《Soulless》 Prologue - The end of my path Prologue ''Who knows, one day, you might become greatest magician to ever walk this world.'' he said. These words have always been source of my courage. Without those words, I wouldn''t probably overcome all the challenges that have been thrown in my way by my cursed fate, up to this day. At the time he told me those words, I was only six years old. Even though that man has probably already forgotten that he said those words to me, because of those words, I have been doing my best to fulfill expectations he placed on me. Even though he said those words only to encourage me and never meant them seriously, I had taken them to my heart. Because they were words said by one who bore name of greatest magician himself. If he had such high expectations of me, I felt like I had to fulfill them. especially because no one else had high expectations of me, and I felt it necessary to prove them all wrong. To show them that I, who was seen as weak, would have power to rise above them, and mock them for believing that I am inferior to them. What a childish reason it was. As I grew, my goal of becoming strongest magician has not changed, but what changed was reason why I pursued it. After losing many things and not being able to obtain others, I started to believe, that in order to be happy, in order to gain happiness and to never allow anyone to take it away from me, I needed to be stronger than anyone else, to be able to protect everything and everyone I liked. It took many years before I realized how useless having power is. No amount of strenght can help you protect from breaking that which was broken to begin with. Yet, even after this realization already reached me, I kept walking the same way. Why? Hell if I know. Maybe that childish desire of proving everyone how strong I can become was still rooted inside me deeper than I thought. Maybe it was just because path of becoming stronger was only path I knew. Maybe because I needed to distract myself from the guilt I felt. Or maybe because there was still a person I wished to reach. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. There were moments, when I thought I could ease up. When I was satisfied withwhat I reached, thinking I don''t have to aim higher and try harder anymore. When it looked like I no longer had to worry about anything. When I no longer felt the need to reach greater heights. But whenever that hope of peaceful future just appeared in my dreams, something terrible happened, and I was woken up, realizing I had been forced back onto this never ending path of surpassing everything that stood in my way. In front of me, countless challenges to take on, and behind me nothing but grief and in its shadow, terrible curse following me like a hunter is following its prey, prepared to strike me and once more take everything i value away from me, were I to ever stop walking forward. This story of my life was always about walking forward. About journey to reach the end of never ending path. And now, I guess, this journey of mine is about to end. As I feel my life slipping away from me, I do not feel any surprise. I always knew, that this curse of mine would one day put me in front of a challenge I would have no chance of surviving. Though I did not expect it to be damned poison. But even now, as death approaches, I can but laugh bitterly and take it on, like all other challenges I overcame. Laugh, as I calmly continue walking forward, without looking back or giving in to fear of approaching death. Laugh as I spit this poisoned blood of mine onto ground beneath my legs. So mere death thinks it can claim my life? It thinks that mere incurable poison could end me? Me, one they call Infinite Magician, Warlock of Eight Sellswords?! Think again! There is no way I would lose to cheap trick like some poison. After all, I am greatest magician that will ever walk this world. And there is no way I will go down without paying all my debts back. Chapter one: Soulless My parents named me Aiken. Since the name of my father was Tyree, my full name wasAiken ap Tyree. As a silly little child I was, my name sounded stupid to me and I was sometimes creating fictional names for myself, pretending that I had some mysterious origins, while I was actually just a commoner born in poor village called Oakville. This bad habit of mine once caused me a lot of trouble, but rather than mentioning that incident, I should properly start from the beginning of my story. And this story of mine began when I was mere three years of age. My fiery red hair just started to properly show their color and while my three years old peers from village were just starting to talk properly, I was already slowly learning how to read, since my uncle had given me an abecadarium book. That book did cost him quite a lot moneyand when he had seen that I have taken such early interest in it, he was really happy. While my parents, who could not read at all, did at least value the fact that I was just sitting with a book and did not bother them. Age of three is usually the age where children start to be interested in magic. After all, they would see their parents use simple low tier household magic, like starting fire with spell [Spark] or getting light item from short distance with [Pull]. Yet, their families would not teach them magic at such age, because having three years old child that can set house ablaze would be extremely stupid. Exception would be families which had tradition in becoming magical practitioners, where they would have some servant attend to young master or mistress, preventing any threat of said three year old kid making mess with magic. Therefore, not only basic magic, families of practitioners would give their children techniques of soul and spirit training to increase their soul power and spiritual capacity. To those of you, who read these memoirs of mine and don''t have even basic understanding of magic, I will properly explain these two basic terms. Soul power is ability of one''s soul to amplify power of spell. Person who has high amount of soul power finds that when he is castingspell, theirs is slightly stronger than the same spell of a person with lower soul power. If the difference in soul power of two caster is big enough, one could with his spell evenly match one, two or even multiple tiers higher spell of weaker magic casters. Spirit capacity was ability to possess mana. Spirit capacity not only allows one to cast more spells, but most importantly allows person to use higher tier spells, which areextremely mana consuming. There are special power levels of spells called tiers, and based on its tier, a spell costs fixed amount of mana. It is said to be impossible to create a spell outside of these tiers. In order to become powerful magic practitioner, one needs both high soul power and spirit capacity, because not excelling in either one would cause person to be drastically weaker, and even bigadvantage in other quality would usually not be enough to compensate. Therefore rich families of magic practitioners would certainly make sure that their children would train both abilities from as early age as possible. Family I was born to was not one of the rich families. My parents were not poor, as they owned quite a big piece of land, but neither of them had magic education and spells they used were therefore only ordinary low tier ones, spells that parents would teach their children once they grew up, spells that were only good for increasing speed of your housework. Being able to start a fire with tier two spell [Spark], pick close light object with tier four spell [Pull] or make things temporally lose fraction of their weight with tier four spell [Weightless] as well as few other, those were only magic spells that my parents knew. Without practicing magic from an early age, both of them had slightly less than hundred units of mana. If you were to open an elementary book of magic theory, you would have learned that one unit of mana was defined as an amount of mana necessary to cast a tier one spell. Tier two spells would cost three times as much, tier three six times, tier four ten times, and then it would repeat in cycle - tier five spell costs thirty mana, tier six sixty mana, etc. For every tier, spells would be twice as powerful than the spells of previous tiers, and for every three tiers, its mana cost would raise ten times. Person was only capable to cast spells of tier that would use a bit more than tenth of his spirit capacity, which meant that even though my parents had enough mana to cast a tier six spell, they were only capable of using tier four spells and that was their limit. All spells below tier six were too weak to be seriously used in combat, and even though some combat spells in those tiers existed, their only use was forcombat practice of children, used by families of magic practitioners and in magic schools. And most of villagers were not able to cast even tier five spells, which should tell you how fragile existence a village located close to the forest and mountains is. As any child, I expressed my interest in magic to my parents, but neither my father nor my mother wanted to teach me about magic. After all, they spent most of time working on our land together with few youths from other village families and they had no time to waste on my childish selfishness. They had to make sure fields would yield enough for us to survive winter and still be able to pay youths who were working with them. Their rejection however did not make me give up and after few days of following him, begging him and being childish annoyance, I instead managed to convince my uncle Jannon to teach me magic. Our village of almost three hundred adults had only eleven magic practitioners who protected our village from wild monsters that sometimes left the mountain forests and threatened to destroy our village. My uncle was one of these practitioners. He was tier seven practitioner, magic user capable of using tier seven magic. From the viewpoint of magician community, that was lowest tier of true magic practitioner and magic practitioner families would consider that tier of ability thrash. But from the point of view of the villagers, it was powerful rank, since only three village practitioners were tier seven, and other eight were mere tier six mages, that would be called practitioners only by our village. Every year, the elders of the village would gather six years old children and use the measurement crystals that were passed down in our village since who knows how many centuries ago. If there was a child of suitable age that would show high natural talent, they would send him or her to the magic school in the great city of Alsante for six years. After child came back from magic school, they would usually be versed in magic enough to become tier six magician in next few years on their own and join ranks of village magic practitioners. Village would pay for child''s education, because they knew how dangerous were the monsters living in nearby mountains. Bandits were also a danger, however, during my youth, it had been many years since any bandit group raided our village. Having only eleven practitioners often seemed like not enough, but the village could not afford more. For that reason,some villagers alsopracticed magic in their free time, learningways to practice from village practitioners who had attended magic school. Fewelders became tier five magicians this way, but as I statedbefore, tier five combat magic was more of distraction and not really powerful. When I managed to convince my uncle, who was only twenty seven years old at that time, yet was the strongest magic practitioner of our village, to teach me magic, he was soon surprised with the speed I learned. I absorbed the spells he taught me like a sponge, learning them in much shorter time than normal. While in the beginning, I was only capable of learning tier one and two spells, in less than a year, I managed to learn few tier four and many tier three spells. As a four years old child, that was quite anachievement, which made my uncle feel proud of me. To be honest, sometimes I felt like I had three parents, with uncle being one of them, since he spent more time with me than either of my parents. Uncle himself was unable to have children and his wife decided to leave him because of that after eight years of their marriage. I sometimes think he saw me as a child he could never have. Even though I still was not of suitable age, my uncle convinced village elders to allow me to participate in measurement of magic talent. As he was highly respected by the elders, since despite his youth, he was closest of all village practitioners to reach tier eight, no one really protested. Second tier seven practitioner of our village, Keiran ap Oisin, who was already of older age, also asked elders to allow his grandson of five years to participate. As seven children were being examined with help of two crystals, purple and azure, the elders were all showing disappointed expressions, as all the children of six years age were only having between twenty and thirty mana and fifty soul power at most, not even close enough to be called talent. Even the two of them who already practiced some housework magic were better only by ten mana and twenty soul power at best. After that, elders decided to measure Keiran''s grandson, who was also named Keiran in honor of his grandfather. As elders eyes glowed with surprise, boys grandpa proudly laughed. "Ninety eight mana units.¡° said one of elders with disbelief in voice. "And one hundred ninety three soul power. What an outstanding talent. This boy is not even six years old.¡° "Of course. My little Keiran is really talented. I think if we send him to magic school next year, he could easily become the first tier eight practitioner of our village. Well, maybe second, since young Jannon is pretty close to tier eight, as far as I know.¡° he said, while looking at my uncle. At that moment his grandson was proudly looking down on all other children including me. Was this some cheap book story, rivalry between me and boy called Keiran would be caused by hatred between old man Keiran and my uncle Jannon, but reality rarely is such. You often meet people your family hates while you find them sympathetic, or people you hate and your family finds sympathetic. Uncle Jannon was on friendly terms with Keiran who was behind his back trying to convince his youngest daughter to marry Jannon, even though it was known he could not have children. Finally it was my turn to be examined. As four years old I was even younger than the little boy named Keiran. I placed my hand on first crystal. I felt bit of my mana escape out of my hand into crystal. If elders of village had shocked expression before, now their shock was doubled. "One hundred and sixty seven mana?!¡° one of them shouted out in surprise. All faces turned to me, who was as surprised as them. "Jannon, your nephew is quitetalented as well.¡° said old man Keiran, who was maybe even more shocked than anyone else. "To have so much mana at this age, he is almost at the level of practitioner families children of six years old. I have not expected there would be another child as talented as my grandson at this meeting.¡° At these words, young boy Keiran stared daggers at me. He wanted to make his grandfather proud and show everyone his talent, but now, attention of everyone was not on him but rather on me. With high expectations, elder put second, azure crystal, into my hand. I once again felt mana escaping out of my palm, and then looked at face of elders, since I had no clue how did they read information from crystals. On the face of elders appeared small disappointment. Confused, I turned to uncle. "What is going on, uncle?¡° I asked. However, my uncle did not answer me and looked at crystal in disbelief. Instead, old man Keiran with pity in his eyes, placed hand on my shoulder. "Little boy, it appears you have soul power of zero.¡° "What does that mean?¡° I asked. "It means the magic school will probably not want to accept you. Well, since you have so much mana at your age, I think we should send you to magic school anyways and try to convince them to take you in as well.¡° said old man. "It''s such a pity though. If he had enough soul power to back him up, forget about tier eight, he could easily become tier nine practitioner and maybe some noble or rich merchant would even pay tuition for him.¡° said one of elders. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. "Well, we have at least found one truly outstanding talent. Little Keiran will be certainly sent to school next year. And about Aiken... we will have to discuss it. Jannon, bring your nephew next year as well, it wouldn''t hurt to see how much has he improved.¡° said other elder. "Don''t worry, Jannon, I am sure your nephew will grow out of it. He is still only four years old, he still has enough time to grow. I am quite sure elders will let him go to school as well. If they would be stupid enough to waste his talent, I will have a word with them, alright?¡° Keiran cheered Jannon and then he turned to me. "Little boy, don''t you worry either. This man might be old, but he has your back. Without much soul power, it will be certainly harder, but as long as you can become tier eight practitioner in future, I am sure that you should be as capable as normal tier seven practitioners, and with your spirit capacity, tier eight should be a reachable goal.¡° he said, trying to cheer me up as well. His grandson still stared daggers at me at this point. He believed I have stolen attention he deserved as he have seen that even after my soul power test failed for me, his grandfather gave me more attention than to him. I however didn''t notice how much hatred did that boy feel for me. After I returned with uncle, he started to teach me like his life depended on it. He even did his best to pass me a soul sharpening technique he learned in school and used until now. Most magic practitioners usually had between two and seven thousands of soul power. However, the village practitioners were worse since they left the school early and depended only on inferior soul sharpening techniques from elementary magic school. Old man Keiran had soul power of seventeen hundredsand third tier seven practitioner of my village, Oisin ap Raegan, who was the cousin of Keiran, had nineteen hundreds. My uncle was exception. He slightly modified this techinque, which made it stronger, but compared to elite techniques, it was still weak.Thanks to that, his soul power reached twenty two hundreds. That meant that his spells would be more than three times stronger than same tier spells of mine, who had no soul power at that time. Since that day, my uncle did everything he could. He even gave me some rare herbs he got from villagers during forest raid in winter. As a year passed again with me training and studying as much as possible, I was once again to join older children in test, while at that time, Keyran duo of grandson and grandpa were already travelling to magic school. After all children were tested with only few results being bit above others, it was my turn and I had confidence this time. I took purple crystal into my hand. I knew I already learned tier five magic some time ago, so my mana should be at least around two hundred and fifty. "Three hundred and ninety seven.¡° exclaimed elders with surprise. Over last year, my mana more than doubled. My surprise was so great that I didn''t know what to say. "Now, other crystal.¡° he said as he put crystal in my hands. Once again, there was visible disappointment in eyes of elders. There was also hateful sight thrown in my direction, but I didn''t notice that. "Your soul power is still zero.¡° the elder said. "We will need to talk about this with other elders. Your potential is great, but if your soul power was to stay zero forever, it would not be good investment to pay for your tuition. I am sorry boy, but I hope you understand.¡° As we once again left with uncle, who was trying to cheer me up, I had no clue what was happening. My fate already started to prepare this thorny path for me. Path full of barriers, challenges, and enemies who wanted me humiliated or even dead. What I also had no clue about was fact that this year, the grandson of Oisin ap Raegan, third tier seven practitioner in our village, was participating in measurement. Oisin ap Raegan was angry that his grandson was not only not as talented as grandson of Keiran, he was not even talented enough to be accepted to school. He could not digest this defeat and he was sure he would not be able to digest if nephew of this youngster Jannon who was more talented than him also became magic school student. He decided that he would not allow me to enter themagic school and in order to convince them, he started arguingwith elders. His arguments were quite persuasive. "His uncle is already teaching him. He can keep teaching him. I am sure he will be able to bring him to tier seven with his teaching without any need for school. There is no point in sending someone who has no soul power at all.¡° was one of his most persuasive arguments, that got all elders thinking. However not all elders agreed. "That might be true, but with his mana growth, he might have insane potential of spiritual capacity. What do we know, he might be even able to learn tier eleven magic and then, his low soul power would not matter much. He would be on par with a normal tier nine practitioner.¡° said elder Rowan who was also my grandfather. Same as my father and mother, his magic abilities were only housework spells of tier four and bellow, but he still had quite importance, since our family owned big area of land. He knew how to ignite spark of greed in other elders. If I could actually reach equivalent of tier nine power, I would provide village with as much safety as all tier six and tier seven practitioners we currently had combined. He thought he already managed to convince everyone, when old man Oisin pulled out last desperate move. "If he had low soul power, that would be true as with his spirit capacity, he would truly become powerful, should he reach even few hundreds of soul power in future. But what if he can''t ever increase his soul power? With no soulpower, his spirit capacity could stop increasing at any time and then, it will be complete waste of money for our village. Should he prove that he can reach some growth in soul power, of course sending him would be wise.¡° said Oisin with desperation. "Yes, that would be wise.¡° agreed all elders. While my grandfather Rowan was not sure, after few moments he also agreed. He believed that increasing soul power should be possible for me, same as everyone else who was present. With help of uncle Jannon, I should manage to gain at least some soul power over next year. "So next year, we will have inspection of little Aiken week before others, to check his progress. Shall he still have no soul power, we will not pay for his school and make Jannon teach him instead.¡° stated leading elder and no protests were heard. Later on grandpa visited uncle Jannon and told him about decision of elders. Uncle Jannon nodded, but what grandpa failed to notice was that uncle had bit of despair in his eyes. Over last year he did anything he could to improve my soul power, but with no results. As if there was no room to improve my soulpower at all. He continued training me in meditation and teaching me new spells, some of which he gained from old man Keiran, who was also coming to teach me once in a while. Old man Keiran was angry, because of what his cousin, Oisin, did. He knew Oisin did this because he was angry that his grandson did not pass the test, and he therefore decided he would do anything to help me, but he did not have as much impact on elders as Oisin did. While Oisin was weaker than my uncle, he was more powerful than old man Keiran and more importantly, of eight tier six magicians of our village, four were his sons and nephews and one was his daughter, who was also former wife of my uncle. With five other village practitioners originating from his bloodline, Oisin had strong position of power and elders had to respect his opinions. As my test day approached, I felt more and more nervous. I already knew twenty spells, but of them, fifteen were housework spells, three were general use spells, one was a weak tier five shield spell that was suited only for magic practice, while my last tier five spell was [Little Fireball] that was able to cause some pain, but certainly was not a deadly spell. More than that, I had no clue if my training worked. What will happen if I will still have zero soul power? Neither uncle, nor old man Oisin, nor my grandfather told me, what would await me should I fail again, but from my uncle''s dark expression, I could tell there would be some problems. And then, the day of my last examination finally came. This time, I was the only one to be tested. As usually, I took the mana crystal first. "Five hundred and eleven.¡° I said nervously. I was already able to tell what was on the crystal since i properly learned reading numbers this year. My mana once again raised and now, there were probably only few practitioner family children of my age, who had more mana than me. Everyone was impatient for the secondtest. Should I have at least twenty soul power, they will certainly send me with best wishes to school, and they might be even willing to pay for seven years instead of six, same as they did for little Keiran. I touched the crystal again. To my horror, on azure crystal appeared number zero. "No, no, no.¡° I wanted to scream but I was instead silently staring daggers at crystal, as if trying to threaten it. I focused as much as possible and tried to force my mana into crystal. For a few seconds, number changed to one, but after that, it returned back to zero. "I''m sorry, boy.¡° said elder as he took crystals away from me. "From now on, you will have to study together with your uncle. We will not send you to the magical school.¡° he continued. At that moment, all my fear disappeared. That was it? I was scared I would be punished or that maybe even my uncle would be punished if I were to fail this test. I could feel nothing but relief. On the other hand, my uncle and old man Keiran had dark expressions. They tried to argue for short while, but it was pointless and after short while, they gave up and we all left for old man''s house. "Damn that Oisin, son of a...¡° started Keiran, but he stopped swearing as he realised my presence. I looked at my uncle, who still maintained dark expression. "Uncle, I don''t understand. I thought you would be happy to keep teaching me. Am I being bother?¡° I asked, teary eyed. My six years old self could not understand why were those two unhappy about me not leaving for some school. As he noticed my sad expression, my uncle forced himself to smile at me. "Nothing of that sort, Aiken. But if you could go to school, you would become much stronger. So strong that no one would be able to harm you. In the magic school, there is special area magic that helps all students with growth of both soulpower and spirit capacity. There is also a library filled with powerful spells.¡° At the mention of library, I had dreamy expression for a second. Both uncle and old man Keiran noticed it, even though I tried to hide it fast, as I realised they were still sad about what happened. We entered old man Keiran''s house. His wife was away in village, so he started to make dandelion tea for all of us. "Damn, I won''t let this be. I will find way to get money and pay for Aiken''s fees myself.¡° said uncle Jannon. Keiran placed tea cups in front of us and left us for a moment. After returning, he placed eleven gold coins in front of uncle Jannon. "It is not enough, but it should cover almost two years of studying. Sadly, for new students, school only accepts full payment for whole six years, and they want money paid in advance, but it should help you start.¡° said Keiran. These were more than half of his savings. He was originally planning to buy some magic item for his grandson after he returned from school, but he decided to use them for what he has seen as more noble purpose. "We... cannot accept this.¡° opposed uncle Jannon. "You not only can, you also have to. It is not for you Jannon, it is for your nephew. I believe he has as much potential as my grandson does, and just because of my damned cousin Oisin''s jealousy, cursed be his mother, I will not see that talent wasted. Even if it was only for few years, he needs to go there. I understand that you are willing to sacrifice a lot for you nephew, so let me make it easier for you just a bit, right?¡° old man stopped his complains. So, after few days of preparation, my parents added few more gold and few silver coins with an old bronze necklace to my school funds, my uncle added some silver and gold coins and also two of his magic items, and then we three departed. Old man Keiran decided to join us, and to visit his grandson as well. I had no idea how much had everyone sacrificed. In our village, money were rarely used, only when trading with outsiders, so I had no clue how much it was all worth. However, I could feel that it was lot. My parents even sold some of their land for two gold coins to old bastard Oisin''s family. Our journey to city was supposed to last a week, so we had to take some food with us, which we transported in a magic ring of old man Keiran. We were going alone, and even though elders were not happy since two tier seven magic practitioners were leaving at same time, they did not have nerves to protest loudly. During this week of traveling, uncle Jannon and old man Keiran each taught me one of their tier six spells, my first tier six spells. Uncle Jannon taught me general use spell [Air Step], that was able to create stepping ground in air for second. It was possible to be use in succession to climb over high walls, creating magical stairs. Old man Keiran taught me combat spell [Fireball], which was stronger version of my almost harmless [Little Fireball]. With my lack of soul power, it was able to cause some painful burns, however it was obviously much weaker than when old man used it. His fireball was bigger and could probably kill most animals, and if used multiple times, even a human would die. With fact that he could use this spell about fifteen times, he was certainly a force to be reckoned with. As we approached the gates of the city, I stared blankly at its huge walls, not being able to comprehend what kind of magical place have I arrived to. My destiny was in front of me. And I slowly followed two men, young and old, who led me towards it. Chapter two: The Wizard of the South Alsante city was smallest of The Seven Great Cities of Southern empire. It was also one that was most to east, closest of them to mountain forests. It was place, where magic practitioners would sell whatever they harvestedin their forest raids and traders would buy it for reasonable price and then sell it to other big cities. It was also only city in the east of our empire with magic school. Other great cities also had magic schools, but they were much worse than this one, especially when it came to area soul and spirit refiningspells. Other big cities were so big because of their safety and prosperous only because of their land. Big part of magic practitioners would try to stay closer to mountains, since that was where they could get easier money from forest raids. However, ruling families in the west still employed some tier eight and tier nine practitioners, for safety measures against other ruling families. But Alsante was nothing like those other big cities. It was city of trader and practitioner families, where land owning nobles were not seen too highly. I don''t remember much about what I was thinking, when I saw the cobbled streets filled with merchants, trying to sell wine, olive oil, and many other things that did not grow well in these lands so close to the mountains, but were imported from western cities. Silver, gold and even iridium coins were everywhere, making wealth needed for me to study look like a child''s pocket money. I already said I don''t remember what I was thinking back then, but I remember what I felt like. I was struck with awe. Never before had I seen anything like this city. And therefore at that time I was fascinated with everything I wasseeing. Stone houses which we passed bylooked much more beautiful than wooden village houses. I have seen my first stone bridge here and I felt like it was most magical thing to ever exist. Only many years later have I learned about poor areas of city, where houses looked even worse than in my village. Old man Keiran kept me a company, while uncle Jannon left. When I asked about it, old man told me that Jannon went to meet some old friends. That was however not true. Sad truth was that uncle Jannon was trying to sell jewelery he received from my parents and his own magical items. In order to pay tuition for six years, it was necessary to pay thirty nine gold, and even after everything, we only had about twenty six. Uncle managed to sell all items, and this sum raised to thirty four, but he was still five gold short. Five gold coins was certainly not a little of money. For our village it was great sum, and only due to necessity to do so was our village able to collectthirty nine gold once everyfew years to send children to magic school. Before little Keiran joined the school, it was almost twelve years since they last sent a child to school, as for whole period of eleven years, no child talented enough appeared in the village. Thanks to that, they had enough money to support two children, but after paying for Keiran, they were not willing to part with rest easily. Who knows, maybe, next year, there would be another talent like Keiran, and if they used this money on me, they would not be able to pay for him then. Five gold coins was much smaller sumin the city, however. That was what uncle Jannon counted on. He hoped that he could convince magic school headmaster to find some source of money to pay those remaining five gold. After all, six years old boy who was able to use tier six magic was something rare, that only handful of practitioner families would boast about, and even in these families, it was considered to be not that usual. Since I had no family background, maybe some minor noble would be interested in supporting my potential, was what uncle was thinking. I would probably have to serve for few years as guard of this noble, but after that, I could return to my village with few gold for my service as well. Those were plans of my uncle. And they were not going to work. Finally, we came to the end of the street and building of magic academy appeared in front of us. It was collosal building, and we have not even be able to see insanely large area of training grounds and dormitories behind main building from this angle. These lands were surrounded by three meters of stone wall, making magic school to be like another isolated city inside of the city. Of course, both uncle and old man Keiran knew about these areas, but I did not, yet I was already surprised by the size of main building. We entered after waiting for some time near the entrance and filling few papers. We were forced to wait for good half an hour again before we were allowed to meet headmaster. Headmaster was aging man of golden blonde hair, approaching his later forties, who had reached tier thirteen practitioner rank. There were only few above his rank, tier fourteen and fifteen practitioners. There were also few extraordinary talents, who were between rank fifteen and twenty who were known as indisputable geniuses. And then there was a man named Alaric, called The Wizard of the South, tier twenty six magician, who seized top place among practitioners by a large margin. While other empires also had their geniuses, the one who was second best after Alaric was The Wizard of the North, and he was only tier twenty three magician who belonged to the Northern Empire. While difference in number of tier seemed to be little, it technically meant that Alaric could probably take on at least ten of such magicians and fight them to draw. And that would only be truth if one did not also take in account that Alaric with forty four thousand soul power had half more soul power than Wizard of North. The Wizard of the South used to be only tier sixteen magician, which was already considered being genius, but few years ago, something changed and he started to rapidly grow in both soul power and spirit capacity. It was believed by peoplethat he discovered some sort of way to improve his magic powers during one of his raids to the mountains. He however kept these methods secret, and only took single apprentice, who was currently tier nineteen magician. Headmaster could not compare to beasts of that caliber, however, he was still considered powerful, talented and capable magician, in opinions of some people, too capable for such a petty function. While calling position of headmaster petty function, one needs to realize that practitioners who would go out into mountains would manage to earn much more money than those sitting in schools and teaching children, or even organize it, especially when one was skilled enough. Headmaster was however passionate about teaching children, and even though he was headmaster, he would often teach in classes for children of honorable magic practitioner families and nobles. He, as offspring of noble, was not much supportive of other branches of school, but he has acknowledged commoners branch existence to be necessary for proper function of villages near the mountains. Sometimes, weaker stray monster reached those villages, and therefore it was necessary for those villages to have some protection. But that did not mean he would not have these children pay their school fees. "I am sorry but I am not obliged to help you in any way.¡° he said, after uncle Jannon asked for help to fund my school education. His school had policy to have children pay money ahead of time, for first six years of studying at least. After that, student could pay additional fees every year, but in order for school finances to stay in plus, he needed to receive full payment in advance from students every year. He would not make exception for a commoner, and there was never need to make exception for children of merchants, nobles, or honorable practitioner families. "His spirit capacity is already over five hundred and he can even use tier six magic.¡° my uncle tried to convince him. This claim however sparked bit of interest from headmaster. He gave little six years old me look as to measure me, if it could be possibly true. "Interesting. Boy, could you show me your tier six magic?¡° he asked. I was silently listening until this moment, and when I was asked, I politely bowed. "Mister headmaster, I will do as you say. Do you wish to see Fireball or Air Step?¡° I asked, trying to be polite. After seeing city and school I wanted to stay here. I did not realise, I would have to stay for many years, without seeing my family or uncle. "Fireball. That will let me get better grasp of your potential. Cast it directly against me, I will measure it myself.