Mage Polina wanted him to do his magical exercises first, but Hugo refused. He just walked over to the crate and opened it up.

“What is this for?”

“So impatient. Tsk. They are for your mend practice. It would be unethical to practice on humans until you are a much better healer,” Polina said.

“Ok, but why salamanders?” Hugo said. There were six salamanders in the crate, crawling over each other.

“There are only so many animals that are easy to get ahold of. Salamander blood is a key ingredient in strength potions, so there are people that breed them. Anyway, let’s get started. Go into your Acomarian system and select the dermatology specialization. It’s the easiest to start with and essential to treat most injuries.”

Hugo did so as she took out one of the salamanders from the crate and placed it on a serving tray. Similar to how lingua worked, the specialization pushed knowledge into his head. Over the next few minutes, he gained knowledge and instincts about skin.

“Are you ready? This will hurt, but you have to keep pushing your health points and mana into the injury,” Polina said.

Hugo nodded and stared at the little creature. She took out a small knife and made a shallow incision along its back. She held it in place as it squirmed. Hugo reached out to touch the cut. He was briefly weirded out by how slimy the skin was. Then he mentally selected mend and pushed his health and mana into the salamander.

It hurt.

Not as much as he was expecting though. He had heard that being a life mage was painful. Everyone said so. He had built up the pain in his mind so much that the actual experience was a relief. Three points of health and five mana later, the salamander was healed.

“Good job, you didn’t flinch and you healed the full cut,” Polina said and swapped out salamanders, “This time try and heal more efficiently. A cut this small should only cost you one point of health.”

As soon as she cut it, Hugo tried again. This time it took two points of health and six points of mana. The third time yielded the same result. The fourth salamander was healed with two points of health and four mana. He was getting better, but slowly.

Hugo sat back on the sofa and wiped off his hands. “I am about out. I only have one more heal in me.” Of course that wasn’t true, but he wanted to pretend to only have ten points of mana for now. He would go on a harvesting trip with “friends” soon.

In retrospect, he regretted keeping his trip up to the wall a secret. There hadn’t really been any reason to hide his ranks from his family. He could have just pretended to buy his crossbow. The secrecy had been mostly habit. He was too used to hiding. Oh well. At least this pretend harvesting trip would be a good cover for when he went to visit sentinel command in Reval.

“If this is going to be your last one, let’s make it a good one,” Polina said. She cut this salamander much deeper than the other ones.

With a quick mend, Hugo had this one healed as well. It only cost three points of health. He was getting better at this. Mage Polina held the salamander there as they continued to talk.

“What do you recommend for my next few specialties? I am going to rank up to sixteen in a week or so,” Hugo said.

“Going out harvesting soon?” she said and looked down at the salamander.

“Yeah, I am going to kill some monsters and I want to know which specialties I should choose,” Hugo said.

“There are lots of options. It just depends on what type of mage you want to be. Everyone has a specialty, some are better at head injuries, some are better at broken bones. It’s something that you will want to research for a long time before you decide. However, there is one specialty that the majority of life mages take. Splanchnology. It’s also called the guts specialty. Heart, lungs, liver, most of the soft organs fall under that specialty. I would recommend you pick splanchnology and then take your time to pick your third specialty,” she said.

“What specialities do you need to create golems?” Hugo said.

She said, “Depends on how complicated your golem is. Desmology so it can move. Neurology so it can understand instructions. Otolaryngology so it can be aware of the world around it. The best golems are created by a combination of at least five specialties. You won’t find many life mages ranked that high, so we just work together to create them.”

“I have been planning on creating golems. Would you recommend starting with desmology?”

While she was talking, the salamander had stopped trying to get away. She let it go and wiped off her hands. “Only if you are sure you want to create golems and not heal. If you want to heal people, I would recommend different choices. For example, if you had picked splanchnology, you would have been able to save this guy.”

“What? I did save him,” Hugo said. As he talked, he realized he was wrong. The salamander had stopped moving altogether. It was dead. He said, “What happened?”

“I cut his liver when I sliced him up earlier. You healed the skin, but not the full injury. The little guy just died of internal bleeding,” Polina said. When she saw his expression she said, “You are right to feel bad. Remember that feeling. Never overestimate your capacity to heal. It could cost someone their life.”

Hugo nodded along. It was a powerful lesson.

That night, he selected splanchnology for his second specialization. He still planned on creating golems later, but for now he wanted to be a more effective healer. The ability to heal would be more useful over the next year than the ability to create clunky golems. They weren’t going to be able to stop Deva without some fighting.

He lay back as a stream of knowledge entered his brain. There was much more information this time around. There were so many soft organs. He knew all their names before, but now he knew what they did. He had always wondered what a pancreas was for. Now he knew.

They practiced healing salamander skin the next day as well. The pain that accompanied healing never got less, but he found he could deal with it if he had the right mindset. He just focused on the process as he used mend. Hugo eventually got good enough to heal a shallow cut with just a single point of health and three mana. Polina seemed impressed with his rapid improvement. Hugo was frustrated at how slow it was. He had to keep stopping and pretending to let his health and mana refill.

