"You should loot it, you did most of the work," Olivander said.

"You're the one who killed it," Burtrum said.

Olivander shrugged and set up a simple looting ritual. It would automatically remove valuables from anything that was dead. He did not want to skin the entire wyrm by hand.

The titanic sword he had summoned had dissipated as soon as he wanted it to, so working around the wyrm's nearly bisected corpse wasn't too much of a challenge.

"We can split it. But you have to carry it back for me,” Olivander said. “I just remembered I don’t have any bags.”

“You don’t have some fancy magical space you can store things in?”

“Technically, yes, but it requires an item to access, one I was unable to bring with me. It’s one of the reasons I’m going to Madareth — I have a spare.”

----------------------------------------

Desert Wyrm Scales

* Crafting material

* Dark scales with a sandy brown running throughout. Items crafted with these scales will have resistance to the sun’s harsh rays.

----------------------------------------

Desert Wyrm Fangs

* Crafting material

* Wicked fangs. They’re sharp and sturdy.

----------------------------------------

Desert Wyrm Heart

* Crafting material

* A powerful essence of wind and force.

----------------------------------------

Golden Bracer of Reflected Light

* Armor: Bracer

* Rarity: Epic

* Forearm protection that allows the user to cast a spell that was just cast against them but with an opposite inherent type. Active ability has a one day cooldown.

----------------------------------------

“Oh, that is a gem. Where did it find that,” Olivander said, looking over the bracer. It was smooth polished gold, the faint glow of enchantment barely visible, and only because of the low light conditions.

“I thought it was odd it could cast a spell. I’d never seen that before,” Burtrum said. He was still collecting the beat up sections of armor he had been wearing. “Bah, Zeke will have to reforge this entire set.”

“Zeke?”

“My son-in-law —married to my daughter, Helga. He was the one who told us about Fezzic. He’s a solid blacksmith, repairs my weapons and made me this armor.”

“Maybe he can do something with these?” Olivander said, handing over the crafting materials he had looted.

“Maybe Gregory will get a nice going away present.”

“If you want the crafting materials, I’m tempted to keep this bracer. I have a lot of magic, but I only have so many spells that I can cast reflexively. This would come in handy.”

Burtrum nodded his agreement. He shoved the scaly leather and the fangs into his pack with his busted armor. He placed the wyrm’s heart in with a little more care, not wanting to smash it.

Olivander put on his new bracer, a little sad that he couldn’t try it out. It would need to recover from the wyrm using it against Burtrum.

They went back to Olivander’s conjured speeders. Fezzic hadn’t woken up yet, so Olivander crafted a sidecar for him on his speeder.

“Is he going to be alright?”

“Yep, he’s all healed up already. The spell I used is quite a burden on the body’s stamina though. He’ll be asleep until tomorrow, I suspect."

They took their time heading back to the house. Burtrum had nearly run dry on mana, and could barely run his own speeder. When they arrived, they were greeted by a storm of questions. Olivander was about to speak when Burtrum waved them off, explaining in vague detail what happened, then excusing himself for bed. The others took the hint and Gregory made sure Fezzic and Olivander had comfortable places to sleep.

Gregory had given up his own room for Olivander. He studied the various nick-nacks scattered all over the room. A piece of rusty plate armor. A small trophy for runner up at the town talent competition. Olivander pulled out his small notebook for that.

“Find out Gregory’s talent show talent,” he said, writing the note. “That should be good.”

Gregory had multiple illustrations of Great Knights, standing proud over a battlefield, or in front of a fighting force. He clearly idolized his father and wanted to be a Great Knight himself. Currently, what he lacked in skill he made up for with enthusiasm. Olivander knew that enthusiasm would only take him so far. If the boy really wanted to be a Great Knight, he would need an expert hand on the wheel. Fortunately for him, Olivander was such a hand.

There was one last shelf that had some simple child's toys, and there was a portrait of a young girl. She reminded Olivander of Helena, and the portrait might have been of her as a little girl. It could also have been a portrait of a young Helga, Gregory’s sister whom he hadn’t met yet. He only lingered on it for a moment before turning back to his bed.

Olivander returned his book — he refused to call it a diary — to his magic library. What he had told Burtrum was true, he couldn’t access his regular storage space. But he also had an extra storage space tied to his Non-combat class, Greater Scholar.

----------------------------------------

Scholar’s Library

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

* Ability

* You have your own personal library in a separate dimensional space.

* You can store any number of books, and only books, in the library.

* You can retrieve a specific book by thinking about it.

----------------------------------------

Without anything else in the room to pique his interest, he went to sleep. He found Gregory’s bed to be superbly comfortable, and he drifted off, looking forward to starting a new adventure in the morning.

* * *

Gregory was sitting across the table from his father and Olivander, with Fezzic, having just woken up, sitting next to him.

