(Jason, 16)

"This week," our Alchemy professor announces as she enters the lecture hall, which confuses me. This is the first lesson on Monday and we have her lesson in the afternoon on Thursdays. "We will be brewing mana potions. Now, can anyone other than Master Jeshema explain the benefits and negatives to using mana potions?"

Several of my fellow students raise their hands.

"Mistress del Tiffany," the professor says. "What are they?"

"Benefits," Jennifer responds. "Include restoring used mana. During a drawn-out fight, they can prove beneficial, allowing mages and warriors to recover the mana necessary to keep fighting. However, there are several downsides to them. They do not restore much mana, they take around a minute to restore your mana, and the potion can make you sick. Most people can only tolerate one or two minor mana potions a day, which makes them impractical. The higher your magical power, the more you might be able to mana, however, the mana potion you consume must be closer to your magical power in its natural coloration in order to minimize the effect. More powerful mages require better-quality mana potions. A violet would become violently ill upon drinking a red mana potion."

"Indeed," the professor tells us. "And all of you are at least orange, with many of you at yellow or above, so the common mana potion would not do for you. Can anyone else tell me what the negatives are? Yes, Mistress del Lydia?"

"Yes," Kayla stands up. She would know, if she's recovered those memories. Kayla's a Magus, and we all knew about mana potions. We never used them and try to deny their existence. "Mana potions are essentially poison to the human body. Someone who uses one is effectively forcing foreign mana into their body."

"Well, yes," the professor begins as Kayla sits down.

"In fact," Tasha stands up. Here we go! Time for the Magi to do their thing and annoy someone! "Using mana potions can actually decrease your ability to regenerate mana, shape it, and even hold it, decreasing your mana pool."

"Those effects," the professor says as Tasha sits down. "Are much less common if mana potions are used sparingly, only on the rare occasion."

"Mana potions also," Adam rises. "Possess a slight addictive quality to them. So people who use them more often are more likely to use them again, even when not necessary. This increases the risk of damaging one's mana capacity, regeneration, and shaping."

Adam sits, and the professor goes to open her mouth.

"Furthermore," Lina stands up. "Because your body can't truly assimilate or use foreign mana, the ill effects Jennifer mentioned aren't just 'make you sick'. Vomiting is among them, but so is passing out, bloody coughs, crippling headaches, temporary or permanent paralysis, and more."

I raise my hand as Lina sits down.

"Yes, Master Jeshema?" The professor sighs.

"You won't be able to win an argument favoring the use of mana potions against the five of us," I inform her. Everyone agreed in a meeting on Sorday, only Jacob and Niko absent, that we could reveal the rest of them to be Magi. "During the war, gods would trick or force humans who were growing too powerful into using mana potions in order to cripple their magical abilities. All of us Magi have a strong aversion to them. More like an absolute hatred of them. It can take years – decades, even – to recover from the damage they can cause. Honestly, I doubt any of us will even make one, so unless you come up with an alternative, you're going to have to fail five students before we even begin."

The other Magi in here confirm this, and the professor looks rather uncertain about things now. She has probably never had to deal with students who would refuse to make potions, especially not nearly a quarter of her class.

But by the way the others reacted, I know they have all recovered the memories of a certain camp of angels run by a quartet of gods. The humans there all had the potential to be powerful – each one was descended from generations of warriors and mages serving the gods. As a result, it built their power levels up beyond yellow, which was the threshold gods felt comfortable with them at.

Only in rare cases, like the Magi before I found them, were they allowed to grow stronger. But because people with higher magical power are prone to breeding children with similar magical power levels, it was inevitable people would ascend past it.

So camps like that one were formed on both sides, where they would take those children and force them to drink the mana potions from a young age, not telling the kids what they did. It's one of the many reasons we hated the heavens and underworld.

The more I think over things, the more I know I'm probably going to do a pantheon reset again, then change up the fabric of gods. I'll save those gods who didn't fall into the cycle of darkness the current gods are in, but otherwise, the rest will be purged. If I do go through with this, after I ascend back to my true self.

