Chase Blackstone awakens peacefully the following morning. The warm morning breeze entered through the gaps in the open window accompanied by the sounds of nature.The birds chirping outside composed an ephemeral but soothing song. A faint smile formed on Chase's countenance for a fleeting moment. This morning's peaceful ambience promises a perfect day to come. Chase slowly moved his body, elegantly soaking in the morning atmosphere. Or at least, that is what he wished to do. His body is as stiff as a rock, he was besieged by agonizing pain with each limb he tried to move.

'Huff...huff....I can do this.... I'll stand up on the count of 3....2....1...'

"Hup!" Chase got off his bed and stood up.

His feet felt like it was stabbed by a thousand needles.

"GYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

Chase's voice scared off the singing birds and shook the house. The peaceful atmosphere of the morning was completely wrecked. In the kitchen, Aaron was taking a sip of the soup he was making when he heard the voice. The voice made him grin from ear to ear.

'Heh heh, that's what you get for acting tough in front of the girl yesterday'

Chase did not get out of his room until thirty minutes later, mainly due to the drastic stretching exercises he had to do to loosen up his muscles. Even when he got out, he was moving as slow as a snail, inching his way to the dining room. Aaron was already inside waiting for him at the table as usual. The breakfast that morning is bread and mushroom soup.

"Woah there!! Mind your speed! You're going to blow the house off!! Ah ha! Haaaa HAAA!!!" Aaron guffawed loudly while slapping his thigh after seeing Chase's pathetic movement.

'ugh....'

Chase just ignored his father's sarcastic remarks.

No further backhanded compliment was given as they ate their breakfast.

"So, Chase... remember the Glyph we bought from the Adventurer's Guild the other day? I haven't had you evaluated yet" Aaron spoke.

"Hmm?"

Chase looked at Aaron. He too, had completely forgotten about it.

"So yeah, let's get you evaluated right now" Aaron said while rummaging in his pocket and taking out the familiar hexagonal white metal plate and handing it over to Chase.

Chase stared at the metal plate for a while, and asked.

"So how do I do this?"

Aaron slapped his forehead in realization.

"Oh right! Right! Sorry, forgot that you don't know how to use the Glyph! Hand it back over, I'll show you how it's done"

Chase obediently returned the Glyph.

Aaron is currently grasping the Glyph in his right hand.

"Now, the first thing you need to do is to channel a little bit of mana into this thing...like this!" Aaron demonstrated.

"Like this!" He repeated what he said.

"...Like this!!"

"....Damn my abysmal mana cont- Aha! finally!" Aaron exclaimed excitedly as the white metal plate started to faintly glow with an azure colour.

"When it starts to glow off like this, you'll have to think about the information you wish to see...and those who you wish to display it to besides yourself or nobody if you don't want to. For starters, just try to think about your complete profile and show it to me. Here I'll show you mine."

As Aaron said that, the faint azure light thinned itself and formed a long string which encircled his body. The light pulsated for a moment and then suddenly shattered into pieces as if broken.

The broken pieces of light rearranged themselves in the air in front of Aaron, forming letters.

NAMEAaron BlackstoneTITLEEx-Battalion CommanderSkill ProficiencyClose-CombatMagic

Dagger : Master

Sword : Intermediate

Bow : Basic

Spear : Basic

Axe : Basic

Halberd : Basic

Mace : Basic

NoneAbilities

Keen Battle Sense

Quick Reflexes

Pinpoint Precision

Bloodlust

Ambidextrous

"Woah....." Chase remarked in astonishment and awe.

"Wait, I thought you were only Advanced in Dagger Mastery?"

"Aah...I didn't know I've moved up to Master either, haven't checked this thing since you were born" Aaron replied while looking at his own details.

"Magic skill proficiency....none...figures" Aaron said with a grumpy face while staring holes at the magic skill section.

"Alright, that's it!"

The letters faded and disappeared as Aaron said so.

"Your turn!" He handed the Glyph to Chase.

