Magic Training And Rewards

"So, is that the whole reward for their heroic actions?" The immortal said angrily, voicing his opinions.

"Eh... Well, yes. Of course they will receive the recompense for the quest too since they accomplished it." The guild master replied, visibly thrown of guard.

The three victims of this whole affair also followed his point of view as they noticed that their promotion was nothing more than a nice piece of paper. However, Laena cut in before the situation could escalate and she humbly defused the conflict :

"It is fine Jack, having the honor to receive such a promotion this fast and directly from the headmaster isn't something that everyone could have. Furthermore, I am pretty sure that the C ranked quests will pay better and give us the benefits we need."

Richard jumped on the occasion she had given to him and continued :

"Indeed, climbing this fast in the guild isn't something that everyone could do. I will do my best to protect the heroic image of miss Brathadh and give her the prestige she deserve as a noble."

His boot licking gave the young elf goosebumps but she decided to bear it and quickly finished the conversation, leaving the room and wishing the girls she had saved the best future they could have. This whole situation made her quite uncomfortable as she had gotten all the merits while Evelyn had been ignored. Knowing that it wasn't true and that she owed her life to the young magician gave her an impression of being ungrateful and that she was stealing her fame.

While she had her internal conflict they had reached the counter again as they had to ask Linda to give them their reward and update their adventurers ID.

"Oh, welcome back. How did it go with the boss?" The receptionist kindly asked.

"It was... surprising. I never expected to get promoted this fast." Laena replied while smiling weakly.

"Yes, it is incredible to see a new adventurer climb this fast. Well, you managed to pull off something amazing so you deserve it, both of you. Could I have your cards by the way? I'll take a minute to update those."

The swordswoman felt a bit better when she heard that her small friend's abilities had been recognized too and Evelyn seemed to have appreciated it too, blushing a little while giving her card. After some uncomfortable waiting the ginger haired woman came back, carrying a pouch of leather and their two cards. The letters on them had been changed from a black D to a copper colored C. Handling the small bag to the party the receptionist then gently said :

"And here is the reward for accomplishing your quest. There should be ten golden coins inside of it. Have a good day."

"Oooh it's quite a good reward isn't it te- Jack?" Evelyn happily asked.

"Indeed, but a good part of it will go into repairing your equipment." The immortal sighed. He had done his best to remove the bloodstains but he couldn't sew back all the part that had been ripped or cut. Walking out, they bumped into someone when they opened the door.

He fell on the ground while Laena nearly did the same but Jack caught her firmly. A dog started barking and they saw that it was meanly looking at them while staying next to its master. Moving away from the door, they helped the man up and apologized. By touching his hand, the immortal knew that this man was a magician too and a good one. Smiling, he said :

"Excuse us for your rudeness sir."

"Oh no, it's fine. It was my fault for trying to rush in and forget to look where I was going." The man chuckled. "I am Lewis, a wandering magician and this fluffy boy there is Eugene. Nice to meet you." He said, giving a handshake to every member of the group.

"I am Laena Brathadh, C ranked swordswoman. Here are my followers Evelyn and Jack. Nice to meet you too." The elf replied, introducing them politely.

"It's always good to get the same of such beauties. Now if you excuse me I have some rewards to cash in." He charmingly smiled before running away.

"A half elf fire magician... What a surprise." The immortal mumbled.

"What? He was a magician?" The girls blurted out. Since the man was wearing a leather armor with a shirt dirty and a pant with a sword on its belt they thought that he was a swordsman. However, they had noticed his pointy ears a bit smaller than Laena's ones that were under his brown hairs.

"Yup I'm 100% percent sure. Furthermore he is the most dangerous magician I've met since I got out. " Jack explained while smiling, happy to have seen a promising mage after so many disappointments. Even if powerful ones would maybe be dangerous to him seeing that his peers were still thriving gave him happiness. After all, mages were the strongest weapon that the sentient races could have, and knowing that they still existed ignited the hope of recreating his own army without having to teach every of them.

Furthermore, he could buy their services with promises of knowledge or funds for their researches. Even if this Lewis was only as strong as him, the fact that he announced that he was a wandering mage was the best news. It meant that someone out there still knew how to teach young ones the correct ways to use magic, not like the brat of the Daberon house who had been an utter disappointment.

'Maybe I'll find the answer in those books. I haven't took the time to read them, maybe I should.' He thought while they were doing some shopping and reparations on their equipment. One of the shopkeeper found Evelyn's hairpin really beautiful and tried to buy it to her. After having caught her alone in a corner he tried to pressure her to get it on a low price since she was a child and someone easily manipulable in his mind.

However, when he tried to force her he felt a monstrous killing intent coming from her. It seemed that the shadows of the whole room were dancing around her and she growled in a threatening manner:

"I won't sell it no matter your price !"

