R-S Chapter 01-05

Today was the day. I was finally going to the Adventurer Academy to be tested and see if I could become a mage. I’ve been saving up for years to pay the tuition but if I could have it waved by placing high then I would rather do that. I load up my money, and valuables and make my way from the dilapidated shack I lived in and toward the Capital City Munz.

Munz was named after the hero who defeated the demon lord. His name was Alexander Mundis. That was about seven hundred years ago. Since then the country has been training new adventurers to take up the mantle of fighting evil throughout the world. The thing with that was, we had mostly won. Very few cults were left and large-scale city-crushing monsters that roamed the world before were whittled down to a handful.

Hells, most of the dragons were slain, and being an ‘adventurer’ was tilted more towards being a piece a noble could show off to his rivals for protection. Any mage would be given a high-ranking position in any noble's court but if you wanted to become a noble yourself you had to place very high during testing and be given the resources to join the king's court.

That was my goal. Above anything I wanted that and had spent most of my teenage years trying to afford the tuition for mages. I was just about eighteen or would be in a few days. Most people unlock their mana when they turn fifteen but the nobles rigged it so they could teach their children for a few years before going to the academy to have a leg up on the competition. Some nobles even had special bloodlines or rituals to get an even bigger advantage.

I sighed as it sucked being an orphan. I should have had a headstart as well but when both parents are adventurers sometimes accidents happen. I was so focused on making it to the academy I was blindsided and tackled from the side by my best friend. “Good lords Ovar. How wrapped up in your thoughts are you to not hear me running full speed towards you? I was practically shouting by the time I reached you!”

I pushed him off me as I tried to get him back. He was waiting for my kick so he raised his leg making me smash my foot against his knee. A sudden jolt of pain shot through me as I just stared him down with a death glare. “Your parents picked out the best name for you Brutus. You are nothing more than a Brute.” He grabbed me by the leg that I was bouncing on and tripped me before retorting. “I’d say the same for your parents but what the hells is an Ovar?”

I just grunt as I get up completely done with fighting. “My dad said it means to stand above in his people's language. I got a book here if you want to learn Enduran.” He scratched himself before stating. “I’d rather beat my balls with a hammer than learn that goofy language… No offense.” I could only laugh at how blatant he was about my heritage. “Yeah, it’s a tough read to say at the very least. It would probably be easier translating the book word by word than actually learning the language.”

Both my parents were adventurers and both had died horrible deaths. The bulk of the money I was using to pay my tuition was the payout from the Adventurers Academy to help me survive. Instead of using the money for that, I saved it and ate whatever I could get my hands on while moving outside of the city so I wouldn’t need to pay taxes.

Brutus came from a farming family and he was headed to the Adventurer Academy just for testing. If he didn’t have his tuition paid in full he would just go back home and be a farmer for the rest of his life. As if he realized I was back in my head thinking again he said. “You see that new orc bartender at the adventurer’s guild. I didn’t know women could grow them that big. I didn’t mind being a farmer but maybe being an adventurer wouldn’t be so bad if I could stare at those all day long.”

Of course, a rough orc girl is Brutus’ taste in women. If she had a more delicate face I would agree but she was an adventurer for most of her life. Her body was riddled with scars and that included her face, one going across her nose permanently blemishing her looks. As much as I didn’t prefer her Brutus was right. I had grown erect more times than once thinking about her gigantic mounds.

If I had my choice. “I still like Rasker better. That cutesy wolf girl look would fit so well underneath me. Having a gold-rank adventurer as a wife would be a great step to growing stronger as well.” He looked at me in almost disgust. “Ehh, she’s barely a B-cup, and why have you got to word it that way? I’m not talking about marriage, I’ll probably get roped into marrying our neighbor's daughter. I’m talking about tits, ass, and fucking. I want to fuck her tits and ass is what I mean.”

I wave him off. “Maybe in the future, I’ll worry about that. Right now I need to focus on becoming a mage and gaining nobility. Then once I accomplish that and gain nobility my wife won’t matter much either because I can always get more concubines.” He pushed me over again. “That’s over twenty years from now. You really plan on being celibate for twenty years?”

