Speechless, Greyson did not respond for a moment. It was definitely not the request that he was expecting right away, however, his fighting spirit was definitely evoked. At this point, most advanced level magicians are no longer much of a challenge, so Greyson focused on finding magister level stage one magicians. When Yvette and Lucas spoke of their genius cousin, Greyson already thought then that he would like to fight him."... Alright." After a moment"s hesitation, Greyson"s eyes became determined and nodded seriously.
"Hahaha, a real man! Great! I can tell we will get along great!" Laughing heartily, the young man slapped Greyson"s shoulder repeatedly. Wincing, Greyson could not help but feel exhausted by this person"s enthusiasm. "I am Elon Greentree! What"s your name?" Finally backing away to a comfortable distance, the young master held out his hand.
"h.e.l.lo, Elon. My name is Greyson." Smiling lightly, Greyson introduced himself while reaching out to shake Elon"s hand. Only, right before he could grab Elon"s hand, a loud slap rang out.
"Ouch! Dad! What are you doing?!" Rubbing the back of his head while looking wronged, Elon turned around to complain to his dad. Greyson looked up in surprise to realize that the middle-aged man from earlier was already behind Elon. His expression was part embarra.s.sed, part angry. Looking at his son, he just let out a long sigh before walking back to the middle seat while rubbing his temples in frustration.
"I"m sorry for that, Greyson. Who knows what possessed my perfectly normal son these days, but all he does is run around challenging people. The complaints that come to our door are not few in number. You don"t have to indulge him."
"No way! He already agreed! Greyson you can"t back out now, or you are not a man!" Glaring at his father, he quickly turned to Greyson and shouted back.
"Fool! All you ever do is throw your father"s face! Leave, do not speak of challenges again." Waving his hand to dismiss his son, the head of the family glanced over to see his wife giggling. Furrowing his brows, he could not help but complain.
"This is all your fault, you know. You always indulge his behavior..." He wanted to continue, but after seeing his even-tempered wife suddenly coldly glared at him, he could not let out another peep.
"Hm? What were you saying?" She spoke out sweetly.
"Me? Was I saying something? Probably that I still cannot believe how lucky I am to marry such a wonderful woman." Sweating slightly, a lonely father could only give in. Greyson could not help but chuckle looking at such a scene. Even Elon puffed out his chest as if he just won something and walked back up to the chairs to sit next to his father once again. At this moment, the three of them returned to their earlier regal aura, but all Greyson could see was the earlier scene.
"Well, sir, I don"t mind getting challenged. I have been meaning to look for some opponents who could challenge me, as well. Hearing of your son"s prestigious talent, I have been looking forward to meeting him and trying out my abilities against him." Coughing a little to clear the air, Greyson spoke his own honest thoughts. Although he acted harshly to his son, hearing Greyson"s words, the head could not resist a proud smiling spreading across his face.
"Hm, well, if that"s what you want then we can arrange a match between you guys tomorrow. I just invited you today to thank you for lending a hand to rescue my niece and nephew. They lack in a lot of things, but this uncle of theirs still cares nonetheless for their safety." Smiling warmly, Elon"s father stood and bowed a little before sighing and speaking his last sentence. Just from this, Greyson held him in higher esteem. Even their own father did not care for the siblings or sincerely thank Greyson for saving their lives, but their uncle bowed his head for their sake.
"You are too polite. I must say that saving them was not a spur of the moment kind act. I, of course, had my hopes for certain remuneration." Slightly embarra.s.sed due to such heavy thanks, Greyson spoke out honestly. He would be lying if he stood here and claimed that he saved the siblings out of the goodness of his heart. He only saw their background as a way to solve his current issue. However, the head"s smile only deepened hearing Greyson"s words while appreciation filled his eyes. Such a young boy, but clearly had the correct att.i.tude. Most people who helped those in their family would come here with fake auras of saints while asking for more favors in the dark.
"While this may be true. No matter your reason, you still helped nonetheless, so you should receive your expected reward." Snapping his fingers, a servant came out from behind the door carrying two things. One was a paper of identification while the other was a beautifully carved wooden tree token. Eyes lighting up, Greyson quickly received these things with thanks.
"Both of these should allow you to get anywhere you want to go in any outer countries and foreign empires. However, if you want to enter an inner country, that permit is not enough."
"This is more than enough. Thank you!" Not bothering to pay attention to his words, Greyson quickly thanked the head for providing him these things. He was not going to the inner countries anyways so that was not a worry for him. As long as the permit and identification could get him to the Beast Empire, the rest did not matter.
"Good! Now that everything is settled, we should speak about our fight!" Not wanting to wait another second, Elon sprung up from his chair and began question Greyson.
"I am fine with whenever and wherever you believe is appropriate." Shrugging his shoulders, Greyson"s tone was noncommittal.
"Hahaha, perfect! I know exactly the place. There is a large battle stage in our estate where our family members constantly duel one another. Let us meet there tomorrow at noon!" Ecstatic by Greyson"s easygoing nature, Elon could not hold in his excitement.
"Alright, I will meet you there tomorrow."
"It"s a deal then, Grey! You cannot forget!"
