Just before I was about to stop inspecting my abdomen and man's core, I see that there is 10 tiny orbs floating around my mana core. ‘What are these? They’re so small I can barely make out that they are even there.. I’ll leave them for now, messing about with things I don’t understand won’t turn out well for me.’
Opening my eyes, I see from the window it’s somewhere around mid day. Getting up, I head outside to find Edward.
‘I wonder how strong I would be right now?’ I try my best to keep my mind occupied while walking towards his lab.
“Edward?” I shout out his name to check if he is around.
“In here!” I hear a shout back from inside, so I decide to enter. Seeing him washing blood off of himself I question him. “Um, bad time? Did I interrupt something?”
“No, you're fine. I just decided to feal with a few prisoners that where attempting to escape.” Edward admits to killing a few people and carry on, although I don’t think anything of it. “By the way, congratulations on breaking through to novice rank.”
“Ah I see. And thank you, I have a question. What are the official rankings of magi and warriors?”
“Well, both of them have the same ranking system. You start off as apprentice rank, then they break through to novice. After novice they become journeyman rank, then adept rank. If you break through higher you obtain the title of archmage. After archmage, one can obtain the rank of a sacred magus. Any further than that and you reach the peak of humans that live today. They are given the ascendant rank. I’ve heard people say if you break through further, you’re considered an immortal because your life span drastically increases. According to Michael Solomon, you can go higher, but I really have no clue if this is the case. Theoretically this is the same with both warriors and magi, but no one has ever heard of warrior breaking out of the mortal stage.”
Hearing this a few things are cleared up. ‘That means if I want to gain power here, I have a long way to go..’
Seeing my slightly demotivated face, Edward consoles me. “You shouldn’t worry. For you it’s just a matter of time before you reach the top, although probably quite a long one. Others have to worry about making it past the adept rank.”
“.. I suppose so, what’s the usual rank of magi around my age? I’m 19 incase you need an exact number.”
After thinking for a while Edward responds while he strokes his beard. “Well magi are only able to create a mana core when they turn 18 or else their bodies can be heavy damaged. So even the most talented magi your age will be no more than adept. Maybe if they are a once in 500 years genius they could maybe be an archmage. Anyone past archmage, at that age, wouldn’t be human.”
“Okay I understand thank you for answering. I was curious since if I’m going to the university in the capital, I wanted to know if I would be ahead or behind. It’s good to know I’ll be average.”
“It’s nothing, my boy. Just focus on black magic for now. I’m afraid I have no suitable mana training techniques to give to you since you are now a novice rank mage.” Pausing to sit down and breathe, he starts to talk again. “You should learn everything you can about modern day life here as well, to fit in. Since you knew nothing about magic, I bet some things might confuse you, such as some dark magic sigil’s being marked as 'not evil’. Such as the sigil’s for storage rings and some sigil’s required to make enchanted equipment for mercenaries. Although to learn these sigil’s in the capital the church must deem you safe.”
“Isn’t that contradictory? The so called gods and the church want black magic outlawed but some parts are okay because its useful to them?” Originally I had high hopes the empire might be at least a semi decent place, although hearing Edward explaining the church uses sigil’s just because it’s useful for them my hopes of the so called empire being a decent place drop significantly.
“It is what it is, the common citizens seem to be brainwashed into thinking the church is always right. So naturally they will think black magic is the worst thing ever to exist so long as the church says so.” While Edward is explaining this, I can see his visible frustration on his face.
After a moment of awkward silence, I decide to change the subject. “Edward could you please tell me what you think about this?” I pull out the notebook I found at the ruins when I first got here. “Supposedly it belongs to someone named Nicholas Chambers who did research on warriors using black magic.”
Edward who was taking a sip of water at the time immediately spits it out. “What?! Nicholas Chambers? It has to be a coincidence..”
“Umm, I’m sorry? I don’t understand.”
“Sigh, Rook you probably don’t know of him since you’ve never heard of the empire before, but around 300 years ago, he was the most well renowned pope in the entire world. At the time the world was supposedly at peace, or at the very least a truce. I heard conspiracies the church did something awful at that time which made the other empires upset. If that’s the same Nicholas Chambers then this information cannot be leaked.” Massaging his temples he exhales loudly.
“I see, I shall keep this notebook safe then and share this information with nobody.”
“Burn it, keep it, I don’t care but never let anyone else read the contents of it”
Another moment of awkward silence arises. Swiftly, it gets broken by Edward. “Come, we have a lot of training and not a lot of time left. Starting as of now, I shall give you all of my knowledge on black magic.”
…
Waking up I head to my bathroom and take a look in my mirror. Today is the day I leave this place for the capital Eldrine. After brushing my teeth, taking a bath and putting on a fresh set of clothes I decide to head into the village centre for once to eat something. After all, I still have a bit of time.
Walking towards the village centre I take a look at a few shops that are selling different types of fruits, meats, and breads. After picking out a few of the vendor's choice of fruits, I buy a loaf of bread and sit down on a public bench.
“This place isn’t so bad.” For the first time in a while I get a moment of peace.
‘Edward says I’ve got till noon, then I have to meet him a 20 minute walk away outside the village gate.’
Slowly eating my meal I watch the villagers go by their daily life’s. Some of them are families out for their weekly shop, some of them are couples, and some of them are just farmers.
It’s times like this that make me want a peaceful life. As people say, you crave what you can’t obtain.
Getting up after finishing my meal, I see a shop selling medical herbs, bandages, and other first aid equipment. I take a look around and get a few things I feel would be useful.
While I can regenerate wounds naturally quickly due to my body, I won’t be sure I’ll always have mana. If I were to get badly injured without mana then I would have to wait till my mana recovers to start to heal quickly.
I start to wonder what the limit is to my healing is. Since I can heal wounds almost instantly by forcing mana to that area it sounds like I'd be unkillable, however the outrageous mana consumption makes me have a feeling it won’t be useful any time soon.
That being said, so long as I have mana in my body I don't even need to heal it instantly since wounds that usually take a month to heal are healed within a day or two.
All that being said, the medical supplies are just a backup, better safe than sorry.
As I see it reaches noon I make my way out of the village and start walking till I see Edward. He told me he would prepare a map for me and food rations.
“Boy! Over here!” Edward shouts from a distance, I rush over to him and as soon as I get to him he pushes a map and rucksack into my hands. “This is 2 weeks worth of food and water, as well as a map. As long as you follow the marked trail you’ll arrive in roughly 12 days.”
Turning his back to me, he seems to look at the path I’ll soon be traveling down. “Rook, although you've only been my apprentice foe a month, I-”
Getting cut off mid sentence, he looks down to see the tip of a dagger, exiting his chest. Turning around, he looks at me with no sense of betrayal in his eyes, however he starts cackling for a few seconds before all breath leaves him.
Suppressing a grin, I invoke a fireball to burn his body. “Sorry, old man. This is for the best.. farewell.”
