《Memory Seal》


 Pre-story (1)

    Thousands of spells soared through the air below and towards Wesley¡¯s team, flooding their fields of vision. Despite the mass of spells flying around, they proceeded calmly through the air, protected by a transparent silver membrane.


    Although they could fly calmly through the air, just a few hundred feet below, endless explosions marred the ground as the two armies contested each and every inch of land. Countless broken bodies decorated the disfigured earth as lakes of blood soaked into the dirt. Regardless, with each body that fell, another soldier ran up to fill the previous soldier¡¯s position.


    One of the females in the formation, Katherine, craned her head towards Wesley and shouted. ¡°I just received word that the Empire is focusing heavily on the right side. It appears that they wish to take the fort and use it as a base to flank the rest of the army. We are to aid and force back the Empire¡¯s advance.¡±


    Wesley nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±


    The formation changed direction and headed west with the sun blazing behind them.


    Wesley had absolute trust in his team. Even though he was the leader, he didn¡¯t view himself above any of the others. After all, they were friends¡­and family.


    Katherine, responsible for the team¡¯s communication with the army¡¯s headquarters, was a King-class magician who specialized in support spells. Her husband, Brian, was also a King-class magician who specialized in defensive spells. As the caster and operator of the magical barrier, he was the nucleus of the formation while the other eight mages filled out the formation as structural and energy support.


    Amongst those who were filling out the formation were the King-class mages Jasmine, Lawrence, David, Alina, and Jake, who all had varying fortes. The last mage in the formation specialized in close combat. Her name was Grace, and she was Wesley¡¯s wife, the only family he had left in this world.


    Wesley himself specialized in offensive spells and was unquestionably the firm leader of the group, which had formed a decade ago during their time at the Ringray Advanced Institute of Magic. Even back then, the team had proven unbeatable behind their nearly flawless teamwork under Wesley¡¯s leadership.


    As they flew west, they spotted a giant wave of enemy soldiers assaulting the Kingdom¡¯s defensive formations.


    The flying formation came to a halt as David whistled. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of soldiers. A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand?¡±


    Wesley cast an eye over the battlefield. ¡°Probably more. Doesn¡¯t matter. Prepare bombardment.¡±


    The formation spread out into a line overhead. Even though the 9 all had varying specialties, they had all mastered offensive magic.


    What was a King-class magician? This title was only given to those who were strong enough to be the backbone of an entire kingdom. Any kingdom or empire would readily sacrifice hundreds of thousands of soldiers for a single King-class mage.


    It could be said that the power such a magician was essential to the survival of a kingdom.


    ¡°Prepare seals!¡±


    Each person raised their hands and began to draw their seals.


    ¡°Cast!¡± Each person swiped a finger across their drawn seals to activate them.


    Nine large seals glowed brightly in the sky, then the sky lit up from the sheer number of spells that shot out from the seals toward the hundreds of thousands of soldiers below.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    A common war strategy was to mix magicians in with the troops. The magicians would protect the soldiers from enemy spells, while the soldiers would protect the magicians from enemy soldiers.


    The nine mages in Wesley¡¯s team had sent all of their spells in different directions to cover as much area as possible. As the spells shot toward the targets below, giant magical barriers formed around the defending magicians, protecting themselves and the soldiers around them.


    Each magical barrier stopped a few hundred bolts of energy, but flickered and disappeared under the continued onslaught.


    Now without impediment, the spells assaulted the soldiers on impact. Wesley¡¯s spells frosted over entire battalions of soldiers, while Grace¡¯s burned thousands more to a crisp. Shards of steel, wood, and ice impaled soldiers throughout the expansive battlefield.


    In an instant, the three hundred thousand soldiers charging forward on the earth below them had been reduced to a shrieking, blood-soaked pile of corpses. Although a few meager remnants of the previously impressive army survived, they were now surrounded by a hellish landscape of gore and carnage.


    Some of the survivors couldn¡¯t stand the sight and vomited, while others cried with grief or simply stared into space, unable to comprehend the bloodshed and slaughter they had just witnessed.


    The few surviving magicians quickly picked themselves up and flew away at top speed, eager to save themselves.


    David gazed down at the scorched, red earth with sorrow. ¡°What¡¯s the poi-¡°


    ¡°David.¡± Wesley cut him off.


    ¡°¡­Sorry.¡±


    ¡°Come. Let¡¯s go and see how the situation is.¡± Wesley descended toward the kingdom¡¯s fort.


    Although the fort¡¯s outer wall was shattered and dyed red with blood, none of the enemy soldiers had been able to reach far inside.


    Seeing the nine mages descend from the sky, the officer in charge of the fort ran out into the open to greet them.


    ¡°Ah, most esteemed mages, I thank you for your assistance. We surely would have been overrun if it were not for your help. What can I do for you in return?¡±


    Wesley cast his eyes over this officer, then responded. ¡°We just need some food and shelter. We¡¯ve been fighting for days without rest, so we need some time to replenish our magical energy.¡±


    ¡°Of course, sir. This way, sirs and madams.¡± Even in the midst of war, an officer would be willing to throw everything aside for a King-class mage, never mind nine of them.


    The officer led them through the fort, toward the dining area. Upon arriving, the officer shouted at a group of men with tired eyes and scratched up hands who looked to be peeling and chopping entire mountains of potatoes. ¡°Chefs! Prepare a feast with the finest dishes for our esteemed guests!¡±


    One of the chefs sidled up to the officer and whispered in his ear. ¡°Sir, uh¡­other than potatoes, we don¡¯t have much food left. To throw a feast...we¡¯d have to deplete most of our remaining resources.¡±


    The officer dragged the chef to the side. ¡°What do you mean we don¡¯t have much food left?¡±


    ¡°Well, you see sir, we¡¯ve been fighting for the last few days, and with no other way to relieve their stress...the soldiers have been eating like beasts. We can¡¯t really tell them no, or they¡¯ll have no strength and morale for battle. They could even riot or desert.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± The officer paused. ¡°For meat, do you think we could drag in some of the corpses lying outside and try and feed that to the soldiers? Do you think they¡¯d notice? If not, we could just do that..¡±


    The chef raised an eyebrow. ¡°Sir, cannibalism is prohibited under the Book of Universal Laws Volume 3 Passage 52.¡±


    ¡°Ahem¡­ a joke, a joke. Regardless, spare no expense for our guests.¡±


    Wesley¡¯s group, about twenty feet away, exchanged some amused glances with each other. Katherine, the support specialist among them, had multiple spells active at all times. One increased the eyesight and hearing capabilities of those affected. With it, even though the chef and officer were whispering, Wesley¡¯s group had heard it all clearly.


    Wesley twisted a ring off his finger and threw it toward the chef. ¡°Catch!¡±


    Upon catching the ring, the chef was initially confused, then examined it and gasped. ¡°This¡­ it¡¯s a Ring of Holding!¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes. Inside, there¡¯s enough food to feed an entire army for weeks. You can just use the food in the ring to cook for us. We don¡¯t need a feast, just a good meal. Feel free to take up to, say, 20% of the rest to feed the troops.¡±


    The chef and officer both beamed upon hearing this.


    Seeing their smiles, Wesley scowled. ¡°What the hell are you smiling for, you don¡¯t get to keep the ring, you know! And don¡¯t you even think about taking any of the expensive stuff!¡±

 Pre-story (2)

    The team lounged lazily around the dinner table, chatting away. An unaware passerby would have assumed that they were just some ordinary officers, de-stressing after a long day of battle.


    Suddenly, Katherine¡¯s demeanor changed, which alerted the others, who looked toward her with bated breath. As the support mage, she also had the responsibility of being the long-range telepathic point of communication with the Pooles Kingdom.


    After a few moments, Katherine sighed. ¡°It seems that the Empire is sending a team of King-class mages to the front-lines. We¡¯re to intercept and kill them all.¡±


    There was an extended pause, which ended when Jake asked the question the obvious questions on everyone¡¯s minds. ¡°How many is the Empire sending? What are their specialties? Their relative strength?¡±


    Katherine shook her head. ¡°I asked. All they said was that the spy stated that there were about 20 King-class mages, then the transmission cut off. They believe that the spy had been discovered and eliminated.¡±


    Hearing this, Lawrence spoke up. ¡°I don¡¯t like this. He just happens to be able to report the number before the transmission cut out? Either way, 20 King-class mages? We¡¯re strong but¡­¡± He looked toward Wesley.


    Wesley picked up a Golden Lamb skewer and nonchalantly answered. ¡°We fight.¡±


    Wesley¡¯s confident statement seemed to alleviate the tension, and with that everyone around the table grinned.


    ¡°As expected from our leader,¡± praised Jake, as he tore into a fried Primordial Beast wing. ¡°I suppose you have a plan for this?¡±


    ¡°The plan,¡± Wesley calmly replied, ¡°is to kill them all.¡±


    Seeing everyone¡¯s exasperated faces around him, he awkwardly cleared his throat and continued.


    ¡°We¡¯ll use my variation of the Inclusive Blizzard Seal and ambush them. Katherine, do you have any information on where they are and where they¡¯re headed?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Katherine promptly replied. ¡°They¡¯re approaching from the mainland and look to be moving Southwest¡­ in about 10 days, they should reach the southern tip of the Demon Continent. The forest there will give us perfect cover for an ambush. It should only take us 5 days to get there, so we should have those 5 days to prepare.¡±


    ¡°That sounds good to me. Does everyone agree?¡±


    A unanimous series of nods around the table.


    Wesley continued, ¡°Perfect. We shouldn¡¯t need more than three days of preparation, so we¡¯ll spend another two days here to help the Kingdom with this battle. Katherine, please let the King know that we have accomplished our mission and are ready for a new task. Tell him that we also want our payment tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Got it. Still though¡­ we¡¯re being paid 90,000 gold coins per task¡­ isn¡¯t this basically stealing?¡±


    Wesley lifted a wine cup to his mouth. ¡°It¡¯s war, Katherine. Everything is more expensive in a time of war. It¡¯s still cheaper for them to pay us than it is to pay a few million soldiers.¡±


    David smiled. ¡°I agree. We¡¯re doing this so that our future children won¡¯t have to. Isn¡¯t that right, darling?¡± He looked toward Alina, who smiled.


    ¡°Shut up.¡± Alina looked away. ¡°You do realize we¡¯re against the Empire, right? We can¡¯t win.¡±


    David moved forward and hugged Alina from behind. ¡°We don¡¯t need to win, darling. We just need to defend the Kingdom until the Empire gives up. Then we¡¯ll be rewarded with an additional million gold coins each. I¡¯ll buy you an entire island. How about it?¡±


    ¡°Hmph. I¡¯ll just buy the island myself¡­¡± Despite her tone, however, Alina willingly leaned back into David¡¯s embrace.


    Although Wesley¡¯s team had planned to help the Kingdom defend for another two days before heading off, the battlefield was completely quiet for these two days.


    At the end of the second night, the friends all crowded around the dinner table yet again.


    Lawrence addressed the others in a matter of fact tone, ¡°The Empire¡¯s forces are obviously just waiting for the King-class mages so that they don¡¯t take too many casualties.¡±


    Though Wesley¡¯s confidence had put the team at ease momentarily, as the reality of the situation sunk in, the air grew heavy once more. They were certainly confident in their abilities, but a single misstep against such powerful opponents could mean death.


    An air of unease reverberated throughout the fort as they packed up their belongings and set out once more. To reach their destination, they had to cross some of the Magmont Continent and the entire Dark Sea, a near impossible task for a common mage, and still potentially dangerous even for King-class mage. They decided to use the cover of night alongside a series of invisibility spells to move toward the Demon Continent undetected.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Most of the trip went by without much trouble. Sometimes, some flying beast or another would attempt to ambush Wesley¡¯s team in hopes of catching a quick snack, but such advances ended with a quick trip to hell instead.


    One time, an entire flock of Demonic Geese assaulted the team and was quickly put down. Although Demonic Goose meat was toxic to the average human, consuming it was actually very beneficial for certain mages, especially for those who specialized in poison magic, like Jasmine.


    As such, she spent the rest of the trip cheerfully gnawing on Demonic Goose meat.


    Finally, they arrived at the southern tip of the Demonic Continent. The sky was overcast - not a single ray of sunlight could be seen on the shadowed forest floor. This was the norm on the Demonic Continent, which was home to the strongest, evilest demons and monsters in the world. It was even rumored that the demons that resided on the continent had a leader, a king, that embodied death itself, an existence that even the Eight Grand Magicians were wary of.


    It was the perfect place to set up an ambush.


    The first day, the nine mages surveyed the forest.


    The second day, the nine mages prepared their trap.


    The third day, the nine mages laid in wait.


    Just before the sun set on the third day, Jasmine spotted a group of people flying toward the tip of the Demon Continent at high speed.


    She sent a mental message to the others. ¡°They¡¯re here!¡±


    Wesley gave the order. ¡°Get into position. Activate on my mark.¡± He began to draw a seal as the figures in the distance closed in. 1000 feet. 900 feet. 800 feet¡­


    ¡°Activate!¡±


    They stood in a massive magic seal, reaching nearly 100 feet across. Wesley positioned himself in the middle, while the others stood in a broad circle around him.


    It was an supportive magic array. With it, Wesley could draw on the mana pools of the rest of his team.


    As Wesley¡¯s telepathic order roared in the other¡¯s heads, they simultaneously unleashed their magical energy into the array.


    Wesley felt a surge of power course through his body, only barely contained by the magic seal.


    High in the air, the twenty King-class magicians sensed the massive energy flux below and halted their advance.


    But it was too late. Below, Wesley had already completed the new seal.


    Ice Purgatory!


    He swiped his finger across the drawn magic seal and instantly, a freezing mist descended upon the twenty figures hovering in the air.


    Seeing this, they quickly realized that they didn¡¯t have time to prepare their own spells.


    ¡°Run!¡± The twenty King-class mages quickly turned around and sped away.


    Alone, Wesley would not have had the magical energy required to lock down all 20 targets. After all, King-class mages flew at incredibly fast speeds, especially over short distances.


    But with the energy provided by the others, Wesley had been able to, nearly instantly, create a land of icy hell that spanned over four square miles. With so little time to react, none of the enemy mages were able to escape the ice.


    Although they were trapped, it wasn¡¯t as if the enemy magicians were out of options.


    Some elementary-level magical seals could be imprinted onto clothes, jewelry, or even weapons. Even though these seals usually weren¡¯t strong enough to kill a magician of a similar level, they were usable even when the caster was immobilized.


    Using these seals, the mages quickly began to fight their way out of the blocks of ice they were enclosed in.


    But Wesley¡¯s team was not one to let such an advantage slip by.


    As soon as Wesley had activated Ice Purgatory, the rest of his team had already begun to draw seals of their own.


    Ice Purgatory, at the end of the day, was a control spell with limited offensive capabilities. Against weaker mages, perhaps it would be able to kill them, but against mages of the King-class level, it could only hold them in place for a few short seconds.


    But these few seconds were all Wesley¡¯s team needed.


    Katherine completed her seal first.


    Arcane Expansion! Using the spell instantly consumed nearly half of Katherine¡¯s remaining mana, but would increase the power of her teammates spells by 20% for the next minute!


    Katherine¡¯s timing was truly exquisite. Just as she swiped her finger over the magic seal to activate it, the others finished their own seals.


    A mere second after the effects of Arcane Expansion spread over the entire team, a flurry of spells and a lone figure flew towards those trapped in the air.


    Two of the trapped mages were unable to escape from the ice and died instantly from the onslaught of spells, while several more were unable to shield themselves in time and were grievously injured.


    The one who had flown towards those trapped in the air was Grace. As the close-combat specialist, she was capable of summoning armors to protect herself with. The one she¡¯d chosen for this battle was the Huo Set, an armor set with an affinity for the element of fire. Unlike other mages, close-combat mages relied on summoning stones that contained layers upon layers of magical seals.


    She soared high into the air, then adjusted her trajectory so that she hurtled toward the enemy like a meteor from the heavens.


    By now, the enemy mages had somewhat regrouped themselves. However, they''d spent all of their strength and time dealing with the spells that had come from below.


    With their attention focused below them, Grace swooped in from above!


    She raised her hand toward the sky. Grasped in her hand was the matching weapon of the Huo Set, an explosive mace.


    That mace came crashing down on the her first victim¡¯s skull, caving it in and sending the rest of the victim¡¯s body towards the ground at what seemed to be the speed of light.


    Only seconds had elapsed since the start of the fight and while Wesley¡¯s team had managed to kill three and injure many more, they were still outnumbered.


    The fight had only just begun!

 Pre-story (3)

    King-class Magician.


    It was a prestigious title, but it was a poor indicator of the strength of those it described After all, a bottom tier King-class mage could only be considered slightly more powerful than a Rank 10 Advanced Magician.


    At the same time, a King-class mage close to the Emperor-class level would still be considered a King-class mage, but would be several times more powerful than a Rank 10 Advanced Magician. To this point, although Wesley¡¯s team was still outnumbered almost 2:1, they weren¡¯t at a complete disadvantage. Although they had a long ways to go to reach the level of an Emperor-class mages, they were considered to be among the most powerful in the King class.


    Wesley¡¯s team had formed a revolving formation midair. Katherine, the support specialist, hovered in the center, the other eight revolved around her. Whenever under duress, Brian would rotate to the front to protect the rest of the team. When on the offensive, Katherine would rotate the formation so that each could have a brief moment to cast their spells before retreating to draw up the next.


    Although this process may sound laborious, the formation could rotate as extreme speeds, even faster than a King-class mage could fly. A full rotation took only half a second, which meant that 7 offensive spells could be cast in less than half a second.


    Naturally, this meant that Katherine and Brian were doing the lion¡¯s share of the work. Each mage had different drawing speeds, but Wesley¡¯s team averaged five seconds of drawing time for an advanced seal.


    In a battle against other King-class mages,  they wouldn¡¯t use any basic spells unless it was to mask the casting of stronger spells. Unfortunately for Brian, whose offensive strength paled in comparison to his defensive capability, this meant that he was stuck defending the rest of his team for the clear majority of the skirmish as they drew their seals.


    Meanwhile, the Empire¡¯s mages had organized themselves into a similar formation of nine, while the other eight spread out to attack Wesley¡¯s team from various angles.


    The endless bombardment from all angles put Wesley¡¯s team in a predicament. With Brian as their only defensive specialist, if they were surrounded by the various enemy mages, their formation would be left extremely vulnerable. At the same time, if they didn¡¯t deal with the enemy¡¯s formation, those mages would be able to coordinate attacks to quickly whittle down Brian¡¯s mana pool. Wesley¡¯s team would have no choice but to flee.


    Wesley grimaced and quickly began to draw a new type of seal, one that he invented himself: a double-layered seal.


    The first layer, Ice Imprisonment!


    The second layer, Frozen Spikes!


    Individually, these spells were both relatively weak. However, when combined, they were extremely dangerous.


    Ice Imprisonment was but a simpler version of Ice Purgatory - it could only trap people for a miniscule amount of time. A King-class mage could break through the spell in just a quarter of a second.


    However, by combining the seal for Ice Imprisonment with the seal for Frozen Spikes, not only was the effect of Ice Imprisonment amplified so that it could trap King-class mages for up to two seconds, but the glacial spikes summoned from the Frozen Spikes seal would emerge from the confining ice itself, puncturing the unfortunate victim¡¯s body.


    In a mere moment, Wesley had finished this layered seal and had swiped his finger across it to activate it.


    That wasn¡¯t all. After activating the seal, he reached his right hand out and continued to pour energy into the seal to prevent it from dissipating.


    This was highly risky as the seal could explode if the user attempted to use more energy than the seal could handle or if the user could not properly focus his energy into the seal while activating it. The slightest deviation of energy could cause catastrophe. However, if done properly, this deadly combination alongside an endless stream of energy could prove to be overwhelming.


    The eight individual mages were each encased in ice. Despite immediately working to extract themselves from their glacial prisons, they found that every layer of ice they destroyed was instantly replaced by another.


    Furthermore, even if the enemy mages kept the ice spikes at bay with their powers, this  crippled their ability to draw seals to counter Wesley¡¯s combination spell.


    After a few more moments of struggle, each of the eight mages fell victim to the ice spikes and fell from the sky, their bodies laden with giant grotesque holes.


    It was now 9 vs. 9!


    However at this moment, Jake called out with some desperation in his voice. ¡°Wesley, I¡¯m running low on mana!¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    The others called out in agreement; it seemed that the onslaught had taken its toll on the team''s stamina.


    ¡°Hm. Fine!¡± Wesley responded, ¡°Fall back! We¡¯ll let others take care of this. It¡¯s only nine King-class magicians, I¡¯m sure they can take care of it. Katherine, contact the Kingdom, tell them to handle it. We¡¯ll split the rewards with whoever finishes the job.¡±


    ¡°Move out!¡±


    Wesley¡¯s team quickly sped away from the forest, back toward the Magmont Continent.


    The enemy mages began to chase, but one quickly motioned for them to stop. ¡°Not worth it to chase. They may have backup. We¡¯ll wait a bit then proceed as planned. Contact the palace and tell them that we¡¯re going to need help if we are to break into the Magmont Continent in a timely manner.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir!¡±


    ¡­


    Five days later, Wesley¡¯s team touched down at the port of a city on the edge of the Magmont Kingdom. Thousands of soldiers heralded their arrival with glorious banners along with the King of the Pooles Kingdom, who sported royal purple robes.


    As Wesley walked forward, the King emerged, surrounded by nobles and bodyguards.


    ¡°Ahhhh, Wesley! Hero of the Kingdom, Savior of the Magmont Continent! Welcome back!¡±


    The King ostentatiously wrapped his arm around Wesley and dragged him away into an extravagant carriage, while the rest of the nobles and Wesley¡¯s friends followed on foot.


    Although the King acted amiably in front of the soldiers, once he was inside the carriage, which had been made soundproof through a network of simple magic seals, he instantly dropped this facade.


    With an annoyed voice, he questioned Wesley. ¡°Why did your team turn tail when there were still nine survivors? Did you not understand your task? The reason I pay you so much is because of your team¡¯s strength. If you can¡¯t complete the missions I give you, why am I paying you?


    ¡°Hmph.¡± Wesley was less than impressed by the King¡¯s tirade. ¡°Name another team that could have gone against a team of 20 King-class mage and killed 11 of them without taking any losses! As it is, we¡¯re the strongest force you have. You may be the king, and we may work for you, but we are the ones who can win this war for the kingdom.


    We will operate as we see fit, or you can find another team to assist you. I, for one, am not going to let my team needlessly die in battle.¡±


    With that, Wesley kicked  the door of the carriage off its hinges and stepped out. ¡°I¡¯ll expect our payment within the week.¡±


    Having said that, he kicked off the ground and flew through the air. Moments later, the rest of his team followed suit.


    The King stared at the opening in his carriage where his door had previously been, then lifted the window curtain on the side of his carriage. His eyes narrowed as he watched the nine mages fly away.


    He was a King, the ruler of the millions of citizens who inhabited the Pooles Kingdom. How could he not be angered at Wesley¡¯s behavior?


    But Wesley¡¯s words rang true. The Pooles Kingdom¡¯s existence was currently threatened, and if Wesley¡¯s team suddenly decided that fighting the Kingdom¡¯s battles wasn¡¯t worth it to them anymore¡­


    The Kingdom would probably fall within a week.


