Ace's nice morning sleep was interrupted pretty early in the day with a loud banging on the wooden door of the room in the inn he was staying at. Anax was startled by the loud banging and unlike Ace, bolted straight up. Ace laid there with bloodshot eyes and not a clue who was up this early banging on his door till he heard her voice. It was the lady in charge of managing the inn. She was the owner of the place as well. "Get up young man! You've got mail!" She sounded pretty enthusiastic as well for some reason. Anax growled a couple times before Ace got up. "Just a sec..." He murmured as he stumbled to the door. The squeaky handle on the door was turned all the way as Ace peeked behind the wooden door and extended his arm out. She slammed the letter into his palm and left with huge smile on her face. Ace was honestly creeped out by this old woman. She was nice and all, but weird at the same time. "Lets see what this is about." He read the familiar handwriting at the top of the ripped page. He then instantly recognized that it was Khalash's handwriting and read the letter in his voice.

"Chop chop boy, one of the items we had the last time also turned out to be faulty. I supposed you'd know a bit more about the topic at hand rather than a new mage so I contacted you personally instead of hanging a request on the general board. Its definitely not because you're better than everyone else so don't think so highly of yourself! I'm still waiting for you at the shop later today. I'll disclose the rest of the information you need to know when you get your lazy ass over here!
PS: Oh and the reward is bigger than the other quests I've given you, so bring your A game."

Ace read the request with an annoyed tone and dropped back into bed. After all, the old bearded man did say 'later today', so Ace assumed that was after he got enough sleep. He had a big feed last night at Alice's bed and breakfast where he met a handful of Rune Knights that he hasn't met before. They stayed out a bit late as well so he was wrecked coming back late at night. Now was definitely not the time to wake up early. His companion, Anax the fire breathing growlithe, also made new friends with that little cleffa he met. She was Alice's companion.

Ace slept in for a short while longer before he got up to grind Khalash's request out. He and his companion have had no breakfast yet so they decided to go in for a quick bite before their job. It was just an old chipper open really close to the inn they were staying at. Definitely not the best idea for breakfast but they were a bit late sleeping in anyway so it was lunch time for everyone else. The chipper was definitely open at this time. He got himself an order of fish and chips and and the same for his young companion. They ate it up real quick before leaving to find Khalash's store once again. Just in the span of two weeks they've done more than three requests collectively for the man. He did however promise them a better reward this time so Ace was looking forward to this.

Not much longer after they left the chipper, Ace and Anax arrived at Khalash's Mag Drug Store. Ace walked in silently with his companion following him in the door. He just plainly waved at the man. "Oh you're here! Just in time! This is the item I found faulty... Wait, you have read my letter in full right?" He asked as he looked at the two of them impatiently. Ace kept a completely uninterested look on his face as he replied to the man saying "Yeah yeah. Faulty item and I need to test it go get it refunded I'm guessing?" The man shouted out in reply, "No! You kids these days... Think you know everything." He turned his back to the two of them and held the item wrapped in cloth, "I want you to go test it for me! It's an ancient sword thats meant to possess rejuvenating magical energy. Yet.... its chipped! Look at it." He unwrapped the item and turned around once more to show it to Ace and his companion. "It might still work though..." Ace quietly said. "Thats for you to find out" the old man said after chuckling. "Get to it! Come back to me with clear feedback and I should have your reward ready for you." He stated. "How much are we getting?" Ace asked just before leaving the shop. The old man eyed Ace angrily and shouted "Get it tested first!!!" Ace and Anax walked out the shop with the voice of Khalash still echoing in their ears.

"Where the hell are we getting this tested now"

Ace was thinking to himself. They walked around for a bit not knowing where to go with the wrapped magical sword. Finally, Ace decided to look for a mage to fight. That way he'll be able to tell if his magical energy felt pumped due to the energy of the sword or not. They walked around the parks of Magnolia in search of a mage they can fight. However it was useless. They couldn't manage to find anyone who clearly looked like a mage and was willing to help.

