64 Academy Tournamen (1/2)
Three months could be a short amount of time in the long run, however, for Greyson who was waiting to leave, they might as well been three years. Although he did want to match up against Leopold and Natalia now that he was stronger, his excitement to go out traveling was even more so. He felt prepared to fight them ages ago, so the extra waiting felt useless to him. Even his master did not have much for him to do or learn other than reading information about the empires he would travel through and the beast empire. Proper etiquette was always important just so he does not go somewhere and accidentally offend someone. For once, though, avoiding trouble was not his priority. Elder Sweetbow had even purposefully wanted him to travel with a merchant caravan in order to attract more trouble to himself. Bandits do feel wary when there are more numbers, but they also feel more greed towards large and wealthy merchant caravans than they would towards a lone, poor-looking traveler.
Other than creating new works for his occupations, Greyson had no other way to spend his free time. Thankfully, Ronan was around to keep him from being too anxious or else he would not get any work finished. Building up points in the blacksmith association became his way of gaining materials for magic tools and his paintings were what brought in a good amount of money when he auctioned one every now and then. Musically, he had not been performing much other than for the animals around Elder Sweetbow's manor and Ronan. However, he had learned a new spell after Siren's Noise called, Sound Waves. Instead of targeting the mind, this spell actually made the sound waves from his flute into a physical attack. Playing the songs that go along with the spell would induce different patterns of attacks. The waves were very powerful as they attacked from all different directions, but, at Greyson's current level, even playing halfway through one song almost emptied his mana stores. Since Sound Waves was such a comprehensive attack, he would save it for emergencies.
...
The morning of the tournament, Greyson eyes shot open with none of the normal unwillingness to wake up. Even Lucius was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to leave once Greyson had woken up.
”Lu, I guess even you are excited for the trip aren't you? Usually waking you up takes forever and even then you only get up to hop on my shoulder and nap on there.” Greyson smiled over at Lucius, seeing how excited the other was. Most of the time the cat would act so mature, this was the first time Greyson had seen such childish enthusiasm.
”Hmph! What would you know? I'm originally a magic beast, I belong in the wild. You have had me cooped up with this borderline crazy elf for five years. How couldn't I be excited? At least in the Dalia Academy you would often go hunting for magic beast cores so I could stretch my legs. But, you have mostly stayed within the Academy this entire time.”
”Ah, well, sorry, I can see how this might have been unfair for you. But you still broke through didn't you. You're already a magister level stage one magic beast, so it's not like you didn't benefit.”
”That's only because the mana is pure in this area, plus, who do you think you are talking about? My bloodline is very high level so I will continually break through easily as long as I don't die early.” Lucius lifted his chin proudly as he bragged about his natural ability.
”Yes, yes, rub it in all you want. In the end, I'll be much younger than you when I break through to the magister level.”
”Pure jealousy, that's all I hear. You obviously know that aging is different for magic beasts, I am no older than you in magic beast time. It's okay, no need to feel inferior, your talent is quite high as well. Just not as high as mine.” Lucius snickered.
Greyson just rolled his eyes in response no longer continuing the conversation. He instead starting getting dressed and making sure he had all his magic tools for the competition. Once he had checked through everything, he threw on his boot and started out the door. Lucius had already hopped up onto his shoulder taking his usual position. Quickly making his way to the battle stadium again, Greyson was shocked by the immense amount of people as compared to the last time he had fought there. Now instead of just the new class, it was all the students in the academy beneath the magister level. Most magicians in this area did not ever break through to the magister level and even the most talented ones break through at around 25 years of age or so. Ages ranged from around 8-10 years old to almost 30 years old. After one turns 30 years old, they stop being called students because at that point the chances of them breaking through to the magister level are very low.
Glancing around, Greyson looked for an open seat in the stands.
”Grey~ over here!” A familiar voice called out. Turning to look, Greyson already had a smile on his face as he could recognize the voice right away. Ronan's happy grey eyes greeted him as Greyson waved back and made his way over. Surprisingly, Ronan had managed to grab some nice seats right near the battle stage.
”Did you come early or something?”
”Mm... I came early in the morning since I didn't have any painting to do and I wanted to be front and center for your battles.”
”Just my battles? Aren't you going to join in?”
”No, of course not. I didn't even sign up to battle. I'm not like you, this monster, already at the advanced level stage five. Who could compare themselves to you? I'm definitely two years older but I'm still two stages below you. Even the magister level is such a far away thing for me, yet your already at the border.” Flipping his eyes in exasperation, Ronan just shook his head while looking at his friend. Comparisons are really odious.