《Earth Mage》 Beginning of the journey Leo Kolesnikov was an average middle-aged man that lived in the cold weather of USSR in one of its norther towns called Yakutsk. The weather was very cold there. In the winter -40 was a pretty normal temperature for this place. Leo always wanted to move south and experience life, but he was unlucky. After finishing his engineering degree with good grades and getting an engineering job he understood that this type of profession will not get him anywhere. He didn''t made enough money for what he wanted to do in life and was, sadly very limited with his funds. A few month after he started his work the war with Nazi Germany started and he was mobilized to fight for his country to the death. He did fight all the way from 1940 to 1944 when the war was nearing its end but was unlucky to not see the official victory of his country. He was an officer in one of the many engineering brigades in the USSR army. He was part of the second army which was getting closer and closer to concur the captured lands of the European continent from the German army. He was unlucky to step into a mine that took his life. He thought that this was the end but in truth this was only the first chapter of his life. He woke up in a chamber of a ship. Originally he didn''t really understand what''s going on and was very confused. Slowly memories from his new body flooded his mind and caused him a great headache. He remembered most of the things that happened with his new body in this world of sword and magic. His name in this world was Armis Gofes and he was a descendent in a lineage of high elf''s from the elven continent. His family was well known in capital of Gladiolus . He was one of the few representative''s of the young generation in his family. The high elves had a very low reproduction rate. His Gofes family was one of the branches of the royal family. Sadly, he was only the son of a side branch in this family. From the side this maybe still look good, but in reality it was not. His two brothers from the main branch, Oliver and Kenth didn''t let him live peacefully. In the end of the day he had a chance to become a duke of the elven kingdom and that was not something his brothers will let him accomplish. His family branch was located in the outskirts of Gladiolus. When the main branch of the family was not targeting him or his family he lived a simple and happy life. He really liked the forest and everything that was connected to its beauty. Maybe because of that he was diagnosed to have a high earth magic potential when he was 5 years old. Also he had a low to medium potential for fire magic but it was less important for his family. Even with in the high elves it was quite rare to have a high potential to any type of magic. Generally elves would have wind and water magic attributes. Those were the main attributes for the elf''s in this world. With his magic elements of earth and fire he was more of a dwarf then an elf. After this discovery his family tried to hire the best teachers to educate him how to manipulate the elements and become a worthy successor of his side branch family to the duke position. Sadly this was not something that was bound to last for long. The main branch of the family hired assassins'' from the assassin union to eliminate him and they almost succeeded. His father, Arthur Gofes fought for him until the end with all of the branch family under him. He was not very strong in terms of fighting capabilities. He was a wind mage. Generally his family lived a peaceful life after the end of the continental war 50 years ago. The grandfather of Armis was a high mage that died in this war and left the position of the side branch family head to his son Arthur. When his father understood that they will not be able to hold those assassins he sent his son with one of his trusted men with the name of Elric to leave the Silvermoon continent and go to the human continent to live his life. Elric was an old Wind mage that was trusted even by Armis deceased grandfather. This is why he was the perfect candidate to guide and guard the young high Elf. His father used a strong artifact in his possession to make a clone of his son to imitate his death. Back then Armis was still hit by a poison arrow from one of the archers and drank the antidote too late to be saved. That''s how Leo got to reincarnate in this body. He was only 6 years old now with his current body. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.When he woke up in the ship he saw Elric looking at him worriedly. "Young master, are you alright?" Elric asked. "Yes, I''m fine uncle Elric" I said. "Thanks god. I was very worried that the cure will not take affect in time." Elric said. "Young master, we need to hide for some time to be sure that everyone in the Silvermoon continent will think that you are dead. There is no going back." Elric said. Armis scratched his head and sighed. He understood that he will need to find his way in the human continent. Elric got them both a bracelets that changed the form of their ears to human ones so they will not attract unnecessary attention. Also he got a few storage rings with different necessities that he got from Arthur before they departed. "Also we should change our names now so it will be Harder to spot us in the future. What name do you want to pick, Young master?" Elric asked. After a couple of minuets of deliberation Armis came with a simple name that he wanted to have. "I will got with the name Leo, uncle Elric. How should I call you from now?" Armis asked. "Call me David from now on." Elric said. (From now on I will call Armis as Leo and Elric as David to not complicate things). "Okay, uncle David." Leo said. He did not have any problem calling himself Leo because it was his name in his last life. He was used to it. "Young master, we will go to live in the "Forbiden Forest" in the Usman empire until I teach you how to use magic. After that we will move to one of the smaller villages so you can still find friends and interact with people. The "Forbiden Forest" danger zone is of a low level and it will be a good training ground for young master to hone his skills." David said. "Okay, uncle David." Leo said. After the young elf got to eat and rest for more time he got some information from his guardian. David told Leo that they been sailing to the Usman Empire of the human continent for almost 3 weeks and that they will arrive their after around one more week of sailing. Leo was surprised by the amount of time that he was unconscious. David, on the other hand was surprised by the pretty calm expression on the boys face. He was not aware that Leo saw many death and killing in his last life so there was not much that could surprise him in this regard. After 6 more days of sailing without any problems the duo arrived at their destination. The weather was good. It was summer time and the sun shone brightly in the distance. The harbor was quite big. It was surprising because they arrived at the outskirts of the Usman empire. Still Leo could see many people going on and of the different boats and ships. Also he people trading. He was interested to see what kind of merchandise is popular in this new world on the human continent but David told him that they should not stay in this place and move quickly. After hearing this Leo agreed to go begrudgingly. He still wanted to see what the world had to offer, but he understood that he had a long life ahead of him. He knew that elves could live for few hundred years and high elves could live few thousand years. That''s why he was not in a hurry. The long life of elves compensated for the low futility rate among them. The elf race had the least amount of citizens among the different races. The reason why no one tried to do anything funny to them was because they had generally good magic aptitude. Having magic aptitude was rare case by itself and with all the old geezers that were among the elf race there were a lot of monsters that no one wanted to provoke. No one wanted a Frost Nova spell to fall and obliterate their cities. Frost Nova was one of the mass destruction spells that Grand mages could cast. The other races also had their Grand mages in a smaller amount that could fight back but the losses were not worth it. After accompanying the young master out of the town connected to the harbour and checking that they were not being followed David used one of its wind movement spells and disappeared along with Leo.. New Home and a new Master David and Leo arrived at the outer part of the "Forbiden Forest" danger zone. They were traveling for a few days now and Leo was getting really tired. He still had a body of a 6 year old child. David intentionally arrived at the opposite end of the danger zone to where the city of Rufus was located. Because the "Forbiden Forest" was a "C rank" danger zone many people wanted to take a bite of it. This danger zone had a two big dungeons with goblin and kobold monster types. Generally those monsters were of the "E rank" level but in the lower floors of the dungeon you could find Hobgoblins and Goblin Shamans or Kobold Warriors that were at the "D rank". For both dungeons the boss monsters were at the "C rank" and that was the reason for this zone to be a "C rank" danger zone. David did not intended to make the kid go and fight goblins or kobolds with no preparation or any abilities. He wanted to teach the kid how to use his power and see how long could his young master go in life. David was pretty old now and he felt that he had no more then 2 years of life because of an injury during the fight with the hostile elves, but that was more then enough to teach the kid the basics of magic and life in general. He wanted Leo to be happy. For that he needed the power to protect himself and his loved ones. He didn''t want the young master to relax and feel at ease under his protection. He understood that it wont get the kid anywhere in life. The old man got an artifact from his storage ring. This artifact could make a small hut to appear. This small house had all the basic needed things to live a life in the forest. There were two rooms located in it with a kitchen and it was warm inside. In Each room their was a medium sized bed with a chair and a table. It wasn''t to fancy. David wanted Leo to be used living in such conditions because now he was not Armis Gofes, the descendent of one of the dukes of the Silvermoon continent but a commoner named Leo. He understood that this kid will have to pave his own way in this life. After David made a cave and put the small hut in it he inputted a simple formation on the area so no monster could locate them even if it got close to their place. After all this long journey David caught some deer in the forsest. Elves were known to not generally eat meat but they had no choice. It was better to eat meat then not to eat anything at all. After the meal they both went to sleep. Both David and Leo were very tired after their long journey. The next morning after breakfast David had a serious talk with Leo. "Young master we need to talk." David said. "What it is uncle David?" Leo asked.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. "I don''t have much time left. I have no more then 2 years to live. In this time you need to be able to take care of yourself after I''m gone from this world so I cant rest in peace." David said. ''Oh man..'' Leo thought. "I understand, uncle David" said Leo. He was sad that his last defender will not be able to accompany him in his new life. He understood that this elf was very loyal to him and his family. "Uncle David I want to become stronger as well. Can you please take me as your disciple and teach me everything that you know?" Leo said as he bowed deeply to the old man. "I don''t want any pampering and easy time. I can handle it, uncle David." Leo said as he was still in the same bowing position. The old man was quite surprised. After hearing the second sentence he sighed. He understood that this was the right thing to do but he didn''t want to harm his young master in any way. After a short deliberation David got his resolve and said: "Very well, Leo. From now on call me master or master David and I will call you by name from now. Be aware that I will not take it easy on you". "Thank you, master." Leo said. "Rest for an hour and we start our first lesson." David said. "Okay, Master" Leo said. Leo was sure that his knowledge from his past life will help him to increase his powers and chances of survival. After one hour the two met outside the hut and went a few meters away from the safe zone of the formation. The old man wanted to breath some fresh air and feel the forest around them. The Danger zone was very big. It was around 100 squire kilometers. The trees looked very lively. The old man had a feeling of deja vu when he looked at those tall and balky trees. It was like he came back to the Silvermoon continent and nothing tragic happened to the family that we swore loyalty to protect. He sighed and then looked at Leo, who was looking at him and waiting for him to start his first lesson. "Leo, maybe the first couple of classes will be not that interesting. I''m not sure how much you learned under your home teacher. Two weeks of study could not amount to much." said David. Leo nodded and waited for David to continue his explanation. "Because you have good talent for magic I will teach you all that is connected to magic studies. You need to understand that in this human continent there are not a lot of mages and there are even less of them with medium aptitude. The ones with the high one can be counted on both of my hands." David said with a serious expression. Leo was quite surprised by this revelation. He knew that having a high talent for one of the elements was rare but even he knew a couple of children that had the same talent as him in the elven race. "Humans are not like elves. Their talent for magic is lower but they make for it by their numbers. Because of that you should not tell anyone about your aptitude to the earth element. I will put a special artifact that will decrease your aptitude if you will be checked for it in the future." David said and handed Leo a simple looking ring. Leo took it and wore it on one of his fingers right away. David nodded his head and continued his explanation.. The elements "There are four main elements: Fire, Wind , Water and Earth. Also their is a special lightning element. Some people call it thunder element. The fire element is specialized mostly on attack. There are few defensive possibilities for it and they are not good enough to keep the fire user safe. That''s why most of the time those fire mages tend to overwhelm their opponents with brute attack and not get into long fights. Wind is a element is specialized in movement and speed. It does not have strong attack or defense but you can balance it with your movement on the battlefield. Wind mages are good scouts too. It is easy to get in and out for them in case of danger. Water mages are more of a support class that tend to have healing spells that are mostly connected to the water element. Earth element users are very good at defense. Their attack power and movement are limited but if you see a good Earth mage you can be sure that mages at the same rank as him will not be able to penetrate his defenses. I think that it is very good that this will be your main element. You should be able to defend well before attacking. Also their are an unattributed mages. They have magic power but cannot infuse it with any of the main elements. It makes them much weaker then mages with an affinity to any of the elements. They can enhance their weapon attacks but their magic offense will be weak. It will be just magic energy release." David said. Leo nodded his head and asked the question: "What about the thunder element?". "The thunder or lightning element is a very rare element that is connected to the power of the heavens. I know only one elf that can wield this power. It is a very rare element that is hard to cultivate. Lightning mages are very strong. Stronger then their peers. The main reason is their attack speed and the shock effect from the lighting attacks." David said. ''Its make sense. Lightning should be devastating to the enemy. One zap and your a goner.'' Leo thought. "I understand. How can I become a mage?" Leo asked. David laughed and said: "There is a long way for you to become a mage. You need to get to the level of mage apprentice first and hone your skills for years to get to a level of a real mage. Your talent will help you but without hard work it will be worthless." "The first step for you is to feel the magic elements around you. Magic is everywhere. First of all you need to close your eyes and relax your body and mind. After that you will need feel the magic element of earth. It should be drawn to you because of your good talent for this element. Try it. This simple exercise called meditation" David said.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Leo followed David advice and tried to follow the steps that David talked about. First he didn''t feel anything. It took him couple of hours to feel some kind of energy that was starting to be drawn to him. "I think I feel it now master." Leo said. "Not bad. Your task for today will be to continue to feel the magic element of earth around you. Tomorrow ill teach you your family breathing technique to draw this energy into your body and make it your own. There are different ways to increase your magic power. It can by breathing techniques, special skills or getting energy from magic crystals that can be harvested from dungeons or mines with high amount of mana that materialized with a form of magic crystals. Because you are still very young and many elves start to train their magic powers from the age of 8 to 10 you will use breathing technique. It has a slower progress but it will be safer for your body." David said. Leo nodded and continued to sit and feel his surroundings. He was feeling the earth element better and better and he felt that the earth particles were resonating with his every breath. He was surprised by this revelation. It was a new feeling for him and he loved this new world that was opening to him. As an engineer in his previous life he was operating a lot by logic and this was as far as you can get from it. But he was loving it. David look at the kid and frowned. He felt that this child acted like a grown man and not like a kid. All the way here and even now he didn''t cry or showed any kind of childish emotion. It was strange but he felt that this is for the better. For the remaining couple of years of his life this child should make as much as he can from it. And for now he felt that Leo took the right direction. ''Maybe the death of his family members made him mature earlier. Poor child''. That was what David thought. He left the kid for himself for now. He decided to continue the teaching tomorrow. After a couple of hours of meditating Leo opened his eyes and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He felt that it he made a good progress and it was time to take a bath. Their was a river near by and he went there to swim a little. He looked at the water. It was crestal clear. He could see few meters underwater. Also he saw his own reflection for the first time since he reincarnated. He had his memories but seeing it in person was still different. He and David been sailing on a ship for a long time but then he was still feeling not good and resting most of the time. Because of that he still could not get a good grasp of his looks. During their travel to the forbidden zone he was just holding on. He didn''t really have time for sightseeing because he feared to puke his guts out. After he took a look at himself he was satisfied. He had a good looking face with black hair and blue eyes. The hair was not really something typical for the elves because most of them were blonde. He felt that the elven race beauty surely gave him a few extra points for his looks. He was not at a model level but he was definitely good looking. After washing himself and feeling refreshed he meditated for a couple more hours. After eating dinner he went to sleep, anticipating the real training to begin. Breathing technique After waking up, washing his face in the river and eating breakfast Leo was ready to continue his studies. "Here take this scroll and read it carefully. Here you can find instructions on how to assimilate the power of the earth element that was attracted to you yesterday. When you breath in you guide the particles you feel into your body and concentrate them in the solar plexus, in the place illustrated on the scroll. Like you see its a place a little lower then the connection location of your ribs. When you breath out the excessive energy that accumulates in your body should be pushed out and be expelled. If you don''t do that in the right way the pathways that lead to our mana core that you will create by this method will get cramped or maybe the earth particles will even get stuck in those pathways. If that really happens you will need a mage far stronger then you to undo this state or wait for a long time for this situation to be solved naturally. It will be a loss of time that you really don''t need. The faster way is to absorb the energy of a magic crystal but you need to get at least to a level of a magic apprentice to do it. I advice you to do it after you get to the 5 circle so you will get used to absorb the energy from the surrounding. I will explain to you about the circle levels when you will get to a level of a magic apprentice. It is irrelevant now. Earth is everywhere and it is a big advantage for you. You need to use this advantage and wait for your mana core to form first and mature. You need it to grow in the phase your body grows and not faster. If you force your progress you will encounter a setback in power and maybe even cripple yourself that way. Be carful. The only reason we are starting your training now is because you will to take care of yourself without me. Now try it" David said. Leo nodded, but before he started to try the breathing technique he asked another question: "Master, how much time should it take to form a magic core?" "It depends on your talent. I''m interested in the result not less then you." David said. ''I hope that its good'' Leo thought. "I understand, master. I will start now." Leo said. "Go on. Its your priority to form your magic core in the fastest speed possible. I will measure your progress according to high elves standards. In term of magic capabilities high elves are one of the top races. A simple elf will have less magic talent because his bloodline is too diluted." David said.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Leo nodded and started his training. In the next few days he used the breathing technique non stop. Excluding the time he slept, ate, swimmed in the river and went to the relieve his bowels he practiced the breathing technique. He chose the cave, where their hut was located in as a training locating because the earth element their was all around him and very abundant in amount. It took him few days to understand how to draw the earth element and guide it to his solar plexus and concentrate it over there. Also he inputted extra attention to exhale in the right way and to expel the excessive earth element from his body. Those couple of days David kept an eye on the kid. He scanned the child with his magic power to make sure everything is going fine. He was surprised by the little elf diligence. He was sure that if the kid continue with the same attitude towards training he will go a long way even with no top talent. After he felt that the little elf is doing fine he left to start making arrangements on what Leo should do next. He knew that it should take Leo a month even if he is a genius. Time slowly passed.. After around two in a half month Leo was using the breathing technique over and over again. David didn''t told him how much time it should take to form a mana core and Leo felt that this was the right thing to do. He didn''t felt pressured to perform in any way. He just did his best and hoped for the better. Another day passed without the awaited result. On the morning of the next day. Leo just started his breathing technique after little of meditation to focus his mind on the task. Just as he started the process he felt that the accumulated energy surged towards his solar plexus and formed tiny circular shape mana core. Finally around two month in a half he succeeded! He was ecstatic. His real way of a mage will start now. Also he felt some substance getting expelled from him. It was something dark with horrible smell. He quickly went to the river to wash himself. After Leo cleaned himself he examined the changes in his body. He felt like the it was way easier to call for the earth particles around him and to manipulate them. Also he felt like his body was empowered by magic. He felt reborn. He quickly called his master. After David scanned Leo with his magic sense he nodded in approval. "Good job Leo. Now we finally be able to start your real magic journey. In high elven standards your talent is average, maybe even little lower then average. Don''t you worry. If you convert this into elven level of talent it should be above average and in term of human standards it should be high." David said. ''Damn why cant they give me a talent that is better? After all my sacrifice in my past life.. Well I guess its better then nothing. I will get there. It will just take a little more time.'' Leo thought to himself and nodded to David. He didn''t lacked time. Magic Spells "Now there are few more things that you need to know. Your magic core allow you to infuse your body with mana and strengthen it. Also now you should be able to feel your surroundings for a radius of a meter. Now its time for you to hear about the magic circles of a mage apprentice. It works the same for mages too. The only difference is the magic power needed to be accumulated by absorbing the needed element or a world energy for unattributed mages. Now your magic power is a little higher then 100. Their are special magic items that can measure magic power. 