Lucian walked home with long strides and with a smile on his face, giddy with his first accomplishment of casting a spell.

I really don’t want to study more, but since I have to study in order to become a mage, I guess I’ll have to go through it, thought Lucian as he reached for the door of his house.

“Oh? You’re back. What did you do today?” asked Marian, wiping the sweat off her forehead.

“Did you just come back from training?”

“Yeah, I did. But I asked what did you do today? Did you finally cast a spell today?”

“You always ask that. Ever since I started. Well, lucky for me, I actually did cast a spell today.”

“Woah, really! Show me then!”

“Not now. I’ll show you after dinner since I’m too exhausted right now.”

“Running away? Just say that you need a few more days. I’ll understand.”

“Yeah yeah, be ready for the light show after dinner. I’ll show the whole family.”

Lucian and Marian then went into their house. Despite the teasing, she really did care for her little brother. Marian was often a tomboyish girl, picking fights with the bullies, tests of stamina, like swimming and sprinting, and general competition with her peers; traits that were uncommon for girls, as they would find these activities dull and unappealing. And Lucian was one of the only boys who would accept her challenges, with him losing most of them. Not like he had a choice to accept or reject the challenge anyways.

“That reminds me. How’s your preparation for the knight’s selection going?”

“Eh. You know I beat everyone when it comes to our fists. So, I won’t have any problems during the practical exam.”

“Ah, is that so? But what about the written exam?”

Marian’s eyes darted here and there but never met Lucian’s.

“W-well, I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little stupid when it comes to stuff like that. But Dad said I’ll be fine after he did some tests.”

“So, you do know that you’re stupid.”

She lightly punched his shoulder as Lucian chuckled after recoiling from the strike.

“That reminds me, did Dad ever tell you how he convinced Mom to let you appear for the selection?”

“Nah, he didn’t. I guess he’ll tell us when the time comes.”

Time passed by, with Lucian and his family helping the customers at the tavern with their orders. After they had closed for the day, the family gathered for dinner. They eat their fill of bread and roast meat, made with the same assortment of spices that everyone in the family loved, as they talk about their day and the happenings of the town. After they had finished, Lucian kept his promise to Marian and showed the Tier-1 spell, Ignition, to his family. Just like the flame in Lucian’s hand, the faces of his family lit up with shock and joy. The parents were finally relieved that Lucian had found what he wanted to do that would keep him fed, whereas the older sister had her chest puffed out with pride for his younger brother’s skill and efforts. After cleaning up, they then went to sleep in their rooms.

The following day, Cassia entered Lucian’s room while he was still asleep.

“Wake up, Lucian! Do you know what time it is?”

“What?” said Lucian, still half-asleep.

“It’s about to be mid-day. Hurry and go to your teacher. Otherwise, she’s going to be mad at you.”

After hearing from his mother that it was about to be midday, Lucian woke himself up out of shock. This was the first time he had been late.

Oh no, she’s gonna kill me if I go now, thought Lucian, as he was getting ready to run to his destination.

Having entered through the gates, Lucian felt chills running down his spine. He knew his teacher was going to be angry, as she valued her time the most, judging from the stories that Cecilia told Lucian about what she did to those who wasted her time.

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“Aren’t we awfully early today?”, said Cecilia, with a sarcastic tone and with a smile.

“I-I’m really sorry. I don’t sleep in normally. Please forgive me!” grovelled Lucian.

“Did you use magic yesterday besides the time from training?”

“Huh? Yes, I did.”

“I knew it. Every mage does this after casting their first spell. You know, that’s the reason why you slept in today. Mana exhaustion.”

“What’s that?”

“It happens when you strain your body from casting too much magic. Best case scenario, nothing bad happens, and you just need more rest, like what happened to you. Worst case, you die.”

“R-really!? I didn’t know the effects were going to be that bad…”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you anytime soon, as the spells you will cast for the meantime don’t require that much mana. The effects are worse for the spells that cost more mana. Anyways, run two laps around the garden now.”

“Sorry?”

“I told you yesterday, didn’t I? We are going to do physical training from today. Best start running now.”

Lucian started running, as he didn’t want to anger his teacher any further. He felt he was left off the hook just now for being late.

After running two laps, Lucian sat down, panting as he caught his breath.

“Excuse me, teacher. Mind if I ask a question?”

