Mito had a few other ideas on how he could get some money without being an adventurer, but they would require way more preparation and it would take too long.

On his way back to the academy, he walked through an empty alley. In the middle of that alley he saw three people harass a teenage boy and girl. He walked up to them, laughed and said “So this is one of these famous alley mugging situations. But sadly I won't hold back.” And with these words deep wounds from wind blades appeared on the muggers. A second later earthen hammers broke their legs. After all three muggers were unable to fight, Mito asked “Are you two alright?” Both nodded and he continued “Good, could you please go and get the guards? I will watch over them.” The two of them, visibly frightened, nodded again and ran off. Meanwhile Mito bent down to the muggers and searched them, luckily he found some valuable items and money. He also stopped the bleeding of the deeper wounds so they wouldn't die.

After the guards arrived, Mito introduced himself and explained what happened. The guards asked him a few questions and then transported their captives away. As he was about to continue his way back the two who he had saved stopped him “Mito, wait. We wanted to properly thank you for saving us. My name is Arlo and that is my sister Ivy, we are students starting this year at the academy. But our magic is still really weak, so thank you for saving us.”

“Oh so you are new students, which class are you in?”

“We are both in the magic science class, we are better at research and creating magic tools than fighting.”

“Glad to hear, in that case we will be classmates. I am also in the science class starting this year.” Mito said with a smile.

“What? With your power I thought you were a full-fledged mage and definitely the fighter type.”

“I am trained in magic combat and this is exactly the point. I want to learn more about magic itself. They won't be able to teach me much in the fighter class.”

“Quite understandable after seeing how precisely you disabled those muggers. And if you want to learn more about magic principles then the science class is obviously where you want to be. In that case I hope we can become friends.” Arlo said and reached out his hand to Mito.

“I hope so too” Mito nodded and took Arlo’s hand to shake it. “But for now I need to go. I have some matters to attend to. We will see each other at the academy. Arlo! Ivy! Be careful and have a nice day.”

He turned around and while walking away the two of them shouted behind him “See you at the academy, and thanks again.”

Back at the academy, Mito directly headed for the principal’s office. In front of the door, he knocked and Aurelia’s voice asked him in. It was his first time in her office. The office was well lit with three big windows towards the door. In front of the windows was a huge desk where the principal sat. The room was cluttered with documents, books and other office utensils. To the left and the right on the walls were cupboards overflowing with loose documents. All in all it was a messy room and Aurelia seemed like she was a bit overwhelmed by the workload.

He stepped in the room and Aurelia looked up from her work and smiled as soon as she saw him. “It hasn't been long. What can I do for you?”

“Straight to the point, I like that in a woman.” Mito said with a smug smirk and continued “I was at the adventurers association and wanted to earn some money through working there. But it seems I can only register if I have graduated here or if someone vouches for me. And since you are the only one who knows my strength, I wanted to ask if you could do that?”

“I could do that, yes, but what is in it for me?” she asked while she put her elbows on the desk, folded her hands and put on a fake smile.

“Since I have nothing to give you in return, I thought about a favor. A favor from me, which you can redeem at any given time.”

Aurelia pouted “And there I was prepared to guide you in that direction, yet you directly cut the case, robbing me of all the fun.”

“Haha, sorry for spoiling your fun. But normally if I want something from someone I come prepared!”

“Alright alright. I accept your terms. Having a favor from the most powerful mage to be is definitely worth it. I will write you a letter for the association and send it to your room. Your school uniform should also already be there.

It is custom to always wear it even out of school. And in your case it should prevent you from sticking out like an Estara in a dwarven city.”

“Huh? I am sticking out?”

“And he didn’t even realize it. Yes you look like a noble that wants to be a delinquent. You are completely dressed in black leather armor that is undamaged, clean and classy. It simply doesn’t fit well together.”

“Hm I realized that people were looking at me quite a lot, but I wasn’t sure why. In that case I will gladly wear the uniform. The looks I got were quite the annoyance. Then, I will take my leave, thank you.”

