Zero Potential: Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 2

The first day of her new life was just as Terra expected and so much less. This time rather than getting a scholarship from the clergy to attend school, she was given the least beneficial contract possible, while still being able not officially sell her soul as a pact to the school.

The terms of the ‘F’ rank classes were predatory to say the least. As a student of criminal background, and by criminal, in this case it purely related to her ancestry not personal proclivities, her loan interest rates were noted as already being at the highest possible. These rates were normally lowered by the potential growth rate, even an F+ would be enough to lower the interest by half a point. Had she still room to grow in her magical acumen she would have had an E for growth rate potential which would net her a full percentage point from the loan interest. Before she began her restarts, when she still had the highest amount to grow, she had an SS growth rate, which would have put her at the lowest interest rate possible, or 3%. This was of course part of why the clergy opted to cover her costs all those times, as she was heralded as the savior of mankind and granted special privileges. This time however, there was no such fanfare, which felt odd. At the very least it felt like the definition of insanity was proven wrong. Doing the same thing repeatedly and then finally achieving a different result entirely. But this time she was not heralded as the savior, this time she was not marked to be destined to save all of humanity. No, this time she was dirt, well less than dirt, at least in the eyes of those around her.

“Let’s see. With an F rank for growth, that is seven percent interest, one point for every grade letter you are away from the maximum SS ranking for growth. That added to the traditional three percent loan puts you at a flat ten percent interest for all training and fees occurred here while at the Belaton Arcanum University.” The administrative assistant said, making it so that Terra’s future obligation to the state would be noted cleanly, a ten percent tax on education, basically a death tax. At least that is what most who were subjected to such loan conditions were appraised with.

The reason the ten percent tax was also referred to as the death tax, as it would often be hovering over you until the time of your death. From forcing the loan taker to take more and more risks to pay off the fines, to the fact that by providing a mage with a basics of education, you effectively owned them as part of an army that was forever bound by debt to the Kington. To put it into a single word, the terms of such a loan were absolute. For people like Terra, with no family and already having two parents noted as being criminals, she would not be allowed to learn the vital skills, and that was the only thing keeping her here now. Skills as it turned out, or at least system recognition of her skills were important, for right now, with her previous knowledge, she knew exactly what it would take to increase her skills, but until she was recognized by someone with the skill she wanted as possessing the skill to a competent degree, she would not be as efficient while using her skills. Skills, and the lack of proficiency in said skills was what cost her the first few dozen restarts of her life, she might have been strong enough, but she could not last long enough during a fight. During a prolonged battle all of her high attributes meant nothing, when she had nothing left to give, that was why she started spending more and more time not only learning but earning Skill recognitions in future restarts. For Terra, while she could survive for a moment on her own, she knew that even a platoon of highly trained soldiers would eventually be able to wear her down without Skill recognitions, this was why despite the terms of this contract she had no choice, but to accept the contract being provided to her, as it was still her only chance at survival.

While she could easily break away now, head off into a foreign kingdom, and get away Terra did not do so. Mainly because if this was all just a feint, if the being of ultimate evil was just biding their time before their return, then Terra still needed to be ready. Also, these skills would make it so she could go out exploring during her free time, going to dungeons to gain resources that could be sold to keep herself well out of debt. With Terra already knowing the terrain, she felt confident in the fact that she could explore, and pay off her debts as they accrued, thus allowing herself to avoid the true impact of the death tax. To Terra the death tax was only a true death if you did what most students her age did, which was sit back and wait to learn how to improve themselves, how to cast spells, and most importantly how to survive in the world they were in.

“Just sign here in your blood, and the deal will be sealed.” The administrative assistant said as he began channeling his own magical energies into the parchment.

Terra watched the process, seeing the key words that came to life and transformed this from being just an Enchanted parchment to a Binding Enchantment. Of course, there were tricks to this, ones that Terra had learned that could counteract the Binding part of the Enchantment. This was where her Life magic came into play, by channeling massive amounts of Life energy into her body, and in particular her hand that she was about to mark with a knife, she could change the potency of the blood being released.

“The process is simple, take this silver knife. Slice open your right thumb. Then put your bloody thumb down on this contract. With this, we will be able to track you and your obligations to the Kingdom for the rest of your life. Know that by signing this, you are forever binding yourself to this kingdom until our investment in you is returned.” The assistant said, then taking the knife he turned and held it out for Terra to take.

