INAZUKI CARAVAN

Will was jolted awake by the sensation

of crashing and falling into hard wood. His first instinct was that he had fallen asleep on the floor, but as feeling and clarity returned to his body, he found himself in a room.

He was dressed in short pants and a short white shirt. Loud noises rang out as he tries to get a sense of location. From bells to poundings and even yells.

Even the very room itself seemed to be shaking.

Turning around he could see that he was in a room, lined with 2 beds on each side. Seeing this scene sent a moment of panic throughout Will's body. He was not wearing his magic item.

Had he been caught in an illusion? How had he gotten there. Was he hallucinating. Will had heard of patients with damaged brains that created illusions to calm themselves.

Recalling the battle, Will was sure he had never heard of anacondria snakes possessing any illusion powers. Searching his memory, he was able to recall collapsing after killing the magical beast.

Perhaps from arcane overdraw? With the greatest of causion, Will approached the door and cast the level 0 spell, boost. Power flowed through his body until he felt like he had the reflexes of a predator. Just as he opened the door, a figure stepped through, forcing him to jump backwards.

On closer inspection, he found that she wore a brown tunic and baggy black pants, with grey black hair tied in a bun. She looked like a commoner in every sense of the word.

Because of this, will cast the lumen spell, and brilliant white light filled the room.

Contrary to Will's expectations, she did not ran or even show fear. Instead, she looked annoyed and angry.

"Show your parlor tricks elsewhere you novice", scoffed the lady. In this moment, all of Will's magic was deactivated. The old lady had a faint grin on the corners of her lips, seeming to take joy in his moment of awe.

Any normal commoner would have ran away with their tail between their legs, but she not only kept her composure but, also seemed to recognize his rank. Clearly, she was not simple.

Sometime later, another walked in. A young boy. He had short brown hair and black eyes with a black skin tone. He was dressed similarly to the old lady. He looked to be about the same age as Will, twelve.

In contrast to the woman, he had a large grin that covered the length of his whole face. He seemed to be trying to keep his excitement in. He seems oblivious to the atmosphere of the room and walked up to Will.

" Nice to meet you" chirped the boy " my name's Pickus".

Holding out his hand, he followed up with " we're the ones who saved to you."

This seemed to put Will at ease as he felt like he could trust the boy. Not willing to offer his name just yet.

He asked the most urgent question on his mind. " Where are we?". Pickus seemed more than happy to answer his question, and said proudly, " the Inazuki Caravan!!!" Will's expression flipped in an instant, as if unwilling to believe his ears. He pushed forward with his questions. Searching for clarity.

" Where are we now "

" The Kalahari desert "

"Where are we headed"

" Theus Academy city".....his destination.

At last, Will allowed himself to believe that he had been struck by some from of good luck!!!! Having been attacked by a magical beast, he had never though that he would be able to catch the caravan. To him, this was a miracle straight from the god realms and beyond!!!! Even Pickus could sense the change in his attitude and took the opportunity to explain the situation.

Pickus started to leave the room and motioned for Will to follow, naturally Will followed his helper.

They passed through a hallway, while Pickus explained that he had been found by the scout team next the snake. When he got to the part about killing the magic beast, he seemed to be incredibly impressed, and Will opted not to tell him he not done so with his own power.

They came at a door, and had to step in to another cart, a washroom. A few more minutes later, the stood in front of a red office door with the name "Thalas" in gold print.

Seeing the name, jolted Will back into reality. According to Pickus, if they were headed to the same location, the captain would allow him to come with them.

Will took this as another blessing and decided not to tell the captain his last name. As Will understood it, his father and the captain were not on the best of terms. He determined that it would be safest to let Pickus handle most of the talking, then hid his ring.After a knocked by Pickus, a grizzled voice rang out, " Come in".

They entered a small wooden room with white square tiles, and a wooden table at the back. Shelves lined with daggers, bones and masks lines the room. Behind the table, there was a man, and a picture of a ship. The man was a muscular hard jawed man with dirty blonde hair and striking stern features. He wore a white cotton shirt and a black overcoat.

Pickus hurried forward to discuss something with the captain as Will tried to gather his wits, and story. After sometime, the captain leveled his steely gaze on Will and a flash of recognition seemed to passed through them.

However, Thalas was not a man who liked to show his emotions on his face, and soon enough it was gone.

