At first light the next morning, while I was still busy reading about lightning, Ai's voice sounded in my mind.
[I think that you should know that is already morning of the second day.]
I opened my eyes and looked out the window only to see the world slowly brightening. Startled by the fact that I lost myself in studying the whole night, I rushed to the market and bought a new set of clothes, before running outside of town, towards a small creek that passes through the forest. After taking a bath in the river, I changed into the new set of clothes and threw the old ones away before jumping onto Zephyrs back and going towards the academy.
As soon the sun completely rose over the horizon, I arrived at the gates of the academy. I told the guards the purpose of my visit and walked through the academy grounds towards Anise's quarters. I was about to enter the dormitory when I spotted her walking out. She was wearing a black top paired with a white knee length skirt. Used to usually see her in formal clothes or the academy uniform, I was stunned for a moment. She smiled at me and said:
"I wanted to meet you at the gate but you arrived faster than I thought. Good morning, Ethan."
"Erm.. Good morning, Anise." I replied as she grabbed my arm and we both started walking towards the gate.
"Should we ask if any carriage will take us to the city?" she asked out of the blue.
I finally remembered that I forgot about hiring a carriage. I was about to agree when an idea popped into my head and said with a smile: "No need. I want to show you something."
"Okay." She agreed and we exited the academy and started walking on the road in the direction of the city. Anise looked at me weirdly for a moment before she asked: "Do you want to walk the entire way?"
"Hehe, no. Just a bit further to get out of the sight of the people at the gate." It was obvious she was curious about what I planned but she didn't ask and followed after me.
After walking a bit further, I suddenly stopped and turned towards her: "I will need you to keep what you'll see next a secret."
She nodded and said: "No problem, just show me." Seeing her impatient expression, I smiled and used silent casting to summon Zephyr.
Her mouth opened in amazement and just looked at me with a stunned expression for a while. I chuckled at her comic expression and climbed on Zephyr before extending my hand: "Are you coming or just planning to stay there like that?"
She blushed at my words and climbed in front of me. Sitting on Zephyr, she slowly caressed it's head and said in amazement:
"This is incredible, I can feel the presence of wind and darkness magic." She then turned towards me, our faces being less than ten centimeters away from each other and asked: "Was that silent casting? How did you do it?"
I nodded my head, ignoring the fact that she was so close I could feel her breath on my face, and said: "Yes, after looking through some books on magic from this world I noticed that there was not that big of a difference between magic and science and kept experimenting until I succeeded."
She turned towards the front again and touched the horse again before saying: "It's incredible, your knowledge could bring back the Age of Wizards."
"Age of the Wizards?" I asked in confusion.
"Let's go to the city and grab something to eat and I'll explain there. I'm a bit hungry."
I nodded and told her to hold tight before rushing at full speed towards the city. She laid her back on my chest and said in my ear: "This looks like Zephyr but is a bit slower. Do you know the spell?"
"This is a modified version of the Zephyr spell. I used darkness to create the body and reduce it's mana consumption. It's a bit slower but I can keep it active for the entire day without problems."
"Amazing. A bit more than one week and you are already better at using magic than me."
"Well, it's the knowledge from my world so I can't take credit for that."
She let out a sigh and didn't say anything else. We continued the rest of the journey in silence. After reaching close to the gate of Cloven City, we both jumped down and I canceled the spell. As we walked in and searched for a place to eat she said:
"How many spells can you cast using silent casting?"
"Only Zephyr and another spell that lets me see in the dark. I'm now working on an offensive spell."
"I know a few fire spells. If you want I can show them to you."
"Thanks, but I had something else in mind."
She looked at me with a questioning look, prompting me to explain:
"A lightning spell."
She stopped on the spot and asked in a hesitant tone: "But, you can't change mana into lightning, can you?"
I lifted my hand in a discrete manner, so people around would not notice, and small arcs of electricity started appearing between my fingers. With an amazed expression, she reached out to touch them, prompting me to cancel the spell.
When I saw her looking at me with a wronged expression, I said to her: "Do you really think touching lighting is a good idea?"
"Oh, I was so fascinated that I forgot about that. Sorry."
"No problem. Nothing would have happened to you, but getting electrocuted is not a pleasant sensation."
As we were talking, we finally arrived at a big restaurant on the main street and paused our discussion. A petite waitress walked up to us as soon as we entered and asked:
"Sir, Miss, do you have a reservation?"
