Hello everyone. This is my first fiction and I hope that you will like it.

English is not my native language so I hope that people will correct the mistakes that I make.

(Hoping that I did not make a lot of them)

If you have any tips for me to improve my way of writing, please, feel free to give them.

__________________________________________

Prologue: A dream; A reality

Today, she woke up very early. The young girl was so excited; she was waiting impatiently for this day for more than a week already. And it was quite understandable since it was the date of her seventh anniversary. It also seemed that for the first time, she woke up even before her older brother which was a rare occurrence—no, we could even say that it never happened before.

The little girl in question was living in a modest house with 2 floors. The first one had a living room which was the main room of the house; it was connected to the main entrance of the house—even though there was only one entrance, the family still called it the "main entrance"—and to a small but well equipped kitchen. When looking at the cooking space, someone can guess how much work the person using the kitchen put into it. There was also another room which purpose was for her parents to sleep; indeed, it was their bedroom.

On the second floor, there were only two rooms, her own bedroom and her brother's. Both of their room were bigger than their parent's and the reason was mostly to give them a appropriate environment to grow up. That kind of detail showed how much the parents cherished their children.

The small girl came out of her bedroom and, thinking that her brother was already awake, she quickly descended the stairs to greet her family without trying to wake up her older brother. If she knew that she woke up early than him, she would have barged into his room to bring him downstairs with her.

"Morning!", she exclaimed herself with a beaming face when she was almost reaching the living room.

"Good morning Chelsea.", replied his father who was in the kitchen, cooking, with his back facing her.

Yes, the father was cooking. The man did not turned back and continued his activity when his daughter greeted him. Not because he didn't want to, but because he was concentrating really hard; his face showed that he was focusing on the—difficult?—task in front of him.

Strangely enough, the young girl was also surprised by this situation. She never saw her father in the kitchen and it was quite a bizarre sight for her. Without even having time to react on what was currently happening, a faint and sweet voice came from the opposite direction of the kitchen. It was her mother's.

"Good morning honey, happy birthday", she calmly said to her daughter.

The voice of the mother was clear and harmonious. The woman was sitting in the living room when she spoke those words. She was watching her husband cooking very attentively and a trace of smile could be seen on her face. Her features were quite gorgeous and they were also starting to appear on her daughter. The woman went by the name of Lailah. She had chestnut-color hair and was surely in the end of her twenties. Her eyes was of a pure color, they were azure and reflected everything she was looking at. Her petite figure was quite alluring, she was a beautiful woman.

In the opposite, the father's features were rather normal. We could say that he was very lambda. His name was Reed. He had black short hair that were reddening—so was his unshaved beard—because he was cooking with enormous flame in front of him. He had brown eyes and a height that was pretty much average. His physics wasn't extraordinary but he had good qualities than most of the other men didn't have; and these qualities were what conquered Lailah. The man was born the same year as his wife which also situated his age in the end of twenties.

"Yup! Thank you mom!", the girl energetically answered her mother. She then continued: "Err...Why's dad cooking? I don't want to become sick for my birthday!"

Hearing this, the mother began to chuckle. The father, him, was sighing at the trust his daughter had in terms of his cooking ability. It was, indeed, a quite sad situation—but for the father or the daughter's birthday? That was a good question.

The smiling girl hopped on a chair near her mother. After she was well sited on the wooden chair, the girl started to gaze everywhere around her and saw that her brother was not there. She wanted to ask about him but before she could even utter one word, a calm voice resembling her mother's, but in a different way, echoed in the whole room.

"Hello mother, father. Morning Chelsea, happy seventh anniversary."

Those were the words spoken by the boy. His clear voice was heard in the whole living room and the kitchen. The way he spoke was different from most of the child his age. He was only 4 years older than his sister which gave him eleven years since he was born.

Chelsea often found that his manner of speaking was weird but after some time, she became used to it. Even though she was quite young and naive, she could feel some distance in the words spoken by her brother. Mostly between him and her parents when he was taking to them. But in the end, a feeling was just a feeling, she decided to not think about this anymore.

Both of the parents answered the boy: "Good morning Ashul."

And the answer they got was:

"Uwaah! Father, are you seriously cooking? Do you want to kill us all?", the young boy said, with a face full of disgust.

"Oi, you too? What are you saying! You should already know that I'm a great cook!", Reed turned around and, with a surprising high-pitch voice, he shouted these words to his son.

"Yes, I know. I just wanted to see your reaction after what Chelsea said.", replied the boy with the same reposing tone as his earlier sentence.

Hearing this, the father dropped his shoulder while the mother continued to chuckle seeing her son teasing her husband. The little girl also laughed in front of the interaction between her brother and her father.

While the father was cooking, Ashul sat in front of his sister, rejoining her and his mother. The young girl, with a big grin on her face, then said to her brother:

"Hehe, seems like I woke up before you! I beat you!", the young girl happily claimed.

"Haha right, you beat me. But I won't let you win anymore though.", her brother rapidly and serenely interjected with a smile—a somehow nostalgic smile—on his face.

"Muu, we will see that!", Chelsea angrily stated with a pouting face.

After some time, the father finally finished cooking and was serving the breakfast to his wife and children. What he cooked was scrambled egg with bread. This breakfast was quite a luxury for the family since they were not wealthy and couldn't really afford such breakfast every morning. In fact, eggs and bread were common but using them for every breakfast was too costly for a family like them.

