"I get that you are eager to go back to civilization now that you won't start a [witch] hunt, but didn't you say that there was thousands of metras of forest filled with dangerous monsters we would have to cross?"

Audric paused for a moment before replying.

"True, I did say that, but I can just teleport us to my house in the capital."

"WHAT! You can do that? Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"I am Archmage Audric Aldrich, master of magic circles, of course I can teleport several thousand metras!"

I let out a long sigh, was he pranking me by not telling me we could leave in a instant and letting me believe we would be stuck in this forest for years? I decided that it would be best to just let it go and rather focus on getting out of here faster.

"So how long until we can leave?"

Audric thought for a moment, scratching his scraggly beard as he did so.

"Well, I am running low on crystal dust, which is a key ingredient for the ink used in magic circles... But that is easily found growing in the forest. After I gather that, to mix up the ink and make the magic circle will probably take me about a day... And there is still preparations we need to do, I have to store all of the research in these ruins into my ring, and you and I both need to clean up a bit... Need to shave this beard of mine... Girls in the capital don't like beards. So while I go out today to get the crystal, you can gather all the scrolls and books into a pile that I can store when I get back. We will use this evening to get cleaned up, and then I will use all of tomorrow make the teleportation circle. We can leave the day after tomorrow."

There isn't much left about that day for me to tell you. Audric left, I gathered up the research materials into a small mountain in one of the empty rooms. Audric had a bath set up in one of the smaller rooms in the ruin before I ever got there, so that evening we took turns bathing. Audric shaved his beard, which transformed him from a old man into a middle aged man. I had not cut my hair since I got to this world, so it had grown rather long, I got my first haircut. And after that we went to sleep.

The next morning, I awoke to find Audric sitting nearby stareing at me. Not creepy at all.

"Good morning..."

Audric moves a bit like he has just been pulled like deep thought.

"You grew again while you slept. I was observing to see why."

"I see..."

"When you got here you looked to be about six years old... Yesterday about like a seven year old... Now like a tall eight year old. It seems that while you sleep, you draw ether into yourself, it seems that is what is fueling your fast growth."

That much, a year a night? Wait, didn't that mean I would be an old man in a few weeks? This is serious! But my fears seemed to be unfounded as Audric continued.

"I have seen something similar in children born with large mana pools, they grow faster then normal, but once they reach adulthood their aging slows to a crawl. The usually end up live several centuries longer than mages who don't start expanding their pool untill they are adults. Of course I have never seen someone grow so fast... Usually they grow into adults only a year or two before other kids their age."

"How old is their body when they slow their aging?"

"They usually have the body of someone in their late teens or early twenties."

OK, that doesn't seem to bad. Let's just hope it works the same for me. But now on to another important issue. What am I going to do for clothes. The clothes Audric made for me were already tight yesterday, now they for sure wouldn't fit.

"What am I supposed to do about clothes?"

"We can buy many clothes in the capital, but until then I suppose you will have to make do with the clothes I have."

He waved his hand a bit and some simple cloth clothes popped out of his ring. He then told me that he would be preparing the ink and then left.

After he left I examined the clothes he had left behind. I selected the smallest shirt I could find and desided to wear it as a tunic. The underwear I had worn to sleep last night were already to tight, so had to select one of the pairs (they were all clean thankfully) and use a leather strap to tie it like a belt.

Thus (somewhat) clothed, I whent off to watch Audric work. I found him in large empty room that he had told me he was going to use for the magic circle before. I began to observe Audric work, and he was kind enough to explain what he was doing while he worked.

He explained that there are many different recipes for magic circle ink, and each produced a different quality ink. The recipe he was using now was one of his own design. Powdered crystal dust, mercury (living silver as they called it), ash from a tree that had grown in a ether rich area, and extracts from various rare herbs. Apparently this recipe was considered one of high quality, and thus the reason Audric could use it for his teleportation circle.

It took him about an hour to mix up the nessisary amount. Then he began on the circle, begining in the center of the room and working outwards. The runes that Audric used came from a ancient dead language. Similar to how scientists use Latin because it will not change now that no one uses it in everyday speech, mages use this language because no one uses it anymore, and will therefore not change. The reason this is desirable is because the meaning of what is written must have a connection to what is cast on it. Because of this there magic circles will continue to function for years.

