Weekly Patrol

Chapter 2 – Weekly Patrol

'To become successful on the road of magic, three components are essential: Talent, Resources and bitter, unyielding hard work', Great Magus Rutherford, during one of his rare speeches in the tower.

The words of the tower master reverberated in Arthur's mind as he walked alongside his partner, William Steel. Just like him, William was a grade 2 talent, meaning that his odds of becoming a mighty magus in the future were pretty small.

Talent grade basically dictated the rate at which your magic power grew. Besides the growth rate, your status in the tower was based on your talent grade. The higher it was, the more resources your masters would give you. After all, the goal of the academy was to create strong mages.

As a grade 2 talent, the basic meditation technique handed out by the tower would provide visible benefits until he reached the Intermediate Rank Acolyte realm. Of course, that was just in theory. Out of the 68 acolytes who belonged to the tower, there were barely ten acolytes who had reached the intermediate rank acolyte realm, many of whom possessed grade 3 talent.

Acolytes were apprentices who walked the path of magic, and because there was a huge discrepancy between weak and strong ones, four ranks had been artificially created. From weakest to strongest, they were beginner, intermediate, advanced and finally Peak Acolytes, the latter being very likely to become a Magus.

Talent grades were essential in the tower's hierarchy. Though humans could potentially have a talent grade as high as grade 5, there hadn't been one in decades within the tower, thus making grade 4 the highest talent in the Ivory Tower Academy. But even grade 4 talent were beyond rare, only appearing once in the past eight years.

Talent grades traduced the magical capacity of your soul. If you had low talent grade, then understanding the complex magical theories would be difficult and you would have trouble casting spells. Worse still, there would also be a clear limit in meditation time, thus clearly harming your growth rate.

As grade 2 talents, William and Arthur could be considered to be slightly above average, for the vast majority of acolytes only yielded grade 1 talent. It was decent at best, but far from extraordinary.

Still, William's attainments in fire magic, especially his successful learning of the [Low Grade Rank 0 Spell - Fire Arrow], one of the strongest offensive spell that existed, and Arthur's physical strength, they were spared from the 'bullying' of older acolytes who picked on weaklings. They ate their meals together, and completed the patrols together.

Many times, they would witness a young acolyte, sometimes even younger than them, having to pay a fee to eat the free meals handed out by the tower, or having to 'contribute' to seniors in terms of magical herbs they had come into possession.

The tower was a hostile environment. The strong became increasingly stronger, while the weak were taken advantage of, until they reached a superior realm of strength.

Both Willam and Arthur knew better than putting their nose in others' business. Though it was immoral, Arthur never once stood up to save those 'younger acolytes', for it would surely bring a mountain of troubles to himself, with no apparent benefits.

It's not like he was a monster. He just tried to survive in this place, where everything cost enormous amounts of money. Gold coins were used for daily needs, while knowledge points were used in the library to borrow or even purchase books of magic.

It was a currency system created by the Magus Rutherford himself. There was yet another currency – Magic Crystals – but they were the rarest and most valuable form of currency there was and they were used to purchase the rarest magical materials. There were few assignments that rewarded magic crystals, and when they did, they were usually very dangerous.

In the library within the tower, each magic book was labelled with different knowledge point values, from a handful of points to thousands of them for the highly restricted scrolls. Borrowing books could only be done through the use of knowledge points, rather than money. The apprentices had to work hard to earn knowledge points and complete missions, many of them being life-threatening.

Unfortunately, those hard-earned points would only allow them to borrow the book for a very short amount of time. The time was so short that it was totally not enough for an apprentice to master all the knowledge within the book.

Therefore, most of the acolytes had made a habit of taking notes from the books themselves. Whenever they borrowed a magic book, the apprentice would put all their efforts into copying the essential of the content they needed, so they could continue to study it in future.

Doing so required ink and goatskin paper. Obviously, these were not free either, and thus the Acolytes needed even more money. Naturally, there was a black market in which knowledge points could be purchased with money, but the exchange rate between them was one knowledge point cost one hundred gold coins. For example, the 'Glossary of Demon Creatures', which Arthur had borrowed today, had cost him five knowledge points. He could only borrow it for a week, which was the cheapest option. Thankfully, he was almost done with it.

Five knowledge points were a pretty big sum. After all, even after completing the weekly task of patrolling around the tower with William, he only received 3 knowledge points out of it, as well as a handful of gold coins. Still, even though the rewards were relatively small, the risks were quite limited. Many would kill for this kind of weekly mission. It brought a stable income, something that most acolytes yearned for.

Arthur went through a lot in order to get a spot as a patrolling acolyte.

