54. Rank...

'A cripple? Damn my luck.' Sylvester cursed silently. Ever since he was born, the only good thing that happened was that he had a very high talent. Other than that, there had been no easy games for him. Being bullied by a mentor, almost dying to a dark creature in a cave, heck, he was even almost burnt in the first month of his life.

"Should I go to him to learn after school is over?" Sylvester asked.

"That depends on what profession you take as that will define your ability to travel. You could become an administration worker who works from the Holy Land. You can become a traveling preacher. You can become an administration worker who manages the areas outside the Holy Land. You can also become an inquisitor, Holy man of arms, or a Holy Inspector, who investigates crimes against the faith or a clergyman across the Continent."

Sylvester fell into thought, wondering which path to take. Clearly, he can never amass great wealth and spend it as long as he lived in the Holy Land. So going out was always his plan, but what else could he do? Inquisitors were great but would need him to stay with the army. The Holy Army was the same.

'I should carefully examine all these professions and decide by the end of the eighth year.'

"Thank you, Headmaster. I will think about what profession to take. And… May I send Viscount Harmond a letter? I will try to invite him. If he can't come, I will ask permission to learn from him in the future." He inquired, wishing to write a letter to entice the man, after all, who does not want to be his mentor.

"You can, and I will send you the address of the Viscount by my assistant."

Sylvester decided to leave, as the time to train with Sir Dolorem was coming. And he reckoned the Headmaster must be an extremely busy man, as even meeting him was so hard. "Thank you, Headmaster. I will take my leave now."

With that, he left the sizeable unusual office of the man on the verge of becoming a Grand Wizard. Sylvester couldn't help but sometimes awe at the pure destruction these old men can cause, but the only thing holding them back is that there is always someone with a bigger stick.

But that made him think about the Pope, the man supposedly the strongest on the Continent. 'Who is he afraid of?'

Sylvester then headed to meet Sir Dolorem and get his spear training done. The location they had decided was not the Inquisitor Camp. Instead, it was the terrace of the Bright Mother's building, the good old place where it all started.

"First, memorize the movements necessary for wielding the spear. The last mistake you want to make in a battle is to hit yourself mistakenly. Remember, a spear is different from a sword, for its length can be your boon and bane.

"Just like how you practice chopping the air to make your muscles remember the movement while learning sword arts, you need to do the same with the spear. But instead of chopping, you must learn how to spin the spear in your hands. Once you master that, your body shall automatically know how to move it." Sir Dolorem gave his initial instructions and showed an example using a simple spear.

Even Sylvester had a simple spear, as he felt the Spear of Infinity was too precious to be kept outside when he couldn't even wield it.

'This is going to be easy, I don't know how to use spears, but I did learn how to use a fighting stick.' He thought and carefully tried to spin the spear over his head.

The twin moons were already shining in the sky, uninterrupted by any clouds, as the season of Solis usually has clean skies for two months.

There was enough light for the mentor and student to train. There was a strange relationship between them, where Sir Dolorem was officially a servant of Sylvester. Instead, he considered himself the guardian, wishing to see the boy reach great heights.

For Sylvester, Sir Dolorem was a respectful man he could somewhat trust. But it was clear that he would never trust anyone completely, maybe Xavia, because the woman was his mother. But even then, some little traces of doubts always lingered since she had not revealed his ancestry yet.

He kept repeating one motion, again and again, spinning the spear over his head, on the sides, and the back with his hands. It was like boxing, where you teach your body to move, so the reactions appear natural. This was the same.

But his advantage was that he didn't need to train his mind this time. Thankfully, he did not forget the past experiences.

After an hour of basic first-day training, Sylvester returned home as Miraj had come to inform him that the food was ready.

As soon as he entered, his nose moved like Miraj's. The aroma of sweetness from the newly baked honey bread was exhilarating. He did not know why, but in this life, he just loved honey for some reason.

"I will help." He quickly helped Xavia to lay the table.

She chuckled, seeing him zoom past. "Hehe, now you help your mother. Oh well, it seems that God's Favored has been corrupted by honey."

