Aralyn neatly wiped her mouth after eating the delicious dinner. She had primarily remained silent so far, allowing Axel to tell his story. It was a truly remarkable one. From what she had heard, these guilds took their safety precautions very seriously. For one to be killed during a guild-sanctioned event was highly rare; it showed the capability of the killer. Or a lack of capability of the fallen student. She was leaning more toward the former, but she could never be too sure.

"I never attended a guild," Aralyn finally said.

"Why not?"

"In Stravenia, we have our own ways to study and become powerful magic-users. We called them Academies. The academy was divided into the same classes as the guilds."

"So everything is the same but because you are all elves you made it different," Axel said with a hint of sarcasm.

Aralyn gave him a flat look, "sarcasm is unbecoming of a prince. But yes." Axel smirked under the gaze of Aralyn's blue eyes. His smirk turned to a grin when he saw a smile teasing at the corners of her mouth.

"Are you willing to tell me why you are here, Princess?"

"During my time at the academy, which was four years, I discovered a form of magic that was unlike any I had ever seen before. Not many people studied it, even less practiced it. It was my third year where I discovered, Order magic." Axel leaned in as soon as she mentioned his form of magic. "I met an advisor who was apart of a cult of Order magic, the cult of Tranquility. She was the goddess of Order magic and brought it to this world. Which I am sure you already knew that. Anyway, that advisor taught me everything. She showed me the path to becoming a Phantom."

Axel's eyes grew wide. It finally dawned on him how she was able to pass through all of his extra security measures. A Phantom was not an everyday class; it was challenging to evolve without proper guidance. "A Phantom is an evolution of the Rogue class," Veluvius had once told Axel. "They are strong manipulators of order energy or order magic, depending on where in the world you are. They can manipulate the energy of the world into perfect stabilization and harmonization in whatever way they want. They are masters at sneaking around and probably require very little weapons or tools since they could throw anything with extra speed and precision."

Axel recalled the look on his mentor's face when he was reading all the class evolutions of those who were practitioners of order magic. Axel had been wanting an evolution but was worried he chose the wrong class. The list of evolutions for summoners was small but primarily due to a lack of knowledge and-

"Are you with me, Prince Axel?" Aralyn's voice cut through his memory.

"Huh? Oh, I apologize, princess," Axel said. "Your class brought back an untimely flash back."

"Oh?" Aralyn prompted.

"When I was finishing my studies, I had asked my mentor of potential evolutions I could gain once reaching 3-star. I didn't want something worthless, I wanted to train for something that was useful. We were discussing potential options when I asked about a class, the Phantom," Axel explained. Aralyn's eyes never left his as he spoke. "I knew in that moment it was a great class because my mentor was a person who wanted to learn about everything. Nothing scared him, his grin was so wide."

"Sounds like you had a good mentor," Arayln said.

"He was not," Axel said. "That's not entirely true. He was but he was also the only person in the world who would dare to get in my way that had the ability to actually make a difference."

"I understand," Aralyn said, nodding her head. "What is your class, if you do not mind me asking?"

"Karmic Summoner," Axel said.

"Oh," Aralyn said. "That means you could–

"Yes," Axel said. "And I plan on it. You were telling me a story."

"Correct," Aralyn said. "I am a Phantom and my mentor, who I call mistress, said I must seek you. That the two of us are to form an alliance, saying our goals are aligned."

"Do you not believe it?" Axel asked. "She cannot hear you here; you may speak freely." Aralyn hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"I do not. My mistress' plans are… ambitious and dangerous."

"What does she want?"

"It is not my place to reveal her plans," Aralyn snapped. Axel put his arms up in resignation. "I have come to train you. Your order summons are adequate but your fighting style is pathetic."

"That is because I let my summoners do all the fighting."

"That is no excuse for your martial skills to be lacking, Prince," Aralyn chided. "We shall begin training tomorrow." She stood up from her seat. "Thank you for the dinner; it was delicious." She gave a slight bow. "I will be back tomorrow morning; we have a lot of work to do." Before Axel could say anything, she bounded off and disappeared out of sight.

***

Izzy had the most restful sleep she had ever had. She woke up in her bed in the tavern. It wasn't the most comfortable bed she had ever slept in, but her body was so drained that it didn't matter. She stretched the sleep out of her body as she got out of bed. She noticed that Bradley was not in his bed. Izzy frowned. Surely, he should have been home by now. Izzy got ready for another day and made her way to get some food.

In the dining hall, Izzy spotted the team all eating breakfast and laughing.

"Sleeping beauty," Levi called. "Come sit, we've got some food for you."

"Thank you," Izzy said. "How long was I sleep?"

"You fell asleep as soon as we got back yesterday evening," Tycen explained. "If this is your first time waking up then, that long."

"You were asleep when I came in last night," Bradley said.

Izzy awkwardly scratched her head, "oh… sorry," She said.

