Awarang, a small elven town in Gretharea Kingdom, 47 Gearro 3982

It was not morning anymore. Noon had already passed. I was sitting on the ground, leaning my back on the outer wall of the grocery store in the town centre, trying to ease the pain that still tortured almost every part of my body, when two other dusk elves in guard uniform, a male and a female, approached us.

I knew both of them. The female dusk elf with long braided brown hair was called Maika, a free runner like Laertreon and me. I didn’t know the other guard personally, but he was kind of… famous in Awarang.

He was Rudevall, the one which many would say… the coolest guard in Awarang. He was well known not just for his handsome face, fair skin, and blonde hair, but also for his powerful skills in magic. Unlike Maika, Laertreon, and the guard leader whose eye color was brown, this Rudevall had silver eyes.

Brown eyes were the sign of the most common and mediocre magic specialization for elves, signifying the owner’s ability to be able to learn all kinds of magic, but only up to the mid-level ones. Worse yet, for this specialization, the spell power and capacity only increased for about twenty to thirty percent compared to uncolored elves. Thus, most elves with brown eyes preferred to focus on improving their physical ability while putting their spells as mere supports.

Silver color for the eyes, on the other hand, was a rare thing. It was not as amazing as the super rare golden one, but it was still considered special, since it was a sign of a specialization in which the owner would be able to learn almost all types of magic for all levels, except only for a few unique spells. The increase for spell power and capacity was also great, about a hundred to a hundred and fifty percent. Thus, the owner of this specialization would pretty much be a… celebrity.

“How is it?” The guard leader asked in a curt manner. Many other elven guards that were here grimly looked at the two newcomers, paying full attention. This place had unexpectedly been the gathering site of the guards during this monster outbreak crisis.

“The south western section is clear, Captain,” answered Maika. That was the last section reported to be clear.

“Casualties?”

“Twelve died… ten civilians, two guards. Nineteen badly injured… fourteen civilians, five guards. The injuries were mostly caused by unfortunately… necessary friendly fire.”

“That’s very… bad.” The grim face of the guard captain darkened. Yeah, it was truly bad. Those were the worst report I’d heard so far… much worse.

“It couldn’t be helped,” said Maika. “There were fifteen sragallae, six ziragallae, and two nagogallae. If Rudevall didn’t use [Frozen Field], there would be much more victims.”

I turned pale listening to Maika’s report. Six ziragallae were bad enough. But, two nagogallae? I was very, very lucky I didn’t encounter any of them.

Sragalla, the scaled wolf, if it were in a game, would be only slightly better than a low level critter like a slime or a rat. Its mutation, however, was definitely not in the same level.

Ziragalla, the armored wolf, was pretty much an elite monster which was about three times as strong as a sragalla.

Nagogalla, the dragon scaled wolf, was even worse, much worse. Its strength was fundamentally in the whole different level, comparable to a mid level BOSS in RPG games.

Had I been chased by ziragallae, I might still have been able to survive, since their speed was actually slightly lower than the sragallae. But if it had been a nagogalla…, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to survive. I was really, really grateful for not encountering them. It seemed that Lady Luck had not completely abandoned me…

“So, in total… nineteen died, thirty four injured. This is a real disaster. That damned Bhalatoyol!” Laertreon cursed, using the derogatory name Bhalatoyol, the protector of the imps, to refer to the terrorist group responsible for this mess.

“It could have been worse if we hadn’t acted quickly,” said Maika defensively.

“That won’t help our position in front of the Town Council. Those silly, senile old men will definitely chew me to pieces after I submit the report,” said the Guard Leader in depressed tone.

“It shouldn’t be that bad, Captain. We did our best. It should count for something, shouldn’t it?” Rudevall tried to soothe him.

“For normal people probably,” the Guard Leader sighed. “Those old men in the Town Council are politicians through and through… bad, corrupt, nasty politicians. You know it yourself. For years, they’ve tried to put their good for nothing thugs inside our group and cut down our salary. (Sigh!) I’m afraid now they have more reasons to do that. I wish those idiotic terrorists targeted them, instead of these innocent civilians.”

