It was a beautiful day, warm but not too warm, a light breeze was blowing, birds were chirping, there was a field of flowers alongside a crystal clear stream. Tess was alone crouched down filling her water bag from the stream. Upon filling it up she put the cap on, stood up, turned around, and saw Arthur walking towards her with a big smile on his face. But for some reason he wasn't wearing his adventurer clothes, he was wearing traditional elven formal attire. Tess had no idea why Arthur was wearing clothes like that, but she had to admit, he looked very handsome and dashing.

"Art why are you dressed like that?" Tess asked as he continued to close the distance between them.

Arthur didn't reply, he just continued walking. Once Arthur arrived at Tess he smashed his lips into hers and began to kiss her passionately as he placed his hands on her cheeks.

"Art?!" Tess questioned in shock when he broke the kiss, her whole body blushing bright red.

"I love you Tess, I've always loved you. I was just to blind to see it," Arthur replied then returned to kissing Tess.

Tess' joy right now knew no limits, her body felt warm, her heart was racing as if it was about to burst out of her chest. Arthur just confessed that he loved her, a dream come true for the young elf. Arthur pushed her back slightly and into a tree, that Tess didn't know was even there before. Arthur's hands moved from Tess' cheeks and down to her waist, as his lips moved down to her neck.

"Oh Art," Tess moaned softly as Arthur kissed her neck.

Arthur's right hand moved down from Tess' waist and to her thigh, then began to move up again slowly. Soon Arthur's hand began to move under her skirt. Tess couldn't believe what Arthur was doing, she never knew this side of him even existed, but was so excited to learn of it. This was it, Arthur was about to reach her ....

ROARRR.

Tess shot up right, sweat pouring from her face as her heart raced. She looked around to see that she was in her tent alone.

ROARRR

Tess quickly grabbed her staff and burst out of her tent, ready to do battle with whatever beasts were attacking the camp. Upon her emergence she saw the rest of her friends exiting as well, and in the middle of camp was Grawder, making his presence heard.

"Sorry everyone," Curtis apologized as he walked to his bond. "I guess I forgot to warn you, I trained Grawder to wake me up every morning shortly after sunrise." Just about everyone groaned and complained about this.

Tess now having time to think, realized everything she just experienced was only a dream.

"I hate you Grawder," Tess mumbled under her breath angrily due to the mana beast ruining her dream.

"Good morning Tess," Arthur yawned, his blue sword in hand, while standing outside of his tent beside hers.

"Good morning," Tess quickly and scurried back into her tent.

Arthur looked at Tess' tent confused as to why she moved back into her tent so quickly. Yes her hair was a complete mess, but Arthur had seen her hair worse after they would train. Arthur in the end just shook his head and reached back into his tent for his boots before he started his day.

Tess just laid on top of her sleeping bag, a smile on her face while her heart was still racing from her dream. Her right hand moved from her lips to her neck. She had never had a dream like that before, it was so vivid and felt so real. Although she knew Arthur would never do anything like that at this point, she wondered if he would in the future after they were in a romantic relationship for a little while.

"Come on Princess, rise and shine. Don't go back to sleep, those dreams aren't worth it," Claire called from outside the tent.

"And how would you know if my dreams weren't worth it?" Tess shot back sounding annoyed.

Claire poked her head into the tent. "I'm talking in general. You probably won't be able to fall back into that deep sleep where you dream any ways. And if you do manage to fall asleep you're going to feel even more tired when you wake up," Claire explained.

"Oh. Well ok then, I'll get up I guess," Tess replied as she sat up and started to gather her thing.

"Good. Besides, wouldn't you rather spend time with the real Arthur over the one in your dreams anyway?" Claire teased with a smirk on her face.

"W-w-what are you talking about?" Tess stuttered.

Claire cupped one of her hands around her mouth. "You weren't exactly quiet while you were sleeping." Claire whispered.

"Ahhh," Tess screamed as she buried her face in her pillow and curled up into a ball.

"Don't worry," Claire replied with a little laugh. "I was already up and I could barely hear you, so I think it's pretty safe to say he didn't hear you."

"This is still so embarrassing," Tess said with her face still pressed into her pillow.

"It's completely normal to dream like that. Dreams are just your mind's way of sorting through things. You two almost kissed yesterday, before Kathyln interrupted. I'm sure that was a little frustrating, so much so that your mind worked through it in your dreams," Claire explained.

"I know you're trying to help, but it's not working!" Tess shot back.