100 should be the minimum amount of magic power to form a core. It counts as a level of the first circle. To get to a level of a second circle you need to get 200 magic power, third circle required 300 magic power and so on. Mage should have at least 1000 magic power. Then he will be first circle mage. At that phase his power would increase drastically as well as his magic capabilities. The most important thing of becoming a mage is the ability to fly. Only wind mages have the capability to fly before To get to a level of high mage you need 10,000 magic power and in this stage it will grant you the ability to blink. Blink allow you to move in space for some distance depending on your magic power and amount of mana. Generally high mages cannot blink more then 5 times a day because of the mana consumption. For a grand mage level you will need 100,000 magic power at least . You have a long way to go. We are going to start with the most simple skills for an earth mage that I have a records on with me. It will help you to have a balanced kit for defense and offence. There are only 4 skills that I have. Stone skin, Stone wall, Earth bullet and Earth spike. Stone skin makes the skin very hard to penetrate, even with weapons. Stone wall raise a wall of stone to protect the caster. Earth bullet is self explanatory. Its an offensive spell that shoot an earth bullet at the target. Earth spike is a more advanced and nasty spell. It raises an earth spike from the ground to attack the target. If it not used against another mage or warrior with high surrounding awareness it should be able to hit the target. I don''t have any fire magic spells with me so that is something you will need to get by yourself. The best place for that is an academy. You have a few more years before you can apply to one of the academies. Humans generally can start cultivating their magic powers at the age of 12 but the academies open their doors for magic students from the age of 14 to let them get accustomed to their abilities. Same goes for the none magic department. The kids need to mature to start increasing their life force by different breathing technique special to warriors. In their case they will form a core too but it will be used to empower their weapon attacks. It will not carry any trace of magic. Here are the books containing all the data you need to study those skills. You don''t have much time. It is not that easy to learn those skills. It is better for you to learn one offensive and one defensive skill. It will be for the best because I''m not sure how much time I have left. If you have any questions let me know. It is best for you to study through fail and error. That''s the best way to understand the ins and outs of the subject. Also don''t forget about experimenting with the manipulation of your element. You can make a weapon or a shield from your element. It will make your kit much more versatile. " David said.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ''I don''t have any time to breathe. I train like crazy but I feel that time always against me. To have such a huge lifespan of a few thousand years and go against the time is something that I hope will over soon. I need to get stronger and fast!'' Leo grumbled internally. Leo decided to go for stone skin and stone bullet spells. Stone wall will help him only from a range attacks and earth spike was not a skill for beginners. He didn''t want to start from something hard to grasp. He needed to understand the basics. If he built his foundation on a feeble ground it will backfire sooner or later. The stone skin spell was fairly simple. He needed to concentrate the earth element particles on the tip of his skin and empower them with his mana. The toughness of the skin depends on how much mana he was ready to infuse. The amount of mana in the body was equivalent to two times the amount of the magic power. Mana can be restored by resting, meditating or using the breathing technique in an uptrend from the first to the last. That he learned from David in the last couple of months. Stone skin should have been an easy spell to master but it took Leo few months to master it and cover his own body with an equal amount of earth elemental particles all over his body. His task got easier because he used the earth particles in from the terrain and not the ones that he could generate through mana manipulation with his magic core. It helped him to have a lot more time to practice before he needed to rest. With the earth element around him he could hold the stone skin for hour time and he could make some parts of his body tougher by choice for a short while. It could be potentially used as a trump card when he needed to take a hit head on. Also in that time he got the level of the second circle. David had one of those devices that could check the magic power of the user and Leo was at 202 magic power after 8 month of training. It was not bad, but not great. Still, Leo was satisfied with his progress. He was sure that after he will study the offensive skill he could take care of himself. Also in that time David was teaching Leo how to butcher, skin and cook his pray in the right way. Also he was teaching Leo how to find his way in the wild with the help of the stars at night and the sun at the day time. Leo was studying diligently because this was his lifeline. He knew how to do it from Earth as a soldier, but here it was a little different. The stars were different and he needed to study how to find the south direction with the Kellot star. It took him some time but he felt he was moving in the right direction. He was looking for the days to come. Tragedy Strikes Leo woke up and went to practice the breathing technique for a couple of hours before breakfast. He and David ate breakfast every day and chatted about different stuff. The same happened in the evening. Most of the day Leo was training in one way or another. The breathing technique get you charged by the world energy and because of that the need for food become not significant during the day. Still food was needed to operate. Only at a level of a high mage and higher the food loses it significance. He waited for David but he did not come. After some time he tried to call for him but got no answer at all. He became alert because this has never happened before. He entered David''s room and froze in place. He understood that he was in deep shit right now. David was dead. Leo stood for a while in a daze before composing himself and starting to act. He was no kid. He had lived a hard life and knew what death represented. He thought that he had more time to be safe and protected but he was wrong. Firstly he took all of David''s artifacts to himself including his spatial rings and staff. He was not sure about their use but it was not the right time and place to figure it out. He infused himself with the earth element to strengthen his body. Even with the infusion of the the magic element it took him some time and a lot of effort to transport the body to a place outside the hut to bury him. He used the earth element to ingulf his master in the soil. Then he prayed for some time for the well being of the man that kept him safe. He lived in the communist country that had not recognized any religion but he, his family and many other people were Christian in the USSR. It was punishable by law if there would be traces of the religion found in any apartment or other place that can connect someone with believing in a god in the USSR. Still he followed the Christian ritual that he knew after he buried David, using the earth element. After that he sat to evaluate his situation and see what he can do to survive. He knew that he was too small and weak to go look at the big world. He needed time to learn the new skills that David gave him. He needed to become self sufficient in this environment. He checked the spatial ring to see its contents. It was a 10 square meter ring that contained two more rings that were 3 and 5 square meter respectably. Also their was a dear in the ring, a few swords, a bow with arrows, a shield, few books and many magic crystals. Leo remembered that his master told him only use the magic crystals after he got to a level of fifth ring at least. He was not sure to what level those magic crystals can elevate his strength but he trusted his master. He was relieved that their was a deer inside. It will not rot and it was a supply of food for some time. He had time to think how he could hunt and provide for himself. He was almost 7 years old now but it did not help him in any way. His magic was to weak and was concentrated on defense and not offence. With only the skill of stone skin he had zero chance of catching anything right now. He could use earth manipulation to try and catch something from afar but he was not sure if this was going to work. After he cut a part of the deer with a knife and roasted it for breakfast and ate some barriers he found in the forest he was ready to think about what he should do next. He could not continue with this regime of training or he would starve to death sooner or later. He had not even a thought to go to the city on the other side of the danger zone. He decided to try and hunt with a bow and arrows he had in the spatial ring. He got the bow and arrows out and tried to use them but found a problem. The bow was too big. After holding it for a short time Leo was very surprised. The bow with the arrows adjusted themselves to his body parameters. He understood that this was a magic weapon of some sort. Leo was very satisfied and started training shooting a bow. He had a little experience from his previous life. Also he wanted to believe to all the stories about elves being naturally good with bows. He trained in shooting at a tree for a few days and got decent results. The reason why he could train for a very long time every day was the earth manipulation he used on himself. He strengthened his hand with stone skin to not inflict damage to his hand while training. It made him tired because of mana exhaustion from time to time but he could regenerate his mana and continue with the training pretty quickly after using the breathing technique. Few days passed. Leo was starting feeling the hang of it. He was training most of the day because his life was on the line. He was hitting not moving target from 10 meters pretty consistently and he was generally satisfied. He felt that he could start trying to hunt wild animals or the weakest magical beasts like horned rabbit that were even weaker then a goblin. The training with the bow slowed his progress with his magic. He understood that his time will come to show his capabilities. He felt that this was part of the training too. The dear was about to end in a two or three days so he had to act. It was time to hunt.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Hunting Leo was a realist. He understood that the results will come with time. He just wasn''t sure how much time it would take. He started to roam the close surroundings of his hut, searching for a small pray like the horned rabbits or dears. It was important to him that those animals could not really fight back. Also he avoided the roaming goblins and kobolds because he was not sure he could face them in this moment of time. He didn''t wanted to take any risks. He felt that this life will bring him a lot of the things that he could not experience in his past life. In his past life he died before the age of 30. He had a couple of relationships, but he wasn''t able to build a family. In this world he could get all the things he wished for. What he needed is a hard work and dedication and everything was in reach. He knew that now he just needed to survive and hone his skills. He found a deer in an open area and could not really get close to it. He tried his best to shoot it but failed to hit it with an arrow. The deer escaped. After that he found a horned rabbit. Horned rabbits could be really aggressive and initiate the attack sometimes. Their only trump card was their horn that could deal pretty nasty wounds if the rabbit would hit the target. The rabbit went on the attack and Leo was able to block the horn with its stone skin. He still felt some pain from the impact but no wound was open. He understood that arrows would not help here. He concentrated the earth element on his hand to create some sort of rock glove and gave the rabbit the strongest punch he could master. The infusion with the earth element helped him to stun the rabbit and then finish it off with a few more strikes. The rabbit was not really big. It weighted only around 3 kilos (around 6.6 pounds) but still it was his first pray. He was happy to be able to catch something. He understood the he could survive and that was the most important thing. In the following months Leo did three main activities. He hunted for food. He was not always successful and it happened for him to eat only barriers or not eat anything at all for a day or two. It felt horrible but he was used to stuff like that from his previous life. Most of his pray were the horned rabbits that attacked him because he was only a seven year old kid. The rabbits felt they had a chance to take him down. Leo got bruised by the rabbit attacks couple of times but it helped him to make a discovery. He could use his breathing technique and concentrate the energy he absorbed on his wound and it would help him to heal faster. The second thing he did was to study the earth bullet skill. It took him around eight month to study this skill. The main problem was to fire the earth bullet. He got stuck in this phase for a few months. He was able to generate the earth bullet pretty quickly but he could not make it accelerate in the way he wanted. He learned how to do it when he got very frustrated at his unsuccessful attempts and released a strong impulse from the hand that made the bullet fly in a big speed. After that it took him around a month time to understand how to release his impulse in the right way to aim properly. The moment it was set and he learned the earth bullet skill properly he could kill horned rabbits and other animals more easily because now he could defend and attack at the same time. After he learned this skill he discarded the bow and started to train the stone skin and the earth bullet the majority of the time when he was hunting. The third thing was using the breathing technique to train. He could allocate a very limited time to it because he needed to hunt and study the magic skills David imparted to him to survive. He was still at the level of the second ring after those 8 month but he was okay with that. He felt his progress over time and he was satisfied. He was now seven in a half years old. He continued with the same routine for next two years until he learned the other two skills. Stone wall was a skill that he learned in a pretty little amount of time. It took him four month for generate stable stone wall where and when he wanted them. He continued to hunt and sometimes when he saw its pray and could corner it in some way he used the stone wall for his advantage. It helped him to secure couple of deer''s that he would not be able to catch otherwise. The last and the most difficult skill was the earth spike. After the earth wall skill it was easier to get the basics of the earth spike skill but it took him two more years to be able to form the spikes in the right place and make it go up in the right angles, also there was the problem with forming its shape correctly. Making the spike not to thin, but not to thick took a long time and effort. Also in this two years Leo finally got to the third ring level of the mage apprentice. His magic power got to 305, barely passing through the limit of the third ring that was at 300 magic power level. The progress was slow but his mastery over the earth element was higher. He could manipulate the earth element in a ten meter radius from his location and could feel his surroundings for two meters with his magic sense. Leo now looked like a little wild animal. His black hair was long and his blue eyes were full of determination. He was now 1.38m in height( 4.53 feet) and with a weight of 33 kilograms(73.8 pounds). He had a lean and healthy appearance. He took a knife to cut his hair to a normal length and sat to think on what to do next. He felt that he got everything he could from this place and it was time to move on and go and explore the world. He was strong enough to survive in the danger zone now. It was finally time to go and explore the city of Rufus.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. First human encounter Leo was traveling in a moderate speed towards the town named Rufus. He did not hurry. The forest was lovely. The birds chirped and it was spring. The temperature was steadily higher then 0 celsius degrees and almost all the snow melted. Leo was dressed in a grew fur that he got from a grew wolf he hunted. He was going in the direction of the city but without getting into the inner parts of the danger zone. He did not want to encounter any "D rank" beast. He was not weak now, but he did not wish to be arrogant and die for it. Because he was getting to the city in a circular way the distance increased from round 100 kilometers to more then double then that. It did not discourage Leo. He was fine with the peaceful looking forest with the dangers that were lurking with in. After a few days of travel he covered around 40 kilometers and was surprised to see a human. Leo was not sure if to be happy or not. He understood that the burly man that he saw from afar could be a bandit or a slave trader. The man was huge! He was 2 meters tall with wide shoulders. The man was bald with a big scar on his face. He was carrying an axe in his hands and wore a light brown coat. Leo did not go out to greet the man. He first followed him for some time and saw the man fight a few goblins by himself. Leo saw him decapitate or cut them in half. It was quiet a sight to behold. Leo understood that most likely this guy was not a mage. Still he could not really understand who this person was. was he a traveller, a bandit, a slave trader or something else? Leo could not answer this question. What he could tell almost for sure is the fact that he could take this guy head on and win. With the stone wall and the earth spike skills this guy had almost zero chance of winning against Leo. After casting the stone wall Leo could locate this guy if he will be in a two meter range radius and pierce him with earth spikes until death if it will be needed to. But still he kept his distance. In the night Leo always made a cave big enough to accommodate the hut in the magic item he took from David and made a very small entrance so there will be an air supply, but in a way that if someone will look into the small hole in the surface he will see nothing but rocks and soil. This continued for a few days. Leo was sure they made almost half if the way to Rufus town when the burly man froze for a second and then started to run forward quickly. Leo was quite away so he did not understand what really happened but he followed the man. Soon he heard shouting and battle cries from afar. After a few more meters of running he saw a carriage that is being attacked by some bandits. It looks like some noble got in trouble. The guards of the carriage were being overwhelmed by the bandits. Half of the guards already died. The burly man ran and joined the bandit side. The guards looked desperate. It was a fight of five against a group of ten bandits. Because the carriage was ambushed five of the guards that were protecting the left side of the were caught of guard and died from their injuries. The rest of them grouped in a formation to protect the young lady Elly Shmidt, the daughter of their lord. They were part of a medium sized baron family that lived in the Rufus city.The familly was not very influential, but the nobel title granted Baron Alen shmidt and his family some privileges that commoners didn''t even dream of having. After a short deliberation Leo decided to help. He did not care about the guards or the Nobel hiding in the carriage. He cared to get the local currency from the bandits, because he did not have even a penny on him. He was not sure if there is a fee you need to pay, when you enter cities in the human kingdom. Also he wanted to get some general information from the noble. He ran quickly behind the bandits. His strpd were silent because the use of earth magic. It was a trick he learned when he hunter for his prey. The different animals could hear him easily and escape before he could do anything. After some experimentations he found a way to make the ground softer to some degree and allow him to move quickly and quietly. It helped him greatly in the hunting field and now it helped him to move around the battlefield unnoticed. When he got to his preferred location another guard died. Leo aimed at the back of the bandit necks. It was one of the more vulnerable places in the human body. He shot a few earth bullets at their weak spots and five if the ten bandits fell to the ground with a thud. The burly guy was free at that moment and saw Leo. "What the hell is going on. Who are you, brat?" The burly man asked. Leo didn''t even bother answering him and continued shooting down the bandits. It was a skill that took around 10 mama from Leo''s calculation. Because he had more then 300 magic power as a third ring apprentice mage he more then 600 mana (Mana is two times bigger then magic power). Because of that he could fire a lot of those earth bullets at once. The guards noticed the unexpected helper and pushed forward with all their might to finish the battle as fast as they could. They did not have much strength left. The burly man noticed the change and charged at Leo. Leo waited until the burly man got into a range of one in a half meters and made a stone wall between them. Then he used the earth spikes skill to stab the burly man from different angles that are hard to defend against. He could see the man behind the wall with his mama perception that worked in a two meter radius. When the first spike hit the target the burly man understood that he was in deep shit. He tried to break free even with a price of worsening the wound he got but it was too late. Soon he was stabbed through few times until he died, screaming in pain.