《'Apotheosis' By:Akirias》 Ch.0 Prologue I am awoken to a blinding light. ¡®Thats odd,¡¯ I thought. I could have swore I closed my blinds last night. It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the bright light in my room. As I take in my surroundings I notice my father standing in front of my window. Thats odd. My father has only been in my room once as far as I can remember. Most of the time he acts like I don¡¯t even exist. Not that I can blame him. My mother died giving birth to me. From what people tell me her death was very strange. Most women who die giving birth do so due to the lack of a healer and unexpected complications. For my birth there were two healers present. No matter what they did though, they failed to save my mother. My mother should have survived. She was a very powerful mage and she had a healthy body due to her Body Enhancing. My father notices that I am awake. ¡°Good morning Father...¡± I don¡¯t know what else to say. ¡°Morning Zyrek.¡± My father gives me a sad look. People tell me I look like my mother. We have to same nose and the same vibrant red eyes. Every time my father sees me, he sees my mom. He has never smiled at me. Suddenly my father turns and walks towards my door. He stops with his back to me, by the door and I can see my mace, leather cuirass, forearm guards, shin guards, boots and a set of brown pants and a simple white long-sleeved shirt. Besides that, I also see a backpack. ¡°What is this father? Are we going somewhere?¡± I am very confused at the moment. My father never takes me anywhere. All my father has ever done for me is pay for tutors so that I could learn to read, write, learn some basic geography, do math and he also hired a combat instructor to teach me how to wield different weapons and to help defend myself. Besides that, I doubt he noticed that I was even alive. ¡°We, are going nowhere. You, are leaving. You are ten years old and you still have not developed your mana core. Every time I see you, I can only see her. I am tired of it all. Most children develop their core when they are between seven or eight, but you, you are a cripple. You have no mana core. Its a disgrace to say you are our son. As of today you are no longer a member of my house. You are no longer a Devart. Today you turned ten years old. From this day on, you are not my burden. Ill give you some gold so you don¡¯t starve to death before you can find work. Now get dressed and get out of my house. If I find out you ever use my Devart name again... I will execute you myself.¡± As my father finishes, he leaves my room. For the next few minutes, I just sit there on my bed stunned. Disowned. Homeless. Alone. I always knew my father hated me. I always knew that I made his heart ache every time he saw me. I always knew. So why is this so... surprising. I feel, hurt. My heart hurts. It is not my fault my mother died, but I am blamed. I am just as much my fathers son as my older brother. But Father loves Naszran. Naszran is the heir to the Duchy.My Father loves my older sister. My Father dotes on my older sister Bellinda. Bellinda is the only one who does not openly despise me. She is the only one who ever tried to treat me as family. I knew my father hated me... so why does this surprise me. I slowly get out of bed. I feel light headed. Almost like I am in a daze. As soon as I settle to my feet I move to the mirror. I have my fathers obsidian black hair, his jaw, his prominent cheek bones. I have mothers small and distinct nose, her fiery red eyes. My body is toned for my age. I do not have a mana core so I am unable to cultivate mana into my body using Body Enhancement. I did not let that stop me from growing stronger. I trained and toned my body the hard way. I lifted weights. I ran until my legs felt like they were on fire.I suffered through the pain. I was determined to be strong. I am tall for my age. I stand around 4¡®11¡° tall. I turn from the mirror and move over to my gear. Or should I say, all my worldly belongings. I pull on the pants and shirt. Both fit me well. Not baggy but loose enough to allow movement. I pull on my brown leather boots. Not fancy but sturdy. I strap on my armor. Since my body is weak due to my lack of a core I have always trained in my leathers. Heavier armors always weigh me down and I don¡¯t like to limit my mobility when I spar with my instructor. Lastly, I grab my mace. It is a simple iron flanged mace. I always loved the mace. It feels like it is a partner, not just a weapon. Just swing it in the direction of the enemy and let it do the rest. Its simple but so elegant. Its not a fast weapon. The mace is slow on the draw back. If you miss an attack you leave yourself wide open. To overcome this downside I use my agile legs and body to maneuver into an advantageous position then strike with the mace. Quick moves, hard hits. I tie on my belt and slide my mace into the ring on the belt. I finally feel myself snapping out of shock of what is happening. I am just a child, disowned by my father. I am being thrown into the world on my own. I no longer feel surprised. There is nothing I can do about it. I can only adapt. I refuse to lay down and die. No matter what, I will survive and I will gain power... someway. Only the strong are respected in this world. This is a world of magic and monsters. I may be a cripple, but I can still use magical equipment. Equipment can be enchanted for a variety of effects. Enhancing your bodies strength is a simple enchantment found on even the cheapest magical armaments. I guess that is all I can do, hope I survive long enough to be able to buy some good equipment. I pick up and check inside of the backpack provided by my father. Inside is a tent, bedroll, flint and steel one cooking pot and spoon. As well as a small pouch of ten gold pieces. Better than nothing. I don the backpack and leave my room and head towards the front door. As I near the front door I hear my brother,¡±Father finally decides to get rid of the trash I see. I don¡¯t understand why he is even allowing you to live. If it was my decision I would have cut your head off the day you murdered our mother.¡± My sister Bellinda is beside him, she says¡±Shut up Naszran, he is still our blood. He is not responsible for what happened to mother. He was just an infant.¡± Bellinda is the only family I have ever really had. I put on the best smile that I can muster and wave good bye to my sister. Then I exit our manor. I begin making my way away from the Devart Manor. While walking I contemplate what to do. I could try heading into the forest to collect herbs. I can then sell the herbs to some of the local Alchemists. Nothing too valuable grows around here but you can find herbs in the forest to create simple medicines and a few ingredients to simple health potions. I could head to the Adventurers guild. I should be able to join and do some simple contracts for some coin. If i join the Adventurers guild that would also give me somewhere to sleep at night. I could also leave the city and head to one of the outlying towns or villages, work as a farm hand. That would be the safest option. I let out a sigh. If I had a mana core I would not be so hopeless. Even if I continue to train my body and fighting technique the most I could ever be is one of the weaker guards in a city or town. Or worse... cannon fodder in the army. I shake the thought from my head as I head towards the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. After about thirty minutes of walking through town I finally manage to reach the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. While the Devart Manor resides in the very center of town, the Adventurer¡¯s Guild is located near the western gate entrance very close to the large market and Auction house. The guild is a very large building. It stands nearly fifty feet tall and and two hundred feet wide. The building dwarfs the shops around it. The guild is mainly built of stone. Columns decorate the front while a wide staircase lead to the entrance. Two massive doors rest in the center of the building. After steeling my nerves I walk up to the entrance and open one of the doors. Despite its size, the door opens easily. As I walk inside I am greeted by the sight of nearly 100 adventurers scattered about the area. All of them are donning differing sets of armors and wielding many different types of weapons. Varying forms of plate or chainmail are the most common armor while swords of different sized are the most common weapon. Most of the adventurer¡¯s are sitting around the various tables chatting with one another. A few are reading through posters that are pinned to a massive board, job posting most likely. In the rear of the building I notice a staircase that leads to the higher, and most likely lower, floors. To the left of the room I notice a man standing behind a bar flipping through a large tome. He is a middle aged man, probably around 40 if i had to guess. He has very short red hair and he appears to be wearing a vest with no shirt on beneath it. He looks very toned, unlike some of the hulking piles of muscle in the room this man appears to value speed over brute force. ¡® I guess he is the one to talk to first,¡¯ if i had to take a guess. I approach the man. As i reach the bar in front of him, he pausing what he was doing and looks at me. ¡°How may I help you?¡± he asks. ¡°Uh, hello. I would like to join the Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡± I say this with as much confidence as I can muster. He raises an eyebrow at me and asks ¡°A little young to be fighting monsters aren¡¯t ya?¡± I smile at the man. He is right. A ten year old child joining the Adventurer¡¯s Guild is unheard of. I think for a second then reply to him, ¡°While I may be young, I do know what my limits are and I also know that I would rather fight to survive than slowly starve to death. I also know that the farm life is not for me.¡± I was rather pleased with my answer. The man smile at me, ¡°There are no rules about age requirements in the Guild. It is up to the discretion of each Guild Master whether someone can join the Guild. I like you kid so ill let you join. Just need some basic info and I¡¯ll get you your status card.¡± The man reaches below the counter and pulls out a small white slate. The slate is rather small, only about 3¡°x 5¡°. It is solid white and looks perfectly smooth. ¡°Alright,¡± the man says, ¡°what is your name and age?¡± ¡°My name is Zyrek and I turned ten years old on this day¡±I say. He questions me, ¡°And what is your last name?¡± I can only offer him a sad smile as I answer him. ¡°I have no family name. I was disowned by my father and forbidden from claiming my family name.