Chapter 58: A Ravens Grave Special
The mages had now finally dispersed from the exam halls and were all heading back to their dorms to do as instructed.
While Aiden made his way back, he looked through the spell descriptions of the latest ones he had just copied:
[Supplementary Spell: Force → A spell to move objects from a distance with mana]
[Spell Level: King]
[Copied Technique: Light Magic Guard (A) → A spell that creates a coating of mana from light magic for protection]
"So that’s what a King Level Magic Technique feels like," he thought to himself.
He had reached a turning point in the corridor, then he made the screens go away and continued on his way to the dorms.
....
Soon after, the new initiates had packed up and proceeded on their way to the guild wings.
This left the rest of the Academy mages in sadness as they had to watch their peers move on to the next phase of their mage lives without them.
The new Initiate-ranked mages of Ravens Grave had started making their way toward their new place of stay.
One by one they walked into the guild’s main room only to see the members of the guild all standing and waiting with gleeful faces.
Captain Katherine stood tall in their midst, looking just as excited to receive her newest mages.
She gestured to the four of them approaching and said, "Members of Ravens Grave, please welcome the latest members of the guild and my newest darlings."
One by one, the other members of the guild approached and extended handshakes.
Kayden already started creating a bad impression by ignoring all of them and giving them stern looks, which made those approaching move aside.
When all the welcoming was done, Katherine continued, "Piers love, Elena darling, take our initiates to the rooms to keep their items, then everyone gather back here."
"Yes, Captain," Piers and Elena said in unison.
Then they gestured to the four of them to tag along.
The Ravens Guild wing was like any other in the academy.
They had a main guild room, which was like the living room; the grandest space in a guild’s wing. It had different seats and wooden tables at different corners.
To one corner of the guild’s room was a door leading into the guild captain’s chambers.
There was another corridor that led to a wooden staircase which led to the guild rooms above.
There were five rooms in total: three for men and two for women. Each room could house about five people, and their bed placements were practically the same as in the Academy’s wing.
Due to the lacking numbers of Ravens Grave, some of the rooms weren’t filled up or were outright empty.
Elena and Piers had taken the boys to their rooms.
Arianna and Laela undoubtedly chose to share space with Elena.
For the boys, it was a bit of a hassle. Piers began explaining to them, "So there are three rooms, two of which contain most of the guys.Then there’s the last room, sometimes I stay there or go sleep with the captain... sorry, sleep by the captain’s side..."
Piers had that awkward smile on his face as he scratched the back of his head, as if he hadn’t just said something strange.
Both Aiden and Kayden said nothing in reply, instead pretending like they didn’t hear what he said, and waited for him to continue.
"Ah yes, so where would you both want to stay? But I’ll give you a warning ahead of time..." Piers said, then pointed to one of the rooms. "This is the room Bernard stays in, so there are days you might have to deal with several... fart explosions."
Both Kayden and Aiden grimaced at that.
Piers continued, "This is the room where most of the guys stay. They do a lot of talking at night, especially about girls they would never be able to speak to. I’m sure you both would appreciate a quiet night’s sleep, eh?"
They both nodded in unison, something they could actually agree on.
"Good, which leaves you both with me then," Piers said with a smile on his face.
Kayden clicked his tongue in frustration, and Aiden rolled his eyes and sighed.
Piers looked at them with a confused expression; he was certain they were both going to like the last option. "Or would you prefer to stay in the other rooms then?"
Aiden replied quickly, "No, don’t worry, we’ll stay in your room," and started walking toward it.
"We? Don’t speak for me," Kayden said, even though he was following right behind Aiden.
"Shut up, kid," Aiden retorted.
The banter continued between them both as they entered the room.
"I wonder how constant that is," Piers said to himself.
Soon after, they had all returned from their rooms back to the guild’s main room where the captain and the others had been waiting.
Katherine continued, "Alright. There are a few things you all need to know. One: never leave on a mission without informing me. Two: as initiates, you never head out on a mission above D-rank alone. The last one and most important: always look out for each other."
There was a brief pause before she continued.
"Now for your roles, which one of you here is a decent cook?" Katherine asked.
Laela slowly raised her hand.
"You’re on kitchen duty with Bernard," Katherine said, and Laela nodded affirmatively.
She looked at the others with a contemplative expression. "I’ll decide the rest of your roles later."
She pointed to a notice board at the far corner of the room. It had several papers pinned to it. "Accustom yourselves with the mission board, that’s where we put up the mission requests assigned to the guild."
"Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, let’s get to the fun part! Bring them in, boys!" Katherine called out with an excited grin on her face.
Two boys rolled in a big barrel of ale into the room from the kitchen, and you could see the excited faces of the rest of the guild members, except for the initiates who looked like they were trying to grasp what was going on.
"Bernard! Rick! Are they ready?!" Katherine yelled, referring to the food they were going to eat.
"Just as you like them, Captain!" Bernard yelled from the kitchen.
"They are about to day drink and it’s barely noon," Arianna said to herself in shock.
Aiden, who stood close to her, overheard with his enhanced hearing, then lowered his head to whisper in her ear, "Well, you did say they were the best guild for us." Then chuckled afterwards
Arianna shook her head in disappointment.
Katherine gestured toward the four of them who still stood close to the corridor’s entrance to join up with the rest of the guild.
Soon after, everyone had a cup of ale with them. Some sat on the floor, some sat around tables.
The new initiates sat at the same table, with Katherine at the head of it and Piers to her right side.
Aiden had just taken a gulp of ale when a system screen appeared before him:
[Intoxicating Substance has been detected]
[Effect of Intoxication has been removed]
This was his Status Reset passive skill, and right now he found it inconvenient, so he spoke to the system with his thoughts: "There’s no point in drinking if it doesn’t get you drunk."
The system understood his plight and replied with new screens:
[Status Reset skill has been turned off for a maximum of three hours. It can be activated back any time the host wishes]
[Status Reset will automatically be activated if the life of host is under any threat]
[Status Reset will automatically be activated if Malice Perception Skill detects what it perceives to be a threat]
[Threat in this case will also include delicate questions asked by anyone hoping you answer under the effect of intoxication]
Aiden smiled and continued with the ale.
This was Ravens Grave, and they took any excuse to celebrate. One such excuse right now being that they had just welcomed new Initiates.