The First Mage

A few hours earlier

I’d like to say that my ideas about establishing an adventurer guild were met with furious enthusiasm. That the people in our group were raring to go, and that they carried me around on their shoulders in celebration of my brilliance, but they were surprisingly averse to my plans. Looking into the uncertain eyes of several Fighters and Worshippers as I finished my explanation, I had felt a renewed conviction that I did not possess special powers to magically control people’s minds.

I began with the concept of Fighters for hire—mercenaries so-to-speak. I then went on to include other professions and how I wanted to offer them work in a freelancing fashion on a case by case basis. People could either check in with us to get a list with the most recent requests from clients or they would hunt whatever they could and we’d take the spoils off their hands for a fixed price. This alone raised several eyebrows, just as it had with Berla.

Most people familiar with the fantasy genre in my world would’ve most likely recognized the “quest system” and accepted it as a valid approach without thinking about it too much. To our group the idea was foreign though, and the Fighters in particular found it difficult to wrap their heads around the idea that, under this system, they would be expected to travel the Wildlands and actively seek out danger. Repeating what I told Berla before helped with convincing them, but what really drove it home was the level of compensation I was planning to offer to lure people into giving it a try. That’s because it wasn’t just rivaling a guard’s salary, it was enough to easily surpass it if you were willing to accept the risks. At the very least, it would be tempting.

The next point of contention was how I was planning to get anyone to come out here to work for us, seeing how they weren’t allowed to leave the town. This would make or break the establishment of an adventurer guild in this area, but I figured it might not actually be that difficult, and if it worked here, it would work anywhere.

While Alarna was the largest town around, it was merely a participant in the local trading game. Cerus had been the big player at the center of it all, and they were also the ones giving out the local currency, Kira. What started as a socialist-esque society had evolved into a capitalistic environment over time. With both governments and citizens used to this idea, the moment you waved fresh bills in anyone’s face, they were primed to desire getting a hold of them—especially in the current climate.

There had been no trading with Cerus for two months, and even if they went there now, nobody knew what they would find. Meanwhile, prices for imported goods were rising as they became more scarce. This included not only stones, but other vital commodities as well, including herbs, leather, iron, and ink. The merchants and artisans hadn’t complained for no reason.

What would happen if you promised the citizens unprecedented amounts of money for basic tasks then? Well, honestly I had no idea, but the hope was that they would at least consider the potential opportunities. Those who still considered us the good guys would have their beliefs reaffirmed, while others might reluctantly think about whether they would work for us regardless of what they had heard. Some might even demand permission to leave the town. We would be planting the idea in their minds and let it grow as we continued with our plan. A plan that would benefit from a little scare.

The seemingly dreadful news Bren, Taul, and Grym came back with might have appeared like a problem on the surface, but in actuality, the timing was almost perfect. Cracks in the mana wall would put pressure on the Rulers, and after a month without random beast incidents, even a single, normal wolf-type beast making it through would have citizens quake in fear. An entirely new breed though? One breathing fire? You had to take only one look at the worried faces of our Fighters to get an idea for how Alarna would react to it. It was brilliant.

Not everyone was convinced entirely yet after Hayla and I hurriedly went over the basic plan, but we were able to quickly shoot down any arguments against it they came up with on the spot, and we got them to trust us for the moment.

Following this, we scrambled to get ready to take our first steps. Hayla, Aele, and Oryn began copying notices announcing the establishment of “The Guild,” while Reurig and Berla prepared to head back into Alarna again once the letters were done. The Fighters were tasked with resting and guarding our camp, while Riala, Hati, and I went to examine the wall for ourselves.

Riding on Hati’s back, it took us less than fifteen minutes to reach the wall. Hati was reluctant to enter the area, but carried us forward anyway. Coming up on one of our trees, I was able to confirm with one look that Bren’s assertion had been correct. The trees were not taking this script well.

“It’s going to break, isn’t it?” Riala asked with curiosity as I shined my lamp in the tree’s direction.

“Yea, probably. It looks just like in our first test.”

“But we can just use other trees!” she said happily.

I looked down at Riala, sitting comfortably in front of me on Hati’s back. “Technically you’re right, but you have to keep in mind that we also need the wood coming from trees. We marked a couple hundred of them all around Alarna. If they only last about a month, we’d go through thousands in a year.” In my continued effort to teach Riala critical thinking, I posed a question. “What do you think would happen then?”

“Uh... The forest would disappear?” she answered, uncertain.

