Chapter 65 - An Ice Mage? (1)

"My Lord, this is the mage Arya. Although small in stature due to a birth defect, I trust his skills enough for him to accompany me on my journey to the north," said Arcem to the elderly man.

"Arcem do you have to leave? My land is still not safe from the beasts that plague it, and I don't mean to call you weak but isn't it too dangerous to travel with only the two of you? If you are leaving can't I at least appoint some knights to you?" asked the elderly man, visibly saddened by Arcem's sudden request to leave.

"My lord sending knights will not make a difference when we are confronted by those beasts. If anything they will be more of a liability than a help. And I wouldn't dare to leave you and your land defenseless. I have already called for a substitute mage from the Mage Association. And don't worry I have asked for them to be at least a midlevel 3-star mage." replied Arcem trying to ease the elderly man's worrying.

"If you say so Arcem. But this Arya fellow, how come I have never once heard of him? If he is acquainted with you he must be a rather powerful mage, shouldn't he?" asked the elderly man as he turned to look at Arya for the first time.

To him, Arya looked more like a mere boy, but he couldn't refute what Arcem said, after all, there is no way Arcem would mistake a boy for a mage.

"He isn't in the same rank as me. He is rather new to the Mage Association and didn't join any competitions during his school days so he is relatively unknown. But I can vouch for his skills my lord. As you can see he was capable of hunting a fully grown Ryen by himself." replied Arcem pointing at Arya's pelt as he became a bit uneasy by the lord's persistent questioning.

"I understand that. But if you don't mind, can he show me a bit of his power? I just want to know how strong the mage that I am entrusting my family mage to really is." said the elderly man as he waited for Arya to display some sort of magic.

"We're screwed." thought Arcem as he looked at Arya with shaky hands. Arya was but a 0-star mage, so no matter what spells he knew there was no way he could impress the lord.

"My lord, he is rather tired right now so he won't be able to display anything impressive." Arcem tried saying as Arya stopped him.

"It's okay Arcem. Let me show the lord some of my skills," said Arya as he raised his palm and began chanting.

"What are you doing you idiot!" Arcem seemed to be saying internally before he heard the words Arya was chanting.

"Child of water heed my call. Bring about a chill to freeze my foes." chanted Arya.

"You idiot. Are you so wet behind the ears that you don't know you need a special affinity for ice magic to use it? It doesn't matter if you were taught the words. Without the affinity you might as well be barking." thought Arcem as he prepared for Arya's fate when a beam of ice shot out of Arya's hands and froze a nearby plant, shattering it after a second.

The fragments spread into the morning air giving off a beautiful scene. The children seemed to notice this and ran to see what was going on.

"Again! Again!" shouted the children as they ran around Arya.

"An ice mage?" thought both Arcem and the elderly man at the same time.

"Children we are discussing an important matter. You can ask the mage to show you that spell some other time." said the elderly man.

"Didn't he say that the ice-mage he was with left after their battle with the beast? Or was that a lie too? If he is an ice mage why would his organization let him walk around without any protection? Or is it that they have so many variant mages that they don't need to worry about losing a single ice mage?" thought Arcem as the lord spoke.

"Oh, an ice mage. Those are rather rare. With ice magic in your arsenal, you must be a very reliable companion in battle. Say, are you affiliated with any noble houses? You see, Arcem will have to retire soon and we will have a vacant spot open. We could train you and pay you a generous sum. We can even provide you with a minor title and a plot of land." said the elderly man, clearly trying to sweet talk Arya.

Variant mages weren't just sought after because they were so rare. It was because normal mages could only use the four basic elements. And even if they were advanced in the element of their affinity that just meant they could silent cast one of the four elements, however, the number of elements they could control remained the same.

Variant mages on the other hand could control the four basic elements and their additional variant element. And since variant elements originated from one of the basic elements that meant that variant mages had the potential to silent cast two elements and control five, making them a very destructive force in combat.

"My lord, aren't you rushing to make decisions a bit too fast? Arya isn't at the level to be a family mage for someone as noble as you. As you can see he isn't even able to silent cast his ice magic." said Arcem quickly with a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"silent casting?" thought Arya, this was the first time he had ever heard of the term.

"Neither can you Arcem. But even so, he can still be trained to use higher tier spells, although he is already too old to learn silent casting." said the elderly man as he turned back to look at Arya.

You see, silent casting was something that had to be unlocked at a young age.. It was kind of like learning a new language, it would be exponentially harder to learn silent casting at an old age so most mages didn't even attempt it when they passed the age of 18.