Abbot Gregory stood on his garden like a statue. He was the only monk in existence, as of current, who had achieved total transparency, for his body no longer contained any traces of energy as it had all dispersed back into nature. The gentle Abbot no longer had numerous magical veins running throughout his body; he only had a single vein: his body itself.

His body had become a complete path for the energy of nature as his vein had expanded to cover all of himself. Hence, nature’s energy passed through him as though passing through empty space. This was the requirement of becoming an Abbot, a requirement only very few could handle because—

“Give up,” whizzed a raspy shadow from behind the Abbot. “Old man, your powers are weakening, soon I shall be able to break the seal.”

The Abbot smiled. “The seal has stayed in this world for more than a thousand years, getting strengthened and renewed by all the past Abbots of this monastery. I won’t give up that easily, Witch.”

“Oh but you will,” grinned the shadowy creature creepily. “I can sense your strength wavering, Old Man. Your time is nigh.”

The Abbot turned his head towards the shadowy creature. “And you will be surprised how this continent has changed since your last visit.”

The creature laughed in an eerily high-pitched tone. “Oh my!” cried the creature ecstatically. “Will Atis’ children really be able to save this world?”

“They will,” spoke the monk. “I know they will.”

A gust of energy swirled around the monk. “By the grace given me,” whispered Abbot Gregory. “Be gone!”

In an instant, the creature disappeared in a puff of smoke as though responding to the monk’s command.

Abbot Gregory however, fell unconscious on the floor.

***

At the same time, at Winnow Academy, something interesting was brewing. River stood agape as the professor announced his verdict: River won’t be continuing to the written exams. He had already failed the first step. It was truly unfortunate for River to take the test during a time when the mechanics had changed.

In the past, the written exams were held first and anyone who got the top score would then be given the chance to skip the appraisal test. This was all done with the assumption that the knowledge of magic could only be fully understood by those who could use them. That was until school administration changed the rules, ensuring that only the best could study at the academy. That was why, since River failed the first test, he could not enter Winnow Academy nor could he ever step a foot on its grounds ever again.

Mara stood up for her brother and quickly jumped onto the stage. “Professor!” fumed Mara, sending a piercing gaze towards the proctor. “My brother is not lying, he is in fact a member of the Pace family.”

“Little Miss?” questioned the Professor, pointing a finger at River. “You mean this boy? But I’ve never heard of anyone from the five great families with this level of strength. It’s practically unheard of.”

“It’s because I’ve been disowned,” admitted River, forcing a smile. “That is why you haven’t heard of me.” He was hurt, and insulted; but years in training under sages taught him many things. He knew that—

“I can’t blame you, Professor,” added River. “I myself would have been very shocked if I were in your position.”

The moment the professor heard the word disowned, he immediately remembered the buzz about the weakening of the Pace family eleven years ago. ‘So he was the cause?’

“I’m sorry,” apologized the Professor, averting his gaze in shame; “please pardon me for calling you a liar.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve long outgrown the insecure part of me.”

“But still,” the professor stood his ground. “I cannot allow you to pass, even if you were the son of the king I would still abide by the rules.”

“B-but” retorted Mara, wanting to defend her brother to the very end.

River placed a hand on Mara’s shoulders, inciting Mara to turn towards him. He then shook his head from side to side. “It’s okay. I understand why they can’t allow me.”

River looked at the proctor. “I’m sorry for the trouble.” He then turned to walk away.

Before River could even take a step, a student ran towards the professor in a hurry. “Sir McFluff!” the student screamed. The crowd parted in two as the student hurriedly walked onstage.

“T-trouble. A-at. S-second. Campus,” he reported while panting.

“Take your time, what is it that you’re trying to say?”

When the student recovered from exhaustion he stood erect and cleared his throat. “A magic beast is rampaging at the second-year campus, Sir!”

“That’s two kilometers from here!” blurted the startled professor. “Who’s holding the fort?”

“Second year students, Runia Willow and Faena Reborn, Sir. They’re currently struggling to contain it since the beast is a Class A.”

“What about the other second year teachers?”

“All gone to the palace sir, attending a very important meeting.”

“Very well then,” resigned Professor McFluff, cracking his knuckles. “I shall go take care of it myself.”

Professor McFluff summoned his staff, appearing before him in a bright yellow light. He held it by the stem and began casting a teleportation spell; but before he could complete it, River and Mara ran to hold the professor as the incantation was about to finish.