I had been so focused on becoming a noble I hadn’t really thought about it like that. “Well, at least for the first year or so of schooling. If it happens with someone it happens but I won't be actively seeking relations until I know where I’ll end up in school.”

As much as I wanted to be a mage I knew if I didn’t have the affinity for it, it would never happen. That’s why the testing was free but the tuition wasn’t. It allowed everyone who was curious to get tested and if they had the right qualifications they could have their tuition paid off in full by a noble or the king. That payment would come at the cost of losing some freedom after you graduate but it was the only way most people would be able to ever go to school.

We made our way in the city and I was still surprised at how little had changed over the years. The buildings going in were all restaurants or inns and you could go to other districts for things you wanted. The adventurer district was for shops focused around adventuring, the business/merchants district was for doing business and making large purchases and the pleasure district was for… Wasting your time and dooming your future. 

I need to buckle down and focus… FOCUS! Pay the tuition at first at the very least. Brutus scratched his nose before asking. “Hey… Before we go to the academy… Why not stop in the pleasure district first….” “No!... I mean… Not right now.” I knew I had an incredibly high libido even though I was a virgin. If I got roped into going to get a prostitute now then there is the chance I’d miss the testing today.

He kicked a few rocks before saying. “It was just a suggestion.” We exited the entrance district as the smell of cooking foods and bustling crowds of people faded we were met with far fewer people. Each was far more dangerous than any other district. Each person here is strong enough to be the strongest in their village. People travel from all across the country to learn at this specific Adventurer Academy. I just looked on, still amazed by the gigantic building we were headed to.

We would soon enter the Ambrosius Academy for the gifted to learn how to be adventurers.

Chapter 02

We made our way into the testing office which was a small room outside the actual academy. A pretty… I’m going to guess Tiefling sat waiting for the testing to be done. She had on a perpetual smile as the line continuously shrank. With white hair and red skin, she looked more like a sexy librarian than a receptionist. The five testing stations were in constant use as she continued to sit and wait for them to be finished.

Five walked out, some looking dejected while the rest had happy smiles. They most likely did well enough to place where they wanted. It didn’t take very long for the testing to reach us as Brutus gave me a smile before saying. “Well, good luck.” He went into the first while I went into the second testing room. Inside was an analysis orb. It would test your mana capacity, magic fluctuations, mental control, mana veins, and magical affinities.

Mana capacity was the access to mana you can store within your body. This was the most important thing and one of the only things that mattered for becoming a high-ranking mage. It was the only one that had a requirement to become a mage. Magic fluctuations were how volatile your magic is. The higher your fluctuations would make spells misfire more often and some spells required calm magic to perform. Many people with high fluctuations could learn to harness them casting magic their bodies normally couldn’t though so it was a trade-off.

Mental control was another that was very important for being a mage. Some spells required high mental control to cast and you could limit the amount of mana wasted the higher your control was. This could be trained and wasn’t locked in so most wouldn’t bother until school started to increase their control. Mana veins were specifically for magic warriors. The stronger your mana veins the more you can strengthen your body with mana. Once again these could be painstakingly trained but it was very small increments over a large period of time. Unless you were a magic warrior it wouldn’t be time-efficient to improve them.

Magical affinities were another one that would flavor the spells you would want to learn. Everyone could use any magic but if you had a negative affinity towards wind it would just make more sense to learn a similar spell in a different element. If you had a good affinity with fire you would be able to cast spells outside your mana capacity. 

To cast a fireball you’d need to have a capacity of over one hundred but if you had an affinity of fifty with fire it would be much cheaper and easier. You might be able to cast it with only seventy capacity for about half the cost than if you had zero affinity. The transparent screen kept buffering for a much longer time than it had taken everyone else.

I was worried but the receptionist came in and said to just keep my hand on the orb until it was done. Two sets then even the third came through before it finally read my status.

