The realtor was more than happy to take off the mage stones from Aaron's hand. For a common person, gaining gold was easy, but having a mage stone was extremely difficult. Although the market price was about 50 gold coins for a low level mage stone, but actually find mages willing to trade stones for gold was another thing all together.
Animals had hunger for food, mages had for mage stones. It was an in here thing for mages to hoard as many mage stones as possible.
Aaron's mansion was ready to move in a few days. He had a fleet of new people to maintain the place and a few guards to stop people from messing around. There were always some people eager to meet mages.
The two guards the Mercenary association promised were sent as well. They were two well built guys who looked almost the same with their built and the looks. Both of them sported crew cuts and a stern look on their face. For a moment Aaron thought they were possibly brothers or something. But they weren't related. They called themselves Philip and Murphy respectively.
The thing Aaron most awaited for him to test his spell.
He had been busy with the fair, the mage association and finally getting a place of his own. He could finally start with his testing.
The association had been true with their words. They had sent someone positioned even higher than the pair of bodyguards to be his test subject.
Aaron moved to the space behind his mansion to conduct the tests.
He was followed by his bodyguards and no one else.
He explained to the person who was willing to be his test subject what he was about to do.
The man seemed unpertubed by the whole thing. He didn't seem even a little scared of the mage in front of him. He couldnt but help ask.
"Don't you feel even a little scared of the test?"
" No. I don't know how much you know about warriors, but we are physically very, very strong. A normal person with normal weapon would perhaps only scratch us. Nothing else. "
"And as a warrior at my level, if I use my Aura, I can shrug off attacks made by a blue level mage with little effort. I don't think you have a stronger attacking power and your test isn't about attacking techniques at all. Why should I be afraid?"
Aaron could see the arrogance of the man. Arrogance he rightly deserved. Shrugging off the attack of a blue level mage meant he in a way had a ranking higher than Aaron.
Plus the whole attitude he had was good. Yes, he was unafraid, he wasn't disrespectful either.
Aaron stopped bothering about anything else and began with his tests.
"The moment you start feeling even slightly uncomfortable, please say so."
The man it seemed was like Aaron. He just nodded.
Aaron started with constricting the space around the man. Initially he sort of build a border around him, not getting close but constricting it as much as he could around him. Once he thought he had done it sufficiently, he started closing in upon the man. He noticed how concious he was of the the space he was controlling. He was concentrating very hard this time particularly because it concerned the life of a person, but he felt that he did infact had absolute control of it.
He finally made contact with the man and could see a visible reaction on his face. It wasn't a reaction to show discomfort, but it was of shock and astonishment.
"Okay, now please try and move. Don't use your warrior aura yet. "
The strain could be seen on the man's face. He was putting a lot of strength in trying to move.
Aaron could feel it too. Something struggling very hard against him. But he was able to hold his ground. It did put him under immense pressure and he was beginning to have the signs of an oncoming headache.
"That will be enough for now." With that Aaron released his control over the space.
" So, how did you feel?" asked Aaron eagerly.
" It's hard to define. It was like formless shackles were binding the entirety of my body. I could not move a muscle no matter how much strength I applied. I could also feel how you had slowly done it instead of the shackles apprearing all of a sudden. "
"I have had the chance to face off against a wind mage once. They too have a similar kind of spell I think. They somehow increase the density of the air I think. It makes movement very slow and cumbersome. "
" How did you overcome it?" asked Aaron.
"I used my Aura. It displled his spell and during the confusion he had I had my sword on his neck. " The man said in a voice like it was no big deal.
"I see." Aaron found the thing interesting.
The spell of the wind mage should also theoritically shouldnt be able to work the moment it came into contact with a person. But why did it work? And how was the aura able to dispell the spell?
He had a lot of work on his hands if he wanted to find the answers.
But first he needed some rest in order to be in top shape. Such a spell was draining on him, and the strain put by the warrior's strength when he struggled against Aaron multiplied Aaron's magic power consumption.
He had unanswered questions, but he had an answer as well. The spell was a success. As the warrior said he was physically much stronger than normal person. How strong, he would need to run some tests. But mage shouldn't be stronger than him physically at least.
He had a way to restrict them now. Let's see how those Forest mage fair against him now.