosing a starter deck and also informed her of the advantages of having that deck.

Lexie clicked on the advantages portion and the following list popped out:

YOU ARE A LEVEL 7 CARD USER

UPON CHOOSING STARTER DECK, YOU MAY CLAIM THE FOLLOWING ATTRIBUTES:

RULE OF SIX – HOLD SIX CARDS IN SPECIAL SLOTS OUTSIDE OF YOUR INVENTORY. THESE SIX CARDS FORM A MINI DECK.

QUICK DRAW – ONCE A CARD HAS BEEN INCLUDED IN 'RULE OF SIX', IT LOCKS ONTO YOUR MANA CLOUD, REDUCING BOTH ACTIVATION TIME AND REFRACTORY PERIOD.

ACE UNLOCK – UNLOCK SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES OF VARIOUS CARDS WITH RELEVANT MARKINGS

MORE REWARDS ONCE YOU LEVEL UP

Well. That was nice to know at least.

Lexie closed out the page and then opened another new section titled System Quests. Once she opened that up, she saw that it had been divided neatly into two different portions:

[Hero Quests]

[Researcher Quests]

Great. She got double the work. But Aiden said she didn't have to bother about that unless she ended up affixing both, which she didn't see herself doing for the foreseeable future. Pre-affixed people got quests too, but there were far fewer penalties for non-completion and those penalties usually had to do with losing your pre-affixed status. Which Lexie was largely okay with when it came to being a [Hero].

Lexie sighed and started thinking about what she would want for her starter deck. She would want the deck to be flexible and have things she could use to defend herself. She would also want to be able to do research with it one way or another.

Where did she even start with making a deck like that when she could barely make her own cards? There was so much work to do and so little time.

But her mind was too much of a mess today to think clearly. Instead of doing deck research, she went to something familiar. She materialized and activated the <Party Hopper> card, eyeing the cartoon frog. She'd been working on this card for nearly a year now with only some progress in adjusting his movements. She was trying to get him to do a cartwheel flip combo, just for fun, but it wasn't exactly working out. By her calculations, it should, but the creature was proving stubborn.

"You going to cooperate with me today?" she asked him.

The frog stared blankly.

Maybe she should move on. It wasn't working out. But on a deeper level, she didn't like leaving anything unfinished and she didn't like admitting defeat. She was determined to figure out this frog card if it was the last thing she did.

It was while working on it that she heard the strange noises outside her window.

She looked over in time to find Xena, perched on her windowsill waving at her.

Lexie raised an eyebrow, then got up and hurried over, opening the window. "You know the front door works right?" she asked the other girl.

"Yeah," Xena replied, in a weird tone as she glanced around the room as though a boogey man might jump out at any second. "I just didn't want your dad to see me."

"Why not?"

"I don't want him to tell Emma I'm here."

Lexie's head cocked. "Are you two fighting?"

"I need to come in. Are you going to get out of the way or what?"

Lexie raised her eyebrows. Well, someone's in a mood.

Nevertheless, she swallowed her smart retort because she could sense from Xena's franticness that something serious was going on with her.

Lexie moved to the side and Xena finally crawled in and turned to her. "Sorry. It's been a crappy day."

"Yeah, I bet." Lexie sighed. "Look Zee, it's not the end of the world."

She stared at her in shock. "You know?"

"No, but I can pretty much guess. You didn't get a ranking did you?" When she didn't answer, Lexie continued. "It's completely fine and I know it sounds hypocritical and crappy coming from me, but there are plenty of things you can do without a ranking. Especially you. Heck, you have nearly 20K followers on Stylish so it's definitely something you can scale up into a career. And once you start getting sponsorships then–"

Xena did the oddest thing then. She snorted, loudly and then slapped a hand over her mouth.

"You think that's what this is about?" she said, voice muffled and her eyes a little wild. "That I got unranked?"

"Um…" Yeah, Lexie did think that but watching Xena's reaction she was less sure.

Xena's laugh faded away to bitterness and her hand dropped. "I wish I'd been a mundane. That would have been far better than what I got."

"What's worse than mundane?" Lexie wondered aloud.

"See for yourself."

XENA COLE WOULD LIKE TO SHARE HER SCREEN WITH YOU. ACCEPT? [YES] [NO]

Lexie clicked on yes without thinking.

Name: Xena Cole (Birth Name to be revealed on System Day- Xena Lightlark)

Race: Human

Age: 11

Mana: S-Rank (Open to View More)

Intelligence: Unranked

Physical: Unranked

Mana

Class: Unbound Mage (Choose from Class Menu)

Subclass: Undeclared

Level: 1

Optimal Mana Range: 1000-1200

Affinity: Light Magic

Sub Affinity: N/A

Mana Cap: 1200/1200

Lexie's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she read trying to make sense of what she was reading. "Xena Lightlark?"

Xena snorted again. "Yeah, that's the exact face I made."

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