Four years later, Zakai had long gotten over the fact that he could not use magic for he had no mana. He focused on other things, and around three years ago, he had started training under one of the guards. Zakai had begged and begged for many days before the old guard finally accepted to take him as his disciple. The old guard, Matt, knew the boy could not use magic, but that did not mean much.

An average person with magic of 100 normally could not do much with their low mana pool. They could start a fire or wash themselves, some depending how their talents were, could craft magical items. but nothing truly dangerous, At least not truly dangerous to others who had the same amount of mana.

The training was nothing special, just the regular body strengthening training. Everyone just called the boy Zak. Zakai’s name was annoying to pronounce and calling him Zak was easier. Some of the bullies even started to use the word as a synonym for someone who had no talent in magic. Zakai did not mind, he had tried to fight them multiple times but every time, the bullies managed to pull one over him. Usually by using magic. After Zakai had started his training with Matt, the bullies had stopped targeting Zakai as much as they used to. Most of the children did not have that high magic to win against someone who had done basic body training for some time.

The days passed by, and nothing really happened. Jerilyn stopped playing with Zakai after her parents noticed that Zakai had no mana. Almost everyone avoided him in school. He did not have any friends, at home he tried to act like he had many friends and everything was fine… but both Bahadur and Elya knew, they just did not want to say anything when the boy tried so hard. It was really hard on them too. They could not help but worry about the boy. Life, indeed, was unfair.

It was autumn. The children would have a school trip to a nearby ruins lead by Elya and a male teacher. The ruins were ancient. There were rumors and stories how they came to be, but nobody really knew who had built them. The ruins was a popular school trip place, and every year a lot of people would travel there to take a look at the mysterious place. The trip would only take a few hours by foot from Balra.

All the children were excited to go to the ruins even Zakai. It was his very first adventure outside the village. He had a dream, he wanted to go and see the world, he wanted to be an adventurer, even though he knew that it would be very hard for him. Being unable to use any kind of magic for surely make life harder. He did not mind, he was sure he would be able to handle it. At least, he had a dream.

The children gathered at the school to start getting ready for the trip. The morning dew was still on the blades of grass as it was very early. Normally, the school would begin few hours later but since they had to walk all the way to the ruins and to be able to get back on the same day, they would have to leave early.

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“Look, it’s the zak.” Some of the children whispered to each other when they saw Zakai had also come.

“Bah, you idiots! Why bother yourselves with even looking at the trash?” A boy sitting with legs crossed said. Who else, but Adal, of course. Zakai gave him a glare and Adal just yawned as if he did not even notice the glare.

“Yes, you are right!” The other children chimed in, trying to curry favors by sticking to Adal’s side. Adal knew what they were trying to do, he was not stupid, but he did not care as long as they despised the manaless freak. Adal could not stand that there was something like Zakai in the same class as he was.

Adal had already reached over 100 mana when he turned ten years old. He had the highest amount of mana amongst the boys. Of course, Zakai still being the last as he had none at all.

Zakai just outright ignored the others that were sneering at him, and just continued to wait for his mother to show up, so they could finally start the trip to the ruins. He had left home quite a bit earlier than his mother, because he was so excited he could not wait, nor did he want to be seen walking next to Elya. That would have been terribly awkward for a ten-year-old.

After a moment Elya showed up with the male teacher, Godo. They gathered everyone and started a roll call. Everyone was there and so they could finally start their first adventure towards the ruins.

After an hour of walking, some of the children were already complaining about how the trip was too long and they would die before they would reach the place. Zakai was walking at the front, the body training he had done helped him a lot and he would most likely be able to walk hours and hours without feeling a thing. Some of the other children complained about how they were so tired and so on and on.

“Elya, we should take a break, some of the children are starting to run out of stamina…” Godo said while wiping the sweat of his plump face. He was a fat man and he did not even want to come in the first place. He had seen the ruins multiple times in the past and nothing had changed in the ruins.

“Very well, let us take a break!” Elya smiled and spoke. Elya knew that it was Godo who needed a break… the man looked like he was literally dying with his heavy breathing and panting. He sounded like a constipated gorilla… honestly, the sight was not pretty. Elya had a hard time keeping herself from laughing while some children laughed so hard they were about to burst. Godo did not know what they were laughing about, of course.

Finally, after a couple more breaks and two hours they finally reached the ruins. The walls had started to fade in color and there were different kinds of vines growing on them. There was a wooden gate that was still intact but it looked it could fall over any moment. The group walked closer to the gate and Elya told everyone the same thing she had said many many times before: “Alright, we are finally here. Everyone, be careful once we get inside. While all the traps and such have been dismantled years ago, it is still better to be careful. Try not to touch or break anything” She winked and pushed the gate open, while Godo was panting and leaning on the wall next to the gate.

Indeed, Zakai’s first adventure, and it begins now…