Both Ilya who had been listening in and Wagner's parents who made the decision decided it was time to tell him. They ran into each other on the way which lead to Ilya being scolded and stuck in her room. Wagner's parents walked into wake up and tell him the news but Wagner was wide awake studying the diary yet again.
"Wagner, it's time we talked about your dream. While I don't want to see you leave, I understand you will refuse to be a farmer no matter how hard we push." Angela said regretting she even had to have this conversation.
"We have decided that you can go, but you must meet some requirements first." Said Thomas
"Before you say anything more, thank you for letting me do this and let me guess, the requirements is that I actually do my chores until I leave." retorted Wagner
"Well, completing your chores is just number 1 on the list, number 2 is find a way to get to the city, and lastly you must find a weapon to go with you." Said Angela
"Alright, I will handle getting a ride to the city, I think in 3 months the merchants will come by again. How am I going to find a weapon though?" Questioned Wagner
"You will have to be creative. Good luck." Angela said cheering on Wagner knowing there were no weapons to be found; hoping that is what prevents him from leaving.
1 Month later:
Wagner has since gone all around the village asking each and every person for a weapon. This lead to a village full of people to start joking that he was a violent child with horrible things planned for his annoying sister. He continued around the village just searching for anything that resembled a weapon. Although a pitchfork was hopeful choice, Wagner was told it didn't count. In striking out time and time again, Wagner had decided to go to the library to look for inspiration. After looking at all the book covers in the library he finally saw it. The weapon he would use to get approval was so simple that he couldn't believe it. This weapon wasn't a fancy sword, nor was it a pair of gauntlets, it was a spear. He had tried a staff before but that wasn't allowed either but this was different. It was sharp, practical, and it was something he could make himself. The spear on the cover of this book was not a regular spear, it had the blade of a sword following the base of a standard spear. And well that wasn't exactly something Wagner could create, it was good enough for inspiration.
Over the course of the next month, Wagner got to work he practiced whittling like he never had before. He had now grown used to finishing his chores as soon as possible so he could run over and watch the wood worker work. He would see the technique that he used to shape the wood and how he would carefully shape and cut down around the thinner parts. The most important parts were the corners that he created; Wagner needed to learn how to make corners as sharp as possible for his blade.
After about one week of creating, he had many failures but was able to come up with a successful product. And showing this to his parents, the father was excited to see him carrying out his requirements and the mother was bothered that he couldn't be stopped. Although he had now met all the requirements they decided to pay for a real spear from the local blacksmith as not to give him a weapon that will break too easily and leave him with no defense.
This meant the next step was transportation, after waiting 2 weeks for his new spear to come he had spent any free time practicing with the spear. He now had enough to skill to avoid hitting himself with his own weapon. However that changed when his new spear arrived that was much heavier and was not easy to swing around. Due to him being a farmer, he had some level of muscle around his body but that wasn't enough to prepare him for swinging a spear around. He knew any use of the spear would be defensive until he got stronger.
With the merchants arriving he knew he had about one last week before he left for his trip to the capital city. The capital city of the country of Cabell where Wagner lived was named Tensire after the continents first hero. The first book Wagner every read was based off of Tensire, "History's First Hero" the book had been named. Tensire was also Wagner's disappointment because he awakened the fire attribute rather than the air element that he dreamed of. Wagner did know that some of the great mages to come after Tensire came up with the idea of utilizing water and fire with the air element to contain or accelerate the other elements. Wagner was hoping to be able to gain this advantage but was just as excited to be able to figure out his own way of using fire magic to use other magics.
Wagner was getting ready for his trip that would occur at the end of the week. The trip would only take one month, meaning he had to find a way to live for another month before taking the schools entrance examination. Wagner did have a plan though, he took his whittling skills and started carving birds of fire. Wagner had never seen these birds but he had read about them, golden scorchers, birds that appeared gold and when threatened could summon flames. Wagner didn't even know if they were real but he knew he could make at least a couple bucks selling them.
1 week passed:
Wagner has now built up his collection of wooden birds and built up more and more hours of training. He had already arranged for his trip with the merchants, although he expected having to pay, they agreed to have him do simple labor. Wagner was ready to set up and pack up the camp a couple dozen times. The first trip to was to another small village similar to where Wagner grew up but further from the coast than Wagner's village. After about a week of travel they had reached the village which consisted of about 250 people and lots of forest surrounding them. Wagner was amazed the merchants even knew where his village was never mind this village deeply hidden by the trees. Wagner set up the camp only finishing with enough time to get to the town's center and look at the stores. There was nothing special that he hadn't seen before. However there was one stand that caught his eye. The stand was mainly intriguing because everything looked like trash or scrap.
"What's with all the junk?" Wagner asked the storeowner.
"All this junk? What do you mean all this junk? You clearly aren't a merchant, nor a craftsmen nor anything else that would provide you with basic knowledge." Angrily retorted the old man.
"Your right, I don't know anything, I especially don't know anything about garbage." Continued Wagner hoping to get a rise out of the man.
"I swear, kids just don't understand the value of anything. These are precious metals I have mined from the are around here. They can be used for forging to imbue an item with a magical element." Said the Old man showing off the 7 pieces of vibrant colored rock and the 12 pieces of metal scrap.
"Old man, is that really true? If so, does that mean this spear, could be able to shoot out fire?" Wagner asked now excited rather than just curios.
"Of course it's true, why would I lie?"
"For money" Wagner quickly interjected.
"While that is a good reason, for everyone except you, these things are common knowledge. And no you can't shoot out fire just because it can be connected with fire. These metals are more so tools as extensions of your skills and can impower the element of which you are ahold of." The old man replied informing a hopeful customer.
"These quantities are so small though, who would every buy something this small." Wagner now back to his both inquisitive and rude attitude.
"I am glad you asked, these mined materials can either be one piece of many like these metal scraps here or can be used as a coating." Lectured the store owner.
"How much for a coating?" Wagner asked
"Well, out here it costs about a quarter of the city price which is one silver." The store owner now getting excited he would actually be able to sell something this time. As the merchants have plenty of resources and don't need a couple rocks from some old man.
"How about 20 coppers instead of 25." Wagner rushed out hoping to spend as little as possible as he was only given 1 silver for his trip.
"Nope" said the storeowner firmly believing he should have charged 35 coppers to get even more out of the boy.
"Fine, which one is the stone of the fire element." Wagner said sulking that he couldn't preserve an extra meals worth.
"Oh, I don't have one for fire but I do have one for lightning, does that work? After all fire mages do have the potential to unlock the ability to manipulate lightning.
"I guess. If it truly is more expensive in the city than I will take what I can get." Wagner decided