I was led to my room in dormitory of branch of generous by headmaster himself. It was visible he was not happy about it, but he did not voice his dissatisfaction this time, only told me about how dormitory works and what I should expect next morning. He also gave me student card, which mentioned my name and class I was supposed to go to, and with mechanic voice, he wished me best luck in next year.
Building of dormitory belonging to this branch was biggest out of three dormitories, because in dormitory belonging to branch of commons students were sharing rooms together, while only fraction of students were in branch of honors. To be more precise, out of around thirty one hundred students, about eighteen hundreds were in branch of commons, bit over nine hundred in branch of generous, so only about four hundreds were in branch of honors.
My room was of size about six times three meters. There were two beds, one apparently for servant, however I had no servant. Servant was one of best paying job commoner without talent in magic could achieve, and depending on family that employed them, they could earn between four and twenty silver coins month. Compared to that, tier seven village practitioners like my uncle received three silver pieces month but most of their money came from monster hunting journey they made together every winter, where they each gained up to three gold coins.
Being alone in room was bit scary, which is why I had left candle burning. I have to admit I cried that night, and for many nights later. I wanted to see my parents, my uncle, old man Keiran, and teacher Alaric, but I couldn't. I was completely alone. If I was one of city children, I would probably not be able to overcome this loneliness. But as kid from village, I was at least used to my parents to not have almost any time for me, and knowing how much everyone sacrificed for me to be here, I knew I had to stay. But I still could not help but cry before tiredness finally overcame me.
When morning came, I was interrupted from dream by voice.
"Morning! It's morning!“ screamed the voice in the corridor. This was, according to what headmaster said yesterday, usual procedure of waking students and calling them to breakfast. I worn my new clothes I received from teacher Alaric and then went downstairs to dining room.
Thankfully, only about half of students of branch of common were eating in dining hall, other had servants prepare their meals beforehand and were eating breakfasts in their room. I couldn't even imagine how bad it must have been in branch of commons. Actually, as I learned later, in branch of common, breakfast consisted of one slice of bread and piece of fruit and students were expected to eat it standing.
Compared to that I got piece of bread with butter and salt, boiled egg, cheese, unknown fruit consisting of small green balls that I later learned to be grape and cup of milk.
I sat down to one of empty tables, realizing there were still only few people here, since I was one of fastest people to go down. I started eating my bread, but before having third bite, young boy with golden blond hair sat down across table and waved his hand at me, with nervous look at his face.
"Hello.“ he said.
"Hello.“ I responded, unsure what he wanted.
"My name is Brantley, but you can call me Brant. I am new first year student here. Are you also new student?“ he asked.
"Yes, I am also first year student. My name is Aiken.“ I answered, as I calmed down. It did not seem like he came to pick a fight.
"Are you from one of city families, or are you from outside of city?“ he asked. Since he realized that I was unwilling to answer, he decided to tell me where he is from first. "I am from outside of city, far to west.“
"I am also from outside of city.“ I decided to answer shortly, since he revealed his cards.
"We should stick together then, Aiken. I have been staying in dormitory since week ago and had seen how some of older children of local families try to recruit us outsiders to their groups. Escaping from them is rather hard... Damn, here they come.“ he said, as he noticed one of older boys walking to our table. He was about twelve years old and had rather vicious expression.
"Oh, Brantley, I was trying to find you yesterday, but I could not find you. Were you perhaps trying to avoid me?“ he asked with angry voice.
"No such thing Landon. You must be imagining that.“ said Brant fearfully.
"Listen, we don't want to harm you, Brantley. We just want you to join us. You are one of most talented youngsters and our group would welcome your presence.“
As I have seen unwillingness in Brants eyes, even though he was not my friend, I decided that I would help him.
"Listen, Landon, or whatever your name is, Brant obviously does not want to see you, so scram.“ I said rashly.
