Elemental Mana comes in four main varieties. Earth which specialises in defensive techniques. Fire which specialises in attack techniques. Air which specialises in movement techniques and Water which specialises in healing techniques. It does pay to remember however that these are merely the most common uses for these types of Elemental Mana and each type of Elemental Mana can be used for most other purposes as well. Cultivators at the Ascendant Realm can usually use all of these elements to some degree depending on their affinity and usually specialise in one or two elements with some particularly talented individuals being able to use three or even all four relatively well. Affinities for these elements can be ranked as Minor, Low, Middle, High or Superior.

-Excerpt from Telram’s notes on Elemental Mana.

It had been 5 years since Telram had returned from the forest after fighting his first Mana Beast and since then he had worked hard to make the technique that he had used to defeat the Rockscale Python into something that he could actually use without injuring himself combining it with the Flowing Palm Martial Art to form a style all of his own.

Today, however he wasn’t going to Gerry’s like he normally would but was walking down the street towards a building he usually stared well clear of with the rest of his family. Because today was the yearly evaluation of all cultivators in Palamar who were turning 14 that year. Prospective cultivators took the evaluation at this age because this was early enough to catch those with high levels of talent without giving them time to become powerful enough that they could cause problems for Irian.

These past few years Telram’s physical growth had slowed somewhat but he still caused quite a stir when he walked down the street especially standing next to his father whom he now had a full head of height on. Combining this with the red streaks in his mane of dark hair and his muscular build Telram often thought he looked a bit like a member of a rock band back on earth. This rough appearance, however, was offset by the ink stained grey robes that he wore on a daily basis the gap between these two aspects of his appearance making him stand out even more, but the robes also served to hide just how muscular he now was after his years of training making him simply look unusually tall and broad shouldered.

Telram wasn’t the only one who had changed over the past couple of years so had Jai who was now larger than tigers could get back on earth now that he was a sixth rank Ordinary Mana Beast and the magnificent crimson and black furred tiger was walking along the street next to Telram with his usual bored swagger.

Willa had had also grown having finally become an Elemental Mana Beast of a type known as a Glacial Fenrir, a wolf-type Beast that had high affinities for both water and air and could freeze an enemy in its tracks with freezing winds as well as keeping the ability to form mist from her time as a Mist Wolf. In becoming a Glacial Fenrir, it wasn’t just her powers that had changed but she was now larger than Jai and her once pure white fur was streaked through with a pale blue giving her a striking appearance which was the opposite of Jai’s red and black pelt.

Lily’s condition, despite everyone’s best efforts had worsened to the point where she couldn’t walk more than a few steps on her own and was now being wheeled along the street in a wheelchair of Telram’s own design by her husband only bringing more odd looks from the other people in town who had never seen a wheelchair before as such a thing didn’t exist in Nerrus.

The only ones who from appearances hadn’t changed much were Gerry and Aran who only really looked a few years older, though Aran did sport a new scar on his face, courtesy of a particularly powerful Mana Beast which had been the catalyst for Willa’s evolution to a Glacial Fenrir.

The whole family had rather grim expressions on their faces as they stared up at the City Lord’s mansion which was where the evaluation was taking place due to it also being where the guards’ main barracks were stationed. All those who performed well at the evaluation would be recruited into Irian’s guards or made the disciple of a scholar if their talents leaned towards more intellectual pursuits and refusing these ‘privileges’ was not an option. If Irian requested that you become a guard and you refused his ‘offer’ it was likely that your cultivation would be crippled so that you couldn’t become a threat later.

Telram had plans to deal with this, but it would be very dangerous, and the rest of his family would have to act precisely as they had planned when he made his move.

“Well son, this is it,” Aran whispered in Telram’s ear causing Lily to look at them with a bemused expression on her face. “Are you sure this is how you want to handle this?”

“If we were going to do anything different, we would’ve had to have done it a long time ago,” Telram whispered back. “And with mum being as sick as she is rushing things just wasn’t an option.”

Despite the incredible number of hours, he and Gerry had put into developing a cure for Lily they had been unable to do more than slow the rate at which her condition worsened and that was with all the resources that Gerry had access to in Palamar. Moving Lily away from there before they had even gotten that far would have been a death sentence for the increasingly fragile woman.

