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"You want to what?" asked Jakra, surprised that Moon had offered her what she thought he said. "You want to...." she trailed off.

"I want to hire you as my official body guard." Moon said matter of factly. "You've been loyal and a good companion for the past 6 years now, I think you've earned yourself a paying job." He explained with a smile, spreading his arms out to the sides as he sat in a plush chair across from the otter woman.

"You realize that slaves don't earn-" Jakra began to correct him, but he held up a paw and she silenced herself as the wolf stood up and crossed over to her. Without a word, he unfastened the slave collar from around her neck and cast it away on the floor.

"Then you won't be my slave, you'll be my employee." He said, smiling down at her, "If you want the job that is." He added. Jakra was surprised when she felt the collar removed from her neck. Ever since she could remember, she had been ordered to leave it on at all possible times, and now, just like that, it had been cast aside like trash.

She quickly stood up, crossed her paws and bowed to him, "I would be honored to be your body guard." She accepted, and with that, Moon offered his paw and the two of them shook on it. No longer a slave, Jakra had been elevated to servant status, complete with her freedom, and a paying wage.

It had now been 6 years since Moon came to the mage academy to study under Valo's instructions. He had only mildly changed from 3 years ago, aside from his physical appearance. He was now grown to 6'0 tall, weighing 185 lbs, and he had ditched his bland, apprentice robes for an outfit more appealing to someone of his caliber. He wore a navy blue suit, complete with white trims. It considered of a blue overcoat, white undershirt, blue pants, and brown boots. Strapped to his right hip was an extremely well crafted and beautiful sword.

The sword itself had a sunny, golden handle with a spiraling hand guard, and a sun shaped pommel. The blade of the weapon was forged of stainless silver, and reflected light that shown off it, giving the blade a shimmering effect. But this 3 foot long blade was not merely for display, he had been training with it and using it to focus his magic. It was a fully functional weapon.

Jakra had matured as well, and by now, she was a full grown adult. Standing at 4'6, weighing 100 lbs, she was no longer the timid female she was before, she had matured into a powerfully built, aquatic predator with strong legs and graceful arms. Of course, the aquatic theme was a bit off, given her new outfit. The design was the same as her original slave outfit, except the colors had been swapped. It was now a mixture of heated red, bright yellow, and deep orange, giving the outfit a flaming design to it. Strapped to her hips were two daggers with curving blades, and golden handles. Her combat training having continued to be honed over the years.

Six years, that was the standard amount of training all apprenticed underwent before they were promoted to Journeyman status and allowed to leave the academy on their own. There was only one final test he needed to complete and he would be home free. He needed to show to the examiners all the spells he had learned since coming here. According to his count, that was six spells in total, he was rather impressed with himself, learning one spell a year, he thought it would take much longer, but magic wasn't as difficult to harness as he thought, once the got the hang of it.

"Go on, lets see you ace that test." Jakra encouraged him, "You don't want Gelnon to rub it in your face if he passes before you do." She added. Moon chuckled at that before opening the door and moving out to the training fields, where the exam was to be held. By the time they arrived, sure enough, Gelnon was already in the process of finishing off his test with his final spell.

Gelnon stood in a cluster of bodies, clearly dead ones as he held a paw in the air and began to move it, tracing a pentagram star in the air. When he was finished, a circle of magic appeared in a 5 foot radius around him, and the corpses inside groaned to life and began dragging themselves into a standing position. Blank looks on their faces, mouths agape, eyes deadened, as they awaited their master's commands.

"Four Zombies at the same time!" Gelnon gloated, "How's that for a final exam?" He added, crossing his arms in triumph. The examiner looked the bodies over for a moment, holding their nose before nodding and beginning to scribble something on a piece of parchment before handing it to the lion.

"Congratulations, Gelnon, you are officially a Journeyman!" The examiner said, as it was met with cheers of congratulations from the other students. Moon noticed that like him, Gelnon had also undergone some mild physical changes.

He now stood at 6'3 in height, weighing an estimated 200 lbs of muscle, although it was difficult to tell, considering he was wearing ARMOR, rather than the standard robes. Gelnon had decided to increase his strength by trading out his light and flexible robes, for a suit of heavy plate mail. Where he managed to get his paws on a suit of armor in a mage academy was anybody's guess, and that axe strapped to his back only added to the weight. Moon was left wondering how he could possibly use any complicated gestures while wearing it. His mane had grown in fully now, encircling from his scalp, to his chin in a bushy tuft of fur.

"Next, we have Moon Solar Sword! Please step forward!" The examiner called out, and Jakra gave him a good luck pat on the back as he stepped up. Moon wondered how he could have been chosen so quickly after arrival, but as he looked around, he noticed most of the students gathered around were actually still apprentices who had just come to see the show.

