A long, long time ago, back in the Age of the First of the First of Men, there used to be only one Fate among Man.

The Fate, the First of Men decided what it shall be, how it shall be, and when it shall be. As such, back in those Ages, all a First of Man knew was the Monarch's Path as it was the only Path available to them.

So they followed in their predecessor's footsteps no matter the pitfalls that lay before them. No matter the bloodshed shed to preserve their Path.

For good or bad, it was the best a Man’s Fate held in said distant Age.

However, as all things began, all things must end, and thus came the end of the Age of First of First of Men.

With no other choice, the holders of the Bloodline of the First of Men stepped back and let their smaller cousins, the little man that would have dwelt within the caves if not for the First of Men, take over and rule over all Men.

Still, not declaring themselves the victims of the Times, as the Divine Proclaimed, The First of Men sought new Paths to take.

Naturally, since it was a brand new Path, new avenues were discovered, new pitfalls were uncovered, and new flaws were encountered. During those desperate times, many holders of the Bloodline of the First of Men died and died, and died, as each new pitfall was discovered and filled, and every flaw turned into a perk.

Thus, in the end, as it should, the First of Men paved two new Paths to Excellence.

Thus, the Path of the Champion and the Path of the Magician were born out of the ashes of the Monarch’s Path.

Thus, began the Age of Heroes as Men arose and Men fell to find and take their rightful place within the long anals of the Past Ages through Tales of Wondrous Feats.

Thus, out of one became two, and out of two became three.

Then, one First of Men posed a question to himself. If one could become two, and two become three, why could not three become five? And so the holders of the Bloodline of the First Men paved new roads, with new discoveries, with new pitfalls and new flaws to be overcome and transformed.

Thus, during the Age of Heroes, two new Paths were completed, the Path of the Saint and the Path of the Artisan.

Thus, as all things began and all things ended when the Age of Heroes ceased to be, out of their ashes, The Five Prime Human Destinies emerged to shape all the coming Ages till the end of Time itself.

Or so the tale went, as Adamu once more reviewed the history of the Bloodline of the First of Men.

Naturally, Adamu knew more about all those Ages than anybody else but the Divinities and the Aspects, as he could review those memories, or better said, would be able to review all those memories once he Awakened because right at this moment, no Spell could latch onto him unless forced.

Even then, it would not last for long, much less the amount of time needed to review that many memories.

Settling aside the long and bloody history of the long past Ages, Adamu’s mind settled on the new ones, namely, the Ages that split and refined the Five Prime Human Destinies into Eight Minor Destinies, or as they were called the Eight Mortal Roles.

Warrior, Archer, Scout, Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric, Crafter, Noble.

In truth, there were more Roles, but all of them could be used as substitutes for the Eight Minor Destinies to develop and reach the Five Prime Human Destinies before attempting to transcend the Destiny of Men and become Divine.

All Men but the First of Men, for no First of Men, ever, had taken that step because something or someone always killed them off before it occurred. Which was no surprise considering the Gifts they held in their hands. Yet, even without said interference, no First of Men managed to do so because as mighty as the Gifts were, they were also heavy, chaining all of them down to the ground.

Jerking his head sideways, Adamu refused to entertain those thoughts.

For Adamu to achieve Essence Awakening, he realized that he needed first to activate the Bloodline of the First of Men, and that meant choosing which Minor Destiny to develop before allowing himself to branch off the already-trodden Path.

In his previous life, Adamu had started as a Wizard before branching into the Sorcourer to attain the Magician Prime Destiny or Title as typically dubbed for the masses. In this life, however, things were not as simple, since Magic was so heavily restricted, and he was forced to develop Essence.

The biggest problem Adamu could foresee was the Perks of the Roles not functioning with Essence as they used to with Magic, which would only magnify the flaws of a Role instead of balancing everything out.

However, since that was out of his hands, all Adamu foresaw was one possibility right this moment, and that was to take the Warrior Role.

Scout and Archer are out of the question. Adamu went over his thoughts one last time. The same goes for Noble, Wizard, and Sorcerer.

This leaves me with Cleric or something to substitute Cleric since I do not plan on praying to Ina for too long.

Yes… Warrior it is.

Having finally confirmed his choice, Adamu rose from his meditation session and looked around his Sanctuary camp.

