Wind blowing through the gaps of the wooden walls and window, the freezing breeze had Illumi shivering in his sleep. With only a somewhat soft bedding and no blanket, he had to tough the night out all on his own.
Someone knocked on the door, trying not to wake other people in the inn, a male voice said.
“Wake up, new guy. It’s your first day of the job, don’t want you to be late.”
Illumi wakes up, and slowly walks to the door to see who it is. Opening the door, a guy wearing a semi iron chestplate with multiple bladed weapons straps to his body, standing with his hands on his waist, tapping his feet on the ground impatiently.
“I hope you had a good sleep, because it’s a busy day today. At least if you want to keep the roof over your head.” said the bladed guy sternly.
“Understood…” Illumi said with an indifferent attitude.
“Grab only what you need. Anything else is a burden.” The bladed guy expresses his opinion.
Illumi looks back into the room, and sees only the bed and his sack of resources. He turned back and said, “I don’t have anything to bring…”
“Then let's go. We don’t have all day." The bladed guy walks towards the inn’s exit, leading Illumi to their destination.
The day had barely started, the sky was still dark, with some buildings having their lights on. Some of the vendors on the street started to open up shop in the dark. Most of the vendors on the streets greet the bladed guy as they walk.
“Early as usual Mr.Robert!” one of the vendor shouts.
The bladed guy replied cheerfully, “Works are piling up! Everyone had to pull their weights! Haha.”
Illumi walks silently in between, looking exhausted. They all waved each other goodbye and continued their chores. They’ve been walking for quite a while, the sky has changed to a warmer hue, and they finally reach almost the edge of the city’s wall.
Robert pointed his finger to a door on the huge wall. “Walk through that door, and you’ll know what to do. My task is to show you the path to the guild’s hunter assembly point. Hope you remember, don’t be blaming me when you get lost.”
Finishing his task, Robert waves goodbye to Illumi, and walks away in a different direction. Tired and confused, Illumi couldn’t help but to just follow the order he had been given. Not expecting anything, Illumi opens the door, which leads to a big room which was probably the assembly room, that seems to be inside the tall wall. He noticed that someone had just closed the door on the opposite side, and followed after it, as the room was already empty. Opening the second door, names can be heard yelled out, followed by the word, present.
The creak of the door had everyone standing in silence. Illumi clenches on the door as he hides behind. The crowd started to chatter to each other. A female soldier, clad in iron armor that is filled in dents and scratches shouted out firmly from the top of the podium. “Are you the new guy!?”
Illumi’s feet felt weak, and his mouth couldn’t mutter a word, hiding behind the door awkwardly.
“Could you at least tell us your name, young one!?” the female soldier expressed her curiosity.
“I-It’s Illumi!” Illumi stuttered.
“It’s Illumi… what?” the female soldier asked firmly.
His heart beating faster, sweating from all of his pores nervously. Everyone is looking at him hiding in fear. The female soldier let out a sigh, and walked down from the podium, heading towards him. She pulled the door open, exposing Illumi who’s hiding behind it, and pulled him out of the open. Putting her hands on Illumi's shoulders, facing him towards the crowd, thoroughly informed him of the situation.
“These people are not what you should be afraid of. The things you will see, the things you will go through, it will make your situation right now, seems like the dumbest thing you would have done in your life. So stand tall, and finish your sentence young boy.”
Illumi was moved a little by the speech, and it reminded him of the things he already went through.
His sweating stopped, and no longer controlled by fear, he stood tall in front of the crowd. Proclaiming his name once again.
“My name is Illumi. Ma’am!”
The female soldier left out a small laugh and slapped Illumi’s back.
“See! It’s not that hard. My name is Mira, nice to meet you Illumi! You can join the crowd. I’ll assign you into a team after the roll call.”
“Understood!” Illumi replied.
Mira went to the podium to resume the roll call, and Illumi joined the crowd from the back.
The roll call lasted for 20 minutes, and the sun had started to rise up and brighten up the sky.
“And lastly, Illumi!” Mira shouted loudly, with a stern look on her face.
“Present!” Illumi shouted back assertively.
“Okay. That’s the last one. Everyone else is dismissed, except for Kori’s group and Illumi.” Mira shouted her commands.
