It took 3 days for Bokan to awaken, his body twisted and bruised from the pain of his spell casting.

Still, he was glad he had done it. Even as he woke up and smelled the wine stain on his shirt. The status page on the wall meant that it was illegal for anyone to come in knowing of its presence, and so he had been left to lie for 3 days.

Although that law may seem strange, it was put in place in order to prevent non-tower magic users from getting hints at secrets from the status pages of tower-trained magic users. Even though Bokan had not been trained and was 5 years old, the law still held.

Turning his full attention to reading his status, Bokan allowed himself a small, internal grin.

Name: Fabien

Race: Human (tier 1, +1 to every stat every year)

Class: unclassed human magic user (+1 to all stats every level)

Profession:

Level: 0=>5

Intelligence: 20=>30 (For a normal human, your magical power reserve is beyond exceptional. For a mage, it is beyond pitiful.)

Wisdom: 20=>35 (In comparison to a normal human, your wisdom is considerable. In comparison to a normal mage, it would be better described as foolishness.)

Willpower: 20=>35 (Your willpower would allow you to work until your flesh falls off and your bones turn to dust, but it still won't help you if someone casts a fireball your way.)

Strength: 10=>20(Peak human strength)

Dexterity:10=>20(Peak human dexterity of movement)

Stamina:10=>20(Peak human stamina and toughness)

Charisma:10=>20(Peak human charisma)

Manipulation:10=>20(Peak human manipulation)

Poise:10=>25(Peak human poise, the super human element being so insignificant it isn't worth mentioning)

Skills:

Fine magic control (level 1)

Spells:

Display status (level 1)

Masteries:

Elven grace (initiate) +5 wisdom, +5 willpower, +5 poise

Available skill points: 5

Available spell points: 0

Available attribute points: 15

Updates:

Level up! Through training your magic control, you have levelled up!

Level up! Through consistent effort, you have improved your magic control and levelled up!

Level up! By persevering through terrible pain, you have improved your magic resistance and levelled up!

Level up! Your magical reservoir has increased significantly through repeated fortification, you have levelled up!

Level up! You have succeeded in learning the skill "Fine magic control" and levelled up!

Note: profession unlocked: novice researcher (+1 intelligence, +1 wisdom per level)

Note: profession unlocked: novice enchanter (+1 intelligence, +1 wisdom, +1 willpower per level)

Congratulations! Through exceptional talent in sensing and controlling magic, you have unlocked the mastery

As he read through his status, many things made sense.

For one, he already knew he was quite exceptional, and the range of stats for a human were 10-20 for any given stat. He had seemingly started with 10 in every stat except for intelligence, wisdom and willpower, however by growing by 1 every year through his bond with his soul stone, and having grown by 1 for every level he had gained, he had gone up to 20 in even his weakest stats. Furthermore, he had unlocked a new mastery, Elven grace, likely due to his achievement of sensing magic so well while he was otherwise senseless.

Masteries were often the difference between those who were powerful and those who were truly great, as they could grow with their owner and become far stronger. Still, the difference they made was far more obvious near the end of a person's career, initially levelling up was a plentiful source of growth so they weren't always as noticeable.

He also noticed that it seemed he got his levels from his practicing of his abilities. As his internal magic reservoir grew, and his soul grew more proficient at utilizing it, it was only natural for the soul stone, a bond between body and soul, to allow for greater growth.

The first 10 levels of any given human were classless levels, and typically a sign of reaching level 10 was the ability to summon one's own status. In comparison, Bokan had succeeded in casting the spell at level 5. The only way he was able to do that was due to his risk paying off when he used some of his magic to delay the onset of the magic cost, thus allowing him to spend far more magic far more efficiently than he normally would have been able to do.

His reward for this was the unlocking of the new profession "novice enchanter". Alongside it, he had unlocked the profession "novice researcher", likely due to the amount of reading he'd done in the family library. He would choose the novice enchanter profession, enchanting helped in almost all fields of life, and when he raised his race tier he would be able to unlock a second profession anyway. Also, +1 to all magic user stats from novice tier was exceptional. Most novice professions only gave 1 attribute point per level, whereas this gave 3, and in the stats he needed them the most.

