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Solam was originally quite interested in spells, and with that came even more enthusiasm. After all, everyone had curiosity, and Solam's curiosity was particularly heavy.

Along the way, Solam practically drove Arando crazy. It was not that Arando was selfish and kept his secrets to himself, but rather that the profession looked amazingly cool, yet tested one's talent far too much and required a vast amount of time. As for himself, Arando considered his talent and intelligence to be first-rate, yet now, nearly seventy years old, he was still a long, distant way from reaching legendary status.

Solam was the grandson of an old friend, and Arando had no wish to harm him by letting him waste his years the way he had. People needed to understand that the training of an arcane knight was not as simple as it sounded. Since this profession had developed to the present day, truly very few arcane knights had managed to reach the legendary tier. When he was young, he was arrogant and proud, believing he was the special one who could surpass his predecessors and become a legend, but reality was cruel. Moreover, after reaching the higher levels, an arcane knight actually did not spend less than a mage; learning spells was terribly expensive, and if one wanted to learn legendary magic upon reaching the legendary tier, the cost became a completely astronomical figure. It was precisely because he lacked money that he would not have otherwise thought of meddling in the slave trade. Otherwise, if Arando had continued doing slave-catching business, the profits would actually have been quite good.

Arando and Solam had interacted for so many days that Arando could also tell the young man was very smart and should be able to become a decent mage. Yet he was already a shaman, and if he were to dual-class into an arcane knight as well, he might end up achieving nothing in the end. People needed to realize that while quite a few people on the continent dual-classed into different professions, those who could succeed were truly very few.

Yet Solam's relentless pestering over these past many days also annoyed Arando to no end. In the end, with no other choice, he could only tell Solam that they would have to wait until he saw his grandfather Kramsh, ask for Kramsh's opinion, and then make a decision. Only then did he finally manage to dispatch Solam and get him to quiet down a bit.

Yet not long after quieting down, Solam sidled up once more, hoping Arando could teach him a few tricks of magic. This request left Arando alternately exasperated and amused. What did he think magic was? Magic was a rigorous, highly rigorous skill, not something that could be learned in a short span of time. Before becoming a formal mage, one first had to become a mage apprentice—do not assume it was very simple just upon seeing the two words "apprentice."

First, you had to learn several languages, including Elvish, Netherese, Celestial (devils also used Celestial), Abyssal, and Draconic. Among these, aside from Draconic, you also had to learn how to read and write the other languages (Draconic had no written script). That was not even the end of it; after learning those, one still had to study mathematics, history, and philosophy. Only after finishing these could one formally learn certain knowledge concerning magic. First was semiotics, which encompassed various commonly used magical symbols, followed by planar studies (this branch of learning was all-inclusive, encompassing the history, culture, environment, races, products, and so on of all the major Prime Material Planes, as well as Outer Planes like the Abyss, Nine Hells, and Mount Celestia; this was a terribly complex field of knowledge).

Only after completing all of these could a mage apprentice communicate with the Weave and formally become a true mage. Otherwise, you might as well go wherever it was coolest and stay there, which was why people on the outside said that while a scholar might not necessarily be a mage, a mage was definitely a learned scholar. An average mage apprentice needed at least five to six years just to complete the apprentice curriculum, and if the mentor was stricter, doubling that time was not at all impossible. Judging by Arando's own personal experience, he began receiving apprentice education at the age of six and took a full six years. Regardless of the fact that the time he took was not short, one had to understand that he had also been taking knightly courses from the very beginning, so his talent was actually already quite good.

When Solam heard it was like this, he went completely dumbfounded. This was no apprentice; this was clearly the treatment of a doctoral student. Aside from going hungry for a few days, the process by which he became a shaman had truly never involved any systematic learning. It had led him to think that all spellcasters were roughly of this sort, and he had assumed that as long as Arando taught him how to connect to the Weave and taught him a few spells, that would be it. He never expected a mage's education to be so arduous. No wonder whenever others spoke of mages, they felt they were so formidable; as it turned out, this really was a high-tech profession. The most crucial part was that Solam himself was still practically illiterate—he could speak Common, but he could only speak it, not read it.

Thus, Solam immediately decided to study the reading and writing of Common with Arando first, lest he truly become an illiterate drifter.

Arando had no particular objections to this decision; on the contrary, he was very supportive. After all, regardless of anything else, learning to read and write only brought benefits and no harm. Still, Arando was just a bit worried about whether Solam had the patience. One could say that learning to read and write Common was fairly simple; as long as one had patience, even a fool could learn it—it was merely a matter of time.