"Well here's a thought to get you moving. If you aren't out here by Arthur, Kathyln will be able to spend as much time as she wants around him," Claire said confidently.

Tess immediately dropped her pillow and rushed to get her boots and the rest of her clothes on, then rushed outside, practically knocking Claire over in the process. Once outside she quickly noticed no one was around.

"Where is everyone?" Tess asked.

"That's why I came to get you," Claire said as she stood back up. "Arthur and Elijah were going to spar, and everyone else already left to watch."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go," Tess urged as she gestured for Claire to lead the way.

Claire led Tess a short distance from camp to a small clearing, where the rest of their group was waiting with anticipation along the tree line. Tess immediately picked Kathyln out and made sure to stand beside her. Then out of nowhere Sylvie dropped down and into Tess' arms. Tess gave the young dragon a hug as Kathyln noticed out of the corner of her eye and felt a wave of jealousy come over her, however she retained her composure so no one could tell she had a problem.

In front of them Arthur and Elijah were stretching before they began their spar. Arthur was by far the strongest member of their group, while Elijah not being the strongest in the group was still pretty strong for his age, being at the light orange stage at the age of fourteen. It was easy to understand why pretty much anyone in the group would want to spar with Arthur. His power towered over everyone else's there, with Claire being the closest after reaching the dark yellow stage during the week before they left. Technically Tess would have been the strongest if not for her core being restrained, since her body absorbed an unusual item Arthur had recieved, which pushed her core from light orange all the way to light yellow just a hair away from silver.

After stretching Arthur drew his sword and they both entered a battle stance. Everyone had their eyes locked on these two, not only because Elijah stated that he wanted to test some new spells he had developed, but also because they wanted to see how these two friends, the two most experienced mages in the party fared against one another.

With a nod from them both Arthur darted towards Elijah as he quickly spit out an incantation and a stone ten foot long stone serpent shot out of the ground. Arthur quickly halted his advance and jumped back to avoid the snake's attack. Everyone looked at the snake with amazement, as a golem was a fairly high tier spell that even earth mange upperclassmen at the academy struggled with, but this was something else entirely and Elijah looked like he created it with little effort. With a nod of approval, Arthur began channeling wind and earth mana through his body. The snake lunged at Arthur again, but this time he was ready, with earth and wind mana infused into his blade, Arthur struck the snake. However instead of the blade cutting through the snake, the sword broke several chunks of stone off and bounced back with a metal striking metal sound. No one else could see it, but as Arthur stood ready to face off against the snake again he could see underneath the area that he had just struck, was metal. Arthur couldn't help but be impressed by what Elijah had done. Elijah's use of his metal magic was very limited, aside from during the attack on the academy, he had only used it in independent training and never in a spar. Arthur then coalalessed wind mana into his sword and earth mana into his feet, and charged in to attack.

—————————————————————

"Why is Arthur using his earth and wind magic?" Kathyln asked no one in particular. "His Fire magic would be a better choice."

"Because Arthur's trying to unlock sound and gravity magic. Just like at school before the attack, he's trying to focus on those two to get a better insight into them," Tess explained.

"Hmm, I like his determination," Kathyln replied with a little smile. "I feel most duel affinity mages would be happy after unlocking one deaviation and not want to put in the work, but here's Arthur already one of the strongest mages at school, even counting the professors, and he still strives to push himself to his full potential."

"That's one of the things I really love about Art," Tess replied. "Art actually asked me to help him with his wind magic last week while I was staying with him," Tess said as she tried to drive the fact into Kathyln's head that Arthur was hers.

"Wait you stayed at his home?" Kathyln commented in shock as she tore her eyes away from Arthur and Elijah's match.

"Oh yes. Ever since the attack my parents and grandfather have wanted me to stay as close to Art as possible. So every time he would spend a weekend with his parents, I spent the weekend with them. They are such nice people, they make me feel like family everytime I'm there," Tess said. Claire had brought to her attention an important detail, that Kathyln had a crush on Arthur. Tess actually liked Kathyln, and held nothing against her, but she was also not about to let Kathyln try to steal Arthur away from her.