Camp because it was no longer bare above the surface but an actual camping place with a campfire made out of neatly stacked rocks on one side and decent seating arrangements made with packed earth to provide comfort.

Additionally, with access to Earth, Water, and Fire Spells, it was very easy for Adamu to fashion himself some cooking ware and eating utensils. Honestly, the only thing missing was a wide range of spices to provide additional tasting variety other than plain meat.

That and maybe company, but Adamu was not unfamiliar with long stretches of solitude.

As such, days and days had passed since the bear/cat Monster had fallen prey to his Spells. Days that had been utilized for very few things, but nonetheless very vital things. Largely contemplating the Methodology he needed for his Awakening and pondering about his choices of everything that had happened so far and what had led him to this current residence.

All in all, it was a productive few days. Nevertheless, a few roadblocks had reached Adamu. Namely in the form of his Essence understanding, his recently thought-up Methodology required.

In other words, Adamu needs some experience working with the active version of Life Energy, aka Essence, before actually Awakening to transform the passive Life Energy, aka Pure Essence, into its active state which is Essence.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Hence, the conundrum of which came first. The chicken? Or the egg?

To resolve this, Adamu began diving into the rat/cat den every Night.

It was never too deep, of course, because he could attract the rat/cat hybrid creatures by simply letting go of Sun Bearer. Then, after killing one, he would try his best to interact with the strand of Pure Essence delivered to him after each kill.

So far, he has been unsuccessful because of the limited number of sacrifices for his worthy goal.

He would get there, of that Adamu was sure. Meanwhile, since it still had to wait a bit, he switched his attention to something equally important. Namely, the completion of Sun Bearer because the Obsidian shard had long since grown beyond the necessary requirements for a spearhead of Sun Bearer spearshaft.

Standing up, Adamu picked up the forearm-sized and thigh-thick chunk of Obsidian glass and Cast the Crystal Cutter Spell.

“I, In my Name, Order you Obsidian, Head my Call, Be Cut along this Line - Crystal Cutter.”

Its name said it all.

It was used mainly for crystals, but it worked perfectly well for a lot of things, glass included.

Once the Spell came online, it provided Adamu’s Spirit with the knowledge of just where to cut/fracture the glass to achieve a perfect cut.

In this case, however, such precision was not needed.

Chink Thud thud

Ignoring the fallen chunk of Obsidian, Adamu cast another Spell with the one in his hand as the target.

“I, In my Name, Order you Obsidian, Head my Call, Be shaped as I Demand - Crystal Shaper.”

Almost instantly, an image flared in Adamu’s head alongside the competition of the Spell. Taking that as the blueprint, Adamu watched as the pitch-black glass shaped itself without shattering even once, even with the known fragility of Obsidian and other Nature’s Glass equivalents.

Once the Spell was over, Adamu had a spearhead in his hand. However, it did not look like a simple spearhead at all.

Examining the Obsidian spearhead that only partially looked like a spearhead, Adamu attempted to place it on Sun Bearer by simply plugging Sun Bearer's shaft into the inside of the pitch-black base of the spearhead.

Having gone over the best and easiest method, Adamu chose a simple design because in truth there was not much that needed to be added to a spearhead.

After all, a spearhead was a spearhead.

Still, right above the base, which took in Sun Bearerst shaft, Adamu had widened the flatness and opted for two circles, or better said, a ring, in which to place the Eternal Light that had followed Adamu ever since he first created it within the rat/cat den.

That done, Adamu adjusted the orientation of the spearhead to align with the Protective Enchantment on Sun Bearer. Done, Adamu cast another Crystal Shaper Spell and made the final adjustments in terms of size, proportions of the spearhead, the ring inside its base, and the grip its base had on Sun Bearer’s shaft.

After that came the third Crystal Shaper spell to provide the base sharp edge for the spearhead made out of Obsidian.

Had this been done naturally by chipping piece by piece, the edge would have turned out very uneven because of the natural breaking pattern Nature’s Glass exhibited, as it was simply not possible to fracture it with straight lines.

That, however, was not an issue if you had Magic at your disposal.

Either way, once the third Crystal Shaper Spell finished its job, it was time for the finisher, namely carving the Enchantments on and inside the pitch-black glass.