"Brantley, who is your little friend?“ reacted Landon with bit of anger. "Boy, you should better not anger me. I am tier six magician and already close to tier seven. Also, I am in group of Randolph family, wealthiest and most important family in this city. Offending me means offending them as well.“
"I don't care. You'll leave now or I will teach you some manners.“ I responded with anger. What the hell? He is just tier six and he is saying it proudly, like it actually means something.
Boy blinked with surprise.
"I told you to disappear. Just mere tier six, and you proclaim it so proudly. If I was only tier six at your age I would just hide in shame.“ I threw in insult.
"Brat, do you think tier six is joke? Wanna have fight, little boy?“
"If you don't disappear right now, I will gladly fight you.“
"Great. So how about this evening behind dormitory? I will teach you to give some respect to your seniors, brat.“
"Alright. I will be there.“ I answered to young boy, who left with disbelief in his face.
For a few seconds, there was absolute silence. Brantley was stunned by my confident reaction, but not for second did he think I meant it seriously.
"Why did you provoke him, Aiken? Now he will be going after you.“
"I don't care. I will beat him in the evening and he will leave us alone after that.“
"You meant that seriously? He is almost tier seven magician. You cannot beat him. Don't be pointlessly proud.“
"So what if he is almost tier seven magician? I have already reached tier seven.“ I stated uninterested.
"What?“ said Brantley, with disbelief. "Don't pull pranks on me. You can't be tier seven magician.“
"Whatever you think.“ I ignored him as I quickly finished eating my breakfast.
"Wait, what class are you in?“ he asked as I was leaving but I did no longer care about him.
According to what headmaster said yesterday, all first years were to go to park that was right behind our dormitory and sort themselves to classes A to E accordingly. There was no skill distinction within groups yet, but in next two years, children would be sorted according to their estimated potential based on soul power, spirit capacity and knowledge of different spells.
I was in class C, and as I realised short time later, so was Brant.
"So we are in same class. Lucky, isn't it?“ he said and then he closed in, whispering silently to me: "Have you really reached tier seven?“
I simply nodded, I had no reason to answer him. I was starting to feel annoyed about him following me persistently.
"That's insane. Even I have yet to reach tier six and they say I am very talented. How come they did not know about you? Randolph family has all information about scores of everyone during admission day, so if you are that great, they should know about you.“ he said, skeptically, but he seemed to actually believe in me.
"My soul power and spirit capacity was measured personally by headmaster before admission day.“ I answered, trying to avoid revealing anything about my teacher. I wanted to proudly proclaim that I was taught by Wizard of South, but I remembered how teacher warned me about revealing that fact. I also knew, that almost no one would believe me anyways.
As there was still no one who looked like teacher to be seen, I started reading one of books from storage ring, spell book containing instructions to cast tier seven spell [Freezing Wind]. I however did manage to read but a few words before teacher arrived.
Our teacher was young woman of about twenty years age. She had long hair of light brown color and bewitching blue eyes. Like me, she was from one of villages, but because she was genius, after first six years, magic school paid for her to keep studying in branch of generous for six more years. However, after her studies finished, she was forced to teach at school for next five years and had to pay rest of her debt to school over ten years after that, or keep teaching for that time.
She only received half of pay that other teachers would receive, but she was rather satisfied. After all, when she finished her first six years of studying, she was only tier seven magician, but now, after six more years, she managed to reach point halfway between tier ten and eleven. This was her second year of teaching, so after four more years, she could leave and join monster hunts, where she would be able to earn money to pay her debt to both her village and magic school easily. Also during her stay in university as teacher, she still profited from area soul and spirit growth supporting spells, so she might become tier eleven magician before her forced work ends.
"Hello everyone, my name is Kalani, I am tier ten magician and I will be your teacher for next year. I am here to help you, so feel free to ask me anything. Now follow me.“ she introduced herself with smile.
In my defense, I have to say it is normal for small children to fall in love with their teacher. Especially if it is beautiful young woman with angelic voice like teacher Kalani. As she led us to class, I was walking like mindless puppet pulled by strings. Once we arrived to class, she started with having all of us introduce to one another. Long story short, I have not noticed name of any classmate, as I was staring at her to the point even she must have noticed it. However, she already had similar experience last year, so she really did not pay any mind to it, knowing it is not problem that needs to be resolved.
