Rayford had become accustomed to this new atmosphere, and no longer hid an inkling of his true personality. It has been three months— no, "strata" since he had appeared in this world. He was currently laying upon his new bed, feverish and dizzy.

Suddenly, a warm, caring hand reached for his own, and grabbed it.

"Honey... it seems it's about that time..." said a similarly caring voice.

Rayford, although confused, could easily infer that this was Amaryllis Ketch, his maternal guardian in this life.

"Time...?" questioned Rayford.

Rayford could only a.s.sume that he was being pushed into the mana gathering stage, a stage only those the age of twelve could enter.

"Wait, is today my birthday?" asked Rayford, guiding his eyes to the face of the very same person who held his hand.

In response to Rayford's hopeful question, Amaryllis Ketch, formerly dubbed Amy, produced the brightest smile that Rayford has seen since he came to this world.

"Rayford, happy twelfth birthday! Congratulations on officially becoming a magus!" Amy said, probably more excited than Rayford himself.

Amaryllis has been waiting for Rayford to turn twelve for a very long time, he is a very bright and creative child, which directly translates to talent in the world of magic. A singular talent can bring the poorest of families into the upper echelons of society.

The moment he heard the news, Rayford completely ignored his physical condition and sat up.

"So can I get my attribute tested today?!" Rayford exclaimed, clearly excited.

"Well... if your body adjusts to the mana quick enough, then yes... if not we'll just have to wait until tomorrow."— Amy said, dulling her mood a little —"Of course, our talented son will be up and about, mana absorbed and all that within an hour."

At this notion, Rayford smiled. He had no idea why this mom of his thought he'd be so incredibly talented, but he knew he would be. In this world of magic, the ability to create original spells mattered a lot. This was why creativity was very important to magus around the world. Rayford was a cartoonist in his past life, creativity was his specialty!

"Yes, mother. You should start preparing a trip for the 11th hour right this moment!" said Rayford, clearly perking up a little.

Amy was clearly perplexed at the very thought of this, there were only 30 minutes left until the 11th hour, but she could see her son's complexion clearing at a very rapid pace.

"Of course honey, I'll get the chariot ready right this moment." Amy said.

In this world, people rode in magically power vehicles called "Chariots." To put it simply, they were cars that ran on magical energy and not on gas or electricity.

"Thank you mother, I believe I'll be able to move about in 15 minutes..." said Rayford.

"ah of course, I'll get your father." Amy said.

As of late, Amy realized Rayford's speech was similar to that of a scholar's, and very respectful for his age. It didn't tip her off at all though, Rayford has always been mature and talented.

"Alright— thank you mother..."

Taking that as a signal to end the conversation, Amy walked out of her son's room... taking some dirty clothes on her way out.

Rayford, starting to feel better by the second, merely thought about which element he would get.

The destructive fire attribute, encompa.s.sing the might of a volcano?! The calm water attribute, with the ability to pull him out of any impossible situation?! The versatile wind attribute, granting him the ability to fly among the birds in the sky?! The robust earth attribute, giving him the power to hold back any amount of foes?! Maybe even the light or shadow elements, blessing him with the powers of the over or under worlds!

Rayford had no idea, there were way more than one hundred different magical attributes, some even as vague as the "luck" attribute.

"Well, I'll find out really soon."

...

About fifteen minutes had pa.s.sed, and Rayford already felt that his body was done gathering mana, and that he was almost back up to full health.

*Thump, thump, thump*

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Rayford heard someone coming to his room upstairs, so he uncovered himself and go into a sitting position on his bed.

Soon, the door to his room disappeared. In this world, doors were simply slabs of some magical metal, and upon rune activation they are eliminated from existence. It's apparently some form of basic earth magic that allows a rune to create and delete these stones in an instant.

The person who walked into his room was Landon Ketch, the paternal parent of Rayford in this world.

"Ello' Ray, your old man doesn't care if your back to peak condition or not, get in the chariot." Landon said, and then he proceeded to walk out.

Landon simply thought that no son of his would be weakened to a state of no movement simply because of the mana gathering sickness. The very thought of it couldn't even be considered.

"Err... alright." Rayford said.

This dad of his was very sporadic and had the ego of an emperor when he wasn't around Amy. Confidence is definitely a virtue, but too much of it is annoying. Landon hit the "too much of it" on the head.

Rayford proceeded to put on a robe meant for boys on their twelfth birthdays, in order to calm down the torrent of mana being pulled inside of them, then he put on a white t-s.h.i.+rt, slim cute jeans, and a pair combat boots. Rayford had taken a liking to combat boots in this life, they were very efficient and comfortable. He figured he would be wearing them every day, be it in the field of battle or during his casual life.

After changing his attire, Rayford rushed out of his room and to the family Chariot.

Upon arrival, Rayford's mother threw a dangerously questioning glance towards Landon, causing Landon to s.h.i.+ver in his boots.

"I-it's because Rayford said he recovered quicker than he expected!" Landon panicked.

Amy glared at Landon, obviously able to see that this statement was a lie. Her husband is the most arrogant man in this kingdom, of course he is the reason Rayford came out before he planned to do so.

"Is this true, honey?" Amy asked, looking towards the now stupefied Rayford.