Chase took it and looked at it, thrilled.

'Right....firstly..channel mana into it...'

He reached out for his mana source and slowly let a trickle of mana flow out into the Glyph through his fingertips. The Glyph glowed in an instant, unlike Aaron's poor attempt.

'Next....think about what information I would like to see and who to show it to...'

'Complete profile! Show to Aaron Blackstone!'

The light formed a string and encircled Chase, it then scattered into the air only to take shape as letters.

NAMEChase BlackstoneTITLEChampion of BalanceSkill ProficiencyClose-CombatMagic

None

NoneAbilities

Iron Will

Quick Mind

Paramount Mana Manipulation

"The hell is a Champion of Balance? That sounds grand as hell! How'd you get that title?" Aaron cried out in surprise.

Chase just shrugged in response, though he had an inkling of an idea where that came from.

'Balance....Equilibrium..I guess that dream was true after all!'

"Well...whatever...let's look at your skills...none of course. Abilities..."

"Iron Will, that's the one your mother had... Quick Mind, I guess you can make quick decisions? And this... Paramount Mana Manipulation.. that extremely unfair ability of yours..better be careful not to show this to anyone" Aaron commented as he examined the details further.

"That would be because I'd be manipulated if people knew I had such an ability, right?" Chase asked.

"Correct. People would manipulate you, or perhaps kill you and dissect your body, kidnap you and turn you into a slave for life...or get jealous of you" Aaron responded solemnly.

*Gulp*

Chase shuddered at the unpleasant thought.

"Do you know about healers?" Aaron asked a question this time.

"Yes, they are people who had been granted the power to heal due to their strong faith" Chase replied confidently.

"Wrong, healers are people with the ability to heal but not because of their faith or whatsoever. It is a rare inborn trait, just like yours though not as rare because mana manipulation only runs in our family" Aaron corrected his son.

"The thing is, the Church seeks out individuals with the ability to heal and recruits them into their ranks and showers these people with praises of their saintliness. The masses are led to believe that healing is a branch of holy magic like exorcism."

"The Church, are not the only ones who seek out healers. The royal family has one or two healers hidden inside the palace in secrecy for personal use if rumours are to be believed."

"Now imagine if your mana manipulation, no... paramount mana manipulation ability were to be found out..."

"Countless organizations would seek you out to use you for their own benefits, as a war machine or a guinea pig"

Aaron stared at Chase worriedly while explaining the matter in a serious tone.

"As such, you must NEVER show it to anyone. If possible, try not to use any magic in public unless your life was threatened" Aaron admonished.

"S-so.... how do I hide the detail from showing up through the Glyph?" Chase asked with a quivering voice.

"Just think about hiding it and it would not show up. Trying to insert skills and abilities you don't have won't work though...it won't show up"

Chase immediately tried it out. He repeated the earlier process. The light encircled him and broke off to form letters again.

NAMEChase BlackstoneTITLENoneSkill ProficiencyClose-CombatMagic

None

NoneAbilities

Iron Will

Quick Mind

He hid his title and Mana Manipulation ability perfectly.

"Good decision on hiding the conspicuous title. People might question you about it as well" Aaron nodded in satisfaction.

"I think you should get going now, at that pace you're moving at you'll be lucky if you reach Gillian's house on time. He gets really nasty when people aren't punctual, so you really shouldn't be late"

"Off you go!" Aaron shooed Chase out of the dining room.

Chase limped to the front door and went on his way to his first Magic Class.

'I wonder how Gillian would be when he's mad' Chase thought, intrigued.

Curiosity did not get the better of him however, as his eagerness to learn the arcane pressed him on to quicken his pace. He arrived in front of Gillian's house an hour earlier than he was supposed to. He grabbed the lion shaped knocker and knocked on the door.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Hello? This is Chase!" He called out.

...............

No reply came, but sound of footsteps could be heard approaching the door. The door swung open as usual, but the figure behind the door was not the familiar wizened old man. It was Alice Cloud who opened the door.

