《A Life's Journey》


 Chapter 0.1 - Night Storms

    The winds howl, the trees shake, it was a thunderous night in the beginning of the year, inside a solid little house made of redwood, in the ceiling, a fell spots of moss can be see, marks from the passage of time, nothing too grand, while not the biggest house on the village, is one of the more important, because here, lives the only one mage of the village.


    The mage, a man with short silver hair and golden eyes, have a lithe body and pettitt frame, a youngster in the eyes of the ones who see him, have a round and smooth face and tiny nose, he is walking from a side of the house, to another. In his face can be see a semblance of despair and fear.


    "Why is she taking so long ?It is already four hours more than what they told me!" Said the despairing mage, still walking from side to side.


    "Just shut up, my sister say that there wil be no problems, all you need to do is to wait." Said the other man in the room who takes a dip of his drink, this one, different from the mage, is tall, two heads taller than the mage, muscular and scarred, with a rough and red beard, which is grown until the half of the neck, in possess of a axe half the size of the mage.


    "Who knows what''s happening!For all we know she is very hurt or worse!" Roared the mage, at that time a thunder fallen down on the outside, as if to prove the point of the mage.


    The redhead knit his brow, get up from his seat, walked in the direction of the mage, until they''re a palm from each other, looking deep inside the golden eyes of the mage with his own black ones, and said, "Have faith in my sister she never failed before, won''t be today that she will. I am sure she''ll get mad if she know you doubted her, for even a few seconds, so just sit down and drink, it''s a fine Aranian liquor you won''t see it from this hole of a place you put yourself in." Picking up the mage and throwing him in a seat beside his.


    When he heard the redhead, the mage palled, thinking about the sister of the brute. "But you won''t tell her, right? She''ll kill me for sure! Rayssa never know how to hold back, and I don''t think she will learn so soon. " The mage managed to sweat even more than before, thinking of the cruel things that the woman will do, if she ever discovers his doubts.


    "Bahahaha, my sister won''t kill you, she''s not that much of a monster, but you better prepare yourself for what is to come. " Said the redhead, as another thunder rang on the background.


    "Finally!"Shouted a woman in the other room, "it''s a girl!" Shouted again, in the accompany of a infants cry, this made the mage jump to his feet, with a smile on his face, the smile made the room get brighter for a few seconds, and happily the mage said, "Haha my daughter, my baby daughter is born!Come Agariel, Let''s get her!"


    Going ahead of the redhead, Agariel, the mage looked like he have springs on his feet, for the hurry he was in. "She won''t go anywhere,for the gods!" Exclaimed the brute, adding, "She is a loud baby, she is going to be very lively in the future." Following the mage, he too is happy, just is not crying out as the mage .


    Whatever, as the mage open the door, there was someone who did not agree with the mage, one woman, tanned skin and wavy hair, she don''t looked like someone young as she have a fell wrinkles on her face, and a brown gown made of a cheap cloth, walking out of the door, with a baby in hand, she said, "Come pick your daughter, is not over yet." Giving the baby to the mage.


    The baby who is already sleeping, is not like her father, having a big body for a baby, she have a few strands of red hair in the head and looked really fierce, for a baby that is, and possessing a necklace in around the chubby neck, looking very oversized, but the new father is looking at none of this.


    "Look aren''t she a beauty, very much like me, we''ll need to be careful for when she grow up, for the brats who will come after her " Said the giggling mage, half serious, but the love in his eyes is impossible to not be see.


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    "Hump!Whoever will try get my sister''s daughter?" Snorted Agariel, with a smile on his face that looked like a grimace, he to is half serious, looking at his new niece''s face, suddenly he furrowed his brow and a even more menacing look appeared on his face, he said.


    "She is a High Born." That''s all he said, but the mage froze, "She cannot." Pleaded the mage, his face reverted from the happy one, to one of depression for he knew that his daughter will not be with him for long, High Born, that''s how they call the ones who awaken at the birth the power of The Third Human Emperor.


    "What will you do?" Asked the now calmer giant, "We''ll wait, for Rayssa,until then I''ll be with my daughter... " Answered the mage with a sad smile on his face, "...while I can "


    Ended the mage, looking melancholic.


    They stood here for a few minutes, one with his daughter and the other with his liquor, until the second cry of the night rang out, "Its a Boy!" But this time there just a short cry, then it stopped.


    "What happened to the cry?" Asked the mage, suspicious that there are some problems, he entered the room, his daughter never leaving his hands, the brute following inside.


    Inside the room, there are two women, one who walked out of the room earlier that night and one lies above a wooden bed, this one, different from the former, is tall, strong and have a fierce light in her exhausted, black eyes, even the red mane on her head looked tamer than the other days, she is holding a blunter of clothing on her hands, "Look, he have my eyes" Said her, gentle as if she spoke louder will hurt the baby.


    Inside the blunter of clothing that the woman is holding, have a happy baby, with black ,almost closing, eyes and a turf of white on his head, this one, have a round and chubby face, very similar to his father, "But he have my hair." Said the mage, with a little drop of water on the corner of his eye.


    "Why the sad look Dayno?Our kids just happened to be born !You can''t be sad because of this, you wanted!"Bellowed the woman, not understanding why her husband looked so melancholic."She is a High Born" Said the mage, Dayno, without even looking at her, as he said that, the first woman got out of the room, for she know that this talk is not to be heard.


    The woman exhaust eyes became sharp again, but she understood, she will not see her daughter for long, but she know what to do. Looking at corner of the room, where the brute is waiting, he neared the baby and take out a necklace that looked similar to the one on the first baby,and put in the baby boy, saying, "With this, my previous mission is over. Now we can talk about the girl." He said, looking relieved, as if a burden has been lifted from his shoulders


    "You will take her, to the west, to the kingdom of the beastmen, in the south of the kingdom there is a village, who the chief owns me, he''ll take care of her until she can live for herself. " Said the woman, in resignation.


    "She''ll be safe?With this man." Asked Dayno, insecure, never having met the man in question.The woman glared at mage, with a bit of fury, but calmed down and said, "Do you think I''ll leave my baby daughter alone with a man I do not believe?She''ll be fine."


    The Dayno smiled bitterly and said, "Fine if you believe in him, I''ll leave her to him, but enough of it." Looking a little happier, he continued "The names, we have to think of the names." And with a pensive face he said, "Skyler and Aster,what you think?" Hopefull, asked the mage.


    "Skyler and Aster. " Said the woman, tested the names on the mouth, "Yes, Skyler and Aster are good names" She then have the baby, Aster, in her arms a smile, "Little one, from this day onward, your name shall be Aster, are you happy?" She said giving the Aster a kiss on his round nose, who giggled, as if to answer. The storm is already ending and the night is giving its place to a beautiful day.

 Chapter 1.1 - Three Years

I didn''t have drink for a long time, there no way he found me drunk. Though her.

 Chapter 1.2 - Day of Learning

    At sunrise of the other day, the happy family woke up, with the mother gone to work, only the father and son duo are in the house, at end of the breakfast, Dayno said as he leaves the table, "Don''t get up, I''ll go take the things." Walking into another room.


    While waiting, various things passed through the head of the child, What is going to get, or, What will come first, are some of these things, as he is a very curious boy, as are most of his age, Aster definitely wanted to discover what his father will teach him today.


    After a few moments, the mage came back with a few books in hands, each bigger than the other. As he put the books on the table, Dayno said with a very strict face, "Today we shall begin your lessons, we''ll start with me teaching you how to read." But alas, that didn''t take long, after a hour of writing the child already know how to read.


    When he started to memorize all the letters that Dayno was teaching him, Aster suddenly remembered everything that was explained to him before. Every sound, how to write, the formulation of the words, all the knowledge that Dayno tried to pass to him was fixed on his memory, as if engraved with a knife.


    Surprised Aster said in louder voice than the normal, "Daddy I can read it all!" Initially Dayno disbelieved his son, it was even a hour that he was teaching but Aster claimed that he already could read it all.


    But he had the perfect method to ascertain that Aster already knew, he asked Aster to write his own name on a piece of paper. Soon his doubts are proven wrong, Aster really wrote his name on the paper, the handwriting was messy, but it was still wroten.


    Dayno was mystified about the learning speed of his son, but soon a improbable thing passed through his mind, in normal situation he would never suggest it but now it seemed really probable, so he asked, "Aster do you have a gift?"


    Aster didn''t know what was a gift, but when he heard the question about it he was sure that he had one, the mind gift. He don''t knew how he knew, but the knowledge about the gift and its uses come to his mind the moment that he thought about it.


    It was almost a instinctual thing, he knew that it would raise his resistance to attacks against his mind and help him to practice any kind of activities that was related to his mind. But the most powerful effect, it was still hard for him to use to the perfect stage, but with some practice it would be easy.


    After understanding all that information inside him, Aster nodded the his father,"A inborn gift! My son have a inborn gift! That''s what was so strange about him, a complete gift none the less. Well this take away the fun of teaching you most of the things." Said the surprised mage, having mixed feelings about the gift, part of him is happy about the potential of his son, part is frustrated because he won''t be teaching for to long, and part curious about the growth speed of a gift holder.


    "Well, you already killed the fun of teaching you, so read through these books and later I will make questions about the content of the books." Continued the mage, in a sulky mood, he really was looking forward to teach his son after all.


    "But daddy, what is a gift ?" Asked the boy, confused about his father change of humor, "Read this book first, the answers you seek are in its the contents." Answered the grumpy Dayno, as he got out of the house, to the work, he was going to take a leave for today, but looks like it''s not necessary.


    And the boy read, he read through the different books during six hours, changing the subject every hour never ending the book. A unexpected thing was that the more he read through the book, faster he was doing it the speed was negligible but it was still here, and not so long after, Rayssa returned from the work.


    "What happened to my baby!" Roared the woman, as if the end of the world, she was only entering her home as normal, but what she saw was a child, her child, alone, inside a pile of books, reading, alone, the child is so focused, that in fact, he doesn''t even heard the roar of the barbarian.


    Over the years, Rayssa and Dayno became very overprotective of Aster never letting him alone for even a moment, that only changed when he started to sleep on his own room, but even so, during the day he was always along with one of then, for Aster to be alone in the house was a new thing, something that Rayssa didn''t appreciated.


    Rayssa desperately runned in the direction of her baby, "Why are you alone? And where have gone your father?How may he left you alone?" Hugging the boy, she disparate to many questions, more than he can answer.


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    Aster confused, spoke, "Mommy, daddy said that it will be boring to teach me, so he may as well go to work." Of course, his words contained a great mistake, making Rayssa misunderstand everything, but that was unintentional of the little boy. Furious, the mother picked up Aster and screamed, "If he find it boring, he needed call a teacher, not to leave you alone." Ending, she made way to her husband''s workplace.


    With fumes gushing from her nose, the redhead reached the workplace, a two story building made from stone bricks, with a opening on the side from where can be see people entering sometimes.


    Going through the opening, Rayssa saw the man who left her child in the solitary house, the father, who was startled from seeing Rayssa, asked, "What happened?Aster got hurt?"


    The fuming mother raged, "If he got hurt? Not! But nothing to thank you. How can you leave him alone because you are bored?" Repeating the words heard, but that made the father pale, "He said I was bored?" The redhead, not carrying about his reaction, continued, "Of course, you didn''t saw how lonely he looked when I found him, my poor child." The mage, feeling guilty, asked the boy, " Aster, was you really so lonely?"


    "No, the book was fun." The moment the boy said that, the barbarian, who was already ready to leap at the mage, froze, the mage, who was ready to cast a barrier, sighed in relief and questioned, "So now, can you tell me, what is a gift?"


    The boy thought for a moment, as if recalling something and answered, "A gift is a mutation that happens to the people affecting one''s own natural talent." Dayno with a proud smile continued, "And how you get a gift? I want examples."


    With a smile Aster answered, this time, without even a moment of thought, "You can get one training something to a high a level, the gift you receive this way is related to the skill, As made a powerful arch mage in the past, he trained his fire magic to a level so high that he got the Fire Gift."


    Making a pause, the boy soon continued, "The other form is through birth, when the parents have a gift and the child receives the gifts as a inheritance, a good example are the royal families through the world. A king in the past got the Resistance Gift and all those who descended his blood got the gift, though in lesser forms, and the least common form, thought rare, a person can be born with a random gift, independently of inheritance, ambient or achievements, like me."


    As the boy talked, Rayssa became even more bewildered, but at end of his speech, she was already numb, and Dayno even more proud.


    "See, I was not wrong, Aster have a mind related inborn gift, if I had insisted on teaching him, I was only going to waste my time, he can learn of that all alone and ask me what he doesn''t understand later." Having said that Dayno, gave his wife a victorious smile, that smile, was the least drop that made the redhead feel defeated.


    "Sure, sure, you are right, I was wrong, I am going home. " Said the still shocked mother, and Dayno chuckled, "Aster, at home we can continue the questioning."


    Nodding, the boy said, "Yes, then I''ll continue reading the books. " Hearing that, the father smiled and said, "But don''t forget to eat your food."


    The mother and son duo walked together to the home talking to the people along the way and when they are nearly reaching the end of the walk, the mother, who already recovered from the shock, asked in a interested tone, "So, my little boy have a gift?"


    To which Aster told, full of pride, "Yeah, I have the best one." That made Rayssa laugh, "And why do you think yours is the best one?" Curious, inquired the mother.


    Suddenly, the happy and bright eyes of the child changed, to one of a monotonous and frigid demeanor, and with a cold voice, he answered, "The Mind Gift active properties let the user change the his own perspective to a different one, this ability is more useful for doing and seeing things that the normal perspective cannot, like now, my normal perspective is that of a little child, but now I have the same point of view of a war golem, seeing no difference between lives and objects."


    Rayssa frowned, for she knows the use that such abilities have, but she know how dangerous is to control a power like this, and she judged that it was to much power to Aster wield without at least, having a more mature mind, "Go back to normal." She demanded, and as if never changed, he got back to normal, with a bright eyes and a wide smile.


    In a unshakable voice, she said, "Promise that you will limit the use before your adulthood." All that the boy said in turn was, "Its a promise" And in silence, they reached home.

 Chapter 1.3 - A Day in The Village

    After reaching home, Rayssa has gone off to make the food and Aster continued to read through the books that his father left in the table, but before starting he picked all the books and moved then to his room, one by one.Five books in total, the contents are history, geography, mathematics, survival knowledge and biology.


    As the times flew, the boy only stopped of read when his mother called him to eat, then continued soon after, even if the father was already at home at that point. Thee boy only stopped when he hear his father''s voice, "Liking the books?" Asked the mage, with a amused sm on his face.


    Looking up he saw his father, who was gazing at his reading face with a smile, and nodded with the head, "Let''s make that questions now?" Inquired the mage, to make sure that the boy was ready, but seeing that Aster nodded, started the questioning, "So, what the difference between a bloodline and a gift?"


    "While both, bloodlines and gifts can be passed through the blood, the principal difference is that a gift have a active properties and the bloodlines only increment the affinity for the subject, while both decay with the time, a gift will became a lesser gift, then a minor lesser, after which it will become a pure bloodline, then normal, and lesser, after that they both will be ended, with only a few exceptions." Answered the boy without, skipping a beat, "Who are The Three Human Emperors?" Continued the mage, fast as his son.


