Drop Ship

I had never liked school while I was growing up.

Admittedly that was probably just due to the fact I had been bullied and that had instilled a deep sense of fear inside of me.

Thanks to my System, I wouldn't have to worry about that fear anymore.

Not only that, I'd be learning how to harness literal actual magic and how to make it interact with technology.

That was the sort of thing that I'd fantasized about as a kid.

Besides, what I was going to was less a school and more an academy for people of all ages.

One of the last things that Coralinus had explained to me was the fact that magic wasn't actually spread evenly across the universe. Not everyone could even tap into the well of mana that pervaded the galaxy.

People awakened at various points throughout their lives with varying degrees of strength. When they did, if they were strong enough, they would go to an Astral Corps academy to learn how to best harness their new abilities.

In other words, I wasn't a kid any more and I wasn't going to be surrounded by kids who wanted to pick on me for no reason.

Well. There was one person that still seemed incredibly cautious regarding my entire existence. Niva.

She was the only one in the shuttle pod with me, waiting for the automated systems to take us down to the moon below where the local Astral Corps academy was located.

"Are you just going to stare at me the whole time we're in here?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow at the girl.

She immediately dropped her eyes to the ground, the pink of her cheeks becoming darker and more red as she blushed.

She was cute when she was being bashful like that and not trying to have me thrown in space prison with her space guards.

"It's not like I wanted to be here," She replied, "This whole thing is stupid. I haven't even had my awakening yet."

And there was the real reason that she was still angry with me.

I was a human.

In this universe humanity was largely out of touch with magic, it was rare for a human to show any kind of magical ability and they had instead gone down a hard technological route, going as far as to cannibalize their own sun to power their mothership.

If I had been born in this universe, to begin with, I'd have probably been an engineer or something along those lines, without a magical bone in my body.

Instead, I'd been given the keys to the kingdom without having to awaken at all.

That combined with her natural distaste for humanity left her a little bit grouchy.

"Well, it's like your dad said, maybe being exposed to a bunch of magical energy will trigger some latent power in you," I replied with a shrug, relaxing into my seat.

"That's not how it works, Adrian," She sighed, "It's not something that happens due to exposure to magic."

The shuttle started to move.

The hum of the mana battery-powered engines increased in their pitch as they moved us out of the dock and into open space.

It was gorgeous.

I hadn't really gotten the chance to appreciate what I had been gifted when I had first woken up back in the barracks, Niva and her guards had come to rough me up far too quickly.

Now, though, with our shuttle slowly pulling away from the space station and angling to descend to the surface of the verdant green moon below, I had a chance to really take in the beauty before me.

I'd been a shop worker in central London living in a dingy flat a night ago, and now I was… I didn't even know what. Some prophesied system user come to save the universe?

[Panic Status Negated By Skill: Steady Mind]

I was getting a lot of use out of that skill.

Other than a few snarky comments and constant skill usages I hadn't actually figured that much out about my system.

I knew that it was capable of a level of autonomy or conscious thought and that it was related in some way to the orb that descended from the ceiling after I had woken up for the first time in the barracks.

[Well, sort of. I'm just the neural bridge between you and the System. Makes things easier for you to use in the long run,] the system said.

Well, that was reassuring at least, even if the so-called interface had been nothing more than a snarky git so far.

[I could always let you feel the panic you're supposed to be feeling right now, you know,] The interface pointed out.

I didn't want that one bit. Okay, no more insulting the interface.

I felt a glow of smugness from somewhere in the back of my mind. That must have been where its consciousness lived.

"You should probably hold onto something, by the way," Niva said, still not meeting my eyes.

Considering how tightly she was clutching the handrail next to her seat, I figured she wasn't messing around. They had called this a drop-ship, after all, and not a shuttle.

Just in time, I wrapped my hand around the handrail.

The whine of the mana battery-powered engines cut out and all of a sudden it felt like my stomach was trying to erupt out of the top of my head as gravity took hold of our vessel and it plummeted down to the moon below.

[Terror Status Negated By Skill: Steady Mind]

Despite the negation I still let myself yell out loud, though it wasn't due to a single shred of fear or panic. This was like a rollercoaster, and I was having the time of my life… a brand new life that was only just getting started!

I had no idea what the future held, or what this universe was going to throw at me… but it was a damn sight better than what I had been used to back on my own Earth.

Magic? Tech? My own system? What could possibly go wrong?!