Novels2Search
Cahokian Craftsman
Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Chapter 11

"I don't suppose we can just pretend that I'm crazy, and move past this?" Mikey said with somewhat hopeful eyes.

Luna merely looked at him with an petulant expression and said, “No. I won now give me my prize.”

"You don’t know me, I could be a complete nutcase in the real world!" he argued childishly.

“Nah your too nice,” Luna rejected his pitiful attempt to get out of answering her.

"I'm not actually! I've been told that I'm the worst kind of person by a lot of people!" he confessed in serious manner. It was true too, usually muttered by customers that had to leave his shop with empty wallets.

“I'm sure they just haven't gotten to know you,” she countered easily.

The small teen looked frustrated in her trust in him, "I constantly think of new was to take money from people."

“You're business oriented,” She brutally rejected.

"I rarely care about other people's feelings," Mikey continued.

“Better to be yourself than someone else,” She brutally rejected.

"I constantly sell regular items many times their actual worth,” Mikey continued.

“You’re good at sales,” She brutally rejected.

"I steal food from the school's cafeteria,” Mikey continued.

“You're resourceful,” She brutally rejected.

"I have little to no social skills that isn't related to business," Mikey continued.

“So you're shy,” She brutally rejected.

"My only friend is a temperamental rabbit," Mikey continued.

“I'm rather fond of rabbits,” She brutally rejected.

"-I'm responsible for the creation of the mana beast currently roaming the earth!" Mikey accidentally revealed.

"…Aww man," Mikey slapped a hand to his forehead at his blunder.

How is it possible that I keep letting my guard down around her. I should be scared out of my mind, but I don't. It's like she has this peaceful aura, like I know I'll be safe no matter what, he thought.

A giggle drew him from his thoughts, he turned to see luna covering her mouth, trying and failing to hold back her amusement. As if seeing his distraught face became to much she let out a deep full belly laugh while pointing at him.

After rolling on the ground for a short stint she was finally calm enough to say, “You didn’t create any mana beasts, what gave you that idea?”

“But my powder in the forest,” he said incredulously

Another small snicker escaped Luna's lips before she said, “Mana beasts have been around for millenia, they were soldiers in the demon and spirits armies way back when. Your powder is a great catalyst for making mana beasts but most of the mana beasts are just descendants of the ones from way back then. It'd take a whole lot of powder mixing with the environment before the cute little beasties started popping up spontaneously.”

“What about Ishtasa and the others?” Mikey asked in disbelief

“Aren't they just the cutest? I love the little cuties, since they already had the powder in their system, a little nudge and boom you got yourself the cutest mana beast you've ever seen.” Luna said while squealing like a school girl seeing her favorite animal in the wild.

Gulping back his nervousness Mikey couldn't help but ask, "How can you reach into the real world? I thought you said that you only had as much power as I gave you?"

“Yeah but you have always subconsciously thought of me as more powerful than yourself. It was even enough for me to gain partial control of this mindscape.” Luna said in an airy manner as if its the most obvious thing in the world.

She demonstrated this by waving her hand and making the walls disappear around them, including the door. They were now standing on the barren surface of the moon, the earth floating peacefully above them.

Mikey chuckled sarcastically, "I see. I should have known. It was my mistake."

Snapping her fingers, she made the walls appear once more, before extending an open hand in his direction.

Giving an air of defeat, the smaller teen landed on her hand and sat cross-legged, "I suppose there's no point in postponing it any longer."

“You may be funny but I'm super curious,” she said as if announcing her curiosity outweighed Mikeys ability to distract her.

"Alright, I'm ready. What did you want to know My Lady?" Mikey asked, already used to his favorite spirits shenanigans.

“How did you know the world could lose it’s mana without demons and spirits to keep it cycling?” Luna said with a glint of metal shining through the excited light in her eyes.

Mikey let out a sigh, "Oh boy. A hard one right from the start. I guess I should start from the beginning."

“The only way to begin is by beginning,” an obscure reference floated through the wind like it’s been there the whole time.

