“Wake up.”

Dillim’s voice resounded through the room’s interior. Keith opened his eyes, and managed to slowly sit up. He took in his surroundings, and saw a little bit of light coming through the window. The interior of the room was still a little shady, and Keith couldn’t hear any loud sounds from outside.

Keith had sat up and rubbed his eyes, “Isn’t it still too early? Just let me sleep a little longer,” saying that while looking at how dark it was outside, he lied down again, and rolled over. Keith was used to a life of nobility, even though the people around him weren’t nice to him, he was still able to enjoy some privileges. He had received some classes, but they were all in the afternoon, allowing him to sleep in every day.

“Early your face! Get up kid!” Dillim said threateningly.

Hearing that Dillim was quite serious, Keith got up reluctantly and scrambled his clothes together. Dillim had somehow prepared another set of clothes next to his luxurious attire. He was slowly dressing himself, and clumsily finished. His mind was still affected by his drowsiness, but he didn’t want to face the consequences of remaining in bed. He left the room and walked downstairs to enter the interior of the inn. Dillim had left the room before him, and was waiting downstairs at a table. In front of him, a large portion of food could be seen. Dillim motioned for him to sit down in front of him, so Keith didn’t hesitate and sat down.

“You should eat a lot of food. If you want to get a strong body, you first need to eat!” Dillim tried to say. Dillim always thought that one should lead by example, so that was exactly what he did. He was stuffing his mouth full with food while telling Keith should also eat. Dillim was eating fast, but somehow it didn’t seem like he was stuffing food down his throat without any form of manners.

Keith, looking at Dillim’s face full of food, could only silently shake his head and take some food for himself. They then ate in silence for a short while. Well, not exactly silence, because Dillim’s sounds of smacking pierced the silence from time to time, leaving no room for any amount of conversation.

After finishing their food, Dillim paid the innkeeper, and gathered all their stuff inside his ring. They left the inn when the sun was still slowly rising, creating a twilight atmosphere within the town. They walked out of the town, and stopped in front of what seemed like a big road block. There weren’t any houses around here, only a few roads leading to the road block, and a few roads leading back to the city. Dillim had Keith follow him off the road, and they moved towards a more desolate field of grass.

Dillim waved his hand, and the familiar wooden sword appeared again. “The road block you just saw is passable, but it’s heavily guarded,” Dillim said, while throwing the wooden sword his way. “It leads towards the teleport gate we will use later, but people are only allowed to use it when the sun is already up.” Dillim looked at how Keith managed to catch the sword, and then he continued talking: “The reason I arrived here so early is to give you some instructions in the sword again. You will train every day from now on.”

Keith had been sleepily following the whole way, but now that he held his sword again, his demeanor changed. He started to get serious again. Even though his body was still sluggish from the sleep, his mind was already clearing up a little. This had to do with the heavy feelings he associated to the sword he was holding up, along with his strong mind.

“Alright, yesterday we only played around. Today I will teach you a part of the basics,” Dillim said, but seeing how Keith was looking at him after mentioning the basics, he couldn’t help but to add: “If you never master any basics, you will never be able to fully create techniques. Everything depends on what you learn now,” he said. Then he suddenly thought of something, and spoke up once more while moving towards Keith. “Do you think a mage can manage to create a fire storm without first learning how to make a small flame?”

Keith’s eyes flashed with understanding. This made some sense, and Keith couldn’t deny the logic within Dillim’s words. He turned serious again, and waited for Dillim’s instructions.

Dillim proceeded to teach him the ways of the sword, while working Keith’s body to the limit. He knew what a ten-year-old could handle, so he didn’t push Keith too far. After all, yesterday had been special. He wanted Keith to learn the ways of the sword thoroughly. Even though he might not use it at all and instead become a mage, if he had learned the ways of the sword before, it might help him face other swordsmen in the future. After all, martial arts could only be understood after thoroughly training them.

This continued for quite some time, Dillim slowly explained some basic stances and chops. He didn’t go over a lot of details, and only wanted Keith to remember the very basics. That would make it easier to teach him more advanced techniques when he would be older. It seemed that the previous instructor that taught Keith, had only imparted some random techniques on him, instead of properly teaching the basics.

