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In a dark cave with green electricity running along the walls, there are seven mages wearing a green number 32 labeled green cloaks with a crystal ball and rune tablet each in front of them. An eighth one comes from behind the seventh one.
"How is the subject going Hacker7?" the cloaked one asks him.
"Work in progress, Hacker8", Hacker7 says. "We still need to find out what main school he should be in and his first name. We already have the last name as Glitchcity."
"Since no one in The Spiral likes us", says a cloaked man to Hacker7's right. "We should make him a Necromancer."
"Great idea Hacker6", Hacker8 says to him.
"I will just program Necromancer into his School", Hacker6 says as he programs it in. "All we need now is a first name..."
"I, the mighty Hacker5", the other cloaked man next to Hacker6 says with pride. "Have already compiled a list of names of all Necromancers known. We have Malestaire Drake, Penny Dreadful, Marla Stinger, Duncan Grimwater, Malorn Ashthorn and Dwargyn. Hacker4, do you think Penny Dreadful is not suitable for our male wizard?"
"I do agree", the cloaked man Hacker5 referred to says. "I would also say not Marla Stinger either, right Hacker3?"
"Yes", says the other cloaked man next to Hacker4.
"So no feminine names", Hacker8 says. "Would anyone agree with not doing Malestaire and Dwargyn?"
"We three agree", says the three cloaked ones between Hacker7 and Hacker4.
"Hacker1, Hacker2 and Hacker3 agree with that", Hacker8 comments. "So that leaves us with just Duncan and Malorn."
"Wait", Hacker5 starts saying. "How about we do a vote-"
"And why do you say that?" Hacker8 asks Hacker5.
"I can just tell we all would get into an argument at the end of the day", Hacker5 defends his argument. "If we don't vote."
"Alright, we'll vote", Hacker8 respects Hacker5's defense and turns to them all equally. "Here are the rules: All of you have to input the two names we have currently would agree on in your rune tablets. Only reveal them when I say so. I'll not be voting via to prevent a tie between the two names. With that said, type your answers!"
And with that, everyone started making decisions individually. Hacker8 took a peek at everyone to see if they all have typed their answers. Since he's seen them all typed answers, Hacker8 said the voting is done and told them to reveal their answers via hologram.
"They will think it's just coincidence", Hacker1 jokes. "They will never suspect us Hackers created this wizard to distort Kingsisle's plot to drain The Spiral's greatest wealth, Crowns, to throw it into a great depression."
"But could we see the outcome of our wizard?" both Hacker2 and Hacker3 say in unison.
"So let it be written", Hacker8 proclaims. "So let it be done!"
And with a few more keystrokes from the 7 Hackers sitting down; a human boy is being constructed from 1's and 0's. The boy has light skin, a black 17th century outfit with a green trim and blood red ascot, neon green eyes, a Robin Hood hat with a phoenix feather and Neon green hiking boots with a blood-red trim.
But all of a sudden, his left hand starts shooting green and red mixed lightning while growing what looks to be a cybernetic archfiend hand. Hacker8 looks at his hand and is surprised.
"Why does his left hand look like ours?!" he yells in question. "He's supposed to look like all the other wizards in Wizard City, not like us!"
"We are sorry sir", Hacker7 and Hacker1 say in unison.
"The prisoner struggled in becoming a blank slate", Hacker7 explains. "In order for him to not struggle..."
"I had to attack him with a G.I.F. Slash", Hacker1 explains further. "Which actually broke some of my fingers."
"So that's why you are only using your left hand to code him", Hacker8 realizes as he pulls Hacker1's right hand from under the table to reveal his wound. "You should have cleansed him of our magic and healed your wound before proceeding with the Codexation!"
"You said we had a time limit..." Hacker7 says.
"But Hackers have to be careful around The Spiral now a days!" Hacker8 yells at Hacker7. "So the corporation controlling the Tree, Spider and Raven don't catch us with an obvious mess-up like this!"
"We were supposed to send Duncan as soon as THE Wizard went to defeat the Spider", Hacker6 says in agreement to Hacker7.
Hacker8 lets go of Hacker1's hand and takes a deep breath and collects his emotions.
I did say that was the deadline as soon as we found out THE Wizard was going to Journey to defeat Spider. And they did their job so well until..., then he looks up at Duncan Glitchcity. Sunblade here started to resist the Hacking Ceremony...
"Just cover that hand with human skin and human nail", Hacker8 says in defeat. "When he goes into combat, it would probably become what it is now; making it his wand. Then send him unconscious in Merle Ambrose's Observatory."
"Yes Sir!" all the other 7 Hackers say in unison. With a few keystrokes and a few chants of mystic words, Duncan Glitchcity is sent flying into the 8-bit portal that is designated to Merle's Observatory.