    However, what the King didn¡¯t know, was that Wesley would never abandon the Pooles Kingdom. Rather, a small portion of it.


    Later that day, Wesley and his team touched down hundreds of miles away in front of small village. Before they had time to take a step, high pitched shouts reverberated from inside the village.


    ¡°Mom! Mom! Uncle David is here! Uncle Wes is here! Aunt Grace is here! Aunt Alina¡­¡±


    A swarm of children of various ages quickly surrounded Wesley¡¯s group and began peppering them with questions.


    One cute girl around the age of five jumped up and grabbed onto Jake¡¯s shoulders. ¡°Hey, hey! Uncle Jake, how did the battles go? Did you win? Did you win?¡±


    ¡°Oh, little Annie! Oh, Lord! Uncle Jake is getting old; you¡¯re so big already! How old are you now?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m six! Hey, hey Uncle Jake, did you win!¡±


    ¡°Hah. Of course we did! Are you impressed? Your Uncle Jake is great, right?¡±


    ¡°No... Uncle Wesley probably did all the work.¡±


    ¡­Shock!


    The team split off into different directions as the villagers celebrated their return. It was a quaint, little village with a population of about a thousand people. Only a few decades ago, the village had been destitute. Most families had struggled to survive from each day to the next, and death by starvation was very common. Only a few times a year, when the men returned from successful hunting trips, could the families eat their fill.


    However, fortune had smiled upon the village and bestowed upon them a genius - Wesley.


    One day, a middle-aged man had appeared in the village, claiming that he was searching for a student. To everyone¡¯s surprise, he noticed potential in Wesley, despite the boy only being eight years old at the time. In hopes of seeing their son find a better life outside the village, Wesley¡¯s parents had placed their son in his care.


    Unfortunately, Wesley¡¯s parents were never able to witness their son succeed, as they died mysterious deaths just a week after Wesley¡¯s departure.


    However, just a few years later, Wesley had quickly made a name for himself in the Pooles Kingdom as the youngest Advanced Mage in the history of the Kingdom, and one of the youngest in the Magmont Continent. At the time, many nobles and even the royal family had showered Wesley with gifts to curry favor with him.


    Wesley, now a young man, had sent these gifts back to the village. Over time, the village progressed from being one of the poorest in the Kingdom to becoming the most affluent. In fact, the village¡¯s wealth rivaled that of some smaller cities.


    However, by choice, they did their best to remain isolated from the rest of the world. Aside from a few merchants who visited from time to time, few visited the village, or even knew of its existence.


    At present, Wesley was meeting with the village Elders.


    ¡°Wesley, you know that our Affile Village would not be where it is today without you. However, we are already very well off. Why don¡¯t you rest for a while? Everyone in the village feels guilty that they reap the rewards of your success while you yourself are unable to enjoy it.¡±


    Wesley laughed and waved his hands. ¡°I appreciate your concern for me, elders, but I won¡¯t be resting for a while.¡±

 Pre-story (4)

    Wesley refused to tell the elders before that the Pooles Kingdom was under attack and had let them think that he¡¯d been spending his time acting as a bodyguard for the Kingdom¡¯s diplomats. Although the village knew that Wesley¡¯s team would partake in petty disputes from time to time, they hadn¡¯t realized that a legitimate war was underway.


    The village liked to keep to itself, and with Wesley¡¯s status, he could ensure their protection. He could keep them safe by letting them stay ignorant of the dangers of the outside world. And if the village was happy being ignorant...


    Wesley would do his best to keep it that way.


    ¡­


    At the same time, a great distance away, nine figures sat around a round table, while another individual stood some distance away, giving a report.


    ¡°Of the twenty King-class mages that were dispatched, eleven have died. Fortunately, however, they were only rank 1 and rank 2 King-class mages, so these casualties are still acceptable. The remaining have successfully rerouted themselves to the target location and are awaiting further orders.¡±


    Those around the table shifted in their seats until one finally spoke in a brutish voice. ¡°This is pointless. Why bother with this facade? If we¡¯re going to take over the Magmont Continent either way, why bother throwing so many talented individuals to their deaths? I¡¯ll just go over there and kill all of their King-class magicians and they¡¯ll be defenseless.¡±


    A tall and slender female at the table immediately stood up. ¡°Don¡¯t be rash. The Eight Grand Magicians have been very clear about appropriate use of force. Don¡¯t make things hard for big brother.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine. It¡¯ll only take a moment. As long as everybody there dies, there won¡¯t be anyone to alert the Eight Grand Magicians, right?¡±


    ¡°This... What do the rest of you say?¡±


    A mixture of shrugs and grunts, as well as some other short signals of approval sounded from around the table.


    ¡°Just make sure you don¡¯t let any of them escape. If you cause trouble for big brother, I¡¯ll end you myself.¡±


    ¡°Well, then. I¡¯ll take my leave now. I¡¯ll be back in a few days with the good news.¡± The first speaker from the round table stood up and disappeared.


    With that, those around the table left one by one.


    The ¡°big brother¡± was one of the Eight Grand Magicians, and therefore had a great deal of power at his disposal, both personal and through his position.


    However, the power he possessed also came with a great deal of responsibility. He had his hands tied in many situations where he could have just simply ignored the rules before. For example, the other Eight Grand Magicians had warned him that he would lose his position if they found that he was using his power to abuse the Kingdoms of the Magmont continent. Hence, he and his allies were prohibited from engaging in battle; they could only send common soldiers and mages no stronger than King-class in their place.


    After the meeting, the ¡°big brother¡± left to his own private residence, where he notified the guards to not let anyone in.


    The remaining figures that had sat around the table formed the core of the Empire, and were all Empire-class mages, a force that could rival almost any other in existence.


    The only stronger power would be the Eight Grand Magicians, a council made up of Emperor-class mages from different powers around the world. This elite group of magicians has, since the dawn of time, governed magicians and protected the world from magic-related harm.


    Or at least, that was their official purpose.


    ¡­


    That night, Wesley and Grace, a few miles away from Affile Village, sat together outside an old shack, staring out towards an expansive lake.


    Faint ripples spread throughout the lake as the wind gently caressed its surface.


    Breaking the peaceful silence, Grace murmured, ¡°I wish things could always be this peaceful.¡±


    Wesley sighed and lightly nodded. ¡°Sometimes, I do too¡­¡±


    He reached for Grace¡¯s hand, then pulled her into his embrace.


    ¡°After this war, let¡¯s settle down¡­ we can hire some people to build us an estate and we can live out our days in peace. Heck, we could open a school and teach the kids in the village how to use magic. Could you imagine?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm.¡± Grace leaned in for a kiss. ¡°That does sound nice.¡±


    However, Wesley had a prickling sensation in the back of his neck that quietly whispered to him that something, something, was wrong.


    ¡­


    A few days later, Wesley and Grace met up with the rest of the team to head back out to the front lines.


    About half an hour out from the Magmont Continent¡¯s western coast, where most of the battles took place, Wesley and the others suddenly felt an impossibly strong presence approaching, tens of miles away.


    ¡°Halt!¡± Wesley raised his right arm and motioned for the others to stop.


    Jasmine raised a voice of concern. ¡°Should we run? Nobody from any of the Kingdoms could possibly be this strong. It¡¯s likely to be one of the Empire¡¯s Emperor-class mages.¡±


    Wesley slowly shook his head. ¡°They¡¯re already too close. Even with our speed, it¡¯d be impossible for us to escape. The only thing we can do is meet them and see if they come in peace. And if they don¡¯t¡­ we¡¯ll have no choice but to fight and see if Emperor-class mages are really as strong as they¡¯re said to be.¡±


    However, they all knew ¨C if it was an enemy, none of them would survive.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Mere seconds later, they saw a small speck hurtling towards them. After another few seconds, a brutish, imposing figure hovered in front of them.


    Imposing, because the speed this person had just shown¡­ was tens of times faster than what any of Wesley¡¯s team could achieve! Just this alone showed just how powerful he was.


    Wesley calmly addressed this new arrival. ¡°Greetings, senior. What business might you have with us?¡±


    ¡°I am looking for the King-class mages of the Pooles Kingdom.¡±


    ¡°...¡± Wesley narrowed his eyes and cautiously responded. ¡°That would most likely be us.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± The anonymous figure smiled. ¡°It seems that my luck is good, then!¡±


    He pulled out a summoning stone and activated it, summoning a golden set of armor alongside a silver spear.


    Without hesitation, Wesley began to shout orders.


    ¡°Back up! Get into formation with me as the core! Brian in front!¡±


    Alas, Emperor-class mages were just too powerful. Just as Wesley¡¯s team managed to settle into formation, the figure had already reached Brian and stabbed him with his spear.


    Luckily for Brian, he¡¯d barely finished a defensive magic seal before the spear had hit him. Even so, he coughed up blood and was knocked out of the formation.


    Wesley had panic in his eyes now. After all, Brian was their defensive specialist, and his defensive capabilities far exceeded those of the rest of the team. If even Brian was taken out by a simple spear strike¡­


    If any of the others were hit, it would mean certain death!


    Furthermore, the formation had been disrupted.


    After knocking Brian out of the formation, the figure rushed forward, only to meet an ice wall that Wesley conjured to buy the team some time.


    ¡°Hmph! Trifling spells!¡± The Emperor-class mage was slightly perturbed by this tactic, but before he could shatter the ice wall with his spear, Wesley¡¯s team had already regrouped with Grace as the forward piece.


    She had summoned her defensive armor, called the Shi Set. It came with magically reinforced granite armor, as well as a similarly reinforced granite shield that could be split into two parts, one wielded by each hand. With this set of armor on, Grace¡¯s defense was only slightly inferior to Brian¡¯s.


    At the same time, Katherine activated her Arcane Expansion seal.


    In quick succession, Jasmine finished Venomous Vines to ensnare and delay the attacker, then the rest of the team seized the opportunity to bombard him with spells.


    Finally, Wesley finished off with a self-created spell that he endearingly called, ¡°Snow Globe!¡±


    A sphere of ice formed around the attacker, then quickly compressed itself.


    Normally, this would squish the target into meat paste, but this was an Emperor-class mage! With a simple shake of his spear, the sphere of ice broke apart and shards of ice crashed toward the ground.


    ¡°Die!¡± The Emperor-class mage drew back his right arm and lunged forward. One instant the spear was in his hand, and the next¡­ it had flown past Grace before she could block it and pierced Jake¡¯s head! Immediately, his body fell limp and dropped to the ground. He lay motionless with the spear still impaled through his face as his teammates and beloved friends hovered in the air, mortified and frozen with shock.


    Seeing his close friend die, Wesley was livid! With his gaze as cold as a winter storm, he turned back toward the Emperor-class mage and softly asked, ¡°What is your name?¡±


    ¡°Name¡¯s Charles. Now, let me have some fun; I¡¯ve been rather bored lately.¡± With a grasping motion with his right hand, the silver spear disappeared from Jake¡¯s head and reappeared in Charles¡¯ hand.


    He flew forward and smashed Grace¡¯s shield with his spear, knocking her out of the formation. A mere moment later, Charles impaled Jasmine in the head and knocked Lawrence down with the butt of his spear.


    Hurtling toward the ground, Lawrence¡¯s eyes filled with blood as he watched his wife¡¯s body fall to the ground with him.


    ¡°You¡­ I¡¯ll kill you! We¡¯ll die together!¡± With a sudden burst of determination and hatred, Lawrence flew back up, directly towards Charles.


    On the side, Wesley saw Lawrence¡¯s actions. ¡°Wait, Lawrence, no!¡±


    But it was too late. Just as Lawrence was about to reach Charles, he clasped his hand over his heart, shouted his grief toward the heavens¡­ and exploded.


    A monstrous wave of pure energy thundered out from Lawrence¡¯s previous location, buffeting Wesley as well as the rest of the team.


    Fortunately, Wesley had understood Lawrence¡¯s intention from the beginning and, as the core of the remainder of the formation, drawn the others away from Charles.


    After the waves of energy subsided, Wesley peeked back toward Charles¡¯ location.


    Charles was still there, hovering in the air, definitely looking worse for wear. However¡­ there was no sign of injury.


    Then his mouth moved.


    ¡°Alright, alright. NOW it¡¯s getting interesting!¡± Charles suddenly dashed forward through the air and appeared, as if through teleportation, next to David and Katherine.


    With two swift thrusts, the two King-class mages fell from the sky, never to soar again.


    At this point, it was overwhelmingly clear to Wesley that while it was unlikely for any of them to survive if they ran, there was no chance of survival if they stayed!


    ¡°Run! Split up and if he chases you, try to buy as much time for the others as you can!¡± Wesley shouted this order of retreat with a mixture of grief and desperation in his voice while dragging Grace through the air as fast as he could away from Charles.


    ¡°Hmph.¡± Charles was not impressed. ¡°Splitting up? It¡¯s just like killing chickens¡­let¡¯s save the leader for last, eh?


    ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ I injured one of them earlier. He should be an easy picking and¡­ ah! There he is!¡± Having found Brian, Charles lifted his spear again and chucked it in Brian¡¯s direction. Seconds later, Brian¡¯s body plunged toward the ground with a spear through his back.


    ¡°So, one down, three to go. Hmm¡­ they actually fly quite fast. Looks like it¡¯s time for a change.¡±


    The golden armor and the silver spear faded from his body as he took out another summoning stone.


    The Silver Eagle Set! Wearing this set of armor tremendously increased the wearer¡¯s speed.


    Charles tapped his foot downwards and sped after his prey. A moment later, he had caught up with Alina.


    ¡°Hello there, beauty!¡± Charles casually slashed down with his hand, cleanly cutting Alina¡¯s body in two.


    ¡°And now, for that loving couple¡­¡±


    Instinctively, Wesley and Grace fled toward the little old shack next to the calm and beautiful lake. It was their place of safety, of comfort.


    However, less than a minute after they had fled from Charles, Wesley could feel an ominous presence closing in on them.


    Shit!


    Wesley spun himself around in midair. ¡°Keep going, Grace! Don¡¯t look back!¡±


    He prepared his last magic seal: Sealed Revelation!


    There wasn¡¯t enough time! Wesley stared at the incoming Emperor-class mage with discontent in his eyes.


    He frantically drew, but he wasn¡¯t going to make it!


    With a wave of his hand, a scimitar appeared in Charles¡¯s grasp. He raised his hand and slashed down!


    Wesley watched the scimitar descend from above, expecting it to end his life in the next moment, when suddenly another body entered his field of vision.


    With a ¡®shhhhhlick¡¯ sound, Grace¡¯s body split  in half right before Wesley¡¯s very own eyes.


    ¡°...¡± Wesley eyes glazed over as he watched Grace¡¯s body fall lifelessly to the ground, as if in slow motion. He heard a roaring in his ears and his chest tightened almost to the point of collapsing. Consumed by grief, Wesley could not move, could not make a sound.


    An instant later, the scimitar curved back around and sliced Wesley¡¯s body in half as well.


    As the light faded from his eyes and his vision turned dark, Wesley heard an anguished shout of grief in the distance.


    He faintly wondered who had shouted, and what that person had lost.

 Chapter 0

    It was the 10th month of the 1005th year of the Richerant Calendar.


    6 years ago, on the ninth day of the ninth month of the 999th year of the Richerant Calendar, the Gia family received a special gift - a baby boy.


    A boy born on 9/9/999! The number nine had long been associated with dragons, magic, strength. The Gia family took this as a sign ¨C the new heir to the Gia family was to be a dragon amongst men!


    Alas, this was but a hope, a dream. After all, the Gia family was but a Noble-ranked family, not part of the Royal family, and Wesley¡¯s parents were only Advanced Magicians, not King-class.


    The Gia family owned a fairly expansive estate on the outer edge of the first ring of Blue Wind City, the capital of the Conarite Kingdom of the Magmont Continent. Being a Noble-ranked family, they had many servants who tended to the estate as well as the family¡¯s needs, as well as nearly a hundred skilled guards who protected the estate from thievery and harm.


    However, of the noble families situated in Blue Wind City, they were perhaps the least influential and powerful.


    Regardless, they were a noble family, which meant that Wesley, as the immediate family heir, enjoyed certain privileges. For example, he had several bodyguards that protected him at all times and multiple servants who cared for his daily needs.


    Still though, their son¡¯s birth date was a  fun boasting point for Dean and Patricia. After all, even if their son wasn¡¯t truly fated to be a dragon amongst men, it¡¯s not like any of their friends¡¯ sons were either!


    As a six-year-old, Wesley¡¯s days were rather carefree. He enjoyed life, messed around with friends and family servants, and ate the finest foods that the city had to offer.


    Today was no different. It was several hours after noon, and Wesley sat along the edge of a training field with his friends, watching the older kids. They watched enthusiastically as hundreds of elementary mage students from the Western Conarite Institute of Magic performed what the school called ¡°practical exercises¡±.


    These practical exercises were simple. Hundreds of elementary mages would stand in file as their instructor talked them through the theory behind multiple spells and demonstrated the writing of the spells The students would follow along, practicing their writing meticulously. When the instructor was satisfied with the proficiency of the students¡¯ writing, he would activate the spell and showcase its abilities. This teaching usually lasted the entire morning.


    Wesley and his friends couldn¡¯t be bothered to watch as the lectures could be summed up in one word: boring!


    In the afternoon, after a short lunch break, the elementary mages would split into groups and compete against each other by writing and casting the spells they had just learned. At this time, Wesley and his friends would gather at the edge of the training field and watch.


    ¡°Hey Dylan,¡± Wesley pointed, ¡°They¡¯re starting up. How ¡®bout it; wanna bet again?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure! Who do you think will win?¡± Dylan eagerly responded. The two boys, along with their friends, quickly agreed on their bets and enjoyed the wondrous displays of magic that followed.


    ¡­


    While Wesley was busy betting candies with his friends, Wesley¡¯s parents, Dean and Patricia, were in a far less festive mood. The two sat in silence at a table situated in the family estate¡¯s garden.


    ¡°He¡¯s already six years old, yet his mana channels and mana pool show no sign of development. At this rate¡­ our family may be relegated to yet another generation of mediocrity.¡±


    Dean sighed, slumping forward in his chair with his head between his knees.


    Generally speaking, one¡¯s mana channels would begin to develop between the ages of 7-9 and would finish about a year after, at which time one¡¯s mana pool would begin to grow as well. As soon as one possessed a mana pool, no matter how small, one would be able to use magic. In almost all cases, the earlier one¡¯s mana channels developed, the more future potential they had.


    Alas, unless Wesley¡¯s mana channels suddenly and miraculously began developing at an incredible rate, it was likely that the Gia family would have to endure another generation of mediocrity.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    After a few moments of pained contemplation, Dean finally sighed and leaned back.


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing else we can do¡­ we need to do what¡¯s best for our family and our future. If we stay the course, we may lose our status and be thrown into the second ring.¡±


    Each ring of the city symbolized a level of position, money, and law. The first and smallest ring consisted of royalty and nobles. Highly skilled guards guarded every street corner and alley; living here was extremely safe.


    Affluent merchants, guilds, and the like occupied the second ring. These organizations needed to pay for their own safety - merchants had long ago banded together to hire mercenaries for protection, and guilds had naturally come up with similar methods. In fact, one of the guilds was a mercenary guild.


    The third ring, however, was moneyless and lawless. A few people here and there would be found dead in the second ring every day, but tens to hundreds of people died in the third ring every day, be it from murder or hunger. Only a few guards were found along the wall between the 2nd and 3rd rings. For the most part, gangs ran the slums in the third ring.


    Being relegated to the second ring wouldn¡¯t mean the end of the world¡­ but for the Gia family, who had prospered in the first ring for centuries, it was not a situation that they could accept.


    As such, Dean and Patricia made the decision, along with the other family elders, to bolster the Gia family¡¯s influence by backing the Crown Prince in his pursuit of the throne. In their opinion, this was a safe, but important bet.


    The Crown Prince¡¯s main competition for the throne was the Third Prince, who was but a year younger. Although the King¡¯s three sons acted cordially with each other, their internal and personal conflicts were well known amongst the nobility. And as the King of the Conarite Kingdom¡¯s health was quickly declining, tensions between the Crown Prince and the Third Prince and their respective factions only continued to rise, while the Second Prince had made it known that he was uninterested in pursuing his father¡¯s position.


    Today, it was announced to the various royal, ancestral, and noble families that the King would likely die within the next three years.


    In the Richerant Calendar, each year was made up of 15 months, each with 24 days. As such, the Crown Prince and the 3rd Prince¡¯s factions had just over 900 days to solidify their standing and overcome any opposition.


    While the Crown Prince had the natural claim to the throne, the Third Prince had spent the last decade building up a faction that was, in many ways, capable of challenging the Crown Prince¡¯s. In addition, many speculated that the Third Prince could have more support lurking in the shadows and may soon surpass the Crown Prince in the race for the throne.


    Either way, the next ruler of the Conarite Kingdom would be decided within the next three years.


    Wesley, living a carefree and sheltered childhood, was completely unaware of the political storm that was brewing.


    ¡­


    Later that day, Wesley had returned home from playing with his friends to have dinner with his parents.


    The three sat around a table laden with sumptuous dishes, the jewel dish being sweet plums and golden duck. Golden duck was extremely expensive, worth a month of the Gia family¡¯s income;it was sought after not only for its taste, but also for its coveted magical properties.


    If fed to children whose mana channels and pool were still developing, the meat of the golden duck would quicken their growth. If fed to adults, it would nourish the body and stall the consequences of age.


    Patricia continuously pushed the delicious duck over to Wesley¡¯s plate, urging him, ¡°You have to eat more, Wesley, or you¡¯ll never be as strong as your cousins! You want to be cool and strong like them right?¡±


    ¡°No! I¡¯m too full! I¡¯ll just eat more tomorrow.¡± Wesley¡¯s stomach poked through his shirt as he squirmed away from the dining table. ¡°I¡¯m going to go play tag with my friends!¡±


    With some difficulty, he waddled away as he patting his stomach and shouted for one of his servants. ¡°Joe! I¡¯m free! Let¡¯s play tag!¡±


    Dean and Patricia frowned as they helplessly watched their son leave the dining table. ¡°Have we coddled him too much? At this rate¡­even if his mana channels and mana pool develop early, he might not have the right mindset to grow stronger.¡±


    ¡­


    However, a few weeks later, at just over six years old, Wesley¡¯s mana channels had finally begun to develop!


    Wesley¡¯s caretaker, Joe, had been the first to notice. He¡¯d been playing hide and seek with Wesley, when he¡¯d gotten tired of dealing with the little devil and cast a detection spell to ¡°cheat¡±. The cast spell was a simplified form of the ¡°Energy Detection¡± spell,a very common scouting spell that allowed the caster to sense nearby lifeforms by sensing their life energy.


    Joe had sensed a larger energy presence from Wesley when he finally found the little boy. Without a moment of hesitation, Joe brought him to Dean and Patricia, who examined him further.


    To their delight, Wesley¡¯s mana channels had indeed begun to develop significantly, suggesting that his mana pool would also begin developing sooner than expected.


