by Weiqi Wang
‘What?’ Kardiac was surprised. ‘Soar, what does he mean?’
‘Ha-ha, it seems that you keep yourself low key, Soarame.’ Sachastain looked at Soarame with appreciation. ‘Why don’t I let you guys talk. See you soon!’
‘Thank you, Sachastain!’ Soarame felt truly touched. Life was amazing sometimes; if you did good deeds at some point, you would have the favour returned to you at some point later.
Thanks to Sachastain, it was a happy day for the crew. Soarame opened the box and saw an ivory-white magimal egg inside. The crew were happy for Soarame and were keen to see what was in the egg, so they urged Soarame to hatch it right away.
Thanks to the repeated attempts with Richie, Soarame couldn’t be more familiar with how to bond with a magimal, or a magimal egg. With his wand in hand, Soarame began to draw the hexagram and inject his mind power into the egg. The hexagram shone and Soarame did a very proficient job injecting his mind power smoothly and carefully for a few minutes. Everyone was amazed to see Soarame so skilful at this, and they were ready to witness the baby being born. However, after a while there was still nothing happening to the egg.
‘Come on, Soar! You can do it!’ Kardiac ran out of patience first.
‘Shh!’ Catheray slapped Kardiac on the head, even though she was quite eager herself.
Soarame kept trying for another ten minutes before he had to take a rest, and then continued for another round. But half an hour later, still nothing had happened.
‘Hatching is that hard?’ Soarame couldn’t help asking. ‘Has anyone ever tried it before?’
‘Yes, I have.’ Seeing the others shaking heads, Halgon spoke up. ‘It can be hard depending on the egg’s ranking, so just keep trying. This one must be of a high rank and needs more mind power.’
‘It shouldn’t be.’ Soarame was quite confident about his mind power because he was actually an Adept, but after he had tried for another hour, still nothing was happening.
‘Guys, could it be that this egg has already rotted?’ Kardiac barked impatiently. ‘This box looks ancient, the egg might have been in there for centuries, who knows?’
‘No, I believe that this magimal egg is just high ranking.’ Halgon said. ‘Maybe this is also a test from Sachastain, so let’s be patient and give it a few days. Just keep trying every day.’ Halgon’s words enlightened the others; although they were eager to see the new-born, they had to take things as they came.
‘So we’ll let Soarame take time to hatch it?’ Dileys was dissatisfied. ‘Or shall we go ask Sachastain?’
‘No, let’s not do that.’ Omifo disagreed. ‘We’ll solve the problem by ourselves.’
‘Of course, hero.’ Vivarin stared at Omifo, making him cringe. ‘What now, then?’
‘I’ll do mind-painting.’ Soarame believed Sachastain and Halgon that the egg couldn’t be hatched was due to his limited power, so he needed to keep improving. ‘The egg can be my model.’
‘That’s boring.’ Catheray curled her lips. ‘If you really want to do this, why not join an art organisation? They may have some ideas.’
‘She’s right! We have a lot of students’ organisations on campus.’ Jemario poked Soarame’s shoulder. ‘You should check them out; it may really help!’
‘That’s a good idea.’ Soarame’s eyes brightened. The girls had been here for years and they knew the campus much better, so the entire crew decided to go out there and see what they could find. The girls were right — there were quite a few organisations, so the crew had to split up and check out different ones. Soarame followed Jemario and signed up to the painting club, but there was no carving club because not many people were capable of doing it.
‘That’s good enough, thank you, Jemario.’ Soarame was happy although even the painting club never tried mind-painting. The two kept walking ahead, and Soarame saw a big booth with its banners displaying its name. ‘What is that one for? Dragon&Empires?’
‘You never heard of it? It’s a famous game club here, and it has a card game version, too.’ Jemario explained. ‘Let’s check it out, you may really like it.’
