BEFORE THE TIME-SKIP

Elves in the world of Gaia. People basically associated Elves in 2 different ways. One was a small being that had a gentle disposition and were only seen in forests or other forbidden areas. The other was a tall beautiful race that lived long, about 500-700 years, and had an affinity for Nature. They also had a long standing antagonism against the Fire loving Dwarves and blood using ‘Dark Elves’.

Elves were one of the races that contributed to the Human’s Green Magic. In the beginning the only races that had a direct influence on plants and indirectly had a connection with the ‘Lady of the Land’ were the Elves and Fey. Humans that wished to follow her had to beg the two races for their help in creating magic that Humans could use.

The Fey gave pieces of their essence since they were pieces of Nature themselves and the Elves became the middle man, taking those pieces from the Fey and merging it with select Humans. The end result was a line of Green-Singers, people who followed the ‘Lady of the Land’ and were allowed to use her power. The magic was hereditary however and when a large number of Green-Singers were wiped out, the magic became rare and it was very difficult to get back followers. The Magus Wars left the number of Green-Singers at barely 1/100th of their old numbers...

Before the ‘War of the Mad King’ Elves lived in great cities that were a combination of masonry and plant magic which created beautiful cities that had great affinities with Nature. They did not openly say they followed the ‘Lady of the Land’ since that would cause some clashes with members of the recovering Magus community, but it was well known of their connection with nature. Fey and Elves had a long standing history together so it wasn’t odd to see Fey on their streets. Hence the rumours of ‘good natured little people’ as elves.

The war changed everything. A large portion of the Mad King’s army was directed at the Elven superpower and many of their cities were destroyed. An alliance of Nature affinity races was formed under the command of the elven God-rank Archer, Luanden, to battle the Mad King but the cities were beyond recovery.

Elves had to gather in large forests to rebuild their communities and relations were strained between them and the Humans.

[/hr]

When Michael was told his next teacher would be a female he nearly wept with joy. Cider wasn’t a bad person but he was a man. As a teacher that made him 50% less enjoyable to be around. Or it should really be that having a female teacher makes the classes 50% more enjoyable. Of course age has a factor as well. And looks. Basically Michael wanted a hot teacher. You cannot fault the boy when he’s at that age.

Michael’s father was rather happy too. It seemed he had a history with the new teacher and Michael wondered whether he should be glad or pissed. For one, his father was rather good looking. The mothers that brought their children to play with Michael always sighed when they saw his father and Michael wondered if they only came just for that. If the teacher was a person that caught his father’s eye...

Michael’s mother wasn’t very fond of the idea. Whenever she saw Michael’s father just sitting there, grinning into space as he was waiting for the new teacher’s arrival, she took out her club and started a few hours of havoc. Michael’s stockpile of health potions dwindled a lot in just a few short hours.

Then she appeared in front of the house and Michael’s father was on his feet, facing her, and bent at the waist in her direction. ‘The heck? He never bowed to anyone before, not even actual nobles...’

Michael didn’t know what he was supposed to do since only his father was bowing while his mother cast a glare at the hooded women. Liera was behind his mother and for some reason she had a complicated expression while looking at the stranger. Cider and Harold were in the house somewhere doing a ‘drinking game’. Explosions could be heard in their direction every once in a while.

“Good boy. You still remember the training. Glad to see you didn’t slack off after all this time.”

The woman’s voice was low and strong, nothing like what Michael would have imagined coming from her sleek, tall body. She was a head taller than his father, or twice the height of Michael. She also had no chest much to his disappointment. And calling his father ‘boy’? Michael was scared of getting an old lady as a teacher. His fantasies…

When she removed her hood Michael stared in wonder. A beauty would have been an understatement. Flawless white skin, crystal blue eyes, strong nose, and a crown of short brown curls. She even had a dimple! That face was entirely out of place with the tall dark look. Then Michael noticed her ears. Specifically he noticed the points at the top.

“E-elf! You're an Elf!”

Although the town of Bellen was a neutral town with strong rules against racial discrimination, there was still barely any arrivals from the other races. Only a few merchants and adventurers came to the town and most were either Dwarves or Devils. So an Elf...