"… I suppose I should explain a couple things first." Standing up, he introduced himself, "I’m Mikey Anderson, and I’m from another version of this world."

With eyes of wide amazement Luna stared him down like a kid finding out their favorite toy could transform into a monster truck, still he continued, "As far as I can tell, I am the fusion of two people but, I don’t want to be either of them."

“Silly, Mikey is Mikey, how can you be copy of them when you are you. Its like me being Luna and not the Lunaalia from before my reformation.” Luna cheerfully said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Filing that important piece of information later, Mikey continued, "…Right? When I woke up I had the memories of my old world and later on the memories of this one.”

While Luna once again just stood there with ever eager eyes nodding along, she was stunned but she wanted to hear more. The only people she knew that could travel between dimensions were the respective leaders of the demons and spirits, the demon king and spirit queen. Seeing Mikey hesitate she prompted him by saying, “so thats where you learned of all this?”

"In a manner of speaking, yes. This person that I was, lived in a world similar to our own but very different in all the ways that matter. I don't suppose you know of a way for me to show you, My Lady? It would be far easier," he asked, seeing as she had the most control here.

Luna waved her empty hand once more and a large white canvas appeared in front of them before saying, “Just give it a little press and you’ll see what you want to show.”

Doing as he was told, Mikey placed a hand on the empty canvas and tried to bring up the memories he wanted to show her.

Immediately color began to bleed from its surface, forming the picture of a bustling street in the middle of Tokyo. Metal carriages were moving without horses. Tall structures made of glass and metal reached the heavens. Huge colorful billboards hung from buildings. People or all shapes and sizes were peacefully walked down the street with strange devices stuck to their faces.

Luna couldn't help but place a hand on the image, fascinated by this strange new world. It looked so utterly alien to her, yet there was a certain kind of underline beauty in it.

"My world had many fictional stories with a lot of common points. These points woild be known as story tropes and our version of this world seems to have a ridicoulous amount of them packed into it ," Mikey continued, unaware of the Spirit's mesmerized look.

Another image began to emerge from the canvas, replacing the previous one. This one showed the cartoon-ized illustration of a demon fighting a spirit.

She was a little disappointed saying, “These drawings are very basic.”

"I doubt anyone could capture your dazzling beauty My Lady," he complimented her shamelessly, "And these stories were made for the entertainment of children, usually with a lesson rolled in to help teach or give meaning to the many hours they spent writing it. Cahokia doesn’t seem to have these either prefering illision magic or word of mouth stories.."

He showed her different pictures of common tropes that he saw in this world.

"Most of the information I have, I got from these memories," Mikey explained.

Looking at him closely, she began to widen her eyes even more and say like a little kid in exaggerated amazement, “Then you know the future?'

This time the smaller teen shook his head causing the Great Spirit to look away in embarrassment not too dissimilar from a certain rabbit, "Unfortunately no. I can only guess according to other stories, like I think there's gonna be a protagonist that will cause a magic revolution while the demons try to attack again due to some bad politics. The City-State will get destroyed and repaired at some point. The scariest thing to be honest, I'm unsure of will hapen since I’m an unknown factor."

“Does that worry you?”, the spirit asked curiously.

Shrugging his shoulders, he said with a grin that didn’t reach his eyes, “I could just be crazy.”

Luna shook her head before saying with a sincere smile, “No, your just a little turned around.”

“When I was the old Lunaalia, I thought of myself as the world and like any mother I could see what was gonna happen in the world just like a parent who loves their child can guess what they’re going to do before they do it. It was heartbreaking to see the war that would have wiped out the spirits, demons, and many humans begin to unfold so old Lunaalia sacrificed herself to separate the two putting the demons in their own realm, Lafta, and the spirits in theirs, Reihelm.” Luna revealed to Mikey, before continuing, “I don’t know exactly why she chose to separate them, after all I’m not her, but I’d like think it was her way of trying to help despite knowing that people will do as they will. Humanity will, that they might find joy.”

“So I should just try living my life without focusing on trying to predict the future?” Mikey asked confused by what Luna said.

“Not really, it’ll make sense when it needs too.” Luna said back to her normal jitter bug style of living.

