Before the sunset, Leo and his group have finally arrived outside of Heart City.

In front of them, a seemingly endless wall made out of large wood was currently protecting the entirety of the Heart city from any dangers that lay in sight. A wooden Gate was also built in the center of this seemingly endless wall, where a few people walking in and out could be seen.

This was the Heart city, Leo's ruled the land. The Heart city wasn't really a city, yet. In fact, its size was just close to becoming a city. Heart city was more like a large-sized town.

Looking above the sky, everyone could clearly see the form of the city, which was a city surrounding the foot of an entire large mountain. And on top of that mountain was a huge manor which was the Heart's family house. Though it was just a large town, the Heart city contains a complete facility to allow it to achieve self-sufficiency.

Heart city was actually called a city in advance because of the huge contribution made by his parents and brother on the battlefield of the war of races.

Leo's parents had established this territory with the main purpose and hope that one day the place would become a real city, henceforth becoming one of Humans' shelter in this world from any danger.

Unlike the majority of the Nobles from the Humans, his parents really longed for protecting Humans.

The name Heart City, aside from their family name, was actually also because his parents had wished for a day that the territory would become a place akin to a paradise that would allow its people to calm their hearts the moment they enter the place.

When Leo was young, he had always heard of his parents, and even his brother, repeating about such a dream. Even he was intrigued by such an idea at that time.

Thinking back then, Leo can't help but let out a mocking laugh for himself.

'What a laughable dream!' Leo thought, deep in his heart.

In this world, such kind of dream cannot be achieved without any strength. And it was exactly strength that his family was lacking about, so they died on the battlefield, not being able to fulfill the dream they were always talking about. Even at this present time, Leo was still incapable of fulfilling his family's dream.

Arriving in front of the large wooden gate, Leo could already see 4 soldiers roaming around both sides of the wall, patrolling the walls to see whether there were any dangers from Magical Beast or trouble caused by Humans inside the city.

This large wooden gate was called the South gate. It's a gate made of wood which was a seven-meter tall and three meters thick, and has a three-meter thick five-meter tall wooden wall on both sides, seeming endlessly surrounding the entire city.

This South gate was just one of the four gates of the Heart city. With the mountain in the center, the other three gates were respectively located at the north, west, and east of the city, each of the gates serving its different purpose.

The South gate which leads towards the wilderness, the one he had been before; the North gate which leads towards the Silver city, the main city of the Silver Kingdom, which the Heart city belongs to; the West gate which leads towards the neighboring city called Black Smoke city; and lastly the East gate that lead towards the city near the ocean, Blue Coral City.

The soldiers on the wall quickly noticed Leo and his group's arrival as soon as they reached nearby the gate.

"Open the gate!" One of the soldiers quickly ordered his comrade down the wall. Soon after, the gate was slowly opening.

As soon as Leo got inside the city, he immediately felt at peace. Such feelings were just imaginary, though. Inside or outside of a city would always be deemed unsafe. It just depends on how a person overlooked their current situation to make them feel such kind of emotion.

"Welcome back, Young Master!" The four soldiers that guarded the gate quickly greeted Leo.

Leo just nodded in response, before turning his head to look at the mountain in front of him. From his current location, he could already vaguely see the Heart manor on top of the Heart mountain.

"Such a huge manor, but with only a few people living!" Leo suddenly thought, feeling helpless deep inside.

After his parents' and brother's death, the manor had slowly become a lonely place for Leo. Such feeling was really depressing, and it was exactly that reason which drove him to always go on hunting every time he's finished with the Heart city affair.

Shaking his head to suppress such depressing thoughts, Leo softly hit the side of his horse to make it move towards the direction of the manor.

It didn't take too long for Leo to arrive at the gate of the Heart manor. Putting his horse in the stable at the side, and telling his men to rest, he quickly walked inside the manor.

..

Finally arriving inside his room, Leo took the Mana stone from his bag and inspected it.

"Mana stone? hmm... I think we had a book that talks about these stones use around here..." Leo said while walking towards the bookshelves in the side of his room. Arriving in front of the shelf, he then began looking for the book related to the Mana stones.

"Bingo!" Leo immediately exclaimed as he suddenly grabbed a book entitled, 'Mana stones 101'.

Opening the book, Leo was quickly able to find the information he needed.

"Mana stone, a magical stone that can be found inside a Magical Beast body or Caves with rich Mana environment. These Mana stones contained a different level of Mana, specifically the darker its color the more Mana it contains, likewise, the lighter the color the lesser the Mana it contains... How to use a Mana stone... Hmmm... here! To use a Mana stone, the user should hold or put the stone in front or somewhere within the users' spirit range, before focusing their spirit towards the stone. If a user can absorb its Mana, then congratulations, they can become a Mage, if not, then it is strictly advised not to apply any force. Forceful absorption of Mana may destroy the spirit and soul of a person. It may lead to an unimaginable danger, such as death and sickness due to the damage of the spirit and soul that had been inflected after the forceful absorption."

After reading, Leo walked back to where the Mana stone was. He picked up the Mana stone on top of his study table, sat cross leg on his bed while holding the Mana stone up close before he finally began focusing his spirit towards the Mana stone just like what the book had said.

While in deep meditation, Leo's spirit was slowly moving towards the Mana stone. Despite knowing that the Mana stone in his hand only contains a slightly bit amount of Mana, he was still astonished as he stared towards the dancing Mana around the stone in his spirit form.

"What a beautiful sight!" Leo can't help but think.

The Mana around the Mana stone was like a beautiful blue butterfly dancing around a blue-colored flower. This blue-colored flower was also constantly producing more blue butterflies after those other butterflies landed on its body. The scene was really pretty to look at.

However, Leo knew that he shouldn't waste his time just staring at the scene. He quickly dismisses such thought as he made his spirit move closer towards the Mana stone. As soon as his spirit could finally touch the Mana stone, the blue butterfly around the Mana stone has suddenly started slowly moving towards his spirit form.

Afterwards, the butterfly-like Mana went inside Leo's spirit, which implies that he had absorbed that wisp of Mana. Unfortunately, though, the Mana he had absorbed was just a tiny amount.

"How long would it take for me to finish absorbing all of the Mana this Mana stone contains?" Leo exclaimed, feeling a little depressed and annoyed.

With how insignificant amount of Mana he can absorb every now and then Leo was sure that it would probably take him hours to completely empty the Mana stone.

As time ticks on, exactly 3 hours later, Leo, with all of his effort, was finally able to successfully absorbed all the Mana inside the Mana stone.

Opening his eyes, Leo became excited as he thought, "I have the affinity to become a Mage! I can become a Mage!"

"Wohoooooo!"

Outside and inside of the manor, a loud shout with an obvious sign of excitement was suddenly heard.