“You have good hearing, last question, where is this Yufur hiding out? He sounds like he could cause some trouble in the near future, and I think it would be best if I had a talk with him about that.” Paulus flinched at that mention of one last question, with that answer all the usefulness he would provide would disappear with it.

For a moment he hesitated wondering if he should try and negotiate with the mage before he dismissed the idea entirely, someone like the mage before him would make him talk regardless of how much he would fight. “He has a building just outside the city and past the fields, it looks real old and run down but the inside and downstairs the basement is where most of the operations take place like counting up the money and planning for the future. Though your actions have put a small halt to that for the time being.”

Paulus waited for one or all of the bolts that the mage before him created to kill him in a way similar to what happened to his traitorous friend. He even closed his eyes in anticipation wondering just how much it would hurt. “Open your eyes.” Paulus heard the mage order and he followed. He saw the bolts were gone and the mage standing with his arms crossed.

“Since you were kind enough to tell me without needing to be tortured I will allow you to leave without harm.” Paulus was confused, wouldn’t it be possible for him to tell his boss about what just happened. “Of course I am expecting you to leave the city and never return, or at least return in a few years when no one will remember you. Don’t think I will allow you to tell your boss about this.”

With the only two choices being living away from the city or dying where he stood the choice was obvious. “Can I collect my things first? I would rather have some money to my name before I leave everything behind.”

“Of course, I'm not a monster. But remember I am coming with you just to be sure you don’t feel the need to share some important information with a friend you meet along the way.” Arthur raised his arm and pointed off in the direction he came from with a gesture to lead.

Paulus hesitantly brought Arthur to the small room he rented for the month and collected all his things and money into a backpack he owned which didn’t amount to all that much. Then Arthur escorted him out and past the eastern gate until they were a good distance away from the city walls and the closest fields. Neither Paulus or Arthur knew of any large towns or even villages that he could stop and or stay at but fortunately for Arthur that wasn’t his problem.

Arthur watched Paulus from a distance until he was nothing but a small spot in the distance and turned back to the city of Antium. Arthur returned to the location where the first unnamed gang member was killed and collected it via stuffing it into his dimensional bag. With a proper specimen to continue his flesh golem experiments he started right away by removing all the flesh and organs. Within an hour Arthur had assembled the golem and was ready to enchant it.

The end result, like the previous, was able to move both of its own legs and even managed to walk a small distance before it fell and was unable to get up. But like the last one it was still very slow and lacked balance that it should have, he must have been missing something integral that just reading the journal and copying the blueprints wouldn't be able to teach. ‘Looks like I might need to wait until I become an evoker to actually finish this. That was basically what Georgius recommended I do unless I was really desperate, and I wouldn’t exactly call myself desperate. I still have a lot of time I can spend doing other stuff without that will allow me to get a proper teacher for this.’ With this line of thoughts Arthur should have been a bit more confident and understanding of his limits, yet he felt rather sad and disappointed in himself. Even though it wasn’t very glamorous work, golemancy was still very enjoyable to him and giving it up even if only for a short time made him quite sad.

Regardless of his personal feeling Arthur disposed of the newest golem the same way he did the others and turned his attention to learning more tier two aeromancy spells to get closer attaining the rank of evoker, something that would allow him to receive actual training in both enchanting and golemancy.

In the library Arthur found a few useful spells within the category of aeromancy, around half of which were offensive spells that were just variations from other evocations such as the Earth Spike Arthur enjoyed using. Though most of the interesting aeromancy spells were utility related ones like the levitation spell he had tried out a few times, and another that he found useful was called Quite Sphere which would create a sphere of air that would trap in most sound. It could be useful if you were in a public space and you needed to reduce the amount of noise you or someone or something else is making.

Another interesting spell that Arthur uncovered was the Circulate Air spell which takes control of a massive amount of air within a large room and has it swirl around the room, it doesn’t swirl all that fast but it is noticeable and has a nice cooling effect like a nice breeze. It could also be used to mitigate or remove bad smells as well, but that likely was not the intended use.

The various amounts of the air barrier spells were also quite interesting since they were almost invisible just like the Force Wall and Force Barrier spells but could also block non solid attacks such as poison gas. Though to compensate for this they were weaker than their force counterparts which Arthur came to learn were a subcategory of magic that fell under Alteration.

One other air spell that Arthur found interesting just before he left the library was the Air Blade spell. The spell would cover the blade of any weapon that had one and help it cut through something akin to an air blade over top of the original one. It effectively boosted the sharpness of the bladed weapon and would even work on weapons conjured via geomancy and hydromancy allowing a mage to create a far more powerful weapon than they would otherwise be able to.

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Arthur spent the remaining day of that week just practicing casting all those aeromancy spells he picked up the day before. One thing he found was that some of the time he spent casting geomancy spells helped him cast these aeromancy spells, it wasn’t all that much compared to how his geomancy spell casting was impacted but it was just enough for Arthur to notice and push forward while also taking frequent breaks to keep him mana reserves at a high enough level to avoid mana exhaustion.

