‘It seems the goddess was saying the truth.’ thought Raven as he snapped out of his meditation. He was feeling refreshed, at least his body. He couldn’t let his brain rest so it was still full. Something like when the goddess was still in Raven’s head. Maybe he should do it every three days or something.

He couldn’t quite feel his soul yet, but it was the closest he got. It felt like it was somewhere inside his body, but not there at the same time. He felt like he could catch it, so he played hide and seek, then catch with his soul for the whole night.

Without anything else to do, he decided to read the books he saw yesterday. He opened the door and saw the hundreds upon hundreds of books. Raven’s parents didn’t really tell him about the history or anything for that matter, so he had to dig the information himself.

He piled a few books on his hand and returned to his room. There were exactly 5 of them, and they were all about history. Their names were: History of Krouxorth, Beginning of Magic, The Past of the World, The Great Winter and Path of the Warrior and The black-scaled dragonman opened the first book, and started his learning of his new home.

…

Approximately 3 hours later, he had finished reading it. Terranian language was created in such a way that allows one to read and understand the language in a day, which would take a week of cramming back on Earth, however that worked.

So he had actually finished almost all the books, in fact. The Krouxorth Academy was founded 1000 years ago by a man named Krux Tyran and his wife, Carly Carmine. The man was a [X] rank space mage, while the woman was a [SSS] rank time mage, the one who distorted the time inside the worlds made by his husband.

He created 5 houses to distinguish between the beliefs and wishes of the students, that which can be determined by a Soul Stone, the jade crystal from before.

There were 4 principals in the history of the academy and the current one had served for 216 years. The others were longer, so the man wouldn’t go away easily.

The Tyrannos House was made in honor of the founder, and only accepted the ones with great talent. Every principal after the founder had [Divination] talent in magic, which would let them see the fate of the students, leading to better decisions. That was the thing with fate and spirit speech of the principal.

The school has classes about all manners of magic except [Death] and [Dragon], due to the lack of experienced and free personnel. A [Dragon] talent was rare, and skilled mages even rarer. As for [Death], all the skilled ones were dead or in The Land of the Fallen. That was all for the first book.

The second book was about magic and how it came to be. Magic was the power to create small to big-scale miracles using the matter called mana particles, which were comparable to dark matter back on Earth.

The first mage was a woman named Ray, and she had a helper named Laurus. While she created most of the basic magic, while Laurus was the man who contributed most to the theoretical part of magic.

Their children became the great mages, and their bloodline spread far and wide. This was almost a billion years ago, which made the most of the population able to use magic. The ones without it could learn about Qi, which needed Martial Spirit. There was absolutely no one in the world without both Qi and Martial Spirit, as all humans had it when they were first made.

The humans weren’t happy enough with what the gods gave them, so they stole the gods’ own power, which is magic. Soon the humans mutated to adapt to the magic instead of relying on their God-given qi.

Then there was the Great Winter, which supposedly happens every thousand years or so, and is approaching steadily. It was a catastrophic event that could bring upon the world and ice age, the world would be ruled by a ruthless queen, called Ice Queen and she had a trusty Absolute Frost dragon by her side. It was relatively shorter than the others.

The winter came 4 times in the history of Terra, and took over the world, failing only once 2 millennia ago. She was defeated by someone called Raul, and he made her rest for 2 thousand years instead of one. That was all.

The next one was The Path of the Warrior, and he was halfway through when a yawning Robert came into his room. His hair was messy and wasn’t wearing a shirt.

“Good morning, senior.” politely greeted Raven.

“Yo.” said he as he approached the table with the books. “Hmm… Thinking of using Martial Arts?”

“If I have the talent to.” said Raven humbly.

“Of course my junior would have the talent for it. In fact, you could read my research on that topic.” suggested Robert.

“You researched it?” asked Raven, amazed.

“Yeah, and I actually have a prototype of Arcane Martial Spirit I made, it’s so frustrating that I can’t learn it even though I’ve completed it. I’d be happy if my cute junior learned about it?” said Robert as he looked slyly towards Raven. He knew nothing good would come out of it, so he decided to try it. Robert swiftly left the room and promptly returned with a stack of paper in his hand. It was tall, taller than a book.

