Jrake was walking in circles, being worried as heck.
"What are we... What are we... What are we going to do?? The master is going to kill me! What are we... What am I..."
His gaze fell at me, and he approached. He put both of his hands on my shoulders, shaking me.
"Rize!! What are we going to do???"
But I wasn't replying.
"Rize?"
I stopped breathing.
"She stopped breathing!!!"
.
"For real?? you two just couldn't hold back!?"
We are sitting down on the ground, making a Seiza posture like the Japanese people and with our heads down, being yelled at by Klane.
"Sorry, that was my fault. I used too much energy on the hit..."
"Too much ene--Rize! I'm going to have to ban you from this arena!"
"B-But-"
"Wait, Klane. Think about this carefully..."
"I am thinking about it carefully!"
Her face is slowly lightening up. She let out a deep sigh.
"Rize. You do realize you are becoming more and more monstrous by the day, right? I mean just today you came back from a fight with a wyvern without a single wound on you!"
Jrake suddenly turned his gaze at me looking all confused.
"A wh-what now?"
"I... I do know that... But-"
"This place was meant for small adventurers, who don't have a huge destructive force! Which means, someone like you, Rize-"
"Are you seriously-"
"-should not be allowed to enter!"
:'D
I actually got banned from the back arena. My breathing stopped again.
Klane let out a deep sigh again. She approached me and sat right in front of me.
"Rize, listen to me."
"Uhuh..."
"This is just like when you were kicked out from the adventurer rooms up there. You are kicked out because you can make your own money. And that way, you are able to rent a room ten times better than the room up there!"
"Oh..."
"This is just like that! You are not supposed to train in this... Kindergarten!"
"Hey! I like this place!"
Jrake shouted from his side. This is his favourite spot in the world, after all. Klane glared at him with an evil look on her face. The kind of face saying 'You wanna die?'.
Jrake looked to the wall on his right as if something interesting happened there.
"Then... Where does someone like me... supposed to train?"
She stood up.
"Well, for starters, you can try this."
She took out a paper from her bag on her hips. It's a brochure. I stood up and took it from her hand.
I opened it and read. Even Jrake got interested. As I read it, it gets even more and more... Boring.
"Magic academy, really?"
Inside the brochure is an advertisement for the so-called magic academy. Should I read it aloud?
'Magic Academy of Xyphon! Is the best place for Teens and young prodigies to learn magic! It has been known for thousands of years that our-'
I stopped reading. The advertisement wasn't really... Eye-catching.
"It really suits you!"
"No it doesn't."
"Imagine, a woman who excels at sword arts, and is able to use magic! You will be unstoppable! Boys will fall for you easily!!"
Dude, no.
I glared at Klane showing an uninterested face.
"Not interested. I'm fine with how I am."
"Wait, wait, wait, Rize!"
Jrake suddenly tripped on his speech. His face looks quite worried. He suddenly looked at me like a lost puppy.
"What's the matter with you?"
"Please think about this for a while! The magic academy has sent out multiple powerful magicians!! Like-Like the arch-mage from this Kingdom. He was a student at the academy!!"
"... So?"
"Jrekek... The headmaster! The headmaster of the academy, if you haven't known. He is a White ranked adventurer!"
Oh. That does interest me. Why would anyone so strong like him go out and teach other people? It just doesn't fit in my head. He could have become some powerful warlord or something.
"Isn't he an elf?"
"He wasn't just any elf! He is the best magician the world has ever seen!"
I glanced at Klane, and it looks like she really wants me to go there too. From the looks of it, Jrake also wished to go there, but for some reason he couldn't.
But really, I'm just too lazy for these types of things.
"Ughh... I'm sorry guys. But learning magic, going to the academy... Just isn't really my thing."
Klane let out a deep breath at my answer. And Jrake placed his head down.
"I thought you wouldn't like it..."
"Then why did you show me?"
"Well, you need a way for you to continue and become stronger. One day, Jrake will no longer have anything to teach you. And you will wander around, finding someone stronger who can help you get stronger..."
"Hmm... You do have a point."
I looked at the brochure one last time.
"I guess I'll be keeping this."
""Really!?""
"But it doesn't mean I want to, though. Just in case I changed my mind in the future, or maybe something happened."
"Haha, thought so."
"Well, Rize. If you thought about entering that place, I suggest you start saving money."
"Eh? What for?"
"Look at the entrance fee in the brochure."
I reopened the brochure. And I looked at the last page. It says at the bottom... that the entrance fee... is...
My eyes grew wider than before.
"Fifty... thousand?... Jules???"
