When Lock stepped onto the plane, he noticed that the plane had a few large Magic Circles on it.
“These Magic Circles are used to protect us from flying monsters, you never know when a Sky Crow may attack.” As he was looking, a middle age man came up to him and said.
“That huge one above the plane is a Transparent Magic Circle when magic is used it can turn the entire plane invisible.” The man continued with some pride in his voice.
Lock listened with interest to the middle-aged man, as the man continued to explain about the Circles as they walked into the plane. However, after he started going too deep into explaining the Circles such as the history behind them, Lock started to get bored.
When they arrived in the plane Lock gave his thanks to the man and quickly walked to his seat after.
“Hahaha, James seemed like you scared another one away.” A middle age man in blue came up and hung his shoulder around the man who was just talking to Lock.
“It's not my fault that Magic Circles are so interesting. So Mr-i’m-too-cool-to-be-early what’s your excuse this time?” James sulked
“Hmmm, give me some time to think about my excuse. Let’s go take a seat first in the meantime.” The man in blue said as he walked towards his seat.
As James and the man in blue walked to their seats, they noticed Lock sitting at a window seat staring blankly outside the plane. They also found out that their seats were right beside Lock. Each row had 9 seats 3 on each part of the row.
“Yo, it seems like we meet again.” James approached Lock with a friendly smile on his face. But unfortunately for him, Lock was too busy in his own world and ignored him.
“Hahaha, James why not let the kid have his own space. He seems to be very deep in thought.” The man in blue said hearty manner.
“Fine.” James responded dejectedly. The two of them then started to put their belongings in the compartments provided and sat in their seats.
“Welcome on board Seria Airlines, we are pleased to serve you today on this 10-hour flight from Estria to Syria. Please remember to….. ” The captain's voice rang throughout the plane going over the flight details and safety measures in case of an emergency.
“We will be taking off shortly, please remember to put on your safety belt….” Halfway through the talk Lock was starting to fall asleep, when he suddenly noticed his neighbor seating next to him. And made eye contact.
“Hi, I didn’t get to introduce myself just now, I’m James. You?” James started the conversation by introducing himself with a friendly smile and reached out for a handshake.
“I’m Lock, nice to meet you.” Lock replied and shook his hand.
“Hey, I wanted to ask yo…..” James was interrupted by the sound of the engine of the plane taking off.
The man in blue at James’s side could not contain his laughter as he burst out laughing as the plane took off.
A few minutes later when the plane reached cruising altitude, James straightened his non-existent tie and continued as if nothing happened.
“Hey, I wanted to ask you if, you are a student attending Seria Swordsmen Academy?”
“Yes, I am currently starting my first year in the Academy.” Lock responded.
“What’s your Sub Major? Have you chosen one yet?” James asked with a hint of anticipation in his eyes.
A Sub Major is like a minor profession, most people would have at least one, such as Smithing, Inspector, Pharmacy. These minor professions can also become a main profession if one was good enough, these minor professions can also be graded the same as main professions. Of course, these minor professions would be a lower grade compared to their main professions.
“I have not chosen a Sub Major yet. But I’m considering either Inspector which can help me identify artifacts or Smithing which I can use to repair if my sword gets damaged.” Lock replied after thinking for a while. He completely forgot about this as he was too caught up in figuring out what to do about his relationship the past few weeks.
“Well, how about choosing Inscription? Did you see those Magic Circles on the plane? Those were created using inscriptions. I’m currently the head Inscription department at Seria Swordsmen Academy.” James said with a look of pride on his face.
“No thanks, I mean no offense, drawing circles all day in a room is not really my thing. But I find the aspect of being able to draw circles to unleash spells to be cool.” Lock rejected him almost immediately as he felt that being an inscriptionist would not fit him as a swordsman.
“Well, it was worth a shot. To be honest with you, the number of students selecting Inscription as a Sub Major has been decreasing to the point where we would have to shut it down if there are less than 10 students choosing it this year.” James said with sadness in his tone and couldn’t help but let out a sigh of grief, at the fact that he would have to leave the Academy if he did not manage to get at least 10 students.
“James, Inscriptionist are sought out all over the world for the work they do. Especially an Inscription Expert 8th rank like yourself. It’s just that, there is no one in that Academy full of muscle heads able to see the true worth of your skills.” The man in blue patted James on the back to comfort him.
“Thanks, Alex.” James said gratefully to his good friend.