    "The First Human Emperor, was the man that, four thousand years ago, led the humans into unification and stabilized the human against the other species, The Second Human Emperor, was the one who, two and half thousand years ago, protected the humans from the Dragon Knight of Conquest and the Third Human Emperor was the one who, a thousand years ago, elevated his own racial abilities, somehow, to a level so high that he mutated his racial trait, which made a resonance with all other humans and doubled the power of the trait, elevating the human race as a whole." As the boy ended his speech, the mage get up from his seat and said, "You did good, much better than I expected, I''ll leave the other questions for another day." Leaving for the door.


    Seeing his that his father leaving, he was going to take another book, but a soft hand covered his own above the book, Aster looked up, only to see the stern eyes of his father, "Look, I know you liked the books, but tomorrow you''ll need to get out and play with the other children, is a tradition on the village that the kids away get out alone at the three years."


    At beginning of his father speech, Aster was thinking about how sad he''ll be without the books, but at end, he was excited about get to know new kids, as the only one he knew is the baby of his mother friend and he was less than one year old, so he can''t even be called a kid yet, but from what his father said, there will be kids of his age, and maybe even older!


    This is fantastic! New and unknown things are waiting me tomorrow. Seeing the changes on his son''s face, Dayno smiled and said, "Tomorrow will be a long day, so sleep well." As he gaves a goodnight kiss on Aster''s forehead.


    Before going to sleep, Aster picked up the books who are above the bed and placed then in the corner of the room, I can''t sleep in the middle of these books, mommy will get mad again. After that he blowed the candle, to turn of the light and got to sleep.


    Waking up in the next morning, eating the breakfast with his parents, Aster asked, "When will I be going to meet the other kids?" To his delight, his father answered, "When you end your breakfast, you can go."


    Eating faster than ever before, Aster got up from the his seat and, with all the energy that can be contained in his little body, yelled, "I''m going now!" As he passed through the door, leaving behind his amused parents.


    When he got out, Aster looked at same old road that he walked with his parents everyday, but today, he was passing alone, as someone who already have the age to go out alone, even if only near the village.


    Running through the road looking to the sides, Aster searched the other kids of the village, but no much later he found the first kid, he was a little boy too, half a palm taller than Aster, brown eyes and hair decorated the boy''s head, he too, looked like was searching for something.


    "Good, I found someone, I was thinking that I''ll lose myself and still be alone, at least I have this little girl with me." Said the boy, in a relieved tone.


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    But these words made Aster frown, " I''m not a girl! I am a boy, can you not see?" Looking especially cute, Aster tried to convince the boy with poor sight that he was a boy, but the boy simply not cared about his protest.


    "What are you saying? You clearly is a girl, how can a boy look so much like a girl, enough of this, we have to find more people." Ending the talk just like this, the boy held Aster''s hand and started running, to find more kids to play


    Aster, was stil unhappy with the misunderstanding, but the boy has given him no choice but to run, as he is stronger, enough to get a good grip on Aster''s hand, and faster, enough to make Aster need to shut his mouth to not bite his tongue while being dragged.


    Going through the village they found only grownups, which was not what they are searching for and the boy was unhappy with this development, they had runned the village for a few minutes before the boy finally stopped and said, confused, " This is not working, we have found nothing but grownups, aren''t this the day where a lot of kids get out of their houses? Why can''t we find someone?"


    Breathing heavy, Aster cleared the confusion of the boy, "Of course we wouldn''t find anyone, we have been running around my house for the past minutes." Shocked the boy said, "That''s not possible, I''ve been paying attention to all the things!"


    "Then that''s the problem, you need to focus in only on the path that you''re going!" Retorted Aster, while calming his breathing, "Now I will take the lead." Continued Aster, going ahead of the lost boy, expecting him to follow the lead.


    "Hey, little girl, you still haven''t told me your name." Spoke the still unnamed boy, still fully believing that his deduction of Aster''s gender, "I already told you that I''m not a girl, but my name is Aster." Answered the unmade question, still with his back to the boy.


    Even without Aster asking, the boy still tried to continue the talk, without realizing that he was already making Aster loose his calm, "Cool, my name is Johan, my dad told me to not be mean with girls, so I''ll let you go and lead the way." Aster, hearing the spoken words, made a ugly face, well, at least he tried, with his face the best he can make is the face of a cute child throwing a tantrum.


    But Aster finally understood that arguing with the boy was a fool''s errand, Johan was stubborn as a rock, nothing entered his head, At least he can heard the other things that I say. Though Aster, as he guided the mistaken boy through the village. As they walked,Aster still tried, in a frustrated effort, to make Johan understand that he was a boy, but that simply doesn''t enter inside the head of the boy, Aster was almost giving up trying.


    When they finally found the other kids, after a good time, where they lost themselves a big number of times, thanks to Johan, the children are all in the same place, a park near the outskirts of the village, almost as if they all agreed beforehand when to reach here.


    "What! How can we be the least? I get out of my house even before the first ray of sunlight." Asked a shocked Johan, being the reason of thei delay, as if expecting something different from happening.


    "What do you expected?Do you know how many times you made us go through that same road?A lot that''s is!" Answered Aster, full of frustration feelings about the negative sense of direction of the bigger boy.


    "If I know how many times we got through that road,I wasn''t going to go again. It was your job to make sure that we didn''t get lost." Said Johan, doing all that he can to shift the blame, it was so shameless of him that even he even has a faint blush on his face, but he was not going to admit his fault.


    "I didn''t stopped you because I had no chance! You simply got on the first road that happened to be before you, without even giving me the time to say anything!" Retorted Aster, at least this time he could argue with him, it was not so futile as the talk about his gender.


    As they neared the group, they could see a older boy speaking to the group, "All right everybody, you know the rules, no going out of the village and no hurting each others." And the children answered, as if in a chorus a loud, "Yes, we know. " As they all dispersed in different locations, the only ones remaining on the park are Aster, Johan and the group of the older boy.

 Chapter 2.1 - A Hero in Making

    When the pair looked at older boy, their eyes gleamed from a moment, but Asters eyes soon returned to the normal, at same time, he became curious, I''ve felt something inside my head.


    The boy was a gallant blonde with blue eyes, his smile white looked like he could charm anybody, his face while still with some baby fat, already showed signs of having a adult look. Pulling his hands, could be see a cute little girl that seemed about at his age, she was, fruitlessly, trying to hurry him to come along, "Hurry up! If we go too slow someone may get here before us!" Said the little girl.


    Giving no mind to the little girl, the boy said while looking at Aster and Johan, " Hannah, look, I think they loose themselves from the other groups, they may even be newcomers. What if they didn''t found no one. We should talk with them." The girl, Hannah, only looked at Johan with hers blue eyes once, then she simply ignored him. But when her eyes landed on Aster, her eyes turned in hostile ones, as if she had saw a demon.


    "Why do you want to take that girl with us? Don''t you already have me?" Asked the little girl, with a flick of her blue hair that matched with her eyes, fully against the idea of having Aster with them.


    Why everyone thinks that I''m a girl? Do I really look that much like a girl? Though Aster, confused, clearly everyone thinks that he is a girl, but why? The question haunted the Aster''s head for long, but he still didn''t find anything that may answer that cursed question.


    But something happened that made Aster disbelieve his ears, the golden haired boy actually said, "Huh? What do you mean ? There are no girls here other than you." He didn''t confuse my gender?He must be a good guy. That was what passed through Aster''s mind, but then he felt again something inside his head, this time, Aster started to be even more curious about why the boy was trying to affect his mind.


    Of course, someone who was already a adult will feel suspicious, if not downright aggressive, if they discovered that someone is affecting their mind, but Aster still don''t know that having his mind affected is something bad, he still is only a three years old after all.


    But then as any curious child would do, he asked what was in his mind, "Hey, why are you trying to mess with my mind?" The boy looked troubled by the question, " Sorry if it bothered you, is just that I have a ability that affects the minds of the people in my surroundings, but I can''t control it yet." But that answers was not enough to satisfy the curious little child.


    "But how did you got the ability?" It was like every answer only made the boy even more mysterious in Aster''s mind. Now, the boy was the most interesting thing that Aster ever saw in his life.


    This time, erasing the troubled face that was obstructing his beautiful visages, blonde boy answered the question with every bit of pride inside his body, "I am a hero, the hero of might, and this ability is one of the hero abilities that came together with being a hero." And he didn''t tried to conceal anything, he was a good child after all.


    And as a child who have loving parents and a good uprising, he think that lying is something that only bad children will do. But he is a hero, and heroes cannot be bad children, he need to be a good child if he want be a good hero.


    When Aster heard the boy, he tried to remember the things from the books that his father gave. Heroes, a special group of people, they are all blessed by the plane at birth, a hero is someone who is born with a growth rate ridiculously high, but limited to only one aspect.


    The majority of the people before reaching the level of a Adept had a big numbers of restrictions such as not being able to reach the higher magical elements like space or death, needing a high rank or a gift related to the subject to be able to do some like that. In truth, heroes have unlimited potential, if they can use it was for each one of then to discover.


    The only real purpose that such extraordinary existences have during their lives, is to protect the plane from foreign entities, making sure that it wasn''t threatened, being its effective guardians, even if there are other entities that have potential to grow even above the level of a hero.


    Such a existence is the boy in front of him, but what was conflicting with his knowledge, was that only six heroes can be alive at some point in the time. When he thought about it, Aster tried to remember who are the heroes alive at moment, which are, The Supreme Arch Wizard, a human, The Sage of the Forest, a elf ,The Mountain King, a dwarf, The Immortal Hydra, a monster, The Wandering Songstress, a human and The Dragon King of Annihilation, a dragon.


    The Dragon King of Annihilation is the actual hero of might, if the boy before him was truly a hero, one of these Legends need to be dead, but if ever one of them died, the world would already be enveloped in a giant uproar. And even more if it was the Dragon King, being the oldest of all heroes, he was a being that lived through the times that The Four Knights of the End roamed through the world, but he was still far from the end of his natural lifespan, of four thousand years.


    This is not something to gloss over, even him, who still a child knows how much of a danger is if the Dragon King got killed, he was already decided to tell his parents about this when he returns to home.


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    "Wow, a hero !So cool, look Aster! He is a hero! A hero you know, he must be really strong, like, killing anyone and anything with only a single punch. Like the Supreme Arch Wizard." Of course, even a three years old child knows the heroes that represents the human race.


    "That''s right, Ryuu can kill anyone and anything with a single punch, he is even stronger than adults!" Exclaimed the girl,looking pleased, as if the one being praised was her.


    The young hero, Ryuu, looked troubled at Johan and Hannah, all hyped ups and with glowing eyes. With intention of clearing the misunderstanding made by Hannah, Ryuu said," Come on, I''m not that strong. I only can beat at most, a blue wolf." But that only made it worse, Johan, being able to get out of the house only today, never saw a kid beat one brown wolf, a tier 1 monster. A blue wolf is a tier 2 monster having potential to reach the peak of the Adept rank, this was something never seemed before by the little boy.


    "A blue wolf!So cool! And was the wolf very big?" Asked Johan wanting all the details of the fight, but the silent and still unnamed boy interrupted, "Let''s go, we have a place to go!" Taking the lead towards their destination, the boy returned to be silent as they begun to follow after him. Hannah, being used to his antics, started to talk about all of Ryuu''s heroics tales to Johan, and Ryuu, feeling sorry about the attitude of the boy toward their new friends, said, "Sorry about Luke, he was always been the more silent type."


    Aster nodded his head and said, "Its okay, but you really has no way to stop that hero skill of yours? Its really itchy to have someone else inside my mind." Ryuu, with a apologetic face said, "Sorry, I still don''t know how to control this power." At end of his words, the itch inside his mind dulled, but Aster still can felt it inside him.


    But at the moment that he heard these words, he felt the mind gift inside of him working. The power of the gift would normally protect him from the mental attacks, but it was now helping him to train his mental resilience by allowing only some weakened attacks to reach him.


    "Oh never mind I can feel my mental resilience growing on by talking with you. I think that at this point you releasing more of the power would even be beneficial to me." Said Aster in a tentative of consoling the older boy.


    And his efforts are not frustrated, when he heard the younger boy words, Ryuu made a happy face, then a confused one and asked, "But how can you feel my power?You are the first to ever feel it."


    With a cute, trying to look proud, smile on his face, one that made Ryuu even doubt his hero powers, and said, "You are not the only incredible one! I am have a inborn mind gift, a complete one, and I know that someday you won''t be the only one who can kill blue wolves."


    "Wow, a full gift aren''t you a incredible boy, look like I will have to work harder." Said Ryuu in response to the claim of the younger boy, he was truly amazed by the surprise.


    "But where are we going now?" Asked Aster only now, that he understood. He too, was following the silent boy to a unknown destination.


    "Well, somedays ago, someone heard a few suspicious noises coming from a abandoned house near the outskirts of the village, so we''re going to investigate it, to see if it was really a ghost." Answered Ryuu, half sure of his response, he don''t trust that the place was going to house a ghost.


    "But what will you do if there really have a ghost inside the house? Ghosts can only be hurt by magic, and my daddy is only one mage on the village." Strangely, Aster feels no fear toward the ghost, for some reason, knowing that his father can kill the ghost made him completely secure.


    Ryuu was going to answer the question when Hannah interrupted, "Huh, you''re teacher''s son?" Looking at Aster as if searching for some similarities between the boy before her and the man who taught her all knowledge that she has about magic.


    "Its really true! His face is almost the same as teacher''s and his hair is the same one too!" Exclaimed the surprised little girl, now knowing that Aster and Dayno are father and son, she felt strange inside, knowing that the child she thought to be a girl was so similar to her teacher.


    "That''s why you looked so familiar! "Said Ryuu, continuing "Well, she did say that she have a little son, but I didn''t expected this person be you. "As he scratched his cheek, he too was surprised by the new revelation, who would have thought about such coincidence? Thought the boy.


    "So my daddy teaching you magic?"Asked Aster, to make sure of what was his father really teaching these children, it could be a variety of things going about how much Dayno really knew.


    "Of course! And I am his best student, the only one who already get my wind magic to the early Adept rank!" Proudly declared Hannah, omitting that she was the only one who Dayno taught magic, "But you won''t be the best for long! My daddy said that when I end my studies about varied knowledge he''ll teach me magic. Then at that time I''ll be the very best. " Returned Aster with a defiant expression on his face, which made Hannah scream, "You won''t be the best! Not when I''m here!" When Hannah was starting to jump on Aster, and Ryuu was getting ready to stop her. All while Johan watched the exchange from the sides, a cold voice said, " Stop bickering, we are here."


    They are at gates of the house.

 Chapter 2.2 - The Haunted Mansion

    The house that Ryuu mentioned is noting like a house, the construction is, in fact, a mansion used by a noble in the past to be a resting place from the chaotic capital of the kingdom but unfortunately that noble family was exterminated by a passing Sage who was offended by the house master''s son. From that day onward no one entered the mansion, until this day, where the mansion of the all powerful noble mansion is going to be explored by some children.


    "So, how we''ll enter this place? Asked Johan, looking at the 5 meters tall wall that circled the mansion. To a adult it is a tall wall, but none of then is a adult, Luke, the tallest of the group is only 1,10 meters tall, and Aster, the smallest is 45cm. To him, this is a impossible to pass wall, there seems no way to enter, if not the gates.


