The path to the capital required us to travel west from Reito, through several towns and trading hubs. Because we were travelling through the centre of the country, the roads were paved and monsters were rare. This made for smooth travel, though it wasn't as exciting and eventful as our travels to the border.

I tried to keep myself busy with skill progression, but the boredom was still settling in quickly, the days blending together slowly.

In the evenings, I would practice my [Overload Aura] more. I had recently learned to make more tangible constructs and used them to great effect on the bandits, but turning that into a new movement skill was another matter.

So far, I had learned to make small tangible clouds of mana in the air, that I could step on and propel myself off of, but they weren't quite what I had in mind. The vertical movement was nice, but I needed something that could allow me to dodge in a pinch, like Ueron's dashing skill.

I had tried launching myself with dark mana as he had, but the overloaded mana wasn't stable enough to rely on for such a skill. Sometimes it would grow unstable on its own, other times it would dissipate before I could propel myself.

That left me with some inspiration, though. My dark overloaded mana's chaotic behaviour was both a strength and a weakness. I might not be able to use it to make a reliable simple movement skill, but maybe more chaotic movement might make me a more unpredictable fighter, which was something I desperately needed.

That left me with several options. Regulating the mana in my legs to empower them specifically had yielded some interesting results on its own, but if I used overloaded mana instead, then I would shoot forward in the direction I pulled myself. My [Dark Form] would then expel the mana I used on its own, which was both a down- and upside, because it made my movement erratic.

All of this translated into me drowning my body with already expelled overloaded mana to strengthen my movement, making me shoot around the area randomly in a series of alternating long and short dashes. It used an absurd amount of mana for now, but it served the function I had hoped it would. Unfortunately, I had very little control over how far or in which direction my dashes would go.

Several uprooted trees and broken boulders later, I hadn't improved much. Still, the very basics of a foundation of a skill were there. Now I simply had to practice methodically to turn that into a skill, which would hopefully be a lot easier to control and a lot more mana-efficient.

The actual travel was a lot less fun, however. I would spend hours and hours just staring in front of me, not really looking at where I was going.

As I waited for something exciting to happen, I heard someone call out to me. I couldn't hear what they said, so I turned around and saw Cerion approach me on Alia's back.

"Hey there, Arthur. You're looking a little bored..."

"You could tell? This is the most tedious journey we've ever had. I can't wait until Revan can fly, then I won't need to put up with this stuff.", I replied.

He chuckled.

"Did you send that letter to your uncle back in Reito?"

I nodded. I still had mixed feelings about my uncle, but felt it was necessary to write to him anyway.

Dear uncle Robart,

This is your nephew, Arthur. I don't know if you remember me, since it has been such a long since we met, but you gave me a crystal when I was five. I'm writing you for two reasons.

First and foremost, I would like to let you know that I didn't waste your gift. All of my physical stats were above 20 when I awakened, resulting in a powerful class.

Unfortunately, my affinity turned my class into a slightly problematic one. Not to the point that it is illegal, but problematic to the point that strangers would distrust me based on it. I didn't believe it to be feasible to enter the Royal Academy as you recommended anymore, as a result. My apologies for disappointing you. I will speak of this matter in more detail when we next meet.

Instead, I joined the witch hunters' guild. I fit in well here, and have advanced rather quickly. I'm currently approaching the peak of tier 2, in fact. To display my strength and hopefully clear up any confusion my class might bring to the larger populace, I decided to join the Royal tournament that's being held this year. I am going to sign up with my best friend, Cerion Rass, the son of Duke Rass. Don't worry, while our meeting was premeditated on my part, the friendship that grew out of it I believe is genuine.

That brings me to my next reason for writing you. Duke Rass intended to get closer to the Royal faction through me and my connection with you. This is also how I found out that you are the captain of the royal guard. Before that, I had assumed that you were one of the lower-ranked guards, despite your title. I'm not sure how you feel about this, but I promise you Cerion is not as politically minded. That being said, I am told our performance in the tournament will represent the success of this renewed alliance to the other factions. That means we need to perform well.

Unfortunately, neither Cerion nor myself have been able to reach level 50 by this time. We are still missing eight levels. To remedy this, Cerion thought of contacting his father and you to possibly gain entry to a tier 3 royal dungeon, so that we can reach level 50 before the tournament.

We will be arriving in the Roa, as in 'the city Roa', a week before the tournament starts the sign-up process. Hopefully, we can meet in person, to discuss matters in further detail.