¡± I answer him honestly, as I see no point in lying about it. ¡°Ah, I understand¡± he offers my a condoling smile. ¡°Well, we can leave that part blank for now. If you decide on a new family name that you would like to take then we can add it on later. Now take this slate and add a drop of blood to the slate. This will allow the slate to display your status, as well as to update as your status changes. This card will also allow the Guild to know if you are killed while in the filled. When you die the card will shatter. This will remove your information from the Guild Tome. In this way, people who care for you can always check to see if you are alive or not. The only way for a name to vanish from the Guild Tome is for them to leave the guild or upon their death.¡± The man puts the Status Slate down in front of me and pricks my finger with his quill. A small drop of blood drops from the wound and falls onto the slate. The slate then starts glowing a very faint blue color and text begins to appear. Zyrek Age:10 Gender: Male Mana:0 Mana Regen: N/A Cognizance:1 Strength:1 Vitality:1 Constitution:1 Resilience:1 Dexterity:1 Agility:1 Soul Force:1 As I look at my status is notice that all of my attributes seem to be one. This confuses me so I decide to ask. ¡°Well,¡± he says ¡°that is actually simple. How could you measure the ability to resist disease? Is it a Vitality foot? There is no unit of measurement for attributes. The slate takes this information from your blood, but it does not have anything to really compare it to. So, the amount of strength you have now is your 1 strength. As you get stronger the number will increase. Lets say you double your strength. The Status Slate will then show a 2. The Status Slate¡¯s main purpose is to help you keep stack of how much improvement you are making. The Status Slate is a poor tool to use in comparing between two people. If an Arch Mage joins the guild and then gets a Status Slate, his attributes would look similar to yours. Though you are still a long way off from being an Arch Mage yourself. Now let me ask you a question. I had assumed you were forced to leave your family due to your, condition. Now that I can see you have no core and therefore no mana, what will you do to survive as an adventurer?¡± I can tell by the look in his eyes that he isn¡¯t trying to belittle me so I decide to answer him. ¡°Just because I can¡¯t use magic doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t use magical equipment. Even if I will always be weaker than those around me doesn¡¯t mean I plan to just lay down and die. Even if all of this is hopeless, I would rather die fighting against my fate then give in to it. Besides... its not impossible for my core to still develop.¡± He laughs out loud at what I said. ¡°True, very true.¡± He agree¡¯s. ¡°Magical Equipment can increase your attributes, though without a core you will still fall short of all the other adventurer¡¯s. I really like you kid, I can only pray that Magamos, god of magic, takes notice of you and helps with your little problem. With a will like yours, the only thing holding you back is lack of a core. Now, down to business. Journeying into the woods at your age would be a little too risky considering all things. I happen to have a contract for a job here in town. The city needs someone to go down into the sewers and help clear out some vermin that are starting to plague the city. The city is paying good money, on account of the smell. Though for you I would say it would be worth it. Rats are nasty little vermin but not too deadly if your careful. The city is paying 1 copper per tail that you turn in. There are probably millions of the little bastards down there so if you can stand the smell and stay alive, the sewers are a rare gem of an opportunity to train up a little and earn some coin. What do you say?¡± I turn a little green at the prospect. My first grand adventure is to crawl through shit and piss fighting off a horde of giant rats. Oh, i just realized something. I got so caught up on the value of my attributes, I forgot to ask what they represent. Fortunately I remembered. So I asked the Guild Master, he told me his name and title was Master Broton. He played mock offended that I never asked. He then went on to explain to me what the different attributes represent. Mana is you total mana capacity, for me it is zero since i have no core. Mana Regen is the time it takes for your core to passively fill your mana supply from empty to full. Strength is a measure of the raw power of your muscles. Vitality represents your ability to resist disease, poison and it reflects your blood supply and healing rate. Constitution is a measure of the bodies ability to perform actions over time, its your bodies ¡°energy supply.¡± Resilience reflects the toughness of your flesh, organs and bones and their ability to withstand trauma. Dexterity shows your general level of ability to finely control your muscles and limbs. Agility is you overall speed. It reflects your ability to dodge attacks and the speed of your attacks. Lastly is Soul Force. Soul force is a measure of the strength of your soul. Soul force is important because it reflects how sturdy your souls is and how well it can resist soul attacks. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Thanks for the information Master Broton. I will accept this contract. Where should I enter the sewers?¡± ¡°You should probably enter from one of the manholes near the edge of the city. The infestation seems to be less concentrated there so you are less likely to get swarmed¡± he answers. ¡°Ah, and one more thing, take this dagger and satchel. You can use these to collect the tails of any vermin you kill.¡± I thank Master Broton for all his help and I exit the Guild Hall ready for my first adventure. It takes me roughly ten minutes to reach the manhole I had decided to enter. ¡°Well, here we go.¡± I resolve myself and lift the manhole cover. As soon as I do my nose gets assaulted by a putrid smell. I now understand why the city is paying for each rat tail. Even if it is damn expensive, who would venture into this land of vile revulsion for any less. I let out a ¡°ugh¡± and proceed down the manhole. You would think it would be dark down here, well you would be wrong. Between the grates from the road and some glowing stones in the roof of the sewers, the lighting is actually half decent. At least I won¡¯t have to worry about fighting in the dark. The tunnel i find myself in goes 3 ways. The water is flowing from the path ahead of me and it is flowing down the left and right tunnel. Running concurrent to each of the tunnels is a walkway that rests above the flowing water, seems to be maintenance walkways of sorts. ''No need to wade through this shit, thankfully'' I think to myself. I decide to follow the current upstream. On the side of the tunnel i head down are glowing characters that read ¡°W8¡°. I hope this means the tunnels are labeled, I would hate to get lost down here. Suddenly I hear scurrying coming from ahead of me. 30 Yards or so from me I see 4 large rats coming my way. I say rats, what I mean is small dogs. These rats are huge. They look more like a small indoors dog that nobles like to keep. Each of these beasts probably weigh 30 pounds if not more. I retrieve my mace from my belt and ready myself for the rats to reach me, It only takes about 4 breaths of time. My mace is by my side and ready to strike. As soon as the first rat reaches me it jumps and attempts to tackle me to ground. Unfortunately for him I was ready for him. Before he can reach me I swing out my mace with all my strength and strike him in the side of the head. I can feel the bones in his head shatter and my mace makes short work of his skull. Before I am able to celebrate my first kill another one of the rats jumps at me and takes a bite at my right leg. Fortunately my shin guard does its job and it manages to hold out and keeps those nasty front teeth out of my leg. Before I can shake off rat number 2 another of the vermin catches me in the stomach with a tackle and makes me lose my balance. I fall hard onto the ground. Rat number 3 tries to rip out my throat but I manage to get the shaft of my mace into his maw and push him off of me. I retrieve the dagger from my hip and stab him directly into his left eye. He lets out a high pitch shriek and starts whipping his head back and for trying to get away, spraying blood and bits of eye all over me in the process. I use the dagger as a lever to keep him from running and I smash him right in the spine with my mace. I hear bone break and his body goes limp. I quickly kick rat number 2 off of my shin and rip the dagger free. There is a short lull in the fight as the last two rats begin to hiss and snarl at me. ¡°Who knew rats could be so dangerous? If I were any slower to react there they would be munching on me for lunch right now¡± I shiver at the thought. It seems the lull is going to be short lived as both rats charge at me. The rat on the left jumps at my waist trying to knock me down and the rat on the right goes for my ankle. ¡°Damn ankle biters¡± I roar as I slam my mace down and onto the back of the airborne vermin. The rat slams into the ground hard and I follow through with the hit and slam down onto the the vermin that just latched his teeth into my boot. Being rodents of unnatural size their bites hurt quite a bit. Fortunately the pain is short lived as I use all my strength to smash the rat into the stone walkway. Blood sprays all over the ground and onto the walls. I quickly use the dagger to stab the last, dazed, rat in its eye, ending its life. I fall right onto my butt. I am tired. The fight only lasted about 8 seconds but it feels like I have been training for hours. I would never have guessed that even a short fight would be this tiring. I guess killing something that is quite literally trying to eat you takes a lot of energy. Another thing is that I used all of my strength in every attack. ¡°I need to make sure to thank Master Broton for this dagger. I would probably be dead right now without it.¡± I rest for ten minutes and then collect the tails. I continue going down the tunnel. I walk for about 50 yards when I hear more scurrying sounds. I am a few feet from a turn a intersection of tunnels so I decide to sneak up and see if I can get the jump on whatever is making the noise. As I get closer i realize the noise is coming from the tunnel on the right. I peek around the corner and see 3 rats munching on what seems to be a large fish. ¡®I guess a river runs into the sewer. That would explain where all the water comes from.