Focusing back on the professor, I decide to listen to whatever decision she came to.

"Creating mana potions," she says. "Involves hunting specific creatures, such as trolls. This was going to be a training mission lasting several days this week. You were all made aware that we would be on a group trip this week and instructed to make necessary preparations. You will all be required to participate on this trip.

"However," she says. "There are Magi in the other university as well, and in their S-Class of the first-years, who were supposed to join us for this trip. It would not do to fail multiple students in both universities over something like this.

"Therefore," she says. "I will speak with the other professor in charge of this trip, and we will discuss what will happen."

Oh, right. I did forget about this trip. That explains why she's here. Well, I can head to Mar and work on the gates in the downtime. I should probably raise my hand first. Mama Elena will probably scold me if I just start disappearing on them.

"Yes, Master Jeshema?" The professor asks.

"I'm supposed to be constructing something in Mar in the evenings," I tell her. "A project that deals with the security of the kingdom. Mama Alyssa would do it, except she is busy performing security constructions here in Varilsy. Honestly, I almost gave the Admissions Director a note saying I had to miss university so I could work on this, because of the level of importance it holds for Mar's protection. Would I be able to still travel there to work on this? If not, I won't be able to attend this and will have to file a formal notice to the Attendance Director."

This isn't a lie. The gates are absolutely necessary for Mar to protect itself properly with the addition of Kelrar to its ranks and the stuff going on with Sar. While something like this might not count as an excuse to get out of lessons for work reasons, it does for security reasons. As I'm a foreigner in the first place, they also can't reject me working for another kingdom as a reason like they could with a native such as Alex.

Not that they would get away with that. Mar is an ally of Varil's, and they're in a state of war. Therefore, anyone performing official business to assist Mar would not be allowed to be penalized at university for it. Anything like that for a Varilan, though, would be something Uncle Zach had approved, and so the university would have received a message from him regarding their absence.

"That shouldn't be an issue," the professor tells me. "Though it may not be evenings when you have time, depending on how the hunts go."

"That's fine," I tell her. "As long as I can work on this every day, I should be fine. If I can't, I'll need to stop the trip and go to Mar to work on it alone."

"That is understandable," she tells me. "Ordinarily, this trip would last more than a month, to account for travel time, with several professors coming along to ensure your studies continue as we travel. However, thanks to the gate spell, we can reduce that travel time down to mere seconds rather than weeks. We compound several lessons into this trip, including how to fight higher-power monsters and monsters with more exotic attributes, such as trolls and their regeneration."

She talks for a few more minutes, then has us follow her out of the university. We meet up with the first-year S-Class students from the Royal Knight University, along with seventeen other professors, instructors, and Royal Guards. One of the four Royal Guards present opens an indigo gate, and we are all led through it.

Oh, we're in the Unwild Lands. Judging by the location, I would say we're around a hundred miles from the training camp, and around fifty or so from the Varilan border. This area has a decent-sized population of normal trolls.

"Alright, students!" One of the Royal Guards calls out as four of the instructors open up dimensional spaces and pull out camp supplies. "Start setting up camp! There are a total of forty-five of you, so three to a tent!"

Twenty-two mages and twenty-three warriors. Then minus Jacob and Niko, since they're both away right now. Then add Lina's two guards, who are naturally going to come on this trip with her. They will no doubt share her tent.

I pick Adam and Eden as my tent mates, so we set ours up. The tents are rather spacious, and we're given thick bedrolls to use to protect ourselves from the hard ground after we put down the canvas tarps for the floor.

"Jason," Adam sighs as I pull a trio of cots out of my spatial storage. "Do you really keep cots in your storage?"

"Yeah," I answer as we set up our cots and the bedrolls on them. "I have a dozen of them, and they'll be more comfortable than sleeping on the ground. Oh. We probably should have warned the professors that Kayla and Kyra shouldn't tent together."

They aren't betrothed or anything, but they are lovers.

