In less than a week Wolf had learned three new spells and managed to ignore a couple of his father’s lectures. Wolf’s arsenal of Second Order spells now included Mage Armor, Mage Shield, Grease as well as Fleet of Foot.

Mage Armor and Mage Shield created Soul Force defenses that guarded against physical attacks. Grease would make a surface or even a creature slippery, while Fleet of Foot allowed you to move somewhat faster for several hours per casting. Archibald claimed that Grease had saved his life on a number of occasions when he was younger. Wolf guessed that his father didn’t have cooking oil and used magic so that meat doesn’t stick, or something along those lines. After the whole story with Detect Poison being the most useful First Order spell, Wolf started taking everything his father said about magic with a grain of salt.

Wolf was currently working on figuring out the Second Order spell called Magic Dart, which created a number of darts and sent them stabbing at the target with practically no chance of missing. Wolf was very excited about it because Frost Ray and Acid Blob greatly lacked accuracy the further the target was. If they had had the homing property of the Magic Dart they would’ve been a whole lot more useful…

It was late in the afternoon and Archibald suddenly stopped mid march. The big man motioned Wolf to stay silent and stop muttering the incantation he had been droning on since the sun rose. After looking left and right for a moment the big man stalked off into the dense undergrowth without making a sound. Archibald preferred them to travel through areas with shrubbery and avoided the parts of the forest that allowed a lot of visibility, such as the areas under those towering trees.

As Wolf was waiting for his father and thinking why they were intentionally making their journey more difficult he heard a muffled attempt at a scream.

“Hum…!” The dampened cry started, but turned into quiet gurgling a moment later. Wolf could clearly hear the bubbling noise mixed with wheezing. It was coming from the nearby bush and a moment later his father emerged from that direction. He held a bloody dagger in his right, while his left hand was painted crimson.

“Follow me Wolf. We have to move fast. Cast Fleet of Foot.” The big man whispered as a cloth appeared in his hand. After taking a moment to clean his hands and the dagger both the weapon and the rag vanished.

Wolf had obediently cast the spell in the meantime. Then, Archibald rushed through the forest at a pace Wolf found difficult to follow despite the magic giving him an extra push to move faster. Half a minute later a small leather pouch appeared in Archibald’s hand. He took a pinch of green powder from the bag and sprinkled it behind them.

The trail they had left slowly disappeared before Wolf’s eyes. The blades of grass they had stepped on straightened themselves up and the footprints melded into the soft soil. As far as Wolf could see, at least the last one hundred meters worth of tracks had disappeared. His father repeated the process a dozen times before finally seeming to relax a bit.

“Dad, what happened?” Wolf asked, seeing his father finally slow his pace.

“There was a hunter stalking prey near us. Fortunately, I was the one that heard him first.”

“Did you make him die?”

“I did. He could have become a problem for us later on. The word is kill, son. Kill.”

Wolf nodded. In his mind death wasn’t that big of an issue. Sure, he couldn’t see his mom, but he had also experienced death once. As far as Wolf was concerned all that death led to was this great life he was living now. Granted, because of death, he didn’t remember much from his previous life. Also, it would have been better if he could see his mother. But all things considered, this was a very nice life. Going through the forest with his dad on an adventure to become a Mage and a Sword-Sage could be described as a dream life for most four year olds, even without the Sword-Sage part.

“Today we walk as long as you can endure. We need to put some distance between us and that hunter’s body. I’ve erased some two kilometer’s worth of tracks, but there’s no guarantee that’s enough.” Archibald spoke solemnly, but Wolf saw it in a different light.

Wolf took his father’s words as a challenge. Up until now they would hike for two to three hours before taking a long break. Then they would repeat this process as long as there was any light in the forest.

Now that he had a goal, Wolf’s heart pounded with excitement. He wanted to see how long he could walk without stopping. The father and son pair walked until it was dark and they were forced to make camp. Wolf was exhausted. They covered roughly twenty-five kilometers in just under six hours. Fleet of Foot had ended roughly half way through. Otherwise they would have covered even more ground.

As Archibald was setting up camp Wolf cleared his throat. He knew that before a person said something important they had to clear their throat.

“Dad, I’ve been thinking. How about I prepare three Fleet of Foot spells tomorrow? We can move faster that way.”

Archibald smiled. He had thought of this as soon as he taught Wolf the spell, but he had wanted Wolf to come up with the idea on his own. Even in the most ideal scenario, Archibald would just barely see Wolf turn twelve before kicking the bucket. So he needed his son to learn to think about things for himself.

“That sounds like a great idea! It would be even better if you could learn spells of third and then Fourth Order. There is a spell of Fourth Order called Greater Fleet of Foot. It would double your speed and it lasts more than twice as long as the version you know currently.”

“That sounds great! Why isn’t that the spell of the Second Order? It would have been much more convenient.” Wolf was confused. Why make a regular and then a greater version? Why not simply start off with the greater version and be done with it? Is there a Greatest Fleet of Foot then?

