CHAPTER TWELVE : CAIM

Terry sighed and walked over to the chair across from the desk. As Terry sat down so did the large man known as Caim.

Caim smiled widely looking at Terry, "A new Tomefinder. You know we've been waiting for quite a while for one to show up in this region." Caim laughed his large grey scruffy beard went up and down as he laughed, "You know this region has the least amount of Tomefinders I knew there would be another showing up eventually."

Terry shrugged eying the large man in curiosity, "No I wasn't aware of that."

"I see. Well, you are here now. Here as a Tomefinder for the circle. Lot's of people are going to be excited you are here."

"I'm just happy I got out of where I was," Terry said bluntly.

"That's right. You were an orphan. Your whole life from the records I read about that orphanage as they only take infants." Caim kicked his feet up on the desk in front of him, "So this is your first time leaving your home. To think there was a Tome next to that orphanage all along. It's kind of funny that a kid like you found a Tome. Something that most people spend their entire lives looking for."

Terry sighed scratching the back of his head something he saw Darryl do a lot, "Look I was just lucky. That's it."

"Lucky is a way of putting it kid... so who was in your Tome?" Caim questioned.

"I'm not telling you that," Terry spoke softly.

"What was that?" Caim questioned.

"I am not telling you," Terry repeated himself a bit louder this time.

"Then... answer me this what element was in your Tome," Caim questioned with irritation growing in his voice.

"Fire," Terry started to sound disinterested.

"I'm not taking kindly to your attitude boy. You are just a kid and no matter which way you slice it I am your superior. If you aren't going to tell me who is in your Tome we are going to have to test your skills to see if you really are a Tomefinder. Why don't you just tell me?" Caim questioned.

Terry stood up, "Sure we can do a test." he said stretching up as high as he could hearing a few bones crack in his body.

"And you grow more interesting by the moment," Erebus said in Terry's head.

"Quiet I'm not talking with you right now," Terry said to Erebus coldly forgetting to keep his conversation with Erebus internally.

Caim chuckled, "So that's what's going on you and your spirit aren't on the best of terms right now. Me and Zeus get like that all the time... I'll keep it between us who is it?" Caim questioned.

"Where are we going to do this test." Terry ignored what Caim was saying, "I'm not going to tell you and that's it."

"Fine..." Caim sighed, "We're going down to the basement." Caim walked out of the room Terry followed behind him.

"So what's in the basement?" Terry questioned as they passed the desk and turned around a corner that led to some stairs that went down.

"Just an area where we won't risk any of our lower mages getting hurt or any damage to this building," Caim replied as the two went down the stairs.

Terry sighed and began to converse with Erebus inside his head, "So... I'm sorry just this world domination thing you keep pushing is just really scary to me... Do you think you could help me out with some magic spells when I'm testing?"

"Hmm. You mean just tell you some fire magic so it looks convincing?" Erebus questioned.

"Yeah," Terry said in his head.

"Sure. I can help with that." Erebus explained.

Terry turned his head noticing that the two creatures that were in the room with Caim are following close behind them. "What are these creatures?" Terry questioned as they got to the bottom of the stairs. A long stone hallway stood before them.

"Oh. Pegasus is the winged horse. Cerberus is the other. From what I could tell Cerberus was supposed to be owned by Hades but here he is." Caim said with a laugh.

"God of the underworld. Have you been schooled at all?" Caim questioned.

"No. Let's get that out of the way real quick there is a lot of things that I really don't know that it seems lots of people know. I didn't know what dusk was. I didn't know what night looked like. I didn't know what money was. Each time I had something I didn't know Darry made fun of me."

"Why are you calling Dragoncaller by his normal name. He only lets his sister and people stronger than him call him by his given name." Caim explained stopping.

"I don't know we really hit it off I guess. I like him a lot." Terry's face grew red, "As a person I mean as a person."

"Caim laughed, "Embarrassed huh?" Caim opened a large door at the end of the hallway. Revealing a large underground coliseum with empty seats. Not a soul could be seen inside beside Caim and Terry. "Here we are," Caim said holding the door open for Terry.

Terry walked in and the doors closed behind him. "So... what now?" Terry questioned.

Caim snapped his fingers in response an iron gate on the left side and on the right side opened up. Three small creatures came running out of each gate. The creatures were green and had yellow eyes they wore what looked like dirty broken leather armor. They had a severe underbite and high-pitched growls and clicks came from their mouths."

"What are these?" Terry questioned.

"Goblins. Show me what you can do. Six goblins would be a tough task for any high-level mage especially taking casting time into account. Show me you are a real Tomefnder."

"A lesson on some magic that you may not know. High-level magic that is cast without a long string of words puts a higher strain of mana on the caster. For us, it doesn't make a difference. As our magic pool is bottomless. What actually casts the spell if you didn't know are the last two or sometimes one words depending on the spell. Think of all the strongest spells you know. Just say the last two words and they will cast with no strain on your body." Erebus explained.

Terry nodded his head and held his hand out toward a goblin to the left they were all rushing towards him their swords clanging against the ground as they ran on all fours.

"You can also add a third word to make the spell act different." Erebus explained, "Multi, Maxime, Minima, Ultima, Trio, Spread. There... are many more and we can go over more later. Just show off your capacity."

Terry remembered what happened last time he used maxima in his incantations it could very well catch Caim in the crossfire something he didn't want to happen to him. "Multi sounds good." Terry thought to himself.

"I'm surprised you haven't cast anything yet," Caim said stepping back behind Terry.

"Flash fire multi," Terry said calmly as the goblins were all a mere few feet away from Terry. The moment Terry finished speaking all the goblins combusted in a scorching hot flame. Terry smiled to himself feeling no strain on his body at all, "Heat Wave." Terry said quietly blasting all the scorching goblins back leaving them burning on the ground.

"Easy enough right?" Erebus questioned.

Terry smiled and nodded his head and turned around to see Caim whose face looked white his mouth agape. "How was that?"

"I... how do you have that much mana?" Caim questioned his voice quivering slightly.

"Guess you overdid it, Terry." Erebus' voice said with a light laugh. The coliseum was now enveloped in silence beside the sound of cracking and popping flames as the goblins were slowly burned into ash.