It took me more than hour to realize that I was supposed to be learning [Freezing Wind] and prepare myself for evening. Even after I started reading book again, this time sitting at front seat of class, I was rather absentminded, thinking about teacher Kalani, dancing, flowers, holding hands, usual things boy of six imagines when he thinks about love. But in few minutes, as I started to read, I was absorbed by instructions provided by book and any distraction disappeared from my mind.
"Aiken. Could you tell us what book are you reading?“ she asked me suddenly, as she noticed book I had in front of me.
As her question surprised me, I could not come up with believable lie.
"It's nothing.“ I said, trying to hide book, but she took it away from me with one swift movement.
Looking into book, I could see shock in her eyes for second, and then she returned book back to me.
"After we finish class today, I want you to stay here for few minutes so we can talk.“ she said with hint of anger in voice. After that she went back to talking about basics of magic, soul and spirit. This talk of her was not some kind of lecture, but rather attempt to make children feel more passion about studying properly.
This time, it took much longer before I managed to regain my focus and continued learning instructions from book. I didn't want to anger her, but I needed to learn the spell, and she looked like she did no longer care about it, even returning book back to me.
It only took one more hour before today's class ended. I barely managed to finish book by then, but if I wanted to learn it properly, I would need practice as well. Spellbooks have just few pages and this one had only ten, so it was not hard to finish it so fast.
It was simply first day of school, and from tomorrow on, we would have three hours of studying in morning, while in afternoon, we would have two hours of soul sharpening practice or spirit expansion practice.
Since class ended, I had to speak with teacher. I prepared myself to receive punishment.
"What did you want to talk about, teacher?“ I asked.
"I wanted to ask you about that book. You know that it is tier seven spellbook, right? Why are you reading it? Are you even able to read it?“ she asked.
After all, most of children of six years old could barely read abecedarium, fact that I was able to read it at that age without feeling bored was already weird. But I never noticed it, because back in village, only children I could compare to had no one to teach them, while I had my uncle, who not only gave me abecedarium, but also lend me each of six books he had. I have read each of them about thirty times. In my last year in village, old man Keiran lend me four of his books as well and I have also read them few times before returning them to him. So I found nothing weird about fact I was able to read this book.
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"I was learning the spell.“ I answered honestly.
"But it is tier seven spell. You need to reach tier seven before you can learn it.“ explained teacher patiently.
"I know. I have already reached tier seven so I am learning it now. Is there any problem with that, teacher Kalani?“ I asked. To be honest, I knew from teacher Alaric, that there should be no one who has already reached tier seven at my age. I was trying to impress her, like a little dog trying to get attention of its master by jumping and standing on its back legs.
Teacher Kalani was shocked. She however quickly regained her composure, realizing it should be impossible for me to be tier seven magician already at this age.
"Could you show it to me?“ she asked, with skepticism in her voice.
"I just started reading it this morning, but I think I have grasped basics already. But it would be better for me to go outside first.“ I said. I felt like it was great possibility to impress her. In my childish mind, once again images of flowers, holding hands and dancing appeared.
As we left building of school, I prepared myself to cast the spells. I still had some things I was not sure about, some parts I did not memorize properly, but I wanted to succeed at all costs.
"Teacher, it would be better if you prepared magic shield.“ I said, as I focused. I did not want to hurt teacher Kalani, but at the same time, I wanted to show her that I could cast this spell, so I warned her.
Then I started casting the spell.
Cold gathered in my hands, and then it flew towards teacher Kalani. I did not cast spell properly, so power of spell was reduced by about third, but it was still slightly stronger than my tier six spell [Fireball].
But from point of view of teacher Kalani, the spell looked even weaker. After all, she expected me to have at least some amount of soul power, and therefore, it felt for her only like failed tier six spell.
