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CHAPTER START---
"Will you be alright to ride the train?" Oberon asks as he follows Laxus to find some empty seats on the train.
Both boys were dressed and had their cards in their pockets, while Laxus already had his headphones around his neck, connected to a small device attached to his belt.
"Music helps," Laxus says as they find a set of empty seats.
He takes a seat on one side, while Oberon sits opposite him. "Right, just, if you decide to throw up, do it away from me, like out the window."
"I'll try to remember that," Laxus says as he opens the small device attached to his belt and selects which Data Lacrima he wants to play music from.
Oberon sits by the window and looks at the few people on the train station platform, "We barely got here in time, if we finish fast enough we should be able to get the last train back to Magnolia."
"That's the plan," Laxus says as the train starts moving, and he immediately puts his headphones on. "Hey, I know you want to talk about the Magic stuff Gramps' asked me to explain to you, but I really can't when this thing is moving."
"It's fine," Oberon takes out one of his cards and withdraws a Grimoire from it. "This ride is just an hour away so I'll get some studying done."
"Tch, nerd," Laxus mutters as his motion sickness takes full effect.
After a few minutes, Laxus lays across his seat, doing his best to suppress the feeling of his stomach constantly flipping, while Oberon is busy writing in his journal.
Oberon reads the Light Magic Grimoire, glancing between it and his personal journal.
'Master Makarov seemed impressed that I altered the structure of the Light Barrier earlier, that must mean I'm doing something right, but why was that so impressive?' Oberon wonders, almost losing himself in thought before looking around the train car, seeing it's empty.
Oberon makes a small translucent sphere of Light Magic in his hand, like an empty glass ball.
He looks at it, pondering the orb.
'Light Barrier is a basic Light Magic Spell. It's the first step in the Light Magic Construct line of Spells.But why is changing it such a big deal?' He waves his ahnd, trying to get the orb to change shape, and nothing happens.
Oberon's eyes wide, 'Recreating the effect isn't easy, but I did it on a whim earlier...'
He dispels the Magic and delves back into the journals.
Eventually, Oberon has three of Makarov's Light Magic Grimoires hovering in front of him as he takes notes in his own journal.
'So the basic Spell formation process is... Ethernano in the atmosphere is absorbed by Mages, then the energy within the body and energy of the natural world are synchronized -which allows Mages to focus the Ethernano, which has already been metabolized into Magic Energy within them into spells. Spells are guided by the soul, structured by the mind, and regulated by emotions.
Mages with deeper feelings...bonds, can use their emotions to regulate their Magic. So Magic is limited by the instinctual barriers existing within all living things, but extreme emotions can temporarily push past them.'
Oberon pinches the bridge of his nose, trying to organize his thoughts.
"Ok, so that means: '(Magic Energy + Focus or Visualization) X Emotional State = Magic'," he writes the formula in his book.
'But since Magic isn't actually placed into writing by the natural world, then what we call 'Runes', are simply a way for our minds to more easily understand and pass on our understanding of Magic itself, so 'Runes' exists to skip steps. Ok, I'm getting this now.'
Oberon studies diligently, eventually coming to a conclusion.
'So he was impressed because I cast a Spell within a Spell,' Oberon thinks. 'Light Barrier's formula is meant to be solid and immutable, but I was able to change the Formula after casting it, without having to Dispel it.'
Oberon creates another small Light Barrier in his hands, this time visualizing the formula as a complex mathematical equation.
Then he visualizes the variables of the formula changing.
And the Light Barrier in his hand becomes a small rod, the size of a pencil.
'Wow,' Oberon twirls it around his fingers. 'So if I have a proper understanding of Magic, and I can map out the formula, then I should be able to use or solve them, but this Formula still needs a lot of work.'
Oberon waves his hand and over a hundred lines of complex math, runes, and symbols appear as golden light, hanging in the air.
'This doesn't even apply to Gravity Magic in its current form, it needs a lot of work,' he sighs and Dispels the Light Magic.
