As it turned out, Elaine’s prediction about not being able to congratulate Valar came true quickly and without warning. She was recalled to the home city of her noble house, Lyndale, in order to care for a house member. Elaine was the most proficient healer in their house, and one of the leaders had fallen ill. In addition to that, the sickness was magical in nature and would need extensive care. She left during the following night after Valar’s first spell, making her congratulation truly the final one he would be getting for some time.

  The substitute teacher they got wasn’t half bad, but Valar couldn’t bring himself to really care. He was almost out of the academy anyway, so he focused fully on his studies and thundered on. That didn’t garner him any favor with his classmates, save for Julie, but the young noblewoman had other worries. The leader of house Livren Elaine had gone to heal was her grandfather…

  That meant that the only people Valar really had contact with were Zeke, Arwen and Viktor. The silver haired mage didn’t really count though, as they met only once after Elaine left. Viktor wished Valar a fun internship wherever he decided to go, and informed him that he would be out of town for the foreseeable future. Apparently, the man had business in the border city of Rosthorn, and would be returning only when his work there was done.

  So, his only real contacts left in the city were Zeke and Arwen. Valar still couldn’t shake the worry clouding his mind when he interacted with the prince, and that meant that Zeke was really the only friend he had left in the academy. And what a friend he was…

  “A healing spell! That’s so cool!” The dark skinned man shouted. “Do it again!”

  “It’s breakfast, Zeke,” Valar muttered. “Besides, I’m supposed to only cast it when I can actually focus. Even though I’ve already managed to cast the spell quite a few times in the past days, I could still make a mistake and be rushed to the nearest infirmary. They would not enjoy my presence.”

  “Yeah, but it’s just so cool! Aren’t you pretty close to learning Lesser Fortify too? How’s the tether rune coming along? You’ll be graduating soon, I bet!”

  Valar shrugged. “I should be able to cast it today or tomorrow, and I’ll be finished with tether in a week or so. I think I’ll be visiting the adventurer’s guild for an internship in just over a week, if I’m lucky.”

  “So you’ve decided? You’re trying the whole adventuring thing out in iron rank? No guard position or infirmary internship?”

  The young life mage dressed in his brand new robes sighed. “It’s been only a few days since I learned Lesser Restoration, but I think I’ve made up my mind. I already tried the infirmary job and I think the guard position would be just as boring day to day. Adventuring was my first idea when I awakened, so it’s only right to at least try it out, right?”

  “Sounds good to me!” Zeke gave him a thumbs up. “If I hadn’t been recruited to the royal palace already, I would’ve done the same thing. Do you know of any teams that could take you?”

  “Possibly…” a small smile grew on Valar’s face as he grabbed the necklace hanging off his neck. “There might be one, but I don’t want to get my hopes up. They were fun people…”

  During the proceeding week, Valar progressed through the rest of his studies with a speed comparable to that of the savants. He felt himself being restricted by the academy atmosphere and wanted to spread his wings outside the city walls. He could not wait to adventure. To feel the thrill. To live.

  First, he learned Lesser Fortify. The substitute teacher, a silver rank life mage in his 40s named Maxim, stood guard over him when he cast his spell for the first time, but his gaze was unnecessary. Valar did not make the same mistakes he had made with Lesser Restoration and got the spell right on his first attempt.

  Interestingly, Julie managed to cast her first spell too. Despite her stressed mind, the girl managed to cast the spell on the 7th attempt, and although it was sloppy, it was a spell. He was not the only student of life magic with mage’s robes anymore, but that didn’t bother him. He congratulated Julie with nearly the same enthusiasm as she had congratulated him, but based on her expression, she was just relieved to be done with it. She could call herself a mage and take a holiday. The following day, Julie left for Lyndale with a caravan. Her grandfather was sick and she was going to see him—the rest of her studies saved for a later time.

  As Julie left, Valar was left alone in a classroom of jealous students that didn’t talk to him. He didn’t care though. He would be out of their hair soon enough.

  Exactly one week after Valar’s proclamation to Zeke, his work with tether was finished. The rune was perfected, and the accompanying spells were only extensions of those that he had already learned. The spell names weren’t any different either, as they were basically variants of the same spells that could be used on others. Technically, the variants without tether were slightly stronger versions of the same spell, and the spellforms with tether were the original ones.

  In both of the iron rank spellforms, the triangle surrounding life was transformed into a diamond shape with tether at the top. That meant that the healing energy could be transferred through the link that formed between caster and target, but that some of the channeled mana went to the upkeep of the link. The healing effect was less efficient, but it could be used on others.

