Chapter 3

Spell?

Yulin was born into an average family in the Far East, and raised in an isolated village, prospects nonexistent. Yet, she was happy.

On her 21st birthday, a traveling scout from the White Tower passed by her village and tested the gift of every young adult. Her magic control, mana, and intensity are all above average. There was a celebration in her village that day.

The possibility of a famous mage hailing from their village was the highest honor they could ever imagine. And the prospect of having a powerful protector is also not an insignificant bliss.

Because of the constant threat of monsters, humanity could not afford to live in large communities. Monsters are drawn to any place with a large concentration of mana. The capital city and large towns needed to have massive armies of battle mages, aura masters, or paladins to constantly prune the monsters or risk a monster wave. Anyone else not living under the strict control of nobles is living in isolated small villages. They must protect themselves from a few stray monsters every once in a while, but generally too small for monster waves to form.

What was simple contentment in living a peaceful life before had become something more? Yulin fantasizes about becoming a famous archmage and bringing prosperity to her hometown. A yearning spurn on by her newfound possibilities.

Despite her family’s protest, she attended Greylight Academy’s entrance exam. The most famous and most difficult academy to enter. Everyone told her that she aimed too high. They told her she should aim for somewhere easier to enter. They said it was impossible for someone from the countryside.

but she passed.

Yulin felt vindicated like she was meant for greatness. No matter what people say, she managed to make it to this place with only her talents.

However, her confidence was soon shattered. In that academy, she learned that her talents were less than average at best. Talents from noble lineage, prodigies from famous mage families, disciples of archmages, princes from the republic, and geniuses from all countries of the world are concentrated here.

For many of those geniuses, this place was not the goal, but only a stepping stone. She did not suffer discrimination for being from the countryside. Nobody bullies her. Most geniuses simply did not even know she existed, no matter how much effort she put in to catch up to them. She was too insignificant to even draw any attention.

Yulin lost her confidence after seeing those brilliant stars. The sky is simply too high for a flower to reach.

This was her sixth year in the academy, she had managed to join the battle mage troop of Sir Windshear. The people of the troop had become her new family. A warm bonfire in this cold world of magic.

Sir Windshear has taught her his wind magic. A spell simply called Breeze, is the spell that Sir Windshear used to move around at high speed, undetectable, and without sound. Her Breeze is second only to Sir Windshear himself. The confidence she had lost, was finally found again.

Today, Yulin came to the cloudy mountain behind the academy as usual. But something was different, all of the battle mages were gathering in front of the forest, weapons in hands.

Yulin quickly ran over, “Good morning everyone, what is happening?”

A friendly bald man, her senior Qi Lin (34, single) turns to her “Junior Yulin! Junior Lee's clothes were found during patrol. Most likely monsters”

An unfortunate incident, but not exactly unusual. Battle mages put their lives on the line to hunt monsters every day. They are the vanguard of humanity, along with paladins and aura masters. It is necessary to prune monsters, if they are allowed to grow, only disasters follow. But even for the most well-trained troops loss of life is unfortunately extremely common.

Living bioweapons, disaster, heaven’s punishment for humanity’s sin, The legacy of the Mana Flood Wars, more simply known as Monsters. She has fought them many times since joining the battle mages, their powers can not be underestimated in any circumstances. Especially monsters that have successfully fed on human mana. Monsters can feed on anything that is a source of mana, other monsters, animals, humans, and even plants.

Yet, for reasons that are still a mystery to humanity to this day, only when monsters feed on human mana can they become unfathomably powerful. And in the worst case, evolve. Monster researchers have theorized that it is for this reason that monsters seem to stalk and hunt humans relentlessly.

“May he find true happiness at the heavenly palace” Yulin said a prayer in the Eastern traditions.

“But the real problem starts there, look at this robe” Qi Lin waited until she finished her prayers and pointed to the torn robe on the ground.

The eastern robes were made from mana silk, made by silkworms that have been bathed in mana since birth, which offers strong resistance against all kinds of physical and mana attacks. The standard uniform of Sir Windshear's battle mage troop.