In front of Mito’s room was a big package. He took it with him and placed it on the table. Inside were seven sets of school uniforms. The uniform looked a bit like a suit from his world. It was a combination of a dark gray shirt, dark gray leather shoes, light blue suit pants, vest and a suit coat that looked different than normal. It had pointy edges at the front towards the bottom, was overall slim and a bit more physique accentuated. To Mito’s surprise the suit fitted him perfectly. He wrote down a few body details in his entrance questionnaire, but that shouldn’t have been enough to make a tailored suit for him.

Right after he finished putting on his school uniform, there was a slight knock on his door. Mito opened it and in front of him at the height of his face hovered a letter, slightly glowing. This was new to him; he has never seen the usage of magic in this way. There was a light updraft of wind that lifted the letter and many more currents around it to stabilize and move the position. Mito lifted his hand to check out the updraft, but as soon as his hand was beneath the letter it stopped glowing and fell into his hand. Slightly disappointed, he took the letter and tucked it into his school uniform’s pocket. After he put his other set of suits into his wardrobe he left for the adventurers association.

The reception of the association was deserted. Mito walked around a bit looking for the receptionist he saw earlier, but was nowhere to be found. He looked for a bell or something similar, with no luck. So he decided to sit down at one of the benches in the entrance hall. After about half an hour the receptionist finally came back. He walked up to Mito, bowed slightly and said “I am sorry to make you wait, but an emergency occurred and I needed to assemble a few adventurers. How can I help you?”

Mito, somewhat curious but not wanting to interfere in association matters without even being a member, answered “No problem, nothing you can do if there is an emergency. I am here to apply as an adventurer. I was here earlier the day and you informed me that I can be an adventurer, even as a student, if I have a recommendation. I got one and wanted to apply.”

Mito pulled out the letter and gave it to the receptionist, who took it with a surprised look on his face.

“You got a recommendation letter in this short amount of time? These are more than rare. The last time someone was accepted due to such a letter was years ago.”

He opened the letter and began to read, while reading his mouth dropped and he said “I need to get the association head please wait here a moment.”

A short while after, he returned with a man in tow who looked like seventy, but still well built and fearsome. The old man had white short hair, a white beard and wore a black and white suit that looked like it was from the renaissance. On his side was a slender sword, the sheath was gorgeous decorated with gold and beautiful polished stones. Mito wanted to greet him, but he preempted him and said “Hello my name is William Matt and I am the head of the adventurers association here in Walresa. So you are Mito, the one who got a recommendation from Aurelia. When I heard that someone was here with a recommendation, I was quite curious. But after reading it you had my attention. Do you know what she wrote?”

“No Sir, she hadn’t told me and I didn’t open it.”

“She recommended you to be an adventurer, but she also recommended giving you the S3 rank in combat. That is simply unheard of.”

“My apologies but I am not familiar with the association’s ranking system. Could you please explain it?”

“Oh, sure. We have three different types of rankings: Combat, teamwork, and social. Every adventurer has strengths and weaknesses. For example some people aren’t doing well in teams so they have a low teamwork ranking and are only assigned solo missions. There are also adventurers who have low combat and teamwork ranks; they mostly do social work like helping citizens. Every type has six rankings going from E to S and in between are the subranks three to one. Every adventurer starts at E3 in all rankings and that is why Aurelias suggestion is unheard of. No one ever started at a higher rank. I believe in Aurelias judgment, but I need at least proof of your abilities. Would you agree to a magic compatibility test? Only then can I assign the S3 rank to you.”

“This is fine for me but I hope we can do this with only the two of us?”

“Of course, follow me please.”

Mito followed William into the back of the building. There was a small indoor arena and at the side, on some kind of VIP podest, was a glowing orb that Mito knew too well. At the orb, Mito placed his hands on it and waited. William beside him got more nervous with every minute passing. After about fifteen minutes the orb showed his magic compatibility of forty thousand five hundred.

“Impressive so the numbers Aurelia stated in her letter were correct. This is probably the highest number in recorded history in the whole of Estara.”

Mito was sure that William already knew how high his number was so he only nodded.

Willam then continued “With the recommendation from Aurlia and the proof you just delivered you will be an official adventurer. I will assign you the combat rank S3. But social and teamwork will start at E3. Go back to the reception, your documents should be ready and after the paperwork you can start going on missions.”

“Thank you very much. But could I ask you a question?”

“Sure, go ahead!”

