Chapter 8

The rest of the week had passed rather uneventful, although it was packed with lessons and practices. And the bit of free time Marcel had was used on making the test armours and weapons. Finally the weekend had arrived and with it two important events, first of all Marcel could take the test for the 'Basic Magic Studies' and secondly the older students arrived at the academy. Suddenly the academy seemed to be cramped with people.

After he had studied a bit in preparation, Marcel was on his way to his teacher's house to take the test. The corridors he walked through were full of young people, who were leisurely chatting away. Most of them ignored the first years, which looked rather bewildered by the sudden floods of people. All of a sudden it seemed clear to them, why they had started a week prior to everyone else! Learning to navigate in this big complex, while it was filled to the brim with people, would have been near impossible! Heck, most of the first years were a head smaller than the older students! All they saw while walking in the mass would be the upper bodies of the older students!

It had taken Marcel ten minutes longer than normally but he had finally arrived at his destination. Without hesitation he knocked firmly on the door and soon after he was beckoned inside.

“You are just a bit early. I still have some papers to look through, so why don't you take a seat and enjoy a cup of tea in the meanwhile.” Reynold said. Marcel did as he was told. The tea wasn't too hot and had a rich fragrance, but Marcel wasn't knowledgeable in this field and couldn't identify what sort of tea it was.

Just as he had emptied his cup Reynold finished his work. “Now we can get started. I will show you a spell and you have to tell me what it will do and what the components of it do.” He explained.

For two hours he was tested, although Marcel guessed that the test normally wasn't that long and Reynold had just wanted to sate his curiosity in regards to spells.

“Your knowledge is really incredible. I guess our ancestors didn't describe the worldborn as wells of knowledge for nothing. It is to the point that you could probably teach the students up to the fourth grade yourself! Such knowledge should normally only come from a life of research. I am kind of envious now, you know?” Reynold exclaimed. Marcel's knowledge really came from a life dedicated to research, just not Marcel's life.

“But there are still a lot things you can learn here. Not a lot of magic related knowledge, that I admit, but I hope you will be diligent in your other studies. And in the fifth year there will be something new for you. No worldborn ever knew about the supreme techniques without learning it in this world!” He continued. “Now all that is left for your test is a practical exam. I need to check whether your casting ability is up to par with the second years. Please follow my lead.”

Then he began some 'stretching practices for the soul and Marcel followed him through all of them easily. This sort of practice was child's play for him. He could create way more filigree and more detailed figures than Reynold. This flexibility and detail was the backbone of his craft after all.

“Very good. Now we have to test the power you can channel at the moment. Marcel, please create a simple collection rune and channel the mana in the runes I will create.” He said and promptly created the rune.

Marcel followed the instructions and connected his rune and soul to Reynold's. He felt a rather strange sensation when he touched Reynolds soul, but he couldn't put his finger on what was strange. Maybe it was normal? It was the first time he tried something like that after all. He completely focused at his single rune and began to channel. Normally he would just use multiple runes when he needed more power. But somehow he felt that this rune was exceptional, it felt different.

As he probed it he found small deviations from his usual setup, strangely they weren't errors like he believed at first. In fact they made the whole thing work smoother and with less strain on his soul. Was the form he knew not the perfect one? Was there still something to optimize? Those thoughts filled his mind as he begun to pull more and more energy into the rune. Unnoticed frost begun to cover the windows and everything that drew water to itself.

Reynold was distracted by something else entirely. He desperately tried to maintain his bearings as he witnessed a power level he thought impossible to achieve without supreme techniques. It still was far from the supreme techniques but it was almost as far from a normal students power level.

“You can stop now. You surprised me once again. You definitely have the qualifications to skip my exam this year and maybe even next years.” He said and Marcel relaxed instantly, he had become rather anxious because of the prolonged silence while taking the test.

Reynold spoke:

“I am sure you already heard about the tribes and that their rebellion.” Marcel nods. ”Then you have probably heard that what sparked all this was their exclusion from the new governments, but there is one thing that is almost never mentioned. The reason. They were excluded because they didn't want to learn the supreme techniques. They claimed that they were flawed and that they would lead us into a standstill. This wouldn't have been a problem in itself, but you see, the vows are only unbreakable with the supreme technique, which cant exist without the vows. The empire only entrusts those under the vows with the task to lead and every infringement in this matter will be persecuted. Nonetheless now that I have seen your performance I can't stop thinking whether they knew something we don't. Maybe our ways are indeed flawed.”

Sadness now was apparent on his face, it looked like he felt the loss of something he only now learned about. “Please follow your own path and please let me take part in it, I can't walk it myself, but the curiosity is killing me.” He said. “You really should have become a member of the mages guild. I will keep you up to date and now I will take my leave, there are still some things I need to do. Good bye.” Marcel said and left. Reynolds remained at his table for a long time. Not working, but just thinking about what could have been, fantasizing about limitless potential and what sort of world it could have created.

Meanwhile Marcel didn't just dream about it, but instead he continued to picture the rune from before in his head. It had just felt right, those deviations were just right. But why? Marcel didn't knew a single rule that indicated why they were needed, most of them had just filled with energy and didn't even channel it, as they were dead ends. So why did they improve the performance?

