The morning of their first day of instruction came. Becoming accustomed to this new lifestyle would take some time for the newcomers. Hyemi was the first to wake and leave her room because the medicinal herb class started a lot earlier in the morning. She made sure to stir Sookyung from her sleep so she could also be ready for the day. Sookyung figured she had some time to lounge in bed before heading to her class.

Jinyoung eventually woke up and noticed that his unnamed roommate had already departed from the room. He got ready and walked to the Magicae building, having toured it yesterday. He talked to an instructor and was told that they didn’t need to bring their own magical weapons, but it would be helpful later on in the course. Jinyoung didn’t know how to open the grimoire his father gave him from his mother, he tried. He figured he’d eventually learn how to in class.

The Magicae buildings were wickedly tall and sharp-looking, like mystical spires that shot out from the very earth. Jinyoung ascended the stairs to his entry-level mage class because he had to learn the basics all over again. Once there, the boy spotted a familiar face. He confronted his roommate, who was sitting at the desk, an amused smile playing on his lips when Jinyoung approached him.

“You’re in this class too?” Jinyoung asked incredulously.

“Yeah, and so are you,” The man replied, his voice laced with mirth.

“You finally said something to me,” The other boy commented, taking a seat next to his roommate.

“Oh yeah, sorry about that. Jinyoung, right? My name’s Seungjun by the way,” his roommate smiled very brightly, which made the boy blush a little.

“Why are you being so nice to me now?” Jinyoung couldn’t help but question.

“I couldn’t talk to you at first because I wanted to get a read on your emotions upon first impression. And it seemed like you had some very interesting emotional responses to me…” Seungjun murmured, keeping that entertained smile affixed on Jinyoung.

“What are you talking about?” The boy was lost.

Just then, the teacher Jinyoung met the other day came into the class. He wore a typical mage garb, except instead of the sand-colored hues found in basic common clothing, he wore a garb the color of deep red wine. This indicated his obvious skill level. He also wore the quintessential tipped hat of mages and billowing scarves wrapped and covered his neck. Jinyoung remembered that his name was Kubo.

“All right, class will now begin.” The class quieted down and Jinyoung had to interrogate Seungjun later, not now.

Mr. Kubo went over the history of magic and of mages, which bored Jinyoung but kept him well-informed. Mr. Kubo also went over the different types of mages there are. One of his descriptions made Jinyoung’s ears perk, because what he said was setting off alarms in his head about a certain somebody.

“We mages are a powerful people. Another mage specialization are the enchanters, or charm mages. These individuals sense and can even affect and control the emotions of others around them. Though not inherently as powerful as other kinds of mages, being able to sense and alter another’s emotional state makes enchanters very tricky to deal with.”

Jinyoung turned to glare at Seungjun, who grinned back at him. He must be an enchanter, Jinyoung thought crossly. So he can sense my emotions… That’s how he knew how I reacted to him when I first saw him. Wait, does that mean…? Jinyoung sunk lower in his seat, and he heard chuckling from beside him. It was Seungjun, of course. After Mr. Kubo’s lecture, he decided to finally get the students cracking on magic.

“Most of you have probably have not fully awakened to wield magic yet. But since this path has been chosen for you, it means you have been born and bestowed with the ability to channel and command magical energy better than others. This path is our own, and it is my duty to train and guide you all. Everyone stand.” The students all got up on their feet, and Jinyoung felt nervous yet excited.

“I am about to cast a spell that will fully open up your magical capacities, if it hasn’t been opened yet. Otherwise, this spell will not affect you. But once you feel it, you will be ready to take on anything in this class.” Then, Mr. Kubo began uttering in an ancient language, tone low and throaty, almost hypnotic. Jinyoung closed his eyes and soon felt a cool sensation wash over him. Was this the effect of the spell?