Everyone left without a second waste, heading out towards the thick forest area. Illumi stood in position silently, not knowing what to do, and waiting for his order. Mira went to the group that had been told to stay and chatted, which turned into an argument after a few minutes. One of the people in the group seems dissatisfied, and faces away from the group in protest. Mira called out to Illumi to join her.
“Illumi, starting from now. You’re in Kori’s group. They will teach you the ropes for now, the rest you’ll learn on the field.” said Mira with a little awkward smile on her face, as she pushed the burden of the new guy onto the group.
“If you last that long that is.” said the girl who’s facing away from the group.
“Best of luck to you guys. I have other business to attend to.” Mira said his goodbyes and left.
The group stood in awkward silence for a few seconds after Mira left.
A young looking adult, who seems to be in his 20’s breaks the silence.
“My name is Kori. The leader of the group. Nice to meet you Illumi.”
Kori reaches out his hand for a handshake towards Illumi.
Illumi reached back and shook Kori’s hand respectfully. “Nice to meet you Mr.Kori.” he replies.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
An older looking guy in beat up chainmail armor with only a chestplate protecting him, holds out his hands. “My name is Mi. Just Mi. I’m the shield for the group. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too, Mr.Mi.” Illumi replied, as he shakes Mi’s hand
Another young looking guy in semi leather armor reached out his hand excitingly. “I’m Eric! I’m sort of the medic for the group. I’m still an amateur, but my healing magic and healing knowledge has not disappointed anyone so far!”
“Nice to meet you Mr.Eric. I will try my best not to get hurt as much as I can.” Illumi replied with a slight chuckle.
“What a waste of time.” said the last member who’s facing away from the group.
“The sour face over there is our archer. Her name is Ire. She means well, I hope she doesn’t offend you.” said Kori, filling in the introduction for Ire.
“I couldn’t possibly be offended. I’m grateful enough that I’m allowed to be in this group. Thank you, everyone.” Illumi said with a sincere smile.
Mi reached out his hand and pat Illumi’s head. “We’ll be working together from now on. So you don’t have to be formal with us.”
“Since we have a rookie with us, we can veto today's hunt, so that we can teach Illumi the basics. I’m alone enough to teach him, you guys can take the day off if you want.” Kori announced to the group.
“I’ll stay with you both and watch what the little guy can do.” Eric replied
“I think I’ll stick around as well. It’d be good to have multiple practice partners.” Mi voice his opinion.
Ire walked away without a word, and went off her way.
“Sorry about Ire. She’s against you joining the hunter’s group. Most kids that join don't last long here. But we three couldn’t reject your resolve, since we were all kids when we first joined. So was she actually. But it goes to show the concerns she has.” Kori’s comment on Ire’s dissatisfaction.
“I understood her reasoning. But, I don’t think there’s much choice for me.” Illumi speaks to the group, while he thinks to himself.
“I don’t have much control of this body, the least I could do is to learn what I can.”
“You’re pretty mature for your age Illumi. I guess experience is one thing you can’t fake.” Eric remarks on Illumi's resolve.
Illumi was a little shocked by the words, and tried to contain his emotions.
“We’ll head over to a more open area for training. Follow me for now, it’s pretty far, so try not to get lost.” said Kori as he marched towards the location.
After a few hours of trekking, the group reached a location with an open space within the forest. Eric and Mi set up a place to sit, using a dead tree, and lit up a campfire.
“Let's take a break for now. I’m sure you haven’t eaten anything as well. Eating is another great way to fill up on energy naturally.” said Kori as he helps Eric and Mi setting up a camp, and cooking up a pot of soup.
Kori asked Illumi as they were eating, “I assume you specialize in magic. They won’t recruit anyone as young as you, unless you’ve proven that you can either pull your weight, or be really good at magic. The guild is already filled with idiots to be used as a meatshield, but not enough of those who can take out a monster.”
Illumi paused his eating and replied, “I can create a ball of fire, and shoot it at a target. It’s the only skill I can use at the moment. I’m still learning.”
“That is a pretty bare bone answer. Your magic must have impressed the field examiner to pass the test with something that basic. But either way, fire is very useful in most situations. The fact that you can create a ball of fire already makes you more useful than most of the people in the guild.” Mi said with a cheerful smile, patting Illumi on the back.