I grinned. That was not a bad wish. I knew enough of the politics of this country. And I couldn’t really say I was impressed. The corruption in the bureaucracy seemed to be very deep. High taxes, low public spending, bad public service, underpaid low-rank town officials, extensive bribery, rampant slavery among poor citizens…

This town was actually much better off compared to the other towns and cities in Gretharea Kingdom, due to the still relatively ‘untainted’ elven guards, and the existence of the powerful Crafts-master Union. Those two pillars so far had been barely able to suppress the widespread of corruption and maintain enough decency within the town. But after this incident, well… the future of the town didn’t look very promising.

“Alright! Rudevall, you come and help me deal with the report to the Council. The others will do the clean-up and part extraction of the monsters,” said the Guard Leader, dividing jobs in a simple way. “And if any of you is willing to swap tasks with me, I will gladly accept. Anyone?”

No one responded. Those guards were simple, but not stupid people. They knew that doing the report was much worse compared to the tedious clean-up.

“Why do I need to accompany you, Captain? Can I just do the clean-up with the others?” complained Rudevall.

“No! I won’t endure the nasty words of those senile old men alone. And, you are the only guard they will give face to. So, you must come with me.”

“But, Captain…”

“That is an order,” said the captain simply. “Alright everyone… Move! Move!”

The guards quickly split up into several groups and left the place. The guard captain, without waiting, also moved away, dragging the reluctant Rudevall with him.

“Need a help to take you home, Kid?” Someone said from my left. I turned my head. It was just Laertreon.

“Nah!” I said. “I was just about to get my waernei, when this mess happened. I think it will be a waste if I return home without getting it. The Temple of Day is just a few minutes from here.”

“Well, good luck with your waernei then.” Laertreon grinned. “And, be careful with thorns....”

I sighed while Laertreon left, whistling without seeming to have any worry.

I stood up slowly. My wounds were still aching. They were shallow wounds, but I might still need to take a bath with [purifying water] later on at home. It would be bad if any of them turned into a nasty infection. Oh, well… I needed to go to the Temple of Day now.

A few minutes later, I entered the temple. It was a much bigger place, compared to the Temple of Dawn. With rows of wooden benches and tall ceilings, this temple was closely similar to a traditional church of my past life.

“Welcome to the Temple of Day, Child!” A cheerful feminine voice came from behind me. I quickly turned around and saw a very beautiful elven lady coming after me into the temple. The elven woman was wearing a priestess outfit, but surprisingly was also holding a pair of bloody battle axes in her hands.

I stared at those bloody axes, dumbfounded.

“Ah! These axes?” The priestess seemed to understand my surprise. “I’ve just helped the guards take care of a few sragallae. I am a follower of Arze after all. I couldn’t just do nothing when there was a hot battle outside, could I?”

I was thoroughly surprised. This beautiful dusk elf was actually a follower of Arze, the barbaric god of war. I thought the followers of Arze were only muscular combat loving maniacs. And this priestess’ choice of weapons… it was truly unexpected.

The elven priestess seemed to take a deep breath, and then…

“Anyway, what service do you need from this temple? It can’t be marriage, can it? So it must be either class choice or waernei? Those two are the only logical choices. But then, you need to have taken waernei for at least six months before choosing a class. I don’t think you have taken your waernei. I’ve been stationed here for about three years and I’ve never seen you in this temple. So, it is very unlikely that you come here to choose a class. This means that you must be here for your waernei. Right! You must be here for your waernei. It’s a great deduction, right? How is my deduction? I am right, aren’t I? Come on. Tell me that I am right.”

Wow! That was another surprise. This gorgeous brunette priestess spoke those many words very quickly and in only one single breath. That was… interesting and annoying at the same time.

“Err… yeah. I am here for…”

“… your waernei, right? That is fine. Don’t worry about that. It can be done easily. And, it doesn’t hurt at all, unlike the branding of name. You have branded your name, have you? Of course you have. You cannot get your waernei without a name. It would be pointless to come here if you hadn’t earned a name. Come to the altar. Come on! Don’t worry. It would be fine. Just go to the altar. Come on…”

I awkwardly walked to the altar, accompanied by the ‘unstoppable’ priestess who seemed to mis-install a machine gun for her speech processing device.

