Before Gilliam started casting, the other men in the room were sent out, it seemed they at least somewhat valued privacy.
Not wanting to destroy anything, he kept to the lower levels of spells. However, he ignored that mages used the multi-rune spell circles and kept to his one, or few, rune system.
A tiny fireball, a water splash but supplementing it with an ice spear, raising a ball of dirt and launching it, a gust of air supplemented by a lightning bolt. Darkness was a bit harder, also known as Creation or summoning magic, it was most often used to magically create objects or creatures, though the problem was that it used life force instead of mana. This tended to tear open wounds on the caster if he didn’t use an external source. However in this case that was a good thing.
As he spawned the magic circle to create a dagger a cut opened up on his forearm, it almost ruined his focus but he had done this many times before and was, sadly, somewhat used to it. The blood evaporated into mist as it came out of the wound and was absorbed by his spell circle. Once it was done it collapsed into a black, purple and red pulse and left a dagger in his hand, it looked metallic but had a strange red sheen to it.
He then used healing magic to close the wound.
“There, see?” He looked at the man and clerk with a told-you-so tone.
They replied with mouths agape and the very definition of disbelief.
“No, wait. Hold on.” The man commented, seeming a bit overwhelmed. “Am I seeing this right?” He turned to the clerk who was having the same reaction as him. She just nodded.
“No... so... You’re an actual Heptagon mage?”
“Yes, I kind of didn’t complete my time at the academy, but you can contact them if you want it confirmed. I was trained by Jial a bit.” Spewing out names both for them to confirm but also for credibility.
During the explanation he put the dagger under his coat, like he had an inner pocket or sheath there, but in reality, he put it into the ring.
“Then... is the rest of this true as well?” The man lifted the paper and took another look at it. “It can’t be... can it?”
“No, it is. I don’t always know what language I’m speaking as it kind of feels the same unless I concentrate. But in all tests so far, I have been able to speak it, even the Fracturian from the invasion.” The invasion of Lisica was a well-known fact, many, many people died so this was easy to refer to.
“Ok... I suppose we’ll test that later but... You state that you’re an artillery mage and your speciality is combat?” He looked almost a bit hesitantly.
“Yes, I haven’t tried the maximum I’m capable of, but the largest spell I have used would most likely damage most of the city, the shockwave would easily hurl people off of the outer walls.” He didn’t even know if he was bragging, but considering that the biggest explosion he had made before was enough to knock people down from at least a few kilometres away. That spell took about a quarter of his mana pool, his Boundary. And he had both improved on the spells design and his Boundary since then.
“Not sure how I should prove that... I don’t think it’s a good idea if I do anything close to my maximum power within city limits. You said that the dummy and this room were protected, right?” He had the intent of damaging the dummy to prove a concept, but the fear in his eyes hinted otherwise.
“No. no. no... After seeing this I.. I actually believe you a little. Besides we can measure your magical power, so I think that’s safer.” He walked over to a door on the opposite side of the targeting dummy. Opening it revealed a room with a sphere on an intricate pedestal.
“Placing your hand on this and just not resisting should let us gauge your power.”
“... Are you sure?” Gilliam commented. “Does it have an upper limit?” He might have sounded arrogant but the worry in his voice hinted otherwise.
“As far as I understand it, it just reads your power, it doesn’t channel it, so it should be safe.” There was some hesitation in his voice but he seemed to feel confident in his explanation.
“Well, if you’re certain...” Gilliam was hesitant but did as told.
He entered the small room, walked up to the ornate pedestal and placed his hand on the glass-like orb, preparing for a similar reaction as the one in the Academy those years ago he pre-squinted.
The orb started glowing stronger and stronger, to the point that it gave off heat. It was too bright to properly look at and analyse.
“Stop, take your hand off it!” The bearded man shouted, causing Gilliam to retract his hand and the light to fade.
“Good lords... I haven’t ever seen it glow that bright...”
“Well... I held back if that helps.” Gilliam commented to the man’s disbelief. “I halfway expected this to happen so I let out a little by little over time.”
“That explains why it was ramping up in brightness, usually it just hits the top rig-” Stopping himself mid-explanation. “How... much of your power was that?”
“Err... I don’t know... I feel that I had at least twice that.” He didn’t feel certain about that, he might be off on both sides of the scale but he honestly felt that he could go much higher.