Oberon packs away some of his books and leans back in his seat, looking out the window, enjoying the view of the landscape changing as the train rushes over the land.
'To think I almost spent my entire life on one little mountain,' Oberon smiles as he appreciates how large the world is.
While looking at the landscape, he casually creates the Light Barrier sphere in his hand, then transforms it into the rod, and while twirling it with his fingers he constantly changes the shape.
Not even looking at it, only focused on the Formula in his mind.
'I can do this now, after spending over an hour working on it, but I never would have discovered it without fighting Laxus,' he glances at Laxus who was lying on the seat opposite him. 'Some Wizards can only discover their true potential in battle,' he recalls Gildarts' words.
"So in battle, or more accurately, in times of high stress, high emotions, if one remains focused, we can make Magic bloom..."
"Are you done muttering to yourself?" Laxus asks as he sits up. "We're arriving at the station now."
"How do you know that?" Oberon asks as Laxus takes off his headphones and stores them in his Magic Card.
"I just do," Laxus says as Oberon packs away his books.
A moment later the train's announcement system activates, "All passengers, we will be arriving at the Onibus Station within 3 minutes, please be ready to disembark if this is your stop."
The announcement repeats itself a few more times as both boys are sitting, waiting to leave the train.
The moment the train stops Laxus rushes onto the train station platform, happy to have his feet on solid ground once more.
"Thanks for not making a mess in there," Oberon says, jokingly, as he walks beside Laxus. "Now, where are we going?"
"I've been to the place before," Laxus says. "It's a farm at the eastern edge of town, shouldn't take us more than twenty minutes to walk there."
Laxus looks to his side, seeing Oberon looking around in amazement at the town, much like Magnolia but much more densely packed.
"Are you even paying attention?"
"Huh, yeah, farm, edge of town, right?"
Laxus rolls his eyes, "Just don't get separated from me and we'll be fine. And if we do get separated, just fly above the town and head to the train station, I'll meet you there."
"Got it," Oberon says. "So, does this town have a Magic Shop?"
"Nah, this place doesn't even have a Guild. They barely ever need Wizards here since a lot of Fiore's grain comes from around here, so the Royal Knights patrol a lot."
"So Dark Guilds stay away huh, sounds like a nice place to live."
"If a painfully boring life is what you want," Laxus says. "But at least it means all the job requests they have come to Fairy Tail."
"So a new Guild won't move in because it has to compete with Fairy Tail, right?"
"Well, it's a bit more than that," Laxus says. "Yeah, Guilds compete for the same jobs a lot, which is why you rarely have towns with more than one Guild, unless it's a big place. But Guilds also have to pay up to the town that's hosting them."
"Why would a Guild pay the town, don't Guilds protect people from Dark Guilds?"
"Yeah, but Guilds also invite the town or city they're in to become a warzone. They attack each other all the time and the townspeople suffer a lot when that happens, that's why the Magic Council Ishgar Branch is considering banning inter-guild conflicts like that, in exchange for removing the part about paying the towns."
"That sounds fair," Oberon nods as he follows Laxus toward the edge of town.
"Yeah, to you, but lots of Guilds hate each other and are just looking for an excuse to fight, plus the council has been adding a lot of laws lately, so adding one this big will piss off a lot of people."
"You know a lot about this politics stuff, that's pretty cool," Oberon says. "So does Fairy Tail have any enemies out there?"
"Yeah well, my Grandpa is a Wizard Saint, and a Guild Master, so I kind of have to know this stuff," Laxus says. "And as for enemies, probably Phantom Lord, they have way more members than us, and their Guild Master is a Wizard Saint just like Gramps', they've hated Fairy Tail since before Grandpa was even born."
"Oh right, that reminds me, I wanted to ask about that when we got off the train, the Wizard ranks stuff Master Makarov mentioned, he said you'd explain."
"Oh, yeah that stuff is pretty simple honestly. There are a few ranks, and they each come with some nice benefits, depending on how you want to use it.
