A day later Hydapset was back at the beach where he had first spotted the signal.

He made his way to the village, asking around for a fisherman willing to lend him a boat.

"I'll do it lord magus. You needn't go by yourself." Said one as the crowd gathered around began to bicker for the opportunity to escort him to his destination.

Hydapset wasn't a magus by any means, but he wasn't about to correct these back country hicks on it. To hear them speak, even mice were wolves and peddlers of cheap tricks, 'Lord Magi', not to mention an acolyte such as himself.

"No. I'll go alone. This is a matter of great danger. It is not for mortal men to meddle with. Just lend me one of your boats and I'll be on my way." Hydapset requested.

"If'n you insist m'lord. You can take old Hans's. He won't be needing it today. He's down with the flu, you see." said one fisherman.

Subtlety is a learned skill alright.

Hydapset took out a gold coin and handed it to the man in full view of the others. The eyes of the other villagers lit up like fireworks. He could already see their thoughts. The poor man receiving the coin though? Woefully unaware.

"Here. Now lead me to it." He commanded, checking for the signal once more.

"Thank you, m'lord. Thank you very much." The fisherman ingratiated with a bow.

"Just get me the boat. Now." He cried. The signal had just gotten weaker as Hydapset was handing the man his coin and he couldn't afford to dally any longer.

"Yes m'lord. Right this way." Said the fisherman as the crowd parted to give way.

The boat he was lead to was a large rowboat, much too big for a regular 12 year old to pilot. Thankfully Hydapset was no regular 12 year old. He had been training my muscles for the past three months in the abscence of the resources required to ascend to a rank 2 acolyte and had built up a considerable amount of muscle.

Unusual for a magus but Hydapset knew the importance of good form.

He pushed the boat into the water and jumped in, rowing around to get a feel for how it moved. After a bit of practice, he had gotten the hang of it and began to row away, towards the islet.

Nearly an hour into it Hydapset arrived at the shores of his destination and jumped out of the boat, pulling it onto the sand, making sure it wouldn't just float away.

He checked again for the signal and found it to have vanished.

He almost finched instinctively. He had spent nearly all of my money and crystals just for this. Even the stuff he had been saving for a potion to help rank up. He couldn't let this opportunity go to waste. Hydapset began to think of the possibilities.

Had someone else found the source of my signal before him? No. That's not possible. There were barely any people around here, in this part of the world. Much less someone that could detect that short lived signal.

Had the injured magus been eaten by some wild animal? Perhaps.

But something lingered, like a gurst sticking around past their welcome. A thought. An apprehension. That he or she had recovered and left!

No. He needed to check the whole islet first before jumping to conclusions.

The islet was a small one no doubt, but how small exactly, he didn't know. For that he needed to get higher.

Hydapset scanned the surroundings. From where he had beached he could just about make out a large crag jutting out from the treeline. That'd do.

He took out his knife and walked into the thicket, hacking, trudging through the muddy tracks, making his way up the incline.

Once the islet was in full view, he was able to better appreciate the terrain. Where he had landed on the eastern edge of the islet, the small patch of forest he trekked past led into a small alcove littered with caves, the sea leaked in to form a pond at it's center. If he were to hide somewhere, that'd be the place for it.

Hydapset climbed down and slid the slope towards the alcove. At it's mouth lay a tree, fallen over from the previous night's storm, and on the tree lay the bloody imprint of a hand, trailing past.

He followed the trail of blood to a small crack between overgrowth of shrubbery and the fallen tree, he noticed signs of dragging and a bit more of blood. Someone had dragged themselves in there.

He pulled out an exploding potion and readied himself as he lowered into the crack with a rope tied around the tree.

It was a bit dark in there, but not enough to blind someone.

Hydapset took hold of a rock jutting out of the wall and felt around the floor, peering further inwards. When his hands failed to reach, he stretched in his leg and tapped around until he hit something soft. And fleshy. And wet. The body.

Hydapset leapt down the roughly meter high ledge and landed on the body, splattering blood and guts everywhere.

If this person wasn't dead before they certainly were now.

He let out a low laugh and began searching the body for some goodies. In one hand he found a vial of blood and in the other a pouch, bulging to the brim.

Magic equipment! A bag of holding!

Hydapset picked up the vial of blood and carefully placed it in the bag, before grabbing the pouch.

Just as a final measure he climbed out of the crevice and dropped in one of exploding potions.

A boom rang out as flames burst out of the crack, sweltering waves of heat licking at his face.

Hydapset retreated from the crack and settled some distance from the fire, watching, as it slowly died down, revealing part of a carving into the wall of the crevice, half destroyed by the explosion.

He hadn't spotted it at first, given how dark the crevice was, but now with light from the dying flames, it stood crystal clear. It was a tombstone, roughly carved with what looked to be the magus's finger.

"Atua Kestil ..... magi of .... bloodline ... spidermonkey..... Beqepas 1226."

The explosion had destroyed portions of the writing but he could just about make out the gist of it.

He took out the tube he had stored earlier and examined it.

The bloodline source of some variant of spidermonkey warlocks.

The magus had extracted his own bloodline source in the face of his inevitable demise and stored it in the tube, in some vain hope that his legacy could be continued somehow.

