‘Well isn’t that suspicious.’ Arthur looked at the trees and other plants that perfectly blocked anyone on the ground from seeing the path or any activity, and during the night it would be even harder to see. ‘Someone specifically planned to have these plants here so they themselves or someone else could walk through here without any interruptions.’

Arthur searched around more for any other clues to who or what might have been moved through the area but he came up empty handed. ‘From now on I need to watch to see if they move through here again. They will probably do it again at night like last time, and when I do I will need to be quick.’

With nothing left to do in the area Arthur left to go to the market square to spend the rest of his time before the orientation at the mages guild would start. When Arthur arrived he noticed a significant drop in the amount of thieves from the day before, but he noticed a few people watching him from a distance. There were three in total all wearing a dark green cloak like the one that elven child wore the day before but these three were also wearing a set of black leather armor. Two were human and the other was a grey skinned elf, they may have acted like they belonged with their small chats with each other and a few of the merchants but Arthur could see that they were following him.

They weren't all following him at the same time, but at all times one of them was watching him from a distance. It was starting to get quite annoying as he got the feeling they were waiting for him to do something. He didn’t know what but it still made him quite uneasy.

‘I have made several attempts to lose them in the crowds but somehow they are still able to find me. I really hope they aren’t using some sort of magic to do that.’ Fortunately for Arthur it wasn’t any sort of magic, the three were just very good at tracking targets which was why they were given such a task.

Soon it was only half an hour before noon and Arthur left the market with his three stalkers in tow. But as soon as they realized he was going to the mages guild they backed off and several minutes after he entered the three walked back towards the market after whispering amongst themselves.

*********

Inside the guild Arthur did not need to wait for all that long in line to show the clerk his letter. “Just go down the hallway to my right and keep going till you find room 3. It's written on the front of the door in bright purple, if you get lost look for the nearest doors and follow them counting downwards until you find the way out.”

Arthur quickly left to the hallway and began his descent down the stairs. “I can help the next in line.” Arthur could hear the clerks as he walked away.

Arthur did not need to walk all that far to find room three, in fact it was only the next room down from the exam room he was in the day before. The room itself was much smaller than the exam room and instead of being almost empty it held several tables with chairs. The amount of chairs was about the same as the examinees that were happy with their performance, that number being about twenty.

There were three others there before Arthur, three were human, one male and two female. Four were elves, two males and females. One female dwarf, and the strange spider person Arthur saw the day before that stood out from everyone else. Arthur wasn’t sure if the spider person was a male or female was clearly trying to hide its appearance from everyone else. It wore a cloak that covered its entire torso and legs, gloves for its hands, and its head was covered by a hood as it kept its head down.

Almost everyone looked up at Arthur when he entered the room due to him being the only one wearing armor, when he took a seat at the front of the class the moment he faced the front of the class the others started to whisper amongst themselves. Even the dwarf who was alone moved up a seat to talk with the human trio. The only one who didn’t say anything was the spider person.

Arthur on the other hand hadn't even noticed that they were talking about him and had simply decided to continue with a bit of hydromancy practice since it was his weakest subject so far. Arthur conjured a sphere of water and split it into five different smaller spheres and began to move them around in a seemingly random order. One of the training methods Arthur was trying out was to see if controlling separate clumps of either water or earth would help him improve their respective skills faster. So far he did not have enough data on the subject to make a definitive conclusion. ‘Worst case scenario I will just be practicing hydromancy some more.’

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Over the course of about ten minutes the rest of those who were accepted into the guild slowly trickled in and took seats next to others of the same race as them creating little groups where they talked about what they were expecting to happen today.

As the clock displayed the time as noon exactly the elf from the exam hall entered and stood at the front of the room. When he stopped a small stand rose from the floor that he placed a small book on and opened to a page.

“Welcome everyone who passed the exam. I am Aiwin the warden and today I will be helping you start your journeys to become true mages and a proper magical education.”

