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Chapter 4: The Mystical Baby and More

“Uhn…” Ley gurgled, his golden eyes staring into a pair of blue eyes and red eyes.

“H-he opened his eyes fast,” Caelus commented.

“Well, his dad is a deity, after all…” Orion muttered.

“So, what do we do with… this?”

“We can’t leave him here,” Orion glared. “He’ll die. We’ll just have to take him and explain it to Ezra-”

“Waooo!” Ley smiled and gave gurgled laughter.

“We don’t know how to get back,” Caelus told him.

“Which is why we’re in trouble,” Orion sighed, “does your telepathy work? Mine isn’t strong enough to go far distances.”

“If you can’t do it, what makes you think I can?”

“Waooo!” Ley yelled again.

“This baby… can already make noises besides crying,” Caelus frowned.

“Let’s try to find a stream,” Orion suggested. With no other options, the two boys - plus one baby - left.

…

“It’s been three hours,” Atira choked. “What if they’re hurt? If they’re hurt, I swear to Primus, Brent I will kill you.”

“No need to issue death threats,” Brent said, raising his hands up in surrender. “Well, they’re big boys now, so…”

Atira glared. “They’re seven and six.”

“Slightly big boys.”

Ezra sighed, “We searched the entire town already and nobody has seen them. Where could they be?”

“Maybe in the forest,” Lilith said, gaining stares from the adults.

“Right.”

…

After another hour of searching, they finally found a stream. However, they were hungry and they guessed that Ley was hungry, too. Due to his nonstop crying for the past thirty minutes.

“WAAAH!”

“Annoying,” Caelus said.

“He’s a baby, what do you expect?”

“What do we do now?”

“We follow the stream… I think. Atira never truly explained survival methods to us.” Orion stared at the stream, squinting his eyes. “Let’s see… it’s going… that way!”

“Are you sure we’re supposed to follow it? What if it leads us into the forest even more?”

“Mmm… do you have any other plans?”

“Yes, sit here and hope someone will find us.”

“Lazy,” Orion scoffed. “You just don’t want to walk.”

“Ah, I’m caught.”

“Fine, let’s do it your way.”

So they sat and waited. And waited, waited, waited, waited, waited- and lied down. The sky above them turning a purple-orange hue, the clouds dispersing.

“This would be great, if it weren’t for Ley crying,” Caelus sighed in happiness. And yes, Ley has been crying… For the past hour already.

“Ley,” Caelus turned his body to face the baby. “Big boys don’t cry.”

For an odd reason, it seemed as if the baby understood and stopped crying. Caelus blinked in surprise, which caused the baby to laugh in pure joy.

“Orion,” Caelus whispered, slapping his back, his eyes never taken off from the baby. “Orion!”

“What is it?!”

“I- I think the baby… understands me?”

“Are you an idiot?”

“Seriously, look for yourself!”

Orion turned around to face the baby, who was staring intently at him.

“You, do you know your father?” The baby shook his head no. “Do you know where you came from?” Another no. “Where are we?”

“In the forest,” a clear voice said in their minds.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Do you know how to get out?”

Ley released a small amount of electricity, which crackled on the ground and moved until it made a line to show where to go. After doing that, Ley fainted, seemingly using up all of his energy.

“...”

“Well? What are we waiting for?” Caelus asked, getting up. “The sun’s almost down.”

“Uh-huh.”

So the two boys followed the small electric path that was given to them by a deity-born, talking, hours-old baby. Their minds couldn’t even comprehend what Ley would become when he gets older...

…

“So, what is this?” Ezra asked, glaring at the two boys. He held the baby carefully in his arms, rocking it back and forth.

It took them two hours to get back, they traveled farther than expected. However, when they got back, they faced a trio of strangers and an angry, red-haired devil. Behind him, was another secret, brown-haired mid-boss.

Two bosses at once!

“A baby,” Orion said nonchalantly.

“And who’s baby is it?”

