Dante opened his eyes, before closing them once more and rubbing the sleep from them.

He took deep breaths and got out of bed, and began dressing himself.

Dante began popping his knuckles, cracking his neck.

As he reached for the door now after getting dressed he paused.

He caught the glimmer of artificial sunlight reflecting off a glass flower vase on his night stand. It stirred something in him. A memory?

He remembered....light, dancing bands of light.

He remembered someone standing beneath the northern lights.

Where had he seen that? He didn't know but it did give him an idea.

He pulled back his palm from the door and cupped both hands together, forming a small bowl.

"Light." He spoke in a voice that was but a whisper. A word that gave life to something more, and in a moment, liquid light pooled in his cupped hands.

His mind was set and he felt his foot step out into the dark, before finding purchase.

He had a goal, and so he reached for it.

"Dancing lights." he spoke in a firmer voice this time. The liquid light flowing upward in defiance of gravity.

The small amount of liquid light grew before it divided in two, and those two into four.

When it was done 4 baseball sized orbs of light bobbed in the air before him.

Slowly he tried to shape them, to remember the feeling of shaping mana, to shape the spell into something more.

The lights began to grow as their colors began to change. From their default golden light each orb shifted. Now they were green, red, blue, and orange.

Their colors shifting, slowly, carefully he began to work on his idea.

He tried to flatten the orbs and lengthen them. Though after 5 minutes of little success he decided to save that idea for later.

Allowing his concentration to lapse he watched the multicolored lights break apart before fading back into the manasphere. He did manage a level in External mana manipulation though.

External Mana Manipulation has leveled up! Lvl. 4...

This wasn't because he had wanted to stop, but because he was getting hungry.

Slowly he made his way out the door and down to breakfast with his parents and Califa.

-------------

Dante and Califa stood before the Mages guild. Each looked to one another before Califa grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the building. Despite her thin appearance she had no issue dragging him around.

'Damn! How high is her strength?' he thought as he looked upon the interior of the building. What greeted him was a large open room filled with bookshelves off to his left. To his right appeared to be a collection of a dozen large tables and many comfortable looking chairs. Throughout the room were many people dressed in robes of several colors. He watched several mages talking for a moment before he was dragged toward what looked like a librarian's desk.

"Yes hello this is Dante..." She stated, pausing a few seconds to present him before continuing.

"...He was given a notice by the system that he had been granted the opportunity to learn several spells free of charge! That to claim them he had to report to the nearest Mages guild and this is the nearest Mages guild." Califa said, eliciting a look of mild shock and confusion upon the receptionist's face.

"Ummm...Just a moment please we will just have to confirm. Please place your hand upon the stone and confirm the details for me please." the receptionist said, quickly regaining composure as she pulled what appeared to be a palm sized piece of quartz from behind the desk and placed it before Dante.

"That will not be necessary miss, I can attest to the authenticity of his claim." Spoke an older voice from off to the side.

They turned and saw a man in ornate robes standing a few feet away flanked on both sides by what he assumed were mages of similar caliber. Behind them all eyes were upon either the men before him or Califa and himself.

"Of...of...of course Sir Headmaster." The woman stuttered for a few seconds before she regained her composure and walked away to have a break.

Seeing the man in robes and hearing him called Headmaster Dante stood a little straighter and tried to put his best foot forward.

"Am I to assume that we were expected?" He calmly asked, eliciting a laugh from the Headmaster.

He appeared to be a younger man, not yet in his 40's. His hair was salt and pepper but his eyes, a deep purple, betrayed him. Whispering years untold, ages long gone.

"I was notified that you were likely to be here today and what I am supposed to give you." He waved his hand and a blue box appeared before Dante.

"You are to select 6 spells and 3 cantrips to learn free of charge. However..." the Headmaster waited as the pause drew Dante's attention towards him and away from the blue box.

"I wish to know who gave you this opportunity? Who is paying for you to learn these spells?" The Headmaster asked, pointing his index finger casually towards him.

He was silent for a moment as he could guess what this man could do to him with that finger. So honesty seemed the best bet.