“Besides there’s a 50 spiritwood prize for the person who wins this so-called ‘evaluation,’” Telram pointed out. “And we need the funds.”

Gerry may have been able to pay 10 spiritwood coins for Jai a few years ago, which was something that none of them regretted. But the cost of buying the resources that they needed to try and cure Lily and the cost of living in Palamar when Irian didn’t want you there had almost completely drained his coffers and now Gerry would be lucky if he had much more than 50 spiritwood coins himself.

“Alright,” Aran sighed, he had known that he wouldn’t be able to change his son’s mind, but he still had to try. “You should go sign up then.”

The first part of the evaluation was very simple; you went and signed up and got your cultivation measured. If your cultivation was above a certain level, you moved on to the next round if not you were sent home. The next round was what most people thought of when you mentioned the cultivator evaluation; a massive battle royal where all the people who passed the first round were pitted against one another in an arena. The only rules were; you couldn’t bring weapons, medicinal pills or Contracted Mana Beasts with you and you couldn’t kill any of the participants, you either had to knock them out, make them admit defeat or knock them out of the arena. If you made an impression you would be recruited and if you were the last cultivator standing you would win the 50 spiritwood coin prize.

It looked like the whole city of Palamar had turned out to watch the main event of the evaluation, an observation that wasn’t that far off. Not only were all the parents of the children who would be taking part in the event present, but the evaluation was considered to be one of the main events of the year and you could buy tickets to go and see it like it was some sort of sporting event back on earth with many important visitors from outside of Palamar travelling to watch the cultivators that they had sent to take part from the smaller cities and villages that they controlled.

Due to the expenses that becoming a cultivator required most of the cultivators taking part were the children of rich merchants, minor nobles or guards who had either brought their kids cultivation and Martial Arts manuals or had taught them themselves. This meant that even if the people taking part had a high level of cultivation it was quite likely that they had never had to fight a Mana Beast in their life and quite possibly had never actually fought anyone seriously at all.

Still, that didn’t stop the glares coming from the other kids as Telram waked up to the person who was checking everyone’s cultivation, it seemed that they didn’t approve of someone who looked like they were from a comparatively poor family to be taking part in the evaluation.

“Name?” grunted the tired looking man who was looking at him with the same condescending expression on his face as the kids.

“Telram.”

The man’s eyes narrowed as Mana gathered in his eyes.

“7th layer of the Core Formation Stage huh?” he said his expression relaxing slightly as he realised that Telram was actually a cultivator capable of taking part in the main stage of the evaluation. He wasn’t as highly ranked as some of the kids from the richer families who had been able to afford to buy their children pills and other items that improved cultivation speed but considering that he seemed to be someone from a family that couldn’t even afford to buy him more clothes he guessed that the tall young man in front of him had trained pretty hard which was something that the man had to respect.

“Alright you qualify to enter the main stage of the evaluation.”

Telram nodded and walked past the man into the area where the other teens who had managed to pass the inspection were waiting causing muttering to break out among both the kids who had yet to get evaluated by the man and those who had failed to qualify.

Looking around at the other qualifiers Telram noted that the minimum rank required to pass seemed to be the 5th Layer of the Core Formation Stage which had severely limited the number of people that he would have to fight as it required a high level of talent or access to cultivation resources to reach that level by around 14 years of age though there were some that had a much higher rank than that which surprised him considering how slow cultivation got as you increased your rank.

Shrugging Telram sat down in a corner and began to meditate ignoring the glares being shot at him from all sides. He didn’t really care what any of these people thought he was only here because he couldn’t figure out a way to get out of it without causing problems for his family and besides the rewards for placing well in the second part of the evaluation were High-ranked Martial techniques.

He would however happily show them not to underestimate people based on their appearance. Power was the most important thing in this world something which had caused him a lot of problems over the years having originally come from a world where that wasn’t usually the case. But he had lived in this world for fourteen years now and though the idea of using violence to get his way was still something he had difficulty with he knew that in this world trying solve problems non-violently would just end up with you or the people you care about hurt by people who think that they can push you around.

In a sense the people that lived on Nerrus had much more freedom than the people back on earth had and Telram was no different. Back on earth he had hidden certain parts of his personality away because of the problems it could cause him, his temper in particular but in this world so long as you had power you could act however you wanted. Most of the powerful people were no different to Irian in the way they acted but no matter how powerful he became Telram had no intention of treating people like tools.