"I told our instructor," Eden tells me. "I might not be a Magus, but even I could see that. He assured me he'd make sure they were separated. Even if there's a third person in a tent, that doesn't mean it will stop stuff between lovers."

"Yeah," I nod as I toss the provided pillow under the bedroll and pull one out from my spatial storage. Much fluffier. "I'm curious how things went in your lesson once the professor mentioned mana potions."

"It was a complete shutdown," Eden snorts. "The Magi present all started talking about how bad they were, the negatives, and that they shouldn't be used."

"Of course," Adam says. "Did they tell you why?"

"Something to do with the war," Eden nods.

"Yeah," Adam says, then explains about the camp we came across. "Honestly, only Jason knows how to make mana potions that don't do that. He's supplied all of us Magi with them, but we still have our aversion to it."

"You can make mana potions that don't?" Eden asks. "But you didn't mention-"

"One," I say. "You heard Adam say they're still averse to them. Two, they can only be consumed by one specific person each. A true mana potion uses the imbiber's mana. That's why there aren't severe negative effects – it's simply returning their mana to them. I know that most of the Magi would still probably prefer to simply drain the mana out of something to recover their own than use a potion."

"Drain… what?" Eden asks in shock.

"We can absorb mana out of living beings," Adam explains. "We didn't use it often. It converts the mana into our own as it enters us, but one downside to the spell is that once it starts, we cannot end it. And if someone hits true zero mana, they die. In other words, if we use it, the target dies. Normally, we only used it on our respective Sacred Beasts, as they had the most compatibility with us."

Like Niko and the gargoyles he took mana from after the first god attacked him.

"I need you three," an instructor from the other university pokes his head into our tent, then stares at the cots. "Why am I surprised by this? Why am I surprised you three have cots?"

"It's okay," I grin at him. "Everyone in my training group can solo-kill a troll."

Some of my advanced training sessions after the time the male Magi went up against trolls for training involved training against trolls. Mostly because it made me realize that I could use that as one easier training method than siccing another titan on them.

"Of course they can," he mutters. "Because we have students here with far more power than is normal in young adults. Okay, you three, we need you to gather with the rest of the Magi."

"I'm not one," Eden says. "I'm just a member of the training group."

"Ah," the instructor says. "Well, we need the Magi to gather."

The three of us leave the tent, and Adam and I join the other seven Magi present. The lead instructors for this camp are present, and I'm guessing they've finished discussing what we'll be doing instead of the mana potions.

"Alright," the instructor from the Royal Knight University says once Adam and I have joined the group. "We have discussed things, and we don't want to fail seven students. However, we're aware that we're in a unique situation. Ordinarily, we would force you to take the hit to your grade. With you seven, however, we can understand the reluctance to do this. We-is that a baby dragon?"

We all look at where he's looking, which is down by my feet. It appears Zevenas turned off his invisibility.

"That's Zevenas," we say in unison. "Ignore him."

"R-right," the instructor says as the professor from my university does her best not to laugh at his reaction to the presence of a baby dragon.

Zevenas tried eating a stack of tests she was grading last week, and that was her introduction to him. She already knew about him, though, as he made himself visible from time to time to say hi to people by way of rawring at them.

"Anyway," the professor says. "For you seven, we've come up with an alternative potion for you to create. It uses several of the same ingredients, and the difficulty is around the same."

"The raiimats potion?" I ask, and she gives me an unamused look. "It's not that far of a leap in conclusion if it's of similar difficulty and uses several of the same ingredients. It's the cure for the raiimats sickness. Mama Elena and I mixed up batches of it a few years ago when the illness was sweeping through the southern part of Varil and some of the nations further south. Papa Harold delivered it to the affected regions. We needed a lot of troll blood, so she sent me to gather some with Papa Samuel."

I can tell by the expressions on the instructors' faces that they don't know what to do with me now. I could have, of course, refrained from telling them I knew how to make it already, and that I had plenty of experience with it, but I feel like that would be cheating. They'd have figured it out once we actually went to make it, anyway.