I hope our plans work perfectly, Hacker8 thinks to himself as he stares up at the recreated Wizard. If it doesn't, Kingsisle will bring all of Spiral into economic depression.
Hacker101
Player: Duncan Glitchcity - Novice Necromancer
WIZARD CITY
"This is really unfortunate", Merle Ambrose says as he views the letter sent by The Wizard. "It seems Old Cobb took Mellori for a reason the Young Wizard doesn't know about. I wonder how he is doing..."
"Ambrooooooose!" A voice of an Owl calls out from the observatory. "A Wizard exploded from the Spiral Crystal!"
"I'll be there right now", Merle Ambrose says as he teleports from his office. When he get to this observatory, he saw an owl next to the unconscious Duncan Glitchcity face-down on the floor with the observatory crystal shattered into thousands of pieces.
"Gama", Merle Ambrose says to the Owl. "Did the crystal shatter as the wizard came from it?!"
"Yes Headmaster", Gama answers. "But I would be worried about the Wizard than the Crystal. I will prepare an order for another Observatory Crystal from the Arcanum."
"You go and do that", Merle says as Gama flies to the crystal ball on the pedestal and contacts the Arcanum. Merle turns to the Wizard face-down on the floor. "Oh dear, I need to contact Ceran Nightchant to help with this. But I will also need to contact a death student to find out how much life he has left."
"Ugh", the wizard says as he tries to get up but falls after the struggle.
"Don't use your last bit of strength wizard", Ambrose cautions. "We need to get you to a bet somewhere and examine you."
"I... Don't... Need... HELP!" the wizard says as he charges in a dark green aura along with exploding in the air and standing on his own two feet. Ambrose was sent back and Gama finished his call and flew over to Ambrose's side.
"I am Duncan Glitchcity", the wizard says as he is fully healed up, but he noticed Ambrose on his back, turns to his glowing left hand as it returns to normal, and turns back to Ambrose. "Are you hurt?"
"Let's hope not", Gama says as he looks at Ambrose and not Duncan. "Are you OK Ambrose?"
"This will help me a bit", Ambrose says as he takes out a glass flask with purple liquid, takes off the cork top and drinks the whole thing. He gets back up feeling fully energized. "I'm fine now Gama. Now, did you say your name was Duncan Glitchcity?"
"Yes", Duncan answers.
"At least my memory is not getting worse now, heh?" Ambrose says with a good mood. "We need to go to Golem court to fully introduce you to Wizard City."
"I will meet you two there", Gama says to the both of us. "I still need to fill out the order report for the new Observation Crystal."
"We will meet you there then Gama", Ambrose says to him as he turns to Duncan. "Now, will you follow me to Golem Court? When Mr. Lincoln sees us coming in, he will have everyone else leave."
WIZARD CITY, GOLEM COURT
With only me, Duncan Glitchcity, Gama the Owl and Headmaster Merle Ambrose, we can now begin my introduction to Wizard City.
"As you already know, my name is Merle Ambrose. I am the headmaster of the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts. We're expecting great things from you. But first things first", Merle says as he turns to Gama. "My owl friend would like to speak with you. Walk up to Gama and follow his directions."
So I did as I was told and walked up to Gama.
"Hellooo!" Gama introduces. "My name is Gamma the Owl, and I am quite pleased to meet yooou! Wizards test their skills by summoning fantastic creatures and dueling! To become a Master Wizard, you must learn every spell in your class! Wizards love to duel! The more spells you learn, the better a duelist you will become."
Then all of a sudden, the ground starts to shake. A thunderstorm of green lightning sparks in the sky. What's worse is that something broke into the tower. What we saw was the shadow of a hooded figure in the window going across it.
"Whoooo?!" Gamma exclaims as he we saw the figure.
"Why am I getting a since of déjà vu right now!?" Ambrose says as he recalls what this feeling he is having again. "Duncan Glitchcity, we best see what trouble is happening in there AGAIN! Meet me in the tower!"
"Yooou'd best follow the headmaster", Gamma demands. "Yooou're safe with him! To the Tower!"
I enter the tower and climb it to the top floor. And what I saw when I got to the top was Ambrose and a hooded figure with a face that looked like a dragon's with a Gold Crown emblem on the front of the cloak.
"Who's there...?" Ambrose asked, but then realized who it was. "Draco!"
"Ambrose?!" Draco says with a mocking shock. "What's with the attitude?"
"Why have you invaded the tower?" Ambrose asks. "And like Malestaire no less!"
"I came here to find The Wizard", Draco explains. "He is 163,555 Crowns in debt due to using the Crowns Credit Card you gave him to journey through all the other worlds; including extensions of your own city no less. I am not allowed to punish you directly, but I can punish your newest Student over there. My BOTS will make sure he can't go further in the other worlds after their done with him!"