This evaluation would be the first step to gaining that power. By proving his strength, he would be able to get into Irian’s good graces while his family escaped the city, after which he would follow them as soon as he was able with whatever resources he was able to bring with him when he left.

The people who had been staring at him until he thought this looked away suddenly upon seeing the calculating smile that had appeared on his face. Even on the face of a normal looking person it would have been sinister but Telram’s unique looks made it look like the smile of a demon about to devour some unfortunate person.

“Alright all of you…” the evaluator said some time later when he had finished evaluating the level of the prospective contestants and stopped blinking at the sight of everyone crowded into the opposite area to where Telram was seated with that sinister smile still on his face.

Despite being a 4th Level Ascendant Realm cultivator himself he was instantly struck by a wave of fear upon looking at Telram’s form which seemed to slowly grow in his vision until all he could see was that smile.

“Hmm?” Telram opened his eyes which had been shut the whole time as he was keeping a close eye on his cultivation trying to figure out what sort of cultivation technique he would attempt to use once he reached the Ascendant Realm.

“What’s wrong?” he asked smirking as he realised that he must have been unconsciously releasing his Soul Energy due to being in close proximity to people who wished him harm.

“N-nothing!” the evaluator stuttered. The man still in shock over what he had witnessed. “Now if you’ll follow me, we’ll enter the arena now.”

Now that the menacing aura that he had been releasing was gone the glares from the other children were back in full force, in fact Telram was pretty sure that if looks could kill he’d be a smear on the wall behind him.

Rising smoothly to his feet he followed the crowd as they made their way along the short corridor to the arena, which was actually the training grounds for the guards. Cultivators had grown stands of stone from the ground around the raised area where the audience were now seated, an impressive but meaningless display of their skills that had no doubt been ordered by Lord Irian himself to cow those present.

Telram walked out into the light with the other competitors and smirked as they were greeted by the roar of the crowd. Right now instead of a cultivator or 14 year old boy he imagined he felt the way that the gladiators in ancient Rome felt when they walked out onto the coliseum only he was certain that he would win this fight especially since unlike the gladiators the chances of him having to fight exotic beasts was zero, which was a nice change from his usual life or death fights in the woods when he went hunting with his father.

Looking around at the crowd he located his family who had managed to secure a large area for themselves due to no one wanting to get too close to Jai or Willa before casting his gaze up to a large enclosed area where he assumed Lord Irian was watching from.

Sure, enough a large bald man that Telram knew from the stories that Gerry had told him could only be Lord Irian appeared at the opening and looked out over the assembled contestant with calculating eyes. Not only was he taller than Telram was but his boy was incredibly well muscled revealing that he likely cultivated a powerful body strengthening technique like Telram himself and when Telram tried to ascertain his cultivation level he was nearly blinded by the light of the man’s Mana.

“So, it’s true,” Telram muttered as he blinked reflexively from the light of Irian’s Mana. He had heard that Irian had entered the Immortal Realm years ago but to him the idea that someone who was so much younger than Gerry had already become so powerful was something that he had been unwilling to believe but with the proof standing in front of him he couldn’t deny it any longer.

“Greetings as many of you know I am Lord Irian,” the man said his voice booming out over the crowd even though he didn’t seem to be shouting, the product of a fairly simple Martial Skill that manipulated air currents to increase the distance sound could travel.

“Today we are here to witness the future of our fair city. The children in front of you now are that future. The strength that they have now will only continue to grow with the help I will give them…” Irian paused now a fake smile plastered over his face as he looked around at the crowd dramatically.

“…Provided that they are strong enough to prove themselves.”

The crowd roared again at his words, causing Telram to roll his eyes at the man’s obvious grandstanding but even he had to admit that Irian had a way with words. Despite the fact that he had just told these people that they were going to watch a group of fourteen year olds beat each other up while they watched the crowd didn’t seem to care and if Telram hadn’t known better he would have wondered whether this was the product of some sinister Martial Skill that manipulated people’s bloodlust but he did know better fighting was just a part of daily life in this world and even though many of these people had children who were about to fight, to them this was little more than entertainment.

Irian raised one hand above his head causing the crowd to become eerily silent as they waited for him to speak.

“Begin!”