After waking and finishing breakfast, Gaius was led by Ordos to the guildhall. The morning was crisp and rowdy as Gaius and Ordos saw Gen, Dante, and Bray playing with their newfound presents. The three boys were firing crossbows at fruits that exploded when struck. The childish laughter and glee brought a smile to Gaius’s face as he saw his brother get along with their cousins.

Upon entering the guildhall Ordos abruptly left Gaius to the care of Jahani.

“Good morning Senior Jahani,” Gaius said politely as he gave a short bow.

“Hello there Gaius. Seems like I’ll be overseeing your assimilation to the guild,” Jahani said with a slight laugh.

“I’ll be I your hands,” Gaius replied.

“Well, first off. What do you know about Novitiates in the guilds?”

“My father had my brother and me pretend to be Novitiates as we made our way here. He said that Novitiates are treated with no respect as a way to temper them,” Gaius recalled.

“Quite so, and our guild is no different. Since you cannot be Initiated until you are 12, you have 2 whole years of being a Novitiate. Are you ready?” Jahani said with a devilish smile.

Gaius enthusiastically nodded and was immediately handed a broom and a dustpan.

“Here you go. Start sweeping this room and move to adjacent rooms. Any rooms that are locked are obviously off limits,” Jahani said as he smiled and walked off.

Like a bucket of cold water being dumped on him, Gaius stood there shocked as his enthusiasm at joining the Antimage’s Guild declined to zero.

Gaius stood there dazed as his mind slowly churned. “Sweep? I’m not going to learn how to fight?” Gaius thought to himself as he recalled the fight with the royal guards and how amazing Ordos looked. His mind reeled and he plopped to the ground as he realized, “2 years? I have to do this for 2 years? No that cannot be right, I’m sure I’ll learn something,” he continued to console himself.

To his dismay the whole day went by without seeing another person. It wasn’t until late at night that Jahani came to show him the way out, and even then he told Gaius that from today on he will not be escorting him anymore.

“Oh before you leave. Master Farai fashioned this for you,” Jahani said.

Excitement bubbled from his heart as Gaius heard that he was given something, “At least this day won’t be a total waste,” he thought.

Jahani gave him a small black stone and said, “This is a kind of key that will allow you to enter and leave the guildhall as you please, it’ll guide you through the labyrinth. Just bind it with a drop of your blood. Okay that’s it,” Jahani said as he threw him the small stone.

Gaius looked at the small rock in his hand and sighed. He bit his finger and squeezed a drop of blood onto the stone and felt an immediate connection to it, as if his hand grew a lump—it felt like it was a part of his body. And with a thought the small stone melded into his body which greatly shocked Gaius. “Whoa!? Where did it go? It was in my hand earlier,” and with that thought the small stone reappeared in his palm. After several more moments of surprise, Gaius finally allowed the stone to meld into his body as it was more convenient this way.

That night at dinner, Duncan had a mischievous smile upon his face throughout dinner as he recalled his days being an Alchemist Novitiate. He was stuck sweeping floors, cleaning windows, tidying up experiment laboratories, and sorting out their storage closets. Looking at his son, he knew that Gaius’s spirit was greatly dampened and Duncan couldn’t let out a nostalgic smile.

The days passed excruciatingly slow as Gaius arrived early and left late as sweeping the whole guildhall took an absurd amount of time. A week since he became a Novitiate, Gaius’s mundane days had a surprising development.

Upon exiting his laboratory, Farai heaved an exhausted sigh, though his eyes had a tinge of excitement to them. Noticing the diligent, yet bored Novitiate sweeping the empty corridors Farai barked at him.

“Hey boy!” Farai yelled.

Startled at the sudden noise, Gaius gave out a yelp and jump. Noticing a middle-aged man with brown hair and a domineering demeanor, Gaius tried to hide his fear as he responded, “Yes Master?”

“I’m Master Farai, Artificer. Come sweep my lab, and be sure not to touch anything on the tables!” Farai yelled as he strode down the corridor.

