It wasn’t a day different than any other.

Emil kneeled next to the stinking corpse of a recently killed Silver Spine Worm. He braced his arms on either side of its thick, fleshy body and gave a hard tug, pulling the rest of it out of the densely packed sand.

Because he knew that the scent of its blood would eventually attract scavengers, Emil learned how to dismantle bodies rapidly. Without paying mind to the stench, he cut along the belly of the two-meter-long worm, aiming to retrieve its namesake part. Green, blood seeped out, intensifying the nasty smell. Emil was careful and wore a pair of special gloves to avoid the acidic burn that the blood could cause.

Even though it was referred to as a spine, the material was its nerve cord.

Its use could be drawn out while in the apothecary, and it was rare since the worms were notoriously difficult to kill and find. Emil was content enough that he found one while on his subjugation mission, knowing he’d be able to fetch a good price for it.

After removing its brain and nerve cord, the only components of any real value, Emil quickly stored them and left the spot. The scavengers in the Red Sun Desert weren’t anything he felt like dealing with.

Emil heard the distant cry of a beast and quickened his pace. The way to avoid hordes was to move around frequently or else too many of the magical creatures would gather as they were attracted by the loud sounds and smell of blood.

It didn’t take long for Emil to find the nest of one of the creatures he was searching for: Sand Lizards. They were a low-ranked magical being—having the individual strength of Aes, but they tended to form large herds and were highly aggressive. With their high reproduction rate, it wasn’t a rarity for there to be a job ordering their culling.

Emil stood on a nearby sand dune, seeing the horde of lizards all resting in the sun. They nearly blended in with the ground, which was an intriguing perspective.

He notched an arrow in his bow and raised it up. Emil prepared to release the box and start silently lowering their numbers when it felt like someone had jabbed a burning hot rod into his thigh.

With a shocked cry, Emil lost his control but still shot off the arrow. It embedded itself into the side of a nearby Sand Lizard, making the creature roar out with pain.

Emil wasn’t in any better condition as he instinctively reached into his right-hand pocket, feeling that something inside was scalding him. He pulled out the token that the Night Sage had given to him, seeing that it was glowing brightly and had turned red. The pain he had felt earlier seemed to be all in his mind, as it was cool to the touch. Emil stared at in a moment of confusion, but then heard the angered cries of the reptiles.

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He looked up with horror, seeing that they had all spotted him.

“Shit!” he hissed and darted from his position, trying to regain his bearings as he ran. He glanced at the light beaming through the cracks in his fist, originating from the token.

He felt an acute prick in his mind and heard the Night Sage’s voice, “Emil, break the seal.”

What? Teacher, is that you? It hasn’t been a year yet!

Emil pulled a dagger out of its sheath and pricked his finger on the tip before dragging a streak of blood across the length of the blade. He raised the dagger up and drew out the basic form of a magic array before stabbing through it.

Time Lock activated and everything other than Emil froze within a five-hundred-meter. He didn’t relax as he only had a couple of seconds to act before the spell’s effect wore off and time resumed itself.

Emil snapped his fingers twice and a small ball of flame began gathering around his head. The blood from Emil’s thumb rose up, being quickly sucked up as the fireball grew in magnitude.

Echo!

Once the singular fireball reached its peak size, two others blazed into existence next to it. They mixed together, forming the head of a dragon.

Emil released the spell, Salamander’s Rage, onto the mass of Sand Lizards just as time started once again. The beasts didn’t know that they had been frozen for two seconds and recklessly charged forward as Salamander’s Rage surged towards them. The first rows of lizards were almost incinerated completely. A large boom sounded upon their collision, balls of flame erupting out and falling into random parts of the crowd and killing those who made direct contact with them.

The lizards shrieked, running in the opposite direction and far away from the carnage. Sand Lizards were of low intelligence, but they backed off when faced with dangerous opponents.

Emil wasn’t happy though. Most of their bodies were ruined because of his emergency casting, meaning that he’d have to find another herd if he wanted to provide proof of kill and get a reward!

Fire mages really get it the best early on, Emil complained inwardly, seeing the destruction an Aurum-ranked spell could cause. The fire element was highly destructive by nature so all of those with its attribute was strong from the start.

That said, it nearly wiped all the energy out of his body. He could only cast a second-tier Aurum spell through recirculating his anima circuit with an additional blood sacrifice. He knelt to the ground, trying to control his breathing. It wouldn’t take long for him to recover, but he wouldn’t attempt to cast the spell again today. Emil took a couple of seconds to breathe before rushing away from the area out of habit. None of the corpses would be salvageable and he didn’t have the time to double check on that belief.

“Emil!” the Night Sage said.

The boy flinched and raised his hand up to touch his aching forehead. “Yes?” he answered the illusory voice aloud.

“Break the seal and come back.”

“It hasn’t been a year yet,” Emil said. He looked down curiously at the token still in his hand and saw that it had stopped glowing but retained the red color.

Who knew that this allowed for communication? How? I wonder what type of magic Teacher imbued this with. And why is he calling for me now?

A wave of dizziness made Emil’s vision start swimming. He watched the surroundings around him morph and felt an intense sickness forming at the pit of his stomach. Emil felt his eyelids grow heavy as if they weighed a ton and closed them out of obligation. His consciousness shut off. Emil began to fall forward as a dark fog formed in front of him, his body disappearing as he collapsed into the mist.