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "Run!" Someone of the bandit side screamed and they started to flee in a different directions. They understood that if they did not run now they will stay here forever. The guards didn''t run after them because some of them were hurt and the other exhausted. Leo didn''t even looked at the guards and started to look for his loot. The guards stared at him for some time and when they saw he was not interested in hurting them they tended for their business. One of the guards said: "We are safe now, milady. You can come out." Leo finished looting the bandits. He did not try to touch the guards corpses. He was not the best guy in the world, but he was not a piece of shit. Leo was satisfied with his loot. He had around 20 silver coins in total. He heard from his master about the general currency of the human continent. The biggest currency was the gold coin. It was worth 100 silver coins and every silver coin was worth 100 bronze coins. Mages used magic crystals as a currency, but he did not care about mages now. He needed information about Rufus city. Elly Shmidt The carriage opened and a fine looking women got out. After that she bowed towards the entrance of the carriage and extended her hand to help her mistress to get out. When the fight happened they were both worried and we''re even thinking about a suicide. It was better then becoming a sex doll in a camp of bandits. From the carriage Leo saw a hand extended to the women and then I young girl in the age of around 13 got out to see a horror scene after the battle. She was a fine looking girl with green eyes and blonde hair. Her featured were refined and she had a bearing of a true noble. She started to get the womanly curves in the right places. Leo would give her a 8 out of 10 if he would rate her. After she got out of the carriage she got pale as the women before her, but then she started to puke her guts out. The smell of blood, piss and shit that spilled out of some of the dead people around got her a totally different feeling from what she would expect from the books she been reading recently. It sounded very noble to die in battle. Well, it didn''t look like it at all now. When she regained her cool the commander of the guards reported to her about the kid that was apparently a mage. The news got her very excited and worried at the same time. She did not know a lot about mages but most of the ones she saw were all stuck up and arrogant. She did not like those people, but she did not want offend them in any way. Getting all her bloodline wiped out was not something she considered doing. She made a courtesy for Leo and said: "Thank you for your help, your excellency! Without it we would all most likely be dead or worse..." "My name is Elly Shmidt, the daughter of Baron Elen Shmidt." She introduced herself. "You can call me Leo. I''m not someone''s excelency. I''m just a kid. Are you a resident of the Rufus town?" Leo asked. He did not like all those honorifics. ''Yeah right. A kid in my ass. You can wipe us all out if you want'' She thought. She did not want to get on his bad side because she was not sure if he wanted something from them. "Yes. My family lives in Rufus town for 3 generations already. I''m very familiar with the town" That was actually what she said. "That''s great. I have a few questions for you. Do the town have any fee or other requirements to enter? What type of guilds do this town have?" Leo asked. ''Does this guy lives under a rock or something? How he don''t know such simple things?'' She thought.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. " You do need to go through a check in the entrance of the city. It has two types of gates. One for nobles and one for commoners. The commoners pay 1 bronze coin for entrance while the nobles enter for free. In term of guilds. There are the adventures guild, the mercenary guild, the alchemy and blacksmiths pavilions. Also there are the mage and merchant associations that can interest you." Elly said. Leo nodded and said: "Thanks for the information." After that he started to walk away from the group. "Wait!" Elly said. "What is it?" Leo asked. "Can you accompany us to the city? We are heading in the same direction anyway. It will be safer together. I''m not sure we could defend ourselves with the forces we have." Elly said. "Sure I can, but for a price. Ten silver coins and I will pass with you in the noble gate." Leo said with a peaceful expression, while grinning from inside. ''What an ass.'' She thought. "Deal". She actually said. She gave him the money upfront. They buried the guards and continued forward. In their journey they stumbled on many goblins. Leo did not have a problem with them. Once they even saw a goblin warrior from afar but Leo decided to move around it''s location to be on the safer side. After two more weeks of travelling they finally saw the city walls of Rufus. The walls were around 15 meters in height. They looked magestic and aciant. Elly was happy about the fact she hired Leo. Without this little guy they would be most likely wiped out on their way. She would manage with ten guards, but after she left with the four of them they were only enough to protect her while Leo killed every enemy they encountered. Ten silver coins were worth less then her life. In the gates the check was brief because of the noble status Elly had. She told the city guards about the bandit attack. she asked them to alert the other citizens and then they finally got into the city. The city looked like a something from the middle aged history. The city looked like it had a population of around 300 to 400 thousand people. The streets were full of merchants, adventurers and hunters that were selling their products for everyone. It was interesting but Leo wanted to get into an inn, wash himself and get some rest. Leo asked Elly about a location of a worthy inn for himself. She told him about an in with the name "Sun Shine". It was located in the west side of the city near the adventurers and the mercenary guilds. The price for living included two meals a day. It sounded good for Leo. He thanked her and every one of them continued with their own path. Elly invited Leo for a visit and he said that he will come for a visit when he got all of his things sorted out. After that Leo went to the west side of the city. He saw very different worlds in the same city. In some places he saw well dressed nobles walk around with an arrogant face you will want to punch. In other parts of the city he saw poverty and misery of the commoners. ''The world don''t change no matter where you go'' He thought. After a couple of hours walking around the city and asking for directions he saw the sign "Sun Shine". Exploring the city part 1 Leo woke after a long and deep sleep. He was satisfied with the inn Elly recommended to him. The dinner was good. He ate a meat dish with a soup. He was not accustomed to the prices in the city but he thought that it was very affordable. He paid only 7 bronze coins a day and got a discount of 10 bronze coins because he payed for a full month straight. The inn director was very friendly to him. Her name was Miriam. She was a women in her mid fifties with brown hair with streaks of white in them. She looked good despite her age and gave Leo a feeling of something between a mother and a grandmother. She was a very warm person that you would like to be around. After parting with Miriam Leo decided to go and sign into the different guilds and see what they had to offer. It didn''t took Leo much time time before he arrived to the adventures guild. It was a three storey building with a big sign that you could not miss that stated "Adventures guild". The building looked imposing. Leo got into the building and saw big amount of people going in different directions. He asked few people that looked at him strangely but still answered his questions. He was interested in registering into the guild and looking at the benefits he can get from completing the missions. What interested him the most were magic spells and different information about magic. He also was interested about the power struggle in the continent. Another goal he had is to make a lot of connections that could help him promote himself in this world. He got in one of the lines for the many clerks present. He waited for around 45 minuets until his turn arrived. While waiting he was looking at the different adventurers but he didn''t saw any mages. ''Does mages are that rare here?'' He thought. He was not going to hide his abilities. He wanted to find a good backer while he was in a relatively safe surroundings of the city. When he got to the clerk he saw a beautiful women in her twenties with blonde hair and lovely smile. "Hi. My name is Wendy. How can I help you?" She asked. "Hi. I''m Leo. I''m kind of new here. I would like to register in the guild and also hear about what things the guild has to offer." Leo said. "Sure. The adventurers guild is responsible for monster subjugation and eradication, also it can have missions for collecting different ingredients for the guild or private costumers that payed for the mission to the adventurers guild. Depending on the difficulty of the task, the adventurers that complete the mission will have part of the reward the private costumer provided for the guild." Wendy said. "Do you get any privilege''s if you are a mage apprentice? Is there any rewards that can benefit a mage apprentice?" Leo asked.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Wendy raised an eyebrow, but still answered: "The main benefits for adventurers is a money compensation for completing different missions. You can get more information about magic in the mage association. If they recognize you as a magic user you will get a rank E instead of a rank F from the adventurers guild." She said. She thought that the kid tried to impress her. She even giggled in the end because it was absurd to be a magic user and not get any benefits from it until now or come with a big backing from the noble families or the guilds. "What are the levels of the adventurers?" Leo asked. Before Wendy could answer one of the adventurers from the back said in an annoyed voice: "Hey brat. Go to your mommy. Its not a game here. People are working here. Don''t waste the time of everyone." Some of the adventurers nodded and some of the didn''t really cared. It was not a rare case for teenagers to come and ask for some information. Becoming and adventurer and earning money this was something very alluring to the young generation. Children did not live in the best conditions but they did not saw death yet. Most of the youths gathered herbs and got some pocket money for their needs. Wendy looked at the adventurer in a scornful way and said: "Mister Leo waited in line just like you and he have the right to get information just like every single citizen. He is not breaking any law. The ranks of the adventurers are F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS from the lowest rank to the highest. Generally adventurer will start from rank F. F rank adventurers are considered on probation. If they will not do 10 assignments for half a year their adventurers guild card will be confiscated and their status as an adventurer will be abolished. Also they will need to pay a fee of one silver coin to make a new guild card. From rank E and higher you don''t have any limitation towards the amount of assignments you need to take. You can take mission one rank higher then what you have been given. After ten successful missions completed you can apply for a promotion. You can promote by defeating or holding on for some time against an instructor of the level you want to promote to. You cant jump ranks." Leo pondered for a couple of seconds before asking: "If I apply for the adventurers guild now and then be recognized by the mage association will I be able to still get the E rank adventurer guild card?" "Of course." Wendy replied. "Great. Then I want to apply for my guild card." Leo said. "Fair enough. Please draw a drop of blood onto this card so it will be imprinted by you. It will serve as your ID and you will not need to pay any fee for entering any city in the Usman empire. Also what it your profession and what will be your best role in a team?" Wendy asked. Leo used a knife he had in his small bag that he took from one of the bandits before and drew a drop of blood. After imprinting his guild card he said: "I''m a mage apprentice with earth element. In a team ill be a damage dealer and a support". Before one of the adventurers behind could say anything he materialized one earth bullet from each hand and held them in the air so those people will take him seriously and shut up. Exploring the city part 2 Wendy''s face changed. Her guess was totally wrong. This little guy was dead serious. She quickly finished filling all the documents and informed Leo that the process was finished. The adventurers that belittled Leo faces paled. Some of them even started to apologize. They understood that this little guy had the power of at least first circle mage apprentice that is equivalent to a knight level fighter. That was a very high level fighter for this town. Only "D rank" adventurers and higher had such strength. If those adventurers were in a lower rank they will meteorically rise in ranks. It was just a matter of time until this kid will become very influential figure in the city and those random adventurers did not want to get on his bad side. Revenge was something that could come and it was better lower their head now to not suffer later. Leo did not generally cared. He wanted to go to the mage association and register there. He understood that it was very prestigious to be a member of the association. He did not go to the mercenary''s guild and went straight to the mage association. He understood that it is better to get a status of a mage and then get all the benefits from it in all the different places. He took a carriage because he needed to travel to the other side of the city and he didn''t want to go and asked for everyone where to go every five minutes. When he got to the mage association he payed the driver 5 bronze coins and saw a building that was way more magnificent then the adventurers guild. It showed that mage towered over the other professions in this world. When he entered the mage association he saw a similar concept to what he saw in the adventurer guild but there were less people around. There were few of people going in and out and also few medium sized rows. The interior of the mage association compared to the adventurers guild looked like a noble house compared to a commoners one. He sensed magic power from most of the people present. Most of them were at a lower level then him. From some of the people he felt danger. The hall was decorated by flowers that exuded a very nice scent and also the amount of energy particles in the surroundings inside the association was higher by a small amount then outside. If someone would use the breathing technique here he will accumulate magic power 10% faster then usual. Leo was positively surprised by this discovery. The people around here looked at Leo with hostile gazes. Some even did not conceal their distain. It was understandable because the dress code of those present was very different from what Leo had on him. He was dressed like a above average commoner. He preferred the outfit to be comfortable for movement and fighting instead of looking fancy. Most of the people wore robes that emphasized their status. Leo did not care much about the gazes of the people. He came here with a simple goal. To make himself part of the mage association and get the added benefits to it. When his turn came the clerk asked him with a not so friendly tone: "What is your purpose of coming here, sir?". It was totally different to the service he received in the adventurers guild. His opinion of the mage association became worse by a big margin. He would just turn around and leave if he knew he could not get any benefits. "Hello. I would like to register into the association." Leo said. The clerk laughed and said: "Alright. To register into the mage association you need to have magic affinity to one of the elements or be at a level of a mage apprentice."Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Leo nodded and said: "This is not a problem. Where I can make the check for the affinity and the magic power?" The clerk looked at him with distain and said: "You can do the test now but it will cost one magic crystal." ''That''s how it is. I''m not surprised he looked at me that way. I''m pretty sure that people that are not connected to the magic world don''t have any of this currency on them. Well this guy is up to a big surprise.'' Leo laughed inwardly. "Here is a one magic crystal." Leo said with a flat tone and face, while getting a magic crystal from his bag he materialized by his storage ring. The clerk was very surprised and he took the magic crystal. After that he started to look at Leo in a different way. ''What a douchebag'' Leo thought. Leo did not care about the clerk change of attitude. He waited to get over with the test, get the membership and continue to explore the city and see what other benefits he can get from the different guilds and associations. The clerk gave him a token and explained the procedure. Leo will have to go into the room the clerk pointed to and there he will be checked for magic aptitude and magic power. Leo nodded and went into the appointed room. When he entered the room he saw another clerk that was a beautiful female with a better attitude then the first guy that attended him. Also in the center of the room was some kind of magic ball that was illuminating the room. Leo understood that it was some kind of magic instrument for measuring mage capabilities. He checked for his aptitude in the elven continent and he had a magic power measuring artifact with him. He knew he will have a good result but he did not want to attract to much attention. He had a ring to decrease his magic aptitude and David explained him how to play with it. He decided to cover his fire aptitude and use only earth magic for now. He wanted the fire magic aptitude to be his trump card. He tweaked the magic ring artifact on him to show only the earth element. His mentor already set up the level of his earth element before so he did not touch it. "The first test will be an aptitude test. Please put your hands on the sphere. It will show if you have any talent for magic." The clerk said. Leo nodded and put his hands on the sphere and a strong brown light shown from the round magic artifact. The clerk gasped and said: "High earth aptitude! Good heavens!" The lady was shocked and looked at the boy in front of her with a totally different eyes. She was thinking how she could get close to the kid to have some merits from their relationship, but she could not get any good idea. The mage in front of her was just a kid. He most likely did not care about her curves or any lewd stuff that she could offer. "Is it something good?" Leo tried to play the ignorant card to tease this lady. "It is incredible!" The clerk said. "Do I need to make another test or we finished?" Leo asked. "Yes sir, we need to check your magic power. Please try infuse as much of your magic power as you can into the magic sphere." The clerk said. Leo nodded and placed his hands on the magic artifact again. He did not want to reveal his true power. He infused only the power of a first circle magic apprentice into the artifact and its started to glow in a blue dim light. "First circle magic apprentice!" The clerk gasped again. She was less surprised now. It was something very rare to see in such a young age. It was a talent. True talent, but this kid showed a high talent to the earth element. Even if he did not have any magic power now many mages will be glad to take him as their disciple. Because of his aptitude he is bound to get to a level of a mage sooner or later and be a big support in the future to the party that will nourish him. She was not sure if this kid had some backing so she did not try to call any of her superiors to not offend any other mage family. Exploring the city part 3 The attendant quickly made the necessary paperwork and handed Leo the token. After that she told him to come back to the Clerk in the main hall and present him the token with the relevant data imprinted. After saying goodbye Leo went to the main hall and queued in the line for the clerk again. The guy that sent him for testing before sneaked a few glances at Leo to see any kind of emotion but found none. It was very unusual because most of the time even noble families with no magic bloodline that somehow got their hands on a magic crystal and tried to check some of the more promising heirs of their families found out that their children had no magic talent at all. The clerk like to see their disappointment and sometime despair because one magic crystal cost one thousand gold coins and in a lot of cases even if you had the coins you could not get those crystals. He thought that this kid was sent by his family to try his luck. The magic community was very closed to the outside world. It was very hard to get into it ranks even if you had the talent. When Leo got in front of the clerk he handed him the token. Even before scanning the token results with his magic power the clerk asked with a hint of distain: "How was it?". "It was ok. You can take a look by yourself" Leo said. When the clerk saw that Leo was no fun he decided to check the token. The clerk was a first circle mage apprentice with a low aptitude with the wind element. He got into the magic community by luck when a mage apprentice found about his talent and decided to take him as a disciple. It took him few years to get to his level with the help of the meditation technique his mentor gave him and he was proud of that. He suffered injustice by his mage apprentice peers because he was a commoner. Only recently when he got the job in the magic association he started to get the respect he always wanted. In the same time he enjoyed to see other people fail and suffer. When he scanned the results he froze and his smile vanished. He was at a loss for words. He tried to hide his emotions but Leo could see thought his facade. "What is the procedure now?" Leo asked. The clerk twitched his lips for a moment, then he smiled and said: "As a magic apprentice with a high talent you will get an token that identify you as a member of the magic association. Also here is a parchment with all the benefits you will get as a member of the magic association and the catalog of the services that you can acquire in the association with the prices attached. Also here is an insignia of the mage association that is allocated to any new mage apprentice. Please wear it on. It represent you as a member of our organization to the outside world. Every mage wear his insignia with pride." Leo got the token and the parchment with the insignia. He looked around and saw that indeed all of the mages wore different insignias based on their level in the organization or as a different level mages, Leo wasn''t sure. He was sure that it was worth to wear it. It could protect him from problems he did not need. It will bring him different problems in the same time. He will gain a lot of attention. He was not sure if it is good or not but maybe he could get something good from it to himself. He wore the insignia on his coat, inputted the token and the parchment in his bag, while storing them in his dimensional ring. He then turned around and left the building without even saying anything to the clerk. He will not pay his respect to such a person. This guy could not really do anything to him so he did not care about etiquette in this case. As for the parchment data. Leo decided that he will look it up in the inn after he finished with all of his plans for the day.