“Alright… Just stand there, Child! Please tell me what name you have chosen,” said the priestess while carelessly tossing her battle axes somewhere behind the altar.

“It’s Khael…”

“Ah, Khael, isn’t it? Good taste you have, Child. It is a simple yet profound name. We seem to be similar in that matter. My name is Veyra. Yes, it simply means blood, one of the most vital essences needed by creatures like us to live. It is a good name, isn’t it? But many people think I am weird for choosing that name, as if blood is evil or creepy thing. How can they think it is evil or creepy? Blood is the sign of life. Without blood, most living beings will die. Well, of course plants can live without blood. But even so, it…”

Oh, god! How in the hell could this woman be able to speak that much without stopping to take a single breath?

“Ah, anyway… I asked you your name because it is needed for the ceremony, although your name and your color do not necessarily have to match. Just take a look at the color of my eyes. Although my name means blood, but the color of my eyes is not red at all. The color of my eyes is cyan, isn’t it? Do you know that people with cyan eyes like me are called Healers, even though healing is not the only thing we do? Well, healers’ magic specialization is restoration, so we could heal and our healing is considered the best. So, it is quite reasonable for people to call us Healers, but …”

“Um… can we start the ceremony now?” I finally interrupted her.

“Ah yes! Sorry for getting distracted for a few seconds there. Let’s see… it should be started by…”

The priestess placed her right hand close to my forehead, almost touching it.

“A pure prayer to the Almighty Source,

by dynamic movement of natural force,

from the image drawn by his latent nature,

grant this young child the color of his future!”

Light shone from the priestess’ hand as she ended the chant, and my consciousness transported back to the black place I visited during my name choosing ceremony.

This time, it was not the name wisps that accompanied me, but three glowing, gigantic eyeballs with three different colors.

Three? This was great. I got a chance to choose after all. I seemed to have a quite nice luck. The majority of the elves had only one choice. Less than a quarter had two choices. Only one tenth of the population got three choices, if I remembered correctly.

But that was not the limit. There were few people who were lucky enough to get four or five choices. I was pretty sure that Rudevall, the silver eyed guard, got five choices. That was if the story Maika told me was the truth.

I looked at the three enormous floating eyeballs more carefully and was struck speechless for a few seconds. This… Oh, shit…! Did this freaking thing really happen to me?!

The colors of the three floating eyeballs in this empty space were… both a blessing and a curse for me. They were all extremely rare… golden, pure black, and dark purple.

Goddamn it! The goddess of luck really played her nasty trick on me here, since whatever choice I made here, one thing was sure… I could no longer live in peace.

I took a deep breath… three times. It could not completely stop the turmoil in my mind, but at least I was less frantic and could use my judgment a little better now. Thus, I closed my eyes to think about my choices, and searched for the information about the specialization within my memory.

Golden eyes were considered the most powerful magic specialization. The people with this kind of eyes were pretty much an Archmage. If I chose this, I could learn any magic from any level and any attribute. The specialization would also make all of my spells’ magic power increased for more than two hundred percent. Simply speaking, my spell power would be at least three times as strong as uncolored mage’s. This is obviously the path that would be taken by overpowered protagonist.

For the magic capacity, if I were to accept golden eye specialization, I would be able to learn up to thirty three different kinds of Aez and receive up to thirty three different kinds of Zea. Aez was basically active magic such as [Fireball], or [Heal] in games. Zea, on the other hand, could either be temporary magical buffs and debuffs, like [Protected] or [Berserk]; or passive magical ability such as [Low Fire Resistance] or [Poison Immunity].

Those were the overwhelming advantages. The disadvantages were unfortunately also overwhelming, since this was basically the path that should only be taken by an extremely lucky hero. If I took it, it would be impossible for me to hide my specialization. It meant that I would be on the spotlight and would become the target of assassination of many factions within the country or from abroad. It was mentioned in all history books that I had read… seven out of ten elves with golden eyes died young due to assassination.

It was a simple mindset of people who played in politics, the game of power. An elf with golden eyes would be seen as a high threat low prospect candidate to be the loyal peon of any existing power. So, it was not really strange that people tried to eliminate him or her as soon as possible.