Soon, the sensation subsided. Jinyoung reopened his eyes and the students were all conscious. Mr. Kubo allowed them to sit down, and announced that from this point on, they were apprentice mages under Zenith. Jinyoung studied his hands, feeling a sort of power deep within him freed. Everyone started cheering, and Jinyoung looked at Seungjun, who was just smiling complacently to himself. He must’ve already had his powers awakened beforehand, Jinyoung thought. The rest of the class was dedicated to learning basic spells. With his magical capabilities finally awakened, he was ready to jump right into the lessons.

Seungwoo went to class with very high hopes. He actually left Jihun in their dorm room; he was still asleep and Seungwoo didn’t want to wake him up lest the taller boy hold a dagger close to his throat. And he didn’t need any of that right now. He went to his ‘classroom’ which resembled a wooden cabin on the outskirts of the Forest of Training. Archery was definitely an outdoors activity, so all the Archery classes were situated in rooms right at the edge of the giant “forest” on campus. The Forest of Training was created for students to train and hone their skills in a more natural environment. Magic could also be safely contained within this enchanted area. Seungwoo saw students gathered up and he joined them.

His teacher was a slender and petite-looking woman named Luna. However, she had a piercing gaze, and wore a garb the color of pure moonlight. Once enough students were assembled, she made an announcement.

“My name is Miss Luna, as you all must know. Today we will immediately begin practicing with bows I will lend you. By next week, I expect you all to be able to purchase a bow of your own, or several if you break them. If you cannot keep up with the class, you will be cut.” Her words sent a chill down Seungwoo’s spine, he didn’t want to fail. She gestured to the side and a younger elven woman, Luna’s assistant, then led the students to the side where chests of bows and quivers of arrows sat. These were the practice bows and arrows they would be using. Seungwoo grabbed a bow and a quiver and was about to start learning from Miss Luna when he heard frantic footsteps sound off from somewhere behind him.

The students turned and Jihun dashed into view, clutching a bow and a quiver strapped onto his back. He was panting and sweating a bit. He probably ran to class. Seungwoo was just stunned that Jihun was here too. The boy looked to his teacher to see her reaction, but she was stern.

“S-Sorry I’m late,” Jihun wheezed.

“You just made it in time for instruction, but you’re still late. Next time I will send you back. Now come.” Jihun nodded at the teacher’s strict reply and joined the other students. That’s when the tall boy noticed Seungwoo amongst the crowd.

“Wow, we’re in the same class,” Seungwoo commented. However, Jihun looked a bit angry.

“You didn’t wake me up this morning! If we have the same class, you wake me up and we walk together. That’s how it is,” Jihun ranted. Seungwoo scoffed at this.

“I didn’t know!” He fired back. The two were on edge until their teacher yelled at them to pay attention.

Miss Luna went over how to hold the bow well. She said that the goal for today was to shoot three bullseyes, which were located on different points on three different trees. All around them, there were bullseyes on trees but the one where Miss Luna would survey their efforts was smack dab in the middle of the clearing. So she told them to practice on any trees around them before she would herd them up for the final surveyance.

Seungwoo felt the smooth, fine wood of the practice bow in his hands, and somehow it felt familiar and nostalgic to him, yet he owned no memories of ever handling a bow. The soft wind greeted his face as he experimentally held up the bow. Suddenly, his vision was overcome by a resurfacing memory in his head.

“That’s right, you hold the bow like this,” a woman’s soft and musical voice floated into Seungwoo’s ears. He held the bow up with small and sort of pudgy arms. She helped him draw an arrow from the backquiver. They were in a forest, full of sounds of nature and untold secrets. The woman began speaking again when 10 year-old Seungwoo steadied the bow higher.

“Elves carry with them the instinctive skill and knowledge of archery from their ancestors long ago. You may be of only half-blood, but you are my child. So focus, steady your breathing, and let the arrow go. If all is done well, your arrow will naturally find the point.” Seungwoo heeded the woman’s words and took a deep breath. His vision went black for a second, but he reopened his eyes and released the arrow. It whizzed through the air, past gallant trees and right in the middle of a small indent made in a particularly high tree.