    Looking at Johan, who was thinking about going around the wall to find a spot to enter, Ryuu said as he approached the gate and pulled the holding bars that are on it , "There no way to pass this thing without going through the gate, so we''ll shall go through the gate." And to their surprise it opened, "They must have thought that with such big walls, everyone will be intimidated, so they don''t even put protections on the gate." Thought out aloud the simple minded boy.


    After that, the group got through the gate, in the direction of the main door of the mansion. The mansion itself was a three store tall construction, and looked like having multiple rooms inside each floor with various windows and sculptures of serpents. It was a glorious mansion on its better days, now thought, that magnificence coupled with growing moss and the tall grass, only made the place seems lost to the time.


    On their way to the front door of the mansion, they heard a high pitched scream coming from one of the storehouses outside of the mansion, running in the direction of the scream, with Aster being carried for being to slow, they saw that the door of the storehouse was closed.


    They thought that searching for a key might delay them more than they could, so opening the door through more violent methods, they got inside. What they saw made all of them pale, but Aster eyes soon flickered to a cold and and unbothered look and with a cold voice, he said, "Demon cultists."


    Demon cultists, they one of the group more frowned on the continent for they are a group of people that followed the steps of the Seven Great Demon Kings, the masters of the Abyss who tried to conquer the world together by the times of The First Human Emperor. But with his incredible powers the emperor banished the demons to another plane, where they could fight for conquest between themselves.


    Unfortunately there are ways some who tried to make contact with the lesser demons of the Abyss, falling to the madness of the demons in exchange for power, these are the demon cultists.


    Luckily they have not found the cultists themself, but two demonized monkeys, they are foul creatures that possessed full black bodies, with sharp claws and fangs. They are normal monkeys that got possessed by the lowest of the demons, "We need to tell daddy about this." Said Aster, it was weird hearing him saying the word "daddy" in such cold tone. At same time that Aster said it, the two monkeys saw the group and started to run in their direction.


    But the group was not one of mediocre children, each one of them was at the least in the verge of breaking to the Adept level with Hannah somehow being a Adept in mere seven years of age. Seeing the monkeys coming their way, Ryuu answered in a motivated tone, "But we can definitely deal with these two demonized monkeys, they look weaker than the blue wolf." He did have confidence in his deduction, having sensed the tier of the monkeys with his hero skills.


    Going for the first monkey, Ryuu waived his sword, stopping the monkey from approaching the others. Luke still silent until now got around Ryuu trying to stop the other monkey, buying time for Hannah.


    Hannah, who was very concentrated, waived her hand and murmured, "Wind Slash." And as her voice resonated throughout their ear, multiple blades of wind appeared before her, flying through the air targeting the monkey that Luke was fighting. Hitting it at sides, making its movements lethargic and giving Luke the chance to stab true in its neck and eyes with his daggers.


    While this happened, Ryuu fought with his monkey alone, he leaped, he slashed and he stabbed through the monkey like it was nothing. The group of three was vastly more powerful than a pair of monkeys, even if they are demonized ones.


    After the fight Ryuu said, "Good, we need to go, now." Already hurrying the group out of the storehouse, they are still in hostile territory after all. Aster could felt again a force trying to invade his mind when Ryuu spoke, but this time he remained strong trying to ignore the effects that his mere voice could cause on his decision making capacities.


    But at that moment that they are walking through the door, Aster heard a soft whimpering. Looking around the storehouse, Aster found the source of the sound, a little monkey, about the size of a third of the demonized ones.


    Seeing that, Aster eyes gotten back to normal and he said, "Wait, let me try take it. We can leave it alone, what if they do more of these terrible things..." Pointing to the bodies of thedemonized monkeys on the floor, "...At least I can try take it." Pleaded the boy.


    Hearing some truth in Aster word, evem if he doesn''t believed it as possible, Ryuu said, "Well, you are teacher''s son, so you can at least try it." Ignoring Ryuu''s disbelief, Aster got in the direction of the little monkey, but then stopped, I can do better than this. Though Aster, at that moment, Aster received a flash of inspiration. His eyes changed to one of a unintelligent beast and at same time, a child longing for company, this way, he neared the little monkey.


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    When he as only a palm from the monkey, he got a better look at it, it was a palm high, but looked smaller because of the curved posture it had brown fur and little eyes, while the fangs and the claws are present, the little monkey as to much of a baby to had any sharpness on them.


    Trying to communicate with the monkey, Aster did some unintelligible sounds out of his mouth, which made in turn the little monkey respond with unintelligent sounds of his own. After that exchange repeating sometimes, the little monkey climbed on Aster arms and used them as stairs to his shoulders, where he sat down.


    It was strange, when he began to try communicating with the monkey he could feel that there wasn''t nothing special, only him doing strange noises. But after sometime passing he could felt his gift acting again, this time developing his empathic capacity.


    When that happened he could felt everything that the little monkey was feeling and all the pain that was inside the monkey, but he could stabilise a mental connection with the monkey. I need to thank this gift somehow in the future, it was helping me to much to much. Though Aster, even though that the gift was only a uncontrolled part of him.


    Doubting hers eyes, Hannah asked to Ryuu on her side, "That strange noises actually had some effect?" Ryuu doubted too, but the proof is right in front of his eyes, the monkey climbed the shoulders, This would be one of the things that I am never understand for all my life. Though the little hero, "Anyway we have to go!" Having no other option, he choose to ignore the uncomprehensible feat.


    After this little event, they got out of the storehouse and soon after, the mansion. At that time, the sun is already on the peak of the sky, in this time of the day Dayno should still be in his workplace, so Aster with the little monkey on his shoulder, again, got carried away for being to slow. But what can he do?He is just too young and untrained to have the same physical abilities of the older children, while Johan was simply abnormally strong for his age.


    Reaching the stone construction, the group stopped and Ryuu said, "From here only Hannah must enter." He knew that Dayno don''t like when that enter the place in large numbers. At that time Aster asked, "Why only she can enter? Aren''t you all his students?" Noticing the misunderstanding caused by his early words, Ryuu answered, " No, we are not, Luke and I are learning how to fight with Rayssa, your mother, that''s why I said that you are teacher''s son. "


    Finally understanding, Aster said, "Oh, okay, I''m going talk with my daddy." And nonchalantly entered the workplace, as if he owned the place, to search for his father.


    Ryuu, dumbfounded, looked at the little boy walking inside as if the most normal thing of the world, "As expected of teacher''s son, only these two would dare to make trouble in mister Dayno''s workshop." He said with a sigh, remembering the nature of his teacher and assimilating it with the boy before him.


    Entering the workplace, Aster eyes glossed over the books on the shelves as he searched for his father, yelling as he passed, "Daddy, where are you? " Not to long after his first yell, Dayno appeared beside him, touching his empty shoulder and angrily saying, "What have I talked with you about being loud here?This place is a library, a place that needs to be silent all the time."


    Indeed, Dayno''s job is that of a librarian, but he does a quick job as the healer of the village if necessary, and even have the duty of a guardian, as he is the strongest one in the village.


    "But daddy, you said that in a emergency I can be loud." Said Aster, feeling wronged, I am here on a important mission, why did he scolded me? Eyeing his son for a bit, Dayno asked, " So what is the so called emergency?" Not believing that his son have a real problem, perhaps something related to the monkey on his shoulder, "We have found demonized monkeys." Said Aster with a serious face and in a long time, no one smiled at Aster''s serious face.


    Dayno frowned when he heard his son''s words, "Are you sure?" Seeing Aster nodding, Dayno asked again, "Then why do you have a monkey on your shoulder?" Aster answered still very serious, "Because I think that his parents are the demonized monkeys. While he was in the place I feared that he was going to be demonized too,so I took it with me, to make sure that he wasn''t possessed too."


    This time, Dayno smiled warmly and said as he patted Aster on the head, "You still will need to let him go back to the forest, you know." Aster nodded with a sad face, he initially thought about keeping the little monkey.


    Returning to a serious face, Dayno asked, "But how did you find them?" He really have no idea of how his son found demon cultists on his first time going outside alone.


    "Ryuu and Hannah guided us to a abandoned house, we found them here. Do you know that he is a hero?" Dayno for once was extremely shocked by his son''s words. He never noticed that Ryuu was a hero, nor he thought that Aster might meet his apprentice on his first adventure outside. But that is for another time, now they have cultists to kill.

 Chapter 2.3 - Invasion Start

    After thinking about how the things may proceed at the mansion, Dayno asked, "Do you want to come along or go back home?" He already knew that whatever they may find inside the mansion will be weak enough to be deal by him alone, it would be even more overkill if you put Rayssa on the fight. And if you know the barbarian, you will know that there as no way she was going to be outside of the fight.


    Aster, who thought that his part in all of this has already ended, smiled bright while he asked, " I really can?" He ever thought about how amazing would be to see his father fight, but never had the opportunity to witness such a thing. Now he finally had the chance to see the awesomeness of his father at full power.


    Chuckling, Dayno said, "Of course that you can, but you are to never leave my side, no matter what happens." His tone was good humored, but Aster knew that under the smile of his father was a very serious warning, so he only nodded his head.


    Picking up Aster on his arm, Dayno murmured, "Sound Relaying." And his mouth moved but Aster couldn''t listen to anything that his father said. Looking at the confused Aster, Dayno smiled and said, "I was using my wind magic to pass a message to your mother, she will be waiting for us at the gates of the mansion." Now understanding what his father had done, Aster nodded while Dayno walked out of the library.


    Looking at bunch of children waiting outside Dayno looked coldly at them and said, "Rayssa won''t be happy when she discovers that her son found demon cultists in his first time alone outside." That was enough to make Ryuu and Luke pale because they knew what happen to those that made Rayssa angry, it was not a pretty thing, "But I wasn''t either." Continued the mage, and based in his voice tone, Hannah thought that a worrying future wait for her.


    Johan, that still in the middle of all that mess, asked, "We are going to return to the mansion?" The mage was so concentrated on the blunder made by the trio that he only now noticed Johan. Shaking his head, Dayno said in a bothered tone, "You''ll go home, you''re not ready to go back to that place. If your ever parents know that I let you go back, I will need to endure a earful." That whoever was not enough to convince Johan, "But why can the others go and I can''t?" Said Johan feeling wronged.


    "Because they have the power to take care of themselves and I have give permission to Aster, you have neither permission or power." Said the impatient mage, wanting to make the boy understand the message quicker.


    "But-" Johan started to protest, but the mage interrupted, "No buts, now let''s go." This time he finally understood that Johan was not the type of child who would understand the time and place. So he decided to simply ignore him and started to run in the direction of the mansion. The others soon followed, leaving alone Johan who walked back to home in a pensive mood.


    When they reached the gates of the mansion, the first thing that they saw was Rayssa. She was donned in a heavy armor, carrying a battle axe in her hands, and with a great sword and a spear attached to her back. The battle starved barbarian was itching to break the gates and raid the place on her own. But she knew that even if she was powerful enough to kill everything inside alone, she may still find some danger when alone, so she waited for her duo.


    When the barbarian saw the mage carrying Aster on his arms and with the monkey being carried on Aster arms, she couldn''t control herself, she let out a loud laugh and embarrassing the mage in the process.


    Trying to shift the focus of the barbarian, the blushing mage said, "Stop laughing, we have cultists to exterminate." That made the barbarian stop laughing, but she still have a big grin on the face, " Fine I will stop for now. There has been so long that I fought a worthy battle, the only thing that I can fight on this village are worthless brown wolves and sometimes a blue wolf, it wasn''t even funny smash these things." Said the barbarian, with wishful thoughts about a hard fight.


    Though he knew that she was excited about the fight, the mage still said, "Don''t forget to let their leader to me. If the corruption runs deep enough inside him, he may even use his own life to make a demon slip to this plane." The barbarian wasn''t satisfied, but she knew that fighting the leader was a dangerous thing, so she let the positive mage take care of it.


    But that didn''t mean that the barbarian wasn''t going to protest, " You may take the leader but the second strongest is mine, you can take it from me! If lucky is on my side maybe I can even find a lesser demon." The lesser demon in question was a tier 2 creature, that was the strongest that Rayssa can fight on her own, maybe some more if she was going down with them. But of course the chances of a lesser demon making a appearance is really low because to have sacrifices enough to summon would kill at least half the village.


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    That''s why Dayno was confident enough to take Aster to the mansion, if sacrifices enough to summon a tier 2 demon are made, he would had noticed it a long time ago and won''t need to be notified by children.


    After enough of chatting, Dayno asked to Ryuu, "How did you get inside the first time?" He was expecting a great and ingenious answer, but to his disappointment the truth was another. Without answering the question, Ryuu only walked ahead and said, "Follow me." Going straight in the direction of the gate.


    The mage was suspicious when he saw that, but his suspicions quickly turned into disbelief when he saw Ryuu pulling the hand bar at the gate. He was really stunned by the sheer simplicity of the mind of whoever thought such methods.


    Taking the lead this time, the barbarian said with a laugh, as if reading the mind of the mage, "What do you expected? That they broke a master rank ward or fought a incredible battle against some idle elder beholder? They are only a bunch of children, for the gods!." The mage was unsatisfied with the answer to his questions, but he couldn''t so nothing about it so he only grumbled in a annoyed tone, "Really a bunch of children." In a voice so low that even Aster who was on his arms didn''t heard. This way, he followed after the barbarian knowing enough to not be before her when she start her killing spree.


    When they neared the door of the mansion the barbarian asked to the young hero with all sarcasm that could be contained in her voice, " So what now? We just open again or do we have to knock this time?" The boy was embarrassed, at that time he thought that it was a good idea, now though, he could see that it wasn''t the most safe option. Without knowing what to expect, he only answered the question, " I don''t know, we didn''t have reached this far." The barbarian still in a scolding tone said, "You are lucky that Aster don''t got hurt." This time the boy didn''t said anything, he knew that nothing that he could say was coming to placate the overprotective barbarian.


    Thinking that it was not the best place for scold a apprentice, Dayno said, "Enough Rayssa, you can always scold these children later. Now though, what we need was to break down the wards protecting this door." Even if Dayno said it, he didn''t truly believed that going through the ward was going to be a hard task. From his initial probe he already saw that it was at the most on the middle of the Adept level, something that he could shatter easily on his level.


    Only when Dayno broke the ward that the majority of the present ones realized that there was something before them with the exceptions being Hannah and Rayssa, the only ones who had power enough to detect something of that magnitude. The only one happy with this development was Aster, being able to see his father superiority over the normal people.


    The mage was not going to let such a easy opportunity to pass so he quickly started to lecture the children, "That was a Adept rank ward of the demonic attributes, it could had installed fear, confusion or paranoia on the ones that trespass into the range of the ward. If someone unprepared for such thing, they may fall even to the first enemy that they found, it was really a dangerous thing to do, only a fool would. " His words sounded like the one that a teacher may use when speaking with his pupils, but the words said still stabbed like a knife on the hearts of the ones hearing them.


    When she heard the sound of the ward breaking, Rayssa didn''t even waited for some type of signal or permission of any kind. She only rushed through the door like a madden bull, she was going to kill everything before her, only stopping when she satiate her thirst for blood and her hunger for battle.


    Dayno already expected that to happen, Rayssa was bottling to many frustrations, she was going to need a way to unleash it all on something. Fortunately, this cultist den was nearby, if she bottled that much for a while more dangerous things may happen.