"Grandpa is busy preparing your lesson at the moment, come inside first" She told Chase.

"O-o-okay" Chase froze up and his stuttering went unchecked.

He rigidly marched inside the house, Alice closed the door behind him.

"Sit down and have some tea" She motioned to the chairs and table set in front of the fireplace.

Chase nodded, avoiding any speech to prevent himself from stuttering. He sank into the chair and poured himself a cup of tea from the pot placed on the table. Alice followed suit and took a seat on the chair beside Chase, she grabbed a half-filled cup of tea from the table and began to elegantly sip it.

'Awa-wa-wa-wa-wa- why is she sitting right next to meeeeeeeee?' Chase regrets his poor choice of seat.

'Calm down, calm down, right, in this situation I should start a conversation' He tries to calm his nerves and think of something to say.

'What should I talk about, the weather? No.. the house looks great? No... Errr.... her grandfather is a great man? No.. Arrrghhhh what should I tal-'

"Why are you sweating so badly? Is the tea too hot?" Alice interrupted Chase's line of thought with her concerned words.

"N-n-no! Not at a-all!"

'Damn! I should've just shook my head in reply!' Chase once again regrets his decision.

Alice continued to eye Chase suspiciously. Chase's abnormal behaviour is bothering her.

"So is your body fine from yesterday's practice?" She inquired.

"Y-y-yes! P-perfectly fine! I'm extremely healthy!" Chase got up abruptly trying to show that he is fine. Some of the tea in his cup spilled out onto the table due to his abrupt motion.

"A-ah! Sorry! I'll wipe that off!!" Blushing furiously, he tried to wipe the stain off with his shirt.

"No! No! Don't! It's fine!" Alarmed at Chase's action, Alice tries to stop him.

She gathered mana into her hands and pointed both of them at the table.

"Water Ball!" She exclaimed after channeling for three seconds.

A ball of water the size of Chase's head formed in the air. It slowly moved towards the table and mixed with the spilt tea. The water turned into a faint reddish colour due to mixing with the tea, it then floated back up and reformed into a ball. Alice moved to the door and opened it with one of her hands while the other maintain control on the water ball. With a flick of the hand, the water ball shot out of the door. She closed the door and retook her seat, staring at Chase.

Chase is staring at her dumbstruck. He then realised what he is doing and looked down in embarrassment.

"Hahahahahaha!" A tinkling laughter rang out from Alice.

Chase looked up to see Alice laughing her heart out.

"You-You're so wei--weird! ahahahhahaha!" Alice struggled to say while holding her laughter.

Chase's face blushed an even deeper shade of red in response.

After a moment, Alice stopped laughing and caught her breath. The hint of happiness from her face did not fade away though.

"Hey, why are you acting so stiffly?" Alice asked while smiling.

"N-no I'm not!" Chase denied the blatant truth.

"Uh-huh... " Alice narrowed her eyes in skepticism.

"So Chase, do you live alone with your dad? Where's your mom?" Alice began her interrogation on Chase.

"She died nine years ago" Chase did not stutter his words this time.

"Oh! I'm so sorry for asking!" Alice immediately apologized with a guilty look.

"N-no! It's f-fine! S-so... w-what a-about you? W-where are y-your p-parents?" Chase presented his first question in the conversation.

"Well, you see...."

The conversation went on normally albeit Chase's constant stuttering. Chase learnt that Alice's parents are merchants and are currently away on a business trip in the Great Empire of Bosco to the west of Armitage. He also learnt that she too, had been suffering from muscle pain since morning. Chase confessed that he experienced the same thing after hearing about it. Alice replied with an "I thought so" but did not press on the matter. All in all they had an enjoyable conversation.

"S-so A-Alice, w-why d-do you w-want to learn C-close Combat?" Chase remembered his father's words about Alice pushing herself beyond her limits.

"That's because-"

"Chase, my boy! Fancy seeing you on time! I've just finished preparing your lesson!" Gillian yelled as he entered the living room. He is standing next to a doorway to an adjacent room.

