The Mage’s Guild of Anderalex consisted of twelve towers and what looked like a fairly standard two story mansion. It was an architect’s nightmare – it looked like each time they had added a tower, they built it without consideration for constancy – they built in the style that was in fashion with what they had on hand.

  Inside, David walked up to the woman behind the front desk.

  “Hello. I’m here to become a Mage.”

  The woman looked up and replied, “To become a Mage, you have to talk to the head of the Guild, Master Donovan. He’s free right now, so if you will follow me, I’ll show you to his study.”

  She stood up and lead David up a flight of stairs, through a door, and then up a long set of spiral stairs, ending in an ordinary wooden door. She knocked.

  From behind the door came a “Come in.”

  She opened the door for David to enter, then shut it behind him, leaving him alone with Donovan.

  “Master Donovan, my name is David, and I would like to become a Mage.”

  “Show me your qualifications.”

  David was confused, but he realized that the man was asking to see his stats. “Show Stat and Skill Windows to Donovan.”

  Master Donovan looked shocked.

  “How can you be level one, and yet have so much wisdom and intelligence? You are easily the equal of a level 200 mage.”

  “I work at the library,” David said, “it gives me the opportunity to read all I want. Am I really so incredible? Surely others have come similarly prepared?”

  “If you were to become a mage, you would without a doubt be the most powerful beginner I’ve ever seen,” Donovan said seriously.

  “Is that a bad thing?” David asked, worried about the frown on Donovan’s face.

  “No, but is that all you want to aim for? As a mage, I can tell you that we mages are extremely limited in our capabilities – almost all of our spells are used for fighting. We rarely create new spells, and when we do, all they do is destroy. Other magical professions are limited in other ways - druids only work with nature magic, shamans have only weak offensive skills and buffs, black and light mages are limited to their chosen elements. However, these are not the only classes for a magical practitioner. Have you heard of the Sages?”

  David shook his head.

  “That doesn’t surprise me – Sages were always ones who avoided the public eye, and so gained little fame during their time on this earth. But all those who knew of their existence recognized the Sages as the most powerful magic practitioners to walk the earth. According to those who knew of them, you could feel their very presence when they entered the room. They had powers beyond the ken of normal mortals. The only thing that we could understand about them was that they had no limitations such as those placed on the other magical practitioners. However, it has been at least 400 years since the last Sage was seen.”

  “So, you think I could attain this class?”

  “Well… maybe. The difficulty lies in the secrecy surrounding the Sages – none alive today know their initiation rituals, or even if they had such a thing. At no time did two Sages appear together, so it’s even possible that each Sage had to find his own way to the path. However, if you choose to pursue the class, I will tell you something that I have discovered by studying the lives of the Sages.”

  The punishment for failing or refusing the quest was the inability to convert to the mage class. If he was unable to become a mage, then all the work he had out into raising his Wisdom and his Intelligence would become virtually useless. He had no choice but to accept.

  “I accept”

  “Fantastic. I’ve always wondered, but I’ve never met someone talented enough to act on my theories. Anyway, one thing I found in common among all the Sages is that they could all sense mana in one form or another. Most mages also gain this ability at some point, but it seems that the Sages could sense far more than the average mage could.”

  “How do you know that if the last Sage disappeared 400 years ago?”

  Donovan smiled, pleased at the sharp wit of his student, “When I inherited this guild from my predecessor, many, many years ago, it only had eleven towers. As was in fashion at the time, I wanted to build a fourth tower, for my own personal use. I went over the architectural plans to see where the ideal spot to add the tower was. While I was digging the foundation, I made an amazing discovery. I found the personal study of one of the Sages, Sage Jolin. Inside, I discovered a journal about her early life as a Sage – omitting only the way she had become one. Relevant to this situation, she also wrote both of how she had learned to sense mana – by sitting in the middle of a forest near her home and meditating for weeks – and of a strange room of her own creation where mana is powerfully concentrated. She used the room to work her most powerful magics. I also found the room of which she spoke. There, I learned to sense mana. If you stay in there long enough, I believe that you might be able to learn the Sages’ method of sensing mana. Follow me, I’ll show you the room.”