Several of the more perceptive students noticed that Aiwin was reading from his book while he spoke.

“Before you arrived here your knowledge of magic was limited to the four basic evocations. Water, Fire, Earth, and Air.” As Aiwin spoke a blob of each appeared, two on each of his sides.

“But now that you are novices in the mages guild you will have the opportunity to learn more than just these four magics.” Several of the students that were quite bored of the warden's speech had started paying attention to this since they had only heard of magic outside the evocations but have never actually seen it.

“You have Alteration. A mages best friend, with alteration one can shield themselves from harm without needing to wear heavy armor and also affect other physical matter outside of that of the organic type.” Aiwin performed a series of signs with his hands and muttered something before a strange sight occurred. Aiwin appeared to be covered by a layer of clear material that was only noticeable because it slightly reflected light from the lights in the room.

“There is also Illusion. Something that is commonly seen as a coward's tool by many that can be most invaluable for confusing or hiding from an opponent.” Aiwin followed up this with another set of hand signs and muttering before he appeared to be partly transparent. Most of the class stood up upon seeing that, these were the things that only appeared in stories told to children.

“Next we have Restoration. What is considered the weakest of all the magics is also what may save your life when you need it most and can be used to perform miracles to the common folk.” Aiwin conjured a small blade made of ice that he used to cut the palm of his hand, Aiwin showed the cut to the class as a bit of blood trickled out of the wound. Like before he performed a few hand signs and muttered a few words but this time it was a little different. The hand signs were done with one hand and both those and the words muttered were shorter than the other two shown before. Quickly the wound closed and Aiwin showed the class who for the most part stared baffled, the only evidence of the wound being the small amount of blood that Aiwin quickly wiped away with a hand cloth.

“Now for Conjuration. This is the art of transporting matter and beings across large and small distances. This is one of the hardest disciplines to learn so don’t expect to have any lessons for quite some time.” Aiwin took a small wooden block roughly three inches squared in size, he placed it on the table and performed a few hand signs and muttered a few words. The block appeared to fall into the table and onto the floor several meters away. The class was dead silent, this was far beyond what anyone was expecting to be learning at the guild.

“And now for Enchanting and Alchemy.” The class was a bit confused at why two magic types were being explained at the same time. “Now these two types are not something I can show you here but I can explain how important they are to our society.” Aiwin took out what looked to be a wand and a short sword from his bag. ‘He must have a dimensional bag to keep all that stuff in there.’ Arthur thought to himself.

Aiwin continued with his explanation. “The wonderful thing about both these disciplines is that even those without any magical talent if they have either an enchanted or alchemical object they can perform magic, albeit in a more limited fashion than a normal mage.” Aiwin took the short sword in his hand and it lit up with a flame. “This sword was enchanted to light its blade with magical fire at the will of its opponent.” Aiwin placed the sword down as the flames faded and took the wand in his hands. “This wand on the other hand is a product of alchemy, it uses the magic crystal inside to cast bolts of fire at the will of its user. When the magic crystal runs out of mana it will become useless and can be cast away, but do remember that anything with a magic crystal will over time gather mana and recharge itself as long as there is still a bit of mana left in it. The time it takes depends on the purity of the crystal and that can only be determined by a crystal smith, but that is a lesson for another time.”

*******

While Arthur was attending the orientation the three shady figures that followed him passed through the market going north for about twenty meters before they turned down an alleyway. The three passed through a few armed thugs who upon seeing their clothing let them pass. The three then found a small entrance that led into an old building that they quickly entered, contrary to the outside appearance the interior looked very well kept up with a full bar with many patrons all wearing similar armor and cloaks to the three.

The three quickly walked past the bar and went down a hallway just off to the side that had only a single door at the very end with a dark skinned human guard waiting outside.

“What business do you have with the boss?” The guard towered over even the humans standing at 6”4’, his eyes showed boredom as he eyed the three.

“We have a report to make.” One of the humans who turned out to be a woman spoke ignoring the guards glare that followed.