When the duo got into town they headed straight home. When they got in they found three guests waiting for them, Richard Zorge the guild master of the adventurers guild, and Ian and Vale who were seated in the living room.
Ian got out of his seat quickly and went to welcome Aldin. Aldin sat down next to him.
After Aldin happened in his life, Ian's life had gotten much better and so was it for his sister and of course he'd be happy to see him around.
"Thank you," Aldin said as he sat down.
"Nice to see you again, but I have to ask, aren't you supposed to still be at the academy?" Richard asked.
"Actually, Aldin graduated early," Lark said proudly." The academy said they have nothing else to teach him,"
'This must be denial,' Richard thought to himself.
"And he is even better at forging than I am," Sylvia chimed in coming from the kitchen with a pot of tea in hand.
"Really!" Richard said, acting. 'They must be having a hard time accepting that their son was kicked out, I wonder what he did to a noble that got him kicked out,' Richard thought to himself once more.
"And the best part was that he was accepted into the tower as the tower master's personal disciple," Lark said.
"We even hosted the principal of the academy and two tower masters here last night," Sylvia said proudly.
"Wait, you are the reason two masters came here!" Richard shouted out, he was shocked.
Within the day as the two were away and Sylvia was hauled up in her office, the count and his family had been executed under the orders of two tower masters and a replacement was too soon to be sent over. One of the charges was an attempted murder of one of the Magic Towers' person's family.
Nobody in the town was currently known to have either strong connections or relationship to anyone in the tower so the accusation felt false but he was hearing it was because of the Randells and what they had just said now made sense to him.
"How many specialisations can you use?" Richard asked.
"Four," Aldin asked confused by Richard's sudden behaviour.
"And what about advanced magic, can you use that too?" Richard asked.
"Yes," Aldin said nodding.
Richard sat back and just sat there silently collecting his thoughts.
"Kid, what tier are you right now?" Richard asked.
"Four," Aldin said. Richard then went silent as Sylvia poured them tea.
"And what happened to Darvin, he wasn't here yesterday?" Sylvia asked.
This caused Aldin to recall their fallout. At that moment Aldin almost turned sour, but didn't.
'There is no need to waste my energy on being mad, I have more things to worry about,' Aldin thought to himself.
"I had no idea they were holding me a party so I had no way of informing him," Aldin said coldly lying through his teeth.
They took their tea while chatting, Ian did most of it, he would ask about Aldin's adventure.
Sylvia broke off from the group to go prepare dinner leaving Laek with the kids and Richard who seemed to be unresponsive.
Lark went into deep thought.
'ALdin really is strong, I wish I had that talent, maybe we wouldn't be here. Never mind, I am happy with what I got; a lovely wife and a great kid, this is alright for me,' Lark thought to himself.
Sylvia soon brought out their dinner and once they were done, the three left living the RAndells to themselves.
In the living room, Aldin and his parents sat together.
"So you agreed that Aldin could go on his hunts on his own, are you sure about this?" Sylvia said.
"Yes, he has more potential than I initially thought," Lark said.
"If you say so, but I am still worried," Sylvia said.
"Then how about you join him tomorrow?" Lark asked Sylvia.
"I am not doubting you, it's just that I worry too much," Sylvia said.
"Don't worry mum, I can handle myself," Aldin said while a smile popped on his face.
"Okay I trust you and your father's decision, but there is something I wanted to try for myself.
The next moment they were outside in the backyard and ALdin's armour was placed on the ground.
Sylvia fired and attacked it but nothing happened nor did any scratches appear on it.
"Good, now let me try lightning," Sylvia said after testing how tough it was, the lightning stopped at the surface, and when they went to inspect it it had no damage on it.
"WOW!" the couple said in unison.
'You have to make my armour as soon as possible,' both of them thought to themselves.
"Let me give it a try," Lark said and walked forward, he fired a light plasma at it but nothing happened and it was still intact.
Several tests later the armour was unharmed and Aldin had gone to his room, after changing into comfortable clothes he sat on his bed and watched the moonrise, for an unknown reason he found it looking beautiful tonight.
'I haven't accumulated mana in a long time, maybe it'll help me improve faster.' the thought crept into Aldin's mind and he sat straight on the bed to start.
With his eyes closed Aldin began to draw in mana but the input was.
Aldin Randell
The mana I was taking in felt very little and didn't seem to satisfy his thirst.
'I should probably use Radiance,' I thought.
Concentrating, I spread out my will throughout the area, using my will I was able to take over the mana in the air and add it to my core, but I was yet to be sated by the amount I was getting and spread out my will even further to get more mana out of it. It was higher but it had yet to reach the limit at which I could take in, before I could further increase the range, a sudden surge occurred and the amount of mana I was taking in rose exponentially.
It rose again and this time higher, it was now becoming too much, the next second it rose way too high and I had to stop using radiance or else it would overload me making it harder to handle the mana.
When I deactivated radiance it hit me that the sudden surge of mana was coming from the lower floor, where my parents were.
I got out of the room as fast as I could and headed to the lower floor to check on them.
When I got there I found them with their weapons out, and a second somebody I was not expecting walked in.
Sylvia Randell
After a day of work managing the knight by myself, I came home to get some rest. Sometime in the evening, I heard a knock at my door, It was Richard, Ian and Vale.
"How are you Mrs. Randell, long time since we met," Richard said.
"What brings you here?" I asked.
"I heard was around, so I brought Ian to visit," Richard said.
"Sure he is, but he is out at the moment, please come in," I said.
"Thank you," Richard said as he and the two behind him got in, a few moments later Aldin and Lark walked in.
We had tea and after the three left we had dinner, I cleared the table. I expressed my worry about Aldin going to the Burmese woods.
Lark was surprisingly confident in Aldin's ability, he was fine with Aldin going there and so was I, his good judgment of situations had saved me several times.
We headed to the backyard and tested out Aldin's armour, It was tough, I put everything I had into the lightning bolt but nothing happened to the armour, but nothing happened to it, this boosted my confidence in Aldin's capability and increased my desire to get armour forged by him.
He later went to his room. Lark and I then sat in the living room, suddenly out of nowhere a strong aura got into the room like a serpent crawling in, the aura was extremely heavy, I formed spells on my wrist ready to attack when the intruder walked in, the spell dispersed in front of my eyes, I got spooked and Lark noticed it, he formed a spell in his hands but it all disappeared, he tried the next time with an even larger amount of mana, light blades filled the room and again they disappeared, I looked at Lark, I was now getting worried, our spells were disappearing and I had no idea what was happening, but giving up was not an option, I had to push on forward.
'I have to protect them, I can't lose my family all over again,'
I covered my body with aura shaping it like armour, a trick I had learnt as a kid ready to strike whoever came down.
The next second Aldin came running down the stairs, he was sweating.
Seconds later the front door opened and I pounced at it without a second thought.