  David followed Donovan out the door and all the way to the bottom of the tower. Once there, Donovan walked around the last step, and in the shadows beneath the staircase, waved his hand once in front of the wall, which disappeared as if it had never been. Behind it lay a shadowed staircase. Donovan lead the way, down the staircase, which was two flights. At the bottom of the staircase lay a door, which Donovan unlocked with a gesture and opened the door for David to enter. Inside was a study not unlike Donovan’s, many meters above their heads. Donovan pointed to a door in the far wall and said,

  “Through there is the room. I noticed that, in the room, no matter how long you stay, you never get hungry or thirsty, so you can stay as long as you need to.”

  David squared his shoulders, marched over and threw open the door. Beyond it was a pure white, square room. Each wall was 5 meters wide. When he closed the door behind him, David realized that the door was the only non-white in the room – there was no furniture, no decorations, nothing. Just pure white walls.

  David sat down. He was determined to get this class, no matter how long it took him.

  For three days, David sat there, eyes closed, breathing deeply and slowly. He was just beginning to get impatient with this method, when he realized that sight might have played a part in gaining the skill, so he opened his eyes.

  For another three days, he sat with his eyes open, staring in front of him, looking for some sign that he had gained the ability to sense mana. Finally, on the sixth day, a bell sounded

  *Ding*

  “Yes”

  “Mineralogy”

  As soon as the last window popped up, David began to see. The whole room was filled with swirling motes of light – most of them white, but a few were red or silver or green or black.

  David sat there, just taking it in, for a long time. The way that the mana danced filled him with wonder.

  Eventually, he got up and returned to Donovan’s office. As he climbed the staircase, he realized that the mana lit up dark places.

  As he entered, Donovan looked up, searching his face for a sign that he had succeeded.

  “I’ve gained the skill Mana Sight.”

  Donovan broke out in a smile. “Excellent – when I learned to see, I gained the skill Mage’s Sight, which only allows me to see the inner workings of spells. What do you see with your Sight?”

  “I see mana itself, floating all around us, like little motes of light dancing in the breeze.”

  “I wish I could see it,” Donovan said wistfully. Shaking his head, he continued, “Regardless, your path to Sagehood is not yet complete. One other thing I learned from Jolin’s journal is that Sage’s also have the ability to control all mana, including that outside of themselves.”

  “Like this?”

  David lifted his hand, palm up, and envisioned the mana around him being pulled there, gathering above his palm.

  The motes of light swirled and then started, like a whirlpool, to make its way to the growing mass above his palm.

  Donovan’s eyes popped out of his head when he saw the ball of light, translucent at first, but becoming more and more opaque.

  When David had gathered all the mana in the room, he noticed something – there was a much larger amount of colored mana here than there had been in the room. Caught up in his task, he ignored Donovan as he set out to separate the colors from one another, and from the white mana.

  He started by removing the most obvious colors of mana - separating out each into its own, much smaller ball - the yellow mana, then the red, the brown, the blue, the green, the purple, the black, and a tiny amount of silver.

  When he had finished, there was one large ball of white, orbited by smaller balls of various colors.

  *Ding*

  “Yes”

  “Anatomy”

  David, still curious as to the nature of the colored mana, stuck his finger into the yellow ball of mana. He started as a vision unfolded around him, of the joyous feeling as he soared through a cloudless sky and then swooped down towards the ground, then rushing along, parallel to the ground, across the wide plains of grass.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  -Oh…this must be wind mana. But I thought that there was only one kind of mana. Maybe the book was wrong. I wonder what the other colors are…

  David touched each in turn.

  Red became a vision of dancing and leaping in a small encirclement, giving off light and heat, which faded into a frenzied race across the treetops.

  -Fire mana

  Brown became a vision of standing steady in a field, through many cold winters and hot summers, then a cave deep underground, where nothing penetrated.

  -Earth mana

  Blue became a vision of jumping off a cliff and freefalling into a rocky basin, fading into swirling about.

  -Water mana

  Green became a vision of growing slowly over time, reaching higher and higher, then of racing along the ground in the grass, chasing a deer far ahead.

  -Life mana?

  Purple became a vision of falling from the sky with incredible speed, crashing into the ground.

  -Lightning mana

  Black became unending darkness, with no change.

  -Dark mana

  Finally, when David touched the silver mana, he saw a brief vision of a hammer, coming down, lit by a red glow.