    Knowing how his wife would react seeing so many preys, Dayno had already prepared a plan based on this, so he explained it to the children, "You kids wait here, Rayssa is going to mow through anything that she may find inside the mansion and your job is to kill everything that somehow pass through her incredible senses. I will take Aster with me to search for the boss, if everything goes right, we should be getting back in a hour or less." It was not a complicated plan, based wholly on the fact that Rayssa would kill everything inside alone, but he was sure that it was the only thing that may happen inside the mansion.

 Chapter 2.4 - Corridors

    Before entering the building, Dayno made some simple gestures with his hand and said, "Blessing " The gestures didn''t had any effects whatsoever, but when the words sounded out of his mouth, they almost gained physical forms, simulating a golden light that rested above the bodies of the children.


    Seeing the confusion present on the faces of everyone, Dayno explained, "This is a blessing, one kind of positive magic that strengthens the body of target and protects you from demonic and negative attribute magic. With this, you should be safe to kill anything that may try to flee." As he stopped talking, Dayno turned back and started to walk, with Aster in his arms, in the direction of the boss. Leaving the group of amazed children to wait for deserters.


    While they walked through the halls of the building Aster asked his father, "Daddy how does you know where you can find the boss?" Aster had no idea how his father may know where to find someone that he never saw in a place that he never has been before. Dayno listening these words chuckled and answered, " There are a lot of answers that I may give to you, the first being that as a wind mage I can feel all the wind on the mansion and with the wind, it''s movement too." Dayno made a pause to bask in his son''s shining gaze, but soon he started to talk again.


    "The second thing is that while I experienced many things on my adventurer days, so I know that petty villains like this love to make the greatest room on the house theirs personal space. It was one of the greatest mark of petty villains, together with the giant monologues and the bad end that never was what they wanted." Seeing Aster nod, Dayno stated the last method utilized, " And lastly, as a user of positive magic I can feel the power of negative magic emanating from a specific place." Finally understanding how awesome his father truly is, Aster only could stare at his father face with shining eyes for a while.


    As the corridors of the mansion are really long, they still didn''t find the master room, so using this opportunity Aster asked, "Daddy, its really impossible to me have the little monkey?" He truly wanted wanted to be with the little monkey, but he wasn''t going to disobey his parents if they said that it was impossible.


    Dayno was disheartened by his son sad face, he wasn''t truly troubled by the monkey, and it can make company to Aster while we are busy. So after reaching a satisfactory conclusion, Dayno said, "Well, it''s not like you can''t have it, but what if it doesn''t want to be with you?" He changed the choice to the monkey, it was the best thing that he may do for now, as he hasn''t talked about it with Rayssa.


    Listening the answer, Aster''s face shined enough to make the dark corridors light up for a few moments, even the battle noises and the war cry of the mad woman on the background stopped, and hopeful he asked, "So, if he wants, he can be with us?" He thought that it was already a lost cause when he asked, who would have thought that he did had some hope left? Looking at the little monkey Aster said, " Did you heard? Daddy said that if you want you can live with us from now on!" He as all smiles and giggles, in a good mood because of the new addition to the family.


    Dayno was troubled by the early conclusion of the decision and not wanted to disappoint the boy later on so he said, "Aster, we should be concentrating on the fight with the cultists, not talking about wanting a pet. Don''t forget that you still need to ask your mother later too." It was for the best. It was going to be very ugly if the boy was all happy, only to be shot down by his mother later, even if the chances of the monkey being accepted are high.


    Aster was feeling insecure about the answer of his mother, he knew that she was very easygoing but he don''t know what she may said to the addition of a new member to the family. It was a very big decision to take after all.


    But at the moment that Aster was starting to had negative thoughts, the little monkey patted his face and to direct his attention to itself, and made some unintelligible sounds, the secret code that only they can understand. Aster didn''t fully understood what the little monkey was trying to communicate, bu he can felt that he was being encouraged.


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    Giggling, Aster though that his worries are all useless, he was starting to think about things that had no chance of happening. So feeling better after the noises, he said, " Yes you are right, when we find Mommy we can worry about it. Now, we just need to witness Daddy being amazing. " The little monkey was frustrated that his message didn''t get through the head of the boy, but seeing him happy again he climbed the shoulders and got itself a comfortable position.


    It was strange to Aster, he could felt the power of the gift affecting his bound with the little monkey, making him feel even better the emotions of the monkey.


    Dayno became worried about his mental health when he listened his talk with the monkey, but seeing that the talk was effective, he was sure that his decision has been the correct one. At the end of the words said by his son, Dayno couldn''t help but be all fired up to give a show to Aster. It was not every day that he can show himself after all.


    After turning a last corner they saw a different door, it was different because while all the doors that they passed until now are all painted with blood, courtesy of the barbarian raging through the place, or simply don''t had anything different from normal doors. This one whoever, had a oppressive feeling spreading around it, a normal observer may even loose his conscience because of this, but obviously none of them are normal observers.


    For a few moments, Aster was terrified, he thought that he would die in this exact moment, he felt confused about if this was the place that he should been. But these thoughts are quickly pushed out of his mind at the moment that the gift started acting, that together with his father''s body warm was enough to take the boy back to his normal conditions.


    Dayno only thought about how the mind affecting effects of demonic magic may affect his son when he felt Aster trembling on his Arm. Ashamed of himself he instantly put a blessing on Aster and the little monkey, " Sorry, I forgot to put a blessing on you two. I thought that you wouldn''t need staying by my side." It was needless to said that he was wrong. Aster and the monkey really don''t needed any kind of offensive blessing, but that didn''t mean that he wouldn''t need a defensive one.


    But the reaction that he received was very different from what he expected. To the blessings put on his body, Aster only said, "Don''t worry daddy. Even if you forget it, my gift helped me to recover, it even helped my growth." While he was frightened during the moment that he was exposed to the magic, he still felt better by having his father near him.


    Dayno was surprised by hearing that the gift could help him resist such a thing, but he thought it was a thing better left for another time. Now he needs to kill the leader of a demon cult.


    Opening the door could be saw the bodies of different kinds of animals, their skins being dismantled to different degrees, the only thing that was the same in all the bodies was that they are all without a single drop of blood. Above a altar put on the center of the room was even the body of a tier 2 beast still being drained from its blood. The only thing that was alive inside the room was a figure dressed in a robe that covered the whole body.


    The figure was with its back turned to the door, so it''s not possible to see what exactly is inside the robe. But hearing the sound of the big door opening, the figure slowly turned to them.


    At that time Aster could see the face of the occult figure, it was a middle aged man with black hair and eyes. He was a common man, if not pushing to the ugly side with a big nose that curved like a talon to the border of his lips.


    Seeing this figure, Aster couldn''t help but shout, "Its Berry! The butcher of the village." Indeed, the one who was sacrificing animals to the demons is Berry, the butcher of the village, Aster knew him from the many times that he was going around the village with his parents.

 Chapter 2.5 - Bloody Mansion

    Berry was a jealous guy, so when Dayno, a mage, started to live on the village, with a beautiful wife and soon after a cute baby, he got real mad with jealousy. After many days of planning how to surpass Dayno, a minor demon offered him a deal and as the fool that he was, he actually accepted the deal.


    No long after that he started to sacrifice blood of animals to the demon, but the demon wanted more, it wanted human blood. But sadly Berry was a coward never gathering enough courage to kill a villager, even with the madness of the demon slowly corroding his mind.


    But as he never really provided enough blood to the demon he didn''t truly gained powerful magic. Becoming only a Adept rank mage, a starting one too, Hannah had power around that same range too. In truth, if he had known mana manipulation he would have became a negative mage even stronger than he was now.


    But of course, Dayno knew nothing about it, and no one truly know. Berry was really secretive about his hidden feelings as the only ones that knew about his demonic magic are the other cultists. But Berry was a irrational person so when he saw Dayno entering the room, with Aster on his arms no less, he raged like the barbarian on the outside.


    Shouting with all his might, " Its you! Cursed mage! Why do you always appear at my path! My plan was almost complete!" As he spoke split flowed from his mouth like a river, his eyes red like he didn''t sleep for some nights already, "The only thing that I was needing was the blood of a tier 3 beast and I would have unlimited powers! Why do you always appear at the worst moment?"


    Dayno was confused by the screams of the butcher, he knew the man from sometimes in the village, but the man was screaming as if he was his worst rival. And even more what nonsense was this man saying?Why does this guy think he''ll get unlimited powers by sacrificing a simple tier 3 monster ?If getting unlimited powers is that easy why does everyone train so hard to get stronger?And more where does this guy think he''ll find a tier 3 monster ?He don''t even have the necessary abilities to kill a tier 2.


    The butcher said to many unreasonable things, more than Dayno was capable of understanding, so he did the rationale thing to do in these moments, he ignored it. And as he came here with intention of giving phis son a show, he started acting as a character of a heroic tale, " Barry, the butcher of the village! Your reign of terrors is over! I came today to get your head." His voice was in a theatrical tone, one that would made the mage blush if Rayssa was present. But as there are only Aster and a soon to be dead man on the room he could act unrestrained.


    Dayno didn''t messed his name on purpose, but that still enraged the butcher the same. He was fuming in a bizarre way when he bellowed, "My name is Barry you trice dammed mage, I will kill you today!" The fifth rate villain tried to jump on Dayno his hands changing into claws.


    But Dayno was not so slow as to let such a obvious move strike true, he easily dodged to the side with a gracious step. This time Dayno attacked the butcher, he simply shoot a flash of light at the chest of the cultist.


    But that was enough, when Dayno''s magic landed on the chest of the man he was immediately downed. Aster and Dayno waited for a few moments, thinking that it was a trap, but he never got up again. A very disappointing end to a very disappointing villain.


    The silence reigned in the room for a few moments only breaking when Aster asked, "That is it?" He was expecting a incredible fight where his father would, after a unending show of magic, win in the end. But to his disappointment the opposition was so mediocre that only a shot was enough to kill him, even the little monkey on his shoulder was disappointed as he too wanted to see a epic fight between two mages.


    Dayno was disappointed too, but because of a different thing, he wanted to appear cool to his son and look at his shining eyes during the fight. But there had no fight and all that he could see was a disheartened look where should be a radiant one.


    After sometime tried to swallow the bitterness in his mouth Dayno finally said, "Let''s go search your mother." In a attempt to switch the focus of the boy to something less pitiful and to someone that he loved, there has no away that Aster was going to reject search for his mother after all.


    The group of downhearted people then began to search for Rayssa, which wasn''t a really hard thing to do as there has a trail of bodies and the roaring of the barbarian could be heard until no too long ago.


    When they finally found her she was in a open salon that was used to hold balls to the amusement of the nobles that resided on the place before the cultists. The salon while open and expansive, had beautiful pillars that survived even through the passage of the time. The place should been a awesome place at that times, but even if it survived the passage of time it couldn''t remain intact after a barbarian raged through the place.


    The wall, floor and even the ceiling were painted in red from all the blood that was splashed by the opponents of then barbarian. Instead of the lavish and extravagant things that decorated the place in the past, the only things that now decorated the salon are bodies of different kind of demonized animals, looking like islands on the sea of blood.


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    In the middle of the room there had a body bigger than the others, different from the other bodies on the floor, this one was humanoid and had three horns poking out of its head an was almost the triple size of the demonized animals.


    Resting above the the bigger body could be see the seated Rayssa, she was in a very bloody state, with injuries covering almost every piece of her body. The full body armor that was protecting her before was almost fully destroyed with only a few pieces of metal covering her upper legs and her right shoulder. One won''t need to be a very perceptive fellow to see that the fight wasn''t easy.


    Looking at such sight Dayno was in disbelief, Rayssa was almost breaking to the Elite rank, How could something summoned by that useless fellow be strong enough to push her to this state? Though the mage, to allow a demon this strong to pass to this plane required that a enormous sacrifice was made, something that couldn''t be possible.


    After gathering his thoughts Dayno asked, " What happened inside this room?" He was having a hard time believing that something of that proportion was happening inside this village.


    Rayssa, who was seated almost like a statue on the body, hearing the question jumped up like a released spring, laughing like a mad woman after having fought such a good battle, "The fools somehow get a demon, not a lesser one, a true demon! You should have seen their faces when they discovered that the thing come at its own will, It was hilarious!"


    A true demon, that was how are called the demons who somehow get to achieve the Elite rank, losing the lesser and the minor on its name to signify the great difference on the power. And different from lesser demons, a demon can think like a sentient race amplifying even more the danger of such monster.


    But what was more important on the moment was that the demon was a Elite. Rayssa while still having plenty of strength still only at the peak of the Adept rank and while it was possible for a Adept fight with a Elite for some time, it was almost impossible for the former defeat the latter with only some especial circumstances allowing it to happen.


    Rayssa, as if reading all the thoughts that passed through the head of the mage, said while still laughing, " Don''t think that only you have the potential to reach the Elite rank Dayno. From this day onward, I too can be called a Elite." She was very happy about the earnings of the day, not only she got to fight against a real foe, but she even advanced a rank in the end.


    Dayno was surprised by the answer but that didn''t mean that he was unhappy with advancement of his wife, in truth he was really happy about this development, " Congratulations! But don''t forget that we still need to discover how the got sacrifices enough to summon it." These words had poured cold water on the laughing barbarian, but that didn''t mean that they are untruthful.


    In truth, to summon even a lesser demon in its true body was necessary to sacrifice enuresis lives to kill almos half the population of the village and even more If it was a true demon. Something that they would never discover later was that Berry was sacrificing all the blood from the animals butchered in the village for almost four years thinking that he had used all this blood to empower himself, if he had really accumulated all that power he would really been a match for Dayno. But all the sacrifices are hijacked by the demon to use it to open a back door to this plane, leaving him only with that mediocre level of power.


    Rayssa ignored completely his words was there has no way that she, a barbarian, may know how to discover that kind of thing. The only form of acknowledgement that she did was to give him a mischievous smile and yell with all her might, " The last one to reach home was a looser!" Jumping like her life depended on that on the directionof the door to exit the mansion.


    Dayno thought that it was a childish thing to do but soon he remembered that he did the exact same thing when he reached the Elite rank. But at that time Rayssa lost as there no away that she was going to be faster than a wind mage one rank above her, she must have been nurturing a grudge from that time.


    But that didn''t mean that Dayno was going to let her win the race. Using all the speed enhancing magics that he had, Daynos speeded like the wind in the direction of the house, he knew that if she won Rayssa wouldn''t stop talking about it for a few weeks, if not months.


    Aster who was still being carried by Dayno laughed out loud, he didn''t get to see his father coolly fighting with a bad guy but the race was fun enough to make him forget about it.


    When Dayno reached home, Rayssa was already waiting for him in the door, all the smugness of the world was being embodied by her when she spoke with a smile, "Looks like you are the loser this time." Dayno''s face crumpled at these words but he chose to endure them for he knew that it was going to last for a really long time.


    Raysaa, who was basking in the glory of the victory and the annoyance of her husband, opened the door and allowed Dayno to enter the house before her, she knew this action would only make him even more annoyed.

 Chapter 2.6 - A Little Talk

    When Dayno entered the house with Aster and the monkey in his arms, Raysa entered later closing the door behind her and asking, " So, what is that it was bothering you so much?" Even if she was provoking him so much, she knew that there has another thing that was taking his attention from her.