“You didn’t create this, did you?” Terra asked, checking to make sure her knowledge of the parchment’s creator was correct.

“The Binding Contract, no, I did not create this, my master did. As his apprentice I have been allowed to alter or modify it, thus the ability to apply your name, Terra Rose, then I can…” He stopped himself before he said more. Based on where his hand was moving, and the fact that his eyes glanced at the portion of the contract that held the numeral ten on it, denoting the percentage of her tax rate, Terra assumed he was going to admit to being able to change the tax rate, but stopped himself just short.

Nodding to herself, then took the paper and began reading. This was merely a feint to make it so Terra had physical access to the document, see if she was going to alter the properties of the document to accept her changed blood to be her own, she would need to be able to override the controls built into the framework of the spell. Taking the contract and reading it for a minute Terra nodded to herself, then placed it down on the table. Giving a quick glance to the administrative assistant, she did a quick look to see if he noticed the alterations. To the layman her alterations would be minor, the surge of power at one part, the blocking of power to another. These were all minor things that were very taxing without having unlocked the Enchanting skill herself, but for this moment they were needed. If she had the skill Enchanting already unlocked this process would have been a lot easier, and Terra would have likely been able to do more. As it was, she would have to settle for a few changes. The first was that the name it recognized was not her own. The other thing that was changed was the blood checkers, ones designed to prevent any tampering of the blood being provided were disabled for the moment. This was important as it meant that now any moist substance could be applied, and the contract would automatically accept that as being Terra’s blood signature.

So it was that Terra taking the silver dagger cut into her right thumb.

Hiss.

The silver dagger hissed as it reacted not only to the natural magic within her blood, but also to the magic she was deliberately channeling in her right hand.

The dagger was the second fail safe used in this little binding ritual. The dagger was meant to break the will of anyone who was trying to do what Terra was doing. Yes, the dagger reacted showing that she herself had magic within her body, something that was needed to complete the contract. But it should also be enough to make it so any junior spell caster who was trying to do the blood to magic water trick that Terra was now performing would lose their concentration. As it was, this was the forty-second time doing this process, most of which she had to do while under the gaze of the Master Enchanter for the kingdom. By comparison, Terra having to do this before the administrative assistant for the Master Enchanter seemed underwhelming. Still, this was needed, as one of her restarts the being of ultimate evil found out their true enemy was a student at Belaton Arcanum University and sent an operative to get the contracts. From there, the being of ultimate evil used the contracts to systematically hunt down each student, making it so Terra was easily found and eliminated well before the invasion even got going. That was the last time Terra would allow anyone access to her true blood. That was also the reason that she was now going through so much trouble to make it seem like she was complying with the directives given to her, while also completely obfuscating the fact that she was trying to defraud the very system that was trying to take control of her life. In a way, this felt slightly cathartic if she had to think about it.

“Ouch.” Terra said, playing up the pain. While her Attributes made it so she wouldn’t feel such a minor prick, even from a silver dagger, she knew that most people complained about this process for days afterwards. This was why she too made a show of wincing in pain, before applying her magically infused blood onto the parchment. The blood in this case was little more than just red colored mana-infused water, but that was enough to trick the document into accepting it as a valid binding agreement.

Flash!

The second her finger left the page, the parchment flashed to life, showing that all conditions of the contract had been fulfilled.

Seeing the flash, the assistant and a guard who had watched over the proceedings came over and signed their names with magical quills, showing that they had witnessed the contract signing and noticed nothing odd about the situation.

Terra watched the two sign her binding parchment, a bit too intensely, as the assistant, seeing her laser like focus decided to speak. “Oh, don’t worry, we don’t need to sign in blood. We are just signing that we witnessed you, that you signed in good faith and that you were not coerced in any way.”

“Oh, okay.”  Hearing that Terra nodded and quickly averted her eyes. In her mind she chastised herself for nearly giving herself away. Fortunately, the assistant had given her the cover she needed. He had confused her want to make sure it was signed, and her misdeed was officially overlooked, for what would likely be a more common look of confusion as to why only she would need to sign with blood. She already knew the reason why, if the others had also signed in blood, then their blood signatures would also be bound to this contract, making it so they would also be held liable for her debts that were left unpaid. A sinister smile almost forced its way free from her lips at the thought of that, but she managed to hide her thoughts. At least she had from the assistant, the guard on the other hand looked at her with contempt. Though it was Rodderick, the third in command for the academy Guards and the one often forced to oversee the lower tier applicants. In general, there were three tiers of applicants, the top tier, or those with a Potential Rating of B or higher. These people were looked over by the school’s headmaster, the Master Enchanter, and the head of the academy guards. Then there was the second tier, those who had potential growths between F+ and C+ rankings. Then there was the lowest of the low, those who barely registered as having magical aptitude, like Terra was currently.