"Oh look, the rich doggy's going to try to pass." Gelnon teased as they walked past each other, the undead accompanying him. Moon shrugged it off as he approached the examiner and noticed it was a female, and sheep dressed in a hooded, white robe, holding a stack of parchment and a writing quil, adjusting a pair of glasses on her face.

"Your test is the same as the others. You must display the six spells you have learned since your time training here." She explained, "We have prepared all the gear you will need to accomplish this." She said before signalling to the other students to step back, which they did. "You may begin in any order you wish." She told him, stepping further away from him.

Moon unsheathed his sword slowly as he tried to think of what to use first. He decided to get the easy ones out of the way and began to focus power into his blade as he drew it back for a thrusting position. After his blade was glowing brightly, he released his Sun Beam spell and fired the beam of energy across the room.

After that, he held his sword above his head, deciding something a little more flashy was in order, as he created his Setting Sun spell, and flung it across the room where his Sun Beam was shot. This got the crowd to cheer when the fiery ball exploded in a flash.

"Now what should I do next?" Moon asked himself, rubbing his muzzle in thought, "Oh, I know, I'll use my Rock Grenade." He decided, and began to channel his power into his sword again. Once more, he poised his sword into a thrusting position, and a chunk of rock materialized into the air in front of him. Moon quickly stabbed the rock, shattering it into a volley of rubble and shrapnel like a scatter shot in front of him. Bits of rock and dust fell to the ground after it reached its velocity, and Moon smiled at the accomplishment.

"Hmm, I think next, I'll use... Earth Render." Moon said, "I just hope they can repair the academy when I show it off." He added, before raising his sword over his head and channeling power into it. With that, he quickly brought it down and slammed the blade into the floor.

There was a rumbling and shaking sound as a crack began to snake its way through the floor and after reaching aproximately 10 yards in length, it split open into a 5 yard deep fissure, the examiner looking at it in surprise before turning to glare at Moon for the property damage, to which, he shrugged sheepishly.

"I trust your last two spells won't be as chaotic?" The sheep asked rhetorically, as Moon nodded and asked for a training dummy.

"For this next spell, I'll need an actual target." He requested, to which the sheep girl nodded and pointed a ways over to reveal a straw dummy, wearing a leather chest plate of armor. Moon nodded, signalling that was fine and approached it with his sword drawn out.

"This one is called the Golden Gash!" He declared, preparing his sword once again as magic surged through it. Within moments, the blade was engulfed in flames, and he quickly delivered a horizontal strike to the dummy. The blade caused a minor cut into the armor plating, but upon making contact, the flames transfered from the blade, into the shallow cut, and then erupted outward, setting the entire dummy ablaze from the inside out with gold colored flames!

Within moments, the straw had been reduced to ash, causing the now blackened armor to fall to the ground in a heap. Moon had only one last spell to show off, and it was his most artistic one by far.

"For my last spell, Sun Dancer, I would like to request everyone step back further than normal." Moon declared, the students moving back, and the examiner doing so as well. By now, Moon was getting a little faint, he had used his spells one after the other with little rest, and it was draining his magic supply. Maybe this was part of the test, seeing if they had the stamina to rapidly unleash spells without tiring.

He took a deep breath to relax himself as he channeled his power into his blade, holding it with both hands in front of him as it slowly began to engulfe itself in flames like before. After a few moments of concentration, a plume of flames shot from the tip, into the air, reaching 10 feet high. Moon's eyes squinted shut as he felt himself growing weaker, and soon, the plume of fire began to split into 10 different tails, resembling a tree, or a multi tailed whip. With the spell finally formed, he began to show off.

As if it were a stream of ribbons, Moon began to perform a variety of swordsmanship techniques, swirling his blade, thrusting it, slashing, spinning around, jumping forward and backward. All the while, the tail of flames whirled around him, making sounds of rushing, hot air. Eventually, however, moon's power gave out, and the flames extinquished themselves immediately as he tropped to one knee, panting and his sword clatting next to him.

The students gasped, staring at him in surprise, thinking for sure he had failed, but as the examiner looked him over silently for a moment, she scribbled onto a piece of parchment and handed it to him.

"Congratulations, Moon, you are now a journeyman." She said, the wolf taking the paper with one paw as he smiled up at her, sounds of cheering students heard throughout the crowd as Moon was helped to his feet by Jakra, as best she could, considering she was almost 2 feet shorter than him. Still, as he sheathed his sword and began making his way out of the demonstration area, another student was called forth to display their skill, but by now, Moon was tuning them out.

"So, you going to meet your family again? Its been six years." Jakra asked, as she helped him head towards the library, "I'm sure they'd love to see how their son is doing." She added. Moon gave a bit of thought to it before nodding his head.

"It does sound like a nice idea, I wonder how much the lands have changed." He said, but soon, his attention was grabbed when Valo's voice called out to him from in front of the library entrance.

"Ah, Moon! Finally a journeyman, I see." The old fox greeted as they approached, "Oh, and I see you've chosen to let your slut off her leash." He added, noticing Jakra was no longer wearing a slave collar.