¡° Face of my uncle went pale with those words. He knew that it would be revealed that my soul power is zero. I casted a fireball. I was bit scared that I would hurt headmaster and anger him but that was pointless fear. He froze the fireball in air with some spell I did not know, stood up and then inspected it closely. "It indeed is tier six [Fireball] but it is somewhat lacking. I would say that it was not properly learned, but after closer inspection, that does not seem to be case.¡° he started talking to himself. Then he made the fireball I casted disappear. "What is your soul power, boy? Your uncle did not mention it.¡° he asked then. "Mister headmaster, this is little bit of a problem. Actually boy''s soul power is zero. For some reason, his soul power was zero when we first measured it two years ago, and stayed same even after we did our best to help him with soul sharpening methods from this wonderful school of yours.¡° answered old man Keiran. Headmaster has shown face of disappointment of person who realises that cheap gold item he was offered is not actually made of gold but out of brass. Before he could give us his final decision, four knocks on door were heard. "Enter.¡° called headmaster and turned back to me. But his eyes instantly traveled back to door and were frozen solid. After good few moments, he bowed towards black haired man in his thirties, who entered. "Good afternoon headmaster. Did I interrupt you in something important?¡° asked the man. "Of... of course not! How could you, master Alaric, The Wizard of the South, ever interrupt me? Nothing I might be doing is as important as your presence here. What an honor for you to personally visit our school.¡° said headmaster. He realized no one else in the room recognized who has arrived and therefore tried to point it out to us. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. With the mention of newcomer being The Wizard of the South, greatest living magician, uncle and old man Keiran both bowed down respectfully towards man. Everyone heard about the man called The Wizard of The South, but most did not know how he looked. Jannon and Keiran were not exception. Headmaster, on the other hand, used to be teacher of class where this extraordinary talent studied, and therefore knew what he looked like. I was not able to bow, because I was surprised. Uncle told me many stories about The Wizard of the South, so I always imagined how he could look like. In my imagination, he was supposed to be a bit muscular guy with fiery red hair like mine, and with many colorful fireballs flying around him in circles. Instead, a man in front of me was thin man with glasses, who looked rather weak. Rather than strongest magician, one would expect him to be ordinary librarian if he were to base his assumption on looks alone. My childish heart felt mix of excitement from meeting legendary hero and disappointment caused by him not looking like a hero at all. "Mister, are you truly The Wizard of the South? You don''t look like The Wizard of the South at all.¡° as these words escaped me, I wanted to slap myself. Even my childish mind understood what a terrible thing have I said, but it was too late to take it back. "You little...¡° started headmaster, but he was interrupted by The Wizard of the South instead. "Headmaster, it''s alright, it''s just a child.¡° he said. Then he looked at me. "And how is The Wizard of the South supposed to look like, little boy?¡° he asked with pleasant voice completely lacking any malice or anger. "I... I imagined you to look stronger. Terrifying. With fireballs going in circles around you.¡° I told truth, because I had no idea what lie to say to make it better. "Boy, imagine that Wizard of the South you described wanted to go to mountain to hunt some monsters. He would never even meet one, any monster would run away rather than approach him.¡° man answered laughing. "What are you doing here anyway, little boy? Isn''t it week too early? I thought students were to be admitted in ten days or so and not now?¡° asked man. "My uncle and old man Keiran are asking headmaster to let me in.¡° I answered honestly. "So where is the problem?¡° man turned to headmaster. "They don''t have enough money. They lack five gold.¡° answered headmaster honestly as well. "Five gold is quite the sum. Why do you think headmaster should help you, little boy?¡° turned man back to me. There was no evil intent in his question, rather, it felt like he was trying to encourage me to talk. "I can use tier six magic already and my spirit capacity is also more than five hundred mana.¡° "What a genius! At his age, that is not usual even among wealthy practitioner families, much less commoners. Just a five gold to shelter such genius, if you won''t help him, honored headmaster, I will help him myself.¡° said man, a took out five golds. "Honored master Alaric, forgive me, but there is one more problem. You see, boy apparently has soul power of zero.¡° Legendary magician looked at me again. In his eyes was look of surprise. But it was not look of disappointment mixed with surprise like one elders gave, but rather one of pure surprise and interest with no other emotions mixed. "Are you sure about that? Zero? Not five, or other small number?¡° "I don''t know, master Alaric. I have not tested him myself. However, they claim so.¡° "In that case bring me soul power measuring crystal of best quality immediately. What are you waiting for? Go! Right now!¡° ordered The Wizard of the South. Headmaster resisted only for second, before he reminded himself who is he dealing with. "Is it true, boy? Is your soul power truly zero?¡° "Yes, mister, it is. I don''t know why. I have been trying to increase it with soul sharpening methods I learned from my uncle for so long, but nothing helped. Will I be never able to become magician?¡° I asked and some tears appeared in my eyes. "No, you will certainly become one. If you can use tier six magic already at your age, you would become powerful magician even with no help from now on, but I am certain this school will help you. Don''t worry, I will pay this old evil man those five gold.¡° he said and then he turned to my uncle. "Your village must be poor if it cannot afford magic school for this talented child. Take this.¡° he said, and threw small pouch at them. Inside pouch, there were twelve golden and few silver coins. "We can''t accept these money.¡° said my uncle, returning pouch. "Keep it. I wish to sponsor this boy bit more than just five golds. I will not pay his whole education for him, but at least, I can do this.¡° After headmaster returned with azure crystal of much more beautiful shape than one used in village, he presented it to me. I touched crystal lightly. This time, trying to somehow force more mana into it to fool it would be pointless, since it seemed Wizard of South was interested in this test precisely because my soul power was zero. And, so, once again zero did appear on crystal. "Unbelieveable. Not two, not one, not even half. Pure zero.¡° said man with fascination in his expression. "Is there something special about that?¡° asked uncle Jannon. "Of course there is something special about that! No human, not even newborn, should have soul force of zero. One? Improbable. Two? Unlikely. Less than five? Uncommon. But zero should be impossible. From my understanding of soul I thought it to be impossible. It means I have been wrong. I have been wrong all along.¡° "Does that mean that much for you?¡° asked headmaster skeptically. "Of course it does. If my theory of soul is incorrect, it is incomplete. If I understand how is this boy can have zero soul power, I might be able to understand more about soul than I do right now. With that new knowledge, I could make my growth even faster.¡° he answered, voice filled with excitement. Then, his face started to show guilt, since he realised how much excited was he about my disability. "For the boy, it is of course pity. According to what he said, it is impossible to improve. Right?¡° he asked my uncle. "Yes, we helped him with soul sharpening for two years, with no results.¡° answered Keiran in his stead, since uncle was taken aback how this man was so excited about this terrible problem that has already caused them lot of headache. "Well, boy, would you mind working with me for next few weeks, then? I would like to see this weird state of yours. As a compensation, I will be teaching you myself during those weeks. Headmaster, would you delay his entrance to class by about month? I would like to study his condition... and also teach him for next five weeks.¡° I could not believe it. He said he will be teaching me? I will be taught by the strongest living magician? After everything he had done to help us, I had already completely forgotten about poor first impression caused by his looks and I could now barely contain my excitement. For the first time, having no soul power felt like blessing, rather than curse. "That is not problem. But master Alaric, might I ask you why have you originally came to my magic school?¡° asked headmaster, as he remembered, that Wizard of South came here before meeting this weird young boy, that is, me, and therefore he certainly had some other reason to be here. "Oh, I have almost forgotten. I wished to donate eight hundred iridium coins to your school. My disciple plans to take few students in future, and when that time comes, I would like him to be able to pick among best young magicians. Therefore, i wish to donate four hundred to branch of honors, two hundred to branch of generous and two hundred into branch of commons.¡° "Our school is very grateful.¡° answered headmaster. Since one iridium coin was worth ten gold coins, amount of money was comparable to payment of two hundred commoner students for whole six years, but without drawback of having to take care of food and book expenses of those students. It would certainly improve his school by a lot. This school had currently less than three thousand students, and more than half of them were commoners, yet most of money were received from noble and practitioner families donations, who would have their children in branch of honors, which was therefore most luxurious to appeal for more donations. Solid amount of money also came from branch of generous, where children of merchants and rich land owners of common heritage would study magic. "That solves the problem. Boy, you should give your goodbyes to your father and grandpa. Honored headmaster, after boy is done, send him to me... and before that, arrange room for me in house for guests. Now if you excuse me, I still have some things to do in city, I will be back before the night falls.¡° man ordered headmaster before leaving, confusing uncle and old man Keiran for my father and grandfather. After that, I had to say my goodbyes to uncle Jannon and old man Keiran. Uncle told me to be careful, and to always do my best. I had at that time still not realised for how long would I have to stay in this school, yet I cried anyways because I was child. Then headmaster came for me to lead me to master Alaric. I was lead to room in exquisite house of guests, that stood away from dormitories, room in which Wizard of South would teach me magic over next five weeks, and because of that I was really nervous. "Little brat,¡° said headmaster who was one leading me here, before he opened door, "It would be wise of you to know your place. Reason master Alaric is willing to teach you is because your state is really weird. You are like weird animal he had never seen before that he wants to learn about. He is certainly not planning to make you your disciple, so lose all your high hopes.¡° he discouraged me. But at that time, i couldn''t care less about what this poison tongued old man was saying. When I entered room, The Wizard of the South was already waiting for me. Headmaster closed door behind me and left. "Welcome, boy. ¡° I did not answer as nervousness finally overcame me. "I had headmaster arrange next room for you. Tomorrow, you should wake up early, we will do some tests to see about your soul. And in afternoon, I could maybe teach you method to slightly speed up growth of your spirit capacity.¡° "Also boy, I didn''t ask your name before.¡° "My name is Aiken, sir.¡° I tried to be as polite as possible. "So, Aiken, you can call me teacher Alaric, alright? I seriously am fed up with all those sirs, masters, honored Wizard of the Souths and other fancy titles. It''s annoying to have people constantly bow down and lick my shoes just because I became bit strong.¡° man responded. "Now go to sleep. There is lot of work to do tomorrow, boy.¡° "Yes, teacher Alaric.¡° I answered.
Legend 1 iridium coin = 10 gold coins 1 gold coin = 20 silver coins 1 silver coin = 24 copper coins Chapter 3: Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique Next morning started with weirdest possible question I could think of. After having breakfast with legendary Wizard of South, who was now somehow my new teacher, he decided to ask question he wanted to ask since day before. "Is that your natural color of hair, Aiken?¡° I was not sure what he meant. After all, I was just village boy, and never knew about fact that some rich people bought special potions to just change color of their hair. "What do you mean, natural?¡° I asked confused. "Did you not change color of your hair using some potion?¡° he asked again. "No, i did not use any potion. Is it important?¡° I asked. "Yes, it is. Color of hair represents the color of soul. Every color of soul has its unique properties. Most ordinary are black and brown, less ordinary is gold blonde, but there are also many other colors, like dark blue, dark green, dark purple, silver white and many other. They are however extremely rare. But to be honest, I have never heard about red hair like yours.¡° he answered properly, after realizing I as ordinary village boy had no way of knowing. After all, this was advanced magic theory, that one would not be able to learn in commoner branch at all and even in branch of honor, few opted to study as deep into theory as he did. "Color of hair reflects color of soul? Teacher said black is ordinary color of soul, does that mean teacher''s color of soul is ordinary?¡° I asked. "Your grandfather and father have black hair. Look at mine more closely. See?¡° he answered and waited for my response with anticipation. "It is... black?¡° I asked in confusion. "You little brat! Can''t you see how it reflects light in unusual manner? Confusing my rare onyx colored hair with ordinary black hair.¡° "Onyx?¡° I asked. I had not even known what onyx was and had no clue it was also used to describe unique shade of black. "Yes, onyx color, one of three most special soul colors in my opinion. Its unique properties can only be matched by silver-moon and amethyst-violet colored souls.¡° explained teacher, who did not understand my question and was thinking I was in awe he has such rare hair color. "What properties?¡° I asked with excitement. "When I cast my spell, I can also weaken spell of my enemy by whole tier of power at the same time. Isn''t that amazing?¡° he answered. "That truly is amazing. Teacher is sure powerful.¡° I responded, to his boasting. Then idea crossed my mind. "Teacher, you said it is possible to change color of your hair with potion. Does that also mean you will change color of your soul?¡° I asked. Legendary magician laughed lightly, as if entertained by that idea. "Of course not you silly brat. That would be completely insane.¡° he answered with wide smile. Then he inspected my hair more closely. "Truly unique color. Does someone in your village also have same color of hair?¡° "Only my grandfather.¡° "Does he also have soul power of zero?¡° "I don''t know.¡° Teacher Alaric rubbed his own chin. "Well, I will need to write this down later, but before that I will explain to you what you should do now. It is special type of really fast soul power training. Usually, it is not used, since it is harmful to ones soul development and after improving your soul power by some amount, it will become much harder to continue improving your soul power any further. If this soul training does not help your soul power grow, then it probably is really impossible.¡° he explained. I was ignoring possible negative effects after hearing about them from him, since I was still just a little child and had complete trust in him. After he finished giving me instructions, I calmly sat down, closed my eyes and started meditating, using method he just explained to me. I did not notice his stare full of expectations, since my eyes were closed. After less than hour, I heard soft clapping of hands, so I interrupted meditation and opened my eyes. In front of me, teacher was offering me crystal and in his eyes, there was hint of anticipation. When I touched crystal, once again, zero appeared on it, as if it was trying to mock my hard work. But yet again, teacher had shown no disappointment. "Interesting. Seems like there is seriously nothing we can do about your soul. I honestly have no clue whether your soul is sealed, uncontrollable, or whether you even have magic soul at all.¡° he said with excitement. His words however caused me uneasiness. "But that means I will never become strong magician. Is there really no way for you to help me improve my soul power?¡° I asked with tears in corners of eye. As teacher noticed effect of what he said, he realised that excitement he felt about finding person with true inability to ever gain soul power was not appropriate. "Calm down, Aiken, calm down. Why couldn''t you be strong magician with no soul power. You are already able to cast tier six spells and you should already have lot of mana. As long as you can fully focus on practicing your spirit capacity, you will be able to become strong magician.¡° "That is lie, strong magicians need to have strong soul power as well. My uncle told me that. Even if I train my spirit capacity, I will not be able to defeat those who have both spirit capacity and soul power.¡° I protested almost on verge of crying. "Aiken. Aiken! Damn, listen to me Aiken!¡° he screamed, finally getting my attention. His sudden scream scared me little bit. "Yes, normal magician with no soul power could never ever dream about becoming strong magician. But you are not normal magician. You have one special something none of them will ever have.¡° he answered. "I have special something? What is it?¡° I asked, filled with anticipation. "Me of course. Your teacher. Do you think there are thousands of brats outside who can say their teacher is strongest magician in whole world? I doubt so. With me as your teacher, don''t you think, it would be possible to become second strongest in world? I can tell you are really fast learning brat, and with my help, you will truly become powerful. Who knows, one day, you might become greatest magician to ever walk this world.¡° he said. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. For few seconds, he stayed silent, as if thinking about what he should do. Only ten years later has he told me, that it was point, at which he was deciding if he should give me [Greater Spirit Capacity Training Method] of his clan, or whether instead of it, he should teach me [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique], one of six powerful techniques he found in ruins that made him grow to this point, of which he only mastered two and remaining four were too dangerous for him to even try them. I do not know how my story would have developed, if at that moment he decided to give me technique belonging to his practitioner family. Would I have become just average magician, or would I find other way to power anyways? But truth was outcome of his dilemma was decided even before he thought about it, and there was only one conclusion it could lead to. This time it was not because of fate, but simply because teacher Alaric was kind of person, who was always wondering about everything, and once he had an idea, he had to test it. And at this moment, he started wondering about how far could I reach as magician should I learn mysterious spirit expanding technique. Moment he started wondering about it, what decision he would make was already clear. That was just kind of person teacher Alaric was. "Listen, I will tell you secret technique that I found in ancient temple ruins in mountains, that I used to become strongest magician. It is technique called [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique]. You however are not allowed to tell this secret technique to anybody.¡° he said. If you are thinking how could person as smart as teacher Alaric trust six years old child to not tell this to anybody, you are asking correct question. Answer was he didn''t. [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique] had five levels, and teacher Alaric was planning to teach me only first one. First level of technique was only capable to help spirit grow in two times rate of his own family''s technique would achieve. While such increase in speed was indeed great, even if this technique were to fall into hands of Wizard of North, it would merely help him reach one additional tier at best. Fourth level, that Alaric learned recently was compared to that more than ten times stronger. Giving away mere first level of this technique seemed like a joke to him. Even if I were to spread it to whole world, he could still laugh, because he not only had already mastered this technique to much scarier degree, he still had [Mystical Soul-blade Sharpening] technique that helped him reach his insanely high soul power, technique which he also mastered to fourth level. Even his own disciple only knew first two levels of both techniques and there was no way Alaric would give him other levels yet. "So listen closely, you should first completely empty your own spirit of mana, by casting some spells, ideally some that don''t destroy this room.¡° he said his first instruction. I used few [Air Steps], in order to quickly waste all my mana. "Great. Now listen carefully. You have to meditate and try to find your spirit inside your mind. Once you do so, try to force it to move in all possible directions, like you were stretching your own muscles. Once you know how move your spirit, keep moving it. As mana will be slowly restored to your spirit, it will become harder and harder, so when you can no longer move your spirit, slightly decrease amount of mana by casting spell. Understood? Actually, I will write it down for you. It will probably take few days before you can master it.¡° "Few days?¡° I asked. His explanation seemed to imply something. "I know I told you I would train you, but after seeing how your soul behaves, I have some things I want to check in Royal library. It will take less than week, and after I return, I will keep teaching you.¡° he said. "Teacher, you are leaving? You just started teaching me today.¡° "Listen brat, there is no point in me teaching you while you are like this. What would I teach you? Tier six thrash spells? If you want me to properly teach you, master this [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique] I gave you and reach tier seven magic before I return. Also, please, do not leave this guest house. It is important for your safety that no one will know about technique I taught you, or evil people could take you away in order to force you to tell them.¡° "I understand teacher. I will stay inside this house. I will master this technique and never tell it to anyone.¡° I said with determination. "Okay, Aiken. Wait for my return and keep training.¡° "I will, teacher! I promise.¡° Of course I did not notice mocking smile of teacher Alaric, as he left. Learning first level of of [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique], to the point that he could freely stretch his spirit even when it was filled with mana took him three months alone. It was impossible for six years old child to learn it in mere few days. But Alaric had no knowledge of fact, that I already once managed to move my spirit once and moreover it was while it was full of mana. Just few days ago, while I was tested by elders of village for soul power, I accidentally managed to use movement of spirit to temporarily fool soul power crystal and make it show soul power of one. That was why my spirit moved to my will without any problems, after I started meditating with almost no mana. I kept moving it, while mana was slowly recovering and even though it became harder to move, I still managed to move it. After mere three hours, I was already fully proficient, and felt as if I discovered new limb I always had but never noticed before. And this limb was growing stronger as I kept practicing. After headmaster''s servant, older woman who was probably just few years younger than my grandfather, who was fifty two years old, brought me dinner, i actually stayed training until late night. Next day of training, however, boredom started to win over my patience. Six years old boy I was, of course I would not have enough patience. I started to try messing around with my spirit, making it stretch as much as possible, then contract as much as possible, stretch, then contract again. It felt more tiring than before, but I felt intuitively that it would be more effective then just random stretching. This however could not entertain me for long as my focus shifted from training to small shelf of books. These books obviously did not belong to teacher Alaric, but were part of equipment of guest room. None of books were about magic, but I found one about geography of Southern Empire, which managed to keep me occupied for few hours. After eating lunch, however, I started to feel bit guilty since I promised teacher Alaric to keep training my spirit, so I returned back to it. For next three days, I spent about half of time training and other half reading all books from shelf. Chapter 4: Mia Sable On fourth day right before the lunch, teacher Alaric returned. Even though every evening headmaster''s servant would clean the room, over the course of today¡¯s morning, I have already managed to undo all her work. Seven books were lying on floor, and I was lying beside them, reading eighth one. "Teacher, I...¡° I wanted to explain myself, as I was scared of his reaction. After all, he told me to do something and instead, I was relaxing and reading. Teacher Alaric chuckled. He did not expect six years old kid like me to properly focus on training. As he saw me panicking, he let out soft heartfelt laugh. "Aiken, it is alright to be interested in books, but you should treat them better. After you finish reading them, you should place them back onto shelf.¡° he said, as he casted spell and seven books levitated, returning back to shelf. "I''m back. So how is your progress on learning spirit-training technique I gave you?¡° he asked, trying to make me feel even more guilty than I already felt. However to his surprise, his question led to something completely else. "Teacher, I think I have already learned it.¡° I answered. He looked at me with doubtful expression. What is this brat saying? It took him many months to learn this first level of [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique], how could have this brat learned it within few days? After all it was unique method to train one''s spirit, while all usual methods used different ways of discharging mana to improve spirit capacity instead. Learning even basic control of spirit should take much longer. "If you think you have learned it, show me your progress.¡° teacher asked of me, thinking I was bluffing. I fixed my sitting posture to one for meditation, and then I started cycle of contracting and stretching my spirit. Ever since Alaric has reached third level of [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique], he was able to perceive spirit of others, when he focused. When he realised, that not only was I moving my spirit, but more importantly, I was also properly stretching and contracting it, he gasped with disbelief. This was final step of first level of technique, one he had not even mentioned to me yet, since he thought there was no need, as properly learning how to move my spirit should have taken me at least few months. As he finally calmed himself down, he touched storage ring on his finger and took out purple crystal. "Aiken.¡° he called my name loudly, interrupting my meditation. "How long ago have you been last measured for your spirit capacity?¡° he asked. "I think it should be about two weeks ago, teacher. Why are you asking?¡° I responded with confusion. "Do you still remember how much mana did you have?¡° "I think it was little over five hundred.¡° Alaric blinked. He had not noticed previously, but now he realised that most of books lying on ground previously should have been too boring for ordinary child to read. Also, for child of my age, counting to twenty would be considered advanced math knowledge. He started to have growing suspicion as he placed crystal into my hand. "Six hundred and two.¡° I exclaimed with surprise. Over last two weeks, my soul capacity grew almost by hundred? That was too insane. Or was it because of new technique? As I looked at teacher, I could feel his stare filled with interest. My uncle never truly noticed how unusually fast have I learned things like numbers and reading, because he had never been teacher and other village children were not interested in learning such things. But teacher Alaric on the other hand remembered how late it was he learned higher numbers. He looked at book I had in my hands when I entered room, that was now lying on earth. "Aiken, do you remember name of seven great cities of Southern empire?¡° he asked. "Capital city Brion, and six royal cities Alsante, Illorb, Landor, Montrove, Trove and...¡° I responded, but then I realised I could not remember last one. After pondering for while, my eyes flashed with happiness as I finally remembered seventh city. "Xindar was the last one, I think.¡° I finished. Teacher Alaric smiled. This kid is not simple village boy, he thought. This outstanding talent in ability to memorize and learn combined with unusual spirit capacity, it would be such pity for this boy to be wasted as guardian of some nameless village. "Aiken, keep training until evening. I will return at evening, and I don''t want you to waste even second of your time, is that understood?¡° he asked. "But teacher, you just returned!¡° I protested. "Listen Aiken. Be a good boy. Reason I am leaving now is for your own good. Just wait till the evening, alright.¡° "Alright.¡° I answered with voice filled with disappointment. After all, I hoped that after his return, he would teach me some powerful spells. He left again and this time, I started seriously training my spirit, only interrupting it when lunch and dinner was brought by old servant. While i was finishing dinner, teacher returned. Following him was woman, whose age was probably slightly less than thirty. However, she was dressed in exquisite violet robe, with her violet hair fixed in complex hairdo by three long silver pins. "Good evening, teacher Alaric, good evening, lady.¡° I said as I stood up from food. "Aiken, it seems like you interrupted your training to eat.¡° said teacher Alaric, as he entered. "So this little boy is one you were talking about, Alaric?¡° asked the woman as she looked at me. "Aiken, this lady is Mia Sable, current mistress of Sable family of merchants who is also tier eleven magic practitioner.¡° I bowed down bit in her direction to show respect, but I honestly had no clue about how important was person in front of me. I had no knowledge that Sable family was second of four wealthiest and most influential merchant families of city. Their wealth and influence could easily rival most of practitioner families. Lady Mia came closer to me, inspecting my face and hair, making me feel uncomfortable in progress. "Alaric, call servants to prepare bath. Can''t you see that this boy is quite dirty? I will have some of my servants bring some nice clothes for him.¡° "But Mia, you see, I told you he is commoner, so...¡° opposed Alaric, but he was interrupted "So you think it is alright when he''s not properly bathing himself? Go get some servants to prepare bath or prepare it yourself.¡° If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Alaric nodded and without any further protests left the room. "So you are called Aiken, right, little boy?¡° she asked, as soon as he left. "Yes, my name is Aiken.¡° I answered shortly. "Alaric probably has not told you why am I here, right?¡° "No, he didn''t, lady Sable.¡° Woman laughed lightly, as she placed hand in front of her mouth. "That is so like him.¡° she smiled. "You see, Alaric has invited me, because he wants me to sponsor you. If you were to study in branch of commons, he thinks that would be waste of talent. I will pay so you can study in branch of generous.¡° "What is branch of generous?¡° While you, reader of my memoirs have already been provided with basic explanation of school being divided into three branches earlier, I was at that time been only six years old and my uncle nor teacher Alaric had ever explained it to me, so I was completely clueless. Smile in face of lady Sable has turned into icy expression of anger. "Damn that stupid idiot. Not telling you about why he invited me is one thing, but not even telling you about how school is divided is too much.¡° she cursed. Then, her expression calmed once more and she started explaining. "Listen, boy, this school has three branches for children of different backgrounds. First, branch of honor, where practitioners and nobles can have their children schooled. Branch of generous, where children of wealthy merchant families, like mine, can learn magic. Last is branch of commons, where talented children of commoners can learn magic. First branch is only accessible to families of practitioners and nobles, but other two can be accessed by anyone as long as he is willing to pay.¡° she explained to me. It was not complete true. For example, Mia Sable managed for her older daughter, who was extremely talented, to enter branch of honors, but even with influence of her family and backing of two nobles who had borrowed money from them, it was still extremely hard. "Children of branch of commons have only access to first floor of library and have much worse conditions for learning and living. With your talent, it would slow you down pointlessly, so I decided I would pay some additional fees to have you study in branch of generous instead of branch of commons.¡° As I understood her explanation, I felt indebted to her, and had no clue how to thank her. Seeing my expression, she laughed lightly. "It was only about ninety gold or so, so there is no need to worry about such small thing.¡° You have to understand my shock at that moment, because from my point of view, ninety gold was absurd amount of money. I did not know how much it really was, but I knew that just thirty nine gold coins was great sum . Saying ninety gold coins was not much money seemed absurd to me. But to Mia Sable, it was amount of money she would receive as her share from profits of her family every month. While it certainly was quite the sum, because she was current leader of family and because monthly profit of whole family even after everyone in family received their share was over four hundred gold, she could probably take even more without anyone saying anything, if she wanted. I had no clue how would I ever be able to repay such favor. "Please, do not scare my student, lady Sable.¡° Finally, teacher Alaric has returned. "Aiken, your bath is ready. Servants of lady Sable will lead you there and help you with bath.¡° "Alaric, you dare to call this boy your student? You have not even explained to him how this school is divided. If you call him your student, what kind of teacher does that make you?¡° responded lady Sable to his accusations. Seeing that they were probably going to argue for long time, I decided to leave them alone. Being in bath with servants who would try to assist me even though I did not need help felt extremely awkward. If I was born in rich family, I would probably be used to servants, but I was not, so whole situation was uncomfortable for me. Therefore I washed myself quickly and left as soon as possible. When I finished, they gave me clothes that looked like they must have belonged to some rich child. I silently returned back to room, where both teacher Alaric and lady Sable were waiting for me. "Yes, it seems like my son''s old clothes suit you well.¡° said lady Sable with chuckle. "So now that lady Sable is fine with way you look, let me tell you how lucky brat you are. She decided she will not only finance your studies, she would also give you some small pocket money, so you can buy things of need like snacks, potions and magic items in city.¡° teacher Alaric stated. I was surprised, why would she be willing to spend so much money on me? My question got answered immediately. "However she has request for you. This year, her younger daughter Saffron is to start attending magic school as well in branch of generous. However, there are also few children of families who don''t really like Sable family. They might want to bully or hurt her daughter. So of course, you should make sure nothing like that will happen, understood? You are to keep close eye on her, alright?¡° "I am thankful for your support and I will do anything to repay my debt to you, lady Sable.¡° I bowed down as I responded with words I prepared to thank lady Sable with while bathing. "Thank you Aiken. Safety of my daughter is in your hands. Also, you don''t need to call me lady Sable, aunt Mia will suffice. After all, I can accept you to branch family if you want.¡° she answered. "Alright, it is almost time to go sleep, but first, show me progress you made with meditation during afternoon.¡° said teacher as he placed purple crystal in my hands once more. "Six hundred and fourteen.¡° I said. Both lady Sable and teacher opened their mouths in disbelief. "Aiken, how much mana did crystal show during lunch?¡° asked teacher Alaric. "Six hundred and two, teacher.¡° I looked at him, confusion in my eyes, until I started counting. Over few hours I managed to gain twelve mana. If I would focus on practicing, I could reach tier seven magic in less than two weeks. "You were right, Alaric. Not supporting talent like this would be certainly waste of opportunity.¡° Chapter 5: Invisible Man Whole next week, I have spent mostly training my spirit capacity under teachers observation. He also brought me few tier six techniques he wanted me to learn. Two of them were offensive spells [Frozen Spark] and [Light Needle], while last one was defensive spell [Protective Shield]. To his surprise, I managed to learn them all during this single week while still having enough time to train spirit capacity. But I had reason to be unhappy. As sun was setting, once again, teacher decided he should measure my progress with crystal, as he did every evening. "Seven hundred and thirty three.¡° he said calmly. I had disappointed look, and teacher could not help but laugh. "Aiken, don''t tell me you are disappointed?¡° "But teacher, over today, my spirit capacity grew only by nine. It''s growth is slowing down.