I had this and one more chapter ready, but I needed to slightly alter it, so it took some time. Sorry tee-hee.

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   When morning came, aunt Sable brought me another storage ring. I currently had three storage rings already; one was storing all books of mine, clothes and magic staff I received from teacher Alaric, second stored gifts that I had bought for uncle Jannon, old man Keiran and my parents. I have decided it would be stupid of me to carry all money around, so I have taken twenty silver coins. Third ring was of course one in which I carried water just in case I would be using some water magic.

   Fourth ring, one that I received from aunt Sable contained another twenty silver coins, dried meat and fruit with some bread that could probably feed three people for at least month, many potions that she believed I could need for some reason and to my surprise, new magic staff.

   “Staff is gift from Alaric as reward for reaching tier eleven. I would never waste so much money for mere staff.” she said.

   Well, it was true that staff that I received four years ago has already lost about third of its power, but for me, most of its value was in fact that teacher Alaric personally bought it for me. I thought that regardless of what he bought for me, I would not be using it over staff I already had. As I took out new staff, I blinked multiple times and realized I was completely wrong.

   “It is elemental staff.” I said surprised.

   Ordinary staves like one I had only amplified power of your spell by equivalent of specific amount of soul power. Well, on those who already had high soul power, effect could be slightly stronger, but because they had higher soul power, its amplification effect was actually smaller for them.

   However elemental staves could also multiply power of spell that was of their element. Best ones would amplify power of spell by about thirty to forty percent, but even worse ones should increase the effect by ten percent.

   There were six elements, water, fire, wind, chill, lightning and earth; most uncommon spells were lightning and wind spells. Well, to be more precise, there were many hybrid lightning and wind spells, but only few spells that could compete in power with same tier spells of different element.

   Even though I have started being interested in these elements only recently; neither lightning nor wind element original spells of tier eleven existed in school library. There were six practitioner families who owned some stronger traditional wind and lightning spells, but they would not share them. If I wanted to use these elements in future, I would need to create my own original spells, which was what I was currently working on.

   But right now, element I felt most confident in using was water. Water spells were one of simplest ones to learn and use, and ever since the end of first year, they were most used of all spells I learned. There were many different water spells, each having use of its own. From stronger versions of [Water Ram], there were many spells that aimed at attacking enemy from multiple angles with spear or arrow like projectiles filled with magic, to [Pressure Cutter], spell that could easily cut through weaker wall.

   Teacher Alaric knew about water being element I preferred, and even though he considered water element weak, he bought me water element staff. Even cheapest one must cost… more than twenty iridium coins. And this one probably was not even cheapest one. Holding this powerful magic item in my hands, I felt extremely excited. At the same time, I felt like I was undeserving of gift.

   Just holding it in my hands, I could easily tell it would empower all spells of mine as much as if I had almost two hundred soul power, and it would increase power of water spells by at least twenty percent.

   Seeing my expression, aunt Sable laughed. “Yeah, it’s probably really expensive. So don’t lose it.” She said, so I returned new magical staff to my storage ring.

   “Young master Aiken, Lady Sable, good morning.” said Laura as she arrived, carrying backpack. Unlike me, she had no storage rings, because they were rather expansive. Seeing her carry heavy backpack, I sighed, and then approached her.

   She would only call me young master in front of aunt Sable, because aunt Sable was extremely overzealous about servant-master etiquette. Now that I think about it, didn’t teacher Alaric have spell that would make him look like servant?

   “Laura, if you don’t mind…” I said and I stored her heavy backpack into one of my storage rings.

   “Thank you, young master.” she answered carefully since aunt Sable was still listening.

   Now that we were here, we only waited for Keiran junior to make his appearance and after short while, he has arrived.

   Carrying backpack even larger and heavier than Laura, he did not seem much uncomfortable. Unlike me, who was sheltered by Sable family, he had to work hard with no support. He would participate in mushroom collecting activities every weekend, and during weekday, he would train his body as well, so even though he was only eleven, he was one of fastest and most efficient collectors in branch of commons. His physical strength was probably even greater than that of his peers who were not magicians and instead helped their parents in the fields.

   Seeing him like that, easily carrying weigh I would probably have a problem lifting, I felt tempted to see how long can he carry it and then laugh at him. Way he acted yesterday made me really angry, but when I thought about old man Keiran who did so much for me, I decided to be a bigger man and tried friendly approach.

   “Give me your backpack; I will store it in my storage ring so you don’t have to carry it around.” I said.

   Seeing multiple magic rings on my hands, four storage rings and one ring of mana regeneration, I could see envy in his eyes.

