*RING**RING*

HUH?

"Raven, wake up mate. Class is about to start." Harrison was next to me attempting to shove me out of my chair.

Rubbing my eyes, "alright alright my bad...."

"Where did you go last night? When I woke up, you were nowhere to be seen."

"Yeah I just took a stroll but I fell and broke my leg" it wasn't all true since I was stabbed,

"Well alright, but we got to hurry or Coach will be furious" we both got up and run to the gym.

“ALRIGHT YOU LITTLE RUNTS, IT’S TIME TO STRENGTHEN OUR MUSCLES, EVERYBODY 3 LAPS AROUND THE SCHOOL!!!” A bald man in a jumpsuit screams from his chair with a cupcake in one hand.

"Awwww" all of his students refute. But we all manage to get up and started running.

After a a lap of running around the school "Maaaan Raven, carry me!!" He began breathing heavily.

"I am NOT your assistant. You have legs don’t you?, just use them." Refuting his request. Man this lazy guy….

"Jeez Raven you are so harsh…” We continue running side by side

I noticed a couple of classes outside and out of the corner of my eye I noticed the whole class summoning black balls that turn into fire balls. Some of them didn't struggle doing it yet most of them were disappointed. "Hey Harrison, what are they doing over there?"

"Usually in duels every ability is crucial and every single drop of magic is important. Right now they use magic to create illusions to distract opponent to create an opening, although most of the time it’s easy to see through. ”

“So what I’m understanding is it is a low cost illusion. Why is it so easy to see through?” I look back at Harrison

“Hoph-Hoph” Looking already worn Harrison carefully replied “Well if you look at that black ball that turned into fire-you can see it’s fake cause usually flames flicker and it’s really hard to miss that and to the caster it’s hard to emulate any real thing-HUumph. So in general it is hard to copy an object using magic. Although it could be done, it will take a long time to to get every detail of an object. Kuhue kuhue Oh no I can’t feel my legs” Harrison trips over.

“Cmon man just 2 more laps” Urging him to get up. I punt his legs

“I…KOH…can’t…to…much….RUNNING!!!” He collapses. Turning his body with curiosity “How are you totally fine Raven? It’s like you do this everyday…I envy you”

“Well I do run every night unlike you, you lazy bum” I kick his leg again. “Cmon, we got to finish this. Just use ‘Blood Flow’ or something.”

In about a minute he gets up again, “I admit Raven, that skill coach taught us is pretty useful” looking surprised. “Although I feel he should learn from his own lessons, he’s getting fatter by the minute. We both chuckled a bit.

“Aren’t you always sleeping Harrison? if you actually pay attention in his class you might actually pass your physical test for once.”

“Hey let’s not mention the little details but…Yeah….you got a point” says the one who is guilty of sleeping everyday in class.

We continue to run for the next couple of hours-by the end of the day…

“GOOD JOB RUNTS, WE WILL BE DOING THIS EVERYDAY SO GET USED TO THIS, YOU LITTLE BRATS!!! Mmmmm” Coach munches his cupcakes.

“Everyday!?!?” Everybody replies in regret of signing up for this class. Someone in the crowd yells“HEY GUYS LOOK ITS ARIANA THE PRODIGY & ROSETTA SYTESQUE”. In response all the guys move their attention on two women in elegant dresses one of which is wearing a Columbina masked engraved in diamonds. They appear to be headed to their magic class. I look back at Harrison to see him blush.

“Hey Raven, Do you think someday those women will fall for me” Harrison expresses his dream with stars in his eyes. “Sh-sh-Should I talk to them?” He shakes in excitement like a dog.

“Calm down boy, First of all…you are sweating more than a waterfall, I don’t think they’ll appreciate you as is, but if you feel you want to then I can’t stop you” I try to stop my friend from embarrassing himself not just because he was sweating but covered in dirt. I take a good look around my classmates to see every one of them are eyes the two ladies. Usually only guys go for the warrior path and women go through the magic courses. This is because females have a higher Magic Quotient than men. This is usually why I am sometimes ridiculed for taking a course in magic.

“HEY LOOK THERE COMING THIS WAY!!!” A person yells out. Just as he said it every whistled and waved at them hoping to grab their attention.

I just stand there while coach utterly fails to regrab the attention of the class. Harrison looks at me-

“Dude Raven, Aren’t you excited?” he fans himself in hopes of making being more presentable.

I stay subtle besides I doubt she remember who I am so I won’t cause any trouble for her. I don’t want to bring her bad memories of that terrible event. Well I see Rosetta is doing fine for herself… I wonder who her friend is. Looking around and smelling my surroundings all the guys were emitting testosterone that was exponentially filling the air. Rosetta…I wish you good luck.

I see one of my classmates walk up to Rosetta, “Miss. Sytesque, I Gerald the IX would be blessed to have your hand for the next dance?” He bows elegantly.

“No” A blunt answer came out of the mouth of Rosetta. In response, everybody but me got nervous to even come closer as they see Gerald collapse onto the ground. Rosetta and Ariana passed us towards their next class. All the testosterone that filled in the air suddenly seeped into the ground.