After a while, the sun had risen quite a lot, and it was around noon. The location Dillim and Keith had chosen was not very far from the roads, which had started to get really busy by this time. Keith felt a little awkward because of the people staring at them from the road, but he managed to ignore it. At least gazes filled with surprise were better than gazes filled with disgust.

Dillim motioned for Keith to stop, and he let Keith take his time to recover a little. They then moved towards the road block they had avoided before. There was quite a line before the barricaded road, because there was only a single gap people could pass through. There were a lot of guards who were looking around vigilantly. It was quite an important location for Lirix, so it was no wonder it was heavily guarded. The blockade was constructed in a circular way; making it impossible to avoid coming through the entrance. The blockage existed out of relatively small walls, but it was impossible to look over them.

Keith moved towards the end of the line, but Dillim simply nudged Keith, and told him to follow. Dillim then proceeded to skip the people waiting before the entrance of the barricaded road.

Keith heard some people say things like; ‘What are they doing…’ and ‘Hah, people who skip the line and are caught are heavily punished.’ Making him look at Dillim, but seeing how Dillim wasn’t fazed by anything, he quietly followed him.

They eventually reached the entrance, where people were thoroughly checked before they were allowed to enter. A guard who wasn’t occupied with anything at that time, saw them walk next to the line, and frowned. “Halt! What are the two of you doing? No one may simply walk to the front.”

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Seeing the frown on the guard’s face, Dillim had started to frown too. “Hmph,” he snorted. He then reached into the pocket of his leather armor.

The color of the guard’s face changed color; it had started to turn red. “What?!” He loudly exclaimed for everyone to hear. “You dare to try and bribe me?” The guard had placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. He took his work extremely serious, while he was just as loyal. He wanted to make an example out of Dillim for everyone to see.

“Who’s bribing who?!” Dillim had started to get mad too, and he quickly grabbed an item from out of his pocket. The guard, who had almost drawn his sword, had the color of his face change again. This time it didn’t turn a deeper shade of red, it turned ashen. “T– That’s…” The guard was lost for words. He then dropped to his knees and loudly said; “Please, forgive me this time, I didn’t know!”

“Tch.” Dillim just clicked his tongue and walked past him. He walked past the line with Keith and reached the entrance. Everyone present had seen what happened, and they were all extremely shocked. Even the guards who were supposed to protect the entrance and check everyone stupidly moved aside. What Dillim had taken out of his pocket was an emblem belonging to the king’s grand sword masters. Even though Dillim might not be regarded as one at the moment, he still had his badge from his old days of glory. All the grand sword masters enjoyed many privileges, especially the ones who were loyal to the king. This made sense, because Lirix’s mentality was based upon personal power. The knights’ reactions were within expectations; no one would or could stop a grand sword master from killing some random soldiers.

They passed the entrance without any other disturbances after Dillim casually threw a small pouch at a guard. They could see a big object in the distance after passing the walls. It looked like a great monument, and it was like a very big arc made from some black type of stone. Every now and then, the monument –which looked like the teleport gate, would emit some sort of explosive might. Every time this happened, slightly transparent, light blue strands of air could be seen coming from the gate. Keith squinted his eyes, and eventually reached the conclusion that this was mana.

While they were walking towards the teleport gate, more soldiers could be seen moving around. There were also some people who were walking towards the barricade from the gate. It was at this time that Keith asked Dillim a question: “Dillim, why didn’t you store the badge inside your storage ring?” It was a trivial question, but Keith thought that if he would own a storage ring, he would simply always store everything in it.

“How much do you think that ring is worth?” Dillim said indifferently. “If I would’ve used the ring, everyone would’ve had their hair turn white from shock. I didn’t want to cause a commotion, so I simply stored it inside my pocket.”

‘Didn’t you already cause a commotion by taking out that grand sword master emblem...?’ Keith wanted to ask this, but seeing the grim look on Dillim’s face, he didn’t dare. Keith had been silent for most of the time, he looked like he was still shouldering some heavy emotions. Dillim was quite delighted that Keith had finally spoken up, but he kept it well hidden from his face.

