Anne swung her sword, her preferred weapons were a sword and a shield.

"Hah!"

"There, now!" Kaiser says before swinging his practice broadsword.

"Grgh!" Anne parried it with her shield, before countering with a horizontal slash.

"Excellent!" Kaiser immediately blocked the sword, and jumped back a few metres away from Anne.

Anne refused to let the distance stop her, she jumped as well, all while preparing for a jumping slash.

"Don't get over excited!" Kaiser blocked the slash, but immediately, Anne also using her shield to smack Kaiser.

Kaiser disengaged after blocking, making the shield bash miss, while gaining distance, he also swung the broadsword seeing Anne mess up her stance after missing.

Anne, seeing swing, immediately blocked with her shield, and used the force of impact to move farther.

"Haaah, Haah, I still can't beat you" Anne said, breathing roughly.

They have been training for a few years now, Alex's age is now few months approaching five.

"Of course, I have been fighting for a long time, my combat experience and skills would of course be ahead of you" Kaiser said seriously.

In fact, by Xerendia's standards, apart from mercenary adventurers, no one can beat the two of them, Kaiser has been training Anne rigorously, in both internal force and external force training to get her combat standards to reach professional levels.

"But still, five years prequisite in martial training for a paladin is still a bit much"

Anne now sitting on the ground still out of breath, they were both sparring for a few hours now, the sun is almost at its peak, they started training at dawn.

They had the time since Mild wanted Alex to stay for the night in the temple, along with the other aunts and aunties Alex gained these past few months.

They both wore light clothing, with, Kaiser having taken off his own leather tunic due to the rising heat his unenchanted tunic provided, revealing a muscalar body, coupled with a handsome appeareance presented an enticing offer to onlookers, in fact, some trainees were watching the two of them being mesmerized, at both their moves and their bodies.

Because of Anne's months long training, she now sported subtle muscles that further made her body alluring, Kaiser trained her in both endurance and agility, a combination good against most warriors including knights but average compared to paladins.

Kaiser also taught her to expect anything to be used as a weapon, he made his point by actually using a freshly caught fish as his weapon against Beck, who also used a fish, their spar actually looked comical enough for Anne to laugh at them.

He also made Anne focus on defense, her healing abilities compounded with her defenses would outlast most warriors.

In fact, Kaiser was quite surprised and worried for her, surprised since her talents in swordsmanship almost matched his own, worried because he doesn't know if Anne can fight in actual battle against a monster or a human.

So far, Anne has been only training, she hasn't fought any monsters or any other humans, there are no monsters because they are constantly hunted by Mercenary Adventurers, and no bandits ot thugs ecause of the impeccable security and detterance Kaiser and Beck offers to Xerendia.....

"Mama, Papa, I brought you lunch, Grandpa Mild said to give it to the muscle head still training" Alex ran to the training ground carrying a rather large basket.

Both of them looked at Alex, and smiled.

Alex has grown to be a friendly child, Mild even said that Alex's charisma and personal magnetism would be incredible.

Mild doted on Alex for two reasons, first, his own grandchildren died, in the last war of Odivire, second, his friend, Peole requested to take care of the child, and so, he taught Alex manners and social conduct alongside Anne and Kaiser.

Alex pattered to Kaiser handing him the basket containing their lunch.

"Here papa muscle head!" Alex said gigling with joy.

Anne simply smiled at the two while she wiped her sweat off with a towel, after that, she called Alex over.

The two of them took out their lunch while Kaiser wope his sweat and put on his leather tunic and sat down.

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"And so, to cast spells, one must manipulate mana with their wills or their tools, those born with the innate abilities to control mana are called wizards or witchss, those that use a tool such as a staff or a ring are called Magicians"

Master Rykus lectured in the royal capital of Odivire, his own disciples have finally graduated and he has started taking on another two, his two disciples will have a year of lectures before he can take them out to the world, where they will learn by example.

"Now, who knows what those two can grow into? A person who can cast without spells?