Mikey just looked at the odd butterfly of a person and said, “So what do I do now?”

“Help people by selling things. Which by the way I was gonna give you something for helping so many people with your products.” She said casually entrenching him more into her debt.

Mikey meanwhile was stunned. He had never even considered the possibility that Luna would give him a power. Already his mind was cycling through various powers that would be extremely useful.

Space magic would allow him to store infinite things his private dimension without worry of it getting stolen, plus instant teleportation.

Nature magic would help him grow the plants for his products and reduce the cost by 96%.

Crystal production magic was basically the same thing as printing out money.

Creation magic in general would be the most useful for his crafting.

Yet despite all of the profit he would be able to make from these abilities, there was a certain power from a certain show in the back of his mind that refused to go away.

Luna was able to see the various abilities flash in his mind, their connection having grown stronger. What amused her the most was that he had no desire to use those abilities to harm others, despite that being their design, and only thought of using them to help. She couldn't help the wistful smile as she mentally thought of how he was so much like him.

The man that the old Lunaalia cared for so deeply the even this version of her can’t forget him.

The room began to shake as she let time flow normally.

Looking at the room in confusion, Mikey saw her giving him a mysterious smile, "Huh?"

"It would seem that you have chosen your gift. But now, it would be best for you to wake up. Until we meet again Mikey Anderson."

Mikey wasn't even given enough time to respond as the world vanished into darkness.

Mikey woke up.

"Wait!" he yelled as he stood up from his bed and got his feet tangled up in the blanket causing him to fall on the floor.

Ishtasa, who had gotten used to his weird wake ups, glared at him with one of her crimson eyes before burying deeper into the mess of blankets where the harsh rays of sun couldn't reach her.

Getting up he headed to the bathroom and began to inspect himself, trying to see if there was some notable change.

Mikey lamented as he looked at the white sun mark located on his right shoulder. "Now you wanna show your face mr. survival instinct, where were you when I was selling to the Sovereigns Wife."

The power he had been thinking about was the Sun Mark that was given to the protagonist of his favorite story. It's ability to heal people on contact was something that Mikey had desperately yearned for.

He did have his healing items and medical spells, but they had their own limitations. Either preparation time or mana requirements or deep understanding of the innnerworkings of the human body. On top of all that there was the possibility that they didn’t have the power or capability to regrow missing body parts or cure diseases.

The Sun mark didn't have that problem since it was able to regrow Scarecrows eye and stabilize Guy after he used the Legendary Gates. Mikey, being the pragmatic that he was, wanted this ability on the off chance that he ever lost an important body part or one of his experiments went real bad.

It was a great ability; the only problem was that he couldn't make money off it. This was a healing ability after all, so he wanted to keep it a secret for as long as possible and only use it as his final trump card.

“My mana reserves nearly doubled in size. I take it back, this is pretty cool!" Mikey said with an excited smile on his face, as he looked closer at his mana veins surrounding the mark and leading to the rest of his body.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Looking at the mirror again, he noticed something he missed, "Hmm, did I get better looking?"

The rough sjin that had been the bane of many cuddle sessions for Ishtasa had smoothed out to be baby soft along with most of his features. Now he looked more like the androgynous love interest from a very specific genre of TV.

The young teen frowned at his reflection, which looked closer to a cute pout, "I’m supposed to be a rough manly man. How can anyone take me seriously if they think their talking to a small child!"

He chose to ignore the hypocracy of that statement, "Gonna need a mask or better yet a talisman."

Getting a monkey talisman from his space ring, he brought it to his head, and in a flash the lovable dough ball on legs was back. The familiar belly and slanted fox eyes brought a smile to his face. Then just to be safe he got some of those fake Kung-fu Master eyebrows and glued it to his face. Seeing the glue in his hand and the fake goatee on the table, he knew there was only one option left.

Taking a quick look in the mirror, he saw his eyebrows that now brushed his shoulders and the dark brown goatee glued to his upper lip to look like the world's bushiest charlie chapman, he nodded satisfied.