"Nonsense," Levi said. "Rest is important. You pushed yourself hard yesterday. Good job," Levi said cheerfully. "We were just discussing how Anna wants me to give this girl a magic essence."

"And perform the ritual," Anna said.

"And what is the debate?" Izzy asked. "The town needs at least one, maybe more then a lot of their troubles would fix themselves."

"Thank you, Izzy," Anna exclaimed.

"I have a few essences," Levi said. "We have a lot more towns to visit. Are we going to stop, shove some magic into one of the cool and helpful teens in every town, down on their luck?"

"Until we cannot," Anna said.

"I hate to say this," Piper said softly. "I'm with Anna."

"What?" Levi and Anna said at the same time.

"What do you mean you're with Anna?" Levi asked.

"What do you mean you hate to say this, traitor?" Anna complained.

"Babe, aren't you the one who always wants to help people? Why the hesitation," Piper asked, ignoring both of their questions.

"How do we decide who gets what? What makes one person more worthy than another?"

"We do," Anna said.

"Sure, but who says our judgment is qualified to make such a decision? I don't want to leave it up to the town cause that would make things a helluva lot worse. So who decides? Are we that almighty and powerful that we get to be their gods and their saviors?"

"No," Tycen said, speaking up for the first time during this debate. "We get to be magic-users who are trying to help others interact with a magical world. We get to be adventurers who make one town a little safer. We get to allow one person to give a gift of helping out their hometown." Levi groaned and rubbed his hands over his face.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Okay," Levi said. "I have three magic essences. Wait…" he turned to Anna. "What about other essences? Can those be used to give affinities?"

"I don't think it works like that," Piper said.

"It does not," Anna said. "It can allow a person to become a magic-user but limit their spells to whatever they chose."

"That sounds awful like an affinity," Levi said.

"It is similar, I will acknowledge that," Anna said. "But the distinct difference is the single word limit."

"What about it?" Levi asked.

"Using a specific essence with no other magic unlocked would force the other to be a specific class based on the essence."

"So a chaos essence would produce a chaos class path?"

"A more restricted path but yes," Anna said.

"Hmmm," Levi mused.

"What?" Anna asked. Levi pulled four cubes out of the air.

"I got these four last night, two from the monster, two from a quest objective," Levi said.

"I also got a reward from the quest objective," Piper said, pulling out the essences.

Item: Rift Essence

The power of a rift in space is contained in one small cube. The cubes have the power of the rift within them. Use them within a ritual to unlock the power.

Item: Reap Essence

The power of the reaper is contained in a small cube. The cube has the power of the reaper within it. Use within a ritual to unlock the power.

Item: Moon Essence

The power of the moon is contained in a small cube. The cube has the power of the moon within it. Use within a ritual to unlock the power.

Item: Night Essence

The power of the night is contained in a small cub. The cube has the power of the night within it. Use within a ritual to unlock the power.

"What the hell happened last night?" Tycen asked. Levi grinned.

"Well you see what had happened was," Levi said. Levi began retelling the story of the monster that Piper and he fought.

"That fight took a lot longer than expected," Piper said as they returned with their earnings from the person who put out the notice.

"Yeah no kidding," Levi agreed. The two of them made their way towards Gretchen's farm. It was time for them to see if they could see the Reapin Drift.

"Came back, did ya?" Gretchen asked snarkely.

"Yep," Levi said. "We had a sneaking suspicion that the monster only appeared at night. We'll get it taken care of."

"Sure you will lover boy," Gretchen said. "If any of my property is damaged then I ain't paying you nothing."

"That's not how that works," Piper protested.

"Does it look like I care?"

"If you don't fix-"

"Thank you for letting us know," Levi interrupted. He pulled Piper's arm. "We'll do our best to keep the barn free from damage."

"You better," she said.

"Levi, why are you letting her be nasty to us?" Piper asked.

"We have to choose which battles to fight. What was our plan with the rewards?"

"Give them back," she said deflated. "It's just hurts that you aren't defending me."

"That makes sense, I'm sorry about that. I have dealt with crotchety people like her before. They try to bring you down to their miserable level with insults and rudeness. The best way to beat it is to kill it with kindness."

"I've seen you go toe to toe with aristocrats and bullies. Not letting them treat you anyway but honest… but her it's like you're going out of your way to be a doormat."

Levi nodded, not taking offense to Piper's words. "Because I am. Although doormat is a bit much, you're flustered, so I'll allow it." He kissed her forehead.

"I'm serious babe," Piper said.

"So am I," Levi chuckled. "Bullies think that they are better than everyone else so they go out of their way to step on people. Gretchen and people like Gretchen are miserable so they go out of their way to make everyone feel miserable because most people look like they don't feel that way. There's a difference."

"Not that much of a difference," Piper said.

"Nope, but still a difference," Levi said.

