Journey to Vros

Throughout the party both Isabella and Aldin had been on their toes, they enjoyed the atmosphere but they had not left their seats apart from when they had gone to pick some snacks, after all they had both either never been to such a large party, Aldin, or were never welcomed in any, Isabella. Now they were in the comfort of the apartment and had no need to worry as they sat back to relax, Aldin turned his face and coincidentally so did Isabella, they made eye contact and did not move for a long time when suddenly Mars came out of his room.

"Oh, you guys came back," Mars said, spooking Aldin and Isabella, who turned their heads away. Isabella got up and left for her bedroom.

"Goodnight," Isabella said in a high-pitched voice and got into her room banging the door behind her.

"Goodnight," Mars replied awkwardly and looked over to Aldin who had his head down.

After making eye contact with Isabella his heartbeat skyrocketed, the reason behind this, he had no idea. Only after Isabella left did his heartbeat go slower, but now he could not stop thinking about it.

"Goodnight," Aldin said and left headed to his room as well.

Throughout the night both ALdin and Isabella did not have much sleep, so when the guard came to them in the middle of the night they were extremely drowsy and only after getting a cup of coffee each they were able to function. Isabella left to join the others at the meeting area. Aldin took a notepad from the bookshelf and wrote something down before tearing the leaf from it and placing it on the desk with the message, 'for Mars and Zack' written on the top of the folded shield.

After placing it on one of the tables he left and went to where they were all meeting. They met outside the tower.

The guards who were accompanying him amounted to a personnel of twenty-four people including ALdin and Isabellla.

When Aldin got there they all got onto their horses and Aldin and one of the guards got into the cart and began their journey, the darkness of night did not allow any of them to see what they were doing and Aldin and Isabella sat next to each other and as the cart began moving they fell asleep unbothered by the rocking.

The two slept against each other. Aldin suddenly stirred awake a few hours later, after his advancement, he did not need to sleep that much and woke up. The nap had been wonderful for him

Aldin stretched his arms after waking up, once his eyes were fully open he came eye to eye with a few other guards who were with him. They were on high alert. Outside he also saw some of the soldiers moving from tree to tree watching all around them.

"Why don't you guys just use radar," Aldin asked.

"Because if we use it, we will be down a couple of men," Joe, one of the guards said. 

"What do you mean, isn't radar a one-person spell, you'd only use one man and be able to secure yourselves," Aldin said.

"I don't know whether you are joking or you just don't know it but, for common mages, radar requires a few mages who are tier two minimum," Joe said.

Aldin realised his difference from common mages. After recovering from the shock he came up with a plan.

"Call them back," Aldin said.

"But we will be vulnerable to attacks if we do that," Joe said.

"Don't worry, I'll use a detection array so don't worry," Aldin said.

 Joe asked the horseman to stop the cart and he called back the guards who were on duty.

The soldiers responded to this and all came back according to the commands. They were confused since they did not the reason for their call back and it was sometime before the shift change.

As they got to the cart they were just in time to see Aldin finish up the array drawing on the cart. Once he was done he added a powering array and activated it, Now in case of any movements within a hundred metres he could tell.

They all stared at Aldin in awe after he activated the array.

"How many specialisations do you have?" Joe asked.

'From what I heard he is already proficient in forrgemastery, alchemy and now array mastery. Who is this kid," Joe thought to himself.

"What do you guys mean?" Aldin asked.

While in the academy he had learnt everything that he was taught but never had it crossed his mind what it was he was getting taught.

"Apart from practising magic as it is there are other branches of magic that do not depend on one's tier, like array mastery." Joe said," SO, how many do you know?" 

"I only know four, forgemastrery, alchemy, rune-smiting and array mastery," Aldin said.

The guards were shocked and all their jaws dropped as they understood where Aldin was staying.

Normally, even to students of the academy, would only pass one specialisation and two if they were lucky but now in front of them, they saw one who was capable of all four major specialisations.

"Are there any more specialisations.?' Aldin asked.

Joe now had recovered from his shock and come to terms with Aldin's abnormality.

"There are but they are not that significant nor are they referred to as specialisations, they are called classes' Joe said.

"How so?" Aldin asked.

"Because they don't have any specific magic art associated with them but are rather known for their skills, an example is the assassin class?' Joe said.

"Could you explain a bit more?" Aldin asked extremely intrigued.

"The assassin class is for mages who specialise in silent murders, they are equipped with weapons and skills that make it easy for them to kill in darkness. Apart from that there is also the war class, they are best at wars there are several classes and some are not that significantly known," Joe said.

"Thank you for the information, I now have something more to look into," Aldin said making a mental note to look into classes once they go to the tower.

The guards got onto their horses and continued their journey. Aldin played with water magic to cure his boredom.

Suddenly Isabella began to stir awake next to him, Aldin turned to look at her and just before she woke up he could see her face clearly and it was drawing him in,

Isabella eventually opened her eyes and Aldin turned away pretending to be playing with his water magic.

Isabella woke up stretched her arms and looked around to check her environment. She looked outside at the woods as they moved waiting for the sleep to end. This took a few minutes in which she finally woke up.

"How long was I asleep?" Isabella asked.

"For about six hours," Joe said.

And at that very moment, Aldin's stomach rumbled loudly. Aldin turned red and Isabella giggled.

"What's so funny?" Aldin asked with feigned anger.

Instead of answering Aldin's question, she continued giggling and all this while the water Aldin was playing with continued moving despite Aldin focusing on other things.

"We will be stopping in a while, then we can have a meal and we will continue our journey to Vros." Joe said.

Aldin and Isabella did not even give him any attention and continued their squabble.

The two calmed down and silence fell on the carriage.

"What are you going to do about Zack, after all, he just awakened?' Isabella asked to kill the suffocating silence.

"I left him a note when we woke up in the morning, it'll help him until I get back," Aldin said.

"And are you going to teach him body refinement?" Isabella asked.

"Yes, I always keep my word. I wouldn't lie to him?" Aldin said. 

"Then will you teach it to me?" Isabella asked. Joe was shocked by what he heard.

'What do you mean body refining, i thought it was very dangerous?" Joe asked.

"Yes that is exactly what I mean, it is dangerous for those with low pain resistance and if it is overused. Otherwise, it is a very painful way of improving one's self," Aldin said in a serious tone while facing Joe.

"Yes, I can teach you, you are very strong and I know you'll be able to bear the pain," Aldin said looking into Isabella's eyes. The two were now lost in each other's eyes.

"Can you teach me as well?" Joe said forcing ALdin to break the eye contact.

"Sure," Aldin said forced to face Joe and for a couple of seconds to give him a silent glare.

"Isabella looked forward after Aldin turned his face. She sat up and began to meditate, a darkness construct was under her helping her float, The practice regiment that Aldin had given to her.

Aldin turned to see Isabella meditating and he did not want to disturb her.

Aldin too did not want to get disturbed and sat cross legged to reinforce his body refinement.