    They promptly invited the rest of the family, as well as some of their friends from other noble families and a few merchant group heads, to celebrate. A child whose mana channels began developing at just 7 years of age was already considered a potential genius. For Wesley¡¯s to begin just a few months after his 6th birthday, it was nothing short of the miracle that the Gia family was waiting for. If Wesley worked hard, perhaps he would become a King-class mage in the future and re-establish the Gia family as a powerful presence in the Conarite Kingdom.


    Finally, Dean and Patricia could see some hope for their family¡¯s future.

 Chapter 1

    A year later.


    "Dang it, I''m going to be late again."


    A kid could be seen zooming through a giant building, his face flushed red from running. After passing another six doors, Wesley finally saw his classroom


    Wesley scrambled into the room, seconds before a loud voice sounded over the school.


    ¡°All students should now be present in Block 3.¡±


    Wesley quickly sat down behind his desk, which was more of a slab of wood sitting above the ground more than anything. He was finally a Rank 1 Elementary mage student at the Western Conarite Institute of Magic, learning the same magic techniques that he and his friends had observed in the past.


    His Block 3 class was General Mana and Magic Manipulation, taught by a certain Mr. Clayde.


    ¡°Late again, Wesley?¡±


    ¡°No sir, I believe I arrived prior to the announcement.¡±


    ¡°But you were not seated at the time of the announcement. That will be another two points off of your final grade this quarter. Come late to my class again and I will report this matter to the principal. Is that understood?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Wesley glared at the teacher. For whatever reason, Mr. Clayde seemed to be targeting Wesley ever since the first day of class. Other students consistently arrived to class late far more often, but Mr. Clayde never addressed them.


    ¡°¡­Yes, sir.¡±


    Wesley sighed and accepted the loss. There wasn¡¯t much he could do; the school¡¯s management was very strict, and would always side with their teachers if any student-teacher conflict arose.


    ¡°Now then¡­¡± Mr. Clayde began his lecture for the day. ¡°Last class we talked about how magical energy, or mana, is created, how your mana lake collects and stores that energy, and how your mana channels enable you to utilize it. This class, I will explain to you how to efficiently use the mana. In other words, how to cast spells. Although the school has been teaching you how to cast spells, we have yet to go over the details behind doing so.¡±


    He looked around the classroom. ¡°Now, although you¡¯ve learned about magic through practical and combat exercises, you¡¯ve never been exposed to the history and origins of it. For example, does anyone know the other two ways to cast spells?¡±


    A girl sitting at the front quickly raised her hand high in the air.


    ¡°Yes, Nadine?¡±


    ¡°Thank you, teacher. Drawing and imprinting, along with writing, are the three methods used to cast spells..¡±


    ¡°Thank you Nadine, you are correct. First, let¡¯s talk about writing, as this is how most of you will be using magic in the future.


    ¡°Writing is the most basic, primitive way of utilizing mana to cast spells. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, our ancestors subjugated the elven race and learned their language, which was capable of directing mana. Now, to start writing, you must draw your mana from your mana lake through your mana channels to your finger. Then, you use your finger as your writing utensil. But of course, you all know that already.


    ¡°Everyone here has already practiced writing spells on paper, then casting the spell by activating it. However, in the future, we will transition from writing on paper to writing on solidified layers of air. I¡¯ll explain this in a future class. Now, this method has one key flaw. Does anyone know what it is?¡±


    This time, Nadine and Wesley both raised their hands immediately. However, Mr. Clayde ignored Wesley and nodded toward Nadine.


    ¡°Thank you, teacher. The shortcoming of writing, is that it is extremely slow. As such, in fast-paced combat situations, those who are only capable of writing are left at a severe disadvantage unless they are able to finish the bout in a single blow.¡±


    Mr. Clayde smiled. ¡°Right again! Writing is a very arduous process, as you have to fully write out the properties of the magic you are intending to use. For example, if you wish to shoot out a bolt of flame, not only do you have to write the word for fire, you have to describe the temperature of the flame, the velocity and direction of its travel path, the size, and more.


    ¡°As such, those who are incapable of utilizing the second method of utilizing magic, drawing, usually end their magical studies after graduating from an elementary institute, such as this one. Although they may call themselves mages¡­ truthfully, their abilities can only help them with everyday chores and the like..


    ¡°One can only call themself a true mage if they are capable of drawing. You will learn this next quarter; we will focus on writing this semester. Everyone, divide into your usual teams and we¡¯ll head to the training fields for the rest of the block.¡±


    A student near the back of the class, Alex, raised his hand. ¡°Sorry teacher, but what about the third way? Imprinting?¡±


    Mr. Clayde blinked twice and answered slowly. ¡°Imprinting... requires for the user to memorize the entirety of a seal, and imprint it directly onto a surface for casting. Those who are capable of doing this are truly the best of the best, as not only does it require intense memorization capabilities, but also very fine mana control.


    ¡°To put it in perspective, perhaps one out of every hundred people is capable of becoming a mage. Only one out of those hundred will be capable of drawing, and only one out of a million of those, will be capable of imprinting.¡±


    He slowly scanned the room, then continued. ¡°If any student of mine were ever capable of imprinting, then I would have no regrets in life. Alas, even if I manage to teach tens of thousands of students, the odds are against me yet.¡±


    At this point, Wesley fell asleep. About an hour later, he woke up to Mr. Clayde¡¯s booming voice.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°Everyone, group up and head to the training fields, now! We¡¯re wasting time, go!¡±


    At the Western Conarite Institute of Magic, each day was split into three blocks. The third block of the day was the longest, and usually consisted of rigorous practical exercises.


    Wesley quickly caught up to a group of older students, all of whom were several inches taller than he was. Most of the group was around 9 years of age, which Wesley being the clear outlier at just over 7 years of age. Despite this, the group didn¡¯t ostracize Wesley, but rather treated him as a younger brother.


    ¡°Hey shorty, late to class again? Really, you¡¯re such a disappointment.¡± One of the students, Zach, teased in a tone mimicking Mr. Clayde¡¯s.


    The rest of the group laughed as Wesley responded, ¡°Yeah, yeah, shut it. The old man¡¯s clearly just jealous of my talent and good looks.¡±


    All of the nearby students  broke out into laughter. As someone whose mana channels began developing at just over 6 years of age, Wesley¡¯s future potential was nearly limitless. As for good looks¡­ At best, he was slightly above average, saved by his large, cute eyes.


    ¡­


    On the first day of school, the students had been split into groups based on their specialties.


    Since most of the students were nobles whose families typically specialized in certain forms of magic, many of their specialties had been effectively determined at birth. As for those who came from outside the first ring, they would be forced to choose within the first week what type of magic to specialize in. Unfortunately, they wouldn¡¯t have access to the secret spells and records that had been built up by the noble families over the centuries, but the school would still provide them with some basic materials.


    Those in Wesley¡¯s group specialized in water/ice magic, and were all from the 99 noble families of the Conarite Kingdom.


    The group cracked some jokes as they headed to the training grounds with the rest of their class, but as soon as they all stepped onto the training grounds, the entire class went silent.


    Tension built in the air as the class quickly lined up in perfect, orderly rows. Only the sounds of people  could be heard until everything came to an abrupt halt.


    Then, even a pin drop could have been heard on the training grounds.


    Nodding, Mr. Clayde strolled past the rows of students and, upon passing the foremost row, shouted, ¡°Staggered, two, six!¡±


    The students orderly ran about the field until they were positioned in two rows, six feet between each person in each row, with those in the second row staggered between and with three feet of open space surrounding each student.


    Mr. Clayde finally arrived at the front of the field, and observed the students. After a few moments of silence, he raised his right hand and pushed.


    A thin layer of air consolidated in the air. Then, Mr. Clayde quickly began to write, using mana, on the newly formed plane.


    After a few seconds, Mr. Clayde finished, then swiped his finger across the finished product.


    The words lit up, and then disappeared. At the same time, a thin, translucent barrier formed in front of him.


    ¡°As you can see, this is the elementary spell, ¡°Mana Barrier¡±. Unlike most spells, which require only an initial input of mana, Mana Barrier requires a constant flow, as well as additional mana to deflect attacks, which makes it a perfect skill for practicing mana control.¡±


    After elaborating on the properties and intricacies of the spell, the students began practicing it on their own. After a bit, they divided back into the groups they¡¯d arrived in, and their weekly competition began.


    The only rule regarding the competitions was that they could only use the spells they¡¯d learned that week. For example, this week, in addition to Mana Barrier, they¡¯d learned four other spells. Only those five spells could be used during the competition. It just so happened that this week, two of the spells had been water/ice based¡­


    Grinning, Wesley and his team paired off against their first victims.


    Along with Zach and Wesley, there were three other boys in the group. Josh, George, Reynold, as well as a lone girl, Emily.


    Josh and George were twin brothers from the Creer family, while Reynold was from the Hiringu family, Emily from the Fangen family.


    As the oldest, and thereby the leader, Zach took control of the situation and brought the rest into their pre-match huddle.


    ¡°Alright, so we¡¯re against the earth magic group again. Don¡¯t think we have too much to care about, right? Of the spells we learned this week, none of them were earth-based, so let¡¯s just go with our normal ¡®time-to-win¡¯ plan, okay?¡±


    ¡°Yes sir!¡± A quick chorus of voices sharply responded.


    At the same time, the other team left their huddle as well.


    The two teams stepped into the middle of the field, while the rest of the teams formed a circle around them, effectively creating an arena.


    Mr. Clayde stepped between the two groups and looked to Zach and Toh, the Earth¡¯s team¡¯s leader, for confirmation.


    ¡°Ready?¡±


    ¡°Sir, yes sir!¡±


    ¡°Ready?¡±


    ¡°Sir, yes sir!¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°Fight!¡±


    Zach and Toh both leaped backwards and whipped out special parchment papers and used their mana to write spells along with the rest of their respective teams, while the rest of the students started chatting amongst themselves.


    About thirty seconds later, everyone abruptly paused their conversations and looked toward the battle again.


    Wesley, Emily, and Reynold had finished writing, while Toh and one other from opposing team finished at the same time.


    The five lifted their respective papers and activated the seals with their mana. ¡°Cast!¡±


    Bolts of ice flew between the two sides, and Wesley felt something hit him in the chest. The next thing he knew he was gasping for breath, back on the ground.


    At the same time, two from the opposing team backs as well. Disgruntled, they and Wesley picked themselves up and quickly retreated to the edge of the circle.


    Momentarily, Josh and George had finished as well - two walls of ice appeared before the twins while a bolt of lightning and a burst of flame flew towards them.


    The flame disappeared after hitting the ice wall, but the lightning pierced through and knocked Josh out into the surrounding classmates.


    At this moment, Zach finished his spell, mana barrier, and shouted toward George.


    ¡°George, send it!¡±


    The ice wall that George had created suddenly rushed forward, smacking all but Toh to the ground.


    Toh had positioned herself behind her teammates after unleashing her spell, and George didn¡¯t have enough mana to push the ice wall further.


    However, this didn¡¯t mean she was safe. Although the ice wall had stopped, Zach had been running behind it.


    Seeing it stop, he raised his hand and activated mana barrier. In front of him, a translucent shield appeared. He lowered his right shoulder and charged through the ice wall, using the mana barrier to break through, then continued his momentum to crash the mana barrier right into Toh, knocking her out of the arena.


    With all of those from the opposing team knocked out of the fight, Wesley and the rest of his team raised their hands in celebration and cheered.


    Mr. Clayde walked into the center of the arena and pronounced, ¡°Victory to the Water and Ice team, with four survivors. Next, the Fire and Wind teams.¡±


    As he left the arena, he muttered to himself, ¡°God, watching these children fight is so damn boring.¡±

 Chapter 2

    After celebrating their expected victory, Wesley and the others headed back to their homes.


    Meanwhile, Dean and Patricia sat at the dining table, their faces buried in their hands.


    ¡°So even the Brodik family has fallen?¡± Patricia quietly whispered.


    ¡°Yes¡­ some people were making a delivery today at their estate, and when they walked through the Brodik family¡¯s gate, they saw hundreds of bodies strewn across the grounds. The entire family, even the guards, must have been killed.¡±


    ¡°We must be extremely vigilant until the next King is crowned. I¡¯ve been thinking that maybe we should evacuate some of the youngest generation to another city until this thing boils over.¡±


    ¡°Including Wesley?¡±


    ¡°Right.¡±


    They looked toward Wesley, who had returned from school and was playing with his friends out in the courtyard


    Dean sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s send them away tonight. The guards have already been briefed for such an occasion and are prepared to escort the younger generation to your family in the Reiniad Kingdom until this is all resolved.


    ¡°Besides, the younger generations of our two families have yet to meet. Might as well use this as an excuse for that.¡±


    Patricia looked out the door to her joyful son with pain and longing in her eyes. ¡°It¡¯ll be for the best.¡±


    ¡­


    Later that night, in Wesley¡¯s room, he sleepily rubbed his eyes as he confusedly gazed at his mother, who was standing above him and shaking him awake. Alarmed by her restless behavior, he jolted forward, sitting up in his bed. ¡°Why are you here so late? Are we going somewhere?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Wesley.¡± Patricia lovingly ruffled her son¡¯s hair, her voice shaking slightly. ¡°You¡¯re going somewhere very fun with your cousins for a few weeks. Um, a vacation!¡±


    Wesley relaxed, his expression changing from worried to excited. ¡°Ah! Fun! Where? Where?¡±


    ¡°The Reiniad Kingdom! You¡¯ll be meeting your mommy¡¯s side of the family for the first time! Aren¡¯t you excited?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Wesley playfully hit his mother on the arm and smiled.


    ¡°Okay, you rascal. Come, we have carriages ready. Your cousins will take care of you, okay?¡±


    Patricia led Wesley through the estate to the entrance and helped him onto one of the carriages. With some difficulty, she began to say, ¡°Remember, be a good boy and listen to your cous-¡±


    At that moment, Patricia sensed a sudden surge of magical energy in the air above her, causing her scalp to tingle.


    Danger!


    She unceremoniously shoved Wesley into the interior of the carriage, causing him to land with a ¡®whuump¡¯ and an ¡°ow¡±!


    ¡°Intruders! Defend the carriages!¡± As quickly as she could, Patricia frantically began to draw a protective magic seal.


    However, even as she drew her own, she saw a hundred magic seals activate overhead.


    ¡­


    Devastation.


    Broken wood pillars exploded outwards from destroyed buildings as various spells assaulted the earth, transforming the previously impressive estate into a ruinous wasteland.


    In the midst of it all, Wesley remained huddled in the carriage, too afraid to move. Alas, he was too young to internalize the violence occurring around him.


    After a short period of time, the explosions and other various...sounds slowly faded into eerie silence.


    Slowly, Wesley crawled his way to the door of the carriage and poked his head out of the opening.


    What he saw was a barren wasteland strewn with dead bodies, including those of his cousins, as well as some unknown figures garbed in dark gear.


    Wesley bit his hands in an effort not to cry. After calming himself down a bit, he leaped out of the carriage and slowly sneaked his way back to his parents¡¯ house near the back of the estate.


    Upon reaching the house, he quickly climbed in through the back window, where his bed provided a convenient landing zone.


    But the sight that greeted him was less than comforting.


    ¡°Dad!¡± Wesley¡¯s eyes teared.


    His father was sprawled over his desk, a metal spike pierced through his abdomen, his face scrunched up in pain. His mother stood over his father, frantically drawing seals.


    As someone born to the Lumient family of the Reiniad Kingdom, Wesley¡¯s mother was an adept user of light magic, which focused on shielding and healing


    Infusion of Healing!


    This seal was moderately difficult to draw and control, but in the hands of a skilled user like Patricia, it could save people from the brink of death.


    Having finished writing the seal, Patricia patted Dean¡¯s head and asked, ¡°I¡¯m about to pull it out. Ready? Try your best to not clench or flex as that will make you lose more blood. It¡¯ll be alright, dear.¡±


    With a grimace, Dean nodded and prepared himself. Meanwhile, Wesley walked up behind Patricia with his eyes wide at the gorey sight.


    Patricia pulled the metal spike out of Dean and focused her energy into the finished seal. Instantly, the spell began to work its magic, first by repairing his innards, then mending his outer skin.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    At the same time, she whispered to Wesley. ¡°Wesley, don¡¯t make any noise, okay sweetie? We¡¯ll be fine here.¡±


    By this time, the fighting outside had stopped. Only a few loud bursts of fighting out here and there, while many faint footsteps echoed through the main courtyard.


    After a while, the footsteps stopped, and a low voice sounded out from the courtyard, where the carriages had been waiting.


    ¡°Have you counted? Have we gotten them all?¡±


    Another voice sounded from the same location. ¡°Sir! We¡¯ve been unable to locate about ten or so members of the Gia family. Of the elder two generations, only two are missing, which leaves eight in the youngest generation.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ with that, the Gia family is no longer a threat¡­ but I¡¯d still prefer to tie up as many loose ends as possible. Search all of the houses and make sure there aren¡¯t any in hiding. Let the client know of the situation, and keep track of people who leave the city for the next week.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir!¡±


    Footsteps spread throughout the estate.


    Wesley looked toward his parents. What could they do?


    His father¡¯s wound had mostly been patched up, but he was still weakened and would need time and rest to fully recover.


    His mother was exhausted, having used a powerful and advanced healing spell. She wouldn¡¯t be able exert herself much further either.


    As for Wesley¡­ he was but an elementary mage, who hadn¡¯t even learned how to draw seals. The invaders had even fatally wounded his father, so how could a mere child like Wesley hold them off?


    After a few seconds of panic, Wesley¡¯s parents glanced at each other, and nodded. Dean grabbed Wesley and lifted the small boy over his shoulder.


    ¡°Let¡¯s sneak over the back wall.¡±


    They quickly sneaked out the back of their house, away from the main courtyard. In seconds, they¡¯d reached the back wall that separated the Gia estate from the rest of the city. Vaulting over it, they sped toward the city walls. Only when they were far away from the city would they finally be safe!


    Unfortunately for them, their pursuers were no amateurs. Although they had sent the majority of their forces into the Gia family¡¯s estate, they had delegated a few sentries to patrol the surrounding area.


    It was precisely one of these sentries that had spotted Wesley and his parents escape. He briefly closed his eyes and muttered a few lines, then trailed his targets from the shadows.


    At the same time, Dean, Patricia, and Wesley had made it to the wall that separated the first ring of Blue Wind City from the second and third rings.


    In the process, they passed a tavern by the name of ¡°The Apple Hut.¡±


    Inside the tavern sat what looked to be a middle aged man, drinking his sorrows away with the bottle of wine in his hand. As the trio of Gia family members sped past the tavern, he cracked open an eye, then groaned to himself.


    ¡°That idiot¡­¡±


    A few seconds later, he disappeared and the bottle of wine crashed to the ground.


    ¡°Eh?¡± One of the waiters in the tavern scratched his head. ¡°Wasn¡¯t someone sitting there?¡±


    Just moments later, Wesley and his parents made it to the city wall, but the gate was closed. Dean adjusted his hold on Wesley, then he and Patricia both jumped high into the sky and flew up and over the walls, landing shakily on the other side.


    Despite having escaped the city, Dean and Patricia didn¡¯t dare to rest. After all, while it was dangerous to be in the city, to be outside the first could be even more dangerous. Here, the assassins wouldn¡¯t have to worry about any passerby or city guards getting in their way.


    Unfortunately, their only hope for survival was to escape far, far away; they couldn¡¯t be sure if the Gia family¡¯s allies within the city had been compromised as well.


    Even as Dean and Patricia sped away from Blue Wind City, fifty assassins quickly tailed behind. Soon, the chase entered a forest.


    As the trees engulfed the hooded figures, the leader lifted two fingers, then pointed them forward.


    Instantly, twenty assassins surged forward from behind him to cut the escaping trio off.


    Moments later, the rest of the assassins caught up as Dean, Patricia, and Wesley, unable to break past the initial wall of assassins now surrounding them, could only stand and await their fate.


    Dean and Patricia stood back to back, facing away from each other, with Wesley protected between the two. The situation couldn¡¯t look any worse. Their pursuers hadn¡¯t left any openings, as even the sky was covered, with many of the assassins perched up in the trees.


    At this crucial moment, Wesley¡¯s mother made her move.


    Light!


    It was most basic of basic spells. For a mage who specialized in light magic, this spell didn¡¯t require a seal; one could quickly channel and release a surge of mana to cast it. However, at this time, the spell¡¯s effectiveness was invaluable!


    Blinded by the sudden flash of light, many of the assassins instinctively covered their eyes and turned away.


    However, the assassin leader was less than impressed and quickly began drawing a magic seal.


    Seeing this, the subordinates who could still see immediately followed.


    Before the trio could escape, the leader had finished drawing his seal, and a metal cage formed around the Gia family. After a few seconds, the Gia family still hadn¡¯t been able to escape the enclosure, and the various assassins had completed their magic seals.


    A flurry of spells flew toward the trio as they resigned themselves to their fate. Dean and Patricia were hit almost immediately by several spells, but just before the first spell could reach Wesley¡­


    *Ahem*


    In an instant, everything in the area froze in place. The assassins, their spells, Wesley, and even Dean and Patricia¡¯s falling bodies paused in the air.


    A middle aged man slowly emerged from the shadows of the forest into the center of the conflict and looked down at Wesley.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t really think I¡¯d have to help you so soon. Let¡¯s see¡­¡±


    He looked around and shrugged, then reached down and grabbed Wesley¡¯s head.


    ¡°In return for this help, you will have to make a slight sacrifice.¡±


    With Wesley¡¯s head in his hand, he muttered a few words, then withdrew his hand and walked back into the darkness of the forest.


    A few moments later, everything began moving again. However, all of the spells directed toward Wesley and the metal cage surrounding him had disappeared!


    Furthermore, the kid who had been too scared to make a sound was suddenly yelling at the top of his lungs. The ground beneath him began to frost over, and the surrounding air turned frigid.


    One of the assassins was starting to get cold feet. ¡°Sir, what do we do?¡±


    ¡°Shut it!¡± The leader was somewhat nervous, as he¡¯d never witnessed such a situation before.


    ¡°¡­If nothing happens for a few more seconds, just kill the goddamn kid the old fashioned way.¡±


    One...two¡­


    On the third count, Wesley suddenly went silent.


    A mere second later, snowflakes began to softly fall on the forest floor. Moments later, it had transformed into a harsh blizzard accompanied by giant stalagmites of ice that sprouted from the forest floor to form a defensive wall around Wesley.


    As the temperature in the area continued to drop and entire chunks of ice crashed down from the sky, many of the assailants were forced to retreat to safety. Even so, several of the assassins were impaled these shards of ice.


    Even their leader, who was close to breaking through to be a King-class magician, fled from the scene with his tail between his legs.


    ¡°Shit!¡± The assassin leader cursed. ¡°This¡­ power is near the peak of the King-class. We didn¡¯t get paid enough for this. We¡¯re leaving!¡±


    Seconds later, Wesley was the only person left at the scene, with his father¡¯s frozen body on one side and his mother¡¯s on the other.


    As the last of the assassins disappeared into the darkness, the blizzard subsided, and the ice in the area slowly began to melt. Wesley, who hadn¡¯t moved ever since he¡¯d stopped shouting, suddenly stirred. He patted the ground around him and slowly stood up.


    ¡°Mom?¡±


    ¡°Mom?? Dad??? Where are you?¡±


    But try as he might, he couldn¡¯t find his parents.


    The world before him was black.


    It was all black!