¡° It was truth. First three day of my meditations, I managed to gain over twenty mana, on fourth day, however, it decreased to seventeen, and fifth and sixth day my spirit capacity grew only by eleven mana, even though I tried much harder than first four days. And today, it has grown only by nine. "Stupid kid. Do you even know what that actually means? You are getting close to unlocking seventh tier of magic.¡° he said. "And surprisingly soon at that. Usually one would need to have about eight hundred and fifty mana, but you might be able to reach it even before eight hundred.¡° he finished his explanation. "Teacher. You are so cruel! Why did not you tell me earlier if you knew so?¡° I asked, on verge of crying. I was scared that I had reached limit of my growth and that I would betray expectations of uncle, old man Keiran, my parents who even sold land for me and even lady Sable, who decided to pay so much money for my school. "It was funny to see you finally try so hard. Usually, you slack a lot when you think I am not looking, but when your growth suddenly slowed down, you started working so hard I could not bring myself to spoil it.¡° "I hate you, teacher!¡° I raged at his mocking expression as I threw [Little Fireball] at him. He however made spell disappear before it traveled even half the distance between me and him. "Listen, I am sorry. I am truly sorry.¡° answered teacher while laughing. Was this what it was like to be father? He enjoyed time he spent teaching me. It was completely unlike when he was teaching his disciple, who was always so damn serious and boring to deal with. "How about we just skip training tomorrow and instead go outside of school to city, have some good food and buy some nice magic items for you, Aiken?¡° As he talked about buying magic items, my expression darkened. I already was indebted to so many people. Teacher Alaric noticed my expression. "Think of it as me saying sorry for tricking you. After all, it was really too cruel. I will be buying your forgiveness, is that good?¡° "Good.¡° I said, pouting, and teacher laughed at expression on my face. He knew I was excited to see magic items. "Its promise.¡° he said. And he kept his word. "Since we are going out of house and I don''t want anyone to notice that I am currently in city, I should use magic to change my looks. Watch carefully, I will be using advanced tier nine spell that I have created myself. It is able to make you invisible to most people. When you reach tier nine, I will teach this magic to you myself. Not even my own disciple knows this magic, because it is too complex.¡° teacher said, proudly. "What an awesome magic.¡° I was fascinated by his description and looked towards him demonstrating his own spell. "I call it [Invisible Man].¡° he said and then he casted his spell. As his spell completed, I was surprised. Looking at teacher, I could not help but wonder, what did go wrong with his spell. I could still see him clearly. "Did the spell fail, teacher?¡° I asked. "Of course not! Can''t you see? It''s one hundred percent success.¡° "But only thing that changed is that you are now dressed in servant clothings.¡° I protested. "And that is exactly the point. I am not. I still have same clothes I had few seconds ago, it only looks like I have servant clothes. After all no one notices servants, right?¡° "Is that all?¡° I stated with voice filled with disappointment. "No, there is one more thing.¡° "What is it?¡° I said with high expectations again. "Look at my hair.¡° he said while pointing at his own head. "They... are black?¡° I asked after second. I could not notice any difference. "Exactly. I changed their color from onyx to ordinary black. Now, no one can recognize me!¡° he stated proudly. After we left the school, to my surprise, there was really no one who called him out on his terrible masking. I however was suspicious that it was not because of his spell but because of his face not being well known. He was really good at pretending to be servant helping young master to select low tier storage ring, low tier mana recovery ring and cheap magical wand in magical items store.. "What are magical wands for anyways?¡° I asked, while no one was listening to us. "It slightly increases power of your magic similar way soul power does. Truth is I am not sure if it will work with your condition, so I bought one of cheaper ones.¡° Even though it was one of cheapest magical wand in store, it still costs five gold coins which was same as mana recovery ring and gold costier than storage ring. After that, he brought me to slightly secluded area, where he had me test it. According to him, it worked and it was similar to me having soul power of between twenty and thirty. How he managed to measure that without crystal, I had no clue, but I decided to believe him. Then we had lunch from food-stand in market, and bit later we found another store with magical equipment, where we sold magic wand we just bought for two golds and bought really costy one for forty six gold coins. At that point, i was sweating bullets, since this wand was worth much more than all people from village who wanted me to study were able to gather. "Teacher, you should not waste so much money on me.¡° I said with low voice. "Waste money? Boy, do you know who I am? I could build tower out of iridium coins for myself and still have enough spare to build gold doghouse for you next to it.¡° I did not ask why he would build doghouse for me, ever since I had seen his masking spell, I was thinking he was completely crazy. Of course, I have not noticed that if I asked anyone who had seen face of Wizard of South before, if this servant here looks like him, he would give me confused look, since that brown haired ugly servant next to me looked nothing like legendary Wizard of South. What can I say? Teacher was just kind of person loved pulling tricks on people and I was very funny target for him, unlike his disciple, who mostly avoided or at least did his best to ignore them, never showing any emotional reaction. "Do not worry about money boy. I don''t care one bit. I would pay for your tuition as well in branch of generous, but I wanted you to have some ally in this city. After all, in few weeks I will be leaving, and then you are on your own. Well, not completely on your own anymore, since lady Sable said she would support you.¡° As sunset covered city in red color, I smiled. "Lets return to school, I want you to try your combat spells now that you have all equipment necessary.¡° said teacher, seeing my smile. After we entered to school area, I tried using spells with help of magical wand and this time, even I could easily tell they were stronger than usually. "This one has effect similar to one hundred and twenty soul power. I can see it is well made and will last for years, so I think it is money well spend. After all, for you this is not small effect. If someone with soul power of few thousands received such wand, he would probably not even notice difference. To compensate for your lack of soul power, you will certainly need powerful magical wands in future.¡° he said. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. We returned back to guest house, but to our surprise, someone was already waiting for us. Sitting by table, drinking cup of tea elegantly, with bewitching smile she welcomed our arrival. "I thought I could maybe visit you two in afternoon, but it seems like you did not bother to leave any note in case someone came.¡° Since he had still his [Invisible Man] spell active, teacher wanted to back out of it. "Who might you be talking talking to? I was instructed by sir Wizard of South to bring boy here, and he ordered me to return back to him right after I do so. So now, if you excuse me...¡° he said with old sounding voice very different from his usual voice. "Don''t think you can trick me with this spell Alaric. You had used it to sneak into house of my family on many occasions in past, don''t you think I would be able to remember it and recognize you easily?¡° I was genuinely confused why would she fail to recognize him if she did not know about spell, but that was of little importance. "Listen carefully. Admission day was two days ago and school will be starting in four days of time. I would like Aiken to start school together with other children, even though I heard from headmaster your original arrangement was different.¡° she said. "But I still need to study his condition. Also, I promised I would teach him.¡° protested teacher Alaric. "I however think it would be better for everyone if you just let him study with his peers. He has already learned lot from you and but he is still only tier six magician. Waiting for few years before he reaches tier eight or nine would be much more effective if you really want to teach him. I also heard there is certain person in the city who asked who really wanted you to pay her visit. Maybe you should take chance before she decides waiting for you is not really worth it.¡° Hearing her, teacher instantly had change of heart. "Alright Aiken, it seems like it will be better if we finish everything in next four days. After all you are still only tier six magician, so it will be better if I teach you after you grow bit more. I will prepare some tier seven spellbooks for when you manage to break through tier seven and give them to you in advance.¡° he said to me and then he turned to lady Sable. "Problem is, what will we do about soul power measurements? It would not be nice to have other people notice he has no soul power. While most would not think anything about it, some could decide that it was too interesting to just ignore it. I still did not come with good solution for this.¡° he continued, now with disappointment in his voice. While I was certainly sad that teacher accepted it too easily, after he bought so many things for me and even helped me enter better branch of school, branch of generous, I knew I was already indebted to him. I did not want to be bother for him anymore. So I decided to be honest and show them idea that was on my mind ever since I learned how to move my spirit. "Teacher, I have an idea. Could I borrow azure crystal for soul measuring?¡° I asked. "I don''t know what do you plan to do, but here you go.¡° he said, as he took azure crystal from his storage ring. I held crystal and started moving my spirit. On crystal, for few seconds, number three appeared, before it turned back to zero as I stopped moving my spirit. Disbelief in eyes of both adults made me smile. I realised, that it was not moving spirit towards crystal, but rather moving it at all that made number change. Instead of moving spirit, I started to stretch it and contract it same way like during spirit training. Without proper meditation position, it was much harder to do, but I managed somehow. Once again number changed and after two seconds, it stabilized on number twelve. It was not much, but I was confident I could do it for whole duration of examination. "How did you fool the crystal? It should be impossible to fool it!¡° asked teacher, who was so surprised his eyes were about to pop up. "I used spirit training while holding crystal.¡° I answered. "How did you know it would work?¡° he asked again. "I did something similar back in village, where I managed to make it show one instead of zero for about second. Ever since I learned spirit expansion technique from you, teacher, I realised that was how did I manage to do it back then.¡° Teachers eyes shined with understanding. "I see. To emulate soul using movement of spirit, I did not ever thought about it. Aiken, could you use some spell while training your spirit? I want to test if it just fools soul crystal, or if it also improves power of your spells.¡° he asked with expression of excitement and delight. "Teacher, it is almost impossible for me to talk while focusing on moving my spirit, much less cast spells.¡° I answered, causing his excitement to lower bit. "Anyways, it is unbelievable. I cannot make this experiment, because change in power of spell would be impossible to see, but for you, it should be easy to realize difference in power. So Aiken, until next year, you must promise me that you will work hard, so that you will show me spell casted while you use spirit expanding technique at same time.¡° At this moment teacher realized he had been wrong all along. When he took interest in my zero soul power, he believed it would be key to improve his understanding of soul. Now he realised it was opposite. With my help, he could probably improve his understanding of spirit by a lot. "I understand, teacher. I promise I will try my best.¡° I said with determination. Even though most of respect I had for Wizard of South has been overshadowed by his terrible personality, I was still indebted to this man. "I didn''t understand anything you two just said. Could you explain to me how did he fool crystal, Alaric?¡° said lady Sable to remind us of her existence. After that, for next four days, I was mostly focusing on training my spirit. Over first three days, my spirit capacity only managed to raise by twenty four, first day by nine, second by eight, and third by seven, but on final day in afternoon, after I measured my spirit capacity, I noticed it has risen to eight hundred and one which was leap by forty three. As teacher looked at crystal, he laughed. "Congratulation. As far as I know, you are first kid to ever unlock tier seven magic before starting their school education.¡° "Teacher, you will be leaving today, right?¡° "Yes, I will. And this evening, you will also be moving to dormitory of branch of generous. But before we say goodbyes, I have few gifts for you.¡° he said. Then he placed storage ring he previously bought for me on table on table. "I know you have clothing from your village, but that is not suitable for student of house of generous. In this ring, there are few better pieces. Lady Sable helped me pick them out yesterday. Together with clothes there are also soul and spirit measuring crystals so you can measure your improvement and about twenty tier seven spell books. You better learn all those spells before you even think about advancing to tier eight, understood?¡° I nodded my head. Then, he gave me few pages of paper. "Truth is [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique] actually has five levels. Since you have already learned first level, this is manual for how to train second level of this technique. You are not to give this away to anyone and right after you learn it, please destroy it.¡° "Yes teacher.¡° "Finally, since I know that lady Sable is cheapskate and will probably give you only two or three silver pieces week, here, this should suffice for next year as you pocket money.¡° he said as he gave me leather pouch. Inside, there were what i though to be eight silver coins. But in reality, they were rare iridium coins, and each had value of ten gold coins. And then we said our goodbyes.
I might be able to sneak in one more chapter today. But then I will have to go on quest to hunt some exams, so I might not be able to post things until friday. Chapter 6: Magic battle I was led to my room in dormitory of branch of generous by headmaster himself. It was visible he was not happy about it, but he did not voice his dissatisfaction this time, only told me about how dormitory works and what I should expect next morning. He also gave me student card, which mentioned my name and class I was supposed to go to, and with mechanic voice, he wished me best luck in next year. Building of dormitory belonging to this branch was biggest out of three dormitories, because in dormitory belonging to branch of commons students were sharing rooms together, while only fraction of students were in branch of honors. To be more precise, out of around thirty one hundred students, about eighteen hundreds were in branch of commons, bit over nine hundred in branch of generous, so only about four hundreds were in branch of honors. My room was of size about six times three meters. There were two beds, one apparently for servant, however I had no servant. Servant was one of best paying job commoner without talent in magic could achieve, and depending on family that employed them, they could earn between four and twenty silver coins month. Compared to that, tier seven village practitioners like my uncle received three silver pieces month but most of their money came from monster hunting journey they made together every winter, where they each gained up to three gold coins. Being alone in room was bit scary, which is why I had left candle burning. I have to admit I cried that night, and for many nights later. I wanted to see my parents, my uncle, old man Keiran, and teacher Alaric, but I couldn''t. I was completely alone. If I was one of city children, I would probably not be able to overcome this loneliness. But as kid from village, I was at least used to my parents to not have almost any time for me, and knowing how much everyone sacrificed for me to be here, I knew I had to stay. But I still could not help but cry before tiredness finally overcame me. When morning came, I was interrupted from dream by voice. "Morning! It''s morning!¡° screamed the voice in the corridor. This was, according to what headmaster said yesterday, usual procedure of waking students and calling them to breakfast. I worn my new clothes I received from teacher Alaric and then went downstairs to dining room. Thankfully, only about half of students of branch of common were eating in dining hall, other had servants prepare their meals beforehand and were eating breakfasts in their room. I couldn''t even imagine how bad it must have been in branch of commons. Actually, as I learned later, in branch of common, breakfast consisted of one slice of bread and piece of fruit and students were expected to eat it standing. Compared to that I got piece of bread with butter and salt, boiled egg, cheese, unknown fruit consisting of small green balls that I later learned to be grape and cup of milk. I sat down to one of empty tables, realizing there were still only few people here, since I was one of fastest people to go down. I started eating my bread, but before having third bite, young boy with golden blond hair sat down across table and waved his hand at me, with nervous look at his face. "Hello.¡° he said. "Hello.¡° I responded, unsure what he wanted. "My name is Brantley, but you can call me Brant. I am new first year student here. Are you also new student?¡° he asked. "Yes, I am also first year student. My name is Aiken.¡° I answered, as I calmed down. It did not seem like he came to pick a fight. "Are you from one of city families, or are you from outside of city?¡° he asked. Since he realized that I was unwilling to answer, he decided to tell me where he is from first. "I am from outside of city, far to west.¡° "I am also from outside of city.¡° I decided to answer shortly, since he revealed his cards. "We should stick together then, Aiken. I have been staying in dormitory since week ago and had seen how some of older children of local families try to recruit us outsiders to their groups. Escaping from them is rather hard... Damn, here they come.¡° he said, as he noticed one of older boys walking to our table. He was about twelve years old and had rather vicious expression. "Oh, Brantley, I was trying to find you yesterday, but I could not find you. Were you perhaps trying to avoid me?¡° he asked with angry voice. "No such thing Landon. You must be imagining that.¡° said Brant fearfully. "Listen, we don''t want to harm you, Brantley. We just want you to join us. You are one of most talented youngsters and our group would welcome your presence.¡° As I have seen unwillingness in Brants eyes, even though he was not my friend, I decided that I would help him. "Listen, Landon, or whatever your name is, Brant obviously does not want to see you, so scram.¡° I said rashly. "Brantley, who is your little friend?¡° reacted Landon with bit of anger. "Boy, you should better not anger me. I am tier six magician and already close to tier seven. Also, I am in group of Randolph family, wealthiest and most important family in this city. Offending me means offending them as well.¡° "I don''t care. You''ll leave now or I will teach you some manners.¡° I responded with anger. What the hell? He is just tier six and he is saying it proudly, like it actually means something. Boy blinked with surprise. "I told you to disappear. Just mere tier six, and you proclaim it so proudly. If I was only tier six at your age I would just hide in shame.¡° I threw in insult. "Brat, do you think tier six is joke? Wanna have fight, little boy?¡° "If you don''t disappear right now, I will gladly fight you.¡° "Great. So how about this evening behind dormitory? I will teach you to give some respect to your seniors, brat.¡° "Alright. I will be there.¡° I answered to young boy, who left with disbelief in his face. For a few seconds, there was absolute silence. Brantley was stunned by my confident reaction, but not for second did he think I meant it seriously. "Why did you provoke him, Aiken? Now he will be going after you.¡° "I don''t care. I will beat him in the evening and he will leave us alone after that.¡° "You meant that seriously? He is almost tier seven magician. You cannot beat him. Don''t be pointlessly proud.¡° "So what if he is almost tier seven magician? I have already reached tier seven.¡° I stated uninterested. "What?¡° said Brantley, with disbelief. "Don''t pull pranks on me. You can''t be tier seven magician.¡° "Whatever you think.¡° I ignored him as I quickly finished eating my breakfast. "Wait, what class are you in?¡° he asked as I was leaving but I did no longer care about him. According to what headmaster said yesterday, all first years were to go to park that was right behind our dormitory and sort themselves to classes A to E accordingly. There was no skill distinction within groups yet, but in next two years, children would be sorted according to their estimated potential based on soul power, spirit capacity and knowledge of different spells. I was in class C, and as I realised short time later, so was Brant. "So we are in same class. Lucky, isn''t it?¡° he said and then he closed in, whispering silently to me: "Have you really reached tier seven?¡° I simply nodded, I had no reason to answer him. I was starting to feel annoyed about him following me persistently. "That''s insane. Even I have yet to reach tier six and they say I am very talented. How come they did not know about you? Randolph family has all information about scores of everyone during admission day, so if you are that great, they should know about you.¡° he said, skeptically, but he seemed to actually believe in me. "My soul power and spirit capacity was measured personally by headmaster before admission day.¡° I answered, trying to avoid revealing anything about my teacher. I wanted to proudly proclaim that I was taught by Wizard of South, but I remembered how teacher warned me about revealing that fact. I also knew, that almost no one would believe me anyways. As there was still no one who looked like teacher to be seen, I started reading one of books from storage ring, spell book containing instructions to cast tier seven spell [Freezing Wind]. I however did manage to read but a few words before teacher arrived. Our teacher was young woman of about twenty years age. She had long hair of light brown color and bewitching blue eyes. Like me, she was from one of villages, but because she was genius, after first six years, magic school paid for her to keep studying in branch of generous for six more years. However, after her studies finished, she was forced to teach at school for next five years and had to pay rest of her debt to school over ten years after that, or keep teaching for that time. She only received half of pay that other teachers would receive, but she was rather satisfied. After all, when she finished her first six years of studying, she was only tier seven magician, but now, after six more years, she managed to reach point halfway between tier ten and eleven. This was her second year of teaching, so after four more years, she could leave and join monster hunts, where she would be able to earn money to pay her debt to both her village and magic school easily. Also during her stay in university as teacher, she still profited from area soul and spirit growth supporting spells, so she might become tier eleven magician before her forced work ends. "Hello everyone, my name is Kalani, I am tier ten magician and I will be your teacher for next year. I am here to help you, so feel free to ask me anything. Now follow me.¡° she introduced herself with smile. In my defense, I have to say it is normal for small children to fall in love with their teacher. Especially if it is beautiful young woman with angelic voice like teacher Kalani. As she led us to class, I was walking like mindless puppet pulled by strings. Once we arrived to class, she started with having all of us introduce to one another. Long story short, I have not noticed name of any classmate, as I was staring at her to the point even she must have noticed it. However, she already had similar experience last year, so she really did not pay any mind to it, knowing it is not problem that needs to be resolved. It took me more than hour to realize that I was supposed to be learning [Freezing Wind] and prepare myself for evening. Even after I started reading book again, this time sitting at front seat of class, I was rather absentminded, thinking about teacher Kalani, dancing, flowers, holding hands, usual things boy of six imagines when he thinks about love. But in few minutes, as I started to read, I was absorbed by instructions provided by book and any distraction disappeared from my mind. "Aiken. Could you tell us what book are you reading?¡° she asked me suddenly, as she noticed book I had in front of me. As her question surprised me, I could not come up with believable lie. "It''s nothing.¡° I said, trying to hide book, but she took it away from me with one swift movement. Looking into book, I could see shock in her eyes for second, and then she returned book back to me. "After we finish class today, I want you to stay here for few minutes so we can talk.¡° she said with hint of anger in voice. After that she went back to talking about basics of magic, soul and spirit. This talk of her was not some kind of lecture, but rather attempt to make children feel more passion about studying properly. This time, it took much longer before I managed to regain my focus and continued learning instructions from book. I didn''t want to anger her, but I needed to learn the spell, and she looked like she did no longer care about it, even returning book back to me. It only took one more hour before today''s class ended. I barely managed to finish book by then, but if I wanted to learn it properly, I would need practice as well. Spellbooks have just few pages and this one had only ten, so it was not hard to finish it so fast. It was simply first day of school, and from tomorrow on, we would have three hours of studying in morning, while in afternoon, we would have two hours of soul sharpening practice or spirit expansion practice. Since class ended, I had to speak with teacher. I prepared myself to receive punishment. "What did you want to talk about, teacher?¡° I asked. "I wanted to ask you about that book. You know that it is tier seven spellbook, right? Why are you reading it? Are you even able to read it?¡° she asked. After all, most of children of six years old could barely read abecedarium, fact that I was able to read it at that age without feeling bored was already weird. But I never noticed it, because back in village, only children I could compare to had no one to teach them, while I had my uncle, who not only gave me abecedarium, but also lend me each of six books he had. I have read each of them about thirty times. In my last year in village, old man Keiran lend me four of his books as well and I have also read them few times before returning them to him. So I found nothing weird about fact I was able to read this book. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. "I was learning the spell.¡° I answered honestly. "But it is tier seven spell. You need to reach tier seven before you can learn it.¡° explained teacher patiently. "I know. I have already reached tier seven so I am learning it now. Is there any problem with that, teacher Kalani?¡° I asked. To be honest, I knew from teacher Alaric, that there should be no one who has already reached tier seven at my age. I was trying to impress her, like a little dog trying to get attention of its master by jumping and standing on its back legs. Teacher Kalani was shocked. She however quickly regained her composure, realizing it should be impossible for me to be tier seven magician already at this age. "Could you show it to me?¡° she asked, with skepticism in her voice. "I just started reading it this morning, but I think I have grasped basics already. But it would be better for me to go outside first.¡° I said. I felt like it was great possibility to impress her. In my childish mind, once again images of flowers, holding hands and dancing appeared. As we left building of school, I prepared myself to cast the spells. I still had some things I was not sure about, some parts I did not memorize properly, but I wanted to succeed at all costs. "Teacher, it would be better if you prepared magic shield.¡° I said, as I focused. I did not want to hurt teacher Kalani, but at the same time, I wanted to show her that I could cast this spell, so I warned her. Then I started casting the spell. Cold gathered in my hands, and then it flew towards teacher Kalani. I did not cast spell properly, so power of spell was reduced by about third, but it was still slightly stronger than my tier six spell [Fireball]. But from point of view of teacher Kalani, the spell looked even weaker. After all, she expected me to have at least some amount of soul power, and therefore, it felt for her only like failed tier six spell. "I guess I still need to learn more.¡° I said with disappointment. "Teacher Kalani, could I show you my progress tomorrow?¡° my mood lightened up, as I realized I could use this as excuse to be alone with teacher Kalani again. "Al... alright. tomorrow then. I have to do something now, so excuse me Aiken.¡° she answered, with weird expression on her face, and then left towards main building. She was convinced I somehow managed to change tier seven spell into failed tier six spell and decided to get information about me from headmaster. While it might sound like not that really complex thing to do, trying to change tier of spell requires some skill, but more importantly lot of time for testing out your attempts, since first attempts were usually completely unstable and would just explode or disperse. It was mostly used to turn low tier spell into higher tier one, as spells of tier thirteen and higher were only in hands of practitioners families, and those who were outsiders would never be able to gain them. Most of magicians were only able to reach increase in power by about eighty or ninety percent instead of doubled power spell of higher tier should have, creating some kind of hybrid tier spell, that consumed as much mana but was less effective than other spells of same tier. My uncle, for example had one such hybrid spell, that was tier seven version of [Fireball]. Over five years, he improved it to point where it was just few percent less powerful than normal tier seven spells. But if one managed to improve their spell to the point it was really as powerful as other spells of same tier, their improved version of original spell would then become original spell itself. This was how all of practitioner families were established, by groups of geniuses creating new original spells and original methods of soul and spirit improvement. With absolutely no idea about what teacher Kalani was thinking, I have left for my room in dormitory to keep reading spellbook and to properly learn it before evening arrives. When evening came, I bit was nervous to be honest. I was confident I have managed to completely learn [Freezing Wind], but this was my first fight and my enemy was twice my age. I sat down on ground in park behind dormitory, relaxing- "Hello Aiken.¡° I almost jumped out of my skin as I heard voice from behind. "Brant! You almost scared soul out of me.¡° I said angrily, as I realised who the boy who sneaked behind me and scared me was. "Sorry, sorry, I came to support you.¡° he said with guilty smile. We waited for some time, chatting about things in class, before three older boys appeared. As he noticed them, Brant''s face went pale. "That tallest one of them is Ryan Randolph. He is student in eighth year who already reached tier eight and he is also son of leader of Randolph family. We should scram.¡° he said, preparing to run away. As if he heard him, tall boy loudly proclaimed. "No need to run. I just had to come because I need to make sure this thick headed minion of mine does not go too serious and seriously injure you. After all, I don''t want to have any more problems with headmaster.¡° "We should run anyways.¡° whispered Brant, but I was not willing to run now. "Say your prayers kid. You were making fun of tier six magicians, I will show you how powerful tier six magic is.¡° stated twelve year old Landon, who I provoked before and who was now sort of pissed off about being called minion, but he knew Ryan was angry at him over getting into fight with six years old. "You should say yours.¡° I said. In next moment I summoned [Fireball] and sent it flying towards him. I thought I should fight him with just tier six spells and only use my new spell if something was going wrong, in order to see, how great impact has soul power difference. That however was big mistake. Landon summoned magic shield and blocked my fireball. "That is pretty strong [Little Fireball], kid. Gotta give you credit, you are not completely bad.¡° he said with confidence. He has mistaken my [Fireball] for practice version spell of lower tier, because if he casted [Little Fireball] himself, it could compare to my [Fireball] easily. After all, he had eleven hundred soul power. As I noticed my mistake, I quickly used my storage ring to retrieve magic wand I received from teacher Alaric. "But this is how true [Fireball] is supposed to look like.¡° he said as he summoned fireball of his own. It was more than twice as powerful than one I previously summoned. I only stood there in shock, unable to react. I wanted to cast my [Freezing Wind], but for some reason, under pressure of battle, I could not remember it. I could not remember any spell. I could not even move, as fireball approached me. But before it reached me, small figure blocked its way, protected by magic shield. Fireball hit magic shield, broke it and then exploded swallowing little boy. "Brant!¡° I screamed, afraid of how much did spell hurt him. "Why are you screaming?¡° asked Brant, who to my surprise was unharmed. "I had enough mana to protect me. But I am now completely out of mana. So you better start showing that tier seven magic now.¡° he explained. At that time I still did not know one of most important things about magic. When you were hit by magic attack, it would first consume all mana before doing harm to physical body. However, attacking spell would consume much less mana then being hit by said spell, which was why magic shields were still popular spells. As my heart calmed down, after shock I have been through, part of stress and horror was lifted from me I realised I once again could remember my spells and even [Freezing Wind]. "Stand aside, Brant, this is not your fight.¡° said Landon. Then he turned to me. "How about giving up kid? I can still cast nine more fireballs before I run out of mana.¡° he laughed. Instead of responding to him, I focused. Then I started casting the spell. He also started to cast Fireball. Since I had yet to master this spell, my casting time was slower and he was first one to finish casting it. But I was not much slower. Our two spells met, and to his surprise, my spell managed to slightly break through, hitting him with only bit of icy power. Because he underestimated me, he was not able to create magic shield to block my spell. This time, my power was increased by magic wand, and that little increase in power was enough to make my tier seven spell be able to compete with his tier six. We started casting spells again, but we were interrupted. "Stop.¡° One who stopped us was not teacher, but young tall boy Ryan Randolph. "Landon, this is your defeat.¡° "Ryan, let me fight, I can still...¡° "You can what? Tire out six year boy in longer fight? Fact that you were not able to win with single spell is enough for you to acknowledge defeat, right?¡° "I understand, Ryan.¡° said boy. "It is my defeat.¡° he said to me then, with bitter expression, and he slowly left. Tall boy Ryan then turned to me. "Boy, you are really talented. You really impressed me with that tier seven spell. At your age, tier five was my limit. But I know this spell, so I can tell it is tier seven spell, even though it''s much weaker than when I use it. Your soul power must be really low, right?¡° he had seen through me easily. "Yes.¡° I said with regret. Even though I officially won, I now recognized that I am nowhere near as strong as I thought. If Brant did not stop first fireball, I would be done for and if fight was not interrupted after my first small victory, I would probably run out of mana sooner than Landon. "What is your name boy? I didn''t really pay attention previously but now I am interested.¡° he said with complete honesty. "Aiken.¡° "I am Ryan Randolph, of Randolph family. If you ever want to join my group, I will welcome you. But since my companion offended you today, I guess you will reject. Let me at least express my apology for his behavior.¡° he said with grace of noble and then he took out flask of potion from his storage ring. "It is Soul Empowering Potion. It should slightly help you with your soul power problem. Now if you excuse me, it is really late and we should all return to dormitory.¡° he said, realizing sun was almost setting. He left first together with his other companion. "That was really tier seven spell, right?¡° Brant asked after they left. "Yes. But my soul power is really low.¡° "Then you should drink that potion. Randolph family has few alchemists, who make these potions and they are said to be quite effective. One is worth at least seven gold coins.¡° he said. Seven gold coins? He gave me something so valuable over small fight? But sadly, I knew quite well already from teacher Alaric that my soul power could not grow. Yet, inside me, there was small hope that teacher would be wrong. "Take it, I don''t have use for it.¡° I said to Brant. After all, he threw himself into fireball to save me, when he noticed I was paralyzed by fear. He deserved it and it would not help me anyway, probably. "I can''t accept it. It is really costy.¡° he said. "Without you, I would be burned from head to toes now. So take it.¡° I said, and Brant finally accepted. And like that, Brant became my first friend in magic school.
