My body ached, and my fingers were numb and blackened. I could no longer stand, as my legs had become food for the maggots. My once sharp green eyes were now blurred and muddied, as darkness encroached upon my vision. I hadn't eaten in a long time, and my skin sagged, clinging to my remaining muscles and exposed bones. How I remained alive was a mystery even to myself. I should have died long before this; in fact, I had desired my own death for a considerable amount of time.

This house, this place, this dark basement. I had longed to see the end of this place for a long time. I would do anything to end this miserable life of mine. Long ago, I once dreamed of revenge, but it was no longer possible. In fact, it wasn't even possible in the first place. I was too weak, lacking the talent to control mana and unable to use the magic of our bloodline. The gods hadn't blessed me with a mana pool. If I had to compare, mine was the size of a small fish tank in front of lakes or oceans.

So no matter how much I wished and prayed, I was locked down here for over 8 years. All because they were embarrassed that I couldn't live up to their expectations. At first, they simply ignored me and treated me as if I didn't exist. But things changed when they brought in a child from an orphanage. This child, vastly more talented than I, became the focus of their attention. When they discovered his talent, their ignorance turned to disdain and then into hatred. They grew frustrated and locked me in this basement, anxious of my inability being revealed, they disguised the boy they adopted as me.

Then the days of isolation started. Stuck here, I survived by eating leftovers that had gone foul. A servant once extended their pity towards me and tried to feed me something better, but it wasn't long before he was replaced, and I assumed he was killed. Luckily, I wasn't without anything. Bookshelves adorned the cold stone walls, filled with books on magic, history, and other subjects. I often wondered why they hadn't gotten rid of them. Did they think that with my meager talent, even if I had read those books, I wouldn't be able to do anything? 

It was true, unfortunately. No matter how hard I tried, those books were useless to me. What else could I do, though? I was trapped in a boring cell, able only to repeatedly read what I was given. My mana pool had only grown by a minuscule amount over these 14 years. It didn't matter how much effort I exerted; I simply didn't have the talent needed to get stronger. Maybe there was a way out there for me to grow, but I didn't know it.

It was frustrating. So frustrating. No matter how much tears I had shed, I couldn't find a way out of this situation. I was utterly stuck in this black, muddy swamp. The swamp was putrid and heavy, and I couldn't see what was below or what was above me. I had sunken too far. That was my situation, or at least, it "was."

In my final desperate struggle, I used my life force to supplement my small mana pool and enacted the miracle that would give me a path forward.

Witchcraft. A study of mana and contracts. It was mostly used to curse and bind objects or beings to a set of rules, empowering or weakening them. Just like magic, it used mana as fuel, but I wondered if there was a way to use witchcraft to make contracts with mana itself by offering restrictions of some other form that weren't related to my own inabilities. I had all the time in the world to think and with all that time I had come up with a theory. I bit into my finger but could only faintly wound myself, it was enough though as I initiated my mana through my own blood and started writing.

I felt my life force burning away quickly. My fingers trembled weakly as I started writing with my blood in the air. Each stroke was slow, and my weakness was apparent. Each letter was written in a hideous manner, but it was done. Suddenly, a flash of light enveloped me, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself in a pure white area.

"Should we make it possible?"

"Why not? It'll be fun!"

"I agree. It would be an interesting distraction."

I could hear a discourse of what seemed to be words ahead of me, where the words were coming from was a question of its own though. The words were coming from three formless beings of light that seemed blurry to my eye no matter how hard I focused in on them. I couldn't describe them even if I had a picture. They conversed and occasionally glanced at me before resuming their discussion. Maybe "glanced" wasn't the right word, as they didn't possess physical eyes, but I could feel their attention on me at times.

'Were they gods?' I wondered as they spoke of creating this new system that I had only roughly outlined with ease.

"Let's add a few additional restrictions."

"Sure, sounds fun."

"Alright."

"It's been decided."

The three beings then "looked" towards me.

"""We will give you another gift when you wake up."""

[Congratulations, Nathen Cruix.]

That brings us to the present moment. I blacked out and woke up after returning from that strange meeting with those beings. As I contemplated what had transpired, my body was suddenly enveloped in a warm aura. I looked down and noticed my body wriggling in peculiar manner before it began to heat up. The exposed bones slowly became enveloped in flesh as my muscles grew back. My body underwent a transformation and was now in a healed state, yet it was still lacking in many areas.

My life force that was supposed to be depleted was now back to normal and it seemed as if I had regressed in age. My meeting with the gods was real, if so that means my contract must have been granted. I closed my eyes and imagined pulling out a book, then suddenly I was warped into a mental library.

I opened my eyes to an bare bookshelf with only one book, I turned my head and looked around. There were ten bookcases surrounding me in a circle and in front of those bookcases were numbers engraved on the ground. The bookcase I opened by eyes to was labeled [1st class] and in front each bookshelf were labels that went all the way up to [10th class].