    Dayno was still frustrated by the loss but he wasn''t going to ignore her because of that, "The first thing was about the monkey. Would you let him have it?" Dayno had a few thing that may be of some importance to talk with Rayssa but he chose the monkey first because he didn''t wanted to leave Aster waiting for so long.


    Hearing the question Rayssa didn''t even though for a moment before answering, " If the boy wants the monkey, he shall have the monkey." In truth, Rayssa wanted Aster to have at least one partner for his journey in the future and was the monkey had already volunteered himself she was not going to reject it.


    Aster gave a relieved sigh as he listened to the talk, for a few moments he thought that Rayssa was going to reject it but couldn''t be happier than being proven wrong.


    Now relieved Aster picked up the monkey from his shoulder and said in a very lively tone, "Have you heard her? You can be with us !Aren''t you happy!" In response to him the little monkey did some unintelligible sounds that would made a unrelated observer to think it was a mad beast. But these sounds only made Aster giggle and answered a question that only him heard. "Yes, I know, you did said it." Strangely, while they talked Aster could felt the influence of the gift strengthening his mental connection with the monkey, but he chose to ignore these influences from now onward.


    Glancing at the strange duo with a funny glimpse on his eyes, Dayno spoke, "But you are going need to do a blood pact with it, are you willing?" Aster had already learned about what was a blood pact and what it implicated so he only nodded without giving another thought.


    Seeing that action Dayno continued the talk, " Which lead us to our second topic. I think that we are wasting Aster''s talent, he already had the mental fortitude of someone on the Adept rank. If we start to train him at least on magic I am sure that he was going to became a Adept before his twelve years and a Elite before his thirty." He realized that when Aster resisted the power of the cursed door, it was necessary to had a Adept level of mental fortitude to resist that, but while Aster didn''t fully resisted, he shakes it off really fast.


    At the begin of his speech Rayssa thought that he was joking but seeing the serious glint in his eyes she soon noticed that she was misunderstanding it. But who would fault her for that? A three years old child with the mental fortitude of a Adept was really a bizarre concept.


    But there he was, the living proof that it was possible, playing with a baby monkey in his arms. Looking at him for a few moments Rayssa said, " If he is so talented as you are talking about we should start training him tomorrow, mana and aura." She believed that the best option would be start to train him as soon as possible to utilize all of his potential.


    But Dayno didn''t agreed with that option, he thought that if he started tomorrow it would make them forget about other important things, so he opposed her, "No, he should at least end his studies about varied knowledge. It shouldn''t take to long as he already had read through half the books."


    Rayssa was unsatisfied with the decision, but she understood that it would be better for the future if Aster know all these thing, no one wanted to have a dumb son after all. But that didn''t mean that she couldn''t complain about it, "But you should accelerate these tests of yours for a bit. If he already had all that knowledge, he should be prepared in a few days." Dayno nodded as he knew that he would delay the start of his training for a good time if he had free reign on the studies of the boy, so with a time limit he would need to speed it a bit.


    "Tomorrow you should start to read these books more seriously. I am going to prepare a test for you understood?" Dayno wanted Aster to be prepared for the test, so he gave him a warning in advance. Aster only nodded in turn, still playing with the monkey.


    Dayno noted that Aster was almost falling asleep so he thought that it was time to stop delaying, "And the last thing that we should talk before Aster goes sleep..." This time before talking he looked deeply in her eyes and said, "...Looks like Ryuu is a hero."


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    Rayssa was in disbelief at first but soon she noticed something off on his words, "And why should Aster be with us when discussing this?" Dayno looked at Aster before answering, "He was the one who told me. If not I still would be on the dark about it too. " It was funny how Aster discovered in one day what they didn''t in some years.


    Rayssa was shocked to discover this as she never thought that Ryuu may be a hero. A genius? Yes. But the mantle of a hero was not something that may be used so casually. She knew that to one hero rise, another one should fall and she knew that one of the actual heroes falling was almost impossible. And after all that process of thought Rayssa still doesn''t believed the information. It was natural to believe that the heroes of the old are the strongest beings alive, with only a handful of exceptions.


    So she questioned Aster to ascertain some things that are roaming her mind, "Aster, my boy, how could you discover about it?" She had a gleam so sharp in her eyes that if it was a normal person their knees should bent based on that sharpness alone.


    But Aster wasn''t a normal person, he almost had the mental fortitude of a Adept already. There had no away that he was going to feel intimidated by a mere stare, even more a weak one, as Rayssa was only testing him.


    So with his eyes already hazy he answered, " When I meet him, I felt something poking the insides of my mind and it intensified everytime that he spoke something. I was curious about it so I asked what was that and he said that it was something to do with his hero powers and that he couldn''t control it in the moment." Aster was already feeling exhausted by the great adventures that happened today. He lose himself on the city with Johan, explored a mansion, got a new friend and saw his parents being amazing. It was no small thing for the boy that only followed his parents work every day.


    And his parents noticed this about him but there was a last question that they need to do before allowing him to go sleep, "And he said what kind of hero he was?" Questioned the mage, it was a casual question but the mere thought about the answer made him felt a drop of sweat appears on his forehead.


    "He said that he was the Hero of Might and the successor of the..." Aster couldn''t even end his phrase before he fell asleep, but that was not necessary. That was enough for the couple to understand in what kind of trouble the world was in.


    The Hero Of the Strength, it was common knowledge that for a new hero to be born one needs to die. The former hero of might was the Annihilation Dragon for such a figure to fall was almost impossible and that alone can shake the whole plane. But it was even worse, someone killed the Annihilation Dragon, the strongest hero and the strongest dragon, without alarming the plane, not even the country that he resided.


    That thought alone is more dangerous than the dead of a hero. Even if the dead of a hero was a serious loss to the plane, the other heroes would still be alive, at least for now. But it would be a catastrophic event if someone killed all the heroes in silence and then tried to conquer the world.


    After understanding in what kind of mess they may had stuck themselves Rayssa asked with a strange smile, "How do you train a hero?" In the past she trained every kind of people but there has never been the need to train a hero, as all of then are already stronger than her. But now she had that chance, to train someone with unlimited potential.


    But that didn''t mean that they are going to let his last slip pass unpunished. Dayno witha equally strange smile answered "Isn''t that obvious?You push him to his limits." His face resembling the one of a devil as he still was mad about the trio dragging Aster into a den of cultists.


    Rayss, having been with Dayno for years, knew exactly what to do when he had that face, "But we can let only the hero suffer alone! If the others think they can relax during the training, they may become reckless." She sealed the fate of Ryuu and his friends with a sentence alone.


    Chuckling, Dayno continued the little play, "But of course my love, I too will make sure that my apprentice knows diligence." And as the night fell they talked about the adventure of the day.

 Charter 3.1 - Blood Pact

    On the awaken of the next day, the first thing that Aster did was to start the blood pact with the little monkey. It doesn''t seemed to be a complex ritual, the only thing that was really necessary was blood, from Aster and the monkey, and recite the words from the ancient oaths while mixing the blood of both.


    It was a really simple ceremony, so easy that even three years old child can do, but the power that come with this pact was the real deal. In fact, the power that made the pact possible came from the First Human Emperor.


    On the old days, when the fight against the demon kings and the other ancient evils was over, the emperor had a mount, a griffon, and it had asked to the emperor so that he allowed his kin to have a territory on the continent as his reward for the years of service. The emperor judged that such a request was not enough to the griffon that helped him for such a long period, instead of simply giving a piece of land for the kin of the griffon he made a pledge on the spot.


    He pledged that if in the future ever a descendant of his tried to exterminate all the monsters of the continent, he would come back from his own grave to curse whoever dared to go against his words. And even more, if ever a human and a monster got along the same away that he had with the griffin king, this pledge would help to make them even closer.


    The said "help" had demonstrated its presence in manner of the three shared effects. The first being that both of them being linked by one true surname, making of them true family. The second being the effect of ever having a vage sense of where the other was in. The third being a minor help to the growth of magic related to space or physical abilities related to the sky, the space magic help being from the emperor and the sky one from the griffin as it''s specie was a Sky Emperor Storm Griffin.


    And the last of the four effects, being the most powerful, is that the lives of the two would be linked. If ever one of them died the other would follow him together to the after life. It may appear a very drastic effect to be shared, but the emperor thought that if someone don''t even had this minimum of resolution they weren''t deserving of his blessings.


    After the ceremony Aster could felt a strange thing inside his own body, it was like something fundamental changed inside him. When he thought about what could had caused the change the answer come at his head at same moment.


    Aster Argento, it was his new name. Aster being his name of reference and Argento being his true name, something that he could felt that was shared with the little monkey. From now onward if ever one of them was targeted by a rare spell that had a true name was the target, the two of them will be hit.


    A blood pact was a dangerous thing to do because of this, and because of the linked lives, if somehow they walk separated paths in the future they would have always the chance of suddenly dying because of something that happened to the other.


    But more important, at the moment that the pact was completed Aster could felt that there was another entity inside the body of the little monkey. The energy that emanated from the entity was very negative, somehow making Aster remember the demon that was defeated by Rayssa at the mansion.


    Suddenly Aster noticed that when he found the little monkey, it was among beasts that had been possessed by demons. At that time Aster thought that maybe it wasn''t possessed yet, but now he had a suspicious that in truth it was possessed but by some strange means it was resisting the demon.


    Reaching this conclusion, Aster looked deeply at the eyes of the monkey and asked in a worried tone, " Are you well?" He was not only worried about the little monkey, he was feeling a bit guilty about not realizing earlier that something may had happened to it. It was in the den of demon cultists after all.


    But the little monkey almost ignored his worries, it only leaped on the same spot for some time them spoke its classic unintelligent sounds, looking like it was all in the control. Hearing that Aster felt a bit exasperated, he was all worried but it was in vain as the other side didn''t heard him.


    But that was soon forgotten as Aster thought about something more important than that. With sparkling eyes Aster said almost to loud for the monkey, " We need to choose a name for you! You already have a true name so you need name of reference." And after sometime of thought, but still with a pensive face, Aster suggested, " What do you think of Alphonse?" He thought that it was a good name for the monkey, unfortunately it had different tastes.


    Hearing the name the little monkey vehement shook his head, it was really against bearing that strange name. Seeing the reaction of the monkey,  Aster was  a little disappointed but soon suggested another one, " And what do you think about Kiel?" This time the little monkey thought about for a few moments where it seated on the floor in meditative position and them slowly nodding its head affirming that the name was a good choice.


    Chuckling at the reaction of the little monkey, now named Kiel, Aster walked back to his home, he had to study to the tests that his father was goi g to make after all. He would felt really disappointed if he somehow failed his tests as he had already memorized almost everything that had been written on the books.


    As he reached at his room, Astrr picked up the biggest bookthat was above his bed, it was on about the geography of the continent. This on was specially interesting to Aster because it was filled with information about a variety of different places, the majority being of places that he wanted to visit sometime in the future.


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    Positioning himself in a comfortable way Aster soon started to read the book, every time that he read through the book was a very fulfilling experience for him as he was a boy that loves to hoard knowledge.


    And as Aster read the books, soon the time started to run marking the end of a period of two weeks from the first time that Aster picked a book for the first time. He was anxious about the test that was going to happen when his father reach at home from his work, but he knew that he did his best while he studied.


    When Dayno finally arrived he didn''t even waited for a moment, he immediately searched for Aster and said,"Okay little one, we are going to start now." He looked at Aster who had a worried face and said, " Which are the countries in the continent and where are they positioned. Answer these questions and you should have ended the basic of geography, which is what you needed to get a pass, afterwards we''ll do the other subjects. " hearing his father words Aster tried to calm himself and with some moments he answered.


    "We live in the west of the great continent, a place where a myriad races made their home. At the west we have human domain, a piece of land carved by the First Human Emperor at the the Chaotic Age. By the south of that territory is the Wizardom of Linus, a nation governed by a king, but lead by mages. They said that just for being a wizard of the Elite rank you can be called nobility in this country, but they are discriminating to all the others kinds of mages, calling them uncultured barbarians. Here lives the Supreme Arch Wizard lives here, he wasn''t against the other kinds  of magic, but didn''t do anything to stop the discrimination.


    At north of the territory there was a  kingdom called August Kingdom, a place that was discriminatory towards nonhuman, any nonhuman found on the place was enslaved or killed on sight. And at the westernmost point there was the Zuruart Domain, named as such because of its founder, Zuruart The Shining Flame. A place lead by sorcerers of positive magic, this was the only place in the human territory that no one was discriminating about anything. The only thing completely banned by the state was the practice of demonic magic, bestowed magic and sacrifice magic, for they are against the wellbeing of the people of the state. This is were we live too.


    By the east live the elves where The Great Forest was planted, it was almost impossible to a non elf to invade these lands. The majority of the invaders are put in the jail by the overwhelming powerful guards, who still became stronger in the forest. The majority of them being at least a Adept, but the strongest of them all was Nathanael the Forest King. He is the strongest elf alive, stronger than even the Hero of the Nature, he is probably already in the Eternal rank. There was no other information about how the internal part of the forest work.


    At the south of the continent live the monsters legions, they are lead by the descendants of the griffin mount of the First Human Emperor. The place is another area restricted to the general population, it was not forbidden to enter, but the ones who enter are subjected to attacks of monsters that are not loyal to the griffins, or simply some monsters who did not have sentience. Sometimes these rebels try to lead a attack again the races off the outside but they are quickly culled.


    At north there are dwarves, gnomes and dragons reign. The dwarves and gnomes live inside the numerous mountains of the north and the dragons live above them, protecting them o f the external threats, like frost giants, barbarian and the undead that live outside the mountains. The Dragon King of Annihilation used to live here, but that was improbable now, as another Hero of Might was found.


    In the center is the Central Plain, a simple plain that stand by more terrain than all the governments of the world together. The place is filled with undead and ancient constructions. it also have a curse that impede anything from being born in these lands and everything that dies on it became a undead. The stories tell that this was a curse of the Master of the Death Lands, a nolife king that tried to kill all life on the plane. There are other five continents but I don''t have information about these."


    When he heard all the information that was flowing out of the mouth of his son Dayno felt conflicted. He was happy about the intellect of Aster, but he knew that this little village won''t contain him for so long. The boy simply was superior to the people if the village, but Dayno didn''t let it appear on his face.


    When Aster stopped of talk he quickly continued to shoot a enormous quantity of questions at the boy. Each question harder than the former and about the various topics that Aster has been told to study. It wasn''t hard for the boy to answer all the questions, with only some seconds was necessary to remember the answers.


    After some hours of test, Dayno sighed and said, "This is the end of your test, with this you have all the knowledge necessary to live in this world. Or if in the future it is your will open a library in the August Kingdom, as their average level of knowledge is much lower than here." While it was true that Aster knew enough to open  a library with only his knowledge, it don''t mean that it was going to be a big one. Maybe one that would be precious to a village the size of this one.


    Aster was happy that he finished the test without any kind of disturbance and was going to jump to commemorate, but the moment that his father spoke about a library he felt something inside him, I want a library. He thought and in that exactly moment something changed inside of him.

 Chapter 3.2 - Gift Mystery

    The gift that was inactive ever since the other day made a change. He felt something changing and being shaped inside his mind, it didn''t hurt him but it was a very disconcerting thing to him. When he opened his eyes he wasn''t inside his room anymore.


    The place that he suddenly appeared was a room made of a material that was like ice but the color was off, it was a darker tone of blue, and the the material was strangely transparent allowing him to see through the wall of the place. All that could be seen on the room are a blue door that was almost the triple Aster''s size and a big number bookshelves.