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Some time after Leo left one of the mages that held a high position in the association got the news and got really exited and angry in the same time. It was mage Jeff. He was a middle aged man with a black hair and a plain face of an average height. If not the insignia on his robe of an official mage he would look like someone you will not notice in the crowd. He was exited because there was a kid with great talent that he could take under his wing. It will increase his status greatly in the future when he will have a fully fledged mage as a student. In the same time he was angry because his subordinates did not used their brain cells and did not get any information about the kid. Even if he wanted to look for Leo he did not know where to start. "What a bunch of idiots!" He said while clenching his teeth. Mage Jeff got down to the first floor to the hall and asked out load: "Who served the new member Leo today?". The clerk that interacted with the new kid understood that one of the higher up that got down was referring to the brat that surprised him earlier. "Sir, I was the one that served the new member of the association by the name of Leo." The clerk said. After he said that the clerk felt that the temperature in the hall got lower by a couple of degrees. He felt a bad premonition. "You will be deducted your pay for this month of work." Mage Jeff said calmly. "Sir, may I know what I did wrong?" The clerk asked. Mage Jeff did not deliberate about the reason and just said: "Because you are an idiot." After that mage Jeff turned around and left. Some of the people looked at the clerk with ridicule. People always respected the strong. Even if the clerk did well it will not matter if some of the higher ups will think differently. In the same time mage Jeff called some of the people he knew in town with a magic items they exchanged so they keep an eye for a kid named Leo. He wanted to try to take this kid under his wing if he will have a chance. Leo did not knew that he caused a small commotion in the mage association. He was on his way back to the adventurers guild and arrived there shortly after. He still felt strange interacting with people. He was alone for around three years. It was a comfortable feeling to be by himself and he was not sure he could find comrades he could trust with his life on the line. As someone who wanted to be an adventure and a mercenary he would be a part of a team most of the time. He was not sure how he felt about it. He understood that he should always be vigilant and trust someone whos friendship and loyalty was tested by time and different life situations. He talked to the driver for some time and found out that there is a auction house in town. Also he came up as a worried child about the fact that he heard that there is a slave problem in this region and tried to probe the waters in this direction too. The driver of the carriage was an old man with many wrinkles on his face, white short hair, long nose. He did not look to good but his gentle elderly nature and his good heart won a positive attitude from most of his costumers. Leo was one of them. The old man said that this is indeed a problem but recently the authorities are making an effort to decrease the amount of slaves on the streets. Leo understood that the old man tried to cheer him up and nodded to the old man. He now knew that there was a chance to purchase a slave and he was seriously considering this possibility. He wanted to have people he could trust and it was the easiest way to build a good team. If he would struggle to find a good group he will have to build the team by himself from slaves. He will try to avoid it generally because he respected freedom and fought for it in his previous life. He wanted to make things right but in the same time he wont shy from making a decisions that will be frowned upon by most people. Shmidt family fortune While Leo was exploring the Rufus city Elly arrived at the residence of her family. She felt like a big rock fell from her heart. She could finally relax. She felt safe. The residence of their family was a an average looking stone build medium sized mansion. For a baron noble family inside the city it was nothing special. There were barons with their domains but in big cities noble families lived a mansions of different sizes and controlled only a small portion of land from the area that the city was build on. There were places where nobles could have a domain allocated to them but generally they were not habited by many citizens and were isolated from the outside world. If those nobles pay their taxes and don''t cause to big of a trouble no one really cared what would happen to the people serving those families. The Shmidt mansion had two floors in total. On the first floor they had a kitchen, rooms for servants with bath facilities and a big hall for social events. The second floor was the Shmidt family members residence. It had few big rooms with all the necessary furniture needed for a noble. The family was not big and more then half of the rooms were vacant on the second floor. The elders already died from old age. Elly''s father planned to have a big family here but his plans were in vain. Like Elly mentioned to Leo her fathers name was Elen. He was a forty years old man with blonde hair with some parts of it starting to turn white. He had wide shoulders with a height of 1.9 meters, he had a stern look most of the time and exuded the aura of a true warrior. He was a third circle knight. People on a level of a knight were respected in town. Generally other citizens would have to give them the respect they deserved. Elen''s wife Kaily had died during labor. Elen had three children. A girl and two boys. Elly was the youngest of the three. She was only twelve years old. In a couple of days she will turn thirteen. Her two brothers Greg and Felix were eighteen and twenty years old respectably. Both of the brothers went after their father steps and became apprentice knights. They both were at the 8 circle and it was not bad for their age. Felix was a little stronger and closer to the ninth ring because he was older by two years. With the rise of the level of any profession in this world it will become harder to advance. Both looked very similar to their father externally. Such amount of children may look good in our days but in this world of sword and magic having multiple children is the norm. No one will be really surprised for a family to have around seven children. The Shmidt family was still an average family in the rank of barons because it was not common to have 2 children with a talent to become a knight. That''s why this little family was still on the flow. Recently Elen had a fortunes encounter and got his hands on a magic crystal. He was on a mission to protect high ranking nobles. They were attacked and a lot of people died in the process from both sides. One of the people that died dropped this magic crystal. Elen quickly took a hold of this magic crystal and hid it in his bag. He knew that this could cause his death but it was worth it! Back in the Smidt residence he was waiting for his daughter to take a chance. To try and make a lip of faith. After the death of his wife he felt that he wanted to help his daughter to try and live a better life or a least to have a choice in life instead of becoming a wife and basically becoming a property of her husband''s family. Even if she would go to other noble family he knew that there was not a small chance for her to encounter misfortune and abuse. When he got the news that his daughter returned he was rejoiced. She wanted to explore the danger zone and maybe obtain some sort of decision of what she wanted to dedicate her life for.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Some nobles started to try and marry her to one of their offspring''s in a hope to get a strong backing of a family with a future three knights. It was a good deal for someone that did not have any magic bloodline. That''s why Elen wanted his daughter to try different things in life before she come to some sort of conclusion. After he got the magic crystal he was resolute on giving her a chance to check her magic aptitude. He knew that they needed to proceed with the check quickly before someone will get the news of him having a magic crystal. Other families with similar power will not hesitate to try and attack him and his family to get the magic crystal. When he heard that Elly, his daughter was attacked on her way back his heart sank. He rushed to see what happened. When he saw that only some of the guards were dead he felt relived. It was a big loss but the guards could be trained again. He had only three children he was not ready to lose. "Elly are you alright?" Elen asked, looking very worried. "Father you will not believe what happened to us. We were attacked in the danger zone by bandits. It was a sneak attack and because of that half of the guards were killed almost immediately. My maid and I were ready to end our lives to not end as play mates for all the bandits but we were saved by a mage. He helped us to annihilate the bandits. Then he escorted us to the town for a pay after he took all the possessions from the bandits." Elly said. ''It sound like some story of a princess that got saved by a guy on a white horse. What the hell..'' He thought. "Is that really what happened?" He asked. "Of course it what happened Dad. What do you mean?" Elly asked. "Okay, Okay. I believe you. What type of mage this guy was? Did you like him?" Elen asked. He wanted to tease his daughter and he succeeded really easily. Elly looked dissatisfied with all the questioning but still answered. Her father acted strangly. "Dad that guy was very strange. He was younger then me but he controlled earth magic on a very high level. He even killed a huge burly guy using multiple different spells. He also shot more then thirty earth bullets at the other bandits and killed most of them solo." Elly said. ''What the hell?'' Elen thought. "Are you sure? Is he really younger then you?" Elen asked. "Of course I''m sure Dad. Why do you ask me? Why should I lie? You can just ask the guards if you don''t believe me." Elly said while pouting. ''That''s a great idea'' Elen thought. "Of course I believe you sweetheart! Go and rest. After dinner come to my office. We have a very important thing to discuss." Elen said. "Okay Dad. I will take my leave first" Elly said. After that she hugged her father and went to her accommodations to rest. After Elen talked with the four guards that survived the incident and confirmed that his daughter was not telling things because she got over exited he began to plan how to get this guy on his side and maybe even into his family. Lip of faith At dinner the family gathered together like always. The two brothers, Greg and Felix got back from the goblin dungeon. They honed their skills in this dungeon for almost every day. Those bloody battles helped the two brothers to earn some coins, increase their efficiency with knight skills they learned and help them to increase their level of cultivation. Both brothers were graduates from a second rate knight academy and were in a pretty good ranking when they graduated. The older brother Felix was the leader of the "Shmidt adventurer''s" and the "Smidt mercenary''s" groups in the adventurers groups. The names were very simple as the brothers founding them. Most of the time the brothers worked as an adventurers because they did not like to hurt or kill people. Both of the adventurer and the mercenary teams were "D rank" on the lower side. From all the members only the two brothers were "D rank" adventurers and mercenaries. It was understandable because they were close to a level of a knight. Sometimes their friend that was also a "D rank" adventurer from the academy named Felix went with them, but that was a pretty rare occurrence. So most of the time only the two brothers had to coordinate and take care of their team. Both brothers were really happy to see their little sister back. When they heard what happened with their sister they both were enraged. They told her that in the next time they will be accompanying her. They also told her that they will teach this little brat that used her desperate situation for his own goals a lesson. As older brothers they were overly protective of their younger sister Elly. "Hold your horses. You cannot offend this little guy. I''m pretty sure that even if you attack him together you will most likely lose. I''m not sure if I can win against him in a one versus one fight. If this guy has some strong spell I will have a big problem facing him. Also he is an earth type mage. It is the best type of mage to fight knights head on. They have a sturdy defense and good attacking skills. This is the most balanced branch of mages in term of attack and defense capabilities. So don''t do anything stupid you regret later." Elen said. The two brothers snorted but didn''t said anything. Elen understood that they got the point. After dinner Elly came to her fathers office for a talk. Elen did not walked in circles and said what he had on his mind. "Elly I have a gift for you. Maybe it will change your and our life for the better in the future. Maybe it wont but it still worth a try. Do you know what it is?" Elen asked while getting the magic crystal out. Elly shook her head. "It is a magic crystal. Tomorrow we will got and check your aptitude in the mage association. I know that our ancestors had magic abilities. It was around two hundred years ago. I don''t know the details but I want you to try your luck Elly. Me and your brothers don''t have the character to become mages. We are knights in heart. We will continue walking this path. Even if we have aptitude we most likely wont be ready to study a new profession from zero. If you have some aptitude for magic I will make my best to make you get on the path of a mage. There is nothing to lose." Elen said.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Elly stayed silent for some time and then said: "Father there is no need for that. It is better to sell this crystal and help my brothers get to a level of a knight." "We have a lot more chances to get wiped out before we sell this magic crystal. We need to use it as fast as possible." Elen said with a stern tone. Elly lowered her head and said: "I understand father." After they finished their discussion it was decided to go to the mage association after breakfast. Elen informed Elly to not let anyone know about that. Not even her two brothers. As long as the magic crystal was located in their residence they were in grave danger. In the day after the father and daughter duo took the family''s carriage and rushed to the mage association after having breakfast. When they arrived there they saw the same image Leo saw before. They stood in one of the lines for the clerk and after around fifteen minutes their turn arrived. The clerk this time was more friendly from the one Leo saw and he looked at them with a puzzled expression. "Hello Sir, Miss. What is your goal coming here? Can I help you with something?" The clerk asked with a genuine smile that surprised the father and daughter duo. They saw few people look at them with distain. Mages were a very privileged group of people that had big amount of power. They had longer lifespan and could wipe out a baron family with no real consequences. "I would like to check my daughter''s aptitude for magic. Here is the magic crystal needed for this." Elen said while handing the magic crystal like it was some kind of biological weapon that could erupt at any moment. The clerk looked at the baron with understanding. He knew what danger this item possessed for this family. He took the payment and said, while pointing at a door nearby : "Please take this token and go to this room please. There you will have a magic aptitude check." Elly went to the room the clerk pointed to. She was very nervous. She did not want to disappoint her father that put so much hopes on her. She knew that her chances to have even a small talent was extremely low. When she entered the room she saw the same female clerk that took care of Leo and greeted her. The clerk had the same instructions for Elly as she did for Leo: "Please put your hands on the magic sphere. It will show your aptitude if you have one." Elly nodded and complied to the request. She putted her hands on the ball and prayed that this opportunity will not go in vain. Soon the sphere shown with blue weak light. "Congratulations, you have a low aptitude for the water element." The clerk said with a smile. Elly was elated. She did not understand what did this gave her but she knew it was a positive result. "Now please circulate your magic power into the ball to measure your level as a mage" The clerk said. "How can I do it?" Elly asked. The clerk smiled and said: "Don''t worry. Just concentrate on the ball as much as you can." Elly nodded and soon the expected result came. "Magic power is one." The clerk said. "Is it good?" Elly asked. She had no idea what was the meaning of the result. The clerk did not want to disappoint the girl to much so she said: "You need 100 magic power for level one mage apprentice." Elly nodded and asked: "What is the process now?" "I will record your data and send you back to the clerk in the main hall to record your data." the clerk said. When Elly got out of the room Elen looked at her with an expected gaze. When he got the news he was over the moon with joy! He thought that this was the turning point for his family. A magic bloodline. His family had a chance to nurture a mage! Even with her low talent for magic if Elly will get to a level of a mage apprentice she will be on a level of a knight! It sounded like a dream for Elen. Reality Check After waiting in line for the clerk for a fifteen minutes in line they got to see the same clerk again. The father and daughter duo could not conceal their happiness and excitement. Starting a mage bloodline was something Elen could only dream about. And now he could help his daughter to start a new chapter for their family. The clerk looked at them in a strange way. He could not really understand what''s was going on with the duo. Elly handed the clerk the token and stared at him expectantly. "Oh, you have a low aptitude for the water element. Congratulations." The clerk said. "Thank you!" Elly said. She was beaming like a second sun. "Here is a token for you as a representation of you becoming a part of the mage association. Also here is a little booklet with the general data about the mage association with all you need to know. I wish you good luck on your way as mage." The clerk said in a mechanic voice. It looked like it was something he did on a regular base. Also Elly was handed a booklet and not a parchment like Leo because she had no magic power to use for now. "Thank you!" Elly said, excited. After Elly got all the items from the clerk she and her father went back to the carriage and drove back for the Shmidt residence. On the way both father and daughter looked at the booklet with interest. There were facilities for mages, potions, spell models like earth bullet(skills), magic artifacts, different cultivation and mediation techniques to increase magic power and other things for sale they did not know how to use. There was only one problem. All of those could be only purchased only by magic crystals and the amount was not low. The prices for the facilities for mages were from 10 magic crystals per hour, potions could cost from 10 magic crystals up to a few thousand. It depended on the level of the mage. Spell models started from 50 magic crystals. Near every spell there was a note with the magic power recommended to cast the selected spell. Also there was a brief explanation about the levels of the mage apprentice and how much magic power needed to get a first circle magic apprentice power. When the father and daughter duo saw that Elly needed one hundred magic power to get a level one circle of the mage apprentice class they were shocked. Elly was not even close. She was like blind infant with the possibility to grow but with no recourses to do so. She and her father saw that she needed cultivation technique of some sort to advance as a mage. When they saw the prices for those techniques they both lost color on their faces. It was five hundred magic crystals minimum for the cheapest meditation technique. There were also breathing techniques but they costed over a thousand magic crystals. There was another way to get those skills. By getting contribution points after finishing missions of the mage association. But there was a one big problem with the contribution points system. You needed to get to a level of a first circle mage apprentice before you could take any mission. That meant that all ways for outsiders to get any possibility to go a path of a mage was pretty much zero. Elen got gloomy and Elly started to cry silently. They understood that with no external help there is no chance for Elly to get anything done even with her low aptitude for magic.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The road back was made in silence. Elly looked in the distance. She was not focused and went into her own world, thinking about random things. That was her way to shake herself out of the stress she felt today. Elen was pondering on a way to somehow change the situation and find a way for his daughter to become a mage. "Elly this little guy you met is from some mage bloodline. Is he a noble?" Elen asked. Elly got out of her daze and after some deliberation answered: "I''m not sure but he looked more like a commoner and not a noble. He robed the people he killed. He even took their bags. This is not something that a noble will do generally." Elen was elated and said: "This little brat is our chance! We need to contact him and try get some information from him. If he complies I will be glad to get him into our family!" Elly was very surprised by this revelation. Her over protective father, just like her two older brothers will not generally like the youths that come and make any move on her. Her two older brothers even beaten couple of them pretty harshly because the way they treated Elly. In the question of her future husband there were no people she really liked. Because the current era represented a time where families decided on the future of their offsprings, sometimes even at their infancy, love or a really sincere relationships were a rare case. The Shmidt family was different in this case. The father and brothers really cared for Elly to find someone she really liked. Of course this candidate will need to pass their test and this challenge will won''t be anything easy. "We can try." Elly said. She had a complicated expression in her face. She did not really like that little guy but he still saved her and her subordinates lives. After some time of silence between the father daughter duo Elen finally spoke again: "Do you know where to find the little guy? What''s his name once again?". "His name is Leo. If he listened to my advice he should be at the Sun Shine inn." Elly said. "Great! I have good connections with Miriam, the owner of this inn. I''m sure that I can ask her if he is really one of her residences. We need to act quickly. If this guy is as good as you told me many people will take notice of him and will try to recruite him in one way or another." Elen said. Meeting Leo went to the adventurers and the mercenary guilds to register again as a mage. People could say they are mages but someone with token and insignia from the mage association suggested that they have magic talent and are at least a first circle mage apprentice. That was the same power as a first circle knight. It was a given for him to get to "D rank" adventurer and mercenary in a very short amount of time. This was something that attracted a lot of attention from E, D and even C ranked groups of adventurers and mercenaries. They did not really believed the kid could be of use right now in terms of fighting. It was more of an investment for the future. They knew that Leo could aid their teams a lot when he matured and could use his powers freely. Leo did not know this then but mages could enhance weapons with their magic power to increase different stats of the weapon for some time. There were some other techniques that could enhance the weapon magickly for an unlimited amount of time but they were sold for magic crystals in the blacksmiths pavilion. The temporary magic enchantment could be bought by one gold coin from the blacksmiths as well. The enchantment was at least for one day. It depend on the magic power used by the mage. The good thing about the enchantment is that it could be used even by beginner mages with low magic power. It could increase the team power by a huge amount. Weapons that got boosted in power by a lot could save a lot of coins on weapons and increase the amount of earning the team could get by a large margin. Generally it could boost an adventurer or a mercenary powers team by a whole rank. Adventurers were ignorant about other magic abilities of mages but even with what they knew it was worth taking such kids and babysitting them. If those mages will mature in the future and be of help it will be great. Even if it wont happen it will be still a good type of support that will be popular among the different adventurer and mercenary teams. For now Leo told all those people he is not sure how he want to proceed. He told them that he was considering opening his own team and if it wont work out he will join one of the teams. The people that addressed him nodded with a smile while sneering from the inside. They believed that this kid was out of his mind to make something alone at the age of ten. They got to some kind of understanding between themselves to let the kid make mistakes and then come to them alone. This was a chance for them to get better conditions for their teams in the future comparing to what this kid will get right now in the negotiations process. Leo was very interested in those enchasing arts the mages could make. He wanted to go to the blacksmith pavilion later and find out what kind of enchantments he could use with magic. He looked at the sky that was darkening and decided to return to the "Sun Shine" inn. He took a carriage and after handing the driven a few copper coins as payment after arriving at the inn location he got out and was on the way to enter the building with the words "Sun Shine" written all over it when he spotted another carriage with the coat of arms he recognized very well. It was the coat of arms of the Shmidt family!Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ''What does this little girl want from me? Did she also wants to invite me her adventurer team? What a pain in the ass..'' Leo thought. He did not want to run away from her. He wanted to hear what she had to say and if he will understand that she is saying some kind of bullshit he will make a big effort the explain her in any way to leave him alone for good. He helped her before but that was for his own benefit in the end of the day. He got closer to the carriage of the Shmidt family and confirmed that there was no-one there but the driver only. After exchanging a few words with driver he understood the father daughter duo were waiting for him inside the inn. After letting out a sigh Leo got into the inn. He saw that the duo was siting in the dining hall and eating dinner. They both had satisfied faces. Leo understood the reason for this. The food here was not really sophisticated but surely it was worth the price. When the father daughter duo saw Leo they abruptly stood up. Elly walked toward him and invited him to join them. Leo knew he did not really had any chances of running away from the duo right now and he was hungry and ready to have his dinner as well so he agreed. When he got to the table he saw a man that resembled Elly in the hair color and some features of his face. He was burly, at a height of 1.9 meters and his name was Elen. Both Leo and Elen measured each other at the same time while Leo was walking to the table. Both felt danger from each other. It was not surprising because they were at the same level of power if we compare knights with mages. Elen wanted to establish a good relationship with the kid because he needed his help. Generally he did not want to offend a mage. Even one that was with no backing from the report he got. "Hi Leo. I heard a lot about you from my daughter. It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Elen Shmidt and I''m the head of the Shmidt family. We came here today for a serious discussion but before we start please eat your meal with us. Talking about serious matters is bad on an empty stomach." Ellen said, while gesturing Leo at the table. "Thank you, Sir" Leo said. He knew that he did not lose in status to this guy in front of him but he did not wanted to make the relationship bad before he heard what the duo had to say. After the trio finished eating dinner they ordered different drinks and sat down for a talk. Ultimatum to crack some jokes to see how Leo reacted. Generally Leo saw that they were not bad people but he could not tell more then this. The trio sat at the edge of the inn dining hall to not attract any unneeded attention from the other sparse costumers that were eating dinner too at different tables at a big room that caused people to feel comfort. Maybe it was Miriam good attitude or the general positive atmosphere but the "Sun Shine" inn was a place that you wanted visit. After clearing his throat Elen said: "Leo we came here to ask you for a favor. Recently we got to the mage association and it was discovered that Elly has a low water aptitude talent for magic." Leo nodded and said: "Congratulations Elly!" He did not say anything more and waited for Elly or Elen to continue their part. He understood that Elen most likely wanted his help in some way and he was not going to be the hero on the white horse that come and save the day. He was ready to consider or debate on the terms but he was not ready to help for free. It is something that he will do only for family, subordinates or slaves that cant betray him in any way. It was something he practiced from his previous life. When you saw how low humans could fall during times of war nothing really will surprise you anymore. "Thank you!" Elly said, but she did not really have any enthusiastic smile on her face. She understood that even with higher aptitude she will not get anything until someone will let her into the mage circle. Elen saw the awkward smile on his daughter face and it made him feel helpless and hopeful at the same time. He had to convince this little brat to teach his daughter mage techniques. Elen was pretty sure that it will be not that hard. It was still only a kid. Give him a gold coin and the deal is sealed. "We need help with teaching Elly how to increase her magic power and use it. We are ready to pay few gold coins. They will be payed when we see progress in Elly''s abilities" Elen said. He did not really know anything about magic generally. From what he saw from the parchment she needed a meditation or a breathing technique and some kind of spells. He was not really sure on what she needed the most.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ''This guy surely thinks I''m dumb or something'' Leo thought. He was pretty mad on the inside, but smiled brightly. ''This guy wanted to get things that can be bought only by magic crystals in a big amount for gold coins. What a joke.'' "I agree." Leo said. Elen and Elly were ecstatic from what they heard but then.. "Only if you pay by magic crystals and sigh up a magic contract to not teach my techniques to anyone else" Leo said. Leo had a big amount of those magic contracts that were left for him by David. He understood what those things were after he saw them when he scanned with his magic power the services that the mage association provided. If you go back on your word in the contract you will get a huge backlash from this scrolls and most likely die or be in an unconscious state like some kind of plant. Elen''s and Elly''s faces changed and they were at a loss for words for a short time. Soon Elen recovered from his stupor and said: "We can add other benefits if needed." "I need magic crystals or something equivalent in value" Leo said flatly. ''What a brat. He don''t act like a child at all. What the hell is wrong with him'' Elen thought. "What can we give you so you agree to teach my daughter?" Elen asked. "Noble title and control over your family." Leo said. "What!?" Elen stood up and said. He understood that he reacted in a too much radical way when people looked at him strangely. He apologized to the other consumers and sat down. "You don''t have to agree. It is just what I want. I don''t think it is too much. It takes a big amount of recourses to study magic and there is really nothing you can give me. If you give me control over the family I would train Elly because she will become my ally and maybe even partner in the future. It is an investment worth making. If you agree and sign the magic contract I will know that your family could not betray me. This what is the most important thing for me right now. If you want you can marry Elly to me so the Shmidt family will be bound to me and I will be bound to you by blood relations" Leo said with a serious face. The father and daughter duo became quite for a long time. Their faces changed from anger to sadness and then to a deep thought. "Can we think about it?" Elen asked. "Sure. Lets meet tomorrow morning." Leo said. "Can we think about it for more time?" Elen asked again. "Sure you can but I cant guarantee that the deal will be valid. Other people may contact me and offer me something better." Leo said. He generally thought that this family should be a good choice. Also he wanted to take control over a family or organization he will join. He did not want to be a small pawn that could be easily manipulated by a strong family. It was easier for him to take a relatively weak and small family and increase their foundations until the needed level. "Okay." Elen said. He did not think it will be that hard to negotiate with a kid. After that the duo bet fair well to Leo and left. Decision Elly and Elen got into the carriage in a sour mood. They both did not like what they heard. After some time of silence Elly finally spoke: "I think we should decline this offer father. It is not worth to give our freedom for such a thing." Elen did not think to much and said: "I think you are wrong. This chance is something our family might not come by in the near future. When I say future I mean decades in the best case scenario. What I think we should do is to make some rules for this kid or some kind of barriers so he could not bully us. We should talk to your older brothers as well. I''m not sure they will take this loss well. I hope they could understand." After saying this Elen sighed. He knew how stubborn those two fellows could be. He hoped they could see the bigger picture. The rest of the trip for the father daughter duo was silent. Each of them was thinking of different things. The daughter understood that her father wanted her to hold onto this Leo brat in the best way she could. She was not sure what she felt about it. She could tell that this little guy was not simple and even put her and her father in a disadvantage during the negotiations. She felt anger and respect at the same time. It was something hard to describe. Leo was laying on his bed in a good mood. He could feel that this unexpected meeting went extremely well for him. He saw the desperation in Elen''s eyes and he knew that most likely he would get his Nobel status soon. At the Shmidt residence at the evening table. "What the hell is that supposed to mean!? We will give the position of the Baron of our family to some outsider brat? Elly don''t need to be strong. We will be able to protect her. She don''t need this boy." The brothers yelled with bloodshot eyes. They did not understand why their father was ready to sacrifice so much for this chance. They lived relatively well and did not really need anything. "You don''t understand. If we can rope the little brat into our family we will have a chance to start a magic bloodline. You just don''t really know the disparity between a family of knights and a family of mages. The possibilities your children will have will be a lot higher. They will be more protected and they will have an inheritance to the level of at least a magic apprentice. This is no joke. This is not something we could get by our own effort even after a hundred years or even more then that. Can''t you see that?" Elen said. After that he continued: "If you think you are so capable try and defeat this guy two versus one. If you will win we talk with him about stricter conditions. But if you lose you have to let me negotiate and make the final decision. Do you agree?".Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! "We do father. It will be a easy. Win a ten year old kid even with some magic capabilities is nothing special." The brothers answered. "Alright then. I take you on your word. Let''s see what this brat has to offer" Elen said. After the discussion ended the family finished dinner and went for their rooms. Both brothers were preparing their weapons and armor like they were going to war. They were ready to cut that brat in half and not let their sister have anything with him. They both were sure that their win was insured. The day after the Shmidt family was having an early breakfast. The father and daughter duo were pretty calm on the outside but very expectant on the inside, while the brother duo were giving vibes of going for the kill. The family ate the breakfast pretty quickly and departed for the "Sun Shine" inn. When they arrived at the inn they needed to wait for almost a hour until Leo got out to have breakfast. Generally the Shmidt family was not very happy about what was happening. They did not talk about it and waited patiently for the kid but it still hurt their pride. The Shmidt''s did not disturbed the brat. Leo also saw them but he decided to have a good meal and wake up to have a good business transaction with this Baron family. After finishing his meal Leo greated the father daughter duo: "Mr. Elen, Elly good morning. Did you think about my proposal? Who are those two gentlemen here?" Leo was pretty sure that those two guys were blood related to Elly and Elen in some way. Generally he really he did not care. It was a good plus for him. The two guys looked sturdy and strong. It was more man power that he could use in the future. "We are Greg and Felix Shmidt. Nice to meet you" Felix said, not looking happy in any way, shape or form. He was the older and stronger brother so he was the leader during negotiations for his team most of the time. "Nice to meet you too." Leo responded, nodding. "Did you think of my request?" Leo asked. "Yes we did, but we have a condition. Fight us so we can see that it is worth to make an investment in you." Felix said. He was ready to fight right here and right now. "Is this really necessary? From what I can see you are still not on a knight level, right? You are still apprentice knight. What is the point of us fighting? You cant win. I''m not sure about who is stronger between me or Mr. Elen but you are not qualified." Leo said. He did not want to waste time with those guys. They can fight with someone else from what he thought. "This is really part of us assessing you as the future of our family." Elen said with a serious voice. He was not really sure who will win a one versus one battle if they both fought. He felt that this kid was not weak. Leo sighed and then said: "Well then. As you wish." Fight and breakthrough Leo and the Shmidt brothers went into a secluded place out of the borders of the city. Of course Elly and Elen joined them. Elen was ready to stop the fight if someone will go over the edge in terms of the damage dealt to the other side. He was more worried about his two sons then Leo. "Well you can attack me whenever you are ready." Leo said with a flat tone. He found all of this very boring. It was not a test for his power but a test for his patience. He was ready to show those guys who is the boss here so they will not make any problems for him later. The brothers exchanged a glance and charged at Leo with their shields and swords drawn. Leo sighed and started to shoot earth bullets at those guys while applying the stone skin on himself. He was not going to use the earth bullets in full force and also was not going to use the earth spike skill. He did not want to kill them by mistake. The brother duo did not really knew how to fight mages and because of that they decided to take those hits head on and placed the shield before their vital points. The shields did not cover all their bodies and because of that some of the earth bullets hit the brothers legs that were not covered. Most of the attack hit the shields and they dented under Leo relentless attack. The ones that hit the legs of the brothers cause wounds to open and blood gashed out of them. ''Oh man. They cant even take the weakened attacks.'' Leo sighed internally. "Just give up. I don''t even use the skill in a full force. If I did you both would be dead already." Leo said and shot two earth bullets with full force. The bullets hit the shield and caused both brothers to fall back. They stared at the kid with horror. ''How is he that strong? He is only 10 years old. Holy shit.'' They thought. After that their anger overcame their fear and they shouted pretty similar phrases. It sounded like: "Fight us in a close range battle. It is not fair to fight knights from long range." Leo smirked with distain and said: "That''s what you are going to say to every mage you will meet? You will not live for long that way. Also I have more skills to isolate you in a close range battle and kill you without any chances for you to retaliate." After Leo said that he made a few stone walls around him and then used a few earth spikes in quick succession. The meaning of this action was simple. You come close to me and you will die. There is only one chance to survive. To destroy the stone walls fast and attack Leo in a speed he could not react to. It was not very realistic. The brothers duo understood that they had no chance at all. It was not even close. Elly was shocked by this display of strength. It was one thing to kill some bandits but to win two high level apprentice knights was another thing altogether. Elen on the other hand was calm in the beginning of the fight because he did saw low level mage apprentices fight and he knew about the stone bullet skill but the final hit on the brothers and the two other skills he saw confirmed the fact that this brat had the power to fight him on an equal ground and maybe even win. It is just a matter of time before he will get overshadowed by Leo in terms of fighting strength. He sighed and said internally: ''Where is this little guy came from? He is a genius. A true prodigy. We need this guy more then he needs us. We need to close this deal.''Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. "This enough Felix, Greg. You are not his match. Go and tend you wounds. I will take the negotiations from now on." Elen said. The brothers looked at Leo for some time and then sighed. After a short while they stood up and were ready to leave but Leo stopped them. "Wait. I can help you tend your wounds. At least increase the rate of recovery." Leo said and put his hands on both of them. After that he started to rotate the world energy that he attracted by his breathing technique in their bodies. He knew he was not really a healer but he could tend small wounds by using the world energy he was attracting by his breathing technique. The wounds started to close is a very slow phase. It was still a very impressive feat. Two hours passed and an unexpected thing happened. Felix that was at a bottleneck for a long time started to feel that it was loosening up and he said: "Leo please don''t stop what you are doing. I think I''m about to break through to the ninth stage." "Alright. You can use your knight technique and I will try to adjust my rhythm to your technique." Leo said. "Can you really do that?" Felix asked. "He was ready to try and break through with only the energies that were rotating in his body. He was not sure if he could succeed that way but with the help of his breathing technique he knew that his chances were on the higher side now. Felix started to use his knight breathing technique and life force entered his body in a steady phase. Leo felt that his energies were going all over the place but not in the direction they should because of the breathing technique Felix started to use. It took him some time to adjust. He saw the tense facial expression of Felix relax with time. After around two more hours of this process Felix opened his closed eyes and said: "Get back!" Leo complied and went to the other Shmidt family members to see if Felix would succeed or not. With most techniques when you tried to break through there was a chance of failure. Because of that the body condition of the participant needed to be at top condition and really reach a bottleneck. Otherwise there was a good chance of failure and a backlash. This backlash will take time to treat and could slow he future progression of the person trying to breakthrough. Because of that people preferred to breakthrough in one go. Felix released a strong battle cry and the energy of a ninth rank knight apprentice gashed out of his body. He was Elated. "I broke trough!" He shouted. Agreement Felix was over the moon with happiness. He was stuck at the 8 circle of knight apprentices for a couple of years already and could not progress no matter what he did. He thought his little brother Greg will surpass him in the near future and he will stay behind. Now he was very excited about the fact that he was only one step away from getting to a level of a bono mighty knight. A true knight. That was a big threshold that a lot of people could not overcome. Now with the potential help from Leo he was sure that his chances getting there were higher. Greg was also very excited about his brother success. He was worried that his progress will affect Felix not in the right way. Now he was relived. He felt that he still did not get to the bottleneck of the 8 circle yet but it was close. He could progress with no worries now. Leo looked at this scene with a smile. He did not care helping this guy. It was a plus for his side in the negotiations. "I guess we finished the testing phase. Let''s end this meeting already and come to an agreement. I told you what I wanted yesterday and it did not change. What do you think?" Leo asked. He wanted to get influence and power. It will open some doors to him. If he will get along with Elly he will be glad. If not, he still gets all the power and she could just be his wife in name and birth children from a man she would love. He did not really mind that. He had a very long lifespan. David told him that he will live few thousands of years. He was not really sure about that, but he was sure he will live for a long enough time to find his love and establish his family. Elen changed his elated expression from his son breakthrough to a more serious one and said: "We agree to your request, but we do have some conditions. You have to teach Elly everything you know about magic and help her in her path of a mage, you need to protect her and not cause any intentional harm to her, you cannot scheme against our family members. If there is some real danger in one of your plans that can cause harm to one of our family members you need to tell us. It will be ok if we agree to help you from our own will. Of course, we will take you in as a family member with all the good and the bad it can bring with the potential good times and hardships our family will go through. We can disagree on some things, but we are not bad people, and we will take care of you. We expect you will do the same. You will inherit the family at the age of 13 when you become an adult. I cannot give you all the power now. It can lead to the downfall of the family. If you need to leave for some reason, I can manage the family in your place. Of course, I will take care of the fact that you will inherit the baron title from me. I want those conditions written in the magic contract that we sign."If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Leo contemplated for a short time and said: "It sounds good to me. Now I want to have access to the family funds and become the leader of your family adventurer and mercenary teams if you have them. From what I heard from talking with different people you should have something like that. I am sure in my ability to lead those teams and get them to a higher level in a short amount of time. I''m ready to teach Elly my breathing technique but it will all depend on her. I can show her a skill book of only the heal spell. I don''t have any more water base spells. I have spells from other elements that she can try and duplicate those spells with the water element. Her ability to succeed depends more on her then on me. Also don''t expect her to become a mage apprentice tomorrow. It took me two in a half months to get to a level one mage apprentice. I have a very high aptitude to my element and because of that it should take her around a year or even a little more to achieve the same thing. We are going to become a family so I can tell you my real power level, but you must keep it as a secret. It will be also part of our agreement. You will not disclose to anyone information that I don''t want about me and also you cannot harm me intentionally or plot against me." After some contemplation Elen nodded and said: "I see. Can you tell me your power level now?" "I am third circle mage apprentice now. It will take me some time to get to the next level." Leo said. The Shmidt family members fell silent. They did not know how to respond. He was ten years old but already that strong. They did not think they heard of someone getting to such a high level at such young age. Elen voiced those thoughts out load and said: "Leo you are a true prodigy of your generation. I will wait for the day you will get to the top of this continent and bring the Shmidt family together with you." Leo smiled and said: "I will try my best. Let''s sign the contract now. I will write it with my magic power so you all can see it on the document. If you want to change something, tell me and if you agree you need a drop of your blood to touch this parchment. After all of us will enhance this contract with our blood the deal will be sealed." Leo wrote the things that were said in the meeting now. After Elen saw what was written he nodded and made a drop of his blood fall onto the parchment. All the other Shmidt family members did the same thing. The two brothers also did the same thing with much more enthusiasm than they ever imagined. Like any other warrior they respected strength and this kiddo showed them that he is on par with their family head. It was more than enough for them. Also, his character was good. He was worthy of their little sister. After that Leo did the same and the deal was sealed. There was one more family member in the Shmidt Baron household from this day on. New life After the signing of the "contract" Leo had more assurance that this family will take care of him to some extent. He was not sure if was lucky or not because he did not know those people at a deep level but his general point of view of them was positive. Of course, everyone had their positive and negative sides. For example, Greg and Felix were very straightforward at their approach to things and if this type of people did not piss you off, they should be fairly easy to understand and interact with. Leo was really fond of simple people. He did not really like all of this diplomacy stuff but if needed he knew how to perform them in the right way. Leo left with the Shmidt family members to the "Sun Shine" inn to pack his stuff. He could share his secrets with them and strive for the best. They could not plot against each other so he could be open with them. He just needed to say that they could not disclose this information and he will be safe. He told them to wait for him and it did not take long for him to put everything in his spatial rings and said to the owner of the inn Miriam that he was leaving, and she could give his room to other people because he did not need it anymore. Miriam did not understand what was going on, but she still nodded. It was a win for her anyway. Leo rented his room for a month, but he was leaving after a few days. After that he got on the carriage the and Shmidt family members were very puzzled. Leo did not have much things he was carrying. Elen scratched his head in and asked: "Where are all of your personal belongings?" Leo smiled mysteriously and said: "I''ll tell you later when we arrive at our manner and get into a secluded place." "Alright." Elen said and did not ask further. Generally, after the fight with the brothers duo the level of respect Leo got from his new family members was very high. He was on the level of the current family head in terms of power level and was not far from surpassing him. Also, he helped Felix to advance, and the family members were interested if this was a coincidence or not. If Leo could somehow help them advance faster the Shmidt family will rise very quickly and even have the potential of getting a representative at the level of the legendary grand knight. It was a real dream for Elen, Felix and Greg. Of course, for now it was only a wishful thinking but the hopes for the rise of their family were a lot higher now. If before Elen was sure they had a high chance to preserve their family status, now he was sure they will become a lot more influential than other baron families in this city and will be able to fight back against their potential competitors in a better way. There was always a fight for recourses because they were always limited and the strong always pray on the weak. It was the rule of the jungle. In terms of power level, the Shmidt family was very average, and they could not really compete with the top baron families. The top baron families had several knights under their lead. It was something that the small Shmidt family could not compare to. Now they had hope to rise.