Walking back through the forest with my shoulders slumped and my hand missing, I soon saw the place where I started, where Rugin, Sona, and Calhoun were waiting.

“Mensal, you are late! How do you expect to be accepted if you arrive a day after the deadline! I have half the mind to just reject you right now, but I want to hear what you have to say; you being so powerful.” Calhoun glared.

“Sorry, but maybe you don’t know how strong leviathans and shades are?” I sarcastically replied.

“Hold the phone… you’re telling us that you fought a leviathan and a shade and survived?” Rugin bent over in laughter.

“In fact, yes!” I responded. Rugin just laughed harder. Then, he stopped.

“Wait, you’re serious? That’s impossible! Stop with your excuses and get out!” Rugin stared at me.

“Fine! Just make sure that Haiuthon doesn’t get mad at you when he hears of this. Or my dragon.” I started walking away until Sona spoke.

“How about this, Mensal? We go to Haiuthon and see if he supports your supposed truth.” Sona bargained.

“Sure, why not! After all, I killed the leviathan that was in or near his palace for some time! He’s definitely going to support me.” I responded, and we headed back toward the ocean part of the test.

“Wait… stop walking, I’m going to make a portal,” I informed the three teachers.

“You can make portals?” Calhoun gasped.

“Yup!” I smiled.

“Well, wouldn’t that have been useful in the Battle of Rakta!” Rugin exclaimed. “Then, we might have not lost Safiro, Komera, and Zeru to those demons in the pit since we could have also teleported them out using a portal!”

“Yeah! Then they wouldn’t have had to sacrifice themselves to let us escape, and we would’ve won the battle with fewer casualties, as they would also help save lives!” Sona continued Rugin’s line of thought.

“Well, Mensal, even if you don’t get into Rune Magic, I think you’ll be a valuable asset to us, although I still think the ‘leviathan’ and the ‘shade’ were excuses, and that you were just being lazy.” Calhoun mused.

“Eh, you’ll see soon enough. By the way, did you even know there was a leviathan living there?” I asked.

“No,” Calhoun and Rugin chorused.

“Yes,” Sona replied at the same time.

“Wait… you know that a leviathan lives there?” Rugin raised his eyebrows.

“Well, duh, you guys are clearly idiots because we learned about that in our class!” Sona laughed.

“Which one?” Calhoun inquired.

“Don’t tell me you forgot the class History of Yadurige,” Sona gasped, “you even said it was your favorite class!”

“Ohhhh, the one with the idiotic teacher that knew less than me about the history of Yadurige? Yeah, I loved that class because I was smarter than the teacher!” Calhoun chuckled.

“Yeah, but clearly you didn’t read all of the textbooks because one of the books had an entire chapter dedicated to how Iroas Nayaka imprisoned the leviathan Perezoso in Yadurige near Haiuthon’s palace!” Sona exclaimed.

“Oh… whoops…” Calhoun scratched his head awkwardly.

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“Welp, you can’t expect me to know that! I stopped going to History of Yadurige halfway through the year!” Rugin stated.

“Guys… could you please let me focus on making a portal?” I requested.

“Sure!” Sona exclaimed, glaring at Calhoun and Rugin.

“Sure, Sona, you definitely weren’t talking with us just then!” Rugin rolled his eyes.

“Prepare your water breathing stuff or whatever and get ready to come through the portal; it will only last a minute to limit the EP cost!” I yelled.

“On it!” Sona cast a spell over herself, Rugin, and Calhoun, then asked, “Mensal, do you need the spell?”

“Nah, I’m good,” I responded, jumped through the portal, and turned into a dolphin.

When Rugin, Calhoun, and Sona came through as well, they looked around for me. I bumped against them with my nose and gestured for them to follow me to the bottom.

They followed, and I wrote “Hi, I’m Mensal” in the sand.

“Wait… do you think this dolphin is Mensal?” Sona asked.

“I guess… unless there’s a dolphin named Mensal!” Rugin responded.

Nudging them again, I led them to Haiuthon’s palace, where when a small group of dolphins saw me, they swarmed me as they cheered.

“Uhhhh… what are they doing?” Calhoun stroked his mustache.

“I don’t know! Are they, like, welcoming him or something?” Rugin mused.

“I… guess we should follow the dolphin that may or may not be Mensal?” Sona uncertainly followed me.

When we got inside Haiuthon’s palace, where there was air, I turned back into a human. “Hi, guys!” I cheerfully greeted them.

“So basically… you can turn into a dolphin?” Rugin asked, confused.

“Actually, I can shapeshift into any animal, but the larger and the more time, the more energy it takes,” I explained.

“Whoa…” Calhoun murmured. “That must be a great ability to have!”

“Indeed it is!” I smiled, then started going to the throne room.

One of the dolphins announced the presence of someone (us), and Haiuthon bellowed, “Who is it? I was just about to take a nap!”

“It’s me, Mensal!” I yelled, “I’m trying to prove to Calhoun, Rugin, and Sona that I killed the leviathan!”

“Oh, Mensal did do that! He fell through the crack that led to Perezoso’s prison, and when I checked the prison, I saw a dead leviathan, so I can confirm Mensal’s words!” Haiuthon confirmed.

“Oh… sorry, Mensal, for not believing you.” Rugin bowed awkwardly.

“No problem! I understand that the story isn’t that believable, but it happened, so you can’t say that it is impossible.” I shrugged.

“I guess so!” Calhoun responded, “But I’m still not sure how you managed to solo a leviathan AND a shade.”

“I defeated the leviathan with help from my dragon. The shade was weak to fire, which I have excellent control over, so I beat the shade without my dragon.” I explained.

“Still, even with a dragon, a leviathan is incredibly difficult to kill. The smallest amount of only mages to defeat a leviathan is 4 Magi, so that would mean that your dragon would equal to 3 of the Magi by herself, and that would make you equivalent to 1 Magus, but I’m pretty sure that your dragon isn’t as strong has 3 Magi, so I think this means that both you and your dragon are equal to 2 fully-trained Magi!” Sona mused.

“Excuse me, but what is a Magus, and what are Magi?” I queried, confused.

“Oh right, I forgot you were not born in Yadurige!” Sona slapped her forehead, “Magus is one of the magical rankings. The rankings are based on current magic levels. People with a magic level between 1 and 50 are Novices. A person with a magic level between 51 to 70 is an Initiate. From 71 to 100 is the range of Advanced mages; 101 to 150 are Experts. Magi, the plural of Magus, are those who have magical levels between 151 and 200. But if you are a Magus who has passed the master test, you become a Master. Then, if you have a magic level of 200 or higher, you are a Champion. If you are a champion that passes the Grandmage test, you become a Grandmage.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of rankings!” I exclaimed, “What rankings are you guys?”

“We’re all Masters,” Sona replied, “what ranking are you?”

“I’m a Magus, at least last time I checked. But as Calhoun knows, my magic potential is 253. But I believe my current magic level is 196.” I stated. I quickly checked my stat screen, then continued, “Wait, no, I’m at 199 now.”

“How interesting!” Rugin stroked his chin thoughtfully, “You should probably try to improve your magic level by 2 and then take the Grandmage test after you learn rune magic.”

“Yeah, good idea!” I mused. “Also, my hand is missing from the idowaktu snake! Will it ever come back?”

“In a day, it will grow back. The transportation of the hand was not permanent.” Calhoun explained.

“Whew!” I sighed in relief, then continued, “Well, can I go check on my friends real quick, before I start learning rune magic?”

“Sure, why not!” Sona replied.

I created another portal to go back to Yadurige rather than Anwansi. “Bye!” I waved at them as I went through.