A loud boom brought the two girls attention back to the match. Arthur had chipped away at the snake to reveal almost all of its metal body beneath the stone. He had tried to do some damage to the metal joints where the snake moved, but the best he could do was just push it back. Arthur knew with fire magic he could probably start melting it, or perhaps cut it into pieces at the joints, but he was determined to only use wind and earth magic while training. Arthur had tried air blades, launching large rocks, even burying the snake. Each time though the snake just came back with maybe a scratch at most. Arthur did see one weakness, when he buried the snake Elijah seemed to be much more focused, most likely due to the fact he couldn't see the snake and had to pay more attention to ensure it did what he wanted. Arthur had made a mental note to share this with Elijah after since he appeared to be completely vulnerable to an attack. Arthur knew he could have ended this match that way, but he wanted to use this to see if he could actually beat the snake.

Since using single elements wasn't working, Arthur decided to start combining them. Arthur focused a great deal of wind mana into his right foot, as he also focused earth mana into both feet. Arthur stomped his left foot down and a single stone spike shot out. Then he cut the top portion off, about one foot in length. Then as it fell Arthur jumped up, and did a spin kick with his right foot to send the spike at the metal snake. A split second later there was a loud boom that caused everyone including Arthur to cover their ears. Another split second later the metal snake was split in half at one of the joints and fell to the ground.

Everyone stood around with their ears ringing yelling at one another, completely unable to tell what anyone had said. Eventually they all made it back to camp, and started packing up since they all knew it needed to be done. By the time everyone was done packing their hearing was restored, and it was time for some answers.

"Ok Arthur, explanation time. What in the world was that?" Feyrith asked.

"Hmm, I'd say that was a sonic boom," Arthur guessed.

"A what?" Claire asked.

Arthur mentally slapped himself. It wasn't uncommon for him to use terms that he knew from his previous world when trying to explain things in this world. "That is the name of my new attack I just developed," Arthur said to cover himself.

"Good name, it really seems to fit with the boom part," Curtis chimed in. "But what was it?"

'How am I supposed to describe a sonic boom to people in a world where they don't even know of the sound barrier or speed of sound,' Arthur thought to himself. "If I had to guess, I'd say I used so much wind and earth mana that when I kicked the rock, it moved so fast almost instantly that a boom was created," Arthur said. It wasn't exactly accurate, but it made a lot more sense coming from a thirteen year old than him explaining the sound barrier and then explaining where he learned about it.

"I wonder if that attack could give better insight into sound magic," Tess commented.

"I wouldn't be surprised. I've still got a few other things I'd like to experiment with in regards to wind magic that might give me better insight, but more importantly," Arthur said, then stopped and looked right at Elijah. "When did you come up with that?"

Elijah blushed a little as all attention was back on him. "I've been working on that for a while now, and I figured now was a good time to test it out in a fight."

"Well now we can see who will be the shining star of the earth mages next year," Arthur praised as he patted his best friend on the back.

"I'm curious, why did you coat your snake in stone? It seemed kind of pointless to me considering the metal is stronger," Feyrith asked.

"The idea is to provide protection from fire magic. Even though Arthur said he was going to be training hard on earth and wind magic, I wasn't sure if he'd use fire magic in a sparring match," Elijah then gave a chuckle as he scratched the back of his head. "Although I didn't expect him to chip away at the stone that easily either. I definitely need to work on making the stone stronger."

"Well with what you just showed us, you're already ahead of every earth mage student in the school, and you'll only be a second year. I imagine you'll be even more advanced than most of the professors by the time you graduate," Claire praised.

—————————————————————

Curtis was tightening his armor as Grawder was feasting on his fresh kill. Claire was sharpening her reaper while Tess, Kathyln, and Lilia were meditating to absorb as much ambient mana that they could. Feyrith had already absorbed as much mana as he could, and was now polishing the crystal in his staff to calm his nerves. It has been a week since these six young mages became adventures, and it was just about time to dive into their first dungeon together.

Claire, Curtis, and Tess kept remembering Widow's Crypt, the dungeon they entered with the rest of their class and Professor Glory. They didn't even make it past the first level as they all became completely overwhelmed by the vast numbers of mana beasts attacking them. However even Professor Glory had told them all something was very wrong there, and that was not how a dungeon dive would normally go. Before there were fifteen students and Professor Glory, so one would think that they would feel even more nervous now, however they felt about the same. Not only have they gotten stronger, but this time they had Elijah and Arthur, who wasn't going to be holding back his full strength, as well as a dragon, who was curled up napping in Tess' lap, for encase things got out of hand.