    Aster was surprised by the change of ambient but he wasn''t scared or worried. He instinctively knew where he was and how to get out. Looking at the bookshelves and the books on them Aster was intrigued by the function of the place.


    He picked up one random book on the shelf and read the cover, it was written year 1 month 3 day 22. Aster didn''t though nothin about the title or understood its meaning but when he opened the book the meaning was clear.


    What was inside of the book wasn''t any kind of text, it are all his memories of the twentieth second day of the third month of his first year of life. It was surprising to relive all that happened that day but it wasn''t something really advanced as the only thing recorded are facts, imagens and sounds.


    It doesn''t pass any kind of emotion or thought that he had that day, it was ultimately a flawed record. A good way to improve the library on the future was to record more than simply images, if he ever find a way to do it.


    Now knowing that all that was present on the bookshelves was his memories or books that he had already read, Aster shifted his focus to the big door that was the only other thing inside the library.


    The door was made of the some dark blue transparent material that was present in all the library, the only difference being that this time it was impossible to see through the door. As if to protect whatever was on the other side of the door.


    When Aster though of opening the door he suddenly noticed that there has no handle to open it. The material that consisted the door was smooth and didn''t had any kind of flaw if wasn''t for the gap between the door and the wall it would be impossible to differentiate it from a normal wall.


    He had no idea of how to open a door that didn''t had a handle, but after thinking about it for some time he simply walked to the door and pushed it and surprisingly it opened. Different from a normal door this one didn''t open normally to the sides, it waved from the point where he touched, like a drain a calm puddle, and disappeared spontaneously.


    Aster was spooked by the mysterious way that the door opened but didn''t let it impede him from seeing what was on the other side. When he passed through the door the sight that was present differed from what he was expecting.


    It was only a vast expanse of uncolored void, it was totally empty with only the library present in all that space. Aster was disappointed by what he found, but he didn''t knew what to expect anyway.


    After entering on the library again the door closed automatically behind him, having explored all that was possible inside library Aster closed his eyes again and thought about leaving the library.


    When he opened his eyes again the place that he saw was his his room with his father present, looking at him with a worried face. Seeing that focus returned to the eyes of his son Dayno asked, "What happened?" Why did you spaced out like this?" From his point of view Aster simply spaced out when he heard the word library and stayed that way form almost five minutes, he was starting to worry about the boy when he remembered some strange proprieties of gifts.


    When Aster saw the worry on the face of his father, he immediately understood that something must have happened to him while he was exploring the mental library and the void. So to calm his father he explained what happened in his head, about the mysterious void and his surprise that the gift could do something so marvelous like that.


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    Hearing the explanation Dayno calmed down a great deal and remembering some stories about gifts that he listened when he was a active adventurer. These stories told of how gift holders may develop some marvelous abilities related to the gift when they are still in the initial stage of their lives.


    The people don''t know what may trigger this part of the gift or were lies the limits of these abilities, but that was being studied by the scholars of every institution of research on the continent. Because of these researches it was discovered that in truth anyone with talent enough and the means may develop one of those abilities.


    The gift only bestows these abilities on their holder earlier than they could discover and do it themselves. The majority of the Gift holder never truly understand how their gifts work, but these that discovered say that it was like a muscle that they didn''t know how to use before. After understanding how the gift works they have complete control over it.


    These abilities while difficult to understand normally are very helpful to gift holders during the initial stages of their lives, being one of the principal reasons that gift holders are superior to the average person. In the late stages of their lifes  a certain ability may not be so useful as in the begin but they would still have a kickstarter when compared with the other.And even in the later part of their lives they still have more potential of development being able to suddenly receive inspiration from the gift.


    Listening the words spoken by his father Aster was impressed, he thought that his gift was only going to help him by passively increasing his mental fortitude and thinking speed. He never thought that it would have such a miraculous function and  when he heard that it was supposedly going to happen again in the future he was elated.


    Thinking about the possible development of the skill Dayno asked, "And you know how to develop this skill in the future, I suppose?" He knew that his son was a smart kid and based on the words used in the description of the library he should have at least a idea of how to improve it.


    Remembering his earlier thoughts Aster said, " I think that getting somehow a way to record emotions and sensation is a form of advance this power. When I was reading my memory it was a bit dull, it was unfeeling. Really strange. " As he spoke Aster put a hand in his cheek, it was really a cute sight that made Dayno almost forget the words spoken.


    Shaking his head to erase the smile on his face, Dayno stated his thoughts, " While it''s not a form of growth for the skill, it would be very helpful if you read through all the books that you can in the future. In some circumstances you may have the necessity of a very specific kind of knowledge and if you clean all the libraries in your path there away will be extra knowledge inside your head." Aster marked these words as something to be remembered in the future. Extra knowledge was never something to be rejected after all.


    Rising from his chair Dayno said as he pickedAster in his arms, " But let''s leave this talk to another day. You should go sleep soon, we''ll start your training as a mage tomorrow." While he carried Aster to leave the room to take his bath.


    Listening these words Aster was all hipped up for the next day, enough to make Day o regret talking about with the boy, while imagining all kinds of thing for tomorrow he asked, " Will I finally get to use magic like daddy? Throwing wind razors and cutting all the bad guys? " He was even more excited remembering the overwhelming victory over the cultists on the other day. That day marked the life of the boy in a way that wasn''t going to be forgotten in the future.


    Hearing these words Dayno chuckled and said, " If you can throw wind razors we will discover tomorrow, but you should at least be able to learn magic." After the small talk on the way Dayno put Aster to the bed, who was excited for the next day.

 Chapter 3.3 - Magic Lesson

    On the sunrise of the next day Aster was being carried by Dayno to the library, he wanted to start read the books on that place but today wasn''t what he was going to do. Kiel was hanging in his shoulder in a meditative pose, ever since the ceremony of the pact the monkey was in that position with a great frequency. When Aster asked him about it the answer was vaguely that he was fighting the demon for the control of his body.


    Aster and Dayno had decided yesterday that Aster was going to pass his mornings on the library reading all the books inside it. As it doesn''t look like there was a finite amount of information that could be stored inside the library and as information inside it doesn''t utilize any part of his active memory it will be for the best that they fulfill library in the quicker possible.


    But the three following days are going to be exceptions, in these days he was going to begin his start his trainings on magic, aura and weapons. The time may even be delayed depending on his talent on the subjects.


    In truth Aster was going to the library today because it''s where he was going to start training in magic. His house wasn''t a suitable place to train because it may damage the place, and depending on what kind of magic Aster may be suitable the destruction on the place would be much more than what can be repaired.


    Entering the library Dayno carried Aster until the reached a door on the end of the principal corridor of the library, while he walked Dayno commented, " This is the place where I trained my magic from the basics, the first breeze that I made was in this place. This is the place where I trained my first apprentice too and now, this shall be the place where I will initiate you on your path to became a mage." Hearing these words Aster started to feel curious about what kind of place his father was talking about.


    And soon enough his curiosity was satisfied, the place in question was a open field of about thirty meters from one side to the other. In the field there was not even one turf of grass present, in truth the only thing that can be seen in the field are some trees that have big scars on their barksand stones. The stones in question are not the tiny ones that Aster was used to see on the roads that he wall, the tiniest of the rocks had a height of 2 meters and the bigger almos 4 meters.


    On the background there are even some birds singing as if to soothe whoever was willing to hear them. While it was not the most incredible place, it had a calming feel suitable for activities that need concentration such as learning magic.


    Seating on the hard ground Dayno started a lesson about the basics of the magic, "To be a mage, the first thing that you need to know is what different kinds of magic there are in the world." Speaking until here Dayno made a pause to recall all the information that he was going to pass.


    The first type of magic is wizardry, the user of this kind of magic made use of mathematical and magical formulas to generate phenomenons that should normally be impossible like stick to wall, see through things and sometimes make two planes overlap temporarily. It was one type of magic that is very suitable for someone with your gift.


    The second type is witchcraft, in the witchcraft instead of mathematical or magical formulas, what is used is the parts of animals, monsters, ores or others kinds of magic items to emulate their characteristics, to use them as the focus of a spell or to make magic equipment related to them. Like how some use a feather of a bird to transform temporarily in a bird or how a the eyes of a basilisk is used to make a petrifying magic eye.


    The third type is spiritual magic, one of the rarest kind, in this type of magic the user bound themself to a natural spirit, on the majority elemental ones, and use magic through the spirit. This kind of magic is dangerous because one can count with the extra mana pool of the spirit when casting magic, amplifying to a great degree a all out attack that may be used in a emergency.


    The fourth type is emotional magic,the user of this kind of magic are separated in three subgroups; positive mages, negative mages and divergent mages. To be a user of emotional magic one need to attune his own mind to one that is compatible to the specific kind of magic. To be a positive magic user one needs to have positive emotions like happiness, kindness or patience as the primary template of the mind, the same could be said to the opposite if one only have negative emotions like wrath envy or greed one would become a negative mage. The divergent mages are called this way because their emotions are different from the two main types, they are more specifically focused in one emotion like loneliness, wrath or fear. In truth, the best assassin ever known on the continent is a loneliness mage, his magic is specialized in making him undetectable by the others, isolating him from the world.


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    The fifth type of magic is natural magic, the users of this kind of magic while not the most versatile king of mage, were the most varied. Their magic is based on what they can understand about aspects of certain things on the nature. It is are not versatile becuse if one study the fire during all his life he will be a master of fire magic, but he in turn he won''t know nothing about other kinds of magic. This kind of magic is also called the most varied because one was not limited to the basic elements, they can understand everything that is present on the nature like animals or plants and depending on ones affinity even objects made by humans like sword and chains.


    The sixth and last type is a kind of magic that is banned in almost all countries of the continent, it is bestowed magic. This kind of magic is based on one higher being bestowing magic on a weaker one and in turn receiving something akin of faith, blood souls or some other kind of distorted compensation. The practice of this kind of magic is banned on the continent because in some of these exchanges the higher being ask for gains this kind of faith slowly corrupts the mind of the user, making them slaves of the higher being. And as in the past these higher being tried to slave all the lives on the continent to turn them in livestock to produce faith power. Luckily the First Human Emperor banished them from the continent all these millennials ago, making them a threat that there is not something that we should worry for now.


    At the end of the lecture Aster had a multitude of feelings, he was feeling happy about the new information inside his library, confused by some things that was said and curious about some questions that popped inside his head. Seeing the confused face of his son Dayno said with a smile, " If you have any kind of doubt you can ask now." And as if that was the only thing holding down, Aster sprouted questions almost as if a barrage has been broken.


    "Do the types of mages have names specifics? What kind of magic do you use? What kind will you teach me? Is someone able to use all kinds? What is need to learn these kinds of magic? What about -" In truth there are so many questions that Dayno even had to stop him from making more as he needed to analyze every question to give the best answer to every one of them.


    After thinking about every question Dayno answered, " Every kind af magic user have a specific name among the other mages but for the normal people they are all called mages. They are in the same order; wizards, witches, druids, sorcerers, magicians and priests. Of course, they all may be categorized by what kind of magic they use like elementalists, illusionists or enhancers.


    I myself am a sorcerer of positive magic and a magician of the wind, which in turn already answer your other question. One can learn every kind of magic if they are compatible with it.


    To learn wizardry and witchcraft one only need to know about the process of the rituals and the formulas, to be a druid one need the approval of the specific spirit,and to be a sorcerer or magician one only need to attune the mind or affinity and understand the nature. Of course, the basic requirement to learn every kind of magic is know how to manipulate mana.


    And lastly, but no less important, even if i think that you''re very suitable to learn wizardry, I can only teach you what I know. You will be learning emotional and natural magic." Aster now understood that in the future there are nothing to stop him from learning all kinds of magic, with the exception of spiritual magic which depends on the whims of the spirit. That motivated him to learn all of them in the future, this is the second objective that he set for his life with the first being to explore all parts of the continent.


    Now with his new goal already set Aster asked, " Them what is the first step?" He was already waiting for too long and is already loosing his patience. Dayno understood the inpatient of the boy he already passed through that after all, so without more delay he guided the boy, "The first step to learn natural magic is to even before learning to manipulate mana, ascertain your elemental affinities. To a beginner mage there are only the six basic elements to test as any other would be to much for the soul to sustain. To discover your affinities you only need to clean your mind from all the thoughts and try to call for the element, if it answer your call you have a Affinity with it." Dayno was a little anxious about what kind of affinity Aster may have, none of his parents have a bloodline so there are no away to be sure about Aster''s talent.


    Gesturing to Aster begin quickly Dayno stopped making any kind of noise, he knew that to heard the answer of the element was necessary concentration. Aster closed his eyes and seated on the ground in a meditative pose.

 Chapter 3.4 - Elemental

    When he closed his eyes Aster could felt the familiar sensation of having his environment changed and as he opened his eyes what he saw was a familiar scenario. The same colorless void on the outside of his mental library. In truth, he could see the library a few dozens of meters to his right.


    He never had seen who the library looked from the outside, it had a almost cubic appearance with the only exception bein the simple entrance with a three steps stair to the area outside the door. Unsurprising, the color of the outside is the same one of the inside, a blue almost transparent, but this time he could see through the walls.


    Decided to let the exploration of the outside of the library to another time, Aster concentrated on what he came here to do. He focused all his mind on the first element that he choose, the wind.


    He choose this element first because he wanted to use the same magic as his father, but unfortunately he had no affitiny with it whatsoever. The only response that he got was a faint breeze that blew on his cheek, it was so faint that he wouldn''t never noticed if he was not so focused.


    Sighing in defeat, he understood that while not impossible it would be very hard for him to became a wing magician. It should be very lucky of him if he ever reached in the Adept rank with such a meager affinity.


    After this disastrous response in the first test Aster started to feel insecure, What if all my affinities are so low like this? He was afraid of failure like any other child of his age would be. But he didn''t let that stop him from continuing the process, he only tried one of the six basic elements after all.


    This time Aater choose the element that was the polar opposite of wind, the earth. But even if they are so opposite from each other, they both didn''t have any affinity with Aster. Again the only response that he got was dirty in his hands, in truth it was so few dirty that if Aster had simply put his hands on the floor of his father workplace they would be dirtier.


    That made Aster fear for the worst, he already tried almost half of the basic elements if he had no talent with none of them his path as a magician may be blocked. That was his worst fear, not being able to follow the footsteps of his father.


    Almost crying Aster tried to call the next element, fire, but this time something different happened. In truth he never thought that something like that was possible. The all encompassing colorless void was filled with fields of blazing flames that burned in orange and red lights, coloring what was previously colorless. It gave him a scalding feeling but he never felt discomfort, only a gentle and comfortable warm.


    But the most surprising was that this glorious scene only lasted for a few seconds before switching for something that was the exact opposite. What was before orange and red turned light blue and shining white, the burning fields are exchanged by white plains of snow during a blizzard bit strangely he could see through the storm. Even the warm feeling was turned into a chilling breeze instead of the comfort of the fire, in the snow he felt calm. While the two elements are opposites he felt at home in both of them.


    He saw the fire burn, the ice appear, the fight for territory of the two elements and saw the ice winning the fight all in less than a second. The ice didn''t win because it was stronger but because the fire had already used part of its power before, in truth he could felt that both of them had the exact same power.


