Five weeks had passed since Lucian casted his first spell. Every day was gruelling, with Lucian being trained till he couldn’t get up anymore from exhaustion. Yet he didn’t mind this new routine. At least, not after three days into it. Lucian kept up with the training, feeling a sense of accomplishment with every spell learned. By now, he had learned a total of nine spells that could be used in varying situations.

Along with learning the spells, Lucian had also kept up with his physical and mana training. He had learned to reduce the amount his spells cost, which allowed him to cast multiple in quick succession, but he was still limited to a total of twelve casts per day. At least, until he formed his core.

Cecilia instructed Lucian to arrive by the break of dawn. Lucian wore the best attire he had in keeping the cold away, yet he still shivered as he walked to the estate, rubbing his hands intensely, followed by him blowing air on his hands. As he reached the estate, he could see his teacher waiting for him. He could see the fog from each breath his teacher took.

“Get ready. We are going out today.” Said Cecilia as she handed over a coat for Lucian to wear. “See if this fits you.”

“Where are we going? “asked Lucian as he wore his coat. The sleeves of the coat were a bit too large for him, but they did their job of keeping the heat insulated and keeping his body warm.

“We are going deep to Noxfera Forest.”

“Alright. I’m ready whenever you are.” Said Lucian

“Ah, right. Before we go, take this.” Cecilia hands over a sheathed dagger. Lucian was taught about this. Apprentice mages, on their starting tasks, often took small arms with them in case they ran out of mana mid-fight. If they were fighting someone well-trained with a weapon, this would do little against them. But doing something was better than nothing.

Lucian had heard stories about the forest ever since he was a child. While there were other forests near the town, none were as dangerous as a specific forest west of the town, so much so that it got its name to indicate that this area meant death for those unaware and powerless. One couldn’t even walk a few feet before seeing the entrails of an animal or, worse, a human. All because of the existence of magical beasts that roamed that forest, making their own ecosystem with their own hierarchy.

“Teacher, why did we not wipe out the magical beats as we did to the demonic beasts.” Asked Lucian as he rode the carriage that Cecilia had hired,

“It’s because they are a part of our natural world, unlike the demonic beasts. They have valuable parts that we desire, but with those parts comes the risk of harm and death. Humans without mana can’t even hunt a D-class beast without forming a large group. However dangerous they might be, they don’t attack humans without any reason, with their being cases of beasts living in tandem with humans in some towns outside the kingdom.”

“Hmm. I’d like to visit those towns.”

“All in due time.”

The carriage jerked as it ran over the pebbles on the road. Lucian gazed at the distant fields with interest, as it was the first time he had come out this far from the gates of his town. It felt like he had started an adventure, just like the stories his mother would read to him. As the carriage drew closer to the forest, the horses were visibly distressed, with the carriage rider calming the horses every minute lest they panic and run away.

“Can’t go any farther than this, missy. You gotta travel the rest on foot.”

“It’s fine. We’ll get off here. As agreed, you’ll stay at a safe distance for three hours. We won’t take long.”

“As long as I get paid for the other half of the agreed amount, rest assured I ain’t leaving.”

With Cecilia having finished her conversation with the carriage rider, she led Lucian through the forest after they both casted a spell.

“Muffling stride” whispered Lucian, after which a blue light enveloped his body. It was a spell that reduced the noise that the caster made, which proved handy when doing something quietly. His teacher, however, didn’t even need to say the name of the spell to cast it. Such was her skill, developed through intense training.

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As expected of its name, the light couldn’t get through the tall trees, which casted great shadows over the area they went through. It felt like the sun had set, even though they just saw the sun overhead as they dismounted the carriage.

“Ugh, this place gives me the creeps.” Said Lucian, his senses heightened. His head turned in the direction of every sound from afar, sometimes flinching even when Cecilia would step on a twig.

“It’s good that you are alert in this situation, but sometimes worrying too much will hinder your decision-making.”

“G-Got it.”

Half an hour had passed since they entered the forest, and as they went deeper, the eeriness of the forest grew until suddenly Cecilia raised her hand as if to halt their movements. She gestured for Lucian to come closer and, after doing so, pointed where he had to look.