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   “There’s no need for your help, little lord. I can carry it just alright.” he responded, ignoring my attempt to be kind.

   I could not understand why he was so angry. Or maybe I just didn’t want to. Until this point, everything was made easy for me. I was supported by wealthiest merchant family in city and treated like I was one of them. Seeing me who was freely given everything and much more, while he had to work hard just to gain little he had, he felt like world was being unfair. And that was true, world was always unfair and this was no exception.

   So after aunt Sable gave boy five, instead of four originally promised silver coins, three of us departed together. I had no clue how powerful Keiran was, but since I was already tier eleven magician and Laura was more than half-way between tier seven and eight, this journey of ours was safer than when old man Keiran and uncle Jannon took me to Alsante.

   After first few miles, I realized my physical condition was not only poor, but really poor. While Laura was still full of energy and against all reason, so was Keiran who carried his big heavy backpack like it was empty, I was already exhausted.

   “Should we take a break, little lord?” asked Keiran with mocking tone. That pissed me off.

   “That won’t be necessary. I can take break while we walk.” I said.

   I closed my eyes, and remembered spell I finished few weeks ago. It was my attempt to create original tier eleven wind spell, but I failed and it ended up being only hybrid spell, [Windboard]. I still had no clue what problem was, so fixing it was not in my powers, but it still had pretty good efficiency.

   In air, invisible levitating board formed. I lied on it and made it move forward at speed of fast walking. This spell would only last little more than three minutes before I would have to recast it. I could only use it four times, since I did not want to waste all my mana, in case we met bandits or something.

   Twelve minutes of rest refreshed me enough to keep walking another hour. Laura, seeing that I was really tired this time pretended that she was also tired. It was so obvious that I felt rather hurt by it, but at the same time, I knew I couldn’t go on any longer.

   It was probably around five hours since we left the city, and therefore, we decided we would have late lunch.

   As Laura started preparing campfire, Keiran came close to me.

   “You see… little lord, could you teach me that spell you used before?” he asked. While he disliked me, the spell was certainly interesting.

   “My name is not Little Lord, but Aiken, and I fear I couldn’t.” I responded. When he heard my answer, I could see spark of hatred in his eyes.

   “You see, it’s not that I don’t want to, but since it is tier eleven spell, I doubt you could learn it.” I decided to explain.

   It was obvious he did not believe me. After eating, I decided I would have a short nap.

   Thinking I was already asleep, Keiran decided to talk with Laura.

   “You see, your little lord told me earlier that spell he used before is tier eleven. If he wanted to lie, he should have told lie that is more believable.”

   Of course, he pronounced little lord with tone that made obvious it was insult.

   Laura laughed silently.

   “Why do you think that was lie?” she asked.

   “Because it is nonsense. He’s only ten years old.” he protested.

   “Do you think rich families just randomly pick up and take care of untalented kids who can’t do anything?” asked Laura.

   “Are you telling me he really can use tier eleven magic?”

   “Well, yes.” she said.

   Keiran stayed silent for a long while.

   “I remember that at village exam, he had really low soul power.” he said after short while. Truth was that he was actually looking forward to meeting me again, even if it was only to show me his superiority in magic.

   When he did not find me in first year of branch of common in his second year, he thought that I was not accepted at all. But he did not completely count me out, thinking I was probably taught by my uncle, he did his best to make sure, that after he returns to village, he will repay me for what happened during examination, to show me that I can never beat him. In branch of common, he was seen as unique genius. He was only one in branch of common who has already reached tier eight in his year and only child from branch of common who participated in junior magic tournament.

   He has lost in second round to some silvery-white haired girl, who was in branch of honor, but she later on won whole tournament, which convinced him that he could match anyone else but her. He decided he would work even harder and overcome her, since in his eyes there was no one else, who could compete with him.

   “I still have very little soul power, if that is what you want to know.” I said, since I realized my desire to have a nap would not be fulfilled, as we needed to go.

   It only took us five days to reach the village. Unlike when I travelled with uncle Jannon and old man Keiran, we were not slowly enjoying our trip, but were walking at reasonable pace. Both Laura and Keiran junior were in great condition, and I had my [Windboard] to rest on when I needed it most.

   As we stopped, finally having village in sight, I noticed something weird. On fields, which, if I remembered correctly, belonged to my family, people who I did not now were working.

   I expressed my bad feeling to Keiran. He looked at distant people as well. “I recognize few of them. They are nephews of old man Oisin and his sons.” he said, also feeling uncomfortable.

   What the hell happened while we were gone?