Vance paced back and forth across the mage guild hall, his mind buzzing ceaselessly. “So when do you think we'll hear back from my family?”

Silas sighed at the question he had been asked for the umpteenth time. “I don’t know Vance, we sent the letter a while ago but it’ll take some time to get a reply. High-tier people usually aren’t messengers you know. Also aren’t you supposed to be at least pretending to be a little incognito, asking that sort of thing in here, in the middle of the day is hardly discreet.”

He glanced over his shoulder and looked around. Several people hurriedly looked the other way to avoid meeting his gaze. Vance sighed, he had at last given up trying to hide who he was, for the most part at least. Not that trying to hide had done him any good in the first place. “You’re right, I’m not trying to keep it a secret anymore though, but maybe we should have this conversation somewhere else.”

The old mage nodded in appreciation and the two of them walked deeper into the guild building away from the more public entrance. “So how have things been going after your dungeon adventure? I know Arthur hasn't gone back to fighting yet, but I heard you went on a few delves right? How’s your progress coming.”

Vance felt a small swell of pride as he said. “Yes, I’ve gotten to level 37. I was hoping to be able to push even further, but you can only gain levels so fast I guess.”

Silas gave a short laugh then shook his head. “Don’t sell yourself, short kid. Jumping almost twenty levels in a few short weeks is a feat to be proud of. I’ve heard from the parties that went with you that you were an absolute monster-hunting fanatic.”

The young noble scratched his head in mild embarrassment. “Well, I might have gone a little overboard. It’s just with everything that happened, I felt rather helpless.” Maybe that wasn’t the best reason for growing stronger but that’s what he felt right now.

“You managed to overpower several enemies an entire tier above you, you’re not helpless at all. That was rather impressive by the way, but don’t try that with any monsters. You managed to scrape by with fellow humans because they were incompetent. We humans don’t change that much at least physically until we start getting race levels. We’re much more reliant on the power of our classes, power which can be squandered, that’s how you were able to prevail. Don’t expect the same result from a monster though, if you see a tier-three monster it would be best to run the other direction and not play the hero.”

Vance ducked his head at the light chastisement. He knew that he shouldn’t be fighting anything above his tier, but at the same time, he hadn’t had much of a choice in the dungeon. It wasn’t like he had gone looking for trouble. “Right, I’ll remember.”

Silas looked him over, looking uncharacteristically serious then shrugged. “We’ll hopefully you do, I rather like you Vance and I prefer to not have to deal with your enraged family if you get yourself killed.” Vance ducked his head, his family, they were the ones who would bear the brunt of the political fallout from his scuffle with Gary. “So what seems to be the trouble young one. Come on spill.”

He hesitated, but ultimately decided it wouldn’t hurt. After all, the old man had been nothing but kind and helpful to him. “I’m worried that recent events will drive me further away from the rest of the family. I was already all but exiled out here, and now this. I don’t know what’s going to happen now.”

Silas patted on the back smiling. “Oh is that all? Well, I can tell you exactly what’s going to happen.”

“Really, what?” He felt like there was a punchline coming but he couldn’t help but play along.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Correct, I might not have seen them in a while, but I knew your parents long before you and your siblings were born. You didn’t create this situation and if they hold you responsible for any of it I’ll eat my left shoe. “

Vance glanced down with a slight smile. “Thanks, guild master, I appreciate it, but still I don’t think this will improve my standing in the family. Now I might even be stripped of my name as a Storm.”

Silas sighed in exasperation. “Really now have you not been listening at all? What did I just say about not being held responsible.”

“I know but…”

“But nothing, and what’s this about family standing and taking away names?”

“Well, my cousins told me about it.”

“Right your cousins who are fellow children. What would they know about anything? Besides, have you heard anything like this from your parents? You know the people whose opinions should matter the most to you?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Well no.” His cousins weren’t children though some of them were almost thirty or forty.

“That’s your problem then. Forget what anyone else is saying, you need to talk things out with your parents. Get out of your own way and such. Your Dad is the one you sent you up here right? He probably just wanted you to get some good, relatively safe training, and I’ll eat my right shoe if he actually meant anything by it.”

Vance sighed and allowed himself to relax somewhat. He had had some of the same thoughts, but having someone else say it out loud to him made him feel better somehow. “Alright, but how am I supposed to talk to them? They're in Olympus and I’m here.”

“Come on boy, think a little. Just send them a letter explaining your concerns, or better yet just go back to Olympus to talk to them. Did they ever say you had to stay here?”

Reluctantly he shook his head. “You're right, I’ll write a letter, I’m not sure what I’m going to say yet though.”

