Exam Hall

I passed through the door on the other side of the arena room. Looking from the outside it seemed as simple as passing through any other door. What I felt in that moment was something quite different, however. I felt the strongest surge of arcane power interacting with my body that I had felt since coming to the Tower. When I stepped through that door I knew that I was not simply taking one step, but stepping into a flawless portal that delivered me directly to the final room of the challenge. There was no more hallway. By going through the door after exhausting all of my options until the very last in the previous challenge, I had effectively skipped however many hallways and arrived directly to the final hall.

This had advantages and disadvantages. I was still lower than the level 15 Chum had suggested we should aim for. The trait I got from skipping all those challenges was also really bad. On the other hand, most of those trials had had a good chance of killing me, so it was a good thing I'd got through without so much as spending any of my spell slots or resources.

And what a hall it was. It had taken at least some inspiration from the educational establishments of Earth. It was definitely nothing like any of the universities or schools I'd ever gone to, but if you have seen what the older and more formal parts of places like Oxford, England look like, you might have an idea. If not, you probably have seen some movies about a young wizard that were inspired by these. The walls were gray stone, covered in actual medieval-style banners, reaching up all the way to the ceiling dozens of feet above. The floors were polished, laminated hardwood in diamond patterns. And all around the massive room there were strewn hundreds, no, thousands of standing desks or lecterns.

The desks were all facing the middle of the room in a circular pattern. I couldn't see anything in the center, but then I was clearly very early. Not one other person had reached this room yet, and there were hundreds of doors just like the one I'd walked through to get here. I supposed it was possible that this could still be a part of the challenge, and I should look for other doors to open, but none of these were numbered or marked in any way, at least not from this side, and so I had no idea which I should go through.

"You think this is it?" I asked Chum. "Depends what you mean. Is this the last room in your first challenge? Probably. Is this the last fucked up thing that's gonna happen to you here? Hell fucking no," he said. "Let's see what I traded for that stupid Nerd trait, and then get in touch with Artemis. You wanna explore the room, see if you can find something interesting?" I said. "Yeah, let me look around. Doubt I'll find anything though," he said.

I walked up to a lectern and flipped open my Journal.

Wait, what the fuck?

Log

Caused the death of Gentle Instruction Homunculus, Experience gained. Experience to level 13 15 000/15 000

Level up! 1 Attribute point gained 1 Title ability gained

Experience gained. Experience to level 14 2500/20 000

I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth but that was more experience than I'd ever received for anything and I hadn't even actually killed the thing. It was more experience than I'd get by clearing out half the classrooms back on the second day. And I hadn't even really done anything. I put the point in knowledge without thinking about it too hard. I had been right, the boost to knowledge wasn't quite as insane as with the Arcana boost, but it still left me strangely awake and clear-headed. I thought I might as well check the abilities before checking my new spells.

Odd level reached. Title ability gained Choose Sentinel (13) ability below

Friendly Fire: When casting Area of Effect spells with deleterious effects, automatically cast any warding spell known to you that would reduce the spells effects on each ally in the area of the spell. Current synergies available: Grease Fire + Flame Ward

Warden Familiar: Requirements- familiar with a mind stat of 4+. You may leave your familiar in suspended animation at a location of your choice. From the point of view of the familiar, they go unconscious, and do not feel the passing of time, age, or otherwise directly interfere with the time-stream. However, they are able to perceive two circumstances- imminent danger to you and/or themselves, and a specific event or action described by you when activating this ability. If the familiar perceives either circumstance, they immediately awaken, and you are alerted to their awakening. At this point you may choose to see through their eyes (or their primary sense organ if they lack eyes) for the next 1 minute at will.

Big Game Hunter: If a creature larger than 1 metric ton by weight threatens your community, you gain several innate abilities. You can detect their weaknesses, if any. You can track the creature unerringly, as if it was your party member. You are able to sense when the creature's hit points drop to 75%, 50% and 25%.

These were starting to get really good. I first chose to avoid the third ability, as it didn't actually make me that much better at fighting this threat. The other two were harder to decide between. I ultimately chose the Friendly Fire ability for two reasons- one, it was a lot more wizardly than the others, and I thought it was a good idea to lean into my class, now that my attributes would be severely hampered by the Nerd trait (hell but I hoped I could get rid of it somehow). Two, it had the most immediately obvious combat application. Now that I had an AoE spell, I knew that it wouldn't be long before I'd be in some sort of a fight with the Guild and would have to choose between casting an area spell and risking hurting my allies or dealing damage. With the ability I wouldn't have to choose. Finally, Chum was just too useful to leave him laying unconscious as a ward instead of using him for advice and scouting as I had been so far. Speaking of which,

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"Hey, Chum! A bit of advice?" I called out. "What's up, boss?" Chum said. "The Nerd ability, do you think I'm stuck with it," I said. He opened up his own Journal and leafed through until he found it. "Oh that fucking sucks. Well, I don't know. There is no normal way to get rid of it," he said. "What about abnormal," I said. "Well this Tower is pretty fucking narrative driven. Chances are there might be a quest that either lets you get rid of it specifically, or something that lets you get rid of any negative traits of your choice," he said. "Fine, I guess I'll keep an eye out," I said and turned back to the Journal.

