Eldritch Guidance

Chapter 1 - Down on One's Lucked

It was the middle of the evening. Cid was wandering through the streets of Graheel in his green school robes, feeling dejected and lost completely in his own thoughts.

The city of Graheel was ancient, boasting a long history and knowledge of the arcane. Many organizations and religions would visit this place in search of knowledge. Attracting the attention of those of the purest intent to help people, as well as those that would see the world burn.

Cid was neither of those kinds of people. He came here solely for himself, to improve his control over the arcane. He learned and trained all in an attempt to improve his own life and be recognized as a mage.

Cid saw society as divided into two groups, those who can use magic, then those who can't.

People who can use magic are placed in high society and associated with nobility. Even the poorest person could ascend from their low position in society with the ability to use magic. This was what Cid was taught, and what he first believed in. Coming to this city he learned quickly that it was a lie.

It wasn't good enough if you could use magic, but you had to be powerful in the craft, or possess the ability to use unique magics. A hash reality for Cid, for he had neither.

Cid had done his final arcane affinity test, and it was bad.

Cid had no affinity towards any of the elements, and the magic he could use effectively was useless. His specialty was the art of numerology. He could use numbers to make predictions of the future, but it requires a ludicrous amount of data for any degree of accuracy. Even the best practitioners of numerology were quite unreliable compared to other forms of divination.

Outside of divination, numerology magic could also be used to make complex mathematical calculations. In the past this may have been useful, but with today's technology, its processing capabilities were not much better than a phone or computer.

This ability wasn't good enough to raise Cid's standing, and the only other magic he could use were all utility magics. Making things clean, hiding foul odors, moving small objects up to 15 feet. Those were the kind of things his magic could do.

This is what led to Cid currently feeling defeated, finally realizing his limitations. The future seemed to be dictating that he was to be a janitor for some wealthy noble. He had sacrificed so much to reach this point, and couldn't accept this.

The friendship he sacrificed, his family he ignored, the love he had abandoned was all for nothing. He gave up so much just to learn how miserable his future prospects were.

That wasn't even getting into the fact about the amount of money he had spent. There was no way a janitor was going to make enough to cover all the debt he had accumulated.

Cid was ready to jump off a bridge at this point. Thus, he wandered the streets, trying to take his mind off everything, unsure how he was supposed to pay for his next semester.

He had managed to get into one of Graheel's great arcane schools. He was of the Shroom pact collage. Not the most respectable of the schools, but they were the easiest to apply and get into.

He wanted to just drop out, but a degree from the college was still useful. He could get a simple office job with a degree. It wasn't what he wanted, but it made a little more money than a janitor.

He was, however, still running out of money. Cid had expected he could get a side job while going to school, but with his ability, he couldn't get any decent paying job that covered both his tuition and living expenses. It was either eat or go to school, and sadly textbooks can't fill your belly.

Cid had stopped walking and looked around to see where he was. He had somehow managed to wander off the college campus into the east side of Graheel. He was so lost in his thoughts he didn't realize how far he had walked. Off in the distance he could see some of the neon signs that marked the beginnings of the red light district.