《-The steps to greatness-》 The beginning - Chapter 1 In a tiny stall somewhere in the city of Morvi could a small scream be heard as a baby boy came into this world. ¡°It¡¯s a boy! A healthy baby boy!¡± |???| ¡°Let me see him Urea¡± |???| ¡°He got your eyes Mira!¡± said Urea as he hands over the tiny boy. ¡°But he got your smile Urea¡± said Mira smiling happily. ¡°It¡¯s a shame such a beautiful boy has to live in this little stall with us, if only I had made more money.¡± said Urea in a sad tone. ¡°Shh, don¡¯t you worry Urea. I¡¯m sure the Gods have a plan for us right here in this stall¡± In Aasane, the people knew four Gods. The God of Light, people called him ¡°The light¡± or sometimes ¡°Baldr¡±. The God of Matter, that the people called ¡°The God of Elements¡± or simply ¡°Aiolos¡±. The third God, the God of Life and Death people called ¡°The Reaper¡± or ¡°Delling¡±. And the last God only had one name and that was ¡°Troth, The God of Magic¡±. As they were enjoying the moment of their little sons birth, a soldier of Morvian origin came knocking on the door. ¡°Urea! It¡¯s me, Lambert! The king has ordered our unit to go out to the Norvien outpost to defend against possible threats right away! I¡¯m sorry, but you have to come with me right now! |Lambert| ¡°By the light, why can¡¯t there be peace once in a while? I¡¯m sorry Mira, but when the King calls I have to go.¡± |Urea| As Urea was about to go Mira suddenly stopped him. ¡°Wait! What about his name?¡± Urea stopped for a moment, then I turned around with a smile and said: ¡°What about Jaures?¡± Then he walked out of the stall with his armor and weapon in hand. Little did he know it would be the first and last time he and little Jaures would see each other before Urea would have his meeting with Delling. *4 Years later* Jaures was now 4 years old. In Aasane, every child at the age of 4 were to be tested in Magic capability. For little Jaures, however, they couldn¡¯t do that. Just a year after Urea¡¯s passing, Mira had no longer the money to pay for a living in the little stall they borrowed, so she and Jaures moved out of the city and into the forest in the east. There, by luck, they found an abandoned hut where they could live. Now, 3 years later, they survived on plants grown around in the forest and sometimes Mira would go into the city to trade some herbs for meat and so on. Jaures, that usually joined his mom on the trip to the city this time rejected completely to the idea of going. His mother finally after a long time agreed to let him stay, but only if he would agree to only stay inside the hut and not open for anyone. Jaures, stubborn as he was, agreed to the terms. Later that evening Jaures, as the four year old child he was, got bored. As he ran around inside the hut he suddenly tripped on a loose plank on the floor. Usually he wouldn¡¯t care, as the hut wasn¡¯t exactly in the best shape, but Jaures felt something was off. Something was¡­ different. He found his wooden stick he so proudly called his own sword that he found after his mom told him a story of a legendary knight fighting the mighty dragons, and somehow he managed to flip up the plank with this mighty wooden stick. Beneath it he found an orb and a book that looked old and dusty. Jaures was quite smart for his age. Usually children learned to read around the age of 6 if they were nobles or even later if they were commoners. Jaures was neither old enough or noble, but his mother, out in the woods with nothing better to do, taught Jaures all she could. Of course Jaures wouldn¡¯t usually be able to read something easily without mother explaining him what certain words meant, but it was a start. Because he could read a little, he got curious. As he picked up the book and the orb he felt a strange feeling. He didn¡¯t know what it was, but the book suddenly felt heavier than usual. He looked at the orb and it looked¡­ delicious. So he ate it. He was just four, so if something looked delicious, of course he would eat it. As he did, he suddenly felt like the world would spin around a second, but he didn¡¯t think more of it. The book got his attention again as it didn¡¯t feel as heavy anymore. He opened the book and symbols filled the pages he now looked upon, but somehow, even though he did not recognize the symbols they made sense. Jaures started reading it and the title said something like: ¡°5 steps to greatness¡± He looked down further and it said. -Step 1 If you can read this it¡¯s already done. all he could think of was the delicious looking orb with no taste and then started reading further. -Step 2- 100 pushups a day for 50 days. Jaures though but suddenly a picture or an idea came to mind of a person lifting himself off the ground with his hands then lowered again. As he thought about it, it made sense that this was called a pushup. -Step 3- 100 squats a day for 50 days -Step 4- 100 situps a day for 50 days -Step 5- Meditate Again as he read it, everything just made sense and he felt excited and wanted to try it right away. He started with the pushups. It was a lot harder than he had thought. He could do probably just 2 or 3 at the moment, but the book said 100¡­ of course he found out quickly enough that it said 100 a day. A DAY. So all he had to do was to take 1 pushup every 10 minute or so and he would