"Actually, she's been promoted to a hired servant, she's my bodyguard now." Moon explained, and as Valo looked her over, Jakra stepped between the two, a smile on her face. Her paws resting on her hips as she leaned forward.

"Yeah, I'm not a slave anymore, which means I now have the right to do this." She said, before rearing back and slugging Valo in the muzzle with a punch, that caused his head to snap back, a bit of blood trickling from his nose.

With that, she and Moon passed by the old fox, and headed to the recall gate as Valo glared at them, watching them leave. When they were out of eye sight, he turned away, whiping his nose.

"Well at least she's acting like a real predator now." he said calmly, before heading off to accomplish his own business. With Moon having graduated, it was now time to begin the arduous task of seeking a new apprentice to train. Sometimes being a Magus could be tedius.

Moon followed after Jakra, who was so eager to get out of this place, she had taken point. As they arrived at the gate, Moon and Jakra both stood on it, as he channeled his power into his sword and held it over the platform.

"Uhh... Home!" He called, slamming his sword into the platform, and in a flash, they were once again transported back to the recall point they had first arrived from. Another 2 days worth of travel, and they would be home.

But elsewhere, other things were happening. Gelnon had been so eager to fulfill his ambition, he didn't even wait around to see Moon finish his trials, he had quickly rushed to the recall gate to transport himself back home, back to the village of Ulgona.

His gate was much closer to home, only a day's travel away, his armor seemed to do little in the ways of weighing him down as he dashed along the road, eager to return to his family and assume a role as one of the noble families. Unfortunately, things had changed during the last 6 years, he was not aware of.

In the city of Ulgona...

A massive, brown bear sat at a dinner table, surrounded by 10 other bears. He was biting into an oversized drum stick, clearly from an avian beast folk. The bear was enormous, even sitting down, he reached 6 feet tall, his obese frame weighing an estimated 320 lbs. He wore a bib as he consumed the meat, tearing off chunks of it with ease.

"You know, father." Said another one of the bears around the table, this one was female. She was only 5 feet while sitting, and possibly a mere 200 lbs, "That cat is supposed to be returning by now." She said.

The larger bear swallowed his bite of meat and whiped his mouth with a half muffled belch as he looked at the she-bear and frowned.

"Oh yes, I imagine he's going to be quite steamed. As if the cats actually thought we didn't expect an uprising when they sent their precious son off to the academy." he said, sounding bored and angry at the same time, "Well we quickly took care of them, didn't we, son?" He asked, turning to another one of the bears at the table.

"Yes, father, they were quite delicious." The addressed son said. This one was almost as big as his father, sitting at 5'7 in height, his frame was around 248 lbs, except his were more clearly defined muscle. He was dressed in a suit of armor made primarily of leather, with some metal plating to reinforce the shoulders, forearms, chest, and shins. Clearly he was more experienced with combat.

"And those sisters of his made such cute pleas and whimpers as they were dragged off to the slave market, they're probably half way across the world by now, if they haven't died in captivity." The daughter from earlier giggled.

"He's only one mage, and his family's land and possessions belong to us now, we've got way more soldiers than he does. Probably trained himself as a Sorcerer, or more amusingly, a Cleric." The son chuckled, "We'll just let him exhaust himself on our troops, and then we'll have cat stew for dinner." He said, folding his arms over his chest.

The other bears around the table laughed as they finished their meals and then broke off to rest and digest their food. Unaware of what was occuring at that moment.

"Get out of my way, you low borns!" Gelnon roared, swinging his axe, and in a shower of gore, he cleaved a bandit in half. There were at least 20 bandits along the road who had been hired specifically to stop Gelnon and make it seem as though he died of an ambush along the road. Unfortunately for them, the lion was charging through them like a weed thrasher, any bandit stupid enough to get directly in his way was obliterated, bones, guts, and viscera send flying through the air. Those who weren't directly within chopping distance, were blasted with a barrage of Death Bolts, falling to the ground as their bodies began to rot and decay quickly.

"What in the hells is he?" Shouted one of the bandits, a bull who held a 100 lbs warhammer over his head, ready to bring it down, but just then, Gelnon reached him and delivered an upward slash that cut the bull's arms off, causing him to drop his hammer.

"I'm a Death Knight! And I'm here to take what's mine!" He roared at the top of his lungs, before delivering a vertical swing and cleaving the bull in two. By the time he was finished, he kept racing down the road, not a single one of the bandits had been left in one piece, either killed quickly, or writing on the ground, bleeding to death from severed appendages. One lion had slaughtered all 20 bandits, and any blood that was currently splattered upon his armor was not his own!

"Just one more day, mom, dad, Dala, Kial, Dorana, one more day and our family will be nobles!" He cheered out loud to himself. "I can't wait to see the looks on their faces." He smiled happily as he ran.