He also had 3 free attribute points from each level he had gained, resulting in now having a total of 15. He could invest them into his magical abilities, however he knew another stat that desperately needed his attention: poise. Poise allowed a person to resist being easily fooled or influenced by others. It was a double edged sword, it could make one heartless but also be a nearly invincible protection against the mind control rulers with high charisma or manipulation could typically pull off.

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On the other hand, if he ignored it, he could find himself powerful, but still no more than a fancy manservant to an uncaring master. It was a troublesome choice, but he couldn't quieten a thought that bothered him. He wanted power, to be the most powerful of all. He knew from his history books that even a powerful rulers could not control some mages, despite them lacking poise, although he did not know how they had protected themselves, and the texts were vague enough that it was perfectly possible they have just gone into total isolation. He could risk it, and assume he would learn, or he could try to build up enough poise to resist the mind control of the tower rulers.

At 25 years old, most magic users entering the tower would have 60 poise. On Bokan's previous planet, anything above 20 would be a super human stat, but in this empire, sometimes inaccurately calling itself the last empire, 60 poise was still insufficient to defend against a determined mental attack by a well trained and talented ruler. Even if Bokan put all 15 points into poise, he would still only have 40 poise. Deciding instead to invest strongly into his magic, he resolved to put all 15 points into intelligence. 35 wisdom and willpower was enough for him to use a high percentage of his power efficiently, what he lacked was the power in the first place. Although he had a lot relative to move 5 year olds, he had a sincere lack in comparison to any other novice intelligence-focused magic user.

Finally, he considered the lack of a "sub-class" section. This could mean one of three things. He either was the first recorded normal human to ever not have a subclass, or he was a magic archetype, or he was something else entirely. Most likely, he was a magic archetype, and he could have that confirmed at level 10.

Immensely pleased with himself, he ended the spell, and immediately felt his body freeze with coldness, it took him a moment to realize it was coming from his heart. He felt as though he could see everything to the finest detail, and shift the subtle flow of magic as gently as a butterfly moves the wind. A few moments later, and this vision was gone, and instead he found himself once again in the void of nothingness, only now he was being asked a question. "Invest all my free attribute points into my intellect", he said voicelessly, "I accept novice enchanter as my profession". Now, rather than fire on his periphery he saw a vast, cool pool. It was himself, and he was about to bend it to his will.

No amount of reading could have prepared him for the sheer joy that filled him as his soul and body acted in synch once more, he hadn't realized just how much his soul growing beyond what his body could bear had been affecting him. For most, that would not have been an issue, but he had a particularly weak body and had even unlocked a mastery, so it had caused a mental imbalance.

Finally, he cleaned himself in a small tub in the corner of his room, the fire having died long ago and the water having cooled to be, as his father Osk would have put it, "refreshing". He got dressed in travelling gear, knowing Osk would be compelled to send him to the tower immediately after this, and strode out the door.

After a significant amount of tearful good byes, none of which mattered at all to Bokan (although, with his new manipulation stat he could easily pretend to be upset), he found himself in a wagon with his father Osk, headed towards the tower.

It was one of the few opportunities the two men had had and would have the chance to speak honestly with one another, and Osk had hoped to take full advantage of it.

He was disappointed.

"Son, how are you feeling for this next stage of your life?"

"I feel 90% excellently about it, the last 10% could easily be filled if you answer my question about how to cause an enchantment to stick to a given material object."

"You said that about the last question!"

"Indeed, and it temporarily shot up to 100% until I realized that knowing how to form and project a magical weave was not very effective when I can't get it to stick to anything."

"Fine, well in truth a sufficiently skilled enchanter wouldn't need to-" and so on and so forth the discussions went. Every day, from dawn till dusk, Bokan peppered his father with questions and his beleaguered father gave him answer after answer, said answers were then quickly written down in Bokan's notebook.

Bokan had managed to get around Osk's compulsion in order to ask for more detailed knowledge by threatening to attack the tower if Osk refused. Obviously, he was no threat to the tower, so Osk was not compelled to subdue him, and at the same time the tower coming under attack was something to be avoided, so giving up some information to a soon-to-be-student was, it seemed, acceptable.