This sent the man into disbelief again. The clerk wasn’t in a much better position.
“Now, that said-” Gilliam continued. “I have a lot of experience fighting, using and making spells. But honestly, without my magic, I’m an average combatant at best...” He wasn’t sugarcoating it. Originally his sword skills were because he was using a magical sword which cheated the logic. He had some experience with fighting without magic but it wasn’t anything amazing. “I also have close to zero knowledge about the world as a whole, most laws and all of that shit. Basically; I have magic power, and spell versatility, but that is mainly it.”
The man managed to snap out of it and thought for a second, again lifting the paper to skim through it. “What about the teleporting familiar?”
Almost as if pre-planned Savia popped out of his hair. “Savia can teleport!”
Gilliam chuckled. “Yes, this is Savia, and she’s very good at teleporting.” Picking her down from his hair he decided to just get this over with and prove it. “Savia, can you teleport me to that dummy?” He pointed at the targeting dummy from earlier.
He knew from experience that short-range teleports, especially areas she could see, required only a fraction of time and energy as she didn’t have to pre-connect to the area to confirm safety, she could just pop over.
A pulse of energy from her later and Gilliam found himself blinded as per the norm, and a second later when he could see again he found that she had indeed popped him within an arms reach of the dummy.
The man wasn’t in full shock anymore, which was a good thing, that shtick was funny at first but was becoming stagnant. Not that he would blame anyone for reacting that way but he didn't find it as amusing anymore.
“I... don’t know what to say.” The bald man commented to the clerk. “If he’s also honest about the language thing, he might prove very useful... I mean... he’s going to be usefu-” he stopped himself mid-sentence as it seemed that he realised something.
“You say that you have spell versatility, how many runes do you know?” He seemed to look at Gilliam a bit suspiciously.
Gilliam remember how Jial explained the magical runes back when he was learning. Once a mage learns the basics and masters the starter spells and runes that the academy teaches, further research, through understanding, trial and error or just luck, is a main part of a mage’s life. The mage learns to cast a spell as fast as possible due to several reasons, but one of them is copy-protection. Once you see it in action, the mental side can be guessed or found out over time. However, Gilliam didn’t know any runes in the same sense, he remembered a lot of them from use but in reality, it was more like how one can merge words into new words in most languages, that was how the magic runes worked in his head. He just knew the word as he needed it. Now, that said a mage wouldn’t share the exact numbers of runes, nor the runes themselves. This gave him something to hide behind.
“I’d say I know a bunch.” This wasn’t a lie, he didn’t know an incredible amount, he just knew them on demand. “The exact number I think I’ll keep to myself.”
“Hmm.” The man commented. “I suppose I can’t fault you there. Most mages like to keep that secret, but we need a few tests more than the basic elemental magic, just to get a grasp of your level.”
Gilliam couldn’t stop himself from growing a smirk. “I take requests.”
The man raised an eyebrow and smiled in return, though compared to Gilliam’s cocky challenging smirk, the man was a bit more nervous.
The next few minutes flew by briefly as the man wanted to try and catch Gilliam off guard with things like winds hitting only parts of his body, coloured water, earth globs in various shapes and green fire that spun around Gilliam. All of which he did without problems. The man seemed to catch that he was using a different system to cast than perhaps normal, but Gilliam didn’t care at this point.
“Fuck me, fine. I’ll give you a pass on that. If you’re that versatile, and that fast, I think we’re good for testing. The only thing left is combat, I assume allowing your magic won’t have you level the place, right?” He looked a little bit worried but at the same time, he seemed like he was looking forward to this. Not stopping for a response he walked over to the clerk with the paper, then went and got himself a wooden sword from a stand hanging on the wall.
“No, I’m good. I can hold back if I need to, I also warn you that I’m somewhat paranoid so I was ready before I came into the city today.” Though this was bragging a little, he wanted the best out of the instructor, this was going to be a good test in a non-lethal environment. And even if he broke something he could just heal himself!
The man rushed Gilliam as soon as he felt ready, Gilliam chose to not react and wanted to feel how hard he hit the barrier. Luckily the man didn’t seem to hold back just because Gilliam didn't react either.
Stepping in he brought the sword through a horizontal attack, aiming for Gilliam’s chest. There was a surprising amount of energy behind the swing so the sword practically shattered as it impacted Gilliam’s barrier.