"Come over here and we can start our lesson!" Gillian beckoned Chase to follow him enthusiastically.

Chase looked at Alice.

"Well, it was fun talking to you Chase! Let's resume our chat another time!" She said while grinning, revealing her pearly whites.

Chase nodded and left to follow Gillian into the adjacent room. The interior was wide and spacious. The walls and ceiling were constructed with concrete just like the rest of the house, but the floor was bare earth. Dozens of magic diagrams were drawn on the walls and ceiling of the room. On one corner, a stone table and wooden chair could be seen. The chair looks like the one that Gillian had in his living room, the stone table seems to be immovable. A bunch of drawn lines leading to all the magic diagrams extend from the table. A small clock is positioned on the table.

Gillian walked over to the center of the room and motioned Chase to follow. Chase moved towards Gillian. They were both standing on a circle with a radius of one meter, the circle was drawn onto the ground with red paint. In the middle of the circle is an 'X' shaped mark, also drawn with red paint. The circle and mark somehow gives off an ominous feeling.

Gillian nodded to Chase.

"Chase, I've mentioned before that given your unique ability I could only teach you how to enlarge your mana capacity, some spells and how to utilise them in combat" Gillian said in his regular relaxed voice.

"How do you think I'm going to do that?"

"Umm...you'll ask me to meditate to increase my mana capacity, you'll demonstrate the spells in front of me like how you taught me 'Light Ball' and then you'll have me attack some targets with the spells?" Chase is not confident with his answer at all now that he had seen the magic diagrams all over the walls and ceiling.

'What is Gillian planning to do...?' A sense of dread creeps up on him.

"Close, but no cigar. I intend to do all of them at once" Gillian replied.

"Stay here and do not move out of this circle"

Gillian left the circle and moved towards the stone table set in the corner. He sat down on the chair and placed his hands on the table.

"Right, I will explain your lesson now. On this table is a magic diagram linked to all the other magic diagrams on the walls and ceilings...call it a master diagram, if you will."

"A magic diagram serves to reduce the amount of mana consumed for spells, and the amount it reduces is directly proportional to the size of it"

Chase surveyed the magic diagrams, all of them were at least one meter wide.

"And with the size of the diagrams in this room, they would take up at most a tenth of the mana required to produce the spells it is supposed to"

*Gulp*

'I hope this is not going where I think it is....'

"The diagrams in this room consists of all the Basic and Intermediate attack spells of the four basic elements. Namely fire, earth, air and water"

'Oh no....' Chase had already resigned himself to his fate, this is not going to be a relaxing lesson after all.

"I will channel my mana into the master diagram and randomly select any of the magic diagrams around you. They would fire off their spells at you, and you would have to deal with them using nothing but magic."

"Wait! Isn't Alice participating in this training as well?" Chase hoped with all his heart that Alice would be here so he would not have to suffer alone.

"Hmmm? Oh no, Alice had already learnt all that I am capable of teaching her... Besides, your lesson is constructed differently anyway" Gillian smiled as if sensing Chase's agenda.

"So let me relate all of this back to the objectives of the lesson and your answer. It is true that all the things you have said would work, but it would be inefficient to train them all separately especially with your special talent. Mana capacity grows a lot faster by using it up and combat sense can only be developed by being in life or death situations. As such, this newly devised special curriculum of mine aims to teach you in the most efficient manner"

Gillian explained with a calm tone, but the twinkle in his eyes betrayed his farce.

'This damn old man is a devil!' Chase cursed his terrible luck.

"I realise that you have the ability to instantly learn a spell, so dodging and observing the spells should be enough to teach you enough about them! At certain points in time, I would coordinate attacks between multiple magic diagrams leaving you no space to dodge and forcing you to counter with a spell of your own"

"Judge your actions wisely, your mana is not limitless and you are not allowed to stop until the training ends which is exactly six hours from......NOW!" Gillian barked as he looked at the clock set on the table.