Now that Audric was focused on making the magic circle, I couldn't interrupt him with questions and break his concentration. So I practiced magic untill the evening when he finally came back out of the room and announced he was done.

When we sat down for our final evening meal here, I decided to inquire about what I should expect from the capital and what I should know.

"Well..." Began Audric "The capital is called Earlton, and is the capital of the kingdom of Albin. The kingdoms northern border is the forest of Eirin, to its west is the Empire of Cartinal. To its east is the Theocracy of Er-ishanal. It's southern border runs all the way to the ocean. The capital is located near the center of center of the kingdom. The king was old when I left, so there is probably a new king by now."

After that the conversation went on mostly about social customs that will be expected and the dos and don'ts of the law. Most were not to different from what I was familiar with, but some were different, like giving respect to nobles and knights and whatnot.

Now that our preparations were finished, all that was left was to wait for tomorrow morning.

The next morning I woke up to find I had grew again. By this point it wasn't even that surprising. Now I looked about nine or ten. If I kept this up I would be fully grown in about ten or eleven days. If I was back on Earth I would be undoubtedly setting a new world record for fastest growing kid.

We opted to not eat breakfast and rather wait and get something other than wilderness stew in the capital. I could still wear what I wore yesterday, so I did not have to worry about that. We made one final sweep through the ruins looking for anything we may want to bring before we finally went to the magic circle.

This was it. Audric and I stood on top of the circle and prepared to leave. This would be my first time teleporting, so I took slow deep breaths to keep myself calm. Audric checked to make sure I was ready before he began to pour mana into the circle. The runes and lines in the circle lit up bright blue, an arch of blue light formed over us before we were consumed by light all around.

The first thing I noticed when the light cleared was that we were standing on top of a coffee table, surrounded be old fashioned couches. We appeared to be in a living room. The second thing I noticed was that the ether here was a lot less. It was still a lot more than I knew how to use at one time, but still less.

"I am fairly sure I left this room empty before." Mumbled Audric.

To my right, a pair of dark wooden double doors burst open and a man that seemed to be in his late twenties strode in. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.

"Who the fuck just teleported into my home?"

Audric turned and looked him straight in the eye, the man froze and instantly pailed.

"M- M- Master Aldrich!"

"Whose house did you say this was?"

"It's yours master! I was just keeping it safe in your absence!"

"Nonsince, you just grabbed a free mansion when you thought I was gone for good." He turned to me, "Ambrjrn, meet my apprentice Porten Fabinus."

"Actually... Since you were gone I have become a court mage."

Stepping off the coffee table that we had landed on, Audric looked at Porten with a small bit of disbelief.

"Have you really improved enough to be hired by the crown while I was gone, or has the standard for court mages fallen?"

"Hmpf," Porten turned to me, "Hello there, Ambrjrn was it? How did you fall in with the likes of him?" He asked with a head nod in Audric's direction.

This was a perfect opportunity! I can't let this pass up.

"That's because he's my daddy." I replied in the most childish voice I could muster, which was pretty easy with my underdeveloped vocal cords.

Porten's deep blue eyes opened up wide and he slowly turned to Audric.

"Master, were you not the one who told me I must always use a contraceptive spell? What happened to that?"

Audric's face grew red in embarrassment as he frantically waved his hands in a 'thats not it' gesture. GOT HIM!

"Mama said she had to beg him for fourtey days before he finally let her have me. Whatever that means."

Audric's face grew redder and Porten let out a chuckle.

"So even an Archmage will surrender to the will of a woman. Well it's probably none of my business to enquire any further. After using up enough mana to fuel a teleportation circle you must be famished. Shall I have my ••••• prepare you something to eat?"

Audric simply nodded his reply and Porten left the room. Once he was gone I turned to Audric, who was now examining the changes made to the room, to enquire about the word I didn't recognize.

"Audric, what did that word he used mean? •••••, was it?"

"Hmm, it means a person who is owned by another, and is made to work for them."

A slave! What the hell! That evil... Wait, I have to remind myself that this is no longer earth, and let's face it, nearly every fantasy web novel I have read had some form of slavery in it, so I should have expected this. Now the question is, do I try and change society? Do I ignore it? Or should I go with the flow and try and change my world view?

My thoughts are interrupted by Audric beckoning me to follow him to the dining room.