“If they really kicked you out, I can help you get a place in Estria Profession School we will definitely appreciate your skills and years of experience. The School has also been missing a good teacher for the Inscription department.” Alex the man in blue said with a smile on his face and a hint of anticipation in his eyes.
Academies are different from Schools, in the sense that Academies have more freedom but are more strict. Academies give students a 7 year period to complete a set of tests, usually 5. For each test, they complete they would rise a level and would have more access to the Academy’s resources. Students are given the freedom to choose when to take the test, if a student was to complete 5 tests in a year, they can graduate immediately or choose to stay in the Academy to use their resources to further themselves for the remaining years.
Of course, there are small missions given to each student every year, if they are unable to complete these missions, they will be expelled.
Schools follow a more linear track where students have to take a test every year for 7 years to test their knowledge. If they were to fail this test, they would be given a few chances which differed depending on the school. An example would be Estria Profession School where students are allowed to fail a maximum of 3 times. Failing would lead to the student repeating the year again.
“I really appreciate it Alex, but the Headmaster of the Academy helped me out before and I promised that I would be a lecturer at the Academy as long as he needed me.” James was quite determined in his tone.
As the two of them were walking down memory lane, Lock took out his phone and headphones getting ready to zone out for the remainder of the flight. When he noticed James taking out an electronic tablet and started drawing on it with a special pen made for drawing on electronic tablets.
James, then focused on drawing, isolating everything out. Even Alex was quietly observing him drawing on the tablet.
Complex symbols and patterns started to appear on the tablet, every so often James would erase a portion and redraw the exact same thing, at least to Lock. Every move the Inscriptionist made was elegant and graceful, his face wearing a serene expression which was neither too forced nor too relaxed, as if he was playing the piano. Before Lock even knew it, he was mesmerized by his ‘performance’, to the point where even he who did not have much interest in Inscriptions was tempted to learn.
When James placed his pen down to indicate he was done, he had an annoyed look on his face. “How should I integrate the Steel property to this? Hmmm, well I’m hungry now so let's take a break.”
When James turned to take a quick look at his new young friend, he saw the spark of interest this fellow had for Inscriptions. A smile made crept onto his face.
“Hey, Lock was it? Want to learn some basic Inscriptions? It won’t hurt to learn a bit of it, I promise.” James said with a goofy grin on his face.
“Yeah, it won’t hurt to learn a bit of it, who knows? You may even like it.” Alex added on, encouraging Lock to take this opportunity.
“Su-Sure? Why not?” Lock stuttered, still in a daze from the ‘performance’.
“Hehehe, time for you to learn the greatness of Inscriptions. Right after we have some food. Excuse me.” James who was in a joyful mood called out to a stewardess and politely requested for some food.
After food. James put on a scholarly expression and said “Ok let's start, when drawing Inscriptions the first rule is, Never, Ever, Let the rules bind you!”
Upon hearing this, Lock became confused. What does he mean by not letting the rules bind me? Then how am I supposed to create anything if I don’t use them? Multiple questions started popping into young Lock’s head puzzling him more and more.
James, as if he already knew that this was going to happen explained, “This does not mean you should not use the rules, let me give you an example. What's 1 + 1?”
“2?” Lock answered.
“Well, that's correct if you use the rules of addition. But it is because of this rule that lets you only have 1 answer. What if i told you 1 + 1 = 11 or 3 or even both? Would that make sense to you? No, as it doesn’t make sense according to what you have been taught your entire life.” James said with a serious tone.
“It is because you have been trained to think that 1 + 1 will always be 2. You might not be able to understand if I told you that 1 + 1 = A or something completely different. So The first rule of Inscriptions is to never take rules too directly and as definitive answers. It has been shown that theories people thought were correct were wrong in the past, so as Inscriptionists we learn from the past and improve the future with innovations.” James tone became deeper and even contained a slight hint of arrogance that looked down on the world for having such rules.
Lock had a thinking face currently as if he was processing what he had just heard, it felt that something in him opened up and even faint signs of Enlightenment started to appear, but that feeling quickly faded into the back of his mind.
“Ok, that's for you to contemplate in the future, you may not understand it now but it will help you in the future, hopefully. Let’s begin the real lesson now. First, there are…” James then continued to explain the basic fundamentals of Inscriptions.
Little did anyone know, that this rule will change Lock’s life in a way no one would have expected.
