Archer White POV:

"Mom! I did it! I made my core!" I didn't hear a response. Where is she?

"Mom? Dad?" My voice echoed across the land as if it were looking for an answer.

Looking at my surroundings, or what were my surroundings, grass fields stretched all around me in a presumably 100-meter radius. After squinting my eyes as hard as I possibly could, I spotted two people, one on their knees and the other getting up off the ground. What happened? Who did this?

After getting up from my meditating position, I started walking towards them, looking for an answer. As I walked towards them, they had quickly gotten up and started sprinting towards me. After getting closer, I could see their figures, a lady and a man. The man had chestnut-colored hair complimented with a well-built body, not too muscular but also not skin and bones. The lady was harder to make out. She had long, black hair covering the sides of her face with sparks flying off the ends as if they had been roasted. She was a pleasant-looking woman, with a more slimmer-looking figure in all areas but nonetheless impressive. Once the figures became more apparent, I could make out who they were. They were my parents!

"Mom!" I said as I hurriedly ran their way.

"Archer, are you okay? Are you hurt? Let me heal you." She said in a worried voice with magic already emitting out of her hands.

"I'm fine, mom. But what happened? How did you and dad get all the way over here?" I asked.

"Archer, this was your doing." My father intervened.

"What? I didn't do anything. We were just building my core. How is this my fault?!" I lashed out. How could a mere 5-year-old clear out the landscape within the eye's distance?

"Archer, I need you to calm down. We aren't blaming this on you, but you did this. " He replied, releasing a deadly intent which quickly zipped my mouth. "Listen to me carefully. You are a quadra-elemental mage, the twelfth one in history. There will be many people after you. They will either try to steal you and form you into a weapon or kill you out of envy. Even your mother and I can't protect you against some influential figures. Only ever use 2 elements. I don't care which 2 but never reveal any more. You can train the other 2 in secret but never ever show it to the public."

"Archer." My mom butted in. "I know this is hard to take in, but we don't even have a house anymore." She said, looking beyond me, into a wasteland the size of a small crater.

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"Well, we don't even have much money anymore. Luckily I still have some pocket money." My father said, pulling money actually out of his pocket. He held 7 gold coins and 13 silver coins in his hand. "This should get us by until we get to Marv."

"Marv?" I asked, wondering who or what Marv is.

"The kingdom of Marv, in the central domain." My mother butted in. "Your father will try to pick up some work to get around."

Pick up some work? Is this because of me? Did I hurt us financially?

"Will we be okay in Marv?" I asked, worried about our future.

"Don't worry, son. I can return to being the chief captain of the royal guard squadron."

My jaw dropped below my knees after hearing what my dad had just said, yet no words could come out of my mouth.

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Days passed by in a flash, I didn't speak, other than for basic necessities, for example, "here" or "coming" as a form of self-consequence.

"Archer! The carriage is here! Let's go. We can't live here forever."

"Coming!" I said as I hurriedly ran out of the old man's home and into the front yard.

"Thank you for the hospitality." My father said while giving the elder 8 silver coins.

As he turned his gaze to me, I deeply bowed. "Thank you."

After bowing, I immediately ran to the carriage my mother was seated at. It's wasn't the most luxurious carriage, but it sure looked comfortable. Lined with thin beige-colored fabric to cover our heads and big oak wheels with a domesticated mana beast pulling us along. The coachman was a man, just a few years older than my father, with several grey hairs springing out.

As my father climbed into the carriage, he told the coachman, "well, let's get going. It's going to be a long three days."

In the course of a few hours, the night had already brought upon us. While conjuring mana along the ride, I conjured one ball of fire, split it into two, this time fire and water, broke those two into four, with one of each element, fire, water, earth, and air, dancing in the palm of my hand. I tried to increase the heat of the fire while not letting the other elements dissipate, but to my displeasure, the water and wind elements spontaneously dispersed.

'Damn it,' I told myself, clicking my tongue.

Looking up at my parents sleeping, my dad is sleeping like a log on my mom's lap while my mom barely keeps herself awake, only immersed in my mana manipulation.

When I tried to manipulate the elements again, only fire and water came up until a stinging pain came from my abdomen as the particles disappeared. 'That's enough for today,' I thought to myself. Still remaining annoyed as I can't even get a glimpse of the black, clear, and purple particles I saw when forming my core. 'Maybe I need to master my mana manipulation.' That being the only solution I could come up with, I felt notably finished.

"Good night," I spoke to my mom as I dozed off into the distance.

"Good night, dear," She replied with fatigue resounding off of her voice.

After falling fast asleep, I heard a voice.

'Are you my champion?'