"SHIT, I DID IT!!"

There is a blob of water floating above my hand right now. Honestly, I didn't expect to suddenly learn water magic so fast, I mean it hasn't even been 15 minutes since I started training this morning.

I woke up this morning to the sunlight shining through the windows, went to get breakfast which consist of some soup and bread, I immediately went to the adventurer guild to find Elena to continue learning magic.

"See, I told you feeling mana was the hard part."

Elena is just as beautiful today, showing her excitement through her smug grin.

"Now check your status, you should have learned water magic."

I quickly try to bring up my status screen.

Human Male

Age: 18

Magic Level:   Water Lv.1

Unique Magic:   Identify

Oh, by the way, I did use Identify this morning on Elena, and these were the results.

Human Female

Age: 28

Magic Level:   Fire Lv. 56   Wind Lv. 42   Water Lv.2   Earth Lv.1   Electric Lv.1   Healing Lv.5   Dark Lv.1   Light Lv.1   Nature Lv.1

Unique Magic:

 

Seems like healing magic is separate from light magic. Weird.

"Yep, it's there."

"Great! Now you just need to learn one more magic before you can start your adventure."

Adventuring around with level one magic seems risky if you ask me though.

"Shouldn't I train and level up my magic a bit first?"

In return for my question is the sound of laughter.

"Hahaha, you wish Aster. If everyone could just train their levels that easily, then adventuring wouldn't be such a risky job now would it?

I still have a confused face on me as I look at Elena to continue.

"You see, levels can only go up after you accumulate enough experience with each magic. And the only way to gain experience is through killing.

Elena turns into serious mode Elena and stares straight at me.

"That includes other people, if you kill them you can gain experience, but of course it is also a heinous crime and will land you straight into the wanted list if found out. That's why people go to the dungeons, kill monsters, get stronger, and you may even get some awesome loot and get rich overnight."

I nod, showing I understood that she meant that as a warning; what I shouldn't do, and be careful of are some the dangerous people out there willing to do anything to get stronger.

"So is that all adventurers do"

"Haha of course not. Dungeons is a big part of all adventurers as its the shortcut to getting stronger, but we also take requests from people as it usually pays better. Though you would have to get stronger and have to rank up first before being able to take on any requests."

I take a bite at the opportunity to ask the question that I was curious about since meeting Elena.

"How do adventurer ranks work anyway?"

"...Aster you really don't know anything do you?"

I shrug as I didn't really want to come up with an excuse for my lack of knowledge.

"...Sigh, adventurers are classified into different ranks by the guild, the higher the rank, the more powerful and trustworthy that adventurer is. The ranks go from 1-10, but there hasn't been any rank 10s for over a century apparently, you can tell the rank of adventurers by the guild badge they have. Here take a look."

Elena pulls out the badge she was wearing around her neck, I sure didn't notice that as I probably was too busy staring at her chest...

The badge looked to be made of silver and on it was engraved a picture a tree, the same one the represents the adventurer guild, but the thing that stood out the most was the six bright red fruits on the tree.

Seeing my attention on the fruits Elena continues to explain.

"Everyone two ranks, the materials the badge is made of changes from iron, bronze, silver, gold, plat, and up to diamond for the legendary rank 10. The easiest way to tell an adventurer's rank beside the material of the badge is to look at how the number of fruits on their badge."

I handed the badge back after taking a closer look. Seeing I lost interest in further expanding on the topic, Elena gets back on track.

"Anyways, let's have you learn your second magic, it shouldn't take long, which element do you want to learn this time?"

Before that, I needed to test out something with water magic first.

"Teacher Elena, I wanted to learn more about water magic, is the water drinkable?"

"Of course, lots of adventurers rely on it as a source of drinking water you know."

"Then is the water conductible?"

"Conductible? What do you mean?"

What I wanted as my second magic was electric magic and it would only work if the water I create from water magic is conductible. If its pure water it wouldn't work but seeing as people drink it, I assume there are minerals in it, as drinking pure water isn't healthy.

"Do you happen to know electric magic?"

"I know it, but I am nowhere near proficient at it."

Elena quickly replied, curious about what I'm up to.

"That's enough, can you please apply the smallest amount of electricity that you can into this bucket of water?"

I quickly create some water magic and fill the small bucket nearby. Elena doesn't bother to question me creates some whitish bluish electricity in front of her hands as she tries to lower its power.

I bring the bucket right in-between us and put a finger in the water. I'm not really sure how to test else to test its conductivity except for this dumb and direct method. Lets hope teach brought the power low enough or I'm fucked.

Elena manages to control the electricity globe into the size of a pea now before looking at me for confirmation. I nod, and she launches the electricity into the water. I instantly feel a burning tingle and quickly pull my hand from the water, thankfully the burning only went up to my elbows.

Well, that didn't go too bad, I've touched exposed cables when my friend's rabbit chewed up the plastic cover, and that shock went all the way up to my shoulder.

"...Perfect"

Elena looked at me strangely, clearly seeing that just hurt me and I was now grinning, being all happy about it.