"I guess I still need to learn more.“ I said with disappointment. "Teacher Kalani, could I show you my progress tomorrow?“ my mood lightened up, as I realized I could use this as excuse to be alone with teacher Kalani again.
"Al... alright. tomorrow then. I have to do something now, so excuse me Aiken.“ she answered, with weird expression on her face, and then left towards main building.
She was convinced I somehow managed to change tier seven spell into failed tier six spell and decided to get information about me from headmaster.
While it might sound like not that really complex thing to do, trying to change tier of spell requires some skill, but more importantly lot of time for testing out your attempts, since first attempts were usually completely unstable and would just explode or disperse. It was mostly used to turn low tier spell into higher tier one, as spells of tier thirteen and higher were only in hands of practitioners families, and those who were outsiders would never be able to gain them.
Most of magicians were only able to reach increase in power by about eighty or ninety percent instead of doubled power spell of higher tier should have, creating some kind of hybrid tier spell, that consumed as much mana but was less effective than other spells of same tier. My uncle, for example had one such hybrid spell, that was tier seven version of [Fireball]. Over five years, he improved it to point where it was just few percent less powerful than normal tier seven spells.
But if one managed to improve their spell to the point it was really as powerful as other spells of same tier, their improved version of original spell would then become original spell itself. This was how all of practitioner families were established, by groups of geniuses creating new original spells and original methods of soul and spirit improvement.
With absolutely no idea about what teacher Kalani was thinking, I have left for my room in dormitory to keep reading spellbook and to properly learn it before evening arrives.
When evening came, I bit was nervous to be honest. I was confident I have managed to completely learn [Freezing Wind], but this was my first fight and my enemy was twice my age. I sat down on ground in park behind dormitory, relaxing-
"Hello Aiken.“
I almost jumped out of my skin as I heard voice from behind.
"Brant! You almost scared soul out of me.“ I said angrily, as I realised who the boy who sneaked behind me and scared me was.
"Sorry, sorry, I came to support you.“ he said with guilty smile.
We waited for some time, chatting about things in class, before three older boys appeared. As he noticed them, Brant's face went pale.
"That tallest one of them is Ryan Randolph. He is student in eighth year who already reached tier eight and he is also son of leader of Randolph family. We should scram.“ he said, preparing to run away.
As if he heard him, tall boy loudly proclaimed.
"No need to run. I just had to come because I need to make sure this thick headed minion of mine does not go too serious and seriously injure you. After all, I don't want to have any more problems with headmaster.“
"We should run anyways.“ whispered Brant, but I was not willing to run now.
"Say your prayers kid. You were making fun of tier six magicians, I will show you how powerful tier six magic is.“ stated twelve year old Landon, who I provoked before and who was now sort of pissed off about being called minion, but he knew Ryan was angry at him over getting into fight with six years old.
"You should say yours.“ I said.
In next moment I summoned [Fireball] and sent it flying towards him.
I thought I should fight him with just tier six spells and only use my new spell if something was going wrong, in order to see, how great impact has soul power difference. That however was big mistake.
Landon summoned magic shield and blocked my fireball.
"That is pretty strong [Little Fireball], kid. Gotta give you credit, you are not completely bad.“ he said with confidence. He has mistaken my [Fireball] for practice version spell of lower tier, because if he casted [Little Fireball] himself, it could compare to my [Fireball] easily. After all, he had eleven hundred soul power.
As I noticed my mistake, I quickly used my storage ring to retrieve magic wand I received from teacher Alaric.
"But this is how true [Fireball] is supposed to look like.“ he said as he summoned fireball of his own. It was more than twice as powerful than one I previously summoned.
I only stood there in shock, unable to react. I wanted to cast my [Freezing Wind], but for some reason, under pressure of battle, I could not remember it. I could not remember any spell. I could not even move, as fireball approached me.
But before it reached me, small figure blocked its way, protected by magic shield. Fireball hit magic shield, broke it and then exploded swallowing little boy.