barely be able to do it and somehow it felt easier every day. *3 years later* (POV changed to a more personal view, Jaures) It was my 7th birthday. My mom said this would be the day where I would get tested in magic capability. Usually they did it at the age of 4, but because of our situation we simply didn¡¯t have enough money to take the test as it costed 2 copper to do so. My mother however had newly started a business selling herbs in the city and so we started earning a little. She came to me yesterday and said that it would be a shame if I had a talent in magic, but never knew about it. I agreed and we moved back to the city a week later. A week passed by fast and we had finally moved back to the city. Though I couldn¡¯t care less and actually I started missing the fresh dust-free air in the forest. The City of Morvi, as it was called, was the capital of the continent and the King lived here in his castle. My Mother used to tell me tales of the great city castle and how my dad used to be a brave soldier in the army here. To tell the truth, I didn¡¯t like the King. No matter what my mom said, I would always think of him as the one who sent my father to death. Of course I could tell that my mother didn¡¯t think too highly of him as well, but his power was no joke. There were no one that could have more law enforcing power than him of course, because he was the king, but his Strength Power was probably among top 10 of the city and was at Strength level 9. In Aasane, people had 3 different powers. It was Law Enforcing Power, Strength Power and Magic Power. The first one was not really related to fighting, but the others were powers that made us able to fight and defend our self from monsters and so on. They had different levels varying from 1 to 10. A master in the different powers (Level 10) was called a King. And just as there were multiple kings as there were multiple countries there were multiple Kings within the other powers as well, but just as there were a limit to countries and Law Enforcing Kings there were a limited amount of kings within Strength Power and Magic Power. And there was a simple reason for that. Not everyone had the talent. And just as someone was born into royalty, if you were to have any other power in a large scale, you had to be born with it. Or that was the theory anyways. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. When I ate that orb and started training like the book said 3 years ago, I did it just for fun as I had nothing better to do, but I could feel my body getting stronger. After I got done with the 50 day training the book suddenly crumbled to nothing and I didn¡¯t know what more to do so I just kept doing the training to this day. I felt like I had to hide the book and the orb from my mother so I hadn¡¯t told her anything and I also didn¡¯t train when she was around. Now that I were to be tested I couldn¡¯t hide my strength anymore. I was a bit afraid of the result but there were nothing to do about it. We were walking down the street a little before sunrise. My mother had dressed up in a simple but neat dress that I didn¡¯t even know she had. I have always though that my mother looked beautiful, but with that dress it was no doubt she was a beauty. After a few minutes of walking we got to the temple of Troth. The temple had an aura that made me feel pressured, but I didn¡¯t think any more about it. ¡°Welcome to the Temple of Troth! Today is the official yearly testing day! Are you here for the test?¡± He looked at me and then over at my mother. ¡°Yes, Because of certain circumstances my son never had a magic capability test at the age of four.¡± The priest or whatever he was nodded and showed sign of wanting us to follow him inside the temple, and so we did. Inside the temple I could see paintings and statues of weird things I had never seen before but names popped into my head as I looked at them. After I had eaten that orb it had become a common thing that knowledge would just pop into my head and so I paid it no mind. After an hour or so of waiting in line, I was finally directed into a room. Inside this room it was filled with people representing schools all over the country. Even some of the allied countries had representatives watching. It was obvious that they were fishing for talented children to fetch for their schools. I walked in and heard someone in the 2nd row of the tribune say something about me being a waste of their time. I didn¡¯t think much about it as I walked further into the room, and suddenly found myself in the center it. ¡°Let¡¯s start with the pressure test.