"Owww! I-I'm sorry!" Aether cried as he rubbed his head after getting hit by Professor Lysander.
"What did I say about going down there alone" Professor Lysander sighed in disappointment, but he observed the minotaur's horn and smiled "Well you did make it back alive, so I'll transfer 20 points to you." Professor Lysander said.
Aether smiled cheerfully "Really! Oh thank you Professor!" Aether yelled excitingly.
Professor Lysander sighed and face palmed "But seriously, you might end up dead soon if you keep going alone. Why don't you bring Freya with you?" Professor Lysander asked Aether.
Aether tapped the bottom of his chin and thought for a bit, "Well I would bring Freya but, the last time we went dungeon hunting she kept falling into every trap placed in the dungeons and I had to jump and save her." Aether explained.
"Well, even so it's nice to have a mage with you, I understand you are skilled with a rapier and you're able to use your weak level magic to your best abilities, but there will be times when you face a monster that is immune to physical attacks." Professor Lysander explained.
Aether sighed "Well I know that, but that's why Lyria's focus is for." Aether said.
Lysander took Aether's focus and examined it, it was pretty battered and had scratched and it almost seemed like it would last a couple of months.
"Even if you have Lyria's focus, it doesn't change the outcome. If this breaks then what? You're going to get killed because you can't cast magic against a enemy who is immune to physical attacks." Professor Lysander yelled as he gave the Focus back to Aether.
Professor Lysander started to walk out of the door, but said something to Aether before he left, "It's almost time for class, I hope to see you there" Professor Lysander said as he closed the door behind him.
Aether looked down on the focus, he started to realize it was getting out of shape and soon enough if he kept using the Focus it would eventually break, he tightened the Focus in his hand and closed his eyes saying to himself in his mind "I'll keep this treasure safe Lyria, I promise" and Aether opened his eyes and headed out of Professor Lysander's room.
After Aether headed out, Freya sprinted towards Aether, she had a bright smile on her face and she had clear yellowish eyes that resemble the color of the Earth element.
"Soo, how was your dungeon adventure?" Freya asked with her hands behind her back.
Aether looked at Freya, "It was great, I took down a minotaur and got 20 points! That makes me at a total of 7020 points! It's still a long way though..." Aether said a bit disappointed.
Freya tried to look around for something, she noticed something was off and asked Aether where Lithia was, "Oh Lithia? I didn't wanna wake her up so I decided to just leave her at home for today." Aether explained.
"Awww, I miss that adorable little furball. Where did you even get Lithia?" Freya asked as Aether and her were walking down the hallway to class.
Aether thought back to the time when he got Lithia, it was during the time he was with Lyria and they were both playing in the forest until Lyria tripped on a rock and face planted onto the dirt, she was bruised and she was also crying.
Aether found her and tried to hug her to comfort her, but they were a bit lost in the forest at the time, that was until Lithia came out of nowhere, she slowly approached Aether and Lyria and all of a sudden Lithia jumped onto Lyria's chest and magically healed her bruises.
Lyria immediately stopped crying and her eyes widened open, she picked up Lithia like a cat and smiled at her, Lithia just meowed back and that's when Lyria had the idea to take Lithia with the two of them and make her part of the family.
Aether sighed and nodded though and they both went back to the foster care and showed everyone the amazing animal they found, weeks later Lithia was use to living with Lithia and Aether, Lithia was loyal and always stuck by Lyria or Aether's side.
But when the time came when Lyria had to leave to the Grand Mage's tower, Lithia decided to stick with Aether in the end, Lyria attached a little necklace around Lithia, Aether thought it was a little parting gift, but in reality Lyria had actually attached a little spying device on Aether, she's able to look through the little jewel and keep tabs on Aether.
Freya was intrigued on the story of how they found Lithia, within a few more minutes Freya and Aether entered the classroom where Professor Lysander teaching a lecture.
"Ahh you two, finally made it. Sit down and listen, I'll be going over something important." Professor Lysander said as the both Aether and Freya sat next to each other and listened to Lysander's lecture.
Thirty five minutes in the lecture, Professor Lysander asked a couple of students to demonstrate the use of magic, their objective was to ignite the gunpowder just using any type of spell that would work to ignite the gunpowder.
Aether shot his head up and noticed what Professor Lysander was going to have students do if he was chosen, he thought to himself and was freaking out, "I can't do that!? Oh man I hope he doesn't choose me..." Aether said closing his eyes and sweating a bit.
Professor Lysander chose a student, he had red hair and had a bit of a mean attitude to him, his name was Lucas a student who specializes in using fire magic.
"Now then, go ahead and cast a spell to ignite the gunpowder, and don't worry this gunpowder won't explode and kill you, I casted a spell to limit it's explosive nature. So go ahead Lucas." Professor Lysander said as he stepped back to analyze Lucas's casting.
Lucas gave a mean look at Aether, he smirked and his face reads "Look at me outcast." and a magic circle was appearing at the tip of Lucas's wand, and within a few seconds Lucas casted a small fire spell that ignited the gunpowder, the gunpowder exploded but not to violently due to Professor Lysander's spell to hold back the explosive radius.
Lucas crossed his arms and glared at Aether, "See that outcast? That's how you do it in this academy." Lucas said directing his message towards Aether.
"Now now Lucas, we are all classmates here. There's no need to-" but Lucas cut off Professor Lysander.
