A cloud of dread hovered over the city as the rumors continued unimpeded throughout the entirety of the city, everyone from the lowliest of beggars to the highest of nobility knew of the apparent feelings between the mages, priests, and city guard. But those were not the only groups of people affected by the rumors, in fact it felt like everyone had something to say about how they understood the situation.

As Arthur walked through the city some of the common people would keep their distance recognizing the clothes he wore to be something only a rich man or a mage would wear. Some of the more brazen would whisper as he passed or even shout about how little they thought of him.

As Arthur got closer to the mages guild he noticed a significant decrease in the amount of people waiting in the lines. It was about half the average that would normally show up on any given day, and even that half looked far more nervous than any other time.

Arthur easily passed the shortened line and conducted his business with the alchemy club and turned his attention to his mailbox. Arthur would always take a look at the inside of his mailbox at the start of every week, and if he had time later in the week he would check as frequently as possible. But on this day he found a letter in an envelope with a red seal keeping it shut.

Arthur furrowed his eyebrows as he looked the envelope over, it looked very expensive and he could not think of any reason for someone to send a letter in such an expensive way. Regardless Arthur took the letter with him on his way to the library to take a look at the books now available to him, a proper apprentice ranked mage in the guild. While he had been apprentice ranked in the guild for a little over a week now he hadn’t had the time to actually take a look at the apprentice section of the library, so that made now quite a good time to do so.

Upon entering the library Arthur ignored the front desk and novice section and went straight towards the apprentice section. It easily had another fifty percent more books than the novice section despite the fact that the novice section had several copies of each book, and the topics that books ranged from were far more varied and more in depth than Arthur could have ever wished for. Selecting three books, one on more advanced exercises for the four evocations, one for more tier one spells to learn, and the last on more advanced alchemy recipes to try out.

But before Arthur could dig into his newfound wealth of knowledge he took out the letter addressed to him and tore off the seal to look at the contents. Inside was a single letter from the secretary of the king himself informing Arthur that he has a reward waiting for him inside of the royal treasury on behalf of the crown for his participation regarding the vampire cult.

Arthur sat at a nearby table for nearly five whole minutes just rereading that letter. ‘They’re a little late to be handing out rewards for that. That was months ago now, but the possibility of a reward for risking my life is too nice to turn down.’

And so Arthur returned the books to where he found them and started walking towards the royal treasury. Following the path he took the first time there Arthur quickly found himself at the front desks and presented his letter to the clerk there who told him to “Please take a seat, I will be with you in a moment.”

Finding an unoccupied bench nearby Arthur took a seat and waited, but almost half an hour passed and the clerk had returned, but not to help him. He was quite tempted to walk right up and ask her what the hold was when an elderly man in a black ornate robe walked up to him and asked if he was Arthur of Dom Badaher.

“I am, is there something you need?” Arthur looked the man up and down, while the man looked harmless. Something about the robe he wore gave him the feeling that wasn’t the case.

“You may call me Claudius, I am here to take you to the vault where your reward is being held. The regular clerks here do not have the authorization to open said vault, hence I personally asked the king to have the privilege of doing so.”

Claudius immediately turned and began walking towards one of the doors that led deeper into the treasury with Arthur following him. While it was a good explanation Arthur had the distinct feeling that Claudius was not telling the whole truth.

Arthur followed Claudius down past the first floor down to the second floor where he noticed that the style of the architecture became far more simplistic and devoid of colors. Each of the doors had strange glowing symbols visible as they walked by reminding Arthur of when he first put on his dwarven armor and the flesh golem blueprints.

Eventually Claudius led Arthur to a seemingly random room labelled 37. Using a small circular object Claudius touched the door and the lock audibly released and the glowing symbols dimmed. Claudius then entered the room where Arthur followed. Located at the end of the small room was a table with what appeared to be a staff of around two meters in length. The staff was made from a silvery metal with a small blue gemstone at the end and the sides surrounding it with flanges that were common on a type of mace known as a flanged mace.

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“That is your very own mage staff. I had to convince the king to reward you with one with all of your achievements thus far using them as an example of your loyalty to the kingdom and its people.” Claudius said, smiling as Arthur looked over the staff.

“That sounds very nice and all, but what does a mage staff do?” Arthur asked as he took the staff in his hands and began inspecting it in detail.