¡± The priest looking guy said. As I stood there it suddenly felt like a tiny invisible blanket fell on the top of my head, but nothing more. So I just stood there, waiting for the test to begin. After 1-2 minutes a got a little restless, but then I noticed the faces of the people around me. ¡°A-amazing¡± I Heard someone mutter in the tribune. I guessed the test really had started so I just stood there and started to think about what my mother could possibly have planned for dinner today. After 5 minutes had passed the priest suddenly walked beside me and said: ¡°Th- The pressure test is finished, Rank S¡± The people started mumbling loudly again, but came quiet as the priest guy said something about test of affinity. I just came along and I noticed the audience had all their eyes on me and I could swear I saw some of them looking hungry at me, like they were ready to pounce at me. The next test was simple enough. All I had to do was putting my hand on a ball and it would glow in different lights and colors to indicate what elements I had affinity in. Afterwards a magical infused stone tablet on the wall would indicate the percentage of affinity with the different elements. I put my hand on the ball and suddenly I started flashing in different colors and it was almost like a rainbow dancing in my hand. And I could hear gasping in the audience. And I looked up on the stone tablet that indicated my affinities. Light: 100% Darkness: 100% Matter: 100% When I looked at it I couldn¡¯t think of what kind of element ¡°Matter¡± was, but I could remember something about the God of Elements really being the God of Matter and so I naturally though that it would mean all elements. At this point people in the audience had started to stand up and everyone was yelling to me and it all sounded something like ¡°JOIN MY SCHOOL¡±. Somehow after a tiring 20 minutes or so, the audience had finally settled after the priest guy and some other priests came and tried to make them settle down. It was time for the last test. The strength test. I didn¡¯t know what was normal at this point because it had been so long ago since I was ¡°normal¡±. This test was actually pretty simple as well. All they asked of me was to punch it. They even gave me some gloves to protect my hands! I looked at it and couldn¡¯t even see a crack anywhere. Apparently, the rock I was about to punch was a special rock that would indicate on the stone tablet above with the amount of force put into it. I was actually kind of happy to finally be able to show my full strength and not hide it like I had done earlier. I walked up to the stone and charged up my attack. I suddenly got this picture in my mind of how I was supposed to punch with the ¡°correct technique¡±. I changed my stance and planted my feet firmly on the ground. I got ready to punch and just as I sent my fist flying I stepped forward and twisted my hip for more force as well as I twisted my fist around to get a more penetrating effect. I could feel my fist flowing through the air and as it met the rock it suddenly cracked up and turned to dust and the wall behind it cracked up as well and started crumbling down showing cracks on the wall behind it. The stone tablet didn¡¯t show a number, it simply said one thing: ¡°Strength level: Overload¡± At this moment people jumped down form the tribune and ran towards me but surprisingly my mother got to me first and pulled me through the ¡°new door¡± I made. She told me to run back to our house and if she didn¡¯t meet me there within a day I would have to try to return to the hut in the forest. At this moment I figured that I probably had created a lot of trouble for my mom and so I ran. Faster and faster, I ran and before I knew it I was already back at our place. I waited for about an hour or two then suddenly my mother came in. This time she was dressed in a completely different way. The beautiful dress way changed with a robe and hood, both dyed in a dirt brown color and she dressed me up in a completely different way with a matching hood as well. She then told me we would move back to the forest. I agreed. ### Authors note: OP Main character? Yes please! appritiate to know what people think of it. I have another chapter in store already so I hope you''ll like it. - Dfg09 The rise of a mysterious knight - Chapter 2 The rise of a mysterious knight - chapter 2 (POV change to Mira, Jaures mother) |Mira| After a lot of walking back and forth from the forest with all my herbs I had gotten a reputation of bringing good quality herbs, and so the merchants¡¯ guild had decided to let me start my own business. Finally me and my son could move back to the city and make a living there. All I had to do was walking back to the forest every time I needed supplies. I didn¡¯t know why, but somehow a lot of magical herbs grew frequently close to the hut me and my son lived in. I heard some people saying that magical herbs usually grew close to places where a lot of magical power were in place. The richest gold mines would be a dragons cave or something similar. I of course would never dare to walk close to one of those, but here I had it. A gold mine right by our hut. I had sold a lot of herbs and had figured out a lot of what the market prices were and how much taxes I had to pay and so forth. The money system in the continent were pretty much the same everywhere. 