Sorry, got absorbed in preparation for exam.

First year in magic school of Alsante city was almost gone before I even realised it. Two weeks before holidays started, two days after my seventh birthday, I finally managed to break into tier eight of magic.

I would be maybe able to do it faster, but for some time I'd completely forgotten about second level of spirit training method teacher Alaric gave me on paper, and when I finally remembered about it, it took me whole five months before I was able to use it, and during that time, my spirit capacity didn't grow much, since I spent most of time trying to learn it. However after that, it only took one month before I entered tier eight.

"You damned bastard. I only managed to reach tier six two month back but you are already tier eight. Your parents will be proud of you when you return home." said Brant, as he, I and Saffron were sitting on ground in park behind our dormitory. I just proudly declared that I could now use tier eight magic, which surprised both of them.

We were not alone in park. There were many people here, some were meditating, training soul and spirit, while others were reading books, and few remaining, us included, were talking, to displeasure of all previously mentioned.

"I will not be returning back to home, because it is too far. I will be staying with Saffron's family over holidays. But about your training you should work harder, Brant, or else Saffron will easily surpass you. She is getting close to tier six, right?" I asked, turning to Saffron.

"Yes, my spirit capacity growth almost stopped recently, so I think I am close to breaking into tier six." she agreed silently as she stopped eating her bread with butter and cheese.

"Seriously, Saffron, how did you manage to get from tier four almost to tier six so fast?" he asked.

"My sister taught me advanced spirit training method from library of branch of honor. Also, I learned how to train my spirit and read at the same from Aiken." she said, smiling at me.

"Aiken, why did you not teach it to me as well? That ultra lazy type of training would suit me so much! I have no words for your betrayal." responded Brant.

"You never asked. Also, it took Saffron almost five months before she succeeded." I smiled, seeing him raise his fists in exaggerated display of anger.

"Alright! I will go to library right away and borrow hardest spirit training and soul sharpening methods that are there and I will practice them over holidays. I will show you two!" he said and then he left, running towards library.

As both me and Saffron were reading books currently, for a while, there was silence.

"Saffron, do you know if Flore already managed to reach tier seven?" I asked.

"Yes. She said so on Sunday. If you wanted to know, you should have come home as well. She said she wants to flaunt in front of you next time you come."

"Damn. So she was faster." I said with regret.

Is she making light of me? Now that I learned second level of [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique], speed of growth of my spirit capacity almost doubled. Over next year, I will certainly raise my tier again, and then I will be one laughing at her.

But will it be enough? Her soul power is already over four thousands. Even if I reach tier nine, my tier nine magic will still lose to her tier seven magic. In order to truly overcome her, I will need to reach magic three tiers above her. It seems almost impossible to catch up to her.

"You still want to catch up to my sister? Give up already. We all know that she is monster when it comes to magic. Even she acknowledges that. While there were two people in branch of honor who reached tier seven few days before her, both of them were older than her by at least month and neither of them has more than two thousands soul power." she said with bored voice. "Why do you even bother?"

"Because I want to show everyone I can become strong magician even without having much soulpower." I said.

"Is that really so?" she said skeptically. I did not answer her taunt.

After few minutes, young man of about fourteen years entered park and walked towards us. His face seemed to be familiar, but I could not remember where I have seen him.

"Hey, can I interrupt you two?" said voice as young man suddenly joined us.

"Feel free." said Saffron.

"Thanks." answered boy and then turned to me. He had face of merchant about to sell something. "You are Aiken, do I remember correctly?"

"Yes." I nodded. "Do I know you? I think your face is familiar, but-" I said, but Saffron decided to reveal his identity to me.

"He is Ryan Randolph."

I remembered. Of course. It was the guy who interrupted fight between me and that guy Landon.

"Yes. That's me. And you, girl, should be daughter of Sable family, right? Glad to see you are doing well. I heard that there are people who bring grudges of their families to school." he said.

