Stone

Once Ray managed to make his way back to his house, he sat down on the floor and started thinking about what just happened. The knights also followed behind him, not daring to make a peep in fear of his current temper.

This was the first time that Ray saw an official mage's attack with his own two eyes. To be more precise, he experienced it a bit further than with just his eyes.

Experiencing an official mage's simple attack truly broadened his views on mages as a whole as he realized the sheer power difference between him and the official mages.

After realizing the power difference between himself and an official mage he started to wonder, if that was an official mages attack, then what did an adept's attack look like? And what was beyond the realm of an adept?

Ray shook his head of these thoughts as he focused back onto what was coming next.

A sense of excitement swept throughout his body as he realized he could use the magical stone soon. A quick glance at the clock on his wall showed the time as 7:30, meaning he still had to wait 4 and a half hours until he could use the stone.

He calmed his mind down as he took out the two spell scrolls that George gave him; he figured he might as well take the time to learn these spells instead of sitting around and wasting time.

The knights also let out a sigh of relief after seeing Ray had calmed down and focused his attention onto something else. Ray was strangely silent and had an intense look on his face the entire walk back to the house. They weren't sure what he was thinking, but they heard many stories from their knight friends of mages unleashing their pent up anger onto the knights serving them.

The night quickly came by, and Ray made sure to leave the house 30 minutes before midnight.

Before he left, he stared at the knights for a moment, deciding whether he should bring them or not.

After thinking about the possible risks, he beckoned for them to follow him to the stone. Although the knights probably couldn't get him into any trouble with their low social status, he decided to keep them under constant supervision anyways.

After exiting the door to his house, he looked in the direction that George previously showed him until he saw a shining light in the distance. Now that the sun went down, the light coming off of the stone shone brightly against the darkness of the night.

After confirming the direction of the stone, he walked in a hurried manner while his knights followed closely behind.

As he approached the stone, the light became brighter and brighter. By the time they were near the origin, Ray suspected the intensity of the light was enough to blind an average human. Luckily for him, he was anything but an average human, although the knights seemed to be struggling a little since they put their head down to try and avoid direct eye contact.

After getting close to the stone, he realized it was built on an open temple with the stone being the focal point. The temple was built from what appeared to be solid gold, and had many decorations and carvings engraved within it.

Even though the structure was similar to a religious temple, he could tell from the way it was built that the stone wasn't seen as something divine, but rather as an important symbol to be respected.

While he was inspecting the temple, a person dressed in white robes quietly walked up to Ray.

"Take out your badge." He demanded in a bored tone.

Ray didn't hesitate in complying with the white robed mage's orders; he could tell just from the way the man moved that he was someone powerful.

The mage glanced at the badge and nodded in approval after seeing the number showing when he could use the stone.

"Your turn will come in… a couple minutes. You can probably just go now though, I don't really care." he said while letting out a yawn.

As the mage finished checking Ray's badge, multiple mages started coming out of the doors of the temple, all with obvious smiles on their faces.

"Huh? They're a couple minutes early." the mage said with a hint of surprise on his face. "Well, whatever. You can go once they finish coming out I guess."

After saying that, the mage left Ray as he spotted another newcomer whose badge he needed to check.

Ray waited patiently for the mages to finish leaving the temple before walking through the imposing looking gates leading up to the stone.

Once he entered the gates to the temple, the light shining off the stone hit him with full force onto his eyes. He instinctively closed his eyes and squinted as he made his way closer to the stone.

The temple consisted of a single room, with the stone being hoisted by a pillar in the middle of the room. Around the stone was an expensive looking rug that Ray assumed he was supposed to sit on.

He waited a moment for another mage to enter the temple. He wasn't 100% sure on what he needed to do, so he wanted to see someone else do it before he did.

A few seconds later, an old man with a long beard entered the temple. He had a friendly look on his face, although Ray could tell from his eyes that he wasn't someone to be messed with.

The old man seemed to notice Ray's gaze and walked towards him.

"Are you new here?" He asked in a friendly voice.

"Ah, yes. Sorry for staring at you." Ray quickly apologized.

"Don't worry about that."The old man said with a light chuckle. "I assume you were looking at me because you didn't know what to do?"

"How did you know?"

"It is obvious from your aura that you are a new recruit." The old man plainly replied. "Anyways, this stone isn't very complex. All you need to do is focus on sucking in energy directly from the stone, and the effects will speak for themselves."

Ray nodded in response and sat down on the carpet beneath him. He did as the old man said and focused his aura onto the stone in front of him.

At first, nothing happened, but once he tried sucking in the energy as the old man said, he felt a massive amount of pure light energy come back towards him.

He quickly started using the energy to strengthen his soul, leaving none of it to waste.

The old man smiled after seeing Ray take in the energy for the first time. He sat down a few feet away from Ray and started his own training.

Once Ray started taking in the energy for the first time, he didn't stop training until the next day arrived. The density of the energy from the stone was so high, he wished he could just train here forever.

But, that's not how life works; all good things had to come to an end. The old man tapped on Ray's shoulder a few minutes before their time was up.

Ray slowly opened his eyes, then thanked the old man for reminding him.

He stood up and stared in surprise at his newly strengthened soul. The rate of progress with the stone was simply amazing. In the one day alone, he made around one eighth of the progress needed to become a level four apprentice.

"It's really great, isn't it?" The old man said as they walked out of the temple.

"Yeah, Mythri is nothing compared to this." Ray admitted.

"Mythri is nothing compared to the capital. On paper they have many more mages than us, but in reality, the true power lies within our 6 houses." The old man confidently responded. "Speaking of the 6 houses, it's good you're taking this time to strengthen yourself seriously."

"What do you mean?"

"You're new here so you might now know, but the tensions between the houses has been steadily increasing in the past few years." The old man said in a serious voice.

"Hmm. Coincidence or not, I ran into an official mage who attacked me near the walls around Loyer while I was trying to come back."

"Really?" The old man exclaimed with a shocked expression. "This never would have happened before, those mages are really getting cocky. I wouldn't recommend going outside the walls too much, I heard many stories of apprentices being beaten and sometimes even killed by other houses. Although it's strange, usually official mages keep to themselves." The old man muttered with a frown.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Well, I'll be seeing you every month now, its good to meet you." The old man said while sticking out his hand.

Ray shook his hand and respectfully responded, "It's good to meet you too."