Hey guys, so this is final chapter today. I''m sorry, I would like to add more, but I have exams. I will start adding chapters properly at speed of 1-2 every week. I already have 5 more chapters finished, but I wish to have some chapters in reserve for situations, where I will be unable to write new chapter because of some things outside of my control. Thanks for reading, and if you want to support me, post some constructive criticism or encouragement in form of comment or review. See ya on Friday. Trystan Chapter 7: Sky Blue I could not resist adding one more chapter. But this is last one for now.
That undeserved victory left bitter aftertaste. As I returned to my room, I decided to train my spirit capacity for some time before going to sleep. I was still lonely and bit scared, but I managed to fall asleep pretty fast, after crying for some time. When I woke up next day, I rushed for breakfast, and met Brant, who was waiting for me. Right after we exchanged our welcomes, I asked about question that was on my mind since yesterday. "How have you managed to not get burned by [Fireball] you blocked yesterday, Brant?¡° I asked. Brant blinked, with face of disbelief. "Do you really not know? As long as you have mana, even if you are hit by spell, it will first have to burn all of your mana before harming you. Though it burns lot more mana than what it needs to cast. Thankfully, spell was weakened enough by my shield first, or else it would burn me bit.¡° he explained to me. "I didn''t know. Uncle never explained this to me. Does it work for everyone?¡° I responded surprised. "Of course it does.¡° answered Brant, who could not understand how someone who had no clue about this could be tier seven magician. We both started eating. Uncle actually never talked about situations where magicians would fight against one another. He only explained to me why it was necessary for village to have magic practitioners against monsters, even though tier five and maybe even tier six magic was indisputably weaker than weapons like bows and swords. It was because monsters had special ability, that made magicians necessary. When they sensed danger, they would cover themselves in [Wild Aura], defensive monster magic shield around their skin, that protected them from any harm and also slightly improved their physical power and speed. While it was extremely hard to break [Wild Aura] with normal weapons, magic was able to exhaust it very effectively and therefore destroy their main defense. After [Wild Aura] was exhausted, only stronger monsters remained serious threat, while most of weaker monsters became easy prey. Even weakest monsters would require about ten trained non-magicians to defeat it, so it was obvious why magicians must be necessary. I thought that there must be some connection between [Wild Aura] and this natural ability of humans, but idea did not stay in my mind for long time. Then we went to class. Teacher Kalani started with teaching of reading and writing, which she said we would have every Tuesday from now on. While she was giving lecture about letters of alphabet, I started reading second tier seven spell book, [Wind Blade]. This spell was really interesting as it was able to penetrate through spells of similar power, but it also didn''t completely block the spell of enemy, making it so that both sides would be hit. Unlike [Freezing Wind] that I learned over few hours, this spell looked much more complex and harder to learn. Teacher Kalani was not happy that I ignored her lecture, but she already knew that reading was not problem for me. She was however surprised when she has seen I had different book from yesterday. Even though there were no distractions today and I had much more time, after her lecture ended, I still could not fully comprehend even basic instructions for [Wind Blade]. After lecture ended, I once again asked her to help me see if I improved from yesterday. It was just excuse to be with her and show off, since I already could use spell [Freezing Wind] properly. When she has seen me successfully cast the spell, she was really shocked. After all, she recognized it really was tier seven magic. Yesterday, when she asked headmaster, he was unwilling to reveal any information about me, only thing he told her was that my soul power was really low, to the point of making any talent I would show pointless. But now that she has seen me cast powerful tier seven spell that I was not able to properly cast just yesterday, she had to disagree with headmaster. "Aiken, that was really great.¡° she complimented me, trying to soften me up for her question. "Could you tell me who was your teacher before? He must be really great teacher.¡° she asked without hiding her interest. Truth was, she was envious of me. After all, she only managed to reach tier seven magic in her last year of elementary magic education. As I was student in branch of generous and headmaster didn''t reveal anything about my origin or my soul and spirit test scores, she assumed I was from some wealthy family. And I unknowingly made her believe her assumptions to be right when I answered. "I am sorry teacher Kalani, but I cannot answer that question.¡° I answered sadly. Even though I wanted to impress her, teacher Alaric told me not to talk about him with anybody. He also said same thing to my uncle and old man Keiran. I didn''t understand why. But he was right to do so. As child I was, I had no clue that if I revealed I was his student, I would be surrounded by boot-lickers trying to use me to get closer to teacher Alaric. "I see. Nevermind then. Everyone has secret or two.¡° she said with smile. She could not understand what kind of secret could it be. She for moment played with idea she would use obvious crush I had on her, before realizing it would be too vile thing to do to child of my age. "So now that you learned [Freezing Wind], what spell are you learning?¡° she decided to ask. I sighed, as I was reminded that I was still not able to understand basic instructions of this spell. Spellbooks usually had about only ten pages, but this one had thirty two pages, and difficulty was many times higher than that of spell I learned before. I was still trying to memorize everything, but most importantly I needed comprehend first ten pages, where basics of spell were explained. "I am now trying to learn [Wind Blade], but it is much harder than [Freezing Wind]. I can''t still understand basics. Teacher Kalani, do you have any idea about it?¡° I asked. Teacher Kalani tried to hide her surprise. She knew spell of similar name, [Whirlwind Blade], that was however tier nine spell. There were only few spells of wind and lightning element, and most of them were incomplete, because they were much harder to create than spells of other elements. "I might be able to help you. Could I have the spellbook for a moment?¡° she asked, hiding the fact that she had no clue what spell could I be talking about. I did not notice anything and lent her the book. She quickly listed through it and then returned it to me. "Have you received this spellbook from your teacher?¡° she asked me. I nodded in response. "He must care about you lot. This spell is hybrid spell that was probably made by your teacher just for you. It''s based on tier nine spell [Whirlwind Blade] which is very powerful, but its tier and power were reduced so it could be used by tier seven magicians. I suspect that this magic school would be willing to pay about one or two gold coins to get hands on this spell. You should keep it safe.¡° she said. From brief view of book she could not tell how effective this hybrid spell would be, but based on precise instructions, she believed it would be second only to traditional tier seven spells. She never suspected it could actually match traditional spells equally. She was tempted to make me let her learn the spell, since it was obvious I would lend her the book if she asked, and then sell the copy to school, but she was bit scared of pissing off the mysterious teacher as well as my anonymous powerful family that could afford such formidable teacher, so suppressed her greed. "I see.¡° I said, as I took my book back. If teacher really created this new spell just for me, I felt I had to learn it regardless of how hard it is. "I am sorry, but I can''t really help you with this spell, since I don''t know it. Even though it originated from [Whirlwind Blade], it is still completely different spell so my advice would be pointless.¡° she apologized. She felt uncomfortable because she has tricked me, but also because she was jealous, since I had such capable teacher backing me, while she always had to work hard on her own. When afternoon came, there was spirit meditation practice outside of our dorm, at same park I had my battle yesterday. Thankfully, weather was good. However, first two hours of class, teacher Kalani had to explain [Spirit Capacity Meditation], one of lesser spirit capacity training methods. While I was still reading, I was trying to listen as well. From what I understood, it had similar effects to training methods my uncle passed onto me, but it required much less concentration. It was obvious that students in branch of generous received preferable treatment over village children in branch of commons. I was able to understand this technique within less than hour of time and then I decided I would try to use this technique and read my spellbook at same time. To my surprise, not only was it possible, it did not feel that hard at all. However, I could tell this method had only fraction of effect compared to [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique] I was taught by teacher Alaric. But it was also way too easy method, I mean, I could even read book without being distracted by this training. From now on I can learn spells and improve my spirit capacity at same time! I expected others to have similar results, however, when I looked around me, I noticed almost all students who were meditating showed absolute focus and quite few students had even problems with learning it at all. Especially girl with light blue hair sitting on ground in front of me. From what my I saw, she was not following instructions at all. After watching her struggle for few minutes, I could not resist anymore, so I stood up and walked to her. I touched her shoulder, which scared her little bit. She turned around and looked at me with mix of anger and fear. "Hello.¡° I said. I did not know her name since during class introduction, I was too dreamy and too much focused on teacher Kalani to memorize anyone''s name. She did not answer me, only staring at me, unsure what was going on. "You are doing it wrong way. Teacher Kalani said to let your mana slowly circulate within your spirit. Your mana is circulating too fast and escaping out of your spirit to the point its almost visible.¡° I said. "But I need to practice faster.¡° she protested. "What you are doing is not faster. You are just wasting mana without improving your spirit at all. If you want to practice faster, just master this technique to point when you can read book or walk while practicing.¡° I answered. "That''s not possible.¡° she said with disbelief. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it."It is. I am currently still training my spirit while we are talking. I am sure you will be also able to do it also, if you train for long enough.¡° "I don''t believe you. In order to manipulate mana, you need to focus properly.¡° she said with doubts in her eyes. "It is possible. Look at this.¡° I said smiling and then I increased speed of mana circulation even more than she did before, in order to make it easy to see that I was still moving mana withing my spirit, and while mana was spinning, I started dancing. When she saw what I was doing, she started smiling and then she even laughed bit. But since there was lot of mana escaping out of my spirit, other children could feel it, so they interrupted their meditation and turned to me, realizing I was dancing while visible mana strings were flying out of my body. As I suddenly realized I am being watched, I stopped. Moment of awkwardness followed, with some children laughing and pointing at me. But others stayed quiet and gave me weird looks. After while, everyone returned back to meditating, but teacher Kalani just sat down speechless. Until now, she mostly believed my unusual talents were simply nurtured by the unknown teacher supporting me, but seeing this, she had to change her opinion. She has never seen person capable of training spirit while not meditating, who would be younger than fifteen. Even she, who was really talented learned how to train her spirit while lying in her bed few years ago and now she could do so while doing some calm activity, like reading books. Seeing someone who could dance while doing so at the age of six was simply unbelievable, and not even talented child, regardless of what teacher they would have, should be able to do this. This was something only genius could achieve. When I stood up to go to girl in front of me, she was already about to finish instructing other child and go to her, but when I myself decided to help, she instead observed me and listened carefully, interested if I would reveal something about my own background. Why she was interested in my background was obvious, there was no other child who just entered magic school capable of using tier seven spells. Ever. Even greatest talent in branch of honor, girl that was currently in second year, was still quite far from reaching tier seven magic and it was only expected she would be able to achieve it at the end of this year. Teacher Kalani knew this because honor branch teachers really liked to proudly declare how talented their students were. They were pointlessly proud assholes, according to her opinion, but that was to be expected since they were from practitioners families. Fact that they were forced to teach in school by their families since they did not achieve enough soul power or spirit capacity and had to stay teaching in school until they were seen as strong enough did not make them have shred of humility. When I started talking to girl about mastering technique to point where she could be able to walk and do whatever while practicing, teacher just smiled. Since she was from branch of commons, she learned this meditation technique only after school has paid for her secondary education and she was moved to branch of generous. Even though she learned technique in two hours, mastering it to point where she was able to use it without meditating took five years. Now, after witnessing what I did, she was utterly shocked, to the point where she was unsure whether to call me genius or monster. At that moment I looked at teacher and immediately turned my face away with embarrassment. I had crush on her and she has seen me do something so silly now. What an idiot I am? As I sat down at my place and opened book again, girl in front of me started practicing. It was hard for her and she needed to focus completely, but this time, she did it properly. After lesson ended, I said goodbye to Brant and immediately headed back to dormitory. I realized I would need much more time to properly understand [Wind Blade] spell, and in dormitory, there would be silence ideal for focusing completely. But before I sat down to table with book, I first took out spirit capacity measuring crystal. "Eight hundred and four.¡° I murmured with dissatisfaction. It was truth that it was only two days since I reached tier seven, and I did not practice at all, focusing only on learning new tier seven spells, but my mana only raised by three? Even with help of that [Spirit Capacity Meditation]? I placed down my book and decided I would spend two hours of time meditating using method from teacher Alaric before I would continue. At the end, I was able to raise my spirit capacity by ten more and I thought I started to understand absolute basics of [Wind Blade]. Before I went to sleep, I was not satisfied with my progress today. Next morning I arrived to class early and I noticed something. Those people who were already here were talking to each other in groups. But there was one person out of all of those groups, who was just lifelessly sitting at her place. It was girl from yesterday whose hair color was similar to color of sky. When Brant arrived, i decided to ask him about it. "What is going on? Is everyone avoiding that girl? Why?¡° I asked him. "Don''t you know who she is?¡° he asked. "Well, I was not really paying attention much during introductions, to be honest.¡° I said trying to look apologetically. "She is Saffron Sable, of Sable family. Sable family is enemy of Randolph family, everyone knows that. Since Ryan Randolph has his group of companions, who are lot scary, to not provoke him, wouldn''t it be better to avoid her obviously?¡° As he started explaining, I bit my tongue. Only now have I realised I completely forgot about my promise to lady Sable. She probably even had me attend same class as her daughter intentionally and I not only forgot but did not even notice it. Damn, I have betrayed her trust. Moreover, I finally realised, why when everyone saw me dancing, less than half of them laughed and instead gave me weird stares. Most of children were probably thinking why did I even talk with her. "Then we should go and talk to her.¡° I said, trying to correct my previous mistakes. "Are you mad? We already had one conflict with Randolph and his friends few days ago, and we escaped only by miracle. I know he managed to get at least three people from first years into his companions, and one might be easily at this class. Also not only Randolph family, but Bantinc family is also at odds with Sable family, and while Bantinc group is not as powerful as Randolph group, they are known to be really terrifying bullies.¡° he protested. "Coward.¡° I said, as I took first steps towards her seat. After few seconds, Brant decided to follow me, silently cursing me to hell. When I was next to her, she turned to me with surprised look. "Hello again. How are you doing?¡° I asked. She did not respond, and gave me suspicious glance. She realised everyone else avoided her and was suspicious of me. It was my mistake to not notice her before. I could have helped her right away. "Did my advice help you?¡° I asked again. "Yes, thank you. It seems like I can at least meditate properly now.¡° she answered and bowed her head little unknowingly. "It''s nothing much. If you practice properly, maybe in few months, you will be able to practice like this even during lessons.¡° I encouraged her. I had no heart to tell her I was able to do it instantly. I already noticed that this was not usual, and was thinking if my case was weird. "I hope so.¡° she said silently, with look of sadness. "Is there any problem?¡° I asked, surprised. "You know, my sister is really smart and talented, and I feel like I am getting more and more far away from her. I am only able to use tier four spells and my soul power is only two hundred, but my sister... she is already able to use tier six magic and she is only in second year.¡° she said. "Tier six you say. That''s not much.¡° I puffed proudly. But I could see anger in her face appear at that moment. "Listen, don''t make light of my sister. She is really talented and powerful, she would be able to beat you with one spell.¡° she said. She really idolized her sister and my rude remark was. I wanted to disagree, but I had no ground to do so. After having battle with that Randolph''s companion Landon, I realized that soul power was extremely important and if her sister had even more soulpower than Landon, she could easily beat me with just tier six magic. "That might be true.¡° I said with dissatisfaction. For few seconds, neither of us said anything. "You are also able to use tier six magic already?¡° she asked. "I already can use tier seven spells.¡° I puffed with pride. "But my soul power is almost non-existent.¡° I added after few second with sadness. "You are really talented!¡° she said with surprise which made me bit angry. Is it really surprise that I am talented? After all, I helped her with spirit training, why is she surprised about it? "Nice weather we are having today, right?¡° Brant finally found courage to step in and enter our conversation. "I am Brant, his friend. And this idiot who has yet to introduce himself is Aiken.¡° I realized I really did not introduce myself and felt really stupid. "My name is Saffron.¡° she said and smiled. But our conversation ended right there, as teacher Kalani entered room, and we had to return to our seats.
So that''s it. Until friday. Chapter 8: Delusions Hello there, dear reader. I know I said next chapter would be on friday, but I managed to be faster. Therefore, here it is. Wish me luck during my exams, please. After this I will be fixing grammar of earlier chapters, so it might take some time before next chapter.
