As Viktor was leaving, he gave Valar a few words of wisdom. “I’m pretty sure you’re already aware of this, but you kind of rushed through your studies at iron rank. I’m not exactly sure how much the additional spells available at iron rank would’ve helped you on your adventures, but I’m fairly sure that the information that you could have gotten from other courses could have proven useful. You’ve been here for only around two months, but don’t make that mistake this time around, okay? You’ve got time.”

  Walking out into the hallway, the onyx ranker repeated his words softly. “You’ve got time…”

  Regardless of the ominous parting words, his advice gave Valar some food for thought. Viktor was of course right; Valar had neglected his other studies in order to graduate faster. The effect of that negligence was further exasperated by his extremely fast way through iron rank, and now, he had to do some catching up.

  After he looked at the scroll Viktor had given him, of course.

  …

  Even though he had done research on spells through books, Valar had never interacted with a scroll. While the library’s bronze rank section included some of them, they were in the minority of available texts, so none had crossed his path just yet.

  Pulling the string holding the parchment in its rolled-up shape, Valar opened it and laid it flat on his desk. The cream-coloured parchment covered almost the whole surface, but that wasn’t the thing that caught Valar’s attention.

  There’s so much detail!

  The books that Valar had researched had included a description, general spellform and some tips and tricks for each spell included. Those details were plenty to learn the spell, although guides on learning specific runes could be found in different books. Some spells had more advice, especially if they were well-researched ones used by a large number of life mages in Leorian society. Examples of those spells were ones like Forest’s Aid or Restoration, the bronze rank version of Valar’s Lesser Restoration.

  Compared to their iron rank versions, the amount of details was immense, but they were still extremely compact packets of information. The increased complexity of runes and the spellforms design allowed for greater mana throughput and thus more powerful effects, in addition to opening possibilities to stranger effects like body enhancement.

  From the inspection Valar had done, the body enhancement spells were a fair bit more complex than regular healing spells, as their visualization included knowledge of the target’s body and the runes that took advantage of it. They would take a fair bit more time to learn than the healing spells, so he was saving those for last.

  That brought him to Edict: Restoration. When Valar had heard the name of the spell, he had naturally compared it to his own Lesser Restoration. Just based on naming, he had thought that the spell would be somewhat similar to the simple upgrade of his own spell. Oh, how wrong had he been...

  Both Edict: Restoration and Restoration were based on the bronze rank rune for life. That, and the restoration rune were the only things shared between the spells.

  A regular bronze rank spell consisted of around four or five runes, while more complex spells like Winter’s Bloom were made of ten, possibly eleven. Conversely to iron rank spells, these spells often consisted mostly out of wholly different runes unlike the two mends of a spell like Lesser Restoration.

  The structures themselves didn’t expand by leaps and bounds, but their contents did. While Lesser Restoration included one life, one tether and two mends, its bronze rank version was made up of life, link, restoration and soothe. Needless to say, these runes were also more complex than their iron rank counterparts.

  Edict: Restoration was made up of life, restoration, balance and edict. Valar recognized the first three from his studies in the library, but edict wasn’t included anywhere in the books that he had read during the past months. Has the nation’s leadership hidden an entire rune from the general populus? A spellform I would get, but a whole rune… I need to talk to Elaine or someone else who knows about these things later. Maybe Carla knows something? She mentioned knowing about forbidden stuff when we were in Lyndale.

  Regardless of the political and societal ramifications of the government possibly hiding an entire building block of spells from the majority of its mages, the spell itself was quite magnificent. Based on the highly detailed description, it utilized life mana at a frightening level of efficiency, commanding the healing effects to target the spots of the target’s body that were most out of balance. In layman’s terms, the spell managed to have targeted healing effects while retaining high efficiency—a feat that Valar hadn’t seen present in the publicly available options. At least it wasn’t the best kind of targeting—the one where the caster designated what they wanted to heal themselves.

  Aside from that major improvement, the spell was pretty much the same as Restoration in all the important ways. It was at least relatively easy to use, it retained efficiency and it was potent. In short, Edict: Restoration was great!

  And damn hard to learn!

  Sometimes learning wasn’t all about the complexity of the spell itself. Sure, the difficulty of the spellform and the needed precision could cause problems, but this time, it was about the runes themselves.

  Restoration was all good. The rune, while not simple, wasn’t that hard to learn. Life Valar already knew, and while balance was abnormal, he needed to learn it for the body enhancement spells anyway. Edict was a different case altogether.

  Frankly, it didn’t make sense. Valar couldn’t make head or tails of the rune, and no matter how much he looked at it-.