That robe was torn to shreds. But Yulin noticed something where Qi Lin's finger was pointing. The robe appears to have been burned, frozen in several places, and also rotted at the seams.

“Chimera? Here?” Yulin's face paled. This was not a monster they could handle. “What is Junior Lee’s level?” Her face paled further

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“Intensity around 30, Mana………..around 70.” There was a paused silence at the foot of the mountain. “Junior sister, we need to contact the school, Sir Windshear has already gone to investigate.” Qi Lin looked over at the giant academy building a distance away. “We can only hope that it's a pair and not a single stray”

“Alright, I will do my duty.” Yulin was determined to protect her brother and sisters. “Everyone that can use movement spells and everyone else ready long-distance communication spells or find a surface to use global mana net!” Yulin went right to work as the troop secretary.

“Please go to the nearest classes near the forest edge and tell them what has happened. Tell everyone not to go into the forest.” Yulin pointed to the first group of people and they quickly disappeared. “Please contact everyone you know in the academy, teachers, students, anyone you can contact and tell them the situation. Tell them to spread the information as much as they can. Make sure to tell everyone to stay away from the forest, that is the most important thing” The second group of people immediately turn around and start casting communication spells or connect to the global mana net.

Yulin thought of something and turned to Qi Lin “Senior brother, do we know if there are any students in the forest right now?”

—--------------------------

Beth, Cade, and Kim came to the forest this morning to hunt for meat. Two months of only eating vegetables and fruits is too much to endure. They have been walking for more than an hour. Strangely enough, they have not seen any monsters or animals at all. They can hear the sounds of birds far away and follow them. As the battle mages patrol the forest every day, they assumed that the area close to the academy had already been pruned. The only way to find meat is to go deeper inside.

The three had met in the cafeteria in a depressing state and decided to go hunting together as fellow meat eaters.

“You are from the capital Cade? That must be nice to have meat available all the time” Kim, a bright and sweet eastern girl, tries to make conversation.

“Well, the meat that the battle mages bring in to sell is all monster meat. It's way too expensive to buy every day even for rich families.” Cade had glowing golden eyes, Farsight spells should be constantly activated in dangerous areas. The first lesson of Sir Windshear’s hunting class.

Beth, the punk rock girl, follows them in the rear in a classic 3 man formation. Her black hair, black skirt, and silver chains make a sharp contrast with the green forest.

“I have never seen someone dress in classical fashions, do you like classical music Beth?” Kim had been sneaking glances at her for the whole evening.

“Classical music is calming……..” slight redness creeps up on Beth's pale cheeks.

Cade suddenly stops and holds up his left hand. The two girls also stopped, they noticed that the forest had suddenly gone quiet. No insects, no birds, just completely silent.

“Slowly move back, we need to leave this forest. Now!” Cade said in a whisper.

“사일런스 안개…..” Kim whispered a spell in her native language. A fog started to surround the group. Cade and Beth felt a mana surge, then noticed that the sound had disappeared from inside the fog. A silence spell from her home most likely.

The three quickly and silently move towards the academy ground.

A shadow of a giant beast watching the three from a distance

—-------------------------

The dark forest surrounding Greylight Academy was made up of many trees. More than three times the size of regular oak trees and more durable than regular iron. Those mana trees were being ripped from the ground as the beast’s gigantic body smashed into it.

“That thing was stalking us from the beginning. It was waiting for us to go deeper into the forest.” Cade thought as the three ran as fast as they could towards the academy grounds. They had already exhausted their mana to use movement spells to run this far. But that thing was closing in quickly

The beast’s body is a convoluted mess. The lower body is the muscular body of a giant predator, a lion, or a tiger of some kind. But the upper body is a horrific amalgamation of several different animals, mashed together like an abstract painting. Sounds of birds chirping can be heard coming from that ball of meat. A few animal heads can be seen poking out from that blob. A lion, a goat, a wolf, and a gigantic snake head.

“The worst possible mix of monsters. Scarlet lion, undead goat, and northern wolf. I don't even know what that snake is.” Beth is out of breath. She is regretting the skirt and platform boots she is wearing today.

