Chapter 15

85 day of  Hanur, year 853 A.C.

Keronk (The capital of the magocracy)

Zephyr was walking through the academy yard. His destination was the arcane class. During his travel through the academy, he observed different types of uniforms which puzzled him for a moment. His uniform was green with a yellow bandana on his arm, but he saw blue, red and orange uniforms.

At first, he thought that the color of the uniform represents the year or the rank in the school, but he abandoned that thought. The teachers will probably explain how the things are going.

He continued to walk until he reached the entrance of the arcane building. This building was hosting all the activities related to the arcane magic.

After opening the huge wooden doors, he stepped inside. The entrance room was a huge semi-spherical room with three hallways. Zephyr started to walk to the center  of the room where, on a panel, was displayed the map of the building. There were a few students in front of the panel but he didn't want bother them by asking for directions.

After a few minutes of looking at the panel, he finally identified the location of class 21, which was the class where his first course was going to take place. Not long after that, he reached the second floor and headed to the class. He was a little nervous. This was the first time that he actually wants to be somewhere and the tension was pressure on his shoulders. He opened the door and walked in.

 The class was a middle size room with five columns of six benches. In front of the benches was a big office with some papers on it. The class was almost full with students that turned their heads to Zephyr when he walked in. They were wearing uniforms of different colors. Zephyr spotted a free bench at the end of the last column, near the window.

After he sat in his bench, the other students returned to their activities. They seemed that they already bounded some friendship between them, but to Zephyr that was meaningless. He came here to learn about magic and nothing else.

The door opened again and the teacher came in. He was a old man with white hair and long beard. He was wearing a green robe, the same color as Zephyr’s. In his hand were a few books and a notebook.

He sat at his office, put his hands on the desk and spoke:

“Good morning students!” He made a pause, then spoke again

“My name is Hilin Edras and this year, I will be your teacher in the arts of the arcane magic.”

“I'm a strict person and I don't like to be interrupted. If you have something to say, then you raise your hand. If you speak unasked during my class, you will be punished. Remember that some of you  are in a foreing country, and your relations won't help you. If you have any objection, raise your hand.”

Nobody raised his hand. 

“Good, now that we made that clear, let me explain to you why some of you are wearing different types of uniforms. As you know, there are five fields of magic. In this school, depending on the field that you applied for, you wear a different uniform. Arcane students wears green, enchant wears blue, support wears red, alchemy students wears orange and spirit students wears white. As for the bandanas on your arms, I will explain that later.”

“At this course we will study arcane spells and aether manipulation. The first thing that you need to know is that the spells are divided by tiers and ranks. The tier of a spell is given by the amount of aether that the spell uses. For example, if a spell uses between 1 and 15 crystals of aether, then is a first tier spell. If the spell uses between 16 and 70 crystals of aether,  then is a second tier spell. The reason why a first tier mage cannot use a second tier spell is that the spell uses more aether than the mage can store.”

“The rank of a spell is given by the level of mastery of it's user. There are 5 ranks for each spell. Lesser, Weaker, Normal, Higher , Greater. When a user learns a spell, he can use only the normal rank of that spell. But the using that spell many times, he will begin to unlock the weak and high ranks, and then, the lesser and greater ranks.”

“As you probably know, while you cast a spell, you must say out loud the spell's name. Even if you can cast a spell without saying aloud, the time of casting will be much longer. We still don't know why saying aloud the spell's name  increases his casting speed, but we suspect that it has to do with the concentration.”

Zephyr was listening to the man before him. He was fascinated by the amount of stuff that he already learned.

‘Who would have thought that coming to this academy will be so useful.’ thought him.

He snapped out and continued to listen the teacher.

“Good. Now that we cleared some general stuff about magic, it's time to begin the first lesson.” Said the man, clapping his hands at the same time.

“Most of you are mages. That means that you can use arcane magic. Even if the  majority of the aether users can only use one of the magic fields, there are people that can use two or three fields of magic. The persons that can use two fields of magic are very rare and those who can use three fields are almost nonexistent. There is only one person in the entire history that we know he can use three types. As for the two fields persons… the Grand master of the academy is such a person. He is a mage and a enchanter. A very powerful combination.”