The stranger stared at Michael for a few seconds before walking into the house. She also kicked Michael’s father back. He still had a strange smile…

Michael’s mother glared at his father until his smile vanished. He even looked a little peeved, like he had been caught doing something bad. Michael didn’t understand so he activated ‘Instant Analyzation and Identification’. He really needed to change the name…

Michael had read 9/10s of the books around the house. Not all of the books were entirely for kids and Michael probably knew enough to shock his mother senseless if he told her. So after activating his skill he surmised that:

His father was her student. Obviously as an Elf she was old enough to be his teacher.

She had S tendencies that resulted in a dominating attitude.

Her S tendencies caused Michael’s father to develop M tendencies.

His M tendencies resulted in marrying the bipolar personality of Celia Kane.

His M tendencies were still evident to this day.

Celia didn’t like the women intruding on her territory (Aaron).

Michael was in danger of gaining M tendencies.

Michael idly wondered if there was a skill associated with that.

After everyone entered the house the tension increased a bit more. Mainly the tension between Michael’s mother and the future teacher. Michael’s father didn’t look like he wanted to break the silence. In fact he was smiling even more and his expression made Michael sweat…

Liera decided to break the tension. Or she succumbed to it. She transformed into a wolf smoothly and proceeded to sit at Michael’s side. Her training in transforming was going very well and she barely wasted any time now. The idea was to have train both Michael and her in fighting while she was in her Human state and her wolf state.

“Ohhh a Wolf Fey. Haven’t seen one your kind for a few centuries. What are you doing here? With the boy? No one told me anything about you…”

Liera said only 3 words in response and pointed her head in Michael’s direction.

“‘Silven Plant’ guardian.”

Michael was expecting a reaction like what his mother had before. He knew elves were more sensitive to nature than Humans so the fact that a rare plant belonged to him should give some reaction. Michael had already braced himself for some chaos.

Remarkably the women just grinned in delight.

“Ohhh the boy has a connection with the ‘Silven Plant’? This is good, very good. The High Council was hoping for the return of the Goddess’ Symbol. Oh I can’t wait to start testing out the ‘Silven Plant’ guardian. Hopefully he lasts long…”

The last part ended with the stranger licking her lips and looking at Michael like his was a piece of exotic fruit. Michael checked himself for a bit and happily noticed he did not inherit M tendencies from his father. He could still be taught though…

“M-my name is Michael. And you are…?”

Better to attack first! The stranger smiled at his obvious tactic and grasped his outstretched hand.

“Hello dear boy. My name is Serena, I am a Weapon-Master and ranked Master in the class. My brother is Luanden. I shall be continuing your training in combat. You will learn tactics, common commands, strategy, weapons, and other types of combat training. I am also going to teach you the history of Gaia and the important battles of history. I will also teach you elven etiquette which your father never fully learned.”

*gulp* The woman was sister to the God Rank Elven Archer...Michael prayed to Janira that he could survive…

Then Serena smoothly crossed the room and bent over Michael.

“I later I could even extend your education with more...private classes.”

This was whispered seductively in his ear but everyone in the room heard. Michael’s father’s grin was close to Harold’s and he was nodding vigorously in permission. His mother was a different story. She had taken out her club and was using her magic to create wooden thorns on it. And Liera…

Liera was still a wolf and her head was pointedly away from Michael. Her paws covered her eyes and she gave a loud whimper than caused Serena to laugh out loud.

“Ah I’m just kidding. Its fun to mess with youngsters. Too bad you’re so serious though. Not even a blush on those young cheeks.”

And Serena pinched Michael’s cheeks like the aunties at the markets do.

How did Michael keep his composure? Well…

You have gained +20 Concentration

You have gained +7 Willpower

The next few years will seriously test Michael’s stats.

[/hr]

“And now its time for your magic training to start. I patiently waited till you finished getting your crafts skills before starting. No, no need to thank me. Now sit down. No, stand up. First we need to test your limits. Now look at this flame in my hand. You know it is there yes? You can see the flickering light and can imagine the heat coming off it? Good. Now close your eyes and delve the mana realm for the flame. It should be red though some see it as orange or yellow. When you find it, put as much energy as you can into the fire. Go on, do it. This should be interesting...”

