Space Hall

Two months passed quickly. Ares trained hard with Miles pushing himself in every session. He had become far stronger after a month of training found that he could move his arms fairly easily with the gauntlets now, he swung them as he run. His sparing too had improved a great deal and Miles had been astounded by his progress; After two months Miles now fought Ares with at least six percent of his power and sometimes found himself at disadvantage.

The magic Ares cast had too progressed. While he still couldn't cast the locate spell he did practice the void spell often. He could now cast the void spell around twenty times and disappear even a small part of a house. He had not been tested on his magic spells and the spell craft lessons were still focused on sensing and understand the magic within one's own body, this was something Ares had no issues with at all.

Ares could also cast the push spell successfully in combat now; it was still very draining and casting it twice was impossible for him, despite increase in the size of his magical core. There was hardly any progress with location spell although he hadn't focused too much of his attention on it whilst training.

Ares had maintained his contact with Tracy, Joe and Den. He often ate with them and discussed various magical related questions they had. He had not seen Sisaro for weeks and assumed he had enveloped himself deeply in his training.

In the sparse free time, Ares would read at the library. He learnt a great deal of the current world. He hadn't noticed, but his reading and general intelligence had made a great qualitative change.

Today all the recruits had been asked to meet in the circular plaza they initially arrived at. When they arrived in the morning Nova appeared. Ares hadn't seen her for several months and she hadn't changed in the slightest. Today she was wearing a sweeping red dress and white flowers dotted its sides. Where did she keep getting her wardrobe? He asked himself.

"Today marks your two-month arrival at the Space Guild. As is customary you will all be expected to complete your first mission. You will be allowed into the Space hall for one hour to select a mission. Be warned there is a fine line between a fool and a brave hero; if you do not have the strength to back up your quest do not be foolhardy. Death is the only reward for those of you who overestimate your worth."

With that she turned and cast a space portal; Ares now knew from his studies that this was a mid-ranked space spell connecting two places, various other guilds had their own teleportation spells so it wasn't particularly rare.

"Follow me." Nova said stepping through the portal. The group made a line and slowly made their way into the portal.

Ares could not be compared to the naive child that had entered the compound and having read about it before hand he knew what the Space Hall was. Despite his knowledge it was clear that others did not, Ares felt a tugging on his top.

"What's the Space Hall Ares?" Joe asked retracting his hand from pulling Ares's top. There were several others that looked to be preparing to follow Nova but too were waiting and listening to hear Ares answer.

Ares didn't care who was listening. This information would have been readily available to anyone who went to the library.

"The hall is the Space guilds forum of sorts; only those who have graduated or been allowed special entry can enter. Beyond that I suggest you have a look around when we get there, I don't want to spoil the surprise." Ares said striding forward and into the portal.

Despite acting like a know it all Ares was still excited to see the Hall. Reading about somewhere and seeing it in person was another thing all together.

The portal transported them into a huge marble hall easily several hundred meters across. The hall was bustling with movement. To the left were huge sentry statues of men and women wearing thick armour. The other side of the hall had many stalls with various items and materials for sale.

Spellcaster Nova hustled the group forward until everyone was in front of a long board dotted with different notices. Each notice was written on parchment and hung loosely to the board.

50 purple coins for collecting 100 Ambergrit stones from the cold lands.

20 purple coins to explore the eastern part of the desert swamp.

5 purple coins; deliver a letter to the burning fire guilds Quartermaster Fury.

Overall there must have been several hundred of these notices over the whole board; it appeared that the lower the reward the easier the job was.

"You must select a mission; five purple coins will be deducted from your earnings to support the Space guild." This announcement from Spellcaster Nova upset most of the students. The five purple coin missions initially seemed like the best choice now seemed pointless. The deduction certainly seemed harsh.

"Make a choice quickly I do not wish to dawdle, you have only thirty minutes before we depart." Nova said.

Not waiting another minute Ares approached the board and started scanning for missions suitable for him. Joe, Tracy and Den had begun at the other side. There were group missions but the level and difficulty of these were far beyond the recruits' skill levels.

Most of the recruits quickly settled on either 5 purple coin missions or ten purple coin missions; these mostly accounted for delivery missions and the occasional material gathering. Ares heard a small cheer from a group of recruits and stole a quick glance.

Victor was walking back towards his friends a notice in hand from the board; having looked there earlier Ares already knew which mission he had taken.

35 purple coins obtain the heartstone of the lesser beast the earthen mole.

Whatever Ares thought. He knew that earthen moles were the size of large men and had a vicious territorial instinct; good luck to Victor to kill one of them.

Ares continued to look over the board as the minutes passed; nothing seemed suitable. It was clear after twenty or so minutes everyone else had found a suitable mission.

"Hurry up Ares; we all have places we would rather be. If you are struggling to read, I can read them for you?" Victor commented drawing laughs from his friends.