“Wonderful job, son, you did well,” the woman patted the boy’s back warmly and he rejoiced, practically tossing the bow up into the air in bliss.

 

“Hey, Seungwoo!” The boy blinked back into reality, feeling Jihun shoving him. He turned his head and saw the tall boy looking a bit worried.

“Huh?” He replied dumbly.

“You were spacing out for quite a while. You didn’t even take your first shot,” Jihun pointed out. Seungwoo was confused by the vision he just had. Was that… a memory? That woman, it was his mother, he was sure of it. He saw photos that his father had and that was definitely his mother. Was that him being taught about archery? Could that have been a memory from before he came to Taza at the age of eleven? He almost had no recollection of what happened before…

“Sorry about that. Did you shoot some arrows already?” Seungwoo asked. Jihun grinned and pointed with a long finger several ways down. Seungwoo followed the line of sight until he saw a bullseye littered with four arrows. Two were dead center of the bullseye while the other two were just a nick below it.

“I think if I just concentrate more, I can hit the third bullseye in the row and pass. My usual limit is two consecutive bullseyes.” Jihun was practically bragging.

Seungwoo paid it no mind and decided to try shooting too. He steadied his bow, and somehow his instincts felt trained for this. He eyed out the target some ways down. He focused on the red patch in the middle of the target. He let the sound of the wind fill his ears and closed his eyes. He drew a bow from his backquiver and aligned it. Once he snapped his eyes back open, he released the arrow.

“W-What?” Jihun exclaimed. Seungwoo blinked and stared at the bullseye he hit. He couldn’t believe it. He really was a natural. Jihun brushed it off as a fluke, but Seungwoo concentrated and shot his arrows three more times. Two of them hit the bullseye, the third was a bit off. But that was still three in a row. All he had to do was succeed in front of Miss Luna and he would be in the clear.

“All right, let us gather and try at the trees over here,” Miss Luna announced after some time. The students’ emotions ranged from excited, eager and confident to panicked and afraid. The gears in Seungwoo’s head were already turning. He thought of Insignus and remembered Inseong’s little test would be today as well. He felt more prepared and confident now, so he had a plan in mind right after class… Maybe he could pull it off before meeting up with his friends.

After the first day of classes were finished, the friends gathered at the meeting place they decided with Inseong. Their leader wasn’t here yet but they know he’d be here soon. However, the friends were shocked upon seeing each other. For one thing, Sookyung looked a bit roughed up. So did Hyemi. In contrast, the boys seemed fine. Seungwoo even looked excited.

“What happened to you guys?!” Jinyoung exclaimed. Sookyung had a few wounds and scratches, while Hyemi had a bandage around her leg. Sookyung just explained that the class she was in made her fight someone and this was the result of that. Hyemi also had combat practice that took a toll on her thigh.

“We’ll be fine,” Sookyung replied with a sigh. She just had to be careful from now on. The friends then noticed that Seungwoo was wearing a backquiver and owned a bow. They asked him how he got that and he was grinning from ear to ear.

“Well, I aced the preliminary archery test I had in class today. So, I left school right after class and bought this from a friend of my dad’s, cheap too. It pays to have merchant connections,” He beamed. Everyone else had to make do with the weapons they had.

Inseong soon came to them, smugness apparent on his face as he greeted his subordinates. He told them they would be heading to the Forest of Training. Seungwoo groaned, saying he just had class there, but Inseong mischievously replied that they weren’t going to be near the Archery classes.

He took them to a different side of the Forest of Training. Large, imposing oak trees flanked them on every side once they reached their destination. Light filtered in tiny openings between the coverings of the trees, and the earth below them was bumpy and rugged. It was almost like a legitimate forest.

“Are you guys ready for the test?” Inseong grinned, walking past them to the other side of the area, putting distance between them. The friends were a bit nervous because this would decide if they were ready to take on missions for the school. It would be horrible if they had to keep redoing the test in order to get started on missions.