"Hurry along, Duncan Glitchcity!" Ambrose says to me. "Take this deck of spell cards and deal with those machines while I tend to Draco himself!"
"You can't hurt me, old man", Draco says. "You signed a contract that makes it so that YOU cannot harm Kingsislers."
"Run up and confront them!" Ambrose says to me. "Be brave! I will guide you!"
The BOTS looked like first stage Mettaton but with green screens, satellite plates as wings, robot bird legs and are floating in the air.
As I run up to them, my left hand began to distort since I exploded in front of Ambrose back at his Observatory. Draco looked shock to seeing what is happening to my already weird looking left hand. Just then, the battle began between me and the two BOTS. The BOTS had 480 red auras and 1 glowing dot surrounding them each, while I had 450 red auras, 15 blue auras and 1 glowing dot surrounding me. What cards I got from my deck were ones of a "Fire Cat" and a "Troll".
"Those are the cards you've drawn", Ambrose explains. "Quickly! You must choose a spell and use it to attack one of Draco's BOTS by casting it on them."
With being in a rush, I gripped the "Troll" card, with my left hand, without reading how much damage it would do and chose the BOT to my right. But I wasn't fast enough, so the BOT to my left went first. The BOT's screen glowed in a spectrum of colors to make snowflake looking symbol. What came from it was beetle of solid ice, which came charging at me; dealing 50 damage to me. The glowing dot the BOT had also vanished after the spell was casted. Then the BOT to my left did the same thing, but an old fashioned scale symbol appeared instead. What appeared from that was a giant red-orange Scorpion which sprayed and acid at me, from which I took 50 damage also. He too lost a glowing dot after casting. I was finally able to cast my "Troll" spell. But I felt a strange aura coming from my left hand: I gripped it and lashed out a strike with the claws swinging diagonal from my top left to my bottom right. And what appeared was a triangle with an eye in it like symbol. What appeared from it was a green troll wearing a brown cloth and holding a club with stone spikes, just like what the card picture showed. When it attacked the one I meant it to attack, is swung its club in a tornado fashion, dealt 120 damage to it and vanished in a pile of golden dust. Leaving me with no more glowing dot. I had 330 red auras and 14 blue auras remaining after that assault.
"Oh my! You're hurt!" Merle exclaimed. "You'll need to pay attention to your Health, which is the red aura to your left. If that entire aura disappears in a Wizard duel, you'll be defeated and won't be able to battle again for a while. The Blue Aura to your right is your Mana. Mana is magical energy, which gives you the power to cast spells. When you run out of Mana, you won't be able to cast more spells."
As he says all this, I noticed that all of us have our glowing dots back.
"When you're out of Mana, you'll be at the mercy...", Merle exaggerates on.
"Headmaster", I say to him. "There is no time for lessons, we are under attack!"
"Wait, what?!" Ambrose realizes. "We're under attack? Oh my! Call me a fool... I had all but forgotten!"
"This is just like when the Young Wizard was being attacked by Malestaire's Draconians", Abrose continues. "Attack his BOTS again!"
I nod back at him as I grip the "Fire Cat" Card in my left hand preparing to cast it, targeting the BOT to my left this time. The left BOT casted a Scorpion, just like the one to my right did last round. It dealt me 90 Damage this time with the same kind of attack. The right BOT casted a spell that had a symbol of a human skull when being viewed on its left side. What appeared was pirate skeleton, who slashed me in the chest; dealing me 105 damage. When it came to my turn, I did the same thing I did while casting the "Troll" Spell. But now the symbol was of a single flame. What appeared was a giant tiger made of fire; the same image as on the card. It pounced on the BOT to my left and dealt 105 damage to it. After that assault, I had 135 HP and 13 Mana remaining, but I felt really hurt my then.
"Are you getting to old to teach?" Draco mockingly asks Ambrose. "'Cause it looks like you aren't teaching him how to heal during battle."
"No I'm not, I taught The Wizard how to heal during battle when facing Draconians, and I can certainly teach Duncan Glitchcity how to heal during battle as well!" Ambrose yells as he turns to me. "Quickly, use the Unicorn spell and cast it on yourself. It will heal your wounds."
I saw the Unicorn Spell and gripped it as soon as possible. My reaction was so fast that the BOTS weren't able going before me. I did my usual spell casting stance, but what appeared was a leaf symbol. What appeared was a unicorn which bowed to me and gave me a healing aura that mended all of my wounds like how the purple potion healed Ambrose when I exploded at him. Leaving me with 450/Full HP and 12 Mana.
"Dumb machines!" Draco scolded. "You've let the brat heal! Take him out or you'll be turned into scrap iron for it! Use your spells to weaken Duncan's spells!"
