Chapter 17: Orientation

Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Orientation

The grand archway of Sol-Aethel Awakener’s Academy towered over the crowd like a monument of carved granite and shimmering spell-craft. Banners bearing the crest of the sun-bound falcon fluttered in the morning breeze. Dozens of fresh candidates—some wearing fine silk doublets from wealthy inner-city districts, others in utilitarian civilian clothes like Rowan—poured through the iron gates.

Rowan stepped up to the registration checkpoint at the threshold, pulling out his Identification & Awakening Registration Tag.

A stone-faced staff member clad in dark blue robes scanned the tag with a polished mana-crystal rod. The crystal flashed with a soft blue light, projecting Rowan’s basic file into the air:

[ACADEMY REGISTRATION FILE]

Candidate: Rowan Vance

Registration Class: [Tier 1] Gardener

Category Assignment: Non-Combat Profession (Auxiliary & Support)

"Vance, Rowan. Civilian track," the registrar announced in a bored tone, stamping a wooden wooden token with a green crest and handing it over. "Keep to the right path. Non-Combat professions gather in the Verdant Pavilion on the East Lawn. Combat tracks head straight to the Aegis Arena on the West Lawn. Move along, don’t block the gates."

Rowan accepted the token and stepped onto the polished cobblestone plaza.

Immediately, the stark division between the candidates became obvious.

To the left, heading toward the imposing stone arena, was the Combat Group. Young Swordsmen, Elementalist Mages, and Vanguard Defenders walked with high heads, their polished sidearms and enchanted armor glinting in the morning light. Loud chatter about combat trials, dungeon raids, and offensive spells echoed across their ranks. They carried an unmistakable aura of confidence and privilege, clearly viewing themselves as the future backbone of the realm.

To the right, heading toward a wide, open-air conservatory made of arched glass and white marble, was the Non-Combat Group. Here walked the Alchemists, Blacksmiths, Enchanters, Scholars, and fellow Agrarians. The mood here was noticeably quieter, filled with intense, analytical chatter about recipe efficiencies, material purity, and market trends.

While many in the Non-Combat line walked with slouched shoulders under the smug gazes of the Combat candidates, Rowan walked with an easy, grounded confidence. He adjusted the strap of his shoulder bag—heavy with the wild Dew-Drop Moss, Silver-Vein Clover, and the Iron-Bark Sapling he had just gathered—and stepped into the glass conservatory of the Verdant Pavilion.

As he entered, he noticed several large, rune-covered testing altars set up across the pavilion floor, where Academy instructors were waiting to evaluate the initial outputs and capabilities of the auxiliary class candidates.

Rowan joined the line forming in front of Evaluation Table Four, where a senior instructor in forest-green robes sat behind a heavy oak desk. Above the desk hovered a large, crystalline orb resting on a polished brass pedestal—a Mana Resonance Orb, designed to quantify a candidate’s core attributes and mana output without revealing sensitive class secrets.

A wealthy student ahead of Rowan in fine embroidered robes stepped up, placing his palm on the crystal. The orb flared bright yellow, displaying impressive numbers for an incoming freshman:

[ CANDIDATE ASSESSMENT ]

Class: Senior Alchemist (Uncommon)

Intelligence: 14 | Wisdom: 12 | Mana: 130

Instructor Note: Strong potential for high-tier potion brewing. Assigned to Advanced Alchemy Track.

The young Alchemist smirked, stepping back with his head held high while the surrounding students murmured in admiration.

"Next," the instructor called out, not looking up from his parchment logbook. "Name and registered class."

"Rowan Vance," Rowan said calmly, stepping forward. "Class: Gardener."

A few light chuckles rippled through the nearby line of students. A common Gardener was about as ordinary as an auxiliary class could get—usually assigned to campus groundskeeping or basic herbalism support.

The instructor finally glanced up, giving Rowan an indifferent look. "Place your palm flat on the glass, Vance. Keep your hand steady until the runes settle."

Rowan reached out and placed his right palm against the cool, smooth surface of the Mana Resonance Orb.

For a brief second, Rowan held back his domain’s mana flow, letting the orb measure only his raw base attributes. The internal quartz core pulsed with a clean, brilliant sky-blue light that grew surprisingly bright, illuminating the faces of the students watching from behind.

The crystal hummed, and clear, glowing text manifested above the orb:

[ CANDIDATE ASSESSMENT ]

Name: Rowan Vance

Registered Class: Gardener (Common)

Vitality (VIT): 13

Strength (STR): 13

Agility (AGI): 13

Intelligence (INT): 17

Wisdom (WIS): 17

Mana Pool: 170 / 170

Silence fell over Table Four.

The instructor, who had been lazily dipping his quill in ink, froze mid-motion. He leaned forward, blinking twice as he re-read the numbers projected in the light.

