The Golem Adventurer

Chapter 22 - Summons

Two weeks have passed since that night in the forest. Having to sit on my hands has been rough. Neither Tessa or Hina have left my side other than to do their own personal business or to go sleep in their rooms. In fact, I've had to sit in on their training, spending a day out camping with them in the countryside while Tessa practiced her magic. I was impressed that she was already breaking through the 4th tier of magic, not that I understand it all that well. Hina was pleased with her progress and if there's anything to understand coming from her is that if she's impressed, I should be too.

I was only half interested in the lessons. I mean, I could't even use those spells anyway. My current mana pool was, while high for my current level, wasn't enough if I wanted to continue to the higher echelons. Tier 2 magic takes about 20% of my mana for a single spell. Tier 3 would require double my current mana to cast. Tessa had taught me one of these spells on the off chance that I could find what I need to get stronger in the northwest ruins. Even learning one of these spells was a daunting challenge and that's with Oracle's help in regards to memorization. I still had to understand the "intent" from the chant and the spell I learned was so verbose it seemed to go on a tangent. Normal people like Tessa and Hina had to actually say the entire script, unlike me. It let me see them in a new light, knowing the lengths of what they had to go in order to cast such powerful spells.

When I said this to Tessa she laughed, "That's actually normal, Arlan. For me and Master, saying those long chants feels natural. Like I was made to do this."

She went on to say that those without a predisposition to casting would say the same thing as me. We don't have magic on Earth. Of course I wouldn't have talent for casting like mages here. It's as if they were musicians using instruments and I was doing the same thing but with my phone playing my track mix. I was using a proxy and all I'm doing is pressing play.

During my little vacation, the Guildmaster had me promoted to Rank C. The highest a normal adventurer would go and the highest he could advance me without the approval of the four other Guildmasters. Kurtz explained that C-Rank was where most people stayed. If I wanted to go B-Rank, I had to show "potential" and be an extraordinary individual.

I asked for more clarification at that point. I didn't really care about rankings or showing off. C-Rank was just enough for me to get a decent income though it could vary depending on what's available. He stated that I needed to do more than just destroy a single sty. I needed to go out and get my name recognized all over the Nation Alliance if I wanted to reach the higher ranks.

He seemed disappointed when I told him I wasn't aspiring to go that distance. The income would be solid since I'd be able to take on special requests made from the various countries, all of which pays handsomely. It would also be less work overall since I wouldn't have to do daily quests. I'd have much more free time. That did sound like a good idea though. I'd love to take up fishing again.

There was a much bigger elephant in the room. My actions had started to leak out into the city. My peaceful days had come to a close too soon when I started hearing whispers as the Guildhall went quiet every time I had entered. Adventurers whispering about the deeds I performed over at the sty. It wasn't long until news had spread throughout the city. I was starting to become famous, but not in a good way. My actions at the sty started to become greatly exaggerated as the days went by. My fight against the privateers had merged together in some stories, saying I fought a mountain fortress of orcs and bandits while shooting 'beams of light' from my eyes. Who keeps saying I can do that!?

It was during one of those days that I entered the Guildhall. The moment I opened the doors, I was surrounded by soldiers. Not the city guard, however. These ones were dressed much more ornately. Like they were knights from the old stories, gilded with gold and silver, wearing red cloaks sporting the crest of Haldin.