“If it’s magic, I can teach you plenty. My energy reserve is not that big, but I’ve learned a lot through experience. You could say that I’m the jack of all trades.” Kori said proudly.
Eric raises his spoon for attention, and with a big smug said, “If you want, I can also teach you medical aids magic. Unlike Kori, my energy is a lot bigger than his!”
“Medical aids magic aren’t that easy to learn. It takes a professional almost their entire life to learn it. So don’t try to push on him too much, and only teach the basic emergency aids magic.” Kori remarks on Eric’s proclaims
“Of course you idiot! If one could learn it that easily, I wouldn’t be here!” Eric replied in jest.
“Thank you, everyone.” Illumi said with a smile, though his body language shows that he is still anxious.
Mi smiled back at Illumi and said, “Don’t think much of it. We’re all in this together.”
Done with their breakfast, the group clean up the camp, packing their stuff, and quickly getting ready for the training.
“Let’s see what you can do first, Illumi. Target the tree at the very end and shoot your ball of fire.” Kori said, as Mi and Eric stood on the side.
A little nervous, Illumi took a deep breath, raising both of his hands, and as he did during his test. He’d quietly chant, “MiRe.” and had the water cover his right hand, as the right hand conjured a bright ball of light, which turned into a ball of fire. “FaRe!”, Illumi chants, shooting the ball of fire, as fast as a rock being thrown.
The speed and explosion from the fireball, blasted the tree into bits. Everyone was in shock and awe, speechless as they watched the area burning to the ground.
“Oh shit.” Kori reacted after a few seconds, and using magic, conjured a few splashes of water on top of the burning area and quickly put the fire out.
“That is fucking crazy! That is way better than what I expected!” Eric screams out in excitement.
Illumi didn’t expect the reaction and was a bit surprised. “Is it really that great?”
“In terms of magic. Not really, I’ve seen better. But the density of energy in your magic is quite something.” Mi comments
“Amateur couldn’t produce that level of energy on the first try. But that being said, your process is as amateur as it gets. I guess it’s better that I start with the magic theory, before I teach you more about magic.” Kori said to Illumi.
“Magic theory?” Illumi asked.
Kori sat on top of a fallen tree, and pointed to the others to take a seat.
“This is not really in the magic theory, but from what I’ve learned, it might have something to do with it. It started a millennium ago. There was once a foolish god. He has the power to control everything, he can make trees grow and bear fruits in a few seconds. He can reverse one’s age and turn them back into little babies. The legend also said that he can revive the dead. The foolish god would have helped the people in his time plenty of time, filling every desire they have. Everyone was basically living in paradise, no one is dying out of sickness, or starvation. But, try as he may, he can’t change people’s hearts. Even with everything that they could have, they still wished for more, the people were still greedy, and continued to ask for even more, and they’d demand even more by the day. As foolish as he is, the god keeps on giving. At one point, the human’s degeneracy kept growing, bearing with hate and ill intention. And as so, war broke out, and their goal was, the right to ownership of the god. The foolish god refuses to be the object that started a war. But none of the humans gives a damn about the god, and ignore him. Of course the foolish god didn’t do anything, he’d just watch as humans killed each other. The foolish god was told not to interfere, so he’d just sit in silence. One day, one of the villagers who was attacked in the war prayed to the god, to at least help his family. But the god stood in silence, and did nothing. The villagers curse the god and scream out their anger and pain, as they are slaughtered by the ruthless soldiers. Days turn to week, weeks turn to month, and months turn to years. The foolish god had grown sick of the world, and has said, to perform one last miracle before he vanished forever. Nothing had happened when he disappeared, but the day after, everyone realized they’ve been given the same ability as the foolish god. While some had more power than others, the victims of the brutalness of the war started to stand on their own, and fought for their freedom with the powers they were given. Centuries passed, and funny enough, nothing changed. We’re still fighting each other for the dumbest thing. It might have been the biggest irony in the history so far. I know it’s a long story, but that is just the start of the magic theory. I will now start with the magic theory itself.” Kori told his story, as others looked at him in disinterest except for Illumi.
“Holy shit that was a long story. I almost fell asleep.” Eric commented on Kori’s long story.
