"How dare-"
"I think those are splendid names. How about White Bun?" Alphar threw a sunny smile looking at the fox who whimpered and lowered his head. I nodded my head at his suggestion, not seeing the glint in his eyes as he stared at White Bun.
"White Bun is a splendid name, Miss," White Bun gulped and nodded.
"How do I make this contract?"
"You just have to draw a special magic circle then once the magic beast is standing inside it you both make a vow," Alphar said.
"A vow?"
"Yeah, it's a vow that seals the beast and master together each other, then once the vows are made, a mark appears on both beast and master," He answered.
"Can I try it now?"
"Well...maybe not," He scratched the back of his head, I tilted my head in confusion "You see although the fox is a baby right now it's a Legendary level magic beast, though right now it only Intermediate,"
"Legendary?"
"You don't even know this? All magic beasts, plants, potions, weapons and armour go by the same levelling system. First, there is the Beginner with little to none magic power that goes from level one to five, then Intermediate level one to five, Ultra level one to five, Supreme level one to five, Legendary with level one to ten, Saint-level one to ten and finally Godly level one to ten, though as far as I know there has been no record of a Saint-level," He explained.
"So what your saying is I'm too weak right now to make a contract with it?"
"It's best not to try yet is all I'm saying," I clenched my fist in anger and chomped down on my lip "There's also a levelling system for the different classes, First Beginner, Intermediate, Master, Grand Master, Saint Master. Grand Master and Saint Mater have levels one to ten and the rest have levels one to five. For the last known level, they have special names for each class,"
"What are they?"
"For a mage, it's a Wizard, an Elementist is a Spiritualist, an Enchanter is a Chanto, a Tamer is a Tamika, a swordsman is a Sword King or Queen, an Assassin is a Shadow Master, an Archer is an Archia and finally a healer is a Saintess or Saint," He finished explaining. While he was explaining I came to a silent solution to resolve my problems.
"Alphar, I think I'll be heading out soon,"
"Hunting?"
"No, for good, I'm gonna head to Falcosia to get some directions to Aurora,"
"Why?"
"I wanna enroll in their magic school Auru,"
"I'll go!!" He jumped up and grasped my hands in his, his yellow eyes sparkling, contrasting against the fiery red draped over his body.
A red hue fluttered across my face, I pushed him back putting distance between us. Even after this long, I couldn't get used to his touchiness. "No, you should just stay here,"
"But why?"
"I...I...It's just that it's time for us to part, thank you for everything," His eyes dimmed, and his shoulders slumped down in sadness. If he had dog ears, they would have flopped down immediately.
"I'll miss you," he looked up, catching my gaze and holding me there, staring into them with utmost seriousness.
"..." I didn't respond and dropped my eyes to the leaf with a piece of meat. "I'll head out in about four months" I continued my words before Alphar said anything "Goodnight, Alphar and White bun," I waved them goodnight and climbed onto the stone rock, pulling the thin sheet over me.
"Goodnight, Indigo," He replied in a strained voice.
-------
Like a blur four months went by after a few weeks my wound fully healed and I resumed my training, alternating between blood manipulation training, light and dark magic training and scythe and general training and the day of my departure quickly came. I set off early in the morning for Falcosia, map in hand, with White Bun perched on my shoulder. My clothes were tattered from constant use and holes from my fight with White Bun. I filled the holes with animal hide, which was sloppily stitched on.
"White Bun, you still have your money in that cave, right?" I looked down at him and asked.
"Absolutely not! You're not getting it!" Its eyes snapped open, his amethyst eyes behind gleaming.
"Don't be stingy,"
"No!"
"I'll make you walk the entire-"
"Okay fine!" It cut off my words and relented. I grinned, changing directions before walking into the cave. Memories of that day flooding my brain, I shoved a few coins into my pouch and got up to leave, but out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of twinkling purple light.
"What's that?"
'It's a magic stone, it's the lightning element,' Al replied
"Wait, so that means?"
'You can,' I didn't need to finish my sentence for him to know what he meant. I bent over and grasped it in my hand, shoving it in my pouch.
"That's mine!" White Bun protested, looping through my legs, tiny sparks of lightning flying from his mouth.
"I'm your master, what's yours is mine," I walked out the cave ignoring his protests. There were no casualties on our trip, and in a few days, we arrived in a wide valley. The hot thin air crashed into my face along with the dust blowing from the barren valley with no trees growing for miles. Sandy mounds across the sandy fields forming a wide passage in the centre. Tumbleweeds crashed down the enormous path and small sprouts peeked through the brown ground. As I neared the city, the air only seemed to grow hotter and hotter stealing the air from my lungs.
I reached an enormous gate connected to short grey walls with visible cracks crisscrossing the entire wall along with gaping holes. It was a miracle it was still standing. I walked up to two men who seemed to be the guardsmen.
Boisterous laughter erupted from their guts, their faces bright red as they both swung two bottles of alcohol around as they joked with one another, not noticing me who had come and stood before them.
I cleared my throat trying to gain their attention, but they continued laughing and talking or rather yelling to each other.
"Excuse me, sirs," I waved to them
"AHAHAH!!" They ignored me again
"Excuse me, sirs!" I raised my voice.
"AHAHA!!" one man slapped the other on the back while the other laughed.
"EXCUSE ME, SIRS!!" I yelled. Two heads snapped towards me with confusion. "I want to enter the city,"
"Just you?" One man asked while chugging the rest of the alcohol in his bottle...
"Yes,"
"Hahaha, Good luck, don't die," He waved me in, opening the door with an ear-piercing screech. I walked in and overheard their words. "Wonder how long it'll take before she's torn apart in there?"
"Let's bet on it!" The other replied.
"A week,"
"Hahaha, that alcohol turned you dumb! I say three days," They both laughed.