Today, teacher Kalani was teaching numbers. I felt really disappointed, as I realised it would probably take them two years or more to catch up to me, so I could finally learn something new. But at the same time, it also gave me more time to learn new spells. I once again took out [Wind Blade] spellbook and started reading. Class time passed pretty fast and I did not progress much, since spell was so complicated. I was still not even close to being able to cast spell successfully. After class ended, teacher Kalani came to my seat. "I was thinking about your problem with learning that spell from your previous teacher. I borrowed book Introduction to Spellcrafting, that could help you get some understanding on spell." she said. She would normally never advise such book to child of mere six years old, as it was too complex for such early age, usually taught at about fourteen or fifteen years old, but seeing I was not really ordinary child, she gave it to me. "Also, there are these two books, Magic Theory 1 and Magic Theory 2." she added two more books. If I did not understand these, I would probably be confused about what was inside of book she brought for me. "Teacher Kalani, thank you, but you can return Magic Theory 1 back to library. I have read this book at least fifteen times already. But for remaining two books, you have my thanks." I answered. Magic Theory 1 was one of books my uncle had. I had read it first time as four years old, and whenever I did not understand something I asked uncle. He would patiently explain everything to me, so I was now pretty sure I did not need to read this book again. "You have already read Magic Theory 1 many times. Why does it surprise me?" said teacher Kalani before leaving. She was once again shocked. After all, it was book meant for fifth years, and usually, they would need to study it for whole year together with teacher. However, to her own surprise, she was getting used to these shocks. My uncle had never read Introduction to Spellcrafting, rather, he had six pages written by senior who simplified theory of spellcrafting for him, but he never let me see those. Since information in that extract was of low quality, it was impossible for him to properly finish his tier seven hybrid spells. However, he was obviously talented, because even with such thrash manual, his hybrid spell were not bad, as he managed to figure out many spellcrafting procedures by himself. These spells were still however were far from perfect. Whenever he was working on his spells, I would have to be silent and just read some book, but he would rarely do that, especially after my spirit capacity and soul power was measured. Ever since that, he would focus on teaching me completely. I started reading Introduction to Spellcrafting, but soon I closed the book again and instead started reading Magic Theory 2, since teacher Kalani was right about me not being able to understand everything. Compared to spellbooks with mere tens of pages, Magic Theory 1 that I used to read at uncle''s home had hundred and ten pages, and Magic Theory 2 had hundred and twenty two. However Introduction to Spellcrafting with its two hundred and forty pages could put both of these books to shame. After fast dinner, we once more went to park behind dormitory and started training there, this time however, it was supposed to be soul power training. Teacher started explaining basics of [Soul Meditation], basic soul sharpening technique. Once again, about third of class started practicing immediately, as they had been already taught by their families. I instead have been sitting and reading the Magic Theory 2, while using [Spirit Capacity Meditation] at the same time. While I realised this method was tens of times weaker [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique], unlike it, I could practice this technique even while doing something else, so I was using this technique from the time I wake up until evening, and in evening I would switch to teacher Alaric''s technique. As I was siting, suddenly, I was interrupted by someone. "Aiken, could you help me again?" asked girl''s voice. It was of course Saffron, who was once again clueless about how to train. I have to say I was starting to get angry with her mother, lady Mia Sable, because in my opinion, it was her failure that her daughter was so ignorant of magic training. "I am sorry, I am not of much help. I am not any good when it comes to soul training. After all, look at this." I said, as I touched storage ring, getting azure crystal out. I focused, expanding and then contracting my spirit, until it started to contract and expand in rhythm. Then I opened my hand, revealing the number on crystal. "Fourteen soul power, you see? Rather pitiful, isn''t it." Teacher Kalani was observing and when she heard what I said, she understood why headmaster had such low opinion of me. When headmaster said my soulpower was low, she expected hundred or at least fifty, but this was really way too low. But she still believed that headmaster was wrong. Even with so low soul power, fact was that tier of magic I could use was higher than my age, I could easily reach tier thirteen or fourteen in next twelve years, and then, I would be easily able to match most tier eleven practitioners. And if I did not reach tier thirteen by the time I finished school, I would still be able to reach it eventually. Headmaster must be shortsighted because of his low opinion of other branches than branch of honor, was what teacher Kalani was thinking. As she has seen that I would not be able to help her, Saffron became sad and had even tears in corner of her eyes. As I saw her pitiful appearance I sighed. "Alright, I will help you. I lied about being bad at soul practicing, it just has almost no effect on me. So no tears, please." I said, giving up completely. I then tried to remember everything that uncle Jannon told me about Soul Sharpening. He taught me different method, [Iron Path Of Soul Sharpening], method of branch of commons, however, it was method that was learned during fifth year to replace worse but easier one from first year. Compared to it, [Soul Meditation] was about same. However, uncle Jannon was not person who would not try to experiment, and somehow, he managed to improve original soul sharpening method efficiency by more than half. It was not because of his talent as magician, but rather because of his talent to explore magic and modifications he did to his training techniques, that he was now strongest magic practitioner in our village. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. So I started explaining everything to Saffron, who payed attention completely, listened to my explanations and tried to do her best to remember everything. Teacher was also focused on listening, and when she heard technique I described, she immediately recognized it as she was also taught this technique while in branch of common. However, she noticed that few things were changed about this technique and did her best to memorize these changes. She herself sat down and tried this modified technique herself. As she started, she could tell that this technique was on par with training method that was taught in branch of generous at eight grade. It was bit inferior to training method they were taught during final year, but it was still really impressive technique. One who came up with it must have been genius, she thought. If my uncle knew what teacher Kalani was thinking about his changes and that was called genius, he would probably blush like tomato. He was certainly not recognized as genius by school, because he only started trying out his modifications by the time he had already left the school. Was he given more time in school, maybe he could have become tier ten or tier eleven practitioner easily. While technique explained by teacher was only explained to whole class once, when I was teaching Saffron, she could ask me questions, and I would answer them with ease. After all, I was doing this training for almost two years, so I knew everything about it, even though it did not work on me at all. Therefore, within two hours, she managed to learn it and started practicing, but class was already almost over. "That technique is pretty powerful, I have to say." said teacher Kalani, as she walked to me, as afternoon classes ended. "Yet you still only have fourteen soulpower?" I was surprised, as I did not notice that she was listening at all. "Yes. Sadly I have no talent when it comes to soulpower. I was training using this technique for two years, yet there was almost no improvement." I said. Teacher Kalani gulped. Fact that I was practicing for two years meant, that I learned this method when I was at most four years old. This method was not easy to use, so it should be impossible for mere four years old child to learn it. If uncle had more common sense, he would probably make me learn something more simple, but to me, learning this was not hard as long as I could have all my questions answered, and uncle would answer anything I asked. At that moment, another delusion appeared at teacher''s Kalani mind. Maybe I was not children of some wealthy merchant family. Maybe she was wrong to suspect that my hidden origins were due to family wishing to protect their child from enemy families. After all, this training technique of mine was really not from branch of generous. That''s right, now it makes sense, she thought. Mysterious background, solved. My insane knowledge, solved. My genius of teacher, solved. It was simple. I was child of some practitioner family, but due to lack of my soul power, they decided to send me to school incognito, without revealing my connection to them. If I did not learn magic to their satisfaction, they would disinherit me and cut all their ties to me. They had some genius who managed to become practitioner even though he was commoner accepted to branch family and made him teach me magic before I enter magic school. Yeah, that must be it. Suddenly, all jealousy she felt disappeared. Even though I was, in her mind, of practitioner family, my pitiful soul power made my family look down on me and ashamed of me so much, that they would hide their connection of me. And I had worked so hard, read all books possible to the point I was now ahead of my peers just to have them acknowledge me. She had to resist urge to hug me and tell me everything would be alright. What a pitiful child, she thought. I had no idea about her wild delusions. Instead, I was having delusions of my own. As she now looked at me with gaze full of pity and sympathy, I believed that maybe she was starting to feel same way about me I was feeling about her. Damn, I really used to be naive. "Listen, Aiken, I originally needed those two books back next month, but I will somehow find way for you to have them as long as you need. Just tell me if you need anything else, alright? Your teacher is here for you, so stay strong!" she said encouragingly. Aiken, you can''t just give up. You have to prove your family they were wrong! I will do anything to help this child become stronger, she thought. "Thank you, teacher Kalani." I said, lights in my eyes. She treated me completely different than before. Did I finally succeed? Yeah. It really is embarrassing to tell you about line of thinking six years old me had. That afternoon, it was extremely hard to focus on anything, as my heart was beating wildly and my mind was full of what I thought to be loving expression of teacher Kalani. Only in the evening had I managed to get myself together and return to reading Magic Theory 2. I realised it would be better to start reading it again and make notes, in order to remember it faster. I discovered that storage ring from teacher had much more than spellbooks in it, paper for making notes and ten feathers with few bottles of ink were there as well. I only managed to finish twenty pages, before it was too late. I closed book, and started practicing [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique] for one hour, before I went to sleep. Over next two days, Friday and Saturday, I have spent some of my time playing with and talking to Brant and Saffron. I was also helping Saffron with all problems she encountered during her training. In rest of time, I managed to finish Magic Theory 2 with enough understanding of it to start reading Introduction to Spellcrafting. This book was however obviously going to be much harder nut to crack. I decided I would use Sunday to rest from learning theory, and focus on training my spirit capacity. My plans were however crushed as I entered my room in dormitory on Saturday¡¯s afternoon. "Young master Aiken, my lady, Mia Sable, is asking you to join her and her family for tonight''s dinner and for your free day." said the young maid of about eighteen years age, as she bowed down to little me. It was really uncomfortable feeling, to have someone bow down to me like this, since I was not used to it at all. I honestly wanted to reject invitation, but I knew I actually had no choice in matter, so I took everything I could need and went together with maid. Chapter 9: Silver-moon Hello everyone again. Once more, I failed to follow what I said and released another chapter. So here it is:
If I say house that maid led me to was big, it would be bit of understatement. That was however due to fact that it was not just living house, but half of house was used as main center for whole Sable family. But even half of this house was quite big for single family of four to live in. Even if we take in account four servants that head of family could afford to have, it was still very empty. As we entered house, I spotted well known figure. "Oh, Aiken. You are already here." I blinked. "Teacher Alaric?" I asked with surprise. "Why are you here? I thought you were leaving." "Well... I had some business with M... I mean lady Sable. So I am here as well for day or two. But I will also return for next week and week after that, before I have to leave the city, so if you need help with anything, come for dinner and we can solve any problem you have next day." As he said so, all new experiences I wanted to share with him exploded. "Is that so? Great! Teacher, I have already learned [Freezing Wind]! I am now trying to learn [Wind Blade], but it is really hard. Our teacher has lend me some books that could help me understand it. She is really beautiful, like angel. Also I have learned new spirit training method. It is weaker than yours by a lot, but I can do it while studying books or walking and eating, so I am using it as well." Teacher Alaric''s eyes rotated in full circle and if he was eating something, he would choke on it. He knew about my spell learning speed that was too insane to match, but now, I was able to use some spirit training technique while not meditating? While he could easily do same, he needed quite some time to get to this point and he was already considered genius of highest grade, even before he learned mysterious training methods from ruins he visited. He suspected this level of spirit control was somehow connected with me having no soul power, but he knew that he could not be sure about that. If it was so, there was still one more person who had probably same condition I had and at the same time did not have magic talent, my grandfather, to be precise. He decided that he would have to visit my village and meet my grandfather in next few months for sure. "That is what I would expect from my student. You are making your teacher proud." he said, as he patted my head a bit. I felt happy, after all, this was Wizard of South, greatest magician alive, and he just vocally declared me his student for the first time. "Teacher Alaric, about [Wind Blade], teacher Kalani told me it was hybrid spell you have designed for me. Is that true?" I asked innocently. "You have shown spells I gave you to someone else? Aiken, three of these spells are special and secret. You should not let anyone borrow them, or they will steal them from you." "But I did only let teacher Kalani have short look at book! And she would never steal from me anyway." I protested, ignorant of the fact that was she not previously afraid of my mysterious background, her pouch would be already two gold coins heavier. After all, it was before her delusions made her feel sympathy for me due to suffering she imagined I went through. "Alright, but from now on, don''t let anyone look at them." he said. I nodded my head. "So teacher, did you really create that spell for me?" I asked. "Well, of course. I did." he said. It was however lie, this spell was created by him quite a long ago for his disciple, even before he discovered ruins. "I see. Thank you very much, teacher! I will do my best to learn it over next week to make you proud of me!" I stated, happy because of his lie. Teacher could feel bitterness on his tongue. When he gave this spell to his disciple, he only said the most basic of thanks and after he broke into tier eight, he said once that learning this spell was waste of time. On the other hand, I treated this spell as a great gift just because I thought it was something that was made by teacher for me. He felt guilty over lie he told me, but also happiness at the same time. "But your teacher is not really wise. Thinking it is just mere hybrid spell. Aiken, this spell is true original spell made by me, and it can easily compete with traditional tier seven spells." he said, hoping for more praise. But he stepped on landmine instead. "Don''t say bad things about teacher Kalani! She is really smart, you understand?!" I was angered. How dare he attack MY teacher Kalani?! As teacher looked at my expression, he guessed what was going on. It was weird, as he was bit dense usually, but I couldn''t make it more obvious on my face. He smiled as he realised that if he wanted to be praised, he should have left my new teacher alone. "Alright I take that back. She is wise. No one would be able to tell if it is hybrid or original spell from brief view after all." he retracted his statement. "Yes, she really is smart." I said. Teacher then led me to garden, where there was table and six chairs prepared. "Uncle Alaric!" screamed girl as she threw herself at teacher. It was Saffron and I have to say I was surprised that she called him uncle. He was of course not her uncle by blood. "Oh, Saffron, you grew lot since last year. You will soon be bigger than me if you continue to grow like this." joked teacher, as he held little girl and raised her to the air. "Uncle Alaric." said the brown haired boy calmly, who was about nine or ten years old. He was son of lady Sable whose old clothing was given to me. "Neri, boy, how are you doing? I hope that teacher Ilis is teaching you properly. If not so, I will have talk with him." responded teacher with smile. "Welcome, uncle Alaric." said the third child, with deep bow of respect. "Hello Flore, you are still at top of everything in your class, right? I heard from your mother, you really are doing your best, aren''t you?" "Of course uncle." I need to say in my defense, that children fall in love too easily. And girl, seven years old daughter of lady Sable was really beautiful. Like a star taken down from the sky. Her hair were white with luster of silver, making it look like they were shining. At that time, my heart split into two, as I did no longer know if I loved teacher Kalani or this girl in front of me. Hearts of children are stupid, I have to say. "Alaric, welcome." bowed lady Sable slightly. "Lady Mia, I came on your invitation. Thank you for inviting me to stay." bowed teacher in response. "Of course, it is no problem at all." At that moment, Saffron who was unsure what to do finally decided and pointed her finger at me. "Mom, why is Aiken here?" she asked. "Well, Aiken is son of one of my friend, who asked me to take him to magic school. As I can''t stay at city, I asked your mother to take care of him in my stead while he is in magic school." said teacher lie that he prepared ahead of time. He said it so calmly that even I was willing to believe it. "I see." Saffron said before returning back to her chair. As we sat down to table, I noticed there was important person missing. But since there were no more chairs and no one said anything, I decided to not ask, as long as other children were around. Servants started bringing food, and I have to say everything was so delicious I could but drool just from seeing it. After we finished eating, teacher Alaric started to talk to all children, asking them more in detail. From what I understood, son of lady Sable had talent so low he was not accepted to magic school and not even Sable family influence could help. Even now, he has only just reached tier four magic, and that was with help of many potions, items and personal teacher, that teacher Alaric provided for him. Tier four was minimal requirement for branch of generous, while advanced tier three for branch of common. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.When Neri was six years old, he was only about to enter tier three. However, in merchant family, it was not necessity to be magician, however, being able to keep yourself safe was quite valuable, and would give you bit of respect from practitioner families. That was why most important members of merchant families had their children attend magic school and also reason why branch of generous was formed. Small but not unimportant part of income of greatest merchant families was provided from auctions of items hunted by practitioner families, so having some respect of them was really important for Sable family. If you could make more practitioner families sell items at auction houses of your family, it was advantageous for your family. Of course, lady Sable could easily use fact that she was friend of Wizard of South, but she would never do that for her pride would not allow her. She kept her friendship with teacher as secret as possible. Servants who knew about it belonged to family that served her family for long time and they were loyal for they were well paid and well treated. As night started long ago, lady Sable sent all her children to their rooms to sleep. I stayed because I still had few questions and she had something to talk about with me and teacher Alaric as well. "Lady Sable, can I ask, where is your husband, their father?" I said carefully. Expression of lady Sable changed and darkened bit. "My fool of husband is currently working on expanding business of our family in one of smaller cities together with my father." she said with murder in her eyes. "I see, he does not return home often, I guess." "Actually not at all. He has to stay there, to make sure everything is doing well. My father as well. Maybe, they will be able to return for some time after few years." she said. It confused me. Was side business in smaller city really so important they could not leave. Truth was however darker then I imagined. Lady Sable in past took over Sable family, forcing her father out of city to some side business, where he could no longer threaten her. After couple of years, her husband was dissatisfied with fact that he had no say in family matters and joined her father in his exile. I was bit scared by the way she said it, but I did not want to show it. "I understand." I said, even though I did not understand at all. "Well, I don''t think so, but that is alright. You will understand when you grow up." she said, smiling warmly. "Also, I told you to call me aunt Sable, or aunt Mia. There is no need to address me lady. Aiken do you understand?" "Understood, lady... I mean aunt Sable." I tried to agree, but habit overcame me. "You little." she said as she pinched my cheeks. "Well, there is still something I wish to talk to you about, Aiken. Your pocket money. I wish for you to come here on every Sunday to show me that you are doing fine. So every Sunday, I will give you two silver coins. Here." she said, and then she gave me two silver pieces. I have to say, while I knew how much forty gold was, I had no clue how much two silvers were worth. I would never imagine, that my uncle, compared to that, received three silver coins from village once a month, making my pocket money almost three times his pay. Or that it was almost third of what family of four servants of Sable family received together as their weekly wage. To be honest, it actually sounded like small amount to me, but in my defense, I had no idea how much were money worth. So I nodded, believing my teacher would say something if it was too little. "Also there is problem with your servant. By problem I mean, you don''t have one. I sadly can''t help you, as all of our servants have their own tasks, and other than these four, there is no one I trust. I would like to pick slave instead, since it is second best option after trustful servant. With proper magic seals, slave should not be able to defy you or even conspire against you." she said. Yes, there were slaves. I have high hopes, that by the time you are reading this, slave trade has already collapsed or was at least forced into illegality, but in my time, there were slaves. As a child, I honestly was very naive and could not imagine how terribly could they be treated by their masters or other people, who believed themselves to be above slaves. Reason why I considered slavery evil was along lines ''because my uncle say so''. Usually commoners or even lower merchants, who got in deep debt were turned into slaves together with their families, and since there was currently peace, there were but few slaves who were commoners of West and East empires, and they were already aged. With magic seals being imprinted on their body, it became impossible to resist their masters, regardless of what was asked of them, and their use of magic was restricted to only when their master would allow them and weakened. Of course, since imprinting magic seal was worth lot of money, there were also many slaves who had only some lower class seals, but these would be only used as manual workers and would require to be watched. "I would be against that." said teacher Alaric. While he was not completely opposed to slavery, he found fact that even children of indebted families were forced into slavery extremely distasteful and was of opinion that other family members of indebted ones should not be forced to slavery. However, at the same time, he knew that if father, who was often main source of money was gone, mother would soon follow, with children being left to take care of themselves. Therefore, he could not find satisfying solution, and was left wondering if there actually was one. "Well, as you wish Alaric. Third option would be staying alone. Can you stay alone, boy, or would you rather have your aunt buy you slave, Aiken?" she asked. While I certainly was afraid of being alone, I didn''t really feel like I needed someone to take care of me. But honestly, fear of being alone was almost enough for me to say yes. "Aunt Sable, I would prefer not to be alone, but I am sure I do not want to buy slave." I said. Being alone was scary, but I decided I would follow what uncle would want me to do and reject her. Uncle told me about how hard slave''s life is and how terrible some people would treat them. Of course he simplified it, so in the end, I could not really imagine it. He was against slavery and if he ever learned I agreed to buy a slave, he probably, after he collected himself from shock that I had enough money to do so, would be so angry with me he would whip my back with belt until it was red like tomato. Therefore, I couldn''t accept her offer. "Are you sure about that?" she asked with disappointment. "Yes, I am." I responded. Teacher Alaric looked at me with pride, as if it was him and not uncle''s belt that made me reject her suggestion. "Alright, I guess there is one more way to fix your problem. There are usually some students in branch of generous from not so wealthy families that also don''t have servant. I could talk to headmaster and make him arrange for you to share room with one of them. If they would agree of course." he said. He was never really aware of fact that I would be afraid to be alone in my room until lady Sable stated her offer. He was bit dense sometimes, as I already said. Only now he came up with quick solution, that was however bit problematic. Most of students who lacked servant got used to have their room completely for themselves and would not want to give up this privilege willingly. "Thank you teacher Alaric. That would be great!" I responded, delighted by his solution. "Well, it is already late and you should go to sleep right away. Albert will bring you there. Albert!" said lady Sable and then called the servant. "Goodnight, aunt Sable, teacher Alaric." I said, following the old servant to my room. I placed silver coins I received into pouch where I had money from teacher. I noticed that these coins were different from coins teacher gave me, but I had no clue why would it be so. But since I was really tired I didn''t care as I went to sleep. Chapter 10: Difference In Power So I finished another chapter, and therefore, I am publishing this one. Enjoy.
Three knocks on the door resounded in my room. I ignored them, and tried to keep sleeping. Three knocks repeated, this time followed by voice. "Young master, wake up, please." said the voice. I opened my eyes and was shocked for second, as this was not room I recognised. After few seconds, I however remembered where I was. Young maid entered room and brought me new clothes, telling me that breakfast would be ready soon. It was raining outside, so she lead me to dining room, after I changed my clothes. Lady Sable was already present and so was teacher Alaric, but I was first out of children to arrive. "Good morning." I said to both of them. As I looked at them I noticed that there was cold atmosphere between them. It seemed like they argued lot yesterday. "Good morning Aiken." said teacher. "Good morning, my nephew." said lady Sable. I blinked. Not only she wanted me to call her aunt, but now she was calling me nephew? I was really surprised, but I really did not mind. Seeing my reaction, she laughed, revealing she was joking around. Children of lady Sable soon arrived, joining breakfast, and cold atmosphere between two adults disappeared. They joked around with children same way as during dinner, but I was now aware that something happened between them. As the breakfast ended, lady Sable excused herself, because she needed to go to some big auction organized by Sable family. I therefore went back to guestroom I slept in. There I took out book Introduction to Spellcrafting and started reading it. To be honest, there was one more reason I wanted to read this book other than learning [Wind Blade] spell that I believed teacher Alaric created for me. If I was able to create spells, I could sell them for some gold that I could then use to help my family and pay my debt to lady Sable and teacher Alaric. Currently, I had no other ideas how should I earn money. If I were in branch of commons I would know that in small chunks of forest around Alsante city, there were many magic mushrooms and every Sunday, organized groups of students would be raiding these forests to collect them, or fight with other groups for territories. While ordinary students would earn only few copper pieces each week, it would be enough to buy book or two after few months. After all, even group leaders would only be able to earn about one gold coin every year. If they knew I would receive two silver pieces every week or that I have already been given eight iridium coins, they would explode with jealousy. But I did not see this money as my money, rather, I have only seen them as debt I would have to pay sooner or later. That was why I was desperate to find way to earn money. Whole book was divided into ten chapters. I did not manage to finish reading first chapter, before I heard knocks on door. ''Will I not have any time to study for myself today?'' I thought as I said allowed whoever was behind doors to enter. "I am sorry if we are interrupting." said Saffron as she entered. Behind her were her brother Neri and her sister Flore and they also entered. "It is alright." I said, as my heart started thumping fast because of presence of beautiful silver-white haired Flore. ''I already have teacher Kalani.'' I thought, without realising that it was just my own delusion. "Your name is Aiken, right?" said Neri. "I am Neri and this is my sister Flore. You already know my other sister Saffron." Reason why he introduced himself and Flore was because it was first time we were actually speaking together. During both dinner and breakfast, I was uncomfortable and tried my best to avoid looking at Flore and did not try to speak to them. "Yes, my name is Aiken. Why are you here?" I asked, trying to sound as calm as possible. "Saffron was making up things, trying to convince us you can use tier seven magic." interjected Flore. I could feel blood rushing to my face. I felt extremely thankful to Saffron now for giving me possibility to show off. "Yes, I can cast tier seven magic. So what?" I asked. "I told you both he can." Saffron said pouting angrily. They were thinking she was making up things and making fun of her, and she could not tolerate that. "Really?" asked Neri with surprise. "Of course not. He is just making it up, trying to sound important." responded Flore coldly. "I am not, I can even show it to you." I puffed proudly, feeling angry. So after bit of arguing we went outside. If I felt attraction to Flore before, it was gone now, as I was angry that she thought I was just making things up. Raining was already close to stopping, so we could go outside. "There. I will aim at that tree." I said, as I prepared to cast [Freezing Wind]. Even though I would probably be able to cast stable [Wind Blade] now, I was also sure that my insufficient understanding of spell would make it weaker than any tier six spell I knew. So I casted Freezing Wind instead. Spell hit the tree, freezing all rain water that was on its trunk. I proudly turned around. "Is that it?" asked Flore as she started casting [Fireball]. I have already learned how much soul power can affect power of spell. Or at least I thought so. Fireball that appeared was twice as big as one summoned by Landon in our fight. It was even fairly larger than one old man Keiran or uncle Jannon could create. When it had hit the tree, it had evaporated all ice and water and even set bark of tree on fire for few seconds, before it doused on its own. My mouth opened wide, as I was stunned with surprise. "Was that tier seven spell as well?" I asked. "No, I cannot use tier seven magic yet. But my soul power is three thousands and four hundred." Flore explained. "Your spell was tier six spell, right?" she asked, but was not sure. She already learned most of tier six spells within magic school library and my spell was not among them. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. "No. It was really tier seven spell." I said, disappointed with myself. "It is just that my soulpower is only fourteen." As teacher Alaric told me to do so, I would not reveal that I don''t have any soul power to anyone. Not even to children of lady Sable. I was sad. If I were to compete with her, I would need at least tier eight spell to match just her tier six spell. I have now realised that even after my fight with Landon, I still underestimated difference created by soul power too much. Teacher Alaric, who was already searching for us for while entered garden and noticed smoke coming out of tree bark. "What are you children doing?! Are you crazy? Casting magic on tree in garden?! Trees are not magic practice targets!" I closed myself in guest room. After teacher reprimanded us for making mess in garden, I went back to room and started practicing spirit capacity training technique from teacher Alaric. Learning [Wind Blade] or finishing reading of Introduction to Spellcraft was now secondary. I wanted to reach tier eight as fast as possible. But I knew it would be really hard. I currently had less than nine hundred spirit capacity and to reach tier eight, I would need to at least raise that to twenty six hundreds according to my understanding from book Magic Theory 2. Moreover, after tier seven, breaking from one tier to other was supposed to become harder. After two or three hours, for a third time today, someone was knocking on the door. "Enter." I said, as I interrupted my meditation. "Aiken. Are you training your spirit capacity?" asked teacher Alaric. "Yes teacher. I noticed how weak I am after seeing magic of Flore." I said. "Let me make this clear for you, Aiken. You are not weak. Flore is most talented child currently studying in magic school. She is so talented they accepted her to branch of honor, instead of branch of generous. And even in branch of honor, she has no equals." he said. "How is it possible? How is it possible for her to have so much soulpower? She is not much older than me, but her soul power is already way above my uncle''s." I said, and feeling of self pity overcame me. I felt so weak. "It is because of her soul color." teacher Alaric explained. "Her soul has legendary silver-moon color. There are only few people in world who have this color of soul, and all of them became extremely powerful magicians. Even my greatest rival, Wizard of North, has silver-moon color of soul. People with this soul color don''t have any unique attribute when casting spells, but their soul power and spirit capacity growth is faster than normal." he said. "It is unfair." I complained. "World is unfair. But you have no right to complain, Aiken." he said. "Flore is year and half older than you. Tell me, how powerful will you be next year? I am quite sure you will manage to reach tier eight magic long before this year ends, and by the beginning of next year, you will be at point where your magic could compare to her magic right now. If you consider yourself weak because you can''t compare to most talented child in whole school who moreover is year ahead of you, you are spitting on every other child in magic school. It is like if you were crying you can''t compare to your uncle, who has been alive for more than twenty years more than you." As he finished, I realised how foolish it was of me. "Teacher Alaric, I am sorry." "It''s nothing, brat. You should just focus on studying and not compare yourself with others. I already told you once, that one day, you might become greatest magician to ever walk this world. You are just six years old and you want to compare yourself with those who already studied in school for some time? That is so stupid I want to slap you to wake you up." "I understand!" I said. And I carved these words in my mind. "Great. Now pack everything, it is time for you children to return back to your dormitories. Since Neri does not got to school, he is staying here until his personal teacher comes for him tomorrow, but I was tasked by lady Sable to take you three back to school. I will be of course using my masking spell, so no one recognizes me." Sun was still bit above horizon when we returned back to dorm. I decided to return to Introduction to Spellcrafting, since I was calmed by teacher. Over next two weeks, I would mostly read this book and make notes to properly understand everything, while also always training my spirit using [Spirit Capacity Meditation] at the same time. At spare time I either spent time with Saffron and Brant, or I continued learning [Wind Blade]. It was weird, but to surprise of our classmates and most of all, to surprise of Brant, neither Randolph or Bantinc made any move against us. Therefore more of them started to talk with Saffron and us. There was even rumor going around, that young master of Bantinc family wanted to send bullies, but Randolph and his companions stopped them. If it was true, Ryan Randolph had my thanks. I was happy that he would not become my enemy, since he seemed like sympathetic person. However that rumor was quickly overshadowed by great news. Anonymous person donated lot of money to school, and all three branches would receive new books, as well as library would expand massively. This anonymous person was most likely my teacher, as I remembered his previous conversation with headmaster. Since then, going to house of Sable family became something I would do every Sunday, Sable siblings soon became my friends and we would both play and talk as if we were cousins. I have started to see Flore as my rival, since I was sure I wanted to overcome her. It was however one sided rivalry, as she did not see me as any threat at all. One thing I should mention was that teacher Alaric has completely forgotten to arrange some other branch of generous student to share room in dormitory with me, so I had to be alone. However, over few weeks, I got used to it. Teacher Kalani borrowed many books from library in order to lend them to me, even getting access to two books specially for students of branch of honor. She also assisted me with testing spells I learned. And before I realized I got completely used to my peaceful school life. Short announcement about ch. 11-20 Hello my dear viewers. So with ten chapters finished, we are entering first darker part of story. After consulting level of disturbing content in some incoming scenes, I decided to add mature tag and warning about violent scenes. Since there is high chance that you as reader would not notice this warning, I am writing this announcement to warn you personaly. I want to apologise to those who will not like this change and that wanted and expected different development, but story decided to go it''s own way. Please accept my apology. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I also want to say that I will be releasing first chapter of next piece of story withing next 24 hours. I am sorry for all problems I caused, now I am going to edit the first page of story. Chapter 11: The Hunt Sorry, got absorbed in preparation for exam.