" What's your name,boy"

"Will"

" Surname", the Captain demanded.

" Orphans don't have last names, sir. " Will replied emotionlessly.

" Where are you coming from"

" Arinthia, sir, I am trying to get to Theus Academy city."

" To become a battle mage?", said Thalas, seeming to look into his mind.

" To start a new life in magic", countered Will.

" I see, you may join us on our way. However, you will join Pickus on cleaning duty everyday. As for the magical beast, we will share the body after arrival."

Will had no objections to this, and immediately said yes. Will turned to Pickus and found that he had been staring, staying quiet the entire time. Will saw a hint of admiration and awe in his eyes before he seemed to correct himself, and they walked out the room together.

Pickus seemed to want to say something, but he was taken away by another man.

With no sense of direction in the caravan, Will decided stay where he had first woken up, the infirmary.

After a few seconds, Will was able to locate his sack and bracelet, and decided to put his ring in his sack for extra security.

Sitting down on a bed in corner, he began to think about Theus Academy. He knew that there were two parts to the test, the written exam and the physical exam. Will was completely confident that he would pass the written test with an above average score.

This confidence came from his skill and knowledge, not hubris. However, he was not so confident about the physical exam. Theus academy was arguably the second ranked academy in the entire kingdom. As such, it only accepted the best and the brightest. About 90% of it's applicants were nobles who had already started working on level 1 spells.

Will on the other hand had only just become a level 0 mage. Will went over all the spells he knew in his head. "lumen, grease, mana sense, boost, mana control, beast tracking, cognite, and aura shield." Few of which had direct combat application.

Moreover, they were all standard spells. As he had not found out which of the primal sources he could draw from yet. In an attempt to solve this problem, he reached into his bag and pulled out a large blue tome.

This was a book detailing the level 0 and 1 standard magics. Burning with Glee and curiosity, Will flipped until he got to level one magic. Finally beginning his journey on the arcane path. It began by reviewing the basic theories of spellcraft and mana.

This was the foundation that all mortal magic came from. In order to cast a spell, one had to first create a spell structure, then pour in the appropriate mana type, before being able to activate a spell. The more complex the structure, the more powerful the effect and level.

This lesson was drilled into every novice during their training. Thus the level 0 stage was also known as the Foundation stage. As he went on, Will started to see the real difference between level 0 and level 1. As the spell structure became more complex, so did the risk. By failing to correctly control their mana and spell structure, a fire mage could set themselves on fire or explode!

This was not unheard of though, sometime ago, Will had heard of a novice mage trying a spell two levels above their own, resulting in the death of himself and the injuring of 2 others.

Instead of weakening his morale, this strengthned his resolve to succeed in the arcane path.

Over the next week, Will stayed in the infirmary, while studying and cleaning. Every morning, he would wake up and eat a portion of his rations while studying. In the afternoon, he would cast all his spells once. Then meditate to improve his mana reserves and controls.

His goal was to be able to change the shape and size of his lumen spell. Which would in turn allow him to control level 1 spell structures.

In the evening, he would join Pickus and some others in cleaning the caravan and feeding the bison and horses who pulled the caravan. Over the course of those nights, he found himself slowly becoming friends with Pickus. His infectious smile and attitude made him easy to talk to.

Will found out that Pickus was striving to be an adventurer or a mercenary. He was working for captain Thalas to get the money needed to start out. While Will demonstrated his magic, Pickus showed him some of his moves and proved to be skillful with daggers and the sword.

Will had also maid aquaintance with the lady who healed him. Whose name turned out to be ''Kezia". After concluding that she would not have been able to cure arcane overdraw with normal means, Will concluded that she was a life mage. One of the rarest types of magic there was. Life mages had the ability to heal. He was proven correct after taking a look at her mana and aura.

It was filled with cracks and blockades all over. As a commoner, she was unable to get the nurturing she needed to make her magic effective, thus wasting her potential. Now she had " hit her ceiling". In the arcane path, those who were unable to progress in level were labled as hitting their ceiling. Barely qualifying as a healer however, due to their rarity, she had been able to get a job here.

As the end of the first weak, Will had gained enough control of his lumen spell to control the brightness of the light. Being able to safely raise and lower the brightness level of the spell.

This was ecstatic about this change, causing him to double his efforts. He decided to try find out which primal sources he could draw from!!!