Mana Capacity- 70

Magic Fluctuations- Moderate

Mental Control- None

Mana veins- Small, thin, 30% effective

Magical affinities- Fire 15%, Water 03%, Air 30%, Lightning -15%, Earth 45%

I sat stunned looking at it, hoping the numbers would change. Just seventy? That is barely enough to qualify as a mage. To be selected as a royal magician the minimum requirement is 100. Every number was a qualitative improvement and I might not be able to cast spells other mages could because I was at the bare minimum. Not just fireball, it would heavily limit what I could do to just earth and possibly wind magic.

Magnus Ambrosius the mage of the hero's party started low like me then improved it to over two-hundred over the course of his life. He was the original wizard of the hero's party and had made such strong contributions to making more wizards that they changed the name of people who practiced magic to magus, then eventually shortened it to mage.

That’s actually what happened to the capital’s name as well. Mundis was shortened to Mund and then renamed to Munz when a king’s daughter kept pronouncing it that way. It might have had a little to do with his surname being Zohar but if it was shy it was changed it had been lost to time. I sighed as I met Brutus outside. He didn’t notice my dejected attitude as he asked. “So? How’d it go?”

I just looked at him before thinking about what to say. “I… I qualify but I won’t become a noble after graduating.” He ate a skewer of meat he picked up at some point as he spoke. “Well, there’s always army accolades to become a noble, or you could become a magic warrior or infiltrator to become a noble.” It was a thought I had already, but no. The chances I’d survive as a general in the war for long enough to gain land were far too low. The same goes for becoming anything else besides a mage.

Magic warriors and especially infiltrators would be a quick way to die more than it was a safe path to nobility. I just sighed out loud as I said. “Maybe through some fluke, I can become a high-ranking mage adventurer. They’re almost as important as the nobility is.” Infiltrators were once called assassins or rogues but the heroes party changed the name to be less negative. Victor Rasputin was the party’s assassin and it was said he had mental control at the same level if not better than Magnus.

The same happened with paladins and priestesses/saints. The church kept trying to take over the world and was secretly evil four of five times and the king just got sick of it, stripped their power down to the basics, and renamed the roles to magic warrior and healer. Seriously, why have those two specific adventuring roles tied to the church for so long was something I would never understand.

The original two were husband and wife. Arthus Lancelot and Tyrande Teresa were strong by themselves but together they were unstoppable. Both were the only two that died of old age out of the original hero's party. Alexander died fighting the demon lord, Magnus died in an experiment. Rasputin died from being poisoned, stabbed, and then thrown into a river where he managed to fight off a dozen aquatic monsters while also still being shot at with arrows. He died from drowning.

That still meant I needed to pay my tuition. We go into the building on the opposite side of the road. This is where you can put your test results and pay for tuition or apply to have it paid in full. He’d most likely get a list of options with how well he scored. Fifty mana capacity put him above most humans and he had good mana veins, he was perfect for becoming a magic warrior. That was what he wanted to be as well.

I took in a deep breath because I already knew every single person was going to try to convince me to not be a mage with my capacity.

Chapter 03

First was the person who you paid your tuition to. He tried his best to convince me, that seventy is good if not great for other roles but it is the bare minimum for mages. It would be far cheaper to be anything else, I could probably have my tuition waived as a different role. I told him no, I was adamant about becoming a mage.

The next was my class coordinator. There was some rollover between the four roles taught at the school and he once again tried to convince me to not become a mage. ‘I’d be forced to work ten times as hard as someone with eighty capacity and that would bring me up to the next weakest person.’ Yes… I know it was a waste, I knew I’d need to put in the work to get the most out of these classes but it was better than dying.

Out of all my bad choices, this was the best one. If I could have a hundred-and-fifty capacity of course I’d want that. Hells, I’d be happy with eighty. We made it to the class being taught, we’d need to wait two weeks for the new quarter to start. Just staring in I could tell I wasn’t going to get along with my classmates. Mages were mostly royalty.

They had the resources to improve their children and make them what they wanted them to be. Eugenics is a thing, most men who were mages wanted women with high mana capacity because it would increase the likelihood of having children with high mana capacity. It would be great if that was the same for men but I would only be viewed as an enemy and a resource thief by the nobles.