"I'm sorry, I can't give you their name because I honestly don't know it. I don't think they are even..." Dante's speech lapsed as his right eye began to twitch, his head rocking back and forth slightly, for a moment before it ceased and he continued.

"...I'm sorry, what were we talking about?" He asked with genuine confusion his train of thought having derailed.

"I see if that's how it is..." The Headmaster seemed none too pleased at this development. They stood in silence for several seconds as he scrunched up his face before he raised a finger and his expression changed to one of Eureka.

"Aha, how about this?" He began to speak and then he waved his hands, making some form of gesture. Then he felt it.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"I have made a telepathic bond between us. I will make an offer to you. If you would allow me to search through your mind for the information that I seek I shall grant you another 4 spells and...hum...a 50% discount on the learning of cantrips at this guild. What do you think of that?" The Headmaster's voice echoed in his mind, as physically they began to be escorted up to his office.

"You remember them and I will see, I will offer you a few more spells and the advice of this old Archmage." His voice spoke in Dante's mind as he saw a small smile upon the Headmaster's face.

"It's a tempting offer, but why do you want to know who did this for me? What do you gain from it?" Dante sent back with a tone of caution.

"I am curious. People who will do such things are few and far between. I would like to meet them if I can." replied the Headmaster.

"People who spread power around instead of hoarding it?" He questioned, not quite accusingly, but a seed of distrust had sprung up within him and it showed.

"Yes. I like meeting people, teachers, willing to go the extra mile for their students." He replied and for a moment there was silence.

Dante pondered those words, examining them the best he could. In the end he chose to consider his words as the truth and accepted the offer.

"Very well, I'll accept your offer. Now let me try and remember...it's...a bit jumbled." He sent as slowly he tried to recall what he had seen. The teacher and the classroom. A man standing in a blank room spoke to him. The reveal of something...The memory faded and try as he might that face he had seen eluded him.

"Fascinating..." breathed the Headmaster lightly as he watched Dante's memories being played back. Though something concerned him.

'...I don't remember the last time I encountered a mind with walls like this in it.' He thought as he touched upon a wall in Dante's mind. Though what he touched wasn't so much a wall but a curtain of static, disallowing access to memories beyond.

It was by this time that they had arrived at the Office of the Headmaster. Califa was made to take a seat outside while Dante, the Headmaster and his guards stepped into the office.

"Now that we may speak freely. As you have made good on your end of our bargain I will make good on mine." The headmaster flicked his fingers in the air, several blue boxes appearing and vanishing in rapid succession.

You may choose 3 additional cantrips and 2 additional 1st level spells...

"I will be teaching you those additional cantrips personally. And you may learn those 1st level spells like the others, the fast way." Spoke the Headmaster in a voice tainted by mild annoyance. As once more the blue box with spells listed brought itself up.

Dante looked to the Headmaster and curiosity got the better of him.

"Who was that person? Who was it that gave me this opportunity? I can't..." Dante stopped mid sentence, his eyes darting from side to side as he tried to recall the face of that person.

"I don't know, but what I can say is that they very likely are a god. Likely one of magic I would assume. As tends to be the case." The Headmaster spoke while rubbing his chin.

Dante smiled as he thought, 'Meet a god, can check that one off my bucket list.' He mused before he turned back to the blue box in front of him.

'So many good spells but what to choose? Let's start with cantrips.' He thought as he scrolled through the list of wizard cantrips and after a bit of thought he made his choices.

"Shape Water, Control Flames, Prestidigitation. Three good utility spells. I'll get these the fast way." He said looking to the Headmaster who nodded in approval.

These were the cantrips he would learn fast, and he already knew the spells that cantrips he would learn from the Headmaster. Besides due to the versatility of these spells he suspected they would be harder than the spells he planned to learn from the Headmaster.

Fire bolt, Ray of Frost, and Shocking Grasp. Mending was a decent one too but now that he knew he could get access to the Arcs version he wouldn't settle for anything less as it was the clearly superior version.