Harold was dressed in a bright red robe today and even had a matching pointed hat to go along with it. The necklace this time had a flapping pink fish dangling on it. Yes, it was still alive.

Michael did as he was told while ignoring the the distraction that is Harold. Michael concentrated on his surroundings then promptly stripped it away to reveal the Mana around him. Because of his ‘Painting’ skill Michael could see the differences in most of the colours around him. Further concentration made balls of light turn into more significant shapes. Harold was a bright rainbow ball that soon turned into a bright rainbow cylinder with concentration.

‘Still too weak.’

What Michael had tried to do was a high class concentration skill called ‘World Mana Reflection’. Although the name was rather ominous the results were innocent enough. The main thing about the skill was that it allowed the user to reflect the regular world through the mana world. It turned the balls of mana that were reflections of items in the real world into the actual shapes they were reflections of. This basically allowed little difference between the physical realm and the mana realm - since everything had a tiny bit of mana in it the mana realm could turn as detailed as the physical realm. Even paintings can be reflected since the smallest bit of paint has mana in it. Keeping this skill on allowed the user to manipulate the mana world easily and the user did not need to keep switching from the physical realm to the mana realm to aim and use spells. Anyways…

Michael saw the ball of bright red in front of Harold’s rainbow form. Michael reached out towards the ball and gave it some energy. Michael then noticed the different aspects of it. Hot yet cooling. Solid yet spreading out. Alive yet it had no sentience. So Michael tried to change some of the aspects. Using more mana, Michael tried to minimize the cooling of the ball. He then spread the ball out and imagined a more humanoid form. The form was rather off though so Michael fixed the form and made it into a large bonfire form with 2 arms added to it. He then raised the living aspect of the flame and tried to give it...SENTIENCE.

Michael burst out of his delving when his concentration broke. Then he backed away quickly at the large flame in front of him. No, not just a large flame. The thing in front of him was a floating piece of fire that looked like a bonfire but without the wood and fuel to keep it alive. It also had 2 arms stretching from it’s side and it roared at Michael. Then it rushed him.

Before it reached Michael the being was doused in waves of water. Michael felt his mouth dry instantly. After the waves stopped he saw Harold looking down on him with a deep frown on his face. His eyes were excited though.

“Boy...what did you do? I only told you to feed the flame.”

“I-I felt some problems with the fire. Well not problems, more like...things I could improve. So I added my own ideas to it. I stopped it from cooling for one. Then I made it large and gave it a proper form for it. Then...I dunno. I think I ‘woke’ it.”

“KELEKELEKELEKELE!!!!”

Harold laughed at what he said and Michael was confused. He didn’t know what Mages were usually like but he doubted what he did constituted as something humorous.

“What you just did boy was create a flame familiar. Well you didn’t add the loyalty aspect so it wouldn’t really be a familiar, more like a monster? Anyways that is a high level skill that takes years of training. Hmmm maybe your Green Magic has something to do with it. Plants are technically living so maybe...Most mages don’t think of objects as having any form of sentience so they would have difficulty trying what you just did but people who already are used to giving mana to living beings would...Much to think about. Anyways. BOY! As your teacher I forbid you from doing that again. Just follow as you’re told or you may die. If I wasn’t here that Flame Monster would have probably killed you!”

Those grave words would have been more effective if Harold didn’t have a grin on his face. Michael still nodded in acceptance.

“Umm why did my mouth dry when you used that water spell? At least I think the two are connected.”

“They are boy. The air around us is part water. Using that kind of skill required quite a bit of water and I had to take most of it from the air. The spell needs -”

[/hr]

After Michael’s class with Harold he gained a new appreciation of the...young(?) Mage. The man was easy to understand and happy to answer questions. He also had a tendency to throw fireballs at the walls and laugh at chairs but he was overall an easy teacher.

Before sleep Michael checked his numerous information boxes.

Ball of Fire[p=left]A ball of fire created by a mage. Very simple magic.