  -Metal mana, maybe? I’ve never heard of a metal mage, though. Hmm…

  When David finally broke from his reverie, he looked at Donovan. Donovan was obviously amazed, and he didn’t bother to hide it.

  “What is it?” David asked.

  “It took you six days to learn how to see like a Sage, then less than a minute to gain a skill that the world hasn’t seen in 4 centuries. How could I not be amazed?”

  “I’d already gained the skill, I just hadn’t used it before. Anyway, what’s next?”

  “That’s as much as Jolin’s journal mentioned. However, legends of Sages always spoke of their ability to use the same spell more efficiently and more powerfully than any others. It could be the product of their wisdom, but I believe that it may have had something to do with a special ability of theirs. Watch, I’ll demonstrate a simple Fireball spell.”

  David watched as some of the bright white mass of mana in Donovan’s chest split off, and rushed through his body towards his hand. As it went through his skin, the white mana was tinged red. As the mana gathered in his hand, a ball of flame appeared. All this happened in an instant, but David was somehow able to recognize that there was a difference between the mana when it was inside Donovan’s body and when it was outside his body.

  -Hmm, it looks like he converted some of the mana into fire mana as it left his hand. Maybe it’s possible to convert all mana from one form to another.

  David tried taking some of the normal mana from inside him, and as it left his palm, he thought fiery thoughts. The mana was tinged red, but it was still mostly white. He released it, and tried again, taking the mana and pushing the heat and the light of fire into it. This time, much more of the mana was red, almost a tenth of it.

  *Ding*

  “Show skill window, Mana Mastery”

  David tried again to make the Fireball, this time trying to convert all of the mana to red. He achieved about a quarter. Nevertheless, the Fireball was noticeably more powerful than both his previous attempts and Donovan’s own Fireball. The heat given off by this Fireball was incomparably greater.

  “I shouldn’t even be surprised at this point. You have gained skills most mages can only dream of without even breaking a sweat. As far as I know, you have all of the qualifications of a sage. Do you wish to become a sage?”

  “Yes.”

  -The bonuses for this class are insane. As I am right now, I’m basically able to cast a Tier 3 spell without using mana.

  Donovan smiled. “Now that you’ve become a Sage, what do you intend to do?”

  “I don’t really know – I wanted to become a magic user from the very beginning, and when I found out that I was entrapped by high-level monsters, I devoted myself to raising my stats. Now, I suppose I’ll finish cataloging the Library and then maybe I’ll travel to other places.”

  “Perfect. Do you mind if I ask a favor?” David shook his head. ” While you’re traveling, could you look for evidence of the other Sages? I’ve always wanted to know why they disappeared.”

  “Sure.”

  “Excellent,” Donovan sighed with relief. “If you don’t mind my advice, I have a suggestion for you. Sages were known to use all kinds of magic – nature, elemental, spirit, dark, light, holy, summoning, and others of which we know little. As you have just begun, you might not know this, but Mage’s Guilds can only teach elemental magic – Fire, Ice, Wind, Lightning, Water, Earth – because that is all that mages can learn. If you want to reach your true potential, you will have to seek out other teachers. I will teach you some of the spells I know, in payment for proving my theories, but I only know elemental spells.”

  “Do you know where I can learn these other magics?”

  “I know that druids are masters of nature magic. If you find a priest, you should be able to learn holy magic. Shamans are excellent summoners. I can recommend you to some acquaintances of mine that happen to be excellent druids, priests and shamans, if you wish. However, finding teachers for the other types of magic will be a little more complicated. Necromancers are the best at spirit magics and have become much less secretive since the fall of Lich Shire, but I don’t yet know any masters of the art. Masters of light magic are rare – it doesn’t really have the force that elemental magic does. Masters of black magic are more common than masters of light magic, but most tend to be either outright evil or paranoid – the former tend to give all black magic practitioners a bad name.”

  “Well, I’d like to learn all you have to teach me. Then I’ll worry about other forms of magic.”

  “Okay, I can’t carve out a lot of time to teach you every day – I have a guild to run, after all – but I’ll do my best to teach you with the time that we do have. The thing is, I can’t just give you high tier spellbooks, as much as I would like to – those books cost an incredible amount to make and the Guild would depose me if they found out I gave one away. Lower tier books should be alright, though.”