“Both my swords broke and I need some temporary replacement. Do you know a shop which sells cheap but good swords? I have about seventeen gold coins and a few valuables.”

“Seventeen gold coins is actually quite a lot; a normal sword costs about one gold coin and a low grade magic sword three gold coins. So you could even get better ones. The shop you are looking for is Beth’s Cuts. It is close by just outside here, two blocks down the road then to the right. There is a sign with a bleeding wound on it.”

“Sounds great. I am on my way then, thank you.”

At the reception table were already a few documents for him to fill out and a rectangle shaped card which was his adventurers identification. After he gave the documents to the receptionist, Mito asked “By the way I have never asked you for your name?”

“My name is Stan.” He said with a smile. “I should explain your identification card. It is of course to identify yourself but it also has numerous other functions. First: It has all your rankings saved on it, so make sure to come to the association after completing a quest to update it. Second: With the card you can access a lot of buildings and events you normally can't. And third: It has an integrated mana storage. Not much but you should fill it for safety measurements. If you have any questions feel free to ask them.”

“I have one question regarding the missions. The missions are here on the posting and they are divided into combat, social, teamwork and mixed? And all of them are marked with a rank which is at least needed?”

“That is correct.”

“And what happens if for example my teamwork is S rank and I take adventurers with me who are D rank for a S rank team mission. Would that work?”

“You can take lower ranked teammates with you but then the responsibility is with the highest ranked adventurer. What could get you demoted or expelled for failure! If all are S rank, the responsibility is divided.”

“Good to know, that is everything for now. Thank you for the information, byebye.”

Back on the street Mito made his way to the mentioned weapon shop.

The shop was pretty easy to miss. It was a small shop and the sign was worn down and almost unreadable. The bleeding wound as Wiliam described it looked more like a cloud raining into a puddle of mudd. Mito almost walked past it. He only realized that this was the said shop due to the fact that at the moment he arrived there the owner chased off a strange looking customer, so he took a closer look at the scene. The weapon shop had two big store windows but it only displayed four mannequins in military uniforms, no one would have guessed that there were weapons for sale.

Inside it was also pretty plain. A few mannequins in military uniform, weapon racks on the sides and tables with weapons and shields in the middle. It was decorated with military tools and weapons and on the wall right behind the counter were two swords crossed and a shield on the junktion. Mito looked around and saw that the equipment was actually of high quality. The store may have looked plain and run down but everything on display looked brand new and well cared for. Behind the counter was a young woman with long brown hair, green eyes and a pair of glasses. She wore a smithy outfit and her hammer was lying on the desk. One could have said that she was pretty but all the smut on her face and clothes made her look a bit quirky and shabby.

“Recommendation?” The woman said as Mito walked up to the counter.

“Recommendation? I don’t get what you mean?”

“Do you have any referral documents? Else you can go straight out of the door.”

“I am sorry I didn’t know that there are any referral documents needed. William only said that if I want a sword this is the shop where I want to be.”

“Oh William sent you? That is rare. In that case you probably have an association ID? Hand it over.”

“Yes I have one.” Mito said while giving it to the rather unfriendly owner.

She went ahead and inspected the ID. After casting an insanely complex spell which Mito wasn’t able to read, she said “Quite the status you have. Recommendation from Aurelia and priority status from William. Intriguing, yes really intriguing. So you are here to buy a weapon?”

“Yes I need two identical magic swords. If possible, the highest grade I can get for seventeen gold coins.”

“Are you familiar with the grades of magic equipment?”

“Not really, I only know that there are fifteen ranks overall.”

“You should research something like that before buying a weapon, else you will get ripped off.”

“In that case I trusted William’s advice.” Mito said with a smile.

“You got me there, in that case I will explain it to you. There are five ranks: Apprentice, adept, expert, master and grandmaster. Each rank has three grades from three to one. Each rank and grade increases the magic compatibility with the user, which makes it less likely to break.”

“Very well then how…” Mito started to ask but got interrupted by a loud bang.

