World of Laws and Magic

"Uhhhh...my name is Nick Capitol. It's nice to meet you Jessica."

After the introductions, there was an awkward silence between the two Apprentice Magicians. Nick soon realized that he was wasting too much time so he went to the pool and took off his shoes and socks and placed both his feet inside the pool of water while sitting at the pool's edge and proceeded to wash his hands and face. Jessica looked on with a strange expression.

"Nick, could it be that you are ignoring me?"

Nick turned towards Jessica in response to her words and replied:

"Well...you weren't saying anything and I have somewhere to be so I just started doing what I came here to do. Is that a problem?"

Jessica spoke with a plain expression:

"After seeing me naked, and so intently watching me for so long, shouldn't you be groveling in apology for being so perverse?"

"Perverse? I came to this waterfall to wash myself a bit. How could I know that you would be using it while being completely naked? If you're looking for someone to blame, blame yourself."

Jessica's face suddenly became solemn. Nick felt a sudden burst of magic energy coming from Jessica. Nick saw the water in the pool being raised as droplets into the air and reacted by jumping to his feet and backing away from the pool in the direction opposite to Jessica's position. Nick took out two throwing knives from his vest and exuded his own magic energy which Nick made to rival the amount that Jessica was releasing. Nick could sense that Jessica's magic energy had a strong affinity with water; just by standing so close to her in this state, he felt like he was suffocating somehow.

"Oh, you seem to have an abundance of magic energy."

Jessica said that and stopped releasing her magic energy so Nick stopped releasing his as well. He spoke with an air of suspicion:

"Just as much as anyone else." 

Jessica let out a slight chuckle.

"Do you know that individuals with a strong affinity for water magic tend to have the highest amount of magic energy reserved within their mindscapes when compared to Magicians of the same rank?"

Nick was caught off guard by Jessica's sudden question but replied obliviously:

"I didn't know that, is there a point in you telling me?"

Jessica's solemn expression eased.

"Just making light conversation."

Nick became annoyed with this woman.

(First, she lets we watch her while she's naked and then blames me for it, now she's claiming to be making light conversation. Is this woman touched?)

Slade chimed in at this moment.

[You may not know yet, kid, but with female Magician's you better develop some thick skin because they like to play games. Ha, ha.]

Nick ignored Slade and walked over to the pool of water in order to retrieve his shoes and socks.

"Well...I've got somewhere to be, so see you some other time Jessica."

After putting on his socks and shoes, Nick turned to leave but Jessica raised her hand and a wall of water appeared in front of Nick, blocking his path.

"Sigh, does she really want to fight?"

Nick turned around to look at Jessica; at this time Jessica spoke dominantly:

"While I admit that I should have been more prudent in my conduct, the fact still remains that you saw me naked and so as a man you should at least be willing to have a conversation with me after the fact."

Nick raised both of his brows in surprise after hearing Jessica's absurd reasoning.

(This woman is really shameless, making her poor choices my responsibility.)

"Sigh. What do you want Jessica?"

Jessica smiled at Nick's tolerance and spoke calmly:

"I just want to discuss magic with a fellow Magician. The magic energy that you exuded a while ago was interesting. I could not tell what its predominant nature was at all. Also, despite you being a rank 1 Apprentice Magician, 1 rank lower than this water mage here, you were able to so easily match my magic output. How exactly do you cultivate your magic?"

Nick didn't want to give Jessica a serious answer since he just met her so Nick wore a solemn expression and gave a flippant response:

"Hmph, If you must know then I will tell you. One hundred pushups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats..."

Jessica frowned and interrupted Nick by dousing him with her water wall. Nick was now fully drenched and pissed at the same time:

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

Jessica replied:

"What is wrong with you? I asked you a serious question and you decided to feed me a line from a comic, have you no shame?"

Nick looked at her with some incredulity and thought:

(Seriously, I'm the shameless one? Does this woman have no self awareness at all?)

"It's called a manga, not a comic, there's a god damn difference. And what were you expecting, I don't even know you yet you want to know how I cultivate my magic? Do you have any idea how inappropriate your question was?"

Jessica looked at Nick as if she did not understand what he was saying.

"Inappropriate, how so? In my family, we talk about our experiences with cultivating magic without any restraint, after all, mere talking won't disadvantage any of us if we're strong enough. Hmmm...I get it, I should have led with my own information first."

"As I've already said, I'm a water mage, meaning that I mostly specialize in using water related spells and as you could probably tell from my magic energy, my greatest affinity is for water magic. How about you?"

Nick could hardly believe that this woman was talking so freely to him about herself. In high school, he couldn't even get a girl to spit in his direction much less tell him personal details but that didn't mean that he would just do what Jessica wanted.

(I think that she's just curious about my magic power. Hmmm...she's actually fairly beautiful, maybe I should talk to her for a while...)

Nick then sensed laughter coming from his mind in response to his thoughts; Slade spoke mockingly:

[Kid, if you like her why don't you go marry her? You saw her naked before, go take responsibility.]