At the spot pointed by Cecilia stood an unusually large wolf. However, size was not the only thing odd about the wolf. As Lucian strained his eyes to look at the details of the wolf, he saw that the wolf had a jagged horn protruding from its forehead. Its fur was dark, and it loomed over the carcass of a boar, a prey it had just hunted. It didn’t look like the prey went down without a fight, as the ground had tracks all over the place, and the wolf looked ragged as if it had received a blow. As the wolf was tearing away at the carcass’s flesh, Cecilia turned to face Lucian and then pointed towards the wolf with her eyes, with her hand gesturing the action of slicing the neck.

Alright, time for me to do this, thought Lucian, as he was hyping himself up for the battle that was to come.

In times like this, it’s a great advantage to start with the first strike in your favour. And as such, Lucian began to think about how to approach this situation.

I don’t have the power to kill it in one go, which means I should make the most out of the options I have, thought Lucian. Cecilia had drilled a lot of combat tactics into Lucian’s head, but alas, they were only theory. And Lucian had to get real experience to solidify her teachings.

After he decided on what spells he should cast, he casted his first spell as silently as he could.

“Fortify mind.” The spell soothed his mind, bringing with it a sense of clarity. He then checked whether the wolf had heard him, to which he found that the wolf was unaware.

He started to approach the wolf. As the wolf entered his range of spells, he started his first strike.

“Ignition!” A fire formed above Lucian’s palm. He didn’t waste a second of the sneaking advantage he had and casted another spell with his other hand.

“Air flick!” The fire was then hurled towards the wolf. As the fire impacted the wolf, it whimpered in pain. But no sooner did the fur of the wolf get covered in flames than it started to roll on the ground.

This is bad. I thought the wolf would have died by now, thought Lucian as he considered what other spells he could use.

Nine casts left.

Lucian readied himself to cast more spells. He touched the ground and, after looking at the spot the wolf rolled around, casted his next spell.

“Sinkhole.” The ground below the wolf started to change its hard form to a sand-like form and enveloped the wolf, restricting its movements.

“Ignition! Air flick!” As the spells started to fly towards the wolf, it suddenly burst out of the sand. The spell Lucian had casted prior had extinguished the flames, and now the wolf was furious and ready to lunge at its attacker.

The wolf dodged the flaming mass that came towards it and ran full speed at Lucian.

Lucian, seeing that the wolf was coming at him fast, casted spells in a hurry.

“Fortify body!” As the blue light enveloped Lucian, he felt his body harden. It could now resist the bites of normal mutts, but he was not fighting a mutt, but a magical beast.

The wolf lunged at him, and Lucian braced himself by raising his hands to guard against the attack. The wolf mauled Lucian’s arm ferociously. If it were not for the spell he had casted just before the wolf had lunged, his arm would have been a mangled mess by now. But, with each second the wolf mauled Lucian’s arm, the more wounds Lucian would suffer.

Lucian hadn’t experienced this kind of pain before. He was raised in the safety of the walls of his town, and the most pain he had suffered was just a bruise after falling from a tree. The pain would have left Lucian wailing with his mind blank from pain were it not for the spell he had casted before the fight.

Thinking fast and desperate, Lucian casts his next spell.

“Spark!” From the hand that was being mauled came a stunning jolt of lightning that stopped the wolf from clamping its jaws any further. But it still held on to Lucian’s arm, seeing which Lucian wielded the dagger Cecilia had given him before the journey. He started to viciously stab at the wolf's throat, which spewed blood with every hit. When the wolf finally relaxed its jaws on Lucian’s arm, Lucian dealt the killing blow with rage by stabbing the wolf between the eyes, just in front of the horn.

The wolf was dead, with Lucian laid on the ground; panting heavily from the fight, as well as tears welling up. After the fight Cecilia rushes to Lucian to treat him. All this time, Cecilia was watching from afar, ready to intervene if Lucian were to be seriously injured.

“You did it Lucian. You can rest now.” Said Cecilia. After witnessing the fight, Cecilia had a few worries of her own.

Why did it take so many spells for him to take down the horned-wolf? Normally, it should have been dead after Ignition hit it head on. It’s not like Lucian’s spell had less potency. The potency of the spell was the same as any other mage’s Ignition.

Thinking about the reasons why the fight didn’t go as predicted, Cecilia put the opening of a bag the size of her palm on the carcasses of the wolf and the boar, which got sucked in magically without changing the size of the bag. She then carries Lucian on her back to the carriage, ready to return to the town.