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Hastily Marcel had rushed to his workshop and locked himself in it. Immediately he began to meditate and recreate the enhanced rune. For hours he observed and changed it. Every minuscule change create a different output, some increasing some decreasing it. Finally he had found a way to further improve his magic abilities!

All he needed to do was meditate over the runes! Slowly his understanding would improve and with it his output. And the best part of this strategy was that there didn't seemed to be a limit. Marcel came to this conclusion when he tried to add even smaller additions to his enhanced rune and received even greater benefits, although the required concentration was extremely high.

The sky had long since turned dark when he finally stopped his experiments. Dead tired and hungry he dragged himself to the cafeteria, which served food 24 hours a day since most mage guild members tended to be night owls. He quickly ate and then continued on towards his bed. As soon as he had lain down he had been asleep.

The next morning, even before he ate breakfast, Marcel reflected upon his discoveries of the prior night. The more he had changed the runes in the right direction, the more willingly the energy had flown through them. He hadn't had to force it through the paths as much as normally, which reduced the stress on his soul considerably.

Only his grumbling stomach had stopped him from continuing his meditation from yesterday. Just as he had opened his door to go to the cafeteria he was greeted by his friends, which had come over to check on him. Belatedly Marcel realized how late it was. It was already noon! No wonder he had been so hungry.

The six of them went to the cafeteria and ate their meal. “So how did it go yesterday? Did you pass? Everybody is speculating that you didn't, but nobody knows the truth.” Paul asked. “I passed. I won't say more and no I won't give anybody hints regarding the exam. Now that I think about it I can't even if I wanted to.” Marcel replied between his chews. “Congratulations.” His friends replied, although there was a hint of disappointment on Paul's face. “But I can help you in a different way Paul, I know that you have problems with magic because of your warrior centred upbringing. So let us make a deal, you spare with me from time to time and teach me some basics of swordplay and I teach you magic.” Marcel said. “Deal!” Paul, who earnestly wanted to learn magic, happily replied.

All of a sudden the others too wanted in on this deal and as such the friends trained and learned together for the rest of the day. Only in the evening did Marcel find the time to further play around and enhance his runes. But he didn't stay awake for too long since the new week would bring new lessons and he didn't plan to sleep through them.

Only when the lesson started and Marcel was still absent when their teacher had begun the lesson did Marcel's co-students learn of his successful exam. It started as a whisper, but quickly almost everybody in the room was talking about the matter. Only after Reynold or Mr Mercer had confirmed it and demanded silence among his students did the conversations die down.

Meanwhile Marcel had been working on the prototypes for the generals, although the time of one lesson wasn't nearly long enough to form metal it was enough to make some enchantments on already formed pieces. Marcel arrived shortly before the second lesson started at their class room and was greeted by quite a number of hostile stares. Confused he walked towards his two friends that shared this lesson with him and sat down.

“What is up with them?” He asked. “I would guess they are jealous. You weren't there, but in the lesson someone asked if he too could take an early exam. And he was played as a fool by Mr Mercer. He had been tasked to identify the function of a spell Mr Mercer had created. Obviously he had widely guessed and interpreted what it could be, but it hadn't been a spell to begin with. It had been a random assortment of soul structures. Sadly most of the folks had believed in their fellow noble and had cheered for him. Only we had noticed the fluke, thanks to your teachings by the way. Their faces had turned rather ugly after Mr Mercer had called out their error.” Steve explained.

“He had tried that one on me too.” Marcel said while chuckling. Their conversation came to an halt when their guild teacher entered and begun the lesson.

“Today we will talk about humanoid monsters in a general term. Because of some of their traits they are mostly handled as borderline monsters. They aren't as versatile as other monsters, but their above average intelligence and adaptability enables them to flourish almost everywhere. They are also more prone to using tools and weapons. The rule of fist in this case is that the smaller and weaker they are the more they will rely on tools. That's is also the reason why every new adventurer is advised to not hunt goblins for their first mission. Although they are the physical weakest among the humanoid monsters they heavily rely on ambushes and tools. There are even some tribes that use poisoned darts and blowguns. Additionally they don't destroy their surroundings like most other monsters, instead they use it for cover and guerilla warfare . Like most other monsters they are notorious man eaters.” She explained. And continued with:

“Next up are the orcs. Although they rarely use ranged weapons, except in sieges of course, they are at least equally dangerous as goblins. They are physically stronger and equally intelligent, but their biggest advantage over the goblins is their ability and willingness to work iron. They are organized in clans, which sometimes reach a size of thousands of orcs. They are known to fall into a blood rage while fighting, as such they are very serious opponents. The empire tried to, and still does, eradicate them wherever they are found. But since there are still many places that are uninhabited on this continent we never succeeded. Like the goblins they can reach a height equal to humans, but they are much broader, while the goblins are really skinny lanky creatures. Both of the races skin colours reach from yellow to a dark green.”

“Finally there is the merfolk. They are the closest to the other monsters. Although mostly humanoid their features can vary a lot. For every sort of fish in the sea there seems to be a merfolk with similar characteristics. Let me just give you one word of advice regarding them. They are among the deadliest hunters among the creatures in the sea, so never enter their domain in order to fight them. Even if they appear deadly wounded don't follow them into the water. That's all for today.”