Chapter 7-Military

'Awkward'

The commander had just left, and Raven was still sitting there with the other four captains. No one had said anything for the first minute that the commander was gone so Raven was starting to think this was a test of some sorts.

The first one to move was Aldo, he got up from his seat while mumbling something under his breath. He took one last look at Raven and then walked to the entrance of the tent and left, holding onto the hilt of the sword at his side.

The next one to move was Erik, he got up and looked at Raven and said "I probably don't need to explain what the soldiers do, but I will be by your tent in the morning to take you to the training grounds. If you have any questions, you can ask them then." After that he walked out of the tent.

Another minute passed by before anyone said anything, the one to break the silence was none other than Ellia who raven thought was the nicest of the four.

"I guess I will go first then" Ellia said with a sigh looking at Larock and then looked at Raven with a smile, the smile she gave him seemed to lighten the pressure raven felt.

"The commander said he forgot to teach you about what a mage is, am I right?"

Raven sat straight up and coughed. "Yes, that's right. I was a very sheltered boy." Raven said chuckling under his breath to break the tense mood that remained in the room. It did not work. Ellia looked at Raven again and spoke, chuckling along with him "You still are, even though you are tall for your age you still look no older than 14."

'I can't even say anything, she's probably right.' Raven thought.

Ellia stopped chuckling and stared at him again, "Do you know what a mana pool is?"

Raven nodded and Ellia smiled again.

"Good, well then I'll give you a summary of what a mage is. First a mage is someone who utilizes their mana pool to enact spells to attack, heal, or do other things to people and things. A spell, usually a chant, forms the mana from the persons mana pool to create a phenomenon in the physical world. There are many examples of this like a fireball, water bullet, or wind blade."

"Thats a little understandable, but I really don't know what those things are." Raven said, he genuinely had no idea what she meant by "water bullet".

After Raven had said this Ellia laughed for a second and then raised her hand and said, "this might be a better example". After she said this an orange light appeared in her hand and started to grow in intensity until it reached the size of an apple. It was a sphere of unwavering fire.

'Holy shit, how did she do that' Raven thought absolutely stunned, letting it show all over his face 'and its hotter than even the fire that engulfed my family's castle!'

Ellia saw this and laughed, she closed her hand which seemingly snuffed the flame out of existence. "I guess you weren't lying about not knowing what magic looked like."

Raven, aware of what face he was making, went back to normal. He was very embarrassed that he looked like that in front of them. He coughed and said, "That was amazing, how did you do that?" Ellia, with a smile on her face said, "unless you have a mana pool then it's impossible to accomplish what I just did, but I'm guessing you haven't been tested for a dantian or mana pool yet so give it a try, maybe you'll surprise me. All you have to do is imagine a spark in your hand and a power in your brain fueling it, it's hard to tell you how to do it since its different for everyone."

Raven heard this closed his eyes and then raised his hand, he started to imagine a spark and the power fanning it.

Just then though a hand grabbed his wrist. Surprised, Ravens concentration broke, and he opened his eyes. What he saw was Larock holding his wrist and his red eyes staring into Ravens own or into his soul, Raven did not know. What he did know though was that just a second ago Larock was sitting down on the other side of the table but just a second later he was next to Raven.

Raven did not know how he got to his side but before he could say anything Larock spoke, "Don't."

Raven was confused but also furious, it may be due to him being a child still, but Raven did not care. "What do you mean don't!? Why did you stop me!" Raven yelled this obviously angry, Ellia watched all of this from the side and was just as confused as Raven. Larock kept on looking into Raven's eyes and then spoke again "You know why", after he said this, he let go of Raven's hand and walked back to his chair next to Ellia. After he got to his chair, he sat back down and closed his eyes again seemingly going to sleep but after this incident Raven could not believe that anymore.

Ellia was looking at Larock still. She then turned back to Raven and said "Sorry, I don't know what that was about but maybe it isn't a good idea."

She smiled again and said, "I'll just finish the explanation; Mages use the power in their mana pool to do things like that and we rank them by "circles". Commander said that I was a second circle which means that my mana pool is significantly larger than those of the first circle and below."

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Raven thought about this and then spoke, "Wait, does that mean your mana pool is determined by birth? Does that mean unless you're lucky your basically trash compared to those that are fortunate?" If this was true, then what did that mean for him if he did have a mana pool. Would he be like those that are unfortunate?

Ellia looked at him and laughed again, "No, that would be too cruel. Anybody that is born with a mana pool, given enough time, can increase the size of their mana pool. I was also a 1st circle mage at one point but due to my talent and the technique given to all the military mages I was able to rise to the rank of 2nd circle. Peak even." Raven heard this and asked again, "Peak? sorry for asking all these questions but I'm too unknowledgeable in all of this."

Ellia looked at him and said, "Sorry I forgot to elaborate on all the ranks of mages. So, listen well."

"I'll try my best" Raven replied.