“A deity’s,” the two boys simultaneously gulped.

“And where did find this deity?”

“In the forest,” small beads of sweat rolled down their faces.

“I see…” Ezra smiled. “YOU IDIOTS.” He slapped the two hard. Very hard. “Did I not tell you to don’t go near the ******* forest?” He let out a stream of curse words, every insult there was, he said it. Every threat, he made it. The two would’ve pissed themselves, if it weren’t for them trying to save face in front of the three new apprentices. “Also, did I not teach you to disregard Brent?!”

“Sorry,” they said, their eyes tearing a bit from the slap.

Atira sighed, “just let them go this one time, Ezra.”

“... Fine.” Ezra let out a sigh of frustration and anger.

“Kids these days are impetuous,” Brent snickered.

“Someday, your devil-may-care attitudes will get you killed,” Ezra glared, “we’re going to fix that. However, this can’t go one-way. And Brent, you!”

“Yes?”

“Come,” Ezra grabbed him and lead him to a different room.

“NO! Nooooo!” Brent yelled, struggling. “Ahh! Ah-!” The door shut tightly behind him.

They came out twenty minutes later, Ezra looked refreshed and dignified. Brent, on the other hand, looked as if he went to hell and back- three times.

“Anyway, care to explain the baby?” Ezra asked.

“The baby can explain himself,” Caelus said, staring at the now-wide-awake baby.

“My name is, Ley,” the baby said. “According to Orion and Caelus, I was born from an eagle deity. Although I don’t know the exact reasons why, but a few hours after my birth, I quickly gained insight and the ability to talk telepathically, as well as open my eyes. However, my body seems to grow at the same pace as a regular baby.”

“Hm…” Ezra looked at Ley intently. “Alright, you’ll be staying with us from now on. You’ll be my sixth apprentices, but you’ll start training when you’re able to walk around at least. Also, regarding apprentices, Orion, Caelus, meet Lilith, Malachi, and Evangeline- your fellow teammates. From now on, they’ll start training along with you.”

“Eh? That’s it?” The children looked surprised.

“Please, once you’re strong enough, cases like these aren’t strange.” With that, the children stared in awe of Ley.

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“Well? Aren’t you going to greet one another?” Atira asked from behind, staring intently at the children.

“Pleased to meet you,” the boys said, bowing down, before glancing at Atira a couple of times.

“Call me Kai!” Kai grinned. “Wow! Can you tell me about your adventure later?” His random excitement and curiosity caused the boys to raise an eyebrow, but they agreed.

“Call me Eve, I’m the older twin of Kai,” Eve grinned, however her eyes were more mischievous and mysterious than Kai’s. They felt she would definitely be a troublemaker when she grows up.

“Lilith, I’m the oldest sister at 7, pleased to meet you.” Lilith, on the other hand, seemed more mature and smart... calculating.

Following in the same manner, the boys introduced themselves and their age. Ley, too, introduced himself, however he was only a few hours old. Although it was odd, they believed they would get used to it later on.

“In order to start training, we’ll have to take the elemental and potential test.”

“What’s that?” Kai asked.

“It’s a test to determine what element you have and how high your potential is.”

Ezra explained that potential was used to determine how far you’ll go in terms of strength and abilities. With potential, they can somewhat gauge how big your mana pool will be. It can also help with finding how rare of an element you can receive.

Elements are wind, fire, water, and earth. Some rare elements would be light, darkness, lightning, and poison. However, a person could receive a variant of an element, making it stronger than the actual element itself. Or they could get a rare variant, which changes the element itself. For example, earth could become metal, water becomes ice. An even further step from rare, would be epic. Epic variants transform the ability and make it an entirely new ability, they’re sometimes classified as ‘exclusive.’

There are some odd cases of abilities not falling underneath any element- making it an arcane element. These elements are unknown and mysterious, for the most part. They’re as rare as an element with full affinity.