I passed by this restaurant a couple of times, but I never entered and had no idea I needed a reservation. Seeing my expression, Anise laughed and said:
"No, we don't. Are there any free tables?"
"There are but you will have to pay more to get a table if you don't make a reservation beforehand."
"No problem. Can you give us the best table you have available." I replied as soon as I heard the waitress's words.
"Yes, sir." She replied as she lead us to the rooftop and said: "You can choose any table here. It's five silver coins just for the table."
I paid five silvers and we chose one that was a bit further away from the rest. There were not a lot of people sitting here but I still wanted a bit of privacy. Once we sat down, I asked Anise to order something for me as well, since I was not familiar with most things on the menu. After the waitress left, Anise turned towards me and said:
"So, about that spell, how strong is it?"
"It's not ready yet. I'm having a few problems to fix before I can actually use it, but it should be pretty strong and most importantly, fast."
She looked at me for a second before her expression became serious and she said: "Ethan, you remember you still owe me a favor?"
Seeing her serious expression, I nodded with a serious look as well and said: "Of course. Whatever you need, but please, don't ask me to teach at the academy. I really don't have the time for that."
"It's not that. I want you to teach me. I'll even go with you on quests and you just have to teach me in your spare time. This way it shouldn't inconvenience you too much."
I must say that I kind of expected something like this when I decided to show her that I can cast spells without incantation, but I didn't expect her to want to follow me on quests as well.
"I have no problem, but what about the academy?"
She sighed and said: "What is the point in staying there? Wouldn't it be faster to learn from you?"
"That might be true, but did you speak with your mother about this?"
"No, she will probably be against it."
"Do you plan to run away?" I asked in amazement.
"Not really. I'll just quit the academy. It's not like they can keep me there by force." She replied while shrugging her shoulders, but I could see a trace of conflict deep in her eyes.
"Don't you think this is too rash? You can.."
I was about to try to convince her otherwise when she asked, interrupting me: "Do you think I'm the type to take decisions like this on a whim? I thought about leaving the academy a long time ago, but that was the best option if I wanted to continue studying magic so I kept postponing it."
"Why, tho? " I couldn't understand why she would want to leave, considering she was the daughter of the headmistress.
She sighed again and said: "Because the pressure put on me was too much. I was born with the same affinities as my grandmother, the last known master wizard on our continent and everyone expects me to become as strong as she was, or even stronger. Seeing my potential, my mother registered me as a student when I was only three years old. I've lived inside the academy my entire life, only leaving for missions once in a while. She once caught me sneaking out with a friend to play when I was six and she actually expelled my friend, saying that it was a bad influence upon me, that I was born to become a great wizard and I shouldn't fool around and just study. That was also the last time I ever made a friend inside the academy."
"I felt suffocated so, during a visit from my father, I complained to him about everything. He confronted mother and they argued until they broke up, not speaking to each other again. Isolated from everyone and with my parents separated while I was still young, I barely have a single happy memory of my entire childhood."
Tears started falling down from her eyes as she spoke of her childhood. I looked at her for a moment before saying: "I'm sorry, I didn't know."
Once she calmed down a bit, I said: "If you are sure this is what you want, you are free to come with me and I will teach you everything I know."
She cleared the tears from the corner of her eyes and cheeks, before saying: "Thank you. I'm sorry for embarrassing myself in front of you like this."
"Don't worry about it." I replied, and feeling that a change of topic might help distract her a little I asked:
"What is this age of the wizards thing that you mentioned on the road?"
"Do you know how magic users are ranked?" seeing me shake my head, she continued: "They are split into magicians and wizards, separated by spell knowledge and levels."
"Magicians are split into three ranks: Novice, Apprentice and Master Magicians. They are ranked by their levels, level 1-9 are Novice Magicians, level 10-19 are Apprentice Magicians and after level 20 are Master Magicians."
"Wizards are ranked a bit differently, to become a Wizard one must be able to silent cast at least one spell and their level must be above 29. After one reaches level 40 and learns to silent cast 2 spells, he will be ranked as a Adept Wizard, level 60 and can silent cast 5 spells is a Master Wizard, level 80 and can silent cast 10 spells is a Exalted Wizard. Above that is the legendary rank of an Arch-Wizard. To be recognized as an Arch-Wizard one must be at least level 100 and be able to cast any spell without incantations."