"There, now no one will be able to recognize me.My deviousness knows no bounds! Ishtasa pull the lever! References aside , the last thing I want are assassins in my shop …unless they are there for business of course," he said.

It could use a few more touch ups but he could probably pull of that whole kung-fu master look. He could claim that his small size was because he got that old person disease, which causes people to shrink. He could be very persuasive when he wanted to.

He put the limit on the talisman for a few days just to be safe.

Seeing as he wasn't going to get anymore sleep, the now new and improved Chubbasaurus Rex of a Mage student began to prepare for the test that awaited him. The entire thing was supposed to consist of a written test, and a practical test. They were told to pack for a two-day trip but Mikey was bring along everything he owned, including enough weaponry and armor to supply an army.

He walked to the reinforced aquariums he used as habitats and took off the sheet that was covering them. Inside were five strange looking animals. These were the mana beasts that had tried to get his mana dust like Ishtasa and now after some scuffles they would trade resources for portions of the dust.

Using his newly acquired skill from mana meshing with Ishtasa, Mikey reached out to them trying to sense what they're feeling or better yet teach them to speak.

The first of the beast was a green bipedal lizard named Sparta, from how his frontal charge reminded Mikey of a certain movie. It was a first-level mana beast, with chameleon-like skin that allowed him to blend in and the best part was the skin retained the invisibility properties after being shed. Mikey was gonna have himself an Invisibility cloak just like another wizard.

Next was Dewy, a giant butterfly capable of send slashes of wind with each wave of her massive wings. Unfortunately for her bright green patterns didn't blend in quite as well when she tried sneakily crawling across the ceiling to get his dust. Fortunately for Mikey she was able to produce a special type of silk from her mouth that was mana conductive even when interwoven with steel thread. He had already started to collect spindles of the stuff, and with a few more experiments he would be able to make some clothing from the silk.

The next one looked like some kind of chubby prehistoric elephant, if it was only a foot tall. Its name was Stumpy and yes it is super adorable.

More importantly it can shoot seeds out of its back that upon contact with soil rapidly grow into veins that will entrap the target. Mikey had lost a few bags of powder to the vines before figuring out how to get sound them and communicate with Stumpy.

Mikey walked over to Stumpy's cage and opened the lid. Quickly giving the cute little guy a few pats so he wasn’t startled while he ate his slice of watermelon like a heffalump, he quickly grabbed the seeds that had grown on his back.

After collecting the seeds, Mikey moved to the next aquarium tank, and unlike the others, this one had an actual fish.

Sally the mutated rainbow trout, and no Mikey did not name her Sally because he originally thought she was a salmon. He just thought it was a really cool name. No, you’re in denial.

Anyway she had shiny scales that reflected rainbows like bismuth. The fish scales were actual metal though, and not even his strongest knife could penetrate it. In the water she was force to be reckoned with as she would smash headfirst into any competition.

Yet despite her ultimate defense she was still just a fish. When she tried headbutting Mikey for his powder she hopped out of the water and he simply waited until she suffocated before transferring her to a tank. He had discovered that her scales were made up of a special metal that when introduced to certain mana elements would take on those same properties. He had decided to call this metal, Koi Steel or K-Steel.

The only problem was that it had already been a few weeks since he taken some of her scales to make himself some armor and weapons, yet they still didn't show a sign of growing back. Mikey had given her high grade food and medicine out of guilt but nothing seemed to work.

Pulling the sleeve of his right hand up Mikey wanted to test his new Sun Mark and hopefully regrow her lost scales.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to focus on using his new power, and was pleasantly surprised when his hands began to glow green without him having to make a spellform.

Sticking his right hand into the fish tank Mikey placed a hand on Silvy's back where there was a patch of scale-less skin. He channeled the new mana into her and was shocked at what came next.

A piece of his mana veins ripped off and transferred over to Sally. He had to move quickly taking his suddenly malleable mana veins to cover the leak and stop the outpoor of mana.

"What the heck! " Mikey shouted out in concern before looking at Silvy. He was just in time to see the last of her metallic scales grow back. "So that's what it is. I can use the Mark to heal but it takes a portion of my reserves as the price. I knew it was too good to be true."

