Arthur poked his head into Silas’ office and squinted in confusion. There was an unfamiliar man behind the desk riffling through the papers and cursing about stupid forms. “Excuse me? I’m not sure you’re supposed to be in there. That’s the guild master’s office.”

“Oh trust me Arthur if this wasn’t required of me I wouldn’t be here.” The younger mage jumped in surprise, falling backward before striking a hard surface and straightening. “Careful there, don’t want to break your neck or something.”

Arthur turned around and pressed his hand at the spot of air he had struck, feeling a cool almost stone-like surface instead of the expected lack of resistance. “Alright what is going on Silas? Are you under an illusion? The voice is the same but you look completely different.” Gone was the wrinkled skin and white hair. His eyes were the same but Silas’ current guise looked like it might be just a few years older than Arthur.

“Nope no illusion, this is the new me for the foreseeable future. Trust me however weird it is for you to get used to this it's weirder for me. Imagine looking in a mirror and having to do a double take almost every time because you don’t recognize yourself. It's getting a little annoying, but I suppose that just means I’ll get used to the change faster.” The not so old any more mage signed another document and put it into the smallest stack on his desk.

“Wait wait wait, you look about a century younger, how in the world did that happen?” Arthur stared hard at his teacher, trying to see if he was pulling a prank on him.

“Oh you know, just a little evolution and tada, a new younger version of yourself. To be honest I’m a little relieved Gabriel and Angela bullied me into this, being young again has been great for my back.” As if to make his point Silas stood up from his chair and bent over backward, almost going horizontal before straightening up and sitting down.

“So evolving makes you younger? But I don’t feel any younger since evolving my class.” Arthur scratched his head confused, he was still staring at his teacher which might be a little rude but he couldn’t help it right now. It was just too weird to hear the old man’s voice coming from a young body.

“That’s because you evolved your class. You only get the age reset stuff happening when you evolve your race. Everyone and their mother wishes that the class evolution came with a reset, and if it did I think almost everyone would make it to tier six.” Silas sighed and put down a paper looking thoughtful.

“What stops people from getting to tier six? I mean I got to tier two pretty easily and I know I’ll get to tier three sooner or later.” He hadn’t really been leveling much ever since they’d stopped dungeon delving. To be honest, he’d appreciated and needed the break, but he was starting to get a little antsy to get back into the grind.

“It's a matter of dungeons and available monsters. A dedicated hunter would be able to get to tier three eventually just from hunting tier one and the occasional tier two monster.” Arthur winced at that thinking of his late father which made Silas pause for a moment before continuing. “If you wanted to you could maybe make it to tier four hunting wild monsters but it would be a pain. Without a dungeon, there’s no way to make it to tier five much less tier six unless you’re willing to commit atrocities.”

“Atrocities?”

“Let’s just say that there’s a reason most tier six commoners come from the army and leave it at that.”

“Ah.” He’d forgotten but all humans were tier five as well. A dull knot of anger formed in his stomach at the thought of slaughtering others like animals.

“In any case, the fastest and most moral method to get to tier six is simple to use a dungeon. It's fantastic they’re all kinds of high-tier monsters eventually and they’re all created by the dungeon so no big deal.”

Arthur was confused now. “That still sounds too easy for how rare you’re making commoner tier sixes sound.”

“It’s not just commoners, but nobles don’t make tier six that often either despite the advantages they have. It takes a certain type of training and character to grow that strong, and most nobles are more than happy to sit on their buts and not bother with anything like that. Also, tier five monsters are terrifying, and tier six are even worse. The main advantage we have over monsters is our classes, but at tier five monsters start getting classes too.”

“Wait, why does that make such a big difference? I mean we would have a lot more experience using classes than them, and they’re starting from scratch.”

“It's not exactly monsters matching us in skill, it's more just the added threat. If you have a massive lizard rushing at you, you have plenty to worry about. The massive teeth, claws, and so on are all conspiring to give you a very bad day. But what happens if the lizard can suddenly throw fireballs? If you’re not paying attention suddenly you’re on the ground with the lizard ripping your throat out.”

Arthur winced at the visual. “So I could see that discouraging a lot of people, especially if they weren’t that good at fighting monsters.”

Silas snorted in amusement. “No one is that good at fighting, to begin with, that’s why there’s training. But yes people who never got basic training or tactics and just picked stuff up along the way are very susceptible to dying to tier five monsters. It takes flexibility and most of all awareness of your enemy to make it as a tier five fighter. We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves though, you’re much too weak to even be thinking about tier five tactics yet.” The younger mage chuckled at the older man’s wild gesticulations. “So that was one reason I mentioned and it applies to everyone. The other is most nobles charge a massive fee for entering the dungeon which of course stops most commoners from leveling there.”

“Why would they do that? Wouldn’t more people delving result in more money for them in the long run?” He didn’t know a lot about how money worked but it seemed like if more people had money the nobles would get more from taxes.