Hmm?" Rykus asked his tone partially light.

"Master, its a Mage, people who can tap into mana without incantations, Wizard or witches might be born able to manipulate mana, but they can't cast spells without chanting" Korel said, Korel was a commoner picked up by Rykus in a village who had famine, he volunteered to sell himself off to some noble, in exchange for his village's transfer to the noble authority, he knew his own worth, he was a natural born Wizard, he could feel and sense mana sense he was young, that was to be his bargaining chip in exchange for his village.

Before he could reach the noble, he encountered Rykus and his two disciples, Rykus sensed the innate talent for magic in him.

Rykus offered to teach him for free seeing the tattered wool cloth he wore.

He inially refused, his fellow villagers would be suffering while he learned magic, his guilt would be unbearable.

Rykus hearing the determination to save his own village, offered to 'buy' him in exchange for saving the village.

Korel was skeptical, he heard about the power of Mana, he can even see and use it to a limited degree, but he could never make it rain, nor use it to farm.

Rykus simply chuckled and without moving, he was immediately surrounded by mana.

Korel, in all of his 17 years of life, has never seen that much mana within a small area, he could feel the pressure of mana.

"I can do it boy, now, you might not have sensed it, but this problem is because of low mana density, the mana simply could not sustain life force for both plants and animals. The density here is so sparse that it even affected their growth. I'll find out why that is the case, be my disciple, and I'll save this region not to mention your village" For Rykus, this problem was more than enoug to solve the mana problem in exchange for a wizard.

He in fact came here to solve the mana problem all while teaching his disciples, he never would have thought that a wizard would appear here.

In the end, they discovered a chaos hole sucking up mana, the chaos hole would have become a tunnel through worlds, opening up to demons, they were fornutate they stopped it, a few more monthd and a demon army would have come through.

The chaos hole was sealed, the mana started minutely recovering, the mana demsity would return after a few months.

"Still not enough, we're releasing our manas, everyone, realease" Rykus said to the two.

And they emitted mana to their limit, the density in the surrounding eventually recovered much faster, instead of months, just a few days and the mana density would be back to normal.

When Rykus returned, he informed the boy, who actually felt the mana they released.

The boy was happy, he told the village chief of his decision to join, the chief agreed, bitterly since he was the one who took care of him. 

"Excellent, wizards and witches can manipulate the mana, and magicians need tools to use mana" said to his two new disciples.

Korel looked at his fellow disciple, a beastman canine, Lopel.

Lopel was bought by Rykus from a slave trader in a port city, he initially was looking for a tool for himself, being a mage, he no longer requires casting, but tools were still necessary, he ran out of augury supplies, and was looking for some of the more rare components.

He detected Lopel's inherent supply of mana, he was surprised, the beastmen were a race that had few magic capabilities, the mana he saw in Lopel was easily as as large as a wizard in the verge of becoming a mage, he wws astounded and at first suspected the kid to be undercover and was biding his time to stop the slavers.

He got interested and waited for the auction a few moments later.

Slavery was actually banned, but only within Odivire, the continent could buy slaves from other countries, this resulted in slavery merely being frowned upon, and slaves were generally treated well, especially those slaves necessary for mining and other physical labor.

Rykus waited for the auction to start, but he was surprised that Lopel was the first item, the slaver said: "This canid is special, as a special opener, we'll start with 500 silver, or 5 gold".

The price astounded many, but before they could argue or bargain.

"This little pup has large mana capacity, you can extract the mana from him while making him work for you, a two purpose slave for the price of 5 gold is simply a bargain, fine bidders". The slaver spoke about Lopel and how he was taken care of, he cited that they treated him more carefully than themselves, afraid of dmaging his value either due to injury or a sickness.

The hearing that, were astounded, it really was a bargain, slaves of that calibre usually cost atleast ten gold, a sum only nobles could afford.

The bidders eagerly bid, the price slowed down at 950 silver, equivalent to roughly nine gold.