¡¯ Despite all my lessons on geography I actually knew very little about the lay of the land. I knew a good bit about some of surrounding cities and large scale geography, like some of the local mountain ranges and the territories of our kingdom and the surrounding kingdoms, but I was clueless to most of the other local information. After refocusing I decide to try to rush these three rats and kill them before they get a chance to retaliate. I ready my mace in both hands and burst from around the corner. The rats were only 5 yards or so from me so I manage to make it up to them very quickly. My mace is inches from flattening the first rat before they even know I am there. I bring the mace down on the startled creature and splatter his brains into the floor. I pull the mace back and manage to strike the second rat in the head and knock it a few feet through the air where it slams into the wall. Before I can get my next attack off the third rat leaps at me and sinks his oversized from teeth into my thigh. I grit my teeth and draw the dagger and proceed to stab the rat in the neck. The rat lets go of my thigh and blood begins to flow from the wound. I pin the rat down with my left foot and bring my mace down on its ribs and destroy them in one clean hit. The pain then really kicks in. I feel the wound pulsing, fire spreading through my body. Besides a few scrapes and bruises from training with my instructor I am relatively new to the world of pain. I inspect to wound and am fortunately to find that it isn¡¯t too deep. I think it will stop bleeding in a few minutes and I don¡¯t think I am in any danger of it limiting my mobility. Suddenly I hear a series of shrieks and hissing sounds coming from further down the tunnel I just entered. Apparently the scuffle earlier attracted some unwanted attention in the form of 4 more rats. Great. I reverse the grip on the dagger, bring the mace up and infront of me and ready myself for battle once again. The rats act almost instantly as they begin charging me. The front most rat leaps at me attempting the same maneuver as the ones before, he tries to tackle me. I quickly side step his leap and stab him in the stomach as he flies past me. Another rat is 3 feet ahead of me and he is trying to go for my ankles. ¡°More ankle biters.¡± I proceed to kick that rat in the face which stuns it long enough for my to bash in its skull. Before I can draw my mace back the third rat is upon me. He jumps at me as I am lowered and finishing off his friend. He takes the opportunity to sink his teeth into my shoulder and latches on. My senses are assaulted by the pain and I scream out, ¡°Aaaaaahhhhh.¡± I use the dagger to stab the rat in its back. The first stab wasn¡¯t nearly strong enough and it only scratches against the bone. This causes the rat to bite down harder onto my shoulder and tear into my flesh. It hurts less now but I am still unhappy about it, to say the least. I stab again a second time, this time with much more force. I am successful in driving the dagger between its ribs and I assume i hit something important as the rat goes limp and falls to the ground dead. I get the wind knocked out of my and crash into the ground as the last rat takes the opportunity to slam into me at full sprint. I manage to roll and right myself in time to see it begin charging at me again. I ready myself on my feet. I ended up dropping my mace from the impact but I still have the dagger. When the rat is a few feed from me it leaps toward my blooded left thigh. I use all the strength i have and send a powerful right kneed directly into the head of the rat, knocking it back. I bolt after it and bring the dagger down stabbing it in the side. The rat cries out and I answer with another stab to the side of the rat. I stab the thing twice more before it dies. I lay on the ground panting and hurting. I feel like i just ran ten laps around all of Valoran. I feel a burning pain coming from my shoulder and I grab onto it and wince in pain. Those rats are supposed to be the weakest of weak. They are considered vermin, not even monsters. But i can not deny they they have a nasty bite. I decide to lay there for a while to rest and recuperate. As I lay there I feel a fire growing in my stomach. Its not painful, its actually comforting. The warmth spreads through my limps and helps sooth my muscles and my wounds. ¡®I wonder what this wonderful feeling is?¡¯ It feels like my entire body is being massaged. The pain from my thigh and shoulder are beginning to numb. I check my thigh and the wound is already beginning to clot. Thats strange. I have always been quick to heal from minor scrapes and bruises but this is strange, and there is still hat warm feeling flowing through my body. It feels like it originates in my stomach, above my naval and below my ribs. ¡°What could be the cause¡± I wonder. Then it hits me. ¡°It couldn¡¯t be!¡± I exclaim. I pull out my Status Slate to check. Zyrek Age:10 Gender: Male Mana: .80/1 Mana Regen: 4 hours Cognizance:1.03 Strength: 1.02 Vitality: .90/1.01 Constitution: .63/1.05 Resilience:1.04 Dexterity:1.02 Agility:1.03 Soul Force:1.01 Affinity: Fire, Earth, Magma As I see my status all I can laugh. I laugh and cry from the pure joy I am feeling. I am not a cripple. My future is not hopeless. I can achieve greatness if I work hard enough. Before it didn¡¯t matter how hard I worked, I would always be cannon fodder for those who had a core. Even with magical equipment I would not be able to compete with them. But now it has all changed. My core had finally developed. I turned ten years old today. I was disowned and kicked out of my home. I was left on my own with no power. I joined the Adventurer¡¯s Guild out of desperation. I was desperate to prove I was not useless. I was not a cripple. Now here in the sewers of Valoran, where the air smells and tastes like rotting shit, where giant rats have tried multiple times to eat me for lunch, my core has finally developed. Thank you Magamos, god of magic, bestower of knowledge, knower of secrets, the hand of life. Now I have my chance. I have my chance to make a name for myself. I lay there relaxed and let the warm feeling spread throughout my body, I feel it as it nourishes my skin, blood, bones and even my organs. I do not try to direct it because I have no knowledge of the practice of Body Enhancement, so I just relax and allow the mana to flow through me and nourish my entire body. As I lay there I feel my muscles hear from the strain of the fight, the wounds on my thigh and shoulder scab over and begin to heal at a fast pace. There is a faint red light being emitted from my body. Seeing this light I feel an inspiration. Even in my darkest moment I found a light that brought me salvation. Instead of a life of mediocrity and poverty, a life of scrapping by hoping nothing to dangerous finds me and splatter¡¯s me to smithereens, now I have a life full of hope. I have a bright future, a future full of possibilities. I know what name I will take. From this day on I will be called Zyrek Ferolux. (A/N: The name is derived from Latin. Fero means ¡°to bear¡± and Lux means ¡°light¡±. While the name Lucifer means ¡°Light bearer¡± I didn¡¯t want to use that name for my character. The main reason and the most important is that it just didn¡¯t sound right. Zyrek Lucifer. Thats two first names, and they don¡¯t have any ¡°flow¡± together. So I did a little language butchery and arrived at Ferolux. Zyrek Ferolux.) After resting for a half hour I decide to collect the rest of the rat tails. Eleven tails can be exchanged for Eleven copper. While it is not a fortune by any means, with my earnings I can atleast feed myself tonight. I refuse to use the money my father gave me unless I have no other choice. I will support myself in this life. I collect my mace and put it into the ring hanging from my belt, I check to make sure the dagger is secured in its sheath. With every thing collected I begin to make my way back towards the exit. I could go looking for more rats to kill but I am very excited to learn how to use some magic. I need to learn a proper way to use Body Enhancement cultivation and Core Cultivation. I also need to learn how to form spells. I make my way back to the manhole cover and I am greeted by a bright light. A welcoming sight. Ch. 1 As I emerge from the sewers I am greeted by a refreshing breeze. I quickly take a few breaths to try and flush my lungs of the vile gas that passes for air in those sewers. Nothing like decaying excrement to really make you appreciate fresh clean air. After a few moments of revelry I replace the manhole cover and make my way back to the Adventurer¡¯s guild. On my way back the crowds make way for me and avoid me like the plague. Not that I can really blame them though, I smell like I just rolled around in dung, which I practically did. As I return to the large and imposing building that is the Adventure¡¯s Guild I enter the front door and notice that there are less people inside than there were this morning. ¡®Guess they are out doing contracts.¡¯ I look over to the bar and see Master Broton flipping through the Guild Tome. As I make my way over to him he looks up and smile to me. ¡°Back already I see. Got a few new scratch mark, fresh blood on you. I take it that you found some success?¡± he asks. I give him a large smile and say, ¡°Yeah, I killed 11 rats and collected their tails. There was a unexpected development so I thought I should come back.¡± ¡°Oh, and what development is that?¡± he asks. I grin even harder and shake with excitement as I tell him, ¡°After a rough fight with those rats my core finally decided to develop.¡± ¡°Congratulations,¡± he exclaims, ¡°so I hope it is safe to assume that as a former ¡®cripple¡¯, for lack of a better word for it, you have no idea how to use and manipulate mana. You probably came back hoping to find help with Body Enhancement and Spell Formation. Am I right?¡± I laugh sheepishly, ¡°You are right sir, when my core developed I could feel the mana coursing through my body. It felt like it was enhancing my flesh, bones, organs and muscles. I have no idea how to perform Body Enhancement, so I let it do its own thing. Though I thought it would be a good idea to learn some things before risking my life again.¡± Master Broton chuckles and gives me a kind smile. ¡°Body Enhancement is pretty easy. Its all about knowing how you want your body to develop and then focusing the mana in the desired area. You must also know how to balance the different parts of your body and not over develop them and create an imbalance.¡± ¡°Can you explain¡± I ask. ¡°Sure, what I mean is that if you want to be a large muscled front line fighter then you should focus the mana in the muscles themselves. Nourish the muscles and allow them to grow and develop. Though it would be foolish to neglect other parts of your body. Lets say you overdevelop your muscles but you neglect your bones, your increased weight would put alot of strain on your bones. This can even cause you to break your own bones due to them not being able to handle your strength. If you over neglect your blood vessels or flesh then when your muscles flex it can cause ripping and tearing. I remember an old tale of a big muscle head of a man who spent years and years focusing solely on his muscles. After years of this he flexed to see how strong he had become. Do you know what happened?¡± I think about it for a second but can¡¯t thing of anything so I shake my head and he continues. ¡° The man flexed his muscle and ripped clear out of his skin, hahahaha. His muscles grew so mush that his skin couldn¡¯t take the strain and tore and ripped. The man died on the spot. I don¡¯t know if this story is true, but it is a good reminder to remember balance.