“Yep that’s right but they don’t want anyone leveling above them. I heard that when the kingdoms were founded that almost everyone noble was tier six. But now most around only around tier four or five if they’re lazy. That makes them a little nervous because a tier four high human is pretty similar to a tier four normal human. Sure they, or we, I suppose are a little better at stuff but not by that much. So because of that, they see it as being in their best interest to not give easy access to the dungeon and potentially let common people surpass them.”

It took Arthur just a moment to parse what his teacher had said before he blurted out. “Wait, you're a noble now?”

Silas sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Yes, no getting around it I’m afraid. Once you’re tier six you’re automatically declared a legal noble. That’s one of the reasons I held off evolving for so long.” The younger mage bobbed his head staring in a bit of awe at his teacher.

Silas smiled at the young man’s dumbstruck look and savored the moment. Just then Kira poked her head into his office and squinted at him. “Hey there Kira, want to do my paperwork for me?”

“Get stuffed old man, and just so you know I’m leaving in a few days with the Storms. Time to get some levels now that I finally tiered up.” Kira then left the office leaving a slightly startled Arthur and an upset Silas.

“Wait what? She’s leaving? Who's going to do all of my busy work now? I’ll have even more of it now that I’m a noble. All the other nobles will be sending letters to suck up or threaten me to hand over the dungeon. So many letters to burn, and so many to think about reading.” He shook his head in exasperation.

Arthur shook his head, seeming to have recovered from his wholly deserved, bought of extreme admiration. “It just sounds like you’ll have to put in a little more effort, doesn't it master? Oh well, I’m sure you’ll survive.”

Silas gasped at the blatant betrayal of his student. “That’s no way to talk to your teacher, young man. By the way, do you know how to read Arthur? Where are you going young mage you aren’t faster than me you know, you’ll never escape. Now get back here and do my paperwork.” Seizing on the opportunity to goof off the older mage raced down the hall after his younger counterpart. Even if he had evolved that didn’t mean he had to give up having all of his fun now did it?

Kira walked away from the old man’s office humming contentedly to herself. She didn’t care if Silas now looked younger; he was still an old man, she chuckled to herself as he heard a large crash behind her. Arthur came sprinting around a corner and turned left, she briefly wondered what that was about before the old man came up behind her. “Where did my new assistant go?” She smirked and pointed right, smiling slightly as he dashed off.

Silas would need to start doing more of his own paperwork now that she was leaving unless, of course, he could bully Arthur into doing some of it. By the sound of it, the younger mage was not going to be providing any assistance. She laughed again as she heard a comic shout of triumph followed by muffled cursing and more running. Silas could have caught his apprentice instantly, he was far faster than the younger mage even without spells. She supposed he was trying to cheer the boy up some.

Arthur had been getting a bit moppy and dedicated to training his fire mana. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but maybe Silas had decided he needed some cheering up. Or maybe the old man was just messing with Arthur for fun. Shaking her head she continued out of the mage guild and to the training field.

She bowed low and spoke. “Lord Storm, Lady Storm thank you for allowing me to travel with you to the capital.” It was a very generous offer, and they even said they’d help her get registered for a dungeon run.

Lady Storm waved a hand and smiled. “Don’t even give it a second glance Kira, it would be downright rude if we let our son’s savior walk all the way there. Besides it's no trouble at all, we’re going that direction anyway.”

Lord Storm chuckled and turned to them. “What was your new mana type again? Nature?”

She nodded, unsure of where this was going.

“Fascinating, you know our two families are the only ones who’ve come up with new classes in years. I mean seriously I would have thought some of the old noble houses would have some super secret classes only used in emergencies, but nope. Very disappointing I tell you, hey would you like to marry into our family, it's all upshot I guarantee it.”

Kira got increasingly more alarmed as Lord Storm’s rambling continued. She was definitely not interested in marriage at the moment. Fortunately, before she had to say anything potentially embarrassing and rude to the most powerful noble for miles Lady Storm stepped in.

“Ouch dear, what was that for?” Kira maintained a carefully blank face as Lady Storm rubbed her hand, and lord Storm rubbed his head.

“How in the world is your head getting harder? This shouldn’t hurt my hand this much.”

“That’s just hurtful now love my head is perfectly fine the way it is, besides what gives? I think your actions are rude and uncalled for.” His voice rose into the snobby territory and he comically pointed his nose into the air.

With all the subtlety of an elephant Lady Storm stomped on his foot, hard. “What it was for was throwing out marriage contracts to our friend Kira over here. That’s just being rude and inconsiderate of others.”

The noble winced as his foot was pressed down even harder into the dirt. “Yes, fine, you don’t have to be so violent about it. Kira, sorry for putting you on the spot, I realize you probably don’t want to marry right now, but if you’re ever thinking about it please keep us in mind.”

“Thank you lord Storm I’ll make sure I do.” No, she wouldn’t but it didn’t hurt to be polite. “If you’ll excuse me lord and lady Storm?” They nodded and she left, she did notice lord Storm’s foot was still firmly pinned to the ground.

“You do realize that this doesn’t hurt at all right?”

“Oh really?” There was a startled yelp and muffled cursing behind her. She firmly did not turn around despite her burning curiosity, nobles would be nobles she supposed.