“A mage staff is able to cast a large assortment of common spells and the occasional complex spell depending on the quality of said staff. For a mage to have one is a symbol of their skill and dedication to their craft, for only a mage who is very skilled in enchanting or has done a great service can acquire one. This one can also function as a mace if it really comes down to it.” Claudius gestured to the flangs on the end of the mace as he finished his explanation.

Arthur continued to pour his eyes over the staff appreciating the skill of the person who created it. It was the perfect weight for him to carry around without becoming a burden, when he gave it a few practice swings he had great control over it and it was very sturdy and suitable as a weapon.

“You said that you convinced the king to have me rewarded with this, why?” Arthur, done with looking over the staff, finally asked Claudius.

Claudius took a deep breath before he spoke. “The kingdom has been in very short supply of good and helpful people for quite some time. That is part of the reason why the empire was able to beat us in the previous war just a few years ago. On top of that a portion of the more influential nobles have been opposed to allowing common born mages attain high ranks in the kingdom. They have been putting large amounts of pressure on the king and other institutions to keep commoners from achieving anything.”

Arthur remained silent, if what Claudius was saying was true then there were people out there in high positions in the kingdom actively trying to keep him down despite him not doing anything to deserve such treatment.

Claudius continued. “The idea that they could cause long term problems within the kingdom with their actions has simply been dismissed as the ideas of a fool, they think they can take on the empire themselves without the support of the people they rule over. They are wrong, and if they keep up with their actions they are going to drag the entirety of the kingdom with it. That is why I have been supporting people like you whether they be young or old.”

Arthur kept silent for another twenty seconds before he spoke again. “Not to be rude, but how exactly does this work?” Arthur asked as he turned to Claudius with the mage staff in his hands.

“You will need to imprint the staff with your mana, it basically amounts to putting some of your mana inside of it so that it recognizes it. There is also a manual that explains what all your staff can do along with instructions.” Claudius gestured to a small piece of paper sitting next to where the staff was.

“Do all enchanted items work this way, or is it just staves like this one?”

“Most enchanted weapons and some armors will require imprinting, but a good portion of armors and some accessory items might not. Those items typically have passive effects such as heat resistance or cold resistance.”

Happy with the answer and new weapon he received Arthur took the manual and began to place his staff in his dimensional bag for safe keeping, but he was interrupted by Claudius. “I would keep your new mage staff in your hands, it is a powerful symbol and tool for a mage to have. It would do you well to keep it outside your bag.”

***********

As it turned out Claudius was right about the staff, while a good portion of the common folk did not understand what exactly the mage staff was, they were able to recognize that it was very important from the silvery color of the metal and the glowing gemstone encrusted at the top. Those that did understand the importance were mostly mages and they just stared at him as if he was a living legend, some of the others were either nobles or wealthy commoners that had some understanding of the magical communities hierarchy.

Aside from the looks Arthur would receive as he walked, the trip towards the mages guild was normal and quiet, until he decided to take a shortcut through a few alleyways and stumbled upon a fight between a mage wearing grey robes and a few members of the city guard. Arthur could hear the mage shouting at the guards even from a good distance away and he did not sound like he would be stopping anytime soon, the guards on the other hand looked to be getting increasingly more annoyed by words of the mage.

Arthur began to walk toward the commotion using his staff to create a clicking as he did so. As he was only a few meters from the group all four of them turned to look at the source of the noise and saw a very annoyed looking mage with a silvery mage staff watching them. The first one to react was the mage who gave a deep bow and said “An honor to meet you master wizard. I hope we haven't bothered you on this fine day.”

The words the mage spoke reeked of decorum and high class unlike any mage Arthur had interacted with within the guild. While there are some mages of higher class or born into nobility they tend to lose that air of superiority very quickly or at least tone it down after long enough. This mage did not at all sound like he had been around any other mages for a full day.

Arthur only recognized one of the guards as Lar, the man who asked Arthur to teach his nephew some basic magic. ‘Something is off about this mage, the way he is acting is very out of the ordinary for a mage. I've passed several high ranking mages in the past but they have never said anything about bowing to them. Heck Calavia would most definitely say something if it was common in the guild.’

“Why are you fighting in the street, the rumors going around are bad enough, this only validates what those people are saying.” Arthur took a few steps towards the supposed mage keeping his staff out in front of him with one hand.

‘This is perfect, with a master wizard on my side the guards are certainly going to keep their mouths shut for the time being.’ “Why I was simply minding my own business carrying my note with me when these brutes ran into me and caused me to drop my notes into this puddle.” The mage held a book soaked with water as he gestured to a nearby puddle with his other hand.