  Actually, the correct name for the self healing spell Valar had used as his first spell was Lesser Restore Self, but nobody bothered to use the modified name. It was just easier to visualize the same restoration on oneself than imagine it as a completely different spell.

  This same lax attitude on spell names and visualizations only worked in the earlier ranks. If Viktor uttered a wrong spell name, the whole visualization could shift to reflect the wrong spellform. The differences between even similar spells was too large at those ranks, but iron rankers didn’t have the same problem.

  Regardless of the differences between iron rank life magic spells, Valar had learned every one of them. At least the mandatory ones to graduate… There are so many more even in iron rank. I’ll have to take the book on life magic runes with me when I leave.

  Speaking of leaving, Valar was packing up his meager belongings to leave for the guild. Everything he owned still fit inside a single large backpack, which was honestly an impressive accomplishment. He had lived in the capital in a comfortable dorm for two months, but everything he had acquired was a necklace, a robe and a few books to take with him. Valar wouldn’t need to leave many things behind when he left for missions, that was for sure.

  He slung the pack to his shoulders and walked out of his dorm for the final time in a good while. No celebrations would be held for the young boy’s graduation. Those celebrations would be held in a few months when most of the student body graduated. He would be long gone at that point.

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  The fresh life mage walked through the skybridge and into the entrance building, leaving his dorm keys at the front desk. There was no ceremony, only a smile and well wishes from Mary who was manning the desk. Valar’s iron rank studies were over, and he would be heading for the city.

  “Where do you think you’re going without even saying goodbye?” a shout rang out from the back of the hall. “Did you think that you would be leaving without a celebration?”

  Valar turned his head, his eyes wide with shock. There, standing at the entrance to the skybridge that went to the fire tower, was Zeke Forger, an abstract mage of energy and more importantly, Valar’s friend.

  “I thought that-”

  “You thought that you would be leaving the academy all quiet and brooding, yeah? No way in all the realms I’m letting you go out and start adventuring without at least a little celebration!”

  The abstract mage came over and gave Valar a crushing bear hug. “The Iron Owl?”

  Valar couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “The Iron Owl it is, friend.”

  As it turned out, Valar didn’t have to leave the academy without any celebration. The dinner with his friend was the perfect way to end the two months at the academy, even Sebastian coming out to congratulate Valar once he heard that he was graduating. The owner of the establishment brought out a small cake that was apparently used for birthday celebrations and similar events at the restaurant. It was free of charge, of course, and came with the well wishes of the dark haired man and his staff.

  Before Valar finally left for the guild, Zeke stopped him for one more time. “Be sure to visit the academy or my home some time, alright? I’m not letting you go as a friend the instant you leave the academy.”

  Valar smiled. “I’ll do that once I have the time. Thank you, Zeke, this means a lot.”

  “I know. Now go find a team and adventure!”

  When Valar had trekked through the skybridge as he left the academy, he had had a frown on his face. Now, after a good meal, the frown had turned to a smile. It was a good way to move on to new frontiers.

  When Valar had left The Iron Owl for the adventurer’s guild, he had forgotten one thing. To get to the guild, he had to know where the guild was. That was an issue, as Valar didn’t know where to even start. It isn’t in the noble district, that’s for sure. Probably not the merchant’s district either, as I’ve been there quite a few times and never spotted it. Close to the gate? Probably.

  Valar trekked through the city and back to the district that was full of apartment buildings covered in murals. Formally it was called the commons, but the citizens didn’t enjoy the naming convention so they called it the artist’s district.

  In all honesty, the guild wasn’t probably there either. Valar imagined it to be an unique building onto its own, not a part of an apartment building like the rest of the businesses. It seemed that he would need to do the dangerous thing, and bravely… ask someone.

  “Excuse me, where’s the-,” his first attempt was a complete failure as the middle-aged iron rank woman just walked past without even glancing at him.

  “Could you-,” the second was as bad as the first, the young man not even looking in his direction.

  “Excuse me sir? Could you tell me where the adventurer’s guild is?” Valar finally managed to attract the attention of an elderly iron rank man who was walking through the street.

  “Huh? What did you say, youngin?” The man’s voice was raspy and weak.

  The bearded man walked with a slouch, carrying a giant shield covered in dust and debris on his back. Honestly, even the fact that he was relatively upright while carrying the damn thing was impressive for an iron ranker of his age.

