The First Archmage

(Gavin)

Quest Completed!

Found an Order

Reward: 1,000 Experience!

Blessing Bonus:

+2 LIF!

+5 Experience!

+5 Class Experience!

"Ryan," I say, and my apprentice looks over at me. "I'm issuing a Quest to you. Punch me in the stomach."

Quest Issued to Ryan Sordris!

Requirement: Punch Gavin Jakran in the stomach.

Reward: 1,005 Experience!

+5 Class Experience!

-854 Experience!

-4 Class Experience!

I discarded the last Class Experience, since I'm not Advancing any of my Classes at the moment. I only need to sacrifice eighty-five percent of the reward from myself for any Quests I issue, meaning that I can still use 146 Experience. Looking at my information, though, I see myself having 151 Experience.

Ah, right. Duh. That's why. I was subtracting from one thousand.

"Uh…" Ryan looks nervous.

He changed his last name again. Is he nervous because issuing the Quest revealed that to me? Or because of what it requires?

"Just do it."

"Why?"

"Do you want the free Experience or not?"

"Why are you giving it to me?"

"You are going to be my heir," I state. "I initially offered it to Tristan, and while he doesn't mind helping run the Order with Dylan, he suggested I make you my heir instead of him. You are already a Wizard, and even with his Dekami Bloodline, he cannot hope to catch up to you, unless he is to acquire Wizard as well, which is an unknown. Even then, I am personally training you already. Therefore, he believes it to be best that I name you my heir."

He has other reasons, but he did not tell me them.

"Oh," he says. "Why does the Quest require me to punch you?"

"Would you rather the Quest be," I say. "To allow me to punch you for changing your last name again?"

"Alright," he walks up to me nervously, then punches me in the stomach. "It didn't complete."

"Of course not, that was pathetic," I say. "Put some power behind it."

He nods, this time actually punching me with all his might. He yelps, shaking his hand. He should have known punching me with all his might would hurt him. I heal his hand.

"Use 500 Experience into your Species," I tell him. "And 500 into Wizard. Use the other 5 wherever you wish."

"None into my Bloodline?"

"You would only raise it by a single Level," I state. "Worry not about it."

"How did you have General Experience laying around?"

"After bringing the Kemmel and those three Elves here earlier," I say. "I completed a Quest that gave 1,000 Experience."

"And the other five?"

"I gain five Class Experience and 5 Experience," I say. "Whenever I complete a Quest, thanks to my Blessing of Nies. I also acquire 2 LIF for completing Quests, and only use a portion of the spent Experience if I issue a Quest. Use the Experience."

"Alright."

A few moments later, his Class and Species Levels increase instantly, rising 5 Levels in each. After that, he informs me he used the extra 5 Experience for his Species Level, and I nod, then look to the Tower.

"Do you want me to do anything else?" He asks.

"Come with me," I answer. "I figured out what I needed to yesterday in order to remove the Tower of the Sages."

"You can remove the Towers?"

"The Tower, yes," I nod, leaving the room, my apprentice following me.

Though it's actually removing the enchantment, now the Tower itself.

"What do you mean, 'the Tower'?" He asks, nearly running to keep up with my quick stride. "Didn't Tristan say that you have to destroy all eighteen at once?"

"There is only the Tower," I state, spotting Tristan speaking with a group of Fairies who stayed behind.

I created a light amount of trees throughout the field of the valley, and for now, the Fairies are sticking near the lake around two miles to the north, and are working on constructing their own homes. With their own uses of the Resources required, they wanted to do it themselves, even if my understanding of the proper runes makes my magic far more efficient.

The trio of Elves are off hunting in the actual forest right now, though I intend on speaking with them later. They wanted to see the game. They don't have Access, so I had one of the other members of the Order who does head out with them, just in case. The monsters around here aren't that tough, they're just annoying if they swarm you.

And probably terrified shitless of the Tier III Enlightened before them.

"Tristan," I say once I have reached the ancient Human and the group of Fairies. "I am taking down the Boundary of Sages. I figured out the requirements before offering to awaken the Bloodlines for my student, friends, and brothers."

"You know the runes required?" He asks.

"Yes," I state. "And why the Tower is so difficult."

"What makes the Towers so difficult?" He asks.

"The fact that it's a single Tower, Tristan," I state, then look at the Fairies. "The four of you lack Access. Would you like it?"

"Can you grant it?" One of them frowns. "We heard there's a method to do so, but that it strips LIF away, and we wouldn't want-"

"I have more LIF than I will ever use," I state. "But actually, as an Archmage, I can ignore that method and simply grant Access directly. Like I just did for you."

His eyes widen as he reads the messages in his vision. I grant it to the other three as well, and they widen their eyes as well.

"Why don't you four," I say. "Play around with your new Access, while Tristan accompanies me for something. I promise to bring him back in one piece. Unless I decide not to. It's all up for grabs. Also, I think Michael wants to play seek-the-friend, since I added a few trees and boulders to the valley. It isn't enough to obstruct the view, but it's enough to make some decent hiding places, if you don't mind a large expanse."

The Fairies nod, giggle, then fly off, presumably to locate the beastborn.

"Come," I state to Tristan, wrapping him, my apprentice, and myself in air magics.

I fly us over the Mysts of the Lake that spans the half of the lake around the island itself, then past the Shroud of Gardens on the island itself, landing us in the hundred-yard stretch around the Tower of the Sages clear of my protective magics.

According to Tristan, the true purpose of the Boundary of Sages was to separate the world to prevent the unification of the different Species as they began to develop cross-continental travel methods. In addition to that, they intended for people to never be willing to spread the knowledge of magic, keeping it tight and close within them.