That was also the reason that the king kept lowering his standards for joining the royal court. The quality of mages might have been going up but it was only to his rival factions inside the nobles. In a decade we’d most likely be going to civil war. If the nobles won we’d be ruled by mages and if the king won he’d rule with mages under him, just the noble families would have far less power. He was fighting a losing battle and we’d probably be invaded soon after no matter who won.

As strong as a magic warrior, infiltrator or healer was, mages could reshape the battlefield. Having a mage could be the difference of having a hundred extra men on your side. That’s the very lowest-ranking mage, someone fresh out of the academy and just slightly stronger than me. A strong mage is a war changer. Battlefields are fought and designed around the strong mages on both sides.

Our southern coast is mostly swamp lands because the left hand of the king was a mage with a high water and earth affinity. He designed the lands the enemy would need to travel through to suit his mage's needs and the Lancaster family could sink an army before they made it through Benjamin’s Bogs. The norths were filled with forests to easily spread the fires of the right-hand man of the king.

The king himself was a high-ranking mage but that was only the surface level. Mages had to sleep. Mages had to eat and mages had to shit. An infiltrator could kill a mage before he even got the chance to start uttering a spell. Underneath that layer of assassins killing mages was the top level. If a mage wasn’t present on a battlefield a single magic warrior could shift the fight in his side's favor.

Strong magic warriors were the leading generals on the battlefield which is why their life expectancy was so low. It doesn’t matter if you win a hundred fights, if you lose a single one your life is taken. Magic warrior used to be thought of as a noble role to fill but with how many flee the battlefields abandoning their troops or turning traitors they’ve got a much more muddied history now than a few hundred years ago.

We made it to the dorms and even still the usher pulled me aside and tried to convince me of the difficulty I’d be put through by choosing mage with such a low capacity. Oh no, I’d be bullied for choosing mage!? The horror! Has anyone ever been killed in all of the time the academy has existed? Yea, tons. It’s mostly people thinking they can fight a monster and panicking or being killed outside the school.

I planned to buckle down and not do anything but learn. Even if I could only become a mediocre mage I would still have a thousand positions as an actually trained mage in an adventurers party. I finally get some rest… It was hard not to cry. I kind of wished I was only at sixty-nine now. At least then I would have been disqualified and had an easier time for the next four years. It was just more of the same for me, struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle so I could struggle harder.

The next two weeks flew by as I prepared for my classes. I had gone full out for magic taking the mage classes I was forced to while also taking healing as my secondary and support magic as my tertiary. The basics for the other classes would be taught but after a few classes just to get them down I wouldn’t have them ever again.

The classes were all super interesting and I wished I could take more than the one tertiary but learning magic was a full-time job. It was recommended to not overload on magic like I did but I wanted to know everything I possibly could about magic until I failed out in a few quarters from now. I hadn’t seen much of Brutus. Knowing him he’s already made friends and he’ll be the top dog and class clown in his classes.

I hadn’t met any other students and didn’t plan to make friends. I just wanted to learn as much as possible. Walking into my first class, the class I was here for felt wrong. It felt like everyone already knew I was going to be the first to fail and the few snickers I heard while walking passed let me know how they really felt about it.

Everyone arrived and we waited for a few minutes before the teacher finally arrived. He looked around as he spoke his first lines. “Good morning class. I hope you’ve all enjoyed your life up to this point because you are now entering a new phase. You were people before entering this class, when you leave after today you’ll be mages.”

He walked around before stopping right in front of me. “You… Ovar, what a terrible name. The recruiter said that you only have a mana capacity of seventy. He said he tried to convince you to change classes, to pick anything but this and you refused. While I agree with him I do have a question. Why do you want to be a mage?”

He probably didn’t want the placating reason ‘for my country or because mages are strong’. “I’ve always viewed myself as a mage, even when I was young. So even though I’m the lowest I could be, if I was even a single point lower I’d have had to pick something else. I refuse. I will be a mage no matter what because I can.”