First year in magic school of Alsante city was almost gone before I even realised it. Two weeks before holidays started, two days after my seventh birthday, I finally managed to break into tier eight of magic. I would be maybe able to do it faster, but for some time I''d completely forgotten about second level of spirit training method teacher Alaric gave me on paper, and when I finally remembered about it, it took me whole five months before I was able to use it, and during that time, my spirit capacity didn''t grow much, since I spent most of time trying to learn it. However after that, it only took one month before I entered tier eight. "You damned bastard. I only managed to reach tier six two month back but you are already tier eight. Your parents will be proud of you when you return home." said Brant, as he, I and Saffron were sitting on ground in park behind our dormitory. I just proudly declared that I could now use tier eight magic, which surprised both of them. We were not alone in park. There were many people here, some were meditating, training soul and spirit, while others were reading books, and few remaining, us included, were talking, to displeasure of all previously mentioned. "I will not be returning back to home, because it is too far. I will be staying with Saffron''s family over holidays. But about your training you should work harder, Brant, or else Saffron will easily surpass you. She is getting close to tier six, right?" I asked, turning to Saffron. "Yes, my spirit capacity growth almost stopped recently, so I think I am close to breaking into tier six." she agreed silently as she stopped eating her bread with butter and cheese. "Seriously, Saffron, how did you manage to get from tier four almost to tier six so fast?" he asked. "My sister taught me advanced spirit training method from library of branch of honor. Also, I learned how to train my spirit and read at the same from Aiken." she said, smiling at me. "Aiken, why did you not teach it to me as well? That ultra lazy type of training would suit me so much! I have no words for your betrayal." responded Brant. "You never asked. Also, it took Saffron almost five months before she succeeded." I smiled, seeing him raise his fists in exaggerated display of anger. "Alright! I will go to library right away and borrow hardest spirit training and soul sharpening methods that are there and I will practice them over holidays. I will show you two!" he said and then he left, running towards library. As both me and Saffron were reading books currently, for a while, there was silence. "Saffron, do you know if Flore already managed to reach tier seven?" I asked. "Yes. She said so on Sunday. If you wanted to know, you should have come home as well. She said she wants to flaunt in front of you next time you come." "Damn. So she was faster." I said with regret. Is she making light of me? Now that I learned second level of [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique], speed of growth of my spirit capacity almost doubled. Over next year, I will certainly raise my tier again, and then I will be one laughing at her. But will it be enough? Her soul power is already over four thousands. Even if I reach tier nine, my tier nine magic will still lose to her tier seven magic. In order to truly overcome her, I will need to reach magic three tiers above her. It seems almost impossible to catch up to her. "You still want to catch up to my sister? Give up already. We all know that she is monster when it comes to magic. Even she acknowledges that. While there were two people in branch of honor who reached tier seven few days before her, both of them were older than her by at least month and neither of them has more than two thousands soul power." she said with bored voice. "Why do you even bother?" "Because I want to show everyone I can become strong magician even without having much soulpower." I said. "Is that really so?" she said skeptically. I did not answer her taunt. After few minutes, young man of about fourteen years entered park and walked towards us. His face seemed to be familiar, but I could not remember where I have seen him. "Hey, can I interrupt you two?" said voice as young man suddenly joined us. "Feel free." said Saffron. "Thanks." answered boy and then turned to me. He had face of merchant about to sell something. "You are Aiken, do I remember correctly?" "Yes." I nodded. "Do I know you? I think your face is familiar, but-" I said, but Saffron decided to reveal his identity to me. "He is Ryan Randolph." I remembered. Of course. It was the guy who interrupted fight between me and that guy Landon. "Yes. That''s me. And you, girl, should be daughter of Sable family, right? Glad to see you are doing well. I heard that there are people who bring grudges of their families to school." he said. "Let''s make it short. Why have you come here?" I displayed bit of hostility. Saffron had it quite hard before people started talking with her, so I was bit angry. "I came to ask how much have you improved ever since our previous meeting." "Why should I tell you?" I asked with animosity. "Listen, I don''t wish to be your enemy. I even gave you potion to apologize for Landon and intervened when bullies of that bastard Bantinc wanted to do something to your small circle of friends. So why such a hostile tone?" he asked. I calmed down. He was right, while I was still suspicious of him, until now he did not do anything to deserve hostility. "I am sorry, you are right. If you wish to know, I have managed to reach tier eight. But my soulpower did not improve much." I answered. "Amazing. I guess that makes you qualified." he said. "Qualified?" I asked surprised. "Yes. Every holidays, school organizes monster hunt in nearby forests. My group will be participating this year together with many other students. We will have three teachers to watch over our safety. I thought maybe it could interest you." he said. "Wait what? Why would you invite me?" I asked with surprise. "Well, while you are really young, you have already reached tier eight. For school to allow you to go, it is necessary to be at least tier seven magician. And this year, teachers in branch of honor are really cocky, having two second years participate as well in order to show off, while in branch of generous, no one bellow third year reached tier seven yet. So I thought maybe I could invite you to join to teach those bastards some humility. You don''t need to worry, it will be safe, teachers will be with us." Wait, two tier seven magicians in second year of branch of honor. Could it mean... "I''m in." I said. "Great. I will tell teachers that you agreed. Thank you. I am sure everyone will be willing to share some spoils. I hope that those branch of honor bastards will choke themselves on this." he said as he left quickly. "My sister is not going if that is what you wanted to know." said Saffron without looking up from her book. "Shut up. Why should I care? I wanted to go for my own reasons." If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. For remaining two weeks of school year, I was learning tier eight spells I borrowed from library. While librarian looked suspiciously at me, he allowed me to borrow them. I learned two spells [Burning Fireball], tier eight version of fireball, [Water Ram], strong spell that would manipulate water to turn into spinning pillar that would strike into enemy, but required lot of water to be casted. Since I have read books about magic theory, I knew that magicians that would specialize on water element would carry storage ring filled with water, so I bought new storage ring for pocket money from aunt Sable and went with it to river. It took almost half an hour before ring was filled, but it meant my preparation was done. I have already learned all twenty tier seven spells teacher Alaric left to me and I felt pretty confident about my preparedness. ¡°So you really decided you will go to hunt? If you have changed your mind, you can just tell me, I will do something and make it so that you don''t have to go.¡± asked aunt Sable. ¡°Don''t worry aunt Sable. I have already decided.¡± ¡°Alright, but you have to be careful. This is not some children game. Even if there are teachers, you can''t be too careless. Monsters in area where you are going should be bellow tier eight, but that does not mean they are easy to deal with. It still takes three or four tier eight spells to penetrate [Wild Aura] of tier seven monster. So you should stay close to teachers.¡± she said. ¡°I know, aunt Sable. I have been preparing myself. I promise I will be careful.¡± I promised her. ¡°Stay safe at all costs. And don''t try to pointlessly play hero.¡± Group was meeting in front of school two days after start of holidays. I have equipped myself with enough food and water for month in two storage rings. I have taken some cheaper clothing so that it wouldn''t matter if it was to be torn. I also had two skins that could be used as blanket and cushion. ¡°What is this child doing here? Did you perhaps get lost?¡± asked one of six adults, who was closest to street I came from. From exquisite clothing he worn, despite fact we were going to forest, I could easily say he was one of teachers in branch of honor. ¡°No, mister teacher, I am here to participate in hunt as representative of branch of generous.¡± I answered. ¡°Oh? You look quite young. Are you one of third years?¡± he asked. ¡°No, I am first year.¡± I said, confidently. Other adults have also heard me and three of them had dark grins, while remaining two looked confused. ¡°What? Listen boy, only those who already reached tier seven can participate.¡± said teacher. At that moment, I decided to pull a prank on him. ¡°I see. I am sorry. I have only reached tier eight, I guess that is still not enough.¡± I said with disappointed expression, pretending to be counting on fingers. Three teachers of branch of generous started silently laughing, as they observed changing colors of his face. As teacher realised I was just toying with him, since I could not help but raise the corners of my lips, his head went red with anger. He believed everything I said was lie. ¡°Tier eight? You are trying to trick me? There is no way first year can use tier eight magic!¡± ¡°I can use tier eight magic. I will prove it to you!¡± I said, touching one of my storage rings and casting [Water Ram] at same time. Teacher did not realize meaning of my words until from my storage ring spurted water, instantly forming into pillar. He quickly casted shield magic to protect himself, but target of my spell was different. Pillar of water rushed towards me and I raised hand with storage ring, returning water back into it. ¡°That was tier eight spell [Water Ram]. I limited my power so that ring would be able to absorb it back. Is there any problem?¡± I asked. ¡°No it is alright.¡± said teacher. ¡°Great. Now if you excuse me.¡± I said, joining other students of branch of generous. ¡°That was great.¡± said Landon, boy who I fought with at beginning of year. ¡°Both those teacher and those practitioner families and noble families brats were so shocked. I thank you from bottom of my heart, Aiken. And that moment when you started counting on your fingers was golden.¡± It seemed like he no longer held any grudge for our fight year ago. Together with Ryan Randolph and Landon, there were two more boys. One of them was tier eight magician and other was tier seven, while Landon also managed to reach tier seven during this year. As for Ryan, he said that his own spirit capacity growth has almost stopped, signing that he would reach tier nine soon. He could have stayed at school and kept practicing, but he decided he prefers hunting anyways. Group of branch honor students consisted of twenty tier seven magicians, seventeen tier eight magicians and thirteen tier nine magician. Group representing branch of generous had thirty tier seven magicians, twenty eight tier eight magicians and twenty one tier nine magicians. According to Ryan Randolph, those who reached tier ten and higher had their own group and since they would go hunt deeper into forests, they already departed yesterday. Many students did not participate. Wealthiest practitioner families would have their children join monster hunts organized by their own practitioner family, while most of merchant families would rather teach their children knowledge of their trade. Monster hunt would usually earn you about ten to fifteen silver coins, which was not really worth sending children for. ¡°I still have four years of school ahead so tier ten should be doable, but I would honestly prefer to become at least tier eleven practitioner before leaving school.¡± said Ryan. ¡°Why? Is it that important for you?¡± I asked. From my point of view, my uncle who had yet to reach tier eight was pretty strong already, and since Ryan was from merchant family, he would not need to fight in future. ¡°Well, my younger brother is not much talented at magic, so father is often angry at him. But honestly I am thinking about leaving Randolph family and becoming practitioner myself. I am not really interested in trading, nor am I good at it. But as tier eleven practitioner, I could easily join some practitioner branch family.¡± he shared his dream. ¡°Randolph family is becoming weaker. While currently, we are still richest and most influential merchant family in city, that might not be for long. And I would prefer if Sable family held no grudges against us when my younger brother succeeds our father. Even if father forced me to succeed him, Randolph family is sure to lose influence, since I am not suited to be merchant.¡± he said. ¡°What a silly dream, I know, right? For me to become true magic practitioner.¡± he finished and became silent. I had to be honest, his dream surprised me and make me think. Whenever I imagined future, I thought that after finishing school, I would pay my debts and then return back to village. But at the same time, I also wanted to become like teacher Alaric, well known powerful magician and hunter of monsters. But now that I thought about it, it became obvious these two dreams could not be fulfilled at the same time. It would take three days for us to reach borders of forest. At that time I still had no clue that forest was divided into territories controlled by practitioner families. If they would meet any person on their territory, that person would be in deep trouble, since they would not be protected by law of empire. There existed exceptions, of course, and since forest was not under laws of empires, powerful practitioners like teacher Alaric could basically do whatever they wanted in any territory. There was also territory that belonged to magic school itself and it was where we were headed, while it was patiently awaiting our arrival. Chapter 12: Blood-wolves After three days of traveling, we had finally reached borders of forest. Many city children were not used to traveling, but I had to travel for one week with uncle and old man Keiran before, so I did not have any problems. There was big village just three to four kilometers away from forest that we passed through on our way. With about four hundred residents, it was slightly bigger than Oakville, village I came from. When we were passing through, many villagers did not seem surprised. We stopped about two hundred meters away from forest. Now that we arrived, we were divided into two camps based on branch of our origin. Camps were only about thirty meters away from each other, but there was enmity between our two groups and noone from either camp approached other one. ¡°So kids, because of repelling magic, as long as you don''t go too deep into forest, there will be only weaker monsters like two-tailed foxes or black lynxes. Slightly deeper, you might encounter some blood-wolves or red lynxes. You should form groups for hunts. While you are hunting we will be monitoring situation.¡± ¡°Trees are magically marked, and you are allowed to enter areas with green and blue marking. Do not enter areas where trees are marked yellow. These are too dangerous for children of your age. Anyone who enters yellow area will be punished and their hunt spoils will be given to school. So do not even think about entering yellow area.¡± said the teacher, as he called us together. ¡°Alright. Aiken, will you be part of our group?¡± asked Ryan. ¡°We plan to skip hunting foxes and lynxes in green areas and go straight to blue areas to trace and hunt few packs of blood-wolves. Their blood is valued as alchemical ingredient, and their spirit stone is also much more valuable than that of lower tier monsters. You can get even four copper pieces for one. Also, their bones contain small amount of tungsten metal. Overall, there are best prey to hunt, but since they move in packs, they are much harder to fight. You will need to be able to take care of yourself if you want to go with us. So if you''d rather just stay in green area, tell me and I will help you find some group.¡± ¡°I will be able to protect myself. I want to go with you.¡± I said, trying to sound confidently. But I was just putting brave front. Every single person on this trip, after all, is at least tier seven magician and they should all have at least thousand soulpower. Even though I have already reached tier eight, I am probably weakest person participating in this hunt, since my tier eight magic is weaker than their tier seven. Moreover, it''s wolves. And wolves are pretty scary! But he said it is good way to make money, so I steeled my resolve. ¡°That''s what I like to hear.¡± said Ryan smiling. And so following teachers, we rushed into forest. Landon and Ryan were talking together, and other two boys were following. I have already learned their names during our three days journey. Older one, already fifteen years old, was called Cail. Like Ryan, he was also close to reaching tier nine. He was of one of lower merchant families and was only child in family who was allowed to join branch of generous. All other children talented in magic would only be sent to branch of common, his younger sister included. Younger one was called Teulor. He was only twelve, year younger than Landon, but already close to tier eight. He belonged to branch of Randolph family, and was distant cousin of Ryan. Apparently his soul power of three thousands and one hundred was highest of whole group, even higher than Ryan who had twenty eight hundred and Cail having twenty four hundred. Compared to them, my tier eight magic with no soul power was pitifully weak and only presence of Landon, who was tier seven magician with only fourteen hundreds soulpower and was therefore just barely stronger than me, calmed me down a bit. I knew two of us would probably receive only smart part of our spoils, since our contribution would be small, but I have become part of their group and more importantly, I was too scared to go alone. ¡°Aiken, what do you know about monsters?¡± asked Ryan. He was aware of fact that first year of school did not have lecture about monsters, so he wanted to know what little knowledge I actually had. ¡°Monsters are beings similar to wild animals. Monster''s body is protected by [Wild Aura], which also makes it stronger and faster. [Wild Aura] protects monsters from normal weapons, but magic can shred it quickly, and after that, monster loses it''s extraordinary power and speed. Monsters also do not need much food to live, many times less than ordinary wild animals, only their young ones need to eat properly.¡± I said everything I could remember from lectures of uncle Jannon. ¡°You are mostly correct. But I should correct big mistake. There are three types of monsters, beasts, demonic beasts, and demons. What you described is true only for simple beasts. Well, we can be sure we will meet demonic beasts or demons here, so that knowledge is sufficient.¡± he said satisfied he does not need to explain anything. ¡°Do you have a sword?¡± he asked next. ¡°Do I need one?¡± I responded with surprise. Few seconds ago, we just agreed that normal weapons are not good against monsters. ¡°Well, after you get rid of [Wild Aura] of blood-wolf, it is better to finish them with weapon to save your mana. But I guess you wouldn''t be able to use sword anyway. Well, I have old sword of mine with me as reserve one. You can borrow it just in case if you find yourself in need of sword for any reason.¡± he said and then he gave me short sword. ¡°Thanks.¡± I answered as I accepted short sword, even though I had no clue how could I ever find myself in situation where I would need to use it. I placed it into storage ring. ¡°I found some tracks of wolves.¡± said Cail suddenly. ¡°Great. Let''s follow them.¡± responded Ryan. Following tracks, we have easily found pack of wolves. Unlike ordinary wolves, their fur was dark red color like that of blood, hence their name. Ordinary wolves would have run away before we would stop them. But ordinary wolves were about to die out and these blood-wolves had different idea of reacting to humans. And this pack of six adult wolves and three young ones was pretty confident. ¡°I don''t like it. That black wolf makes me shiver.¡± said Ryan, looking at wolves. Three young was were basically still cubs, so we could easily discount them, but among adults, three were red and one, bigger than others, had dark black fur with single red strip. ¡°Should we just back off?¡± asked Cail. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.Ryan did not respond. He remained silent, observing wolves who were observing us as well, while neither side moved. ¡°I have this terrible feeling that even if we want to retreat, they will follow us.¡± he said after while. ¡°It feel same. Especially that black wolf seems to be unusually dangerous.¡± responded Cail. ¡°Everyone, we should slowly back away. No running away, just slowly step back, without turning away from them.¡± said Ryan as he finally decided what we should do. However as we retreated, two red adult wolves led by their black leader followed us, while last one remained with cubs. ¡°Seriously, this is bad.¡± said Cail. ¡°Alright, we will need to fight them. Landon, Aiken, I will need both of you to take care of those two normal blood-wolves. You don''t need to win, just keep them away from us until we finish the big one.¡± ordered Ryan. I was scared but I did as I was told. I expelled water from ring to cast [Water Ram] against wolf that already had his eyes on me. The blood-wolf stayed in distance, in order to dodge the spell moment I release it and then attack. I on the other hand had no clue about battle tactics, so as soon as I could, I sent spinning pillar of water towards him. Blood-wolf tried to jump sideways, but was hit by my spell. It was pure luck that he got hit, and he was forced to back away, and if not for that, I would probably be damned. Ordinary blood-wolves were tier five to tier seven monsters, which meant that to destroy their [Wild Aura], you would have to spend amount of mana average magician of same tier had. This wolf in front of me was only barely tier six, and therefore spell right now weakened his [Wild Aura] by almost half. It could only afford to be hit one more time at best. I heard loud scream of pain. ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck!¡± cursed Landon, as wolf bit his leg. Cail who was fighting big wolf together with Teulor and Ryan left their formation and sent tier eight freezing spell, making wolf jump away. As I was distracted, wolf that I was supposed to fight attacked me. As I noticed him approaching, I panicked and casted spell I got most used to over last year, [Wind Blade]. Spell hit the wolf mid-jump, and slightly decreased his momentum, making him land on his side, instead of legs and do roll on the ground. I sent another [Wind Blade] and then one more, and last one finally penetrated [Wild Aura], creating shallow cut across his whole body, from head to tail. Wolf howled in pain, to which big black wolf responded by bark and by ignoring three magicians who were holding him back, as he started running towards injured wolf. Since black wolf no longer avoided attacks, and was running in straight line, he was hit by all magic of Ryan, Cail and Teulor, and before he could reach injured wolf, his [Wild Aura] was destroyed. As he was running to me, I also sent my magic against it, and my [Wind Blade] hit his legs, cutting in deeply. It fell to ground and could no longer walk, but was crawling towards injured wolf. His eyes ignored me and anything around him. Ryan quickly reached wolf, and stabbed it in its heart. It was simple, since black blood-wolf could no longer move. Eyes of big wolf slowly closed, and other wolf, previously injured by me howled. It stood up, and started slowly walking towards dead wolf. Ryan slowly approached it as well. Since it ignored him, it was not hard. Once more, with single stab, he ended it''s life. Third wolf stood afar, showing it''s teeth bloody from biting Landon, but instead of attacking it was slowly retreating, while making sure we are not following it. ¡°We should chase it and hunt rest of pack.¡± said Cail. I wanted to protest. While those wolves scared me first, at the end of their life, they have shown care for each other and killing them felt just wrong. I wanted to stop this, I did not want this hunt to continue. ¡°Landon is still bleeding bit, Cail. We should seek the teacher. Also, I think today''s hunt was successful enough. This weird black blood-wolf was tier eight or maybe even tier nine monster. His spirit stone should be worth few times more than that of ordinary blood-wolf. I will stay here and take care of this, so you can go to ahead.¡± said Ryan. Reason why Ryan wanted us to leave was not only because of Landon. He also noticed that both me and Teulor had expressions of disgust and pity. Even he was bit surprised by actions of blood-wolves this time, since it was something he has never seen before and felt like he has done something bad. He took out spirit stones from wolf, inspected them and smiled, then he stored both dead bodies into storage rings, and then he also left. Thankfully injury of Landon was only light. If blood-wolf had bitten slightly to side, it would have opened artery and Landon would bleed to death before we would be able to find help. After teacher healed the wound, reprimanded us, and told us to move with some tier nine magician if we want to go to blue zone or stay in green one, we returned to our camp outside of forest and before sunset, other groups joined us as well. Before we went to sleep, Ryan called us together. ¡°Listen, I have inspected spirit stone we gained from that big black blood-wolf, and it seems it was not ordinary beast, but rather demonic beast. From the fact we beat it, I think it was tier eight or tier nine demonic beast. That means this spirit stone is worth about ten gold coins already. On the first day, we have already gained more than best hunters gain usually over whole trip.¡± he said. We could not believe the luck. ¡°Really?¡± asked Landon. ¡°Yes. We are really lucky. Demon beasts are usually much stronger, and this one was only tier nine. We have gotten lot of money. But we should keep hunting anyways. It is good way to train for battles. But Landon, you should stay here for next two or three days.¡± It was hard to fall asleep that night. Knowing how much we managed earn so early, we all got blinded by our greed. And none of us asked important question. What was demonic beast doing so close to border of forest? How come it was not repelled by magic? And if monster like this was so close, was it also not possible for even more dangerous monster to be here?
I am sorry, but I had some things to do and could not post earlier. I will try to post chapter 13 on tuesday or wednesday. Thanks for understanding. Chapter 13: The Incident So promised chapter is here. Please feel free to leave some comments.
Over next three days, we managed to hunt another pack of blood-wolves. They were currently overpopulated, and sometimes, packs fought each other. Unlike ordinary wolves, blood-wolves would normally share their territory with other packs, because they did not require much food, but during this part of year, they had cubs who needed to eat way more then adults, so they were now fighting over territories like ordinary wolves. That was why they were at these border areas of forest, where ordinary animals were still living in high numbers. Most of time they would be safe here, but during this time of year, population of deers, boars and other ordinary animal would be hunted by many blood-wolves. In order to prevent their extinction, it was necessary to hunt them down. And since monsters had spirit stones inside of them, and their blood was used in some potions, it was one way to make some money. Practitioner families would manage their areas of forest, hunting all beasts that would come to try hunting wild animals there. It could be said to be large scale of fishing, where wild animals were bait and monsters were fish. In all territories of practitioner families, there would be magic spells to repel more powerful monsters, in order for them not to enter border areas and not to threat villages. Weaker monsters, however, would not be repelled and would be hunted by practitioners. Today, we decided to instead look for some rare alchemical plant. While we managed to find few during previous three days, we were not specifically looking for them. This day we decided to relax instead of hunting wolves, so we chose different activity to gain some money. Landon was already fine, so he could go with us this time. We did not go as deep into forest as we would go during our blood-wolf hunts. Best place to find medical plants was not that deep like this, or much deeper where we were not allowed to go and where it would be probably too dangerous to go. ¡°Guys, do you see that?¡± asked Cail suddenly. He pointed his finger to glade, where many flowers were growing. Among them, there were few rare herbs and mushrooms, that Ryan immediately recognized. ¡°We really are lucky this time guys. This is all is worth ten silver coins at least. We should take it all before someone else comes.¡± he said. So we started collecting everything. It took us half an hour before we finished our little harvest. As we finished, we lied into the grass and enjoyed sounds of nature. ¡°It is beautiful here, don''t you think?¡± asked Ryan. Everyone agreed. It was peaceful. After short while, two-tailed fox appeared, looked at us, and then ran away. We did not bother to chase it, as peaceful atmosphere of this place made us relax. ¡°We should split the money from that black wolf fairly. After all, Landon got bitten because we needed him to distract wolf and if it was not for Aiken finishing other wolf quickly, killing that black wolf would have taken much more time.¡± stated Cail his thoughts. ¡°I agree. Surprisingly, this little shrimp has more backbone than I thought. Am I right, Aiken?¡± said Ryan. I did not answer because I was reminded of those two blood-wolves and their actions of self sacrifice. I felt extremely guilty. Suddenly, in a distance, we heard boy''s scream. In few seconds, two more screams followed. We all stood up quickly. All of us were confused. ¡°Could there be pack of wolves who entered this area?¡± asked Landon. ¡°Maybe. Landon, you go and bring some teacher here. Rest of us should go and help.¡± said Ryan and then we all rushed towards the place where we could hear scream. ¡°Everyone, evacuate forest! I repeat, evacuate forest!¡± said one of our teacher''s voice amplified by magic. He must have been pretty far, because we barely heard it. ¡°What should we do, Ryan?¡± asked Cail. ¡°We should keep on and help them, of course.¡± responded Ryan. While there was some danger, even if it were black blood-wolves like one we met before, we should be able to at least stall for some time before teachers arrive, he thought. ¡°Help!¡± screamed young boy. He was probably ten or eleven years old and was rushing towards us. Following him was black blood-wolf, however this one was even bigger than one we met before. ¡°Teulor, you take the boy and bring him out of forest.¡± ordered Ryan, as he and Cail started casting their spells while still running. Enormous fireball and bolt of lightning hit the wolf at the same time. Black blood-wolf howled in anger, and after few seconds, three other howls sounded in response. ¡°Why is there another demonic beast? They should be damn rare!¡± cursed Ryan. ¡°Aiken, you also retreat with Teulor and that kid, we will try to slowly follow you.¡± he said. He knew I was only seven years old, so he understood that I was scared. I nodded. I wanted to run away. This was just too scary! But before we could retreat, all our paths were blocked by three other blood wolves. ¡°To the hell with this! This must be bad dream! This can''t be happening!¡± cursed Ryan, who just noticed situation. Cail turned around, and when he spotted other three wolves, curses he used were much more obscene. Our group stuck together tightly, trying to cover all four wolves. Crying boy who was just barely younger suddenly spoke up. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.¡°It killed them. It killed them. It killed them all.¡± he whispered, completely out of his mind. ¡°And it will kill us as well.¡± ¡°What do we do?¡± asked Cail. ¡°We have to hold on until teacher arrives.¡± answered Ryan. ¡°As long as we do that, we will be alright.¡± he said, pretending confidence. He was scared as well, but wanted us to keep calm. And most importantly, he needed to stay calm himself, so he said it to convince himself that everything is good. ¡°We just have to defend until teacher arrives.¡± he repeated. He could feel he pissed bit in his pants, and was on the verge of losing it. But wolves did not look like they wanted to attack. They had power to easily do so, if they attacked, we would be dead meat, but they were just circling around us, as if trying to find weakness. But what they were actually doing was keeping us in place, until ''it'' arrived. Suddenly, Cail started shivering. ¡°What the hell is that thing?¡± he asked, as between the trees, three meters tall monster approached. But he already knew the answer. Monster looked like it was made out of completely black velvet, fragile shadow that would break with single slice of sword. Of course, it was just appearance, in reality, it would probably laugh such attempt to harm it off. It''s shape was slightly similar to human, but it''s two legs were bending backwards in knees as well and its four long arms were moving as if they had no bones and were purely composed of joints instead. ¡°This must be nightmare. Terrifying nightmare we will wake up from. There is no way demon would be here. No way.¡° said Ryan, who realized that his pants were now completely wet. I had same realization about my own pants. Suddenly, everyone started running in all directions. Only I and boy we previously found stayed where we were. Boy has already lost consciousness and I was frozen with terror. Cail got caught by one blood-wolf, who bit him in leg, making him fall and then, it''s fangs sunk into his throat, causing blood to spurt from it in geyser. Ryan got jumped by two wolves at same time, and was screaming for while, before he was finally silenced by death, as two blood-wolves were already feasting on him while he could scream. Teulor managed to escape out of my sight, but from scream that resounded after short while, he also did not manage to make it and fourth wolf found him. Meanwhile, monster stopped right in front of me. I wanted to run, but fear froze me, and after seeing what happened to Ryan and Cail, I knew what fate would await me if I ran. Monster used one of its four arms to lift passed out boy, and then it moved it next to it''s head. There was no face, since whole monster was as dark as night itself. It held the boy for few seconds, and then it consumed him. I could not see any mouth, it''s skin was too dark to recognize shape of its face until it closed and boy was no longer seen. Demons reflect no light. That is why their eyes, shape of their faces, their terrible teeth are impossible to see. You cannot see them, what you see is absence of light coming from them, showing you merely silhouette of their body and nothing more. Next, monster moved its arm to me. I finally overcame fear and started to run, but it''s arm moved fast and caught me easily. It lifted me, moving me closely to its face. Then it opened it''s mouth and released angry scream. It was terrible sound. Scream of the bear mixed with extremely loud sound of nails scratching the blackboard. I shivered, as I expected to be eaten next. Instead of that, monster moved other arm, caught my leg between two fingers, breaking the bone in my calf and then threw me to the ground, with anger and disappointment, causing insane pain in my chest that I thought to be broken ribs. I could feel pain while breathing, and I could not stand up. Monster looked like it wanted to smash me with it''s fist, but then it noticed two wolves were bringing Ryan''s corpse to it. It lifted the corpse, and consumed it in single bite. Right after that, it consumed dead Cail, who was brought by another wolf. Then, it screamed, this time, it sounded more like howl of some wolf-bear hybrid, only much louder, and after few seconds, howl of last wolf could be heard. Monster, followed by three black blood-wolves slowly walked in that direction, leaving me alone. As I was watching it leaving, I could feel my sight darkening, as I was losing my consciousness. I woke up. It was dark night. First, I thought it was just a nightmare, but when I tried to move, I could feel pain in my right leg, but I could breathe, even though it was painful. That meant that luckily, no rib was broken, which was certainly weird, since it threw me with quite bit of force. But instead of thinking about that, I was thinking about something different. Where was the monster? Why am I alive? Why did teachers not arrive. Did they arrive and beat monster and left me here because they did not find me? Or is it still somewhere out there? I started crying. Horrors I have seen were something that would make many adults crazy and mind of seven years old child was not ready to see. I stood up, suppressing pain, taking nearby stick from the ground and then I started walking. Luckily, I was going in correct direction, and after I don''t have clue how much time, but I can say it felt like many years for me, I finally left the forest. In the night, I could see light of nearby village. There were lights caused by fire used to guard village from wild animals and weak monsters. It was about six kilometers away from me, since I was not walking straight to village while I was in forest and ended three kilometers away from camp. I slowly walked towards the village but after some time, while it was still quite far, I collapsed and passed out again. Chapter 14: Return to Alsante Forgive me delayed release again for I had sinned. I had to have my notebook repaired, and that delayed my writing bit. As of today, I have no finished chapter that I have not released. I will keep writing on this small microsized-ultraslow-notebook, but I cannot promise much. See ya.