 Chapter 3

    Wesley stood up and tried to orientate himself, but try as he might, he still couldn¡¯t see anything.


    ¡°Brrrrrrrr.¡± Wesley¡¯s teeth chattered as he reached around him to feel his surroundings.


    ¡°Why is it so cold?¡±


    Suddenly, a scene appeared in his head, disorienting him. He was no longer surrounded by darkness, but was instead standing on a mountain peak, far above the clouds.


    The sky stretched on far beyond what he could see, and the landscape below was filled with rivers snaking between the mountain ranges in the distance and luscious green valleys spread  beneath him.


    Just below the horizon, a few temples were scattered across the land, but other than that, the surrounding area had no signs of human life. It was¡­ peaceful. Wesley took in the view for a few moments, then sighed and raised his hand.


    He drew some symbols in the air, then some circles around them. Why did he do that? How could he do that? He wasn¡¯t sure. He felt elated, freed from the confines of his body, as if some other mysterious force was controlling his movement.


    Then, he swiped his index finger across the seal he¡¯d just drawn, and calmly uttered a single word.


    ¡°Cast.¡±


    Then, after a few seconds, the world in front of his eyes began to blur, and everything went dark again.


    The ground below him was icy and slippery again, although the air around him started to heat up, melting the ice into slush.


    Slowly, Wesley stumbled his way forward. He didn¡¯t know where he was going, but knew he had to go somewhere. Anywhere.


    Wesley clumsily navigated the forest for hours, until his entire body had been covered in scratches from branches, trees, and vines.


    Although Wesley walked cautiously, he was unable to notice that time and time again, he had been approached by various dangerous beasts that even proficient magicians would have run from.


    However, for whatever reason, none of these creatures attacked him. Instead, they simply watched as he slowly crawled past, then crept away as unnoticed as they had arrived.


    After what seemed like an eternity, Wesley, tired and hungry, felt soft, dewy grass beneath his feet, instead of the tree branches and rough dirt that he had become accustomed to.


    ¡°Where am I?¡± Wesley muttered, then started. He hadn¡¯t heard anyone speak during his painful crawl through the woods, and after remaining silent so or long, he¡¯d been frightened by the sound of his own voice.


    He shakily straightened up, then fell down to his knees. After a few seconds of not moving, his stomach growled.


    ¡°Urgh¡­ I¡¯m so hungry.¡±


    As a spoiled noble who had never needed to even consider how food would appear on his plate, Wesley would have had a hard time scrounging food for himself in the wild, even in the best of circumstances. Anything short of a rabbit running up to him, then gutting, skinning, and cooking itself, and he would have gone hungry even if he still had his sight.


    By sheer luck, he had exited the forest near a road, close to a small village, where he was spotted by the local bard.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°Eh? Why¡¯s there a boy crawling out of the forest? Whose stupid, idiotic, daft child is that?¡± The bard grumbled to himself.


    ¡°Aiiish. Fine, I¡¯ll go see whose child it is. I¡¯ll make sure that they¡¯re properly disciplined. Can¡¯t have the kids sneaking in and out of the forest all the time. Someday, they¡¯ll provoke the monsters inside by stealing their precious baby eggs or something.¡±


    He paused.


    ¡°Although, if I were to live through that calamity, I guess I¡¯d be able to spin a story out of it. Heh heh.¡±


    He smiled to himself, slightly lost in his thoughts. However, after walking within a few feet of Wesley, he started, then blinked a few times.


    He¡¯s hurt! His eyes narrowed as he stepped forward once more to get a better view of the kid.


    He raised his hand to address the child and prepared to speak, when he suddenly noticed that the kid wasn¡¯t looking at him and seemed almost dazed. Curious, he reached forward with his right hand and waved it in front of the child¡¯s face.


    No response.


    He lifted his leg to step closer. As he lowered his leg, he accidentally stepped on a twig and snapped it.


    Crack!


    Hearing this, Wesley quickly raised his fists, his senses tingling. Was there something close to him?


    At the same time, the bard sucked in a quick breath. When Wesley moved, the bard had caught a glance of Wesley eyes. They were wide with fear but strangely, his pupils were missing.


    ¡®It looks like the boy is blind¡­ furthermore, I don¡¯t recognize him. Where is he from?¡¯


    The bard¡¯s name was Gust. Those in the village knew him as quite a capable storyteller, even if he had a rather ¡°unique¡± personality.


    Despite his strange disposition, Gust was still a kind person at heart. He sighed to himself and pulled a bag stuffed with rations and story props off of his back.. He grabbed a piece of bread and tapped the child on the head with it.


    ¡°Here, kid. I have some bread. You want it?¡±


    ¡°...¡± Wesley was a bit scared. He¡¯d never accepted food from a stranger before, so he hesitated, unsure of what to do. However, just the thought of having food in front of him made his stomach growl again.


    He shyly extended his right hand.


    Gust blinked a few times in surprise, then placed the bread gently into the scared little boy¡¯s hand.


    ¡°Damn kid, if you want to get far in life, you¡¯re going to have to be more assertive. Next time someone offers you bread, you gotta take it yourself then demand more, yeah?¡±


    Clearly pleased with himself, Gust laughed and shook his head, then observed Wesley more closely.


    Are those¡­ blood stains on his clothes?


    Had he been attacked in the forest?!


    Gust lunged forward, lifting Wesley up and slinging him over his own shoulder. Then, he started running toward the nearby village.


    Wesley yelped in surprise, then started punching Gust with his meager strength.


    ¡°Alright, lad. No eating for you right now. I''m gonna find someone to check you for cuts and crap, and then I''ll bring you to eat some good stuff okay? I promise it''ll be much better than my shitty bread.¡±


    He looked down at the kid in his arms for a sign that his words had been acknowledged, but all he got was Wesley staring forward with his mouth open with drool starting to spill out.


    ¡°Hey! Kid! No drooling on me. Shut your damn mouth unless you got something to say. Speaking of, what''s your name? I can''t just refer to you as the¡­ kid who drools on his savior.¡±


    Wesley stirred. ¡°My name is Wesley. What''s yours?¡±


    ¡°Name is Gust.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Wesley¡¯s mind had been stretched far too much today, rendering him unable to respond with sufficient poise. ¡°¡­Cool name¡­¡±


    After a brief but rushed hike through the forest, Gust reached the edge of the village and began charging through the streets with Wesley in his arms, leading some people to look at him in curiosity.


    ¡°Hey, look! Where did Gust get a kid from? He wouldn''t have kidnapped the kid, right?¡±


    ¡°I mean¡­ it¡¯s Gust. Probably did.¡±


    It didn¡¯t take them long to arrive at a house that was much larger than most others in the village. It was one of the two buildings in the village with two stories, the other being the tavern.


    Gust ran up to the door of the building and rushed inside. ¡°Where''s the damn witch? This kid¡¯s hurt! And starving too!¡±

 Chapter 4

    Wesley wasn''t sure of what had happened after he¡¯d passed out, but the next morning he woke up with a dull stinging sensation throughout his body.


    And he was hungry. Very, very hungry.


    Then, as his mind cleared, he found more to complain about.


    ¡°Ahhh, why is this bed so hard? Are they trying to kill me?¡±


    ¡°Why is it so da-¡±


    Then, he remembered what had happened the previous day. His family, his cousins, his parents, they had all¡­


    Only he had made it out alive¡­ and then he had spent all of those grueling hours stumbling through the forest.


    To make matters worse, he was now blind! Why? For all he knew, perhaps one of the enemy¡¯s attacks merely blinded him instead of killing him.


    But who had brought him here, onto this most uncomfortable bed? Who had bandaged his hands? And most importantly, did anyone have food for him?


    He felt his way around the bed, then slid off onto his feet. He extended his hands forward, groping the air in front of him cautiously, hoping he wouldn¡¯t run into anything.


    ¡®That''s a wall. And that''s still a wall.¡¯ He continued to feel his way along the wall, until he hit something with his arm. He vaguely felt the object slip away, then heard the distinct sound of shattering glass.


    ¡°Uh oh.¡±


    Wesley was too afraid to move. Once, when he was four, he''d accidentally stepped on some broken glass. It wasn''t until he had cried loud enough for his mother to come that the glass pieces were extracted painfully, one by one, from the bottom of his foot.


    Painful!


    Thankfully, he heard footsteps approaching, in time with a woman''s voice.


    ¡°Gust, if this kid wasn''t goddamn blind I could¡¯ve sworn you invited the goddamn devil into my house. First he shrieks like a demon when all I''m doing is applying some ointment, and now he''s gone and broke my best vase!¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about ma''am, that vase was an atrocity! It''s better that it is gone, otherwise the God of Vases would have come and cursed your family for ten thousand years!¡±


    A stream of profanity followed as the door opened.


    Seeing the blind child frozen in place, the woman¡¯s fierce eyes softened. She walked up to him slowly, skirting around the glass shards.


    ¡°Hey kid, come here.¡± She reached out and pulled Wesley to the side, away from the broken glass.


    ¡°Stay right where you are, okay sweetie? I''ll bring you downstairs and let you eat some food in a bit. You must be hungry¡­¡±


    She quickly cleaned up the glass pieces, occasionally glancing towards Wesley, who stood in the corner patiently and quietly. A few minutes later, she led him downstairs, sat him at the dining table, and placed a fresh bowl of soup in front of him. The sound of a bowl hitting the table and the warm scent that filled his nostrils filled him with glee.


    Between the blindness and the bandages on his hands, feeding himself wasn¡¯t easy. After shamefully directing the first spoonful of soup into his nose, he''d given up and had simply put the bowl to his lips and tilted it back, finally gaining access to the delicious, fragrant soup.


    ¡°Ahhh.¡± Wesley leaned back and patted his stomach. He hadn¡¯t felt so safe and full since¡­


    Then he remembered what¡¯d happened just yesterday, and suddenly he didn¡¯t feel so safe. However, to his own surprise, tears didn¡¯t fall.


    For now, he was just a kid¡­ but eventually he would find out why those people had come and attacked his family in the night. He would make them pay their dues!


    But how?


    He would have to become stronger, to refine his magical abilities. But what if his family¡¯s attackers were still searching for him? Where would he be safe?


    Then, he remembered one of the last things his mother had said to him, when he had asked where they were going.


    The Reiniad Kingdom!


    Gust and the lady had been discussing Wesley''s affairs while he¡¯d been deep in thought.


    Suddenly Wesley spoke up. ¡°Do you know where the Reiniad Kingdom is?The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°Huh?¡± Gust and the lady looked over. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°No reason.¡±


    However, his face betrayed his curiosity.


    Gust and Elaine, the lady who had treated and bandaged Wesley, looked at each other with confusion.


    Elaine had always stayed in the village to focus on studying medicine and medicinal magics. Gust, who knew more about the geography of the continent, responded.


    ¡°Well let¡¯s see¡­ there¡¯s not much left to the Magmont Continent out West¡­ we¡¯re pretty much as far West as it gets. But, there are several countries East of here, including the Reiniad Kingdom, which is home to what many people believe to be the continent¡¯s best Intermediate Magic Academy.


    ¡°But that¡¯s at the very Eastern edge of the continent. Let¡¯s see¡­ in between, we have the tiny Kenta Kingdom, the Larwin Kingdom, as well as the Alaki Mountain Range¡­ I¡¯d say the Reiniad Kingdom is about two thousand miles away. Why?¡±


    ¡°No real reason. By the way, auntie, am I hurt anywhere or am I free to go?¡±


    Hearing this, Elaine frowned. ¡°No you¡¯re not free to go. Gust said your family would come pay the fees for my services. Get them to come here and pay up. I¡¯m not running a charity here.¡±


    Hearing this, Wesley froze, then started crying. What family did he have to pay for his treatment???


    Back in the city, everyone knew him as the prized son of the Gia family. As such, he was able to grab whatever he wanted from the any shop without hesitation. The shop would find a Gia family representative afterward to secure their payment.


    Hence, Wesley never had a reason to carry money with him, and didn¡¯t have any on him currently either.


    Elaine was shocked by Wesley¡¯s tears. Asking for payment wasn¡¯t unfair, was it? But the kid¡¯s reaction, perhaps he was¡­


    An orphan? Homeless? Surely not. The child¡¯s clothes, though tattered, had been made from decent cloth.


    The old auntie sighed, but glared at Gust, who adopted an innocent expression.


    ¡°Fine, fine. I''ll let you off the hook this one time, Gust. Tell two stories to the village children tonight and I''ll let this pass.¡±


    Gust simply smiled.


    ¡­


    Later that night, Wesley sat with the village¡¯s children as they listened to Gust¡¯s tales.


    ¡°And so, the young hero ventured across the lands, seeking opponents to test his skills against. But alas, he was too strong, and no opponent could last more than a single exchange of skills.


    ¡°At first, the young hero was elated every time he won in such a manner. With every victory, those around him showered him with praises and gifts. But as time went on and the young hero never failed in any of his ventures, the excitement associated with each victory quickly diminished, and the praises and gifts from those around him no longer gave him a sense of accomplishment, but rather a feeling of emptiness.


    ¡°Seeking stronger foes, he challenged the heavens; even they were no match for his monstrous strength and ability.¡±


    Gust paused to take a small sip of water and examined his audience, then continued.


    ¡°After the heavens were destroyed, the world entered a period of chaos. Kings abolished the religious institutions that had been restricting their power, and their wrath and greed led them to wage war against their neighbors.


    ¡°Many warriors used this warring era to make names for themselves; yet, our hero refused to participate. He had long lost hope in finding a worthy opponent. Instead, he spent his days wandering from village to village, city to city.


    ¡°One day, as he strolled through a village, he saw an old man sitting at a chess table in front of a house that looked older than he. Although the old man did not have an opponent, he cheerfully moved the pieces around the board.


    ¡°Seeing this, the young hero was intrigued. He walked over to the old man and asked, ¡®Hey, old man. Mind if I join you for a match?¡¯¡±


    Gust paused again, this time for a few long seconds as he slowly chewed on some bread.


    ¡°The old man looked up and examined the young hero, then nodded.


    ¡°Although the young hero had little experience with military chess, he was confident as he had previously commanded thousands of men on the battlefield.


    ¡°Yet, from just the first move, he felt outclassed. During the entire match, there was not a single moment when he was confident in winning.


    ¡°He quickly lost the first match. Unhappy with the outcome, he  challenged the old man again. A few minutes later, he lost again. And so, the young hero, frustrated, challenged the old man again.¡±


    Gust paused and took another sip of water, another bite of bread, and tore into a chicken leg.


    ¡°Hours later, the two, young and old, were still playing chess. By now, a third person, the old man¡¯s granddaughter, had come to watch. Although the young hero had improved, he was still unable to defeat the old man.


    ¡°¡®Why can''t I beat you?¡¯ asked the young hero.


    ¡°¡®This¡¯, the old man replied, ¡®I don''t know, but I stopped trying about six matches ago.¡¯¡±


    Hearing this, Wesley and the other children laughed. What kind of hero was this? He could vanquish the heavens but couldn¡¯t best an old man in chess? Furthermore, it was an old man who''d lost interest already!


    Gust continued. ¡°Frustrated, the young hero left the old man and his granddaughter, and rented a room in the village for the night.


    ¡°Later that night, a battle erupted some distance away from the village. Amidst the chaos, a group of soldiers fled and in their escape, came across the village.


    ¡°They proceeded to ransack the village for money. In mere minutes, the entire village, aside from a certain old man''s family, had been robbed.


    ¡°Why wasn''t the old man¡¯s family robbed? It was because as soon as the soldiers had approached the old hut, a young hero stood in their way. With his fighting prowess, he had quickly disarmed the soldiers.¡±


    Gust flicked his wrist to throw the chicken bone in his hand far away,  picked up an apple from one of the nearby tables, and then chomped into it.


    ¡°Then the hero killed all of the soldiers and in the following days would keep playing military chess against the old man until he finally won the end thank you for the meal bye.¡±


    With that, Gus quickly grabbed Wesley and ran away.


    It took a few moments for the kids to register what had just happened, but the parents that had come with their children realized what had happened immediately.


    That Gust! He¡¯d just used some crappy story to stall for time as he feasted on the food!

 Chapter 5

    Gust and Wesley fled to Elaine¡¯s house, hiding from the victims of Gust¡¯s antics. Not that they were chased ¨C the villagers had gotten used to Gust¡¯s antics by now.


    After a full day with Gust, who had gone out of his way to cause trouble and raise hell for Wesley¡¯s enjoyment, he was reminded of carefree afternoons spent playing with his older cousins back home.


    But although Wesley seemed much happier than before, he was constantly reminded of his own loneliness and trauma by the world around him: the sounds of the previous night, the sound of the assassins¡¯ footsteps echoing around the estate, the eerie silence of the forest. Tragic events can be blocked out as if on demand¡­ but the scars never truly leave.


    ¡°Say kid, don¡¯t mean to pry, but what are your plans now? I ain¡¯t old enough to be your dad and I sure as hell won¡¯t baby you for the rest of your life.¡±


    Wesley raised his head toward Gust and shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I should have family in the Reiniad Kingdom, but you said that the Reiniad Kingdom is over two thousand miles away¡­ there¡¯s no way for me to get there.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Gust scratched his chin. This was a move that he¡¯d seen many of the older people in the villages he¡¯d visited in the past do to look smarter and more thoughtful than they actually were. But, it felt appropriate to do now.


    Unfortunately for him, he¡¯d forgotten for the moment that Wesley was blind, so his actions were wasted.


    ¡°Say, the clothes you were wearing when we met were made of some fancy stuff. I¡¯ve seen nobles in the cities around here, and they wear the like. If I got you to your family in Reiniad, how much would they pay me?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­I¡¯m not sure, maybe about a million gold coins?¡±


    Gust jumped to his feet. ¡°A million gold coins??? Kid, you better not be playing with me! I want five at least!"


    ¡°Okay, okay, five.¡±


    Although Wesley spoke with such certainty in his voice, he was merely a child, and thus had no real understanding of wealth.


    Even so, Wesley had never thought about what would happen if he actually made it to the Reiniad Kingdom. If that happened, he would worry about the money then.


    What he needed, right now, was help.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s leave in the morning. It¡¯s about time I moved on from this village anyway.¡± Gust did his best to stay calm.


    Five million gold coins! Factoring in the terrain between them and the Reiniad Kingdom. It would take them less than a year, to reach their destination on foot. After that¡­ he could live out his days in luxury!


    Gust lost himself in his fantasies ¨C as a bard, his imagination tended to run a little rampant.


    ¡­


    The following morning, Wesley woke up in the same bed that he slept in before ¨C Gust had convinced Elaine to let them stay for the night, promising to leave the morning after.


    ¡°Gust, where are you? I¡¯m hungry!¡±


    Instead of Gust¡¯s angry voice, Wesley was greeted by Elaine¡¯s instead.


    ¡°Gust I swear to god if you don¡¯t get that damn boy out of here today I will cut your damn jewels off!¡±


    Wesley heard someone running up the stairs, then felt himself being grabbed and pulled.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go, Wesley! We¡¯re off to the Reiniad Kingdom!¡±


    A few minutes later, Gust and Wesley began their journey along the road, due East. Proud of his efficiency, Gust announced his accomplishments in the hours prior.


    ¡°So, this morning I went out and bought some food and water for us¡ªalthough we¡¯ll probably be starving and dying of thirst in a few days anyway¡ª, a sword for protection¡ªalthough I don¡¯t really know how to use it so we¡¯ll probably be dead if anyone tries to rob us¡ª, and¡­¡±


    Wesley groaned to himself. It was going to be a long trip.


    ¡°Say, kid, can you do anything useful?¡±


    ¡°I can cast some elementary spells, but I specialize in ice spells.¡±


    Wesley heard Gust abruptly stop.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    ¡°You can use magic??? How do you use magic? Is it like they say in the stories, where you can create magic circles out of thin air to decimate thousands of opponents with ease? Can you fly? Show me!¡±


    ¡°Uh, well¡­¡± As the two walked, Wesley relayed everything he knew about magic to the man, which wasn¡¯t much, as he¡¯d had less than a year¡¯s worth of experience regarding the subject. However, this was more than enough to hold Gust¡¯s attention for several miles of their journey.


    The only issue was, as he tried to walk while turned around to imitate looking at the person while speaking to them, he kept walking diagonal to the road, and so kept walking into trees and the like along the side of the road.


    Gust and Wesley ended up walked down the road holding hands.


    From time to time, they would pass others on the road. Some travelled alone, while most travelled in small groups. There was one outlier, however. As the sun was about to disappear over the horizon, a caravan of wagons rattled up from behind the two boys.


    The leader of the caravan stepped out and greeted the two, who stopped in their tracks and turned around cautiously. ¡°Hey boys, would you like to pay for spot in our caravan? We¡¯re headed to the Kenta Kingdom.¡±


    Gust scratched his head and said, ¡°We¡¯d love to, but we don¡¯t really have any money. How about this, could I offer my services? I¡¯m a bard, you see.¡±


    ¡°A bard, eh? Alright, that¡¯d work for me; can¡¯t say it¡¯s been an entertaining trip as of yet. Can you fight as well?¡±


    Gust straightened up. ¡°Best fighter in my village, sir! See this sword here? I¡¯ve had it since I was five, sir!¡±


    He might¡¯ve gotten away with it too, if Wesley didn¡¯t start snickering at these words. After all, he knew that Gust had only purchased the sword that morning.


    ¡°Right¡­ just come along, I think the wagon in the back has some space. Tell them that Mark sent you. Let¡¯s just call it me pitying you two boys. After all, It¡¯s not safe out here at night. You¡¯ll be safer with us. Just don¡¯t cause any unnecessary trouble.¡±


    Gust smiled broadly. ¡°Thank you very much, sir!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡±


    As soon as the caravan leader left, Gust bent down to whisper into Wesley¡¯s ear. ¡°See that? We got a free ride. And, what the heck was with you mocking my words?? I WAS the best fighter in the village. Just not physically.¡±


    ¡°Right, your stories really could bore people to death.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t nobles supposed to have good manners?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t bards supposed to be good with words?¡±


    Gust chuckled and gave Wesley a playful pat on the back. ¡°¡­I swear¡­¡±


    As the caravan passed, Gust and Wesley waited along the road until the last wagon rolled up. Like Mark had said, there was plenty of room in the wagon. Despite the large size of the wagon that could easily seat 20 people, about half of it was filled with boxes, while only three people occupied part of the remaining space.


    Gust and Wesley climbed into the wagon, waving toward those already inside as they entered. Everyone quickly introduced themselves. The three already inside the wagon introduced themselves first as Kyle, Jen, and Alex. Kyle and Jen were a newly married couple, while Alex was Kyle¡¯s younger brother. Kyle and Jen were both 21 years of age, while Alex was 14.


    Kyle and Jen were touring the continent for their honeymoon, while Alex was on his way to a school for knights in the Larwin Kingdom. After their introductions, Gust proudly and shamelessly introduced himself as the student of a master bard travelling to broaden his horizons, refine his stories, and practice singing his songs.


    Wesley was the last one left to introduce himself.


    ¡°Umm¡­ my name is Wesley. Nice to meet you all!¡±


    A few chimes of ¡°Nice to meet you¡± floated around the wagon followed by an awkward pause.