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. When they arrived at the manor Leo was introduced to the family servants as part of the Baron''s family. "From now on treat Leo like you treat me and my children. If anyone shows disrespect or not obey the orders of the young man right here, he or she will be severely punished. Do I make myself clear?" Elen asked with a stern voice when he got all the servants of his family together. "Your wish is my command, Master Elen." All the servants answered. Leo was looking at those people. They were around twenty in total. It looked like they were generally happy with their lives. Leo was pondering if he was the same slave of the system in his past life and he did not like what did come to his mind as an answer. Now he felt that he had a better chance to make what he wanted to do in life. He did not want to be like those pampered young nobleman that did not have anything going for then except their family name. Later the Shmidt family members gathered at Elen''s office at the second floor of the mansion so Leo could tell them about one of the secrets that he did not tell them at the carriage. The office was worthy as the one of the gathering places for high officials. The room was big, with big windows that gave the room a lot of light during the day. There were oil lamps that illuminated the room at night. There were two big office tables from wood connected in a "T" shape with different documents situated on them. Also, there were many chairs that were made a specially for the baron, complimenting the wooden tables looks. The floor was made from an expensive looking parquet. Behind the baron''s chair there were cupboards with glass doors that were full of books and documents. On the walls there were images of Elen''s father and other Shmidt family ancestors. It was an impressive sight to behold. After the family members were seated on the vacant chairs Leo showed them the spatial rings and they were stunned. They did not even know that such things existed. "Do you know other things like those spatial rings that are exclusive for mages?" Elen asked with sparkling eyes. "Well, I don''t have much knowledge about the magic world right now. I want to get as much knowledge as I can and even go study in a school for mages to see the prospects magic casters have." Leo said. Also, he explained to the Shmidt''s that they can''t use those spatial rings now because they need to be able to use magic power for this. Everyone except Elly looked really dispirited after the explanation. After that the family members had dinner. It was a steak with vegetables and bread. It wasn''t 5 stars level for Leo''s taste, but it was definitely not bad. The dinner was eaten in silence. Everyone was still not accustomed interacting with each other in these new settings. "Today is getting pretty late already. I go to rest for now and start doing all the things we agreed on from tomorrow''s morning. Elly be ready tomorrow. Felix, Greg I have a few things to discuss with you as well. See you everyone tomorrow." Leo said. After that he departed to his room for a good night sleep. Strategy part 1 After having a good night of sleep Leo woke up in his new room. He was not sure about the norms for noble apartments, but he liked the room he got. He room was pretty big. It was 10 meters in length and width. He had a big bed, that could accommodate few people. Also, he had two cupboards on the opposite side of the bed. They could accommodate all the clothes he would use in the future. Also, he had a medium sized desk near the window with two oil lamps from both sides. There were couple of chairs near the table. The furniture was in different shades of brown because it was all made from different types of wood. Leo liked this setup. He yawned and then walked up to the dining room on the first floor. The servants that saw him greeted him with a bow and honest face. Leo felt that this treatment was genuine. Those people did not play any games. He liked the ability of Elen to raise such devoted stuff to the family. His assessment of this family patriarch grew by a level. When he got down to the dining area after asking the servant for direction to the bathroom to wash his face and hands before setting to eat, he was surprised to see all his new family members waiting for him when he finally got to the dining room. He was not sure how much time they waited but he did not see any sign of anger or any other negative emotion of the Shmidt family faces. It alleviated his mood by another level. It seems like he made the right choice. "Good morning, everyone. Sorry for making you wait." Leo said. "Good morning, that''s fine. Come, sit and let''s have breakfast." Elen said, while gesturing Leo to seat near him. Leo was again pleasantly surprised. There was a place on the right side of the patriarch that was vacant. That showed how much this family respected hierarchy. Maybe it was something normal for every noble family, but it still was a plus for him. Leo set near the patriarch and the breakfast started. It was nothing special, but Leo still liked it. It was composed of different salads, meat and bread. Because it was a knight family the men needed to eat properly to be able to achieve their goals for the day and progress in their ranks. After the meal ended and the servants cleared everything the Shmidt family relocated themselves to Elen''s office again because of Leo''s request. The family members were puzzled but still complied. After the servants served some tea to everyone the discussion that Leo initiated begun. "I gathered all of you here because I want to know some information about what we have now in terms of expenses, what types of expenses do we have, what types of income the family has and how much money the Shmidt family makes per month. Of course, we have other types of topics to cover but this data about expenses and income is essential to our future progress." Leo said and looked at Elen for reply.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Elen was pleasantly surprised. His two sons, Felix and Greg were not really interested in that kind of stuff. They were always pursuing the knight path and Elen respected it. Still, he could not let them inherit the family with such lifestyle. He wanted to let his daughter Elly be the successor. She always had her head on her shoulders and was more intelligent than her two older brothers. It was not common to have a women patriarch of a noble family but with the protection of her two brothers she should been fine in the future. That was Elen''s plan before he met Leo. Now he was more assured about this brat inheriting his family. He said with a smile: "Our family mainly earns money through making missions as mercenaries and adventurers. The expenses now are not big because we are not paying for any tutors that are teaching the children. I do collect money for Elly to go and study in the capital in the main school of magic in a couple of years. I hope she can study the basics until then. As for the expenditures. It is mainly food supply for the family, us travelling by carriage and its maintenance, including the horses. Also, there are weapons and clothing purchasing and maintenance. Rarely we are able to purchase any alchemic potions for different purposes. The total amount of coins made every month as profit are around 50 silver. It considered an average sum of money for a noble family of our rank. I have around 10 gold coins for Elly''s future studies." Leo thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. Now I have another question. I really don''t any information about this topic, but are there fast options for mages to earn money by doing some things in terms of their magic power usage? I do plan to make an announcement to provide constriction services by building stone houses for commoners and mansions for nobles. I''m not sure about the prices yet but it should generate a large sum of money in a short time. I think that it will go the same with Elly. When she will be able to use her water magic with the healing skill, she could just heal people for a pay. It will be a good practice with a good profit. The options are broad for our family in the future. I''m not sure what other options we have right now. Maybe you have some other ideas? I want our family to rise in power and the easiest way doing that will be generating big number of coins. Of course, we cannot reveal our rapid rise in power to the outside world because it can cause us a lot of trouble or a backlash from other noble families in town. No one really wants a new power to rise. We need to get to a level when we could not be oppressed. This will be the first stage in establishing our economic stability." Leo said. The Shmidt family members were in a daze for some time. They thought Leo will boost their strength in dungeon grinding and helping with mercenary missions, but Leo brought a totally different prospective to the family members. Its more coins with less effort. And it was just the beginning. Strategy part 2 Elen got out of the shocked state he was in and replied: "Those ideas are really good. The only thing that comes to mind right now is the weapon enhancement ability that mages can purchase in the blacksmith pavilion for 1 gold coin. It can boost the power of team the mage will choose by a lot. This was one of my ideas. Because we did not have mages in our bloodline, I did not look for this kind of information so I will need to check to find more ideas." "Alright. Where is better to spread such information about the ability to order a fast construction of a stone building? Will the merchant association for this kind of role or its better to make it in the adventurer''s guild?" Leo asked. "It will be better to do in the merchant association for sure." Elen replied. "Alright. This will be our first step for the path of our financial freedom. The second step after we do earn the money will be making this money work for us." Leo said with a thoughtful look. Elen was confused. He was not sure what that meant. He always worked hard to earn his coins and could not wrap his head around what Leo said. "How do we make the money work for us?" Elen said with interest. "Well, it''s pretty simple actually. We just need to have a realistic idea that could generate us coins with time. The investment can be a little costly, but the money invested will be returned with time and then it will be just additional profit that will come with little effort from our side. Let me give you an example with what I have in mind for our family. It''s a few different things actually. The first one should give us the most profit and help us establish financial freedom. We need to check for land selling in the city. After we find all the land available that is for sale, we choose the best one for us and I will build an inn for the poor adventurers. I''m pretty sure that there are many adventurers in this city that have problems finding cheap accommodations. We will solve this problem for them. The inn will be very simple. It will be a room with a bed made from stone and a window. The rooms will be small. We will not provide any meals. It will be just a place for resting at day and sleep at night. It will cost two bronze coins per one day and night. It will be the cheapest thing in town. I will build a multiple floor building with the maximum number of rooms that is possible to make. We will buy a huge number of doors with keys and windows for them. We just take the simplest ones. For example, we have 100 rooms in our inn. Those rooms will generate 60 silver coins per month if the inn will work at full capacity. We will state a term that the room have to be given back to us in the same way it was given to the costumer. If this term is violated, they need to pay 5 more bronze coins as a compensation and if something would break, they will pay for it too. The people will use it for getting through the night and as a living place in the winter. I''m sure it''s possible to earn more than 60 bronze coins a month for an adventurer and live in this place. I could build a toilet near the inn for people to use. Of course, we will need to hire people to look after this place but in the end of the day its 60 silver coins per month with little effort. You just need to see that everything working well, and you will be set for life. Of course, I am going to see how many people really need that and make the number of inns built with the right amount of rooms. The number of people looking for such a thing is much higher than 100 people for sure. I think it should give us a few gold coins with time per one month of work." Leo said with knitted brows. He was trying to see if he missed something or not.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. After he finished the sentence, the room fell into silence. Leo was thinking what he said through to see for any mistakes made in his calculations. The Shmidt''s family members brains malfunctioned for a short time. It was a strange sight to behold. Elen soon started to smile like some kind of maniac, the brother duo scratched their heads. They did not understand the idea until the end but were too embarrassed to ask the others. Elly started to look at Leo with admiration. "Do you have any questions?" Leo asked. After a short time, Felix mastered his courage and asked: "Can you please explain the idea to me again little brother Leo?" Elen looked at Felix and Greg with disapproving eyes. He did not understand how they could not get it. Leo nodded calmly and explain the idea again. After that the duo got it and they became exited too. After Leo saw that everyone got the idea he continued to explain. "Also, we should get our hands on blacksmiths, potion and alchemy masters that will work for our family. It''s an investment too but the return will be huge as well. We just take commoners that have talent for each of the professions I told you about and give them a chance to grow as masters in our household. It will be a big waste of money and materials in the beginning but when they do grow up and mature, we will have everything we need for a relatively low price. I''m pretty sure that the real prices for the weapons, potions and alchemy products are much lower than they seem to be. Of course, it will not happen in one day, but it will bring our family to a totally different place in terms of power levels. What do you think?" Leo asked. Strategy part 3 Elen said: "It sounds nice. Is it really possible?" He thought he was a wise thinker in terms of managing his household, but he now saw that he was very wrong. This child had a very big potential in management even without his capabilities as a mage. "Sure, it is. It is just a matter of time. We need to try and make it as fast as possible to be able to advance quickly and save more time for training. We will start with the house and mansions building. At the same time look for some lands that we could buy. We need to send the merchant association the data of our family''s new business. I want to start making money as fast as possible." Leo said. "Also, I want to study your meditation technique for the knight path. I think I have some talent for it. I''m not sure if my talent is good or not but my main goal is to try and improve the existing technique so you can progress faster. If it will work, we could give the loyal servants your current meditation technique so they could increase their strength as well. It will increase their loyalty towards our family. Now I will go and start teaching Elly the basics of what she needs to know about magic with the teachings of how to feel the elements and when she succeeds, I will teach her my breathing technique." Leo said with a smile. Elen nodded and said: "No problem. I will take care of the building business information spreading over. How much time it should take Elly to achieve the level of mage apprentice? when do you want to study our meditation technique? The fact that you helped Felix to breakthrough means that you do have some talent for knight training. Still, I think your main goal still should be magic. We can take care of the knight training in the family." Leo nodded and said: "I don''t plan to become a knight. I love magic and the earth element as well. It suits me well. As for Elly. I think it should take her a few days to feel the elements and then around a year to get to a first circle mage apprentice level. Of course, it can change for the better or the worse ways but that is my estimation according to my journey as a mage. As for the knight meditation technique I think we do it at evening. You can just give me a scroll with the description of the technique, and I study it while Elly will train." "We do not keep a scroll with the technique. All of the family members remember the technique. It is the best way to keep it in the family" Elen said.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Leo nodded and said: "Alright. Just tell me about it later in the evening. Now I will go and teach Elly all she needs to know to begin her training. She will be our healer in the future. It is very important for her to know how to manipulate the elements in the right way." The strategy meeting was over. Leo departed with Elly to teach her the basics of how to feel the magic elements around yourself just like his master David taught him. In the case of Elly, he needed to make her meditate near the water source. For that he and Elly departed to the lake that was near the city to increase the speed of Elly''s cultivation. With an abundant amount of water elements in the surroundings even a low-level talent should feel something in a few days. Leo made a smart move. He made a tunnel near an underground currents of the lake. He felt the surface for a short distance so he could do it. After making a tunnel and closing it from the outside for protection they could both cultivate their powers. That''s how a few days had passed. In that time he and Elly came back every evening. The Shmidt''s started to teach Leo their knight meditation technique. Leo was making a slow but steady progress. Also, Elen went to the merchant association and registered a new building company called Shmidt construction. Leo told the family to not really spread any information to the outside world. They needed time to grow and be able to hold their own against any hostile force. They could not really defend against anyone powerful in the city. Keeping it low and taking their time was the right strategy. Leo was still not known in the city. Only certain circles knew about a talented kid named Leo, but no one knew he is way stronger then he really showed. In that way after twelve days Elly finally felt the water elements. Leo gave her two more days to get used to the feeling of the elements. He was with her all the time she was meditating because a mage was vulnerable in that state. They did hide from the outside world but you could never know what could happen. After that Leo started to teach the girl the meditation technique that he learned from his teacher. He saw that it was way harder for the girl to get any results. He did not tell her that to not discourage her. It took him way less time to do all of this but as a human with low talent Elly needed more time. After a few more days Elly was on the right track and they returned to let her cultivate in a safe place. Now Leo also got the general idea about the knight cultivation technique of the Shmidt family. He knew that with time he could come with a couple of ideas but now he felt that the family needed money and resources to grow faster. It was time to establish himself and his new family in this city in a solid way. Everything started from construction of a lot of homes for commoners and nobles. Leo the constructor Soon a new business was established. It was a very new idea. An earth mage apprentice was giving services to build accommodations to nobles and commoners. It was not something seen before. Mages were a cast of people that were a mystery to the outside world. Most people did not know what they were capable of doing. Generally, those people did not like to interact with others below their status. The fact that one of them was ready to give services to commoners was mind blowing. Soon a first costumer contacted the Shmidt family for services. It was a commoner. He had a tall and muscular build. It was evident that he worked hard with his body most of his life. His name was Eduard. He was very nervous. He did not like to interact with nobles. He did not even met mages in his life, and he really did not want to. Even the nobles acted like they were the owners of all commoners. He did not even want to think about how the mages perceived the common people. When he arrived, he was received by one of the attendants of the family and was sent to wait at the first floor at the waiting area. After around twenty minutes, he was called to the meeting hall. When he arrived, he saw a few people already seated. At the top of everyone was the head of the family, Elen Shmidt. Also, Elly and Leo were present. Ally could continue and trained but she was interested in another way of making money. She could also take some amount of coins by healing people. Her father also wanted her to attend because he felt that she could benefit from this experience. Elen welcomed the guest: "Welcome Eduard. I heard that you are interested in building a stone hut for your family. You came to the right place! Do you have any idea what size of accommodation you are interested in?" Eduard was taken aback. He never received such a good treatment from a noble lord. He felt good that those people treated him like a person and not a dog. He then said about the amount of money he had and that he wanted the biggest available building he could receive. He explained about the plot of land that he got. He told Elen and company about his general situation. About the fact that his family was growing steadily, and they could not fit into their previous house. He wanted to get a bigger one. For that he sold his house with the plot of land. He was lucky because of the good location of his previous accommodations. Because of that he got 25 silver coins. He used 5 silver coins to buy a bigger plot of land in a worse area in terms of geographical location. He had 20 silver coins to build a home. He heard that the 100 first commoners that will apply for the services of the Shmidt family will get half the price for their order, so he took his chance. He wished to get lucky again and get a good house for his family for decades to come. So his family won''t think about the future. It was his lucky day. After discussing it for a long time they came to a conclusion. The farmer did not know anything about size measuring to it took time for him to formulate what he wanted. The idea was pretty simply. It should be a one store house with a fireplace for cooking and heating the house at winter. There should be 4 rooms in total. One for the elders. One for Eduard and his wife Hana. One for the girls and one for the boys of the family. It may sound odd but to those people it was a luxury. A lot of families just slept together because they did not have the ability to afford better conditions of life. It was agreed that the height of the walls will be around 2.5 meters and the house will have a very simple roof. The main purpose was for the construction to be sturdy and last for a long time.