“What is it?”

“Why am I running laps, exactly? I thought mages don’t fight physically.”

“You think having stamina is only for fighting? A mage has a lot of responsibilities and tasks that they must do. Most of them require prolonged periods of physical labour, like gathering materials for alchemy, maintaining distance from the enemy when duelling, and just plain running away from beasts when you’re outmatched.”

“I-I see.”

“It seems like you’ve rested. We’ll be starting lessons now.”

“Okay.” Said Lucian with a long sigh.

“Today, we will learn more about magic and the types of mages. After that, we will see what type of mage you are fit to be.”

Cecilia then started her lecture. The world was comprised of basic elements, which the mages manipulated in order to cast spells. There were seven basic elements in total; Fire, water, electric, air, earth, divine and abyss. However, these were not the only elements. With proper understanding and research of the elements, a mage could then combine these basic elements to form complex elements, like water and air creating ice. As the spell's complexity increased, so did the mana cost and potency.

“However, it’s not that easy to combine elements. Most mages can only combine two, with the ability to combine three, as well as proficiently using those new elements, makes you an individual coveted by nations. Combining four elements is stuff from myths and legends.” Said Cecilia.

“The spell you casted is called Ignition. And you can probably guess that its attribute is fire. It is also a Tier-1 spell. Which brings us to the next topic, tiers of magic.”

Tiers were the categories of spells, categorising them according to their complexity of casting and mana cost. A higher-tiered spell would be more difficult to cast than a lower-tiered one, as well as costing more. However, what it brought to the table in return was either versatility or potency.

“There are six tiers of magic to date. The average mage casts Tier-2 to Tier-3 magic. Tier-4 magic is very rare, with only a few dozen mages capable of doing so. Any magic above Tier-4 is only written in records and legends, the last mage being able to cast one being this town’s founder, Unasu.”

“Teacher, you said there are six tiers of magic to date. Does that mean more tiers will come in the future?”

“We don’t know if Tier-6 is the last Tier of castable magic. Just a few centuries ago, it was believed that Tier-4 was the highest one could cast, which was then disproved by legendary mages. So, it’s nice to have some hope that there could be more tiers of magic. It keeps the motivation up for ambitious mages.”

“Now, we will learn more about the types of mages. Pay attention, as this will decide your path as a mage.”

Lucian listened with full attention to what Cecilia had to say. Mages are defined by their cores. Like beasts with a magic core in their body that sustains and empowers them, mages can learn to create their own magic core to empower them. It also acted as a battery, allowing mages to cast spells in succession without tiring themselves out.

“A mage’s core can be developed up to 5 stages, with each stage reducing the amount of mana a spell costs if the core’s stage is more than the tier of the spell. There’s not a lot of research on this topic, with interest in it being picked up just recently. Mages of the past were powerful compared to today’s mages, but we didn’t have these classifications and tools back then, so we can’t pinpoint how strong they were. But considering the fact that one ancient mage can deal with a demonic beast of their time on their own, they must have been stronger than the 5th stage. Although, these records might also be embellishments, so who knows what’s the truth.”

“Uh, teacher? What’s an embellishment?”

“…”

“Sometimes I forget that you’re a fifteen-year-old kid. Forget that last sentence since that’s my personal opinion.” Said Cecilia as she moved to the next topic.

“After you form your core, you have to decide what type of mage you want to be. There are three types of mages, with each one of them having its unique practical uses. They are Specialist, Dual-attributed, and Versatile mages. I shouldn’t teach you more about this topic until you form your core and experiment with what’s good for you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Patience. Here’s what we are going to do now. We are going to learn to cast all Tier-1 spells, as well as start to form your core after learning a few spells, both offensive and defensive.”

“Really!?” said Lucian, ecstatic at the thought of doing practical magic training.

“But how do I form a magic core?”

“By killing and absorbing magical beasts, of course. That’s why I will teach you all the Tier-1 spells, which is a requirement for mages, by the way. So, I am going to increase the hours of the lessons from today onwards. Also, we are not skipping on physical training as well.”

“What? How many hours is that? I already do my mana training for six hours.”

“Add eight more to that routine. You’ve got to make some sacrifices if you want to make it big in the mage society.”

And so began Lucian’s training to prepare him to form his first core, but he wouldn’t know what fate had in store for him until the end of his first battle.