The First Archmage

(Gavin)

"What the fuck were you thinking?" Bryant almost yells when we're in my assigned quarters.

"At this time?" I ask. "Not much. No one really around my age ta have those kinds o' thoughts about."

"Dammit, Gavin!" He snaps. "This isn't funny! Do you have any idea the kind of situation you just put yourself in?"

"An amusing one," I answer. "It's my life, so screw off if ya don't like what I'm doing with it. Ya, telling them I's gots the Wizard Class might not be smart in yer eyes, but-"

"And cut the damn accent!" He snaps. "You're the only person in your entire damn village with it, so I know you don't have it! And you weren't speaking with it when we first met, too!"

"Well, boo-hoo on you!" I stick my tongue out. "Anyway, as I was saying – doing that might not be smart in your eyes, but by revealing my ace-in-the-hole, so to speak, works out for me."

"No, it doesn't," he says. "What you just did is going to cause problems. You really should have waited until you'd gotten Wizard up to the second tier, so you know what, exactly, it entails."

"Plus one to each Stat every Level," I say., "And a boost to learning and leveling all Skills, plus a boost to learning and leveling all magical Skills. If those stack on top of each other, then that's a boost of twenty percent to learning and leveling all magical Skills. The Grimoire also gives minimum Intellect amounts for learning new spells."

"What?" His face twists in confusion. "How would he know stuff like that?"

"He's got a lot more than spells and recipes in the book," I sit down at the table, pulling the Grimoire out of my pack and setting it down in front of me. "He has information on monsters, on flora, fauna, and all sorts of things. Despite what people say, he definitely had Access to the System. However, he didn't have access to the Wizard Class. He does note that, in all his searching, he believes he found a way to gain access to the Wizard Class, but he doesn't say what that way is at all. I definitely didn't want the Council or their magicians finding that out, or some of the other things in here. However, as I have a magic Class, they'd be obligated – at least publicly – allow me to keep the Grimoire which allows me to maximize my potential, which will thus keep the knowledge secret.

"Anyway," I yawn. "Let them know that I won't be eating before bed, and will just be heading straight to bed."

"Before I go," he still looks angry, but seems to be understanding, now. "Why did you put on a fake accent? No one at the village commented about it, or even hinted it was false, but I found it hard to believe that you really spoke like that."

"They were used to me speaking like that to outsiders," I tuck the Grimoire back into my bag. "Which is probably why they didn't hint that it was fake. And I do it because of shock factor."

"Shock factor?"

"Did you see the looks on their faces when they realized the kid who spoke like an idiot was pretty intelligent?" I ask. "Because the looks on their faces were really damn amusing."

"You know that you may lose the Grimoire during the night, right?" He asks.

"You do realize," I say. "That had you opened it when you were looking at it, the Tristan wrote an introduction, and had you read it, you'd know that the tome can only be passed willingly from person to person – never stolen. It also protects the vessel that carries it from theft and nicking, so no one will be able to just take my bag, or even open it and take stuff from within. He's a powerful magician who knows powerful enchantments, and he's still out there, somewhere, looking for a way to gain access to the Wizard Class."

"Do you know why you do?" He asks as I make my way over to the bed, dropping the bag down by it.

"No," I slip out of my boots and belt, then climb up onto the bed. "Just that when I gained Access, the Class was there for me. Now shoo – I've had a long couple of days and just went through a very intimidating experience. I need my sleep."

Bryant leaves my room, and I blow out the candle on the nightstand. As soon as I do, all the lights in the room turn off.

Magic is a wonderful thing, indeed.

Within moments, I'm asleep, and when I wake, sun is shining through the windows. Standing, I stretch, pull on my boots and belt, then look at the platter of fruits and bread on the table. Breakfast here sure is different than breakfast back home.

I sit down and eat what's on the platter, and as I'm finishing, there's a knock on the door.

"Welcome!" I call, and after a few moments, the door opens, a servant – I think he's a servant, anyway – pokes his head in. "Hows can I help ya?"

"I have been asked," the servant gives me a slight bow. "To escort you to the Wizards' Tower to begin your magical training, once you've finished your breakfast, of course."

"Looks like I's done," I gesture to the tray, then rise and grab my bag. "Lead the way."

He nods, then leads me through the halls of the castle, until we have left the castle grounds through the front gate. Another half-hour of walking later, and we've arrived at a tall tower surrounded by fields, with a sort of wall surrounding that.

"Here we are," the servant walks through the open gates, and I follow him. "This is the Royal Wizards' Tower, where magicians come to train their craft. We'll be looking for Natalie – she'll be the one training you, I think. Well, she's the one what told me to bring you here, said it was king's orders for you to come here and train. Odd, if you asked me – why train an Adventurer in magic? Especially a brand-new one. Doesn't make sense, to me."

"Unlike other Adventurers," I explain. "I's given the option o' the Wizard Class, and I took it, 'cause who knows when I'd be able ta take it on again, and better ta get a start on it now than wait and find that I should've done it first."

"Seriously?" He asks.

"Ya."

"That's cool!" He grins at me. "I was asked to escort the first Wizard Class Adventurer!"