The barrier took no damage.
He looked at the remainder of the splintered handle in his hand, opening his hand had it fall to the floor in splinters.
“That’s a solid barrier you have there...”
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“Yes, it is.” Gilliam replied dryly. It was an understatement, all of his three stacked barriers were empowered by his staff, which increased the efficiency of the mana used dramatically. Based on his fight with the Demon Lord, he expected one of the barriers to easily handle a speeding motorcycle crashing into him... Had they existed in Lisica.
And it’s statistically unlikely for a wooden sword to do that level of damage.
“You can get another sword if you want, I’ll even give you another attack before I start retaliating.” Gilliam arrogantly smiled.
Or rather, it might have seemed like he was arrogant, but it wasn’t, this was a test for him as much as he was being tested. If this man was an instructor or someone with enough skill to be the one testing new entries, he should be a good metric.
The man smiled, he was getting pumped. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Walking back to the weapons rack he picked out a war hammer instead of a sword, a surprise to be honest but it wasn’t something Gilliam didn’t have as a possibility.
Staying true to his word, Gilliam didn’t move, this gave the man some time to prepare.
Supporting the hammer over his shoulder he seemed to focus and do some weird breathing. Gilliam could feel some energy build up in the man, it didn’t feel like magic or like Ki. This could be bad...
The hammer glowed a strange red colour, the man stepped in closer as he grabbed the handle with his other hand and swung with all his might. Gilliam hoped the barrier would hold but he was mentally preparing to heal.
The hammer made contact with the barrier with great force. But though it did significant damage to the outermost barrier, as well as the hammer itself, it didn’t break. And due to the lack of carry-through momentum, it didn’t move Gilliam at all. Had this been a charging attack or something it could have brought Gilliam with him as he wasn’t rooted to the ground.
Gilliam let out a sigh of relief as the hammer had lost structural integrity, he also hadn’t mentioned that that barrier was just one of three.
Stretching out an invisible tendril of mana it contacted the man’s leg, and in a swift grasping and lifting motion he didn’t have the time to react before he was dangling upside down by his leg.
“Now-” Gilliam commented. “-I have crumpled metal, and worse, with this. I doubt your leg will resist much.” It was a threat.
“Yeah... I’ll give you this win... I couldn’t even go through your barrier, let alone do any damage, and if you can cast spells at the same time as you can just stand there that’s just cheating.” Though upside down the man looked in pretty good spirits.
He was only dangling a short distance off the ground, just enough that he didn't smack his head or arms into the floor when he was lifted. Gilliam didn't want to hurt him, just make a point. And to further that point he simply dropped the man who seemed prepared and caught himself with his arms enough to swing the force down to his legs. All things considered, he landed with great grace.
“I’ll mark you as passed without further testing-” the man started commenting as he looked around at the broken weapons. “-as long as you confirm the language thing.” He pointed at the paper that the clerk was holding. “Though as that’s so easily testable I don’t think it’s necessary, at least for my sake.” He shrugged
Throughout the whole ordeal, Cera kept to a corner of the room, partly out of just wanting to keep unseen but also as there were spells flung around in the room during the challenge. Savia was just staying in her nest in his ponytail.
The bald man spoke with the clerk a bit more. “Give him Iron.”
She raised her eyebrows. “But, he said he didn’t know local law or anything, how can we give him Iron?”
“Pair him up with someone who knows their shit. I would give him higher than Iron if I could. It’s going to be a waste to have him help with finding lost cats or whatever. If he’s good at fighting, I say we use him for fighting.”
After commenting on using Gilliam for fighting he said something in a lower tone, it only took a few seconds but it was too far away from Gilliam for him to hear.
“And what was that part?” Gilliam questioned curiously. Though it might not be meant for him, it was related to his approval and him in general, so he was a bit paranoid about what they were saying or planning.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, it wasn’t important.” The man commented with a passive dismissive wave of his hand.
Gilliam didn’t like that mentality. “If it’s related to me, I think I deserve to know, no?” He pressed.
“Nah, it’s not important, just related to your rank.” The man looked honest about the comment but Gilliam felt there was more to it.
Gilliam turned to Cera. “Cera, did you hear what they said?”
She made a few very small nods, she was still in the corner but her large ears were trained on them. “He said that if a Pentagon mage is equal to a Duke, you being a Heptagon mage could be socially powerful for them.” Some of the words in her sentence had the tone of her mimicking the words used, she didn’t seem used to, or properly understanding them.
