Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer-Novel

The crowd of students were lead towards another area in the Academy.

Their next destination wasn't far from the courtyard, in fact it's just right next to it which was very convenient.

From the outside, it looked like some sort of a fortress, its like a place where you can expect guards to be around spending their break time or something.

Much to Ashton's surprise however, the interior was completely modernized, in fact this looks even modern than his own house. The huge iron doors were completely automated, it even had security module installed in it since he can hear that familiar mechanical voice when the instructors entered along with the students.

This place was big enough to fit them and still has some room. Everyone got seated and Yohan spoke to them once more:

"Alright students, we will begin the Specialization Assessment shortly. This process might take some time since there's a lot of you here but know that this is the last event for today. Once you're done, you guys can go home. We'll be seeing each other tomorrow when the classes officially begins."

Ashton nodded to that and Yohan began gathering students to go on the assessment. It looked like he's gathering around 50 students at a time, which is a lot but considering how many students are here, it will take some time before they could go through everyone. Not to mention, he still doesn't know how long the assessment will occur so yes, this might really take some time.

Since he had no idea how long this will take, he decided to distract himself in the mean time. Had he known that they will pick students from the front to the back, he would've came closer this time around. Alas, he had no way of knowing that and he's in the middle-end of the bunch so it will take some before his turn comes.

Ashton simmered on his own thoughts...

'Specialization, aka Class/Job...change? No, wrong. Can't call it Class Change when I don't have a Class to begin with. Is a Citizen considered as a class? Well it's definitely not a job either but taxes- brain! Come on! You know what that's not the point here.'

'Anyway...Class/Job Identification...hmm, that works I guess. Right, that. Uh, I wonder what I'll have.'

'Well, what classes are in there to begin with? That I don't know. This is the first time I'm hearing something about this so yeah, that's natural.'

'But, I guess I can make some guesses...'

'I mean...yeah, I guess being a Mage or a Knight can be considered as a Class. But this Specialization thingy should be referring to the finer details of that.'

'For example, Knights that specializes in swords. Those can be called Sword Knights. Other iterations could Spear Knights, Guardian Knight - which could be the 'Tank', Magic Knight - the dual cultivators and so on.'

'As for Mages...uh...'

'Huh, weird. I can't think of any right now. I mean, I should know something and I'm just not remembering it. Hold on...'

'...are Alchemists considered as one? There's this one game I remember where that's a class but I guess that's pushing it. Uh...'

As Ashton thought about it deeply, he felt someone tapping his shoulders. He looked to his left and saw Mary tilting her head. She then spoke him:

"Sorry, you look like you're plotting something evil. Are you planning on conquering the world?"

Ashton chuckled and said: "Yeah, but shh. Keep it between the two of us. Once I succeed, I'll give you money."

Both of them had a laugh with that then Mary proceeded to ask: "What were thinking so hard about anyway?"

"Uh, nothing much." Ashton scratched his cheeks slightly, "Just wondering what kind of class-I mean, Specialization I'll get and what are the types there is."

"Ahh!" Mary had an enlightened expression, she then sighed and said: "And here I thought you were thinking about something completely puzzling."

She pursed her lips and called Alice who was arguing with Blake once more.

"Hey, Alice! Come here."

Ashton raised a brow at that.

Alice saw them and walked towards them, of course Blake followed as well.

"Oh, hey. It's you again, smart guy." He greeted as they came.

"Right. I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Ashton. Nice to meet you all." He gave them a curt nod.

They shared short pleasantries and then Alice proceeded to ask Mary why she called her.

"It's like this; this guy doesn't know what Specialization Types there is. I was wondering if you can tell him. I mean, we're already students of the Academy after all."

"Oh, is that so? Yeah, sure I can do that." Alice nodded, she then faced Ashton and said:

"Uh, so it's like this. Typically, I shouldn't be telling you this since we'd be informed about it anyway but since we're already students of the Academy, that ban is lifted."

"Ban?" Ashton raised a brow again.

"Uh, the filters I mean." Alice clarified, "You look smart so I guess you should've noticed. The Federation doesn't allow knowledge about cultivation to be publicized without permission since it can be dangerous in the wrong hands. That's the ban I was referring about."

"Oh! So that's actually a Law. Now it makes sense." Ashton looked enlightened.

"Uh huh." Alice nodded as well, "But since we'd be learning about it here anyway the ban should no longer apply to us. But just to be safe, it's still better to be careful especially if the information is too great or sensitive. Thankfully, the information about Specialization isn't like that so we're good."

"I see."

"So, uhm...there's actually tons of Specialization Types. But on each profession, there's three basic ones that majority of us starts with."

"For us Knights, we have; Sword Bearers, Shield Bearers, and Bow Bearers."

"For you Mages, there are: Red Mages, White Mages and Black Mages."

"These are the most basic ones at least but there are tons of them out there. There are even rarer types which offers a completely different kind of fighting style."

"Each person can have an affinity for one type or multiple ones. You can only pick one of course and you're set with that so choose carefully. You can also pick none for now if you don't like your choices."

"Also, just like what Mr. Muller said before, this can change in the future. It all depends on your future development. You can also consult Professors if there's a specific Specialization Type you're aiming for, they can help you with that."

"Uh...yeah, that's about all that I can say for now at least." Alice concluded.

"I see." Ashton nodded, "Thank you for that. I'm surprised you know a lot about this."

"Oh, uh..." Alice chuckled shyly and said: "My parents are licensed Cultivators, that's how. They have a lot of books around and they made me read those that I could."

"Ah, I see. That's convenient." Ashton nodded, he somehow wished that he had something like that too but oh well, he still prefers his life now.

"So? Now that you know, what do you think you'll get?" Mary asked curiously.

Ashton smiled wryly and said: "No idea. I don't even know what those types do to begin with. I can understand Knights but for Mages, I'm clueless. And I'm a mage too."

That's a fat lie. Ashton does have an idea of what those classes could do.

When he heard about them from Alice, he instinctively want to smack his face for not even considering those options.

Of course they'll base it off of colors, why wouldn't they?

Moreover, those classes are familiar to him too since he had played games in Earth where those classes are the base types.

Red Mages are those who deals damage. White Mages are healers and Grey Mages uses hexes or curses to make it easier to defeat enemies. It is so simple but they are effective, also they really fit the Specialization description. Then again, that knowledge is from Earth. It could work differently here, who knows?

"You look like you'd be a Red Mage or a Black Mage." Mary commented.

"Do I?" Ashton raised a brow. "But what does a Red Mage or a Black Mage do?"

"...we'll keep that a secret for now. Just to stay safe, I hope you can understand."

"Of course!" He nodded, "I get it. I already know enough for now at least. But how about you, what do you think you'll get?"

"I'd be happy if I could be a Red Mage. Of course I'd be happier if I can receive a rare Type but that's very unlikely."

"I see." He then looked at Alice and asked: "And you?"

"Sword Bearer I hope." She replied, "But if I can't have it, then anything is fine."

"And you?" Ashton looked at Blake.

"If I don't get Shield Bearer than forget about it." He scratched his nose. "I love shields way too much, I can't help it."

Ashton nodded, Mary jeered at Blake for his statement which was then followed by Alice and just like that, they're at it again. Ashton silently withdrew from their argument and started thinking to himself...

'I wonder what specialization I'd get.'