“Read this first.” he said and left the room.

So Raven decided to enjoy reading it.

“The martial spirit is a thing bestowed upon the humans by the higher beings. It has been proven that all humans practiced it in the times long forgotten. From what I could muster, I found that there were certain stages to it. Ignorance is bliss, as I delved deeper into my studies, I found that we aren’t actually training it the proper way.

Before that, to whoever reads my research, I should introduce myself. I am Robert Pennison, currently a student at Krouxorth Academy. I may have already left this school behind of you are reading this. If I haven’t given this to you personally, then you probably found it at a room in the Tyrannos castle.

There were certain stages to the practice, the latter ones forgotten by history. This excerpt is from a paper I found in the dusty corner of the academy’s library

They were: Practitioner, Apprentice, Master, Lord, Duke, King, Emperor, God and Dragon as its final stage.”

…

After reading that, Raven’s opinion of his senior got better and better. The Martial Spirit would run on Qi, but the Arcane Martial Spirit run on qi mixed with magic. One could even use the mixed magic to use his skills, which would give unexpectedly beneficial effects.

The Martial Spirits had the shapes of animals and they were connected to the person’s soul or spirit in other words. He turned to look at the window and almost fell off his chair from fear. Robert was standing right behind him, looking at him.

“What were you doing?” asked Raven.

“I came in a while ago and since you were so focused, I didn’t dare bother you.” he said and looked at Raven “But, let me show you what a Martial Spirit looks like.”

As Robert closed his eyes and concentrated, his hair started flying as if it was windy. A fiery red and yellow light emanated, then swept over Robert. He looked like Super Saiyan God Goku from Dragon Ball, but with orange hair.

Then it formed a shape as it left Robert’s body and beside him, was standing a proud looking red lion, almost as tall as the tall Robert on its fours. It then quickly turned into a flame and vanished

“That was the Martial Spirit which I call Red Lion, and it’s non-mutated one is a normal spirit called Proud Lion. It can mutate the same number as your orbs, of which I have 4.”

“That’s… really amazing. How do I do that?” shouted out Raven in excitement.

“Well, you can’t do it right away. I’m a Spirit Lord, and the strongest Qi practitioner in this world is at the rank of a Duke, though I doubt I can’t beat that person. You can use Aura, which normally reflected your character. But since I completed my research, it can now reflect all of your talents, but the characteristic part won’t change, in other words, no drawbacks.”

“So how do I learn it?” asked Raven, livelier than he ever was before.

“It’s simple, wish for power with all your might. It is your birthright to have it, so it will to come to you!” said Robert as Raven started trying his best. Surprisingly, a sound came out within a minute.

Caw!!!

Caw!!!

Caw!!!

The flapping of large wings could be heard, as it quickly approached the castle. It then peeked through the window, its eyes almost covering the entire window space. A suffocating atmosphere resided in the room.

“What in the world is that?!” exclaimed Robert.

It then turned into a black light and flew into Raven’s body. The terrifying aura disappeared.

“That was your Martial Spirit” said Robert, surprised.

“So, that means I’m talented.”

“Of course, it should have taken almost an hour and I was thinking of some encouragement words for you.”

“Woah, impressive.”

A mark had appeared on his chest, where the light had hit him. It depicted a raven-like bird, which was flying in the sky.

“Don’t waste any time, now pour in all your magic into the mark!” shouted Robert.

“Right away.” said Raven as he put his hand, and used every last drop of his magic.

Robert then said “It’s not turning purple, something’s wrong.” and put his hand on his chest.

He had a troubled face and the previous Aura covered him. After about an hour, Robert regained his senses. “That was dangerous.” he said “You could have lost your chance to get an Arcane Spirit.”

“Why is that?” asked Raven.

“If you didn’t pour in enough magic, it wouldn’t get stronger, but instead, get weaker. The spirit was strong, I used up my magic too.” he said while scratching his neck.

“Thanks, senior.” thanked Raven wholeheartedly.

“Don’t mind it.” said Robert, looking at the black mark with a purple tint.