As soon as Phillip sat down in his desk, the bell finished ringing for class. Phillip noticed that not everyone was present for class, specifically a pair of young men who Phillip knew very well. Shortly, just before class was about to begin his two friends, Joshua and Dorial tried their best to slide in without notice but Professor Cason took notice and subtly made a pair of marks on a sheet of paper on his desk.

"If you two don't start getting to class on time Professor Cason is going to reprimand you both." Phillip whispered.

"I know, I know. But I've told him before that I'm just not a morning person." Joshua replied.

"Yeah, well maybe if you didn't spend so much time staring at yourself in the mirror in the morning you wouldn't always be late." Dorial added with a cheeky grin on his face.

Phillip simply grinned and shook his head at the remark; he knew it was all in good fun. Joshua and Dorial were not only Phillip closest friends they were his roommates this year and had been for the past three school years. Dorial was a water specialist and Joshua had the gift of earth magic, specifically the ability to control and shape stones. The three of them pulled out their books and notes and prepared for what would be an onslaught of notes for Professor Cason was notorious for the speed at which he lectured.

[i]I wonder if dad has anything from this time in his artifact collection...[/i] Phillip pondered as his professor reviewed the lecture from the previous class about what Amarist was like almost 1,000 years ago. There were roughly twenty-five students, including himself and his two friends, in this class and the young gun mage was at least somewhat familiar with most of them as Professor Cason had a habit of purposefully mixing up his students for various group projects.

Just before the moment when Professor Cason, a well-known wind mage, would have normally begun a new lecture, he started off on a new topic this morning; this was because of the field trip that was scheduled for later that day. 

“Before we begin class today I first need any students who will be going on the trip to the northern forests to come to the front and meet with me for a few minutes so that we can go over the itinerary and expectations for the day. We’ll be going over everything as a whole group before we leave but as you are all older students I want to address you first so that you might set an example for the younger students today.”

Phillip and a group of his peers had volunteered to go on a school sponsored trip into the forests north of Eve City for field trial where they, along with a handful of their professors serving as chaperons, which included Professor Cason, would a chance to test their abilities against wild monsters. This was something that was absolutely prohibited at Magus Academy unless it was designated by the Academy as official school business and even then permission for these wild ventures were only granted to older students. Phillip had been on two previous excursions like this but for many going this day, it would be their first trial out in the wild. The trial had a few main objectives such as combat training and wilderness survival and so the group of students participating varied across the spectrum. The group was scheduled to leave an hour before noon which meant Phillip and the other students going on the trip, only had two classes that morning and would be released at ten o'clock to make any preparations they had forgotten to attend to the night before. Phillip was obviously excited for the chance to showcase his skill against real live monsters, albeit monsters who, for the most part, posed no serious threat to a group of young magi with their well-above-average abilities not to mention their professor chaperons. The gun mage hardly ever passed up an opportunity to improve upon his skill in combat.

"So you ready for the big trip?" Phillip asked as he and Joshua stood up out of their seats.

"I've been ready for this day since they told me I was selected for it." Joshua answered.

"Well you guys will have to tell me all about it when you get back." Dorial exclaimed. Unlike Phillip and Joshua, Dorial wasn't very skilled in combat but more than made up for it with his excellent intellect. He had elected to stay at the school as he was in the middle of an important science project.

"Don't worry, Do," Joshua said, using Dorial's common nickname "Joshua’ will be trying to hog all of the monsters so I'm sure it will be pretty boring for the rest of us."

"Hey, don't blame me if you can't keep up." Joshua replied back with a hint of competitiveness in his voice.

The two friends made their way up to the front of the classroom where they were joined by a couple of other students. This was about what Phillip had expected because from what he could remember from the roster of students there were approximately fifty students going on the trip today.

“Alright,” Professor Cason began, “First things first let’s make sure everyone is familiar with each other so why don’t you four introduce yourselves.”

“The name is Joshua Hearthstone. I’ll be the one out there smashing those monsters so keep an eye out for me.” The young stone mage said with an almost annoying sense of arrogance.

“Excuse my friend,” Phillip exclaimed as he turned to the two other students, “I think he’s a little too excited. My name is Phillip Jericho. I believe I’ve worked with you two before but I’m bad with names so you’ll have to remind me…”