*Swish*

The three figures of McFluff, Mara, and River dissipated into thin air.

***

At the second-year campus grounds; a girl, wearing a luxuriously designed leather armor strapped over a long-sleeved pink underclothing, casted binding magic on the tiger-wisp. Her pink skirt that reached five inches below the knees, worn atop a leather armor strapped around a pink stocking, swayed violently in the air as she sustained her magic. Her red hair sparkled dazzlingly as it reflected the sun. Her skin was fair and her face was astoundingly beautiful despite contorting out of effort. She was Runia Willow. Next to her was Faena Reborn, who had already transformed to her sentient beast form.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The Reborn family was not human, they belonged to a race called sentient beasts. If magic beasts evolved from animals, so did the sentient beasts evolved from humans. All sentient beats were born with magic—their orb energy however could not go beyond that of a Class A power. Nonetheless, measuring a sentient beasts’ power by means of their orb energy was a fool’s errand.

Their magic was unique compared to the other mages. They could cast lesser spells (as all mages could) yet their main power was something different: Sentient Transform. It was a kind of magic that allowed them to either harness the power of their beast form or transform into it. Once they transformed, their physical strength would abnormally rise. This was the reason why the Reborn family were second only to the Willows in terms of strength.

Even though their race could never produce an SS class mage, it didn’t matter, since a Class A sentient beast could equal or even surpass that power once they transformed into their beast forms. Because of their strength, and the fact that all that belonged to their race, no matter how weak, were mages, people in the past hunted them to death out of fear. Now however, everything was different.

Faena’s beast form was that of a fairy. Butterfly wings fluttered behind her as fairy dust floated about her body. Her ordinary blonde hair had turned into a bright dazzle of light. A blue tattoo—depicting a butterfly—had also appeared on her cheek. She was still a Class C mage but in her fairy form, her strength equaled Runia.

“Runia, can you cancel that tiger’s fire coating?”

“I would if I could,” complained Runia. “My runic eyes hasn’t yet fully matured. I can’t use it while I sustain this binding spell at the same time.”

Before them was a colossal white tiger towering at a size greater than an ordinary elephant. Its body was covered with white flames as its defense. Because of their wispy appearance, scholars dubbed their species as tiger-wisp. The tiger-wisp struggled to free itself from the chains that had wrapped around its body after it had sprouted from the ground after Runia’s casting.

“Then release the bind!”

“Are you crazy? The other students might get attacked!”

“Tsk,” spat the beautiful Faena. “Then I guess I have to strike it through its flames, huh?”

Faena flapped her wings and flew to the sky. Her beast magic: fairy dust was mainly used for illusions but that didn’t mean she didn’t have any offensive abilities. Fairy dust gathered around her fist as she launched to the beast from the sky.

Faena punched the beast on the head and her fairy dust began to mingle with the beast’s flames. Faena’s fairy dust couldn’t only create illusions, they could also corrode magical structures. Thus when her fairy dust touched the beast’s flames, like an unstoppable virus, it slowly ate away at its structure, thereby causing it to slowly fade.

‘A chance.’

Faena flew up again and gathered a huge amount of fairy dust around her body; she was about to hurl down at the beast, using her body to pierce through. Faena glowed, and in a blink of an eye, she broke the sound barrier as she flew down to pierce through the beast. But—

The beast survived, as it had instantly reformed its flame coating after it had waned. Faena on the other hand grunted in pain after she had gotten thrown to the ground like a puny insect.

Runia struggled to keep the binding chains alive, constantly feeding them with her energy; alas, the beast’s twisting and wriggling broke her chains. The beast was a class higher than them, and its strength was double compared to mage’s of the same level, so they stood no chance. They knew this very well, that was why their goal was supposed to be to contain its movements and wait for reinforcements, for unless a teacher came with sufficient experience to fight the creature, it would continue its rampage.

Only, Faena broke the plan. She had rushed headlong with the objective of destroying the beast that it weakened Runia’s binding spell at the same time, thus allowing the beast to easily break free. When Faena recovered a bit from the pain, she sat up only to be met by the ferocious face of the beast. The tiger breathed an irritated breath on her, opening its mouth as it was about to gnaw her to pieces.

***

Professor McFluff materialized meters away from the battle scene, along with two other persons. McFluff was about to scold the two of them when they suddenly dashed forward, leaving him behind.