One fantastic benefit of being a life mage was his high regeneration. It refilled his health points and mana at a prodigious rate. Even in the low mana environment of early in the year, Hugo was able to recover more than three times as fast. He just had to pretend that he couldn’t because he made a stupid lie earlier.

“Alright, now that you are good at healing animals, it is time to move on to people. Starting with yourself,” Mage Polina said and took out a knife.

“Wait. I thought life mages can’t heal themselves?

She waggled her hand side to side, “That’s sort of true. You can’t use your own mana on yourself. But you can move your health points around within your body. I am going to cut you, and then you will push your points up to the injury. Pay attention to the process, because you will guide it in others.”

Hugo nodded and held out his forearm for her to cut. She reached out with her scalpel and ran it down his arm. He noticed that she had to press down pretty hard to get the sharp knife to go through his skin. His high resilience must be hindering her.

A trickle of blood flowed from his arm before he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. He guided his health points along the cut and focused on the process. It was fascinating. His skin slowly closed before his eyes. It took more than five minutes. A wipe down with a cloth showed that there wasn’t even a thin scar left.

They practiced and studied anatomy for the rest of the day. Hugo enjoyed matching up what the book said with his system granted knowledge. Together he felt like he knew a lot more about the body than he had ever known before.

The next morning, he wasn’t greeted with breakfast in bed as usual. He knew what that meant. His father had returned in the night and they were expected to have a family breakfast. Hugo got up and selected one of his nicer outfits to wear. He wanted to have the best chance of convincing his father.

As he got to the breakfast table, he saw the rest of the family already eating. Milana gave him an encouraging look as he sat down.

“Welcome back, father. I am glad to see you. Was your trip successful?” Hugo said as he loaded up his plate.

“Yes, we have been given authorization to grow golden rice. We will be given a hundred bushels of golden rice at the end of this year. I will be working until then to get our country estate ready for the crop,” Sebastian quietly replied. He didn’t look up from his meal.

“That’s excellent news, I am very happy to hear that,” Hugo said. It meant his father would be in a good mood and more willing to agree to his ideas.

“How has your life mage education been going,” Sebastian said.

“Quite well, the tutor you got me is competent. She has mentioned several times that I have a natural talent for the domain,” Hugo said.

“Good to hear it,” Sebastian said.

“I was also able to ask her about something I have been considering for a while. Golems. With her training and help from my runic mage friend, I will be able to create them. I find golems fascinating and I want to focus my life mage talents in that direction,” Hugo said.

Ana-Marie and Milana both looked at Sebastian to gauge his reaction. He looked up at Hugo and said, “Really? You have been thinking about it for a while?”

“Yes, you have been asking me to take the life domain for a while, I was only reluctant because I didn’t want to be around blood and guts all day. I am not squeamish, I just don’t want that to be my whole life. I would much rather enrich the family coffers with a line of powerful golems.

“That sounds ambitious,” Sebastian said, “Quite unlike yourself.”

“It is ambitious, that’s true. It would take a great deal of my time. Not just creating the golems, but maintaining them as well. I wouldn’t be able to run the farming side of things at the same time,” Hugo said. He took a bite and continued, “I know you wanted me to lead things here in Tallinn while you go to Mount Lian, but I was hoping you would agree to let Milana take over in my place. I would do the important work of creating life, and she would handle the boring day to day work at the agribusiness.”

Taking a bite helped him slow down. He had been talking too much. He didn’t want to seem overeager.

Sebastian looked up at Hugo. He said, “Creating golems is hard work. Are you sure you are up for that?”

Hugo shrugged, “Running Baden Grains is hard work too. If I have to work hard either way, I might as well choose the option that will get me rich. Just imagine the possibilities of a team of finely crafted golems. People use them in shimmer processing, but there are so many better uses. Loyal guards, disposable soldiers, discrete butlers, the possibilities are endless.”

“Tell me the real reason you are asking for this,” Sebastian said.

The intensity of the question made Hugo remember his father was a light mage. No use trying to lie to him. “I want to create golems. Milana is better suited to run the farms. This seems like a good plan to me,” Hugo said frankly.

“You are acting very strange, Florin,” his father said. He tilted his head to the side.

Sebastian’s eyes started to glow yellow. He stood up as he continued to stare at Hugo. “What is wrong with you?” he whispered, almost to himself.

“What are you talking about?” Hugo said. He didn’t know what had gotten the man all riled up. Was Florin so lazy that asking to create golems was that suspicious?

A dim light poured out of Sebastian and swept over Hugo. His father stalked closer. Hugo scooched his chair back, unsure what was happening.

“You aren’t a life mage,” Sebastian said as he stared at Hugo’s stomach. He continued, “No, you aren’t only a life mage. Your mana core is enormous and tainted with many magics. What is...”

His eyes switched from Hugo’s stomach up to his face. With one swift motion, Sebastian raced over and grabbed Hugo by the neck and threw him up against the wall. He shouted in Hugo’s face, “Who are you and what have you done with my son?”