    Gust glanced at the trio, then looked toward Wesley. This¡­


    Wesley lowered his head, then lifted it and smiled. ¡°So... have you seen anything interesting on your travels yet? Gust and I just started, so we haven¡¯t!¡±


    ¡°Well, actually, just a few days after we left¡­¡±


    Wesley let out a quiet sigh of relief.


    But later that night, when everyone was getting ready to go to sleep, Wesley tugged on Gust¡¯s shirt.


    ¡°Gust, can you do me a favor?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure little man, what do you need?¡±


    ¡°The next place we go to, could you buy something to cover my head for me?¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­yeah.¡± Gust frowned, then patted Wesley¡¯s head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, little guy. I¡¯m sure there¡¯ll be some way to cure your blindness.¡±


    ¡°Really!?¡±


    ¡°Oi, shh shh. Keep your voice down; we¡¯re about to sleep here. But yeah, I mean, is there really any limit to what magic can do? I¡¯m sure there¡¯s someone out there who¡¯s researched curing blindness before. Don¡¯t worry about it. Now screw off, I¡¯m tired. Go sleep.¡±


    Gust sighed. A white lie.


    After some restless shifting, everyone in the wagon fell asleep.


    To set up camp with a defensible perimeter, the wagons had been formed in a ¡°C¡± formation, with the opening facing the south so as to provide protection against bandits, while the mercenaries tasked with guarding the caravan patrolled along the perimeter. But these were extremely common measures that bandits were used to.


    With political unrest in the capital city of the Conarite Kingdom, many officials were too preoccupied with political affairs to bother maintaining the social order . As a result, the bandits slowly emerged from the shadows to wreak havoc on the citizens of the kingdom.


    Normally, if they were too unruly and attacked ¡°too many¡± times in a certain time period, the cities would send out soldiers to exterminate them. However, with the officials distracted and too busy competing with each other, these crucial duties were often overlooked.


    As a result, many unscrupulous individuals dropped their honest facades and joined the established and now thriving bandit groups, exacerbating their power .


    Typically, no bandit group would dare approach a caravan like Wesley and Gust¡¯s, for it would be too well-guarded, large, and tightly organized to be worth the risk. Such groups usually had no more than twenty or thirty people, which was nowhere near enough to challenge a caravan that spanned several wagons and housed several hundred people.


    However, at such a perilous and anarchic time, some of the larger bandit groups consisted of over a thousand people. It was precisely one of these groups, innocuously named the Whitewind Family, that slowly surrounded Mark¡¯s caravan.

 Chapter 6

    The area was completely silent, save for some snoring coming out of the wagons and light footsteps of the patrolling guards.


    Suddenly, a gale struck the rear end of the ¡°C¡±,knocking several of the wagons over and few of the guards into the air.


    Everyone woke up with a start from the sound of people screaming and wagons collapsing to the ground.


    ¡°Bandits! We¡¯re under attack! Bandits!¡± shouted a voice from the front of the formation.


    Bandits flooded toward the caravan from nary a few hundred feet away as the passengers rushed out of the wagons to hide in the center of the encampment. The mercenaries that remained charged forward to confront the intruders.


    Gust and Wesley had been in the last wagon, so when the ¡°C¡± formation had been created, their wagon had walled off part of the opening, so they weren¡¯t affected by the earlier gale. However, they were in great danger from bandits attacking from the front.


    Gust and Alex picked up their weapons and rushed to defend the opening while Jen grabbed Wesley and ran toward the center of the campsite with Kyle following closely behind.


    Just a few seconds later, the bandits had charged into the encampment, and the melee began, the sounds of metal clashing, yells, and screams filled the air.


    Behind the wall of bandits stood a mage, hurtling a wave of fallen weapons and broken tree branches into the crowd of mercenaries with a single wave of his hand. With one small breath, a gust of wind swept over them, sending them onto their backs and allowing the bandits to charge forward and kill them.


    Jen and the others, who had rushed to the center of the camp, looked on in horror.


    Wesley, however, merely turned and looked toward Jen. ¡°Hey, big sis, what¡¯s the situation like?¡±


    Jen wasn¡¯t sure what to say. Should she lie, and hope that the end was quick for the unfortunate, blind boy?


    Or should she tell the truth?


    ¡°Um, it looks like we¡¯re winning! The bandits are being pushed back!¡±


    A calm voice, unfitting for a child, responded. ¡°Don¡¯t lie to me, big sis.¡±


    Jen spun around to stare at Wesley. Even though they were surrounded by murderers, it was Wesley¡¯s childish voice that had brought her the most fear tonight. Was this cold, calm voice something a child should have?


    ¡°I may not be able to see, but I still have my other senses, you know. I can hear that the fighting has gotten closer to us since the start, and I can feel that someone has been using magic somewhere beyond the encampment. As I haven¡¯t felt anyone closer to us use magic, I can only assume that we don¡¯t have a mage on our side. Obviously, that puts us at a great disadvantage.


    ¡°This¡­what?¡± Jen could only gape at him in shock.


    Even Wesley himself was surprised. How did he make all of those conclusions? More importantly, why was he so calm?


    Although he was confused, he still knew what had to be done. He raised his voice to address the people around him.


    ¡°Big sis, everyone, please surround me for a bit so that the bandits can¡¯t see me. I need some time to prepare.¡±


    With that, he raised his right hand, and paused. Although he¡¯d never done it before, he instinctively knew how to condense and write on air, like Professor Clayde had mentioned just a few days ago.


    With his right hand raised, he held his breath, then pushed. A transparent plane formed in front of him. Then, with his right index finger, he began to write.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Meanwhile, Kyle and Jen, although confused, followed along and organized those who had run to the center of the camp to huddle around Wesley.


    Outside of the encampment, among the trees, a lone figure stood, performing the same actions as Wesley.


    It was a mage from the Whitewind family. Just a century ago, the Whitewind family had been a merchant family prestigious enough to send their children to magical academies usually reserved for nobles.


    However, during combat practice, one of their youths attending an intermediate institute of magic had accidentally killed a child from a noble family. Enraged, the noble family chased the Whitewind family out of the city. Afraid to incur the wrath of the nobles, all financial partners ceased trade with the Whitewind family, and some even took it upon themselves to ¡°repurpose¡± the Whitewinds¡¯ assets that remained in the city.


    Unable to sustain themselves off of legitimate means, the Whitewind family quickly turned towards banditry. As one of the few bandit groups in the Kingdom who had mages at their disposal, they quickly grew into a sizeable force.


    One member of the core family, a mage, usually led each team from afar. It was this lone figure that observed and loomed from the forest, far from the battlefield, that held that responsibility.


    Wesley, still hidden in the middle of the encampment, had finally finished writing his spell. ¡°Everyone, get down! The spell is ready to cast!¡±


    Everyone broke away from Wesley as he swiped his finger across the words he had just written.


    ¡°Cast!¡±


    The written words glowed, and from the plane on which he¡¯d written the spell on, a large icicle flew out towards the forest.


    After a few seconds, Jen looked toward Wesley in awe. ¡°D-did you hit them?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, you tell me.¡± Wesley waved his hand in front of his face. ¡°If no more spells come out, I guess I got him.


    ¡°Quick, tell me where we¡¯re having the most trouble. I can try to help out.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­¡±


    While the two started to work together, Gust was having the time of his life.


    At the start of the battle, he¡¯d crossed swords with a bandit, and had lost quite quickly ¨C he lost his sword in the first bout and had to turn tail and run away. Afterwards, instead of fighting like everyone else, he¡¯d jumped atop one of the covered wagons and rummaged through the boxes, planning to hide in one and make his escape afterwards.


    However, the cover for one of the boxes didn¡¯t open on first try. Curiosity getting the better of him, Gust picked up an expensive looking flask from one of the other boxes and used it to bash the cover of the box until it broke inwards. At the same time, a bandit jumped into the wagon. Without a weapon to fight with, Gust wrestled the lid off the box and looked into it.


    There were only some jewels.


    ¡°Ah, shit. Wasn¡¯t this where I¡¯m supposed to get a legendary weapon?¡±


    Without anything better to do, Gust threw the flask at the bandit, then grabbed a handful of the crystals, and threw them at the bandit as well.


    ¡°Boom!¡±


    Some of the crystals hit the bandit, and, to both Gust and the bandit¡¯s shock, exploded.


    To be fair, it wasn¡¯t a huge explosion, but the explosions did rip the bandit¡¯s body apart, and he was most definitely dead.


    ¡°Whaaaat??¡± Gust looked at the box of crystals, then grinned. ¡°This is going to be fun¡±


    Then, he frowned. ¡®But what is Mark bringing these to the Kenta Kingdom for? These crystals should be counted as military supplies. Transporting them outside of the Kingdom is incredibly illegal!


    ¡®More importantly, what if the crystals exploded during the trip?? I could¡¯ve died!¡¯


    Gust didn¡¯t see, but although the crystals would explode on impact, there were seals drawn in the inside of the box to prevent the crystals from exploding while inside.


    Which brings us to now. Gust stood on the edge of a fallen wagon, crystals in hand, throwing them willy-nilly toward any bandit he saw, littering the area with explosions.


    Before they even realized it, tens of the bandits had died to the exploding crystals. Meanwhile, the bandits noticed that their mage didn¡¯t seem to be casting spells anymore, but instead shards of ice flew out from inside the encampment.


    However, these ice shards were rather inaccurate, as they were aimed by Jen grabbing Wesley¡¯s head and arm, pointing them in a direction and saying, ¡°Right about there.¡±


    Once the bandits saw that the fight was going south, they quickly fell back and fled back into the forest, leaving the survivors to clean up the remains of the caravan and take count of the fallen.


    Mark, the leader of the caravan, had been mysteriously absent during the fighting, but once the bandits had run off, he poked his head out from one of the covered wagons,  jumped down, and shamelessly began to order everyone around as if he¡¯d been there the whole time.


    ¡°Great job everyone! Well done!  Now, let¡¯s see how many of the wagons are still in working condition, and how many can be repaired! Otherwise, we¡¯ll have to decide what we can bring and what we¡¯ll have to leave behind. Now, hop to it!¡±

 Chapter 7

    A few hours later, the sun first rays of light could be seen on the horizon. The caravan¡¯s survivors were huddled around a mound of bodies that just a few hours ago, had contained the miracle of life. After a brief burial ceremony, Mark turned around to address the survivors.


    ¡°Alright everyone, it¡¯s time to get a move on. Gotta keep living. Chop chop.¡±


    Many headed for the wagons, but those who had lost their friends or family spent a few more moments to grieve. Regardless, after a few moments, they too, left to continue their journey.


    But the wagons felt strangely empty.


    Wesley quietly sat next to Kyle, Alex, and Jen in the last wagon, while Gust was nowhere to be seen. In fact, they hadn¡¯t seen Gust in the last few hours at all. They would have assumed that Gust had died during the attack, except they¡¯d seen him rummaging through some of the boxes on a wagon just a few minutes after the fighting subsided.


    Wesley, however, had more pressing things to deal with than Gust¡¯s location. He was sure that Gust was in the caravan still, and that was enough.


    Over the last few days, he¡¯d lost his family, made a new ally, and had taken another life for the first time. In the spur of the moment, he¡¯d lost himself in his emotions, as any other kid would have.


    But he wasn¡¯t just a normal kid. Given that mages bodies are continuously nourished by their mana, their brains were generally more efficient and powerful than that of most non-mages.


    Thus, they learned, ¡°grew up¡±, and ¡°matured¡± much faster than ordinary children. Unfortunately for Wesley, he wasn¡¯t any more mature than a typical kid of his age, as he had been pampered by his parents and only recently formed his mana pool.


    But last night, he¡¯d been too calm. Even he could understand that something was wrong - it was as if he¡¯d already gotten used to death surrounding him. Even now, as he was surrounded by those grieving for their lost family and friends, he didn¡¯t feel a shred of sympathy.  As such, once he¡¯d been helped into the wagon, he¡¯d immediately sat in the corner and started meditating.


    Meditation was the first thing that was taught at every elementary institute of magic, even before the simplest spell or a single bit of theory. Proper usage allowed a mage to better assess the capabilities of their mana channels and mana pool, a necessity to gauge one¡¯s combat power  so that one wouldn¡¯t overuse their mana, which could lead to incredible exhaustion or even death.


    Of course, it carried with it the normal benefits of meditation, amongst which was a calm mind to allow for better logical reasoning, which was what Wesley current desired.


    Before he could concentrate on working out his thoughts regarding the last few days, Wesley was immediately shocked by what had happened in the region of his mana pool.


    A magic seal with nine individual layers, with the highest layer being the smallest and the lowest layer the largest, had appeared in the area above his mana pool. However, instead of glowing with mana, the seal was pitch black and dormant, almost as if it were...dead?


    The more Wesley thought about it, the more confused to got, so eventually he gave up, and simply concentrated on his initial issue.


    An hour later, Gust jumped into the wagon, looking a little disheveled, but with a bright smile on his face.


    Kyle waved toward him and asked, ¡°Where¡¯ve you been? We were about to steal Wesley for ourselves! He looks so cute when he¡¯s concentrating like that!¡±You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    WIth that, he glanced over at Wesley.


    Gust looked over as well, and smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll sell him to you!¡±


    Clearly sensing that the other was joking, Alex decided to play along. ¡°How much, good sir?¡±


    ¡°5 million gold coins!¡±


    Alex put a hand over his chest and gasped. ¡°5 million! Do you think I am so easily swindled? By my honor, I will fight thee!¡±


    Gust laughed and sat down. ¡°Aha! I spit upon thy honor. Taste my blade!¡±


    The two continued their role-play, and accompanying laughter sounded out from the last wagon.


    ¡­


    At the same time, Mark was sitting in the caravan¡¯s first wagon, deep in thought. Most of the wagons held the usual stuff people would expect from a merchant caravan - food, clothes, and tradeables.


    However, two of the wagons held multiple crates of chaos gems, which were strictly military supplies. In fact, in the Conarite Kingdom, there was a very strict supply chain. The gems were excavated, cut on-site, engraved with seals, and then transported directly to a secret underground facility where they would only be brought out in times of war.


    However, an agent of the Kenta Kingdom had contacted Mark - apparently, some of the guards who worked at the underground facility were willing to turn their heads for a fair amount of money.


    And they had said that they would like Mark, as a reputable merchant, to transport a number of the gems to the Kenta Kingdom. For the risk involved, he¡¯d be paid handsomely for each trip. But honestly, Mark was only planning to do this one trip. The guilt of betraying his home country, and the nervousness of doing something so illegal, was killing him.


    If one day the Conarite and Kenta Kingdoms waged war against each other¡­ would it be these gems that kill his countrymen?


    He sighed.


    It¡¯s better not to think about these things. With this one transport, he¡¯ll be paid enough to live for the next few years in luxury. He should just focus on that instead.


    ...


    A few hours later, it was time for lunch.


    To save time, the caravan kept moving, but people ran between the wagons to hand food out.


    A young man around Gust¡¯s age jumped into one of the wagons, and started handing out meals to everyone on board.


    ¡°Hey Jason, any signs of bandits or anything out of the ordinary this morning?¡± One of the guards whose shift was in the afternoon questioned.


    "Nothing, so far. We haven''t seen any sign of the bandits since this morning."


    "Good, good." The guard felt relieved. The quicker he was done with this mission, the better, as this time he''d been given a real scare by the bandits. Maybe it was time for him to settle down and find a wife.


    After finishing, Jason prepared to jump off the back of the wagon to proceed to the next one. However, as he was about to jump, he saw something shine in the bottom right corner of his eye.


    On closer inspection, it was an emerald. A cut one, at that! With a grin, he glanced around, and seeing that nobody was watching him, picked it up and shoved it into his pocket.


    ¡­


    Meanwhile, food had been delivered to the last wagon as well, but the runner hadn¡¯t left.


    Instead, he was busy listening to Gust¡¯s bullshit stories.


    ¡°No no, believe me, I came in from across the sea when I was ten years old as part of a pirate¡¯s crew! I was pressed into service, I tell ya! When we reached land over on the south-eastern beach of the Reiniad Kingdom, close to its border with the Clairmont Kingdom, I hopped out and ran for it!


    ¡°Those bastards gave me a good chase, they did, but since I was so much smaller than them I could wedge myself through busy alleyways and shops they couldn¡¯t and lost them after a few minutes of running - but I had nothing left except my trusty old bag.


    ¡°But due to my irresistible charm, I was able to swindle - ah, umm, talk my into a small fortune, and thus was able to pursue my dream of exploring the world. And so, here we are! Although, that little fortune of mine is running low, so don¡¯t bother robbing me, I¡¯ve only got enough left for me, myself, and I.


    ¡°But hey, aren¡¯t I awesome? Hmm?¡± Gust spread his hands apart as if he were preaching.


    Alex, Wesley, and the runner, who was a young teenager, clapped their hands and were impressed by Gust¡¯s claims. After all, he wasn¡¯t so much older than them, but he had experienced so much!


    Kyle and Jen could only glance at each other in exasperation. Had they also been that gullible at that age?

 Chapter 8

    Over the course of the next few weeks, Wesley and Gust slowly integrated themselves into the caravan¡¯s daily life. Gust entertained the guards and other passengers on a regular basis in return for his and Wesley¡¯s daily meals, while Wesley was a source of entertainment himself.


    Each night, when the caravan had come to a stop, Wesley would practice his magic on the outer edges of the encampment while others watched.


    Although everyone was born with the capability to develop mana channels and mana pool, only some would develop a mana pool large enough and mana channels strong enough to use magic. Furthermore, only the higher echelons of society had the resources to learn how to use magic.


    Hence, most in the caravan had never come into such close contact with magic before. Of course, they¡¯d been aware that magic was being used around them during the battle with the bandits, but none of them had had time to closely observe.


    But now they could - each time Wesley casted a spell, a flurry of claps and compliments could be heard from the side.


    ...


    That night.


    ¡°Psst, hey Gust.¡±


    ¡°Yeah Wesley? What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°Can you bring me outside of the encampment? I need to be able to practice some of my magic in private.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± Gust thought about it. ¡°Do I get to watch?¡±


    ¡°...Yeah, sure.¡±


    Gust took Wesley¡¯s hand into his own, and the two walked towards the encampment opening, where they were addressed by one of the guards.


    Seeing that it was Gust and Wesley, the guard grinned and addressed them. ¡°Hey Gust, where you going?¡±


    ¡°Hey,  just taking the kid for a late night stroll. We¡¯ve been cooped up in the wagons all day, gotta stretch for a bit, you know?¡±


    ¡°Ha, alright. Well, the boss won¡¯t be happy, but it should be fine. Just don¡¯t attract any unwanted attention, got it? Don¡¯t want another one of them bandit attacks, or heck, a monster attack.¡±


    ¡°Mhmm, thanks.¡±


    Gust gave the guard a jaunty salute and led Wesley out of the camp. ¡°See kid, you gotta communicate more with the people in power. Let¡¯s you get away with stuff, and oftentimes, gets you that money.¡±


    ¡°Uh huh.¡±


    ¡°... Goddamn kids.¡±


    After they¡¯d reached a distance of a few hundred meters from the campsite, Gust stopped and looked back. Not a single hint of the campsite could be seen through the dense forest.


    ¡°Hey kid, we should be far enough now. Have fun - we have to go back to the campsite within the hour or they¡¯ll get suspicious.¡±


    Gust pulled a knife out of his bag and cut a notch on a tree facing the way of the campsite, then sat down and watched Wesley.


    Wesley stood still and concentrated. He pushed raised his right hand and pushed. Over the last few weeks, he¡¯d practiced the skill of creating a plane of condensed air to write his spells on.


    But tonight, he wanted to attempt the next level of casting spells - drawing.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Although he¡¯d never learned any seals, he had some practice material to start with. He¡¯d spent his time while the caravan was moving meditating, examining the ¡°dead¡± seal that hovered above his mana pool. What he had observed was that the seal was infinitely complex, and was actually created from hundreds or thousands of individual seals.


    While nearly all of the seals were too complex for him to memorize, there was one that was relatively simple, and he¡¯d spent the last week trying to commit it to memory.


    It was this spell that he wanted to try now.


    He raised his hand and began to draw the seal, then swiped his finger across it to cast it.


    Nothing.


    If this had been a month ago, Wesley would just have given up and forgotten about it, but this time, he raised his hand and immediately tried again. And again. And again.


    Gust had initially been paying close attention to Wesley¡¯s actions, but after nothing had happened for half an hour, he lost interest and began humming to himself. Eventually, an hour had passed, and Gust stood up and stretched his limbs.


    ¡°Hey kid, it¡¯s time to go back.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    Gust grabbed Wesley¡¯s hand and began to lead him back to the campsite. ¡°So what were you trying to do anyway?¡±


    ¡°Trying to draw seals¡­ I guess it¡¯s too complicated for me. I don¡¯t think people usually learn how to draw seals until they¡¯ve at least qualified as an Intermediate Mage.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you¡¯re like a Rank 1 Elementary Mage to me the other day? You¡¯re the bottom of the barrel?¡±


    ¡°Mhmm.¡±


    Gust didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry as he looked at Wesley. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t rush the process, you know. Just take stuff step by step and I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be a great mage.¡±


    Wesley paused, then looked up at Gust and smiled. ¡°Thanks, Gust.¡±


    ¡­


    The next day, the caravan woke again to Mark¡¯s booming voice.


    ¡°Alright lads, we should be able to see Fort Rosenthal sometime this afternoon, so let¡¯s quicken our pace! If we¡¯re lucky, we might get there just in time for supper. We¡¯ll sleep in warm beds tonight!¡±


    Cheers spread throughout the campsite, and everyone quickly prepared to leave with a bounce in their step.


    A short while later, the caravan set out at a brisk pace. Mark, in the first wagon, looked around him before pulling a scroll out of his pocket. He stared at it, then sighed and muttered to himself, ¡°I sure hope this works out.¡±


    Last night, he¡¯d checked the boxes he¡¯d hidden the chaos gems in, and all of them were still there, unharmed. Despite that, he felt a mental itch that just wouldn¡¯t leave.


    Meanwhile, in the last wagon, Wesley was fast asleep - after his failed training session last night, he¡¯d spent the entire night trying to memorize the seal he¡¯d been trying to cast. The result, was that when Mark had announced that the caravan was about to leave, Wesley had tried to climb out of the wagon, but had face-planted on the ground instead.


    Jen had spun around and picked Wesley up. The result was the current situation - Wesley was wrapped up in a blanket between Jen and Kyle. The former stared at Wesley with an unusual look in her eyes, then looked up and addressed her husband.


    ¡°Honey, I want a kid.¡±


    A single drop of sweat made its way down Kyle¡¯s temple, as Alex suddenly experience a coughing fit.


    ¡°Hmm? Kyle, are you okay? Do you not want a kid?¡± Gust prodded Kyle with a smirk.


    Kyle glared at Gust, then quickly turned toward his wife and smiled. ¡°Of course, darling! But, uh, let¡¯s wait until we¡¯ve settled down with our own house and stuff, okay?...yeah?¡±


    ¡°Nooo, I want one now!¡±


    Another drop of sweat trickled down.


    ¡­


    A few hours later, they could see Fort Rosenthal on the horizon, and just as the sun was about to disappear for the night, they¡¯d arrived at the fort¡¯s gates.