"Hey, Arthur, do you think I could borrow your notes on the Glossary of Demon Creatures after you finish copying it down?", William suddenly asked, wishing to reap the benefits of Arthur's hard work. Of course, their relationship was never that of a master and a servant, but that of two equals.

Arthur, hearing William, naturally nodded: "Of course, but I want your notes on the 'History of Ancient Magus Family' in exchange!"

Seeing him nod, Arthur felt a tinge of warmth inside him. Knowledge was power, after all, and learning about magus families would surely bring him some inspiration for growth.

Roughly an hour after they began the patrolling mission, they encountered the first danger.

Suddenly, William stopped his footing, and sat, signalling William to do the same. He whispered: "A Swamp Wolf…We are quite lucky to find a lone wolf without a pack! If we hunt it, we will probably make one or two magic crystals on top of the gold coins from the patrol mission if we manage to hunt it!"

Naturally, both William and Arthur were very excited at the sight of a beginner rank 0 magical creature such as a swamp wolf, which possessed no magical ability besides a fur slightly resistant to magic! It rarely happened, since weak magical creatures usually travelled in packs, which was out of reach for individuals like William or arthur.

Still, the sheer size of the beast was huge, as it was larger than a regular wolf. Worst still, its fangs were said to be coated in a small layer of poison. A single bite, and you were bound to be catch some sort of fever in the next twenty-four hours.

"You still sharp on your freezing touch spell?", William asked, which Arthur replied with a quiet nod, "I will shoot him down with [Flaming Arrow], and lure it here. When it is within range, you get out of that bush and kill him, alright?"

Arthur nodded. The plan was quite simple-minded, but thankfully, the beasts in the swamps were not known for their intellect, but rather for their strength.

After a while, as the wolf approached the swamp to drink for the muddy water, fire elemental particles gathered in between William's hands, condensing in the form of a small arrow, a dozen centimetre long, one or two centimetre wide. Without a doubt, the spell had very limited range and accuracy, but the piercing power and burning power was not half bad, for the fire element was well known for its destructiveness.

However, William had low magical powers for he rarely meditated and rather wasted a lot of time on alchemical studies, which never really amounted to anything, wasting many resources and time that he could have invested elsewhere.

Still, the spell was successfully cast, and instantly charred the wolf's back, which resulted in an agonizing and murderous howl: *AWOOOO*

Suddenly, William felt a chill as he saw the massive wild beast charging at him. He readied himself for the impact, a pair of daggers in hand, ready to fight for his life. Both Arthur and William were not the useless probationary apprentices they used to be, and after years of completing patrols on a weekly basis, both had learnt some survival skills.

The wolf, however, was nimble, and easily avoided William's wild stabs and leaped onto him, biting a piece of his flesh, causing the poor sixteen-years-old boy to groan in pain. However, the wolf hadn't noticed the youth hiding in the bush behind him.

Unsheathing his cross sword, Arthur suddenly leaped in the air, adding momentum to his strike.

*SPLASH*

The sword almost cut the wolf in half, but because of its tough flesh, the blade stuck halfway through. This was his family's secret knight technique: Heavy Vertical Strike. The wolf howled in pain but before it could turn, Arthur shut his eye and focused his mana to cast a spell.

*Gloria Glacians*, he said in the ancient Draconic language as his hands glowed into a deep, freezing blue colour. This was the necessary incantation to cast [Freezing Touch]. The air around his hands suddenly dropped by dozens of Celsius degrees. After roughly three seconds of incantation, Arthur gripped the wolf's neck and mercilessly used all of his strength to choke it. The wolf tried to fight against the sneaky Arthur, but it quickly found that its muscles were sluggish and its body burning in extreme cold, in addition to his body bleeding profusely.

After the while, the poor wolf was drained of its life, its veins frozen from the spell. The fight had only lasted for a dozen seconds, yet both youths were already panting, cold sweat flowing down their face.

Though patrols were dangerous, they rarely fought monsters on their own, and more often than not, the patrols ended up with mere reports. They would rarely engage in such hard-fought battles. It was nothing like a spar or training. It was a real life and death battle in which the slightest mistake could cost you your life!

Fortunately, they had been victorious this time, but such victory had not been without casualty.

William, who had been bitten, was poisoned by the swamp wolf. He would become totally incapacitated in two hours, three perhaps if he had a good immune system. Thereafter, he would feel extreme pain and a fever would strike him. Out of those who got bitten, one out of ten died. Knowing this very well, William had a bitter face.

Still, Arthur was a bit overjoyed when he heard the familiar mechanical sound reverberate in his mind…

[Level 3 Swamp Wolf successfully killed]

[You have earned 15 EXP]

[You have reached the necessary amount of EXP to level up…]