"Let's make it short. Why have you come here?" I displayed bit of hostility. Saffron had it quite hard before people started talking with her, so I was bit angry.

"I came to ask how much have you improved ever since our previous meeting."

"Why should I tell you?" I asked with animosity.

"Listen, I don't wish to be your enemy. I even gave you potion to apologize for Landon and intervened when bullies of that bastard Bantinc wanted to do something to your small circle of friends. So why such a hostile tone?" he asked.

I calmed down. He was right, while I was still suspicious of him, until now he did not do anything to deserve hostility.

"I am sorry, you are right. If you wish to know, I have managed to reach tier eight. But my soulpower did not improve much." I answered.

"Amazing. I guess that makes you qualified." he said.

"Qualified?" I asked surprised.

"Yes. Every holidays, school organizes monster hunt in nearby forests. My group will be participating this year together with many other students. We will have three teachers to watch over our safety. I thought maybe it could interest you." he said.

"Wait what? Why would you invite me?" I asked with surprise.

"Well, while you are really young, you have already reached tier eight. For school to allow you to go, it is necessary to be at least tier seven magician. And this year, teachers in branch of honor are really cocky, having two second years participate as well in order to show off, while in branch of generous, no one bellow third year reached tier seven yet. So I thought maybe I could invite you to join to teach those bastards some humility. You don't need to worry, it will be safe, teachers will be with us."

Wait, two tier seven magicians in second year of branch of honor. Could it mean...

"I'm in." I said.

"Great. I will tell teachers that you agreed. Thank you. I am sure everyone will be willing to share some spoils. I hope that those branch of honor bastards will choke themselves on this." he said as he left quickly.

"My sister is not going if that is what you wanted to know." said Saffron without looking up from her book.

"Shut up. Why should I care? I wanted to go for my own reasons."

For remaining two weeks of school year, I was learning tier eight spells I borrowed from library. While librarian looked suspiciously at me, he allowed me to borrow them. I learned two spells [Burning Fireball], tier eight version of fireball, [Water Ram], strong spell that would manipulate water to turn into spinning pillar that would strike into enemy, but required lot of water to be casted.

Since I have read books about magic theory, I knew that magicians that would specialize on water element would carry storage ring filled with water, so I bought new storage ring for pocket money from aunt Sable and went with it to river. It took almost half an hour before ring was filled, but it meant my preparation was done. I have already learned all twenty tier seven spells teacher Alaric left to me and I felt pretty confident about my preparedness.

“So you really decided you will go to hunt? If you have changed your mind, you can just tell me, I will do something and make it so that you don't have to go.” asked aunt Sable.

“Don't worry aunt Sable. I have already decided.”

“Alright, but you have to be careful. This is not some children game. Even if there are teachers, you can't be too careless. Monsters in area where you are going should be bellow tier eight, but that does not mean they are easy to deal with. It still takes three or four tier eight spells to penetrate [Wild Aura] of tier seven monster. So you should stay close to teachers.” she said.

“I know, aunt Sable. I have been preparing myself. I promise I will be careful.” I promised her.

“Stay safe at all costs. And don't try to pointlessly play hero.”

Group was meeting in front of school two days after start of holidays. I have equipped myself with enough food and water for month in two storage rings. I have taken some cheaper clothing so that it wouldn't matter if it was to be torn. I also had two skins that could be used as blanket and cushion.

“What is this child doing here? Did you perhaps get lost?” asked one of six adults, who was closest to street I came from. From exquisite clothing he worn, despite fact we were going to forest, I could easily say he was one of teachers in branch of honor.

“No, mister teacher, I am here to participate in hunt as representative of branch of generous.” I answered.

“Oh? You look quite young. Are you one of third years?” he asked.

“No, I am first year.” I said, confidently.

Other adults have also heard me and three of them had dark grins, while remaining two looked confused.

“What? Listen boy, only those who already reached tier seven can participate.” said teacher. At that moment, I decided to pull a prank on him.