Archibald chuckled when he heard the question. “Well, you see there is a good explanation. Mages originally only thought of spells as something for combat or evading combat. Following this line of thought the first movement spell ever invented was Swift Escape…”

Wolf zoned out and started practicing Mirror Image, a spell of Third Order his father had shown him.

“Hey! Are you listening to me? I’m telling you important things about magic!” Archibald grumbled with dissatisfaction.

“Sorry dad. I just don’t understand why that’s more important than learning a new spell.” Wolf said in an apologetic tone, but with as much apology as a well trained parrot saying the words.

“I didn’t tell you?” Archibald intentionally made an overly confused expression and rubbed his chin like he was deep in thought.

“I was certain I mentioned it several times while we were hiking.” The man was still mussing and looking up at the branches and the leaves above them.

I didn’t listen before either. Wolf thought, but knew that’s not something he should say. In Wolf’s mind that was like begging to be spanked.

“So, why is it important?” The boy took the bait and asked.

Archibald harrumphed.

“Well, if you have an understanding of how other people have created their spells, then you can apply it to create your own spells.”

Wolf took a moment to process this sentence. The result of that processing blew Wolf’s mind. But Archibald just kept talking at a considerably slower pace than usual.

“That way you can make your own wordless, motionless spells. Naturally that is assuming you have the time to waste on such things. You should know that making your own changes to spells takes a lot more time than learning an already completed spell someone else had made for themselves.”

“However, this tiny bit of editing is still far simpler than making a brand new spell without using any other as a source of inspiration. Spells generally have chants and gestures for ease of learning and use. That is why removing these components makes a spell more difficult to cast, which we then compensate for by increasing its Order…”

Wait. Dad was telling me useful things when he kept on talking without end?!

“Wait Dad! What’s editing? What’s brand? What’s source? What’s inspiration?…” Wolf started asking a bunch of questions about the mumbo-jumbo words his father used. A while later Wolf confirmed that what his father had said really was of use to him.

“Dad, could you please tell me everything you’ve told me since you started teaching me magic? Just one more time? Please? But, talk slower. I have questions. A lot of questions.” Wolf asked sheepishly, but Archibald grinned inwardly.

Hook line and sinker…

“Sure. Even if I don’t mention a single topic of magic, you will hear it eventually. You see, once you get into the Mage Academy one lecturer or another will at some point repeat everything I have said. And they might even do it more than once. It’s just that they do it over the course of several years and not a couple of months. The Mage Academy generally has a problem because students hardly pay any attention to the beautiful things they can learn and just focus on learning new spells…”

“I honestly don’t know why that is. I mean the theory behind magic is much more fascinating than just simple spells you have to learn eventually. As for me saying all that stuff again, it’s not a problem.”

In fact, all I’ve done these past five months was just going through the lectures I used to give back in the day. Well, at least you’re hooked now and you’ll pay attention to what I say.

“We’re close to that land of inheritance you mentioned. I’ll go through everything again on the way back. But you have to listen carefully. Do you hear?” Archibald feigned a strict tone of voice and wagged his fat finger at his boy.

“Yes dad.” Wolf bobbed his head obediently.

“Good now, here are the basics. The highest Order of spell you can cast depends on the number of columns in your Mind Hall. For instance you can’t cast spells of Fifth Order until the fifth column appears no matter how hard you study. On the other hand, if you have eight columns it would take a relatively minor effort for you to learn spells of up to Sixth Order. After that it gets more difficult. Considering your talent and number of columns as well as other circumstances you will probably need a year or so to learn spells of the Third Order and probably two to three more to learn spells of the Fourth Order…”

“Dad what is…” Archibald started, but Wolf interrupted him asking about various unknown terms the man had mentioned.

“… making a breakthrough in spell Order you’re already eligible for is considerably easier than developing your Mind Hall. Mind Hall is developed in several ways. Impactful experiences are a definite way to expand your Mind Hall. The problem is that these are different for everyone. The most universally applicable instance would be the death of a loved one.” After saying this Archibald fell silent for a moment for two reasons.

He realized that at least one of Wolf’s columns must have manifested after his mother’s death. The other reason was that his original plan of silently hanging himself somewhere where Wolf couldn’t find him had now changed. He realized that he could help Wolf even in his final moments. In Archibald’s opinion trading some time of his already dragged out life for a benefit for his child was well worth it.

Archibald cleared his throat before continuing. “You can also enhance your Mind Hall by experiencing enlightenment. Enlightenment is difficult and apparently random. You need to see or hear something that will give you a bout of inspiration, an epiphany. If this happens you have to seize the opportunity immediately or it will go to waste. It happened to me only once…

Also there are all sorts of potions, pills and other forms of drugs that can enhance various aspects of a person, including their Mind Hall. The most famous being…”

Archibald's lessons:

There are no set standards one should meet to be considered a World Power in this modern era. A true World Power used to be an Edict-Maker grade Mage. A manling capable of reshaping the laws of the world and bending them to suit their will. But such a creature is nothing more than legend nowadays.

The title of World Power is given to those with extraordinary personal power. Generally, a manling that can control the ten empires of man if he or she so chooses. If you're born in the wrong era you could end up being an underling, when in a different era you could've been the one to rule the world.