    As the caravan slowed to a halt in front of the gates, a sentry atop the fort¡¯s walls leaned outward and shouted towards Mark, who still sat at the front of the first wagon.


    ¡°State your name, association, and purpose!¡±


    ¡°Hello sir, this is Mark Shylock, of the Shylock Trading Company. I¡¯m bringing some goods to the Kenta Kingdom for trading purposes.¡±


    The sentry moved back, presumably relay this information to an officer behind him.


    However, after a few minutes of waiting, the sentry had not yet returned, and the gate was still closed.


    Then, with a loud metallic groan, the gates opened.


    ¡°Bout damn time,¡± muttered Mark, before a look of panic crossed his face.


    As soon as the gate opened, hundreds of heavily armored, spear-wielding soldiers poured out from the fort, surrounding the caravan. With their spears lowered, they formed a menacing, impenetrable palisade.


    ¡°Lay down your weapons, or die!¡±

 Chapter 9

    The caravan¡¯s guards promptly dropped their weapons - this was a job, not a cause to die for. Seeing this, those travelling with the caravan, including Kyle, Alex, and Gust, threw their weapons to the ground as well.


    Seeing that the caravan had no intentions of fighting, the surrounding soldiers raised their spears and stood at attention.


    A knight in heavy armor, flanked with several mages wearing traditional robes, walked out of the fort, and examined his prisoners. After casting his eye briefly on each of the wagons, he walked up to Mark, who was now sweating bullets.


    ¡°You are Mark Shylock, of the Shylock Trading Company?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes, sir.¡±


    ¡°Hello Mark. I am Sir Rosenthal, the commanding officer of this fort. Unfortunately, I must inform you that we have it on good word that you are transporting illegal goods to the Kenta Kingdom. Will you confirm or deny this claim?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, of course I deny these claims, good sir.¡±


    The knight smiled. ¡°Then, you won¡¯t have any complaints if we look through your cargo?¡±


    At this, Mark¡¯s smile faltered for a second. ¡°Um, of course!¡±


    He stepped to the side, and motioned toward the wagons. ¡°After you, sir.¡±


    The last wagon was too far from the front to hear this discussion. However, shout earlier for the caravan¡¯s fighters to drop their weapons had woken Wesley up.


    ¡°Hey Gust, what¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re at the gates of a fort, but for some reason they¡¯ve surrounded us with soldiers. I think Mark is talking to some pretentious looking bloke up ahead.¡±


    Actually, Gust was rather curious. Was all of this happening because of the chaos gems he¡¯d discovered?


    Then, the soldiers who had been standing at attention suddenly began to move toward the wagons.


    Alex shouted, ¡°Hey, what are you doing?¡±


    One of the soldiers looked up and addressed Alex. ¡°Don¡¯t be rash. We¡¯re just inspecting your cargo.¡±


    Having walked up to the front of the wagon, he pointed his spear toward Alex. ¡°Don¡¯t try anything funny.¡±


    Then, he examined the interior of the weapon, his eyes briefly glancing over the other passengers. ¡°Everyone, get up and get off the wagon. If there¡¯s nothing wrong, you¡¯ll be free to go.¡±


    A collective sigh ran through the wagon, and they slowly climbed out of the wagon, only to see that a similar situation was happening with the other wagons.


    After leaving the wagon, Gust grabbed Wesley and headed toward a group from another wagon.


    ¡°Hey.¡± Gust waved to grab their attention.  ¡°Do you guys know what''s going on?¡±


    An older man waved back. ¡°Hello there, Gust. The guards wouldn''t tell me much, but this is definitely out of the ordinary. I¡¯ve travelled between the Conarite and Kenta Kingdoms hundreds of times in my life, and I¡¯ve never seen a single group of travellers surrounded by so many soldiers.¡±


    ¡°Furthermore, Mark has been travelling this route for the last few decades, and as far as I know, he has a good reputation. Well, not much we can do right now. If we run, who knows if they¡¯ll pursue us.¡±


    Meanwhile, the soldiers at the first wagon had broken open and rummaged through the boxes already, but hadn¡¯t found anything other than ceramics, textiles, and some jewelry. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Likewise, the soldiers at the wagons climbed out of the wagons, and informed their superiors of the same - nothing out of the ordinary.


    The knight looked on with a frown. Just a week prior, he had received an emergency message from his teacher, who happened to be the King¡¯s Chief Military Advisor. The message shouldn¡¯t have been wrong¡­


    Furthermore, Mark had truly been nervous when he¡¯d demanded to check the man¡¯s cargo. Were his instincts failing him? Regardless, his soldiers had checked all of the wagons, with no result. He looked back at the mages behind him.


    One of them shrugged, then began drawing a seal.


    Seeing this, the knight turned back to Mark. ¡°Your wagons look clear, but as a precaution, this esteemed mage,¡± He motioned toward the mage drawing the seal, ¡°is going to cast a quick detection spell. If nothing shows up, you¡¯re free to enter my fort.¡±


    Mark was as confused, if not more, than the knight. He could¡¯ve sworn that he had been transporting gems for the Kenta Kingdom. Had he imagined it all? He subtly tapped his right pant pocket.


    Yes, the scroll was still there, solid proof that he wasn¡¯t going crazy. But then, where had the gems gone?


    After a brief moment, the seal had been drawn and activated. The mage briefly closed his eyes and concentrated. Then, he opened his eyes, and pointed toward a young man standing on the side.


    ¡°Check his pockets!¡±


    Afraid for their lives, those in the area the mage had just pointed at quickly retreated, and the young man found himself all alone.


    Two soldiers swiftly marched up and grabbed the man by his shoulders, while a third rummaged through his pockets, and pulled out a green gem with intricate designs carved into it.


    As soon as the surrounding soldiers saw the gem, they went on high alert, spears pointed toward those from the caravan.


    Sir Rosenthal¡¯s eyes narrowed as he stepped toward the young man. ¡°Boy, where¡¯d you find this?¡±


    Jason¡¯s body trembled as he answered. ¡°Uh, I found it in one of the wagons, sir.¡±


    Sir Rosenthal took the chaos gem from Jason¡¯s hand, examined it, then turned toward Mark.


    ¡°Now, Mark, why would he have found a chaos gem on one of your wagons. I''m sure you know that these are classified as highly destructive military supplies, yes?¡±


    ¡°Uh, I know that they are military supplies, but I have no idea how one got into one of my wagons, sir. I swear of it!¡± Mark was more confident now, hopeful that there wasn¡¯t any evidence against him.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s come to a compromise. You, everyone, and everything with you, will be escorted into the fort. However, you will park your wagons in an area we will designate to you, and we will be guarding this area. Furthermore, none of you will be allowed to leave the area until we have searched through every single person¡¯s belongings and clothes. Is that understood?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    ¡°Well then.¡± Sir Rosenthal motioned toward his soldiers, who motioned for the travellers to head back into the wagons. A few minutes later, the caravan passed through the gate into the fort.


    However, nobody was thinking about dinner.


    After the wagons had been parked, the soldiers lined the travellers up, single file, and patted them down.


    Sir Rosenthal was watching from the side, still flanked by the mages.. ¡°So, what are we looking for?¡±


    One of the mages responded. ¡°We¡¯re looking for anything that could be used as a Holding item. For example, you may have heard of Rings of Holding - these are the most common Holding item, as they can be worn easily and are small.


    ¡°But really, the ring part is useless - the important part is the gem. Space-based magic seals are carved into the gem, which results in a safe space to store non-living things. So really, we¡¯re just looking for jewels.Unfortunately, Holding items are undetectable with magic unless you¡¯re directly touching it, or we¡¯d have found it already. ¡±


    The entire caravan had less than a hundred people, so despite the mage¡¯s grumbles, the search progressed quickly. However, only a few people in the caravan possessed jewelry of any kind, and the mages were able to quickly verify that none of them were magically enhanced.


    Wesley and Gust were near the of the line. However, as the line moved forward, Wesley received a few clear indicators that Gust was nervous.


    For one, the hand that was holding his was now clenched very tightly.


    ¡°Gust, you¡¯re hurting my hand.¡±


    Gust blinked, then looked own. ¡°Oh hey, sorry little man. My bad.¡±


    ¡°Are you nervous?¡±


    ¡°Pshhhhhh. Me, nervous? Why would I be nervous?¡±


    ¡°You have the stuff they¡¯re looking for, don¡¯t you.¡±


    ¡°...Yeah, but I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll find it. At least, I hope not.¡±


    At this point, Wesley and Gust had reached the front of the line. Gust still had his bag on his back, while Wesley didn¡¯t have anything on him.


    One of the soldiers glanced at Wesley, then looked at Gust. ¡°This your kid?¡±


    ¡°I mean he¡¯s my kid but he¡¯s not my son. So basically I¡¯m responsible for him, but if you were to take him off my hands, I wouldn¡¯t mind.¡±


    The soldier was not amused and stared at Gust with a stoney face.


    ¡°The kid won¡¯t need to be checked. You, though, step forward.¡±

 Chapter 10

    The soldier gave Gust more than a few extra pats, then grabbed Gust¡¯s bag and upended it. Some props, a few smaller bags of food, money, and other miscellaneous dropped out. However, there was nothing of note.


    The soldier shoved Gust¡¯s bag toward him, then ordered, ¡°Clean your stuff up and go.¡±


    After checking all of the passengers, as well as all of their personal belongings, they still hadn¡¯t found a Holding item.


    At this point, even Sir Rosenthal didn¡¯t have an excuse to detain the travellers any longer. Although the Conarite Kingdom didn¡¯t care for the Shylock Trading Company, Mark and the rest of his family had a good reputation - it wasn¡¯t as if they could detain them indefinitely without repercussions.


    And so, he addressed Mark. ¡°Thank you for your participation. Tell your people that they now have access to the rest of the fort.¡±


    With that, he left. Once he was out of earshot of Mark, he motioned toward one of the mages, who dashed to his side.


    ¡°How long can you keep up a detection spell going?¡±


    ¡°Between the five of us, we can keep a detection spell strong enough to cover the fort for two to three hours at a time, but we would need a full day to recharge our mana after that.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. Keep detection spells running as long as you can, starting at midnight.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir."


    Happy to have been freed from the soldiers, the travellers left the wagons and headed into the other regions of the fort.


    Fort Rosenthal, being the main military camp protecting the Conarite Kingdom from the Kenta Kingdom, was quite large, and was more like a small, military-centric city.


    Wesley and Gust. like the rest, had left the wagons in search of food.


    After walking down some streets, Wesley suddenly tugged on Gust¡¯s arm. ¡°Hey Gust, I wanna eat there.¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡± Gust looked in the direction Wesley was pointing. It was a restaurant, two stories high, and looked...very expensive. Furthermore, the aromas that escaped from the front doors were...enticing, to say the least.


    ¡°No.¡± Gust firmly grabbed Wesley and walked away.


    Eventually, they ended up at a food stall in a food market. This stall specialized in sausages, and the two gorged themselves on all sorts of mystery meets.


    When they were done, Gust paid the bill, then frowned. He really didn¡¯t have much money left. Then, he looked at Wesley, and sighed.


    Truthfully, he didn¡¯t really believe that delivery Wesley to the Reiniad Kingdom would gain him 5 million gold coins. As for why he was willing to help¡­ he had an idea why, but he wouldn¡¯t admit it.


    Well, not that it mattered. He¡¯d already made his decision.


    WIthout money to rent a room for the night, the two made their way back to the wagons and slept aboard the wagon as usual. Kyle, Jen, and Alex weren¡¯t there, presumably they had rented a room for the night.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    However, not everyone¡¯s night was so very simple.


    Mark had mysteriously become ill, and had announced that he was unable to lead the caravan to the Kenta Kingdom. This responsibility would be assigned to another member of the Shylock Trading Company.


    As for whether or not he was really ill, only he knew.


    Sir Rosenthal and mages had spent the entire night looking for a trace of the whereabouts of the chaos gems.


    But of any person in the fort, Wesley had had the most eventful night. Although it seemed as if he was sleeping peacefully, he was having a unique experience in his dream world.


    He was flying through the air, next to an elderly man who was dressed in a simple but elegant light-blue robe, similar to the ones he had seen his father wear in the past.


    Although Wesley was sure he¡¯d never seen the man before, he somehow knew the man¡¯s identity. The man¡¯s name was Thomas, his teacher. It was Thomas who was leading him through the air - he himself was not capable of flight.


    ¡°Wesley, are you listening to me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, teacher.¡± The voice was his, but at the same time, not quite right.


    ¡°Alright, well don¡¯t doze off again. As I was saying, we¡¯re nearly at Fort Rosenthal. It will be the first place you¡¯ve set foot in other than Affile Village. How do you feel?¡±


    ¡°Hm.¡±


    Thomas sighed. This new disciple of his clearly had enormous potential, to that his disciple had already learned everything he could teach him regarding writing spells. Perhaps it would be at Fort Rosenthal that his disciple would learn how to draw his first seal. However, his disciple¡¯s disposition was just too cold.


    A few minutes later, the two descended before the front gates to the fort.


    Wesley¡¯s gaze settled on the fort¡¯s walls. Even the tallest houses in Affile Village were but two stories high. However, the fort had stone walls that reached over thirty feet high.


    Thomas saw Wesley¡¯s gaze and smiled. ¡°Tens of thousands of soldiers and their families live here. Even so, it¡¯s a rather small place. For example, the capital city of your Pooles Kingdom houses almost a hundred thousand people. Quite amazing, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Yes. It is.¡±


    ...


    The scene changed. Wesley was still with Thomas, but now they were in a room they had rented for the night.


    Thomas quickly drew a seal, then left it unactivated for Wesley to examine. ¡°This is the seal for a basic spell, icicle shot. When mages who specialize in ice magic are first taught how to use magic, this is one of the first spells they learn how to write. It¡¯s also one of the easiest to draw.


    ¡°Now, even the simplest seals are rather complicated, so it¡¯ll be better if I draw it on a piece of paper for us to examine in further detail.¡±


    Thomas quickly drew the seal on a piece of paper, then began explaining it in further detail to Wesley.


    ¡°Now, this seal has five sections that determine the properties of the spell. Most basic spells will have five sections, whereas more advanced spells will have more. If you think of a seal as an equation, the sections are variables that can be changed, mixed and matched, to create new spells. Now¡­¡±


    The explanation carried on through the night. Eventually, the first rays of sunlight could be seen through the room¡¯s window. As Wesley noticed this, the scene in front of him faded away into oblivion.


    With that, Wesley woke up. He sat up, then blinked his eyes. Still dark.


    He raised his hand and began to draw the seal that Thomas had taught him in his dream. After just a few seconds of drawing, he swiped his finger across the seal and activated it.


    An icicle shot out from the seal and punctured the roof of the wagon, causing a great deal of noise.


    ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Gust instantly woke up, floundering, and saw the hole in the roof. ¡°Oh shit, we¡¯re under attack! We¡¯re under attack!¡±


    He picked his bag and Wesley up and ran out of the wagon, yelling at the top of lungs that they were under attack, before Wesley could say a word.


    Before he knew it, the travellers who had stayed in the wagons that night had congregated around the last wagon, and Gust was expounding a story in which he had chased a knife-wielding assassin from the wagons in a heroic act of defense.


    ¡®I guess it¡¯s too late to say I did it, huh.¡±


    What Wesley didn¡¯t notice until later, was that the seal that hovered above his mana pool had changed. One small portion was no longer black, but brimming with mana.

 Chapter 11

    A while later, soldiers arrived and examined the scene. Unfortunately, the ¡°culprit¡± had not left any evidence. With nothing else they could do, they returned to the barracks and reported the happenings, along with Gust¡¯s story as to what had happened, to Sir Rosenthal.


    ¡°How audacious!¡± Sir Rosenthal slammed the table. ¡°The Kenta Kingdom thinks so lowly of me that they¡¯re trying to assassinate civilians in MY fort? Double the patrols, and check every person who enters or leaves the city!¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±


    Meanwhile, Gust and Wesley were making through the gate facing the Kenta Kingdom. Not because of the ¡°assassination¡±, but rather because they didn¡¯t want to wait for the new Sylock Trading Company representative to arrive in a few weeks to continue their trip.


    After a few hours of travelling, saw another fort, similar in size to that of Fort Rosenthal. Soon after, they entered the gates without any trouble - the soldiers only gave them a cursory glance before letting them in.


    However, once they were in the fort, they saw that many people were rushing towards the center of the city.


    Curious, Gust grabbed a lady who was running past and asked, ¡°Hey lady, what¡¯s going on here?¡±


    The lady looked at Gust and wrenched her arm back in disgust. Not that she could be blamed - Gust hadn¡¯t washed up in quite a while. Nonetheless, she answered his question.


    ¡°You¡¯re not from around here, huh? Today¡¯s Kenta Independence Day - as such, the greatest warriors of each age group are going to compete at the center of the city today. The best part of it all is that seats are free!¡±


    With that, she left.


    ¡°Hmm. Sounds interesting. What do you think, Wesley?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    With that, the two made their way to the center of the city, where they saw a giant coliseum that looked to seat the city¡¯s entire population, although with some squeezing involved. Just the arena itself could easily hold a few thousand people.


    Luckily for Gust and Wesley, the event started right as they found their seats. To the cheers of the audience, a lone man clad in fierce steel armor, and adorned with a red cloak stepped onto the arena. In his right hand was a short sword, in his left, a large, round shield.


    He raised his arms, and the stadium, which had just been filled with the incessant chatter of the masses, instantly went silent.


    After a few seconds, the man brought his sword and shield together with a clash.


    ¡°HOU HOU HOU. HOU HOU HOU. HOU HOU HOU.¡±


    The entire stadium rang with primal war cries, startling Gust and Wes, who had been utterly unprepared for it.


    Gust shook it off and watched on, amused, but suddenly he heard some high pitched screeches from his right.


    ¡®Ah¡­ isn¡¯t Wesley getting a little too into it?¡¯


    Wesley was currently screeching at the top of his lungs, jumping up and down like a madman.


    ¡®Ah well, it¡¯s about time he¡¯s been allowed to let loose and have fun.¡¯


    Despite that, his right ear started bleeding¡­The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Eventually, the war cries subsided, and the coliseum was quiet once again.


    An announcer shouted his greetings to the audience. ¡°Ladies and Warriors, thank you for coming! For the independence of our nation, countless warriors died in battle. Today, we honor their deaths! Are you ready??!¡±


    ¡°HOU HOU HOU.¡±


    The stadium exploded again.


    ¡°Alright, so you know the drill. Five age groups, a hundred combatants each, and at the end of the day, five winners. First up, the kids!¡±


    A hundred kids, all less than ten years old, ran up the steps to the arena, wooden weapons in hand. Once there, they spread out until they spanned the field.


    ¡°3, 2, 1¡­ Fight!¡±


    Instantly, the kids in the arena charged at each other, bashing each other with the wooden weapons.


    Thankfully, several soldiers had been placed on the edges of the arena to dart in and save any kids who¡¯d been beaten and could no longer participate from the arena, so that their injuries could be treated.


    Although he couldn¡¯t see the spectacle, the raw sounds of fighting, as well as the crowd¡¯s cheers, painted a vivid image in Wesley¡¯s mind.


    Eventually, there were only two kids left. The two had been worn out from all of the fighting, and could not properly display their learned techniques any longer. They simply traded blow for blow, struggling to stay upright.


    Eventually, one of them lost consciousness, and the winner shouted toward the the sky, then collapsed as well.


    Again, the crowd exploded into war cries, but this time, Gust¡¯s face was wrapped in darkness, and he did not join in.


    ¡°Come on Wesley, we¡¯re leaving.¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Okay.¡±


    Although Wesley was having the time of his life, he could hear the seriousness in Gust¡¯s voice. It was time to leave.


    They walked out of the coliseum, and after purchasing some essential supplies with what little remained of Gust¡¯s money, the two left the city, making their way east, toward the Larwin Kingdom.


    The two walked in silence - Wesley was daydreaming about what he¡¯d experienced at the coliseum earlier, and Gust was busy brooding. It wasn¡¯t until that night that the two talked again.


    They were tying themselves to tree branches so that they would be up high out of the reach of any beasts as they slept, when Wesley finally spoke up.


    ¡°Hey Gust.¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°How much longer until we reach the Reiniad Kingdom?¡±


    Gust thought about it. The Kenta Kingdom was very small, and they were only crossing a small part of it - after walking for half a day, they had already nearly exited the Kenta Kingdom. However, between them and the Reiniad Kingdom was still the Larwin Kingdom, and on the border between the Larwin and Reiniad Kingdoms was the Alaki Mountain Range.


    All in all¡­ ¡°It¡¯ll probably take another month or so¡­ and then it¡¯ll probably take a while longer to find your family. You said they were rich, right?¡±


    ¡°Mhmm. They should be a noble family.¡±


    With that, Gust nodded. ¡°Then we¡¯ll probably have to head to the Reiniad Kingdom¡¯s capital city, Lumient City. Do you know what family she¡¯s from?¡±


    ¡°Uh, her name was Patricia Lumient.¡±


    ¡°...Little man, are you stupid?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°The capital city of the Reiniad Kingdom is Lumient City. Your mother¡¯s last name is Lumient. The ruling family is the Reniad family, but the Lumient family is first-ranked Noble family of the Reiniad Kingdom. Kid, your family is goddamn rich!¡±


    With new motivation, Gust happily began describing how he was going to use all of the money Wesley¡¯s family would give him.


    However, when Wesley eventually dozed off into the dreamland, Gust stopped.


    He tried to peer through the darkness, to see if Wesley was awake. After seeing that Wesley wasn¡¯t moving, he whispered, just to check.


    ¡°Hey Wesley, you there?¡±


    Finally sure that Wesley was asleep, Gust untied himself from the tree branch, then climbed his way down the tree.


    Although he normally carried a hand and a half sword, he¡¯d never learned how to use one, and it was painfully obvious each time he used it.


    For example, that night when the caravan had been assaulted by bandits, he¡¯d instantly lost his duel with the first bandit he¡¯d met.


    However, it wasn¡¯t as if he¡¯d never been trained in weaponry before. It was just that the weapon he¡¯d trained with in the past was incomparable to a half and a half sword.


    He reached into his bag, and pulled out a pair of sheathed kukri. With a sigh, he quietly set his bag aside, then sneaked his way out of the area.


    It was time to train again.

 Chapter 12

    In the darkness, a lone figure could be seen, going through the motions of weaving, dashing, and slashing through invisible enemies.


    After a few minutes of this, Gust came an abrupt halt and gasped for breath.


    ¡°I swear, I¡¯m really out of shape.¡±


    Years of poor dieting and lack of continued training had clearly dulled Gust¡¯s movements. Nonetheless, he continued his exercises, and as the night continued, his movements became more fluid as his muscle memory returned to him.


    In fact, he became so focused in his training that he only returned to where Wesley had been sleeping a few minutes before Wesley woke up.


    Hearing Gust¡¯s movements next to him, Wesley said, ¡°Hey Gust, good morning.¡±


    ¡°Morning to you too, little man.¡±


    Gust pulled some bread out of his bag and handed some of it to Wesley. ¡°I managed to hunt down a rabbit this morning. You want some?¡±


    ¡°Mhmm.¡±


    As Gust skinned the rabbit and otherwise prepared it to be cooked, he began to prod Wesley¡¯s interest with his latest idea.