Gaius immediately bowed and replied, “Yes Master Farai!” Gaius let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as he saw Farai leave.

When he immediately entered the room his senses were assaulted with a myriad of different sensations. He could smell something acrid as if something was burning metal. The room was well lit with many sources of light some of which he could identify and others were too mystical.

But the first thing he noticed was how big the room was. “Wow, this is his lab? It’s bigger than the dining hall,” Gaius gasped. The imperial dining hall was designed to be able to host spectacular events and parties, it could fit at least 2,000 people with plenty of room to spare. After his shocked subsided Gaius realized that the large room was partitioned, as each corner of the room had its own set of tables, strange devices, and odd structures. At one corner of the room Gaius was able to identify a forge, and at another corner he was able to discern alchemical equipment, but the sheer amount of glassware shocked him. The other two corners of the room had too many alien tools and devices for Gaius to identify what they were, but he slowly made his way towards the alchemical table and observed the ongoing experiment with interest.

The smells and colors of the alchemical table gave Gaius a mesmerizing feeling as he stood and stared at the bubbling tonics and tinctures.

Suddenly a booming yelled shook Gaius out of his reverie, “What are you doing!? Did you touch anything!?!” Farai said as he rushed from the doorway. After he observed his experiment was safe he glared dangerously at the shocked boy.

“I—uh” Gaius said.

“I’ve been gone for 4 hours and you have yet to even begin? What have you been doing all this time!?” Farai screamed.

Startled that that much time has passed, Gaius started to pale as he wasn’t able to respond.

“Get out!”

Like an arrow launched from a bow, Gaius bolted out of the room as fast as possible. When he arrived at the main hall he thought to himself, “What happened? I was standing there for 4 hours? How is that possible, it only seemed like a minute?” As he made his way back into the palace, Gaius thought back to the primal fear he felt as Farai glared at him dangerously.

Somewhere within the guildhall.

Farai and the guild master were sitting and chatting over a cup of tea.

“Don’t you think you’ve gone a bit too far Farai? The boy was as pale as a ghost,” the Guild Master asked.

“Haha, it’s been too long since we had a Novitiate. Loosen up Elric, Novitiates need to know their place. You know how it is,” Farai replied.

“Yes, but to use Dream Gas to mesmerize the boy, remind me to not get on your bad side,” Elric chuckled.

“It was heavily diluted. I just wanted the boy to lose track of time,” Farai smiled as he took a sip of tea.

“Then why not just put him to sleep with Sleeping Gas?” Elric asked.

“When you’re at my level, Sleeping Gas, Dream Gas, Nightmare Gas they’re all the same to concoct,” Farai nonchalantly replied.

Elric smiled at that statement and nodded knowingly.

“So do you really plan to have him go through the Novitiate’s Hazing for 2 years?” Farai finally asked the question in his mind.

“Hmm, what do you think?” Elric mysteriously answered.

“He’s young,” Farai stated suddenly, “and laying a good foundation is extremely important at his age. I don’t think we should waste time with hazing him. And I hear that he has the royal blood flowing within him.”

“I agree, and yes he is her descendent. Our first Guild Master—Jailyn Alir. His Antimagic abilities are stronger than normal as well, Ordos reported the sparring match he had with the Princess Nyah,” Elric said.

“Then all the more reason to begin his training,” Farai urged.

“Yes, but you know as well as I do that the demise of all geniuses is arrogance,” Elric sighed.

Farai sighed knowingly.

There are always prodigies and geniuses in every generation, yet very few of them mature to fulfill their potential. Through the path of cultivation, many meet their end and that is usually because they believe themselves to be immune danger. Arrogance in their abilities lead them to overestimate themselves. And it was this conundrum that led to today’s practice of Novitiate’s Hazing, a way to curb their arrogance and instill within them a sense of humility.

However, the other extreme is equally detrimental. If these prodigies and geniuses do not have confidence in their abilities then they may never push themselves along the path of cultivation, stagnating and never improving. Striking a balance is every mentor’s struggle.

Farai continued, “There are ways to begin his training and ensure that he doesn’t become arrogant.”