Just as they sat down under a tree to take a break feeling hopeless as ever, they got approached by a young boy not much older than Ace. He had dirty blonde hair and stood barely eight inches over Ace's own height. The gas mage and his partner sat there under the tree lacking energy, not knowing what the boy is looking for. "Heya! I've been following around you for quite a while now..." Ace looked at the boy with a puzzled face as he bolted up. The gas mage said nothing else and just stared at the boy as he waited for a complete statement. "I know you've been looking for someone to fight. I'm Tyler by the way. You think I could be able to fight you?" Ace stood there for a second not knowing what was going on, then the boy stated fighting them and the young apprentice's eyes lit up. "Actually yeah, we're looking to test this sword, so you'll be of great help." Ace said to the boy.

"Alright so lets get this thing started then... Mind yourself friend, I'm stronger than I look." Tyler said with a grin on his face.

"Same as... We'll see how it goes." Ace replied to the boy with a plain straight face as usual.

Ace stood straight and faced the boy that was about 10 meters away. "No holding back..." He thought to himself. If he wanted to test the magical sword he was going to have to go all out. Thats the only way he could use up enough magic to see if there is an actual difference in his performance. He unwrapped the sword as it gave off a dark gleam. It was clenched tight in his right hand. So he used his left hand to cast a gas spell on the boy in attempt of getting things started. Ace gathered a massive amount of the oxygen present in the environment and spun it around his hand in a vortex, ready to explode out at the blonde haired boy fighting against them. In a moment's notice Ace sent forth the stream of shredding gas towards the boy. That was when things got really interesting. The blonde pulled out a short sword and sliced straight at Ace's spell with it. Ace thought that wouldn't be effective as the spell would breeze past the sides of the short sword. However he had no clue that this was a sword of wind. He had read about it somewhere when he was learning the basics to his delirious gas magic, but he wasn't able to recall that just yet, or at least up until the shredding stream of gas blasted past wither sides of the boy. He literally cut through they young afroed boy's whole spell.

Ace looked at the boy in shock only to remember reading up on the sword. "The Holy Sword of the Wind, eh?" He shouted across to the boy. The boy then dashed towards Ace so that he was only about four meters away and slashed twice as he ran forth still coming at the dark skinned mage. Two crescent shaped slashes of wind made their way towards Ace. He was at a slight disadvantage by not knowing how to perfectly wield his sword thus restricting his main hand's motion. In a moment's notice Ace attempted to doge the attack by jumping on the tree using the abundant gases in the atmosphere again to walk on the tree. This time running on the main tree's trunk he missed both crescents as they dug their way onto the old wood. Flipped off the tree by pushing his right foot on the trunk and flipping backwards towards the mage dashing at him. Both the mages swung their swords onto each other as they clashed just before Ace's landing. A powerful gust of wind rattled through the gas mage's afro as he twisted his sword to deflect the boy's weapon and create another sword of Arsine to take care of things. Unlike the sword given to him by Khalash, Ace's Ash sword was weightless allowing him to move his hand more quickly than other swords. The dark Arsine rippled around Ace's left fist as it burst out piercing the boy's stomach. The boy reacted with a quick shout in pain and jerked his sword away from Khalash's. With a swift movement he fired a gust of wind at Ace's torso as well and it connected with his abdomen pushing him a few meters back. The thing that Tyler didn't know about Ace's Ash sword was that he was able to extend it willingly. So he shot it forward with a force to plunge through Tyler's chest. With about 3 meters between the two boys it was pretty hard for Tyler to react in time. He took the blow to the chest and went flying back on the grass.

Ace hadn't even felt the time go by. His magical energy was truly being rejuvenated by the sword. He looked at his injuries then back at the boy laying on his back on the ground. "You good?" He asked the blonde haired mage with a concerned tone. Tyler shot back up and laughed as he looked at Ace, "That was amazing! I don't mind losing so far as I get good practice out of it!" Ace was relieved as he sighed. He wasn't very sure of the boys's full capabilities and yet it seemed like he was starting to take it too far on someone who probably wasn't as proficient with magic. But then again, who was Ace to judge. He was the young prodigy who was running around proving everyone wrong. You could never judge a book by its cover.

Ace chatted to the boy for a few minutes before heading back to Khalash's shop. He had some good news for the old man as opposed to the bad news for himself. He sure did get a tough injury after that one. It might take him a couple weeks to heal from this one, unless Khalash could do something about that. The boy and his companion arrived at Khalash's shop with the item wrapped back again in cloth. The gas mage did manage to score himself a free treatment from Khalash's drug shop and still got the reward they deserved after explaining his findings to the old man. They took their reward and walked out the shop to return to the inn they were staying at.

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