"Do you feel that?" Piper said as she felt an aura manifest at the fence line of the property. Levi turned his gaze to the fence matching Piper's. It looked like someone had taken a tear out of reality. In the middle of the tear was a different realm; slowly, a creature started to appear out of it. Two claw-like hands appeared on either side of the rift. A monster with a face that mimicked scary masks and a forked tongue appeared. It floated above the ground. Only half of its body was present, and the other half was missing.

The creature looked at Levi and Piper.

"Annnnd another thing to haunt my dreams," Levi said. "I miss elementals. They were so not this creepy." It let out a nasty screech. "All that damn noise and Gretchen didn't know this thing was here."

The Reaper Drift's claws morphed into scythes. In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of Levi, slicing its thick scythe claws at Levi's head. He caught it at the last moment and dodged it. Levi sprinted into the open field to avoid the barn and any damage. The monster teleported behind Levi and tried again. Shadow tendrils appeared out of the ground to stop the monster's attack.

Levi turned, and mouthed thank you to Piper. He jumped backward and conjured his staff, "Dameion and Serenity, let's get active." Serenity jumped off Levi's shoulders and grew to her full size. She flew into the air. The monster screeched at her. Serenity roared back, louder and much more intimidating. For a split second, the monster paused. A split second was enough time to mark its death.

More shadow tendrils burst from the ground, ensnaring the monster. Levi and Dameion, charged with weapons in hand, started attacking the defenseless monster. Serenity started firing her aura breath, and a speckled blue and black blast of energy erupted from her mouth, attacking the monster.

It broke free from the tendrils and started to break away from the rift it entered into.

"Oh no, you don't," Piper said. She sprinted to intercept, her shadow blade humming with power. As she got close, she swung her blade, and it severed one of the scythe arms, which had transformed back into claws. The monster howled in pain. The assault didn't stop there. Three black orbs surrounded it and were siphoning off its mana. The more the orbs rotated around it, the smaller the rift got.

"Void Storm," Levi chanted. Another rift appeared around the monster. This time, cosmic northern lights were inside the rift. Beams of northern lights started lancing through the monster, each beam creating a new hole that was not there before. Soon, the monster was completely Swiss cheese and had fallen dead on the ground, or what was left of it.

Quest: Notice Board Notices

Objective Completed: Notice Board #24 - Monster in the Barnyard

Reward: 100 Copper Coins

Reward: Tome of Animal Husbandry

Monster Defeated: Reaping Drift

Loot: Rift Essence

Loot: Reap Essence

Loot: Moon Essence

Loot: Night Essence

"I have a lot of questions about essences," Levi said.

"And they are?" Piper said.

"What are they?"

"That's one question," Piper said pointedly.

"Is it done?" Gretchen's voice came out from the house. "I heard a commotion and now I see y'all are just chit chatting. Must not have been a tough monster."

"It was only 3-star ranked," Levi said. "It was easy especially with the two of us. Problem's all done, have a good life Gretchen."

"Wait is it really gone?"

"Yep," Levi said, walking off.

"What about your reward?"

"We broke some of the fence. Your rules said we won't get paid if we break anything so no worries. Have a good life Gretchen, if you need anything else put a notice up."

"Wait…" Gretchen said, looking sad. You two are barely sweating or even look remotely spent. How?"

"We're very good at this," Levi said.

"That's an understatement," Gretchen replied. "Now I feel rude for treating you so poorly."

Levi nodded slightly, "power determines how you treat someone?"

"Ain't that how the world works? The powerful step on the weak?"

"Unless you have the power to help the weak," Levi said.

"Yeah well when that day comes, I'll be happy to see it," Gretchen said. "You don't know what it's like to have nothing. But have all these big bad adventurers who are supposed to be helping you, saving you, and protecting you take advantage of you. The only thing you can do is respect their wishes because with a blink they can end your life. With about as much remorse as I do killin a fly."

"That's not who we are," Piper pleaded.

"Maybe not you specifically," Gretchen said. "But that's been my experience with the likes of you."

"I do know what that is like," Levi said softly. Both Piper and Gretchen turn toward the summoner. Watching his head droop and his body stay perfectly still. "I know what it is like to wake up every day afraid that something awful is going to happen to you. But you don't have the power to change that feeling. To feel more than helpless to feel burdened for being born the way you were. I know that feeling all too well. I know what it's like to be in the face of power and you are desperate to reach out and grab any sort of power. You," he said, looking at Gretchen.

"Your power is to drag everyone down to the miserable state that you are in. My power is to help the world be a better place, one person at a time. I am sorry you were treated poorly. From what I have seen is that this world has some bass akwards way of doing things."

Gretchen was quiet for a moment after Levi's mini-rant. She sat contemplating Levi's words, her face changing frequently from sad to angry to frustrated to regret before she answered. Finally, she said, "You're right; I shouldn't be trying to drag you down." She held out a small pouch of coins. "Your reward," Gretchen said.

"Keep it," Levi said, walking away. "Good luck. "

When Piper and Levi had made a decent distance between them and Gretchen, Levi turned to Piper and said, "So essences."