¡± Hearing what Master Broton just told me, I can¡¯t believe it. My mouth falls open and I just stare at him in utter amazement. ¡°The man ripped his own skin off and died. All because he didn¡¯t strengthen his skin and he over enhanced his muscles.¡± I shake my head at this. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I believe the story is true or not but I can at least understand the importance of balance in training¡± I say. ¡°Thats just one example of how imbalance in enhancement can have, adverse effects,¡± he says, ¡°If you over enhance the organs, the heart for example, it can tear your blood vessels. If you over enhance the blood vessels then you can make it more difficult to allow blood flow. If you over enhance the skin then you can limit your mobility. I don¡¯t think it is possible to over enhance the bones, stronger bones are always a good thing, though you have to remember to also enhance the joints. Strong bones do you little good if you have weak joints. And another thing you must realize. Every ounce of mana you use to enhance your enhance your body can not be used to enhance your core. As mana is drawn out of the air and into the body it can either be used to enhance the body, core or soul. Mana used in the body will merge with it and be lost to you. Mana used to enhance your core will expand your core¡¯s capacity to hold more mana, basically allowing you to use more magic. Mana that is used to enhance the Soul will make your soul stronger. Making it more difficult to damage with soul attacks commonly used by certain kinds of undead and other vile and dangerous creatures. Soul strength can also improve the power of your own soul attacks. Though I would advise against the use of soul attacks and soul magic in general. Even if your soul attack harms your opponent it can also harm you. It it a double edged sword. Plus there are many people who abhor soul mage¡¯s. Some believe all soul mage¡¯s to be vile and evil people who only view lives as sources of power. While many soul mage¡¯s are like that not all of them are. And I would say that the same can be said for mage¡¯s and Body Enhancer¡¯s. Evil is the choice, not the tool.¡± I contemplate what Master Broton has told me and take it all in and memorize it before I reply, ¡°I think I understand. Everything is about balance. If I over commit to Body Enhancement I will be sacrificing spell power. If I over commit to Mana Capacity I will have a weaker body that those who focus on Body Enhancement. And everyone should develop their soul. Right?¡± I ask. ¡°That is right,¡±he says. ¡° Now you said that your mana enhanced your body automatically after it developed. This is the first I have heard of that. Usually when the core develops all enhancement must be done manually. The only reason I could think that it would auto enhance like that is if your body was too weak to support your core. That would also explain your late development. Would you mind taking out your Status Slate so I could have a look?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± I reply, ¡° I haven¡¯t looked at it since my core first developed. I was so excited that it slipped my mind to check it again after the enhancement finished. I am quite curious to see what has changed.¡± I retrieve my Status Slate from my back pack and place it down so we can both see it. Zyrek Ferolux Age:10 Gender: Male Mana:1/1 Mana Regen: 4 hours Cognizance:1.04 Strength:1.04 Vitality: 1.25/1.3 Constitution: 1.2/1.2 Resilience: 1.22 Dexterity: 1.1 Agility: 1.12 Soul Force:1.03 Affinity: Fire, Earth, Magma I am shocked by what I see. Such a massive spike in my attributes and in such a short amount of time. ¡°It looks like I might be right¡± says Master Broton, ¡° Your core is very strong. It not only required you grow more before it developed, even at your age it probably had to sacrifice some of its initial capacity to enhance your body so you could handle it. Thats why your health attributes raised such a significant amount. And it seems you have 3 affinities, that is truly rare. Only half of the population has any elemental affinity, and less than 10% have 2 affinities. Those with 3 affinities make up less than .1%. And to top it off you have a very rare affinity. The magma affinity can only occur with in those with a high affinity to Fire and Earth. Or maybe its the opposite and those gifted with the Magma affinity also get high affinity with the other 2. There have only been 2 people that I know of who have had the Magma affinity. Both were powerful mage¡¯s from thousands of years ago. I happen to be a Lighting Mage so the most can do is give you a basic understanding on spell development and some help learning Core Enhancement in addition to Soul Enhancement. Though I have someone in mind who has fire and earth affinities so he should be able to help you develop some spells.¡± While I am quite happy to receive help learning the basics of Enhancement and spell creation I can¡¯t help but wonder why Master Broton is willing to help me so much. We have only met today and all I have done for the Adventure¡¯s Guild is kill a few rodents, so I decide to ask. ¡°Why are you helping me so much, you hardly know me? I haven¡¯t even made any real contribution to the guild, killing a few rodents hardly counts as even work compared to the things normal adventurer¡¯s deal with daily. I don¡¯t think I have anything you want so I am confused as to why you are being so helpful to me?¡± Master Broton laughs at me, he does that alot it seems. ¡°True, killing a few rodents is work that is beneath all but the weakest of adventurer¡¯s. I too doubt you could possibly have anything that could interest me, but I am a Guild Master for the Valoran branch of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. The Adventurer¡¯s Guild spans the entire continent of Triesen. We have branches in every major city in every country. You may not know this but Triesen is actually only a small place in a massive world. It is the goal of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild to find and nurture talented individuals. If Triesen were to go through an extended period of weakness we could quite easily be conquered by an outside force. We may not be the biggest mountain in the range, so all we can hope to do is be one damned dangerous mountain.¡± I am shocked by what Master Broton says, I had no idea the world was so massive. I know of the the Dwarves and Gnomish lands, Mount Kilrock, to the north of here. I know of the Elven lands, Eledor, to the east. South of Barret lies the Ork lands, Urganga Confederacy. The only other land I knew of was the Great Wilderness to the east. Just Triesen is so massive that it would take years if not longer to walk from one end to the other. It would probably take hundreds of years to explore just the surface level of Triesen. Add to that the rumors of massive expanses underneath us, huge labyrinth created by Dark Elves who know how long ago. To find out that all of that is but a small rock in a pond, I can honestly say that this is bigger news than my core forming. ¡°I had no Idea the world was so large,¡± I honestly say. ¡°I don¡¯t think you can even imagine,¡± says Master Broton, ¡°From the stories I have been told, my words give this world no justice when it comes to size or scale of power. But back to my point, It is the Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡¯s self imposed duty to nurture talent. I have a feeling that you are such a talent. Follow me to my office. There is a crystal called Mana Stone. What is useful about his stone is that it holds mana at a constant rate in comparison to its size. That is to say that if you had 2 mana stones, one was twice as large as the other, then it would also hold twice as much mana. The Adventurer¡¯s Guild uses these stones as a resource for their mana. The mana can be drawn into the body. Each stone holds much more mana than what is found in the air so many adventure¡¯s buy them to train. We can use these mana stones to test your bodies mana resistance. Each and every person on the planet is limited by how much mana their body can handle in a day. Some can only draw from a few Mana Stones a day. Others can completely drain dozens is a single sitting. The Mana resistance determines how much mana the body can absorb without adverse effects such as mana sickness. People who can absorb more mana can train up faster and reach farther in their training.¡± As Master Broton is explaining this he begins to walk from behind the bar and over to a nearby room, he opens the door and enter. I follow him. Inside the room is a desk. One chair behind it with two in front. Bookshelves are all around the wall. This library is actually comparable to my fathers. The room is quite large, probably 30x15 feet. Master Broton walks over to the desk and pulls out a small crystal roughly the size of a gold coin. ¡°This is the standard size of a Mana Stone¡± he says. ¡°The amount of mana in this one stone is probably equivalent to the amount of man in this very room. So now you can see how useful these little rocks are.¡± He tosses me the Mana stone. It is quite odd. The stone feels warm to the touch. It is heavy for its size. As i move it around to examine it i notice how the soft blue light inside of the stone moves around, like it is liquid trapped inside. ¡°For this test we will see how much mana you can draw out in sixty seconds. This will help give us a rate for your absorption of mana. The average adventure can drain one mana stone in about an hour. Even with that speed of absorbtion, training with mana stones exclusively can be quite expensive. Now go ahead and concentrate on the stone, try to feel the mana inside of the stone and draw it into your Mana core. Compress and feed it to your core, making it apart of your core by doing so. I would suggest moving the mana in strands, wrap them around the core tighly and allow them to enter your core from many different locations.¡± I listen to Master Broton¡¯s words and nod. I calm my breathing and feel for the mana within the stone. The mana feels really thick, like mercury. I begin to draw the mana into my body. It is slow at first but then it feels like a dam is opened as the warm liquid floods into my body. I try my best to direct it into my core though only half actually makes it. As the mana travels through my body it is greedily absorbed by my blood and it then gets dispersed to the rest of my body. ¡°Nothing I can do about that now, I will just have to ask after¡± I think to myself. As the mana finally makes its way to my core I follow Master Brotons advice, I break the mana flow into several smaller streams, I wind them around my core and begin to feed them into my core. It feel as my core heats up and begins to hungrily absorb the mana that I am feeding it. I continue to draw mana from the stone for about 45 seconds. Not once did my body or core stop devouring the mana that I pulled into my body, it felt like I could absorb even more, and faster. I decided to try something. I locked onto the mana in the stone and try to pull as much as I can from the mana stone. There is a little resistance from the mana stone at first but it quickly disappears. The stone shatters in my hands as its entire capacity of mana is drawn into my body. Again, half is hungrily and greedily devoured by my blood and is transported through my body, it almost feels like fire is flowing through my veins. The last half of the mana makes its way to my core where is pours in nonstop. My core pulls in the mana and devours it to the last drop. As the last bit of the mana gets absorbed by my bones, blood, muscles, organ, skin and core, I feel as if my whole body is on fire. I find it strange though, it is hot but strangely comforting. I open my eyes and see Master Broton looking at me with a shocked expression on his face. His eye brows are raised, his mouthing is hanging open. ¡°What did you just do?