"Duncan, take some more Pips", Ambrose calls out as he casts two more glowing dots to me. "They power your spells. The more Pips you have, the stronger the spells you can cast!"
Just as he said that, a card that says "Nature's Wrath" appeared in my hand.
"Quickly, now!" Merle demands. "Pick another spell and cast it at one of them before they use their spells to weaken yours!"
Just like that, I gripped the "Nature's Wrath". But I was too late; the BOT to my right casted another scale spell, but this one made a circle shield with spikes on its edge and a sword on its face appear above my head.
"Oh my, just as I feared", Ambrose said as I casted the leaf spell. "That spell weakened your spell, so it will do less damage to your target."
The target I chose was the left BOT. So the right BOT seemed to want to weaken my spell so neither of them would take damage. And it happened the Humanoid tree, which was on the card picture, was stricken with the charm and did less damage to the left BOT, exactly 225 damage. Which left me at 9 MANA
"Finally, you dumb BOTS do something right for a change!" Draco congratulates them. "Now finish the child!"
"Cast this Balance Blade spell on yourself", Ambrose tells me as the card appeared in my hand. "It will give your next spell more power!"
I did as he told me and gripped the card in my hand. But I wasn't fast enough against the left BOT. I casted a flame spell, which conjured up a Phoenix and blasted me with fire that dealt 85 damage to me. The right BOT was next, casting a leaf spell. What appeared was an armored centaur. It shot an arrow at me which grew a tree into me, which exploded and what was left struck me with such great power that gave me 105 damage. When I finally casted the balance blade, I was at 260 HP and 9 MANA.
"You learned just as fast as The Wizard", Ambrose praises.
"I've got it!" Ambrose says as I draw the Meteor Strike card. "Use the Meteor Strike Spell! It will strike both BOTS! Here are some Pips to cast it with!"
I gripped the card as thanks, hoping the Balance Blade will increase not just "balance spells". After the Bots dealt me damage to get me to 50 HP, I casted the Meteor Strike flame spell. A fiery portal appeared in response. The Balance blade charm shattered and the pieces went into the portal.
I hope the charm worked.
And so it did. One meteor struck at a BOT each, making them explode into tons of bolts and screws.
"Excellent job, Duncan Glitchcity!" He congratulates me on my victory. "Now let me see to Draco... I'll show him... threatening a new student before orientation, no less! I bet THAT isn't a part of your signed agreement!"
"It's true I wasn't allowed to harm him", Draco admits. "But you can't harm me for doing that. Besides, my JOB failed to meet its quota. So I had some spare time and decided to try to ruin another student's Orientation like Malestaire did with The Wizard which still owes us Crowns!"
"Now, I will be taking my leave of this run down city of yours", Draco says as he dissolves in green and black pixels. "You should probably renovate this City to what Marlybone is..."
"He's finally gone, and not a moment too soon!" Ambrose says in relief. "Why does Kingsisle always want to tax people for going outside of their world of origin? Hmm..."
"Oh my!" Ambrose realizing I am still a bit hurt, along with my left hand returning to its non-magic form. "You look a bit worn down. Here, let me give you one of my potion flasks. It will restore you to your full HP and MANA."
"On the bright side, congratulations!" Merle congratulates me as I drink the potion flask. "Defeating Draco's BOTS has earned you some experience."
"You will feel you have gained some Experience as a green aura surrounding you", Merle Ambrose Continues. "When you get a glow that starts to swirl around you as a you-sized tornado, you will gain a higher rank and be able to learn new spells. Now, do you have any questions, Duncan Glitchcity?"
"Do you know why I have a monstrous hand?" I ask him as I hold up my left hand to him.
"That is a good question", Merle ponders but realizes something. "But that hand of yours does have the power to cast spells, I can sense it aura during the battle. Maybe it has the potential to cast its own magic powers. Your hand will now be your wand. So you don't need to use a wand then, but you can still have this Reaper's Rod if you want. But every Wizard MUST have a Spell book. Here you go. No young Wizard should ever be without it."
Ambrose then gives me a Spell book and the Reaper's Rod, which looks like a unicorn's horn attached to a sword handle. I put the Wand and Spell book in my pockets.
"I should say, Duncan Glitchcity", Ambrose says. "You have quite the potential and the courage. There is little doubt but that you have a greater power than I could ever imagine inside you. Who knows? Maybe you could rival The Wizard who is currently in Mirage right now. But now, if you'll excuse me, I have a mountain of duties to attend to right now, including readying your enrollment. So if you don't mind waiting for a moment or two, I'll pop back to my office and straighten up. I'll summon you when things are presentable. So many books and papers to tidy up... where did I put those forms... See you soon!"
Merle Ambrose then teleports in a cloud of moons and stars.