Placing the lid back on Silvy, who was now swimming happily, Mikey moved on to the last of the mana beasts.

This next lid was special, as the reinforced aquarium had a steel cage inside it that had been melted into place. This was perhaps the most dangerous mana beast that Mikey had meet so far, not counting Ishtasa.

This is the only mana beast in the set that hadn’t agreed to work with him but instead focused on attacking him at every opportunity. Over the last week she seemed calm enough to negotiate with even if Ishtasa didn’t think it was worth it.

The sole occupant of this cage was a small fluffy dog, a corgi to be precise.

He glared at it but it only tilted its head cutely to the side, the various chains holding it in place rattled with the motion. It’s cuteness being used as a weapon but Mikey knew better than to let her go especially after the last time.

She is a Second-level mana beast meaning she had consumed enough powder to put a second layer on her mana crystal giving her more abilities. She was the only Second-level Mikey had seen besides Ishtasa who had just gained her second layer.

Tiny as he called her, was able to transform into one of those giant guardian lion that looked remarkably close to those found in front of Chinese temples, what westerns called foo dogs. Her fur was a blazing red color with golden curls on her head and tail. She had hard dragon like scales along her underside protecting her exposed stomach, with eyes made out of green jade.

He was able to trap her after her third sneak attack in return for a few injuries that put Ishtasa on bed rest for a whole week.

She was conniving, cruel and openly malicious. Which is why she’d be perfect for the store if he could just get her to stop attacking him.

"Are you going to behave?" Mikey said in a threatening tone.

Tiny gave a playful bark then spoke out in a teasing voice that sounded like a young girl, "I might~"

Looking unamused Mikey began to place back the tarp covering her prison, "The I guess you'll stay in the cage for another day?"

"Wait!" She yelped.

Raising an eyebrow at her, Mikey began to smile, "Yes?"

"…Fine. I'll behave." She said, while playing up her down cast eyes.

"So you want to get out of the cage?" Hook.

"I want to get out of the cage!" She barked.

"You'll follow my every order?" Line.

"I'll follow all your orders!" She barked.

"You'll wear the collar?" Sinker.

"Back in the cage then-" Maybe not a Sinker.

"Fine! I'll wear the stupid collar!" Tiny shouted in panic.

Sinker.

"Good," Mikey said before taking the lid off of her cage and retrieving a small necklace from his ring's inventory that was made out of white beads and animal fangs.

Having its mana veins strengthened and two being filled it was an MMM with some considerable strength. It’s ability allowed it to bind a willing wearer, stopping them from harming the one who put it on. A sort of just in case of emergency to stop Tiny from killing them while they slept.

Mikey wasn't taking any chances as he activated the collar. Immediately the necklace came undone as the individual beads glowed white and flew toward the Corgi's neck where they joined together again.

"Huh? Wait! What was that?" Tiny shouted, not knowing what had just happened.

"That was insurance," Mikey retorted as he began to release her restraints.

It wasn't even a second after he finished her last binding that Tiny chose to attack as she leaped at his neck, ready to rip it out.

She didn't get far as before she could even close the distance, her small body was hit with a massive pull of gravity, sending her crashing into the ground. She felt like the gravity had increased by 15 times its usual amount and was slowly increasing the more she tried to resist it.

"So it does work, that's good," Mikey said with a superior smirk as he looked down at the struggling dog.

With a mental command he dissipated the pressure on her body, allowing her to get back up.

"Sit." he said.

Tiny was forced to the ground once more.

"I suggest you don't try to attack me again, you little fuzzball," Mikey finished before letting the small dog nurse her bruised pride.

While Tiny began to explore her new surroundings, Mikey began to make some breakfast.

"Pee on anything and I'll have you spayed," the Jiggling jello salesman said without looking back as he flipped a pancake in the air.

Tiny growled, seeing as her plan for payback got seen through so easily, she lowered her leg.

Ishtasa woke up around this time, and after a brief scuffle with Tiny she sat reluctantly on the small kitchen table.