¡± he asks ¡°To drain a mana stone in less than a minute, at the age of ten, that is completely unheard of. The average adventurer would have taken an hour to pull that much mana into their body and process it. How?¡± I am puzzled myself so I explain what I experienced. ¡°Only half of the mana made it to my core. The other half was taken by my body. As I feed the mana into my core it constantly devoured it without slowing. So I tried to see how much I could pull. I drew in on the mana as much as a could. That¡¯s when the Mana Stone shattered and the rest of the mana entered my veins. As the mana flowed through my veins it felt really hot and comfortable at the same time. Almost like a thick fire flowing through my veins, but it didn¡¯t hurt. It actually felt really good.¡± ¡°Ho ho ho ho ho ho, this is quite marvelous and unexpected. You by boy seem to have an ungodly high mana resistance. Maybe you are the child of powerful mages or body enhancers, maybe you have a mutation that increases your mana resistance. Whatever may be the case, you are quite fortunate. The only thing really limiting your growth is going to be finances. With a resistance like yours, you are basically a bottomless pit for money. Just that Mana Stone you used is worth one gold. If you are able to keep up that same level of absorbtion all day you could easily devour thousands of gold in a single day, ho ho ho ho ho hoho.¡± ¡°What,¡± I exclaim, ¡° one gold per mana stone. One gold can feed a family for a year. A loaf of bread only costs a few copper. You can buy a decent iron weapon for a couple of silver. Yet that little rock is so expensive?¡± I have a hard time coming to terms with the reasoning. ¡°Yes, that little rock is pretty valuable.¡± Master Broton explains. ¡°That Mana Stone holds as much mana as what is in this room. Now think if everyone in this city who trains their core did so without the Mana Stones. This city would be constantly devoid of mana. Training and meditating here would be worthless. Mana Stones hold mana and allow practitioners to train their cores and bodies without needing to rely on the environment. Mana Stone is only found underground in area¡¯s of high mana concentration. The other way to get them is to make them. The process of making them is quite costly. Mages have to sacrifice part of their own core to form the stone. You have to pull the mana from your body and crystallize it in the air. There are entire institutes and business¡¯s that specialize in the mass manufacturing and selling of these Mana Stones.¡± The more I hear the more it makes sense. In order to form a Mana Stone one must sacrifice some of their own mana capacity. The amount is small but you must still replace the mana from the naturally occurring mana to regain what is lost. ¡°So,¡± Master Broton continues, ¡°Only those with poor mana resistance and aptitude choose to make money in this way. They stagnate in their power but they are able to live a comfortable life. Many find it worth it.¡± ¡°I understand now.¡± I reply. Stolen story; please report. The next few hours pass as Master Broton teaches me how to feel for my soul and direct mana to it to strengthen it. He also explains the basics of spell formation. Basically, using magic to effect the environment can be spontaneous, but it is highly inefficient. This is why all mages develop their own spells. This simply comes down to rote memorization. Lets take a simple fireball for example. First you must give the fireball shape. Simple as most fireballs are spherical. Next you must adjust how much mana is in the fireball. This mana is the fuel for the spell. Next you must decide how hot the spell is. The hotter the spell the more mana it requires. Then you must designate the way the spell moves. Fireballs usually fly straight while maintaining their form until upon contact or a certain range,they explode. Every aspect of the spell must be designated or things can go awkward. If you forget to designate the heat of the fireball it could end up doing little to nothing or overdrawing your mana pool and creating a fireball of several thousands of degree¡¯s. Neither is good. So every fire mage has a different fireball tailor made for themselves. Everyone of their fireballs differ. Some have larger area of effect explosions. Some are hotter than others. It all depends on how the mage developed their spell. So to develop your spell you decide on all the aspects you want, then to you name your spell. This helps your body and mind passively remember what you want, like muscle memory. It works similar to a words definition. If I say boat, you immediately imagine a boat with sails or oars or whatever. You immediately design your idea of ¡°boat¡± in your head. That is your boat. So for my ¡°fireball¡± spell by body will remember my parameters after I learn my spell. With Master Broton¡¯s guidance I manage to create two of my own spells. I created Fireball and Fire Cone. Fireball is spherical, travels in a straight path and detonates upon contact. It explodes into a five feet AOE. Fire Cone projects fire from my hands into a cone shape from my palm. The cone extends for five feet. Both of my spells burn at 220 degrees, Just slightly hotter that the temp that water boils. So while my spell will be quite effective against flesh it will do little to armored enemies. I could make my spell hotter though Master Broton tells me to wait. It would be unwise to make spells that require more mana than I can handle. He says I can always update my spells later. Master Broton called an end to my short training session later on in the evening. He told me he would contact someone who might be willing to take me into their adventuring group and offer me a place to grow as a mage. I still had a few hours of light left and several hours before I would go to sleep so I decided I would head back into the sewers to test my new spells, body, and make a few more copper before calling it a night. As I find myself back at the manhole I had used earlier I am greeted by the repugnant odor. ''Ugh, I can¡¯t wait till I am stronger. Wading through waste is not my idea of a fun adventure.¡¯ I remove the manhole cover and reenter the sewers. The lighting in here is adequate, even this late in the evening. I am still able to see pretty far down each of the tunnels and I can read the markers on the wall. I proceed the way I went earlier. As I get near to the first place I encountered the giant rodents I notice that more of the vermin have showed up. Five of the hideous things are currently munching on their fallen brethren. They seem too preoccupied to notice me so I take the opportunity to launch a Fireball at them, taking them by surprise. The fireball directly hits the closest rodent to me causing its hair to combust and its flesh to melt to its bones. The rodent tries to scream out but it only makes it worse as fire floods its lungs as it inhales. Two other rodents are horribly burned and catch fire from the AOE explosion. They begin to thrash around trying to put themselves out. The two rodents furthest from me are unaffected by the fire and begin hissing at me. I draw my mace and dash towards them. As I close in on the last two unharmed rodents I thrust my left palm forward and spray them with my Fire Cone spell. Fire Cone can be continually cast so I spray them for 2 seconds before I end the spell. I turn back to the 2 burned rodents. One seems dead while the more fortunate one has half of its face severely burned and melted to the bone. It is roughly five feet from me and it rushes at me and launches itself towards my face. I smirk as easily side step and bring my mace smashing into it. The rodent is sent flying into the wall where it falls to the ground, dead. I sit where I am and I begin to laugh in glee. ¡°Magic is so powerful. Before, those five rodents would have been a major threat to my health but with 2 spells I slaughtered them so easily. I am feeling slightly drained so I pull out my Status Slate to see how my mana is faring after my fight. Zyrek Age:10 Gender:Male Mana: .73/1 Mana Regen: 4 hours Cognizance:1.04 Strength:1.04 Vitality: 1.3/1.3 Constitution: 1.06/1.2 Resilience: 1.22 Dexterity: 1.1 Agility: 1.12 Soul Force: 1.03 Affinity: Fire, Earth, Magma ¡°Hm, So I can probably cast four or five more spells safely. Though as my mana drops I am starting to feel mentally sluggish. Almost like I am tired and need to sleep. It would probably only take about an hour for my mana to refill. I hope to stay down here for a little while longer so I should probably be careful how I use my mana. My spells have great AOE so I should try to use my spell only on large clumps of rodents that would be difficult to kill with only my mace. Lets see, I can either open on large groups with Fireball if they are close together or I can bait them into charging me then spray the lot of them with my Fire Cone. I guess it all depends on their numbers and the situation. Though I can already see the value in developing my body and core. Magic is powerful, though if I were to run out of mana my combat efficiency would plummet. I think it would be best to be a strong fighter with Magic as a support. Then even if I run out of mana I can still fight or run away. I wonder if there is a way to increase Mana Regen. I¡¯ll have to ask about that later.