The shift in curriculum was swift, and as promised, painful.


    Still, knowing full well that there was no getting out of it, the pain proved to be an excellent distraction against the hollow depths in Sam’s mind, constantly reminding him of his shattered dream of being a Wizard. So much so, that Sam poured all of his existence into bettering his understanding of Spirits, Pacts, and… physical combat.


    Sword, shield, spear, armor, and whatever else his instructors instructed him in, he practiced and practiced them until his body bruised and bled to gain the needed proficiency for swinging physical objects and taking hits like a caveman instead of using art that was Magic itself.


    As a result Sam’s body quickly began growing and gaining shape as his muscles defined themselves in becoming steel-like, well… as steel-like as simple muscles, not to mention the muscles of a child, could be. Naturally, as a result of the conditioning, Sam’s appetite had grown rapidly and whatever was brought before him soon vanished in his belly. Even the Tonics,  provided by his Father and the Calderon House, which tasted terribly on the tongue and even dealt damage to his olfactory nasal cavity had been chucked down to enable his rapid growth into adulthood.


    Indeed, busy as he could and sleepy whenever he was not, the weeks and months swiftly went by and soon enough three years were left behind and that only meant one thing.


    Sam was to leave as the Elders of House Calderon had long since approved of him being sent to the HighTower and their Warlock Department.


    Not even given the chance to celebrate his upcoming Third Birth Ceremony, the one declaring him fifteen and a young adult, Sam was bid to leave the compound he’d lived his whole life in.


    Still, before he left, with his Father already seated inside the carriage, he got a rather tight hug from his Mother.


    In truth, it was a rare thing for him to receive such a thing and an even rarer occasion ever since the news of his lack began spreading all over the social scene. Then, as fast as the hug ceased to be, Sam noticed his Mother bringing out a simple-looking necklace, with a dull white/silver chain holding a slightly elongated pear-like black crystal sporting white stripes that seemed to convey some kind of mystery he could not make sense of.


    “There… a Protection Charm to keep you safe to a degree.” Edwina iterated her understanding of the Charm she''d just given away. “However, I suggest you do not rely on its obtuse effects as the Magic only provides a simple Guidance Spell from time to time, once a day at most. Now… Go!”


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    “Yes, Mother.” Sam sad and entered the carriage to seat himself on the opposite seat facing his Father.


    Once seated, Jonathan addressed the coach driver for a second, then the moment the coach started moving and making a bit of noise, he spoke to his son. “Keep your Mother''s Protective Charm under your clothes and do not let anybody know you have it.” He said, though he knew there was more to the charm than a simple Guidance enchantment upon it, especially since the Guidance Spell inside was woven through Witch Magic. “Once you gain access to some Magic, unless you use it directly in front of a decent Diviner, its presence should slip through most Magic Users’ awareness.”


    “Yes, Father.”


    Quickly doing as pointed out, Sam tucked the charm under the white garment protecting him from the somewhat hardened leather he was wearing on his body. That done, a silence ensued between parent and child, not that there was much to be said as most of the talkative content had already been disclosed beforehand. As such, all Sam managed to accomplish during the ride to the HighTower was glare outside the carriage window to behold the passing scenery and the ever closer Wizards Tower that pressed its existence via massive height and a massive girth, for a building made out of stone.


    Indeed, had it not been accomplished through Magic, it would have been a wonder of the world due to the sheer engineering and material demands needed to explain its existence. Since it was done through Magic, if Magic cast over many centuries, and possibly even millennia, the HighTower was just that, a large building accomplished through Magic since Magic was known for wondrous outcomes and consequences. Still, just its sight told of the prowess Magic brought into the world, even if regular Magic was more known for other stuff, stuff that had to do with large explosions.


    Either way, around the base of the Tower, existed a city, the City of Grimhold.


    Named as such after an ancient fortress that had once existed and defended these lands which had belonged to an ancient kingdom that had long since ceased to exist. So long in fact that the fortress had outlived two or three kingdoms before the Wizards took it and reshaped the fortress into their very own Tower only for the name Grimhold to resurface once a city shaped itself around the HighTower when the city swallowed the lands for miles and miles.


    Nowadays, Grimhold was and is the prime location for everything Magic related, from trinkets to Artifacts, from Scrolls to Tomes, from Magic wannabes to actual Wizards, from Bardic Colleges to Divine Temples. And within the city’s depths lurked Cults that refused to cease clinging to life like properly decimated villains.


    Truly, one could say that Grimhold held almost everything it could hold, with ‘almost’ being a direct reference to a definitive lack of Nobility and Royalty since Wizards ruled supreme in this city.


    Meaning, if you had Magic, you were automatically better than 99% of the city''s inhabitants and now Sam was about to finally gain some of that recognition, even said recognition paled to what Wizards got.


    Now, he just had to not fumble at the Initiation Ceremony and get himself a prim and proper Patron, preferably one with strong Magic.