There were only two books in this small library, one book on the [2nd class] shelf labeled [Hide Prescence] and the 2nd book on the [6th class] bookshelf labeled [Teleport]. If these bookcases were based on spell ranks it means that humanity hadn't reached the final class yet as the highest rank known to humanity were currently 8th class spells. 

It didn't matter to me though. I just wanted to escape, I wanted out of my cell. I wanted to be anywhere but here and live in peace. I walked towards the 7th shelf and grabbed the only book on it, it was hefty and had the smell of a new book. I had read about the [Teleport] spell before, you had to imagine a place or know its coordinates to teleport to wherever it was. The problem was that I unfortunately, had lived in this jail cell of mine for most of my life. So I didn't care where I ended up, I just needed to imagine any random forest and then my body would be wrapped in light.

It seemed the spell took quite a while to activate due to my unfamiliarity. Around the corner as the spell was about to initiate I heard familiar footsteps, he was the only person who came almost everyday to berate me. My birth father who abandoned me, he must have felt the mana exuded from this area and came running here.

No matter how shitty of a father he was, in the end he was an Archmage after all. As he reached my cell he looked at me with disdain and opened his mouth.

"What could you be trying to do with your miniscule amount of mana?"

I remained silent and looked into my fathers eyes. A faint smile appeared on my lips as he looked at my healed body. In his mind he probably couldn't understand how I was healed and how I was able to use the mana being released. His eyes were the same as always though, even in front of this supposed miracle he looked at me with a cold indifferent gaze. In the past I would have probably cursed him out but as the years went on I had lost the strength to speak, so these words I would utter would be the first words in a few years.

"Father, thank you for the first few years you gave me. If I had never experienced happiness I probably wouldn't have held on this long."

It was the truth, I missed the smell of grass, the cool wind and a warm fire. I had experienced all those when I was younger and I remembered them faintly. If I hadn't had these memories I would never had held on as long as I did.

"What?" My father just kept staring at me as if I were a bug.

It made me smile even more, I wouldn't be missed and I wouldn't miss them. That was perfect for me.

"Goodbye father."

The spell finished and in an instant, space was distorted and warped. It was as if my body was being squished and condensed causing some disorientation. The feeling then ended shortly and the image before me changed to a forest. Green vibrant leaves swayed in the wind, the same wind blew against the surface of my face and the sun blinded my eyes. I could only exhale a sigh as I was shown this breathtaking view, I had lost the energy to scream.

I just laid out and used the remaining spell in the library on myself. The book representing [Teleport] was grey now and I couldn't open it after its one use but [Hide Presence] was seemed to still be usable after I applied it to myself, while I was in the library it seemed that time was stopped as the leaves waving in the trees were in the same position before and after I entered the mental library.

It was time to rest, to sleep and close my tired eyes. With [Hide Presence] no monster should find my body, at least I hoped not. I was anxious but anything that happened in the future couldn't be worse than the past I experienced. With these last thoughts I closed my eyes.

[ Pov Switch ]

"Haah." With the recent shortage of assignments I had been just lazing around. My money was overflowing and I wondered if it was time to finally take a leave of absence from guarding the royal family. I was a little resistant to the idea as I had worked for them for most of my life

"It's Mage Killer Xander." some whispered.

People looked my way as I grumbled to myself. Mage Killer was title I gained after killing a few Archmages. I didn't hate mages or anything but a lot of them feared me because most of my kills were mages. Even though I used a spear I wasn't a warrior who used aura but rather a mage who heavily relied on body strengthening. I didn't just randomly kill mages, I swear!

Mumbling to myself I stood up and walked out of the castle and headed into the forest looking for someplace to relieve my stress. My body was aching to move, tightly gripping my spear as I walked out.

"[Body Strengthening]."

At this time there should be no humans in this forest, but I always checked just in case. 

"[Life detection]."

My mana spread out like a thin sheet covering the area and faintly I could the presence of a human shaped object lying on the ground. They seemed to be hiding their presence as they slept or something. 

"Is it Serena?" She always wandered around and slept anywhere she liked, sometimes exposing herself to danger.

'No this mana isn't hers' The mastery of [Hide Prescence] was high so it couldn't be Serena's. It could also be an assassin sent by someone but I dismissed that notion.

I walked towards the presence I only found a young man with barely anything covering his body. His clothes were worn and decayed not fitting his body at all. His body itself was malnourished and dehydrated at the same time.

As much as I didn't want to disturb his sleep I was worried about the kid. He seemed to be only around nine or ten, not old enough to survive by himself yet.  

"Hey, wake up." I tried shaking him awake only to find no response.

'Unresponsive, this is bad.' I quickly picked him up and placed him on my back.

I had to get him to the nursing area to treat him. Although there was the threat of him being an assassin I was confident I could subdue him, considering he was a mage.