Gabriel quickly learned names and much more about each of his companions.

  Lisa Von Nova was indeed the head of security at the Nova estate. She was sent here to keep an eye on Reginald Nova and Scarlet Nova. She was a wind mage and also proficient with a saber which she carried on her hip. She uses a combined style making her deadly at short and long range.

  The archer girl was named Cirilla. She was also a mage. In fact, all of them were. Her magic gives her incredible sensory strength and detail, but it is hard for her to control it, so she asks everyone to stay quiet when they can. She is also quite skilled with a bow making her another hybrid fighter. She also has a supply of magic arrows she uses.

  The next one was Reginald Nova, the heir to the Nova Duchy. The Nova Duchy was one of twelve duchies in the Rodran Duchy. His father is one potential Duke who has a shot at becoming the next Grand Duke, a title which revolves every ten years. Back to Reginald himself, he is a sound mage. He can make sounds of different frequencies as well as make them louder or quieter. He also uses a sword but he is far better at stealth than attacking head on.

  Then there was Scarlet Nova. She was adopted by the Nova family when she was only eight years old. Scarlet and her maid had travelled around for almost a year before they were picked up by some Nova family servants. Once it was revealed they were both capable of magic they were quickly brought into the main house and the rest was history. She is capable of powerful fire magic, but it is also uncontrolled at times. She is the only other pure mage besides Gabriel.

  Speaking of Gabriel, or Coral as he is called right now. He is a healer. He is capable of healing broken bones, burns, cuts, bruises and even poisons but he didn’t let them know that. That may blow his cover. Finally, he mentioned he is also capable of healing plants to some extent. He didn’t mention to what extent because they already seemed concerned for him.

  As for why they were concerned by that. Every mage who gains the ability to do magic through the usual route gains one spell that is and always will be their most powerful spell. It is their trump card and what most call their ‘natural magic.’ Then, from that one spell, most mages branch out slowly while training their central spell.

  If Gabriel is healing plants then there are only two reasons why. Either healing plants was his central spell which would make him less effective at healing people, or he was already confident in his natural magic to start branching out heavily from its original purpose. This would be fine if he was a wizened old healer but a boy of about 14 years old shouldn’t be branching out too far from his natural magic so soon.

  “Are you sure you should be doing that? Shouldn’t you focus on healing people instead?” Reginald asked bluntly.

  “He’s right, you shouldn’t be branching out too far from your core spell yet. I didn’t start changing my spells that much until a decade after I got my magic.”

  “Yea, I guess you guys are right. I’ll put that on the back burner for now.” They were right that it wasn’t that important. He had mostly learned it to hide his escape route from the house. Now that he was out he didn’t need to do that anymore. Now he had plenty of time to learn other kinds of spells. Afterall he wasn’t really a fan of training his natural magic.

  “Alright, good. Now that we are all better acquainted I think it is time for us to get out on the road.” Reginald said, already heading for the door.

  Everyone else followed shortly after. They walked down a hallway, took a left and then came to a large door made of magically hardened steel wrapped in more gold and gemstones. There was a man in front of the door, checking what quests were accepted and who was taking them. Fortunately for us, Lisa already accepted our quest so we walked right past the quest board and straight to the man.

  “Names, blocks, and quest.” The man said with as much energy as a graveyard.

  Lisa already had her block and the quest in hand. With a quick mention of her name they would be able to go on their adventure. At least that’s what Gabriel thought.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “I’m going to need everyone’s block.”

  “Why? Isn’t her block enough for this mission alone?” Reginald asked quite bluntly again

  “Yes, but we’ve been getting non-guild members sneaking in and out with guild associates to do guild quests without paying guild dues so we have to check that everyone has a block and not just one.” The man said, giving more than enough information for Gabriel to know he was screwed.

  Blocks are a form of ID given to all guild members upon joining the guild. They are made of different materials depending on your rank in the guild and have general information on them. Most importantly it holds a trace of your magical signature making it very difficult to fake.

  One by one the other members of Gabriel’s party showed their blocks to the man and made them glow showing they are all authentic. Lisa’s was silver which is notably the highest rank they will give out to newcoming members. She is the only reason they were able to pick up this copper level quest. Next was Reginald who had a wooden block, the lowest rank block. Then Scarlet and Cirilla who both had stone blocks, which were notably one rank lower than copper and one rank higher than wood. Reginald didn’t look happy when Scarlet took hers out.

  Then it was Gabriel’s turn, or Coral’s turn, since Coral actually had one, but Gabriel didn’t have it. Coral had it. Gabriel walked up to the man sweating bullets. “Uh. I’m sorry I seem to have misplaced my block. Could you let me through this once. Please!”

  The man gave a long stare at Gabriel and Gabriel could feel the stares behind him as his teammates all looked at him funny for forgetting his block. Blocks used to not be necessary to leave but they have always been necessary to enter. Gabriel’s tone made it seem like he wasn’t planning on returning, which he wasn’t. They didn’t know that though. “I swear I’ll re-register with the guild when I’m back and pay the registration fee again. I swear! Just let me go on this adventure.” Gabriel pleaded with the man.

  Luckily the man was feeling generous today and gave him a way out. “Give me five gold and I’ll let you pass.” Okay, maybe not that generous.

  “Oh. Uh. Five gold is a lot. Could I give you some now and some later?” Gabriel tried

  “No.” And Gabriel failed.

  “Oh. Well. What if…”

  “I’ve got it.” Reginald said controlling the sound from his mouth so only Gabriel and the man could hear him. He quietly paid the man the five gold and hurried ‘not Coral’ to the gaudy door.

  The door swung open revealing no forest, not yet. First, they had to pass through the slums. The guild is really the only organization with power here. Every other sovereign power has embassies inside and under the guild compound. All of the other people who try to make it rich off the natural, and unnatural, resources of the forest, but not associated with it, are left in the slums to pander off adventurers coming and going from the guild.

  Immediately upon setting foot outside the guild walls men, women and children crowd our unlucky party. Some are selling trinkets, some knives, others bogus spell scrolls, and even some offering private lessons. These people know that everything they are selling is either bogus or worse quality than what they can find in the guild so everyone continues walking through the crowd. Lisa is at the front pushing ahead while everyone else holds on tight to their belongings.

  Finally, they are through the worst part of the slum town. As they get closer and closer to the forest they get fewer and fewer people wishing to stick around, and once they pass the last tent the last panderer drops off and hurries back to the Hero’s Welcome gate.

  In front of them stands the Great Forest. The reason the Guild was established here seven years ago and why Gabriel was orphaned by the beast raids all those years ago before the Guild and Lord Karson came here. This is where it all began for him and Gabriel felt that he could find all his answers if he went back in there. So here he was, excited to start his first adventure into The Great Forest and the history of this land.