"Brant!“ I screamed, afraid of how much did spell hurt him.
"Why are you screaming?“ asked Brant, who to my surprise was unharmed. "I had enough mana to protect me. But I am now completely out of mana. So you better start showing that tier seven magic now.“ he explained.
At that time I still did not know one of most important things about magic. When you were hit by magic attack, it would first consume all mana before doing harm to physical body. However, attacking spell would consume much less mana then being hit by said spell, which was why magic shields were still popular spells.
As my heart calmed down, after shock I have been through, part of stress and horror was lifted from me I realised I once again could remember my spells and even [Freezing Wind].
"Stand aside, Brant, this is not your fight.“ said Landon. Then he turned to me. "How about giving up kid? I can still cast nine more fireballs before I run out of mana.“ he laughed.
Instead of responding to him, I focused. Then I started casting the spell. He also started to cast Fireball. Since I had yet to master this spell, my casting time was slower and he was first one to finish casting it. But I was not much slower.
Our two spells met, and to his surprise, my spell managed to slightly break through, hitting him with only bit of icy power. Because he underestimated me, he was not able to create magic shield to block my spell. This time, my power was increased by magic wand, and that little increase in power was enough to make my tier seven spell be able to compete with his tier six.
We started casting spells again, but we were interrupted.
"Stop.“
One who stopped us was not teacher, but young tall boy Ryan Randolph.
"Landon, this is your defeat.“
"Ryan, let me fight, I can still...“
"You can what? Tire out six year boy in longer fight? Fact that you were not able to win with single spell is enough for you to acknowledge defeat, right?“
"I understand, Ryan.“ said boy. "It is my defeat.“ he said to me then, with bitter expression, and he slowly left. Tall boy Ryan then turned to me.
"Boy, you are really talented. You really impressed me with that tier seven spell. At your age, tier five was my limit. But I know this spell, so I can tell it is tier seven spell, even though it's much weaker than when I use it. Your soul power must be really low, right?“ he had seen through me easily.
"Yes.“ I said with regret.
Even though I officially won, I now recognized that I am nowhere near as strong as I thought. If Brant did not stop first fireball, I would be done for and if fight was not interrupted after my first small victory, I would probably run out of mana sooner than Landon.
"What is your name boy? I didn't really pay attention previously but now I am interested.“ he said with complete honesty.
"Aiken.“
"I am Ryan Randolph, of Randolph family. If you ever want to join my group, I will welcome you. But since my companion offended you today, I guess you will reject. Let me at least express my apology for his behavior.“ he said with grace of noble and then he took out flask of potion from his storage ring.
"It is Soul Empowering Potion. It should slightly help you with your soul power problem. Now if you excuse me, it is really late and we should all return to dormitory.“ he said, realizing sun was almost setting.
He left first together with his other companion.
"That was really tier seven spell, right?“ Brant asked after they left.
"Yes. But my soul power is really low.“
"Then you should drink that potion. Randolph family has few alchemists, who make these potions and they are said to be quite effective. One is worth at least seven gold coins.“ he said.
Seven gold coins? He gave me something so valuable over small fight? But sadly, I knew quite well already from teacher Alaric that my soul power could not grow. Yet, inside me, there was small hope that teacher would be wrong.
"Take it, I don't have use for it.“ I said to Brant. After all, he threw himself into fireball to save me, when he noticed I was paralyzed by fear. He deserved it and it would not help me anyway, probably.
"I can't accept it. It is really costy.“ he said.
"Without you, I would be burned from head to toes now. So take it.“ I said, and Brant finally accepted.
And like that, Brant became my first friend in magic school.
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Hey guys, so this is final chapter today. I'm sorry, I would like to add more, but I have exams. I will start adding chapters properly at speed of 1-2 every week. I already have 5 more chapters finished, but I wish to have some chapters in reserve for situations, where I will be unable to write new chapter because of some things outside of my control. Thanks for reading, and if you want to support me, post some constructive criticism or encouragement in form of comment or review. See ya on Friday.
Trystan