I am sorry that my first letter was sent for such a superficial reason, but I didn't know what else to do. Thank you, for everything.

Best regards,

Your nephew, Arthur.

I had spent far too much time writing that letter, scrapping multiple drafts before I felt satisfied. Even then, I was unsure how my uncle would respond, or if he would even respond at all. Our first contact in a decade, and I immediately mentioned politics. I wouldn't have liked to receive a letter like this if I was him, that was for sure.

I was somewhat envious of Cerion's own letter. For someone that claimed he wasn't close with his father, his letter sure was casual.

Hey, dad.

Arthur and I need your help. We're close to level 50, but not quite there yet. We were thinking of using connections to strong-arm our way into a royal dungeon for a week, because we're arriving at the capital a week early. Arthur is writing his uncle and I'm writing you, so help us out.

Thanks,

Your ever-lovely son,

Cerion

I scoffed and turned to the writer of said letter.

"I still find your letter to your dad a little disrespectful. This is a big favour we're asking for.", I said.

Cerion chuckled.

"Not really... If two tier 6s ask for entrance to a tier 3 dungeon for a week, no one will even ask them for anything in return. It's a pretty small matter, to be honest. The only reason we both had to ask is that those royal dungeons specifically are wrapped up in so much red tape you could make a troll a shirt out of it.", he replied.

"Make a troll a...? You know what? Forget it. Let's just hope all of this political posturing pays off. I'll be happy as long as we win the doubles tournament."

"Looking forward to the prize, huh?", Cerion teased.

"Prize? Now that I think of it, what is the prize of winning the tier 2 bracket? You never told me anything about it."

"Oh yeah! I completely forgot to tell you didn't I? The people that win the doubles tournament get a piece of equipment that the judges think suits them and a monetary reward. The singles tournament winner, which is the most prestigious title, gets a chance to enter the Royal armoury and can pick one item to take out of it. That will then be their prize. Because there are only three brackets for the tournament, tier 2, 3 and 4, only three people get this chance every five years. That's the real goal!"

The royal armoury, huh? That place could potentially store dark-aligned equipment seized from rogue dark-aligned class holders. It seemed like the perfect place to get my hands on an item that synergised with my affinity, maybe even with my tendency to overload...

My ambition to win the singles tournament reignited. It was about more than pride and a cleared reputation now. It was about treasure!

A few days later, we had reached the halfway point. As we were setting up camp on top of a grassy hill, I found Michael resting near a lone tree, reading a book. This had become a common sight on our journey. Hardly a moment passed where he wasn't studying, even when he was riding on Revan's back, who he had now gotten used to.

I approached him and pulled his book out of his hands.

"Hey! Give that back!", he said as he jumped after it. Too bad for him, he was too short to reach it as I held it up to the sky.

"Michael, you've been doing nothing but studying since we left Reito. I understand you want to do well and pass the exams, but there's more to life than just knowledge and power. Trust me, I learned that the hard way."

Unfortunately, my sincere lesson didn't quite touch Michael's heartstrings, as I had hoped. Kids these days, huh.

"You just don't get it! Mages need to know how magic works before they can improve their skills! I need to become a mage when I awaken, don't you understand that?"

I scoffed and pushed Michael down, forcing him to sit. I gave him his book back and sat next to him, sighing.

"If there is anyone you know who understands the feeling of wanting to achieve something, it's me. Trust me, everything you're doing now? I've done it too, just using different methods. Thing is, when I eventually did get a good class and headed out into the wider world, I learned that there are many beautiful and fun things out there. The overwhelming majority of them are more worthwhile than what I had worked so hard to gain. I'm not saying there's no point in gaining power ambitiously, quite the opposite in fact. You just need to keep in mind why you want to reach those heights, and what you want to achieve using that power."

Michael blinked back at me innocently.

"But I already know what I want to achieve!"

I was stumped.

"You do?", I asked incredulously. I didn't even know what I wanted yet, myself. Protect my family, I guess. But I could have done that by staying home, too.

"Yup! I want to be like you! I want to fight the bad guys and save people! I want to be a hero!"

"Huh. That's... nice of you."

I felt a little proud, being called a hero. It had never been one of my aspirations to be seen as such, even as a kid. Now that I was a young adult, and had a class that made getting such a title all but impossible, I didn't even dare to imagine myself as a hero. Yet, here was this kid that looked at me with a sparkle in his eyes.

To him, I was a hero?

Sure enough, to him, I was a hero!