  “That’s okay. I can learn any spell tier 4 or below, just by seeing it.”

  When Donovan learned that David could copy a low-Tier spell just by seeing it once, he started demonstrating every spell he knew, beginning with Fire magics. On the first day of training, David learned Fire Spear (Tier 2: an upgraded version of Fireball with more damage), Circle of Flames (Tier 1: a barrier spell), Fire Rain (Tier 1: an AoE spell which showered fire in a certain radius), Flamethrower (Tier 3: a continuous use fire spell), and Fire Orbs (Tier 2: from 2 to 12 small Fireballs which can attack multiple targets).

  When Donovan had to go, David returned to the library and began cataloging the second floor, with the Politics division. He was looking for any mention of Sages and for references to Light mages and Dark mages, but he found little – it was mostly about relationships between countries.

  The next day, Donovan taught David lightning spells – which were much faster, but less powerful than the fire spells. Lightning Bolt (Tier 1: the lightning equivalent of Fireball), Lightning Spear (Tier 2: a more powerful version of Lightning Bolt), Lightning Strike (Tier 4: delivers a powerful, unavoidable lightning bolt from the heavens), Chain Lightning (Tier 2: a continuous cast, multiple target attack spell), and Ball of Lightning (Tier 4: essentially a lightning grenade).

  For the next few days, David would learn spells from Donovan, then return to the library and continue his search. He found nothing, but he learned a great number of spells.

  On the third day he learned air spells – the fastest spells to cast, but with the weakest offensive powers. Gust (Tier 1: a spell which blew a strong wind, with little offensive use), Tornado (Tier 2: which created a small, controllable tornado), Air Bullets (Tier 3: compresses air into a small projectile, then shoots it at high speeds towards a target), Wind Barrier (Tier 1: a basic barrier spell which could disrupt the path of small spells and weak arrows), and Updraft (Tier 3: a more advanced barrier spell which can disrupt melee attacks and allow the caster to jump higher).

  After Donovan finished showing David the Updraft spell, a window appeared.

  David told Donovan, and Donovan began demonstrating some Tier 5 spells he had skipped over – Red Laser (Tier 5: a fire spell which created a pulse of highly concentrated flame to burn a hole in the target), Lightning Orb (Tier 5: a barrier spell which surrounded the user in an orb which shocked anything that intruded on it), and Downdraft (Tier 5: an air spell which could flatten a single enemy, causing some damage and disrupting their attack).

  On the fourth day, David learned Earth spells – which took a while to cast, but had the highest defensive capabilities. Wall (Tier 1: a barrier spell which created a wall of stone in front of the caster), Stones (Tier 1: a spell which hurls stones inaccurately – able to disrupt the enemy and cause a little damage), Stone Spear (Tier 3: an offensive spell which creates a spear out of stone and hurls it at an enemy), Stalagmite (Tier 5: an offensive spell which creates a huge spike of stone under one enemy), Quicksand (Tier 3: an AoE spell which turned a patch of ground into quicksand which could slow fast enemies and immobilize and kill slow ones), and Stone Cocoon (Tier 4: a barrier spell which enveloped the caster in stone, which absorbed attacks).

  On the fifth, and final day, David learned Water and Ice spells – which were pretty balanced in terms of attack power and casting time. Condense (Tier 1: a spell mostly for survival purposes which could pull water from the air), Bleed (Tier 5: a spell which pulled the blood out of an enemy’s body), Freeze (Tier 2: a spell which slowed enemies and caused them a little damage), Ice Spike (Tier 3: a spell which created a spike under an enemy, causing damage and slowing the enemy), Ice Spear (Tier 2: a spell which created and hurled a spear made of an ice), Shards of Ice (Tier 3: an AoE spell which slowed the enemy and inflicted small amounts of damage).

  When he had taught David all that he could learn, Donovan gave him three letters of recommendation one for a shaman, another for a druid and the third for a priest.

  “I know all of them well and I believe that they are well-suited to teaching you their respective magics.”

  With that, Donovan bade David goodbye, asking him to return later when his Mana Understanding had leveled up, so that he could teach him higher-leveled spells.