"I'm going to learn electric magic."

I ignore her look and immediately attempt to generate electricity with my mana.

"Are you sure? I mean it's up to you, but people usually pick one magic with good offensive potential and one for either defense and hindering enemies. Both water and electric is great for the latter but doesn't hit very hard."

I stop what I'm doing and look at her.

"Don't hit very hard? Can't I make ice with water magic and burn things with electric?"

"...Umm, you can but that requires changing the properties of your magic or focus it on one point which will require a lot of mana until you get a lot of practice and be able to imagine more efficiently. To make water ice you have to make it colder, coldness is a pretty vague concept itself, not to mention elec-----!"

Midway through her explanation, I tried to invoke water magic and turn it to ice. I close my eyes feel my connection with my magic and imagine all the H2O molecules moving around. I try to slow their speed and bring them closer to each other as much as I can.

I open my eyes at the sound of surprise from Elena and look into the ball-shaped ice, it feels nostalgic it was just yesterday that I would ice into my drinks. And now I can create that same ice through magic. Ice get.

"Aster you... didn't you just learn water magic..."

Elena looked at me astonished, with her mouth wide open. I guess this world doesn't really study science, well I guess they don't have a reason to study it as they can do so many things with magic already.

"Haha... I'm a genius at ice magic I guess?"

Elena recollects herself and stare at me strangely, seeming to want to say something but ends up giving up.

I ignore her and continue my attempt at learning electric magic.

It took another five minutes before I created a whitish bluish ball above my hand, just like Elena did earlier, albeit a bit smaller.

"...Sigh, anyway, congratulations on qualifying to become an adventurer, take this paper and return it to the information desk and they will deal with the registration process."

I take the paper from Elena who starts murmuring something.

"BONUS BONUS BONUS, YAY!"

I try to ignore how she started jumping around like a little girl, I guess she gets a bonus for completing my training within a certain time limit.

As I start to turn my back and make my way towards the guild, Elena's energetic voice rings in my ear.

"Remember Aster to keep training, even though leveling up in magic gives you better stronger control and more power at less mana cost, it won't give you the techniques on how to control your magic. If you want to do any of that fancy tricks you talked about like splitting a fireball mid-flight, you're going to need to keep up with your training every day."

I turn back to Elena and bow deeply to her.

"Its been a short while, but thank you for everything you have done for teacher Elena, I won't forget your lessons."

She smiles warmly like a parent watching their child grow up.

"Go, and its just Elena from now on, I'm done being your teacher."

I return the smile and head back into the guild.

---

I see the same duo working at the information desk, the veteran middle-aged man, Lawrence, and the cat man. I make my way up to Lawrence and hands over the paper that marks my approval from my mentor.

"Done already? Congratulations."

Lawrence professionally takes the paper, confirm it's contents and stamp on another piece of paper that he hands to me.

"Fill out the registration form and you will be a rank 1 adventurer starting from today."

I glance over the form, it asks for some basic information about me and some that are optional like what magics are your good at and things like that. I guess its the norm to keep your cards hidden even to the guild.

I fill out the form and triple check everything is correct before handing it back to Lawrence.

"Here's your badge that can double as an ID card if asked for your identification, it's a magic item so replacements will be expensive. The board over there beside the lineup is where the requests are posted, but you're too low rank to take anything proper requests besides cleaning the sewers."

He points to a large wall with a huge bulletin board that's decorated with paper nailed onto it, sure is a lot of requests.

"The reference room is up the stairs near the entrance to the training ground on the second floor, I advise checking it out first as it has information about all the known dungeons in the area. Its all free of charge as long as you don't take any books out if the room."

Lawrence patiently explains to me and gives me advice, what a nice guy.

"Most adventurers usually form a party and sticks with the same people for the majority of their adventuring life, so most are formed between friends and family, people you can trust. Looking at you though, you probably don't got anyone, do you?"

Ouch, maybe not so nice after all.

"You're going to find it hard to join a party without having some social skills and charm, seeing how you don't have any of those, I would recommend training on the first floors of some of the easier dungeons."

You're starting to get annoying with how you're basically telling me I'm a loser and keep rubbing it in. Fuck you.

"It's not all bad adventuring alone, you get more experience to yourself as well as the loot, though the risks are also much higher. Anyway, remember to extract mana crystals from near the brain of the monster you defeat, that's the only thing you will be able to carry en masse to take out of a dungeon."

Lawrence hands me a small knife, is he being nice and gifting it to me or is does the guild provide it?

"If you want to sell the crystals, you get to join that huge line over there and wait for your turn. I advise against selling it to anyone but the guild as its most often shady and dangerous, and the guild pays a fair price and will record it on your track record for your promotion up. That's the easiest and most stable way towards getting your guild rank higher, the higher the rank you get more benefits like higher price the guild offers for the crystal you sell."

I nod at Lawrence and wears my iron guild badge around my neck with the thin iron chain it's attached to, the part the stands out the most is the glaring red spot, depicting a fruit. I guess this is my adventurer starting point.