In truth, it took another two Crystal Shaper Spells before Adamu was happy with the end product.

However, just because the engraving was finished, it did not mean the spearhead made of obsidian was complete.

No, for that, Adamu required Ina’s Glory.

As such, from the reserves inside the Energy Storage Runic Pattern, Adamu pulled on the enigmatic energy residing within and through the Channeling Runic Pattern at the top of Sun Bearer and infused Ina’s Glory into the Obsidian spearhead.

Truly, it was like the pitch-black glass could swallow enormous amounts of Ina’s Glory, hence, it took quite a bit of time for the Obsidian shard to be saturated enough to overflow into the Runic Enchantment shaped into its insides and outsides.

Once it was there, Adamu chanted.

“Oh, Light of the World. Hear this Mortal’s Plea, Lend this Mortal a Hand, to Enchant this ordinary glass spearhead into a Weapon worthy of your Grace!”

Instantly, a Ray of Light descended from the sun and landed on Adamu, Sun Bearer, and the spearhead on it.

Having already been channeling Ina’s Glory, all the Ray of Light did was establish its imprint into the energized Runic Pattern. Still, because Adamu conducted Ina’s Glory, he had full access to how the Runic Pattern got energized.

Once Adamu aligned where and what each Profound Law usually found inside Ina’s Glory would do and the energizing started, the simple Ray of Light transformed into a Beam of Light as Sun Bearer and the Obsidian spearhead harmonized and became a complete Magical Item.

Being right in the middle of it and having expected a show, Adamu had closed his eyes at the first signs of anything strange occurring.

“Mmm…” Adamu hummed while his hands went over Sun Bearer and his new addition. “Everything looks fine as far as I can tell.”

Having seen no need to be used heavily recently, the Eternal Light had been long since recharged. As such, Adamu had it simply stay somewhat above the Sanctuary Core.

Calling on it, it floated right to Adamu before he picked it up, resized it, and gently placed it inside the ring specifically made just for it.

Indeed, the moment it was in place, the Runic Pattern engraved on the inside of the black ring, of the black spearhead, lit up in acknowledgment of its power source before dimming and awaiting the day it was called to channel the True Light stored inside the Eternal Light.

Luckily for it, that moment was imminent as there were tests to be undergone to see if everything worked as imagined.

A thought later, Adamu activated the three Enchantments on the top of Sun Bearer, Condense, Channel, and Disperse.

They were the core of the designed Enchantment for the spearhead because this allowed Adamu to engrave five Runic Patterns that were connected and fed on each other, thus saving on the space needed to make them. Otherwise, it would be impossible for Adamu to engrave five separate Runic Patterns while just relying on the Sanctuary Ritual.

No.

For that, one needed access to tempered Mana of much higher ranks, to acquire the precision that simple Raw Mana could not give.

The very first Runic Pattern on the Obsidian spearhead was an extension of Sun Bearer’s natural Protective Enchantment.

It provided extra integrity to the internal structure of the Obsidian spearhead. Hence, even without the activation of the Protective Enchantment, the pitch-black glass was harder to fracture.

When active, though? Adamu expected the spearhead to rival, at the very least, steel weapons.

Ignoring that one, Adamu focused on the second.

“Edge of Light!” Adamu called out, and Sun Bearer responded.

The spear blade lit up slightly with an internal radiance, at least if you ignored the visible golden framework that seemed to pull energy from the small orb in the middle of the spearhead base.

Regardless of the little show, this Enchantment was a tricky one for all who faced it.

Searching for the closest tree, Adamu lightly placed the spear blade edge on one of its smaller branches, only to watch the slightly golden spear blade pass right through it as if the wooden branch did not exist at all.

“Works as intended.” Nodding at the proper effect, Adamu raised his hand and simply plucked the finger-thick branch.

Snap.

Observing the cut, Adamu grinned with expectations.

Once Edge of Light was dismissed, Adamu called out again.

“Sword of Light!” Instantly, a familiar shine reached Adamu’s eyes as the spear blade tripled in width and length.

Twirling Sun Bearer around him, Adamu enjoyed the sounds it made as it passed through the air

Zoom Zoom Zoom

“A shame I can’t make you fly like the Spell, but you will do good by me in the future.”