¡± I rest for about ten minutes and regen about 4 percent of my mana. I collect the five slightly burned rat tails and then proceed down into the sewer. I come to the junction where I ambushed the rodents earlier in the day but nothing is there now. I proceed up to the corner and peer around. What I see shocks me. Roughly 20 meters down the tunnel there are around 30 giant rodents. One in particular stands out though. That monster is twice the size of the others. It probably weighs sixty pounds. That thing is the size of a large dog. The Alpha Rat as I am going to call it is surrounded my the other rodents. It is currently eating the corpses of the rodents I killed earlier. The other rats are huddled together waiting for something. I would probably guess they are waiting till the Alpha gets its fill first. I decide to wait a few more minutes to watch, develop a plan and regen a little more mana. ¡®Every little bit helps right, hehe¡¯. I would be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t scared. That is a huge horde of giant rats that are led by and even more massive Alpha Rat. That thing could easily tear my head off if it latched onto my throat. Its two large front teeth are easily visible from 20 meters away and they look more like daggers. If this group see¡¯s me and charges now, I¡¯ll probably die. The best chance for survival would be to leave now, quickly. The second best chance of survival is to kill most of them in a massive burst surprise attack, hopefully killing the Alpha at the same time, then cleaning up a few stragglers. While I could, and probably should, run away and definitely not engage this mess, that just doesn¡¯t sit right with me. I want to see just what I can do. This is going to be the most dangerous fight I have been in yet. If I run from overgrown rats then what will I do in the future if I encounter something worse. Will I run then too? I can win this fight, I can feel it. I just have to be smart about my approach. I am not one to fight a losing fight out of stupidity, but I don¡¯t want to run just because I am scared. I need to be brave. I need to view the situation tactically and use all I have learned so far to develop a plan for victory. Then, do it. ''Alright, I open up with 3 Fireballs. I¡¯ll carefully aim the first one directly at the Alpha, then quickly follow up with another 2 into the horde of rats. I¡¯ll wait to see what is left of them and decide my next course of action from there. Either run if my surprise attack fails or I¡¯ll clean up stragglers. I should have enough mana left for another spell at least. I hold my mace by the shaft with my left hand. I carefully use my right hand to aim my spell directly for the Alpha rat. I decide I¡¯ll launch my next two spells onto the mid left and mid right part of the horde. Hopefully that will get most of them. I launch the first Fireball and quickly move onto the next target and then the next. The first Fireball directly hits the alpha in the left side as soon as I launch the last Fireball.The Alpha cries out in a loud screech. Then the second Fireball hits, quickly followed by the third. The rats didn¡¯t even have time to comprehend what was happening before they were engulfed in a sea of flames. Cries fill the air as the fire spreads through the ranks of the rodents. A massive explosion of fire obscures my vision so I am unable to currently see the extent of the damage. All I know is that it sounds promising. As the fire clears up it is quickly replaced by billowing smoke from the burning rodents. All the rodents I can see seem to be on fire. Their thick shaggy fur burning. The ones that manage to survive run around in panic and manage to spread the fire onto the rodents who were missed by my Fireballs AOE. Smoke from the burning fur fills the air and blocks my vision. I hide behind the corner with my mace ready. The smoke dissipates after a few minutes. I take a peek around the corner and I am surprised by what I see. There are a few slightly burned rats running away down the tunnel, about 5 or 6. All the other giant rats appear to be dead. I let out a sigh, ¡°Ah, that was easier than I thought...¡±. My monologue is cut short by a load and angry roar. Then I spot it, the Alpha. It survived. It¡¯s entire body is covered in burns. Its hair is gone, its left eye is melted, bones are visible from here, but it is alive, and it¡¯s angry. The massive thing is staring right at me. I can feel my skin tingling, warning bells going off in my head screaming at me to run. It moves. Less than a second later and it is already half of the way to me. I disappear from its view as I hide around the corner. I steel my nerves, now is not the time to fall apart. Focus or die. I ready my Mace. The next instant the massive alpha rat appears from around the corner and lands 6 feet from me where it quickly turns and faces me. This thing is huge. It stands about 2 and a half feet tall, roughly 5 feet long, not including its massive tail. It is probably closer to 80 pounds now that i can see it up close. Its two large front teeth are baring at me and blood is pouring from its mouth. Steam is coming from its flesh and no hair remains on the massive thing. It launches at me and I immediately bring up my mace to defend. Its just too quick for me. The Alpha slams into me, it feels like it cracked a few of my ribs. It opens is huge maw and snaps directly for my throat. I anticipated that, these wild animals always seem to go for the throat. I manage to barely get the shaft of my Mace into its mouth as I use all my strength to keep those teeth away. This thing is standing on its hind legs now and it used its front legs and claws to scratch at me. The sharp nails furiously slash and rip into my leather armor quickly tearing into it. ¡®My armor wont last long¡¯. I quickly bring up my right knee and smash it into the Alpha¡¯s ribs. It screeches at me but keeps pushing its teeth closer and closer to my throat. I knee the thing again and again. Finally, on the fourth knee I hear a snap as my knee breaks a few of the Alpha¡¯s ribs. The Alpha tenses up and lessens up on me. I quickly take advantage and push as hard as I can and topple it onto its back. I bring the mace down directly onto its chest. I hear more of its ribs breaking. The sounds is terrible but it only make me happier. The Alpha quickly rolls onto its feet and turn back at me. As it comes to face me it is met with my mace directly smash into the side of its head, dazing it and giving my the chance to hit it again. I raise the mace up high and use every last ounce of strength I have to bring the mace down, crushing its skull. ¡°Finally, its dead. Tough bastard.¡± I fall on my butt and just sit there exhausted. My leather cuirass is in ruined. Blood is leaking out of long cuts in my chest. My arms are heavy from over exertion. ¡°I can¡¯t stay here long. If more show up I won¡¯t be able to deal with them. I use my dagger to collect the Alpha¡¯s tail. I move towards the burnt remains of the other rats and collect their tails too. 23 more tails go into my collection. Thats 29 tails from this trip, alpha included. I quickly trace my steps with haste and leave the sewers. I make it to the surface, replace the manhole cover and I collapse onto my back and just lay there. My heart is racing, my skin is sticky with sweat and my breathing is labored. The fight with the Alpha rat lasted about 5 seconds, but those 5 seconds took everything out of me. ¡°Ill definitely need to improve my constitution. I get tired too fast. Just a short fight where I needed to exert all my strength and push myself has left me completely exhausted. If I had to fight an extended battle I would be dead. No doubt about that. I should check my Status Slate to see how everything looks¡±. Zyrek Age:10 Gender:Male Mana: .35/1 Mana Regen: 4 hours Cognizance:1.04 Strength:1.04 Vitality: .63/1.3 Constitution: .42/1.2 Resilience: 1.22 Dexterity: 1.1 Agility: 1.12 Soul Force: 1.03 Affinity: Fire, Earth, Magma ¡°Shit, I know these claw marks hurt like hell but this says I am half dead. I definitely have a few broke ribs from that Alpha¡¯s tackle. I have a third of my energy left it seems, and a third of my mana. I feel like I was really lucky there. Even with my all of the damage I initially did to that thing it still survived and nearly ripped my head off. I guess I can attribute my weakness to my age and the fact that I just developed my core. I think I need to focus on atleast doubling or tripling my physical stats before I delve into expanding my mana capacity. That thing weighed less than I do but it was pure muscle. I am toned but more of my weight comes from my height. I am tall for my age at 5¡®11¡° but, I have only been able to develop muscle through exercise. So my actual strength and other physical stats are actually pretty pathetic. Aaaahhhhhhh, atleast I survived to understand how puny I am. Now that I know, I can work on getting stronger. I need to head back and get these wounds healed.¡± It is well into the night at this point so the streets and uncrowded so I manage to make it back to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild quickly. Status Slate Attributes I thought this may be useful when viewing the status Slate. Strength:measure of the raw power of the body Vitality: Ability to resist disease, poison. blood supply, affects the healing speed of wounds without the assistance of magic, organ health, extends life Constitution:Ability of the body to perform action over time, ¡°energy supply" of the body Resilience:Toughness of the body, strength of muscles, flesh, organs and bones to withstand trauma Dexterity:Ability to finely control your muscles, ability to control the body If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.Agility:Speed of body movements, affects ability to dodge attacks and the speed of your attacks Soul Force:Strength of the soul Cognizance:Knowledge, Perception, ability to notice changes occurring around you Mana: mana capacity of the mana core Mana Regen: ability of the mana core to replenish its supply of mana without manual assistance, measured in time. Time it takes a mana core to go from 0% capacity to 100% Ch. 2 As I reach the door to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild I am greeted by the barely suppressed roars coming from inside. ¡°I guess everyone had a good day today¡±. I open the door and the first thing I notice is the strong odor of ale. All around the guild are groups of adventurer¡¯s talking, laughing and just having a good time with each other. In total, around 50 people are currently spread around hall, drinking and chatting with their friends and comrades. I notice a bunch of different people who were not here this morning, and many of the people who were here this morning are no longer here. I notice Master Broton behind his counter so I make my way over to him. ¡°Master Broton, would it be possible to find a healer? I had a rough encounter and I have a few cracked or broken ribs and some nasty cuts on my chest¡±. ¡°Ah yes¡± He says, ¡°I can see that. Must have run into one of the large rats down in the sewers. All that blood has ruined your shirt, the things claws all but ruined your armor. One moment.¡± Master Broton calls over someone named Elaina. After she joins us Master Broton introduces us, ¡°Alright, Elaina this is Zyrek, Zyrek this is Elaina Windsong. Elaina is a gifted healer and a member of Gaia¡¯s Heart adventurer¡¯s group.¡± Elaina is an elf. She has blonde hair that is tied up into a bun on the back of her head. She has very pale and fair skin. She appears to be in her mid-twenties, around five and a half feet tall and she has a very sweet smile. She is also quite beautiful. It is the type of beauty that can calm the heart. ¡°Miss Elaina, would you mind helping Zyrek. He had a rough time in the sewers and is suffering from a few broken ribs and lacerations?