“Now that you are a student, I am required to tell you what you are currently entitled to. Here is a list depicting where you fall on the list of supplies that are readily applied as part of your basic education. Anything else will be charged, and the prices are noted below.” The assistant said, while holding up another document that also glowed to Terra’s senses. This of course was the initial entry form, that was provided to all students, that denoted and basically tallied everything that they had accrued thus far in their stay.

“Note. That once I hand this to you, it will be bound to you. You will be asked to always have this on you. When going to the mess hall, when getting your school provided uniform, when cleaning your uniform, when buying your books. If you wish to buy supplies for your lessons that are not part of what you are provided with, you will be charged. If you wish to eat more than what is afforded to you, you will be charged. If you wish to buy passes to dungeons, you will be charged. If at any point your debt increases to more than ten thousand coins, you will be discharged from the school and forced to immediately go and serve the army, or other form of servitude to the kingdom to pay off your debt. Any questions?” The assistant said, holding up the document.

Terra nodded, then grabbed the card. The minute her still bloody thumb contacted the parchment it flashed to life with a burst of magic.

Whoosh!

Burst.

There was a slight burst of fire that appeared on the magical document, before it was quickly put out by a quick-thinking Terra, who slammed the burning parchment down on the table and used her hand to stomp out the fire. Since this was the lowest rung of students, the materials used to create a simple bind on contact item like the Student Debt Card, was often skimped upon. In fact, the only ones that could normally hold Terra’s overpowering magical strength were the ones given out to the top tier students. That was the reason why this card shattered.

The assistant and Rodderick the guard both started at Terra with confusion.

“Let me see that.” The assistant said, grabbing the cracked card from Terra’s hands, only to see that it was in fact completely shattered. “I don’t know…” he said, his voice trailing off as he tried to understand what had happened. “It looked fine a moment ago.”

Then shrugging, he reached over and pulled out a second Student Debt Card, this one from the tier II students.

Whoosh!

Crack.

This time, her Student Debt Card merely cracked, from the surge of mana being infused by Terra’s touch. If Terra wanted to go under the radar, this was not exactly the way to do so, but honestly Terra was still under the impression that the being of ultimate evil would start making their move eventually, and when they did, she wanted to be as prepared to stop him as possible.

“You sure your potential was an F rank?” The assistant asked, clearly not knowing what to do. Terra just nodded. With that, the assistant took this parchment as well. This one other than a huge crack running across the surface still seemed to be intact, but everyone knew this wouldn’t be acceptable.

“I will go ahead and mark this one as already broken upon delivery, so you will not be charged for a replacement. I also cannot issue you a higher card, as I don’t have one at my disposal.” The assistant said, pulling out a few drawers to make sure his statement was accurate.

“For now, just use that as a base card to get everything that you are allowed. Since that is a second-tier card, you might be offered more, but don’t take it as anything more than what you are assigned for your tier will be charged against you and that will add up.” The assistant said, then after a pause, he added. “Do you have any elven blood in you?”

Terra just shook her head.

“Right, why would you.” He said, truly perplexed at the fact that he had no idea of how she could have broken not one but two Student Debt Cards, and the second one being a Tier Two product that he happened to have on hand as a just in case.

“If you look, you are granted one basic room and board, that you will share. You are entitled to one set of school uniforms that you will have to maintain and will be offered one meal a day for free at the mess hall.” The assistant said.

Terra looked down to see that everything the assistant said was true. As a Tier III, or the lowest of the low, she was given the absolute least to work with, but this was fine, as she was now well versed in surviving on the absolute minimum being provided. This would be nothing more than a welcome reprieve from her normal set of circumstances.

And like that, Terra Rose, former hero of the world entered school, fulfilling her lifelong wish of being able to live out a regular existence, one where she didn’t have to cut her time short by fighting off the being of ultimate evil, at least not for right now.