Ben strode towards the gate of the school in the pre-dawn light. The campus was quiet now, but he knew in a few hours it would be bustling with students and staff. Hundreds called this place home. They wouldn’t notice one missing elf, would they? Would his family? He didn’t think they would, the last time they’d decided to check up with him had been months ago. Despite that, Ben couldn’t help but think he’d miss them. As the front gate came into view, Ben got a view of the city proper.

Rakatesh was a coastal city, situated on a peninsula between two large fjords. The sea breeze kept the air cool even in the mid-summer heat. It was divided into many districts, each with their own subcultures and routines. In truth Ben hadn’t really explored the city much at all let alone the lands outside it. Would Arthur want to take a boat north or trek through the wilds? He weighed the ups and downs in his mind.

A boat would be faster but only if Arthur knew where they were going. It’d also cost a lot of money unless they agreed to help on a fishing vessel. Pirates weren’t very common in these parts but up north he didn’t know. As for over land that would take much longer, and be full of bandits, monsters, and gods knew what else. Arthur looked like he could hold his own in a fight, but Ben had never even thrown a firebolt before. However, they’d be able to stop and rest in the cities along the way too. He knew either way he’d need to protect himself eventually. For that reason, he’d spent the majority of his advance pay on some preparations, but it would take a good amount of time to be ready.

Finally drawing close to the gate, he saw the tall white scaled draconian. Arthur was not alone however, beside him stood a grey skinned man with wicked horns that curved back over his black hair. Ben felt like he knew of this man but had never seen him in person. As he approached Arthur called out to him.

“The prodigal son returns! I knew you’d come around my friend” Arthur said, stopping for a moment looking Ben over. “This is wonderful! You did it! You awoke your Prominence. Tell me what does it do!? How does it work? I must know Ben!”

Ben felt a headache begin brewing, he was not used to people yelling at him before dawn.

“In time Arthur, I have my own list of questions first.” Turning to the Fiendish he asked, “You look familiar what’s your name?”

“That’s not important what’s yours?” Replied the man.

“Ben Terramark”

“Ah, not afraid of the Fey I see.” Shot back the Fiendish “Wait did you say Terramark? As in The Terramarks? The same Ben Terramark who is Eldaria Stormsinger’s errand boy?”

Ben prepared himself, “Yes I am that Ben Terramark, black sheep of the Terr- “

“I don’t care about your family drama. I have a bone to pick with your boss!” Said the man cutting off Ben. “She keeps rejecting my grant proposals!”

“Proposals? Wait, are you the Faunamancer? Mythos, that’s your name, right?” Realized Ben, “The one who wanted to track down a bunch of made-up creatures.”

Mythos sighed “They are not made up. I assure you they are very real. I could prove that if Eldaria gave me a chance. That’s why I’m here actually. If she won’t help the department then I’ll have to do it myself. So, I decided to tag along with the crazy dragon man.”

“The Crazy Dragon Man can hear you.” Said Arthur, “You’re lucky you also have a Prominence Mythos. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t have agreed to have you accompany me. I can only afford to take the strongest with me on this journey. To that end my newfound friends, I’m going to need you to prove your strength. While I can tell you both have an awakened Prominence, I need to see them in action. Worry not I will also reveal my power as well.”

“Uh, a bit of a problem with that.” Said Ben “My Prominence isn’t exactly combat based. It’s more of a passive thing. I think it might be best if you and Mythos went first.”

“That’s fine by me, but I also need you to go first Arthur. It’ll all make sense in a moment.” Said Mythos elaborating no further.

“Fair enough, since you both agreed to follow me to who knows where, I will demonstrate my Prominence first.” Arthur took a step back, loosened his muscles and cracked his neck. Next, he looked upward and inhaled a large breath before rapidly turning his head towards the ground and exhaling a cloud of icy mist that engulfed the small pavilion on which they stood.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

When the cloud dissipated Arthur’s appearance had changed drastically. No longer was he wearing the clothes of a commoner, instead he was covered from head to toe in full-plate armor made of solid ice, ornated filagree etched into the surface and a matching sword and shield held were in his hands.

“Behold my Prominence. I call it: Frozen Champion.” Shouted Arthur, his booming voice echoed eerily out of his icy helm, sending a chill down Ben’s spine.

“This armor and shield are quite tough and makes me virtually immune to ice attacks while also heavily dampening the power of fire attacks as well. The sword causes frostbite on contact. All in all, it makes me a formidable force on the battlefield. I can dismiss it at will as well.” With a simple gesture the ice covering him splintered then fell to the ground around him.

