Valedictorian

I put the spare point from that dreadful achievement into Arcana. The difference between an attribute of 4 and an attribute of 5 was the greatest I'd felt so far. Perhaps it was more profound because Arcana was an attribute that Earth humans normally didn't have. I'd started from 0 in this, unlike my other Mind attributes.

Earlier levels of the attribute had allowed me to think, for the lack of a better term, in multiple lanes at once. It made it easier to both focus on the sigil and the words, even as the complexity of the spell increased. Now that I was ascending near to the normal human limits, I could almost, but not quite, detect a second self in my own mind. It, or should I say 'I' didn't feel like a stranger, or not even like a distinct entity, but almost like a second, autonomous part of my mind that would be willing to work with me to cast spells. All of this was, of course, only possible because of my Wizard ability that let me raise my attributes by one point over my Mind cap. I shook my head and returned to reality. The, let's call him Shadow Me, wasn't actually interfering or disrupting my concentration in any way, but even so I felt like I had to physically acknowledge his presence somehow.

"Something wrong?" Anna said. "Talk to me when you get Arcana 5. It's different, but not bad," I said. "Cool. So, I guess this is where we part," she said. "Huh?" I said and she pointed to the door that we were standing next to. "Door number five. That's your fancy arcana valedictorian door, isn't it?" she said.

It was strange noticing the differences that came from people with artificially high knowledge scores. In Anna's case it was her memory. She'd been an intelligent, driven and successful woman back on Earth, but she'd forget at least half of the games we'd planned if we didn't remind her. I had only mentioned all the doors that my quests applied to back when we were looking for each others rooms two hallways ago, but she remembered it from out of, what, forty numbers we had among ourselves immediately upon seeing the door.

"Well, so long as you have a door to go through," I said. "I'll just take a challenge room, nothing obvious for me here, and besides," she said and pointed to the pack of formerly mind-controlled people. They were starting to come to an agreement and pointing towards us with increased agitation. "Yeah. Alright. Good luck, be safe," I said. "Same to you. Keep your head on your shoulders and you'll be fine," she said.

The mob- which was apparently what they'd decided they would form- had somehow managed to find a leader among themselves. The heavyset middle aged man in a short-sleeved flannel shirt and jeans yelled out:

"Grab 'em! They killed Mr. Hock to leave us trapped here!" "Bastards! We're taking them down with us!" another called.

I looked at Anna and quickly her a tight hug, and we went through our separate doors.

It'd been a while since I'd been alone. Rationally, that meant I was in more danger and couldn't rely on my friends for rescue. But all I could feel was a sense of relief. I was only responsible for myself now.

And then I entered the room. While the illusion had been straining for a while, this was the first room that fully broke the lie that we were in a school of any Earthly type. The room was perfectly circular and it had seating around a central circle, going up arena style, leaving only a ten foot radius circle of sand-covered floor in the middle. At the center of this circle there was a table with two chairs on either end. All the furniture- the table, the chairs, the seating- were made out of intensely purple hardwood. Oh right, probably worth mentioning, the light in this room was coming from crystals floating in mid-air above the arena. I steadied myself and I walked toward the center, ready for whatever nonsense the Tower was about to throw my way.

"Look at that, boss, just you and me, huh?" Chum said. I chuckled. "Just you and me pal, and I can't exactly disappoint you any more than when we started," I said. "Hell, Boss, you've been plenty disappointing since I got back. The guy back there was your first murder? Even with all the time I was out?" he said. "Shut up and follow, Chum," I said.

Even so, I did not expect what happened when I approached the table.

I recognized the tear in reality as a portal, and it appeared just above the chair opposite to me in the arena. The creature that appeared there was not like any of the monsters I'd seen in the Tower, with the possible exception of Adam. But where Adam had been naked and seemed flayed by his lack of skin, this creature was instead garbed in long, purple silk robes with golden embroidery of arcane sigils. It wore a grandiose wizard's hat, indeed it seemed to defy gravity by how the floppy, unsupported rim stood only slightly bowed three feet off its head.

But when it spoke, it spoke with a soft, sonorous voice, just barely more masculine than feminine and it said:

"Welcome, wise valedictorian of the Tower of His making. In the infinite wisdom of our Architect, I am Gentle Instruction Homunculus #79, and you will be pleased to take my test."

It turned to me then, and I could see his face then. That's where the comparison to Adam really hit. While there were still elements of the flayed aspect in its face, much of it was covered by what appeared to be synthetic cloth, rubber and even metal mesh. It had a patchwork of weaves in place of its skin, aside from a few inches of raw flesh around its yellow eyes and parchlipped mouth.

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Alright, I could play the game. I was now alone. I'd started tilting into the dramatic the day before, when faced with the denizens of the Tower. It felt weird around other humans, like I was not being myself. But without that pressure. I could immerse myself into it completely. Just like playing an NPC in a tabletop game.

"Speak then, creature, and tell me your masters will!" I said.