A ball of fire appeared on one of the diagrams on Chase's left side and shot out at him. Chase dodged it easily due to it's straight and predictable trajectory.

'Basic Fire Attack Spell : Fireball, memorised!" Chase's eyes turned silver as he channeled mana into his palms, preparing to fire off any spells if needed.

A bullet of earth came crashing down from above, barely missing Chase who avoided at the last possible moment.

'Damn, I almost got hit and I didn't see the spell properly!' Chase bit his lip, exasperated at wasting the valuable opportunity.

The training continued on with Chase dodging and ducking at most of the spells fired off and occasionally had to cast one of his own spells to save his hide when coordinated attacks were fired. The small area he was confined to did not allow him to make any big movements, which is all the better for him who is currently suffering from muscle pains. The minimised movements are actually doing him a favour. He got singed a couple of times from the fireballs he didn't manage to dodge or deflect but the fire was instantly put out by water balls shot from Gillian.

Chase had exhausted his mana supply a third of the way through the training and had to perform some highly acrobatic moves to dodge the incoming spells, he even had to get creative and picked up chunks of rock from 'Earth Bullet' to defend himself with.

After what seems to be an eternity, the spells stopped coming out of the diagrams on the wall. The ground within the circle Chase is standing on looks rugged as if some concentrated natural calamity had hit it.

"Hmm.....I see, so you could not absorb other people's spells after-all" Gillian is stroking his beard while eyeing Chase.

'Damn....you...devil...'

Chase is exhausted. Not so much physically exhausted as mentally exhausted. The sheer amount of concentration he had to maintain while channeling the mana for hours had been very taxing on his mind. He is very dizzy as well from all the back-flips and spins he had to do as part of his more acrobatic evasive maneuvers.

'Good thing I've learnt all of the spells in this room...at least now it won't be as hard the next time...I hope'

Chase is not sure of anything anymore. The normal kindly old gentleman had turned out to be the devil's advocate, the relaxing lesson had turned out to be the sequel for Hell: Part One (Aaron's training regimen). With eyes that had lost all hope and trust in the world, Chase stared at Gillian.

"Hmm...errhmm.... please don't look at me like that... I promise the lesson would start to get easier from now since you have had a taste of it" Gillian defended himself while averting Chase's soulless gaze.

"You've earned yourself some rest, training is over for today! Let's go have some tea!" he bellowed while beaming at Chase and then fled into the living room, leaving Chase alone.

Chase did not hurry in exiting the room. He walked at a leisurely pace.

Two of the three chairs in front of the fireplace had already been occupied. Alice is sitting in one of the chairs, excitedly chatting with her grandfather. Upon seeing Chase she called him over.

"Hey! I've heard all about it from grandpa that you were amazing in there! Your mana managed to last for a whole two hours! That's amazing!" Alice enthusiastically told Chase.

"H-huh? Uhm..W-well...Y-yeah I g-guess so" Facing the torrents of praise from Alice, the heavy mood he was carrying around is dispelled.

Gillian hid his smile behind his cup of tea, Chase did not miss spotting it however.

'This damn old devil... using your own granddaughter to soothe my anger for you!'

Chase knew it was a trap but couldn't help himself as he let himself be questioned about the training by the curious Alice. His mood greatly improved for the day. He left the house soon after, whistling a merry tune on his way back home.

"I'm home~~!" Chase announced as he opened the door to his house.

No answer called out from inside. Chase looked around the house and did not find his father.

'Weird...where did he go to?'

'Oh well, not like anything bad could happen to him anyway!'

Chase dismissed his father's absence and grabbed one of his books to read as he sank onto one of the chairs in the living room.

An hour later, Aaron Blackstone returned home.

"Where were you, dad?" Chase asked as he put down the book.

"I was off finding work to do" Aaron replied and sank down on the chair beside the one Chase was sitting on.

"Work?"

"Yes, work!" Aaron took out his money pouch and showed it to Chase.

