“Ritual magic,” Professor Egret said, writing on a chalkboard. “Is a complex type of magic. It is a mixture between spell casting like what the sorcerers do and summoning circles like we do. Ritual magic allows the user to create an effect of a specific area. There are some rituals that allow the creation of an aura shield or one that adds or decreases the ambient magic in the direct area. The rituals are specialized. The higher ranks, congratulations on the advancement by the way, the wider area of effect is.” It was two days after he had summoned Willow. He spent the entirety of the day yesterday resting. He took the advice from the professors.
Levi was glad he did. Professor Bertrum's workout was brutal. He had done upper body today after testing his maximum a few days ago. Bicep curls, triceps extensions, forearm curls, back exercises, chest exercises, exercises for muscles that Levi didn’t even know excited in the human body. He would need to go through the recovery portion that Levi did last time. He didn’t have time this time because they also went for a run around the guild. All of that to say Levi was quite tired.
That exhaustion was not enough for him to miss his next lecture. With him being the only student, it would be greatly obvious who didn’t show up to class that it wasn’t worth the risk.
“What material do you use to make a ritual circle?” Levi asked.
“Cheap ones,” Professor Egret said. “Unlike summoning circles, the ritual circles effects are not dependent on the material but the incantation. I must admit, after seeing your incantation less display in the summoning room I am curious to see how you handle these.”
“That’s a good question, I have no idea.”
“Let’s test to see if you have any affinities. That will help us pick the right path for you. Of course, you have the liberty to choose whatever path you desire.” Professor Egret handed Levi a stone disc with a rune etched in it. The stone disc was kind of heavy. “Pour your mana into the stone.” As Levi began to do it, Progressor Egret continued to speak. “This is an elemental rune disc. It will light up with a color that matches an element you have an affinity,”
The rune glowed blue, “Ahh, the color of water. You have a water affinity.” She took the stone back and handed Levi another rune disc. This rune disc had a different rune in the center. It was similar in shape and in size; the only difference was the rune in the middle being different. “This,” she stated. “Is unnatural rune. It tests for affinities to things not of this world, do the same as before.”
Levi poured his aura into the rune, and a familiar sight appeared. Small flashes of red in a dark light showed—the colors and display of chaos. Levi truly had an affinity for chaos. He already knew it, but it was all but confirmed until now. “You have a strong affinity for chaos. Your water affinity is very minor, but you have one nonetheless.” Professor Egret said. “Come with me,” she led him to the library in the section of ritual magic that was focused on chaos.
“Here are all the textbooks on different rituals that focus on chaos magic. You may check out ones on water as supplementary. But your practical exams will be focusin on chaos magic.”
“Professor,” Levi asked. “Is there a difference?”
“Not in the basics,” she replied. “At this stage one-star and two-star rituals are all about the same in regards of what you’d get. A chaos shield vs a fire shield are fundamentally no different, they are both shields from similar rituals with different incantations. Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages, much like life. These books will outline the advantages of each of them. It is up to you to discover the disadvantages that are present with chaos.”
“Sounds, good. When will the test be?” Levi asked. He flinched at the glee in the eyes of his professor.
“Tomorrow,” she said with a sinister smile. “I like your eyes; may I meet your new familiar?”
Willow defused from the eyes of Levi. The wisp was in companion mode, which Anza and Willow came up with together. Willow floated around the professor in fascination, and the little being was full of energy and joy. You couldn’t help but smile to see the joy it had. Professor Egret gawked at the adorableness of the little familiar.
“A Crystal Wisp,” she said.
“You know what it is?” Levi asked.
“I do,” she narrowed her eyes at Levi. “You have a proclivity to make friends with things that most people are afraid of, Mr. Winters. A Mimic and a crystal wisp as familiars is quite unusual. Do you know about Crystal Wisps?”
“Only what I learned from Willow here,” Levi responded.
“Crystal Wisps live in the desolate cosmos as well. They are not exactly all-consuming entities like the echo we met the other day. They are called Apocalypse beasts. They can, with enough power and stars, destroy worlds in whatever element they are. A typical Crystal Wisp will start at 1-star then the more it consumes the more its star rank grows, until there is nothing left on the planet.”
“That sounds delightful,” Levi said.
“Quite,” she replied. “Yet here you are, standing in this library with a summoned version of one.”