Mikey placed plates of pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash-browns, and sausages on the table with a jug of orange juice. All of the ingredient had been placed in the fermentation tank, meaning that not only would the food be delicious, but it was also had additional benefits like restoring mana or increasing reserves for a short time. The food smelled so good it acted like the smell of a pie cooling on the windowsill in a cartoon, drawing in anyone around as if theywere floating on air.

Mikey set two seats, which were immediately taken up by Ishtasa and Tiny. Clicking his tongue at the canine, he easily picked her up and set her on the ground before taking his seat across from Ishtasa.

"Hey, wait! What about me? Where's my food?" she barked in outrage.

Mikey pointed to the small bowl on the ground that was filled with dog food, "You don't get to eat on the table."

"What about her?! Why does she get to eat there then?!" Tiny protested as she pointed one of her small paws at Ishtasa.

Ishtasa, who's cheeks were bulging out with food, looked down condescendingly at Tiny as she slowly took another bit of sausage. The bunny driving the point in with all the sudtlty of a rusty nail.

She was a very expressive bunny and she tended to hold grudges against those who put her in the infirmary for a week.

Mikeyignored the byplay and said, "She earned her right to eat with me. You haven't. Now eat your food."

Tiny looked angrily at the brown mess on her plate before taking a small sniff and reluctantly taking a small nibble. Immediately her ears perked up as she began to take larger bite and then she had her whole face in the dog food, with her tail happily wagging behind her.

MIkey let a knowing grin spread across his face. Of course the dog food was delicious, he had specially prepared itusing the fermentation tank and choice cuts of meat and vegetables minced together. It may appear unappealing but it was all apart of his 12 step plan to take over the pet food market by making the food so tasty they could never go back to the normal sludge they called meals before. Letting out a short maniacal laugh which Ishtasa ignored with way too much practice, Mikey praised himself for his devious sales abilities.

Seeing Tiny chowing down, Mikey got a plate full of food and walked over to his shrine. He placed the food in the offering space and gave a bow.

Looking up, he was surprised to see that the food was gone and in their place was a new talisman and a pink bandana.

He picked up the items and immediately looked at their information.

The talisman was a fully writen out fireball spell. She must have taken inspiration from his stories with Madam chaskas bodyguards to make it for him.

"Oh? This is the first offensive talisman she has given me. Is she trying to say something with this?" Mikey commented.

The bandana having most of its veins filled being the second most strengthened object he has seen, only behind the mask from before, it was indestructible and more importantly Luna made it for him so he had to wear it. If only to show his appreciation.

"And of course, there's a catch," Mikey said before tying the bandana around his forehead despite it being pink.

This must be some type of test to see if I am as loyal as I claim to be, he thought. When in reality Luna just tholught it was a pretty color.

Mikey threw a knife behind him, preventing Ishtasa from stealing food off his plate. Again.

After quickly finishing breakfast, Mikey had ran to the Wolffriend veterinary clinic, to have Tiny registered as his pet and also as his Mage conpanion like Ishtasa.

After briefly been mobbed by a pack of dogs that had sensed the smell of the pet food, Mikey was able to meet with Ana.

"Okay, just sign here, and that should do it," the young vet said as she placed the paperwork in front of Mikey, who began to read it. "So what's with the new look?" she asked, specifically wondering why he had a fake mustache, long eyebrows and a pink bandana.

"I'm trying to keep my Mage identity and my Merchent identity seperate. Can’t hunt someone down if no one knows what they look like in the first place. I got the idea from this one Third-level mage, I think his name was Scarecrow or something," he responded without looking up from the papers and then began to sign them.

Looking skeptical, Ana chose to focus her attention on the Corgi sitting on the examination table. It was clearly smart from the way that it was inspecting the room, and from the scans she had made, it had Second-level mage reserves just like Ishtasa. She wasn't sure where the small Mage School student was getting these weird pets, but she was starting to get concerned.

He was a sweet kid, if a little greedy, in her opinion. She didn't want him to get into too much danger if possible.