"Can I just, I dunno, experiment around?" I ask. "I have limited to do it in the first place, but also have gallons of dragon blood to-erm."

Everyone is giving me strange looks.

"It's not dragon's blood," I say. "It's, uh, wyvern blood. Yeah. Wyvern blood."

"Jason," Lina coughs. "Jacob already reported to Papa about you killing a dragon. I believe the Royal Guards present for this camp may be aware of it already. Word will no doubt spread through Varil anyway."

"No, no, that was not a dragon," I say. "It was just a really, really big wyvern, and-"

"Jason," Connor says. "Remember when Alex and I stopped by this morning, and you were looking pretty exhausted? Your Mama Elena was in the middle of scolding you for staying up all night taking care of the corpse. And she very specifically said 'dragon'."

"She was mistaken."

"You killed a dragon?" Kayla asks.

"It went mad and was attacking Vora," I give up. "So I drew Erasnas and killed it."

"'Star Bringer'?" Elise asks, then the gazes of the Magi all turn to my sword. "That is what you named it?"

"I have a bad feeling about what it can do," Hailey says. "Considering what you did whenever you were acting as that title called you."

"It allows me to kill a dragon a little bit beyond what I could do unarmed," I respond. "So, I guess since the dragon's out of the sack, is it alright if I just, y'know, experiment with dragon's blood in alchemy? It's a rare reagent, and I don't want to waste it."

"During the parts relating to the mana potion," my professor decides. "But as long as you let me do some stuff, too."

I can tell she wants to try stuff with dragon's blood, too. Her eyes says it all.

"A single cup of dragon's blood is worth tens of thousand of varru," I state. "I made Mama Elena pay me for the barrels of it I gave her, and she's my mama. I killed this on my own time, not for a university lesson."

In other words, if she wants to use some, she'll have to pay. She can't make me let her use it for free, or it would be abuse of her authority as a professor. She can reject my proposal that I get to experiment with dragon's blood, but she can't make me let her use it in order for me to get to experiment.

"You can watch me, though," I tell her. "And grade me on my inventiveness and skill, as you'd do with others, even if my results will be unpredictable."

The other Magi give me uneasy looks, but it seems to be lost on the two instructors. A Royal Guard standing nearby notices it, though, and gives the professor an amused look. Will he tell her that they should probably ask the Magi why she might not want to be too close to me?

I hope not. I'll protect her from any resulting explosions that might occur, but she should learn on her own to notice the expressions of the Magi. They've all heard the stories of some of my failures. Like when Papa Jared told them about me overloading a mana battery and it exploded.

Erm. Okay, so maybe that isn't a story that should go around. People probably won't pay attention to the 'and that's why we put in a fail-safe to ensure they don't explode' portion of the story. But it's not like there aren't other stories they've heard from my mamas and papas. Like the one Mama Elena told them during the winter camp about the time I was mixing up a potion, put in the wrong ingredient, and the potion decided to burst, sending its contents everywhere.

Yeah, it's best if she doesn't get told. Every true alchemist knows accidents happen and acid burns through clothes.

"By the way," I say. "Your explanation of what we were doing here got side-tracked because of us Magi having issues with mana potions. It's more than just those, right?"

"Yes," she answers. "Actually, we need to discuss everything with everyone."

All of us students are gathered back up, and the instructors go over the rest of our plans for the week. In addition to hunting trolls and making mana potions, we are also learning how to guard a camp properly, gather certain dangerous plants, and hunt a few other types of beasts. We'll also make four other potions.

All things considered important for a Royal Slayer or Royal Guard. The Unwild Lands are perfect training for this, because of the high level of danger present and the numerous strong monsters that live within them.

There's a reason no one really settles in them, or tries to settle them.

"But the Sages live here?" A knight student asks the professors once everything is done. "Despite all the danger? Isn't that risky, even for them?"

