"Are you sure he's awake?" Aaron whispers.

"Yes," Colt responds, not bothering to whisper. "Max wakes up as soon as we get too close to him. If he was sleeping, he stopped being asleep before we were in earshot. He was awake by the time we were there. Good morning, Max."

"Good morning," I sit up. "Hello, everyone."

Accompanying Colt and Thomas today are all three of Colt's friends. They can't come out every day, and when they do come out, it isn't always before I leave. I'd expect Colt to have more duties and responsibilities than Aaron, Cyrus, and Nicholas, being a prince and all, but it seems that's wrong.

"You're not soaked in sweat," Colt comments. "I mean, you're usually all sweaty when we come out here, but you look fairly dry. Even with the summer heat beating down on you."

"Oh," I say. "I jumped in the river and cooled off for a few minutes after I trained."

"You train with your martial arts and a sword when you come out here, right?" Aaron asks. "Even though you also train with Thomas?"

"Yeah."

"If you don't mind me asking," he says. "Why do you train extra?"

"Because it's helping me build up stamina," I answer. "And it's good to practice on my own as well."

"Max," Colt says. "We're all sweating a bit just being outside. You're noticeably not. It's so hot out, I started sweating almost as soon as I left the castle."

Well, yeah, it kind of is that hot out right now. I was sweating when I woke up this morning, and I woke before the sun rose. That's summer, though. They're all soaked in sweat and despite having the ability to stay inside a building where it's cool, they still come out as much as they can to train in the heat.

All of them except for Thomas, actually. He's noticeably lacking in sweat. It comes as no surprise to me that someone like Thomas already knows such a spell.

"I was thinking about [Flight Wind]," I explain. "And how the whipping winds around me seem to cool me off. Then I remembered that the wind usually makes me feel cooler, even if only a tiny bit on really hot days like this. So I played around with [Air Barrier] a bit and figured out how to make it cool me off. It only costs a small bit more Mana per second to maintain it, too."

"If you paid attention to your lessons," Thomas tells Colt. "You would already be able to do that as well."

"But I get so bored!" Colt complains. "I like going out and doing stuff, not just sitting here for hours!"

"You don't 'sit here for hours'," Thomas says. "I intentionally keep the lessons where you have to sit still to under an hour every time because I know that unlike Max, you cannot handle that. Your attention span for such lessons is about twenty minutes most days."

"It feels like hours," Colt grumbles.

"If you wish to be able to keep yourself cool in this heat," Thomas says. "Then you need to work on being able to cast an [Air Barrier] over your skin, much like what Max does. Once you're able to sustain it, you can work on the part where it cools you down as well. If you actually sit down and focus on this, Colton, you might manage to finish both modifications within three or four hours."

Colt grumbles, then gives me a curious look. Or at least, a look I'm pretty sure means he's curious about something.

"You were glimmering," he says. "Before we arrived. But then it stopped when we were about a hundred yards away."

"I noticed you coming," I tell him. "So I stopped. I was playing around with [Light Barrier] and seeing about infusing it into my [Air Barrier]. Right now, I have to cast them as separate spells, which means I have to maintain them separately. I did manage to get [Light Barrier] to coat me similarly to [Air Barrier] yesterday, but combining the two spells is a lot of work."

"[Shimmering Air Barrier] is the Skill name," Thomas informs me. "And it is, indeed, an advanced spell. This is your first time struggling with a spell, isn't it?"

"I'm not really struggling," I say. "It's just a little bit more difficult than other spells are and more than I thought it'd be."

"Isn't that… struggling?" Aaron asks.

"It could be, depending on the person," I shrug. "I'm just surprised that it's taking more effort to learn than I thought it would."

"Trying doing it as a normal barrier first," Thomas suggests. "That should be easier than doing it as a thin layer over your body."

Every other barrier spell I cast, I cast as a barrier first, then made modifications to. This one, I went straight to a more advanced variation of it – a thin one that conforms to the item it's touching and which can move without breaking or weakening.

"…I's feel really stupid now."

Thomas laughs at my statement, and I can't figure out if it's because he finds it funny in a humorous way or in a condescending way. I hold out my left hand and cast both spells, the [Light Barrier] overlapping the [Air Barrier]. Everyone waits the minute it takes me to actually mix the two together.

[Shimmering Air Barrier] Learned!

The light turned violet when the two spells merged. On a hunch, I try to adjust it the same way I remove the violet tint from my air magics, and the light returns to being a yellow-white light. Doing that also improves the Skill to Level 2.

"You made that adjustment quickly," Thomas chuckles. "Just so you're aware, Max, the light isn't hindered by being the different color. It does defend against shadow magics more effectively when the coloration is returned to light magics' normal color, but it's no weaker for being a different one."

"It always costs more," I say. "When I change it to remove the tinting. That's why I ain't bothering to remove the tinting most of the time."

The cost is negligible to me, but it takes a little more effort.

"Why did the light turn purple for a few moments?" Cyrus asks.

"You've seen Max's air magic, yes?" Thomas asks.

"Yes," Cyrus answers as Aaron and Nicholas nod.