    ¡°Hey kid, what do you think about participating in some fighting contests along the way to your family¡¯s place? We can make some money to spend nights in rooms, buy some new clothes. I can participate in some fighting tournaments, while you¡¯re pretty good at magic, right?¡±


    Thinking about it, Wesley was fairly enticed, but he wasn¡¯t sure how well he would be able to fight any magic duels. After all, although he¡¯d participated in competitions at the Western Conarite Institute of Magic, it wasn¡¯t as though he¡¯d been a prodigy. Furthermore, their teacher Mr. Clayde had been there to guarantee their safety.


    However, Gust had a secret weapon waiting. ¡°Heck, if we make enough, maybe we could buy some really tasty food. It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve ha-¡±


    ¡°These contests sound great! Where can we participate?¡±


    With a smirk, Gust ruffled Wesley¡¯s hair. ¡°Knew you¡¯d come around. Anyway, the Kenta Kingdom is full of stupid muscle heads, but we¡¯re almost at the Larwin Kingdom. They several competition venues in each city, as well as some of the larger villages - they¡¯re there to attract talent to the Kingdom. The payouts are pretty decent if you¡¯re able to win several fights in a row.¡±


    ¡°That sounds great and all, but don¡¯t you suck at fighting?¡±


    ¡°...Don¡¯t you have any faith in me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but not when it comes to fighting. Isn¡¯t your plan just for me to do all the work?¡±


    Gust facepalmed. Was this really what Wesley thought of him? He¡¯d simply thought that the contest venues would be a convenient way for him to retrain his fighting skills and to earn some money at the same time.


    Instead, he¡¯d learned that Wesley thought that he was a weak pile of trash.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Wonderful.


    After some more squabbling, the two ate the freshly cooked rabbit, then set off again.


    ¡­


    A few days later, they came across a large village in the Larwin Kingdom. After asking around a bit, Gust learned that while the village did have a competition venue, and there were prizes for winning, the village¡¯s payouts for winners was rather low, hence the level of competition was also very low.


    Which was fine, for Gust and Wesley. To be fair, neither of them knew how they would match up against skilled opponents, so to hear that they would most likely be fighting against weaklings cheered them up a bit.


    As for money, beggars can¡¯t be choosers. They weren¡¯t just poor, they were out of money! On the plus side, if you achieved a five-win winning streak, the village would provide you with free housing.


    However, you would lose this housing as soon as you lost.


    After finishing off the last of their bread, they made their way to the competition venue, a small stadium that in a corner of the village. The arena looked to be big enough to only host small skirmishes, while the entire stadium only looked to seat a few hundred.


    For a village with only a few thousand residents, it was enough. As for Gust and Wesley, it was a promise of a roof over their heads for a night, and a satisfying, properly cooked meal.


    But only if they won.


    Gust and Wesley walked up to a ticketing booth near the entrance to the stadium.


    The ticketer addressed the two. ¡°Hello there. 1 gold coin apiece, please.¡±


    ¡°Hey.¡± Gust addressed the ticketer, a medium aged woman. ¡°We¡¯re not here to watch, we¡¯re here to fight.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± The woman looked Gust up and down, then turned and looked at Wesley.


    ¡°I see¡­ well, go in and open the first door on the right. You can register for fights there.


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    As the two left, the woman scoffed, derision in her eyes. ¡°A few more punching bags.¡±


    ¡­


    Gust and Wesley followed the woman¡¯s instructions and entered the registration office. A very obese man looked up and addressed them with a very bored tone.


    ¡°Registering for the arena?¡±


    ¡°Mhmm.¡±


    ¡°Ages and combat styles?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sixteen wonderful years of age. Knives. My friend over here is¡­¡± Gust paused - he actually wasn¡¯t sure how old Wesley was.


    ¡°Uh, I¡¯m seven years old. Nearly eight. I¡¯m a mage initiate.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Hearing that Wesley could use magic, the man sat up, intrigued. However, once he paid closer attention to Wesley, he instantly noticed that the kid was blind.


    Disappointed, he leaned back in his chair. While the Larwin Kingdom would have rewarded him for ¡°discovering¡± a talented young mage, but a mage was no use if he was blind.


    ¡°Well, alright. You, fighter, you¡¯ll be on stage in half an hour. You¡¯ll be fighting one of regulars. He¡¯s not a great fighter or anything, but has a fair amount of experience. He¡¯ll be a good test for you.¡±


    ¡°As for you, kid, you¡¯ll be going against a Rank 1 Elementary Mage. We don¡¯t have any initiates here, so you¡¯ll have to make do. You¡¯ll be fighting tomorrow morning.¡±


    He then looked back toward Gust. ¡°Any questions?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, are we fighting with real weapons?¡±


    ¡°Of course. It¡¯s more entertaining for the audience that way. What, you scared?¡± The fat man smirked.


    ¡°No. I have another question. Is killing permitted?¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡± The fat man narrowed his eyes. ¡°Yes¡­¡±


    ¡®This kid is awfully confident¡­¡¯


    ¡°Alright, thanks.¡±


    Gust and Wesley left the office, then headed for the stands.


    ¡°Hey, little man.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Gust?¡±


    ¡°You heard the man, right? Killing is allowed here. You still okay with fighting?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Wesley answered without a hint of hesitation.


    ¡°For your family?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    A sad smile hung on Gust¡¯s face. ¡°Atta boy.¡±

 Chapter 13

    One of the stadium¡¯s workers walked up to Gust. ¡°You¡¯re Gust?¡±


    ¡°The one and only.¡±


    ¡°Your fight is after this one.¡± The worker gestured toward the arena stage, where two people in heavy armor were bludgeoning each other, one with a two-handed hammer, one with a one-handed sword and a shield.


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    With his task completed, the worker left. Gust, in preparation, already had his kukris hanging in sheathes attached from his waist. The hand-and-a-half sword, however, was nowhere to be seen.


    He drew his kukris from their sheathes, then handed the sheathes, along with his bag, to Wesley.


    ¡°Take care of these for me, little man.¡±


    ¡°Mhmm.¡±


    Meanwhile, the fighter with the two-handed hammer landed a hard hit on his opponent¡¯s head, whose body then collapsed to the arena floor.


    The stadium announcer, who¡¯d been letting the fighting speak for itself, yelled at the top of his lungs. ¡°And with a crushing blow, John, our veteran of the arena, with seventy-eight wins and thirty-two losses, takes down similar heavyweight, Marcus, down!


    ¡°Marcus is going to be out of commission for a while, folks! Sources are telling me that¡­ yes, he won¡¯t die, but he¡¯s going to have to spend a few years to recover! Don¡¯t worry though, we¡¯ve got quite the battle coming for you, coming right up!¡±


    Gust walked into the arena, where his opponent was already waiting. He looked his opponent up and down, then smiled.


    His opponent''s equipment couldn¡¯t be any more standard. A short sword in his right hand, a round, wood shield in his right. As for armor, his opponent was clad in leather armor - clearly someone who prioritized speed and agility.


    Gust¡¯s only equipment were his two kukris, wearing nothing other than his normal travelling clothes.


    He and his opponent stood facing each other, a few meters apart.


    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Gust, you?¡±


    ¡°Why the hell aren¡¯t you wearing any armor, Gust?¡±


    ¡°Well, I -¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you disrespecting this village¡¯s fighters too much? An arrogant kid like you oughta be taught a lesson - and perhaps it¡¯ll be your last.¡±


    He raised his sword and pointed it at Gust¡¯s head, then mimed slashing his own head off with it.


    Gust just looked at the stadium¡¯s announcer, and said, ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡±, said his opponent.


    ¡°Well alright, ladies and gentlemen, we have two young, talented fighters in the arena for you today! On my right, we have Eric, the tanner¡¯s own flesh and blood son! Hardly a newcomer to the arena, he¡¯s garnered a respectable record with seventeen wins and eleven losses!This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°On my left, we have...Gust, a newcomer! At the age of sixteen, Gust is experienced in the use of¡­ knives! Speaking of, those are some unusual looking knives! Never seen anything of the like, myself. Anyway, he seems pretty confident, opting to fight in the arena without a shred of protection! We¡¯ll see if this decisions comes back to bite!


    ¡°Alright, the contestants have given me their ready signals, so count down with me.¡±


    ¡°3¡±


    ¡°2¡±


    ¡°1¡±


    ¡°Fight!¡±


    As soon as the countdown ended, Gust rushed forward with his kukris raised as high as his arms would go.


    Seeing this, Eric stepped up as well and raised his shield to receive Gust¡¯s attack. His sword was drawn back, ready to strike.


    However, when Gust was only a meter away from Eric, instead of stabbing down with his knives, he fell to the ground and slid forward, knocking himself into Eric¡¯s feet.


    With his feet knocked out from under him, Eric fell face-first onto the arena floor. Before he could pick himself up, Gust had spun around, climbed on top of him, and slit his throat.


    And just like that, the fight was over in a single series of moves - the audience hadn¡¯t even had time to blink before it was all over.


    ¡°NO!¡±


    Before the announcer could announce Gust¡¯s victory, an anguished shout raged through the stadium.


    A red-faced man had stood up and was shaking his finger at Gust. ¡°How dare you kill my son!? Who do you think you are, you little bitch! I¡¯ll kill you!¡±


    With that, he aggressively marched toward the arena. However, before he could make it, several stadium guards blocked his way.


    ¡°What the hell are you doing? Get out of my way!¡±


    ¡°Uh, sir, unregistered fighting is not allowed in the stadium. Please return to your seat.¡±


    ¡°He killed my goddamn son! How am I not allowed to kill him?¡±


    ¡°If you really wish, you can request a fight with him in the registration office. Now please, return to your seat.¡±


    The man glared at Gust, who was still in the arena, then stormed toward the stadium exit.


    Before he could leave the stadium, however, Gust started preaching.


    ¡°You know, it wasn¡¯t really my fault that I killed him.¡±


    He started stripping Eric¡¯s dead body of its leather armor.


    ¡°You see, he asked me why I wasn¡¯t wearing any armor. I was trying to tell him that I was too poor for armor¡­¡±


    Gust began to don his newfound armor.


    ¡°... but you see, he had to lecture me about some kind of respect or something, and he really looked like he wanted to kill me! But hey, turns out he was pretty kind. He gave me this leather armor for free!¡±


    With that, he patted the dust off of his new leather armor, and proudly looked up.


    ¡°Looks pretty nice, doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    Eric¡¯s father nearly coughed up blood. That armor was a set that he had personally hand-made for his son!


    ¡°We¡¯ll settle this in the arena, boy! Don¡¯t you fucking dare run away!¡±


    With that, he stormed his way to the registration office.


    As for Gust, he gave the stadium announcer a jaunty salute. ¡°Hey man, aren¡¯t you supposed to be announcing my victory sometime this year?¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­ yes.¡± The stadium announcer coughed, embarrassed. He¡¯d gotten caught up in the previous exchange - this Gust was just too shameless!


    ¡°Ahem, sorry about that. The stadium rookie, Gust, with newly minted record of one victory and zero losses, takes down the tanner¡¯s son, Eric, who now has a final record of seventeen wins and eleven losses! Speaking of which, that was quite the move just now, wasn¡¯t it!¡±


    A murmur of assents spread through the crowd.


    ¡°Now, next up¡­¡±


    As the stadium announcer prattled on, Gust returned to Wesley, who was still still sitting in the stands.


    ¡°Hey, little man. You want to keep watching, or you wanna go get my earnings?¡±


    ¡°Money! I¡¯m hungry.¡±


    ¡°Ha."


    They went to a counter near the stadium¡¯s entrance to collect Gust¡¯s earnings, then went to explore the village.


    Gust weighed his new sack of coins in his hand, delighted. ¡°Twenty gold coins! This¡¯ll be enough to get us a fancy meal and roof over our heads tonight, haha. We¡¯ll use your winnings tomorrow to buy our usual supplies though, okay?¡±


    ¡°So what are we eating tonight?


    ¡°Uh¡­¡±

 Chapter 14

    That night, they found a small family restaurant to eat at, and filled themselves with their respective vices. Gust ordered himself a steak, whereas Wesley only ordered desserts.


    Either way, the two found themselves unable to move after their respective meals.


    With incredible effort, the two of them dragged themselves to a hostel, where the two crawled into their beds and instantly fell asleep.


    As soon as he fell asleep, Wesley drifted into the dream world.


    ¡°Thomas, what happens if I can¡¯t see my opponent? For example, when I¡¯m in a forest, or am being pursued by an assassin? What do I do?¡±


    ¡°If you do not know how to act versus your opponent, then ask yourself. If you were your opponent, what would you be most afraid of?¡±


    ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is, what would an assassin be afraid of?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­¡±


    ¡°If I were an assassin, I would be afraid of someone who was strong, or had strong backing.¡±


    ¡°I mean, you¡¯re correct, but you¡¯re not thinking usefully. If you were strong, would you need a specific method for dealing with assassins? You¡¯re a mage. In the future, the properties and efficiency of your spells will be constrained only by your knowledge regarding the structure of seals, as well as your imagination.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be more specific. Think. What types of spells would you hate to have to deal with as an assassin?¡±


    Wesley scratched his head, then replied. ¡°I¡¯d probably be most afraid of a detection spell, or a spell that spanned a large area. Or an attack that can negate certain types of cover, like a sound wave attack or something like that.¡±


    Thomas smiled. ¡°Now you¡¯re getting somewhere. Well, if you¡¯re worried, I¡¯ll teach you some area-of-effect spells once you¡¯re mana pool is large enough to cast them. If you casted any now, you probably wouldn¡¯t have the mana to fully utilize them.


    ¡°However, like I said, the magic seals under one¡¯s belt are only part of a mage¡¯s arsenal. With enough creativity, even the simplest spells may be all you need in any given scenario. Now let¡¯s get back to the topic of the structure of magic seals.¡±


    ¡°This section of magic seals dictates the fundamental property of the spell, whether it be something like fire or ice, or even time and space. Each property has its own structure, which you¡¯ll have to memorize. We¡¯ll be starting with ice. Now¡­¡±


    The lecture continued long into the night, ending with Wesley repeatedly drawing sections of magic seals on pieces of paper supplied by Thomas.


    As time passed, the scene faded from Wesley¡¯s eyes, and he woke up. Despite having slept for a full night, he didn¡¯t feel rested at all. However, he noticed that instead of being stuck in a pitch-black world of blindness, there was a reddish hue present as well. What this meant, he didn¡¯t have a clue.


    Despite his tiredness, his eyes were bright; he had gained quite a large amount of knowledge last night.


    Now, he still had several hours until his fight in the stadium, and he had to come up with a strategy to guarantee his victory. Although Gust had easily won yesterday, Wesley had secretly been shaking in fear the entire while, worried for the future of his only guardian, his only friend.


    Strangely, although now it was his turn to fight, he didn¡¯t feel as nervous as he had been yesterday.


    Still though, he needed a plan to deal with his opponent. An Elementary Mage, no matter the rank, was someone who was capable of drawing seals - the only reason Wesley was still an initiate was that nobody yet knew that he could.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    ¡®If I can¡¯t beat him in casting speed, then¡­¡¯


    Gust was still sleeping, and Wesley wasn¡¯t sure what time it was, so he laid in bed, waiting for Gust to wake up.


    The hours passed, and Gust still didn¡¯t wake up, so Wesley finally lost patience and punched Gust to wake him up.


    ¡°OW! What the hell, little man? I¡¯m sleeping over here.¡±


    ¡°Tch, my parents always told me the early bird gets the worm.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°Come on, I need help. I need to come up with a way to win my duel today, and I don¡¯t know anything about my opponent. I don¡¯t want to end up like that Eric guy from yesterday, so we need to do some spy work.¡±


    ¡°You mean reconnaissance?¡±


    ¡°Spy work.¡±


    ¡°Alright, kid... Let¡¯s go have breakfast, I¡¯m starving.¡±


    ¡°Wait, I thought we were going to go do spy work.¡±


    ¡°Watch and learn, kid.¡±


    The two went left the hostel, then began walking down the village streets.


    ¡°Hey Gust, where are we going?¡±


    ¡°Just looking for anywhere with a lot of talkative people. A tavern, a marketplace, something like that.¡±


    As if on cue, they rounded the corner of an intersection, and were faced with several old men and ladies sitting around a table on the porch of a general goods store. They were eating breakfast and gossiping about the hot news in town, which turned out to be¡­


    ¡°Hey, did you hear, Chad¡¯s son was killed yesterday in the stadium?¡±


    ¡°Oh, that Eric lad? Good riddance I say, my granddaughter was nearly led astray by that asshat. All bite and no bark.¡±


    ¡°Speaking of, I saw Chad head to Fevi¡¯s. Do you think he¡¯s going to try and avenge his son?¡±


    ¡°You old hag, that¡¯s old news! He and the kid who killed Eric are already set to fight sometime later today. Sounds like fun, don¡¯t it?¡±


    Seeing this, a huge smile, almost akin to that of a clown, blossomed on Gust¡¯s face. Gossiping grandpas and grannies - this was the best he could possibly had hoped for!


    Gust knew that short of going to an ¡°agency¡± that sold information, there were three prime targets for gathering information.


    The first, were the kids of any important officials - people tended to lose their guard near children, would speak of important matters even while children were in earshot. Of course, children are not great at keeping secrets.


    The second, were those who work at taverns or pubs - those inebriated tend to blab about just about anything, and those working around them are unfortunately too sober to forget. They¡¯ll tend to want to complain about their work environment.


    The third, are grandpas and grannies. Over the years, these illustrious creatures will have built up their own information networks, so that they can best their friends in the level of gossip they have to bring to the table. Of course, grandpas and grannies are naturally talkative, so as long  as you can direct them toward the information you want, they¡¯ll gladly tell you.


    Gust instantly made his way toward the grandpas and grannies, and addressed them. ¡°Hello everyone, I was wondering if any of you esteemed ladies and gentlemen know what¡¯s going on at the stadium later today between two mages?¡±


    Hearing this, the eyes of the grandpas and grannies lit up. The only thing they enjoyed more than gossiping among themselves, was when they could do the same with the young!


    They instantly motioned for Gust and Wesley to join them. ¡°Of course! I don¡¯t mean to brag, but between the few of us here, we hear about everything that happens in the village! There was this one time the village treasurer paid a-¡±


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Gust quickly cut her off as he and Wesley seated themselves at the table. ¡°Sorry, my lady, I don¡¯t mean to be rude, but we¡¯re really short on time. You see, my friend here,¡± He motioned toward Wesley. ¡°Is going to be fighting against a Rank 1 Elementary Mage, who should be a regular in the stadium here.


    ¡°I think I can speak for all of us here that I wouldn¡¯t want any harm to come by this cute little kid, right?¡± He reached over and pinched Wesley¡¯s cheeks, prompting some of the grandpas and grannies to laugh.


    ¡°Of course! If his opponent is a Rank 1 Elementary Mage, then it¡¯s probably Frank. Most people don¡¯t know this, but he used to be the son of a rich merchant. For some reason, though, he was exiled and he¡¯s been lounging around the village ever since.¡±


    ¡°As for how he competes in the stadium, I heard¡­¡±


    Gust and Wesley both plastered smiles on their faces and repeatedly nodded. At the same time, Gust grabbed some food off of the table and handed some of it to Wesley.


    Mission success.

 Chapter 15

    The grandpas and grannies were truly splendid people - seeing that Gust and Wesley were hungry, they not only allowed the two mischievous kids to pawn off of their breakfast, but even ordered more.


    Although, they clearly preferred Wesley; but they couldn¡¯t really be blamed. The older one is, the weaker they are to cute little kids.


    By the time the two left, they were full of food in their bellies, and newfound knowledge of Wesley¡¯s opponent in their brains.


    Unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t much time until Wesley¡¯s duel, so they two slowly headed over in the direction of the stadium.


    ¡°So, little man. You got any ideas?¡±


    ¡°...Kind of. The key things we learned from the old people were that despite being able to draw seals, Frank is rather slow, using about fifteen seconds to draw a single basic seal. Despite that, he seems to be crafty and uses predominantly ice and earth type spells.


    ¡°They said he uses these two, because he likes to be able to change the layout of the arena to his advantage. This means that I have two paths to take. The first is to try and beat him before he¡¯s able to modify the arena, while the second is to try and figure out how he¡¯s going modify the arena as he¡¯s doing it, and make changes myself so that I have the advantage.¡±


    Gust rubbed his temple. ¡°Can¡¯t you just do the first? The second sounds complicated as hell.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s important to have a backup plan.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯d you learn that?¡±


    ¡°Thomas.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Nevermind.¡±


    Confused, Gust craned his neck to get a look at Wesley¡¯s face. All he saw, however, was a small, amused smirk.


    ¡®This goddamn kid.¡¯


    By now, they¡¯d arrived at the stadium. Recognizing them from yesterday, the ticketing woman waved them through. As they walked past, she stared at Gust¡¯s back. However, her eyes lacked the same derision from just a day ago, and held a tinge of pity.


    ¡°Ah... poor soul.¡±


    The two entered the registration office, and addressed the fat man.


    ¡°Yo, it¡¯s Gust and Wesley, from yesterday. When¡¯s Wesley¡¯s duel?¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± The fat man flipped through a record-keeping book on his desk. ¡°Uh, oh, you guys are here right on time. It¡¯s going to be in half an hour, the first duel of the day. Don¡¯t get to see many magic battles, here, so there¡¯ll probably be a sizeable audience.


    ¡°And you, Gust, how ¡®bout fighting today? Chad, the father of the kid you killed yesterday, wants to fight you today. Honestly, you killing Eric has been spreading over town, and it¡¯d be a nice revenge story. We¡¯ll pay you double if you win today, how ¡®bout it?¡±


    ¡°Double, huh? Yeah, sure, why not.¡±


    ¡°Alrighty¡­¡± The fat man made another note in his book.


    ¡°You¡¯ll be up and hour after young Wesley here. Best of luck.¡±


    With that, he leaned back in his chair, and waved the two out of the office.


    ¡­


    Gust and Wesley waited in the stands with the rest of the audience. True to the fat man¡¯s words,  After a bit, however, Gust grabbed Wesley¡¯s arm, causing the latter to wince.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°I think I see your opponent.¡±


    ¡°Oh really? How can you tell?¡±


    ¡°Uh, let¡¯s just say it¡¯s kind of hard not to.¡±


    Gust¡¯s gaze was fixated on a very interesting man who had just entered the stadium. Not only did he lack footwear, but he was covered in mud, his clothes were in tatters. More than that, he held an almost two-meter long, gnarled tree branch in his right hand.


    ¡®Isn¡¯t he role-playing too much?¡¯ Was Gust¡¯s final thought regarding this man¡¯s unusual attire.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    Meanwhile, the fight on stage ended as one of the combatants was kicked off of the arena stage. As the stage announcer waxed eloquent the results, Wesley stood up to enter the arena, while Gust followed him, giving some last minute advice.


    ¡°Remember, try your goddamn best to get him on your first try, okay? And if he starts changing the layout of the arena or whatever, be careful for traps. Just do your game plan and -¡±


    ¡°Shhhh¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re hurting my brain, you¡¯re worrying like an old uncle.¡±


    ¡°...Ow.¡±


    After a while, it was finally time for Wesley¡¯s duel.


    Gust led Wesley onto the stage, leading the few hundred audience members in attendance to point and, in some cases, shout.