Elements with full affinities can be considered just as powerful as arcane magic and variants of that element. However, they’re more rare than an arcane element type, but not as rare as a full affinity one.

“Also, potential would be measured out of 100,” Ezra concluded. “Unfortunately, the testings only happen twice a year. However, we’re two months away from the next testing. In the meantime, we can teach you a few more things about mana, ki, and spirit.”

The kids, including the older disciples, tilted their heads in confusion. They had the general idea of mana, but not ki or spirit.

Ezra explained that ki was similar to mana, but for physical attacks, rather than magical attacks. There were three types of beings, mana-suited beings, balanced beings, or ki-suited beings. Mana-suited beings were people who had more mana favored spirit, however the difference had to be significant enough. Ki-suited beings were people who, instead of mana, had a more favored ki spirit. A balanced being was a rare person who had a balance between the two, or only a small difference between the two.

Spirit was another way of calling a person’s core or soul. The spirit usually determined what type of practice a person would have: would they follow the footsteps of a grand magician, a fierce and intense warrior, or a powerful overlord with both physical and magical prowess? Spirit importance was comparable to potential. Although, it follows an odd rule. One would either have to have exaggerated favoritism to either ki or mana to be extremely strong, or be balanced. If it was inbetween balanced and high favoritism, the person would not be as strong.

“Which is why we have to wait a month after the testing to test your spiritual prowess. Which reminds me, we have yet to talk about ranks,” Ezra inhaled deeply before starting his explanation again.

Ranks were a simpler subject to talk about, thus easing Kai’s mind. There were seven ranks in this world: basic, basic-intermediate, intermediate, intermediate-advanced, advanced, king, saint, emperor, and finally immortal. However, there were even more ranks within the immortal world, one which Ezra wouldn’t explain to them yet, as it was a bit more complex.

“As of now, in terms of potential, you six would at least be in the 90’s,” Ezra told them. From what they deduced, 1-30 potential is considered low, 31-60 is medium, 61-80 is high, 81-99 is genius-level potential, and 100 is monster-like potential. “If you weren’t at least in the 90’s, I wouldn’t have accepted you as my apprentices.”

“But how do you know?” asked Kai, who stared at Ezra with undying curiosity.

“Hum… Let’s just say I have an ability that helps me determine such things,” Ezra said, smiling at him mysteriously. The children earnestly believed he was the strongest. So, of course, they believed him naively.

“Anyway, regarding your training, we’ll start tomorrow. Based on what Atira, Brent, and I have discussed upon, you’ll be learning hand-to-hand combat in the morning, academics in the afternoon, and finally, mana at night. We’ll limit your mana training only to activation and cultivation before the test.”

“Alright, children~!” Atira said in a sing-songy voice, “time to go to bed~.”

At night, a warm, buzzing atmosphere could be felt throughout the house. This atmosphere was caused by the children who were finally excited to start real training.

_____

Thanks for reading, please comment and criticize! :)

Rave/Rant vvv

Okay, honestly, my characters' personalities are everywhere. I couldn't decide on what I wanted them to be when they grow up, so during the first few chapters, they were very... dull and (how should I say it) irrelevant(?) or 2-D. They basically had no personalities (especially the twins). One moment, Eve had Kai's enthusiasm and curiosity, the next, Kai was similar to Eve- more mischievous and laid-back.

I kind've hated Lilith in the the beginning, tbh. I wanted her to be more mature, calculating, and cautious, but she ended up being a cold-hearted, 2-D, and boring. (Although, yes, she seemed slightly more mature than the others).

I managed to get the other characters right (discluding Ley, Orion, and Caelus). However, only Brent and Atira seemed to have the right personalities I wanted them to have (more Brent than Atira).

Conclusion: I definitely won't give up this book, despite messing up the characters in the beginning. During this chapter and the next few ones, I hope I could start defining their traits in which they'll grow up to be more like. Also, I hope I can solve more plot hole that I know will show up in the future.

This chapter marks the beginning of their training/strengthening/OP-ness.