It took me a total of 6 days to learn how to cast summon. That moment was one of the most defining of my entire life.

On the fifth day, 7 students managed to successfully cast the spell. Now that over a quarter of the class had managed to cast it, the pressure was starting to build for the rest of us. Following Mason’s advice, I tried to feel that connection with the spirit- I think I felt something, but maybe that’s just me kidding myself. What I do know is that halfway through the sixth day, one of those connections that I had been trying to grasp onto suddenly burst into being.

It lasted less than a second, but during that second, I could feel that the spirit was mine to use. But then it passed, and I was left with nothing. Still though, forming that connection is something you only need to learn once- it wasn’t hard to recreate. Following Mr. Donnel’s instructions, I worked to hold the connection for longer.

The academy gave us an off day once every week. I had been planning to just relax in my room, maybe practice a little magic. But those plans were cut short when I heard a knock on the door.

“Who's there?” I asked as I opened the door, still half asleep.

“Who else would it be?” It was Arnav.

“Oh. I thought you guys would be doing your own thing today. Why come here?”

"Me and Chris decided to explore the city today, maybe look at some shops. You wanna come?”

“Sure, why not?”

And thus we set off into the city. None of us actually had enough money to buy anything, but it was still fun to just walk around and look at stuff. The first store we tried to visit was a fancy-looking clothing store.

“Wow, these are some pretty nice clothes in here!” Arnav exclaimed while feeling one of the shirts.

Feeling it myself, I was forced to agree. “Yeah, you’re right. This is way nicer than anything I could get back in Windale!”

It was Chris who pulled us back to reality. “Alric, it’s also ten times more expensive than anything in Windale, I’m sure.”

I took a look at the price tag. “150 atlu for a shirt!? How is that possible?” I gasped, prehaps louder than I should have.

I think it was then that the shopkeeper confirmed that we were not going to be buying anything. “Hey! If you aren’t going to buy anything, please leave this store.” She shouted. Not wanting to get into any trouble, we left.

“Ok, so let’s agree that we should avoid all the fancy shops, that sound good?” Arnav asked us.

“Yeah, definitely. I could buy over an entire month’s worth of food for that much money!” I agreed.

It took us a while, but eventually we found a weapons shop that didn’t look insanely costly. Inside, there were multiple racks of equipment, ranging from swords to armor. The owner didn’t look overjoyed that we were in his shop, but he also didn’t kick us out, which I counted as an improvement.

The three of us separated as we walked in, each doing their own thing. I personally went to look at some swords in the front of the shop. Each of them was made of steel, and looked very menacing. Prices ranged from 150 to 500 atlu per piece. It was hardly unreasonable, though it wouldn’t be of my concern for a while. As it was, I could probably handle some of the smaller swords on display, though it was clear that most swords on sale were meant for much larger bodies than what I had at the time.

Not long after we had entered the shop, Arnav called us to the back, sounding very excited. The equipment here were all under glass cases, and looked much cooler.

Stolen story; please report.

“Look at these swords! They actually have cores!” Arnav said excitedly, gesturing at one of the cases. The sword didn’t look all that special, except for a bright yellow gemstone in its hilt.

“You mean the gemstone in its hilt? What’s so special about it?” I asked, genuinely confused.

Chris and Arnav looked at me with puzzled expressions.

“You’re the son of a blacksmith and you seriously don’t know about magic cores?” Chris asked.

“I lived in a small town! We barely had magic at all, let alone ‘cores’ or whatever.” I defended myself.

“I guess that makes sense, though it's still surprising. Well, magic cores are the cores harvested from monsters. The lowest quality ones are red, followed by yellow, white, blue, and purple. They hold magic that can be harnessed by equipment, like that sword over there. I'd bet that that sword probably has some special quirk to it, like being extremely light or something." Chris explained.

"My family had one of those, but only my oldest brother was allowed to wield it- I’m so jealous of him.” Arnav added.

“Oh, alright. That's pretty cool, thanks for explaining.”

“Well, now you know. And yeah, it’s definitely awesome. One day, if I become a successful mage or something, I’m going to buy myself some magic armor.” Said Chris.

The price tag on the sword read 700 atlu. “Well, good luck.” I told Chris. If he was able to get through school and survive the army, he might just be able to achieve that goal.

Eventually, just staying in that shop started to feel awkward. We decided to leave while it was still on our own terms.

The last shop we visited was a wand store. We had been walking back to the academy when suddenly one of the shops caught Arnav’s attention.

“Hey, what’s up with that store over there?” He asked.

The shop in question looked significantly older than everything around it.

“Should we go check it out?” I asked.

“Sure.” Said Chris.

An old shopkeeper, maybe around 60, greeted us as we walked in.

“Good afternoon! Will you be buying or just looking today?” He asked us.

“Uh- just looking.” Said Arnav.

“Okay. Well, the cheaper wands are in the front, and as you move toward the back they get more and more high quality. Hope you enjoy.”

“Come'on, let’s go check out the good stuff!” Said Arnav, moving toward the back. I decided to follow him.

Around three-quarters of the way to the back, the wands started shifting from wood to materials from monsters. The last wooden one I saw was from a godswood tree, with a mana conductivity rating of 150. Reaching the very back of the shop, Chris and Arnav both froze in place.

“There's no way…” breathed Chris, while Arnav remained frozen in place in front of a wand.

The bewitching wand’s plaque said that it was from a wyvern, with conductivity 395. Unfortunately, I had never heard of Wyverns before, and was forced again to ask Arnav and Chris.

“Wow, you really did live out in the country, didn’t you?” Arnav remarked. “Well, no matter. You’ve heard of dragons, right? Just think of wyverns as a slightly smaller dragon, and you’ll get the right idea.”

“Cool!”

“Yeah. All the stories about great heroes have the heroes fight a wyvern before killing the dragon or something cool like that. You should really go find some of those stories in the library.”

“I’ll do that.”

It was then that the shopkeeper walked over. Arnav asked the question that was on all of our minds. “Hey shopkeep, how much does this wand cost?”

It really was a curious thing. All the other wands in the shop had price tags, except the ones in the very back, which had no tag on them.

“Well,” said the shopkeeper, smiling- “you can’t really put a price tag on these, since it varies from person to person. What most people don’t realize is that high-level wands have a mind of their own, and if you tried to keep one away from someone it liked, it wouldn’t turn out well at all.”

A customer walked in, stopping the shopkeeper from saying any more.

I touched the wand. I don’t know what I was expecting, but there was no response. It just felt like any other wand. I was slightly disappointed, but I shrugged it off- it wasn’t like I was expecting anything anyways.

We looked around some more, but the Wyvern wand was definitely the best wand there, as no other wand even reached a 350 conductivity rating.

As we were walking out, I decided to ask the shopkeeper a question that had been on my mind.

“Mr. Shopkeeper, you must’ve realized that none of us would be able to buy anything here, right? Why’d you still let us stay?”

“Oh, now that’s an easy question to answer. It’s because you never know where life will take you, and I firmly believe that anyone, even you, can become anything. Who knows? Maybe you’ll end up as king someday, and then I’d be really glad I did this now, wouldn’t I?”

“Ha! Me being king? I sure wish. But thanks for the support! I’ll find a way to pay it back someday.”

“Glad I could help.”