“I see. I am sorry. I have only reached tier eight, I guess that is still not enough.” I said with disappointed expression, pretending to be counting on fingers.

Three teachers of branch of generous started silently laughing, as they observed changing colors of his face.

As teacher realised I was just toying with him, since I could not help but raise the corners of my lips, his head went red with anger. He believed everything I said was lie.

“Tier eight? You are trying to trick me? There is no way first year can use tier eight magic!”

“I can use tier eight magic. I will prove it to you!” I said, touching one of my storage rings and casting [Water Ram] at same time.

Teacher did not realize meaning of my words until from my storage ring spurted water, instantly forming into pillar. He quickly casted shield magic to protect himself, but target of my spell was different. Pillar of water rushed towards me and I raised hand with storage ring, returning water back into it.

“That was tier eight spell [Water Ram]. I limited my power so that ring would be able to absorb it back. Is there any problem?” I asked.

“No it is alright.” said teacher.

“Great. Now if you excuse me.” I said, joining other students of branch of generous.

“That was great.” said Landon, boy who I fought with at beginning of year. “Both those teacher and those practitioner families and noble families brats were so shocked. I thank you from bottom of my heart, Aiken. And that moment when you started counting on your fingers was golden.”

It seemed like he no longer held any grudge for our fight year ago.

Together with Ryan Randolph and Landon, there were two more boys. One of them was tier eight magician and other was tier seven, while Landon also managed to reach tier seven during this year. As for Ryan, he said that his own spirit capacity growth has almost stopped, signing that he would reach tier nine soon. He could have stayed at school and kept practicing, but he decided he prefers hunting anyways.

Group of branch honor students consisted of twenty tier seven magicians, seventeen tier eight magicians and thirteen tier nine magician. Group representing branch of generous had thirty tier seven magicians, twenty eight tier eight magicians and twenty one tier nine magicians. According to Ryan Randolph, those who reached tier ten and higher had their own group and since they would go hunt deeper into forests, they already departed yesterday.

Many students did not participate. Wealthiest practitioner families would have their children join monster hunts organized by their own practitioner family, while most of merchant families would rather teach their children knowledge of their trade. Monster hunt would usually earn you about ten to fifteen silver coins, which was not really worth sending children for.

“I still have four years of school ahead so tier ten should be doable, but I would honestly prefer to become at least tier eleven practitioner before leaving school.” said Ryan.

“Why? Is it that important for you?” I asked. From my point of view, my uncle who had yet to reach tier eight was pretty strong already, and since Ryan was from merchant family, he would not need to fight in future.

“Well, my younger brother is not much talented at magic, so father is often angry at him. But honestly I am thinking about leaving Randolph family and becoming practitioner myself. I am not really interested in trading, nor am I good at it. But as tier eleven practitioner, I could easily join some practitioner branch family.” he shared his dream.

“Randolph family is becoming weaker. While currently, we are still richest and most influential merchant family in city, that might not be for long. And I would prefer if Sable family held no grudges against us when my younger brother succeeds our father. Even if father forced me to succeed him, Randolph family is sure to lose influence, since I am not suited to be merchant.” he said.

“What a silly dream, I know, right? For me to become true magic practitioner.” he finished and became silent.

I had to be honest, his dream surprised me and make me think. Whenever I imagined future, I thought that after finishing school, I would pay my debts and then return back to village. But at the same time, I also wanted to become like teacher Alaric, well known powerful magician and hunter of monsters. But now that I thought about it, it became obvious these two dreams could not be fulfilled at the same time.

It would take three days for us to reach borders of forest. At that time I still had no clue that forest was divided into territories controlled by practitioner families. If they would meet any person on their territory, that person would be in deep trouble, since they would not be protected by law of empire. There existed exceptions, of course, and since forest was not under laws of empires, powerful practitioners like teacher Alaric could basically do whatever they wanted in any territory. There was also territory that belonged to magic school itself and it was where we were headed, while it was patiently awaiting our arrival.