"..." Forget? Greyson did not know whether he should get angry or not. How could he possible forget something in just a day? And, Grey? Since when were they that close? Not knowing how to respond to such overzealous reactions, Greyson could only awkwardly smile while nodding his a.s.sent before quickly leaving the room. Exhaling, he felt relieved to get out of that situation. Although he could easily tell that Elon meant no harm, he could not get used to such a hyper character. Most of his close friends were all calm and even-keeled like Lyle and Ronan.
"Oh well, thankfully they kept their promise, so I just have to fight with Elon tomorrow and then head out. I have wasted too much time in the dungeon." After finding out how much time he had until he was fourteen, Greyson started to feel more pressure. When Sweetbow informed him of the apparent records for the youngest to become a magister, Greyson could feel an ambition form to break them whether it was the human record or the other races" records.
...
Early the next day, Greyson got up and went outside to meditate. The closer he traveled to the Beast Empire, the more the weather became agreeable. Living his entire life in the Snow Country, Greyson had to adjust to seeing green and bountiful life around him. Although snow and ice were beautiful and pristine in their own way, other countries had an inexplicable vibrancy that his home lacked. A warm breeze that brought the smell of flowers and greenery or the comfortable morning dew on the gra.s.s that felt refres.h.i.+ng as he laid down. Inspired by the comfortable weather, he decided to pull out Mesmer. Closing his eyes, a pleasant brown aura surrounded his body as he brought the flute to his lips. Going with the flow, a new song brought itself to life. All the servants slowly walked towards the irresistible music and felt shocked to see the bountiful plant life that suddenly grew around Greyson. Flowers and trees bloomed while the gra.s.s seemed to wave with the sounds.
This was one of Greyson"s largest improvements during his five years in the Idris Kingdom. A lot of magicians cast spells in two different categories. There were some who also liked to fight and they used their favored weapons as a way to cast their spells. A lot of people with weaker magic talent would choose this way so they could gain reputation and position in their kingdom or empire through war. While others preferred less-physical aspects and used some form of conduit for their magic. The size and type of forms were innumerable. A relative few were like Greyson and chose to split their attention. Usually, they still leaned more one way than the other. Enjoying the thrill of a great battle, Greyson leaned towards learning to actually fight with magic weapons. However, he upgraded Mesmer after learning new information from the Music a.s.sociation at Idris. Not only wind magic, but also any element could be cast through his flute. Playing music could speed up his normal meditation and attract element spirits faster. The only downside is that usually he could only meditate one element at a faster speed at a time. He learned some support spells during his free time, but those would only be effective in a group and when he took the backseat to the fighting. They had their definite uses; however, he did not want to stay behind the others so his music became more of a meditation augmenter than his main style of fighting.
Feeling the higher density of earth elements, all of the servants looked at each other warily before they sat down and began meditating. If Greyson were watching, he would be surprised to see that even the servants of the Greentree family were of the earth element. Ecstatic, the servants could feel their mana growing at a faster rate than normal. Awe-filled eyes all turned towards the young teen in the middle of this change. This group meditation continued until noon. Not breaking his concentration, Greyson continued sitting in that same spot. If not for a brave servant approaching him slowly, he would not have awoken and realized that the appointed time was approaching. All sounds of music stopped the moment his calm blue eyes opened once more. After speaking with Eden, Greyson realized that his irises changing color signified something that he was still unaware of. Therefore, for the sake of precaution, he started splitting his concentration to make sure his disguise spell kept his eyes the same color. Only in challenging circ.u.mstances would he be unable to control the change.
Feeling the mana density return to normal, the rest of the servants also ended their meditation with a small sigh. While Greyson could always enjoy this type of feeling, they felt it was a shame that their time was too short. His eyes focusing again, Greyson looked around with confusion to see so many others sitting around him. Realization dawned on his face once he saw that they were all meditating. Smiling and nodding in greeting to them, he then looked up at the servant that broke his meditation. Getting up, he followed the servant through the estate until he reached a large stage with seating all around. He was slightly dumbfounded by the sheer size of the stage and the amount of people who came to watch this fight. Almost all the seating was filled while the audience chattered with excitement. Noticing Greyson"s confusion, the servant leading him spoke up.
"Every fight is advertised throughout the family and even the city depending on the people fighting. Our young master is the most talented magician in the younger generation, thus the amount of people who come to watch his fights are usually high. Some want to just see exciting fights while others want to try to find our young master"s weaknesses."
"Ahh." Nodding his head, Greyson now understood the enthusiastic response. Looking up at the stage, he could see the same green hair and green eyes of yesterday staring back at him. Elegantly smiling and waving towards the crowd, Greyson could hear the screams of fans in the audience. His mouth twitching, he almost did not recognize the person in front of him. Where was the eager, fight-fanatic of yesterday? Making his way to the stairway on the opposite side of the stage, he could feel the eyes following his movements. The loud audience slowly quieted down into an eerie silence as their eyes all fell on this new opponent. Most eyes held curiosity towards this stranger, while some held slight disdain towards what they felt was an ignorant newcomer. Over the years, many people built up a strong confidence towards this talented young master of the Greentree family. Countless battles occurred on this same stage and they all ended with similar results. Ever since he became a magister level magician, the amount of people who accepted Elon"s challenges dramatically decreased. Although they were not sure of this new opponent"s specific level, looking at his age, they knew he could not yet be a magister level magician. Therefore, they thought that he was just another arrogant young master who wanted to challenge Elon after hearing of his reputation.