In the front door stood a young woman, seemingly annoyed. She had long blue-black hair, ice cold light-turquoise eyes, narrow eyebrows and strawberry coloured round lips. The woman was only a bit smaller than Mito, had a swimmers body and her diamond shaped face in combination with her glare made a shiver run down Mito’s body. It looked like she could freeze the whole room with just her look. He knew the woman, she was the one Mito saved on his way to Walresa. But he doubted that she would recognise him, since they never officially met. What also intrigued Mito was the fact that she wore an academy uniform. A light blue skirt and blazer, a dark gray shirt and knee-long dark gray boots.

She completely ignored Mito and headed straight for the shop owner “Rellna I need my sword…”

“If you can't even obey the simplest manners you won’t get anything from me. I have a customer, and here applies the rule of first come first serve. So sit down there and wait.” the owner interrupted.

“But…”

“But me no buts! If you want something you need to wait or go somewhere else. I won’t prioritize anyone just because I know them!”

The young woman gave Mito a disdainful look, walked to the left of the counter and sat down on a chair.

“I am sorry for the interruption, you were about to ask something?” she said. With a light smile on his lips Mito continued his previous question “Yes, I wanted to ask how much it costs for an expert rank three sword.”

“With your budget, and that you want two, this is out of the question. An expert rank three sword costs about fifteen gold coins. What you should be looking at are adept rank two or one swords. Here on the right wall you will find adept rank swords, they are all labeled with rank and price. Take a look. In the meantime I will take care of my rude customer.”

Mito wanted two one handed swords with a broad and long blade. There were quite a few which matched his mental image, but after testing them he was left unsatisfied. He had tested almost every sword that was for sale, when his eyes catched a chest with many different swords in it, all without sheath and dusty. After a bit of rummaging around the chest and testing each one of them, he found two swords which he liked. They weren’t identical, but still the best one he could find. He tried to store them into his sword sheaths and was lucky that it fitted. Happy with his find he walked back to the counter. The shop owner noticed him and interrupted her conversation with the young woman “Did you find something that meets your requirements?”

“Yes. I couldn’t find anything on the weapon racks but found two swords in the chest here to the left.”

“Oh dear, I didn’t think you would find something there. Those swords are used ones from fallen adventurers. It is said that swords from dead people will bring misfortune to his wielder. So I am a bit hesitant to sell these.”

“I don’t really believe in stuff like this. I think the swords would be happy to serve their purpose again rather than rotting away in a chest.”

“Are you really sure you want to buy these?”

“Yes! If I can afford them, since they aren’t labeled with a rank and price.”

“The price for any sword in the chest is the same, five gold coins per sword. Let me have a look at them.”

Mito handed over the two swords and the owner started to inspect them. After examining every centimeter of the swords she looked up and said “Boy you have a keen perception, these two are probably the best swords in the chest. They are master rank one and master rank three. Good choice.” She handed him back the swords and Mito paid ten gold coins. Then she asked, “You probably also need a sheath for these?”

“No, luckily they both fit into the sheath of my broken swords.”

“That shouldn’t be possible. Can I take a look at your sheaths?”

Mito tilted his head a bit, shrugged and said “Sure!” while giving the sheaths to her. As she observed them, she suddenly looked at him with a serious look on her face and asked “Boy where are you from?”

“I am from Ekapas, which is close to the border to Ceris Kingdom. Why do you ask?”

“I see, close to Ceris. Because these two sheaths are made by the wolfen race. They are imbued with magic so they will always fit the sword which is inserted.”

“I knew that they were from the wolf race, I once came to a trade under some peculiar circumstances and obtained them there. But I didn’t know that they are imbued with such a useful magic spell.”

“They are more than rare. Be careful that they don’t get into the wrong hands. It could raise some let’s say ‘undesired questions’.”

“Thank you for your warning, I will be careful.”

“If you need anything you are welcome to visit again. And for the future: My name is Rellna.”

Mito nodded and left the shop with a smile back at her. Then made his way back towards the academy. In the meantime in the shop Rellna mumbled to herself “What an interesting boy, I am curious about his future.” The blue-black haired woman who was still there heard it and asked “Do you know who he is? It seems he is also a student at the academy. But I have never seen him around.”

“I also only met him today for the first time. But he is definitely interesting and quite mysterious.”

“His appearance was close to someone I am looking for, but a lot was off so I am not quite sure. It seems I need to take a closer look at him.”