I had six new spells to look at. Which also meant that I had skipped at least six rooms. Frankly, if nobody else got a quest like I did, allowing me to skip rooms, I likely would have to wait here for hours. There were a bunch of spells, and I quickly skimmed them, and they were all pretty awesome.

All of them were 2nd tier spells. The first one was called Heuristic Unveiling Divination of the Information school, and I'm pretty sure the name was just there to make the abbreviation make sense, because it did work very much like a video game Heads Up Display, letting me see basic information about people and monsters. There was a spell that let me transmute wood to stone and back again, a spell that let me call forth a gust of wind called Wind Blade, which could be a fun combo with grease, if it was strong enough. I didn't dare test it out here, because I was pretty sure all these lecterns would be useful for something.

The Overcharge spell of the Biomancy school let me overcharge my own or a target's body, giving them a massive combat boost. Probably not enough to overcome that damn Nerd penalty, but certainly useful. We were also really lacking healing in the Guild, so knowing that the school existed at all gave me hope for some actual healing spells out there somewhere.

The next one really made me raise an eyebrow.

"Hey, Chum, I got a Chronomancy spell," I said. "Now we're fucking talking. Just tell me it isn't time travel," Chum said. "No, it freezes time for everyone including myself. Looks like I cannot move or do anything, but can still perceive things and think," I said. "Not bad, Boss. Don't underestimate it, especially when you finally get minions," Chum said. "I've already got one, Chum, and I don't see how that helps," I said. "Trust me, pal. When you've got to send orders to groups of serfs you'll want the time to think about it," Chum said.

And the last spell was of the Illusion school, letting me appear as a friend to an intelligent creature. Literally changing my face to match theirs, not as a charm effect.

I made sure to copy all of the spells over in detail, and they did update in my Journal as it was done.

It was a goddamned bounty of riches. And I knew what I had to do. If I was going to be here for hours, I needed to help my friends. I had the ability to transcribe spells into the Journal party chat, and I now had a veritable arsenal that could resolve dozens of potential problems. I could save people. I would save people.

Chat

Not a lot of air left. I'll be fine, but what do we do? -Hannah

What's your situation? -Alex

In a stone box with Zack. We were thrown off a bridge into water. Zack knocked himself out to save air, but I think we're close to out of air anyways. -Hannah

I shivered. I knew that ever since her zombification Hannah was hardly the most emotional person, but being stuck in a stone coffin, slowly suffocating was about the worst way to go. If I hadn't read the chat when I did- No. No more dead friends.

I sent her the sigil for the stone to wood spell. She had the highest Arcana out of all of our more martial Guild members, so surely…

Chat

It worked. Thanks. -Hannah

Thank god. You good? -Alex

We're floating to the top. Waking Zack up now. -Hannah

Then, a minute later,

Holy fuck, bro. Thanks. I thought I was gonna die in a dark hole. -Zack

Could still happen. Everyone be careful. And Alex, stay on the line, I need some help and I'm sure I'm not the only one. -Artemis

And then I really got to work. Artemis needed the spectral hand to pull a lever across an acid pit. Brooke, strangely enough, asked only for the grease component of the greasefire spell and didn't elaborate, but wrote that I saved their lives. I pushed her for details, but she ignored it. I wasn't suspicious exactly, but the news of the traitor in our midst had me a bit paranoid. Zack demanded I give him the overcharge spell when I mentioned it, and, apparently it worked and didn't kill him.

Chat

I am a fallen angel of vengeance! I am Death! -Zack

Then, a few minutes later.

Oof. Ow. My bones. -Zack

"Hey, look on the bright side! He casts that, what, two more times and we get a free pair of boots!" Chum said.

Every ten or fifteen minutes there was one emergency or another, and each time I could at least help by transcribing one of my spells to my friends. Artemis only asked for small, utility things like the fog cloud spell and Shield, while Hannah even asked me for a few combat spells. I should really copy them over for her if she can cast them when we next had a moment together. Contrary to Chum's expectations, Zack cast the overcharge spell three more times, and was still standing. As to be expected for the person with the highest resilience attributes in the Guild, I guess. It was getting exciting, even if I wasn't getting any experience for this directly.

It occurred to me that a part of what I enjoyed was the same thing I liked running tabletop games for my friends. People think DMing is about power, but it isn't really. The fun comes from, sure, helping your friends have a good time and overcome challenges, but there is an aspect of control in it. Like, I could direct them from sitting there, throwing them options and organizing their responses.

Hours passed, at least two, and then finally, I heard a creaking of a door opening far in the opposite direction of the hall. It wasn't even closed when a second and third door opened and I looked up.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.