In the blink of an eye another six months passed and now I am 6 years old.
My life has been summed up in: sword practice with Wii Taa, magic with Ana and politics classes with Debora.
My magic classes are now mostly based on doing combination magic which is something I've been having a hard time with so it's a challenge, but I've still managed to combine the spells heat island and waterfall and so I can form deep fog, it is honestly very difficult since I have to concentrate my mana in both of my hands and after chanting a spell I have to recite the next one immediately.
Honestly, for the time of a battle this seems terribly impractical to me unless I am in a group just to give support, but other than that I don't know in what other situations I might need it.
With Wii Taa it has been more of the same, since I became a beginner I have slightly advanced in my attack forms and my swing technique, Also with my technique of healing my muscles with magic, my muscles have grown significantly for my age.
I don't look like a bodybuilder, but still if people paid attention they would notice the hard parts of my arms hehe.
Classes with Debora now focus specifically on politics and let's just say it's...interesting.
As I already knew before, the Greyrat family is divided into four factions.
But something I didn't know is that my family is the leader of the four, but that can change...when my father dies the other houses will take advantage of this and create an internal struggle for power of all the factions.
The faction that ruled before were the Zephirus But my father won the power struggles by crowning the Notos, I have no doubt that they still hold a grudge against my father for that..
And because of that, it makes sense that the Zephirus sent Hilda to me on my birthday to try to seduce me, although it's clear that the girl wasn't all that comfortable with that.
But leaving that aside, today is a special day, do you know why?...
Well, because yesterday my teacher announced that she would teach me saint level water magic!!!
And if I manage to do it then I will graduate with her! Honestly, this makes me happy and nostalgic, something as incredible as magic in the palm of my hand thanks to my teacher Ana...
...
(clank!!)
The wooden swords clashed in the training room, Wii Taa blocked my attack effortlessly, it had always been like that, a whole year and there was no change.
Despite his size, my master did not move an inch and every time he blocked one of my attacks he always gave me advice to improve.
"You lean too much on your right arm, balance the strength between your two arms" he said and pushed me, I almost fell on my ass but I didn't expect it anymore, only my right knee fell to the ground and I quickly got up and attacked him again.
This time I went for his legs, but again it didn't work.
"You lose your moment of attack at the last moment, you must hold your sword firmly or it will continue to slip from your hands" Wii Taa said and disarmed me at a speed that I could not react and I fell on my back on the ground.
"Haa...ha..." I was out of breath again, I thought I was getting stronger with each passing day, but against Wii Taa it would be a long time before I had a chance.
"You progress more every day, it won't be long before you can call yourself intermediate level" Wii Taa said as he helped me up from the ground.
"Yes...t-thank you very much" I muttered as I wiped the sweat from my forehead.
"That's all for today, see you tomorrow young master" he said with a smile and I nodded.
After that I went back to my room with my mother and took a bath, only to leave again, this time I would go with Eva for my graduation.
According to her recommendation, we had to go far away due to the power of the spell, she said that if it was unleashed in Ars, it could be destroyed immediately.
But that increased my curiosity about the spell.
Because of all this, my father assigned me a private carriage and i gonna be escorted by my teacher and a woman in her twenties with blonde hair. According to what I know, her name is Melisa, and she is a sword saint.
...Thinking about it, it would be the first time I would leave the mansion, according to my father, when I turned seven they would send me to the royal academy of Asura, there I was supposed to study but I already knew the basics and more, so I would only go to keep up appearances.
"Paul..." my father called me.
We were already in the front of the mansion, I had never been here despite all these years, I had already told my mother beforehand about my departure so she was not here.
"What's wrong father?" I asked as I turned around.
"Good luck son, I have high expectations" he said with his arms crossed and returned to the mansion.
"...thank you" I murmured.
What a cold guy...
"Well, are you ready young Paul?" Eva asked me, she was carrying a brown cane one meter long in her hand, I had never seen it before but it seemed to be her staff.
"Yes, I'm ready" I said with a smile.
She nodded and so we both got into the carriage, it was decorated with polished wood and gilded parts that looked like gold, in the front would be Melissa with the coachman and behind would be Wii Taa, Eva and I would go inside waiting to reach our destination.
The doors of the mansion opened wide revealing the outside, I left the carriage window open and looked out, I could do it for now since we were in the noble district, but when we left here I would have to close everything.
The carriage began to move and so we walked down the street.
My mansion was as big as I had imagined, at least ten blocks big or maybe more.
It took us about half an hour to leave the perimeter of my mansion and enter the perimeter of another one. I didn't know who the "neighbors" were, but I guess they were also high-ranking nobles.
The other Greyrat factions lived in their respective controlled areas. The reason why we Notos were the most powerful was that our territory also included the capital.
But that's another topic.
We had left early to arrive at a good time at the outskirts of the capital and it was a good decision, since it took us about two hours to leave the noble district and when we left I had to close the window to avoid the possibility of attacks, since after all, after the royal family, we are the most powerful family in Asura.