“What can I say, I have an affinity for chaos,” Levi said with a nervous chuckle.
“Yes, Mr. Winters, it appears you do,” Professor Egret looked one more time at Willow and smiled. “There is something joyful about this creature though. You have a good rest of your day Mr. Winters; I will see you tomorrow.”
Professor Egret walked away, leaving Willow, Levi, and Anza alone in the library. “Well, we have some time before we meet up with the girls, let’s go into town.
Both Levi’s familiars decided to remain unfused and walk around the city of Arcross with Levi. There were many shops, food, restaurants, and cafes around the city. Levi had taken off the guild robes since he was no longer on the guild grounds. He was wearing a simple blue shirt and pants. He was wearing his cloak on top of the clothes. The weather was partly cloudy with a slight breeze, there were threats of winter coming soon. Levi absently wondered if it would snow here. He wasn’t sure how far above sea level they were, but he had never really experienced snow.
“Oi,” a deep voice in an alley cried out. “That’s a nice cloak, I’ll take it off your hands.” A man appeared out of the shadows. He was no taller than Levi. He had hairy arms nearly as thick as Levi himself—a messy beard and messy hair.
“Thanks, I’m good. See ya,” Levi said, walking off. The man reached out to grab Levi.
“It wasn’t a question,” he demanded. I can make a pretty coin off this cloak. Levi ripped himself free from the beast’s grip. The man's eyes fumed with rage. He pulled out a sword and held it out toward Levi. “I’ll take it off your cold, dead corpse.”
“Corpse’s take a while before they go cold, are you gonna kill me then wait?” Levi asked. He used an orb of chaos and an orb of lightning, launching them at his assailant. The assailant blocked with his sword expertly. The orbs diminished on impact. Anza used its new power chaotic moment, the man froze in front of Levi, and he acted; Levi ran to the side and threw a punch into the man’s ribs. The moment ended, and the man grunted in pain.
Willow switched to battle form and began splitting. As it was splitting small charges of lightning were seen in between each of the smaller willows. They swarmed. The man was shortly covered in small wisps the size of tennis balls, there were about 50 of them swarming and shocking the man. Levi took this moment and threw two orbs of water on the man, to amplify the eclectic effect. As he threw the orbs, Willow would create a small section by moving its bodies out of the way, allowing the orbs to hit directly. Water splashed over the man, and he began writhing in shock. In a moment, the man disappeared, and he was right behind Levi. He kicked Levi in the side, Levi barely was able to protect himself but got sent into a wall. He crashed into the wall hard.
He fell slowly off the wall and was on the ground, holding his side. Blood started to trickle out of his mouth. This man was very strong. His vitality must have been high because he was not going down with the electric swarm. Levi went to his feet, and the man was there with a punch to the gut. Doubled over, Levi spat blood and gagged on his lunch.
“Now, you die,” the man said. The man went for a finishing knee but before he could do that, a metallic tentacle when through his leg. It pinned him to the ground; he screamed in pain. He looked up to see an orb filled with dark clouds and red lightning coming straight for his face. It impacted directly, and the dark clouds exploded out and entered his nostrils. The Lightning flowed all around his body. The man fell back, dead.
Enemy Defeated: Hilbert, the Rogue bandit.
3-Star Rogue
Reward: Shadow Sword
Reward: Gold Piece x5
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Reward: Silver Piece x50
Reward: Copper Piece x500
Reward: Bandit Badge
Item: Bandit Badge
Take this badge to the local adventuring guild to earn the reward for the wanted contract.
“Well,” Levi said, holding his stomach as he was still bleeding from the fight. “That’s what a 3-star feels like…” he spat the blood out. Getting queasy looking at his own blood. “Thanks, y’all.” Levi walked toward the guild grounds. He walked by the body and saw that the eyes of the man were burnt to a crisp from the lighting. “Annand now I’m gonna have nightmares, dope.”
The stairs seemed even more daunting now that he was hurt; he felt like he had a broken rib. Every step his body ached; every step his mind wanted to give up. Anza walked up to Levi and lifted him onto its back. It slowly walked up the stairs. The way mimics move they use their tentacles as their movement, akin to how octopus slither on the bottom of the sea. It kept its body still and created more tentacles to move slowly up each stair without jostling the body. After what felt like an eternity Levi and Anza arrived at the top. His bleeding had stopped but the pain still ravished his body.