100 stone coins for 1 copper, 100 copper for 1 silver and 100 silver for 1 gold. It was a fairly simple system and it didn¡¯t take long to teach my son everything. I usually taught my son everything I felt would be convenient later so even though he didn¡¯t go to school yet, he was probably smarter than average. He could already read a little at the age of four and was both reading and writing well now at the age of 7. My little genius. As I was thinking about that I suddenly got reminded of something I had long forgotten. I told my son about it and he agreed to go for a test. Convenient for us the yearly test were happening in a week so we just had to wait until then before we could get the results. *1 week later* I thought to myself as my son was simply standing there the whole pressure test. When I took the test I was four, but I could still remember how I fell to the ground as soon as it started. Apparently, it gauged my magical defense which by the way was none existing so of course I fell to the ground as I felt the gravity spell pushing me down. But that didn¡¯t happen to my son. He stood there like he was wondering when the test would begin and by the end of the test even I could feel the pressure at the place where I stood. Rank S! That¡¯s king level! There were a few children that had been measured to Rank A before, but never in history had an Rank S been here. I was stunned and so was the rest of the audience. At this point I knew that my son if all else failed at least had a great magical defense that would potentially make him a great knight if only his strength level was decent. The next test would gauge affinities. From what I knew it was common to have at least one or two elements. I myself had earth and light affinity, however, only at a level of 3 percent each. My son walked up to the Orb of Affinities and put his hand on it as instructed. This was the moment of truth I though as I crossed my fingers in luck. If my son had luck he would be at about 10 percent or so in two or three elements. This would make him capable of magic to a decent level. 25 percent would be genius level that usually only nobles with the right bloodline could have. Above that would be legendary. The highest affinity ever gauged would be 65 percent or so. That had been a 40 year old genius that had studies the element of earth all his life and still only 65 percent. I wondered if it was even possible with anything above that. A 100 percent would mean that you completely mastered the element and knew everything about it. That would be impossible for anyone other than the Gods I believed. As my son held onto the orb I started glowing brightly in all different colors and suddenly it started glowing in a rainbow color which would indicate a multitude of affinities. The bright glow indicated amount of affinity and because all the colors were bright I got confused. Then suddenly the stone tablet cleared the confusion and at this point I don¡¯t think anyone in the whole audience wouldn¡¯t have their jaw falling to the floor. At this point I figured we might be getting trouble. If my son, born a commoner would have such affinities and magical defense it would make him later the king of kings in magic. I started to think about how I and my son possibly could escape from here without being caught and brought to the king and possibly separated. There were no doors open nearby to run though without losing momentum and possibly be caught on the way out. I had no choice, but to hope for a miracle. And a miracle did happen. My son, who I believed to be just a little stronger than average had put up a stance similar to what the Strength Power masters would do and blasted the rock to dust and the wall behind it crumbled down. I took my chance and ran to him before pulling him with me through the newly made ¡°door¡±. I told my son to run by himself back home as I figured he probably was faster than me with that kind of strength. I ran down the street to the market myself to buy us supplies and new clothing to change our looks as I planned for us to escape yet again back to our safe house, the hut in the woods. *10 years later* (POV change back to Jaures) It has been 10 years since the day I got my strength and magic capability tested. That day really gave us some trouble. We had to go to different towns nearby to buy our supplies and my mom had to shut down her business as they had gotten our names when we took the test. For 8 years we lived together here in the hut, and I had started hunting for food so that we didn¡¯t have to buy it. It was at this moment I had figure out how ridiculous my strength was. I could kill any monster in the forest with a punch and I could manipulate the magic force or mana in the air into whatever I wanted it to be. Then, 2 years ago my mother suddenly fell ill and died soon after. That was the first time I really cried. After that I found my life to have no purpose. Now two year after that tragedy I found myself at a power level so high I could probably not find anything that would even pose a challenge. I started remembering the book I found and remembered the title saying 5 steps to greatness. It was first at this moment I started thinking about it, but if those 5 steps really were all it required to achieve greatness that what would I do afterwards? I figured that I could just do what I want and if it brought me joy it would be great. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.I started to think about my mother talking about knights and dragons and suddenly I found myself wanting something, and adventure. A story to be told that was absolutely true, but at the same time almost unbelievable. That would be my new purpose. It would be my way to true greatness. Soon after, I started to make a plan. I wanted to be mysterious knight that would save the people. I wanted to be a hero. I dressed up in the usual cloak and hood and went for the city in a decent speed. To get to the point right outside of the neighbor town of Morvi took me about half a minute or so. To me that was slow, but if somebody would have seen me moving, some of them would have believed it was just a wind. As I got into town I went to the closest blacksmith. ¡°Hi there young fellow! Looking for a mighty weapon or shiny armor, eeh? You¡¯ve come to the right place.