Chuck headed to his combat casting class. So far his day had been going amazing. He made amazing strides in producing spells from base elements, he had a fantastic conversation with Harlo that may have led to the rediscovery of how magical items and dimensional storage items were created, and he had a wonderful meal.

So when he arrived in class and the teacher was talking to a man with a feathered cap and had a sour look on his face, Chuck knew something was up. He sat down next to Vigo to see if he could wheedle out any information.

"What's got the teacher so upset, he usually loves combat casting class?" Chuck asked, knowing that the reason the teacher loved the class was that he got to watch us all suffer. The man was a bit of a sadist.

"No idea. But the man he is talking to is General Frebor."

Chuck nodded, while there had been a bit of animosity between the two it had faded as classes continued. Chuck chalked it up to the camaraderie that formed between people forced to suffer together.

All of the quiet whispering among the students stopped as soon as the teacher turned to address the class.

"Class this is General Frebor, leader of the third division. Today he is here to talk about some important news."

The teacher gestured for the General to step forward. The man had black hair with the start of grey streaking near his temples and stood maybe a hundred and sixty-eight centimeters. While he was short for a man he exuded a domineering presence with his heavily muscled frame and raptor-like gaze.

"As Rudian here has told you, I am General Frebor," the man said in a commanding tone.

Chuck was more surprised at learning the teacher's name.

The General continued. "Some of you may have heard rumors recently of troop movements in Vitor."

The General paused to let the words sink in. "The rumors are true, our spies indicate that they are gearing up for war. We have not received a formal declaration of war from them as of yet. Now you may ask, why is a General relaying all of this to a bunch of students? Because... our King has decided that we have suffered enough of their posturing. He is currently drafting the documents to declare war and call up the Tower."

The entire class started murmuring angrily at this declaration. Chuck just sighed, of course, nothing was ever easy.

"Silence!" the teacher yelled, getting the attention of the class again.

"Since you are the most highly trained students in combat operations we are here to offer you a choice. Enlist today and receive a position as an officer or be drafted in a few weeks as a front-line mage. Just know that if you fail in your posting as an officer you will be immediately bumped down to the front line. Oh, and don't bother trying to shirk your duty, all mages have tracking spells placed on them as soon as they join the Tower."

The General snapped his fingers and the same group of mages we fought and couldn't defeat before, stepped out from one of the side hallways. "You have until the end of the day to decide. Report to one of these six when you have made your choice."

That was the final word, the General turned and left, the six soldiers saluting him as he walked past.

Chuck had a choice to make. Sure he could try and run but he believed the General and he didn't want to fight any of those six mages if he could avoid it. That left him with two choices. Either he could join up to be an officer in charge of others or as fodder tossed into the front lines. Most would jump at the first offer but Chuck wasn't sure he wanted responsibility for other's lives.

He really wished that Mellas and the others were here to talk with.

The class was dismissed and Chuck watched Vigo and Jala walk up to enlist without a second of hesitation. He sighed, hoping they realized what they were getting into. Chuck left to think about his choices.

He decided to think while he trained, heading towards one of the training rooms. Magic training wasn't going to clear his head today so he just went through sword forms until he was dripping sweat and his arms felt like lead. When that wasn't enough he cast every spell in his arsenal.

That may have been a mistake as he had to throw up a kinetic barrier to keep the fragments from scatter bolt from peppering him. The room was too small for spells of that nature but it did finally bring him back to the present and helped him make a choice.

By the time he left the training room the sun was setting. Chuck made his way over to the arena to talk with the soldiers.

Only the six remained in the arena, sitting at a table and playing cards while they waited.

As soon as Chuck entered they looked up.

"It's your turn Garrin," one of the women said.

"Dammit," one of the men said, slapping down his hand and walking over.

"So, you ready to serve the kingdom?"

"No, I don't want to be in charge of others but I also don't want to be fodder for the front lines."

"That's the first intelligent thing I've heard from your class. Too many people think war is for their own personal glory. So, if you don't wish to be an officer, what do you want to be?"

"Um..."

"That was rhetorical, you showed up, so now you're an officer whether you like it or not. Welcome to the army," he said, laughing at me as he walked back to the table.

'Well... Fuck.'

Chuck was handed an order slip and told to report in seven days at the barracks. Other than classes and a few items he didn't have much to do for seven days.

Chuck hadn't noticed the change at the Tower since he was in a training room all day. It was clear now that the word was spreading about the war. A notice had been posted in the mess hall and by each dorm, notifying the students of the royal decree. They had three weeks to show up for training or a team would be dispatched to bring them in.