  Valar could hear a faint banging sound, but he ignored it. The rune was way more important than some silly sounds.

  But no matter how much he–.

  The following crash against the door of his dorm was akin to a behemoth ursa’s slam.

  What’s this now?

  Valar got up from his desk, trudging to his door. Opening it, he started, “Who is-.”

  “Happy birthday!”

  Valar looked on blankly as Zeke and Elizabeth shouted their congratulations from the hallway. “Wha… What? Happy… birthday?”

  He felt an uncomfortable lump forming in his throat. No matter how much he tried to swallow it down, it didn’t seem to want to budge.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  The pair stormed into his dorm, carrying two brightly coloured boxes with string wrapped around them into his living room.

  “We said Happy Birthday!” Zeke explained with a wide smile on his face. “When you came to the academy, you said that you were around thirteen and a half, right? We might be a bit late, but we’re here now!”

  “Yup!” Elizabeth raised her thumb, her smile almost as wide as Zeke’s. “But the exact day doesn’t really matter, does it? If you don’t know it anyway, we can just agree that today is your big day!”

  “My… big day?” Valar asked, gaping at the pair of young adults. In all honesty, he was completely out of his depth. There had been no birthday celebrations at the orphanage, nor did he remember any from before his parents’ deaths. “Are… those for me? The boxes?”

  “Of course they’re for you; they’re birthday presents, you silly,” Elizabeth giggled. “One is from us while the other is from your team, although the finish was done by Zeke’s father.”

  “Don’t spoil the surprise!” Zeke shushed the young fire mage. “Open them, Valar!”

  Not really knowing what to do, Valar picked up one of the boxes. He inspected it carefully. The paper looks expensive…

  He started pulling the strings, hesitant to make any forceful moves in case the paper ripped.

  “What’re you doing?” Zeke asked. “Just rip it open!”

  “This?” Valar’s eyes widened. “But then the paper would tear!”

  “It’s wrapping paper; you’re supposed to tear it!”

  “If you say so…”

  Still hesitant, he started ripping his present open. His friends grumbled under their breaths, forced to wait for Valar’s reaction, but they didn’t interrupt him.

  What was eventually revealed was a box made out of dark wood, inlaid with silver lettering. “Olgierd’s equipment for the well-prepared adventurer.”

  “You were a tough nut to crack when it came to presents,” Elizabeth said, smiling nervously. “You already have your necklace and a mage’s robe, and you really don’t have lots of interests outside of training, so we got you something that relates to adventuring. I hope you like them.”

  Nodding with an expression full of anxious glee, Valar opened the box with a click. “Oh, this… This is way too much!”

  Placed into cushions made of fine velvet were a pair of leather boots. Their colour was a shiny, polished black, and glimmering silver eyelets finished the look. The shoestrings were similarly black, and they looked like they wouldn’t be snapping anytime soon.

  “Well, do you like them?” Elizabeth’s tone was almost shy as she asked her question, and Zeke looked anxious as well.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Valar mumbled. He felt his eyes moistening and swiped at them with the sleeve of his robe. “I’ve never gotten birthday presents, but these look wonderful…”

  “Put them on already!” Zeke encouraged him. “I want to see if I got the fit right!”

  “If you got the fit right? Was the time you measured my feet for this?”

  “Yup! Now, put them on!”

  With careful hands, Valar pulled the boots from their velvet container. He inspected them carefully, then pulled one around his foot. The fit was perfect, and the boot felt more like a second skin than normal footwear. He pulled the second boot on, tying his laces before getting up.

  As he put the boots on, Zeke spoke. “The shop where we bought the boots from is in the merchant’s district, near its center. Apparently, they have some magic stuff to make them bigger once the boots don’t fit you anymore, but I’d recommend doing that sparingly. It’s probably expensive…”

  “Thank you…” he started, looking up at Elizabeth’s and Zeke’s eyes. “Really, I don’t know how I can repay this. These are absolutely perfect!”

  The red-haired fire mage giggled again, and Zeke let out a relieved sigh. “There’s no repaying to be done, Valar. It doesn’t work like that between friends.”

  “Oh… Still, thank you to you both!”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Elizabeth grinned. “You still have another birthday present to open, and this one is from your team.”

  Valar’s eyes flashed to the second present. “How did you coordinate this? I find it hard to believe that they just sent a present randomly.”

  “First of all, that’s a bit rude to your teammates,” Zeke coughed. “But yes, it wasn’t a coincidence. Once you started sending letters to them, I started doing the same. Needless to say, they liked the idea of celebrating your birthday, even if they couldn’t be here with you right now. Now open your present, gods damnit!”