I couldn't hear much of what was happening outside, I only felt the shaking of the carriage as we crossed the capital.
Eva was likewise with her head resting on her hand while her eyes were closed, at this moment we could talk but nothing came to mind.
"So... teacher Eva, what are you going to do after I graduate?" I murmured.
She opened her eyes and looked into my eyes and smiled.
"After finishing my work with you I will return to my hometown in the south of Asura, I am already in my later years and I want to spend them with my family" she explained with a smile.
Hmmm, her hometown huh? As I remember that was the city of Roa in the southern tip of the kingdom, I suppose that is reasonable, although she is only 57 years old, she does not seem that old at least.
...
It took us about six hours to leave the capital and I noticed it because the carriage started to rock more and more on the stoned road, finally the carriage stopped and there was a knock on the door.
"Young Master Paul, we have arrived" my master's voice called from outside and Eva opened the door, the sunlight weakly glowed at me and I got out of the carriage.
I won't lie, it was a beautiful landscape, one of those you could expect in European mountainous areas or similar, and faintly in the distance some mountains loomed, they were a mountain range called the Fangs of the Red Wrym and we were on what seemed to be a steppe.
We walked a few minutes until Eva stopped and looked at me Wii Taa and Melisa were a few meters away as they looked around, the city of Ars was a couple of kilometers away so the spell wouldn't affect there.
"Right here should go well" Eva said "I'm going to cast a holy level water attack spell Cumulonimbus, it creates thunder and makes it rain torrentially in a large area" she said.
"Okay" I replied.
"Please follow what I do and try to cast the spell yourself" she continued.
I was going to use holy level magic, now I have it: this was my final exam, Eva was going to use the most powerful spell she had in her repertoire, and if I could use it too, that would mean she had taught me everything she could.
"For demonstration purposes, I'm going to get rid of the spell after a minute, if you can keep the rain falling for... at least ten minutes, let's say I'll consider it as passed" she said
I nodded and looked around, Wii Taa and Melisa put on water proof monster skins and gave us thumbs up in approval.
"Now then," Eva raised both hands to the sky, "Oh, spirits of the magnificent waters, I beseech the prince of thunder! Grant me my wish, bless me with your savagery, and reveal to this insignificant servant a little of your power! Let fear strike the heart of man as your divine hammer strikes the anvil and cover the earth with water. Come, O rain, and wash away all the flood of destruction: Cumolunimbus!!"
She chanted steadily, slowly, and deliberately, and it took her little more than a minute to complete her incantation. A moment later, our surroundings went dark, for several seconds nothing, and then a torrential rain began to fall, a terrible wind roared, accompanied by black clouds that flickered with lightning, in the middle of the raindrops, the sky began to rumble and the purple light pierced the clouds, with each new flash, the lightning increased its power, it was almost as if the light itself was taking on a palpable weight growing like a wave and ready to fall.
Huge purple rays fell around us and the spell stopped.
"Wooow...." I muttered, I was totally soaked from head to toe but it didn't matter.
"Okay, now you do it, remember ten minutes and you'll pass" she muttered while grabbing a part of her blouse and wringing it out.
"Yeah..." I muttered.
I looked behind me and our bodyguards were just as amazed as I was.
Well Julian... no, Paul! How was the spell? Oh yeah!
"Oh, spirits of the magnificent waters, I beseech the Prince of Thunder! Grant my wish, bless me with your savagery, and reveal to this insignificant servant a little of your power! Let fear strike the heart of man as your divine hammer strikes its anvil and covers the earth with water. Come, O rain, and cleanse all in your flood of destruction: Cumulonimbus!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I concentrated the mana into my small wooden wand.
The clouds that Eve had created were still in small quantities so it was not so difficult to create the spell.
Again huge black clouds formed above me and a cold torrential rain fell upon me making my hair stand on end, thunder thundered in my ears, it seemed like I was in the middle of a miniature hurricane.
It sucked to have my arms raised for ten minutes but there was no other way...or maybe there was?...
Mages are creative, they wouldn't need to hold a pose like this for so long to get things right.
I had to remember...it was a test, I wasn't supposed to stay still for all this time, after creating the clouds I had to use some form of combination magic to keep the spell going.
Okay, I think I remember seeing this on TV once, so, when the clouds are still in the process of forming...
If I remembered right I could cast "air whirlwind" and heat up the air below the clouds to create an updraft, and then if I cooled the air above the updraft it would increase the speed and...
In doing all this I ended up burning through half of my mana reserves, I did what I could, however, I just had to wait to see if it would last as long as desired, I returned to Eva's side, with the rain falling on me.
Eva was in shock as she looked at the huge black clouds in the sky and then looked at me.
"You...controlled the clouds" she muttered in shock.
"Yes...it's kind of hard to explain, but with this the clouds could even last for an hour" I said.
Eva blinked several times in bewilderment and then looked at me again.
"Congratulations young master Paul, you are now a water saint mage."
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Power stones?...