The reason this continent is empty, I theorize, was to keep people from locating the true Tower of Sages. From this location, and this location only, can the magics be undone. The Tower itself already existed before they decided to create the Boundary, likely thousands of years and hundreds of generations prior to the ones who did that.

They were hoarders of knowledge, and in the end, that was their downfall. When they created the Boundary of Sages, they became sealed out of their own Tower, and in the end, died out. Over time, the valley reclaimed its land, creating small hills where their homes once stood which eventually smoothed out, but never a forest, simply fields until the forest that already touched the mountains.

Even the Sages were unable to undo their magics, they had woven it so tightly and sacrificed so much. They used the Tower as a conduit for their spell, a Tower made of a material that is all but immune to magic and is harder than any other stone in existence. Even they were likely unaware of its crafters, likely claiming it from some long-lost civilization.

That is the life of Eisnar, also known as Nierfa, the world in which we live. Many civilizations have come and gone and been forgotten, to the point that even the ones who used the old ones' resources have been forgotten as well.

And today, I undo that hateful magic. The people of Eisnar shall, for the first time in thousands of years, be able to travel freely around, and those who do will be free to spread their knowledge and might.

With that, my Order will flourish. Word will spread of my Order and our goals, and by the time that Dragon kills me, we will be untouchable. My heir and my brothers, along with Tristan and my other allies, will be able to defend this place well.

We will be unstoppable in our goal of a unified peoples without magics being hoarded between them, sharing it with anyone willing to share and spread knowledge of magics and techniques and accept all without bias against Species.

But first, I need to remove this Boundary, and so I place my hands against the Tower's surface, focusing my magical senses into it, spreading them out and reading the vast amount of power woven together.

Once I have a grasp of the way the Runic Languages have been woven together here, I begin to undo them, and it takes its toll on my LIF, removing a total of 136 LIF before I finally finish undoing the ancient magics, my Resources nearly drained entirely.

Despite magics still woven into the Tower itself – magics of the five Runic Languages – I know the Boundary of Sages exists no more.

Quest Completed!

Remove the Boundary of Sages

Reward: 500,000 Experience!

+2 LIF!

+5 Experience!

+5 Class Experience!

Requirement Met:

All Quests preventing the earning of Class and Bloodline Experience have been completed!

You may earn Experience for Classes and your Bloodline once more!

I dismiss the latter notification, then look at my apprentice.

"Did it work?" He asks.

"Indeed," I answer, placing a hand against the cool stone surface of the Tower, and a moment later, an arched opening forms within the wall. "And I even unlocked the front door, though only someone with the proper knowledge of runes may enter. Let's keep that a secret. I received an Experience reward. I will share some of it with the two of you. Tristan – I will give you only 1,000 Experience, while I give my apprentice more."

"I understand," he states. "You wish to prepare your apprentice, who has far less power and knowledge than me, for the future, in case you should be indisposed."

"Actually," I pull my hand away and close the door. "I would like the two of you to swear Blood Oath to me, vowing that you will not share with anyone what I am about to say until I die or give you permission to do so."

They both do, Ryan frowning as he does.

"Why did you add in 'until I die' into that?" He asks.

"Because," I say. "In less than three years, I may be killed."

Ryan snorts.

"Dude," he grins. "You seriously had me worried, there."

"I'm serious," I say. "A Divine Being able to see the future has stated that I will be slain in two to three years by a Dragon. He did that before I met you, Ryan. Though there are chances he may be lying, there is also the chance that he is correct. Even at my peak, I will never be able to take on a fully-grown Elder Dragon. Ever. If it comes down to sparing my life or killing it and protecting people, I will gladly give up my life. That is why I wish to prepare you as best I can to carry on my legacy.

"And that," I hold out my hand, a spatial ring forming in my hand. "Is why I would like for you to accept this spatial ring, as a sign of your apprenticeship."

This ring is a simple band ring, like most spatial rings, but unique to it is the emblem of the Order of the Violet Flame woven with the violet marks, along with the rest of the violet marks resembling a Dragon, akin to the one I summon forged of magic. The ring matches the ones Tristan forged in size.

With the proper runes, it was quite easy to forge this, and I did while I was visiting the Elves, partly because I was already forging a ring to offer to their leader, as a bit of an apology.

"If you accept the ring," I say. "As a sign of your status as my heir, you will complete another Quest, in addition to being officially named my successor, for when I pass away."

Quest Issued to Ryan Sordris!

Requirement: Accept the Status as Heir of Gavin Jakran and the ring that comes along with it

Reward: +6,993 Species Experience, +6,986 Class Experience, +7,500 Subclass Experience, +250 Bloodline Experience!

-18,470 Experience!

Experience Remaining: 481,530

Ryan thinks about it. And thinks about it. And thinks about it. After several long moments, he accepts the ring, completing the Quest. His eyes shift for a few moments as he dismisses notifications, then selects his Subclass, taking on Novice, likely because of its magic-based association working a bit with Wizard.

At least, for now, I don't have to worry about him Advancing Wizard. With his boosts, he'll be able to become a fair bit more powerful before worrying about that. Not that he hasn't technically beat out pretty much anyone who has ever lived before.

Ever.

I look to Tristan Lightblade.

"Create a Fireball," I state.

Quest Issued to Tristan Lightblade!

Requirement: Create a Fireball

Reward: +1,000 Experience!

-850 Experience!

Experience Remaining: 480,680

Tristan creates a Fireball, the Quest completing.

"Use that Experience how you see fit," I tell him, and he nods before spreading it evenly between his Species and Class. "Give me a few minutes to sort out my own Experience, and we'll head inside, to see what awaits us."