Nick internally frowned at Slade's mockery.

[Sigh. You're going to meet all sorts of people while learning magic and some of them like to discuss cultivation experiences with just about any Magician that comes their way. Don't mistake her interest in your magic for an interest in you. Grow a spine and stop wasting our time; quickly leave before you start revealing information. People like this usually have the tendency to share details about their power because they are already strong and don't see you as a threat, so be cautious.]

(I understand.)

Slade's analysis made sense to Nick so he decided to be unyielding with Jessica.

"Jessica, I'm not going to discuss my personal details with you no matter what you do so unless you want to fight it out of me, I suggest you do not stop me from leaving again."

Jessica squinted her eyes and replied:

"Oh, so you want to be stubborn, huh? Fine, I was only a little curious about your magic power anyway so I won't waste anymore time with you."

Jessica turned around and walked away from Nick without sparing him another glance. For some reason, Nick felt a little disappointed with how quickly she disregarded him when she didn't get what she wanted.

(That hurt a little.)

[Remember what I said about developing thick skin, kid. Let's move on from this place. This should be a lesson to you. Magician's have no problem wasting your time because of their own curiosities so you shouldn't handicap yourself by getting distracted from your own goals.]

Nick nodded in understanding and turned around to continue moving towards the soul eating lion graveyard. During the next three hours Nick met and killed three baby wary dogs and one tiger sized wary dog and eventually when he reached the edge of the woodland coming upon ] a desert like environment with sand seemingly stretching into the distance, Nick found a shady tree and sat down to have a meal along with some water. Nick spent forty minutes eating and resting.

(I'm so sick of dried meat and raisins. When this exam is over, I'm definitely going to eat out at one of the restaurants on campus.)

Nick got up from his position under the shady tree and continued moving forward, this time walking on sand instead of hard ground. It was now about 3 pm and since Nick knew how cold deserts were at night, he now wanted to get to the graveyard without too much delay.

(Slade, why did you choose this place to situate your supposed graveyard?)

[Take a look around, kid. This desert may look silent right now but this harsh environment is a land of death with creatures dying every second so laws relating to soul magic flourish here and soul magic can be found in large concentration. This is the largest area within this realm and has the least amount of wary dogs within it but there are many other magic beasts here that would be troublesome for you so don't deviate from my directions. I specifically guided you here with the most optimal path in mind considering your rank so you probably won't meet too many magic beasts. The graveyard's entrance is protected by a magic formation but as long as you do what I say, you will be able to enter.]

Nick walked along the desert floor for the next hour when he suddenly heard howls and growls in the distance which was exactly where Nick had to go to reach the graveyard.

"Sigh, trouble is up ahead. Should I continue this way?"

As soon as he asked this question, the memory of Jessica turning away from him and just walking away as if he didn't exist came to his mind. Nick clenched his fist and kept moving forward. After walking cautiously for about 30 meters, Nick finally found the source of all the noise. Nick lied flat on his belly at the top of a sand dune overlooking a battle between Two rhino sized wary dogs along with their pack of about a dozen tiger sized wary dogs and two very large serpents. These serpents were not as big as the aqua serpent that Nick had encountered at the lake before but they were bigger than all of the wary dogs present and probably longer than ten meters; they had scarlet like scales with black markings on them, glowing purple eyes and when they opened their mouths, large jagged fangs could be seen protruding from their gums.

A violent battle raged on between the wary dogs and the serpents took place until it was almost sundown. Nick didn't try to move around them because he wanted to see how the battle would end. Most of the wary dogs including one that was rhino sized were already dead, mostly from being bitten by the serpents that seemed to be poisonous, and one of the the serpents had succumbed to its wounds created from the bites of the many wary dogs. Right now, the remaining rhino sized wary dog and serpent were tangled with each other, both trying to end the life of the other. The wary dog bit and the serpent squeezed. The wary dog had yellow purple botches on its skin and fur which gave off a heavy rotting smell, probably from the poison of the serpent while the serpent had lost many of its scales and in those areas bite marks oozing greenish blood were visible; the serpent had also lost its right eye. The fight continued until the wary dog finally scratched out the serpent's remaining left eye at which point the serpent's body went limp; it had clearly died. The wary dog gave a loud howl in victory but a few seconds later dropped dead, probably due to the accumulated injuries and poison flowing through its body. Nick looked at the scene, reminiscing the battle with a feeling of awe. Slade commented at his time:

[I told you that this place was a land of death. In this harsh environment these magic beasts will fight each other to the death for territory in stark contrast to the beasts within the woodlands, grasslands, hills and plains which do not go to such extremes but will flee if they become heavily injured.]

Nick felt his blood boiling, not just because of the awesome battle that just took place but because of the spoils that he was about to pick up.

"Fourteen wary dog carcasses for the taking. This battle was truly a hard fought one."

Nick shamelessly commented as he slid down his sand dune to the site of the battle.