Bokan learned an enormous amount, and knew that if he could put what he learned into practice, his novice enchanting skill would receive a significant amount of experience, although he wasn't sure it would be enough to level him up, since he was still a novice to this system of growth. Easily the most useful thing, was a throw-away comment Osk made as though it was obvious. "How can I possible create anchor points in those different locations in the weave?" challenged Bokan, to which his father replied "I sometimes forget you are just 5 years old, but in moments like these I question if you aren't even younger than that. Why should there be any trouble working magic in multiple places in the weave? Just focus on one part of the weave, then focus on another." "As in moving the weave?" "I said focusing on different parts of the weave, not moving the weave. Why is this so difficult to understand? Anywhere your body is, your soul is also, you can focus in many different places at once. Particularly powerful magic users have been known to even be able to focus slightly outside of their bodies.", and with that, Bokan's range of magical exercises expanded tenfold. Put alongside his newly activated skill, fine magic control, Bokan's rate of growth had accelerated significantly.

As the seventh day of travel drew to a close, the tower began to appear on the horizon. Osk knew his son was being sent away at a young age, but never had he felt it as much as he did at this moment. How could a 5 year old understand the dangers facing him? 25 year olds were unable to resist the domination of the rulers in there, what would be left of Bokan's mind when they were done?

Even so, he couldn't break the compulsion he was under. He desired deeply to change it, to go against it, however it was already sunk deep within his mind, even if he raised his poise at this point it would be too late. So, he continued every day to bring his beloved child closer and closer to the fate that made him despair, that kept him from spending any significant amount of time with his wife and son and enslaved him for a cursedly long lifespan, and through it all the only engagement he could get with his son were questions about enchanting magic? His heart broke all over again seeing that unrelenting tower in the distance, a dark structure dominating the landscape.

All around it were toxic swamps, the result of previous attacks on the tower, or to be more precise the result of the methods used to defend it. By this point, it formed a natural defense in and of itself, with only 1 path maintained by the tower mages themselves allowing someone like Bokan to enter without dying.

A large stone road, well preserved and immaculately clean, Bokan could feel the hostility of the wards covering it, ready to kill any unwarranted passers, in or out, in a hundred different ways. Their carriage continued at a steady pace, and soon they arrived at the massive doors of the tower.

One thing to understand was that, when magic was involved, the typical rules of architecture sometimes take a small step back. For one, blocks that usually would crumble to dust can stand strong for centuries, and for another, a meter cubed space on the outside could be a lot larger on the inside.

About 2% of the empires entire population were housed within this tower at any one time, most mages only getting to leave at 100 years of age, unless they were pulled out early for political reasons like Osk had been, the Magishields demanding his return.

The resources taken to supply this tower were immense, however the royals gladly paid the price to keep their magic users well controlled. This single road was one of the most significantly travelled roads in the empire, and yet it remained immaculate, due to the magical wards protecting its surface and foundations.

The road itself was about 2 miles long, a marvel of engineering necessary to cover the distance destroyed by magical bombardment. The tower itself was a constructed by the founders of the empire, and it was about 1 kilometer in height, and was about 200 meters in diameter at the base, rising up to a ring of 50 meters in diameter at the top, which had 3 spikes coming off of it, each one representing a fundamental magic path (intelligence, wisdom or willpower).

The entire outside of the tower was made of a strange black metal, which had turned out to be an enchantment amplifier, allowing the enchantments on the tower to stop any siege bombardment. In the early days of the empire, a dragon had even attacked the tower, and failed to breach its walls.

At the gate, stood what looked like a young man, though depending on his wisdom stat he could easily be 80 years old and not yet reached the half way point in his life. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, as was typical for mages of the empire.

"Welcome to the tower, you will proceed with me alone." he said stiffly, "You will be tested and then you will either be executed or given admittance to our ranks. Your father, who left us... prematurely... will have to leave."

The doors opened silently, and behind him appeared Bokan's new world.