“Mhm. And if there are no more trees around Alarna?”

“Hm...” She had to think for a moment about this one, but eventually got it. “Oh! There will be no more wood to build stuff with! And no more trees to script on!”

“That’s right. It would become increasingly more difficult to find trees to create a mana wall with, and Alarna would go from exporting lumber to having to import it, because they wouldn’t be able to get it themselves anymore. That’s not what we want.”

“We can’t have a mana wall then?”

“At least not in the long-term. Though we can still use it in moderation. And it could be an important bargaining chip,” I mused.

Hati’s back shivered slightly below us. Sounding distressed, he interjected, “Miles... Can we go? This is really uncomfortable.”

That was the whole point of the mana wall, and while I felt bad for him, it was also good to have a first-hand account of a beast forced to cross it.

“Ah. Yea, let’s go to the other side. Thank you for bearing it.”

Hati resumed walking while Riala seemed deep in thought, mulling over my words. “It’s good that the beasts will come back then?” she eventually asked.

“Good might be the wrong word, but it’s an opportune moment for us that we can use to our advantage. The citizens will be scared, and that will put pressure on the Rulers to hopefully give in to some of our demands more easily.”

Riala looked up at me with a frown. “Isn’t that bad?”

I chuckled despite myself. “Maybe a little. Do you know what ‘blackmail’ is?”

“Uh, uh.” She shook her head, but I could see the curiosity in her eyes flare up as she learned a new word.

“It means to threaten someone with something they don’t want to happen to get what you want. You could argue it’s a bad thing, especially because it involves innocent people in this case, but the king would never cooperate with us voluntarily at this point, no matter how good our intentions are. We have to force their hands a little. Make sense?”

“I think so,” she said with an emphatic nod.

“I’d say it would be bad if we weren’t going to protect them anyway. As it stands, it’s actually kind of an empty threat from our side. Let’s hope he doesn’t call our bluff.”

The two of us grinned at each other as the mana in the air appeared to thin, and Hati noticeably relaxed.

“Hah... Finally,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief.

I petted his side. “Good job, Hati. What was it like? Would you walk through it if you came across it randomly?”

His response was immediate and definite. “No. Never.”

Honest feedback was appreciated, and I was pleased to hear that our accidentally discovered method for repelling beasts worked so well. It was really too bad the trees seemed unable to handle the scripts indefinitely, though I wondered if it might be possible to tweak them some more. Pushing this to the back of my mind for the moment, I waved my lamp around.

“I don’t see any markings. Guess we didn’t come out at the same location as the others. Do you smell anything, Hati?”

He raised his head into the air and sniffed a few times with closed eyes. They shot back open before long and he turned to glance at me. “A lot of beasts come through here, but I can only detect one nearby—probably a wolf. It’s that way.”

He looked southwest, deciding our direction. “Alright, let’s see what we’re dealing with here.”

Hati followed the track, occasionally sniffing around us to stay on it. Now that I knew we were close to a beast, I extinguished the lamp so as to not alert them to our presence. As I did, the forest fell into almost complete darkness. The moon was usually so bright and the sky so clear that you could see relatively well even at night, but the treetops blocked the light in the middle of the woods. I trusted our companion to find his way through them though.

Moving slowly, it took us another couple minutes until I caught sight of something. “Hold,” I whispered and Hati came to a stop. Squinting my eyes, I could see something glowing a faint red between the trees far in the distance. It wasn’t just a set of eyes though, what I spotted were lines, weaving their way through the forest. “Guess that’s it.”

“Whoa, it looks pretty!” Riala exclaimed quietly.

I had to agree, it looked a little like red LED stripes floating through the air. “Hati, have you seen anything like it before?”

“No, I don’t know any beasts like that. But it does look and smell like a wolf. It hells like it too.”

“Right...” Memo to myself: Still need to come up with a better name for “hear-smelling”... “I guess it’s just a wolf with fire breath then?”

“Most likely.”

“Alright. In that case we’ll finally learn what kind of effect we have on somewhat ordinary beasts.”

While calling a wolf with a flamethrower “ordinary” might’ve been a stretch, it had been weeks since we last encountered a normal, wild beast. My last point of reference for our mana that didn’t come from members of our group had been the moderators, and our control had improved significantly since then.

We began following the beast until it was about to enter an area with fewer trees, where we could at least make out the general surroundings. I slided down Hati’s side carefully and then helped Riala down. We stuck our heads together as I quickly went over the plan.