  “Could you tell me where the adventurer’s guild is?” the boy raised the level of his voice so that the man could hear better.

  “What?”

  “Where is the adventurer’s guild?” Valar was starting to get annoyed.

  “What?”

  “Adventurer’s guild. Where is it? Valar practically shouted.

  “Oh, the adventurer’s guild! Why didn’t you ask earlier?”

  “I… I tried to… Forget it. Where is it?”

  “What?”

  Valar was just about to lose his cool when the old man started cackling like a madman. “I got you good, didn’t I?”

  His aura, originally at iron rank, disappeared completely. As the bearded man straightened his back and rose to his full height, he didn’t look so old anymore. Not in the slightest…

  Whereas the man had originally seemed frail and weak, he now exuded a feeling of confidence and strength that was hard to gauge. Without the normal way of estimating another’s strength through their aura, Valar couldn’t even be sure who or what he was looking at.

  “Scared you, did I?” The man spoke with a deep voice, completely different from the raspy tone before. “I apologize for frightening you, but the opportunity was just too grand!”

  The man’s tone and way of speaking were old. Really old. Even though Valar had heard a lot of old language from Ophelia during his years, this man had her beaten handily. Now that he thought about it, the man even dressed traditionally in a gray vest with gold accents over his long sleeved shirt.

  “I do need to head to headquarters soon… Johannes will yell at me if I don’t. Oh right, the guild! Just walk straight for fifteen minutes or so. After you enter the artist’s district, turn left towards the western gate. You should find the guild there.”

  As the man started walking away, Valar shouted after him. “Thank you, old man! What’s your name?”

  “Oh me? You can call me Baldwin if we ever meet again! Now, I really do have to go…”

  Valar tried to ask what the man’s job was, but he disappeared from the street in an eyeblink. His disappearance was so fast that Valar was forced to consider if the man had been a figment of his mind, but he hadn’t, had he?

  An old man named Baldwin carrying a shield that’s almost the size of his body. I’ll ask around about him when I have the time. He seems important enough to remember, that’s for sure…

  At least the old man hadn’t lied about the location of the guild. It was exactly where he had said it would be and wasn’t hard to recognize. In fact, Valar couldn’t imagine a building that would have looked more like an adventurer’s guild like the guild did.

  The large multi-story fortress had walls of stone but its upper floors and roof were wood. The outside was full of tables and chairs, adventurers drinking and chatting with each other as they looked over the bustling street. Almost all had weapons, only some clear mages opting to not carry any. Valar’s approach was noticed and highly appreciated.

  “Are you looking to start adventuring, boy? Our team is-”

  “If you’re looking for an internship, a healer would be always appreciated!”

  “How in the abyss are you so young? No matter, we’re looking for a heal-”

  Valar walked past everyone and into the guild. He was getting used to this level of attention and was able to ignore it for a short while when he needed to. Hopefully, team Cookie Sandwich would be in the city and not on a mission…

  “Sorry, that team left for a mission just minutes ago,” the clerk at the front desk said. “I’m sure many other teams would like you as an intern though. I can help you pick one, if you’d like?”

  Valar sighed as he looked at the surrounding teams of bronze rank adventurers. “I really wanted to ask them first since they asked me to join before I even went to the academy. When are they coming back?”

  “That’s in… two weeks. They left on a caravan to Lyndale, sorry.”

  That’s just my luck. Valar grabbed his necklace by the copper coin. I guess I’ll have to do my internship with someone else.

  “Heidi!” Just then, a familiar shout came from the doorway. “What were we getting paid? Rodrick didn’t remember, and I’m not leaving without knowing at least the amount of silver I’m getting. Oh, hi Valar! What’re you doing all the way here at the guild?”

  Arthur, the blonde archer from team Cookie Sandwich, was standing at the guild’s entrance, armoured and with bow in hand.

  “You’re going to be late, Arthur,” Heidi the clerk admonished. “The rate is 18 silver and 52 copper per adventurer plus all the monster parts you can gather. The damn caravan is leaving in fifteen minutes!”

  “Oh, right,” Arthur’s eyebrows rose as he heard the time he had left. “Carla did say that it was that much, but my gut told me that I should come and ask. Bye!”

  “Wait!” Valar shouted as Arthur jogged away. The man did not turn around, heedless to the boy’s shouts.

  “Shit…” Valar didn’t have to think for long. He wanted to join the man’s team, but they were leaving for two weeks. Valar would not wait for that long.

  He did the only thing that he could think of. Valar took off in pursuit of Arthur and his new team, and ran.