    ¡°Can a blind boy fight?¡±


    ¡°Is he even old enough to use magic? This isn¡¯t a scam is it?¡±


    ¡°I want my money back!¡±


    Similar phrases could be heard throughout the stadium, leading the stadium announcer to quickly settle the masses.


    ¡°Hello, sirs and madams! I hear your doubts, and yes, I too was surprised when I first heard! However, uh...Wesley here, despite his blindness, despite all-too-young seven years of age, is a mage initiate! Please welcome him in his rookie battle!


    ¡°As for opponent, you should all know him, an old friend of the arena! His name has travelled as far as his stench, with a record of three wins and five losses, the one and only...Frank!¡±


    ¡°May the two mages enter the arena!¡±


    Gust helped Wesley onto the arena stage, whereas Frank walked up himself.


    ¡°Ready?¡± The stadium announcer


    Frank and Wesley nodded at the same time.


    ¡°Remember, no physical attacks allowed from you guys! Magic only! Now, 3! 2! 1! Fight!¡±


    As expected from the audience, Frank raised his hand and began drawing his first seal. However, they were shocked when they saw that Wesley was performing the same actions.


    The stadium announcer, to say the least, was hopping with joy. ¡°Oh my lord, look at Wesley! He¡¯s not a mage initiate, he¡¯s at least an Elementary Mage! At the age of seven, no less!¡±


    As the crowd began to cheer, hopeful for an interesting duel, Gust stood at the edge of the arena, his hands gripped tightly on his kukris¡¯ handles.


    As Wesley had expected, he was the first to finish his first seal. However, instead of firing an offensive spell, as Gust had expected, Wesley had chosen to to cast¡­


    ¡°Ice Wall!¡± Wesley swiped his finger across the seal, activating it.


    An ice wall, six feet high, formed in front of Frank¡¯s face.


    ¡°Hey, what the hell are you doing?¡± Frank was incensed. He had been casting a spell to cause the ground beneath his opponent¡¯s feet to turn into ice. He would have then been able to just complete his next seal before his opponent could, and that would be that.


    But how was he supposed to cast a spell on something he couldn¡¯t see?


    Keeping his half-finished seal active, he moved to run around the wall to regain line of sight on his opponent.


    At the same time, Wesley was preparing his second seal.


    This time, thanks to the time Frank had spent moving around the wall and refocusing, the two finished their spells at the same time.


    Frank¡¯s spell achieved his original goal of transforming the arena stage below Wesley¡¯s feet into ice, causing the latter to slip.


    However, before Wesley fell, he managed to activate his second seal - another Ice Wall.


    Again, Frank¡¯s vision of Wesley was blocked, and he was forced to circumvent the second wall. However, by the time he made it around the second wall, Wesley had already crawled his way off of the portion of the arena stage that had been transformed into ice, and was already on his own two feet.


    Seeing this, Frank started to draw another seal, but again, before he could finish, Wesley completed his first.


    This time, instead of creating another wall, Wesley¡¯s seal simply used his mana to move the position of the previous two walls so that Frank was yet again blocked by them.


    ¡°Stop it with these fucking walls!¡± Aggravated, Frank couldn¡¯t help but express his annoyedness.


    This time, instead of trying to circumvent the wall, he stood still and focused on drawing a new seal as fast as possible - although he couldn¡¯t cast spells that directly affected anything he couldn¡¯t see, he could still cast any spell that didn¡¯t require him to see his target.


    Meanwhile, although Wesley could not see his opponent, he could detect the energy of Frank¡¯s mana that was being used to draw the new seal. As such, he knew that Frank had stopped trying to run around the walls, and was most likely going to try and end the match with some type of projectile attack.


    Realizing this, he smiled, then pushed out with this right hand, causing the ice walls to move forward. The second wall he had created crashed right into Frank, who fell off of the arena stage.


    ¡°Huh?¡± Frank, who was now sprawled on the ground, had no idea what had happened.


    However, the rest of the audience had.


    Object manipulation spells, like the mana barrier Mr. Clayde had shown Wesley oh so long ago, were spells that could be manipulated once cast.


    Mana Barrier required a constant flow of mana to exist, but while the caster was supplying mana, the barrier could be warped to the caster¡¯s will and ability. The mana barrier would only disappear once the flow of mana was cut off.


    The object manipulation spell that Wesley had cast, was the same. Although he had used an initial surge of mana to move the walls in front of Frank, he had never stopped the flow of mana.


    As soon as Wesley had verified his opponent¡¯s location, he had sent another surge of mana, causing the wall to surge forward. Of course, the entire strategy had been based on Frank losing his sight of Wesley, and getting frustrated to the point that he wouldn¡¯t try to circumvent the walls.


    ¡°And the winner¡­ is Wesley! Everyone, give a round of applause for young Wesley, who has won his first match, giving him a record of one victory and zero losses! Unfortunately for Frank, his losing streak continues!¡±


    The crowd gave some applause, and the stadium announcer continued. ¡°Now, next up¡­¡±

 Chapter 16

    As Wesley returned to Gust¡¯s side, the latter patted him on the back.


    ¡°Good fight, little man. All of that complicated wall stuff, you stole from his wheelhouse, huh.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ but I¡¯m really tired, and really hungry now. I think I overused my mana.¡±


    ¡°No worries, little man. I think my duel¡¯s next. I¡¯ll finish the old man up quick and we¡¯ll get our money and get some really nice food, okay?¡±


    As if on cue, Gust was motioned to head onto the stage. Just like his first fight, he handed his bag over to Wesley, and leaped onto stage with his kukris. This time, however, he was dressed in the leather armor he¡¯d pilfered off of Eric¡¯s deceased body just the day before.


    Meanwhile, on the other side of the stadium a...monolith wielding a heavy, two-handed mace ascended to the arena stage.


    ¡°...¡± Gust could do nothing but stare at his ¡°opponent¡±.


    This was because his opponent was covered head to toe in heavy steel armor. In fact, he wasn¡¯t even sure it was Chad, because not a single sliver of the human wearing the armor could be seen.


    Actually, how was Chad even able to move, under the weight of all of that armor? Gust couldn¡¯t help but wonder.


    Meanwhile, the system announcer was busy hyping up the match. ¡°As you all know, Chad, the village tanner, lost his son to young Gust over here in the arena yesterday! Clearly, Chad has taken his loss to heart, and has pulled some strings to secure himself Fevi¡¯s famous Heavy Steel Set! Just look at the thing! I promise, folks, this¡¯ll be a battle for the ag- huh?¡±


    ¡°Wait, Gust, where are you going?¡±


    Gust had already jumped off of the arena stage, grabbed his bag from Wesley, and looked to be heading for the stadium exit¡­


    ¡°What the hell you mean, you idiot! How the hell am I supposed to fight that? I ain¡¯t suicidal, the guy could stand there all day and I¡¯d never make a dent. He could kill me just by falling on me, screw that, I¡¯m out.¡±


    ¡°Wait, that¡¯s against stadium rules! You have to fight!¡± By now, the stadium announcer was growing panicked, as the audience had begun booing.


    They¡¯d made a fair amount of money advertising the duels of these two kids, but if Gust didn¡¯t fight, they¡¯d probably be inundated with demands for a refund.


    ¡°Alright, fine.¡± Gust quickly turned right back around, and ascended the arena stage yet again.


    ¡°Alright!¡± Perhaps worried that Gust would leave again, the stadium announcer no longer hyped up the match, but skipped to starting the fight.


    ¡°Ready?¡±


    ¡°Ready.¡±


    ¡°Ready?¡±


    Chad lifted the two-handed mace and pointed it toward Gust. ¡°Ready.¡±


    ¡°Fight!¡±Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    As soon as this word was uttered, however, Gust quickly said ¡°I forfeit!¡± and jumped back off the stage.


    The system announcer was nearly about to cry. ¡°What are you doing? Go and fight!¡±


    ¡°I did, didn''t I? The fight started, and then I forfeited.¡±


    The crowd showered Gust¡¯s words with boos, but he didn¡¯t mind at all.


    ¡°Wesley, we¡¯re leaving.¡±


    The two casually made their way out of the stadium to collect Wesley¡¯s earnings, then left to the same restaurant they had visited the day earlier.


    As the two chowed down on some more comfort food, Gust brought up the duo¡¯s next plan of action.


    ¡°Hey little man, I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going to be able to get much more from the stadium here, how bout you?¡±


    ¡°Mhmm.¡± Truth be told, Wesley was just glad that he¡¯d come out victorious in his first solo battle. The delicious food they¡¯d had the last two days had been another large benefit, but after having proved himself, he wanted to continue the journey to the Reiniad Kingdom.


    It was time to leave.


    After the two finished their meal, they headed out of the village, due East.


    However, just a few minutes after they left, several armored men, riding horses, could be seen congregating near the eastern entrance of the village.


    One of them lifted his helmet¡¯s visor and addressed the one on the lead horse. ¡°Chad, must we really go these lengths? True, your son was killed, but you can always have another one. Besides, it wasn¡¯t as if he was murdered in an abandoned alleyway - he died an honorable death in the arena.¡±


    Chad glared at him. ¡°Remember, I¡¯ve saved your sons life before. The least you can do for me is to avenge mine.¡±


    ¡°...I¡¯m here, aren¡¯t I? Still, I don¡¯t like this.¡±


    Other than Fevi, the village blacksmith, there were several others, mercenaries who had been passing by the village.


    While Gust and Wesley had been relaxing, eating their mid-day meal, Chad had angrily stomped over to the village pub, and thrown down his savings to recruit this squad of mercenaries.


    At the high price of fifty silver coins, Chad had hired a small team of mercenaries, eight strong, to aid him in his cause.


    At the price of another ten silvers, he had rented horses for the entire team, and now, they were ready to chase down their prey.


    Meanwhile, as Gust and Wesley were walking down the eastern road, Gust reached inside his bag and started moving stuff around.


    ¡®Any minute now¡­¡¯


    ¡°Hey Wesley, get ready to fight.¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Why?¡±


    ¡°I think that Chad guy I pissed off is going to come after us.¡±


    ¡°Oh, okay.¡±


    ¡°Speaking of, can you build stuff other than walls? And in something that¡¯s not as slippery as ice?¡±


    ¡°What do you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°Hm, just a stone pillar or something that we can stand on, circular, about 5 feet in diameter and 15 feet high?¡±


    ¡°I can write that, but I don¡¯t know any non-ice seals yet, so I would need about thirty seconds of lead time.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll let you know.¡±


    ¡­


    Just a few minutes later, Gust¡¯s perceptive ears picked up the sound of hooves in the distance.


    ¡°Wesley, get started.¡±


    Just a few seconds later, Gust could see a dozen horses, mounted by armored fighters, closing in on them from the direction of the village they had just left.


    Another few seconds, and Gust and Wesley had been surrounded. Gust reached his arms out, protecting Wesley from the horses. Meanwhile, Wesley concentrated on writing his spell.


    From his horse, Chad taunted his prey. ¡°Did you really think you could just leave like that, Gust? You should have just let me kill you in the arena! There, I could only have killed you, but here, haha, I can torture you for hours, and nobody will be any the wiser!


    ¡°As for your little friend there, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m sure I can sell him off to some mage to experiment on.¡± Chad¡¯s face couldn¡¯t be seen, but one could hear the malice in his voice.


    ¡°Oh no! Please, spare us!¡±, cried Gust.


    Despite his words, a hint of mischief could be seen in his eyes, a gem grasped in his fist.

 Chapter 17

    Just as Chad was about to rub salt into the wounds of his prey, a large stone pillar suddenly surged out of the ground that Gust and Wesley had been standing on, raising them higher than those that still surrounded them.


    ¡°Hmph.¡± Chad wasn¡¯t impressed. ¡°I¡¯ll just smash your little pillar to bit, and then what will you do?¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± said Gust, ¡°Something like this.¡±


    He threw the chaos gem in his hand down toward Chad, then quickly reached his into his bag, and pulled out a large crate, far larger than his bag itself.


    The top of the crate had been removed, and inside, were hundreds of chaos gems. Grinning, Gust grabbed fistfuls of the gems and threw them towards the unfortunate victims below.


    Chad had been knocked off his horse by the force of the first chaos gem¡¯s explosion, and was struggling to stand back up, trapped under the weight of his horse.


    Before he could push the horse off of himself, Gust had already thrown the second batch of chaos gems. Multicolored explosions erupted all around the stone pillar, coupled with the dying screams of a few unfortunate souls.


    After a bit, Gust stopped throwing chaos gems - he only had a few thousand, after all. Besides, it didn¡¯t seem like any of their enemies were still moving.


    ¡°Hey Wesley, lower us a bit?¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    A while later, the stone pillar shrank back into the ground, allowing Gust to safely slide down.


    As soon as he landed, Gust quickly ran to each body, and stabbed it a few times with his kukris. After confirming that everyone was dead, he looked up at Wesley. ¡°Hey little man, help me clean this place up, okay? After all, we¡¯re respectable men of society, we can¡¯t leave the road looking like this.¡±


    ¡°Mhmm, you¡¯re right.¡± Wesley began writing spells to return the road to its former shape.


    Then, he walked back to Chad and Fevi¡¯s bodies and sat down. For the next few minutes, he painstakingly dragged the broken, dented armor off of their corpses.


    The steel would sell for a decent price.


    Having finished his work, Gust stood over Chad¡¯s body, then kicked his head. ¡°F***ing idiot, this is all you bring to deal with this godly warrior? Huh? Huh? Next time, take your damn armor off yourself!¡±


    He kicked Chad¡¯s head a few more times, then moved on and scavenged the armor off of the several mercenaries as well. After doing so, he packed it all into his bag, along with the crate of chaos gems.


    ¡°Ah¡­¡± Gust craned his head toward the sky, and stretched his arms out. ¡°We¡¯re going to have meat to eat for the next few days!¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Of course, Gust wasn¡¯t a cannibal - he was referring to the meat of the unfortunate horses that had died in the incident.


    A while later, Gust and Wesley resumed their trek, and all that was left of the incident were a few bloodstains on the road. If one investigated further, a pile of bodies, casually pushed behind some trees along the side of the road, could be found as well.


    ¡­


    A few weeks later, Wesley and Gust found themselves at the entrance of the last bastion of civilized humanity before the Alaki Mountain Range, aptly named as Border Town. The two strolled into town, looking left and right for a stadium to compete at.


    After all, not only would this be their last stop before the Alaki Mountain Range, it would be the last chance for them to test their mettle in the Larwin Kingdom. Of course, the additional money wouldn¡¯t hurt either.


    Of course, this was under the assumption that they could win their battles. As Border Town was far larger than the village they¡¯d previously visited, and was right along the edge of the Larwin Kingdom, next to the Alaki Mountain Range, the town was filled with seasoned fighters, and more than just a few mages.


    With that, however, Border Town¡¯s payouts were similarly far higher. Gust and Wesley were both hopeful - Gust could feel himself getting back in shape, his joints no longer struggling with some of his more acrobatic moves, while Wesley had been learning from Thomas in his dreams on a consistent basis - he was now very confident in his abilities.


    Furthermore, as of recent, he found that he was no longer completely blind. Although he couldn¡¯t identify anything even when he waved his hands mere centimeters from his face, he could perceive blotches of colors.


    His world, was no longer dark and hopeless.


    ¡°Hey Gust, where we going to sleep tonight? I want a soft bed to sleep in.¡±


    ¡°Little man, we don¡¯t have that much money left.¡±


    ¡°So? We¡¯ll have money after we win tomorrow, and then we can worry about the rest afterwards.¡±


    ¡°Tch, fine. In return though, we have some errands we¡¯ll need to run first. Before we go to the hostel, we¡¯ll need to visit the town stadium, a dark alleyway, and a blacksmith.¡±


    ¡°Huh, why do we need to visit a dark alleyway?¡±


    ¡°Because it¡¯s important.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    The two quickly found the town¡¯s stadium, and registered for fights. Gust would be fighting a similarly equipped ¡°light-armored fighter¡±, whereas Wesley had been paired against a fellow mage initiate, but had requested to be paired against a Rank 3 Elementary Mage instead.


    After they left the stadium, the two scouted the town for a blacksmith shop. When they finally found one, they scouted around it, and found a dark alleyway to hide in.


    While Gust rummaged through his bag in the alleyway , Wesley symbolically stood guard at the entrance. After a few minutes, Gust tapped Wesley on the shoulder, and they left the alleyway and walked to the front of the blacksmith shop.


    Although they were still standing outside, the two were assaulted by a wave of heat emanating from within the shop, threatening to burn their faces to a crisp.


    As if the heat weren¡¯t enough, numerous loud metallic bangs rang from the shop¡¯s backroom.


    ¡°Hey, anyone here?¡±, yelled Gust.


    The metallic banging continued.


    ¡°HEY, ANYONE HERE?¡±


    The metallic banging continued, but this time, a young man covered in soot stumbled out of the backroom.


    ¡°Hey there, my name¡¯s Allen. What can I do for you?¡±


    ¡°Hey Allen, I got a bunch of dented and broken armor pieces, as well as a dozen or so weapons that need repairs. I¡¯d like to sell them all, you see, my little brother here is blind, and we¡¯re trying to scrape together some money to look for something to help him.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I see¡­¡± Allen glanced Wesley, pity in his eyes. ¡°Well, let me see what we can do for you.¡±


    Gust smiled back with shining eyes. ¡°Thank you so much!¡±

 Chapter 18

    Just hearing Gust¡¯s fawning voice, coupled with the pity-grabbing story, Wesley almost threw up.


    However, he soon brightened up once everything had been sorted and priced - he and Gust had earned a small fortune for their troubles!


    The two left the shop with a small bag of coins in hand, smiles on their faces, some swagger in their steps.


    ¡°Alright Wesley, where shall we eat? Today, your nose makes the choice!¡±


    ¡°The nose leads the way!¡±


    Wesley and Gust strolled through the town¡¯s streets, before they finally ended up before an exquisitely designed, two-story restaurant.


    Wesley¡¯s nose twitched a few times before he stopped and pointed.


    ¡°The nose says here!¡±


    ¡®The kid really has an expensive nose.¡±, thought Gust. Despite that, he led Wesley into the restaurants, where they were promptly shown out the door by the hostess.


    ¡°Get out! The two of you smell like donkeys, you¡¯ll ruin the experience for our guests! Looks for handouts somewhere else!¡±, she had said.


    Back on the street, Wesley sniffed a few more times. ¡°Hey Gust, do we really smell? I don¡¯t smell anything?¡±


    ¡°I guess.¡± Gust promptly turned around. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go. We can wash up at the hostel, and we should probably buy new clothes while we¡¯re at it, too. Our clothes have been through a lot.¡±


    ¡­


    An hour later, the two exited from the front doors of an inexpensive inn they had found, refreshed and energized from their baths.


    ¡°How expensive are clothes?¡± Wesley asked Gust.


    ¡°More expensive than a few meals but less than we¡¯ve got.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean we won¡¯t be able to eat at the nice restaurant after we buy new clothes?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll probably be able to afford it again if we win our duels; the payouts here are pretty big, almost comparable to the Larwin Kingdom¡¯s cities.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll be fancy boys.¡±


    ¡°Fancy boys!¡±


    The two strolled their way into a tailor¡¯s shop, and tried on several garments. Gust being Gust, he quickly chose a very flamboyant piece, somewhat reminiscent of the colorful feathers of a peacock.


    Likewise, he chose an outfit for Wesley that suggested the look of a, well, lesser peacock.


    Of course, he didn¡¯t forget to also purchase more subdued outfits for himself and Wesley to travel in. This kind of wear was barely appropriate in towns and cities, and was certainly not appropriate wear for physical exertion.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Exiting the store, the two waltzed their way, now in their peacock-ish clothes, to one of the cheapest food stalls in town, and filled themselves up with barley bread and porridge.


    Those in the area looked at them with confused, sometime even disdainful, gazes, but the two didn¡¯t care.


    Cause they were fancy boys.


    After they finished their meal, the two retreated to their room at the inn, and rested for the night.


    The next day, they stomped their way out of the inn, and toward the town¡¯s stadium.


    Today, they would win¡­ to be true fancy boys!


    The two entered the stadium, and proceeded to the registration office.


    Before entering, however, Gust quickly checked his and puffed his chest out. Then, he pushed the door and strolled in, while Wesley followed closely behind.


    A fierce-looking, young lady looked up. ¡°Ah, Gust and Wesley, good timing. The duels today have just started. Let¡¯s see¡­ Gust, you¡¯re due for a fight in about an hour in Arena 1, while Wesley, you¡¯re due for a fight in two hours or so in Arena 3.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good. Uh, by the way, are there any fighter/mage duo fights at the stadium here?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but the participants must have won at least five duels prior, each.¡±


    The lady looked at Gust and cast and eye over his flamboyant outfit. ¡°If you ever reach five wins, let me know¡­¡±


    Gust¡¯s chest slightly deflated.


    ¡°Will do. Let¡¯s go, Wesley.¡±


    The two left the registration office and went to the stands to scout of their competition.


    The stadium was far larger than the one in the village they¡¯d previously fought in, with a far larger crowd as well - nearly a thousand people could be seen in attendance.


    To keep the audience entertained, and to accommodate the numerous fighters who were continuously look for duels, there were multiple arenas at the center of the stadium simultaneously hosting fights.


    Gust and Wesley walked around the stadium until they reached the part of the stadium closest to Arena 1, where Gust would be fighting shortly.


    It seemed that Arena 1 was the designated arena for light-armored fighters, as the two fighters currently on it were both clad in light pieces of armor, designed not to take the brunt of any direct hits, but to catch and deflect any glancing blows.


    One was equipped with a short sword in one hand, a large, weighted net in the other. The second fighter was equipped more similarly to Gust - he held two long knives, one in each hand.


    ¡°Oh?¡± When Gust noticed that the second fighter was also a dual knife wielder, his interest was piqued, especially because the dual knife wielder was holding his own against the the one with the net.


    After all, a weighted net was many times more dangerous than any shield or sword, especially in the medium to long range for melee combatants. This range was the perfect distance to attempt to catch an opponent with the weighted net, and once the opponent was caught, it was a simple matter to simply walk up to them and end the fight.


    Furthermore, at that range, the net could also be used as a legitimate defensive tool.While it wouldn¡¯t function like a shield in the traditional sense, if one attempted to strike the wielder on the net¡¯s side, an effective warrior could use the net could catch the weapon, effectively disarming the attacker.


    Hence, Gust knew the only way for the dual knife wielder to win, was to¡­


    Just as Gust¡¯s train of thought reached this point, the dual knife wielder on the arena stage faked an advance, leading his opponent to throw the net out. Without


    Before the net wielder could retract the net, the dual knife wielder dashed to the right, attacking the net wielder¡¯s left side.


    Seeing that he wouldn¡¯t be able to retract the net in time to defend against this attack, the opponent released his grip on the net, and jumped backwards.


    After a flurry of exchanges, the fight had been more or less reset to its previous state, except that the weighted net was still left, unused, on the arena floor.


    As the battle drew on, the dual knife wielder eventually eked out an advantage, slicing open a wound on his opponent¡¯s leg, then his chest, leading his opponent to surrender.


    ¡®Hmm.¡¯ Gust stroked his chin. ¡®I wonder how much better than him I am¡­¡¯