Mage is supplying Mana at a steady rate. Heat increases by 10 degrees per second.

Ball of Fire is cooling down at a rate of 10 degrees per second.

Ball of Fire does not have sentience.[/p]

You have granted sentience to the target. You have gained the skill ‘Golem Creation.’ You have gained +100 Mana and +10 to Intelligence and Wisdom for using a high class type of magic.

Golem Creation. Beginner level 1. (87%) Active skill[p=left]An ancient type of magic. Once upon a time the magicians of the past were spurned by the populous. Wielding powerful spells in one hand they were unable to protect themselves against physical attacks. Trusted Warriors were too rare to obtain so the Mages needed to resort to this spell.

Allows the user to grant sentience to the Elements. Only a properly strong elemental object can be granted Sentience.

Creation uses only 1000 mana.[/p]

Golem Creation has absorbed all of your mana and some of your stamina.

You have created the monster ‘Flame Spirit of Fury’.

You have gained +1 affinity to Fire.

No more mana for connection to ‘Silven Plant’. Because of the composition of the plant the plant has started to absorb your stamina.

Your monster ‘Flame Spirit of Fury’ has been destroyed.

You have learned ‘Elemental Manipulation’. You have gained +5 to Intelligence.

Elemental Manipulation. Beginner level 1. (54%) Active skill.[p=left]This skill allows for one to manipulate mana to create the elements. This skill then allows for the user to create various types of spells based off the different ways the user manipulates the elements.

Mana is decreased proportionate to the amount of manipulation done to the element.

Mana is constantly decreased proportionate to the power used in manipulating the element.[/p]

Michael was very happy at his progress. Unlike the crafting skills, magic and combat skills give stats when learned. Michael was happy for all the extra boosts he got today and hoped his classes with Serena in a few days - she needed to get used to the house and training room - would be as rewarding. Michael slept to dreams of a nice Serena...definitely dreams.

[/hr]

Meanwhile at the grand cathedral of Information, the headquarters of the Church of Information and the living space of the Pope of Information….

A gathering of rather old people dressed in simple robes was being done in a medium sized chamber. The only thing to show rank was the placement of the seats. The long rectangle table had an ancient man seated at the head and lower ranks continuing down.

“I can’t believe it. I hoped this would happen in some other generation, not this one…”

“Maybe I can start my retirement early. I heard the north has some nice Hot Springs.”

“A-are we sure about this?”

“Yes, the Goddess has spoken to each of us about this. We are here to decide when to tell the populous.”

The last speaker was the ancient and obviously most important man. Pope Moust de Tael was one of the most powerful on the continent and wielded the greatest authority. Blessings of the Goddess Janira also assured that he was completely selfless and giving.

“I can’t believe the time has come…”

“Get a grip. We need to figure out when to tell everyone. Shall we do it now? Or later?”

“I vote later. Doing it now will allow too much time for people to forget about it.”

“Too late will also panic the people. We need a safe timezone to work with so we can plan out solutions for any problems that could arise.”

“Alright then. We will tell everyone 5 years before the ‘Emergence’. That should be enough time for us. Pray to the Goddess for her mercies in the coming years.”

Every member of the high council of the Church of Information was pale and frightful of the coming future.

[/hr]

Michael’s training with Harold and Cider went by without much problems. He had to repeat a lot of creations with Cider in order to sufficiently level up his crafting skills. He also had to journey throughout the city in order to capture new images and materials for his painting and sculpting skills. Remarkably when Michael was hiding in the Church of Information at night in order to get a good image of their rich furnishings, he managed to rank up his ‘Stealth’. The new Intermediate skill had an added effect of silencing his footsteps and breathing.

Michael soon started his classes with Serena. They both had wooden weapons and were at a distance apart. Michael with his curved sword and his dagger. Serena with her wooden baton. It was incredibly worn so he knew she used it alot. He hoped she used it for combat at least. Private usage was...

“I was told youngling that you were proficient with that stupid looking curved blade of yours and the dagger. I shall be the judge of that. Now show me what you got.”

