Chapter 120

After McCain finished killing the whole family, he withdrew his magic which had silenced the whole house.

It was like nature itself had wanted him to become a killer. He had a found a silencing spell suitable only for a wind mage. How could he go against nature, he was but a servant.

The man he had killed really didn't know much. He wasn't even a foot soldier in the organization. He was more of a sympathizer for their cause. He provided them some money and accommodation when needed.

But he did manage to cough out a name for him. The man had believed he would let his child live after he gave up the name. Such naivety at his age.

Why would he leave behind clues for the antimage association that someone was after them. He wasn't stupid.

He was sure to burn down the house. To make it look like an accident. He fanned the fire with his wind magic to make it burn faster before leaving the scene.

He had a name now. He just hoped their were enough people this time to play with.

After spending a couple of days with Rogan and meeting a few people he was familiar with in the city, Aaron was back to business. He was practicing his new spell so that he didn't have to reply on his prison to use it. It would pretty much be impractical to use it otherwise.

As far as the tournament was concerned, he had almost forgotten about it. He was so immersed in his work that he never even thought about it.

The continous attempt to improve the spell. The failures, the small success; the whole procedure was addictive to a mage. It gave a different type of rush.

It was only when Rogan came knocking that Aaron came back to his senses.

"Rogan. Good to see you. How have you been?"

" Have been good Aaron. Good to see you too."

" I can see you haven't been sleeping much. You look tired and have dark circles around your eyes. You are too young to have them. Don't overwork yourself. You have whole life ahead of you. "

Aaron knew he was saying it for his own good. But he couldn't just make himself leave his work. It was too.. interesting.

" I will. What brings you here today?" he tried to change the topic. There was a difference in knowing when someone was talking for your own good and wanting to hear it. He definitely didn't want that lecture.

" I knew you must have forgotten about it. You were supposed to go to the inter mage tournament registration centre today to.check out the listings. "

Oh yes that. It had indeed slipped from his mind.

" Yes. Thank you for reminding me about that. Will you like to accompany me there?"

" Sure. I would have come along even if you didn't ask me. " Said Rogan with a grin.

Aaron flashed a smile of his own before leaving to change his clothes.

At the registration centre, there was a massive number of mages. It was the largest gathering of mages Aaron had ever seen. The mages gathered numbered in thousands at the least.

Aaron was shocked seeing so many mages. Mages didn't seem so rare now as he was raised to believe.

He as the same of Rogan.

" Hahaha. Don't worry. You are still rare. We are still rare. "

"Remember where you are. You are in a city specially built for the mages. Tulip city along with the other four central cities house the majority of the mage population."

" Smaller towns and cities don't even have a registration centre of their own. A lot of people come to the central cities because of that. "

" Plus, unless you had been staying at a smaller city for 4 years atleast, you wouldnt be allowed to register from that place. It stops a lot of manipulation. But you are allowed to register from the central cities irrespective of it. "

" Each of the central cities allow 50 contestant to represent them, which sums upto 250 for the five cites. From all other centres there are 250 more unless and until there is an exception made. "

" Out of those 500, top 100 are selected. "

" This is for Junior bracket. For the senior bracket, top 100 are chosen from a 1000 participants. "

Aaron understood the selection process. The number of participants in the senior bracket were obviously more in number than the Junior bracket, hence more number of representatives allowed from each city.

This meant each central city would be allowed to have 100 representatives totalling to 500. While rest of the continent was allowed to have 500 in all unless ofcourse there was an exception made.

Quite the simple process, but it showed the importance central city held towards the mage community.

Being a representative from the central city had it's own advantage. Even if you fail to reach the top 100, you would still gather a small amount of fame. And if you were perhaps a free mage, you would get good offers from the families and the mage association.

"Let's go check when is your first match." Said Rogan.

"Yes. Let's go. " Said Aaron as they moved further into the crowd.