“Brother,” chided Mara. “What are you doing here, it’s dangerous for you.”

“You don’t understanding, it’s something I must do.”

“No, you must go back. Let me handle this, I know you have feelings for Sis Runia, but I’m her friend too. Let me be the one to help her.”

“N-no!” cried River, huffing as he ran. “I-it’s not about her… it’s something else.”

“I’m sorry Big Brother, but I must do this.”

Mara casted a binding spell on River’s leather shoes, sticking them to the ground as with a glue, thus preventing River from continuing. Mara turned her attention forward and saw that the beast was opening its mouth about to devour a beautiful girl. She quickly summoned her staff and hurled a magic spell towards the girl’s direction, thereafter producing a magic barrier over the girl just in time before the beast could gnaw her alive.

However, Mara didn’t expect the beast’s biting strength to be so strong. It was so strong that it froze her on the spot just so she could sustain the spell. Just before she was about to loosen her grip, a shoeless figure dashed passed by her. It was River, running towards the beast.

The onlookers thought that River was suicidal, and so did Runia and Faena who looked at him as he ran. River passed by Runia who was about to cast another binding spell.

“Leave it to me,” River said to her. “This is my duty.”

River made his way in between the hapless Faena and the gaping mouth of the beast. The beast was about to devour him when—

Something strange happened.

The beast purred.

“Are you lost?” inquired River, reaching a hand to pat the beast’s head. The beast lowered its head and purred to River’s caresses.

The students who were observing the whole scene unfold, especially Faena and Runia, gaped in astonishment. What sorcery was this? They were sure that there was no spell that had activated yet how come he tamed the beast so easily?

The answer: sage craft.

River placated the beast by simply communicating to it.

He could feel the emotional energy it was emitting—the kind found in fear. The beast was very afraid for its life, thus it needed the presence of someone who would assure its safety. Therefore, River merely had to communicate his own emotions through nature’s energy and show to it that he was not hostile. Wherefore he befriended the beast.

“How is he doing that?”

The onlookers gossiped.

“Is he some special mage or something?”

Faena stood up and dusted herself.

“We were doing alright,” she angrily spat, irritated by the fact that some nobody saved her life. “Stop acting like a hero.”

River looked at Faena over his shoulder as he scratched the head of the beast. “I’m just doing my duty,” he curtly replied. “I’m sorry if I offended you or anything.”

Faena turned her head to the side with a harrumphed, crossing her arms to her chest.

“‘Doing your duty…’” repeated the professor, arriving at the scene in haste. Following behind him was Mara who was similarly surprised. “What sort of job requires a man to tame a beast?”

“Yeah, Big Bro,” concurred Mara. “In the first place how are you doing that?”

Mara was referring to how River was caressing the beasts’ stomach after it had turned its belly up. The beast playfully allowed River to touch it.

“It’s hard to explain.”

The next moment a carriage stopped at the side, delivering a wrinkly, old man wearing a robe. When the man came down, everyone saw his unfamiliar face. He was not a well-known figure in the academy, in fact he was so unknown that only very few students and teaching staff knew him. Nonetheless, he was an important figure behind the scenes.

“My, my!” exclaimed the old man as he strode towards them. “Would you look at that, someone beat me to it.”

It was Monk, Mar bar Sor.

“Tower Sage!” said the professor in surprise, “what made you come down from your tower?”

“This beast did,” answered the sage, pointing at the creature.

The monks of the Order of Sages didn’t only live in mountains and temples, there were also those who were specially stationed in academies all around the kingdom; their job was to warn the school of any calamities looming ahead.

“Would you look at that,” said the monk, inspecting River from head to toe. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Master Mar!”

“You know each other?” asked Faena to River.

“Um… yes. He was one of my masters.”

“‘Master…’” muttered Mara, “You mean you studied sage craft brother?”

“Yes, that’s right,” nodded River in assent, “though, I’m just an honorary sage.”

Everyone was surprised, who knew someone as young as River could become an honorary sage. People simply assumed that sages were old men sporting long and slender beards.

River took a peek at Runia’s reaction and noticed that she was averting her gaze; he thus concluded that she didn’t want to be bothered. He felt that she didn’t want to talk to him considering their current positions.

“So that’s why,” beamed the professor in realization. “You got such low results from earlier!”

“No, that’s not the case,” told River as he scratched his cheek shyly. “I was really an invalid from the very beginning, training in sage craft only made me even more so.”