A New Adventure

Meanwhile, the young lordling is standing beside the old man, who had slumped over in a daze abruptly. At first, the boy thought the "nice" old man had a heart attack or something, but then he sees a white glowing soul gate on the floor.

"He's waking up his magic?!" the boy exclaims in alarm.

Not only is seeing an awakening mage rare, it's also quite dangerous. Everybody even remotely educated knows that when you get magic, your soul expands, and when your soul expands, you need access to a lot of quick energy to fill the new size of your soul with mana. The soul expands so rapidly that you can seriously damage yourself or those around you if there's no energy to absorb.

The boy looks around frantically and pulls out his own pendant he keeps around his neck. Most people with any sort of wealth all keep mana stones on their necks, since awakening your magic can happen randomly, and it's best to have something on you.

So, as Haalfrin's soul finishes growing, it's the boy's reserve mana stone that his soul absorbed greedily in its expansion.

After the mana stone is sucked completely dry, it's drained of its color – no longer like a dull red, but like transparent glass.

The boy waits anxiously for a few minutes, and he watches the old man's body change right before his eyes.

The young boy had seen one other mage awaken before, and that was his own great-grandfather, Fisco.

Like Fisco, as well as all mages, Haalfrin's shriveled skin smoothens out, his bones straighten, and his hair regains its brown color. Gaining higher levels of magic always restores some youth, and it slows down your aging from then on. That's why the boy's great-grandfather looks like he's 20.

So, just like that, the boy watches as the unconscious Haalfrin shrinks down his age all the way back to a young man again.

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Once Haalfrin's long train of visions is finally over, Haalfrin snaps awake, still lying prone on the ashy ground of his soul realm.

Haalfrin immediately notices that his bones no longer ache; he had grown so used to the pain over the years that once it's gone, he actually jumps and startles himself, then gasps in shock at how easily he got back on his feet.

He looks down at his hands and sees them stretchy and smooth again. "My muscles still look skinny. I'll have to train them again. Even still, the feeling of being young again is amazing!"

Longevity is, of course, his main reason for wanting magic before – so that he could go out raiding longer with the clan.

After he runs around a little bit, enjoying the feeling of NOT having to hobble about like a cripple, he finally sits down cross legged (something he wasn't able to do in decades) and he thinks of a way to get out of his soul realm.

He'd read of the way before… but it's been too long. He'll have to wrack his brains a bit to remember.

"Hmm… The Names are the key to the soul Gates… so if I want to leave the soul, I'll just have to go through the gate again… and to do that, I'll need the key."

So, Haalfrin just looks up, reads his Rune again, and recites the things it told him before. "A warrior shouldn't be held back by death, for death is his destiny…,"

After Haalfrin finished repeating his Name, there's a loud clicking sound, and his mind was finally pulled out of his soul realm.

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Once Haalfrin leaves his soul realm, he opens his eyes and sees the young boy standing over him with a concerned look. Feeling a little awkward, Haalfrin stands up and stretches his limbs. "Ah! That felt good."

The new mage looks to the side and sees the transparent, discarded mana stone to the side. "I see… thanks for the help, boy."

He then looks down and sees that the fire had gone out. Once his eyes meet the young boys', he looks down in shame. "Sorry," the young master apologizes. "I accidentally smothered it."

"…Anyway," Haalfrin brings up, "I never asked your name. Calling you 'boy' in my head is getting annoying."

"…It's Resburn."

Haalfrin looks down at the fire, concentrates, and wonders aloud, "Hmm… Is this how the mages did it?" He snaps his fingers at the fire dramatically…

...but nothing happens.

Resburn chuckles, "Old man, if you want to learn spells, there's plenty of books in my family's collection."

"Yeah," Haalfrin replies, "but magic knowledge is precious and expensive. What would I have to give up getting access to those books…? Well… other than my standing with the law."

Resburn suggests, "Father would probably want you to stay and serve the family. You're unaffiliated, so to get knowledge, you'd have to swear your allegiance to SOMEBODY."

Hearing that, Haalfrin shakes his head, "Never mind then. This place is too peaceful for me anyway. I'd probably have to wait a few decades for the next bandit raid, and my delicate heart can't handle that."

He looks off to the north. "I heard there's a war up there...." Haalfrin looks back at Resburn, "Do you know where I'd go to volunteer for the army?"

Resburn pulls out a slip of paper from his satchel. "Here's my travel list."

In the era before maps were cheap and easy to make, the only places most people knew the directions to were their neighboring towns. Making destination lists was the standard way of traveling. You'd go to the nearest town on the list, ask the locals for directions, hire a guide, or tag along with a caravan to the next stop… You repeat the process until you get to where you wanted to go.

Haalfrin takes the paper, looks it up and down it, and asks, "Oh, it's Uthraal? I sort of know where that is. Sort of. It's up North, right? Nevermind. North is where the war is. Where else could Uthraal be?"

Feeling more confident now, Haalfrin finally stretches his back perfectly straight again for the first time in decades. Even Resburn can hear the sickeningly loud popping sounds as Haalfrin's spine is forced back into its proper shape.

Resburn looks up and is surprised at Haalfrin's height – a bit over 6 feet tall, he is. In an age where most people have bad nutrition, 6 feet is gigantic.

"He'd look pretty intimidating," Resburn concludes, "once he works out some more and gets some muscle back on those bones."

Resburn is shaken out of his thoughts when he feels a large hand ruffle his curly hair. "Now kid, it's time for you to get home. I don't have to walk you back, do I?"

"No…," Resburn backs off with an embarrassed face, "I can make it back on my own."

"And make sure you apologize to your parents when you get back…" Haalfrin turns around and waves. "Good bye. And... thank you."

With Haalfrin's quick pace and long strides, he's gone from Resburn's view pretty quickly.

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Once Haalfrin is completely out of view, he changes his course, circling around the town and going back to the sandy beach he washed up on earlier.

This trip took him half a day as an old man, but Haalfrin alternates between jogging and speed walking the whole way back.

Even still, since he's completely out of shape, Haalfrin's lungs and heart are burning, and his legs are heavy.

Rather than give up, the young mage just takes it as a workout, and he pushes himself the whole way – only stopping when he's worried he'll pull a muscle or something.

After he arrives back at the beach half an hour later, Haalfrin plops on his knees and digs through the sand, uncovering all the armor he brought with him.

Once he straps everything on, the old man feels like something inside him is finally complete, and memories of his adventuring youth come back to him.

The feeling of his armor weighing him down on those long journeys… the feeling of the hot, snug sensation as the sea wind blows through the cracks of his armor… It's all coming back to him.

Of course, those adventures with his old friends are over… but that life feels like a thing of the past now. "I feel like I've begun a new life now, one that's going to be filled with entirely new adventures belonging to just me now."

He then looks to the north, where the war is happening. He smiles and says to himself, "Well, my brothers and sisters... I'll be seeing you soon enough!"