Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 25: Roommates

"Everyone, please form a single-file line in order to complete your registration!" A female instructor at the door called out, though Koko didn't care what the woman was yelling as she was fascinated with her. That petite figure, emerald green eyes and long pointed ears... It was an elf! They were so rare that Koko had only seen one other elf before, and that had been Ess, who had attended her trial against Ernie Blackman.

"Once inside, be prepared to have your magical ability scanned in order to set your school ranking!" The woman called out again, though Koko heard her this time.

"Say what now?" Koko asked no one in particular, suddenly unsure if she'd heard the woman correctly or not as she called out to her. "Won't the ranking be set by levels?"

"Of course not, then the rankings would be vulnerable to leeching." The woman replied as if Koko should have known the answer. "But almost all skills require MP to use, so the rankings is based on a persons total MP to decide it. But don't even thing about cheating, because the scanning stones will ignore any MP added on by enchanted equipment and special abilities."

"What about focus?" Koko asked, hoping that she could get by with that.

"Focus doesn't have hardly any skills that apply directly to it and is mostly just used to help the user concentrate." The woman explained.

"A-and what do the ranks do, exactly?" Koko asked, thinking that she was doomed.

"They determine your placements in events." The woman replied. "More often than not, a low ranking person will be placed in either a group or match with another low ranking person to best determine their overall ability. That's simply how things work."

"And you can raise your rank by preforming well, right?" Koko asked hopefully, wondering if she would be able to make her way to the top or not. Well... she didn't exactly want to be on top, but being on absolute bottom would be a nightmare as even she knew that people would see the rankings as an adventurer's worth.

"You can, but it will be difficult and require a lot of training." The woman smiled at Koko.

"That's alright then!" Koko said happily, content that, while she would  most likely be at the bottom, she wouldn't stay there for long.

"Good, then please continue. You're holding up the line." The woman said, and only now did Koko realize that she was right as there were a lot of angry looking people behind her.

Hurrying as she made her way into the dorm's entrance, Koko suddenly found herself in a chaotic situation where the line split into four different lines, each leading to a desk where the academy's personnel were busy testing people's magical ability and assigning them dorms. However, the entire room was full of the noise of conversation, and several people that had already finished seemed to be disorientated as they searched around for their rooms. And while Koko could understand their confusion as most commoners would have never stepped inside of such a large building as this one before, she soon lost interest in them altogether as she chose one of the lines and waited her turn.

"Name?" The receptionist asked without even looking up at Koko when it was finally her turn.

"Koko Cryner." Koko replied, and the woman quickly scribbled it down on the large book in front of her.

"Press your hand against the enchanted stone and concentrate your magic on it." The receptionist indicated to a large round stone that was built into the side of the table, and Koko immediately followed the instructions. Feeling the stone's warm surface, Koko finished with concentrating her magic and felt the stone nearly suck all of her MP out of her before she finally retreated from it and the stone spit out what looked like a card in return for all of her MP.