I was lying in the forest. Wolves surrounded me. Giant black monster was holding me in its hand and then it laughed. So did all other wolves. Cail, covered with blood pointed his finger at me. Ryan who was missing both legs and was lying on ground also did so. ¡°It''s your fault.¡± they accused me. Then monster placed me into its mouth and ate me. I woke up sweating and crying. My leg was tied to wooden stick to fix it in place. I was lying in straw bed in unknown room of small size. Walls were made out of wood, and it reminded me of my village Oakville. Even smell of straw and dirt was similar, making me think about my parents and uncle. I was scared and I wanted to see them. Even though I was sure neither uncle nor my parents could protect me from the demon, something inside me was telling me that as long as I was with my parents, I would be safe. ¡°It is alright, boy. Everything is alright already.¡± said old woman sitting on chair right next to me. She could have been even over sixty years old. For people who did not practice magic, most of them died between fifty to seventy years of age, so she was already in age that many did not live to. Magicians were said to live slightly longer, if their lives were not ended forcibly, and there was legend that said that if magician would reach tier twenty or more, their aging would slow down. If this was legend or not was unknown, there were only three people currently alive who reached that high, my teacher Alaric, tier twenty three magician of Northern Empire nicknamed Wizard of North and tier twenty two magician of Eastern empire called Wizard of East. Western Empire had no well-known magician worthy of title similar to one these three received. Teacher was only thirty years old and both other mentioned magicians were in their nineties, so it was too soon to confirm the legend was correct. It was however known that magic geniuses who reached tiers of magic higher than tier seventeen were very long lived, so it was mostly accepted belief. ¡°Where am I?¡± I asked while sobbing. ¡°We found you on the field near our village, so we have taken you into our house.¡± said the old woman. ¡°You belong to that group of children from Alsante city, right?¡± she asked. She was confused, because I was obviously younger than other children. Moreover, that group already left yesterday. I had my leg broken and chance of them leaving me here with broken leg was low. But they noticed I had magical rings, so I must have been one of group. There were many other things weird about trip of young magician from Alsante this year. They left only four days after arriving this year, while usually they would stay for at least about two weeks. In village Mill''s End, people were used to magicians coming every year, and therefore everyone noticed something was wrong. ¡°Yes.¡± I answered weakly. I was once more reminded of Cail, Ryan, and Teulor and I started crying again. While we knew each other only for short time, they were really kind people and their death was painful to me and even more so because I have witnessed it myself. I also shivered with fear, that creature could easily leave forest and come here, I imagined. As old woman noticed my tears, she started patting my head. ¡°It is alright, everything is good already.¡± she said again to calm me. She believed I probably got lost and was sad because of that. ¡°We will get someone to bring you back to city.¡± she said. Old woman had name Berta. She was what villagers would probably proudly call alchemist, but in reality, she was only ordinary herbalist. She would collect herbs and with help of little magic would turn them into herbal brews, but herbal brews are far from real potions. Her husband was already dead and she lived together with her granddaughter, who was learning how to be herbalist from her. She only had two daughters who both got married and lived with their husbands. Her granddaughter was silent and didn¡¯t speak a word; instead she observed everything her grandma did. She was fifteen or sixteen years old. She shortly introduced herself as Laura. Laura had golden hair, something that was rather rare in villages. Most villagers had brown or black hair, but there were some exceptions here and there. It was possible for child to have different color of hair than that of either parent, because it was soul color that affected color of one''s hair. I did not tell the woman about demon. When she asked about what happened, I did not answer at all. I was scared that if she knew, everyone would just run away and they would leave me here. When night came, it was impossible for me to fall asleep and I cried instead. More than ever have I wanted to be back home with my parents. But at the same time I knew there was no way I would be safe there. If you compared them, Ryan and Cail together were stronger than whole practitioner group of our village. I fell asleep only few hours before morning and once more nightmares haunted my dreams and then woke me up before sun even rose. I realized I pissed myself during those nightmares once more. Old woman came to wake me up, but I was already awake, but tired. She could easily smell that I had an accident, but thankfully she spared me questions. ¡°We have prepared cart for you. One of villagers offered to take you back to Alsante city.¡± she said. It was not hard to convince someone to bring me to city, since children from Alsante coming here were from rich families, and since I had magic rings, my family should be able to pay them well for bringing me back to them. ¡°My granddaughter also wants to go with you to see the city. It will be good experience for her, but I have to ask first, will she have place to stay?¡± asked Berta. She knew many of children in school were from other cities, so she needed to know before she let her granddaughter go. ¡°Yes. I am sure aunt Sable will provide place for her to stay.¡± I answered. I wanted to be as far from forest as possible, and I was willing to promise even golden horse to make it faster. Old woman was still bit suspicious about my silence and did not understand why was I unwilling to explain my broken leg. But she did not want to be too forceful to obviously traumatized seven years old child. Cart was pulled by two horses. Man who was riding it was twenty years old son of mayor of this village, Josk. Some villages like this one had mayor, but Oakville, my village, had only council of elders. It was not because of size of village, but rather because that was what people were used to. ¡°You said your name was Aiken, right?¡± asked Laura. I was surprised. Until now, I have not heard her speak more than few words, but now, she seemed cheerful and talkative. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°You see, grandma does not like it when I am speaking with patients without her permission. She believes I should just observe most of time. It''s boring.¡± she said while smiling. I did not respond. I felt terrible. I should have warned villagers about danger threatening them, but I was too scared they would just leave me here and run away if I did so. Seeing I was not responding, Laura decided that she would make me talk to her at all costs. I must have looked to her like pitiful child too scared to speak. ¡°You are studying magic, aren''t you? I also wanted to be magician, when I was little. I even had talent to be chosen. But instead, grandma took me in. I still regret it little, you know. I have been secretly learning magic from one of village practitioners, but I am still not even able to cast tier six spells.¡± she said. ¡°What tier of magic can you use?¡± she asked. Even though I would usually proudly declare that I can use tier eight magic, now it felt like a bad joke. I did not even bother answering. After few more attempts, Laura gave up and would only occasionally speak up, when there was something interesting in plain sight. Finishing our first day of traveling, we had only about third of the distance behind us. We started a campfire and then ate some food that was packed for us. When we finally went to sleep, nightmares filled with that demonic creature haunted my sleep. In one of those dreams, demon entered the village and dead villagers pointed their fingers at me and were asking me why I didn¡¯t warn them. While I was talking unintelligible nonsense, I managed to wake up both of my traveling companions. I also woke up, and therefore, I could hear their conversation. ¡°He looks really scared. Do you think that our village could be in danger?¡± asked Josk. Josk was son of mayor, and he was certainly observant. He felt suspicious from the very first moment magicians left in rush. He noticed that it was both groups who left, not only children but also youths who were supposed to be strong magicians and who already arrived day before other group. Seeing my expression caused by nightmares only supported his suspicion that something terrible must have had happened there, that scared all of them. ¡°If that was true, they would have warned us. Or at least boy would.¡± responded Laura. ¡°Don¡¯t you see that kid is terrified? Maybe he thinks other magicians have already warned us, or he thinks we would think him crazy if he said what he knows. You see, I could see those magicians¡¯ expressions, when they were passing through our village back to their city, Laura. They looked scared as well. I tried to warn father, but he said I was too paranoid.¡± ¡°You are too paranoid, Josk.¡± she said. After that I tried to fall asleep again but it was hard. My leg started hurting again, since it was still far from healed, and moreover, I was haunted by memory of nightmares and words of Josk. I stayed awake for rest of night and slowly, I came to decision. When morning came and we started to eat bread, I finally found courage to speak. ¡°Laura, Josk, I have something to tell you.¡± With tears in my eyes, I started telling them whole story, about the monster and how it has eaten my friends in front of my eyes and how it also broke my leg. As I was speaking I could see their faces turning pale. Both of them lost their appetite instantly and were silently listening in horror. ¡°We have to return back to village and warn everyone.¡± said Laura. ¡°That is nonsense. We should instead rush to Alsante city and try to find help.¡± disagreed Josk. ¡°Listen, Josk, we don¡¯t have time for that. We need to return back to village now!¡± ¡°And then what next, Laura? We¡¯ll tell them fantastical story of traumatized child with hope that they will believe it? They will probably blame it on his imagination and fear of being left alone. Noone will be willing to leave the village based on wild claim of young boy. If we really want to help, we have to rush to city and ask them for help. That is our only hope.¡± And so Josk made our horses move much faster than previous day. Laura was not able to be angry at me, because after telling them what happened, she was feeling sympathy for me even though I did not warn villagers about the threat. After all, seeing such horrifying scene would scar anyone, and I was only seven years old. Only few hours after sunset, we arrived back to Alsante city. However, city gates were closed and night guard was unwilling to let us in. That is, until I mentioned name of aunt Sable. He then sent some other guard to Sable household, and soon, he returned with lady Sable herself. ¡°Aiken? You are alive! You are alive!¡± she screamed happily as soon as she saw me. Then she ran to me, hugged me, and held me so tight I was afraid that I would suffocate. ¡°They told us you were dead... I was thinking about how I should have convinced you not to go. I am so happy to see you are alright.¡± she said as she was crying tears of happiness. ¡°I am alive, aunt Sable.¡± I said weakly, finally feeling safe. I was so happy I made it back I could feel tears of happiness in my eyes. ¡°Lady, could we ask for your help? We are afraid that our village is threatened by whatever it was that harmed your niece.¡± asked Josk as politely as he could. ¡°Since you have helped my niece, I will do that which is in my power.¡± she answered and then she turned to guards. ¡°Let them enter the city.¡± After that we made our way back to main house of Sable family. When we got back, aunt Sable woke up Saffron, Flore and Neri and when they saw me, they cried as well. Apparently, two days back, they were informed that I have died because of sudden appearance of demon in border areas of forest. There were over fifteen students who did not make it back and who were thought to be dead. Well, I was most likely only one out of them who survived. I was almost crushed when they hugged me together, without any care for my broken leg. It did hurt a lot but I was also crying, since I was happy I was alive and together with them again. Aunt Sable has sent one of her servants and after about hour, teacher Alaric arrived as well. He walked close to me, but when he noticed my leg was tied to piece of wood, he instead patted my head. Since he did not do anything else, I hugged him, and he started sobbing as well, his expression slowly changing into one of relief. ¡°I am so happy you are alive.¡± he said and then he hugged me as well, careful not to cause me any pain. I was finally back and Alsante. And after long time of being scared of every shadow, I finally felt safe again. Chapter 15: Darker Times Since noone is responding, should I even say something?
Laura and Josk were invited to stay until situation would be solved. And this situation was to be solved quickly. After teacher Alaric talked with me about what happened and heard that village that saved me was still under threat, he has called together group of his acquaintances and together with them, he went to the forest area. Two days later, message came back that village was safe and they returned after a week, with demonic spirit crystal and four demonic beast spirit crystals. They also made sure that village was safe and raised some additional demon repelling spells to make area safer for a while. During her stay, Laura was taking care of my broken leg and would be near me during my nightmares. Aunt Sable originally called for healer, but he told her that my leg was alright and it would be better to have it healed naturally, since healing magic of weaker healers had some negative effects and was best used only in necessary situations. So instead, she brought me regenerative potion. Potions did not have such a drawback, but their effects were slower and weaker, so even with help of the potion, it still took me four days before my leg was completely healed. ¡°Laura, do you wish to study magic in this city?¡± asked aunt Sable on the fifth morning after breakfast. Three of us were only ones remaining in dining room. Laura dropped wooden cup on the ground, as she was shocked by sudden question. Aunt Sable smiled mysteriously. ¡°I have noticed that in the afternoon, you like to borrow magic books from our library and read them without asking anyone. Not that I mind, but if you wished to stay here for some time to learn bit of magic, there is something I could do for you.¡± she continued and her smile turned into vicious one. Laura was surprised by sudden offer. She never even thought about the possibility, but now it was right in front of her. She always liked magic and she would certainly become magician was it not for her grandma forcing her to become herbalist. She had two dozens of copper coin, which was equal to one silver coin that she was saving over last few years and when opportunity would arise, she would go to some shop and buy book about magic. Offer that was presented to her was tempting, but she had to return back to village. Moreover, she knew that in her age of fifteen and with little talent she had, she would probably not be allowed to attend magic school anyways. It was but a wish that could never be fulfilled. ¡°Lady Sable, I am thankful for your offer, but I cannot accept it. I know it would cost a lot of money and I don¡¯t have talent that would be worth such an investment.¡± she regretfully rejected. Even though she was still young girl with many dreams, harsh life in village taught her to recognize when it was impossible for dream to come true. Mia Sable laughed lightly. ¡°Laura, I understand what you¡¯re thinking, but don¡¯t you know it is rude to reject offer before listening to it? After all, I still have not explained what exactly I imagine.¡± ¡°I am sorry.¡± Laura bowed her head slightly. It was certainly rude from her to not let lady Sable finish explaining her offer. After all, she was just a village girl while lady Sable had social status similar to nobility. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Now if you don¡¯t mind, let me explain my offer. Aiken is in need of servant, who would take care of him while he is at school. Person who would take this position technically has full access to library of magic school, since all you have to do is ask Aiken and he will borrow book there for you. Moreover, except for cleaning the room, you will have lot of free time. Many servants use this possibility to learn more about magic.¡± she said. ¡°It is common practice to only let them have books from branch of common, but I am sure Aiken would be willing to get you any book you ask for. He could even help you with studying them. As long as you keep his room clean, you would get opportunity to learn magic freely.¡± She explained. I was shocked by her offer and so was Laura. While taking care of seven years old child was not really something she would be happy about, opportunity to learn magic like that was certainly tempting, as unlike attending school as student, this was not mere dream. Seeing that she was taking the bait, lady Sable decided to drive last nail into the coffin. ¡°As servant, you would be paid of course. I think two silver coins month would be fine price.¡± Laura gulped. Two silver coins every month? What the hell? It took her so many years of saving to get those copper coins that were worth only one silver coin together and now, she would receive twice as much every month. However, she realized that she needs to take in account her expenses as well. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Aunt Sable, don¡¯t be such cheapskate.¡± I said. I still hadn¡¯t good idea about how much money would ordinary person make, and since my pocket money were two silver coins a week, it seemed to me like aunt Sable was making terrible offer to her. Well, I was bit correct, since many servants would get paid better, but for other people, they would be willing to lick your boots to get so much money. ¡°Alright, I was just teasing you. How about one silver coin every week? That should be good enough.¡± she smiled. Laura felt that she was about to go crazy. Even her grandmother would not be able to get that money easily. While her herbal brews and remedies were expensive, and they were selling well, she would be able to get only bit more than one gold piece every year. She would use this money to buy more books about basics of alchemy, since like Laura wished to learn magic; her grandma had a lifelong dream of becoming real alchemist. With simple math, since year has fifty two weeks, she would be paid over two and half gold coin every year. ¡°That is still less than my pocket money!¡± I protested, unaware of what Laura was thinking about. As she heard that, she looked at me with disbelief in her face. Rich families are insane, she thought. How could they give so much money to little kid? ¡°If you want her to have more, you can always give her part of your pocket money. But I don¡¯t think that will be needed. Miss Laura, will you accept my suggestion now that you heard it?¡± aunt Sable asked. ¡°I will.¡± she answered without moment of hesitation. I was surprised. I was sure she would reject it anyways. When teacher Alaric returned, Laura already had letter for her grandmother prepared. When she told Josk about opportunity she was given, he could not believe it. To receive one whole silver coin every week was too good pay not to accept it. Moreover, she was to receive additional three copper coins for food and other expenses as well. If he also received similar offer he would accept it as well. Instead, aunt sable gave him ten silver coins for bringing me so fast, which made him satisfied enough. Since village was safe, at least for now, he decided to return immediately to help his father. He took letter from Laura waved his hand at us and then he left on his cart pulled by horses. Laura knew her grandma would be angry with her, but she hoped that she would understand her decision. After all, it was unique possibility to make a fortune that would not repeat itself. And moreover, she could learn some magic as well There was only one week remaining till school would start again and since my leg was no longer injured, I started seriously meditating for a first time since start of the trip. I wanted to become much stronger. I was still scared of the monsters often but I was tired of being scared. In order to distract myself, only thing I thought I could do was to focus on training. It was my way of escapism. Sometimes, I would instruct Laura about magic if she had some question. After aunt Sable told her I was already able to cast tier eight spells and had deep understanding of magic, she started to often question me. Aunt Sable gave her some basic books of magic theory, but there were many technical terms that were not properly explained. And then, last day before the end of holiday¡­ ¡°Aiken! I did it. I have reached tier six today.¡± I heard excited voice of Saffron, as she entered my room. Silent girl who was usually hiding her emotions, excitement of finally making first step into world of powerful magic, she was unable to suppress her happiness. And that was how our second year started. In next few weeks, we received information about similar incidents happening in other parts of forest. Worst incidents happened in Eastern and Northern Empires, which led to temporary truce, since both countries were in war with one another until now. These incidents were something with no equivalents in past, which made all countries to be on guard and all leaders were afraid of it being prelude of some powerful beast coming down from mountains. It was known that some of monsters in mountains would be able to match even Wizard of East, North or even teacher Alaric. There was big meeting of magicians organized by Western Empire, where only experts of tier seven and higher would be allowed. Western Empire was allowed exception since it had no tier seventeen experts and their tier sixteen and fifteen experts were allowed. Reason of this meeting was simple, preparation of plan for the case of emergency. Future seemed dark. But leaders of empires thankfully still had enough sense, to forget their grudges when this terrible threat was hanging in the air above them. Dungeon of the Warlock Yup, there''s more.
Dark space of cave was illuminated by golden sphere that was floating in mid-air. However stone walls were grey and so was floor, and therefore this underground cave or dungeon was dark even with light source levitating above. Single girl was sitting on the chair next to only table that was in this small cave. In her hands, there was old book that obviously belonged to this place, unlike girl herself, who wasn¡¯t suited to be in this cave. Black haired girl was probably about seventeen years old. She was dressed in poor clothes, and had old necklace around her neck. She has stopped reading and returned book back to table. She only stopped reading because she suddenly had felt like she was being observed. ¡°Eeeek!¡± she shrieked inarticulate sound, as she noticed wooden puppet slowly walking towards her. As she screamed, puppet suddenly changed its look and now looked like a red haired boy of about nine years of age. ¡°Actually, I should be one screaming. You are not supposed to be here. This is my underground castle¡­ well, entrance room to my underground castle to be precise. What are you doing here?¡± asked boy who was wooden puppet until moment ago. Girl was terrified. She fell to ground and placed her face on floor in bow. ¡°Mighty guardian of the Tomb, please do not kill me.¡± she pleaded with weak scared voice. ¡°Why should I kill you? You have necklace that was given to those who are allowed to enter my castle. Even though I do not remember you¡­ By any chance, are you daughter of leader of Golden Sect?¡± As girl heard young boy talk, she tried to calm down bit, but was still scared. After all, she was not supposed to be here. ¡°Former leader of Golden sect. My father was killed eight years ago.¡± She replied with scared voice. ¡°What a pity. Tomen was certainly talented man. He managed to reach tier twenty on his own after all.¡± Girl suddenly raised her head. ¡°Did you know my father?¡± Boy stayed silent for few seconds and then answered. ¡°Well, my master did know him. He will be really sad after he hears about it. But looking at you I can see he will also be pretty mad. Your poor clothing¡­ I guess that new leader of Golden sect is not treating you well. Also stand up, poor child, floor here is too cold to lie on comfortably.¡± Girl slowly stood up. Carefully, she asked the boy-guardian. ¡°Your master? Are you talking about the Warlock?¡± ¡°The Warlock? What kind of name is that? My master is honored Infinite magician, Warlock of Eight sell-swords, Divine beast-slayer, and subjugator of all elements. Calling him warlock is just impolite, girl.¡± ¡°I am sorry, mighty guardian, but isn¡¯t your master dead? For last ten years he has been missing. Moreover that book here¡­¡± said girl, scared of his reaction. Even though that being looked like a child now, she knew it was some powerful creation of Warlock, who was said to be one of strongest magicians to ever live. Little boy laughed as he heard what she said. ¡°That¡¯s just absurd. For my master to be dead!? What a joke! You see little girl, that book over there is something I wrote based off my master¡¯s memories. It is true that he was poisoned, but he had certain idea how to neutralize that poison and left in order to deal with it. I am sure that he will be returning here soon.¡± ¡°You believe in that even after ten years of him being gone?¡± ¡°Precisely because it is almost ten years since he left. That was amount of time his plan would need to be finished.¡± answered boy with full confidence. ¡°You see, I am sorry I have to be one to tell you that, mister guardian, but I am afraid that he is dead. No one has seen him over last ten years and even this cave entrance is called the Tomb of the Warlock.¡± she said. Entrance of cave was wall with many magic markings and over last seven years, since belief that Warlock is dead has spread, many magicians tried to enter his tomb, but failed. But when she touched the wall after running into cave, she was instantly teleported into this underground cave. ¡°I see. So that was why those worms were trying to forcibly access my castle. They destroyed portal more than three times. I had to send other guardians to fix it each time.¡± ¡°Your castle?¡± ¡°Well, I mean my master¡¯s castle. I am mere keeper of castle, but I sometimes call this castle mine. If my master was here, I guess I would get scolded. Keep that secret from him.¡± Said little boy with laugh. Then he started questioning the girl. ¡°So, what do you need in my master¡¯s castle, girl? Also, you still have yet to introduce yourself.¡± As girl realized her mistake, she instantly bowed. ¡°I am sorry mighty guardian for not introducing properly. My name is Ruria Gold. I have ended here by accident, after I ran into cave while I was being chasing and somehow I ended up here.¡± ¡°My name is¡­ calling me Guardian will be fine. Well, to explain this to you, reason you were teleported here is simple. That necklace of yours was something¡­ my master gave to your father. It allows holder to enter into the castle, through the portal. It is also why that shiny thing that illuminates this room did not instantly kill you moment you entered. I¡­ it was made to look like ordinary necklace so that people wouldn¡¯t try to steal it from him. Also, he was only one who knew what it was for.¡± answered boy as he smiled innocently. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. And then, without changing his expression, he laughed. ¡°Now tell me who dared to attack daughter of my¡­ master¡¯s friend? I can promise they will regret it.¡± ¡°I am sorry, but I can¡¯t answer that question. You see, because of my father being friend of your master, currently, whole Golden sect was disallowed to trade with four empires. Because of that, it¡¯s justified that they are angry. I beg you, mighty guardian, please don¡¯t hurt them. This is something inside of our sect, something outsiders should not interfere in.¡± Boy¡¯s expression showed anger. ¡°I see. Since you are begging me, I will let it slide. But if you are not safe outside, I can arrange for you to stay here. I can even lend you some of books from my library. I can tell you are tier twelve magician already, which might be seen as decent for your age, but from my point of view, it is pitifully weak. You are like what, sixteen, seventeen?¡± ¡°I am eighteen already. Well, I was denied magic education and was taught magic by practitioner who took me in after my father¡¯s death and who was also shunned because of rejecting authority of clan, but I can compete with other clan¡¯s youths easily in magic.¡± Young boy shook his head. ¡°Alright, forget about books. I will teach you everything myself. I don¡¯t want to spit on kindness of your teacher¡­ but his skills and knowledge cannot be compared with mine. So do you wish to stay?¡± he asked. ¡°I think I have to. Since I have basically disappeared while everyone was watching me, if I returned, I think they would force me to explain everything to them. Many of them dream about riches of Warlock¡¯s tomb, but it was believed to be inaccessible.¡± ¡°I see. Then, follow me.¡± said boy, and he slowly walked towards the wall. He stopped by the wall, took hand of young girl and the touched the wall. Next moment, they were teleported into exquisite bedroom. Girl looked around. Big bed was so beautiful that it would put beds of nobles into shame. There were two tables, one worktable and one for food, each with its own chair. There was also small library of about thirty books and sixty spell-books in three shelves and closet for dresses. But that was all. Room was pretty empty. Moreover, because of it having no windows, and doors leading to room were metallic, it felt like it was more of prison cell than a room. Girl however did not state her mind about it. ¡°This room belonged to master¡¯s apprentice.¡± said boy with low voice. ¡°The Warlock had an apprentice?¡± Boy did not answer for a while. ¡°Yes, he did.¡± boy said with absentminded expression. ¡°But don¡¯t get your hopes up thinking he will accept you as his apprentice. Even if he returns, I doubt he will be willing to take another one. Moreover, you don¡¯t really have qualifications to become his apprentice anyways. Well, get accommodated in your room. I will shortly send some servant to bring you food. Now, excuse me.¡± Said boy and then he stood next to wall. ¡°Thank you.¡± girl said as he teleported himself. Boy stood in his room. Big glass ball levitated in the air right in front of his face. In front of castle¡¯s entrance portal, there was group of people forming mob. They were slowly torturing man, who boy thought to be magic teacher of the girl. Why they were doing this vile act was no mystery to him. They probably thought they could make the girl go out if they tortured him in front of portal. If she would tell them how she entered, they could get all the riches inside of this castle, was their line of thoughts. Seeing them, boy wanted to go out and kill those bastards, but sadly, most powerful defenses of castle were arranged not to be able to leave the castle, so if he went outside he would have to face them alone or with support of ordinary minions. Normally it would not be problem, but he could easily tell that current sect leader, menacingly looking man in his forties who was also present, man that reminded him bit of previous sect leader Tomen, was tier nineteen magician and there were another four tier eighteen magicians who were probably branch leaders. Right now, he could maybe fight the man alone to draw, but with support of those four, he was certain he would be defeated. ¡°Just you wait, bastards. Acting so cocky in front of my castle, I will pay you back for this soon enough.