“huff…..huff……I am running out of mana. I am sorry…….huff….you will have to burn me along with my mana. So it can't feast on my corpse……huff” Kim is about to fall from exhaustion. They have been running at full power for 20 minutes, while also dodging attacks from the beast. It is a miracle no one has died yet.

Beth puts Kim's arm over her shoulder. Running this way will slow them down, but at least Kim won't die for now.

Cade saw the beast closing in and realized they couldn't run much longer. The academy is still at least another 10-minute run at full speed.

“I will hold it. You two go to the academy and call the teachers” Cade bit his lips to stop himself from shaking. Even if he was at full mana, there was no chance that he could fight that thing. He knew he would die here. A white flame appeared on the palm of his hand, his last resort.

At that moment, a hole the size of a walnut appeared in the leg of the beast. Cade didn't see anything and he didn't feel any mana. A second later, the beast’s leg was blown away completely. Then he heard a zapping noise like electricity and intense wind that almost knocked him over.

“What are you looking at? Fucking run!” Someone yelled from the direction of the academy.

Cade watched the beast fall without the support of its front leg. He turned around and ran. He saw the two girls running next to another guy. Slightly chubby, with black hair, an unfriendly face, and a foul mouth. It's the crazy guy, Jace.

“Thank you, Jace. You are so strong, what was that weapon?” Kim asked Jace as they ran.

“.....a spell, not a weapon” Jace had an unpleasant face.

“That was a spell? We didn't feel any mana?” The three had similar thoughts.

Beth noticed that Jace was bleeding. His right hand was destroyed, bones were poking out of his fingers. His body was covered by blood. It looked as if his hand had exploded.

“Cade, you know the healing spell, right? If we don't stop the bleeding, he won't make it to the academy.” Beth nods in the direction of Jace.

“Holy shit what happened to you? Were you attacked too?” Cade moved close to Jace as they ran and started to heal him. “I am sorry. Only regeneration spells will work on something this bad. But since it's you, you will be fine right?”

Jace did not react at all while the healing was taking place. The two girls were surprised by that. Regeneration spells were infamous for being extremely painful. Cade has already seen this too many times. Jace was famous for being accepted into Greylight Academy with only a level 2 in magic intensity and extremely high control. But recently, he has become famous for a different reason.

“Oh, he is the zombie I heard about” Beth laughs for the first time. Jace’s mind had gone blank for a moment after seeing Beth's smile. Kim fell.

They heard crashing sounds from behind them again. The beast seems to have healed and started chasing them again.

The four sped up as much as they could until they saw the battle mage troops at the edge of the forest.

A beautiful eastern senior girl ran over to them.

“Are you all safe? Is there anyone else in the forest? Did anyone get eaten?” She seems to be in a panic.

“We went in with only three people, we met him on the way. We are not sure if anyone else is inside.” Beth answered. Cade is busy healing Jace and Kim falls unconscious as soon as they get out of the forest.

“Senior sister, a message from the communication team. Roll call has been completed, aside from those 4, every student has been accounted for!” a young girl ran up to them to deliver the message

The beautiful senior breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sir Windshear couldn't use his powers fully since you all might get caught up in it. But now we don't have to worry about that.” Yulin smiled and looked at the man floating in the sky.

Julius Lee, “Windshear”, is one of the strongest human mages in the entire world.

—--------------------------

In a room of the blue tower, high up above the cloud, a handsome woman in a business suit is looking at a mirror in front of her. Various letters can be seen floating back and forth in the mirror.

“Windshear has already arrived at the forest. He cleaned up the other side so quickly I didn't even do anything” The woman smile

The mirror shows Windshear in the sky above a group of students. Floating messages on the mirrors seem to be expressing excitement for the upcoming fight.

“You old hags have nothing better to do than to spy on my school?” When the words left the woman’s mouth, letters appeared on the mirror.

Many messages expressed discontent at being called “old”. One message wrote “YOU ARE THE OLDEST ONE HERE!” The woman laughed to herself.

One message caught her eyes. “Give me that boy! The one with an unfriendly face, that one!”

She saw who the message came from and felt a massive headache