The two went for an enquiry, and were told that there happened to be a game soon. So they followed the student on duty at the club, called Thom, to their playground, so that they could see everything about the game. Soon enough, Soarame realised that the game was pretty simple but fun; it was a derivative of ancient wars between mankind and dragons. There were three parties in this game: two teams of seven, representing two empires, and a third person representing a dragon. Each party had a gem as their treasure, and the goal was to get another gem into their base from either of the other two parties within an hour. Meanwhile, there was a ball representing a powerful magic weapon; the party that sent it to the rival’s base got one point — if the party still kept its gem treasure at its own base. If time ran out, the team with the highest points won.
‘The “dragon” is going to do this all by himself?’ Soarame couldn’t help asking. ‘That sounds really hard.’
‘Not really, because he is much stronger; he wears two magigears for the game, so he usually becomes at least a tri-lineager. Therefore, the empires usually have to have two to three people to counter him, but they may never be able to beat him.’ Jemario apparently knew the basics of this game. ‘The catch is, if the two empires fight each other too hard, the dragons will go grab their gems; if one empire fight against the dragon, the other empire will grab its gem.’
‘So it’s all about the balance.’ Soarame got the point. ‘What about if two empires ally and fight the dragon together? And how could the dragon ever get points?’
‘First of all, the dragon is too arrogant to use the magic weapon. He doesn’t care about the ball or the points, his only goal is the gem. Second, the dragon’s cave is immune to the magic weapon and his gem can only be grabbed in two scenarios: he’s out with the gem on his body, or he left the gem in the cave unguarded. If the dragon is defending his cave, the game says the dragon is invincible.’ Jemario explained. ‘So the dragon won’t come out for a gem unless the empires are at war — you got it? He can win if he does it right.’
‘I see. So the dragon can carry his gem on his body but the empires can only keep the gem in their bases?’
‘Yes, the bases are the chests on both ends of the field.’ Jemario pointed at the playground. ‘Also, the dragon can fly so he’s really difficult to counter — see that flightcloak he’s wearing?’
Soarame looked over and saw a boy in a black cloak. The flightcloak looked similar to a gown at first glance, but it’s a magigear that allowed its wearer to fly. Usually the dragon had to be a Grade-5 student because it cost quite some mind power to use the flightcloak; otherwise it had to be a genius Wind student who could fly by himself — but that was extremely rare because the flying spell was supposed to be Expert level.
Right now, the two teams were mostly Grade-4 students, but both captains were Grade-5s; with the dragon being the third. The dragon was a Fire student, and he picked the magigears of Earth and Light to make himself a tri-lineage dragon. Because the players are supposed to summon real magic in the game, additional lineages always help; in many cases they counter each other if used properly.
Soon enough the game started, and the dragon was sitting there in its cave — a big chair with a box attached. The dragon’s gem was either in his gown or in the box; no one could know unless they beat the dragon or opened the box. The referee had given the signal to start, so the empires began to battle for it. The players for the empires could be in any lineage, but most of the time the captain tried to balance it. In this case, the red team had two Wind students, two for Light, one each for Fire, Darkness and Earth. This was known to be a good team combo, because the Wind players could speed them up by Wind spells for mobility, plus they could also attack or defend; Darkness for sneaking around and stealing the gem; Light for countering the rival Darkness player; Fire for intensive pushing and Earth for defence. The green team had a similar combo, only they had
one more Darkness for one less Wind.
So… no Water on either side? Soarame sighed and glanced at Jemario, finding her also displeased to see that. Soon enough, I will let these guys know how much Water can do!
The game was ongoing. Firebolts and windblades were already streaking back and forth, and the Darkness player on both sides had disappeared — they both hid in the shadows of their Wind teammates, trying to approach the rival team unnoticed for sneak attacks. At the moment, the red team was pushing and the green was defending, and the red Darkness player got a chance to sneak into the shadow of the Green Earth player — only Soarame could tell thanks to his special vision. However, at the same time a green Darkness did the same to a red Wind; and he was so good that he could manage to follow the red Wind when the green team struck back and pushed the red team back to near their base. Both teams kept putting pressure on each other back and forth, at the same time keeping an eye on the dragon. On the other hand, the dragon seemed not worried at all; he was crossing his legs and drinking juice. Soarame was amused to see the dragon student put his gem into the box and deliberately let some players see that, then secretly fetched it back and put into his pocket.