Jack who was seeing the scene from the side intervened and, dropping his hand on the shopkeeper, he murmured in his ear :

"Trying to scam a child, what a shame. Savor the sunlight coming in because it's the last time you will see it if you continue."

After that they managed to get all their clothes repaired for free as a gift from the man as he wanted to apologize. Apparently he closed his shop after they left and moved from this city because of "Monsters, these people are monsters !" or so he said.

Then Jack leaded the party outside and after an hour of walking non stop they reached a place away from prying eyes.

"Now, show me how you grew my dear students." He announced, smiling. The two girls nodded, fired up. They had worked hard to improve themselves and wanted to show him their best results. Evelyn went first and started to sing, creating a peaceful atmosphere around her.

Her song hadn't any lyrics but the notes she produced were beautiful enough alone and they relaxed those who heard them. Soon, Jack saw the wind mana coming from the small girl's body turn into threads through her whole body and weave themselves around the blade. Nearly every three seconds she threw a Wind Blade powerful enough to be at the peak of the Level 0 Spell.

When she finally ended her performance she had cut many trees quite deep but didn't make any fall down. Soon, a clapping sound came from Jack's hand and he simply said "Wonderful" while patting his tired disciple.

Turning his head toward Laena, she understood what he meant and nodded before walking toward a tree and unsheathing her blade. Focusing herself for a second, she made her blade turn bright white with a thought and left a deep burnt mark after slicing the tree. Then, she smiled and said :

"Here come the interesting part."

She then stabbed while using all the mana she could and threw the same fire stab as she had done before. Stumbling a little after the cast, she rested on her sword while breathing heavily and watched the result of her spell. A hole of twice the size of the tip of the blade had been dug deep in the bark. It was scorched and deep inside you could even see some coal still active.

"Hmm... The penetrative power does come from the heat, not your strike. Well found Laena, you managed to trigger your weapon's abilities all alone."

Seeing them all smile made Jack's frozen heart soften a little. He then gave them some exercises a bit harder in order to achieve what they wanted : He gave pointers to the elf about the Fire Spear, a level 0 spell throwing a fiery flame burning on a straight line and told Evelyn how to make a Wind Wall as she tried to do during her last fight.

It was a bit harder for her as she had to weave precisely the strands to form either a net flexible enough to catch the attacks and stop them or a parallel structure in one way that deflected the attacks in that direction. After they started to train themselves on these exercises he took a deeper tone and asked them :

"I will give you harder spells to work on later but first I have a question for you two as it is something that is going to happen in the future : Have you ever killed a human and what did you feel if you have done it?"

"Well, I already told you but I did kill some women on this mission." Laena explained, her visage getting darker and darker while her ears were dropping down. "I did not enjoy it at all... Even if I could understand them and their wish, I-I still robbed them from their future... Maybe if I had motivated them a little more they would have continued onward..."

Jack stopped her self torturing and gently hugged her, patting the weak girl in his arms. Even if he wasn't the one to give advises about the other's life importance he still tried to give some help to his student.

"It's alright young elf, you did what you had to do. Don't regret giving people what they wanted, even if it's not the best for them. Of course staying alive is the best thing to do as you can only experience happiness when you're in here. But remember that you are not a doctor or a psychologist, you are merely an adventurer and a soldier. You did what you had to do and helped them, one way or another."

Laena freed herself from his arms and smiled weakly, thanking him in low voice while removing the "dust" she had in her eyes. Evelyn also replied that she had never killed anyone and that she wasn't sure if she would be able to do it like the elf did. Seeing Jack ravenous grin, she understood that she should have kept her mouth shut and heard :

"Well, it's time for you to steel yourself a little. For our next mission we will try to take one with a bandit extermination. I don't want you to turn into cold blooded murderers like me, don't get me wrong. I want you to create yourself a moral compass where it is ok to kill the ones you recognize as enemies and get used to it as it will be useful in the future."

"Still... I'm not sure if I'm capable of killing humans..." Evelyn said, looking at the ground. Laena was silent, probably steeling herself in her mind.

"Tell me young one, if someone is about to kill you will you think the same? It is kill or be killed, always remember this. Pity is for those who have the power and the stupidity to do so. Never spare someone as he would stab you in the back. But well, I diverge. Let's get that quest tomorrow shall we? " He concluded, his grin showing that he wouldn't take no as an answer.

"...Fine." Laena grunted while starting to walk toward the town.

"I guess I'll do it too if you want teacher." Evelyn followed, sighing. She didn't want to have to kill anyone but she knew the harsh reality. Getting used to it would be the only way to be efficient in crisis situation.

"Perfect." Jack laughed before following them.