“What do you have for us?” Jinyoung asked.

Suddenly, Inseong began whispering in an ancient language. The friends stepped back warily as the very earth began to rumble and quake slightly. A gargantuan being emerged from the ground, body as brunneous as mud. As it dug itself out, the friends watched on in horror as the being’s eyes shown with a warm orange hue. It was bipedal and had huge, wide, overbearing shoulders in comparison with its tinier head. Its back and torso were extremely larger than the lower half of its body.

“I can summon creatures, that is my speciality. And right now, I summoned a clay golem. You must triumph over it and grab the amulet on this tree.” Inseong pointed upward and the friends spotted a dull bronze trinket perched and nestled between the thick twisting branches.

“We have to defeat it?!” Sookyung exclaimed. The golem was a hulking figure that stood between the friends and the amulet. Inseong grinned again, revealing bunny teeth.

“Good luck. The golem will do anything in its power to protect the amulet,” He sounded very amused. The golem was just standing there, as if daring the friends to make a move.

“What are we going to do?” Hyemi asked, panicking over the sheer height and width of the being.

“Did you happen to learn some spells, Jinyoung?” Sookyung asked. The boy nodded, he knew basic spells, limited yes, but spells indeed.

“I’ll charge right in, Hyemi, you back me up. Jinyoung, I want you to hit that thing from a distance, make sure it’s distracted. Seungwoo, just try to find its weakness.” Everyone nodded.

“Now!” Sookyung shot forward, ignoring the slight pain in her side. Hyemi followed, not as quick due to her own injury.

Jinyoung thought of which spell to cast, his mind was racing. He couldn’t use the grimoire from his dad yet, but he could perform basic spells on his own, he was sure of that. He thought of casting the basic ice attack. He let the ancient words flow into his mind and recited them, raising a hand to the hulking sentinel.

A circle of cyan magical energy formed onto the shoulder of the golem as Jinyoung’s spell began intensifying. The golem was raising a fist at the threat of Sookyung and Hyemi. Soon, an icy blast detonated onto the golem, spikes formed from ice making direct contact with it. However, it seemed unperturbed. Sookyung panicked as the golem brought a huge fist down. She sidestepped and leapt out of the way, but Hyemi wasn’t so fortunate. She came to a stop before the fist could hit her, but the impact of the blow sent her reeling backward. She landed with a thud on the floor.

“Mages are the worst matchup for golems, because they are impervious to magical spells,” Inseong shouted as a reminder. The friends paled, realizing Jinyoung’s spells wouldn’t even harm it.

“I forgot about that… Damn, what can I do,” He gritted his teeth.

“Hyemi, are you okay?” Seungwoo asked worriedly. His bow was readied and he was trying to find a spot to hit with his arrow. But the golem was large and its body was armored with hardened earth. He doubted his arrows will hurt it. Hyemi gathered herself up. The golem stepped towards her but Sookyung bounded up, bringing the sword down on its shoulder. The golem was barely scratched from the blow and swung again, this time at Sookyung. She dodged backward but hit a tree, groaning from the impact.

“Let’s split up and try to get the amulet!” Sookyung yelled. The friends tried to go from different directions, but the golem was too wide and didn’t allow them any room to get past without serious injury. It swung and the friends had to retreat backward to dodge. Also, the tree was way too high for anyone to try and scale it in time to safely grab the amulet. They would easily be thrown off by the golem.

“Damn, I need to find a weak spot,” Seunwoo muttered to himself. Sookyung suddenly shouted at the boys to cover her again. She rushed towards the golem who reached out to grip her, but she spun and brought the sword down hard on its fingers. The blade sliced through the hardened earth and she drew back again, satisfied.

“Good job!” Hyemi cried. The golem was now missing some fingers.