I got a better look at him now. He was tall for a mage and bulky as well. His face was covered in scars as I think he must have been a magic warrior and swapped he must have noticed me eyeing him. “I’ve been a mage my entire life if you think differently, you’re wrong. These scars are from assassination attempts. I just want to warn you. You’ll be targeted more than most because you’re weak. Even your own people will want to see you fail. Are you still planning to be a mage?”

I looked down when he started talking but looked back up into his eyes. “I want to be a mage more than anything else.” His frown turned into a smile as he chuckled. “Good. You’re going to drop the healing class then because you’ll be solely focused on becoming a mage because that’s what you want.”

Chapter 04

The first class… Sucked. As soon as the teacher finished his speech he wrote his name on the chalkboard, Mr. Rights. He said to just call him Rights and he would call us by our last names. He then handed out a bottle to each of us before explaining. “Some of you might recognize this but for those who don’t. This little bottle is called Ambrosia. It is the easiest way to improve your capacity and that little bottle is a quarter of the cost of your tuition for this year.”

He went on to explain that it is only a single drop of material gathered in the cave underneath Magnus’s tower and this very building then mixed into wine to dilute it and make it easier to consume. Two other caves have been found that gather the ambrosia but both eventually ran out or were destroyed during skirmishes for them. Our country gathered about six bottles of the liquid and our country's consumption was twelve bottles a year.

The reason we still have more to use than we generate is because of the hundreds of years that the pools collected before they were found. It had only become a recent trend for the nobles to buy Ambrosia for their children to become mages. He looked at me again. “Now, some of you might know this but for those with lower mana capacity consuming this will be painful. Not just painful it will poison you and you’ll start to develop an immunity to the ambrosia.

That’s how most of the mages in our class were made. Even someone with fifty capacity could be fed a drop of ambrosia every month and be ahead of me in capacity before we started school. The old teacher looked at me again and I thought I saw a wink before he turned back around and started to write on the board. “Go ahead and consume the Ambrosia, today is just a greeting because most of you will feel sick after drinking it.”

I listened and began drinking it. It was the most delicious liquid I ever consumed in my life for the first half of the bottle. In the second half, it was like drinking fire. I somehow managed to get through it but my body urged me to throw up. Rights noticed and ran over. “Don’t you dare throw that up! If you do you better drink up your own vomit!” He threatened me and his warning was the only reason I held it in.

As the urge to vomit went away the fiery pain in my stomach started to spread throughout my entire body. I started to sweat and cry as Rights just looked at me with a smirk on his face. “Here I thought you said you would do anything to be a mage. Look at you. Are you really going to pass out now? I know you won't get the full effect if you do.”

It pissed me off. I knew he wasn’t really mocking me but my resolve. If I were to pass out now I would be going against everything I promised. Pain, all I could feel was pain spreading through my body. He just kept watching me until he leaned forward and explained. “That bottle had two drops in it. I’m surprised by your tenacity, most people would have passed out with that much.”

If you think about it, it’s half as diluted with wine as it should be. People with only fifty capacity could consume a single drop but it would be painful most didn’t start consuming two at once until they reached ninety. I was guaranteed two extra capacities but it came at the cost of pain and poisoning myself. It could permanently cripple me if something went wrong. That’s what happened to the third prince, he consumed too much at once and could no longer drink anymore or he could die.

He was over a hundred but he attempted to drink four drops at once and passed out the moment he finished the bottle. Even at over a hundred capacity, he was deemed a failure compared to his brothers and sisters. His role would be set as a subordinate of one of his brothers, whoever he wanted to become king, his chances shattered by a foolish choice to get ahead.

As he seemed to be impressed with my willpower I couldn’t hold it anymore. Foam came from my mouth as I ground my teeth from the pain. I woke up in the hospital wing a few hours later. My entire body still hurt but at least I wasn’t crippled. What an insane thing to do to a student in the first few minutes of meeting him. Still, I couldn’t help but smile as I could feel my capacity still growing.

Blood leaked from the corner of my mouth and I stopped smiling because it hurt. The nurse came in and her gigantic breasts were big enough to shock me. She talked but I was barely paying attention until she asked. “Are you listening to me?” I was half tempted to lie, then also tempted to say I was too busy staring at her tits. “No… I’m still in too much pain. Can you please repeat yourself?”