And sure enough, he was right. Hydapset would in all likelihood do exactly that. Thankfully, he had found it before it went bad. What's to say someone would have even noticed it within the next decade? Maybe even the next century, if I hadn't come around.

Next he opened up the pouch. It was so chock full of stuff that it looked like an octopus trap.

Hydapset cleaned the ground before him and took out the bag's contents one by one.

"Woo boy!" He exclaimed.

This looked to be quite the steal.

A Thousand Mayflower, a Hallucinogenic Jeta Mushroom, a bottle of some gray blue dust. Crushed moonstone? Maybe. But now a picture was coming into view and the pieces began to fit together. These were the ingredients for a bloodline integration potion.

Hold on. He thought. What about the other stuff? Where were the magic crystals, the rare medicines and elixirs, magic artifacts?

Hydapset turned the bag upside down, yielding a small ring, a handfull of magic crystals, a sheet of linen with something scribbled in and a whole pound of dust and ash.

"Wha..." he muttered, examining the contents.

Did this magus destroy everything else to motivate his successor to work hard? That if he had left a sizable inheritance, the person recieving it would become complacent and just live off it for the rest of their life?

"Fuck!

Some people are too smart for their own good. Bastard didn't even leave a spare set of potion ingredients. What if I failed to create the potion on the first try huh? Jackass!

Didn't think of that did you?" Hydapset cursed the dead magus.

He picked up the linen and unfolded it. Yup. It was a bloodline integration spell formation and the potion formula. He turned it over and found a high grade meditation technique on the other side.

Crystalline Blessing of Frost.

A techniques with 2 levels. So at most Hydapset would be able to become a rank 2 magus.

And then the magus had the audacity to leave a message on the bottom.

'Find the rest of the arcane art with the Lester Clan in the Frozen Lands.'

Of course it was a quest. An incomplete technique, a powerful bloodline. Anyone would want to use it to it's full potential. Thus, they would inevitably have to prostrate themselves to his family to gain access to the rest of the technique, bolstering their forces while trampling on the free will of the inheritors of the bloodline.

Just what one would have expected of this godforsaken world.

Eh, whatever. He decided.

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I could always just threaten it out of a lower clan member or something." He conjectured.

Standing back up, Hydapset made his way back to the beach. After washing the blood off of himself and cleaning his clothes, he pushed the boat back into the water and rowed away, this time away from the fishing village and closer to the port at Metelasine city. The gold coin he had paid the villager with was thrice the price of a new boat. They certainly wouldn't miss this rotten old one.

After nearly 18 hours of rowing, Hydapset docked the boat at Metelasine port. After registering the boat with the port authority, he chartered a ship going south by the eastern coast and settled in for the night at a nearby inn.

The folowing morning, he returned to the institute for the last time.

The first thing he did was look for the acolyte who had sold him the exploding potions. He needed someone capable to brew the bloodline integration potion for me, given his severe lack of skills in said department. Any other mission he would have specialized in the profession, but this time around haste was of the utmost import. He had recieved word that the Fallen Sun armies could invade this plane within the next hundred or so years. There was little time to waste.

After asking around a bit, Hydapset found him. The fifth laboratory. Apparently the boy had been cooped up in there for the past 3 days. He was likely preparing to advance to the next rank of acolytes.

Hydapset put his ear to the door and listened. The clinking of glass, the furor of burners. The boy was working on something.

"Can't disturb him now." He thought.

It was against the rules to disturb someone when they were in the midst of an important experiment. Not to mention it was standard magus etiquette.

Hydapset sat down by the door to wait.

Next thing he knew, the acolyte in question was shaking him awake.

"Huh ..wha... oh right! Hey buddy. You done with your...uh...experiment?" Hydapset asked stretching his sore limbs. He must have fallen asleep while waiting.

"Yes. Do you need to use the lab?" The boy asked.

"No. No need. I need your help with brewing a potion. I hear you're a genius at it. Only you can help me out with this. Don't worry, I'll compensate you fairly." He explained.

"Really? Do people think I'm a..genius?" He stuttered.

Yup. These shy sorts always fall for flattery. So easy to manipulate.

"Yes. Everyone knows it. They are just too starstruck to talk to you." Hydapset reassured.

"Hehehehe..." the boy grinned coyly.

"So about the potion..."

"Ah yes.. do you have the formula for it? And the ingredients?"

"Yes. Here." Hydapset handed him a copy of the formula he had made the night prior.

"Hmmm... this is.... a bit difficult." He mumbled.

"Can't you make it?"

"I can make it ... but .. why do you even need this potion? You aren't insane, are you? Is it some aftereffect from an experiment? If so it'd be better to seek proper treatment. It'd be cheaper too. I mean these ingredients are worth a fortune. Are you sure you want to use them for this particular potion?" He asked.

"Absolutely sure." Hydapset confirmed.

"It's your funeral. I'll make it. But it'll take a day or so. How does 34 sound?"

"It'll do. Meet you here tomorrow?"

"Uh huh." The boy replied, now completely engrossed in the formula.

The next day, with the potion in hand, Hydapset was ready to move out.

Onto greener pastures. He had to leave this small corner of the world if he ever wanted to have any hope of advancement. And leave he would.