"Come on Professor! Aether is an outcast! He can't even use strong magic let alone he can't even use magic with a wand! How pathetic is that!" Lucas laughed and the entire class excluding the Professor and Freya laughed along.
Aether gritted his teeth, his eyes closed as he tried to hold back his anger towards Lucas, Aether took a deep breathe and let it out, Freya stood up and defended Aether, "Listen Lucas! We're all the same and learning! We all learn at a difference pace, but Aether is trying his hardest you don't have to be a jerk about it!" Freya yelled at Lucas.
"Stop defending him Freya, don't you see he's just using you! What kind of friend does that?" Lucas laughed even more, Aether kept his cool, knowing that anything he said wouldn't do much since Lucas is right, Aether isn't able to use magic or even strong magic alone so no matter what Aether said, it wouldn't matter.
All of a sudden, another student walked down the steps towards the front of the desk "learn some manners Lucas." the unknown student said. All of a sudden the classmates were whispering to each other, "Hey isn't that Akira?", "Yeah I heard he's a strong wind mage", "I wonder if he's got a girlfriend! I'd love to ask him out." those were what were being whispered.
"You should understand Akira, Aether is nothing but a fake mage!" Lucas pointed out explaining to Akira why he's talking like that.
"Even so, he's a student like us. We should all be respectful of that, because if you don't respect everyone..." all of a sudden a strong gust of wind started to blow on everyone pushing them a little bit "I'll just take you down for your insolence." Akira threatened.
Professor Lysander sighed and yelled "That's enough both of you! Get back to your seats!" Professor Lysander strictly yelled and Lucas and Akira both sat back down.
Freya looked at Aether and put her hand on his shoulder, "Don't let him get to you" Freya smiled. Akira nodded and he was still smiling after all that was said in front of the class.
One hour passed and class was over, Aether and Freya packed up and were ready to leave, as Aether was about to head out he noticed one of the students named Akira heading out too, he had a mysterious aura around him and Aether wanted to thank Akira for sticking up for him, Aether ran up to Akira and ran in front of him a bit tired.
Akira looked at Aether confused on why he just ran in front of him, "What's up?" Akira said.
Aether looked up at Akira as he caught his breathe "Thanks for sticking up for me, you didn't need to do that though." Aether thanked Akira.
"Think nothing of it, Lucas simply annoyed me, that's all. I have better things to do, I'll see you later." Akira said coldly and walked off to do his own thing, seconds later Freya ran up to Aether, "What did you say?" Freya asked Aether.
Aether explained it was just a simple thank you message, he's never seen a student even stick up for Aether before, most students laugh at Aether, or don't even talk to Aether much and let alone try to defend Aether, to the entire school Aether is just a fake mage who can't do anything and believe he is the only person who's holding the entire school back.
"Anyways, I'm going to head home. I'll bring Lithia with me tomorrow" Aether said as he walked the other direction while waving at Freya, "Alright then! See you tomorrow Aether!!" as Freya walked off as well.
Aether headed to his dorm room where he met his roommate, Alice is a good friend of Aether's and doesn't actually think of Aether as a outcast like everyone else, Alice also helps Aether in making gear and all sorts of other things.
"Hey there Aether! Welcome back from class, how was it?" Alice asked as she set down a plate full of food.
Aether sighed but smiled "It was, okay I guess. But it's still the same, everyone treats me like an outcast, but I won't let that stop me from getting to Lyria." Aether explained as he sat in front of Alice in a chair.
Lithia jumped on Aether's shoulder and rubbed her face against Aether's cheeks, "Aww, hey there Lithia sorry I left you at home, I hope you didn't cause much trouble for Alice" Aether said as he patted Lithia's head.
Alice sipped her tea "Nah, she's been waiting for you to come hone." Alice said as she set her cup down and smiled, "Thanks for taking care of her Alice, you're a big help" Aether explained. Alice swatted her hand downwards "Oh please, Lithia is just a well behaved companion, plus I think she likes me to not cause me enough pain." Alice giggled.
Aether took a moment to eat and then remembered something, "Oh right! Do you think you could repair Lyria's Focus for me? It's gone through a lot and thought you could maybe repair it" Aether asked as he took out the Focus and gave it to Alice.
Alice examined it and inspected it closely, "Yeah, I can do it. Leave it to me pal" Alice smiled as she took it over to her little desk and placed the focus on her desk where there were many tools just lying on the desk.
"Are you going in the dungeons again?" Alice asked as she saw Aether was getting dressed for the dungeons to earn more points. Aether was putting on his shoes and gloves and looked at Alice "Yeah, I'll be back don't worry" Aether smiled reassuring Alice he won't die so easily.
"Here take these, they're magic bombs, just throw it and it'll explode on impact. Be careful though, the blast radius can be big and you might be hit in the crossfire, the red one is Fire the blue one is Ice and the yellow one is Lightning, remember it well" Alice said as she handed Aether three different colored looking bombs.
Aether's eyes widened open and he was excited to use them in action "Oh thank you Alice!" Aether said as he hugged Alice for a few seconds, Alice warmed up to it and hugged back "Since you won't have your Focus this will have to do. But only use it in emergencies got it?" Alice strictly said.
"Don't worry, I will use these only for emergencies." Aether said as he grabbed his rapier and put it on the side of his waist and ran off "I'll be back! Take care of Lithia for me!" Aether yelled as he ran off.