While the woman was still in a daze on top of the mountain, the Fourth Prince headed towards the riverbank. He crouched and drank a handful of water. Once he was done, he disrobed, revealing his muscular body. This was very peculiar for a magician, as they were normally known for their weak bodies. The Fourth Prince jumped into the river and completely submerged his body, letting himself sink deep into the river like a rock.

Shad was reborn into the world of Eidrin, on the continent Egul. This was a world that practiced magic, and those that directly cultivated magic were known as mages. However, mages were precious and rare, as only twenty five percent of the population throughout the world of Eidrin was qualified to be a mage. They made extremely efficient soldiers due to their destructive capabilities in large scale battles.

Beneath the mages were the warriors, sometimes known as knights due to the titles they could earn from their lord in recognition of merit or service. Knights were generally much stronger in body than a mage to compensate for their lack of magic. After many years of tempering and strengthening their bodies, some of them were able to sense magic elements through meditation and were able to use it to further enhance their bodies, allowing them to break through the limits of a mortal. This energy was known as battle qi. While it was similar to the mana a mage would use, battle qi could not be used to cast spells. Once a warrior was capable of using battle qi, they became truly powerful and were qualified to receive the title of knight if their lord so desired.

Knights were the nemesis of mages. They were weapons masters that excelled in close quarters combat, and were known for their raw power and speed. Knights could instantly kill a mage before a spell could be cast. Despite having such a clear weakness to knights, mages were still at the top of the food chain due to their advantages in warfare. In the same time span that a strong, well trained knight could kill fifty people on the battlefield, a powerful mage could easily kill a hundred people, which is why they were more valued than knights. This is also why the military might of a nation was generally proportional to the number of mages it had.

Even though mages in general were above everyone else, there were differences among them in terms of innate talent. This was the defining factor in a mage’s strength, since innate talent couldn’t be increased or trained in any way.

There were various ways to measure one’s innate talent in the world of Eidrin. The two most common were the soul intensity test and the mana reaction test. Through these types of tests, a mage was categorized into one of nine colors: yellow, orange, green, violet, red, indigo, purple, silver, and gold. Yellow was the weakest while gold was the strongest. According to legend, there was another color above gold, but it was considered a myth by most people since it had never been seen. Mages of violet talent or above were classified as an elite mage. With grooming, they were able to break through to a 4th class mage and cast 4th class magic spells, which were extremely powerful.

Roughly 50% of all mages possessed a yellow level talent and remained a first class mage for their entire lives. They were still granted the status of nobility, since even a first class mage could change the course of a battle, but they could never rise above a minor noble. On the other end of the spectrum, mages of violet level or above were considered national level assets, and emperors and kings would recruit them to their side at any cost.

Mages were described both by their current strength, and their innate talent. For example, a 1st class violet mage was a mage who was only a 1st class mage, but had the capability to end up at 4th class in the future. However, their innate talent also determined the highest rank they could achieve - a violet mage could not break through to a 5th class mage.

Just like mages, warrior divisions were broken into 1st class through 9th class, all dependent on how much battle qi they could store inside their bodies. Unlike mages, they did not have an innate talent test, so it was very difficult to know just how far a warrior could advance. Higher ranked warriors were valuable assets for a nation since they were used as escorts for mages, to prevent groups of enemy knights from killing the mage before they could cast a spell.

As far as Shad knew, there were only ten 9th class mages and seven 9th class warriors on the continent of Egul, but he was unfamiliar with the strength of the other continents. It was entirely possible that the other continents had more 9th class mages than Egul.

Soon, Shad finished bathing in the river. He removed a new set of clothes from his spatial bag and quickly dressed. If anyone were to see him right now, they would never guess that he was the legendary Fourth Prince of the Djage Empire. He did not have the bearing of a noble, and he was certainly not dressed like one. He wore simple clothing, and was completely devoid of jewelry, which nobles liked to wear to represent wealth and status. His fashion sense was one of the reasons he was known as the Imperial Freak, aside from his innate talent. After he finished dressing, he began walking towards the bottom of the mountain, where he was to meet with the woman sent to fetch him by his Imperial father.

Edited by Eljako98.