"Yes," I answer. "Well, a few hundred miles away. They're capable, though, and there are ways to ward homes and properties against monsters. While they tend not to work against stronger beasts, the prey they hunt usually won't go near it, decreasing how much is there. And all of my mamas and papas are powerful fighters, even the non-combatants. It's relatively safe. I was even able to go out and do stuff unsupervised by the time I was ten."

"Jason," Elise clears her throat. "You, like the Sages, were at violet magical power. And a prodigy reincarnate of a prodigy god killer. The scale is a little skewed, there. You were fighting corrupted by the time you were ten."

"Plus," Connor adds. "I heard that you were also performing negotiations with dragons that young, too."

"I had Papa Samuel and Papa Michael with me for those," I say.

"The point," Adam laughs. "Is that you and the Sages aren't a good scale. Only people as absurdly powerful as the eight of you could hope to actually live in the Unwild Lands for an extended period of time. Didn't you say your training grounds had wards up all around it to deter monsters?"

"Yeah," I nod. "While fighting them could be considered training, I didn't want my training group members to have to deal with them while using the facilities and areas we created. Oh! Speaking of the training group, I need to let Alex know he's leading it in my absence."

(Alex, 17)

"What's wrong?" Barry asks as I exit the Royal Mage University.

"Jason!" I exclaim. "That's what's wrong! And Connor! They both forgot to tell me that they had a training camp for university this week! The first-year S-Class students of both universities are off in the Unwild Lands doing some week-long training thing! So I had to lead the training group today, and will have to all week! And since Niko ain't here, I have to cover the part he normally does, too!"

And now, I have to deal with my work stuff without Connor around!

"Deep breaths, Alex," Sarah tells me. "I'm sure Connor forgot because of everything going on with your family and businesses, and Jason is, well, Jason."

"Let's go get something to eat," I tell them. "I ain't in the mood for work right now. Pine said he'll go work with the leather some more, and there ain't much I can do there. I've got to calm down before the royal guy shows up for another damn lesson."

Last night's wasn't fun. I hated it. But I have to suffer through it so I can join the Royal Slayers early.

The crew and I head to a restaurant near the crew's apartment. It's really more of a tavern, but the food and ale are cheap and good. We take our seats and start drinking as soon as the barmaid brings them to us. We're among their favorite customers because we drink a lot, earning them a fair bit of coin, and cause few problems.

Apart from that one incident, but the guy had it coming.

Today, they've got a bard in here, and he's singing a tale of love, lust, and adventure, with a bit of stupid mixed in. As bards do. He ain't that bad… for a bar full of drunks. But I've heard way better. Heck, Peter's a better bard than this guy, and Peter ain't a bard!

After dinner, I bid my crew a good day, then I head home here, greeting the annoyed-looking royal… staff guy. Whatever it is his official position is called. Connor is here, so he probably took a gate back just to do this.

"Sorry," I tell him. "Got caught up with some stuff and lost track of time."

Not really, just wanted to delay coming.

"It would not do to be late to the ceremony," he tells me. "Now, let's begin."

For the next hour we run through the same set of actions over and over. The actual ceremony itself will only last a few minutes. We'll enter, approach the king, bow, he'll then recognize our achievements, then he'll knight us, then he'll present us to the present nobles and royals, and then it's done.

That's it. A huge fuss just for that. Why ain't they able to just, y'know, give it to me? Why is a whole damn ceremony necessary for it?

Once it ends, Connor gives me a sympathetic look.

"It's just through Felday," he tells me. "Then it's over. And sorry about forgetting to tell you about the trip, I got a bit focused on trying to help you save our family's financial situation."

"It's fine," I tell him. "Though that could be the alcohol talking. I'm a little drunk."

"Using our funds?" He raises an eyebrow.

"The crew paid for my drinks," I tell him. "Ain't ya supposed to be camping?"

"Yeah," he answers. "I came back just for this. Someone's opening a gate back for me once I contact them via comm plate. Jason sends his apologies, too, though he's in Mar right now, so he's also missing out on some of the camp."

"Mar?" I ask. "What is he there for?"