¡± |Blacksmith| The short looking blacksmith kept hammering as we spoke. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m looking for a durable weapon and some fancy looking armor¡± |Jaures| I just told him the truth about what I was looking for. I figured I wouldn¡¯t really need a razor sharp sword or durable armor because I simple could beat the crap out of anything with my bare hands. The rest would be just for show. ¡°¡­ And a full helmet please.¡± I added as I thought it would be nice to hide me face. ¡°Hmm, that¡¯s a strange order, but I got something here that I might be able to give you cheap. No offense young fellow, but you don¡¯t seem to be the richest kid in town.¡± |Blacksmith| The blacksmith stopped what he was doing and walked behind his counter. Suddenly bringing forth a simple iron armor with chainmail and a full helmet all in a matching iron-grey color. He then walked up to the wall with all the weapons hanging and on the lowest cheaper shelves he found a short sword that was just about too long to be called a dagger. It all looked a little pitiful, but I guess that¡¯s all my money could fetch me so I took out my money pouch. ¡°How much for all of it?¡± I asked as if I was ready to pay right away. ¡°You are really buying this heavy piece of armor? Hmm, I guess I would never sell it otherwise so I¡¯ll give it to you cheap. 1 Silver!¡± |Blacksmith| I handed him the one and only silver I had. I didn¡¯t know armor was this expensive, but I figured I were lucky so I had no doubt it was a good purchase. I asked him if he had a room I could change in and he gave me the directions. Inside the blacksmith shop there was a tiny room in the corner that I failed to notice in the beginning. I changed my cloths and but on my new armor. What I didn¡¯t know, was that the armor I bought was really heavy because of the type of iron used in it, which would usually make it impossible to use in combat. To me it was a set of new clothes so I didn¡¯t mind. I walked out from the shop and thanked the blacksmith and started walking down the street. I had added my cloak outside of my armor and the rest of my clothes I had put away inside a storage I had made with space magic. It was really a convenient thing. I saw people staring at me while I was walking down the main street, but fortunately, nobody seemed to recognize me or even looked suspicious at me. I figured it must have been so long ago that nobody was on the lookout for someone like me. And who knows, they might even have forgotten about me. I had a couple of copper coins left a figured it would be best to buy some food for my little adventure so I bought 2 rye bread and 2 bottles of water for 1 copper. Everything I stored inside my convenient space-storage. Just as I was about to leave the town a big man walked up to me with some of his buddies behind him. He was tall. He looked down. ¡°That¡¯s a nice piece of armor you got there. I would like to have that as well. Would you mind giving me yours? I could even help you take it off while you have you¡¯re meeting with Delling if you know what I mean.¡± |Tall Big Man| I thought as I looked over to his buddies. Looking at their armor and weapons I could tell I wasn¡¯t the first person they had tried to rob. I figured I didn¡¯t want any trouble so I tried to brush him off by telling him I was in a hurry. Of course I wouldn¡¯t give him my armor. It was my first step to my dream. ¡°Looks like someone here is meeting the reaper tonight. Guys! Kill him!¡± |Tall Big Man| As he said that I could see his buddies charging at me. So far I had only fought monsters in the forest. What if these guys could actually pose a challenge? I felt a little excited, and pulled out my new dagger¡­ I mean shortsword. And took a step forward to make a stabbing move. I aimed for the guy with the toughest looking armor just to get a grip of my strength compared to these guys, and just as my sword were about to supposedly bounce off the good looking armor, it sank into it as if it was butter. Before anyone could react (even me) the shortsword (dagger) went right through. Even a small bit of my hand went into his chest and I figured my excitement was in vain. These guys were really weak. I pulled my hand upwards and the guy I stabbed in the chest exploded from his waist and up. I think I used a little too much force, and when I looked at my shortsword (dagger) I had forgotten to twist it to a vertical position so I have ripped it upwards in a horizontal position meaning it wouldn''t cut. I could have used a wooden stick to do the same thing. The other guys looked at me, terrified, and fled. I didn¡¯t take pursuit. I figured it wouldn¡¯t do any good, and it would just be more witnesses. I kept going until I got out of town. Finally my quest begun. ### Authors note: That would be the 2nd chapter. Thanks for reading. The next chapter would probably be out next weekend or so. - Dfg09