I'm bored as fuck.
It's been twenty minutes since I got in this damn line, and I'm only starting to see the gates now.
Today's the only day of the year that the magus association comes to town to test aspiring magi. If you have magical talent, they'll document it and let you join their organization, letting you take quests from them.
It's a mutual thing where one helps the other, so it's an important connection to make for young commoners aspiring to become great magi.
The thing is, I already know I have the potential to be a magus.
This entire scenario is tedious; it's taking away my valuable training time.
"This is bullshit".
I mumbled under my breath, only to receive a punch to the back of my skull, sending me face-first into the mud.
Trying to stand up after basically being knocked out, I attempted to yell at the bastard who hit me.
He's a tall man, roughly six feet four inches. His hair is a striking golden colour, with his eyes following suit.
"OUCH! YOU OLD-"
But I didn't get to finish my words before I was face-first in the mud again.
Taking a second to collect myself while still face-first in the lovely mud of the dirt road we were walking on, I heard a voice respond to my amiable words.
" You're lucky I don't hit you harder, runt! Where did you even get a mouth like that? Such bad manners for a boy so young!"
He then lifted me by the back of my shirt like I weighed five pounds and then started blabbing on about unimportant stuff.
"You might not like it, but you must be publicly tested on your magus talent, even if I've already tested you, Sylas."
He looked at me and sighed.
"And for Pete's sake, it's only been twenty minutes. What kind of aspiring magus doesn't have patience for twenty minutes?"
The person berating me over and over is named Alaric; he's around thirty years old, give or take, and he's my magical teacher.
He's visiting the town for magical research on the mana mines near the town. He's a big shot who graduated from a famous magical academy located in the kingdom of Liberta.
He got bored after a year or two and decided to take an apprentice, which happens to be yours truly.
Alaric is a second-circle magician, which is very impressive, no matter what age you are.
Trust me, I never hear the end of his bragging.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I wouldn't be this impatient if I didn't already know I had potential to become a magus already."
Alaric looked at me for a second and then nodded. Then, while smirking, he said.
"We're almost there now, and don't worry about your boredom. We'll have a sparring session later. We'll have tons of fun."
He stated with a creepy smile that old fuck gives me the creeps sometimes.
I grimaced, and then nodded with a fake smile.
He's just using "sparring" as an excuse to kick my ass, that old pervert.
I like to call him old, even if it gets my ass beat, keeps him from mentioning how young and full of potential he is all the time.
"When we get home today, I'm going to kick your ass. I hope you know that."
I said to Alaric while I practiced punching in the air.
Alaric, while picking his nose, waved his hand at me as if swatting a fly.
"You will never beat me, kid, e-v-e-r."
He sounded ever so slowly to rub it in. He then poked my forehead a couple times.
"Get that in your little brain."
I slapped his finger away and started practicing some footwork.
"We'll see."
Finally arriving at the gate, I went into the magus association building to complete the testing process, and it went smoothly from there.
I followed the guards into the main room where a table with a colourful orb on an ornate pillow sat.
Behind the table was a pretty young lady with silver hair. Approaching the table, I put my hand on the shiny-looking orb that definitely doesn't look like it'll blow up any second, and then the lady stated I have potential to be a magus.
Done in five seconds.
And yet it took twenty to wait, makes fucking sense.
The process is pretty simple; the orb inserts mana into your body and sees how it reacts. If your body has potential, it'll retain a bit of the mana before spitting it back out.
If it doesn't, your body simply won't retain any mana.
That's also how Alaric knew if I had potential or not to become a magus; he simply inserted a bit of mana into my body to see if it'd retain any for a moment, and the rest is history.
I won him over with my wonderful charm, and then he gladly accepted me as a disciple.
I didn't have to beg him daily for three months to take me as an apprentice before he even bothered to check my magical potential, of course not.
But none of that's important. What's important is that today I can finally start my journey as an official magus.
After all, I'm now sixteen years old and I'm officially tested, not that the testing really means anything.
The testing by the magic association isn't necessary by any means, but it's helpful to put yourself on the magus association's radar as early as possible.
So most teachers make their disciples get tested.
But what you don't have a choice on is what age you can start your magical journey, at least not when you're below sixteen.
Your body needs to grow to a certain extent to handle the pressure of mana, especially when you first start, so all children must wait till they're sixteen years old at the minimum to start training. Anytime after that is fine too.
So, after a full year of training under Alaric, I'm finally going to be able to start my Magus journey.
End of chapter 1