Umi (and maybe Joseph) were brought before the Undine King, the savage ruler of all the water spirits in the magic world. He was not tyrannical, but years of human expansion have forced him from a vast majority of his territory. His domain was the undersea kingdom of Tharasia. It bore coral towers built so high that the top could not be seen from the inside, and gates so large they could easily fit the Nepto Dragon herd going through all at once.

Umi was not sure how he made it through the gate, in fact he seemed to have just 'appeared' inside, from the surface, he entered the water and was suddenly inside the castle. He assumed it was some form of gate magic, using the water as a medium to the castle gates. They were marched through the halls of Tharasia, and brought before the crystalline throne of the Undine King

Joseph was still a bit amazed and confused at what was happening around him. At one point he entered the shore and was somewhat transported into an underwater Kingdom. Joseph was still not sure why the water spirits had taken him with them when it was Umi who requested to see the king, perhaps he was going to be punished for what he did earlier. As they walked through the giant halls they all reached the throne room when they were now in the presence of the Undine King. One if the water spirits that seemed to be the leader stepped forward and knelled before the King.

"Your majesty, we have brought these two mages after a little incident on the land with Samui"

The king looked over at both Umi and Joseph, as Joseph suddenly felt a shiver in his body. Standing next to Umi, Joseph whispered "Should we be knelling down as well"

"Ill bow to no one's king"

Umi tried to stand up, but was forced back down by the Undine next to him. He looked up at the Undine King for a second and paused. He was the same as every other Undine, completely black body, like it was submerged in a pool of dark water. He wore large horns on his head like drooping ears, some sort of sensory organ to for use in the water. But unlike the other Undine, the king had ghostly blue irises, a color of blue completely impossible to replicate.

Umi had similar eyes, the same unnatural blue the Undine King bore, the others had claimed it was because of his contact with the Ultimate Spirit of Water. The god and symbol for every ounce of water in the entirety Magic World.

"I was brought here because i wanted to see if it was true, you do have the same eyes as me"

Joseph was struggling a bit as the spirits held him down forcing him to bow before the king. After taking a good long look at Umi's eye the Undine King diverted his attention toward Joseph. He walked over to him and stared into Josephs red eyes. "I was simply brought here. I'm not sure for what reason though." Joseph told the Undine King as he gave Joseph a strong look that seemed as he was looking at Josephs history and knew who he was.

The King stepped back to his throne without taking his eyes off both of them. "What do you plan to do with us?"

[Ehh, Ill asspull it]

"Show them to their chambers, Samui was in no danger, and i need to see this human's connection with the Ultimate Spirit of Water, his skill in noticeable."

Umi and Joseph were lead to their chambers by the group of Undine that brought them there. Their rooms were at the long end of a hall, right across from each other. Umi snuck into Joseph's room a few minutes later to discus the situation with him.

"It appears we'll be staying for a while"

Joseph was pretty much pushed into his chambers as the spirits closed the door and left. He looked around the chamber seeing that it wasn't too bad. It was not cell and had a comfortable bed and a small bathroom. So Joseph thought that they weren't prisoners, which left him to wonder what was going to happen to them. He couldn't escape since the palace was filled with water spirits so all he could do was wait and see what happens. A few minutes later Umi entered the room by sneaking in.

"Seems that way. We can't escape from here, I mean the king said the spirit we fought with outside was in no danger, and I gave it everything i had." Joseph said as he let out a big sigh and fell down on the bed looking at the ceiling. "So much for my relaxing vacation... what do you think is gonna happen to us?"

"Well what else do I do in these situations, train! We're gonna have to get stronger no matter what, and if this Undine King wants to test us, we'll have to fight him together"

If Umi were to be honest, he had been in this situation many many times, and inevitably, they always ended up the same way, with some training and fight. Strictly formula. However this time it would not be Umi teaching someone, but the Undine King teaching Umi, if only through battle. It was a perfect chance to observe the strengths and weaknesses of a water mage like Umi, possibly one of the best in the world.

For the next year, Umi was planning on getting stronger, as were all of Ryugujo, by traveling the world and honing his skills while the organization met up with each other at the end of the year. Umi had a perfect chance to train under the Undine King, intentionally or not. On the other hand, Umi had to worry about training Joseph, his new friend and possible ally, As an earth mage, he was gonna have to train him in higher tier earth spells, but one for sure way to make someone stronger in a short amount of time would be a pactio.

"What do you want most in the world?"

Joseph heard Umi ask him an unusual question he wasn't used to answering. "Hmmm I'm not quite sure yet.... My father always taught me that I should want to protect what was important for me, like he did for me... But the problem is I don't know whats important to me.... I've been looking for it for years but I have yet to find something important worth protecting, so I try to protect anything and anyone.... But what I know is that when I find it, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to protect." Joseph said as he remembered all his past times with his father.

"But how can I protect whats important to me, if I couldn't even beat that lone water spirit.... I... I want to be strong.... I want to have power so I can be relied on like I used to rely on my father!" Joseph said as he got up from the bed pumped and motivated to train. "I want train now and become the strongest protector this world has ever seen!!" Joseph did not care what he had to do. He was gonna do anything it took to become stronger.