Are my eyes lying? No. Did I miss any of the zeros? No.
Getting a single mission would pay me... At maximum 500 Jules. And right now, I have around 7 thousand Jules stored on my ring from saving like crazy. I was this close to buying a house. And you are saying I have to obtain forty three thousand Jules... To enter a goddamn school?
"Ekhem. There is a way-"
"How?!"
I shouted without realizing, and that startled her a little bit.
"Ehh... Sorry..."
"I'm saying... there is a way!"
Her face is angry now. She squinted the nose in the middle of her eyes with her fingers. Sorry...
"The Office was one of the acknowledged instances by the academy. Since the headmaster used to be an adventurer himself. They gave the Office the permission to send a 'Letter of Recommendation' for an adventurer."
"Ehh... Is that so..."
"But, the 'Letter of Recommendation' only works like a discount. You still have to pay a small sum."
"Really? How much?"
"I guess around... Fifteen thousand?"
That's still twice the amount I have. And I saved like crazy the past two weeks.
Jrake put his hands around my neck.
"Trust me, Rize! The money wasn't the problem. The real problem is the requirements!"
I escaped from his hands because his armpits are smelly.
"Requirements?"
"Yes. If you are going to use the Letter of Recommendation, there are two sides of requirements you have to fulfil.
From the academy themselves are:
You need to have at least one magic aptitude for a certain element.
You need to have at least a thousand magic points. That's the most difficult one. Normally, only Blue ranked adventurers can get above one thousand.
You must at least be able to use magic, before you can enter. At least a beginners tier.
And those are only from the academy. If you want to use the Letter of recommendation, there are also requirements from the Office."
A thousand, huh? I'm pretty sure I'm well past that.
"What about the requirements from the Office?"
"Well, there are only two. First, you have to be at least a Green ranked. Second, you have to do at least one Yellow ranked quest."
"Exactly how does a Green ranked quest do a Yellow ranked quest?"
"Don't know. Ask Klane about it."
"Eh?"
Klane who thought she had finally said everything, suddenly being appointed as the one to explain. But she just shook her head.
"Such a thing is very rare. But there are cases when a Green ranked accidently did a yellow mission."
"Like the one I did with the bear?"
"Exactly like you did with the bear. You were doing the mission one rank higher than you. But then the mission just ranked up because something happened to the objective. Those things are very rare, and you were very lucky to have done it at least once."
"... Can't I just take a Yellow ranked mission?"
"Nope. You know the rules. You can only do missions from your own rank, any rank below you, or one rank above you. Which means, right now you can only do ranks at maximum, a purple rank."
"Bah. That sucks then."
"We made the rules to keep someone like you from going overboard!"
"I understand, okay. Like I said, I will hold on to this. But that doesn't mean I am surely going there."
Klane glanced at Jrake. Then she turned her back and left the arena.
"Oh yeah, you are definitely permanently banned from this arena!"
She said right before vanishing behind the wall and Jrake laughed after that.
"Don't worry little lady! In a few while, the real larger arena will finish its construction!"
"Hah... Right. By the way, good luck on your Blue ranked test!"
"Yep. Good luck to you too. The next purple ranked test is next week. Don't miss it this time!"
"I will definitely miss it."
Then I left the arena while waving my hand at him.
It's still too early to go back. Plus, I got to start racking up money now. So I asked for one more mission.
Klane gave me a mission scroll.
It's... Bear hunting?
It's a Gray rank. But why Bear hunting? Where are the possible encounters?
"It was a possibility that the bears got eaten by a bigger predator. Because the adventurer who reported that said they only found half of the bear when they got to the scene."
"Oh... So this could be bigger... Worst... Predator?"
"Most likely. If a beast was able to kill a bear like what he describes, I can only imagine a green or blue ranked monster to be able to do that."
"Hmm... I guess so."
"By the way, I already sent a party of adventurers there. One of them is a Green rank, while the other two is Purple. They should be able to help you out."
"What? I can do this alo-"
"Rize! Think about your safety for one second!"
"Eh?? But I don't work with others... Plus, I killed a wyvern today."
"And that is supposed to support your argument, how? Wyverns may be tough but they don't eat bears!"
Oh... Right. Now that you think about it, wyverns aren't very aggressive. They just attack you, eat you, and spit the bone. They don't bite you out and leave you for dead, like what happened to the bear.
"Be careful, Rize. This one could be more dangerous than you think."
"Thank you, Klane. I'll try to be careful."
I waved my hand at her. But deep down, she knew that I would be reckless.
But I'm always careful. Right?