The Apprentice

I sit on a bench inside the forge and wait expecting him to wake up, for hours.

The forge where we were in was located in a place that every Runic Blacksmith of Viridian House shared, there was movement everywhere and each one had their forge in which there were always some assistants helping, except for ours that was completely still with Nogand asleep.

The noise coming from the people around was great and the heat even greater, the sound of hammer and fire was heard everywhere making it an extremely noisy place, but sill Nogand's snoring managed to be as loud as everything happening around us.

'I am not going to be stuck here all day waiting for him to wake up.' Gremory thought impatiently until he decided to use the manipulation of the shadow to slightly pull the table on which Nogand had his head, making him fall to the floor.

Nogand fell like a stone and quickly raised himself but he was extremely dizzy.

"What, who are you?" Nogand spoke while he looked to the boy on his forge.

"I suppose Vendryt must have talked to you about me earlier. I am currently an apprentice in the runic blacksmith profession and you have agreed to instruct me." Gremory spoke while copying the same pose that Xander usually does to show respect.

"Oh, yes. Vendryt told me about you, but I ended up forgetting, you know... a lot of work sometimes starts to affect your memory."

'A lot of work? Working a lot to sleep?'

"Let's start with the basics, I will teach you the fundamentals of Tier 1 runes and if you work hard maybe by the end of the year we can start with Tier 2 runes." Nogand spoke while cleaned up his table.

"I already have mastery of Tier 1 runes, I am also studying Tier 2 runes for a while but I feel that to advance beyond my current level I need practice to better understand the mechanisms." Gremory spoke while he continued copying the self-confident pose that Xander always emitted in the presence of someone higher than him.

"HAHAHAHA don't make jokes about this boy." Nogand laughed.

Gremory then walked over to his bench and took a piece of Mitre Crystal from it and imbued it with mana.

Gremory had no respect for the person in front of him, but if he was the only one who agreed to instruct him then there was no reason to not treat him with respect. After all, it was Gremory's choice to be here.

"Wtf kid, you don't need to show off. I already expected you to be no ordinary kid since you were selected by the Grand Master." Nogand spoke with an irritated tone.

"I'm not showing off, I just think that a demonstration can be more effective than simple words, now will you help me with Tier 2 runes?"

"I gave my word to Vendryt so yes, just show me how far you have learned."

Gremory explained his doubts and began to practice in the forge, the great quality of the runes was their versatility, as they could be enchanted in armor, clothes, objects, weapons, etc. Anything could be enchanted with runes except for living beings, well at least it is not possible until Tier 4, but the inscriptions in Gremory proved that this was also possible.

---

Gremory continued with this routine for nine months, training at the forge all morning and in the afternoon training with the rest of the Aspiring Mage group, their training was based on learning and putting into practice a diverse range of simple spells.

Most of the time Gremory was able to use the same concepts of spells to create his spells using shadows, but they were also not as effective as the book spells, using a lot more mana, but Gremory also compensated with his big difference in his mana stock when compared to the rest of the group.

The rituals also continued every week in the same way, the number of people present during the rituals also continued to increase, and very quickly. To preserve discretion the Grand Master defined a chain of command in what they called "Holy Church of God" and only the highest people in the chain of command could be present in these rituals.

Yet it was obvious that the numbers have continued to increase due to the numerous changes in the chain of command. As for my position, I received the highest position called "The Hand of God", Grand Master Kluster appointed himself as bishop with other people that I don't know, Layren received the position of an apostle. Anyone below the apostle's position was not allowed to participate in the ritual that Kluster called "Blood Sacrifice".

Grand Master Kluster liked to give the impression that was all his choices, but it was clear that in reality it was all defined by the Oracle, who didn't appear again since the first ritual.

However, this didn't bother me because since I reached rank B, my hunger has grown a lot and animals are not being enough anymore. Nevertheless, I asked Kluster several times, asking the reason for this, since the ritual also consisted of connecting 3 people directly to the abyss through the Blood Sacrifice using the Oracle Dagger every week, his answer was always the same "People always need a symbol to follow, even if it is a lie", and that all this was to unite humans in more than a simple alliance, it was to transform the great Empire into a real Kingdom, ending the independence of the cities that currently act as Polis and guarantee protection against non-humans.

Although I received the highest position, it didn't matter to me because all the Grand Master Kluster needed to do was say that it was the decision of the Hand of God and everyone would follow his orders without question. So I just had the fun part of attending rituals for food every week. Besides, very few people really knew that it was me the Hand of God, since I started to keep my hood up all the times during the rituals like everyone else.