So, the question here would be… ‘Do I have what it takes to walk on this path of a hero?’

Another choice I could take here was the specialization of pure black eyes. This was pure black, not the more common charcoal color.

Charcoal eyes signified the path of a necromancer, the controller of the undead. It was not really appreciated in elven community, but it could still be barely accepted.

Pure black color, on the other hand, indicated the path of a warlock, the one who manipulated infernal realm, danced with devils, and partied with demons. It was the path shunned by most society. It was the path designed for a… villain.

If I took this path, however, my spell power would rise even higher than if I took the golden color. The spell power increase of a warlock was about three hundred percent. It was four times as strong as the spell done by an uncolored person.

Of course, there would be a drawback. Should I take this color, I would no longer be able to use any magic other than infernal magic. And the increase in magic capacity within my mind would not be very good either. It would be about seventeen different slots of aez and fifteen different slots of zea.

However, the biggest problem with this choice did not lie with the ability. The main problem here was relationship. Would I be willing to live as an outcast for the rest of my life?

The last choice I had here was the purple colored eyes. This one was the most extreme magic specialization that I knew of. It was fundamentally different since the possessor of purple eyes would not be able to use any kind of spell-casting, which meant that he or she could not learn magic from spell transfers, books, or teachers.

Instead, if I were to pick this specialization, I would automatically learn a magic power called [Monster Magic Mimicry], which would allow me to learn magic by observing monsters’ aez. Yeah, it was practically the Blue Mage of the legendary games in nineteenth or twentieth century in my old world.

The spell power increase of this specialization was not bad, pretty much on par with golden eye specialization. However, the biggest problem here was the imbalance of magic capacity.

If I took this specialization, I could receive up to ninety nine different kinds of zea. But, as compensation, the capacity of aez that was allowed in this specialization was merely three. That meant that I could only learn and use two active magic from monsters, since one slot was permanently used by the [Monster Magic Mimicry]. What made it worse, this [Monster Magic Mimicry] could not be used to learn zea, so the ninety nine free slots of zea were essentially pointless.

As far as I knew, almost all of those who got these purple eyes completely abandoned magic and focused on martial and physical skills. Most of them turned out mediocre in life, but there was this purple eyed guy called Sobatta who, in the legend, was told to be able to pummel a fire dragon into a pulp just by using his fists. It was said that he could do it because eleven of his friends used eighty two different grandmaster level magic to buff him up before the fight.

I sighed dejectedly.

This purple eyed specialization, despite its rarity, was the most inconspicuous among the three. It would not make me stand out too much, which meant that it probably had the highest rate of survival in short term. But in the long term, well… unless I could somehow earn loyal and powerful friends who would be willing to buff me up, it would be likely that I would end up very badly.

But, relying too much to outside elements, like friends, did not fit very well with me. It was not that I had a problem with social skills. I was no social butterfly, but I could still make friends and keep them…

(Sigh!) Who am I deceiving? Myself?

I must admit it. I had a problem with trust. Casual friendship was fine for me. Getting true friends, best friends, however, was another matter. The fact that, in my past life, a person I thought was my best friend had a love affair with my wife behind my back might be the main psychological cause of this. Well, when I knew about that, soon they both ended up in ‘traffic accidents’. However, it didn’t seem that their death could remove my cynical view of trust and friendship.

Anyway, Sobatta’s approach for making a good use of this spec’s slots of zea was interesting, but definitely was not for me. I had designed a different approach to make the full use of this specialization, but it was very risky and involved a lot of research and much more hard work compared to the plans for my other choices of specialization. Would I be willing to submerge myself once more in risky work and research in this life, as I did in my past life?

Wait! I could also mix the choices here. In my former world, there was something called Heterochromia. In this world, there was something like that too… which was called dual specializations. Historically, there were a few powerful mages with dual specializations. Golden left eye and pure black right eye sounded cool, didn’t they? I would be both… a hero and a villain.

By mixing specialization, I could end up very powerful. But it had a chance of failure. If I were extremely unlucky, there was a good chance that I became magically crippled. Could I really gamble here?

I contemplated my choices for what seemed to me a very long time. Then, finally I made a decision. The color I would choose would be…