“There was more to the story, but what I had is mostly pages from a presumably a full book. So I only managed to surmise the story, and I might have gotten things wrong.” said Kori, going through the book he had written himself.
“Let’s start the lesson now, before I bore you guys with more stories. There’s a few methods of magic. The first one is the beginner’s one. It’s called the words of the god. It is said that the world is created by a single breath of a word from god. Ancient researchers managed to have a breakthrough, and were able to recreate a similar process, but with way less efficiency. Through thousands of years of more research, they were able to increase its efficiency slightly, and grasp the words of god a lot better. Take for example the word used to conjure a ball of fire. When it was first discovered, it was a full page of words, but we have managed to cut pretty much all of the words, while improving the efficiency by a large margin. The reason it was long was because the first spell was created so we would understand the fundamentals of the spell, as so, the more we learn, the less we need words to describe it. And by taking only the important part of the full page, the researcher finally came out with, “FaRe”. “Faed” is for fire, and “Reth” for create. Similar logic is used for water, with “MiRe”. Though with our achievement today, it is said that they barely made a scratch, and hopefully we’ll be able to reach the true words of god somewhere in the future. It’s the easiest to learn, because the fruits of the researchers had made it accessible for anyone to use any magic they desire, without having to put years of effort into training, though you’d still need to practice, so you could use the spells better. “ said Kori, explaining what he knows towards Illumi.
“I guess I have to thank our ancestors for making my job easier. I would have probably died of boredom, before I could learn a single spell!” Eric proclaims.
“The first medical aid spells were created centuries after, so you wouldn’t be able to learn any in the first place. The second one is dubbed as nature's laws of magic. It’s quite complicated, as you’d need to learn a lot to use it efficiently. Just like you’d use wood to start a fire, or oil, or anything that can be used as a fuel. Instead of conjuring a ball of fire directly like you would with “FaRe”, you’d conjure the fuel, and have it burn. This way, you’d use less energy, as the more familiar you are with the elements you conjure, the more accurate, and the more efficient your energy consumption will be. As for Illumi, what he did is combine both the first and second method. I’ve never seen anyone using both at the same time, since it’d make no difference at his level.” Kori said as he looked at Illumi.
Illumi was lost in thought and was trying to focus on Kori’s lesson, and made a mental note. “The first one sounds like it came straight from a video game, while the second one seems to utilize science. Seems like my interest piqued.”
“Though I’ve numbered the theory, it does not follow such an order. Since the second theory, utilize both the first, and the third method. The second theory was created for those, unable to properly utilize the third theory. The third theory is just called magic. It’s a bit weird, yes, but bare with me. The third method requires you to convert your energy directly into magic. So instead of imagining an oil as a fuel, you’d skip it, and just imagine the temperature of the fire itself. It is said that, to be able to use pure magic, is to be the element you want to use. It is something people take decades of training to just perfect one type of magic. Though that one magic could easily wipe a whole kingdom in an instant. With pure magic, it’s as though you are controlling magic itself, rather than using your energy to conjure them. It’s basically cheating. Though It is something that is not worth training yourself for. Some said, depending on how you are raised, it might be harder to learn pure magic. It’s something that you’d have to figure it out yourself, trying to learn it from others is a waste of your time. Of course, for the talented, which comes from one in a few million odds, there are people born with such talents, where they are able to use pure magic from the start. Such people were practiced to be crowned as kings, back in the days.” Kori continued his lesson.
Everyone is looking at Kori with full focus. Kori was a bit amused and continued his lesson. “The fourth, and the last one. It’s not something that we can never achieve in our lifetime, but it is an interesting topic to take note of. The fourth one is called, miracle. Just as the name implies, the magic that you’d have to conjure would have to basically break the laws of nature itself, something that only a very small percentage of those who can use pure magic, were able to achieve. For example bringing people back from the dead, just as the foolish god once did. Achieving a miracle level of magic, is basically being as powerful as a god. Even though miracles are basically impossible, there’s dozens of legendary figures who have achieved that level. And of course, the most obvious one, is the goddess who had been protecting us from the evil miasma with her magic shield. Centuries passed, trapped as we may be, but we’re still alive…” Kori ended his lesson with a grim reminder. Something that had been bugging Illumi ever since he had arrived in this world.