Vrrrrrrrrrrr, the crystal sounded then suddenly stopped. Nothing had happened. "Wait, wasn't something supposed to happen?" Arnos bit his lip and said. The instructor looked at Arnos in disbelief, 'Never in my life time have I seen such a low magic affinity.' The instructor thought, he then nodded to himself and spoke, "I'm afraid you do not have enough magic affinity, in fact you hardly have any at all!" "Such a disappointment." He murmured.
Arnos was just as shocked. He couldn't believe he was this useless, even though he couldn't be a knight. He thought he had a chance, this was his last hope.
Arnos left broken, he felt like a complete let down. He was going to melt down. Sigh, "I guess some people just aren't lucky enough. This is a harsh world, should I tell my parents? Oh wait I don't have any." He chuckled to himself. Every time he felt down he would make a joke about his parents who abandoned him and his brother years ago.
Arnos decided to head to the bar.
Creeeaaaakkkk, the door opened. The chattering stopped and everyone stared at the newcomer. They thought nothing and continued with their chattering. "It's tough, you know Uncle John. Age 17, can't even drink alcohol yet but is such an utter failure."
"Sigh, boy you know you can always get a job here. Would you like some more ale?"
"No thanks, no offense it kinda taste funny."
Arnos suddenly felt the air around him grow cold. A hand was placed on his shoulder.
"Hey, Arnos you need to come with me. Stop running around every where I keep losing you." An unfamiliar voice spoke like he was Arnos's friend.
"Sorry Sir, I don't kn-" Arnos had turned around to face the man but instead looked at his chest. He looked up and saw 2 golden eyes that seemed to tell him to play along.
Gulp, "Alright Uncle John I gotta go, thanks for the free ale."
Uncle John was about to reply when Arnos was already out of sight. Sigh, 'That kid is too sneaky.' He smiled
Outside, "Do I know you? What do you need?" Even though Arnos was not that intelligent he was smart enough to tell a sketchy guy from a non sketchy guy.
"Look Arnos I'm gonna be straight forward here. I'm looking for an apprentice and I see potential in you. I'm going to ask you once if you want to become my apprentice or not. If you want to, meet me near the tall hill, tomorrow at Dawn, 6:00am with packed up stuff because we'll be going some where. If not I'll just find someone else."
"But how do you know my name? Also you're still pretty sketchy. If you're really a Master at whatever you do, where's your token? Also can you at least show me your face?" The man shook his head at the amount of questions being fired at him.
He pulled off his hood. A man with a sharp jaw, cleanly shaved face and flowing black hair stared at him. Over all he was a handsome man except for the fact that his eyes were gold and seemed to stare intently into your soul.
"Uhh I still don't know, like you're pretty sketchy still if you know what I mean. You also didn't answer my first question?" Arnos looked around to see the man but he had long disappeared. He was confused but thought nothing about it. He started heading back to his room at the inn. On the way back he thought about it. He realized if he joined he might still have a chance to prove himself. Although he did not know much about the man. Even if the man was a bit intimidating. He could see there was warmth hidden deep in his eyes, when he spoke.
Finally he arrived home, he unlocked the door and walked in, had a quick bath got dressed and fell on his bed. He couldn't help but rethink what the man had said. He thought and thought until he fell into a heavy sleep.
Yawnnnn, Arnos woke up, checked the time and got dressed. He brushed his teeth and got all his belongings packed. He decided to return the key to the kind inn lady and ran off. 'This time I won't trip!' He leaped over the wall just right and landed perfectly. A man in the distance smiled at the boy's recklessness. He took a few short cuts and arrived at the hill. "Ha, ha." He panted. "I'm here."
"I see that, I'm glad you decided to come. You made the right choice, now my name is Shameth Romeus. You will be addressing me as Master Romeus. Now let's head to my nearby cabin, where I shall tell you about my mastery."
Master Romeus was quite fast and Arnos had trouble keeping up. He didn't know Master Romeus was only using half of his speed. The sun was setting soon and they weren't there yet. "I never knew you were this unfit."
"I'm not unfit! I'm, pant, just not as fast as you!" Arnos tried to argue but knew he was right.
"Anyhow let's set up a camp."
"What? How? I didn't bring anything like that and you have nothing on you right now."
Master Romeus just calmly pulled out a small pouch connected to what seemed like his belt. He pulled out a few items, what mostly seemed like camp stuff and some raw meat. There was also 2 chairs which he guessed were for both of them. Arnos was amazed, he was sure not even a top level mage could fit so much stuff in a tiny pouch. He set up the tents and everything quick, so quick it was like not humanly possible. Master Romeus laughed at his student's expression.
"Sit down, sit down let me explain everything." Arnos sat down and listened intently to Master Romeus, while some raw meat cooked on the fire, turns out the meat was raw Sungun Boar meat.
"So as you know my name is Shameth Romeus. I'm not married and I live alone. I've been searching for a suitable apprentice for awhile now. You may be confused at how I took those stuff out. You see, that is what you call a void pouch. You can fit many things in here. That can size up to a truck. But there are different types, some hold up to 50 things, 100, 200, 300 and so on. The biggest would be 500. Which is the max. These void pouches are expensive. There is also a void ring but it holds much less, it ranges from 50-200 things. Now you must be wondering how I know your name. I was watching the entire time you were trying to become a knight and a mage."
"WHAT! Wait, so you saw me do those embarrassing things? Wait but I didn't see you?" Although Arnos had tried not to interrupt, he had just interrupted his Master.
"Exactly that's part of my mastery. Any how so I saw you and saw potential in you now, my mastery is called the Silent Walker. Now a days people have long forgotten about the Silent Walkers, sadly." Master Romeus said almost to a whisper. "A perk of being a Silent Walker is, you can be silent, deadly and quick at the same time. You see me?"
"Yeah, yeah I- Huh?! Where'd you go?" Arnos exclaimed and was replied with a cold metal pierced against his neck, he shivered.
"See, that's one of the many things a Silent Walker can do."
"Wow, that was amazing, when can I learn that?"
"Now, don't get too ahead of yourself, you should take a bite of the boar by the way. It's quite good."
'Wait, when did he get a piece of boar?'
"To be able to know the beginning skills of Silent Walkers, you must first be able to be agile and have a lot of stamina. And... Well I don't think you have that."
"Hmph," Arnos replies.
Master Romeus ignored the remark and continued, "We must first train your body, you are quite skinny. You don't have much muscle, one of the reasons why you can't be a knight, sadly. You seem like the perfect height, 1.76m. Because being too tall is not the best, being shorter is greater as a Silent Walker but sometimes if you're too short, going against big guys, even if you're fast. It wouldn't matter if you couldn't even damage your opponent. So, we will train your body and make sure you can have higher agility. At least 50% of my original speed. That's about all you need to know for now. Oh, did I mention there's a certain weapon we use. You don't need to know for now but maybe later. It's getting late and I want us to be at the cabin by tomorrow so go to sleep now."
"Oh, alright, ummm thanks Master Romeus for giving me another chance to prove myself."
"Just go to sleep."
Arnos smiled and said good night even though Master Romeus did not say it back. He was happy, happy he gets a chance. He was very excited for their days to come. Master Romeus sat alone by the fire. He was glad he got to help him. He had seen Arnos for awhile now and he knows Arnos hardly has anyone. He's glad that he accepted being his apprentice. And maybe for once in a lifetime, Shameth Romeus smiled with his teeth out.