¡± ¡°Of course, how can I do nothing when a child is in pain?" she says.Elaina rests her palm on my forehead and I feel warm energy flow into me. I feel it travel all through out my body. As it passes through my chest I feel my ribs move into their correct position and fuse back together, I feel my skin pull together and heal at a rapid pace. There was no pain at all and the pain I was feeling has vanished. ¡°Wonderful! Amazing! I had no idea magic could heal wounds that quickly.¡± I exclaim. Elaina treats me to a large and sweet smile. ¡°It is my pleasure Zyrek. But you should be careful in the future. Wounds like these are simple to fix but there are too few healers who have the ability to regrow limbs or return you to life. You should always be careful. Even if the sewers only have rats in them, there are many down there. They can quite easily swarm you and overwhelm you completely. You should never venture out alone.¡± She continues to smile at me very warmly as she ruffles my hair. ¡°I will keep that in mind for the future Miss Elaina. Thank you for your help and your words.¡± ¡°Hah ha haha. I quite agree with Miss Elaina,¡± Master Broton has a rather large grin on his face, ¡°That¡¯s why I have already found a group for him to join, if he is willing.¡± ¡°Who might that be Master Broton?¡± I ask. From behind me I hear a deep and powerful voice answer. ¡°He means for you to join Gaia¡¯s Heart kid.¡± I jump, startled, and turn around. Less than three feet from me stands a mountain of a man. He is nearly seven foot tall, clad head to toe in a red steel full plate. A massive warhammer rests on his back. That monstrous weapons handle is probably 6 feet long and the head on it is the size of an anvil. As terrifying as this walking tower of metal death looks, he has a large and warm smile on his face. He had a clean shaved beard, a chiseled jaw, prominent cheek bones, deep blue eyes and short black hair trimmed into a buzz cut. A mans man, is how I would describe him. ¡°How...¡± is all that made it out of my mouth before all three started laughing. Master Broton is the first to speak, ¡°I see that you are still able to move as quietly as every Baylein, hahaha. I love the look on their faces when you sneak up on them. Mountain of a man, quiet as a mouse. Hahaha.¡± ¡°So who are Gaia¡¯s Heart?¡± I ask. The large man who was called Baylein Speaks first. ¡°Allow me to introduce myself. I am Baylein Balaria. Founder of Gaia¡¯s Heart. We are an adventuring group that works to help ensure stability and safety within our Kingdom of Barret. We exclusively take local contracts that allow us to travel between the cities. Our main focus is to eliminate dangers to farmers, travelers and those who are not fortunate enough to live within the safety of large cities, such as this one. We hunt all manor of beasts, bandits and undead. All things that prey on those too weak to defend themselves. We have also been known to help train new adventurers, such as yourself. The people of Barret need people with strength to help protect them from all manors of evils. Gaia¡¯s Heart does what it can to help the citizens. Whether that be rooting out bandits, thinning out Gorgath nests or teaching new adventurers to survive and grow.¡± ¡°Baylein and the people of Gaia¡¯s Heart are good people. They care for the citizens of Barret and all of Triesen. Being a small group they are forced to focus solely on Barret and its people.¡± Master Broton explains. ¡°That is the truth. Gaia¡¯s Heart focus¡¯s solely on Barret. We are constantly moving between the cities dealing with various issues that rise up,¡± Baylein continues, ¡°Most adventuring groups help the citizens by extention of their adventures. They delve dungeons and hunt monsters for the materials, training and gold. This does help make Barret safer but that is not their goal. We adventure to provide a measure of safety for the people. That is our goal. All the gold, training and materials helps up become stronger so that we can continue to survive and help those who need it.¡± ¡°So you travel all over Barret and deal with all assortments of beasts, from men to monsters. And you do this solely for the purpose of helping the citizens?¡± I ask. It sounds strange to me. Giving up your life and basically living in service for others. Thats not something I can do. I believe in helping others if you can. Though I don¡¯t think I would have much issue refusing to help if it would be too dangerous for me. Elaina answers this time. ¡°Zyrek, Gaia¡¯s Heart¡¯s purpose is to help those who are to weak to help themselves. We do this by completing contracts assigned by the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. These contracts are posted either by the Kingdom itself or another local governing official. This way we can profit and help the people of Barret.¡± ¡°What Elaina says is true. We don¡¯t work for the money but that does not mean we refuse rightful payment.¡° Baylein explains. ¡°We would be of little use to anyone if we couldn¡¯t survive our fights. To do this we must constantly become stronger. To become stronger we need Mana Stones, monster cores and equipment. To survive these fights we also need supplies. Health Potions, Mana Potions, antidotes, food and water. To travel around in good time we require horses. Horses sometimes die and need replacing, horses need food and water.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± I sigh, kinda ashamed. Helping people is not a bad thing. Why did I find it strange they focused the way they did. ¡°I didn¡¯t assume yall worked for free, but whenever I think of adventurers I imagine men and women who pursue fame, wealth and power. I never thought their were adventurers who use their fame, wealth and power solely to protect the weak. Sounds like something that would be written about in a childs story.¡± ¡°HAHAHAHAHAAAA, I can see what you mean¡¯t Broton, this kid is something else. A ten year old child brave enough scour the sewers fighting off those massive rodents. Only ten and pragmatic to boot. He was more shocked that we focus on helping the weak than he was from my silent approach. So kid, Broton tells me you just developed your core and that you have the fire and earth affinity. He even says you managed to develop two spells on your own, and in record time. Care to let me have a taste?¡± Master Broton quickly interrupts. ¡°While I do want yall to get to know each other better. Maybe this should be done in private. I didn¡¯t tell you everything about him. He has a few secrets that are his to share alone.¡± ¡°Ah, I just remembered. Master Broton. I haven¡¯t turned in my tails from the adventure today.¡± I quickly pull out the 28 normal tails and the 1 alpha tail and set them on the counter. ¡°Twenty eight of the the normal, giant rats and one tail from the alpha.¡± Baylein rests his hand on top of my head and says, ¡°One of the alpha rats and a small horde, this kid has some moxie. The alpha is usually called a leader rat but I think alpha is even more apt haha.¡± ¡°True true.¡± replies Master Broton, ¡°Now, the bounty for the normal rats is 1 copper a tail. The leader rats are different though. I didn¡¯t say anything earlier because I didn¡¯t think you would kill one. Leaders have a bounty of 1 silver per tail.¡± ¡°Awesome!¡± I exclaim. ¡°1 silver and 39 copper on my first day. Looks like I won¡¯t starve haha.¡± I scratch my head and laugh, feeling quite proud of myself. ¡°Now, we can move to my office where our conversation will be more relaxed and private¡± states Master Broton. ¡°If you think its necessary then alright¡± replies Baylein. I nod my head at the suggestion. I do not know what Master Broton has told him or what he believes to be worth keeping secret so I just happily agree. ¡°Elaina, why don¡¯t you return to the others and enjoy your evening. Im going to talk with these two for a while and then see what Zyrek is made of.¡± Elaina nods her head to Baylein and then walks away. Master Broton ushers us into his office so I was unable to get a look at the rest of Gaia¡¯s Heart. Once inside Master Broton sits behind his desk. Baylein and I each take a seat in front of the desk. ¡°Alright¡± Master Broton begins, ¡° I will reiterate what I told you earlier to that Zyrek will know exactly what I have told you about him. I will then leave it up to him to fill you in on the things that I have left out. First Zyrek is a homeless child who wishes to adventure in order to make his way in life. He is a very head strong kid. He has two affinities, Fire and Earth. He seems to be a good kid with alot of promise. I would like for him to join Gaia¡¯s Heart because I believe you are the right one to teach him.¡± ¡°But Master Broton¡± I interrupt, ¡°I have 3 affinities, not 2.¡± ¡°WHAT?¡± exclaims Baylein. ¡°Yes, I know. Though 3 affinities are rare and I wanted to give you the option to hide or reveal that yourself¡± Master Broton explains. All that trouble from Master Broton and I let it slip so easily. Oh well. Not like I planned to hide it from Baylein. He seems to be an honest and righteous person. Master Broton trusts him enough to get him to train me, so I should be able to trust him too. Besides, trust is all I have right now. Im too weak to protect myself. Ill need strong people to look after me until I can fend for myself. ¡°I get it now. I should have noticed the first time but it makes little difference¡± I turn to face Baylein. ¡°It is true. I have a third affinity, Magma. My two other affinities are Fire and Earth, both high affinity.¡± Baylein looks surprised momentarily. That changes quickly as a large grin spreads across his face, followed by a loud and chuckle. ¡° Hahaha, Now I understand why you say I am the right one to teach him. Same affinities and I won¡¯t covet his affinities or resent him for it. Very good call. Someone with his capabilities is someone most people would kill to rope in, or kill if they can¡¯t.¡± I let that sink in for a moment. People would want to kill me because of my Magma affinity. I guess it kinda makes sense. People are envious of those who have more than them. Our world is a world of warrior. Knowing that someone else had a rare affinity that has only had a few records of its exitance in history. That is something to be envious of. I¡¯ll have to remember that in the future. Master Broton breaks me from my thoughts, ¡°I believe it may even be worse than that. Zyrek, I believe you can trust Baylein. I have known him for a very long time. I have never known him to ever do wrong by anyone. If you trust him, tell him when your core developed and show him your Slate. Then I can get you another Mana Stone so he can understand your Mana Resistance.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I nod my head to Master Broton. ¡°I have little less than a choice to trust Baylein. So choose to trust him, I do. Baylein, my core formed today. Earlier, about midday towards the end of my first trek into the sewers.