Ellia heard that then started to speak "Mages are ranked 1st circle to 9th, beyond that I have no idea. What i do know though is that each circle consists of 3 different mini ranks. For example, I'm a Peak 2nd circle mage. The three ranks are early, intermediate, and peak. How a person can progress in rank is by absorbing the ambient mana through the atmosphere. People can use techniques that are suited to them by taking one of the many that are provided in the military and other organizations. No mana absorbing technique is bad but there are techniques that are better than others, but those are usually ones that focus on a certain attribute. The basic techniques given out are those that don't target a specific attribute and only purify the mana into attributeless mana when it enters your mana pool. Meaning it will have the same power for all spells unlike attribute mana which can strengthen certain spells more than others if that attribute is similar or exactly your own."

Raven was taking in all this information very quickly but surprisingly, even to him, he was understanding it all. Like he had heard it somewhere before, but Raven could not remember. It was strange.

Ellia continued "When a person absorbs mana from the atmosphere it forcefully pushes the outer reaches of a mana pool and makes it form into that shape, in other words it forcefully expands the mana pool. This is only in small increments though" Ellia said in a warning tone

"If you absorb too much unpurified mana at once then it could either damage your mana circuits, the pathways for unpurified mana to reach the mana pool, or completely shatter your mana pool which would cripple your ability to absorb mana and cast spells."

After hearing this Raven was interested. 'How can someone get hit with so much unpurified mana that it shatters their mana pool?'

"Back to the ranks though, early means that the person has just reached the stage and has not increased their mana pool very much. The way for an early mage to know if they are close to intermediate is that when you reach the border between the two the mana pool will stop expanding. Then the mage has to either take mana expanding pills, which give the mage enough purified mana to breakthrough the stagnant mana pool, or they take the time to stop expending mana from their mana pool and meditate for however long it takes them to gather and purify enough mana to do what the mana expanding pills do. People usually do this when they go into secluded training, and it can take years at a time depending on talent and technique because everyone gathers mana at different speeds and techniques can boost that."

At this point Raven's interest had peaked, he was overjoyed at learning about the world and how other people traverse through it. Thinking about its Ellia is a pretty strong mage herself. She's a peak 2nd circle mage about to breakthrough to 3rd and she doesn't even look 30.

'Well, I do remember someone telling me that elves age differently than humans. She could be 100 and I wouldn't even know.'

Raven stopped zoning out and paid attention to the lesson Ellia was teaching him.

"The same goes for intermediate to peak, but something different happens from Peak to the next circle. Before you had to only put purified mana into your mana pool and you would have been able to breakthrough, but when it comes to breaking through to the next circle you have to input your will into the mana."

"Will?" Raven said aloud, not meaning to.

Ellia heard this and smiled, "Yes, will. You have to enter your mana pool spiritually and input your will to command the purified mana and transform all of the mana in your mana pool into the attribute that was assigned to you by nature. There are some pros and cons though based on the person's circumstances."

Raven looked at Ellia and asked, "What are they?"

"Basically, most people are born without an attribute assigned to them when they were born."

"What?" Raven said aloud, "What do you mean, doesn't that give them an advantage and they can just skip transforming their purified mana into attributed mana?"

"Here's where the pros and cons come into play" Ellia said, "you are right, a person who is born without an attribute does skip that step of the breakthrough, but they don't gain the buffs someone has when they have an attribute. Basically, if a mage with an attribute is put against a mage without one, and they have the same experience of magic, then most likely the mage with the attribute will when. This is because the person with the attribute will use spells that maximize the buff in power when using spells of the same attribute. They have to go through more and might fail in their breakthroughs, but it gives a great boon in combat. Thats the jist of what a mage is and what magic is." Ellia said with a sigh after explaining, obviously tired after talking for so long.

Raven looked at her with a smile and said while bowing his head, "Thank you Miss Ellia, I would not have been able to learn if not for you."

Ellia looked at Raven and replied, "I just hope this can help you in the future if you ever go against someone who is a mage, hopefully you won't though."

"I hope I won't either." Raven said with a smile, obviously he knew that was untrue. The people that destroyed his legacy most likely had mages in their armies.

After hearing this Ellia stood up from her chair and said, "Well, I have to go now but I hope to see you around Raven. It was nice meeting you."

"And you Captain" Raven said with utmost respect. He started to stand up with her but just then Larock finally spoke, "Sit."

"What?" Raven was baffled, what else did Larock have to say. Raven came to know Larock was a man of very few words.

"I said sit; we aren't done yet" Larock said finally opening his eyes to look at Raven. Raven sat back down knowing he couldn't resist a captain. Ellia looked at Raven one last time, pity in her eyes. Then she turned away and walked out of the tent.

Raven and Larock sat there in silence for ten minutes before Raven finally had enough and started to say something.

"Why aren't yo-"

That was when Larock interrupted him and looked him dead in the eyes, a killing intent settling onto Raven so strong it gagged him. Stopping him from continuing. Then Larock finally spoke.

"What are you?"