    After the incredible elemental display, Aster felt his eyes open even if they are already open. What he saw was the face of his father looking at him with a amazed expression, the reason for the amazement of his father was very evident at the moment when he looked to his hands.


    In his left hand was a floating ball of red and orange flame, the ball was really tinny almost at the size of a thumb. The bizarre thing about this flame was that it didn''t feel like a normal flame, it felt empty. Coming from the flame was nothing like the heat of a normal flame nor the vibrance of the dancing embers, it was only a static image of a flame.


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    And at his right hand he saw a diamond shaped crystal of ice, it had the same strange static of the fire. He knew that with only what he had it was impossible to use it offensively nor defensively. He didn''t knew why they are this way but he was already very happy, he finally got to use magic after all.


    Seeing the two magic phenomenons above his hands Aster tried to move one of them but unfortunately it was completely useless, in fact a that it did was to dissipate the fire and the ice.


    Dayno was surprised by the suddenly appearance of the two images, but he was even more surprised by the ice image. It was common knowledge among the magicians that to obtain a higher elements before the Adept rank one needs to have a unbelievable high affinity.


    The higher elements can be classified by two types the fusion and the ascended. The ascended type is a element that while a basic one is stronger than the six basic elements, such as life or space or fate. The fusion type is was the name tips, the fusion of two basic elements such as thunder, lava or poison. While not all af them have the same base power, all of them are considered higher elements because they are stronger than someone may be able to wield before the Adept rank.


    And the ice element is one of those higher elements, being the fusion of wind and water. While it''s not unheard of someone using a higher element before the Adept rank, it was still a rare occurrence even more if they had a Affinity with a element on the polar opposite like fire and ice.


    Shaking the surprise off Dayno asked, "Did you tried all the six basic elements ?" He had his suspicions that Aster hadn''t tested all his affinities, the suddenly appearance of the images hinted as such. And his doubts are proven right when Aster shook his head, seeing the gesture the mage signaled to give continuity to the test.


    He thought that it would be more convenient if he only explained about the elements after all the basic six have been tested. It would only delay the things further if he did it before.


    Aster understood the message and closed his eyes again, he had some questions to make but he was confident that his father would explain them after he checked his affinities. He understood that it was a fundamental part of the begin of his path as a mage after all.


    Coming back to the void Aster started by calling for the water, even if he didn''t knew about how the water and the ice are intrinsically connected he remembered how the rivers would freeze on the winter turning into ice. Thinking about the connection Aster though that he would have a strong affinity with water like he had with the ice.


    Different from his thoughts, while he hadn''t a high Affinity with it like the fire and the ice it wasn''t low as the wind and the earth. The phenomenon the happened when he called for the water wasn''t as overwhelming as the fire and ice fields but not so meager like the wind and earth.


    What he felt was like all his body was soaked like when he took a bath.Sighing about the poor Affinity Aster got back to work, he still had two elements to check after all.


    The next of was light, this one is one of the elements that he wanted to use the most as it was slavery similar with the positive magic used by his father.


    And as he called the light surprisingly happened the same as before, the light was so much that blinded him the only thing that occupied his eyes was a flash of white light that was quickly turned into a blinding darkness overshadowing anything that he saw.


    When he opened his eyes he saw a ball of light in his right hand was a ball of darkness and on the left a ball of light. He was very happy because he had so many affinities, he always wanted to be a mage and with these powerful affinities it was almost sure thing that he would be a powerful mage.

 Chapter 3.5 - Inside Insights

    While Aster was happy about the multitude of affinities, Dayno was musing about how was possible to Aster have a extreme affinity with ice but having so poor affinities with water and wind. Shaking these thoughts off his head Dayno said, " Now that we have checked your affinities we can give continuity to our lecture.


    These images of the elements that will be present on your mindscape from now on are the representation of your comprehension over the said element.


    You can try to summon these images to the outside world but they would be nothing more than images, the next step to be a magician is to give life to these images.


    By using mana to fuel these images you can make them as powerful as the real elements. When one reach a higher rank one will be able to strengthen one aspect of the said image and powering it even further when summoned. When they reach these ranks the aspect empowered have the same power as the real elements even without the need of mana."


    Reaching until here Dayno stopped his teachings and looked deeply in the eyes of his son saying, "To proceed on your path the next thing that you need to do is to learn how to manipulate the mana dormant inside your body. " Aster was fully concentrated on the words spoken by his father committing everything to his memories to be read later.


    Seeing the face off his son Dayno said, " Luckily this is not something hard to learn when you have a experienced mage near you. All that will be needed is to me push my mana inside your body and move your insides for a bit. Nothing to hard." As he said that Dayno got off the ground and approached the seated Aster and sitting himself next to the boy.


    Closing his eyes the mage put his hands on the head of the boy and said, " All that you need to do is focus on my mana and try to see what it is changing, understood?" Nodding his head one last time Aster closed his eyes to fixate his attention on the insides of his body.


    Again inside the colorless void, now know as mindscape, aster could see more than the library. In the four direction of the library can be see a kindle of fire burning in the red and orange colors, a curious thing about the fire is that inside his Mindscape it had no difference from normal fire.


    On the opposite side of the fire was a Diamond shaped cristal of ice, coloring the mindscape in light tones of blue. In truth the blue cristal was one of the more beautiful scenes that Aster ever saw on his short life.


    On the right side of the fire and behind the library was a yellowish white colored ball that shined in a white light. And opposite to the ball of light was a black mist, coloring the mindscape black.


    These four are the images that symbolize the elements inside his mindscape. In the future as he grow the influence of these images inside him would grow. Even if all of them had achieved a successful balance inside of him with the library at the center of it all, it was still a possibility that the polarity of the elements may cause him a backlash on the future.


    After getting a close look at the mindscape Aster focused on possible fluctuations on the surroundings and soon he discovered a disturbance. It was like a ripple on a pound splashing to the vicinity of the starting point.


    Mildly disturbed by the sensation of the foreign mana inside his body Aster tried to resist the invasion, no too long after he began to fight back the mindscape answered his call and in a surprising fashion stopped the rippling effect of the foreign mana.


    When the that was over Aster suddenly found himself conscious of the amount of mana that was spread all over the mindscape. He had not discovered anything before because he did not knew what was mana. But now he can feel it soaking his skin and flowing through all the Mindscape, and even more it was flowing in accordance with his thoughts. He suddenly understood that the mana was obeying his command all this time along, it was just that he did not perceived before.


    Now that he knew how to move the mana inside his body Aster opened his eyes on the on the outside. The first thing that he noticed is that he still could felt the mana even when he was out here, not only the mana but the images and the library too.


    He knew that with one thought he can summon the images to the outside and maintain them for how long he needed. But to make these images be of some utility in the rank he was now would require mana to fuel them, and that was not something that he had unlimited access.


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    Seeing his son explore how to move the mana to the images Dayno smiled, remembering the times that he was only a unranked too, but he thought that he should spped the things up a bit. Doing a quick clap Dayno got Aster''s attention back to himself, " Now that you know the basics of mana manipulation and the infusion of mana on your images, you can be called a unranked magician. If you work hard enough maybe you can reach the rank of a Adept before you''re fifteen, as you''re much more talented than I was." Aster immediately jumped on his feet, happy about finally being a mage even if a unranked one.


    Pacifying his son Dayno said, " Now I should start to guide you on the process of becoming a sorcerer, a positive mage. " Dayno switched his smiling face to a solemn one in a few moments, to express the seriousness of the talk.


    After a second of silence Dayno continued, " The first step you already did, which was manipulate mana, the second step was so simple as the first, move mana outside your body, again you already did. But the last step is the more complicated, I will cut my finger until it draws blood. All that you need is to direct your mana on the harmed finger and think about positive feelings." Without even waiting for a response from the boy Dayno made a blade of wind and cut off the tip of his own finger.


    Aster was listening his father talk like he normally would when he was speaking, but seeing his father suddenly slashes own finger was shocking to the boy. But recalling the last words spoken by his father before the cut he got in action with only the thoughts about healing his father.


    Moving his mana to the cut he started to think about the days that he passed happily with his parents, the joy of seeing his father fighting, the affection on his father gaze when looking at him and slowly he started to forget what was happening on the outside.


    In his mind it was only him, his father and the cut, it was as if these are the only things remaining on the world. He was to distracted to feel it but it was the subtle influence of his gift that made him enter in a starte of focus so high.


    Soon his hands started to shine in a golden light, illuminating the surrounding of the pair. When Aster opened his eyes all the he saw was the same affection on the eyes of his father, the same one that he was using as the image for the healing.


    With a proud smile on his face Dayno said, " Now I can boast that my son learned positive and natural magic in one day, when he was a three years old no less." Picking up Aster and putting him on his lap, Dayno said as he continued his speech, " Before we end our lecture for today, you need to learn some more things. If you want it, you can train only your images until the end of your life and the more they grow inside your mindscape stronger they became.


    But if in the future you reach a point where the images are bigger than the mindscape itself the images would start to influence your physical body and in extreme cases transform you in a half elemental or even a full elemental." Having reached here Dayno paused to observe the reaction of his son, seeing the calm expression on his face wasn''t what he was expecting but he ignored it and continued his speech.


    "The other thing that you''ll need to know is how to expand your mindscape, which is the solution to the before mentioned effect. The mana inside your body expand itself by stimulation, the more you use it or even waste it the more it will grow. Some even use the method of sitting themselves and expelling the mana from their mindscapes only to expand them more when they regenerate.


    This something essential to every kind of mage on the world as all of them use mana. The method to expand it may vary between the types of magic or even from teacher and student, the only thing in common in all of them was the use of the mana." After saying this piece Dayno got up from the ground and said, " What you didn''t understand you may ask other day, if we delay too much we may get at home late for dinner. I don''t want to make your mother wait for it again. "


    As the mage, with Aster on his arms, enhanced himself to the same degree of the race on the other day, Aster was thinking about all the new things that he learned today. He understood that there was too many things to learn on the rest of his life.

 Chapter 3.6 - Higher Skys

    At the first streak of light, in the square of the village there was a group of about ten children, the youngest being three years old and the oldest fourteen, they are all lined up in a row as if awaiting for someone to arrive.


    In a road leading to the square a tall woman could be seen, her red hair shining like a bonfire as the first lights of the day bathed her in its gleam. Walking a little behind her was a little boy with long hair that extended past his shoulder, such a long hair combined with his cute face could make anyone mistake him for a girl.


    The two are completely different people, the only thing that may tip the relationship of the two was the black eyes that seemed to suck anyone inside of them, no to dissimilar to a pair of black holes. Hanging on the boy was a little monkey that was, different from the usual, lively.


    When the woman reached at the square the children that are talking among themselves quickly stopped speaking and a soon a solemn atmosphere overtook the lively one that was present on the square. The line growing by a boy and a monkey.


    When the redhead woman arrived at the her place before the line she stayed in silence for a few seconds, looking at the lined children witha stony face. Soon she said in a strong tone, " Today will be the starting day of my son with us, he''ll need a partner. Someone among you wanna volunteer themselves?" As soon she completed the phrase a boy stepped out of the line.


    He looked to be a three years old like Aster, but a little taller, he had brown hair and eyes that matched each other. His skin that before was white like a baby was starting to become tanned by the sun as a proof of his restless training. The boy that stepped up was Johan.


    On the day that Dayno scolded him for being meddlesome, Johan started to think a lot about his words. He understood that if he was continuing to be weak he would be restricted by a lot of things on the future.


    Reaching at the conclusion that he needed to be stronger so bo one would ever be able to talk with him like that again, Johan started to pester his parents for a few days they let him start his training to be a warrior. He was starting today, just like Aster, and having already befriended the boy beforehand he thought that it would not be a problem if they are partners.


    Rayssa was happy that she won''t need to force no one to do it, but she did not let that appear on her face as she continued her speech, " Good, you all should know what to do now. Find your partners and fight, if there was something wrong you may come to me after I finish with the three newcomers. " At the end of the speech only the before mentioned three remained on the line, the other dispersing and starting to fight among themselves.


    Looking at the three Rayssa pointed to a pile of training weapons who was on the side and said, " You two should choose at least two weapons to train, it was good to have varied options while fighting.But for now we''ll train withonly one." Glancing at the great variety of weapons that was staked together Aster was surprised, after they searched through the pile for a few moments Aster decided to pick a spear and Johan a hammer.


    Nodding in approval to the choosen weapons Rayssa said, " Good, spears and hammers are good weapons they may be very different from each others but you two will be able to learn together about these weapons." Rayssa teach all the children in pair so they may learn from their mistakes together, if they use weapons so different they would be able to learn how to fight varied weapons too.


    Picking a spear herself Rayssa started her lecture, " A spear is a weapon that was should be used in a long distance, away pushing the opponent away from your body. If they ever got inside your guard it would be a disaster..." The next our was spent with Rayssa teaching them how to use their respective weapons. She taught them how to move their weapons I offensive, defensive and evasive motions. All that should be necessary in a real fight.


    After leaving the boys to memorize the movements Rayssa looked at the only one that was idle in the all the square, Kiel. She was planning to teach him how to use aura as the majority of the monsters need to knew how to manipulate aura or mana to evolve in a higher tier.


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    She expected to use a lot of time to teach him about it, but who would have thought that he as already learning it by himself. Rayssa words was all that he needed to understand what he was lacking and in a few moments of lecture he already got to use aura.


    Rayssa was expecting to teach the monkey for at least a few months before he was able to learn it, it was a pleasant surprise to her when she discovered the talents of the monkey.


    In truth, aura was very different from mana, while mana was stored inside the brain, aura was stored inside the heart. The primary function of aura was to strengthen the body, some stronger users may even use their aura to regenerate wounds so fast as a troll.


    Soon two months happened to pass before Aster finally got a feel in how to use the spear correctly. He thought that learning how to use a weapon would be easy as it was magic but he was quickly shoot down when he started practicing.


    Weapons are really hard to master when you had such a tiny and inappropriate body like his. He was weak, tiny and fragile. Not the most useful physic when one wanted to learn how to use a weapon.


    At the end of the two months Aster planned to fight with Johan for the first time, he was scared because the opponent demonstrated to be very talented in handling weapons, in truth Johan switched his chosen weapon everyday during that time but that did not mean that he learned slower than Aster.


    Today Johan was using a sword as his weapon of choice, he had the wooden sword pointing to Aster who was holding his spear eight meters from him. The distance was a disadvantage to Johan but that did not mean that he was letting himself be intimidated.


    He waited for Aster to come but at passage of a few seconds but soon he noticed that he was not coming. Suddenly Johan advanced to Aster trying to enter his guard, but Aster swung his spear to the side blocking his path forward and pointing the tip of the spear to his chest.


    Johan did not thought much about it, he rolled on the ground to dodge the spear. Aster was flustered as he did not expect such a wild movement but he reacted fast enough trying to kick Johan but failing as Johan got up faster than expected already inside his guard, pointing the sword at his neck.


    Aster sighed and dropped the spear saying a bit agitated, " Why are you so fast? It is so unfair! I trained daily with the spear and you got all of them so easy!" He was indignant by the outrageous talent that Johan had with anything related with weapon fight.


    Johan smiled boisterously and said, " What do you expected? That you would win again me? I am will be the strongest weapon master in the continent! I need to be able to win again you at least." Johan as naturally very good with any kind of weapon, he can already use almost any kind of weapon as if he already used if for some time.


