I was walking down the school grounds, my exoskeleton spirit armor still on. It made me feel...… Comfortable, safe. My fight with Jackass, no, Luxia reawakened some... Unpleasant memories. One of those memories being the reason why I was so introverted. But, that was for later, the past should be remembered, but it would be wise to not let it chain me down.

The walk to the headmasters office was pleasant, the school was really beautiful. It was like a combination of a brighter gothic architecture, brighter because the materials used was not all grey stone. As European and Japanese gardening, evident from the close resemblance to the royal gardens that were enjoyed by England's royal family, as well as bright pink cherry trees here and there.

Gwyndolin 'took off,' or un-summoned her armor, while Grace kept it on, like me. We approached a ginormous building in the middle of the grounds. "This is it, come on." Announced Layla. It was similar to London's 'Big Ben,' just remove the giant clock and turn what's left of it into a castle.

At the base, there were two giant double doors made of stone, which magically opened once we approached. Once inside, it was like a pristine mansion. They floor and walls were made of polished marble, and leading up from the the giant double doors was a long, red rug that went all the way up to a set of marble stairs.

The lighting came from a couple of crystal chandeliers hanging on the ceiling. The entire place screamed wealth. "You'll have to take off your armor, don't want to get the rug dirty." Announced Layla. Hesitating for a second, I complied and tried to un-summon my exoskeleton. Being un-experienced with taking off spiritual armor, it took me a few tries before I managed to find myself back in my school outfit.

Walking across the red rug all the way up the stairs, we took a couple turns here and there until we went up more stairs. But this time there was a lot more stairs. I swore it took at least half-an hour to finally reach the top. Me and Gwyndolin were exhausted, while Grace showed some signs of exhaustion, and Layla looked absolutely fine, like walked up and down these stairs since she was born. Noticing our exhaustion, Layla tried to console us.

"Ah, don't worry! Everybody has a hard time going up for the first time! Next time you'll surely have enough stamina!" She said. After a moment of catching our breaths, we resumed towards our destination. After some more turns down some hallways we were met with a rather regal looking door with two tall, angelic sets of armor standing guard on both sides of the door.

Layla wasn't fazed by this at all and continued down the hallway. The rest of us quickly followed. Again, like the giant double doors at the base of the building, the door automatically opened once we approached. The room behind the regal door was like an office, with a white couch on the left side of the room, a bunch of filing cabinets on the right.

At the furthest end of the room was a floor-to-ceiling window that allowed us to gaze upon the school grounds like hawks. A little closer to us was a desk and seat. And on that seat was another attractive woman! She had pale skin like Layla's and her hair was long and snow white. Her eyes were like Layla's light eye, glowing with something similar to a divine light. She looked to be in her thirties or older.

Judging from her appearance, I assumed that she was Layla's Mother. "Hello, my students. I am Mrs. Phiking, headmistress of this esteemed academy." Mrs. Phiking introduced herself. "I do hope my daughter delivered you to this academy comfortably." She said, an almost smug smile appearing on her face.

"Well, kind of. You can't really feel anything when you're unconscious." I replied, which made Phiking giggle a little. There was a small moment of silence before she spoke again. "Well? Care to introduce yourselves?" She asked. Gwyndolin went first. "Hello, Mrs. Phiking, my name is Gwyndolin, it's nice to meet you." Phiking just responded with a simple nod.

"My name is Grace, headmistress." Grace introduced herself, again Mrs. Phiking responded with a simple nod. Seeing that I was the only one who hasn't introduced himself, I, well, introduced myself. "Hi, my name is North." This time, instead of a nod, she responded with a 'hmm.'

"North and Grace, your names sound a bit, foreign." Makes sense, mine and Grace's names were in English. Gwyndolin's name was in the native language of this world, so it was understandable that she was excluded. "Yeah, so?" I responded to the headmistress, hoping to divert her attention away towards what she most likely brought me and my group up to talk about.

"Never-mind, so North, do you realize just how special you are?" She asked. Phiking was most likely talking about my affinity. "Judging from the reaction of mage who kidnapped me, I assume I'm pretty special." She gave a small smile. "Yes, you are. Throughout this worlds history, you are the only person to ever get the special affinity." I remained quiet to let her continue.

"It is said that the first ones to ever get an affinity were allowed to name it through their 'Arcane Accessory.' I am assuming you have done the same?" She said. 'Arcane Accessory?' I assumed it was my watch that I got from the care package. "Yes, I have. I named it the 'Technology' affinity."

"Technology hmm? Now why would you name it that?" Asked Phiking. I was visibly confused by this. Mrs. Phiking, sensing this confusion, explained in detail. "The first of the water mages named their affinity 'Water' because it moved and flowed like water." She stopped her explanation short when she saw my face light up with understanding.

"I named my affinity 'Technology' because reason and understanding seemed to go hand-in-hand with the affinity." I half-lied. I just named it technology because it resembled technology! Her eyes narrowed, seemingly suspicious, but she didn't press further. "I am sure you have noticed, but you have been excluded from certain activities throughout the day that might of revealed your affinity a bit too early. We want to wait until full initiation before we reveal your affinity to the world."

Ah, so all that stuff I had to do today was probably just a test, meant to separate those who belong in the better classes, worse classes, or just not get initiated in the first place. "I see that your friends haven't unlocked their affinity yet, Layla will show you to your new dorm while I get your friends their affinities unlocked."

Grace obviously wanted to reject this, not wanting to separate from me. But before she could cause anything I said that it's fine and that she could just find me later. Hesitating, she accepted this and went with Gwyndolin and Mrs. Phiking to get their affinities unlocked. "Come one, I'll get you to your new dorm." Said Layla.

She started to make her way out of the office, and I followed her. We went all the way back down and made our way towards my new dorm.