¡± swear escaped his mouth, as he memorized the face of powerful five men before he changed his appearance back to that of wooden puppet and left the room. Chapter 16: More Complications Nightmares have haunted my dreams even though the beast that killed Ryan and other boys was dead. From whole group, only I survived. While Landon managed to escape, he rejected to leave and returned back in order to try to help. Teachers had to lead children outside of the area and no one followed him The Demon was later confirmed to be tier eighteen demon and wolves following it were tier twelve demon beasts, and therefore, no one could really blame teachers for not being willing to face the monster of such power. Even if this demon was rather slow, killing him would prove impossible for group of tier ten and tier eleven practitioners. Landon¡¯s fate was unknown and since he was not found during expedition of teacher Alaric and other magic experts, he was considered to be dead. I still had a sword that Ryan gave me and I decided to bring it to his parents. In school, everyone was scared. Rumors of possibility that some terrible beast was descending from mountains and heading for four empires made even teachers uncomfortable. In forest incident, quite few children have died and headmaster barely managed to keep his seat. Laura took both her studies and her job as my servant seriously. My room was always clean, I would no longer have to eat food from cantina, since she would make breakfast, lunch and dinner for me and what¡¯s more, she even taught me basics of how to cook. And when I would wake up in the night screaming in terror because of nightmares, she would be there and calm me down like big sister. Every summer from then on, demons and demonic beasts would descend mountains and cause trouble. Teacher Alaric had almost no time to come to Alsante city, since he was traveling around forest, hunting most powerful demons and demonic beasts that other practitioners of magic would have problems to deal with. He would only come to city after the beasts were dealt with and stayed for single weekend at most. He looked more and more tired every year but he still kept smiling. I could describe those three years as years where little happened. But that would not be true. There were many things happening, only I did not really care. With death of Ryan Randolph and his friends, newly formed groups of older children and bullies started to fight over power in school. While Ryan and his closest friends were young, he had support of many older students in final years of school, who belonged to families supporting Randolph family. With Ryan gone, they basically started creating their own groups and fighting each other. I couldn¡¯t really care less, since no one really took notice of us little children. Anyone who was younger than twelve didn¡¯t seem like worth noticing, since in order to overpower other groups, they needed power now, and potential talents who would become powerful in three or for years of time were ignored. School has basically become mess, and only few teachers really cared but they could do very little. All of it was caused by parents of these students, who were making them take their own fights into the school. I know this might sound as common sense to you, but when parents interfere in friendships and relationships of their children, it becomes seriously ugly. Branch of generous was example of how twisted can school become because of that. Like that, three years have passed that I have spent learning magic while helping Brant and Saffron and also Laura, when she asked. All permeating fear has almost disappeared. People started getting used to ¡®demonical descents¡¯ that happened every summer, since it became part of their life and there was nothing they could do about it. While there were still some doomsayers who were claiming end was near, but only few of them managed to keep their followers after repeatedly, their predictions were wrong. End of my fourth year in school approached. I managed to reach tier eleven in the middle of school-year. When I told teacher Kalani who was still only at tier ten and only now, she was slowly closing to tier eleven, she was shocked. After all, I have been consistently managing to keep tier of magic I was able to use above my own age. Big part of my success could be attributed to fact that during time I helped Brant and Saffron with their training I have learned almost thirty different spirit training techniques and I have merged some of them into single one, my own spirit method that was almost half as strong as first level of method I learned from teacher Alaric. After preparing this spirit training method for them, I have realized I could easily use it while I was reading and while, unlike [Spirit Capacity Meditation], I could not use it comfortably all the time and it was actually tiring, it was almost six times more powerful. Using it while I read my books was certainly helpful to my spirit growth. I did not name the technique, because I was not even thinking about it, and one who actually named it was Brant. He called it impossible, because even after two months, he was unable to use it and learned it only after I spent two weeks focusing on nothing but teaching it to him, since Saffron learned it after mere five weeks and Brant, who was already overtaken by her, became so desperate he wanted to use all his wealth, which was eleven gold coins, to make me help him. I of course rejected his gold, even though it was extremely tempting. I could not take money from my friend. Therefore, name of technique was established as [Impossible Spirit Training]. If teacher Kalani or Alaric learned about technique I created, they would probably think me to be some demon-spawn, because creating new spirit training method that was not utter thrash was extremely hard. That technique was on par with many practitioner families¡¯ secret techniques that were created by one-in-generation geniuses. But for me, it felt like I had some instinctive understanding of how should I alter technique to make it more efficient. At this point, even I was starting to realize that there was something wrong with me. I however paid it no mind, since except for having no soul power, it seemed like everything was fine with me. But there was one thing I was not satisfied with. I still had debt to pay to teacher Alaric and lady Sable. I managed to save most of silver that lady Sable was giving to me weekly and I did not even touch iridium coins that teacher Alaric gave me every year with hope that I would be able to pay them most of what they gave me back. And now, I felt like I finally had chance to do so. Over past years, I had finished more than ten books about spell-crafting and crafted about ten spells between tier six and ten. Most of them were completely useless, as there already existed spells with same effect of same tier, since I only created them to practice spell-crafting. At this point I could already compare with intermediate spell-crafting experts, but I had no clue about that. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Reaching tier eleven, I could finally create spells that some noble and practitioner families could show little interest in. I could then sell them at auction and receive some money. That is, as long as they had some use and had different effects from common spells. With that, I would be able to repay my debts to them and then¡­ That was where my line of thoughts was ending. And then what? I had no clue what I wanted to do, after I grow up. But there certainly was one thing I enjoyed. Teaching others; helping Laura with her studies, finding suitable spirit and soul training methods for her, explaining everything I could to Brant and Saffron, those moments were certainly making me happy. ¡°Aiken!¡± As I was thinking about what my future while I was going back to dorm from my secret hiding spot in gardens, voice of teacher Kalani stopped me. ¡°Teacher Kalani?¡± I asked surprised. I had no idea what could she want from me, but as I faced her, seeing her run to me, I had seen her serious expression. ¡°Headmaster wants to speak to you. I think it is serious.¡± she said. If headmaster grew older over last four years, he did well to hide it. Now that my magic perception was much better, I could feel how powerful he actually was. Well, compared to teacher Alaric, it was nothing much, but that comparison was extremely unfair to him, since no one could really compare to Wizard of South. Pressure that was surrounding him was however about ten times as dense as that of teacher Kalani or aunt Sable. In his office, he was sitting in his chair and there were two ordinary chairs prepared as well. One of them was still not taken, but on other sat boy of about my age, maybe bit older. His clothes were ordinary clothes that if one wore in branch of generous, he would probably end up being bullied. As he looked at me, he was extremely surprised, and his expression was that of absolute disbelief. ¡°You!¡± he said, pointing finger at me, but at that moment headmaster spoke up. ¡°So you have finally bothered to arrive, boy. We were waiting for you for almost half an hour.¡± He said. ¡°I don¡¯t know what kind of dispute is between two of you but I don¡¯t really care. I called both of you here for reason. From your village, two people came today early in afternoon and they asked me to end your education and return some of money back to them.¡± he said. ¡°Since that is not how this school works and they were impolite, I had them kicked out of building without any politeness as well. That means that neither of you have any reason to fear that you will be expelled, you both will be in this school until your education is over according to rules that are in place, which means that both of you will probably study until the very end, and there is nothing those villagers can do about it.¡± he said. ¡°But whatever is going on, I am afraid that something bad happened in your village, if they were so stupid to send people here. Since from what both your teachers said about you, I can tell you are both pretty much ahead of your class by a lot and if you wanted to return to your village and see what happened, I could have you excused from your classes for some time.¡± he explained, looking directly at me. While he used to dislike me and considered me weak because I had no soul power, he had to recognize other talents that I had. Teacher Kalani was doing her best convincing him that I was talented, since she was actually thinking that he was one who was probably responsible for watching over me for non-existent practitioner family I belonged to, based on her delusions. And he knew, that since Sable family was backing me, if my village had financial problems, he should tell me. After all, if he did not do so, he could anger person who had most influence in four empires, teacher Alaric. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened to Oakville, but if grandpa is in trouble, I should return home.¡± said boy, and I finally remembered who he was. He was grandson of old man Keiran, who also had same name as his grandpa. I looked at boy as his expression displayed enmity towards me. ¡°I can¡¯t stop you, but let me tell you that offer is still standing after you return. To be honest, you are unique talent for branch of common, and we will provide you full scholarship for seventh to twelfth year of school if you decide to sing contract with us to teach on school afterwards.¡± said headmaster, then turning back to me. It might sound as weird and shady practice, making contracts with children, but that was way school acquired more than half of its teachers. And since they were just commoners, no one influential cared. ¡°I would also like to return to my village.¡± I said. If something bad happened to village, I could use money I received from aunt Sable and teacher Alaric to solve it. ¡°You heard him lady Sable.¡± said headmaster. ¡°Yes. Well, I expected that.¡± answered aunt Sable. I turned around and noticed she was standing behind me. When she arrived, I had no clue. Maybe she was here before I arrived and simply did not want to make me change my mind with her presence, so she hid with magic. Or maybe she just arrived. There was no way to tell. ¡°In any case, you two should be traveling together, and Laura should also go with you. Two children traveling alone would be madness.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need to travel with this kid. I can take care of myself.¡± protested boy. I wanted to respond to him, but aunt Sable was faster. ¡°Oh? You seem to be quite a responsible young man. What if I paid you to make sure Aiken is safe? How does pay of four silver coins sound to you?¡± I wanted to protest, but aunt Sable gestured with hand to stop me. Boy didn¡¯t want to accept, but at the same time, he felt like he could not reject the offer. ¡°Ok, I will do it.¡± he agreed after few seconds of thinking. ¡°Great. It was nice doing business with you. Meet us tomorrow in front of school.¡± ¡°Aunt Sable, why did you do that?¡± I asked after we left headmaster¡¯s office. ¡°I think it will be better for you to travel together, right? What if something happened to him while he was traveling alone? Since you two are from same village, I thought you were something like friends.¡± ¡°Well, we are not.¡± I said, but since he was grandson of old man Keiran, I was thankful I could ensure his safety. It would certainly make old man very sad if something happened to his grandson. ¡°Aiken, promise me that you will take care of yourself and won¡¯t do anything stupid. If there is some problem you can¡¯t solve, just return and we can think about something together, alright?¡± she said, as she hugged me. ¡°Yes, yes, I know, aunt Sable.¡± I answered, with no honesty in voice.
I finaly have my energy back. Prepare for more. Chapter 17: Back to Oakville I had this and one more chapter ready, but I needed to slightly alter it, so it took some time. Sorry tee-hee.
When morning came, aunt Sable brought me another storage ring. I currently had three storage rings already; one was storing all books of mine, clothes and magic staff I received from teacher Alaric, second stored gifts that I had bought for uncle Jannon, old man Keiran and my parents. I have decided it would be stupid of me to carry all money around, so I have taken twenty silver coins. Third ring was of course one in which I carried water just in case I would be using some water magic. Fourth ring, one that I received from aunt Sable contained another twenty silver coins, dried meat and fruit with some bread that could probably feed three people for at least month, many potions that she believed I could need for some reason and to my surprise, new magic staff. ¡°Staff is gift from Alaric as reward for reaching tier eleven. I would never waste so much money for mere staff.¡± she said. Well, it was true that staff that I received four years ago has already lost about third of its power, but for me, most of its value was in fact that teacher Alaric personally bought it for me. I thought that regardless of what he bought for me, I would not be using it over staff I already had. As I took out new staff, I blinked multiple times and realized I was completely wrong. ¡°It is elemental staff.¡± I said surprised. Ordinary staves like one I had only amplified power of your spell by equivalent of specific amount of soul power. Well, on those who already had high soul power, effect could be slightly stronger, but because they had higher soul power, its amplification effect was actually smaller for them. However elemental staves could also multiply power of spell that was of their element. Best ones would amplify power of spell by about thirty to forty percent, but even worse ones should increase the effect by ten percent. There were six elements, water, fire, wind, chill, lightning and earth; most uncommon spells were lightning and wind spells. Well, to be more precise, there were many hybrid lightning and wind spells, but only few spells that could compete in power with same tier spells of different element. Even though I have started being interested in these elements only recently; neither lightning nor wind element original spells of tier eleven existed in school library. There were six practitioner families who owned some stronger traditional wind and lightning spells, but they would not share them. If I wanted to use these elements in future, I would need to create my own original spells, which was what I was currently working on. But right now, element I felt most confident in using was water. Water spells were one of simplest ones to learn and use, and ever since the end of first year, they were most used of all spells I learned. There were many different water spells, each having use of its own. From stronger versions of [Water Ram], there were many spells that aimed at attacking enemy from multiple angles with spear or arrow like projectiles filled with magic, to [Pressure Cutter], spell that could easily cut through weaker wall. Teacher Alaric knew about water being element I preferred, and even though he considered water element weak, he bought me water element staff. Even cheapest one must cost¡­ more than twenty iridium coins. And this one probably was not even cheapest one. Holding this powerful magic item in my hands, I felt extremely excited. At the same time, I felt like I was undeserving of gift. Just holding it in my hands, I could easily tell it would empower all spells of mine as much as if I had almost two hundred soul power, and it would increase power of water spells by at least twenty percent. Seeing my expression, aunt Sable laughed. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s probably really expensive. So don¡¯t lose it.¡± She said, so I returned new magical staff to my storage ring. ¡°Young master Aiken, Lady Sable, good morning.¡± said Laura as she arrived, carrying backpack. Unlike me, she had no storage rings, because they were rather expansive. Seeing her carry heavy backpack, I sighed, and then approached her. She would only call me young master in front of aunt Sable, because aunt Sable was extremely overzealous about servant-master etiquette. Now that I think about it, didn¡¯t teacher Alaric have spell that would make him look like servant? ¡°Laura, if you don¡¯t mind¡­¡± I said and I stored her heavy backpack into one of my storage rings. ¡°Thank you, young master.¡± she answered carefully since aunt Sable was still listening. Now that we were here, we only waited for Keiran junior to make his appearance and after short while, he has arrived. Carrying backpack even larger and heavier than Laura, he did not seem much uncomfortable. Unlike me, who was sheltered by Sable family, he had to work hard with no support. He would participate in mushroom collecting activities every weekend, and during weekday, he would train his body as well, so even though he was only eleven, he was one of fastest and most efficient collectors in branch of commons. His physical strength was probably even greater than that of his peers who were not magicians and instead helped their parents in the fields. Seeing him like that, easily carrying weigh I would probably have a problem lifting, I felt tempted to see how long can he carry it and then laugh at him. Way he acted yesterday made me really angry, but when I thought about old man Keiran who did so much for me, I decided to be a bigger man and tried friendly approach. ¡°Give me your backpack; I will store it in my storage ring so you don¡¯t have to carry it around.¡± I said. Seeing multiple magic rings on my hands, four storage rings and one ring of mana regeneration, I could see envy in his eyes. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°There¡¯s no need for your help, little lord. I can carry it just alright.¡± he responded, ignoring my attempt to be kind. I could not understand why he was so angry. Or maybe I just didn¡¯t want to. Until this point, everything was made easy for me. I was supported by wealthiest merchant family in city and treated like I was one of them. Seeing me who was freely given everything and much more, while he had to work hard just to gain little he had, he felt like world was being unfair. And that was true, world was always unfair and this was no exception. So after aunt Sable gave boy five, instead of four originally promised silver coins, three of us departed together. I had no clue how powerful Keiran was, but since I was already tier eleven magician and Laura was more than half-way between tier seven and eight, this journey of ours was safer than when old man Keiran and uncle Jannon took me to Alsante. After first few miles, I realized my physical condition was not only poor, but really poor. While Laura was still full of energy and against all reason, so was Keiran who carried his big heavy backpack like it was empty, I was already exhausted. ¡°Should we take a break, little lord?¡± asked Keiran with mocking tone. That pissed me off. ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary. I can take break while we walk.¡± I said. I closed my eyes, and remembered spell I finished few weeks ago. It was my attempt to create original tier eleven wind spell, but I failed and it ended up being only hybrid spell, [Windboard]. I still had no clue what problem was, so fixing it was not in my powers, but it still had pretty good efficiency. In air, invisible levitating board formed. I lied on it and made it move forward at speed of fast walking. This spell would only last little more than three minutes before I would have to recast it. I could only use it four times, since I did not want to waste all my mana, in case we met bandits or something. Twelve minutes of rest refreshed me enough to keep walking another hour. Laura, seeing that I was really tired this time pretended that she was also tired. It was so obvious that I felt rather hurt by it, but at the same time, I knew I couldn¡¯t go on any longer. It was probably around five hours since we left the city, and therefore, we decided we would have late lunch. As Laura started preparing campfire, Keiran came close to me. ¡°You see¡­ little lord, could you teach me that spell you used before?¡± he asked. While he disliked me, the spell was certainly interesting. ¡°My name is not Little Lord, but Aiken, and I fear I couldn¡¯t.¡± I responded. When he heard my answer, I could see spark of hatred in his eyes. ¡°You see, it¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to, but since it is tier eleven spell, I doubt you could learn it.¡± I decided to explain. It was obvious he did not believe me. After eating, I decided I would have a short nap. Thinking I was already asleep, Keiran decided to talk with Laura. ¡°You see, your little lord told me earlier that spell he used before is tier eleven. If he wanted to lie, he should have told lie that is more believable.¡± Of course, he pronounced little lord with tone that made obvious it was insult. Laura laughed silently. ¡°Why do you think that was lie?¡± she asked. ¡°Because it is nonsense. He¡¯s only ten years old.¡± he protested. ¡°Do you think rich families just randomly pick up and take care of untalented kids who can¡¯t do anything?¡± asked Laura. ¡°Are you telling me he really can use tier eleven magic?¡± ¡°Well, yes.¡± she said. Keiran stayed silent for a long while. ¡°I remember that at village exam, he had really low soul power.¡± he said after short while. Truth was that he was actually looking forward to meeting me again, even if it was only to show me his superiority in magic. When he did not find me in first year of branch of common in his second year, he thought that I was not accepted at all. But he did not completely count me out, thinking I was probably taught by my uncle, he did his best to make sure, that after he returns to village, he will repay me for what happened during examination, to show me that I can never beat him. In branch of common, he was seen as unique genius. He was only one in branch of common who has already reached tier eight in his year and only child from branch of common who participated in junior magic tournament. He has lost in second round to some silvery-white haired girl, who was in branch of honor, but she later on won whole tournament, which convinced him that he could match anyone else but her. He decided he would work even harder and overcome her, since in his eyes there was no one else, who could compete with him. ¡°I still have very little soul power, if that is what you want to know.¡± I said, since I realized my desire to have a nap would not be fulfilled, as we needed to go. It only took us five days to reach the village. Unlike when I travelled with uncle Jannon and old man Keiran, we were not slowly enjoying our trip, but were walking at reasonable pace. Both Laura and Keiran junior were in great condition, and I had my [Windboard] to rest on when I needed it most. As we stopped, finally having village in sight, I noticed something weird. On fields, which, if I remembered correctly, belonged to my family, people who I did not now were working. I expressed my bad feeling to Keiran. He looked at distant people as well. ¡°I recognize few of them. They are nephews of old man Oisin and his sons.¡± he said, also feeling uncomfortable. What the hell happened while we were gone? Chapter 18: Unexpected Outcome What should I do? Should I go and ask them what is going on? Or should I head home first? Or should I head to my uncle¡¯s house? There were many options and as ten years old kid, I had no clue which one was best. Those who worked at fields have also noticed us and one of youth has been sent by them to village. ¡°Let¡¯s head to the village. We should visit my grandpa first.¡± decided Keiran. Since situation confused me, I followed, even though I didn¡¯t like to take orders from him. Before we even entered old man¡¯s house, it was obvious something was wrong. House was partially damaged, and it looked like it was because of vandalism. But vandalizing house of one of three most powerful practitioners in village¡­ what idiot would do that? When we entered, we noticed old lady that was sitting by table and eating some bread. Whole interior of house looked extremely poor. I remembered that old man Keiran had some books, collection of herbs and many other interesting things but everything was gone. ¡°Grandma Lua!¡± ran Keiran to her as he hugged confused woman. ¡°My little Keiran, why are you here? You should be in the city learning magic, shouldn¡¯t you? Don¡¯t tell me those bastards¡­¡± she started, but then she looked at me and her confusion deepened. ¡°Could this young master here be¡­ no, there¡¯s no way¡­¡± She only saw me few times, but since my hair color was quite unique, she correctly identified me. But fact that I had exquisite clothing and looked like some noble child was probably what caused her confusion. I bowed to show respect to her age, and then reintroduced myself. ¡°Good afternoon, I am Aiken, son of Tyree, nephew of Jannon. We have already met before, but I don¡¯t think I properly introduced back then.¡± I said. ¡°Grandma, what is going on? Where is everything? And where is grandpa?¡± asked Keiran Old woman tightly hugged her grandson, and had tears in her eyes. ¡°You should go. You should leave this village and never return, Keiran. Take your friends and leave. I am sure we will somehow manage.¡± she said, confusing us even more. ¡°No grandma, first tell me what happened.¡± he protested. Seeing that he was not willing to go, old woman gave up. ¡°You see, two years ago, young Jannon finally reached tier eight as whole village was expecting him to. Everyone was celebrating, but that bastard Oisin. Few months later, he also managed to reach tier eight, which was surprise, since no one knew he was anywhere close to it. But, you see, everyone was happy as well. Village now had two tier eight practitioners. But then, on one day that young man, Strill, arrived. He was from some distant city and was tier ten practitioner, and after talking with Oisin he decided he would stay here. He married his daughter, and together, they started terrorizing our and Jannon¡¯s families.¡± Old woman turned to me. ¡°They forced both our families to sell all our land to them for laughable price.¡± She said and then turned back to her grandson. ¡°Their children vandalized our house and stole or burned what we had here many times and we were not allowed to stop them. But few weeks ago, Oisin wanted to send two of his sons to city to bring you two back and get all gold. Grandpa could no longer stop himself and¡­ now he is heavily injured.¡° When we heard her story, all three of us we were pissed off. ¡°What should we do? Should we contact lady Sable?¡± asked Laura. ¡°That would probably take too much time.¡± said Keiran junior. ¡°You should all leave. If they learn you are here, I don¡¯t know what they could do to you.¡± protested Keiran¡¯s grandma. But Keiran ignored her. ¡°Do you feel like challenging tier ten magician, Aiken?¡± asked boy carefully. He knew he alone stood no chance, but since I was tier eleven, he had high hopes of me. It felt bad to betray his hopes. ¡°I doubt I could win against him one against one. After all, I have almost no soul power.¡± I said. There was also fact, that apart from training battles with Saffron and Brant, I had very little real experience. ¡°What about two versus one.¡± he said. ¡°I am only tier eight magician, but I already have three thousands and six hundreds soul power.¡± Tier eight?! I was shocked about how self-demeaning it sounded when he said it. Of whole my class, or actually of whole fourth year in branch of generous, only Saffron and Brant were only tier eight magicians and big part of that was because of me. Neither of them had more three thousand soul power. Compared to anyone but me and Flore, he would be genius with no equal. ¡°I see. That could work. But since uncle Jannon has already reached tier eight, maybe, we should ask him for help as well.¡± I said. ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid! You can¡¯t fight him, he is tier ten practitioner!¡± protested old woman Lua. ¡°So what? I am tier eight magician and Aiken is already tier eleven practitioner.¡± said little Keiran confidently. ¡°We should see old man Keiran first.¡± I said, trying to change the topic. I still remembered that aunt Sable gave me quite a few potions just in case. And there was injured person who needed help. ¡°I have potions that could help him.¡± I stated, making both grandson and grandmother turn to me with hope in their eyes. ¡°This is hallucination, isn¡¯t it?¡± asked old man while we stood beside him. He was lying on bed and his left bandaged forearm, was obviously missing a hand. I could barely contain my anger. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°No grandpa, we are really here. We came to help the village.¡± ¡°Stupid children, you should have stayed in the city. What do you think you will change here?¡± he said. ¡°We will simply beat that tier ten practitioner and make him go away.¡± responded his grandson naively. Even I knew it won¡¯t be that simple. ¡°Where is that tier ten practitioner?¡± I asked his grandma. ¡°You see, he went out four days ago to hunt and practice in forest. He should return within month.¡± said junior¡¯s grandma from behind us. Thankfully, he was not here. As long as he was not here, we could manage somehow. Maybe we would even have enough time to send Laura to bring help from Aunt Sable. ¡°Here, take this potion, old man.¡± I said as I gave healing potion to him. It would probably take few days before he would be back to full strength, and his hand would likely never recover. Potions capable of such miracles were even more valuable than new staff I received from teacher Alaric. We could not count on him for upcoming fight, if there would be any. We were still talking with old man Keiran when disturbance came. ¡°Come out, children, I know you are hiding in there!¡± we suddenly heard old voice from front of house. ¡°They have already came for us.¡± said Laura. Keiran junior looked at me and I nodded. After seeing state of old man, neither of us was going to run. In front of house stood old man with two of his sons, who were both tier six magicians. He was Oisin ap Raegan, who was currently tier eight magician. Yesterday, his two sons returned, telling him that they were thrown out by headmaster of school without receiving any money, so it was obvious that school would keep us as students. But he certainly did not expect that two of us would return of our own will. When his nephew¡¯s son told him about spotting three travelers, two of them being children, he couldn¡¯t believe it. But while we went to old man Keiran¡¯s house, other people have also spotted us. With current distribution of power in village, every villager told him what they knew. I stepped out of house followed by Laura, who was shivering bit, and Keiran junior. Unlike us, Laura had some brain in her head and knew quite well what would happen if we actually had to face tier ten magician after all. Old man inspected us with his eyes, especially my magic rings didn¡¯t escape his gaze. Seeing so many valuable items, greed overcame him. If he was not so used to fact that no one dared to oppose him ever since his daughter married that newcomer, who was apparently disowned from some practitioner family, he would probably think about danger of pissing off someone with support of some wealthy family. But blinded by illusion of power, he failed to see that. ¡°Little kids, you have some interesting things with you, if I might say. Do you think you could share with old man?¡± he said mockingly. ¡°Yeah, I will gladly share.¡± I said, no longer being able to suppress my anger for what this bastard and that ten tier practitioner did to old man Keiran. I took out new staff, and without thinking about it twice, I casted my strongest water spell, [Pressure Cutter] while releasing water from ring. Unprepared old man just stood there and was hit by spell. Only in last moment he crouched a bit, which made spell aimed at his upper body hit his throat instead. The spell easily burned through all his mana and almost beheaded him in an instant. It stopped after reaching about half way into his throat, giving him time to make inarticulate sound as his throat strongly bled and sprayed blood all around, before he collapsed to the ground and struggled over next few seconds, bleeding and continuing to make inarticulate sounds before they faded into silence. No! I wanted to scream, but no sound escaped my throat. I have too much overestimated him, forgetting how powerful my magic already was. Since when person was hit with a magic spell, amount of mana consumed was not much affected by caster¡¯s soul power, fact that I had no soul power did not matter if enemy didn¡¯t protect himself with magic shield. And since he did not raise shield to his defense, my spell only lost about one fifth of its power on consuming his mana and then hit with him with barely reduced power. I didn¡¯t want to kill him. At best, I expected I would be able to land scratch on his body, not realizing how strong I became. Instead, I killed him with single spell, shocking everyone present. Some of his blood was even on my face. I, realizing what I have done, finally started screaming, making Oisin¡¯s sons who were probably thinking they were next to die run away. I collapsed onto ground and started scratching my face in useless attempt to rid it of blood, while bit behind me, Laura vomited her lunch. Few people that gathered around before, were now gone. ¡°Aiken?¡± I heard familiar voice screaming my name as a distant figure was running towards me. It was uncle Jannon. He suddenly stopped, noticing dead body of old man Oisin. ¡°Aiken, what happened here?¡± he asked. ¡°I killed him, uncle.¡± I cried. ¡°I killed him.¡±