“We have to concentrate our magical energy in our blows right before impact,” Sookyung noted. However, in the span of a few seconds, the clay began to reform and soon new fingers were regenerated.

“Remember, this golem is made out of clay, so it can easily regenerate its parts,” Inseong yelled.

“Hyemi, do you remember that duo formation we learned in combat sparring in academy,” Sookyung panted. The other girl nodded.

“Should we try it?” She asked. Sookyung raised her sword in agreement.

“The golem should have trouble taking on the two of us working as one. We need to infuse our weapons with magical energy and hit it with all we got,” She advised. Hyemi gave her an okay and the girls ran forward, criss-crossing in sync. Hyemi held her daggers tautly and Sookyung had the sword at the ready as they weaved their way towards their huge foe.

The golem tried to bring its fists down barbarically, but the girls criss-crossed and jumped. Sookyung slammed the metal into the golem’s left shoulder, while Hyemi used her strength to bury the daggers into the golem’s chest. Both charging their weapons with some magical energy, they leapt back when the golem began to crumble a bit in both injury spots. The golem’s shoulder began to sag as the clay crumbled from impact, and the right side of its chest was also fractured from Hyemi’s daggers. The girls were fatigued, but at least the golem was hurt, in a way.

“Again!” Hyemi urged, as the girls once again performed the formation. Seungwoo shot arrows, aiming for the weakened spots on the golem. However, its regeneration was too speedy. The golem lurched forward, surprising the girls with its burst of speed and head-on collisional move. They jumped to each side and the golem twisted its body, shrugging off the arrows. It beat the ground as a threat, and the girls had to fall back yet again.

“That almost worked… wait, where’s Jinyoung?” Hyemi asked, panicking.

“Look!” Seungwoo jutted a finger, and the friends witnessed Jinyoung’s slender form leap from a tree behind the golem. He was headed towards the tree with the amulet. He had slipped into the tree and maneuvered himself by jumping when the golem was distracted by the girls.

However, the amulet was perched on a tree much higher than the other ones around it. So when Jinyoung leapt, grabbing onto the bark and attempting to clamber up, the golem had noticed him and was charging towards him.

“Watch out, Jinyoung!” Hyemi screamed. Jinyoung reared his head back and froze in horror as the golem lunged, fists at the ready. Inseong grinned as the golem purposely hit higher than Jinyoung, the impact of the blow sending him flying off the tree.

With a pained scream, the boy thudded onto the earth. The golem stood menacingly over him. Inseong specifically instructed the golem not to seriously harm the students. But he was impressed that the boy had slipped into the tree with little detection. How could a mage be so cunning?

Seungwoo released arrow after arrow into the back of the golem, which was facing the rest of the friends. Each was imbued with some magic, so it definitely caught the attention of the golem. It turned back towards the others, who were poised to attack it.

“It’s too dangerous, Jinyoung, fall back.” The boy heeded Sookyung’s advice and he sprinted towards them, Seungwoo still firing arrows to distract the sentinel. The friends had regrouped, and now needed a new tactic.

“That was so close too,” Jinyoung groaned.

“If you got seriously hurt from the golem, it wouldn’t have mattered.” Hyemi shot back, motherly instincts overriding her want for success.

“What do we do now?” Seungwoo asked, tired. Everyone was a bit worn out.

“You better think of something, before I instruct the golem to attack you head-on!” Their leader shouted confidently. He’s being way too peppy about this, Hyemi grumbled to herself.

“Okay, let’s review what went down. So Inseong is in full control of this golem. It’s impervious to magic, as we saw, regenerates itself if fractured or missing any part, and possess great physical strength. However, since it’s being controlled by a master, it can’t think on its own. That’s why strategies, like the formation me and Hyemi did, worked on it.” Sookyung explained her findings to the group, who nodded.

“So… how do we defeat it?” Seungwoo asked tentatively. Clearly, this thing was too much to handle if they tried to take it on, not at their current skill level. But, they still possessed something that the golem couldn’t ever best them at.