"His will is but that you, or else one of your fellow wizards, become the greatest hero of your provincial planet, dear Alex. It is for this purpose that you are tested and improved. In his magnanimous charity he shares his mana and knowledge to shape you into a man who will truly Matter in the Multiverse," it said. The fucker. "Truly his kindness knows no bounds. Now what nightmare torment am I to be exposed to next?" I said. "Speak not so unkindly of his gifts, for they are bounty. Lay aside your burdens, for there are no torments in this room, only a Choice," the Homunculus said. "Is one of the options certain death?" I said. "Well- I mean- You cannot," the Homunculus said. "Right. So what are the choices," I said.

The creature had stopped its grandiose gesticulations when I'd stumped it with my question. Of course certain death was one of the options. When was it ever not? And yet, for the moment the creature was frozen in the midst of raising its hands and bowing its head in reverence to the asshole who'd put me in this situation.

"A-ah, a wise question, as expected from His favored class. It is true that one of the choices is likely to lead you to certain death, but just as clear that His instruction insofar has made you wise enough to pick the right option now," it said. "Stalling," I said. "I would never dare do such a thing, for His Heroes only require the gentlest and most efficatious instruction," it said. I said nothing. It looked uncomfortable. Which I was enjoying a lot, because it would look terrifying otherwise. "I-," it said. I still said nothing. "The choices. Right. Behold!" it said and raised its hands above its head.

The lit crystals swirled above the arena, filling it with kaleidoscopic light. All around the arena the seats were filled with glowing, crystalline cores, each with a symbol above it, each recognizable as the sigil of an arcane spell. By my estimation, these appeared to be second tier spells, most of schools I didn't recognize.

"The choice is simple, O young wizard. You may pick any of these spells if you are wise enough to learn them, but each time you do, you reduce the remaining doors you can walk through by one. If ever the number is below one, the door on the other side shall seal and you shall be stuck here even as the challenge ends," it said.

And that was a pretty clever test. There was the option to just walk through the door. That would certainly leave me with enough options to reach the end of this challenge, so long as it was at all possible. On the other hand, spells. Out of my modest repertoire, four spells were almost entirely responsible for my continued survival. Without Invisible Barrier, Conjure Icicle, Conjure Pseudoportal and Greasefire I'd be dead even if I'd stuck close to Artemis and never left the Guild. Another spell of that level of utility would be incredible.

"Any trick to it, Chum?" I said. "Wait, that's cheating, there's supposed to be only one of you here," the Homunculus said. "Cheating? Cheating!?" Chum said, and his voice was so screechy, loud and high-pitched I half expected him to explode, "Does this jerk-off Master of yours not know how goddamned familiar contracts work? Does he want to take it up with fucking H-E-hockey sticks? I should sue!" "A- ah! A familiar. That- that should be fine then," the homunculus said. "Fucking amateurs, yeah, kid, I think there's a trick. Not sure about how this whole narrative system works. Why don't you take it from the top," Chum said.

And I explained to him exactly how the test scores, top scorer and valedictorian quests worked.

"Damn, there's something," he said, "Probably related to how you can't fail two quests at the same time." "Wait, you can't?" I said. "I mean sure, many ways. If you die, become mindless, give up your immortal soul, that sort of stuff. But you shouldn't be able to fail a quest by doing a different quest," he said.

I almost felt the gears in my head turning, until I felt a tug from my shadow self. I thought of the Journal and the quests and-

"The physical quest. I can't complete it if I can't get to the challenge room, but that should trigger before I can't get to the exit," I said. "Huh. That's pretty smart, actually. You'd give up the chance to complete that quest, and who knows what that'd do, but you'd definitely get a warning for when it's almost too late," Chum said. "Greed is good?" I said. "Greed is so fucking good," Chum said. "Wait, no," the Homunculus said.

So I walked up to one of the crystal things. Not knowing what else to do I bopped it with my crystal staff. It resonated in a sound that was almost a voice, enough so to sound like an incantation. I heard the incantation, saw the sigil and I copied both to my spellbook.

"Hold on, boss, youse probably going to want to fill up your selection of schools. So's when you get level 15 you can pick any of the specializations," Chum said. "That's a good damn point, Chum, how do I do it?" I said. "Oh, just focus up," he said, and I did, and I felt a vibe, probably through a mixture of my high Arcana and my Arcane Theory skill. I couldn't tell what school which spell was, but I could tell which where from schools that I hadn't seen before. I kept running around and copying spells until I heard scratching from the Journal.

Log

Quest Failed: Physical Make-Up work You have failed a special quest. You have received a penalty Trait. Trait acquired: Nerd.

Traits: General Anxiety Disorder (Mild) Vengeful

Nerd: You have sacrificed your physical growth in exchange for arcane knowledge. Foolish? Wise? Only time will tell. Regardless, you can no longer increase your Physique, Agility or Stamina attributes through leveling up or practice.

Increasing my Stamina was the only way I knew how to increase my hit points. Which were pathetically low. Fuckity-fuck-fuck.

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