Arando still remembered when he taught Solam's grandfather Kramsh back then. Oh, my goodness, the sheer grueling effort! Every single time, within ten minutes, that fellow would fall asleep. Later on, after tossing and turning for over half a year, that fellow remained a semi-illiterate, and in the end Arando had no solutions left, so he simply gave up. Arando never felt that Kramsh was a fool, but he simply had no patience for these things. According to Kramsh's own words, looking at those characters felt just like being hit with Hypnotism, and he would fall right asleep immediately.

Yet Arando misjudged this time. In less than ten days' time, Solam had basically mastered the reading and writing of Common, which almost startled Arando out of his wits. One had to know that back when he was a child, it took him almost half a year to reach Solam's level. Arando thought to himself secretly, could he really have run into a one-in-ten-thousand genius?

Actually, this was just Arando wanting to exaggerate things. One had to realize that when it came to learning a language, if one had a foundation, it was learned very quickly. Solam possessed the knowledge of his past life, so compared to ordinary people, he inherently had a huge advantage. Coupled with the fact that he already knew how to speak Common, with the two sides matching up, plus his naturally ultra-high intelligence, learning this kind of thing was completely a piece of cake.

Arando still did not teach Solam other knowledge, not because he did not want to, but because they had arrived at their destination.

Looking at the totem pole before him, Solam felt an eagerness as swift as an arrow returning home; he had no heart to study at all anymore. They had already entered the territory of the Bloodaxe Clan, and a short distance further ahead—at most less than half a day's journey—they would reach the Frost-Free Valley where the Bloodaxe Clan spent the winter.

Awooo! Having grown up in this world, Solam had never left the clan for such a long time. Returning naturally made him extremely excited, so he let out a long howl to vent his feelings.

Awooo! Seeing his master so excited, Frostfang naturally had to follow suit.

Only, what they did not expect was that just as their voices died down, they heard a response echoing from the distance.

Awooo!

It seemed the clan's patrolling wolf riders were not far away and had heard their call. Sure enough, after a short while, five wolf riders came galloping swiftly toward this side.

From afar, Solam spotted them—they were all familiar faces. However, what gave Solam an even greater pleasant surprise was that he saw his paternal cousin, Krum, who had grown up alongside him.

"Hey! Ake!" Solam waved his arms excitedly.

Clearly, Krum saw Solam as well, and they immediately saw him accelerate his speed, rushing at top speed toward Solam's direction.

Arando sat astride Frostfang, watching with a smile as Solam waved his arms excitedly. To tell the truth, he envied Solam. He had a group of family members who loved him, or else a beast elf would never have grown up so healthily. Then he thought of his own family, and an acute pain involuntarily pierced his heart. Although his son was a good-for-nothing who could not accomplish a single thing and only knew how to eat, drink, and make merry all day long, his heart was actually very kind. The son strongly opposed him doing those wicked, conscience-less businesses and constantly urged him to change his ways and do honest work. Yet how could the Arando of that time possibly listen? He always felt that this bastard son did not understand his hardships. Although his few grandsons were not as clever as Solam, they were obedient and filial good children, but right now they were all...

"Lisa, you must be blaming me up in Heaven," Arando muttered, enduring his heartache as he confessed to his long-deceased wife.

"Ha-ha, Ram, how come you're back?" Just as Krum rode Bloodfang right up close, before he even had time to slow down, he vaulted straight down from above, grabbed Solam, and let out a flurry of roars.

"Damn it, you bastard, hurry up and get off me, you piece of trash! Do you have any idea how heavy you are? Ow, you're crushing me to death!" By now, Krum was fully grown—two meters and forty centimeters tall, covered in muscle. Combined with the momentum of his galloping charge, he had slammed Solam straight into the ground with such a direct impact. That feeling was beyond description; it felt roughly like being struck by a wild bull.

Hearing Solam's curses, Krum hurriedly scrambled back to his feet and casually pulled the grounded Solam up.

"Ow, my back!" Solam propped his waist as he stood up. "I'm saying, big guy, are you welcoming me or trying to kill me? Don't you know how heavy you are? Geez, do me a favor and use your brain before doing things next time, will you?"

Krum, who was blasted by a round of complaints from Solam, did not get angry at all. He merely scratched the back of his head with his hand and beamed a silly grin straight at Solam. He knew Solam was actually completely fine and was merely venting complaints to him; what Solam's physical frame was like, he knew far better than anyone else.

"What are you standing there grinning like an idiot for? Right, how are things at home? How are Auntie and the others, and Granny Karom? And what about Little Iluter? How is he? Can he talk to people yet? When I left, he couldn't even speak coherently. I wonder if he still remembers me now?"

Krum did not get angry in the least from being scolded by Solam. Ever since they were little, despite Krum being the older cousin, he had always taken Solam as his leading example. Most of the time, Solam would lecture him just like this.

"Everyone's doing well, and Little Iluter can recognize people now," Krum said with his silly grin still on his face. "It's just that everyone misses you a lot. A few days ago, Little Iluter was even looking for his big little brother."