The guild square was full of students and apprentices. Most paid no mind to the bloody, injured summoner on top of the strange terrifying beast. Some stopped and stared at the man, wondering what could have possibly caused such damage to this man. Was it a monster? Was it a summoning gone horribly wrong? Nobody knew the answer, but everyone would speculate.
At a table in the middle of the square, two girls were surrounded by several other people. They were friends and colleagues of the two girls. One of the girls stood up in horror as she caught sight of the beat-up man. She left her group in a hurry and rushed over to the man.
“Levi, what happened? Are you okay?” Piper asked. Putting a hand on his bloody hand as Anza kept walking him toward the dorm.
“Peachy,” he muttered out.
“What the hell happened?” Anna said in shock.
“I got attacked,” Levi said, barely clinging to consciousness. Anna was assessing his wounds, there were no signs of poisons or negative effects from spells.
“He is not harmed by lingering magic,” Anna said to Piper. “He appears to just be badly hurt from whatever attacked him.” Finally reaching the room, Levi was no longer conscious. The women had practically dragged him across the hallway to enter into his room. Not wanting to put him, all bloody and gross, in his bed, they laid him down in the middle of the living room floor.
“What now?” Piper asked. “Should we get him out of these clothes?”
“Not chance in hells, I am doing that,” Anna said quickly. Piper laughed and went to the bathroom. She grabbed some hot towels and gently started to clean the blood of his face.
“I think he ranked up,” Piper said.
“And got a new familiar,” Anna said. “His eyes were blue; they definitely weren’t before.”
“Oh, I didn’t even notice,” Piper said. “His aura is definitely stronger, and he looks a little more defined than before. Anza, did he rank up?” Anza looked up and nodded. She was sitting on the couch in her usual spot, nodding off to sleep. Anza knew better than anyone that Levi was okay and that he would just need to rest.
“Come on,” Anna said. Let’s go get some food to eat. He’ll be fine; he has his familiar.”
Levi woke up a few hours later to the smell of cooked food. His stomach grumbled; passing out led to some intense hunger. Levi moved his body to see if there were any intense wounds that he had. He felt his rib and noticed that it was still hurting but it was set in place. Levi looked over to see three women staring back at him, he was laying on the floor still in his bloody clothes, but his face was clean. He got up and looked to see Piper, Anna, and Professor Egret.
“Well,” she said. “He’s awake and his aura is fine.” She made her way to the door. Stopping to look at Levi, “You still have your exam tomorrow be prepared.” They exited the room. Levi groaned because he had not done any studying. He was too busy fighting for his life and then recovering from that very fight. He slumped in the dining room chair where his friends were sitting.
“I don’t want to study,” he complained. “Thank you,” he said. I somewhat remember talking to you, but not really, but I assume you are the ones who brought me here.” Anna pushed a plate of food towards him, prompting him to eat. He dove in.
“So, what happened?” Piper asked.
“I was attacked by some rogue bandit,” Levi said in between bites. “This is really good, or I’m just really hungry. He wanted to steal my cloak and I told him no and then he attacked me.”
“Why didn’t you just give him your cloak?” Anna asked skeptically.
“Well, I didn’t want to,” Levi responded smugly. “Truthfully, I didn’t think he would try to kill me. That was crazy.”
“What happened to him?” Anna asked.
Levi dropped his food and his face fell. These last few hours had been spent recovering, surviving, and now eating. He hadn’t stopped to consider that he had killed someone. Another human being, an awful human, but that shouldn’t have mattered. Levi had taken the life of someone else. Not hours after he had the internal conversation not knowing how to fight. If Levi was being honest, he still didn’t know how to fight. Luck was a big reason why he won, he was outmatched, out-paced, out strengthened, on paper in every regard Levi should not have won. But he did. Levi looked to his familiar on the couch and felt the familiar in his eyes and expressed a sincere feeling of gratitude. It was the two of them that had kept him alive. Levi still struggled with the image of the rogue’s face after being blasted by the chaos orb that he sent. He sent.
“I killed him,” Levi said slowly.
“Was that your…” Piper said so softly, almost imperceptible. Levi nodded slowly. Anna bowed her head in silence and Piper went over and gave his shoulders a compassionate squeeze. “The first one is always the hardest,” she said. She sat back down, looking him deep in the eyes.