"Inside here is the money I've collected for your living expenses for when you'd be going off to study in the Academy in Emond. Since my initial plans had changed, I'm using the money for our current living expenses"

"No, I am not telling you to go work and earn money for your own living expenses" Aaron clarified himself.

"There are currently 37 gold pieces remaining in here, I estimate you would need around one gold piece a month for your stay in the Academy. So for a full five-year there, you would need 60 gold coins"

*Gasp!*

Chase gasped after hearing the astronomical sum.

"Yes, being the best learning institute in the kingdom where most of the students are nobles, such a price is to be expected" Aaron explained further.

"Remember when I told you we're moving here so I could earn money by teaching some kids about combat?"

Chase nodded to the question.

'Now that he mentions it, why are there only me and Alice?'

"Turns out it was the same case as Gillian and his son, they had asked me about it years ago and currently they had no one for me to teach, heh"

'How forgetful could you possibly be, dad....'

"So! I went for an alternative job as an assistant cook over at the inn we went to yesterday!" He declared it as if being an assistant cook is the grandest job there is.

"I get paid 50 silvers per month for working there, I'll be working on the days that you have Magic class"

"Of course, that's not enough so I got some other odd jobs around the village as well! I'm going to be cleaning chimneys and tending gardens on the nights we have close combat practice!"

Chase looked at his smiling dad, his heart heavy.

"Dad..."

"Hmmm?"

"I'm sorry for causing you all this trouble" Chase apologised from the bottom of his heart.

"....."

"Nonsense, you're the best thing that ever happened to me!" Aaron said as he patted Chase's head.

"So, how was Magic class today?"

"Well...." Chase explained about the class that day though he reserved any negative comments he had been saving up concerning the class.

They continued to chat after dinner and Chase went to his room a couple of hours before midnight. Chase spent some time thinking on his bed while he laid down, staring at the ceiling.

'Right....even though all of the lessons had practically been hell, I can't forget that I had asked for this. My father.... Gillian... they had all been working hard to teach me to the very best of their abilities. I am not in the position to complain about my current situation. No, I should not be complaining at all... I should be happy to be blessed with such great teachers!'

Chase went off to sleep with the thought in his mind.

----2 months later-----

Repenting his previous complaining attitude, Chase continued to train zealously for the next two months. His skills had improved significantly over time, various forms and sword techniques had been learnt and honed by him. He had also become ambidextrous thanks to his father prohibiting him from using his right hand for anything except sword practice up until today.

Chase, Alice, Gillian and Aaron are currently in the compound of Gillian's house.

"Chase! Alice! You have learnt the basics of swordsmanship in the past two months! Now is the time to put it to practical use! You will now spar with each other for the remaining one month of sword practice!"

Aaron's voice bellowed out befitting the ex-battalion commander he is.

"Sir! Yes, sir!!!" Chase and Alice roared back in unison.

-------------

Chase Blackstone, current skills and abilities:

NAMEChase BlackstoneTITLEChampion of BalanceSkill ProficiencyClose-CombatMagic

Sword : Basic

Fire : Intermediate

Water : Intermediate

Earth : Intermediate

Wind : Intermediate

Abilities

Iron Will

Quick Mind

Paramount Mana Manipulation

Quick Reflexes

Ambidextrous

------------------------

Hello my dear readers! Hope you enjoyed Chapter 6 pt. 3! (Yes, I know I've said that I would be splitting Chapter 6 into two parts but it turned out longer than I initially planned!( This part took me 6 hours to type) :hahaha:

I took a whole 30 minutes trying to figure out how to make the tables as well!

(I would've taken a longer time if it weren't for the helpful table guide in the forums)

I have already planned the ending of the story though we are a long way from there! Yes, there is a main storyline, and I intend to finish this fiction...I just haven't got to the main storyline yet... :nei:

Certain keypoints of the story had already been plotted out, but how they will unfold is not yet certain.

With that said, Thank You for following this fiction thus far!!

:goodjob:

Hell : Part IArmusInsomnia Strikes