¡± I pull out my slate and offer it to him. Zyrek Age:10 Gender:Male Mana: .47/1 Mana Regen: 4 hours Cognizance:1.05 Strength:1.04 Vitality: 1.12/1.3 Constitution: .92/1.2 Resilience: 1.22 Dexterity: 1.1 Agility: 1.12 Soul Force: 1.04 Affinity: Fire, Earth, Magma I continue after I hand him my slate. ¡°I activated my Status Slate just before I left to enter the sewers. After a few encounters in the sewers my core formed. Master Broton said that my body was still too weak to support my core so my core had to sacrifice some initial mana capacity to directly strengthen my body.¡± After looking at my Slate for a minute with an expressionless stare, like he was deep in thought, Baylein asks me a question ¡°You said you developed spells, correct?¡± ¡°Yes, I developed my Fireball and Fire Cone.¡± I answer honestly since I don¡¯t understand why he is asking. ¡°Can you tell me the parameters of your spells and what percent of your pool they use?¡± he asks next. I reply to his question, ¡°Sure, Fireball is a sphere that flies straight until contact, where it explodes in a five feet AOE. Fire Cone covers a five foot cone directly ahead of my palm. Both burn at 220 degrees. Fireball costs roughly 15% and Fire Cone costs around 6% per second.¡± Baylein just nods his head for a few seconds while thinking about something. ¡°I understand now. You have a very powerful core. Based on what you tell me, your core is at least twice the capacity of average. The average new mage¡¯s fireball with the same parameters would have cost them 40% of their pool. You have a great headstart compared to others. Matters little in the long run, but it is a blessing. Even with your loss of capacity, your mana pool is deep for your development. Your high affinity also allows you to cast spells more easily and for less mana.¡± Master Broton speaks at this time, ¡°I wholly agree with your deductions Baylein. A large initial mana capacity, a well developed body, high mana affinities, possibly extreme affinity with magma. But thats not the most terrifying part about our young friend, nor is it the main reason I want you to train and look after him.¡± Master Broton pulls out a Mana stone similar to the one earlier. ¡°Here Zyrek, this is an identical Mana Stone from from before. Show Baylein your Mana Resistance.¡± I nod my head as I take the Mana Stone. I take the Mana Stone and close my eyes. I feel the mana within the stone. I follow the instructions Master Broton gave me earlier. Feel for the mana and draw it into the body. Weave it around the mana core and feed it into the core from several places. As the mana enters my body it is once again hungrily absorbed my my body, only allowing half to make it to my core. I finish absorbing the Mana Stone in roughly 10 seconds, then it turns to dust. I can see the shocked look on Bayleins face, same look Master Broton gave me earlier. ¡°WHAT? How is that possible? His Mana Resistance must be as high as my own or even yours Broton. How can a child at the age of ten, on the first day that their core has developed have a Mana Resistance as high as someone who has been training for 40 years?¡± ¡°I do not know the answer but I do have a theory.¡± replies Master Broton. ¡°I believe he has a special body. He must have a powerful ancestor or something along those lines. His body is like a dry sponge that is ready to absorb any mana that gets close to it. I even believe he has been constantly absorbing mana from the environment passively all day long. This hasn¡¯t showed up on his Slate because there hasn¡¯t been enough time for it to show, but I feel as if the mana in the room is slowly moving in his direction. Its very faint. If I wasn¡¯t looking for it, I doubt I would even notice.¡± Baylein looks back down to see if my Status Slate had changed any. When he showed me my Strength, Resilience and Constitution had all increased by a small amount. ¡°Now I understand why you want me to take the kid. You are angry at me and want him to eat me out of house and home hahahahahaaaa.¡± Baylein jests. ¡°If Zyrek agrees, I will happily accept him into Gaia¡¯s Heart. The potential he has is terrifying. If I can help lead him down the right path, he can be a powerful defender for all of Triesen. At the very least, I can instill some good values into him. Even if he wants to explore the world, and not spend the rest of his days defending the weak, as long as he doesn¡¯t turn out to be a vicious and cruel demon, that will be well enough.¡± I laugh at Bayleins antics. ¡°Do not worry. I personally believe in helping people if I can. A live and let live policy. I will happily join Gaia¡¯s Heart.¡± I guess with this, I finally have a home, for now at least. Baylein seems like a good man. He really seems like someone you can depend on. Elaina seems really nice too. I would be that Baylein keeps company of other same minded individuals. I can see us getting along well. ¡°Perfect,¡± Baylein says, ¡°then we start your training now.¡± Before I can even say anything he stands up and grabs me and throws me over his shoulder. The next second Earth erupts through the floor in Master Brotons office and fully surrounds us and we are completely encased in darkness. After a few seconds the earth surrounding us recedes and we appear to be in a training room of sorts.The room is very large, atleast 50 by 50 feet. There are several dummies along the wall. There is a bench with a bar resting above it. There are a few hand weights resting on the ground beside it. There are a few other pieces of equipment that I do not recognize. Baylein speaks at this point, ¡°Alright, first I want you to attack me. Go all out. Do everything you can to hurt or kill me. I want to see how well you can do.¡± I nod and comply.I retrieve my mace from my side and ready my stance. Baylein just stands there waiting me me to begin. I wait for a second then act. I immediately dash for him. I get within striking range and swing my mace directly for his midsection, where his ribs should be at. I swing with all my strength and he just stands there and takes the attack. As soon as my attack his my mace vibrates viciously and bounces off harmlessly. I quickly drop to a knee as I spin around and follow up with a second attack to his left knee. Again he stands there and my attack harmlessly bounces off. I use the momentum from the recoil and launch my third attack on his right knee. Same outcome. ¡®Well, can¡¯t say I expected him to get hurt, but nothing. How strong is this guy.¡¯ I quickly dash backwards and then launch into the air and bring my mace down onto the top of his skull. As soon as I hit I see his face, full ear to ear smirk. Though I do think I knocked a piece of dust off of him. ¡°Very nice. Quick decisive attack. Vicious and quick combos. When you saw that your attacks were ineffective, you changed tactics. Excellent.¡± Baylein analyzes and praises me. Though I don¡¯t feel I deserve it. I could have had more effect with a feather duster than my mace. ¡°How was that excellent? I didn¡¯t even scratch you or make you move an inch?¡± I ask. ¡°Thats to be expected. Your still years away from being able to scratch my ass, let alone dent my armor. Give it a year or two for my hair to grow out and you might be able to knock out a hair by then. The point is, you shouldn¡¯t be able to harm me. You have yet to begin properly performing Body Enhancement so you are still extremely weak. This exercise was just to get a feel of your style. That way I know how to train you. It would be detrimental to you if I taught you to stand center field and trade blow for blow with an enemy if your natural insticts and style is use assault tactics. From that demonstration I can see that you value mobility and explosive power. Instead of standing and trading blows you would push your opponent to be defensive and then overpower them with speed and vicious attacks.¡± ¡°Huh, guess that makes sense. I could have told you that though. Thats something I figured out when I was being trained by the instructors.¡± I say. Bayleins eyebrow arches up and he asks, ¡°What instructors? Broton says your homeless¡± ¡°I am homeless.¡± I answer him. ¡°But I wasn¡¯t when I woke up this morning. My father disowned me and kicked me out for being a cripple.¡± Baylein seems to understand as he nods his head. ¡°Alright then. So for your training we will focus mainly on Strength, Resillience, Constitution and Agility. When you become stronger and earn some money of your own you should upgrade you mace first. You will need something stronger and heavier. You could try another type of weapon or continue with what you know. I used to wield maces when I was younger. After a while though I became strong enough that even my warhammer is light for me. So there was no point to use a weapon with less mass when I lost nothing. We will stop here for tonight. Upstairs you will find our home, Gaia¡¯s Hearth. Valoran is our home city and we keep our things here. First room to the left is empty to thats your room. We will be heading out tomorrow to deal with some bandits that have set up camp in the Great wilderness just south west of here. Its still too early for you to deal with human opponents so I want you to stay in town and return to sewers. You can freely absorb mana from the environment here. Gaia¡¯s Hearth is located at the edge of town by the west gate and we have quite a few mana attraction and concentration runes to help keep the mana density high in here. Focus on Body enhancement for the next few day. Feel free to raise your mana capacity if you feel you need more mana to deal with the rodents. I doubt you will need to though. We will be gone less than a week if everything goes as planned. Focus on getting stronger and heightening your reflexes against the rats. You managed to kill roughly 50 rats today... so lets say that if you collect 300 tails before we return i¡¯ll have something nice for you.¡± ¡°Alright Baylein, I¡¯ll do as you say.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t feel disheartened. We had already accepted this contract before you joined. It is a little above your level. The bandits wont be much issue for any of the other but I still think its a little to early to put you against humans. Our next contract will be taken with you in mind. Now, lets hold off on you meeting everyone until we return from this contract. It¡¯s a little pointless seeing as how we are leaving tomorrow. Head up to your room and meditate and use Body Enhancement tonight. While using Body Enhancement any other form of cultivation, you can supplement that for sleeping. It is still nice to get an actual night of sleep every now and then, but it is unneeded. Now go.¡± I left Baylein in the basement and entered the first room on the left. My new room. I sat down on the bed and began meditation and Body Enhancement. My first night of many. Hello everyone. I just wanted to say hello and ask everyone if they are enjoying the novel so far. I have been working on this novel for a little while now and have actually scrapped it twice already lol. I already have plans to go back and edit the stats. I have them in table format in my word processor but it doesn''t get translated over so I will have to do that later. Thank everyone for reading and please, leave a comment.