Sylvester briefly laughed in response. "It was you who let me taste it at the mere age of seven days. So, mum, I'd say you're equally responsible."

Xavia sighed while putting food on his plate. "You truly have one good head and mouth; always have something to argue with."

"They do call me the bard." He chirped and started eating. Of course, giving secret food to Miraj at the same time as he sat on his lap with dreamy eyes.

With Baked Honey bread, they ate a kind of milk dish, cooked with rice and some flavorful spices such as cardamom and sugar. It was a simple yet tasty dish to eat. One may call it poor people's food, but Sylvester immensely enjoyed it.

"Mum, let's go to Pilgrim's Festival tomorrow. It's the last day of the Season of Solis, and we only have classes for half of the day. We should buy ourselves some items to decorate this little home." He suggested as he had noticed their two-bedroom home looked a bit too empty. Other than the beds and one dining table, they had nothing else. Even his cradle was given away to the poor.

Xavia quickly agreed, wishing to spend quality time with her dear son. "Let's do it then. I will ask for some time from the healer's sick bay. I do wish to buy some kitchen utensils now. The old ones are mostly broken."

"Let's get the steel ones," Sylvester suggested.

However, Xavia looked at him with doubt and disappointment. "Sweetie, you need to be more careful with your money. Poor folks use clay pots. We can't afford the mighty steel just to cook and eat."

'Ah, I forgot we were officially poor.' He remembered and nodded. "But mum, we have the money now. Also, steel utensils last long, years, actually. In contrast, the clay ones can break at any time. So let's try to find them at a good price tomorrow first."

"That we can do, but no promises."

With agreement reached, they ate dinner heartily until they could no longer.

That evening, Sylvester went to his room and lit up a light stone to read and write. He wrote some vague goals he needed to reach, and good thing he knew Russian, so he used that language as his secret code. He could have used English, but sadly it had too many similarities with the language of the Sol Continent he lived in.

'Hmm, I have written some good hymns, but they feel lacking in charm. Maybe I should try to make a violin? That's all I know how to play… but making it will be tough as finding the right wood, angles, and other details take time.'

But he reckoned it could be an excellent hobby for the coming years, as he'd have less to do due to living in the safety of the Holy Land.

…

In the coming few days, nothing eventful occurred. No mentor at the school found problems with him, so Sylvester mainly focused on his studies, training, and brainwashing Romel.

To have the Crown Prince of a nation as his personal mindless slave was a boon in many ways. He only had to keep the facade of friendship going.

As on any ordinary day, he arrived at the classroom and found there were fewer Deacons now than yesterday. He sighed as he knew the reason very well.

"More gone?" He remarked as he took his seat in the middle of Felix and Gabriel, as he was the de-facto leader of the little group, the brains behind them.

"One of them was leaving but prompted a chain reaction, and three more left. So now there are only 11 Deacons left. But it's good because now only the strong ones are left in the class, those who can keep up with the studies." Markus commented.

Sylvester looked around. The boys with high talents were still there, proving that they would not be disqualified no matter what, as anyone with a chance of becoming a Grand Wizard is a blessing to the Church's future.

'I need to start focusing on leveling up. I've been stuck at Adept rank's level five for a while now. Just a little more, and I can become a Master Wizard.' Sylvester thought and couldn't help but feel enthusiastic because ranking up meant getting stronger.

"What mission did you take for this year's quest?" Gabriel inquired.

Sylvester was not acting dumb as he did in the last quest. He just took the job with the highest reward before, but now he read the quest details and tried to gauge its difficulty with the amount of money offered.

He didn't even look at jobs that were about exorcizing. Instead, he chose jobs that required helping villages with their drought, rain, or construction. He took some hunting jobs, too, as wild animals, even as big as giant bears, were manageable.

"I took the job of helping the construction of a new monastery and village in the new settlement near the coast of Gracia Kingdom. I will go there and sing some hymns and get all the needed admiration from people."

However, the job was not as easy as it sounded because the village once used to be a bustling town but was burned down in the thousand-year war. So now the lands were purified, and the foundation for the new monastery had been laid so a new village could be started. But they needed more help, hence the quest.