Unaffiliated Mages are people who use Magic but don't belong to a Guild of any type. This is just a guy watering his plants with a Water Magic Ring, or a lady using Telekinesis to reach something on a high shelf, usually that kind of thing.
But it can also apply to some strong people too, because not all strong mages belong to a Guild."
"So like me before I joined Fairy Tail."
"Exactly, but when you joined you became a Guild Wizard, being part of an official Guild means you have to follow the laws of the Magic Council, and the local laws of the country you're operating in, which is currently Fiore."
"And when we take jobs in other countries we obey their laws, ok that makes sense, Ishgar is a pretty huge continent after all. But Fiore is the strongest country with the best Wizards on it, so I doubt I'll be leaving here much."
"I figured you'd want to see all of Ishgar."
"I'm only interested in where the Magic is," Oberon shrugs. "What's next?"
"Well, Dark Wizards and Dark Guilds are like us, but they aren't connected to the Magic Council or local governments. They can use forbidden Magics, and take jobs that are illegal, like international war contracts. That's basically like if someone hired Fairy Tail to destroy a neighboring country."
"But assassination jobs are legal, right?"
"Yeah, once the target isn't a politician, noble, or working for the Magic Council," Laxus says. "But Gramps' says they'll be outlawing those kinds of contracts soon, won't matter to us either way since Fairy Tail doesn't take those jobs."
"Well that's a relief," Oberon says in obvious disgust. "Using Magic just to kill people, something must be wrong with those people..."
"Definitely," Laxus says. "But yeah, above the regular Wizards are the S-Class Wizards, and Guild Masters."
"Like Gildarts and Master Makarov."
"Yeah, but it's a bit more complicated. See the Guildmaster runs the Guild and isn't eligible for taking on official Jobs, that's why the strongest Wizard eligible for official Jobs is called the 'Ace' of the Guild, for us, that's Gildarts."
"So Master Makarov can't go on Jobs, otherwise he'd be the Master and Ace."
"Yup, my Grandpa' is just awesome like that," Laxus says. "But not every Guild has S-Class Wizards, which isn't just about power. See S-Class Wizards get access to S-Class Jobs, they're super dangerous but pay a lot, Gramps let me see some of the completed ones Gildarts did before, they looked awesome."
"Really, S-Class Jobs huh, I didn't see any of those on the Job Board."
"That's because they're on the second floor Job Board, which is off limits for regular members aside from going to Grandpa's office. But yeah only S-Class Wizards can take those. And the Guildmaster gets to select who is S-Class and sends the Magic Council their name to inform them when the promotion happens.
This doesn't really do anything but let the Magic Council keep track of how strong the Guilds are, and keep an eye out for talented Wizards. Becoming S-Class is mostly to help the Guild itself by attracting more work."
"Then why does Fairy Tail only have one S-Class Wizards?"
"That's because Fairy Tail is pretty famous for having stronger S-Class Wizards than any other Guild. To Join the Guild all you need to do is basically ask Grandpa and he'll let you in, but he's a lot harder on people wanting to be S-Class.
A few of our members who failed the S-Class Promotion Trial before, moved to other Guilds and became their Aces, so we've got a reputation for having a lot higher standards than other Guilds."
"No wonder Gildarts is so strong," Oberon says. "And S-Class Wizards probably get more access to information about Magics, right?"
"Oh definitely, and a lot of important Wizards will be more willing to talk to you, but for most people it's just about the money and fame," Laxus shrugs. "Gildarts mostly uses the fame to get Jobs in countries that are hard to get into, he likes to travel after all."
"Yeah he told me he wants to see as much of the world as possible," Oberon says.
"Anyway, above S-Class Jobs are special jobs called quests."
"There are things above S-Class huh, must be really damn hard."
"Oh yeah," Laxus says as they leave the outer wall of the town and walk through farmlands. "The first is called a Decade Quest, that's basically a hard Job that hasn't been completed even after it's been posted for ten years."