(Time skip brought to you by Layla T posing on everyone)

"OK, so here's your new dorm!" Announced Layla, opening the door to an... Empty room. It was big for sure, but it was just empty. "Layla, could you please explain to me why my room is empty?" I asked her. "Simple, customization!" Ah, I see. It was intentionally left empty so I could decorate it as I please.

But, how would I get all the furniture and stuff? Seemingly reading my mind, Layla answered accordingly. "To get yourself some furniture, just head over to the forge on your right once you enter your room." The forge? "What are you talking about Layla?" I asked. "The forge, it's something that's in every dorm. You use it to decorate your room, make new weapons, upgrade said weapons, etc. While they are all heavily enchanted, they still require resources to make stuff. So we stock each of them regularly with a variety of materials, but for the real good resources you gotta do some things to earn them. That will be explained later." Explained Layla.

Well that's dope. "OK, I think I got it." I said. "I'll just leave you to it then." Layla waved goodbye as she said the last sentence. Ok, now it was time to make stuff! I entered my room and closed it behind me. Leaving the only light source the windows on the walls. Looking to my right, I found the forge.

It was just a floating, blue-glowing ball that just hovered there. But since it was the only thing in the room I knew it was the so-called forge. Walking up to it, I placed my hand on it only to be enveloped in a bright light. When the light subsided, instead of a floating ball of blue light there was an advanced 3D printer.

So I guess that the form of the forge changes based on one's affinity? I guess so. Another beeb on my watch caused me to raise my hand. And what I saw is, I assumed, the interface for the forge.

FORGE ACTIVATED

SELECT MODE;

ROOM DECORATION

WEAPON CREATION

WEAPON UPGRADES

GEAR UPGRADES

INJECTOR SYNTHESIS

Well that's fucking cool! I decided to go for room decoration for now. When I selected this, I was met with another interface. It displayed what furniture and decorations I could make, as well as how many materials I had, of which I had plenty. I made myself a modern king-sized bed and placed it against the wall.

I made a couple other changes here and there, adding some lighting, changing the windows, etc. But I saved some resources for some weapon and injector creation. I went with weapon creation first, as I can't use a pistol forever.

WEAPON CREATION

ASSAULT RIFLE: REQUIRES GUNSMITH

SNIPER RIFLE: REQUIRES GUNSMITH

????

Ok, so it appears that currently I could only make either an assault rifle or a sniper rifle. But first I needed to get some skills. Off to injector synthesis!

INJECTOR SYNTHESIS

RANDOM INJECTOR

________ INJECTOR

There were two options. A random injector and a more 'specific' injector. Knowing that I had to type what skill I wanted on the blank line for the second injector, I went with that one. Of which I typed 'gunsmith' and selected it. Immediately, instead of just appearing like it did with the furniture, the forge made it like one would expect.

After a minute or two, it finished. I grabbed the injector and, obviously, injected it into my arm. Once it was done, it immediately disappeared into nothingness.

Engineering; Lvl 4: New Skill! Gunsmith: Ah, the art of G U N, so beautiful.

Instead of displaying everything, like last time, it just showed the engineering stuff. Going back to the forge, I went back to the weapon creation. This time, I was able to make either the assault rifle or the sniper rifle. I decided to make the assault rifle. Like the injector, the forge made it itself instead of just 'poofing' it into existence.

After ten to twenty minutes it was finished. Grabbing it, I began to inspect my new weapon. It bore some resemblance to a light machine gun, being a little big for an assault rifle, but it was still definitely an assault rifle. It was black with a silver barrel, it had iron-sights on the top of the gun.

On the side of the gun was a switch that switched the firing modes, safe, semi-auto, and full-auto. It was a real fucking cool assault rifle! Excited, I immediately went to the weapon upgrades.

WEAPON UPGRADES

SELECTED WEAPON: ASSAULT RIFLE

Upgrades;

Holo-sights: Increased accuracy, allows future upgrades for sights.

Bayonet: Basically just a knife attached to the end of the gun.

Laser Sights: Shows were the gun's gonna shoot.

There were more upgrades I could get, but I had just enough resources for these three upgrades. I selected all three of these upgrades and put the gun back in the forge, where it immediately got to work. Shortly after, I sensed another buzz coming from my watch, making me look at it again.

New Function Unlocked! Armory: Allows you to retrieve any weapons you have created at any time.

Well I'm unlocking a lot of shit today! A button appeared on my watch, which I pressed, and a new interface popped up.

Weapons;

Dagger and Pistol

Assault Rifle

I only had these two weapons, three if you separate the dagger from the gun. Satisfied with what I accomplished, I decided to lay down on my bed and rest for a bit, letting myself sleep for an unknown amount of time...

(Timeskip brought to you by Mrs. Phiking doing paperwork)

I opened my eyes to find myself staring at the ceiling of my room. Groggily, I sat up and got off my bed to check on my assault rifle. Taking a couple of steps, I found my assault rifle in all its upgraded glory. The grogginess leaving me, I hastily grabbed my gun and began to inspect it.

The iron sights were no more, replaced with two silver rods attached to the side of my gun. Whenever I looked between them the hologram appeared, showing the glowing cross-hairs. I inspected the bayonet second. It was tucked into a little sheath it the bottom of the end of the barrel.

I tried for a couple minutes to get it unsheathed. After a while I figured it out, whenever I made a slicing or stabbing motion with the gun, it automatically came out. Noice. Now on to the laser sights. There was a little button on the other side of my gun, and when I pressed it the laser sights activated. Letting out a stream of red light from a point just above the barrel.

I was satisfied with these upgrades. I then heard knocking on my door. Walking up to said door, I opened it to reveal Layla. "Come on, it's time for dinner!" She said. I put away the rifle and followed her down the hall to, I assumed, was the dining hall....