Curiously, the cooking was well done; it was really curious because just before, the young girl could see flames in front of her father when he was cooking. The young girl was pondering about how he succeeded. In the end, she decided to not think too much about it; after all, she was only a seventh year old girl, her attention was quickly shifted toward something else.

"I thought you were good at cooking. Isn't it a quite easy thing to cook?", said the boy, grinning, when he saw the plate his father served.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"You little!...Okay I give up, stop bullying your old father would you?", replied the man with a sense of defeat.

Oddly, the father qualified himself as old. Was it that old? He was only in the end of his twenties. In any case, that kind of discussion continued for a while. Chelsea was happy. These interaction was now an everyday's occurrence for her. Her family was kind and was really amazing to her.

Her father was, from what she heard, some sort of adventurer. She didn't really understand what he really was but from the informations she gathered, his occupation must be one like adventurer—at least, it is what she though. It seemed like he first met Lailah in the famous town under the tower called Ketheries. Their meeting was when they were both under the training of their respective job. The mother, her, at that time, seemed to be training under some group of trader or at least, it was what she told to her daughter.

That was all the informations her parents gave to her or what she could interpret from what she heard. For Chelsea, her parents were still quite mysterious because they never talked about their activity before they became parents. She tried to ask her brother one time but the answer she got was: "I don't know either".

Nevertheless, she never gave up and tried to earn as much informations as she could. She was curious; it was normal for a girl this age to become curious about that kind of stuff. Thinking about it, she thought that her parents were not saying anything about their activity because she was too young and it was, most likely, one of the reason.

Besides her parents, her older brother was also mysterious. He often gave a kind of melancholic vibe. The atmosphere around him was sometimes quite heavy but most of the time, he did not show it when he was with his sister.

After they ate, both of the parents prepared themselves to go out.

"Where are you going?", asked innocently Chelsea.

She was asking like she didn't know but in fact she knew very well where they were going. Her mom and dad were going to buy a cake for her and at the same time, bring back her present that they were preparing.

"Haha, you already know where we're going. We're coming back in about two hours, don't worry", answered the father back while the mother smiled at her daughter.

When the two adults went out, Chelsea, who was now in front of the "main entrance" to say goodbye to them, then turned back and saw her brother. She was quite surprised to see him, standing, just behind her. The young boy looked at his sister for a moment then his voice came out.

"Here, for you. Your present.", the young boy declared with, as always, a serene tone.

"Oh, thank you!"

Chelsea was happy. Her brother already gave her several birthday's present when she was younger and as always, he gave them before her two parents were able to give theirs. Chelsea took the present with her two hands. She then realized that it was a book. It was the first time that she got a book as a present—or was it really the case? In any case, she took the book.

When she opened the book, a few lines could be read:

Year 434 of the Kralsben Empire.

Slaves working as miners situated at the north of the empire found a new ore. This ore was soon established as the "God's ore" because of its hardness and the power emanating from it. The ore was emitting a bluish light and when its power was used, the stone became colorless. This famous stone is now known as the 'Mana-ite'.

Year 132 of the Ulzreg Calendar

People are finally able to enter the tower. A group a knights went through the barrier. It was the first time after Ulzreg himself. It seems like Mana was an important factor to enter the vicinity of the tower.

Year — f the — endar

A new weapon had been created. With the power of the 'Mana-ite', a weapon that could launch projectiles was born. The weapon in question is the base of what we now call —.

It seemed that some words were not clear, there were part that were erased, surely because of water. Chelsea read some lines randomly and her expression became stiff. She knew these dated. But how? She never read any book like this. The young girl raised her head and wanted to ask explanations from her brother but then, she realized it.

She was surrounded by sea of flames. In front of her was only her older brother who looked at her with a emotionless face. She wanted to yell but she couldn't. No sound came from her mouth. Because of fire, less oxygen in the air could be found. The little girl then began to lose consciousness while still looking at her unmoving brother.

Chelsea then woke up abruptly. The roof she was seeing was different from the one of her bedroom. Actually, she was reposing in some kind of tent. She moved her upper body and gaze at her surroundings. She saw some tissues, fabrics and junks on the floor alongside with her as well as 6 books. From where she was, she could read the title of two of the books:

"History of Kralsben: the lost Empire"

"A brief history on Ulzreg's Tower"

Ah that's right—

The girl stood up after realizing where she was. She opened the tent and the sun's light dazzled her when she tried to get out. In front of her was a desolate scenery. Debris could be found everywhere; they were detritus and all kind of stuff like this in her surroundings. It was really a slum—and it was now her current home.

—Mom and Dad already died...

__________________________________________

Book of Mana (part 1):

The Mana was discovered along with the ore we called Mana-ite. This ore was emitting a faint light of power; this light was mana. After centuries of research, we found that mana was existing in the air and in a large quantity. With the help of the stone, people began some experiment to understand the Mana itself. One man then discovered that with the help of these stone, we could control the mana in the air, this man was called: Ulzreg.

With this finding, more people began to create tools created from the Mana-ite to control the Mana in the air but it was not an easy task since the concerned ore was also known for its hardness. Several decades of research then showed that with modeling mana, we could recreate natural phenomenon like creating fire or water from nothingness.

This leads to today. We now know how to manipulate Mana but it is still very restrictive as the Mana-ite is now rare to be found and without it, it is almost impossible to manipulate Mana. Everybody with a Mana-ite tool can use what we now call "Magic"—the phenomenon of altering the mana in the air into something else.

*At the end of each chapter, I will add some informations from books of the world. These informations will help you understanding the world without having a whole chapter explaining what happened long ago or how this or that thing work.

In any case, thank you for reading.