Michael rushed Serena after he heard those clichéd words. He whispered ‘Focused Strike’ and also activated ‘IA’, he managed to change the name of the skill to ‘Instant Analyzing’ and the vocal command to ‘IA’ after some lessons from Harold, and tried to find openings in her guard. He saw many flashes on her and aimed for the flash opposite her sword arm. He also took note of the various weaknesses of her blade.

Michael slashed at Serena’s left and knew he swung a clean strike. Michael’s ‘IA’ however caught the movement of Serena’s muscles - his mana regeneration was enough for him to use 4:1 speed normally - and Michael raised his dagger to block the incoming strike. Even with ‘IA’ the strike from Serena was incredibly quick. Michael barely blocked the blade but he did remember to strike the weakspots of her weapon.

The two backed away from each other quickly. Michael’s strike with his sword managed to hit her but lacked the power to decide the fight. Serena gave an approving smile at the boy before she turned the smile into a more predatory one. She walked to the side and picked up a second baton.

The real fight began from there. Serena’s speed was incredible as she assaulted Michael from every direction possible. Michael was absolutely on the defensive and used ‘IA’ in flashes in order to preserve his mana. Even if the mana costs were halved he needed to use the expensive 4:1 speed just to catch up to Serena.

They finally took a break when Michael saw his Mana reach 20 - he needed at least that much for his connection with the ‘Silven Plant’ - and Michael fully canceled his ‘IA’ and took a blow to the side. The blow took out 500 health. A wooden weapon doing 500 damage was crazy. Serena still had a bloodthirsty look in her eyes but she stopped the rest of her strikes.

“You are very good. I wouldn’t be surprised if you beat your dad. The fact that you couldn’t match my speed but still defended properly was very surprising. You had barely any useless movements at all. I don’t think I can teach you much in the way of using your weapons.”

Serena then took noticed of her own weapons. They were chipped in several places so she didn’t think of it when she was attacking Michael furiously but now that she looked closer she could see that the chips went as deep as to cut through the metal core in the center.

“Identify.”

Serena examined the information on her weapons and got another surprised. The weapons had a Durability of 300 and she had whittled it down to 200 over the years and her various...uses of it. From this one battle with the boy the Durability went down to 78.

“Did you aim for specific areas of my weapons boy?”

Michael was still crunched up in pain from the blow but he nodded at her question.

‘Very nice...’

“Well since I cannot teach you much I guess we can forgo technique teaching. You can figure out different techniques for those weapons yourself since I barely use the dagger and have never seen that curved sword before. Your Strength, Agility, and Stamina are definitely lagging however. You are stronger than most races your age but you can improve by a lot. Humans are actually quite good at improving themselves in abnormal ways…”

And so, Michael’s hell training began.

Back to the first meetings.

Timeskip!!!

[/hr]

Well. The 9th chapter of the series. In only a few days. I’m pretty proud of it myself.

Did you guys know it was THANKSGIVING tomorrow? In Canada at least. I was about to get ready for classes tomorrow when I found out. It would have been awkward and expensive to drive all the way there only to find an empty and locked campus.

And Serena. Beautiful deadly Serena. Her brother is the God-ranked Archer, Luanden. He is the second God-ranked person to be named and the 6th to be introduced (I had those 4 crafting God-ranks before). I will be introducing a Dwarven Merchant God-ranked next. Hes still alive...I think. He could easily be dead in my head.

Serena herself has traveled the lands and barely trained her skills. Its actually rare to see anyone training their skills after reaching Expert ranking. She is about 400 years of age, probably younger- you don’t reveal a woman’s actual age. Her brother was around to see the Magus Wars. Elves live 600-700 years. They age rapidly after reaching 600.

Luanden and Kilren were best friends! Duo God-ranked buddies. Luanden was the womanizer while Kilren was the straight man of the party.

Elven NPCs gain half the exp from skills compared to humans. Since they live soooooo long. Humans take at least 100 years to get to God-ranked so most give up. Kilren though was a cheat character. He had Expert ranking skills before reaching his ‘Changing Day’. He had 250+ bonus stats to distribute.

Just some background information on the various characters of Gaia.