“Rosetta still seems spoiled…” I look back at my friend suddenly I was filled with fear “HARRISON, HARRISON YOU ALRIGHT” because what I saw with my eyes was a man with his dreams crushed by the hammer of Aphrodite and frozen by the head of Medusa. I honestly felt sorry for him for the first time. I look back at the girls…I was then creeped out as ‘Ariana’ was staring right at me. I quickly turn around, grabbed Harrison, and carried him to the nurse’s office. “Hold on Harrison, I’ll get you to the nurses office so don’t lose hope” I attempt to snap him back to reality….

Harrison was still frozen so I went ahead and head to the classes. How do illusions work. Throughout the day the thought of illusions was stuck ever since I saw that black ball imitate a fire. “Illusions….illusions….illusions” I walk through the aisle going through every book even remotely related to illusions. “Found it!” It was a leather covered book that looked like it has been collecting dust since the dawn of time. “I guess illusions aren’t that great” I should’ve noticed this since the students in the class performing illusions all had faces of disappointment on them. Despite that I gave it a read.

‘Illusions at its basis is a form of magic that moving magic into a small area to create a shape. Magic can reflect light allowing changes of colors by reflecting one color and absorbing others. In order for the illusion to stay maintained and allow a imitation of movements of the object, it must stay connected to the user by magic that strings from the illusions to the caster. While connected the user must constantly supply magic to apply changes of shape or color’

“Man that is a lot of work just for an illusion…” I guess I’ll try it. I collect magic in my hands from my blood stream and created a regular ball of magic. Easy enough…I then try to reflect a few colors, what came out was purple. From what I remember from my mother about colors, that means I reflected both red and blue. Next, lets see If I can change the shape. I attempt to move the magic in the air into a regular sword. As a result a rusty sword formed. Couldn’t I just create a sword by taking energy from the air and creating ice? This seems to be a waste. At least the illusion sword works like a regular sword. I quickly destroy the sword as I began to feel my body weaken.

*Bonk*

I quickly turn around and I see a pile of books collapsed on someone-wait isn’t that the person that ran away from me before?. I instinctively rushed over and move all the books away to make sure the person wasn’t injured. Upon closer inspection….”Mrs. Theades?”

Casually she replies “uh-uh I’m not Theades” with a fake smile.

I ignored her response “Mrs. Theades…What exactly are you doing here?” Honestly this women is weird. I grab her by the arm and pull her up off the floor.

“Uh thank you and to get to the point, well nevermind-I’ll just leave-“

“Tell me” I rejected her exit “What are you looking for?” I was getting annoyed since she keeps creeping on me and running away. It’s been happening for a couple years and it is starting to get on my nerves.

“Well to be blunt, I am actually quite curious about your capability to manipulate magic at a high level”

“My magic isn’t that strong, I’m not good with magic. Other people can make huge balls of fir-“

“I’m not talking about the power of your magic, but your ability to control every aspect of your magic such as creating shapes. Just yesterday I saw you creating rings of fire. Admittedly they were weak, but you were easily able to manipulate magic like a high class wizard. Even now I saw you create a sword in an instant, usually it would take a couple of minutes to make a sword that sharp. HOW’D YOU DO IT?!?!?” She stares at me questionably in intent.

Frightened I quickly replied “I don’t know, honestly. It just sort of happened. Besides I see other adventurers do the same thing all the time.” I look out the window to find it dark outside “listen Mrs. Theades, I gotta catch some sleep” I find an excuse to escape her grasp.

She grabs my arm, “Before you go…will you be my apprentice?” Professors at the schools usually have some students be apprentices. For the professors, this gains them reputation of how well of a teacher he is while at the same time they can pass down their skills of to their apprentices and eventually be recorded in history. Professors are usually adventures that have discovered new skills and if they spread their skills they can be remembered cause of it. For the students they are able to learn these unique skills that only their professors know about. This was a mutual agreement between both parties so usually students will first find a professor to become an apprentice to and learn their skills. But the catch is once they pair up they cannot switch to another teacher, but they can quit their membership. It was a school rule to be exact. I thought about Mrs. Theades request. Man she is not letting go of my arm without an answer “Listen Mrs. Theades…”

She looks up at me with eyes of evil intent

“I’ll sleep on it, but I won’t promise you anything” With that she finally let’s go of my arm.

“fine…” She looks down in disappointment.

At that point I finally walk to my dorm. Waved hello and goodbye to the receptionist this and that. When I finally got to open my door….

“Hey Raven how’s it going?” Harrison was watching VTD on some magic item show.

“I’m doing fine…just tired.” I fell onto my bed. “What are you watching?”

“It’s a new show, it’s basically a show where they review rare items founded by adventurers all over the world.” He continues staring at the VTD(this is a television delivered by magic) and I started watching the show myself out of boredom.

‘Today will be a special episode as we will be reviewing the really rare ‘Philosopher Stone’ ‘ A red gem appears onto the image.

I got up quickly. Isn’t that what I have? I look back at my guitar which contained the red gem inside. I pay attention back to the VTD.

