Pop.
We went back to the camp. Warrod hit the grass hard. He started kissing the dirt right away.
"I'm alive," he coughed. "The trees aren't screaming. Thank god."
Yuri and the others jumped. My flower petals got all over their hair. Yuri almost tripped over his own boots. He looked pissed.
"Holy crap, old man!" Yuri yelled. His face was bright red. "Stop doing that! You almost killed me!"
"You guys are still on page one?" I asked. I leaned on my stick. "Man, you hunters are slow."
Precht was staring at his book. He looked like he wanted to bite it. "This container thing is too small. It's like stuffing a horse into a bag."
"You're forcing it, grump-face," I said. I sat on a log. "Take your time. We have six months."
So yeah. We stayed there for six months. You can't learn high-tier magic in a weekend. That's just bad fanfiction. Real magic takes time. It takes burnt meat. It takes sore arms.
The daily life stuff was pretty funny. Yuri always woke us up by shocking himself. He tried to light the campfire with a spark.
ZAP.
"Ow! Dammit!" Yuri yelled. He rubbed his smoking thumb. "Merlin, use your fire stuff!"
"No," I laughed. I threw him a potato. "Peel that. With your hands. No magic."
Mavis was the weirdest to watch. She sat by the water for hours. She just stared at her book. She looked totally blank. She didn't even know she was a prodigy.
One day, she accidentally made a giant ghost bear. It popped up right behind Precht.
Precht didn't even scream. He just did a backflip. He drew his knife and stabbed the air. His hand went right through the fur.
"Merlin!" Precht growled. He shook dirt off his coat. "Tell her to stop!"
"I didn't mean to!" Mavis squeaked. Her face turned red. "I just thought about a bear. Then it happened!"
"See?" I grinned from my hammock. "You're a natural, blonde-y. Next time, make a dragon."
Around month three, I got super bored. The kids were doing chores. Warrod was lifting big logs. Yuri was trying not to fry his own face.
I didn't tell them where I was going. I just used Space Magic and blinked to Magnolia.
Pop.
I landed on a stone roof. I looked down at the main square. It looked like a total dump. The Blue Skull Guild was everywhere. They weren't legal. The Magic Council didn't even have a registry yet. They were just thugs with magic weapons.
I sat on the ledge. My legs swung over the side. I ate a bag of sweet pastries. I stole them from a shop down the street.
Two Blue Skull guys walked past. They were waving staves around. I used my Eyes of Gilgamesh to zoom in on a sword. It was glowing blue.
"Hey, Solomon," I thought. I chewed my pastry. "Look familiar?"
[Yep. That's a Chilled Steel blade. It's from the Labyrinth of the Iron King. You made that 180 years ago.]
"No way!" I laughed. "Those idiots robbed my old dungeon. Now they're using my loot to play boss. That's hilarious."
They were so sloppy. The weapons were great, but their actual control was garbage. They just relied on the stolen gear.
"Alright, skulls," I muttered. I wiped sugar off my chin. "Enjoy my swords. In three months, the tree-boy is taking them back."
I teleported back before my food got cold.
By month six, the kids weren't total noobs anymore. Warrod could rip rocks with roots. Yuri could make lightning fists. Precht could make a heavy chest float like a balloon.
They finally looked like real guild founders.
One night, the fire was almost dead. Everyone was asleep. I was whittling a piece of stick. Then, the air got cold.
Zeref walked out of the dark. He stayed ten feet away. His black robes looked like shadows.
"They're real mages now, Merlin," Zeref whispered. "In just six months. That's way too fast."
"Formal training is trash," I said. I didn't look up from my wood. "They don't ask for permission. They just do it."
Zeref sat on a stump. "Why help them? You don't care about this town. You could kill Blue Skull with a pinky finger."
"True," I shrugged. I blew wood dust off my knife. "But that's boring. If I do it, they don't grow. I'm setting the board, Zeref. I want to see this clubhouse get built."
Zeref looked at Mavis. She was sleeping under a green blanket. He smiled a tiny, sad smile. "She has a bright light. It reminds me of... before the curse."
"She's important," I said. My gold eyes flashed in the dark. "Don't worry about your death vibe, kid. I'm filtering the air. It won't touch their tents."
Zeref looked shocked. "You're blocking the curse?"
"Yeah. It's no biggie, but it keeps the camp clean," I grinned. I pointed my knife at him. "So chill. Watch the show. Tomorrow, training is done. We're going to go evict some squatters."
Zeref didn't say anything. He just leaned against a tree. I went back to my wood. The long wait was over. The story was finally moving.
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