“Oh? You have a plan?” Elric asked excitedly. The last Novitiate they had join their ranks was Jahani, but that was several centuries ago and the world was a different time then. Elric has been struggling to find the most efficient way to instruct his newfound Novitiate.

“I hear he’s quite talented in Alchemy, why not let me tutor him personally?” Farai asked.

“That’s your plan? How will that help him fulfill his Antimagic potential?” Elric asked suspiciously.

“Okay, fine,” Farai acquiesced under the Guild Master’s gaze. “I just wanted a personal disciple to boss around,” he relented. Farai suddenly blurted out, “we could make him enter the pits?”

“The pits?! Are you nuts, he’ll be slaughtered in his debut,” Elric said incredulously, “but you’ve given me an idea.”

The next day upon arriving at the guildhall, Gaius found the Guild Master waiting for him with a curious glint in his eyes.

“So Novitiate Wyn, how has your first week been?” Elric asked coyly.

Gaius was unsure how to answer and eventually decided to be truthful, “It’s boring. I thought I’d be able to learn something.”

“Oh but you are,” Elric replied cryptically, “though I suppose it is a rather dull lesson. How about we spice things up a bit, eh?”

Gaius’s eyes lit up as he listened as he enthusiastically nodded.

“Great. Though we cannot begin your Antimagic training, it doesn’t mean we cannot begin other aspects of it. Starting from today, you will begin your weapon training with me. How about it?” Elric asked.

Excitement bubbled forth as he blurted out, “Yes!”

“Good. We’ll begin your training today. Though to give your body a rest, every Sunday you’ll spend the day sweeping the guildhall, alright?” Elric asked.

Excited and giddy about finally learning how to become an Antimage, Gaius followed the Guild Master to the training room. Though he’s been in here before to sweep, this is the first time he’s actually touched any of the wooden training weapons on the racks. The room was large, about the size of a basketball court.

Elric went to a weapons rack and selected a wooden training sword for himself and a wooden training spear for Gaius. After throwing the spear to the boy Elric had a devilish smile.

“Antimages must be formidable with all martial weapons. We will begin your training in spears since that is your preferred weapon if I recall correctly. And the most common weapon you’ll encounter is the sword, so that is my weapon. We will spar 6 days out of the week for 18 hours a day. When you get used to the training conditions we will spar for 24 hours a day for 6 days straight, ready?”

Gaius slightly gasped as he felt shocked. Gaius immediately shook his head as he asked, “Wait, how am I supposed to spar for such a long time without a sleep?”

Elric was a bit startled by the question, and then his confused face showed signs of realization. “Oh right, you don’t know how to siphon innate essences do you?”

Elric stared at Gaius’s confused face and continued, “Right, so the greatest combat advantage of an Antimage is that we are able to siphon innate essences in our surroundings so that we never exhaust ourselves. Take a look at the corner of his training room. Do you see those 4 braziers and the fire within each one?”

Gaius had always been curious about these bizarre braziers. Each corner of the room had a different color flame dancing within the brazier: a red, blue, green, and amber colored fire.

“These are the 4 Prime Aspects: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. Do you know why they are called the 4 Prime Aspects?” Elric asked.

Gaius shook his head.

“All living creatures need these 4 essences to survive. For humans, we need Fire for warmth, Water for thirst, Wind for breathing, and Earth for sustenance. As Antimages, we can siphon these 4 Prime Aspects from our surroundings so that we never need to sleep, drink, breathe, or eat respectively from each essence.”

As if struck by lightning, Gaius stood shocked at the revelation.

Elric continued, “Furthermore, we are able to siphon these essence in combat to replenish our energy. So when we begin you will need to be able to concentrate on the spar while simultaneously siphon these essences to keep your energy up. It takes a while to get used to it, so you will be permitted to take breaks for the first 2 weeks. After that, we will begin in earnest. Okay?”

Gaius dumbly nodded as he tried to process what it would be like to never need to eat, sleep, drink, or breathe.

Elric charged with a sword strike that brought Gaius out of his reverie.