‘He’s here!’ The red Light player shouted all of a sudden. His was guarding their base, and his spell revealed the green Darkness hiding in his Wind teammate’s shadow and trying to approach. The next second, the red Wind turned around try to get the green Darkness, but the sneak had been scared away already.
This tactic went back and forth for several rounds, till both teams were more familiar with the rivals’ style and got confident enough to put more force into their attacks. Right now they were having a group fight in the middle of the field, with only two members on each side defending their bases. The red team was winning the game, so the green was pushed towards their base bit by bit.
‘Help, the dragon!’ A red basekeeper suddenly noticed that the dragon had left his seat and was flying towards their base; the dragon flew so fast that he was almost there. A red Wind instantly dashed back from the group fight, casting windblades towards the dragon on his way back. The dragon dodged the windblades easily due to his speed, at the same time using the magigear to cast stoneballs towards the red basekeepers. The basekeepers used the Earth shields prepared by their Earth teammate to block the attack; the three red fought the dragon until the dragon had to leave. Just when the red basekeepers took a relieving breath, they suddenly realised that a green Darkness had emerged behind the red Wind, and caught the ball that was passed over from the middle field; before the basekeepers could do much, he threw the ball and hit the red base.
‘Green team gets one point.’ The referee announced right away and reset the ball.
‘Damn it!’ The red Wind was upset. ‘That guy is so quick! He can follow up with my speed?’
‘It’s okay man, he’s fast and we all know it.’ The red captain tried to reassure the team. ‘It could be worse; if he had the guts, he could have tried to take our gem out of the base.’
‘If he dared, I’d beat the crap out of him! He’s never going to get the gem to his base.’ The basekeepers were angry. The green Darkness was certainly clever; if he tried to grab the gem he would most likely get caught for more than ten seconds without being in physical touch with his teammates — that was called “executed”. Then he would have to leave the game for ten minutes, which would be a disaster.
After a few more turns, the green team finally won the game thanks to their Darkness players; no team managed to get a gem. The dragon made several attempts but all failed, and the red team once got into the dragon cave yet found that the gem was not there — because of this desperate move they almost lost their gem. The game was quite competitive overall; Soarame and Jemario enjoyed watching it. For part of the time Jemario was so into the game that she grabbed Soarame’s arm out of stress, and Soarame certainly loved that.
‘Do you guys have openings in some teams?’ After the game, Soarame went to Thom, the student on duty for the club that day. ‘Is there any requirement to join?’
‘Yes. There are some teams looking for people, and the requirements are up to the captains of the teams.’ Thom answered; noticing that Soarame was quite new, he added. ‘Most competing teams ask for Grade 4 and above, but if you just want to have fun you can form a team yourself and register with us. What’s your grade and major, by the way?’
‘I’m in Grade 2, Water.’ Soarame answered. He noticed that the students around all looked over, and some even snickered on hearing him. Soarame heard them talking with each other. ‘Why doesn’t he go and play the card game? Water is pretty strong on the table!’
Jemario knew what they were talking about — as she just told Soarame, there was a card game version of Dragon&Empires, and lots of students played it too. Seeing and hearing that, Jemario got annoyed and embarrassed; she grabbed Soarame’s arm and signalled him to go. However, Soarame frowned and approached Thom instead. ‘How can I register a team, please?’
‘Guys, watch your manners!’ Thom also noticed the unpleasant behaviour of some students, so he turned around and yelled at them; then he turned to Soarame again. ‘You can register any time, it’s very easy. But you need to have a team name ready, and bring at least three more people with you.’ Thom patiently explained more details and helped Soarame understand the rules, until Soarame was satisfied and left with Jemario.
‘Soarame, that was brave of you.’ On their way back, Jemario looked at the boy beside her with admiration. ‘No Water student ever successfully formed a team yet.’