Silas chuckled and shook his head. “You’ll figure it out, now off you go. Don’t burn out too badly with your delves, but keep in mind more people will be showing up over time so the line for the lower floors is going to get increasingly lengthy.” Vance nodded as the old mage wandered away deeper into the guild. He turned the other way and started making his way out of the building. He had training to do after all he could think more about the letter later.

----------------------------------------

Arthur wrung his hands in his lap and then forced himself to stop. He couldn’t believe he had overslept, he had waited forever for Silas to wake up, but he never had. The old fool had slept away the entire day and kept right on going, but today he was going to get some answers. Whenever his master returned to his office he would find him ready. “Hey there Arthur what are you up to today?”

He started almost falling out of his chair, so much for attentively waiting. “Hello master, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?”

The old mage sighed and then gestured him into the office. “Might as well, I seem to be really working for my old mentor certification today. I just got done giving Vance some advice earlier.” Arthur scratched his head as he followed Silas into his mess of an office. He wasn’t quite sure how to feel about Vance, on the one hand, he was a noble, but he seemed normal enough. Nobles were supposed to be stuck and self-important right?

“Anyway, my pupil.” Arthur looked up with a start to find Silas looking back at him with amusement. “What can I do for you today? While I’d rather put off doing my work forever, sooner or later Kira’s going to finish playing with her new class and demand to know why we haven’t paid taxes for the last month or some other such nonsense.”

He chuckled to himself. “Master Silas, you almost make it sound like she’s your nanny.”

The old mage’s eyes crinkled and he leaned forward conspiratorially. “Let me tell you a secret Arthur, I’m retired. I've only been running this dungeon town since I got bullied into it, and I’m looking forward to the day when I get replaced. Despite that Kira seems bound and determined to make it seem like I’m a competent administrator. Undermining my dastardly scheme to get fired for negligence.”

Arthur looked a little uncomfortable at that. “Would running the dungeon poorly hurt a lot of people though?”

Silas snorted and nodded. “Well if I was actually incompetent sure, but I’m good enough at this sort of thing to fake incompetence while still mostly doing what I should. At least I could if Kira wasn’t hounding me about every little piece of paperwork.” The old man dissolved into good-natured grumbling for a few seconds before looking back at Arthur. “So young mage, I know you didn’t come here to hear about my administrative woes. What can I help you with today?”

Arthur scratched his head and looked at the ceiling, he wasn’t quite sure how to explain. He thought he knew what was going on but he wasn’t positive. “It might be best for me to just show you, this might take me a second though.” Silas nodded amiably, and Arthur closed his eyes concentrating. He reached out and drew forth his mana letting the power flow to his hand, and shaped it into a ball. It was similar to the crude spell he had made himself when he first became a mage. Shaking off the errant thought he returned his attention to the task at hand and cast his mind back to what had happened in the dungeon.

He remembered pain and desperation, but most of all he remembered fire, the mana in his hand twisted on instinct into a familiar pattern. Arthur opened his eyes and watched the tiny flames dance across his palm. Silas’ wide-eyed expression was rather gratifying if he was being totally honest.

“Fascinating, and this is recent development, yes?”

He nodded. “It happened in the dungeon when we were attacked, but as you can see I’ve figured out how to do it more or less on command now. It takes a bit for me to alter my mana though.”

Silas bobbed his head as he stroked his beard. “Interesting, very interesting. Well as you may or may not have guessed you have a natural affinity for fire. Natural affinities are mana affinities that occur naturally, as the name would imply. They tend to give a solid leg up for any mage who can properly take advantage of them, Kira for instance is a good example of this. She had two natural affinities, the first time I heard that I think I almost had a heart attack, having one is unfair enough already. Well, in any case, this is quite the boon for you, it's a little early to start talking about upper-tier classes, but it looks like you're a young fire mage in the making.” Arthur stared down at the guttering fire in his palm with a solemn expression. Fire was powerful, he knew that firsthand but still it wasn’t his favorite element in the world. “Of course, if you want you can always train another element, natural affinities don’t force you down one path.”

“But fire would probably be the strongest possible path for me right?”

“That’s correct, having a natural fire affinity means you could start training the element now. It wouldn’t help you in combat until you got an associated fire class, which will be a tier four class, but once you get there you’ll have a head start over almost every other mage. Similar principle to the pure mana training I’ve had you doing. It also opens up more doors as far as compound elements if you want to pursue that path instead of higher elements.”

Arthur clenched his hands as he stared down at the floor. “How do I get started, I’ll be the best fire mage you’ve ever seen, old man.” Silas grinned at the younger mage’s false bravado, fire affinity might give him a head start as a mage, but only one thing would make him great, hard work.