Paramount Magus

I'm bored.

It's been twenty minutes since I got in this damn line, and I'm only starting to see the gates now.

Today's the only day of the year that the magus association comes to town to test people, and if you have magical talent, they'll document it and keep in touch with your progress. It's a mutual thing where one helps the other, so it's an important connection to make for young commoners aspiring to become magi.

The thing is…. I already fucking know I have potential to be a magus.

"This is bullshit".

I mumbled under my breath, only to receive an almighty punch to the back of my skull , sending me barreling to the floor.

Trying to stand up I yelled.

"OUCH ! YOU OLD-"

but I didn't get to finish my words before I was face first in the mud again.

Still face first in the lovely mud of this dirt road I heard a voice respond to my amiable words.

" You're lucky I don't hit you harder runt! Where did you even get a mouth like that, such bad manners for a boy so young."

He then lifted me up by the back of my shirt and then started blabbing on about unimportant stuff.

"You might not like it but it's important that you're publicly tested on your magus talent, even if I've already tested you Sylas."

He looked at me and sighed.

"And for Pete's sake it's only been twenty minutes what kind of aspiring magus doesn't have patience for twenty minutes."

The person berating me over and over is named Alaric, he's around thirty three years old, and he's my magical teacher. He's visiting the town for magical research on the mana mines near the town, he's a big shot from a famous magical academy located in the kingdom of Liberta.

I guess he got bored after a year or two and decided to take an apprentice, which happens to be yours truly.

Alaric is a second circle magician, which is very impressive for his young age, trust me I never hear the end of his bragging.

But he's aloud to brag, in fact he's well In his right to brag. We live in the continent of Marebore where magus reign supreme, after all you can do almost anything with Mana.

The ranks of a mage that I know of, go to one through three, each circle of magic gives you another circle that revolves around your mana heart, each circle grant's numerous benefits over the last.

Although I'm not too privy on the details of the higher ranks, what I know of, is that first circle magicians are the most numerous, it's not terribly hard to gain your first circle, after all , it's mostly just a matter of time, aslong as you have magical talent. Which most don't.

Second circle magicians are often referred to as power houses, they're very rare and not commonly found at all.

Second circle mages are often around the age of fourty or much much older but most people never reach that level.

They're so rare most people go their entire life without seeing a second circle magus, but if you do see one hopefully it's not while they fight, certain second circle spells could level cities.

As for third circle magi? Almost unheard of, all I know is that each royal family has a couple hiding to protect their kingdoms.

Any extra information is guarded pretty closely by magical academies.

The tiers of each rank are also important, Alaric told me about the tiers of each circle a while ago, it's pretty simple to remember. Once you form your circle of mana around your mana heart it'll be very dim, The process is the same for each rank, you simply have to lighten the shade of your mana circle until it's as bright as possible, going from light and dim to a more thick halo, and finally to a complete halo that'll shine brightly and spin around your mana heart.

It's often referred to as the twilight stage, the dusk stage and the radiant stage.

But I only know all this shit because of Alaric teaching me about magic, most people don't know the difference between mages or anything about it, and why would they need to? Even a first circle mage is someone to revere in a sense.

So Alaric being a second circle at the young age of thirty three? Very, very impressive, and down right questionable if he's even telling the truth about his age, after all magi's physical appearances don't chance much from whenever they reach their first circle, even the magi that live to be one hundred years old look to be only fifty.

So maybe he secretly is an old geezer?

"Yeah yeah I know, i wouldn't be this impatient if I didn't already know I had potential to become a magus already."

Alaric looked at me for a second and then nodded, then with a smirk said.

"We're almost there now, and don't worry about your boredom, me and you have a sparring session later. We'll have tons of fun."

He stated with a creepy smile, that old fuck gives me the creep sometimes.

I grimaced, and then nodded with a fake smile, he's just using "sparring" as an exuse to kick my ass, that old pervert.

I like to call him old even if it gets my ass beat, keeps him from mentioning how young and full of potential he is all the time.

Finally arriving at the gate, I went into the magus association building to complete the testing process, it went smoothly from there. I followed the guards into the main room where a table with a colourful orb on an ornate pillow sat, behind the table was a pretty young lady with silver hair, approaching the table I put my hand on the shiny looking orb that definitely doesn't look like it'll blow up any second, and then the lady stated I have potential to be a magus.

The process is pretty simple the orb inserts mana into your body and see's how it reacts, if your body has potential it'll retain a bit of the mana before spitting it back out, if it doesn't , the mana simply won't enter at all.

That's also how Alaric knew if I had potential or not to become a magus, he simply inserted a bit of mana into my body to see if it'd retain any for a moment and the rest is history, I won him over with my wonderful charm and then he gladly accepted me as a disciple.

I definitely didn't have to beg him daily for three months to take me as an apprentice before he even bothered to check my magical potential, no of course not.

But none of that's important, what's important is that today I can finally start my journey as an official magus. After all I'm now sixteen years old and I'm officially tested, not that the testing means anything.

The testing by the magic association isn't necessary by any means but it's helpful to put yourself on the magus association's radar as early as possible.

So most teachers make their disciples get tested. But you don't have a choice on what age you can start your magical journey, atleast not when your below sixteen. Your body needs to grow to a certain extent to handle the pressure of mana, especially when you first start, so all children must wait till they're sixteen years old at the minimum to start training, anytime after that is fine too of course.

So after a full year of training under Alaric which was basically a split of studying about the world and physical workouts I'm finally going to be able to start my Magus journey.

End of chapter 1