“Instead of defeating it, we should outthink it,” Jinyoung mused. Everyone was clueless on how to do so.

“Outthink it? How?” Hyemi implored.

“It got me thinking. I was really close to getting the amulet because I had slipped away unnoticed. I could only pull off such a stunt because of the training my father made me undergo with Jinsu. Basically, it was an assassin’s tactic. Inseong knows us all by our paths, hence he can control the golem and tell it what to do based on that. He didn’t expect me to have an assassin’s training background.” The friends let the mage’s words sink in.

“So we should think of other tricks that we learned before we came to Zenith,” Sookyung filled in. Tricks. Ah, tricks! Sookyung, Jinyoung, and Seungwoo turned to Hyemi, who regarded them suspiciously.

“Why are y’all looking at me?” Hyemi demanded.

“I’m going to attack now,” Inseong notified. He gave the golem the signal, and the hulking creature was stomping its way over. Sookyung countered with a frontal assault, charging to meet the golem, with Hyemi close behind.

The girls tried a different tactic. Sookyung suddenly braked as the golem neared, letting Hyemi take the lead. Hyemi veered to the right, dodging the low punch of the golem and stabbing its right leg with both daggers. She imbued it with a hunk of magical energy and it was enough for the leg to crumble and give way, making the golem stumble and kneel.

Then, she safely leapt out of reach of the golem’s arms as Sookyung bounced up when the sentinel was distracted. She hopped onto the golem’s large, mountain-like body. The golem tried to shake her off, but she brought the blade down and embedded it within its back, allowing her to hold onto the hilt as leverage. The fractured, cracked head of the golem already began to repair itself, as Sookyung struggled to keep her footing.

“Now, Jinyoung!” She yelled. Inseong watched on in curiosity and bemusement as the mage started reciting another spell. So he was switching back to magic again. I told you, spells don’t affect my golem, Inseong thought.

However, it wasn’t the golem that Jinyoung was using the spell on. A large circle drew itself around the hulking figure, enclosing it within. Then, with a faint shimmer, the circle glowed and the earth within its radius began to soften and churn. Inseong’s eyebrows rose as the earth became mud. The golem began to sink in the midst of the wet earth, the more it struggled, the deeper it fell into the churned mud.

The basic spells included traning elements into different forms. For example, the ice spell converted water to solid ice form and also allowed icy spears to be conjured onto or near a target. Another spell involved changing earth to its liquified mud form. Instead of haplessly using it on the clay golem, Inseong was thoroughly impressed that Jinyoung used it on the ground as a sort of entrapment for the golem.

“All right!” Sookyung shouted. However, the golem was still bent on ridding itself of her. It raised its arm to clap against her, but this time it was Seungwoo’s turn. He lined up his arrow and shot it, whistling through the air and piercing the golem’s eye. If the golem could scream in agony, it would’ve done so at this moment.

“True, golems rely on vision, but it can also regenerate its eye,” Inseong informed. However, Seungwoo’s satisfied grin made Inseong even more curious. Upon closer inspection, he saw that from the golem’s eye dripped a very white liquid. What is that? Inseong asked himself.

“I don’t think it could regenerate its eye if it’s full of milkweed. You see, I’m a herb specialist in the making. I always have certain herbs and plants on hand, but who knew it could come in handy like this,” Hyemi explained. She held up a vial of the same milky liquid. She then described that the sap of the plant was poisonous and induced blindness.

“So you equipped the arrow with a vial of milkweed to permanently blind my golem?” Inseong was dumbfounded but also impressed yet again. Seungwoo and Hyemi both grinned triumphantly.

Sookyung took this opportunity to leap safely off of the golem, as it still struggled within the mud entrapment, not to mention that it was also heavily blinded in one eye. Then, she broke out in a sprint towards the tree with the amulet. Inseong was smugly grinning to himself as the rest of the friends were cheering. Nice job, but the golem has one final trick.

