Raven has been dissatisfied with work lately. Slaying monsters and doing repetitive quests is, well... boring! He wants something that will put his talents and skills to the test. It just so happens that Logan might have just the solution: a true challenge crafted specifically for young wizards.

Will the so-called Wizard's Challenge be all that it's reputed up to be? Is the advertisement for it real, or is it for a circus act? Just how many biscuits can that man simultaneously eat without choking to death?

Well, I'm certainly not going to tell you. You need to read the story.

Reading the prior installments, To be a Wizard and To be a Master is advised, but not required. The stories are meant to build on each other, but can be read as standalones.

Enjoy!

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As a bonus, here's something else that books seem to like doing: giving you a short, out-of-context excerpt!

"The Wizard's Challenge," Logan explained. "A test of magic, skill, and ingenuity for young wizards like us."

Indeed, half of the scroll in Raven's hands was a map marked with a dotted path and a large "X". The other half showed more resemblance to an overzealous advertisement that one might nail to a tree, calling the Challenge "marvelous" and "mysterious". Raven couldn’t bring himself to read more than a couple lines of the thing.

"Are you sure this isn’t a pamphlet for a circus act?" Raven asked, rolling it up again. "Their marketing strategy leaves something to be desired..."

"It's completely real," Logan replied, his expression utterly straight. "It was created by a wizard of great ability, designed with apprentices and student wizards in mind, to teach them – us – about addressing problems with more than just fireballs and lightning bolts."

Raven's own expression was much the same, albeit for a distinctly different reason. "So there's probably a catch or trick attached. Unless you mean to tell me it's a charity."

Logan said nothing for a moment. Then, as though a delayed reaction, he chuckled. "Orion is very impressed by your skepticism," he said. The dragon on his shoulder seemed to add his own punctuation with a silent, open-mouthed laugh. "Is it so hard to believe that some good-natured old man with a pointed hat and a long white beard just wanted to do something helpful for the next generation?"

Raven needed only a heartbeat to think about it. "Yes," he said.