As predicted by Unger, Ron did indeed awaken his inner energy that day. He'd been once again sitting cross-legged and doing the breathing technique when he'd suddenly felt a fire erupt within him.

Energy surged into his muscles, bones, blood, brain, and intestines, strengthening them all. He could immediately tell that his eyesight and reaction time had greatly increased, and for a moment, he felt all-powerful.

Then, the rush died down. He was still left trembling from the whole thing, and he felt quite a lot more powerful than before, but the illusion of invincibility had left him.

Then, he felt it. A sticky, slimy substance clinging to all of his skin. Man or woman, regardless of gender, he did not like feeling dirty. Usually, he'd wait before taking short and quick sponge baths, but this was too much to handle.

Thankfully, Unger had been both proud and understanding of Ron's situation and even predicted this issue from occurring. Hence, during the time Ron had been lost in meditation, he'd already prepared a nice bath.

Well, it wasn't even one-hundredth of the standard of which Ron was used to, but it would have to do. Feeling refreshed after the thing, he went back to sleep, reluctantly leaving the dirty yet comfortable water behind.

For the following month, the days continued on in a monotonous yet comfortably tranquil way. Due to Unger's skill in driving and his good map-reading skill, they were able to evade more or less every busy street, only stopping once in a while to resupply.

Having become an official knight, Unger had decided that Ron's training had to be taken up a notch. Unger himself was also a knight, and one at the very cusp of breaking through to the Grand Knight realm. Hence, he took it upon himself to constantly spar with Ron, albeit never too seriously. After all, despite being an incredibly smart girl who never made the same mistake twice, she was still only a nine years old child.

Having spent many months together, Ron's relationship with Unger was naturally good, albeit he still felt quite awkward around the man. Still, Unger didn't hesitate to teach Ron whatever he could in his skills.

Obviously, with only a month of serious training together, the things he could teach were limited and they also still had to travel for most of the day, but it was still very helpful, and Ron understood it and appreciated it for what it was: A selfless gift.

Thus, as the day of their arrival loomed closer and closer, Ron spent more and more time with the large man. He even forsook staying in the interior of the carriage and instead sat next to Unger on the driver's seat.

Then, at long last... They arrived.

Standing at the gates of a small, yet still quite large by this world's standards, city, Ron gazed up with sad eyes at the man he'd spent the past month with. The man's eyes landed on her own, and his lips curled upward, yet he was obviously also quite sad, as he knew he would have to leave very soon.

He accompanied him all through the city, bringing him all the way to the town center, where instead of the usual lively atmosphere had been replaced by a mysterious one. They kept walking all the way to a large gate. What was behind it was hidden by what could only be an illusion, as all Ron could see was darkness behind the gate.

Here, Unger kneeled down in front of Ron, and with a large hug, took his still thin yet tough body into his arms. He said no words, and neither did Ron. Nonetheless, as he watched the knight's back vanish amidst an endless sea of people, he couldn't help but clench his hands to stop the tears from coming out.

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He'd known this was coming, and to a certain extent, he looked forward to it. However, thinking and doing are two very different things.

He took a couple of minutes to calm down, clutching the hidden necklace inside his shirt. Then, when his eyes opened once more, a resolute look had appeared in them.

He tried his best to appear calm as he entered into the gate, and when he did, he saw a whole different world.

It still looked quite deserted, with very few people. It was akin to a large camp with various tents and barracks thrown around, each of them quirkier and weirder than the previous.

"Oh? An early one, aren't you?" A voice suddenly spoke up behind Ron, sending shivers down his spine. He whirled around, eyes wide as he saw a large, half-naked man with weird tattoos all over his skin.

"I'm in a good mood now, brat, so I'll explain a bit. You're a bit early, so you'll have to wait a bit for some of the farther representatives to arrive. Still, you can go ahead and take your aptitude test." The man said, eyes twinkling with mirth.

"Y-yes, my lord!" Ron obediently said as he bowed at the waist, just like he'd been instructed to do. The man just snorted at his actions. "Hmph. You're young, but if nothing else, you know respect. Follow me, since you don't have any guides, I'll help you out just because you're pretty cute."

Ron felt a dark shiver run down his spine at the man's words, disgust rising within him, but he soon suppressed it. He really needed to have a reality check with himself with the whole gender thing, and fast.

The man walked away, and it was almost as if he was floating instead of walking with how graceful his steps were, no matter his beastly appearance. Ron quickly followed, not daring to be complacent. He'd heard of the terror of these magi, and there was little doubt in his mind that this was one of them.

"These are all the magi academies. On the left here are the ones up in the north, and they are all dark magi organizations. On the right are the light magi, and most of them are in the south. Take my word for what you will, but if you wish to live a life of comfort and mediocracy, then join the light magi. If you want to become someone... Keke, well, the dark magi are your best choice, girlie." The man said in rapid succession, with Ron nodding along.

A funny fact that Ron had noticed during sparring and just, in general, was that his memory, which had usually been pretty bad, was now more or less flawless. It took almost no effort to memorize things and recall them, which... he had no idea why. Probably some magic-voodoo or some shit, he told himself.

Hence, it took little effort to keep up with the constant stream of information coming from the large man. To summarize in caveman words:

Dark magi kill everyone. Light magi love everyone, except when they don't, then they also kill everyone. Ooga booga.

It was a bit more complicated than that, and he was also given large amounts of information on some of the academies, complete with some personal suggestions and comments from the man, ranging from 'respectable training area' to 'shithole nobody wants to live in'. His suggestions were very... direct.

"L-lord?" He cautiously asked during a lull in his explanation.

"Hm?" The man hummed, turning back to face the short girlie. She was young, but he wasn't an idiot. A knight at 9? Either she was some sort of escaped experiment, which was unlikely, or she was at the very least someone talented. That, combined with his good mood and free time, had led him to help out this early comer.

"You keep saying acolytes, my lord... But, what exactly is an acolyte?" She asked, her large eyes staring up at him. He paused for a moment, idle thoughts about asking her about her background filtering through his mind before he expelled them. It wasn't really worth the effort.

"Since you asked, I'll just explain the whole way. Acolytes are basically the stage before becoming an official magus, and it's divided into rank 1 acolytes, rank 2, and rank 3. After that comes the rank 1 magus realm, then rank 2, rank 3, etcetera. Each rank has a massive, unsurmountable gap between each, and to be honest, the highest I've seen was a rank 2 lord magus. His might still fills me with both awe and dread at the mere thought." The man laughed honestly even as he said this, not feeling the least bit embarrassed.

"I... I see. Thank you!" The cute little girl bowed. The man just hummed uncaringly.

"We've arrived. This is the testing area for aptitudes. Go in and the old hag will do the rest. Also, what is your name, girlie?" He asked, almost as if it was an afterthought.

She stiffened, a conflicted expression on her inexperienced face flashing momentarily. Then, with a resigned look, she said, "My name is Alice Rosenstar, my lord..."