“I want to see how it reacts to us first. I know wolves are supposedly braver than bears, but I expect that it will only fight if we drive it into a corner. Does that sound about right, Hati?”

“Well, that’s what I would do. But wild ones can be unreasonable. If it’s hungry it might try to attack regardless.”

“Hm. Oh well. As long as we stay far away enough it should be fine. We’ll approach it from three sides and leave one to the north for it to escape. Riala, suppress your mana until it notices one of us. Once it does, unleash a beast-like aura. Try to keep it below my level though.”

“Okay, I can do that!”

“Good. Other than that we’ll proceed as planned.”

Riala and Hati nodded and we headed in different directions to surround the beast. It stood smack in the middle of the small, illuminated area when its ears straightened and its head snapped up. It was looking straight at me. At that exact moment, Riala and I let our auras run wild and the beast’s eyes widened noticeably. Its glance shifted between us on either side, but it also noticed both Hati and the empty path.

What are you going to do now...

I was finally going to get some new data regarding the behavior of beasts. Ever since I let the mini bear go, I was incredibly curious how much they behaved like normal animals. I wasn’t an expert, but I did know that wolves were supposed to be timid when coming across humans. That obviously wasn’t the case for beasts, but I assumed our auras would make up the difference. And assuming that this was the same wolf the others had seen with a dead deer, it shouldn’t have been hungry either.

Given its four options, I thought it would either choose to flee in the direction of the mana wall, on the path we left open, or in Hati’s direction, as he would appear to be the weakest among us. To my surprise, it fixed its eyes on me and began growling menacingly. It seemed ready to face the strongest opponent first—a decision I didn’t quite comprehend.

I drew in a deep breath as the beast crept closer. But despite its eerie presence, I remained calm. A sense of reassurance filled me, as though I wasn’t truly in any danger.

If I feel like something is going to work out, it will. Right, Berla?

My mind wasn’t convinced of this theory yet, but I shook my head at the ridiculous notion that I should perhaps deliberately get agitated, just to appease the portion of my brain that action would make sense to.

The wolf meanwhile continued to steadily close the distance between us, but it came to a sudden stop about ten meters away. Unflinching, I awaited its next move. Noticing an orange flickering between its large teeth, I readied myself, knowing what was to come. The moment it opened its maw and I saw the flames in all their glory, I quickly side-stepped the attack to be on the safe side. At the same time I activated a water script, aimed at both the fire and the beast behind it.

Water or fire magic... Either could’ve won over the other, but in this case the fire stood no chance. It seemed to have little to no effect on my attack and was extinguished in an instant. With no other protection in place, the water stream hit the beast head-on, catapulting it backwards. The script I had used wasn’t enough to kill it, but it had taken a heavy hit and rolled over the ground with a yelp.

It staggered to its feet again right away, but the growling had stopped, and its ears were flattened against its head. I took a few steps towards it, and in response, the wolf retreated a few steps. It now seemed wary and unwilling to continue the fight. Like the mini bear before it, the wolf needed to be taught a lesson before seeing reason. However, unlike back then, we couldn’t afford to let this one go. We needed to build up resources and materials, and the sooner we got started, the better.

“Sorry,” I said under my breath as I raised my arm once more and unleashed a focused stream of water that pierced through the wolf's head, killing it instantly. The creature fell to the ground, lifeless.

As we entered the small clearing and approached the body, the glowing lines on it faded away, leaving what looked like a normal, wolf-type beast.

Riala wore a frown as she looked down at the animal. “It was scared...” she said sadly.

“Yea, but we need to hunt animals and beasts. You understand that, right?”

She nodded slowly. “Mhm...”

“And remember that you can’t hesitate. You don’t know what they will do otherwise.”

“Mhm...”

She clearly wasn’t happy about killing a beast that hadn’t done anything and was at our mercy. Neither was I, but I tried my best to project a sense of composure. Sometimes, we wouldn’t have another choice. Though I could do without the part where they became afraid of us as well.

If possible we should kill them stealthily.

With this in mind, I straightened myself and addressed Hati and Riala. “We’ll drag it behind the wall where we can get it later. Then we’ll see what else we can find around here. We’ll spend the night doing a few more experiments, hunt what we can, and then we’re going to leave a temporary hole in the wall. We need to show Alarna what’s out here. Let’s go.”

Hati and Riala nodded in agreement and we got to work. After leaving the beast behind, we ventured deeper into this yet unknown part of the world. We were somewhat heavy hearted, but a slight thrill of exploration was felt as well.