“Go berserk!” Inseong shouted. What does that mean? Hyemi wondered. All of a sudden, the golem began to glow with an angry crimson aura. Then, it started to wildly convulse, sending mud flying everywhere. It was so frenzied that it was beginning to break free from the mud. It was headed straight towards Sookyung, who was now scaling the tree.

The golem got out of the entrapment and also began running, large feet stomping with a thunderous quake each time. It was a lot bigger than Sookyung so it was catching up rather quickly. Sookyung was only about halfway up the tree, the golem was almost halfway to her.

“You won’t make it up in time! Get out of the way, I can’t call off the golem!” Inseong shouted, worry coloring his tone.

“Why did you tell it to go berserk if you can’t call it off?!” Hyemi demanded, who was thankfully spared from the golem’s wrath. Apparently, it was on a beeline straight for Sookyung ahead, its blind rage and frenzy allowed it to override its crippled senses.

I can destroy it with one quick command, but I need to see how you’ll handle this… Wait, where’s Jinyoung again? The leader looked around and the mage was gone.

“I’m not climbing the tree myself,” Sookyung turned back to see the golem madly closing the distance between them, “I’m helping a friend!” She embedded her sword into the tree and hopped down. In a blink of an eye, Jinyoung leapt from a neighboring tree, using the sword as a quick springboard to propel his jump even higher. He grabbed the bottom of the branch and swung himself up, snatching the amulet.

“I got it!” He yelled, fearing the golem that was nearly upon them.

“Watch out!” Sookyung screamed, running out of the way as best as she could.

“Crumble,” Inseong whispered, and the golem suddenly dissipated in a puff of smoke. Jinyoung threw the amulet down to Sookyung and clambered down the tree, retrieving her sword in the process. The friends all gathered cautiously as Inseong strode forward, beaming.

“It looks like you all passed!” He announced, clapping his hands together. The friends were all worn out but also angered by the way he handled things.

“That golem could’ve killed us!” Hyemi ranted, her thigh acting up now.

“What’s so special about this amulet anyway? Does it have a special power?” Seungwoo implored, taking it from Sookyung to observe.

“No, it’s completely useless,” Inseong paused as the friends all groaned, “but it was still a part of my test and you all succeeded.”

“We should be happy that we passed without anyone getting severely hurt,” Sookyung reflected.

“I am thoroughly impressed by all of you though. The girls had a surprising amount of stamina even after looking fatigued from your classes beforehand. Seungwoo had pretty accurate aiming despite just becoming an archer apprentice, and Jinyoung thought of a way to use a spell to affect my golem.” Inseong then inquired about how Hyemi knew so much about different plants and how Jinyoung was actually quite nimble for a mage. They told them about their backgrounds.

“Well, I’ll just tell the Missions house that Team Insignus is ready for active duty. I have high hopes for this team. So much potential. For now, everyone should get some food and then rest well. I’ll see you all later. Great job today.” Their bubbly leader grinned and patted them all proudly. Meanwhile, the friends were still a bit grouchy that Inseong was a bit reckless during the test.

“Seriously, that golem could’ve torn me apart,” Sookyung complained in a disgruntled tone.

“We just have to get stronger so that things like that won’t be a problem for us,” Jinyoung responded ever-so-optimistically.

“Right,” Seungwoo agreed, but at that moment his stomach emitted a grumbly, protesting sound, causing laughter amongst the friends.

“Looks like we need food right now. I’m hungry too,” Hyemi whined.

“Hyemi, do you have some medicinal herbs for me? I can heal the rest of you with magic, but I need herbs for myself,” Sookyung asked. Hyemi replied that she had some in a compartment, but it would only do so much. The rest of the healing had to be done with proper rest.

“Okay, let’s just get some food already to celebrate our team’s victory,” Jinyoung pitched, and everyone agreed wholeheartedly. The road to greatness was just beginning, and they had to be ready for it.