When they finally neared the gate, it lit up, and a group of people who had just stood there disappeared. There were a lot of soldiers around the gate, but they all kept their distance. They eyed Dillim with caution nonetheless. At that moment, an old man who had been standing next to the gate walked over. “Gentlemen, where are you lords headed?” He asked respectfully. He had long white hair and he was wearing a scholar’s attire. But the most noticeable thing was his long, white beard.

Normally everyone who would be able to use the teleport gate, was extremely rich, or they were greatly valued by high officials. It was no wonder that this old man acted respectfully.

“We are headed for Erelath. When can we depart?”

The old man saw that Dillim had a bad temper, so he quickly responded while smiling, “Soon, soon. Some other people have just left, so you can’t depart immediately, but it won’t take a long time before the gate can be used again.”

The old man repeated the destination to himself once again, and moved towards the gate. The gate had some slight mana fluctuations after having been used, which could be seen by the translucent blue wisps of air that were emitted upwards. Dillim and Keith finally stood in front of what was called the teleport gate, and Keith couldn’t believe what he saw. The whole interior of the gate looked to be one huge vortex. The gate was only around a meter deep, but its width and height reached at least tens of meters. There were swirling strands of white and blue energy rotating randomly within the gate.

“Look closely Keith, the strands with a blue color are all made from raw, impure mana. The only time mages make use of raw mana is when they store it inside their mana core. But before they can do that, they first have to convert it to a type of elemental mana,” Dillim explained. “If they were to directly try to make the raw mana enter their core, it would simply fail. Then the raw mana would be let loose inside the body, destroying everything in its process. I told you that raw mana is a very destructive kind of energy, right?”

Keith just nodded. He was still flabbergasted by the huge gate full of mana in front of him. “Then what is that white kind of energy?”

“That is something you’ll only be able to see on very rare occasions. That is exactly the purest form of raw mana.” Dillim also looked within the vortex, trying to discern something from it. “Only when a huge amount of power is needed will one be able to see white mana. If mages were to use the strongest spell, then only dark blue mana will be created alongside their element,” he explained. He then repositioned a small piece of his collar, before continuing, “That dark blue mana is even more impure than the blue mana you see in there. That’s how much power this gate can use.”

“Who made this gate then?” Keith curiously asked. He couldn’t even imagine how strong one would have to be to construct a gate like that.

“No one knows. Most countries have also tried to study the gates, but with no results. Their goal was to use the enormous destructive power the gates house, but they all failed.”

After a little while, the fluctuations of the gate had become less frequent. Before there was a lot of light blue mana going up, but now it didn’t leave the gate.

The old man must’ve noticed the same thing, because his hand lit up with a bright white light. He then pointed his hand in the direction of the gate, and unleashed the power that had gathered in front of his hand. A wave of magic power burst forth, hitting the gate. The gate immediately changed upon receiving that energy, the huge vortex within the gate suddenly increased its speed. Alongside that, the white and blue mana within the gate had started to change. Instead of the translucent mana, a thick, white sort of fog was forming inside the entrance of the gate, where the vortex had been moments before.

At that time, the old man’s voice could be heard. “The element of the gate located in Nizlon is light! I have successfully activated the gate’s mechanisms, so you can now head for Erelath!”

“Heh,” Dillim said. “So that is a ‘gate mage’.”

Keith didn’t know what a gate mage was, but he knew it had something to do with the activation of the gate.

“All gate mages are so foolish; don’t they desire power?” Dillim asked to no one in particular.

“What do you mean, Dillim?” Keith asked.

“I’ll tell you later, let’s go to Nizlon first.” Dillim answered. “Go.”

They neared the entrance of the gate, which had been glowing with a huge amount of white, bright, energy. Then Keith, with a careful push from Dillim, stepped through. Dillim followed him after. Keith felt that there was an enormous amount of power around him. It felt like the space was tearing apart, and in a split moment, all the white energy was replaced with complete darkness. It felt like Keith’s world had stopped, he couldn’t see nor hear, but it felt like everything around him was so destructive, that were he to move a little bit, he would immediately be crushed.

This only lasted a short moment too, and after a split second, the world came to life again. Keith’s vision had returned. He had to blink a few times because of the contrasting sights, but when he regained his vision he could see a huge forest stretching outwards.

“We made it,” Dillim’s gruff voice entered Keith’s ears, indicating that he had regained his hearing too.