"Then we should work on your defensive spells, with just a little bit of courage, you can have defenses as powerful as mine"

Joseph was easily the brightest, and most willful of all of Umi's former disciples. His first disciple, Larita, was a wonderful wind mage, and her bubbly personality was in stark contrast to all the his following ones. When Umi feel to the dark side after he lost his body, he was joined by his next disciple, Mortimer Graves, an up and coming shadow mage. Soon after teaching him about his abilities, he grew into a powerful mage, and as an ambitious criminal, threatened Umi and his organization by raising a group to fight against his Ryugujo, and nearly succeeded. From that same crop he was joined by the puppeteer Dorian, whose like all evil mages, used his for the sake of gaining power. Soon after that he lost track of his group, somewhere in the Longchamp Mountains. Both mages were conniving, and unlike Joseph, could not be trusted. If this Joseph was what he said he was, a protector, than his abilities were something Umi could nurture.

"The most obvious power-up would be a simple pactio, with such conviction, you will no doubt receive an artifact, i only train talented mages with ambition, with this artifact, you will be able to protect those you care about"

Summoning his Telekinesis spirit, he had it draw the proper markings for a pactio ritual. With this contract, Umi would create the cornerstone to his disciples training, and facilitate his strength by giving him a large power boost

"Hmm a pactio would really give me power." Joseph said, but it was then that he noticed the telekinesis spirit making a magic circle in the ground. "Wait, wait, wait!! You mean with you?! A guy?!"

This caught Joseph by surprises since he had heard what it took to make a pactio and he had always planned that if he ever made one it would be with a girl. However it was true what Umi said that a pactio is the fastest way to get power. Joseph would just have to swallow his pride for a moment, beside Umi proved himself reliable before, so being his partner would be really useful.

"Okay Umi. Let's make the pactio."

(Skipping the Pactio Scene, as i always do)

With the completion of the ceremony, the lights shimmering around the circle gathered together, forming a ball of light. From these lights, they divided into two smaller lights and then into cards. One was the Artifact Card, used by the minister to draw his artifact, and garner power from his magister. The other was the master copy, the one the Magister used in order to give powers to his minister. Umi examined the card, and Joseph was definitely going to enjoy the abilities a pactio gave him.

"Alright, test your artifac, Say Adeatt"

After the ceremony was complete Joseph was handed his artifact card, which meant was proof that he was now the minister magi of Umi, in other words partner. He now had some of the power he wanted. And he now had something he knew for certain he had to protect, his friend. The card did not show Joseph holding any type of weapon, it just showed him sitting in front of a large statue. The other thing Joseph noticed was that this card had his last name on it which he did not know, "Sulpicius? Is that my families name." Joseph whispered to himself.

"Right!" Joseph said when he heard Umi, for now his families history would have to wait. "Adeatt!!"

The card flashed and behind him appeared a large statue, Joseph took a couple of steps back amazed at the sight. "Cool" Joseph moved toward the statue examining it. Now the question was what did it do.

"Move! Attack! Defend! Follow!" Joseph tried some command to see what it did but nothing happened.

"Umm does this come with a rule book or something?"

Umi was stumped, he had no idea what the hell Joseph's artifact was, but it sure looked cool. The statue was made out of some sort of weird material, it was course and kind of stuffy, unlike a rock. The ornate design of it was something Umi had never seen before, it was a soldier, holding a sword, but it did not appear to be of any race he knew. The face was unlike anything he had ever seen, it was probably of some magical creature, but Umi had never sen one like that. It bore a third eye, at the center of its head and had two almost non-existent eyes.

The armor it wore was recognizable though, it was the armor of the MM Knights, more likely then not, it was produced by the military, thoug he disapproved of using MM weaponry, if it was powerful, it would be lovely to use their own artifacts against them.

"Ill check for it in my Archive, probably something there...."

With the snap of his fingers, the wristband he wore produced a large display and an accompanying keyboard in order to search things, going through a few databases, Umi would find what the information he needed in a few minutes.

"Oh! here it is, it lets you control things, all you have to say i Subigo..."

"Control things huh..." Joseph was intrigued by this ability. "Okay. i Subigo" Joseph said as Umi instructed. All of a sudden the statue started to dissolve into grain as the grain started to circle around Joseph.

"Woah... okay lets see..." Joseph had to test this. He moved his right hand as if commanding the grain on where to go and at the same time thinking hard on what he wanted to control. For now he would start with something small, a small stool that was in the room. Pointing his hand in that direction the grain moved to the stool and touched it. There Joseph thought about making the stool slide through the room and as he thought that, he was also thinking of making the stool slide extremely fast, the stool suddenly slid through the room to the other side extremely fast, as the stool crashed into the wall breaking itself.

Joseph had his mouth opened when he saw that, "This is my power??"