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“The arcane magic is the most useful magic in battle. The bases of this magic consist in projecting aether out of your body through different ways. The arcane magic is divided in three categories: Elemental magic, Mental magic and Raw magic.”

“The elemental magic consist in projecting aether out of your body as: fire, water, earth, wind, thunder, light and dark. This is the most basic type of arcane magic. The mental magic affects the mind of the opponent. Here we have illusions, telepathy, mind control and other types which I won't mention. This field of magic is not yet fully explored. The raw magic is the hardest to control and the most dangerous type of arcane magic. This magic is based on projecting raw aether out of your body.”

Zephyr recognized the last category of magic. He himself used it a few times and he had to admit that it was indeed very powerful. The spells [Explode] and [Mass explosion] were spells from this category.

The time flew by and before he could realised, the two hours were almost gone.

The teacher lifted from the seat and spoke:”Before we finish the first course, I want to tell you that the tier that you are is not everything. If you are a sixth tier doesn't mean that you are invincible. You must train and learn to control your aether. This is more important than your tier. I personally know about a very well trained third tier mage that easily killed a fifth tier mage which was untrained.” The words of the teacher left the students speechless.

“Think of that until the next week.” Said the teacher while leaving the class.

After the teacher left, some students started to speak and share ideas, while others left for the next course. Zephyr was one of the students that left. He had another course today, but it was in two hours. So he decided to go and eat something.

There were hundreds of students  in the canteen. Zephyr walked in, picked some meat with rice and sat at a free table. The food wasn't as good as the one at the Fresh Way, the restaurant that he eat the other day, but it wasn't bad either. He finished eating and still had one and a half hours before the next class. He decided to go in the garden of the academy to train a little.

The garden was a huge place covered in grass and bushes. It could hardly be called a garden. Zephyr noticed that he wasn't the only one that had this ideea. A few tens of metres from him, a group of students were training. Judging by their uniforms, they were enchanters.

Zephyr sat down and started to meditate. He began to feel his aether. By the quantity of aether, he was at the peak of sixth tier. If someone would measure his aether, they will be amazed by the 62.000 crystals . But even if he has so much aether, he could only use a quarter of it. If he trains his body and learns a better control of his aether, he will be able to use his full power.

The group of students noticed him and gathered around him. Zephyr opened his eyes and was staring at the students. The group was formed from three boys and two girls.

“Can I help you with something?” Said Zephyr in a calm and meditative way.

“Hi my name is Zaen” Said one of the boys. He was a fifteen years old, dark-haired boy,  a bit taller than Zephyr.

“Those are Colrin, Geremy, Sanya and Ayana.” Continued Zaen.

Zephyr noted, then he spoke:” My name is Zephyr. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you!” Said one of the girls, blushing.

“We were training over there and I noticed that you are a mage. As you can see we are all enchanters and we could use a mage in our training.” Said Zaen.

Zephyr was a little confused. Until know, the students that he meet at this academy were assholes. He was delighted to meet some nice persons.

“Ok! But why do you need a mage?”

“Well... We want to train against mages.” Said Sanya.

“So what do I have to do?” asked Zephyr.

“Before I came to the academy, I learned a spell for enchanting one's magical resistance. I want to see how powerful the spell is, but my friends don't have powerful attack spells.” Said Zaen.

“Very well. The rest of you take a step back. I don't know how powerful the spell that I will use is.” Said Zephyr.

 The rest of the students, took a step back while Zaen and Zephyr were face to face. At the hearing of Zephyr's words, Zaen got a little scared, but his confidence in his spell made him go forward.

“[Magic Absorption]” uttered Zaen.

Soon, he started to glow in a green light.  His body was covered with a glass-like shield. He took a defence position and begin to wait for the attack.

‘A really nice spell.’ thought Zephyr.

