“Frederick, someone is looking to hire a novice mage to become their tutor for beginner magic.”

Frederick was staying at a run-down inn near the slum area in the city of Leminthor. He was eating barely edible food from the inn’s kitchen but unfortunately, that was all he could afford right now. He looked up at his warrior friend who had returned from the adventurer’s guild looking for a job.

“Did you even find a job for yourself?” Frederick asked Martel, his friend he met on the road.

“Yeah. I and Lucy will join a caravan as guards heading to Tiande. I just saw a post framed in gold looking for a novice mage and I immediately hurried over here to tell you or else others might take it.”

Frederick was not worried about the post being taken by somebody else since there were currently few mages in Leminthor and he was the only one who was a novice. Normally, mages had a prestigious reputation and were sought after by adventurer or mercenary groups but because he could only cast a few cantrips, he earned little coins and his reputation of being useless was already circulating among adventurers causing him to not be able to join a party.

He was already twenty-eight years old but he felt like his power was not increasing at all. He did manage to scrape enough coins and recently purchased a first-level spell Cure Wounds. He was hoping that learning that spell would allow him to join adventurer parties but after a couple of days of studying, he was still unable to imprint the spell on his mind, indicating that he still lacked the power to memorize first-level spells.

Every time he tried to memorize Cure Wounds it was causing him pain but Frederick persisted since it was the only way to increase his level. His plan was once he learned Cure Wounds, he would then join an adventurer party and earn enough coins to purchase a second first-level spell and continue doing so until he was able to purchase a second-level spell but knew that it would take time.

The critical problem that he was facing was his age. He was already too old but he couldn’t just give up on magic. The moment he felt mana running in his veins and the moment he cast his first cantrip which was Gust, a spell that allowed him to summon a gust of wind, he was hooked.

“Framed in gold? Does that mean that the client paid a premium for the advertisement?” Frederick asked Martel.

“Yes, and the note said that the client would pay a lot of coins to the tutor.”

“When was it posted?

“Two days ago.”

Frederick immediately ran to the adventurer’s guild even though the sun was already setting. With the amount of coins promised by a rich client, even intermediate wizards would be tempted to take up the post.

When he arrived at the guild, Frederick was glad to see that the post was still up and that meant that no one had taken up the job yet. He went and reported to the counter that he was interested in taking up the job but then he needed to prove to the guild his capabilities. After casting three cantrips to show his status as a novice mage in front of three guild officers, he was then told where the client was staying.

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Frederick was informed that the client was a well-known powerful wizard, which startled him.

“Why did they want a novice wizard as a tutor then?”

The guild officers said that they had no idea but then again as long as the client was paying good coins why would they concern themselves with the reason and Frederick agreed with them.

The inn that Frederick’s future client was staying at was an expensive one not far from being a high-class inn where nobles stayed. Only rich merchants or adventurers could afford to stay at such an inn and when he heard the attendant who was leading him that the client rented a whole suite, which confirmed the fact that they were very rich.

When Frederick saw Anton casting his Fire Ball spell and controlled it to hover above the room to light up the surroundings, he knew that his new client was a powerful wizard but he didn’t know what to think of the explanation that Anton’s magic was some sort of bloodline magic and that he wanted to learn regular magic. Regardless, it was just him teaching Anton and his sister the arcane language which was simple enough and when he talked to Anton’s father regarding the compensation, he agreed immediately since the amount he would earn in a month tutoring the two kids was equivalent to coins he would earn in a year.

Frederick decided to stick with Anton and his family when he saw the young man repairing dilapidated items into new ones since that meant that the family had the means to become insanely wealthy. The fact that Anton also had the capability of repairing and recharging magical artifacts meant that they would become nobles soon.

Sticking with Anton’s family meant that Frederick would soon have plenty of coins to further his power as a wizard since he would be able to purchase potions to increase his mana and spellbooks to increase his magical repertoire. His new plan was to keep tutoring the kids and at the same time learn more spells so the moment that Anton and his sister didn’t need any more tutors of his level, he would become powerful enough as a wizard that Anders would retain him.

During their travel to the merchant city of Ruandelle, Frederick thought that he would die since Ander’s caravan was facing an army of monsters but then he saw that Anton was not truly a regular mage but a god.

Federick saw the young man fly towards the monster while surrounded by some sort of magical aura making him look divine. Then Anton summoned flaming meteors from the heavens that slammed into the army of monsters. Not only that, the powerful mage cast a freezing blizzard in the middle of the army that caused the monsters to freeze and shatter. Anton then summoned an orb of freezing death that exploded at the front of the army of monsters causing them to freeze and shatter as well.

At that moment, Frederick saw the epitome of what a war wizard archmage looked like and hoped that even if he were old and toothless, he would experience that kind of power. It solidified his desire for magic and knew that he wouldn’t even think of straying from his chosen path. He was full of desire and envy while looking at Anton decimating the monsters. The desire for power and envy that a young man like him already achieved the ultimate goal that Frederick was dreaming of.

Frederick knew that the battle between Anton and the monsters would remain in his mind forever.

When they reached a village on the way to Ruandelle, they stopped there and Frederick saw Anders buying all kinds of broken and worn-out weapons and armor and all kinds of stuff like worn-out pieces of jewelry. Anders bought them for a small amount of coins but Frederick saw that the man was paying twice the worth of the items which made the villagers happy but he knew that after Anton repaired the items using his magic, the items would probably sell for more than a thousand times for what they were purchased.

Frederick was just happy that he grabbed the opportunity to be a part of Anton’s family.