Reading off the information he received via his Archive, Umi shed a little more light on the subject

"Grain has long been considered the the Gift of the Earth, it grows everywhere, and keeps millions of people alive everyday with bread, rice etc. Naturally this power would work best with the an Earth-user. Because of the deep connection between grain and life, it uses the power to control life and earth, in this case, by taking control of it. Its powers are not strong enough to work on humans, but it can manipulate terrain, objects and even other animals, so long as it meets the size requirements."

With his new artifact, Joseph had dozens of ways to make use of his artifact, but for now, they would stick to having him learn some more advanced ones.

"Well lets begin your training. First, we'll work on the greatest asset to all mages, the barrier!"

Umi had his audience with the Undine King in an hour, but he could at least work the basics of Joseph's training into him now so he can be taught the harder spells while Umi was gone

"Barriers huh... well my type of barriers is my earth wall. Orbis terrarum est meus domus mos servo mihi ex vulnero." A wall of earth formed in front of Joseph. "This the type of "barrier" I've been using for most of my life" This wall had saved Joseph many of time but it wasn't as strong as it needed to be to protect someone else from the dangers in this world.

"And there is nothing wrong with your earth wall, but it has two weaknesses: One, you needed a sizable portion of earth to be able to make an effective wall. Two, it needs an incantation to use, a fast, close up attack"

Making a fist, and turning it as if he was holding a knife, Umi pushed his hand forward, hitting Joseph with on his chest with his imaginary knife.

"If that was a Knife, or a Ki infused Punch, you would not have time to make a wall, or make a strong enough one to stop it. Barriers take away both of those weaknesses. They can be used anywhere, and dont require a incantation, they protect you for long periods of time and dont use much magic."

Umi was, in his honest opinion, a master of combat magic, and combat technique, over the past 3 years, he had seen plenty of action fighting all sort of monster, gladiator, mage, demon and human in that time, even a few spirits. He had learned that the most important thing about mages, is understanding that the BASIC was what would win battles, not the advanced.

"After this, you're going to learn how to use a broom, there are more than a few spells of the earth that dont require direct contact with it, allowing you to switch up styles. With some flight magic, your greatness weakness just became a liability for your opponent"

Umi made very valid points when he compared the earth wall with the barriers and it was true that the incantation was a great weakness. Joseph had to take this opportunity to learn whatever he can and try out new things with Umi since he seemed to have vast knowledge of a lot of thing.

But Joseph was a bit surprised when Umi told him he should learn to fly. Joseph had no problem with learning about barriers but learning how to fly had never crossed his mind and was never gonna cross his mind. "Well you know being an earth mage I prefer being on the ground. Besides how are you supposed to teach me to fly inside this little room underwater. On that note how are we supposed to train if we only have an hour before meeting the King again??"

"Well you see, thats why i have these guys"

Drawing his equipment, literally from out of nowhere behind his back, he drew the two objects they would need for the training. One was his Illusion Rod, which he procured from a treasure hunt in Bosporus two years ago with a very different group. And his Illusion Clam, given to him by his illusion teacher a year and a half ago. These tools, normally useless for a regular mage, were all Umi needed to alter his time itself.

"I havent used this in a long time. Im performing a Phantasmagoria Ritual to send us into my mind, where we can train for a few hours"

Placing his clam on the ground, he held his illusion rod in his hands as he began the ritual.

" In the name of Umibouzu Rjuusuius, Magister Magi, i call upon you, world of the shadows, embrace the mind and create a gate from the light as we enter into the dark..."

A unique incantation, it was usually done in latin, but Umi had to use the language of the mind, which was interpreted as whatever speech the person found easiest. All in a single moment, the Umi was transport into his mind, taking Joseph with him.

Joseph mind went blank for a moment as he felt as if he was being pulled into something. Everything turned white for a moment as Joseph couldn't see what was happening. As he began to regain his eyesight he was on the laying on the ground face down on a grassy plain. He looked up and all he saw were grassy plains and hills, he was really amazed at this.

"So this is you're mind Umi? You're right, this is the best place to study right now. So how do we begin?"

(Ill just ignore everything going on, hate Will, but i still love Negima)

"Its pretty nice huh? Well first things first, FLY DAMN YOU!"

Umi brought all of his possessions with him when he transferred over into his phantasmagoria enchantment, with it, he was able to use anything on his person at the time as if it was real, also part of the illusion worlds advantages. Taking his broom, he put a little flight magic into it, and let it stay hanging in mid-air, in neutral position.

"Pretty simple, get on it, and fly. The atmospheric barrier allows for removal of flight hazards, a smaller emergency barrier keeps you held in place on the broom. Just tell it where you want to go"

Joseph got on the broom feeling a bit nervous "Tell it where to go, ok.... ummm.... up" The broom suddenly went up faster than he expected, he obviously needed to work on controlling his magic capacity. He thought that he was going to fall but remembered that Umi told him that he couldn't fall so that eased his worries

"STOP!" The broom suddenly stopped about 40 meters in the air.

"Ok now, forward and down, slowly" Joseph still didn't want to be to high so the broom then began to go down slower than when it went up. It also went forward as Joseph started to lean a bit to the sides in order to go in circle and get a good feeling of the broom.