“You want me to go with Olivander on an adventure?”

“Yes. If you really want to make something of yourself with a combat class, the things you’ll encounter around here just aren’t going to get the job done. You need to see the world and experience new challenges. Besides, this will get you away from all the negativity that those damn brats in town throw your way. Olivander has agreed to take you on and act as a mentor.”

“Why me? I’m sorry, Olivander, but you’re clearly a great wizard, you probably have students lined up to learn from you. I’m not even looking to learn much magic.”

“Your father and I have come to an arrangement,” Olivander said. He had woken up extra early to discuss some new ideas about payment he had come up with after sleeping on it. Burtrum had agreed to the terms wholeheartedly.

“And you’re not going to tell me what that arrangement is?”

Olivander and Burtrum shared a look.

“Best if we don’t,” his father said.

“Besides,” Olivander said, “I no longer have lines of students looking for tutelage, they found someone they seem to like better.” He tried to keep the resentment out his voice, but didn’t entirely succeed.

Timothy came out and dropped off a couple plates of breakfast. He saw Fezzic and went back for another plate.

Olivander dug into his breakfast with gusto.

“Where will we go?” Gregory asked.

Olivander just waved the question away, not looking up from a small mountain of bacon and eggs.

“Olivander had a route already planned from here. You’ll just be joining him,” Burtrum said, glancing at Olivander. “We can probably discuss it…after breakfast?”

Olivander, still not looking up, gave him a thumbs up.

Once they had all eaten, Timothy joining them after grabbing Fezzic some food, they continued the discussion.

“Our route,” Olivander said, pulling a small book from the air, “is going to take us from here all the way down to Mardareth.”

“Wow, that’ll take months,” Timothy said.

“It will. We’ll be training along the way, and probably just generally getting into trouble. I expect we’ll reach the city of bones in about six months.”

“I’ve never been away from home for anywhere near that long. Not even on vacation with the family,” Gregory said.

“It should be good experience for you then!” Olivander said.

“Now,” he continued, “we’ll make a few small stops, but our first major stop will be in Du’la’melio. They have a specific dungeon that will be an excellent experience, and I bet I can beat my old time.”

“Oh, the race dungeon. I should go back down there sometime. I haven’t been since I was a copper,” Burtrum reminisced.

“What was your time?” Olivander asked.

“Eight minutes ten seconds.”

“Wow, that is truly impressive for a copper. My best time is six minutes flat, but that was between silver and gold ranks.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but what kind of time do you think I’ll get?” Gregory asked.

“Hmm. If you challenged it as you are now, you would never finish, you’d just fail. By the time we get there? I think I’ll be able to whip you into shape enough to hit twelve, maybe eleven minutes. That’s a respectable time, mind you.”

“Wow, Dad, you must have been fast.”

“I was quicker back then. I didn’t have a Knight class, I was a Geomancer at the time, all speed and wisdom, hardly any strength to speak of.”

“Ohhh right. I forgot about that!”

Olivander looked through is notebook, tracing a finger down a page.

“Alright, dungeon aside, that’s our first major stop. I have the rough outline of the rest of the trip, but where we ultimately head is going to depend on you, Gregory.”

“I get to pick?”

“In a way. Depending on what classes you unlock, and what path you choose to follow, we can head in a few different directions.”

Olivander looked up from his book, his eyes landing on Fezzic.

“Actually, I completely forgot to ask. Fezzic, would you like to join us? I know we just met, but I wouldn’t turn down another traveling companion. Fighting and training would be optional. For you at least. Gregory doesn’t get a choice.”

“I appreciate you thinking of me, Olivander. And I never really got a chance to thank you for everything yesterday, so thank you for that. But I think I need a little less excitement in my life right now. Helena has already offered me a place on the ranch — a little house. I can run an alchemy shop out of there and open a market stall in town. I’m actually kind of excited about it.”

“That is just excellent. You will do a fine job. Remind me to leave you with a most excellent alchemy book from my library. You will want me to deposit it wherever you want to read it from, however, it is by far the largest book I have ever seen.”

“I would appreciate that, thanks Olivander. You know, I honestly thought you were a bit of an ass, but you’re alright.”

“Nothing cheers me up like a backhanded compliment,” Olivander said in a tone that didn’t sound sarcastic, which confused everyone.

“Back to business though! Now, Gregory. You’ve heard the outline of the plan, what do you say? It’s not set in stone until you agree to come with me.”

Gregory looked at his father, who nodded. Then he looked at Timothy.

“What do you think, brother? I’ve always trusted your advice.”

“I say go for it. It’s a great opportunity. I’m still trying to convince Mom to let me go with you.”

Gregory nodded to himself.

“Alright. I guess that settles it. Let’s go on an adventure, Olivander!”