"What the hell kind of Job is that, doesn't it cost money to post a Job in a guild, what kind of Job is that hard, and who can afford to even post if?"
"Gildarts did one a few months ago actually. A kingdom wanted a demon that took over one of their castles gone, so he went over there and killed it...but he didn't get paid since he destroyed most of the castle accidentally."
"What a waste of time," Oberon says.
"Yeah, but above those are the Century Quests, or the 100 Year Quests," Laxus says.
"My god, what the hell is that even about?"
"Honestly I have no idea," Laxus says. "Fairy Tail wasn't actually that famous until a few years ago, Gildarts was the first person to even finish a 100 Year Quest, the news brought a lot of Jobs and new people to the Guild."
"He really didn't say what it was about?"
"No, but the client notified the council and Guilds that he's the one who finished it, all we know is that it was in Enca."
"That's almost the other side of the continent," Oberon rubs the back of his head. "What the hell could go unfinished for 100 years?"
"I dunno, but Gramps says there are more 100 Year Quests than we'd think, but they're so dangerous and scary that the people who request them are usually kingdoms and governments, so they don't want the public to know, and if they ever announce it, then that's not until they're completed."
"Like if the castle was built on top of some giant monster and they've been trying to find someone to kill it," Oberon imagines it clearly, a dragon locked in the basement of a castle. "Yeah, that makes sense, did they make him sign a Magic Contract so he can't tell anyone about it?"
"Yeah," Laxus says. "When Gildarts finished that Quest they actually considered making him a Wizard Saint, but there can't be two Wizard Saints in the same Guild."
"Why not?" Oberon asks.
"Because, that would cause too much power to be on one side," Laxus says. "Wizard Saints like my Grandpa aren't just powerful, they're respected figures because of their strength, and they're also willing to work with the Magic Council to maintain the balance of the Magical World.
But the title also means whatever Guild they're a part of will get a lot more attention, Jobs, and recruits. Not to mention if the Magic Council needs the Wizard Saint to vote on something, having two members of the same Guild in the vote can mess things up."
"So they made it a rule that a Guild can't have two huh, so Master Makarov would have had to step down as Wizard Saint?"
"Well Gildarts hated the idea of working so closely with the Magic Council, and not being able to go on his adventures, so that was never really going to happen," Laxus says. "But it's not really a rule or law, just a kind of understanding they all have, since a Wizard Saint or the Magic Council has to recommend someone to be a Wizard Saint, and nobody will want their competition to get a second Wizard Saint in their ranks."
"I see," Oberon thinks over everything he just learned, then smiles. "Ok, I've made a decision."
"Huh," Laxus glances over at him and his goofy smile. "What decision?"
"I'm gonna complete a 100 Year Quest," Oberon says, confidently.
"You just decided that? Just like that?"
"Yup," Oberon says. "My plan was to become a Wizard Saint, but even if I do become super strong, the only way that will happen is if I take Master Makarov's spot, and I don't think he'll be retiring anytime soon. So the best way to get access to the information and people they have, is to simply be acknowledged as someone on their level.
The alternative would be asking Master Makarov to get information and arrange meetings for me, but that can only take me so far since I doubt they let him bring certain super top-secret advanced Magic Grimoires to the Guild."
"And he's under a Magic Contract that will let them know if he blabs about confidential things," Laxus says.
"Oh yeah, how does that work anyway?"
"Body Link Magic, if you break the contract they will know and it will be void," Laxus says, casually. "Some of the really powerful Dark Guilds make contracts with members that if you betray the Guild you instantly die, or maybe just get sick, stuff like that."
"Remind me never to break one of those," Oberon says as they turn and begin walking down the long walkway to a large farmhouse.
"Well I'm sure after you break the first one you won't repeat that mistake," Laxus says as they approach and he knocks on the door. "Mister Boyd, it's Laxus Dreyar of Fairy Tail! We're here to help you!"
END CHAPTER---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]