Exploring the city part 3

The attendant quickly made the necessary paperwork and handed Leo the token. After that she told him to come back to the Clerk in the main hall and present him the token with the relevant data imprinted. After saying goodbye Leo went to the main hall and queued in the line for the clerk again. The guy that sent him for testing before sneaked a few glances at Leo to see any kind of emotion but found none. It was very unusual because most of the time even noble families with no magic bloodline that somehow got their hands on a magic crystal and tried to check some of the more promising heirs of their families found out that their children had no magic talent at all. The clerk like to see their disappointment and sometime despair because one magic crystal cost one thousand gold coins and in a lot of cases even if you had the coins you could not get those crystals. He thought that this kid was sent by his family to try his luck. The magic community was very closed to the outside world. It was very hard to get into it ranks even if you had the talent. When Leo got in front of the clerk he handed him the token.

Even before scanning the token results with his magic power the clerk asked with a hint of distain: "How was it?".

"It was ok. You can take a look by yourself" Leo said.

When the clerk saw that Leo was no fun he decided to check the token. The clerk was a first circle mage apprentice with a low aptitude with the wind element. He got into the magic community by luck when a mage apprentice found about his talent and decided to take him as a disciple. It took him few years to get to his level with the help of the meditation technique his mentor gave him and he was proud of that. He suffered injustice by his mage apprentice peers because he was a commoner. Only recently when he got the job in the magic association he started to get the respect he always wanted. In the same time he enjoyed to see other people fail and suffer. When he scanned the results he froze and his smile vanished. He was at a loss for words. He tried to hide his emotions but Leo could see thought his facade.

"What is the procedure now?" Leo asked.

The clerk twitched his lips for a moment, then he smiled and said: "As a magic apprentice with a high talent you will get an token that identify you as a member of the magic association. Also here is a parchment with all the benefits you will get as a member of the magic association and the catalog of the services that you can acquire in the association with the prices attached. Also here is an insignia of the mage association that is allocated to any new mage apprentice. Please wear it on. It represent you as a member of our organization to the outside world. Every mage wear his insignia with pride."

Leo got the token and the parchment with the insignia. He looked around and saw that indeed all of the mages wore different insignias based on their level in the organization or as a different level mages, Leo wasn't sure. He was sure that it was worth to wear it. It could protect him from problems he did not need. It will bring him different problems in the same time. He will gain a lot of attention. He was not sure if it is good or not but maybe he could get something good from it to himself. He wore the insignia on his coat, inputted the token and the parchment in his bag, while storing them in his dimensional ring. He then turned around and left the building without even saying anything to the clerk. He will not pay his respect to such a person. This guy could not really do anything to him so he did not care about etiquette in this case. As for the parchment data. Leo decided that he will look it up in the inn after he finished with all of his plans for the day.

Some time after Leo left one of the mages that held a high position in the association got the news and got really exited and angry in the same time. It was mage Jeff. He was a middle aged man with a black hair and a plain face of an average height. If not the insignia on his robe of an official mage he would look like someone you will not notice in the crowd. He was exited because there was a kid with great talent that he could take under his wing. It will increase his status greatly in the future when he will have a fully fledged mage as a student. In the same time he was angry because his subordinates did not used their brain cells and did not get any information about the kid. Even if he wanted to look for Leo he did not know where to start.

"What a bunch of idiots!" He said while clenching his teeth.

Mage Jeff got down to the first floor to the hall and asked out load: "Who served the new member Leo today?".

The clerk that interacted with the new kid understood that one of the higher up that got down was referring to the brat that surprised him earlier.

"Sir, I was the one that served the new member of the association by the name of Leo." The clerk said. After he said that the clerk felt that the temperature in the hall got lower by a couple of degrees. He felt a bad premonition.

"You will be deducted your pay for this month of work." Mage Jeff said calmly.

"Sir, may I know what I did wrong?" The clerk asked.

Mage Jeff did not deliberate about the reason and just said: "Because you are an idiot."

After that mage Jeff turned around and left. Some of the people looked at the clerk with ridicule.

People always respected the strong. Even if the clerk did well it will not matter if some of the higher ups will think differently.

In the same time mage Jeff called some of the people he knew in town with a magic items they exchanged so they keep an eye for a kid named Leo.

He wanted to try to take this kid under his wing if he will have a chance.

Leo did not knew that he caused a small commotion in the mage association. He was on his way back to the adventurers guild and arrived there shortly after. He still felt strange interacting with people. He was alone for around three years. It was a comfortable feeling to be by himself and he was not sure he could find comrades he could trust with his life on the line. As someone who wanted to be an adventure and a mercenary he would be a part of a team most of the time. He was not sure how he felt about it. He understood that he should always be vigilant and trust someone whos friendship and loyalty was tested by time and different life situations. He talked to the driver for some time and found out that there is a auction house in town. Also he came up as a worried child about the fact that he heard that there is a slave problem in this region and tried to probe the waters in this direction too. The driver of the carriage was an old man with many wrinkles on his face, white short hair, long nose. He did not look to good but his gentle elderly nature and his good heart won a positive attitude from most of his costumers. Leo was one of them. The old man said that this is indeed a problem but recently the authorities are making an effort to decrease the amount of slaves on the streets. Leo understood that the old man tried to cheer him up and nodded to the old man. He now knew that there was a chance to purchase a slave and he was seriously considering this possibility. He wanted to have people he could trust and it was the easiest way to build a good team. If he would struggle to find a good group he will have to build the team by himself from slaves. He will try to avoid it generally because he respected freedom and fought for it in his previous life. He wanted to make things right but in the same time he wont shy from making a decisions that will be frowned upon by most people.