The remainder of the school term went by agonizingly slow for Damion. It was not enough that Elicia had departed, but since his knowledge of why she left was a secret, he had to make sure not rise to the bait of other students. Thomas Sorin, of course, took the opportunity to tease him about driving off a loser that had nowhere else to go, but Damion was able to ignore the jibes and innuendos, by telling himself, he only had a short time left at Silver Spire.

Since Damion spent most of his time alone, he did not have to put up with too much. Just what Mage Sorin and his cronies threw at him when passing in the halls. With the term coming to a close and graduation just around the corner, Damion decided it was time to spend his school points. Despite his artifact being impressive, he was still well shy of the 500 points he had reached in his first term. But this did not bother him, since he had already acquired all the magic seals he would need for a long while.

Instead, Damion went to the school commissary to rebuild his adventurer kit. Since he had given the bulk of it to Elicia, he almost needed to start from scratch. However, only a few items would be costly, like a new tent and a new spatial stretching backpack.

Even though Damion had the Iblis spatial artifact, the Magic System Inventory, and his own personal spatial storage, he still needed to keep up appearances. If he walked out of the school with no bags in hand, people would begin to wonder.

After purchasing a new tent, with beast repelling and camouflage features, Damion bought a new length of self-untying rope, a shielded fire pit, two months' worth of rations, and finally a sleeping bag and pillow. Most of his other adventuring items were in his belt pouches for quick access, such as his canteen, and his mask and hood of cooling for protecting his face in desert climates.

With nearly all his points spent, Damion returned to his dormitory to check on the mission he posted in the Adventurer Association for Demonic Beast Cores. Sadly, even though he was paying above the minimum for low demand cores, he'd only gotten takers on F Rank and E Rank cores. Since the mission had been posted for several weeks, Damion felt it unlikely he was going to suddenly start attracting C Rank or higher cores. After all, anyone that could kill C Rank and higher Demonic Beasts knew the market for cores depended on the Zone. Adventures of that level knew that if they really wanted to make a profit, they could simply go to a different Zone.

Damion closed out the mission and requested the cores he did end up with, 30 F Rank and 18 E Rank, be delivered to him at the school. The 1,200 credits he would get from the magic system was hardly worth the 130 gold he spent to purchase the cores.

The day was almost over when Damion checked his communication tablet and found several messages. The first one he opened was from Ethan.

"Happy birthday!," Ethan's voice said. "I know it has been a tough year. But you are almost a graduate of a Magic Academy now. That is so amazing. I hope that before you head off to your next adventure, you come around Saung so we can catch up."

In partial disbelief, Damion checked the date. It was in fact his birthday today. In a bout of sadness, Damion realized that he had not only forgotten his own, but he had overlooked his parents' and his sister's. Had he simply been too busy? Birthdays were not celebrated as much on Nerotath as they were on Earth, especially not for mages that could live hundreds of years, but he felt it was a failure on his part for having forgotten.

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The next message on his tablet was from Arica.

"Just wanted to wish you a happy birthday! Oh, and I wanted to let you know, the package you sent a few weeks ago was received and forwarded on to its new destination. Sorry I forgot to tell you sooner. You should come visit me in Rubrum when you have a chance."

Arica's message was clearly referring to Elicia and that his former attendant had made it safely to the portal and was sent on to wherever Mage Teft had arranged for her to go. The message holder from Mage Teft was still in his inventory, but he had yet to officially reach B Rank. His magic power had technically exceeded 10,000 points through the help of artifacts, but when he looked in a mirror, True Sight still registered him as a C Rank mage.

The invitation to visit Rubrum was intriguing. Damion felt that visiting another White Zone could be interesting, but he was not sure if he wanted to go there anytime soon. Going from one lion's den to another before he had the power to determine his own fate did not strike him as the best idea.

After sending Ethan and Arica quick replies, Damion decided to spend as much of his remaining time at Silver Spire training. B Rank was close, and he did not want to disappoint Mage Teft by not breaking through before he graduated.

To assist in his training, whenever Damion was outside of his dormitory or other locations with spatial stretching enchantments, he kept Mana Absorption active. By taking in as much mana as he could and oversaturating his core, it became easier to compress the mana and increase his magic power. Step by step he was getting closer and just as the last of his school days were coming to an end he succeeded.

Damion did not need to check the Magic System to know he succeeded. Something in him shifted when his Magic Power crossed the threshold. How he felt and how he sensed the world became clearer, sharper. The magic auras of people around him that he had to focus to sense before, now stood out like candles on a dark night.

For a while, Damion just sat and observed the comings and goings of the little candles. Each of the little lights he sensed was a student, going about their own last days of class. While he may have strengthened his ability to sense magic auras, his range was still rather limited. At most Damion could locate an aura about twenty meters from him. The distance was far less than what he received from True Sight, but it was still better than how he was before, only able to perceive a faint aura from someone right in front of him.

As Damion continued to try and understand his new ability, he suddenly sensed a much stronger presence approaching him. If the students were akin to candles in the night, this presence was like a wildfire, out shining and drowning out every other aura around.

"You have finally reached B Rank. Congratulations," Mage Teft said, walking up to him.

"Your aura is so much stronger than everyone else's," Damion told her. In spite of the overwhelmingness of her aura, he was still trying to see through it, or at least around it to perceive the other students again.

"Surely you know why," Mage Teft said.

"You are an S Rank and most of the students are only E Rank at best."

"Good. I was hoping you would be one of the few who developed aura detection, you showed early signs of it, but not every mage does."

"Really?" Damion questioned. He had been sensing auras for quite a long while, though only weakly at first, but he had gotten better at it as his magic power grew and he thought it was only a natural development of any mage's abilities. So natural in fact, that none of his classes had discussed it.

"Yes. Only about a quarter of mages develop aura detection. Even some like you, who began sensing auras very young, in the end do not develop it."

"Is that why my Thaumaturgy and Theurgy classes did not discuss it at all?"

"In part, it is hard to teach people something they will either develop or not. Although, since Headmaster Sorin does not have it, he may think it's just an old wives' tale and told the professors not to bother teaching anything about it."

"Can I do anything other than just locating people with it?"

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