********

Arthur was seated at a table within the library reading a book on aeromancy and following some of the tips and exercises that it contained with his right hand as his left hand held the book. Most of it was just small things but with all of them put together Arthur did notice improvement regarding his mana expenditure.

But his progress was still slower than he had hoped, leaving him with a feeling of disappointment in himself. His estimated advancement to the rank of evoker was still four months away and that was assuming that the estimation was even correct in the first place.

‘I might end up joining the mercenaries guild sooner than I expected.’ Arthur thought to himself as he placed the book down and pondered over his less than anticipated progress. Even though this was only the second day he had spent learning and practicing his aeromancy he still expected a bit more progress than what he ended up with.

Suddenly Arthur heard a loud slam to his left as Calavia dropped three stacked books on the table. “Did you hear that? I was worried you went deaf when you weren't answering or even looking at me.” Calavia looked quite annoyed by his oblivious look. The reason for this was the spell that Arthur was controlling with his right hand was the Quiet Sphere spell which upon further testing on Arthur's part also blocked any outside noise. It was a good non mana expensive way for Arthur to train as he was reading, though it wasn’t helping him as much as he hoped.

“Sorry, I was just practicing a spell I learned recently. It blocks all sound coming in and out, so I literally could not hear you.” Calavia noticed Arthur wasn’t his usual self, he sounded a little sad about something. “Is something wrong? You don’t sound like yourself right now.”

Arthur took a moment to think before he gave his answer. “I feel like I've been slowing down when it comes to learning magic. Things used to be going a lot smoother but it's like instead of walking down a road I am climbing a mountain.”

“So this is about magic… Have you tried hiring a private tutor for private lessons? They would probably be able to help you overcome this obstacle. Oh and just out of curiosity is this a specific magic type or just magic in general?”

“Since I reached what I think is the peak of geomancy that can be affected by tier two spells I decided to try moving onto aeromancy to diversify my skill set. But I’ve been having a lot of difficulty with it, more than geomancy anyways.”

Upon hearing aeromancy Calavia had a look of understanding. “Aeromancy is one of the harder of the four evocations to learn. I'm not saying you shouldn’t try, but having more difficulty is to be expected. I do know someone who does offer private lessons in aeromancy, his name is Henry Bastian. I'm not exactly sure if he still does as it has been a few years since I last spoke to him but If you check at the job board you might find one of his listings.”

Arthur looked at Calavia with a bit of confusion, to his knowledge you could only find magic related work at the job board within the guild, upon being questioned Calavia clarified. “The name is a bit outdated, you would know since it isn’t a literal board anymore. But there is more than just job opportunities there, while not common some higher ranking mages do put up offers of studying under them or offers of teaching. Though if you are interested in studying under someone and become their apprentice I recommend you actually speak to them and ask.”

Arthur was silent for a moment as he thought about Calavia’s suggestion, it wasn’t a terrible idea and it wouldn’t hurt to at least take a look and see if this mage Calavia knew was still offering to teach. “How much does this mage you know want in terms of money for each lesson?” Knowing how much he would want would help Arthur properly budget and decide if he even wants to try with him or someone else for cheaper.

“When he taught me I paid him 2 silver pieces for each hour long lesson, 4 silver pieces for 2 hour lessons and so on.” Arthur nodded as he thought about the price, it was actually better than he expected for a mage's time since he could earn one or two silver coins a day depending on how much he dedicates his time towards brewing potions and other alchemy related products.

“When I get an opportunity I think I will go and look into this mage and see if he is still offering to teach.” Arthur said with a small smile on his face, while he wasn’t happy he wasn’t sad anymore and that is a good improvement. The two continued talking for several minutes before they both went their separate ways with Calavia going back to work for a second shift and Arthur going to the job board to see about the teaching offers.

Inside the room an older human woman was sitting behind the desk, she had a kind face that reminded Arthur of a kind grandmother. Like the rest of the non mage staff she wore the same grey uniform. “Good afternoon sir, how can I help you?” She quite literally sounded exactly the way expected her to.

“I hear that there is a portion of the job board dedicated towards things aside from magic related work, specifically finding a magic teacher. Is that still the case?”

“Yes it is, it's been a while since someone has asked for that since most people just ask someone they know.” The older woman quickly pushed one of the grey orbs before Arthur who quickly placed his hand over it and infected his mana to activate it. Like before the menu opened up, this time the woman brought his attention towards the little squares along the top of the projection.

“See those little boxes along the top, those are the specific categories. Most people don’t even use them because they have other ways of finding teachers and the other services that can be found and posted on here. I think a big reason for that is because of money, if those communication orbs were to suddenly become a lot cheaper then I think people would use this a lot more.”

Arthur flipped through the seven categories that were along the top, they consisted of Magic Related Work/Jobs, Magic Training Services, Magic Item Commissions, Alchemy Commissions, Other Magical Services, and Posting. Arthur selected the Magic Training Services tab and took a look over the listings. To his surprise he found several names and postings still active, seven to be exact. Upon scrolling down to the bottom Arthur found the name Henry Bastian offering lessons in any of the four evocations for two silver coins for an hour of lessons.