  Doing as he was asked, Valar started unwrapping his second present. This one was a little smaller, and the wooden box that was revealed wasn’t as polished or luxurious. The light wood was by no means rough, but it looked more homemade. It had no hinges either, as it was closed by a strap of leather instead. A small message had been carved on top, its letters a bit rough but perfectly legible.

  Happy birthday, Valar! We hope that you like the small gift within, but let’s hope that you won’t need it soon!

  PS. Ciel has volunteered to give you some lessons once you get to Kilras.

  “Lessons… What’s this?” he muttered to himself, opening the leather wrapping. He slid the box open carefully, and a soft gasp escaped his mouth.

  In the box lay a knife, its blade protected a rustic leather sheath. While Valar couldn’t see the blade just yet, the handle was made of some kind of grey horn, carved into a shape that fit his hand perfectly. He picked it up carefully, sliding it out of its sheath.

  The knife was of simple make. Its blade was a bit longer than the handle and ended in a sharp tip. The metal was polished steel, glimmering with a silver sheen in the light of Valar’s dorm’s magical lamp. It looked sharp too, although the edge wasn’t particularly thin. The maker had clearly preferred to make something robust and reliable instead of a flimsy blade that cut once and broke at the slightest resistance.

  “From what I hear, that was actually made by one of your teammates,” Zeke commented, scrutinizing the knife with Valar. “My father only sharpened it, as he thought that it would be better that way. He even said that he liked the blade, and trust me, that’s big praise coming from my old man.”

  “Ciel made this? I didn’t know she was a smith.” Valar muttered, feeling his eyes moisten once again. “I’ll need to send them a letter with my thanks today!”

  “Slow down,” Elizabeth grinned. “It’s already past office hours, and we’re taking you to eat at the Iron Owl right now!”

  “Past office hours?”

  Valar’s head whipped to his windows, and his mouth fell agape. “I started studying early in the morning… How is this possible?”

  His friends chuckled. Zeke piped up, moving towards his desk with an interested look. “Lost track of time? Did you study something interesting?”

  Panic flashed through Valar’s mind. I’m not supposed to show the scroll to anyone else! He scurried to his desk, rolling the scroll quickly and putting it into a drawer. He practically slammed the drawer shut, breathing out a sigh of relief. “You didn’t see too much, right? I was told I wasn’t supposed to share it!”

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t see anything before you started panicking,” Zeke commented. “What about you, Elizabeth?”

  “Nope, I saw the title and looked away,” she shook her head. “You got access to one of the edict spells? Impressive.”

  “Wait, you know of them?”

  “Basically every noble knows of them,” she explained. “We just don’t know how to cast them. It’s kind of rare to receive one at bronze rank, but it isn’t too peculiar. Lindon knew the edict spell for fire magic…”

  Silence filled the room, swiftly broken by Elizabeth once she noticed it. “Cheer up, it’s your birthday! Now, are you ready to leave for the restaurant?”

  “Sure!”

  …

  The Iron Owl was packed full, but surprisingly enough, that wasn’t a problem. Being the noble that she was, Elizabeth had thought ahead and reserved a table for the trio. Sadie was their server, and she even brought him a small cake—the same as when he had graduated from his iron rank studies—free of charge. They ate, talked, laughed and had a genuinely great time together.

  Sebastian, the owner of the restaurant, unfortunately couldn’t come to congratulate Valar, as he was on a work trip to Kilras. Sadie and the other members of staff were more than enough for him, however.

  When they got back to the academy, ready to split up for the night, Valar did a thing that he didn’t tend to do often. He dragged both of his friends in for a crushing hug. “Thank you so much! This was an amazing surprise!”

  “You're welcome, your're welcome,” Zeke wheezed. “Now let me go, you bronze ranker! You’re crushing me!”

  “Same from here!” Elizabeth whined. “I’m glad you’re happy, but please release us!”

  He released them both, smiling up at the pair. “Really, thank you. This was a wonderful evening, and your present was amazing. I… don’t have any prior birthdays I could compare this to, but I’m pretty sure that this would take the top spot even if I had.”

  “We’re glad you had fun,” Zeke said. “One more time: Happy birthday, Valar!”

  When he finally returned to his dorm late in the evening, Valar’s smile was practically fixed on his face. He brushed his teeth while smiling, he got undressed while smiling—leaving his shoes on—he got under the covers while smiling and he fell asleep while smiling.

  All while holding his new sheathed knife in his left hand.

  That night, he slept like a log. There were no pains from his soul, nor were there nightmares.

  His birthday had been a blast!