After they had climbed over the hill, Soren could already see the Grimoire Tower looming in the distance. The tower was impressively tall, at least a hundred meters, and built entirely of light gray stone.
Two massive stone walls led up to the tower's entrance in an arch, each adorned with cone-shaped, colorful roofs.
Compared to the quiet and unassuming village, the Grimoire Tower stood out like a horse in a herd of cows.
When Soren and Idris finally arrived at the tower, they saw the crowd that had gathered there. Young men and women from different villages had come here that day to receive their own Grimoire.
Like the others, Soren and Idris stepped through the tower's massive entrance and immediately saw the shelves that stretched endlessly up to the top of the tower. The center of the tower was empty and only the side walls were occupied by shelves.
"Do you know how it can be that the grimoires are created when they self-destruct after the death of a wizard? It would make sense if they went back to the tower, but they don't, do they?" he asked Idris.
Idris shrugged. "No idea. To be honest, I've never asked myself that question before, but maybe someone in the capital knows."
"Interesting, " Soren thought to himself as he watched the hall fill with people.
After a while, when the crowd of candidates had gathered and the murmuring had gradually died down, an elderly man stepped to the podium in the middle of the huge hall.
He was tall, with a slender build and a long, silver beard that reached almost to his chest. His robe was deep blue with purple highlights. He wore a tall, pointed hat, also in blue, that almost completely obscured his face.
Soren could sense a relatively strong mana emanating from him. It was stronger than the mana of most of those present.
He had already seen some in the crowd who had more mana, including Soren himself. Even though it wasn't exactly fair to compare his mana to that of others, because his mana, as he had learned, was gigantic.
"I welcome you all to my tower. Today is a special day in your lives. Today you will receive your grimoire, which will accompany you on your journey as a wizard. It is the start of your journey and I wish you good luck." The master of the tower addressed the crowd with a magic tool that spread his voice over the assembled crowd.
"And now, without further ado, let the ceremony begin. Good luck," he concluded, and the tower lit up in every color as the grimoires flew to their new owners.
"Hey, look, my grimoire is so big! I'll definitely make it big in the capital, like my family is destined to."
"But yours is pretty thin! Having more pages is more important!" someone in the crowd replied.
"Nonsense! What's important is to have a good balance, like mine," came the confident answer.
But all the talking stopped when the entire tower was engulfed in a bright and dark light and another grimoire flew out of the shelves.
Soren watched with a broad grin as the grimoire flew towards him.
When it arrived, it floated and spun in all directions. The crowd could only watch with wide-open mouths and eyes in awe and disbelief as they looked at the grimoire.
"T-That's a four-leaf clover!"
"How can that be?"
"Incredible!"
"I never thought I'd live to see this in my lifetime," the tower master thought as he looked at Soren. "A legendary four-leaf clover!"
Soren ignored the crowd and the whispers around him and took the grimoire in his hands. As he looked at it more closely, however, he noticed that his grimoire had black dots and lines on some of the pages.
"Hmm, strange," he thought to himself, before shaking his head.
"I'll figure it out," he said to himself and walked in the direction of Idris, who was standing at the edge with an equally shocked expression on her face.
"I'm proud of you, Soren. Even back when I first found you, I knew you were special, but you have exceeded my expectations again. A four-leaf clover grimoire. Never in my life would I have thought that I would ever witness such a relic," Idris praised him and gave him a firm hug. He could feel her arms tremble slightly with excitement and relief.
"Thank you, Idris. But now comes the hard part. But with this grimoire, I will definitely become a Magic Knight and the strongest that ever existed." He promised.
"I have no doubt!" Idris assured him.
"Did you hear that?" a voice called out from the crowd. "He will take the exam in six months! That will certainly be a spectacle."
"We'd better go, what do you say?" Idris said, and without answering, he followed her to the exit and left the crowd behind.
They flew back on the broom this time to get home as quickly as possible.
But halfway there, Idris decided they should land briefly to visit Henry and some other friends and share the great news.
Everyone in the village was extremely happy for him and congratulated him. They would never have thought that someone from their village would ever get a four-leaf clover, but even though Soren was not originally from the village, he was still one of them.
When they arrived home, Idris went straight to the kitchen.
"Today we're going to have a really nice meal," she announced, rolling up her sleeves. "And to top it off, I'm going to bake a cake. After all, this day calls for a celebration!"
Soren sat down at the table and smiled at Idris's enthusiasm. "You didn't have to bake a cake, Idris."
"Nonsense!" Idris shouted back, already busy placing flour and sugar on the kitchen table. "You received a four-leaf clover grimoire today, that's a reason to celebrate! Such an event must not be allowed to pass by unnoticed."
Soren shook his head and grinned. It was typical of Idris to make a celebration out of every little occasion, and for an event like today's, it was unavoidable.
"I'm going to go practice outside for a bit," Soren called out as he headed out the door.
"Don't let me stop you! I'll let you know when dinner's ready," Idris called back from the kitchen.
"Okay," Soren murmured to himself when he had walked far enough away from the house for Idris to find him, but still out of harm's way. "Let's see what I can do with this."
His grimoire floated at chest height with only a single thought, and the pages began to flap wildly without a breeze. Suddenly, the grimoire stopped on a particular page. The writing on the page glowed golden, and Soren's eyes fell on the spell written there.
"Sun Magic: Sunshine Arc," Soren murmured softly, and immediately he felt the immense power emanating from him as the spell was cast.
It was as if a glowing sun had appeared in his hand. The magic that radiated from him made him appear like a sun god himself for a moment. Hundreds of glistening rays of light shot out of the small sun in his hand, spreading in all directions and racing into the forest before reaching their destination.
*BOOM*
With every impact of the light beams, the ground exploded and the earth trembled under the force of the detonations. Every light beam that hit the ground left a scorched crater, while trees burst into flames and the forest was transformed into a scene of destruction.
Soren scratched his neck in embarrassment as he looked at the devastation around him.
"Oops."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't want to write too much about the time before he becomes a Magic Knight, because I think I have a lot more material and time to write about the rest, so it will all be pretty much rushed at the beginning.
Men scroll
Men see
Men smile
Men gifts Stones
Men leaves Review
Men leaves happily.
Yours,
Jasonenrick!