“Wait you both?” Levi said.
“Yes,” Anna responded.
“Yeah,” Piper said.
“That’s how things are done here. Killing is not normal, but it happens,” Anna said.
“I mean killing happens where I’m from but most people, like the vast majority will go their entire lives without killing someone. I’ve been here a little over two weeks and have done it.” Levi said.
“Most people in your world don’t have magic,” Anna said. “When they experience that type of power, there is this misplaced thought that they are worthy of the power and can take what they please, how they please.”
“That sounds about right,” Levi said. “No, we don’t have magic, but we have guns, well some places have guns, not everywhere, but that’s too political.”
“What are guns?” Piper asked.
“Imagine taking a metal object like this big and using fire magic to send it to your enemy super-fast,” Levi said.
“Okay, is that a gun?” Piper said.
“No, that is the ammo for the gun, the gun is the tool in which to send the metal object, we call a bullet, super-fast.”
“They sound deadly.”
“They are,” Levi said. “People use them to kill other people, but it’s rare. Killing is not a normal thing; it’s looked down on.”
“It isn’t here,” Piper said. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Levi said. “I killed someone, that is not easy to shake.”
“No,” Piper said. “It’s not and it shouldn’t be. Taking a life is a hard thing to do. But” Piper said sharply. Her posture changed and her expression became dark. “If I, because in my version of mercy, find out that someone I let go, hurt or killed someone else. I’d feel terrible and would take it much worse.”
“Yeah, but does that make it right?” Levi asked.
“It’s not about right or wrong, Levi,” Anna said.
“How is it not?” Levi pleaded.
“What good does prescribing judgment do? Will it make you better than the next person you meet who has killed someone? Does that make you better than Piper or myself? Does saying it was right for Piper to kill but wrong for me prove anything? It’s not about what is right or what is wrong. It is about surviving in this world that wants nothing but that magic inside your body back. Mercy is not set in stone. Mercy is not for one governing board to decide. There are many versions of mercy. There are many versions of ruthlessness. You must decide for yourself without judgment. Otherwise, you’ll be sulking about the last life you just ended while their friend or partner is readying to finish you off.” Anna concluded.
“You don’t have to like it, Levi,” Piper said in a softer voice. “You don’t have to agree. You can choose your own path and make your own decisions. Just don’t believe your decisions are better than anyone else’s. That’s how dictators are born, and the world does not need more of those.”
Levi sat in his chair for a second. He was slightly embarrassed. Who was he to judge the lifestyle of a world he knew nothing about? Levi thought back to a hypothetical question a date asked him one time. She asked if someone had taken his child, would he kill that person to save his child’s life. Levi said, without hesitation, yes, every single time. Why was that any different than here? The man was going to kill him. He even said now you die.
“You’re right,” Levi said finally. “I’m shocked at how easy it was and was projecting my own thoughts and feelings on you two and that’s not fair. Back home, I was posed a question. The person asked me, in more or less terms, if I would kill someone for my child. Mind you, I have no children. My response was yes, without question, every single time. I meant every single word. Call it a hero complex, but there might be a part of me that is angry with myself that I didn’t do it to save someone else; I did it to save myself.”
Anna and Piper shared a look.
“What?” Levi asked.
“Are you not more important than an imaginary fake child?” Anna asked.
“I mean, if you put it like that,” he said, chuckling.
“Being a hero doesn’t mean you don’t have blood on your hands,” Piper said.
“In my world it does,” Levi said. “They call those who are good guys but kill, ‘Anti-Heroes’ I strangely always liked them more. I just never imagined that I would be one.”
“Anti-Hero,” Piper repeated slowly.
“Hate to break it to you,” Anna said. “As soon as you got that one,” she pointed to Anza. “You became an anti-hero. Mimics are as anti-hero of a familiar as they can get.”
“Well, Willow is not going to help my cause,” Levi said. The blue in his eyes shimmered. Then out came a friendly-looking floating entity.
“You have a crystal wisp as your familiar?” Anna said in disbelief.
“It’s SO cute!” Piper said.
“A crystal wisp!?” Anna repeated.
“Look how adorable,” Piper was giggling as Willow floated all around her.
“An all-consuming entity, Crystal Wisp?” Anna said again.
“Yep!” Levi said with massive smile.