"The color of your air magic," Thomas says. "Is influenced by the color of your Mana. When you combine air magics and light magics into a single, unified spell – such as [Shimmering Air Barrier] – the light changes to the color of your Mana. Max has to use more Mana to change it back, which is why I let him know he doesn't need to unless he wants to make the filter stronger – or if he wants it to provide better lighting for the area he's in."

"Oh," Cyrus says.

"How come his Mana's a different color?" Nicholas asks. "I've been wondering that for awhile. Isn't everyone's Mana green?"

"I don't know," Thomas answers. "This is honestly the first time I've heard of someone who had a differently-colored Mana, and I've been through the entire valley of the seven kingdoms. We've been observing Max to see if there was anything special, but as far as we can tell, his Mana is simply a different color. There's nothing special to it from what we've observed."

"I's tried looking it up," I say. "But nothing's mentioned it before. Everything just says that Mana's green. All the monsters I've seen using air magics, theirs was tinted green, too. Magic crystals attuned to air are all also green. I's probably just an anomaly."

I haven't noticed anything different about me from what I could research. Not anything that could be attributed to my purple Mana, anyway. That suggests there really isn't anything special to it.

"More importantly," Colt says. "Why do you want to be able to cast both at the same time?"

"Because almost nothing within the first hundred miles of the Great Northern Forest," I tell him. "Is strong enough to get me Experience. Not unless I'm fighting Goblin Kings. Most monsters in the forest are too weak for me now. I's planning on going after somethin' called a shadetoad. Most of 'em ain't that strong, but there are a few of 'em with bounties on their heads. The bounty beast shadetoads are all strong enough I should still get some Experience."

Though from what the reports said, I'm stronger than most of those, and by more than 40 Magic over their Constitution. The shadetoads are definitely unable to harm me with physical attacks, and I'll probably resist the effects from their shadow magics. However, it's still worth the attempt.

Even if they end up not giving me any Experience or not giving me very much, I can sell them for money. I'm also Level 71 already, so I'm at the point where I'm allowed to help out with the assault on the goblin kingdoms. If I want to gain more Levels, I'll have to find stronger things to fight.

I may even need to enter the Wildernesses, the lands where the roots of the World Tree don't lessen the ambient Mana and reduce the power of the natural monsters. The Great Northern Wilderness, the name for the Wilderness north of the Great Northern Forest, will probably be the one I go to.

"Now that I've got that barrier spell taken care of," I say. "I'll be looking for a couple of the shadetoad bounty beasts later."

"I wish Thomas would let me hunt stronger things," Colt grumbles again. "He's still refusing even though we're launching the attack on Saturday."

"Let's begin our training," Thomas says.

Our training session for today begins, then we separate to start seeking out herbs and other resources for our lunch. Even Colt's friends help with this, Thomas makes them on days they join us. Lately, he's been sending us to different areas to seek out stuff, and I'm assigned to a small section of the forest, so I use flight magic to get there and back.

"Max," Thomas says once he begins cooking, Colt and the others goofing around a little ways away. "Do you know why Colton isn't allowed to hunt stronger things, things that would earn him serious Experience?"

"Because he's a prince and he's basically put on a pedestal 'cause he's the only baby who survived the Arcane Convergence?" I ask. "So Their Majesties want to do their best to ensure he's safe. If he gets killed, it might be taken as a bad omen. Maybe it could make other kingdoms see us as weak and invade. I's heard talks that we ain't that liked because we're seen as lazy."

"By kingdoms who don't realize just how much we do for the valley," Thomas nods. "They see that there are no issues coming from their borders, and we have a valuable mine that we access. That mine provides the majority of the valley's iron. There are some smaller mines, but none with the amount of metal produces as ours.

"What they don't know," Thomas says. "Because we keep it from them, are all the dangers we face. The majority of the mine? Is outside of the valley. The miners have guards there to help them stay safe, and many miners have rather decent Levels just from protecting themselves. Most of the area bordering the valley is also Wilderness, rather than reduced power like the Great Northern Forest. A full Wilderness is unlikely to have society monsters like goblins, so the threats they face tend to be lesser.

"The major battle on Saturday," Thomas tells me. "Will create a temporary weakness in the kingdom because of the sheer scale of the battles that will take place. Possibly more than half of our combat-capable forces will be participating. Even if every single one of us dies on Saturday, Kedridal's average Level will be four higher than in the other kingdoms. Four, Max. And we aren't going to lose that many people. There are enough of us capable of fighting against Goblin Kings that we will come out victorious, and killing that many Goblin Kings? Will make our enemies know we're still standing strong."

"Oh," I don't know what else to say.

"Yeah," Thomas nods. "I noticed you're getting better at not slipping back into slums-speak, Max. Are you putting in effort to do that even when you aren't with us?"

"I try when interacting with others," I nod. "Is difficult, but I's managing. I still slip into it when talking with others from there, or if I get really annoyed."

"You're doing a good job," Thomas tells me. "Though you do still slip into it when you've been talking for a bit and get more comfortable in the conversation."

"Sorry."