‘By the quantity of aether that he used, this is a third tier spell. I need a weak spell that doesn't kill him.’Zephyr searched a few seconds in his mind, then he came up with a decent spell.

‘I hope that this isn't too much.’ thought him.

“[Lesser Fire cannon]”

A fireball erupts from Zephyr's hand and Goes straight to Zaen. This was a fourth tier spell, at the lowest rank. Even if it wasn't as powerful as the normal spell, it could still kill a defenseless third tier aether user.

The fireball made contact with Zaen and exploded. To Zephyr's amazement, Zaen didn't suffered much damage. The shield that was covering his body, absorbed more than 70% of the explosion.

“Amazing!” Exclaimed Zephyr.

“This is indeed a powerful defence spell that you got there.”

“Yes it is. But I didn't expect that your attack to be so powerful. You are more powerful than I thought.” Pointed Zaen.

“I'm very curious about that spell. Can you teach me?” asked Zephyr.

“This is indeed a powerful defence spell that does not repel the attack, but it absorbs it.Unfortunately, I cannot teach you. Only my family is allowed to learn this spell.”

“What a shame!” voiced Zephyr.

While the two boys were conversing and changing ideas, Sanya, suddenly spoke.

“Now I remember. I saw you at the entrance exams. You are a fourth tier mage.”

The other students were speechless. A fourth tier mage was someone that could easily win against  four or five three tier mages.Even Zaen was surprised. The he remembered the power of the spell from earlier.

“That quite a surprise. What about a fight against all of us.” Pointed Zaen.

“What?!” Exclaimed the rest of the group.

“We will all fight at once, we will at least be a challenge to Zephyr.” Continued Zaen.

“That's fine with me.” Said Zephyr with a smile.

“Maybe another time. The next course starts in ten minutes.” Said one of the boys.

“Too bad, maybe some other time” Uttered Zaen.

“Fine with me.” Continued Zephyr.

After the group left, Zephyr started to walk to the enchant’s building, where his next course will be.

The enchant's building was a bigger than the arcane building and the students were mostly wearing blue uniforms. He entered the classroom and sat at a bench in front of the column. It didn't took long until the teacher came in and started to speak.

“Good morning! My name is Cedroc Malcalm, and I will be your enchant teacher.”

“As you probably know, the enchantment is the magic field that can bestow or improve different powers. An enchanter can enchant only two things: a living thing and a aether gem. An enchant on a living thing is more powerful than on a gem, but it isn't permanent. While an enchant on a gem is much weaker but it's permanent, or until it's removed. There are two types of enchant: physical amplifiers and magical amplifiers.”

“If a person is a mage and a enchanter, as the great master of the school , then he can enchant gems with attack spells. For example, such person can enchant a gem with the fireball spell and then apply it to a sword.  Anyone who would hold that sword could use the spell.”

The two hours flew by, while the teacher kept explaining the basis of enchanting. After the course, Zephyr walked started to walk home.

The street was crowded so Zephyr decided to make a small detour. He entered a small street and kept walking until he reached the market district. This district was the biggest, there were hundreds of shops and stalls.

As he walked down the street, an abandoned building caught Zephyr's attention. After studying the building for a few minutes, he made a detour to the district's administration building.

*** 

85 day of  Hanur, year 853 A.C.

Cadun

Geoffry Bexley Phelrey, one of the powerful nobles in the Kingdom of Elellon. In the past fifteen years, he was the most trustworthy person on the king side. He tried to diminish the Phomes Fordaye's power and make the king the only leader of the kingdom.

Of course that he didn't succeed even once, and now, all of his attempts were backfiring at him. He was staying in his office looking through some papers, as usual, when the door slam hard and Stephye Moore entered. Stephye Moore  was the captain of his first legion, and the man that he trusted the most. If he would barge in his office without formalities, then they have a big problem.

“Sir... I'm sorry for my lack of formalities, but I have urgent information.”

Geoffrey made a sign of approval.

“What's happened captain?” asked Geoffry a little worried.

“The king's plan to annex the power of the little nobles failed.” Those were hard words and Geoffry knew that meaning of it.