"Alright, that shoulf be all of them. Oh hey, Ana do you mind testing out some stuff for me?" Mikey said as he took out a few cans of his pet food from his ring.

Ana stared at the cans with a weird look."So I’m gonna take a shot in thje dark and say that’s not armor?"

The now overly large lad-imus maximus shook his head, "Nope, it's this new food I'm experimenting on."

He opened the lid to one of the cans, and immediately a fragrant aroma leaked out.

Ana felt her mouth water, so even without Mikey prompting her, she scooped out a pinch and placed it in her mouth. She was shocked by how tasty the brown paste could be.

. "Damn, this is amazing Mikey. While the appearance might be lacking, the taste is out of this world." Ana smiled as she began to take bigger scoops.

"…Ana?" Mikey said cautiously.

"What?" Ana replied oblivious as she focused on the tasty snack in a can.

"That's dog food. I was going to ask if you could give it to some of your dogs to see if they liked it." Mikey said letting the hammer drop and freezing Ana inplace as she processed what he said. With only one way out she tried to preserve her dignity by hiding the half-eaten can behind her. This method was didn’t quite work because she was still eating the dog food.

"Still taste better than the ration bars, I guess," she said while munching on another bite.

"…You know what, I'll just leave these here. I needed to head to the Mage School anyway? You can tell me the results next time." He said slowly backing away from the lady knowingly eating dog food.

"Yup, have fun." Ana responded with a half-hearted wave of her hand.

Without another word, Mikey left 10 cans of his new product behind and made their way to the exam site.

The trio walked into the nearly empty school feeling calm.

The First-level mage exam for the graduating class was yesterday, so the official school year had ended.

Today were the First-level mage exams for the reserves.

More than 700 First-level mage hopefuls would take the test today. These numbers weren't only made up of these years class, but also students from previous years that hadn't made the cut.

The test could only be taken a maximum of four times before you weren't allowed to anymore. You could take the test at any time, but only before you turned 18. Once you turned 18 and were still considered an Mage School student, you were put into a desk job until you worked off your contract.

So not only was Mikey supposed to compete with his classmates, but also others that had experience taking this exam. They no doubt had already prepared for everything, with plenty of additional spells they learned since graduating.

Still, Mikey was not so easily intimidated, he would make pass this test, get his license, buy the land, sign that book deal, and open his shop, and not even Luna would stop him.

He arrived at his assigned classroom and saw that despite it being so early, nearly half the seats were taken. Most of the students were at least a few years older than him. Some turned to give him a passing glance before doing a double take when they saw his ridiculous outfit. He had gone with the fat old Kung-fu Master look. Some snorted at his appearance while others ignored him.

He took a seat in the back. Ishtasa laid on his head while Tiny began to sleep under his seat.

As time went on, the room began to slowly fill in with students. Most had tried the whole badass look by slamming the door open and glaring into the room, but then they would be thrown off when they saw Mikey, leaving them dumbfounded. You would too, if you saw a Chonky Boyo whose feet didn't even touch the floor, wearing eyebrows that reached his shoulders, the fakest mustache possible and a white rabbit on their head sitting in a room full of serious mages.

Mikey ignored all of the stares with practiced ease.

Get ready everyone, I won't hold anything back. I'll crush every single one of you if I have to, Mikey declared mentally as he stared at all of those in the class that were his competition.

"I like your beard." a voice said from his side.

Looking to the side, Mikey saw a bespectacled girl that looked to be 16 years old. She had pale blond hair tied into two pigtails and dressed in purple overalls.

"Mikey Anderson," he said offering his hand.

She smiled and took his hand, "Cherry Galihai."

Mikey could sense her honest personality and great style sense just from her first sentence.

Alright, maybe not her but everyone else is going down, Mikey thought.

He didn't have much time to think more on it before the door was slammed open and a man wearing a Third-level mage vest walked inside and gave them a look. His face immediately lost it's intimidating expression when he saw Mikey's getup.

Remembering what he was supposed to do, he coughed into his fist and opened his mouth to speak, "Alright everyone take your seats. We will begin the written exam in a few short moments."

The game was afoot.

Not a leg.

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