“Not bad, not bad at all” said Mythos “But I think I might have a one up on you. How much do you two know about Faunamancy?”

“It’s a newer field of magic I know that, but honestly, I’ve never heard of anyone but you talk about it. I think it has something to do with animals, or maybe monsters.” Said Ben.

“You aren’t too far off the mark. Faunamancy is the study of mimicry. Faunamancers study creatures, then use their innate magic to mimic those abilities. This takes weeks of observation, and almost always requires you to actually fight the creature in question, but afterwards a Faunamancer can utilize the powers of that creature. I call my Prominence Master Mimic.” Mythos studied Arthur for a moment. Ben felt a flare of magical power as Mythos raised his head skyward, took in a great breath, then exhaled a large cloud of icy mist just as Arthur had done. When the cloud dissipated, it was now Mythos who was covered in icy armor, tailored to his frame, even covering his large, curved horns.

“It allows me to quickly copy the ability of something I see. I don’t fully learn it like I normally do so I can only use it the one time unless I actually take the time to study it like normal.” Said Mythos, replicating Arthur’s gesture to dismiss the armor.

“You must be a prodigy to the other Faunamancers then.” Said Ben, a bit of awe in his voice.

“Other Faunamancers?” Questioned Mythos. “It’s just me as far as I’m aware. It’s something of an emerging field at the moment. Otherwise, I wouldn’t need to have Eldaria approve my grant proposals.”

The air hung awkwardly with silence for a moment, only to be broken by Arthur.

“Ok, enough stalling Ben. If you can’t show us your Prominence you at least have to tell us what it does! I’ve just got to know!”

“I’ll admit I’d also love to know what you got.” Added Mythos, curiosity piquing in his voice.

“Ok well it’s kind of hard to explain. My Prominence is called ‘Perfect Understanding’ it lets me better understand and interpret information about myself and things around me. When I use it, I can see a bunch of text in my field of view that explains stuff. It also lets me perfectly recall anything I’ve experienced. Oh, and it gave me access to certain divination magic too.” Said Ben.

“Hm, quite the list of abilities. Does this mean you also awoke an internal mana supply to cast those spells? Black sheep no more then if so!” replied Arthur.

“About that…” sighed Ben, annoyed “Since my Prominence lets me understand everything about myself it also let me know that I am not, and will likely never be, a spellcaster. I’m apparently a Mana Manipulator. I can uh manipulate mana. Ok, that’s a poor explanation. I can basically exert my will over ambient mana in the air or mana stored in containers around me, including magical devices like the Tome Finders at the library. Then I can basically use that mana to form a spell just like a spellcaster would in their own body but externally.”

Mythos whistled “Mana Manipulation is really rare. I don’t think anyone at the college is one or has been one for quite some time. It takes a ton of knowledge about magic to be good at it though I know that much. So, what spells can you ‘cast?”

“Right now, I know I can cast a spell that lets me understand languages, a spell that lets me locate nearby things, and a spell that analyzes things. According to my Prominence once I cast new spells, they will appear in my spell list. I haven’t tried anything else since Rakatesh is such a low ambience zone I have to use mana containers. I’m fairly confident I can cast some other low-level stuff if I can get my hands on the mana but I’m nowhere near dropping meteors from the sky. From what little information I could find library stuff like that would takes decades to learn and hundreds of times more mana than I’m able to use without risking my wellbeing.”

“What exactly does analyzing something do?” Asked Mythos.

“Well, I’ve only cast it the once on a tome finder. It basically dumped a bunch of information about it into my mind and also displayed the information via text I can see too.”

“Hm, what do you think would happen if you tried to analyze a person? Could you analyze me or Arthur?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. I’d love to try it, but I don’t have anything carrying divination mana in it on me.”

“Oh, I do! I have a magic compass that always points towards Rakatesh.” Said Arthur fishing it out of his pocket and tossing it to Ben. Catching it, the familiar text filled his vision:

[Divination Mana Container obtained. Mana levels sufficient for manipulation]

“Ok, I should be good to go then. Arthur, you ok with me analyzing you?”

“Not an issue my friend. Do as you please.”

Ben pulled the mana from the compass then shaped it into the arcane circle around Arthur. He commanded the mana.

“Analyze”

The spell flashed around the Draconian and Ben couldn’t hold back a grin as Arthur’s statistics page entered his vison.