She sighed before continuing. I focused on what she said by closing my eyes. Why did she put her tits on me if she wanted me to listen to her? She rubbed me down as she spoke. “Well, I can’t do anything for the pain or the poisoning without removing the capacity-expanding effects. You are very poisoned though. It will be two or three weeks before this poisoning fades… Damn Rights, he does this shit every few years. One of these times it’s going to get someone killed.”

I worked my way home as every step caused pain it took forever. It made focusing rather hard. Everyone laughed at how much pain I was in but it was still too soon for there to be physical bullying. The few times someone tried to make fun of me I verbally destroyed them so most didn’t bother. 

If it evolved to magical I would have to get someone else involved but if it was just physical, even if they ganged up on me I could give as good as I got. I was definitely the most physically fit out of the group. There were two female mages and both might have put up a good fight. One had a rapier meaning if we were to fight I’d lose very quickly because I didn’t have a weapon. The other was larger than most of the men and also looked like the bodyguard of the blonde girl.

We had mainly been learning theory the first few days but as he walked in with several books on a rack, I knew we were going to pick our spells. Several ran towards the fire, trying to get the best spells possible while the rest of us slowly walked towards the other rows for different affinities. Most of the mages didn’t have high affinities or were fire affinity mages. Those would pick the most powerful offensive spells focused on killing the most amount of people at once.

Lightning was the second most picked. I don’t think they had much affinity but knew there best way to deal with other mages and infiltrators would be that type of magic. I was only met with three other mages at the wind spells and only a sole mage went straight for the earth spells. I grabbed three that looked like they’d fit me before heading over to the earth.

As I picked out four of these the teacher coughed. “Too many. Put three back.” I put two of the earth and one wind leaving me with an even split of two spells for each of my specialties. He looked at all of us and had to break up many fights from people fighting over the fire books. “You should know the rules by now! It’s first come first served and if you want a book someone else has then challenge them to a duel.” Several people all challenged each other. I of course wasn’t challenged because I was deemed not being important enough to be bothered with.

Rights smile grew as he walked back outside and shifted in the magical tools. “Not only will you need the spells, you also need a focus to channel your magic through so. No reason to rush, we have plenty of each but this will determine what you’ll be good with for the rest of your life.”

Chapter 05

I was excited to learn what my magical focus would be. Each person could channel their magic through a focus for a multitude of reasons and your focus would alter the spells that came out. A sword focus would turn your magic into slashes that needed to be aimed while a wand would make the spells smaller but far, far more cost-effective and easier to cast.

Every person would want to get a stave as a focus because it would mean they could cast larger-scale spells than any other focus. It would be detrimental to me though as my low capacity would make it much harder to cast spells. Some people could have more than one focus though as shown by the heroes party. Most had more than one with the hero having access to every kind of focus available. 

Some didn’t stand up, most likely already having a focus more attuned to them than the basic ones. It was obvious who the real leaders were by who walked up and who stayed behind. The black-haired boy from the Blaire family, the blonde from Ash, her bodyguard named Queeny, another boy with black hair who was much skinnier from the Gallant family, and a green-haired boy from the Oak family. He was the one who only looked at the earth books and left without selecting any after looking at them.

I don’t start with the staff. Starting from the very left we have mana swords. Sword was a decent match for me… So was dagger… And wand… Shield, staff, gloves, axe, lance, mace, sling, and bow. All felt good but not perfect and I asked. “Teacher, they all feel good and I get the feeling I can use them but none feel like the perfect weapon for me.”

I got a few barks as people called me a liar before he cut them off. “It’s not impossible to have a connection with all of them, it’s just extremely rare. Are you sure none feel stronger than the others?” I answered him. “Not really, they all feel about the same.” His hand came up under his chin as he pondered. “Sometimes people feel a stronger connection to two focuses at once. Go ahead and try out combinations.”

Sword and dagger felt… Worse, it’s like they were both attempting to fill the same slot. I put down the dagger and grabbed the wand… This felt better like the two complimented each other. I put the sword down and grabbed the dagger. It had a similar feel like they helped fill the gaps for each other. I put the dagger down and held the staff and got an incredibly bad feeling from the staff/wand combo.

