- A Mage's Priorities
*Knock* *Knock*
I waited at the principles door for a response before entering. "Ah, Sphar was it? How have you been enjoying the Institute so far?" He asked without looking up.
He was constantly writing things down in different folders and papers. 'He must be a busy man, I'll get straight to the point.' I thought while approaching his desk.
"I need someone to teach me how to use a scythe as I plan to implement it into my fighting style," I said with a slightly shaky voice from the nervousness.
'I can't feel his aura at all, unlike the teachers. Either this guy is extremely weak or his strength is too much for me to recognize. I would bet money it's the latter, otherwise, he wouldn't be the principle of such a strong Institute.'
"Hmmm. There aren't any teachers here that can help you with that, but I might know an old friend who can help you. It won't be cheap." He said, finally taking a break from his work and looking me in the eyes.
I quickly looked down before replying. "Well, I'm not doing too well financially at the moment, can we make some sort of deal?" I asked not daring to look up.
"I already knew that, I do some research on all of my students when I get the chance. How about this, I'll make some requests to get my friend to train you, and you have to promise to pay me 2 gold pieces within two months from now." He said while resuming his work.
'That's a lot of money, but the training is very much needed. I could teach myself, but I won't get very far and I don't like many other weapons besides the rapier. Man, this sucks.' My thoughts were interrupted as the principal spoke up.
"If you can't make the money, then don't make the deal. It's as simple as that." He said with a carefree tone. "Alright, I'll do it." I proclaimed a bit louder than I meant to.
"Good. Good. They should be here within a week or so. Until then focus on your magic training and making money." With those final words leaving the principal's mouth, I exited the room.
I walked to the training area where Corey was practicing his control over earth magic while Lily watched with a bored expression. I joined him and started casting [Lightning] horizontally, making other students "ooh" and "aah".
Corey looked at me with a dumbfounded expression for what felt like an eternity. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU HAD SUCH CONTROL OVER YOUR MAGIC!" He screamed, completely taken aback from my display. "Actually, I didn't pick that trick up until last night." I replied while scratching my nape.
"Yeah, and I grew 2 feet taller because I wished upon a tree. Keep your lame jokes to yourself." He said while going to sit by Lily, obviously jealous.
'He talks about control over magic constantly but he seems to be struggling with that more than anything else.' I thought before joining them. "Can we do an E rank Quest tonight?" I asked while drawing in the dirt with my scythe.
"The walk will take around two hours as a round trip, that's not to mention the couple hours it would take to complete the quest. We just don't have the time." Lily replied while making an adorable pouting face. 'It looks like I'll start solo farming again.' I thought.
"We can continue to do F rank quests, but we can't do E rank until the weekends," Corey said while twirling his staff between his fingers above his head.
"It will take double the amount of F rank quests to hit D rank than it would E rank, meaning we will have to complete 30 F rank quests on school days. Our progress in the guild is going to slow down substantially." Corey sighed and layed his staff on the ground.
"Then I'll just have to make sure to grab lots of E rank quests and some camping gear for us on the weekends," I said before standing up. "That's if you two are up for it." I finished while dusting my pants off.
"Of course we are!" Lily said while jumping up and picking an imaginary fight with the air around her.
"Sounds like a plan. I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like I'm close to breaking through to the next mage rank." Corey said while opening and closing his palm while he was staring intensely at it.
"I still have a long way to go before ranking up. What about you Lily?" I asked while getting ready to run some laps around the field. "I have no clue. It's really hard for support type mages to hone their magic outside of serious situations, at least that's what Mr. Brolin said." She mumbled that last part.
'She must feel like she's getting left behind.' I thought before quickly replying. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to tank some hits so you can heal me." Those words made Lily light up with a huge smile before hugging me.
She quickly let go and stepped back as she realized she let her excitement get the better of her. I quickly changed to the topic. "Wanna see who can run the most laps? We have loads of time to spare" I mentioned as I stretched my legs.
"We'll pass. You can knock yourself out though." Corey replied before laying on his back, Lily quickly joining him as they stared at the cloud-filled sky. "Suit yourselves." I sprinted away at my top speed.
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"Let's take another slime subjugation quest I guess. I'm getting tired of slimes though." Corey mentioned the slime quest on the board that we had completed so many times before, I can understand why he doesn't wanna take it again. However, for me, it was the most profitable F rank quest on the board.
Not only do I get Silver, Exp, and a skill point from my system, I also get silver from the adventurers guild. "Yeah, it is boring, but we don't have much of a choice at the moment. I heard after we finish the first 5 weeks of the Institute, they dismiss class around 12 and we don't have to stay on campus anymore. No more lunch and no more training period. That will be our chance to focus on becoming better adventurers!" Lily explained while taking down the Slime subjugation quest.
"Sounds good to me. So we only have 2 weeks to go, right?" I asked while we walked up to the receptionist counter and accepted the quest. "Yup," Corey replied as we left the City. "You two need to save up some silver so we can get you some good gear," I said as we walked out of the city walls.
"Don't worry, me and Lily here have saved up a total of 46 silver together and we plan on buying some decent E-ranked gear," Corey said with a cocky smile. This sparked up another exciting wave of energy in Lily as she started jumping in the air and skipping along. 'Damn she's cute, but it feels wrong to have any feelings like that towards her.' I thought as we entered the Slime Dungeon.
"You two ready?" I asked while taking out my scythes. I didn't bother to switch out of my Institute uniform in the guild locker room like I usually do since we were only headed to the slime dungeon. "Even if we weren't it's not like it would make much of a difference with these little blue globs," Corey mumbled while taking out his staff.
"Cheer up Corey. Things Will start to pick up the pace soon enough." I said before sprinting forward, Lily and Corey falling shortly behind. Leveling up was the only thing on my mind while I decimated dozens of slimes. I planned to keep farming even after we finished the quest.