‘What is it you ask? Well first off it is a really rare piece of stone and is really fragile if handled improperly thus it is used only for decorations in a glass case to symbolize the wealth of an individual. But despite the aesthetic, it does have a powerful function. It is capable of storing sequences of magic and repeatedly forever use that magic for all of eternity until it is broken. The stone itself is has almost infinite magic built in it and is in fact made of magic as it was created deep inside the core of this land.’

“Hey Harri-“ As I was about to talk to him I notice he fell asleep. Man I was hoping to learn more on what else he learned about it…oh well. I turn off the VTD and went to bed myself. “So it can store magic sequences huh…that’s interesting” I close my eyes and dream…today was a long day.

…

“Aaagggh noooo…” I see the sun through the window. After 3 years in the capital Tera I still haven’t gotten used to waking up in a bed or rather the sunshine itself either. I slowly got up and grabbed my guitar pulling out the red gem. “A philosopher stone…” What should I use it for… Man this is a tough question I better choose wisely because I might only see one of these my entire life. After a few stressful minutes of pondering I decided to put it away for emergencies. I quietly leave the room. Thankfully it’s the weekends. Every weekend I escape to the Rainforest of the Astray just to relax.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH” I let out my frustrations. My GOD how I missed you nature. I settled down near a river deep inside the forest. Pulling out my fishing pole I started fishing just for fun. Not wanting to think about what to do with the philosopher stone since it will cause me stress, I start thinking about the illusion skill. I started copying things around me like sticks, stones, trees and so on. I try to capture every detail. Man it is hard to emulate every detail.

“BUKAAH-BUKAAH” A dives into the river and plucks a few fish and flutters off into a nearby tree.

“Cool” Most people are frightened of them but my many years of knowing them I have realized that as long as you don’t bother them they don’t bother you. Something people tend to ignore and usually people will react violently by attacking them. I wonder if....just like everything else I emulated I try to emulate a . In a few seconds a appears although not moving but just floating in the air. I poured a few of my magic into it and I focused on moving its limbs. My started flapping its wings and opening its mouth, of course without sound. Hey this is awesome, I started touching my illusion. Weirdly enough it felt weird and the skin felt rough. I began to making it move naturally towards the other in the air.

“BUKAK-BUKAH-BUKAK” The takes notice and starts attacking my illusion with it’s tail.

In response, I try make seem like a real battle by making my illusion seem hurt, attack, and even taunt the real one. I even swung the tail which actually affected the real one, but I had to pour a lot more magic in order to physically hurt the real one. This kept going and going. Man I am tried, after a while I made my illusion die after the real swung its tail and after seeing my illusion die it quickly fly off. “HUFF Oh…MAN… that was awesome, but tiring” I collapse onto the ground. That was kind of cool messing with illusions…but to constantly pour magic into it just to maintain the shape is tough. Even tougher to make it move. I wonder…can I emulate myself? I focus some magic into my hand and started drawing my body. I made sure I had the same hair and skin color and even the same clothes. I started getting weary, but my sense of discovery triumph that. Finally after a few dozen minutes I stepped back to see a mirror of myself “Hell yeah, I can get used to this” There were a few things I didn’t get such as the mouth or eyes since they were a bit hard, but I will get it later. I started messing around with the movement.

My illusion started to take a few steps sideways…awkwardly.

I made my body move around, hold my fishing pole, jump, swim, everything I could think of. At first it felt weird seeing my own body moving around. Thanks to my Human Anatomy class I was able to get my illusion to move more…naturally. The movement had to suffice afterall just a couple of hours ago it had his foot stuck in his head so I at least made progress. I grab my notebook on Human Anatomy hoping to learn what else I can do. I started thinking about the VTD…If I can simulate how the eyes work I could visualize what my illusion sees. I look up at the sun to see it has almost set. “Not yet. Just a couple more hours” I was starting to have fun. As of now my body is quite…frightening(Author: Imagine Slenderman’s head if that helps your imagination). I cover the lower half of its head with a mask and started working on the eyes. It’s not a simple task because I am basically using magic to grabs light that go through the string of magic that connects us that then enters my body and eventually leads up to my brain where it is then converted into a image.

After a while I finished making the eye, made two copies, and inserted them into my other body. With that I tested it out. I focus on the string between us and when I close my eyes I see images although they are black and white it is clear I could add color but drawing in ALL of the colors is a rather daunting task as it needs to capture more lights and I need to add more receptors to detect more colors in the first place which was a bit too much work. I was weird seeing my own real body with my eyes closed. This is getting freaky, I cut the vision.

*Snap*

I turn around and see a bush moving. I was about to summon my icicles before I realized it was a student. It was the girl that I saw during practice, I think her name was ‘Ariana’. Huh? That’s…strange I see her walking towards me ignoring the fact she is going through every bush. Is she dumb? She could just go around. After a while, she finally was able to reach me.

She looks at me but her glare seems like it is going through me. She grabs my hand and brings it to her face.

“Hey what are you doin-“Before I got the chance she began to sniff my hand. This is…awkward. A split second later she pushed me over. WHATS GOING ON?!?! IS HE GOING TO KILL ME!!! “HEY LET ME GO!!!”

In response she mumbles “Rave…I missed you…”