"17 Intelligence? 17 Wisdom?" the instructor muttered, his voice echoing slightly in the quiet pavilion. He tapped the brass pedestal to re-calibrate the orb, thinking it was a glitch, but the numbers remained rock-steady. "That’s... higher mental stat growth than three-quarters of the Combat mages who evaluated on the West Lawn today."

The Alchemist who had evaluated just before Rowan stared at the numbers in disbelief, his smug expression completely vanishing.

"A common Gardener with 17 INT and 17 WIS?" a student behind Rowan whispered to her friend. "Why would someone with those base mental stats end up with a farming class?"

"It must be a extreme stat distribution skew," another student guessed. "Or his class has zero offensive scaling, so the System compensated with high base stats."

The instructor cleared his throat, adjusting his spectacles as he looked up at Rowan with a newfound sense of scrutiny. "Well, Vance... you certainly possess the mental capacity and mana reserves for high-level botanical calculation. Let’s see if you have any actual physical output or specimens to show for it. Did you bring anything for your practical assessment?"

Rowan reached into his shoulder bag, his fingers brushing past his wild specimens.

Rowan reached into his shoulder bag, bypassing the wild forest flora he had collected along the border. His fingers brushed against the padded velvet cloth he’d wrapped around one of the fresh crops pulled straight from his domain’s green stasis mist earlier that morning.

He drew out a single Verdant Crown Tomato and set it gently onto the dark velvet surface of the instructor’s evaluation tray.

The moment it touched the tray, a soft hush swept over the immediate circle of watching candidates.

The tomato was flawless. Deep, radiant ruby skin caught the ambient light of the glass pavilion with an almost crystalline luster. But far more striking than its appearance was the immediate burst of fresh, clean aroma—a pure, sweet scent laced with unmistakable, highly concentrated mana that drifted across the table.

The instructor tilted his head down, his spectacles sliding slightly down the bridge of his nose. He didn’t speak. Slowly, he picked up a small brass appraisal lens from his desk and peered through it, bringing his face within inches of the fruit.

"No synthetic fertilizers..." the instructor murmured under his breath, his bored demeanor instantly vanishing into intense academic focus. "Zero mana stagnation. Structural cellular density is... astonishing."

He pulled out an enchanted silver probe—a standard tool used to measure biological mana purity and grade—and gently tapped the stem of the tomato.

Ping.

The crystal tip of the probe flared with a brilliant, steady emerald light. Three distinct runes materialized in the air above the tray:

[ PRACTICAL SPECIMEN ANALYSIS ]

Item: Verdant Crown Tomato

Grade: Peak E-Grade (Edenic Purity)

Mana Purity Rate: 99.8%

Key Attributes: High-tier cellular regeneration, permanent stamina restoration, zero metabolic waste.

The Alchemist who had evaluated just before Rowan let out a sharp, audible gasp. "Peak E-Grade? From a basic Gardener?"

"Look at that purity rating," a female student behind Rowan whispered, leaning in for a closer look. "Standard E-Grade produce from commercial guild farms caps out at sixty or seventy percent purity. Nearly one hundred percent is... that’s imperial guild master standard!"

The instructor sat back in his heavy oak chair, his eyes shifting from the glowing emerald runes back to Rowan. The indifference was completely gone, replaced by a sharp, calculating gaze.

"You grew this yourself, Vance?" the instructor asked, his tone low and deliberate. "This isn’t just a high-yield crop. The cellular alignment in this specimen suggests an incredible mastery over soil mana integration. Most Tier-1 Agrarians can’t produce a crop this clean without thousands of credits worth of specialized mana-enrichment arrays."

Rowan maintained a calm, polite expression, keeping his hands loosely folded behind his back.

"I focused entirely on soil purity and mana flow during germination, sir," Rowan replied smoothly, keeping to his cover story. "I don’t have the budget for commercial fertilizers, so I had to rely on precise mana control."

The instructor stared at Rowan for a long moment, clearly trying to reconcile a common "Gardener" title with 17 Intelligence, 17 Wisdom, and a near-perfect E-Grade crop. Finally, he picked up his quill, dipped it in dark green ink, and wrote decisively across Rowan’s evaluation ledger:

[ PRACTICAL EVALUATION RESULT ]

Candidate: Rowan Vance

Specimen Rank: S-Tier (Auxiliary Practical)

Track Assignment: Advanced Botanical Research & Cultivation

Instructor Note: Exceptional mana purity and innate biological control. Fast-track to specialized greenhouse access granted.

"S-Tier practical mark," the instructor announced aloud, stamping Rowan’s token with a glittering silver crest before handing it back. "Report to Hall 3 for the main orientation address. And Vance... keep cultivating like this. The Academy’s alchemy department is going to be knocking on your door before the week is out."

"Thank you, sir," Rowan said, slipping the silver-stamped token into his coat pocket and retrieving his tomato.

As he turned and walked toward the inner hallways of the pavilion, he could feel dozens of eyes tracking his movement—the quiet "Gardener" had suddenly become the most interesting student in the Non-Combat track.