By the second call to bid, Rykus bid for Lopel, 15 gold, astounding the other bidders, also making the slaver giddy with the profit they made, since they only found the boy by accident, taking care of his health only cost them 300 silver, they made a huge profit right off the bat, and they still had a few labor slaves and sex slaves to sell.

Rykus registered himself as the owner by dropping his own blood to a tattoo on Lopel's neck, the tatoo resembled a leash, but looking closer, it actually consisted with very finely detailed runes.

He then left with Lopel, he eventually found the necessary ingredients si he went back to the capital.

From that day on, Lopel was groomed to be a magician, since despite his massive mana pool, he couldn't directly manipulate it.

The two students of Rykus were competitive, Lopel's natural mana pool far outstripped that of Korel by a large margin, but Korel can use the surrounding mana to fuel his spells, giving Lopel's natural mana pool a run for its money.

Korel and Lopel are actually the youngest disciple Rykus ever taught.

He treats the two of them more than disciples, he treats them more like his grandchildren.

Even the former disciples of Rykus were treated as such, so those trained by Rykus would never betray each other, not especially Rykus himself.

Just before he started explaining, he recieved a mild ache all over his body.

The two disciples immediately helped him, when he fell over.

"Seems like I got too tired, lecture is suspended for now, focus on spellcasting practice for now". Rykus said weakly.

The two of them looked at Rykus, not believing a single word of his excuse, but they complied and left the room.

"Seems like the curse is getting worse"

Rykus said still weak.

"I hoped that it won't happen now, but seems like time is running out. Huh, now that I remember, the kid Kaiser adopted seemed weird, as if he wasn't human, he feels like me when this curse works" Rykus pondered to himself, while he opened his robes.

He wore nothing underneath, correction, he can't wear anything underneath, sigils are drawn all over his body, both consuming his body and making it stronger.

He got cursed in the war, by a mysterious Herac, the Herac's purpose was to sow chaos and obtain more people to turn into soldiers.

He never expected the man to curse him with a demonic sigil, not to mention, it was the highest sigil, the devouring sigil, after the curse devours him, his body will feed and nurture a demon loyal the summoner.

It has been gnawing for a few months now, and it was getting stronger each month.

By his estimate, the demon will spawn and he will die within 5 years.

He tried evrything, he even went to greatest mage, the royal Grand Magus, the one who serves the royalty of Odivire.

The Grand Magus told him only elves could possibly cure him, or an actual god, if not, a healing god's blessing.

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A few months back

Anya was out in their backyard, her house further sunk into destition, it made her heart ache everytime she saw the dilapidated house and its surroundings, she remembered her father and her playing and eatin in the now rotten garden, she remembered jumping to her father every time smhe came home much to the dismay of their only servant, which only elicted a helpless chuckle from his father.

Anya, now a five year old, went to the fruit trees in their garden, the garden used to conatin herbs they would sell, now it was totally barren, his wastrel of an uncle sold all the herbs, the fruit bearing trees simply survived because no one would buy them.

This fruits were barely enough for her, since her uncle was always out.

At this time, she went out to eat some fruits since she was hungry.

Anya's life was miserable, she was emacited, he bones were showing, the old cute and chubby face now showed bone with how far it shrunk, her uncle often forgot to bring her food, instead carrying drinks and while walking drunkedly.

This was routine to her by now, every morning she would go out and eat some of the fruits, she was now relatively eating better than last month since the trees were still flowering then.

She knows that the fruits wll only last her for a few days, but she was still happy, eating the fruits reminded her of her father.

As came out she saw someone near the trees, resting their backs on the trunk, asleep. 

She was wary, because her father told her not to be too trusting of strangers, so she approached queitly.

As she approached, she saw the person was actually a half elf, more over, by the half elf's side was a sleeping halfling.

She was rather hungry, but the two strangers were enough to deter her from approaching.

"Girl, ehat do you want? Its not polite to keep staring you know?" The half elf said, eyes still closed.

This startled her, she froze on the spot and stammered out "I-I'm hungry, I-I wantee t-to eat those fuits" she said nervously.