He starts walking with a skip in his step, and I have to speed up just a little to keep up with his excitement. After a few minutes, we arrive in a study filled with tomes and scrolls and charms and stuff, but there's no one in it. He thinks for a moment, then leads me to another study, which looks pretty similar, and just as cluttered, but also as empty. The third study has a woman in her forties in it.

Seeing someone that old is pretty rare in outlying villages like mine, but I guess in a city, they might be able to live a little bit longer, especially if they know magic.

"Oh," the boy looks disappointed.

"What is it, Kade?" She asks.

"I'm supposed to be bringing him," he jerks a thumb in my direction. "To Miss Natalie. He's the Adventurer what got the Wizard Class."

"Hello, Gavin," the old woman greets me, then looks at Kade. "Natalie's waiting up in one of the advanced training rooms for the two of you."

"Thanks!" Kade says.

"Good luck, Gavin," the old woman dips her head to me. "It's going to be a long adventure for you, becoming an Adventurer so young, and having that Class."

I dip my head to her, then follow Kade up the tower. He pokes his head into several training rooms, which are mostly just big rooms with a few training dummies and stuff in them, though as we go up, I start to sense something different about the rooms.

+1 PER!

As we go through the rooms, I begin to focus on that feeling, and notice that it's all around me, but stronger in the training rooms we're looking at.

"Why do we need to have thirty advanced rooms?" Kade mutters to himself as he checks yet another training room. "Half of 'em are never even get used."

It's magic I'm sensing, I realize. Just barely, though.

Skill Gained!

Magic Sense 1/10: You have the power to sense the presence of magic. As this skill grows, so too will the strength of your sense, and the distance in which you can sense it.

As soon as I gain that Skill, the sense becomes a little bit sharper, and I can sense the magic just a tad bit better.

I continue to focus on sensing magic as we walk, and by the time we stop for a moment, it's at Level 2.

"We've looked in all the advanced training rooms!" Kade grumbles to himself, then starts walking up the stairs. "I bet she decided to upgrade to the elite rooms. I mean – a Wizard Class? Never know what is going to happen with magicians, so you never know how powerful the Class would make you until we try it out, right? Of course, it's just like a magician to forget to actually tell the person guiding someone to them where to meet them. We magicians are forgetful in that way, you know."

Really? I wonder if it's an inherent trait in magicians, and if so, if I'll acquire it at some point.

Is talking to yourself also a trait of magicians? Because I generally don't do that.

Not out loud, anyway. People generally look at you like you're crazy when you do that, sort of like what I'm doing to him right now.

A few more rooms – with a stronger magical touch to them than the previous ones – later (and another Magic Sense level later), Kade lets out a breath in relief.

"It's about damn time," he mutters.

This room looks like the others, and has the same sense of magic as the other elite training rooms, but it also has a woman firing several magical bolts at a target, obliterating it. After several seconds, the target reforms.

The woman is around twenty, probably, and has long, brown hair tied into a tight braid that reaches almost down to her hips, brown eyes that almost glow with magic, and fine clothes on. My Magic Sense tells me she's got a lot of magic. Far more than the rooms and Kade.

"Hm," she says. "Perhaps if I tried that instead?"

Yeah… it's probably a magician's thing. I wonder how long it'll take me to start talking to myself.

Kade coughs into a fist, and Natalie looks at us, about to ask a question, then rests her eyes on me.

"OH MY GOODNESS!" She exclaims. "YOU'RE SO ADORABLE!"

"Should've warned you!" Kade exclaims as she runs over to me and picks me up in a hug. "Miss Natalie! You're squishing him!"

"I'm so sorry," Natalie sets me down. "We don't see many fair-haired in these regions, you know. And I was told you're thirteen, but you're a little on the small side, and village life shows on your frame, and are you wearing the same clothes as yesterday? That won't do, and nor will they. Kade – take him into town and get him some new clothes. A whole new wardrobe. Oh – and his room's the one next to yours. Do you have more things than what you have with you, Gavin? If so, I'll have another one of the apprentices go and bring them to your room. You'll be staying here until you're good enough to stand on your own two feet.

"Here," she pulls five silver coins out of her pocket, and I feel my eyes widen as I see them. She hands them to Kade. "Talk to our usual tailor. That should be enough for ten outfits for him. Just have one made up now, and the rest can be delivered later. Oh, and you'll need something to eat while you're out, too," she hands him another silver. "There you go! Just bring me whatever change is left when you're done! Now out with you two – I don't want to see you back until Gavin's dressed in better clothes!"

Silver coins…

Worth a hundred copper apiece, we don't really see them in our village. We don't really see currency much in our village, because we generally create everything we need, and share it with each other. One hundred copper to a silver, one hundred silver to a gold, one hundred gold to a platinum.

From what I do know, most common people deal in copper coins, with silver usually only used when there's something more expensive, like the tax on their property, or something.

For her to just give them to him…

How wealthy is she? Kade doesn't even looked fazed by the money. Is he wealthy, too?

I guess I should get used to it – as an Adventurer, I'll probably become really wealthy, since I can take on jobs most normal mercenaries can't, and I won't be running around, doing things for the king all the time, now will I?