‘Well, they didn’t try hard enough.’ Soarame smiled. ‘What’s the big deal?’
‘It’s kind of a big deal to us as Waters.’ Jemario noticed that she had unconsciously grabbed Soarame’s arm again, so she hurriedly let go. ‘It’ll be so awesome to have a Water captain! The entire Water Department will be crazy if you can make it…’
‘I will make it.’ Soarame interrupted Jemario all of a sudden. He stopped walking, turned around and looked into her eyes. ‘Maybe it’ll take some time but — I. Will. Make. It!’
Jemario was stunned for a few seconds. She didn’t speak any more but lowered her head. Soarame took that as meaning that Jemario didn’t quite believe it, but she chose not to discourage him; so he was even more determined to do it and prove it. But he didn’t know that the real reason why Jemario lowered her head was that she was actually blushing, and she did not want Soarame to notice it.
‘Soarame is that cool?’ Vivarin marvelled upon hearing this story from Jemario. ‘I bet he can make it!’
‘I bet he can too!’ Dileys was also excited. ‘I so can’t wait to see a Water captain in the real game! We finally have a hope of getting out of the cards!’
‘Yes, I’ll personally be a cheerleader for Soarame’s team!’ Catheray jumped up. ‘I’m going to need some practice from now on.’
‘Calm down girl, Soarame is just in Grade 2!’ Dileys chuckled. ‘He will need to get to Grade 4 at the very least, right Jemario? It won’t come that quick.’
‘Maybe, but he seems really serious about it.’ Jemario was recalling the scene when Soarame looked into her eyes and said those words. There was so much determination and courage in the boy’s eyes — That was so charming!
‘Atishoo!’ At the same time, Soarame suddenly sneezed in his dorm while he was practicing his mind-painting. Filton once said sneezing means someone is talking about me. It must be those guys from the teams laughing at me, then. Soarame shook his head, he didn’t really care about what people thought about him, thanks to Scankeen’s education and influence on him.
It’s getting a little better! Soarame looked at his newest work — at least one could tell it was an egg now. Since he had come back from the Dragon&Empires game, he became even more motivated to practice Water magic. Soarame was surprised to find that this time the motivation was helping him much more than money did; his mind-painting skills and controlling of Water Elements actually improved
really fast thanks to the stimulation.
Soarame knew that as a Grade 2 he would not be able to form a team and get good players to join him, so he decided to focus on grading up first, by studying hard in classes and practising mind-painting. His goal was to first master mind-painting, then move to mind-carving — by then he should have reached Grade 4 or even above; then it would be the right time to form a team for the game.
Time always goes fast when one is concentrated; a few weeks had passed during Soarame’s hard practice on Water magic.
This day, Soarame was painting in the dorm and heard some noise by the door. He put down the inkbottle, stretched, and went to check it. There was an envelope lying on the floor; it must be the mailman that squeezed it in through the door gap. Soarame picked it up and realised that it was for Kardiac, but this reminded Soarame that he should be writing to Filton — the old man hadn’t written yet.
Soarame recalled the weird dream that he had during his first night on campus, and decided to do it right away. He took a pen and wrote a letter addressed to Filton’s house, and then went to the post office.
‘How long does it take to deliver, please?’ After a bit of chitchat with the post officer, Soarame asked.
‘To Corrugon Peninsula? Not long, a couple of days should be enough.’ The officer said. ‘See that fellow over there? He’s fast.’
Soarame was surprised to learn that the delivery time was much shorter than he expected, and looked over — the officer was pointing at a big bird of some kind. ‘His name is Windy, a Wind magimal, one of the best mailmen for the school.’
‘That is so cool!’ Soarame marvelled. ‘Where is he from?’
‘I don’t know, but the manager’s had him since he was an egg.’ The officer was obviously fond of Windy. ‘So he’s been our baby ever since.’ If a magimal lived with mankind, it meant it had a human master; in this case it was the manager. Soarame couldn’t help thinking about his magimal egg — if his egg hatched, the baby magimal would take Soarame as its master too, but what would it be?