"Not sure," Connor answers. "Just that it has something to do with official business for the Marran military and royalty. He didn't say much, just that it was for the protection of Mar from enemy kingdoms."

"Ah," I say as one of our butlers enters the room.

"Milords," he bows. "Captain Matthew Enlin of the Royal Slayers is here and wishing to speak with you."

Captain Enlin is here? Why?

"Send him in," I order.

The butler leaves, and a minute later, Captain Enlin in shown into the room.

"Hello again, Alex," he says as the butler leaves. "Hello, Connor."

"Heya, Captain Enlin," I say. "What brings ya here?"

"I heard," he says. "That you have a new company, Levirar Equipment, and that it will specialize in wyvern leather equipment. Enchanted wyvern leather equipment. What I was told also said it's made by a Marran leather worker who specializes in wyvern leather. As you have the son of the only Marran I know of who can work wyvern leather properly as a member of the special training group Jason runs, I'm believing there is truth to this story?"

"It is," I answer. "How did ya find out about it? I thought we were keeping it secret? Heck, we only just made it! We ain't wanting anyone to know until after we've got goods produced."

"I've used wyvern leather armor before," Captain Enlin ignores my question, which is suspicious, though I know I ain't going to get an answer if he ain't answering when I ask directly. "And it's quality stuff. If it's enchanted wyvern leather armor, I'm certain it will be of an even higher quality. As such, I would like to strike a deal with Levirar Equipment Company."

"A deal?" I ask.

"As Slayers," Connor says. "Their work is dangerous. Some of them wear metal armor, but some wear leather, usually the mages. Not only that, but leather is worn under metal, too. Wyvern leather armor would increase their defenses, granting them a lower risk of injury as they hunt. You wish to strike a deal for Levirar Equipment Company to provide the Royal Slayers with leather armor."

"That is correct," Captain Enlin responds.

Of course Connor would come to that conclusion when I wouldn't. I need to get more knowledgeable about business stuff to make it easier for me to pick up on things like this faster. But I'm sure a lot of it comes from Connor's experience, too.

"We won't have anything for at least two months," Connor tells him. "It takes that long to tan the hide into leather. Then several more days to process it into equipment."

"That is fine," Captain Enlin tells him. "However, I wished to strike up a deal with you before then, to ensure we would be able to receive the products and have them custom-made to our members, rather than simply buying pieces already made."

"Let us discuss the details of the deal," Connor tells him. "We should move to the office, first."

As we're walking to the office, the butler stops us.

"Milords," he greets us. "Lady Emilia of the Royal Guard is here, and she wishes to speak with you."

One of the captains of the Royal Guard? What is she doing here, now? I ain't done anything worthy of that! Not since the stuff that got resolved, anyway.

"Oh, good," Captain Enlin says. "I did beat her to this."

That response… she's here to make a deal with Levirar Equipment, ain't she? Probably 'cause the Royal Guard are tasked with protecting royals, so they like to have quality gear, too.

How the heck did people find out already? We ain't even told anyone other than Pine and Jason what we're-Jason.

Jason did this! He went and blabbed, didn't he?

"Don't worry," Connor chuckles as he claps me on the shoulder. "Jason probably only told the Royal Guard and Royal Slayers because he knew they'd want priority on the gear. It makes it easier for us if we have such deals, too. It guarantees some sales once the goods are produced, and we're able to make it custom, which will increase the prices a little bit."

"Not too high, I hope," Captain Enlin says.

"Within the standard increase for custom goods," Connor tells him. "Of course, depending on the deal we strike, the price may be lower, anyway. Now, why don't we talk with you and Captain Emilia together? See if we can't strike a deal between both groups?"

I'm still going to tell Jason off for this. He blabbed to them to help us out, I know he did. I appreciate the help, and understand why he did it, but still. He should have told us to talk with the Royal Guard and Royal Slayers, not sent them our way.

Crap. I just realized, but I need to sit in on this meeting, don't I?

It's just one thing after another today, isn't it?