    Five months after their first fight Aster and Johan started to fight regularly and while he had a better performance, Aster still lost to Johan all these times. In these months Johan became even better at weapon wielding, when he understood that he was away above Aster''s level he started to challenge other children.


    Johan won every one of these fight, the only exception being the young hero Ryuu, he fought with different weapons and different people but there was no one who could stop him.


    Rayssa suspected that he had a kind of gift or bloodline but when she asked him the answer was negative. While it was not impossible to someone talented surpass a gift holder, it was almost impossible to do so.


    But there was always a exception to the rule, after these months they understood that Johan was the exception. He was born with unlimited talent with weapons and fighting, he was unbeatable in his rank.


    While Ryuu could win over Johan it was only when he used his heroic power, he admitted that if they fought without it he would lose. After understanding Johan''s unnatural talent Rayssa reached the conclusion that Johan would leave his mark on the history of the continent if nothing happened to him while he grew.


    She thought that he will become at least a Champion.

 Chapter 4.1 - Remnants of The Past

    Two years have past from the first duel between Aster and Johan, in these two years a lot of things happened. But the most relevant of those things was that Kiel evolved into a Iron Monkey Monk.


    A iron monkey normaly is the most common evolution that a monkey may have, the major change between before and after the evolution is the skin, where it becomes as hard as iron. It was as if it was always wearing a heavy armor in all it''s body, becoming a foe almost impossible to defeat disarmed.


    The biggest weakness of this kind of monkey are fire attacks, as its entire body is made of metal, and suggestive attack, because of the poor mental development of the normal monkeys. But the later weakness is almost voided by a monkey monk.


    Monks, no matter the race, always have a superior mental resilience than the others of said race. Kiel normally would evolve only into a iron monkey but because of the uncountable quantity of hours spent by him meditating in efforts to suppress the demon allowed him to take this path.


    One of the most notable differences from before was that his skin, which was brown before, now have a metallic hue and the veritable different in weight he now was heavy enough to be used as a training weigh for Aster.


    Another new feature of the evolution was that Kiel did not need to meditate for all day anymore, only a couple of hours at the most. Now he use the time before used for meditation for train his aura and fight instincts by fighting with Rayssa.


    Another thing that happened in these years was that Rayssa was trying to teach Aster how to hunt something in the wild but much to her chagrin Aster had a poor talent in that. He can hide himself surprisingly well but wherever he tries to advance he was always heard by the target but today something different happened.


    Aster was following a lone wolf for almost one hour, the wolf was not a great target, it was smaller than the average wolf by about a third and it was skinnier than the others. This haggard wolf should have been to weak for the pack and was kicked out by the former pack mates.


    Seeking a opportunity to ambush the Wolf for one hour has been tiring for Aster but after all that time he finally thought something that may help him. The Wolf was wandering through the forest in search of any kind of prey to feed itself.


    After having a hard day yesterday without getting anything the Wolf finally found a good target, a snow white bunny with red eyes. If the Wolf was in a good condition, or just not starving, he would have noticed that while there was a bunny before him, it was very different from a normal one.


    To begin, the bunny did not move even after noticing its natural hunter arriving it just remained frozen on the same place not even breathing. But if it was just that the Wolf may even be forgiven, but the bunny did not have scent, there was any kind of smell coming from the bunny.


    To not notice this kind of glaring flaw was why it was abandoned by its kin, it was too stupid to continue on the pack.


    But the Wolf knew none of that, when it saw the bunny it was overjoyed. Already having starved by almost two days a bunny was a blessing to it. Not even trying to ambush the bunny the wolf sprinted in the direction of the bunny with all that the speed it''s meager legs could provide. But alas, when the wolf finally put its fangs on the neck of the static bunny the passed through it like there was nothing here.


    The wolf was shocked to the core, unable to understand what happened here something that it was fated to never understand as a spear made it''s way to the neck of the wolf, killing it instantly and splashing blood to the surroundings.


    The bunny was in truth only a Illusion made by Aster''s light magic, after two years of training Aster understood the light enough to make a rough deflection of light to make it look like a bunny. If the target was anything more intelligent than that Wolf it would not fall for that, even a normal wolf would had noticed.


    Using a combination of his dark magic to conceal himself on a shadow near the Illusion and light magic to distract the wolf Aster successfully completed his first kill, even if it was a lone, starved, weak, defected and useless wolf.


    His first kill, Aster felt proud of his first successful hunt. He was ready to call his mother when something different from the expected happened, he felt a foreign object enter inside his chest when a strange light flashed through his eyes making him loose his conscience.


    When he awakened he was in a rock forest the gray rocks are all taller than a thousand meters and almost all of them had a kind of scar running through their bodies. The rocks are thick enough that at least five big men would be needed to hug one of them, but the place was not closed because there was more than fifty meters from one to another.


    Looking around Aster though about what may had happened to him, to his surprise when he though about that, he head a voice calling from behind him, " You don''t need to worry, this place is of no danger to you. "


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    When he found the origin of the voice he was startled, what he found was a middle aged man. But that man was not like the middle aged men of his village, thos one had his chest bare of anything but the scars that crowded his body, overlapping each others. The scars coupled with the fur shorts and tribal tattoos an his arms, made him look like a warrior of times earlier than the history.


    While Aster was observing the man, the man was appraising Aster with critical eyes as if trying to look through his skin. After some time exchanging glances, the man finally said, " Good, if it''s you it should be alright. Maybe you''ll make good use of the artifact. " He said his words while nodding his head.


    Aster, who still did not understood what happened, asked, " Where I am? Who are you? What hap- " But before he could ask he was silenced by the pressure emanating from the man.


    Calm like a the water of a pound, the man said, " We are inside the artifact mentioned and I''m one of the makers of the said artifact..." Reaching at this point the man stopped and shook his head, " No, I''m a memory fragment of the maker. My only purpose was guide the users in how to use it.


    The artifact itself was made using the body of a demon Lord of the gluttony variant, the kind that absorb the abilities of it''s preys, and together with a sample of a chimeric abomination we made a artifact that can steal the very race of a monster. "At this point the pressure emanating from the man already stopped but Aster was too fixed on the tale of the man to stop him. He knew that various kinds of artifacts existed in the continent, even more so in the Central Plains but he never thought that he would have one so close at him and one so exquisite at that.


    " The complete artifact can hold up to eight races on the total and fuse they all together when the user choose so. While the artifact can hold eight looks like your body can only hold seven, which is a good number.


    On the past when we made the artifact only one of the ten users could hold eight, two hold seven and the rest are below five. But that didn''t mean that they wasted the power of the artifact, they passed the remaining power of the artifact to beasts linked to them by blood, you should do the same.


    The artifact may grant you extreme power, but never forget one thing, there are other four of these artifacts lost in the world. Some may be lost or broken, others may already be in use and growing but the danger is still here." After enclosing his lecture the fierce glint on the man''s eyes changed to a gentle one and he asked, "Any questions? We have a time limit."


    Aster was amazed by the story but that only mean that he was even more concentrated on it and the moment that he was asked for doubts he used the active properties of the gift, aiming for a more objective points of view. He had a lot of questions but he thought that the more pressing are the ones about the growth of the artifact, " Any tips on the races or evolutions? How do I choose a race?"


    The man grinned, in the past no one ever made him this question even if he was one of the makers, the one how should have known more about the artifact, " In the past the makers always debated about how to best use the Genesis Wheel but in the end it was always a fight between two sides. One side thought that the best use was picking only similar kinds of monster like a hydra, a leviathan and a wyrn to make one supreme race of that genre.I thought that such idea was foolish and wasted the potential of the Wheel.


    The other side thought that only by picking up the best parts of different kinds of monsters would''ve give origin to the supreme race. Just think about it, if a monster had the regeneration of a troll, the anti magic of a werewolf and the battle sense of a heroic war beast won''t that be invincible?


    But this is my opinion, there are a fee things that all of us acknowledged as essential. The first being the need of a shapeshifter because what you can became at the final fusion may not always have the appearance that you desired. The second being that you should pick all the races quickly, this way you have a better growth potential and lastly, you should have a clear mental image before trying to evolve. The evolutions are very affected by your mind because..."


    While the man spoke the space surrounding them started to fade away, soon there was only Aster and the man. At the end of his incomplete speech even the body of the man started to wave as if it was made of mist, before fading away too.


    Aster saw a flash again and this time when he opened his eyes he was in the same place as before, with a dead wolf at his feet and a bloody spear at his hands. Intuitively he looked at his chest only to see that it was unchanged


    What really changed was his necklace, before it was like a metallic and rainbow colored circle with lines dividing it in eight pieces. Now one of these pieces disappeared and there was only a empty spot between the dividing lines.

 Chapter 4.2 - Monster Instincts

    After going through that different experience Aster felt a lot of things, fear for the power of a simple memory, excited because of the artifact that he now have, thoughtful about his choices for the future and generally confused about the whole ordeal.


    He understood that all that he saw was reality and not a hallucination or a kind of trick not only because he could see the changes on the necklace, which now look like it was lacking a piece, he could felt the changes inside himself too.


    Inside his heart where he store his aura is now a different kind of power. At that place normally would only be present his stored aura in the form of a purple sphere of mist, but now that was different. Together with the purple mist ball was another mist shape but different from the one before, this one was a lying wolf.


    The supposed skin of the wolf was made purely of gray mist, if one examined enough the wolf they could notice that there are wolf howls coming from inside the gray mist as if hiding . While Aster inspected the new thing inside him he noticed something instantly, the wolf had all that one would require to be a wolf, even if it was only energy.


    The wolf was so real that it seemed to be read to jump out of his heart at any time, which really did. Aster was curious about the mysterious mist wolf but he did not knew how to interact with it, but going with his instincts he poked the wolf with his mind.


    But at that moment something unexpected happened, his body started to shrink and turn in a black and white mist and at same time the lying wolf inside his chest got up and started to enlarge.


    After the size of the wolf surpassed the human it soon started to materialize, taking the place of his original body. He was now a brown wolf puppy, needless to say that he was startled.Before he could even understand what happened to his own body he heard a sound coming from a bush behind him.


    Rayssa was happily watching his son''s first kill, strangely when he killed the wolf he became static for a few seconds. She thought that it was only a pause to confirm his first kill, she was quickly proven wrong when Aster became a wolf before her eyes.


    she was shocked to the core when she saw him turning into a wolf, she could not understand what made it possible. Coming near the puppy wolf Rayssa asked, " Aster! What happened? How you turned in a wolf?" Aster gave a long glance at his mother and barked a few times, unable to pronounce human words with his wolf throat.


    Seeing Aster bark to her she felt relieved because she now knew that he still had conscience, sighing she asked him, " Can you turn back?" Aster did not thought about it for a few seconds, he had not thought about that.


    He inspected again the insides of his heart, now in the place of the mist wolf there was now a black and white mist human seated in a meditative pose. Aster was truly happy seeing that mist form because he knew that it was the key to return to being a human.


    Seeing Aster turn back to a human, Rayssa finally could relax now knowing that nothing permanent happened to him. Resolved to understand all that happened when they reach at home together with Dayno, Rayssa ignored all that happened and started to order Aster around, " Okay, now that we knew that it wasn''t something permanent we can leave it for later. Now you''ll learn how to dismantle something that you hunted." After Aster learning how to dismantle the wolf almost instantly because of his perfect memory about the anatomy of the wolf, they walked back home in silence.


    At home while Aster was taking a bath Rayssa discussed about what happened at that afternoon. When Aster got back he was inquired about what happened, which made him explain what happened in the rock forest, about the man and the necklace.


    The story was something hard to believe at first time but upon remembering that Aster turned into a wolf and seein the difference in the necklace they did not had any doubts anymore.


    Now knowing all that happened the two looked at each other for a few moments, switching glances that only they would understand. When someone finally spoke it was Rayssa, " You''ll need to start training how to fight in the wolf shape." The first thing that passed through her head was his fighting prowess of course.


    Different from the barbarian the mage had different thoughts, " Do you have any idea about the races ? If not I''m going to suggest a pixie. The pixies are the specie more resourceful when the topic is mana manipulation, their racial traits made of them natural master of mana and not only that! They have a form concealment that the nature itself help them, another thing that was commonly known was that all pixies have the nature gift even if in different degrees. " The mage was fully focused on how the party may help him to grow as a mage. While both of them are thinking about Aster''s growth, they are using totally different thought processes to reach the objective and it may be helpful or exhausting for him.


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    Upon hearing the suggestion Rayssa remembered a foe that she found in the past, that monster exterminated almost all the expedition alone at that time, luckily she was able to escape unharmed that day. Reliving the dreadful memories Rayssa said in a hurried, almost desperated, tone, " A troll, you must find a troll. They''re overpowered beings and if you have one with you''ll be almost immortal because of the almost infinite regeneration. When a normal troll fight with a stronger opponent it would only exhaust it to the death, if you, someone training to be a warrior, are to have that regenerative power you''ll be unstoppable." At end of her words she was even more excited, she feared that monster for agiod part if her life. Now knowing that her child may be the user of such a broken power made her really lively.


    Rearing the suggestion Aster tried to remembered information about the two monster and what he remembered was very little, the only thing on the village''s library was that both are Tier 4 monsters.


    Nodding his head Aster answered the first question made by his father, " I thought about a bird! I always loved to see the sky when Mommy threw me up. The second one was a shapeshifter like the man on the necklace said, I don''t know where to find one but I still want one." The later choice was expected as the it was a recommendation that he asked to someone who knew more than him but the former was something really childish. Even for someone mature for his age like Aster it was impossible to escape the fact that he was still a child.


    Nodding her head Rayssa said, " I know a place where we can find both of them. The bird we can find easily in the forest and the shapeshifter we can find in the dungeon of Arniel city, five days of travel from here."


    Now having at least a base on the future the mage made a different question " Do you think that you can evolve your wolf form now?" His thoughts are purely about the unknown fact about the monster evolutions.


    Before answering the question Aster switched to his wolf form, somehow it was easier. The process itself was not faster by any means but the time need to activate the mist wolf inside his heart was faster than before.


    Hearing the question Aster remembered something that he read in a book before. Monsters evolved purely based on instincts and the natural characteristics of the individual. He knew that as a human, he would never have that instinct. That is why he switched forms before answering.


    Now in his wolf form Aster though again about the evolution and different from before he understood that he was ready to evolve but before evolving he needed to select among the various things that may influence his evolution.


    His elemental images are the first. Using his images to evolve he may become a elemental wolf variant. This was something positive because in this form he would connect himself with the element much easier than before.


    The second choice was using mana as the base of the evolution. This was not a path that Aster liked because he understood that he would become a blue wolf if he choose so. Blue wolves are a evolution that had a better capacity to use mana but giving up their physical abilities to do so, and it was not something that he was positive about.


    The third path was surprisingly his connection with Kiel. He felt that using their bound to evolve he would become a wolf leader, it was a kind of wolf that had superior leading ability boosting temporarily the power of the subordinate.


    The fourth was the somehow expected the gift, he knew that following this path he would become a werewolf, a extremely defected one but a werewolf nonetheless.


    And the last choice was using his aura, this one was his favorite option because he could feel that by concentrating part of the aura he could strengthen only a specific part of the body or let it lose to evolve normally.


    Transforming back to a human Aster reported all of that to hei parents. To ask for their thoughts about what evolution was the best.