"Erm... yes mother, it's true, also we're outside of the house... we shouldn't cause a scene." Rayford said.

Amy wanted to call the both of them out on their lie, and deliver "punishment," but Rayford's words brought her back to life. Quickly throwing a few glances around, Amy noticed that some of the elderly that neighbored them were staring.

"Ah... yes honey, let's just get inside of the chariot." Amy said.

Following his mother's orders, Rayford entered the chariot. The inside of the chariot looked much better than cars back on Earth, with typical beige cus.h.i.+ons and plastic openings in the interior to show the flow of mana. There was not a wheel, rather the driver pressed a mental magic rune and connected their mind to the chariot, telling it where to turn and when to stop. Chariots had magical barriers around them to protect them in case of accidents, and could never run out of energy since it gathered mana from the air in order to function.

The one driving was Landon, his clear head and confidence in himself provided a strong talent in the use of mental magic runes, especially in the area of driving. The person driving was connected with the vehicle, so in order to communicate they simply transmitted mana waves to the chariot's radio.

"Alright Ray, Dear, which attribute testing station should we visit?" asked the now robotic sounding Landon.

In response Amy said, "Go to the transcendental station, it's close and if he gets good results he will be invited to Transcendental Academy."

"I was thinking the same, I can even dodge the fee using my connections. Is that fine with you Ray?" Landon questioned.

"Hmm..."— Rayford strained to think of the benefits of joining Transcendental Academy and compared it to the benefits of other academies —"Yes... that seems like the most beneficial route." he finally decided.

"Alright, I'll bring us there." said Landon.

During the thirty minute drive Rayford pestered his parents with tons of questions, such as:

"Why are the big three academies called the big three?"

"What element should I expect to get?"

"Is there anything I should know about spell casting that I already don't?"

Although annoyed, Rayford's parents answered each and every question as clearly as possible. Rayford did notice their annoyance, but why should he care? He'll be the strongest in this world at one point, they are simply investing in a bright talent by answering his questions!

Sadly, all knowledgeable times come to an end.

"We're here, seems like the line for attribute testing isn't too big today, we're in luck." Landon said.

"In luck, why?" asked Rayford.

The one who responded, was instead Amaryllis.

"Transcendental Academy is one of the strongest three magus producing schools in existence, as such there are normally lines of up to one hundred well-off families from all around the continent rus.h.i.+ng to get a chance to be tested here."

"You say that... but this line is still pretty ma.s.sive in itself..." said Rayford.

Rayford's eyes scanned the ma.s.sive line in front of him, it looked as if there were 50 people all waiting to get their children tested. To add onto that, it takes 5 minutes to test one child, and there were only 2 different lines.

"Well whatever line we choose will only take a 2 hour wait, be patient Ray. One line has 23 while the other has 28, we'll take the shorter one." said Landon, matter of factly.

"This..."— Rayford said, clearly exasperated —"...Fine..."

"Alright, let's go line up." Amy said.

After arriving at the line, Rayford brought out a book that he had with him. The Attribute Encyclopedia.

It was a book that had over 500 pages, recording all known attributes. Each page showed two attributes. Rayford figured he could learn a bit more on the common attributes while in line.

'Gla.s.s attribute offensive capability: 50, defensive: 0, mobility: 25...'

...

After 2 hours, Rayford's turn is finally coming up. The family in front of him came out of the attribute testing room with glorified looks on their face. Their child had apparently been compatible with the rare snow element. That's very impressive to think about, from the book he was reading, Rayford knew just about how deadly snow magic was.

"Next!" said the man monitoring the line.

It was his time, Rayford's time, learn which element he would obtain.

"Let's go honey." said Amy, smiling.

After walking into the attribute testing room, Rayford took note of his surroundings. The room was completely quarantined, with obvious sound proofing and walls made of metal. In the middle lie and orb on a very simple marble pedestal.

"Alright kid, set your hand on the attribute testing device and stay still for 5 seconds." said a burly man in the corner of the room.

"Got it." responded Rayford.

Both Landon and Amaryllis were eyeing Rayford expectantly as he walked up to the orb-like device. They had both experienced this before and knew just how excited Rayford was. Both of them hoped that Rayford would get a combat oriented attribute, as those were the most successful.

*Step... step... step*

Rayford had reached the attribute device. Sweat trickling down his cheek, he pressed his hand on the orb. The burly man in the corner began to jot down some notes.

'1...' Rayford thought.

'2...'

'3...'

'4...'

'and 5...'

Abruptly, the attribute device shown red.

Fire magic.

This put a smile on Rayford's parents' faces.

But, as if to deny the feeling of happiness, that red suddenly changed.

Purple.

Lightning magic.

This caused everyone in the room, besides Rayford who was simply waiting for the result, to go big eyed. Including the arrogant Landon.

In response to everyone's surprise... the orb's color changed once more.

Dark green.

Earth.

As if finally deciding to stop, the orb lost its light and shown its original color.

Everyone was speechless, so much so that they had all had their breaths held. Rayford finally realized that it had stopped, and noticed how quiet everyone was.

"Did I do something wrong?" Rayford asked.

Quelling the silence, the man in the corner screamed:

"T-THREE ELEMENTS?!"