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. After deliberating for a while and talking with Leo the head of the family agreed to do this job for 20 silver coins. It was agreed that the rooms of the girls and boys will be in a size of 25 square meters. The size of the rooms of the couple and the elders will be 9 square meters and all the rest will be set as the dining area and fireplace. No doors will be made except one for the entry to the house. It will be locked from the inside by a wood block that will rest on a the door construction that will not let anyone in until it will be removed. Keys were available only for nobles. There was no way this commoner could afford this. After it was concluded with Eduard that the pay will be after finishing the job the commoner was happy. He was afraid to be scammed by the noble and then he could not really do anything about the money lost. The empire did have rules but commoners could not win a noble in court. It was even useless to try. After that Eduard led the trio to his plot of land and showed where he wanted the building to be. After asking Eduard a few questions about where he wanted to entry of the house to look towards and other things like small windows in the rooms for breathing Leo started the construction. Everyone were interested in the process. Leo told the Schmidt''s that he could do it but the quality of the product will show if they could really get into this business. First Leo erected the walls of the house without any holes. They were in the right height. All walls looked the same in width as well. The walls were thick. Around 20-30 centimeters in width. After communicating more with Eduard Leo started making the holes for the doors and windows using earth manipulation. After he removed the not needed parts he sat for a rest. He was still young and did not do constructions with such precise calculations before. It took most of his mana to complete this part of the job. It took around an hour. After around an hour of rest he started to manipulate all the walls to make them more dense and durable. after resting and manipulating the walls he saw that he could not finish today. Eduard came at noon and it was getting late. They agreed to meet tomorrow morning to finish all the process. At the next morning Leo created a roof by earth manipulation to each room and then connected all the roof parts. It was a very simple roof. It was a stone roof with a pipe of stone getting out from it for the fireplace. It was nothing fancy. The roof was parallel to the ground. It was not triangle shaped. It was agreed with Eduard before Leo started the process to lower the price. After finishing the job Leo asked Eduard if he was satisfied and the commoner almost screamed that he is. Leo was afraid the guy will try to hug him or something. For a commoner it was hard to find a home like this. Most of the time the houses were made from wood and it often was not really sturdy. The fact that it was made from thick stone made Eduard assured that this structure will not crumble in the near decades. Leo was sure of this as well. If no one will try actively destroy this construct it will hold for more then a hundred years for sure. It really costed much more then 20 silver coins for construction for sure. If not for the half price discount it would be 40 silver coins. The market price of this house will be even higher. Eduard was elated. He took a money pouch and handed it to Elen. After finishing the transaction they bid fair well to each other and the Elen family members returned to their estate. Just in one in a half days they earned a sum that it would take them almost half a month to earn. And it with a half price discount. It was insane! All the family members were really happy. Now they could have more time for cultivation and growing their powers. Leo knew that it was only the beginning. One year Time passed by. After a short time the Shmidt family provided the construction services only for commoners. Leo understood that he could not build difficult structures that will be appropriate for nobles. After building a few houses he understood that he needs to get stronger before he could build something more complex. His control over the earth elements was not sufficient. He was a realist. He needed to increase his power. He needed time. A ten years old child could not express his real potential. He needed a couple of years to grow. He did not visit the mage association after his first time. He did not want to draw attention to himself. Not many people saw him and knew who he was. He wanted to keep it that way. The fact that the Shmidt''s established a new company was known but it did not draw much attention. They knew that they had some new family member and he was a young mage. Not many people saw him build homes to commoners. He was getting more known by the commoners than the nobles because he had no interactions with them. Mages and nobles did not really interact with commoners and because of that the information did not really spread. Also the city was pretty big and it took a month to build around 15 houses for commoners. It was not much interaction with the outside world. It took all his free time. He did not go with Elly''s older brothers for missions. Also he asked Elen to not go for missions anymore. It was more important for Leo that Elen will stay and keep an eye on Elly and the household. Leo made around 3 gold coins per month with his works. After a few days he had a schedule for few months forward because the commoners got the information about the discount and the fact that this noble family hold their word and acted to the commoners like people. The more important thing for the common people was the fact that the Shmidt''s kept their word. They did not extort the helpless commoners. Building a home took all the saving of those people and if they will get stolen that was basically the end for them. Because they saw what they could get for 20 silver coins a lot of people queued up for the services. The amount of coins spent were around 20-25 silver per deal. The money made by Leo allowed the Shmidt''s to buy a lot of elixirs for the brothers duo to increase their cultivation speed by a few times. Elen made them give him a word that they will not speak on this fact at all. They often clashed with the younger generation nobles of the other families. The Shmid''s were not that strong and if one of the brothers will get hurt or crippled the Shmidt family will receive a huge blow. The brothers sometimes got injured and they needed more elixirs for healing their bodies. Elen was enraged but Leo did not let him act. He started to give the brothers more elixirs and after a few months they both were in the ninth circle of a knight apprentice. They quickly approached the threshold of becoming official knights. After the fact that they were getting attacked more was discussed at the family meeting it was decided they will not leave the territory and protect Elly while Elen will "protect" Leo. They needed to insure that Leo could work like he did before. They needed the brothers duo to get to the knight level as fast as possible. It would allow the family to greatly increase their power and influence. No one could really attack in the city because the guards of the city had a great status and backing. It was a very bad idea to try and do something stupid in town because if those nobles were caught their noble title may be stripped. It was true to all the family members of the noble charged guilty. Because of that the young nobles did not go overboard. Such acts could happen if their only be a life or death hatred born between two opposing groups and it was not the case. In that time Elly just cultivated day and night. She was aware of the fact that she had magic talent but it was low. If she wanted to be of use for the family she needed to get to the level of a mage apprentice to be able to perform spells. That''s why she just used the breathing technique that Leo taught her, had a good sleep every day and ate at the right time. She did not really do anything else. Elen was a little worried but he understood his daughter''s determination. They were now on a crossroad. They needed to be careful. The brothers had to get to a knight level of strength and Elly had also needed to get to an apprentice mage power and the family will just straight ahead rise to one of the stronger families in the city. Elen knew that when his children will get to their goal and with Leo around them they could go and explore the dungeons and just continue living without fearing for their lives. Many nobles would not want to have a rising of a new force. Because of that they needed a few more months. Time passed by. Leo continued to work hard every day. The work helped him increase his control over the earth element. After work he rested while cultivating his breathing technique. After a couple of months more the family was ready to get a boost. Elen purchased two alchemical pills that increased the chance of breaking to the knight level. With the brothers talent and the help of the pill their chance of getting to the knight level was very high. Elly was also showing signs of getting close to getting to the apprentice level. Leo already gave her the healing spell for study. The spell had a simple name - "healing". Leo also had a good progress after all that year of work and cultivation. He was also promoted to the level of 4 apprentice mage a couple of months ago. Elen, the Shmidt brothers duo and Elly knew of this and they were dumbfounded by his progress. He was already stronger than Elen, but he still was "protected" by the family head. It was funny. After all that time the Shmidt family were ready to ascend.Stolen story; please report. The Shmidt family secret power up an apprentice knight of the 9 level. He got to the peak level of progress of the apprentice stage a month after the year of the family working on boosting their level. When he understood that he could no longer absorb life energy that was typical for knights he informed the family at the evening meal. He got congratulated by every member of the family and Elen gave him the pill that increases the chance to level up to the knight rank. He sullenly instructed his son to have a good night of rest and after the morning meal to try to breakthrough. The next morning Felix did exactly what the family head instructed, and he was successful. He had a very good foundation like his younger brother and both of them had the potential to get to the level of their father and ever higher. Felix was very certain in himself, and he overcame the threshold with no problems. The next one to get a similar result was the younger brother Greg. It took him another two months of effort to get the same success as his older brother. In those two months nothing really changed for the rest of the family members. Leo was the main wealth generator. The discount for the first 100 commoners long expired and because of that he got twice the amount of money for the same amount of work. Now the Shmidt''s were making 6 gold coins of profit per month for almost a year. With around 30 costumers per month for the 20 silver per house build expired after 3 months. The family generated a great amount of wealth. It was still not time for them to use it. Thy were still low key. The other families started to be suspicions because the Shmidt younger generation just were not seen anywhere. Also, there was a new member of the family that did building for commoners. Not much was known about him. There was a rumour that he was a mage but not many really believed it. There was nothing the Smidt''s could offer to a mage from an outsider perspective. It was all pretty strange. Because the Shmidt''s were so low key they did not attract attention for some time. Still, everything had its own limit. After another month Elly finally got to the level of mage apprentice. Because of the guidance of Leo, she was a 14 years old first circle apprentice mage. It was not something often seen. In the same time she got the hang of the healing spell because Leo gave her this spell for a few months already and they talked about how it should get performed. now after a year and four months the family as a whole were on the level of one of the top families of the city but no one really knew about it. Now it was time to put their new power to the test and strike at the other noble young masters that tried to plot against them. Power struggles between the younger generation were something normal because in the end of the day they were the future of the family. Some of them even died in those struggles. Generally, it was fine to eliminate the servants but not the young masters themselves. It would generally cause a dispute between families that can be to the death so most of the families avoided it. At the dinner meeting of the family Leo said: "We need to announce a dungeon run and lure all those bastards to us. It will be a great feat to eliminate a lot of our competition their and weaken the other noble families. We have the surprise factor now, but we won''t have it for long. We need to start use Elly''s healing powers to train her healing spell and it will be a great way to earn money. People will just come in waves. It is certain. There will always be someone injured. A good healer will cost a fortune and in the case of our family we need the money. After we get exposed, we will need to continue to work on ourselves. Our goal in the end of the day is to go to the capital and enrol to the magic academy. From the information I got the best ages to enrol is between 14 and 16. Elly is in that age, and I will come along. I think we could cover each other''s back and be able to grow steadily. The academy lasts for four years, and it will be sufficient for Elly to reach the third level of mage apprentice and it will also help me to grow as well." "Will we migrate to the capital as a family or only me and Elly will go?" Leo asked. He was not sure how better to make the next step. They had to go to the academy. It will allow them to be protected by the empire. It will happen because they were a potential military asset for the country. They were the potential future of the country. An apprentice mage of any type was on the level of an official knight. It was the main force of any empire. It was clear that Elly would go. They had enough resources for the duo to live in the capital for some time. The next steps were up to them. The family head and the brother''s duo were silent for some time. After some deliberation Elen was the first one to speak: "I won''t go. I lived here all my life, and I don''t want to change anything. It will be great if you live in the accommodation for students in the capital. It will give you far more protection than we can. Leo is even stronger than me now. If he cannot handle the dangers, then I will be powerless as well."A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. After a short time, the brother''s duo also declined. They loved this city. They had reputation and prestige here. In the capital they would be ordinary at best. "I checked and the examinations will be in around 7 months. We all have time to prepare and finish up things here." Elen said. Leo nodded and said: "It is decided than". Ambush and massacre After a couple of days Leo, Elly and the Shmidt brothers with their adventurers team to venture into one of the dungeons. It was publicly known where they will go. They even took a few missions of goblin subjugations. Most of their team were E or F rank adventure members. Only the Shmidt family members were the really strong ones. At the other part of the city a few Noble families were gathered. They were the Smith, Jonson and Davis families. Also The hegemon power of the city in terms of strength that had a few mage apprentices and few knights in their family were also present. It was the Garcia family. The only thing connected those powers was the fact that they did not want the Shmidts to grow. Some of them had conflicts with this family and some of them did not want to lose their position and benefits. Power shifts were not always a good thing for the different nobles. They got information about the fact that the brother duo got to the level of knights. It was a very impressive achievement. It would elevate the Shmidt family to a totally new status. Because of that the family heads that gathered here really wanted to try and settle things before big changes will happen in the power levels of the city. The family heads names were: David Smith, Greg Jonson, Alfred David and Horhe Garcia. As the hegemon of the city Horhe said: "How many people each of you will send to eliminate those brats? We need as much force as possible. It will insure less losses to our men in case something unexpected will happen." The different family heads were quite for some time before each of them sent 1 official knight and 5 apprentice knights of various levels. Each such team will be led by the knights selected. The family Heads did not trust their children to lead such force. After listening to the different family heads Horhe said with a smile:" Not bad. In that case I will send three mage apprentices and three knights. It should be enough to eliminate them with no witnesses." The family heads smiled. A force like this could destroy every one of the noble families present. It was an assured victory. With no younger generation left the Shmidt''s will decline with a short amount of time. The plan was set and the forces were also sent into the goblin dungeon. In that time the Shmidt adventurare team was already killing goblins with a full swing. When the members got the information that the brothers got to the level of a knight they were really happy. The party went further into the dungeon than usual because of the brothers upgrade. Elly and Leo did not do anything in the team. They just watched. Leo was just looking at how the team was working. Elly was getting used to the killed goblins and killing in general. It was not easy. The sight of a humanoid figures cut apart. With the smell of piss and shit and the sight of different liquid''s spilled from the goblin bodies when they were cut did not gave Elly an easy time. She even puked a couple of times.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Time slowly passed by. The Shmidt''s thought they knew how the world works and were ready for everything but oh boy they were very wrong. The party of the noble families alliance was close by. They already were looking for a good moment to attack and annihilate everyone present. All those people were clothed in black colored clothes so they could not be recognized. It was a well developed plan with a skilled team. The work should not really be very bothersome. six first circle knights and 3 first circle mages of different elements with 15 knight apprentices were a significant force no one in the city could dismiss. It was not to difficult to kill the Shmidt adventure party of 15 members with this team. At evening the Shmidt party got ready to camp inside the dungeon. It was nothing new. They picked up a generally desolate place and put up their tents. One of the party members was always on guard so he can warn everyone else if something unusual was happening. In the few days the party was in the dungeon already there was only case when all party members woke up to fight goblins that came during night time. All the party members went to sleep. Leo, Elly and the Shmidt brothers had different tents for each of them because of their status. Everything seemed to be peaceful until the abrupt attack came. The party woke up to the shrieks of the scout dying in the hands of one of the assassins. Before everyone even understood what had happened all hell broke loose. 4 more party members were killed in mere seconds. They were not ready and they could not hold against the overwhelming force of the noble party sent. When the Shmidt party gathered into formation only six members of the fifteen were left. Leo, Elly, the Shmidt brothers and Rodrigez and Fernandez. They all were baffled but got the point of the fact that they were going to get killed when they tried to communicate with the assailers and got two more people killed as a result. In the end only the four of the Shmidt''s remained. Rodrigez and Fernandez got brutally sliced in half by one of the knights. They could not really do anything to those guys. They were just too weak. Leo did not hold anything back and released all his magic power. He had a lot of mana and a lot of rage pent inside. The brothers duo defended the mage couple the best ways they could. Leo was shooting earth bullets like a maniac. When those earth bullets hit a knight apprentices the parts that were hit would just explode because of the sheer amount of strength that was held in each attack. It was like a full strength attack from a 4 ring level knight hit them each time. Screams and howls resounded as the apprentices of the assassins were quickly dealt with. 15 apprentice knights were killed or got to a state when they could no longer fight. Leo targeted them first. He tried to hit their head. When he did it just exploded into bloody mush. Elly was not of much help. She puked and cried. No one had time to get her back to reality from the hysterical condition she was in right now. After getting a little more calm Leo surrounded himself, Elly and the Shmidt brothers with high earth walls in a way where the assailants will have only a really small corridor to attack from where only 1 person can come at a time. It will give him and his new family more chances to survive. The tactic was simple. Now it was more a fight of attrition to be won by one of the sides. Disappointment t of her panic attack. She was bleeding from her nose and mouth, but Leo did not show any compassion right now. He looked at her with disappointment and said: "Get your shit together and help." After that he just came over to the brother duo that were vigilantly standing on guard. After a short time, the Schmidts understood that the attackers decided to retreat. Their win was no longer set in stone and they just retreated. Leo led the group slowly out of the dungeon. Elly kept sniffing and sobbing and at some moment Leo turned to her and yelled: "Can you shut up!? They still can be here and you just showing our location to every living being in the vicinity with all the noises you are doing. You are not helping. That is ok, but don''t try to kill all of us!!!" After that Elly lowered her head and shut her mouth. The brothers were vigilant, but sad inside. They understood that Leo was right, and Elly did all of the mistakes a rookie could do. They knew that would not take such a person to be a part of their team. The group did get successfully to the city where Leo did relax. They did report to the adventurer''s guild that they were ambushed by some killers. The location of the fight was reported, and high-level adventurers were dispatched to see what happened at the scene and they saw exactly what the team reported. It did cause a big uproar in the city. An investigation was started and the noble families that sent the assassins were not in a good shape. Only the noble family that was the hegemon of the city were calm. None of their people died. As for Leo and the Shmidt siblings. They got back to their noble residence where Leo called for a family meeting right away. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The family members were sitting and looking at Leo with different expressions. The brothers were generally sad, Elly had a blank look on her face like all of her life force was sucked out of her and Elen was fuming about all that happened. Leo started the conversation: "What is the maximum age when you can enrol in the capital academies?" Elen did not get why Leo was talking about that, but he still answered: "Officially it is 18 years old, but if you ask me, it is not a good age to enter an academy. I would say 16 is the latest age when you should enrol." Leo nodded and said, while pointing at Elly: "She is not ready to go to the capital. She is a spoiled brat, and I would not entrust her to cover my back for sure. Every person that will go with her will only increase his chances to kill himself. What happened in the dungeon was horrible, but we were 4 people in the end of the day, and she did not function at all. In any way shape or form. If she wants to be a princess and marry to some family, she can continue to do what she is doing. If she wants to change, she should start sparring with different people. Try to use her magic offensively. She should learn and dissect animals and other creatures. She should smell piss, guts that came out of a corpse and some shit that came out and not cry and throw up. That what she should do in the next two years. In any other scenario she will kill herself and the people that will trust her. I reject such a team member. I am ready to help, but she needs to do what she can!" Elen wanted to somehow to pacify the situation, but when he saw the overprotective brothers just lower their heads, he just sighed and said: "I agree, but the final decision can only be made by her. I will support any decision you will make dear." Elly looked at the floor with shame. She still was shocked with all the killing that happened. She understood that if their team of three did not carry her during the fight they would all die. She sighed and said: "I agree. So be it!" Two years After the happening in the dungeon the noble families that were part of the attackers had to pay a lot of gold coins to all the parties that suffered. Only the noble family that was the hegemon of the city did not suffer because there were no members of the family that were found. It was a great scandal and a huge hit for the noble families that lost collectively 3 knights and 15 apprentice knights. After that the noble families that like to backstab its opponents lied low and did not do anything stupid. The authorities were keeping an eye on them, and they knew that they are in deep shit. The Shmidts also kept a very low profile. Leo forbode anyone of them to exit the city. Leo did build a few simple hotels, and the family members kept those places safe and managed them. Elly was training really hard in terms of real fighting with knight apprentice and Leo every day. Leo also sent her to the butcher to cut down different types of meat. For now it was the closest things he thought that could imitate cutting down a beast. Leo was the only family member that was really harsh with her. It did start after her big fuck up when they almost died in an ambush. All the rest of the family praised and pampered her as the only girl in the family. She felt a little bad when he was so harsh toward her, but after some time she started to look at Leo in a different light. He was harsh and put her in an uncomfortable situation. She was out of her comfort zone all the time. It was a lot of stress to her, but she grew as a person, mage and a warrior quickly. Leo was also not slacking off. The sneak attack was pretty dangerous, and he understood that with a little more preparation maybe they all could die. He did not want this to end. He had the power and potential to achive great things and it could all end just like that. He could not accept it. He also doubled down on training. He wanted to get to the six appretice circle level when they will enter the academy. When he had more power he felt just more safe. As for Elly. His goal was for her getting to the second circle of mage apprentice. It was harder and harder to gather magic elements the stronger you become. Leo still did not really felt it, but it was very clear from Elly''s progress that it was a problem for many appretices. After around a year of hard training the two brothers and Elen were promoted by another level. The two brothers got to the second knight circle and the Elen finally was promoted to the forth. It happened because they had huge amount of resources and they basicly ate and drank alchemical products in huge amounts. After this promotion all the family together started to go to dangeons in secret. No one knew about it. Leo made Elly disect all the corpses of the monsters. First she was doing that while puking her guts out and even why Elen and the brothers were complaining about that Leo was resolute on her doing all the dirty work. After around two months of such training Elly got immune to the stench of everything basicly. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Also Leo put her under pressure to support and heal her family members. She did not know any spells other than heal, but with water manipulation she could create a shield or just use water to make a bubble on the head of the monsters until they choke to death. Leo felt that she got some kind of battle ability and utility only after around a year of training. Even when she got better things did not end there. Leo did said a couple of good words towards her, but still kept her under pressure. Because they were both mages they meditated and used the breathing technique to train while the others were taking care of the familty hotel buisness. Elly got a lot more respect towards Leo during that time. He was harsh, but fair. He made her grow as a person, and she knew that it was impossible for her to improve in such a way with her father and two brothers around. Only Leo had the ability and the authority to disregard their grumbling and do what was needed. They spent a lot of time together. Because Leo was the only male that was not a brother that was always around her she started to do some testing of her female charm on him. She was beautiful and was three years older than him. After two years of training she was already 16. The more time went by the more mature she became. In this world people became adults at the age of 13. Many nobles started to have sexual relationships at those ages. Specially the men. Elly started to get a lot more comfortable around Leo and wear more and more revealing clothes while he was around. She did not dress like that around her father or brothers because she will get scolded for such behaviour for sure. She would also sneak to his room at night to speak about different stuff. While using the breathing technique and meditation you could not talk about anything much. You needed to concentrate. Thats why she came over after a day of training. She did try stuff during the day, but Leo shut her off. Her dressing did hinder him a little bit because she was attractive and he started to think about the wrong things when he looked at her. He did need to train during the day so he did try to ignore her which only made her want to talk to him more. Leo was not sure what she tried to achieve, but he was a young adult according to this world standards at the age of 13 and had a lot of hormones coursing through his body. At one of the nights, she broke another record and came over with just an underwear and a shirt that was pretty tight on her body. Because she did start to mature Leo could see her breasts very well under the T-shirt. When she got close to him and started to speak about different stuff, she saw that he reacted to her in a totally different way from what she was used to. He had an erection he could not hide from her. She looked at him with a gaze that showed a lot of changing amotions on her face and eyes going back and forth from confusion to interest, to a little apprehension, to curiosity, to happiness and finally to some anger. When Leo saw this, he looked at her with a strange expression and asked with a straight face: "What did you expect to happen while dressing like this?" Leaving After Max said that Elly blushed but did not go away. Leo looked at her and said: "Do you want to try something with me? You should be a modest young noble lady. Are you sure you want to be less modest?" Elly rolled her eyes and said: "There is no way my father and brothers let someone close to me. As for the people I will meet at the academy... I am not going to let people get close to me in a short amount of time. With your brainwashing I am not going to trust anyone easily. So, the only one left is you. You are the one that brought me to this point. You should take responsibility." This was the turn of Leo to roll his eyes. He chuckled and said: "Just say that you want it. Don''t make yourself the victim." Leo looked at the blushing Elly that did not say anything and just started to take her clothes off. She was only 16, but she was super-hot. She was around 1.55m tall. Her blonde hair and green eyes complemented each other really well. She had a very sexy figure with moderate but developed breasts and a great ass. A lot of main roll character may be against this, but Leo was not. He was not a saint and with all the hormones that were coursing thought his body he pounced on her right away. This night there were moans and clapping sound heard from Leo''s room. Because Leo had a lot of pent-up hormones, he did not go easy on her. He had some experience in this field and because of that her first time was enjoyable. Most of the time two virgins that try to do something sexual don''t really get things right. Because he knew what to do, she did enjoy his company a lot during the night. At morning Leo called everyone to a family meeting. After eating breakfast everyone gathered in Elen''s office. In those two years it was decided that Elen and the brothers will go together with Elly and Leo. Leo was sure that the other noble families will try to hunt down the Shmidt family members and would have a high chance of achieving success even with Elen''s, Greg''s and Felix''s progress. After two years Elly got to the second circle apprentice level and was a real team member and not a dead weight. She did not have any magic skills except the heal skill, but she did improve her magic manipulation ability to the maximum of what was possible for her right now. She could create different object from water to defence, attack and ground control. Leo also progressed to where he wanted to. He got the level of a six-circle apprentice mage. He did need to use a little of his magic crystals to progress in time because he knew that there was a high chance for them to be ambushed, but now he was sure they could destroy a party of a dozen of knights easily. Part of was because of their team work and the other part was because of Elly. She could heal, control and attack the enemy. It was a real game changer. It was hard to find a good healer and Leo just got himself one just like that.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. All the family members were looking and him and waiting for his words. Leo looked at everyone and said: "There are a few months until the academy tests will start, but we should leave way before our enemies expect us to and we should do it stealthily. We should keep the family workers and slaves with some coins for them to keep everything going and just leave. Even if things will go wrong here with time it doesn''t really matters. We will build ourselves in the capital." The capital name was Merham and from what Leo understood it was a city on a whole another level. The Rufus city he was not residing in was like a village in comparison. Elen did tell him a few stories about it, but Leo was still having a very hard time to imagine what was the real power level and magnificence of the capital. After hearing that the family members looked a little sad, but after a short moment of changing expressions they nodded in resolution. Leo talked with them about it multiple times and convinced them that this is for the better. Elen looked at Leo with a sad face and asked: "When should we leave?" Leo answered right away: "I would take around a week or two to pack our things and leave. We will not take a noble carriage or anything of this sort. We leave in a very quiet way. Even if those bastards keep an eye on us, they will understand what happened a few days after we left at the very least. Even if somehow, they find about it they could not gather a big force to stop us. Even if somehow a force in the same power will attack us, I am very sure of our power to annihilate them completely. With your power at close range and my and Elly''s power at long range we are a formidable force." Leo was very sure of his own power. After reaching the fifth circle of mage apprentice Leo felt that a qualitative change happened to him in terms of his power and control over magic. He was not sure about that information, but he also felt that after the fifth circle of mage apprentice it was harder to accumulate magic power with the breathing technique. Because of that Leo used a small amount of magic crystals to hit his goal. He did not want to spend all of them on cultivating but keep a big amount and see if he could use them for other things that could help him grow. All the family members nodded towards Leo and started their preparations. Because they did not go by a noble carriage, they took only the most basic things to not draw much attention. After around a week in a half, six months before the exam the Shmidts left the Rufus city and travelled towards Merham city. Arriving at Merham Leo and company left the Rufus city in a really low-key manner. Leo decided to join on a caravan of commoners going to the capital. It was pretty slow moving, but it did make the party leave the city safely without alerting anyone. The Shmidts moved slowly towards the capital. It took a long month. During that time all the family members got to rest really well. Before that everyone were on a marathon to get stronger and train like crazy. Also, there was the work for every family member to do. It was a lot of work, but it did paid out. They did get a lot of gold coins this time. Leo building and the hotel got them around 10 gold coins per month which was impressive. After three years they saved around 300 gold coins. It was more than enough for them to get settled in the capital. Even if a home would cost insane amount of money, they could just buy the land, and Leo will do all the rest. Now he was a lot stronger and a lot better with manipulating the earth element. As for now everyone were just sight-seeing and resting. Some of the trip was on foot and some of it was on the old carriages. It was wintertime, but they lived in the south region, so it was not extremely cold for them. With their power level it was easy to use life energy or mana to cover themselves and keep them warm and comfortable. It was muddy and some of the days they had to deal with some raid or some snow, but the temperatures did not go into the minus territory. Most of the time it was sunny. They basked in the rays of warmth and enjoyed looking at the bright blue sky. They could see it all the time, but now when they were closer to nature than even during their trip it was a new and special feeling. It came from the fact that they felt safe and at peace, while doing their way to the capital. They knew that even if the nobles wanted to go after them, it was already too late for that. The trip continued and they encountered a few attacks from bandits that tried to rob all of the commoners walking aside the carriages a few times. On one of those attacks around one tenth of the people going to the capital died. It was an insane realization to Leo, but the Shmidts knew about it. Because most commoners were weak and had no special powers it was easy to attack and kill them. Leo and company did not reveal their powers. Elen and the two Shmidt brothers did protect Leo and Elly and some of the people that were around them, but nothing more than that. They did not want to draw attention and if it meant that some people have to die so be it. Everyone going to the capital from the commoners for a better life knew that could die during the journey, so it was not surprising for people to die from some attacks. After this attack Elen explained to Leo that in every one of those kinds of migrations of commoners even with some protection around a third would die. There were just too many people that knew when and where they will cross, and it was easy to ambush and kill and plunder those people of the little resources they accumulated to migrate. The people around Leo''s group got the point that they were no simple commoners and the few people that did chat with them did try to keep closer to this group. It did pay out in the end of the day because their part of the row of carriages going to the capital suffered the least amount of casualties. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Leo had a few thoughts of what to do when they will get to the capital, but he had to see everything with his own two eyes first and then look at what to do. They would still be in some danger until they will enrol into one of the top academies. Elen told Leo that the students of the academies and their families, especially the ones that are mages are protected from any harm, so no stupid nobles even in a high position will try to go after them while they are part of the academy. Leo already decided and told the family members that they will not do any moves until he and Elly enrol in the academy. The noble families could still go and look after them and if they have some connections in the capital the Shmidts will be fucked, and it was not something Leo wanted to deal with. He wanted to just see what was going on in the capital and have an idea to what place to go and what to do if he wanted to achieve his goals. After around a month of travel they walked up to a hill and people started to exclaim in happiness. Leo got the point that they must saw something interesting so he and the Shmidts also went to see what was going on. What Leo saw shocked him. He saw a huge city surrounded by a very tall and majestic walls. Leo was sure it was the capital Merham. He was excited after such sight. He knew that it was even better from what he imagined from the capital. He was ready for new adventures. The carriages moved quicker towards the capital. The walls that looked majestic from afar looked even more impressive from a short distance. If Leo would take a guess, it looked like it was around 15 to 20 meters tall. When everyone got to the wall to wait for an enter for commoners, the Shmidt family just separated from them and went to enter from the noble gates, that were almost empty from people. This was the moment that a new exciting and thrilling journey of Leo started at the capital of the Usman empire. Merham City part 1 The guards at the noble gate barely glanced at their documents before waving them through. Leo''s first steps into Merham hit him with a wave of scents - spices, smoke, and something sweet he couldn''t place. The cobblestone streets stretched wider than any he''d seen before, lined with buildings that reached four, five stories high. "Look at those silk banners!" Elly pointed at a merchant''s stall where fabrics in deep purples and blues rippled in the breeze. Greg and Felix''s heads swivelled toward the weapons quarter, where steel glinted in the sunlight. Swords of all sizes hung from racks while armored mannequins stood guard outside shop fronts. "We''ll check those later," Elen steered them through the crowd. "First, let''s see the main market square." They emerged into an open plaza packed with hundreds of stalls. Merchants shouted prices for everything from fresh fruit to magical trinkets. A woman with bronze skin held up a cage of tiny, glowing birds. Next to her, a bearded man in robes demonstrated floating crystals that spun in mesmerizing patterns. "Never seen half these things before," Leo murmured, watching a trader pour liquid rainbow into glass vials. The crowd parted around their group as they walked. Elly gasped at a display of jewellery where gems seemed to shift colors in the light. Even the Shmidt brothers fell quiet, taking in the sights. "Those are war-hounds from the Northern Plains," Elen nodded toward massive, gray-furred beasts that stood shoulder-high to a man. Their handler kept them in check with chains thick as Leo''s wrist. They passed stalls selling steaming meat pies, exotic pets in gilded cages, and books bound in materials Leo couldn''t identify. The variety was overwhelming - more goods in one place than he''d seen in his entire life before. A group of mages in blue robes walked past, silver badges glinting on their chests. Leo watched them carefully, noting how others gave them a wide berth. This was truly a different world from what he''d known before. The aroma of roasted meats drew them down a side street where smoke curled from chimney stacks. Wooden signs creaked in the breeze, advertising various taverns and eateries. "The Silver Stag," Leo read from an ornate sign showing a prancing deer. "Smells good." Inside, dark wooden beams crossed the ceiling and a massive stone fireplace dominated one wall. Platters of food passed between tables as servers navigated the crowd. "Five for dinner," Elen told the host, who led them to a corner table. Greg''s eyes locked onto a platter of ribs passing by. "That. I want that." "Venison looks proper here," Felix leaned over to examine another table''s meal. "With those roasted roots."Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Elly wrinkled her nose at their choices. "I''d prefer the duck. See how crispy the skin looks?" A server approached their table, wiping his hands on his apron. "Welcome to the Silver Stag. Our specialties today include wild boar, herb-crusted lamb, and pheasant in wine sauce." "The ribs for me," Greg spoke first. "Extra sauce." "Venison," Felix nodded. "I''ll have the duck," Elly smoothed her napkin across her lap. Leo studied the plates around them. "The lamb sounds good. With extra herbs." "Wild boar for me," Elen decided. "And bring us your house ale." "Just water for me," Leo added quickly. The food arrived on heavy wooden platters. Steam rose from the perfectly cooked meats, accompanied by roasted vegetables and fresh bread. Greg tore into his ribs with enthusiasm while Felix cut his venison into precise bites. Elly delicately pulled apart her duck, savouring each bite she made. Leo''s lamb fell off the bone, the herbs adding layers of flavour he''d never tasted before. Leo wiped his mouth with a napkin and leaned forward, lowering his voice. "We need to discuss our approach in Merham. Until Elly and I secure spots in an academy, we should keep a low profile." "Agreed," Elen set down his fork. "The fewer eyes on us, the better." "What exactly does laying low mean?" Greg''s sauce-covered fingers reached for another rib. "No fights," Leo''s blue eyes fixed on the brothers. "No showing off your skills, even if someone provokes you. We''re just another noble family settling in." Felix frowned. "And if someone starts trouble?" "Walk away," Leo''s tone left no room for argument. "The academies watch everything. One incident could ruin our chances." "But surely they''d understand if we were defending ourselves?" Elly dabbed at the corner of her mouth. "They might. But why risk it?" Leo pushed his plate aside. "The competition for spots is fierce. They look for any excuse to thin the numbers." "The boy''s right," Elen nodded. "I''ve heard stories of families spending years trying to get their children accepted. One wrong move..." He drew his finger across his throat. "So we act boring," Greg sighed. "No sparring in public?" "Practice in private," Leo confirmed. "We''ll find suitable locations away from prying eyes. For now, we''re just another family exploring the city''s markets and settling into our new home." "What about social events?" Elly''s green eyes sparkled with interest. "We attend what''s necessary to maintain appearances, nothing more," Leo took a sip of water. "No drawing attention, no grand gestures. Just enough to be unremarkable." "Unremarkable nobles," Felix chuckled. "That''s a new one." "It won''t be for long," Leo assured them. "Once we''re in the academies, things will change. But until then, we play it safe." Elen raised his ale. "To playing it safe, then. And to getting these two into the best academies Merham has to offer." The family clinked their glasses together, careful to keep their voices down as other diners passed their table. Leo traced the rim of his water glass. "We''ll need lodging that won''t draw attention. Something comfortable but not flashy." "The Golden Swan''s available," Greg offered. "Heard it''s where most nobles stay." "Exactly why we shouldn''t." Leo shook his head. "Too many eyes, too much gossip. We need somewhere respectable but unremarkable." Felix frowned. "You want us to stay in some common inn?" "There''s middle ground between common and noble quarters." Elly dabbed her lips with a napkin. "I passed several decent-looking places on our way here." "The Rose and Crown looked solid," Elen added. "Clean, well-maintained, but not trying to impress anyone." Greg''s shoulders tensed. "Our family has standards-" "Our family has sense," Leo cut in. "The exam''s months away. Until then, we cultivate slowly, steadily. No flashy displays, no drawing attention." "How long exactly?" Felix drummed his fingers on the table. "Five in a half months till the academy entrance exams begin." Leo''s blue eyes met each of theirs in turn. "That''s five in a half months of quiet preparation."