In an arena located on a small island, two swordsmen face off in a decisive duel. These swordsmen are similar in appearance and skill, but one of these two carries an eerie confidence in his face.

This confident swordsman makes his blade glow with an intense blue light, and then easily cuts his rival's blade off.

After having the blade of his sword cut, the defeated swordsman is disarmed and then is kicked in his belly, causing his back to collide with the wall of the arena. A legendary sword falls to the side of the unarmed loser, who has fallen sitting on the ground.

With his enemy's blade aimed at his head, the defeated one desperately wields the legendary sword and attacks with all his might. With this attack, the mysterious duel between swordsmen ends.

In parallel to this duel, a 16-year-old young man walks along a mountain road right after leaving school. This young man is Vektor Drenn, an inhabitant of a basic town. He is the protagonist of this long story, which is not exactly a journey or a quest. Although this part of the story could be considered a journey... We'll get to that later. I have decided to start narrating this story from this point, as Vektor's life gets really agitated starting from here. And this long story begins... with a robbery.

"Heh, heheheh! Look! That's a really stupid shorty, wandering around here alone. We are the dreaded thieves of the mountain!"

The one who is talking is a tall and muscular man, who has as a subordinate a thin man and only a little taller than Vektor, who in turn, is silent and confused, not knowing what to answer:

"..."

"This is the part where you give your money, kid..."

"A- Ah, I'm sorry! Well, you see… I'm kinda broke now, so…"

"Don't try to play dumb! We can see the money in your hand!"

"Ah!

(Damn, I forgot about it! Just when I was saving some money to buy a snack on my way home...)

Ha, ha haha ha..."

"Kh-! Don't make fun of us, you brat!"

The muscular thief pulls out a switchblade and attacks Vektor, who just dodges. Even though his reflexes aren't at their peak due to his procrastination in his training, it's still more than enough against such a slow opponent.

Vektor's first counterattack is a simple punch in the face of the thief, who drops the switchblade but tries to punch the boy with his other hand. Vektor simply dodges once more and elbows the thief in the belly, followed by a footsweep that knocks out the muscular thief.

The skinny thief, who was shocked and watching everything, screams while shaking anxiously:

"Boss! Y- You damn kid...!"

He pulls out a revolver and tries to aim it in Vektor's direction, but his hands are too shaky to do it properly. Vektor takes advantage of this, kicks his hands to quickly disarm him, and knocks him out kicking his belly then his back.

Still with his money in hand, Vektor looks disappointed as he sees his opponents knocked out on the road:

"Even though they called themselves dreaded thieves, those two were no big deal... Well, doesn't matter. I won, right? Anyway, better get out of here before those two get up. I'll spend my money on something to eat already. I have to stop walking around with money in hand in places I don't know..."

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

As Vektor continues his walk, his mother is performing a magic experiment at home. Vektor Drenn's mother works as an artisan, selling her works on the internet. However, since her youth, her hobby is witchcraft.

In this experiment, she holds a kind of magic crystal in her hand, breaks it with her own strength, and then pours its powder onto some object, in this case a banana peel. While trying to imagine something, she sees the space distorting itself where the dust has fallen. After a few seconds, the banana peel is gone, and in its place there is a delicious chocolate.

"Okay, so far the test has been a success. Now let's check how long it takes to the crystal's effect to wear off."

Vektor's mother starts preparing lunch. Vektor lives only with his mother, as his father disappeared over 10 years ago. Vektor, even so, has never questioned himself about it, since he was too young at that time to remember it. All he knows is that his father has disappeared while visiting Netern Island.

Netern Island is an island that cannot be located by conventional methods such as radars or satellites. As a child, Vektor has visited that island once before. Much of the population of that island is made up of humans with special powers known as the Etykirans and the Unique.

Etykirans are descendents from the 5 lineages of elemental warriors. Vektor himself is an Etykiran, though he still doesn't know how to control his power, inherited from his father. Humans known as "Unique" are mysteriously born with individual and randomized powers. An example of Unique is Vektor's mother, who has the power to see the future.

Despite having a great latent power within him, Vektor lives a not so different routine from a normal person. However, until recently, he used to train martial arts with his mother while trying to learn how to control his own power, but his inability to actually learn this made him unmotivated, and his laziness has stopped him ever since.

If we're going to overlook the robbery from earlier, this day started out not much differently than usual. I mean, it's kind of contradictory for someone as lazy as Vektor to go for a walk after school, but a routine break isn't such a weird thing, right?

While his mother is almost over making lunch, Vektor comes home:

"Mom, I'm home!"

"Lunch is almost ready. Put your backpack away and come to eat already."

"Okay!"

After taking off his shoes, Vektor heads to his room to store his backpack. On his way to his bedroom, he finds a chocolate on the living room table.

"(If this is here in the living room, I think it's okay to have a little bite before lunch...)"

Possessed by the desire to eat something sweet, Vektor decides to get the chocolate, but the moment his hand touches the candy, it shines intensely.

"...!"

Instinctively, Vektor closes his eyes in the same instant. After a few seconds, the boy opens his eyes only to find a banana peel in the place where the chocolate was supposed to be.

"Oh... Damn... Was it just an illusion...?"

Vektor's mother then appears and scolds him:

"Hey! Don't touch my magic experiment!"

"Oh, sorry, Mom. I just didn't know it was an experiment..."

"Now I have to prepare everything again..."

"Anyway, what kind of experiment is this where you turn things into chocolate that you can't even touch or eat?"

"This was a sample test of a Disguise Crystal, a magic crystal capable of creating an illusory shape to an object."

"How did you get one of these?"

"I made it myself. That's why I decided to test a sample, to see how long the crystal's effect would last."

"Isn't it kinda dangerous to create magic items manually?"

"It's not as difficult as it sounds. Sorcerers know the legitimate recipe for this magic item, so it's not like it's risky or anything. Want me to teach you later?"

"No need, thanks. I'm not interested in these things.

(If I could really turn things into chocolate, then I would think about this...)"

After this conversation, Vektor puts his backpack in his room and goes to lunch with his mother. During lunch, his mother asks him:

"Why did you get late today?"

"Hm? Oh, I've just decided to take a walk before coming home, sorry about that..."

"I don't care about that, just be careful. Walking around alone is dangerous, you never know when a thief or something like that might appear."

"I- Indeed..."

"I only asked this because I thought you were going to visit Sych after lunch, so I thought you'd arrive earlier today."

"A- Ah...!

(That's right, I forgot! I was supposed to stop by his apartment for the afternoon!)

Hey, mom! Is there still time for me to go there?"

"As long as you get back before dusk, I don't see any problem. Just finish your meal first."