Gilliam smirked back at the man. “Nothing important, huh?” The tone was heavily accusingly.
The man looked defeated like he was stealing cookies and was caught with his hand in the jar. “Well, fuck. I honestly forgot she was there.” He inhaled and recomposed himself. “Well, now that the cat’s out of the bag; yes. Having someone of your expected social power on our payroll isn’t a negative thing. We don’t intend to abuse it but it could come in handy at times.”
He at least seemed honest about his explanation once he was caught.
And Gilliam didn’t mind that part, had he just been honest about it. He also internally chuckled, he had no real idea how much social power Gilliam could muster if it came to it. Not only was he possibly the only confirmed Heptagon mage in history, but he was also the man who stopped the demon invasion into Lisica. Interestingly enough, through the act of doing so, he also became their leader, so he had access to an army of thousands of demons if he needed this...
Considering this had him realize that with only minimal planning and some time, he could do horrible things to a whole world...
“I suppose we can call the tests complete. I can’t give you higher than Iron, even though I would love to. Though with your power alone you should be able to raise in rank fast enough. Pairing you with someone more locally knowledgeable would probably be a good thing, but besides that, I think we’re done.” The man commented somewhat passively. “I suppose we could assign you to a higher rank job every now and then, to work around the limitations of your rank. But if you do a few high profile jobs that should bump you up in rank fast enough.”
Having walked to the clerk he took another look at the paper, the clerk handed him a pen and he wrote a few things on it before turning and walking back to Gilliam.
“Congratulations, you’re now an Iron rank adventurer. Ettine will help get you set up.” Reaching out his hand in a handshake once he stopped next to Gilliam. “The name’s Tanen, I’m the Guildmaster of the Aestu branch.”
Gilliam returned the handshake. “I didn’t know you were the guildmaster, but I suppose that explains a few things.”
“I like to test the new recruits myself when I have the time, it feels better when we send them out on jobs.” He smiled, seeming somewhat happy about this.
“Welcome on board. I hope for great things for you.” He let go of the handshake and made a gesture for Gilliam to go with the clerk, with Ettine.
Nodding at him he did as requested. He followed her back into the hallway and Cera followed him in turn. However, instead of going through back into the lobby, they entered one of the side doors into a smaller room. It had a desk with some chairs around it and a row of shelves with a lot of different books.
“There’s just one more test and we can get you running jobs.” She seemed strangely annoyed with the whole situation.
Ettine didn’t stop or let Gilliam enter first, she just picked up a few books from the shelves and placed them on the desk, opening them to seemingly specific pages based on what she found in a pamphlet.
“Now, read out these words.” She pointed at a specific sentence in one of the books.
“One drop of water is put into the vial.” Gilliam read, not having checked the rest of the page this seemed like some potion thing.
“Good, now this.” She moved to another page in the same book.
This lasted for a few minutes, going between pages, sentences, and different books in different languages. It didn’t take more than a few minutes.
“Well... I don’t know about every language, but all the ones we’ve tested so far you seem to know.” She let out a bit of a sigh. “I suppose that confirms everything you put on the list, meaning we can get on with the registration.”
She started putting the books back on the shelf as she explained. “As soon as you pay the one-time registration fee of 5 gold, and the badge fee of 5 gold we can get you sorted.”
Gilliam didn’t know there were going to be fees like this, but it made sense. There was probably a lot of admin work in registering new people, especially since it would probably have to be sent between branches. And based on the explanation the identification badge-stick things had to be made an enchanted, so a small fee didn’t sound farfetched.
Like before he put his hand in his pocket to take out the money from the ring, placing ten gold pieces on the desk between them.
Ettine picked them up after she was done putting the books away. “Right. Then that’s settled. You can go have a look at the jobs if you want to start right away, making your badge will take less than an hour, much faster if we’re lucky.”
She motioned for him to leave through the door they came from and guided him towards the door leading back to the lobby. She followed him through and motioned for the job boards taking up most of the opposing wall. “You can take any job of Iron or lower, so the Iron board and left. I would recommend you consider the party board. I’ll come find you once the badge is done.”
Without waiting for his proper response she gave him a little bow and left through another door. Gilliam didn’t think much of it and headed towards the boards.