As soon as Chuck entered his dorm room it was clear that some people had packed up and run off. Footlockers were open and items deemed unnecessary had been scattered about the floor. It appeared that someone had broken into Chuck's footlocker and his bag had been taken along with everything in it.

Chuck did not want to deal with this bullshit right now but he needed it back. Whoever took the bag also found his stash of money and the portal mirrors. Too bad for them, Chuck had coated all of his items in his mana.

He was glad he always wore his armor and sword otherwise they probably would have stolen that as well.

Chuck followed the trail for an hour before he tracked it to a small unassuming building. He already had his elemental shield and harden skin up just in case this thief decided to resist.

Chuck opened the door and he saw three men arguing with a fourth man wearing a robe.

"So, this is where my stolen items have ended up."

The three men looked like deer caught in headlights as they stared dumbfounded at Chuck. The mage and thief spun around and tried to cast a spell at him. Chuck had been ready, deconstructing the rock spear with little effort.

"That wasn't very nice. Look, just give me my stuff back and my money and you can be off to do whatever," Chuck said.

Unfortunately, the mage's actions broke the other three from their stupor. Two pulled out long knives and the third pulled out a truncheon.

Chuck sighed audibly, "look, fellas, I'm here for this idiot," he said gesturing to the nervous mage, that he didn't even know the name of. "If you get involved I am not going to go easy," Chuck added, forming an ice arrow in his hand.

Chuck made it easy for them to decide, stepping away from the only entrance to the building. The mage tried to bolt toward the door, only to have Chuck's spell smash into the floor in front of him.

"Not, you!" Chuck added, anger creeping into his voice.

"You're on your own kid," one of the men said as they ran toward the exit.

Chuck didn't trust that these men wouldn't come back while he was occupied so he shut the door behind him and moved to the opposite side, all the while keeping his eyes on the other mage.

"Look... um I don't know your name."

The kid, Chuck thought of him, even though he looked to be older than Chuck, kept his mouth shut but eyed the door.

"Ok... Noname. Do you know what specialty I chose? No, well I'll tell you. I'm part of the warcraft specialization."

Chuck watched the man stiffen at that proclamation.

'At least he wasn't a complete idiot,' Chuck thought.

"I can see by your dark grey robes that you're part of the magicraft specialty. A noble calling and I assume that is how you figured out what those mirrors were. But, we both know who would win if we fought. Now I've had a shitty day due to this stupid war proclamation and would love to blow off some steam but I have stuff to get done so I would be forced to just decimate you. So do us both a favor, drop my bag, items, and gold and get. The. Fuck. Out!"

This seemed to finally get through to Noname as he set all of Chuck's items on the ground. He held his hands up as he shuffled towards the door. The mage bolted to safety as soon as he could fit through the door.

After the door swung shut, Chuck released the tension in his body. He also canceled the pressurized water blade spell that he had prepared. While chuck didn't want to have to kill the man, especially over something as petty as some gold and items, he was prepared for that eventuality. Chuck was glad it hadn't come to that. He walked over and retrieved his items, checking that everything was there. Unfortunately, it appeared the man had been liberal with the coin. Only five out of the twenty gold was left, along with the five silver.

Chuck sighed again, adding the gold to his other gold. He hoped it was enough to get the spells he wanted before he was sent off to war.

It took Chuck a good portion of the day to find a skill shop that sold the spells he had been looking for. The two healing spells ended up costing him six gold in total, the price driven up by the looming war. Chuck inspected the two spells after adding them to his skill list.

Name: Cleanse

Rarity: Uncommon

Level: 0 - 5

Status: Active

Stat: Willpower

SP to Next level: 500

Description: Cleanses the target's body of minor poisons, toxins, and diseases.

Chuck knew that diseases still existed in this world and they tended to crop up in battles where open wounds were prevalent. That made this spell a must in his eyes.

Name: Mend

Rarity: Rare

Level: 0 - 3

Status: Active

Stat: Willpower

SP to Next level: 1000

Description: Mend flesh and bone back together slowly.

Chuck purchased this skill to cover the deficiencies with minor heal. What he hadn't expected was the feeling of synergy between these skills and minor heal. From his previous exploits, he could tell that all of the skills had to be max level before they could be combined. This was also the first combination of spells that consisted of rare spells and more than two spells. Chuck didn't look forward to the effort that it was going to take to combine these three abilities together.

Now it was time to decide if he wanted to train the skill now or wait for hide in plain sight to finish training. He looked at the remaining time left on the skill, five and a half days remained. Chuck didn't like how close that was to the day he needed to report in. Chuck did some quick math, a little under seven days to complete both skills. That made his choice for him as he paused hide in plain sight to start training cleanse.

This should leave him enough time to combine the spells before he needed to report. He could only hope that it would be enough to keep him alive in the battles to come.