Arthur and Elijah had just finished putting out food for the mana beasts that had been pulling their carriages, and Elijah had just erected a spiked stone wall around them to keep them safe. It was dangerous for the mana beasts to be left out waiting at the entrance to a dungeon, and would normally be sent back to the nearest outpost where they most likely originated from. However due to the time constraints of the summer, Arthur and Elijah agreed they didn't have that kind of time to waste walking back to an outpost just to rent new mana beasts and carriages again, so they took procations and set up a few mana traps with the spiked wall as the final line of defense.

As they arrived and looked upon their party, they didn't see battle hardened adventurers, nor did they see a bunch of nervous children. Before them were six young adventurers that were both nervous and excited, ready to put their skills to the test.

"You ready?" Arthur asked Elijah as he extended his fist straight out to his side.

"Ready," Elijah replied as he extended his fist and bumped Arthur's.

"Don't forget, if anything happens to me, you're in charge. Complete the dungeon or retreat, it's your call," Arthur reminded his friend.

"I won't forget, but let's just make sure nothing happens," Elijah replied, as Arthur nodded in acknowledgment.

"Alright everyone, are you all ready to do this?" Arthur asked the rest of their party as they stood between them and the entrance.

Everyone stood up and looked to Arthur and Elijah as they nodded and held their weapons at the ready.

"Alright then, let's go have some fun," Arthur replied, and turned around as he began leading them into their first dungeon together.

—————————————————————

Several hundred miles away, writhing the castle on the floating city of Xyrus, Pricilla Glayder was enjoying a cup of tea with another woman. The other woman was a little shorter than Pricilla with long navy hair that reached her lower back that was kept in a tight braid.

"I'm so happy you were able to come Elsia, it's been far too long since we've been able to spend some time together," Pricilla said as she identified the other woman.

"It's alright, I understand. You and Blaine are very busy with the council these days. Markus is too with his work integrating the army's of the three races together," Elsia replied.

"I know, I'm sorry we assigned the task to him, but we feel he's the only one in the southern region that can do it," Pricilla apologized.

Elsia and her husband Marcus were of the Aldwynn family, a respected noble family in the southern part of Sapin. Pricilla enjoyed Elsia's company due to the fact that she was not born a noble, but married into a noble family. This made her act, in Pricilla's opinion, more real and less rehearsed. The Aldwynn family was also what many called, new nobles. They had always been powerful and respected mages for generations with a long standing history of military service. However they never were able to make it very high in the officer ranks due to the older noble families keeping the higher ranks for themselves. It wasn't till the last war between the elves and humans did this change. Marcus' father Warren was a squad leader, only in charge of a small group of ten soldiers. During a skirmish with the elves in the forest of Elshire, his captain panicked when the battle started to turn in favor of the elves and ran with his staff and lieutenants, abandoning his soldiers. Quickly Warren took charge and was able to turn the tide of the battle and force the elves to retreat. He then led the remaining one hundred men through the Elshire forest in an attempt to regroup with a larger human force that was supposed to be outside the forest. While doing so he and his men stumbled upon a staging area for the elves to launch attacks from to forces outside the forest. Despite not having the strength to directly attack the elves Warren had his conjurers rain down a series of long range attacks to throw them into a panic, trying to do more damage to the structures holding food and other supplies. The hope was that this would prevent them from launching attacks for a time while they awaited new supplies. Once they regrouped with their larger force Warren was able to give the position of the staging area, and a full assault was then sent in to eliminate the threat. Due to his actions Warren was given a field promotion to Captain, and then began working his way up through the ranks normally reserved for the noble families, eventually achieving the rank of General, bringing his family up to noble status.

"But anyways, how's Lunaris? Last we spoke he was getting ready for his third year at Lanceler Academy," Pricilla said, changing the subject.

"He just finished his third year, and once again top of his class. He works so hard to keep up the family tradition of powerful mages," Elsia replied, then took a sip of tea before continuing. "He's actually decided to travel the beast glades with some friends to get some practical experience in combat by slaying mana beasts."

"Really? Curtis and Kathyln are doing the same thing. They both passed as B rank adventurers and left last week," Pricilla replied with an amused tone.

"You allowed them to become adventurers? I would have never expected that from you as much as you worry about them," Elsia said in shock as she nearly choked on her tea.

"Well I'm not particularly thrilled with the idea, but they have two adventurers with them, A and AA class, so that does help my nerves a little bit," Pricilla said trying to convince herself everything was going to be fine. Just then an idea popped into her head. "Elsia, do you think Lunaris would be willing to do a favor for me?"

"Probably. What kind of favor are you asking for?" Elsia asked.

"I just would like him to make a little detour from his route," Pricilla replied as she slid a map to Elsia.