"Is that all? Well, come here then, don't worry, I won't bite" said the half-elf.

"Don't worry, miss flat over here won't bother you" said the halfling apparently woken by the half-elf.

Both of them were women, the halfling was a head and a half taller than Anya, while the half-elf was twice the size.

"Yes, I don't bother others" the half elf glared at the halfling.

"R-r-reallly?" Said Anya.

"Yup, by the way, why are you so thin, little girl? Your bones are showing, my goodness!"

The half now rose up, while rummaging her pack.

"Child eat some, its not good for you to be that thin" the half elf said.

Handing her a food pack filled with dried venison and a few berries.

Seeing the meat, Anya's hunger over came her wariness, she approached drawn by the food, especially after openinh it, the smell of the food caused her stomach to gurgle loudly, which elicted a worried chuckle form the two women.

"Thank you Miss Flat," Anya said gratefully.

Anya then ate hungrily, forgetting the manners her father taught her momentarily.

The half elf's smile twitched with Anya's thanks, which elicited a laugh from the Halfling.

Anya approached the halfling after eating.

"Thank you big sister, is she your mother? Can we be friends?" Anya said bashfully, as she remembered how she ate.

The halfling and half-elf both were stunned, they both looked at each other before laughing.

"Hahahaha, little girl, we aren't mother daughter, we're the same age!" Huffed the Halfling.

"Really?" Asked Anya, not believing her.

"Hahahahaha, show her your ears." The half-elf said.

The halfling showed the girl her ears.

"See, I'm a halfling, we're the same age, I just look young"

"By the way, why are you so thin? Not eating enough?" Asked the half elf.

"Its no worries Miss Flat, I'm fine" Anya said, not wanting to further take advantage of their kindness, but she did not understand that they never saw her as taking advantage of them.

"My name is Kyre, not Flat, my friend's name is Porea" the half-elf's smile further twiched, so she gave their names.

"Ah, sorry, Miss Kyre, Miss Porea"

Anya's face reddened.

"We were only passing through here, er.... we didn't expect that house to have residents, but just in case we slept outside" the halfling, Porea told Anya.

"Ah, well, thank you for the food" Anya now totally embarassed.

"Say, we got to get going, good bye Anya"

Porea said to Kyre, them to Anya.

Hearing that they were going, Anya became sad, but she tried hiding it.

Porea saw through the child's act and actually regretted her bluntness.

Kyre on the hand said

"Anya, why don't we visit you here? We'll try to come every day, what do you say?"

"Really?" Anya's joy was evident now.

"Mmhmm, I guarantee it, so don't be sad" said Porea trying to make up for her bluntness.

"Its a promise" she held out her pinky

The two of them shrugged and smiled while making a pinky promise.

Weeks pass and Anya now looks forward to her two companions occasional visit, she started filling out a bit, still thin, but not skinny.

One day, the drunk uncle showed up while the three were talking and bonding.

He cussed up a storm about the intruders and started to ask payment for eating the fruits they ate.

They were immediately enraged, now finding out why Anya was so malnourished earlier.

The drunk eventually passed out, his smell enough to drive even a dwarf drunk.

Anya pleaded for the two women to help her uncle, and so they conceded.

They then immediately asked her to go with them and leave his uncle, she refused saying that this was her home, and she did not want to leave.

The two women looked at each other and tried persuading her, but she still said no.

They conceded and tried persuading her to go with them each time they visited and came by.

Anya agreed, not knowing that the women actially planned to train her in hunting and foraging.

The weeks and months pass by, Anya was now spending more time with the women, she even called them big sisters.

The two women trained her in the form of just giving tips, and quizzing her occasionally, or just teaching her moves while playing.

Kyre even started teaching her bowmanship, going as far as to present Anya with a small bow that was rather expensive but she told Anya that it was a spare.

Anya rapidly absorbed herbology, impressing Porea, her bowmanship however was still inadequate, but she was progressing steadily.