A possible future in less than 500 words, if plastic wins. This was my entry for the WattPad/National Geographic #PlanetOrPlastic competition back in late 2018. It reached their Top 10 Submissions which, given that there appeared to be well over 5000 entries, was a very pleasant surprise! The competition itself had a limit of 500 words so, for those who keep asking if I intend continuing the story, the answer (for now!) is no - unless I can find a very good reason for adding any more. Many thanks to everyone reading and voting on this story and getting it to number 1 in the #sciencefiction category in May/June 2020! I did try to thank the voters individually on their pages but Wattpad have a daily limit on the number of times I'm allowed to do that and there are now too many of you (not that I'm complaining)! Here's the top 10 submissions page: https://www.wattpad.com/list/738243473-planetorplastic-top-10-submissions If you want to read the story in Polish please head over to https://www.wattpad.com/story/236405960-m%C4%85dro%C5%9B%C4%87-staro%C5%BCytnych-t%C5%82umaczenie-pl where @juliatlumaczy has done a fine job - thank you, Julia! @juliatlumaczy has now sent me a version of the cover she used for her Polish translation - thanks again, Julia! @alex_sokolova has also translated the story into Russian as well. You can read that here: https://www.wattpad.com/976002417-мудрость-древних - many thanks, Alex! We now have a third translation! @AlfonsoLucassen has kindly translated it into Spanish and you can find it here: https://www.wattpad.com/1063634347-la-sabidur%C3%ADa-de-los-antiguos

Glass magic, the weakest of magic, the most fragile, the least effective. Those with it always end up with aide or aid class and a relief type. They were the ones to deal with the aftermath of war, helping those that had already severed their kingdom and those that had yet to come of age. They never face actual war, never risking their life as it was not a life worth risking. It was hardly a life at all. Now, there are also classes that seem limited to certain standing, take the rogue class for example; they are restricted to support and assassin types. Their sly personalities and strange magic perfect for stealing and stealth. Then lead types, bland beings really, always the same people, warrior class, elemental magic, blah blah blah. Though humans are uncommon within the lead types it's not as if one had heads turning in disbelieve. Uncommon but not rare. Boring really. Everyone's always so restricted with their magic, type, class, and rank, and yet... She exists. With a magic so fragile she shouldn't even be allowed in war, a class that doesn't match her personality, and a type that clearly doesn't belong to her. The only thing that seemed to be correct was her rank, F, the lowest. I wonder... Will she thrive with her standing? Or with she burn in the chaos of it? Why don't we find out? REWRITTEN

Glass magic, the weakest of magic, the most fragile, the least effective... Or, it should be but what about a glass soldier that doesn't break? A glass dragon that could easily be considered a real one? She's tired of being looked down on just because of her magic. She's tired of it being considered nothing more than something pretty but useless. And she's tired of being told she can't do something just because of her standing. Lilith was one of the few to summon a holy beast, she was one of the first to stand before even the most elite of mages with every intention to scam them and get away with it, she was the very first to propose such a ridiculous deal no less, the first first-year to be a Perfect, we'll be joining little Lilith on another journey, one more exciting than the last. One where the young girl begins to find where she truly fits with a standing that doesn't fit in anywhere.