Sylvester had reasoned that there was no point in risking life. Instead, his goal was to pass all the tests with the least amount of effort.

"That's great," said Gabriel. "I'm going to a large farm to milk some cows. They are having a lot of manpower shortages these days to tame their animals."

"My brother set up a job for me that I took. It's to go home, spar with other young kids, and teach them." Felix added, making everyone envious because Felix would most likely enjoy his days as if holidays.

"I envy you so much, my fat lordship." Markus barked. "Here, I'm stuck with the job of working in a bakery in Green City as an additional hand. They need someone who can use magic."

'Great, all of them have taken easy jobs this time. There should not be any danger to their lives." Sylvester muttered, appreciating that everyone had learned their lesson. Even the school had learned their lesson this time. So they allowed them to choose their quests before the year-end exams.

"Let's head to the arena today to spar and prepare for the upcoming tests," Sylvester suggested.

"Great, let's go." They all agreed in an instant.

"Stay seated. I will start the class quickly. Today, you will learn about the exorcism trap seal used to trap the evil creature." Just then, the exorcism mentor entered, wearing his iconic dark hood, looking so pale that everyone wondered if he even had blood in his body.

Nothing was boring in most classes, and Sylvester enjoyed it all. So before he even knew it, the class was over, and he was standing with the boys in the arena, ready to send out magic. They had done this many times and were masters in managing to coordinate their fight now.

"Rules are the same, no harmful spell, use of arms and legs is permitted. Felix, you can't use physical weapons, both of us banned from Knight's spars, Sir Baldfreak wants us to first grow, and no kicking in the family jewels," Sylvester repeated the rules.

"Haha, it seems you have not forgotten the—mishap." Felix mockingly chuckled as he was the one who hit Sylvester there 'mistakenly'.

"Let's go!"

In an instant, everyone used their mastery to start a four-way fight. Felix used his fire to create a semi-ring around his back and focused on Sylvester and Gabriel at his front. Being proficient in Earth and Air as well, he first made the chunks of Earth float above and then sent them as projectiles toward Sylvester and Gabriel.

Bam!—Sylvester blocked with a light shield and sent out a little tornado of air towards Gabriel. The religious boy was thrown into the air and spun around crazily while screaming.

Sylvester used his greater experience to overcome problems. They were not fighting one person at a time, but each member simultaneously, but the boys seemed to forget that every time.

Sylvester used hardened light magic to make a staircase to gain some height and attack Felix, who stood behind a wall of fire.

But he first focused on Markus since he was completely distracted by Felix.

Steamscreen!—Using this move, he created a large field of steam with fire and water from runes. The steam instantly covered everything, letting Sylvester crawl to Markus.

BAM!—He spun his kick low and made Markus drop. Then without stopping, he jumped on Markus and tapped on the boy's neck, signifying the latter would have died by now if it was a real fight.

"Haha, you can't win, Felix." Sylvester taunted.

Felix started to use the fire to throw out fireballs at Sylvester. But Sylvester merely made himself a light magic cocoon that covered him from all around. It was small and good enough to handle Felix's strikes.

Then he walked straight into the fire around Felix and reached him.

PA!—He smacked Felix on the head, showing he won once again.

"You three lack creativity. Gabriel was so easy to deal with. He was not even seeing me. Markus was unaware of his surroundings and forgot his fight was not just with Felix. And Felix, you trapped yourself in your ring of fire as you don't have a water element."

"Yeah, I understood that but a bit too late." Felix embarrassingly accepted his fault.

Sylvester was not done. "You still could have stopped the fire by using the air element to create a negative pressure on the fire."

"Wait!" However, Felix constantly stared at Sylvester's rank plate, not listening to anything. "Why is this blinking?"

Sylvester quickly looked down only to notice his Rank Plate pulsating in a warm golden light. The slates of Adept Wizard rank had disappeared too, and now there was nothing.

He instantly felt warmth rising in his body, his breath started to get faster, and his face turned red. But even with all that, he couldn't help but feel—excited!

"Am I… about to…?