As he pressed the buy button for each of the three spells he felt that familiar doorway in the back of his mind open. This time he felt not light pouring forth but...something else.

Dante closed his eyes and turned inward, appearing in his soul space beneath a familiar tree.

In the distance he saw, a flame. 3 steps and he was there to see but what he saw surprised him.

At the base of his class tower he saw a small flame. It was no bigger than his fist and yet it was far brighter than it should have been. Before he could cover his eyes however, the light dimmed and the flame changed colors. What once looked to be ordinary orange and red flames, changed colors to become gold. Then blue, purple, green, black and white. The flame all at once went out leaving Dante confused only for it to reappear a little ways into the tower.

There it danced for a moment before vanishing again and reappearing right before him. Dante couldn't help but smile at the odd turn of events.

"Do you want me to follow you?" He asked quizzically. To which the flame began jumping up and down, rapidly changing colors before it moved as it had before. Appearing 20 feet away from him.

Curious, he decided to follow the small flame.

With each step he caught up to it and each time he did it vanished and appeared several meters ahead of him. After about a minute of this game of cat and mouse they came to a familiar hobbit hole, with an unfamiliar addition.

The flame danced about what appeared to be a fountain made from...ice?

As he approached water began to spout from the fountain, taking on impossible shapes.

Streams of water forming loops in the air before falling into the basin of the fountain.

As he watched each, they began doing ever more impossible things. The water in the fountain went from clear as crystal to as opaque as milk and back again.

The flame danced about with a life all its own changing colors like a strobe light.

Then it clicked.

"You guys are Control Fire and Shape Water. Pretty cool to see you here, not something I expected." Dante smiled with a bit of joy and then grew curious again.

"So where is Prestidigitation then?" He asked aloud though he suspected he already knew the answer.

Stepping around the fountain and the dancing flame he walked through the door of the hobbit house only to find it looking at least a little better than he had left it.

As he stepped in he forgot to close the door behind him.

The walls now seemed to have been painted with a light cream color. Two small candles now helped to light the room. One on the nightstand and the other one the table. Everything just seemed a little cleaner as well now that he thought about it.

"Prestidigitation, the ultimate spell for keeping your house clean." He smiled a little wider, the soft feeling of joy growing slowly in his chest. Then he saw something race by his foot and the moment ended.

The small dancing flame raced by his feet only to double back and begin running around him.

Uncertain what to do he looked around for something to stop it then he remembered the fireplace.

Dante looked down upon the small flame and pointed toward the fireplace.

"Go." He said simply but sternly, drawing the flames attention as it came to a halt, almost seeming to look up and regard him.

It tracked where he was pointing before looking to the fireplace. It cracked wildly in what he thought could be excitement. The first sound he had heard it make.

It raced across the floor and came to rest in the brick fireplace. Something about how it looked reminded him of something he couldn't place.

Slowly he approached and carefully reached out his hand towards the flame wary but he knew the spell now.

The flame leaped up from the bricks to engulf his hand; he almost yanked it back on reflex but managed to hold his nerves. The fist sized flame shrank as the flames retracted from the rest of his hand, until only the fire in his palm remained. The small flame crackled with glee becoming a bright golden color. He felt its joy in that moment mixed with his own as his fears subsided.

Road of Fear...

Though you are afraid to be wrong, you stick your hand into the flame knowing it will not hurt you. +2 Con, Int, Wis...

There was silence in this place save for the crackling of the flames, the trickle of the fountain, the ticking of the clock on his night stand, and the beating of his own heart. It was so peaceful.

Tick...

Tick...

Tick...

Something stirred within him. A memory? He saw a blue flame in the fireplace. He blinked and the flame once more had taken up residence there in the fireplace. However, now it was a soft blue like the sky.

Dante smiled, feeling content for that brief and shining moment. He felt something lost had been found. He didn’t know why but he could find out later.

You have accepted the flame and the flame accepts you...

The Road of Fire has opened to you...

Dante smiled at the notices wondering if he could get the road of water from the fountain.

"Next time." he said with a smile as he blinked from that place.