"It's nothing to apologize for," he tells me. "Just an observation, Max. If you talking like that was an issue, I would be correcting you every time. There are things we do for nobles who struggle with it to help them. Some of them are instructed to pay a fee during their lessons every time they say certain words or speak improperly, others must do an exercise like pushups, and so on. There are people who specialize in teaching others who to speak more properly."

While I know he's right, that doesn't alleviate my worries any every time it's brought up. Why would they bring it up if it wasn't an issue? He's definitely wanting me to stop, and I'm trying. It's just difficult for me to do.

That's part of why I'm trying to speak better at all times, not just when I'm with people like Colt and Thomas, or with other royals or nobles. Speaking with Hailey and her crew make it hard, though, since they all still largely speak how we're used to from the slums. I slip up more often than not because of that.

At least Thomas and all of the others have been understanding on my attempt. Him mentioning the 'punishments' for slipping up might be him telling me that he's going to start doing that to me in the future, if I don't fix my speech soon.

"Back to what I was saying before I made the observation," Thomas says. "There's a reason for not allowing Colton to go off and hunt stronger monsters, and it has nothing to do with his safety."

"It doesn't?"

"Max," Thomas says. "Colton is a seven-affinity, just like you. Look at your Level – you reached a high Level in under a month. Most of that is because you're fighting alone and pushing yourself. If you had to fight with others, like most do for their own safety, you'd no doubt be a significantly lower Level.

"Historically speaking," Thomas says. "A seven-affinity can solo train their entire life. There are four of them known within the valley outside of you and Colt, though the two of you are the only ones within Kedridal.

"As you stated before we began training earlier," he continues. "There's almost nothing in the forest north of here that can get you Experience. At least, not within a hundred miles. The other seven-affinities run into the same issue. They might leave to go fight something strong in the Wilderness, but they don't leave their kingdom for very long, just a few days at the most.

"The highest known Level out of all six of the seven-affinities within the valley," Thomas tells me. "Is Level 74. Even in the Wildernesses, it can be difficult to find something powerful enough for a sufficiently-powerful person to gain Experience from. They typically need to travel a little bit, and often have to fight several beasts at once. Several beasts that could easily kill them if they mess up. The same is true for people with fewer affinities. The six Rankers within our kingdom? They all face the same issue, it's why very few of them are over Level 120. It's simply too difficult to find something that will earn them Experience, and there aren't many people capable of helping them out. When they do have a party that can, remember that they also end up receiving less Experience from it."

I'm not entirely sure I'm seeing Thomas's point, but he stops here and looks at me expectantly. What's his point? I don't really understand.

"So ya guys are slowing him down," I say. "So that he doesn't hit that barrier sooner rather than later and start getting frustrated. Wait. I's only three Levels below the highest Level known for a currently-alive seven-affinity in the valley?"

"You are," Thomas nods. "Because we and we alone have a reduced-power zone bordering our kingdom. You were able to fight stuff in a short time frame that lets you power up faster. Most hunters don't go out looking for tough monsters every day, Max. They also often don't go up against several in a day. Colton could be at your Level if he pushed as hard."

"Which would make him hit that barrier," I say. "And ya guys want him to take longer to hit it."

I look over at Colt and his friends, who are throwing spells at slimes to harass the monsters instead of slay them.

"Until he has a party that's sufficiently-Leveled so as to be at his level of power," I say. "So that he has a party who can help him with these tougher monsters and watch his back. I's should probably do the same thing, but I ain't trusting anyone enough to do that."

"An interesting conclusion," Thomas nods. "And I can see why you came to that. The answer to that is 'no', Max. Do you remember what earned you [The Arcane Prince]?"

"Being more confident," I say. "Even if I's still suspicious of all of ya and worried ya are all gonna try to betray me or punish me for accidents."

"Yes," Thomas nods. "Colton can earn a Title, himself. He wants to go out and adventure, just like you. It's called [The Adventuring Prince], and Lord Benjamin has it. Lady Elise has the female version, [The Adventuring Princess]. The bonus it grants provides a small bonus to Experience earned from kills when fighting monsters stronger than you."

"Oh," I say. "So ya guys are trying to keep Colt from getting it? Why? It sounds good."

"The opposite," Thomas tells me. "Colton can only earn if it he pushes past our resistance to his adventures and bigger hunts. He needs to stand for himself and do his adventure anyway. Only then can he earn the Title."

"Oh."

I look at Colt, who is still playing with his friends. They're currently pelting a light slime with a focus on healing magics with rocks that Colt's making.

Even Colt has some reluctance and insecurities, then. He wants to go off on the adventures and hunt bigger monsters, but he "can't". Until he makes a stand and tries to force them to let him, he can't gain a Title that benefits him.

What I'm about to say might get me into trouble, but I'm going to say it anyway. Hopefully, Thomas doesn't tell me that I can't eat the food that's about to finish. It smells delicious.

"That must be frustrating for ya," I tell Thomas. "I wouldn't have become confident in myself if it weren't for ya and Colt helping me out, even if I still think ya are plotting something. I's been trying to figure out how to pay ya back, and him too, for that. Want me to shove Colt into standing up for his wants?"