Wand/shield felt great, like an almost perfect combo and so did sword/shield and dagger/shield. Using the glove focus with two others gave me a bloated feeling. Like there was too much to focus on so I quickly took them off. Sword/Axe felt as bad as staff/wand. Lance felt like it could only be used by itself to me but I tried shield and it felt about the same problem as sword/dagger. Gloves and lance made me feel bloated but the bloat wasn’t as strong.

Mace paired with wand and shield as well. Sling and glove was a good combination and glove/bow felt that slight bloat like it did with the lance. I finally picked up the sword and staff and felt the strongest connection between the two. I put the sword down and grabbed the dagger and felt a similar strong connection, axe felt a slight, very very slight bloat but mace was another negative connection with staff.

I explained my feelings to Rights and he shook his head as if agreeing. I asked the girl from the Ash family. “Can I use your focus to see how it feels?” The rowdy room went silent as I did before the teacher told me why. “You never ask another for their focus unless you trust them implicitly. You’ll be completely unguarded if they take it and can ruin your livelihood if they accidentally break or steal it.” 

I nodded in agreement but before I made my choice she finally spoke the first words she ever said in class. “I don’t mind. He is clearly not familiar with the noble etiquette and the rules. He isn’t a veteran mage who could break my weapon so I don’t mind him touching it for a moment.” Everyone looked shocked but I could only smile as I walked up to her.

She quickly unsheaths her rapier and holds its handle out toward me. The moment I touch it I feel bloated. My opinion just leaked from my mouth. “Woah, from just the single focus I feel bloated. This must be full of magicite.” Magicite was a metal alloy that took a mix of alchemically treated metals and other materials to make. Most of the weapons up there would use a combination of mostly iron and some magicite to channel through, this was mostly magicite and maybe some other metals to help channel the mana.

It was clear that your focus was another way for noble families to get ahead of everyone else. The cost would be far more expensive than raising a single child to magehood but it could also be used as a family weapon. Even if she was only at my capacity she would win ninety-nine out of every hundred fights because of her superior focus. She could just cast bigger spells for longer than I could with a better focus.

The knowledge, increased capacity, and a better focus were a big enough difference for me to never be able to reach them let alone compete with them evenly. I also had two affinities not seen very much inside the country, most had a fire and water affinity and only the king's left hand was a famous earth mage. That and the Oak family but they were so far separated from earth magic they were no longer viewed as earth mages.

Still, I was happy to know the difference, even though the rapier made me feel bloated I still felt the missing connection that having two weapons made me feel. As good as sword and staff felt, dagger and wand made more sense with my low capacity. Both were designed to reduce the cost while increasing the ease of use.

Rights only smiled at my choice. “Good choice for your capacity. I’m glad to see you didn’t just go for sword and staff because it felt better, no matter how good it feels it doesn’t matter if you can’t use them. I was still in pain when our other classes started. I was glad he made me cancel my secondary class because I needed every second I could get to learn how to cast my four spells.

Even now I could only cast the wind blade. I think it was most likely because of the type of attack and focus I was using. The wind blade was good but even a single cast drained me for minutes. Shape earth was the basic earth spell and I could feel close to casting it but rock wall gave me nothing when I attempted to cast. The final wind wall gave a similar feeling where it would take me weeks of practice and learning how to cast with my focuses and reducing the cost to pull them off.

Every spell was like a horse you needed to tame in order to use. Some were easier to tame while the others would be bucking broncos and would take time and effort to finally cast. If I was already struggling with the basic spells I didn’t have much hope for my future as a mage. It would have been more effective to just buy a single spell, focus, and as much ambrosia as I could afford to drink over the months while also looking for adventuring groups to make more money.

As sad as it was, there was also an age limit on the school stopping anyone older than twenty-four from joining. It was just a way to make mages choose to go into debt or sign contracts that favored the nobles rather than wait until they could afford it themselves. I was still sore but also excited for my first set of classes outside of my mage one.