"I am now an Apprentice Magician and my grandmother was the last know Master Wizard on this continent. My mother is also a Wizard."
"I had no idea about all this." I said with a pensive look "So, there are no Arch-Wizards existing?"
"Not that we know of. Something happened a long time ago, some kind of great calamity and a great deal of magic knowledge was lost. There has never been an Exalted Wizard or Arch-Wizard since then. We still managed to uncover a few texts in some old ruins about those times but the amount we found is incomparable with what we lost."
"Now a lot of things make sense." I said while frowning.
While we were talking, they brought us our food and we started eating. After eating, she asked me:
"You said that a lot of things make sense. What did you mean?"
I didn't answer her and instead asked her :"The incantations for spells came from those old ruins?"
"Yes. All the spells used now come from old uncovered ruins after the great calamity."
"Mhmm" I thought for a moment before saying: "The civilization on your world might have been just as advanced as the one in my world, but that calamity made you lose almost all of it. I think incantations were created by high rank wizards to teach new students silent casting."
Anise fell silent, thinking about my words before she said: "That is a possibility. In the last few years, the study of those incantations made the number of wizards increase considerably."
"Do you know what that calamity was?"
"No, I don't." She replied while shaking her head.
[*I do.*], Senna's voice sounded in my head.
'You do?'
[*It was a grand reset. You should ask your little friend, she should know more about it.*]
[She is right, it was probably a grand reset. When civilization reaches the top of a world, without the possibility of further progress, the world will test it. If the civilization passes said test, the survivors will be spared and teleported from this world towards a stronger one, where they will get the chance to progress again, but if they fail, all of them will be wiped out. This test, because of the extremely low success rate, is also called the Grand Reset.]
'But, why would the world do that?'
[My Lord set up this test, but I don't know why.]
[*Because His world reached it's maximum potential, and everyone in it reached the peak of possible power. Since further progress or leaving that world was impossible no matter how much they tried, they resigned to their fate and started a period of stagnation. That lasted until a more advanced civilization appeared on His world, and wiped out His entire race, leaving Him as the only survivor. I don't know exactly how, but He managed to follow the invaders back to their world, where He started His journey into becoming the strongest being in the entire multiverse. Not wishing for other people to experience the same thing as Him, He create the Fate System to prevent the civilization from destroying their own world and to save them in case of invaders before implementing the Test at the End, as He called it, to give them a chance to progress further.*]
'But, doesn't that mean that if they fail the test they will all get killed?'
[*Yes, but their race will not end. Their civilization will be born anew and start it's rise again from the bottom. He just wanted to prevent the extinction of the entire race.*]
'Isn't that too cruel?'
[*Maybe, maybe not. A stagnating civilization, with no drive to progress, is not a pleasant place. Every living being need a drive, a reason to go further, but did you ever ask yourself what happens if there is no way further? The civilization will still crumble upon itself. It will be a lot uglier and there's even a chance it will not be able to ever recover.*]
'Then, couldn't He just let them leave the world?'
[*What do you think will happen if billions of people appeared suddenly on another world?*]
'They will scare the ones already living there?'
[*Yes, it might even activate the Fate System, leading to them being wiped anyway. After the test, if they passed, their numbers will be a lot lower and the ascension will be a lot easier. The system is not perfect, but it's a lot better than before. Even I have to give Him credit for it.*]
'It still seems too cruel for me..'
[*The world itself is cruel. It has always been. If you would have seen the multiverse before these systems were created you will shudder in fear.*]
'Sigh..'
[*This things are too far away for you to worry about. Focus on what you can do and leave what is out of your control alone.*]
'I understand. Thanks, Senna.'
[*Mhmm.*]
After I finished speaking with Senna I noticed that Anise was waving her hand in front of my eyes and looking at me with a weird expression.
"Sorry, my mind wandered for a moment."
"Moment? I tried calling you out for two minutes straight, but it was as you were completely passed out."
"I'm sorry, something about the calamity brought back some memories and I spaced out for a moment."
She nodded and said: "As long as you're fine.."
"I'm all right. Are you done eating?"
"Yes, do you have anything else in mind?"
"Yeah, want to go look around the market place?"
"Sure." She replied as she got up from her seat.
I paid for the food and we both walked out the restaurant, making our way towards the market place.