The first thing Lukas did on the morning of the next day was to familiarize himself with the compound. After a quick bath, he donned the standard white robes of the outer sect disciples, secured his badge into his pockets, and then made his way outside among the throng of milling mages, the morning sun a glowing gem rising on the horizon. His first destination was the Mess hall, a large structure where each disciple in the outer sector got their meals two times a day, free of cost even though they were barely nutritious to last until sunset.

With the Starlight staff in hand, he traversed slowly, his eyes taking in the sights and the smells. The Abodes in the outer sector were arranged well, with the focus in providing a lot of light and space in between. More than a few were currently empty, but it was understandable as the Cathedral’s possessed stringent requirements for a mage to even qualify to enter their walls.

Soon enough, a heavy aroma reached his nose. The Mess hall was a familiar place, as it was placed eastern from his abode, just a few feet from the lecturers’ halls. The food was cheap and free but well cooked provided only to the Outer sect disciples. This morning meal was nothing special, as it consisted of heavy porridge filled with sliced herbs along with dozen small puffy cakes which were surprisingly delicious. Lukas devoured his share in a heartbeat, eating ravenously almost as if he had starved for year. He drew quite the attention but he didn’t care. Whatever happened yesterday made him feel like he could eat a whole cow and still not be satisfied. After he was finished, he could only morosely go. Any extra food would require him to pay; something which was nearly impossible considering his previous host was not kind enough to leave him any funds. He vowed to work hard enough to stuff himself full next time. He also didn’t forget that he needed more meals to build his weakened body.

After that, he went on the next part of his goal, the training halls. An institution as large as the Cathedral would not be complete if it did not possess a safe place where their disciples could train. To his surprise Lukas saw not only the Casting halls meant for mages to sling around their spells, he also spotted the Physical halls, an equivalent of a gym in this world. A place filled with shaped heavy artifacts and dummies for the warriors to test to test their mettle on. There was quite a rancor when he appeared only to recall a small tidbit of information. In a place like this, a clash between mages and warriors was inevitable. Mages disdained to train their bodies regarding the warriors as buffoons while the later saw mages as weak willed who could only hide behind their spells. But Lukas would never allow such childish concerns stop him. Marking them in this mind, he made a goal to slowly train his frail body to a reasonable degree. It was only a survivor’s logic. If spells ever failed him one day, he would have his legs to run away. That much was obvious.

Once he done checking them out, he focused on the last part of his venture for the day, The Hall of Insight. The Hall of Insight was the equivalent of Library, boasting a large collection of books and tomes pertaining to the history of the Continent, the flora and fauna and even the spells and legacies left behind by the previous mages of the Cathedral. This was where Lukas wanted to learn about the Continent, about its history and its division of power. But most of all he wanted to learn about his place in this world.

Taking his badge turned out to be a smart move. The Guardian, an elder in his mid fortes with a flowing beard was adamant for his identification as soon as he stepped in. After he was verified, he was finally allowed in, the silence of the hall a stark difference to the chaos outside.

Craning his neck, the ceiling of the hall rose quite high, with several shelves arranged inside. There were rows upon rows of books sitting neatly on dustless ledges that it made Lukas feel quite at home. One of his favorite past times when he was not streaming included daily visits to the local libraries. When compared, there was a stark difference in breadth and width but his passion for books made his eyes light up as he was gripped with the sudden desire to peruse each book his hand could reach for.

After he asked for guidance, Lukas was finally sent to shelf he was looking for. He sought knowledge of the Continent of the Lush and the Guardian, despite having a strange expression on his face still sent him in the right direction.

The Continent of Lush as he later found out on a certain old map, spanned for hundreds of miles. Governed by the 10 Major Institutions which were the 4 Sects, 3 Cathedrals, 2 Academies and 1 Clocktower, each institution ruled its own region.

The most famous were the 3 Cathedrals namely, The Divine Cathedral, The Cathedral of Light, And the Blue Cathedral. Though they were rumors abound that all 3 Cathedrals came from the same source, they all possessed lands far apart from one another. The Cathedral of Light stood nearly right at the center of map, west of the Evergreen Forest while The Cathedral of Blue was at the direct opposite miles away in the eastern direction nearly neighbors with the Divine Cathedral. 2 of the 4 sects, The World of Ice Sect & the Tabernacle of Flames Sect were practically adjoined as they were established at the famous Twin Peaks, north western of the map. The Twin Peaks were two mountains, one of which was tipped with ice while the other was a caldera, a broken mountain filled with heat and lava. As it was, the Caldera belonged to the Tabernacle of Flames while the remaining mountain belonged to the later respectively.

On the other hand, the Talismanic Sect was the northern neighbor to the Cathedral of Light while the Martial Sect could be found southern of the map, with a lot of lands stretched in all directions. One of the 2 Academies, namely the Holy Sages Academy was situated at North of the Evergreen Forest , along with the Astral Clocktowers, while the other one, The VastSky Academy established itself on the Never Ending Valley that encompassed the whole northern eastern of the continent. But at the core of it all, laid the Evergreen Forest, widely spread placing itself directly at the heart of all the Sects and Academies, the source of many of the treasures, ores and precious herbs within the Continent of Lush but home to many dangerous demonic beasts in its very copse.

Within the last hundred years, each ruling Institution was affiliated with at least a Great Noble Family. A good example was the Cathedral of Light which had 3 Great Noble Families connected to it. The 3 Great families were the Celeste Family whose descendant was Cassandra, the golden haired girl he met on the first day of his arrival, The Lumiere Family whose descendant was a fiery girl named Lyra, and the Litcht Family whose descendant was a famous aloof boy called Lin, someone Lukas was not too interested to meet depending on the rumors floating around.

Apart from the Institution, There was a power structure, a hierarchy on how each region worked. In a descending order, it started with the Major Institution, as this was the ruling hegemony on each region, followed by a Great Noble Family, followed by a Noble Family and then commoners. The House of Raydore was just one of the many noble families existing on this region. Unlike to what he thought, the Noble Families within The Continent of Lush were tied to their respective strength, not bloodline. Even then it meant that the Raydore Family barely cut the mark, as each Noble Family within the continent seek to ascend to a greater status which was something easier said than done.

Taking a deep breath to rest his tired brain, Lukas looked around. He was in one of the many tables strategically placed around the floor of the Hall of Insight. His badge merely allowed him access to the 1st level of The Hall, where every knowledge, spell and book was catered to Mortal mages. Only when he advanced his cultivation would he be granted access to the 2nd level of the Hall, where the higher tiered spells existed for the Earth mages to peruse.

Curbing his greed, he finally settled on two books to take with him. One was titled The Basis of All Magic & their Elements which contained all of the available knowledge of various Elemental gifts awakened by Mages throughout the ages and the recorded interactions between. The other was boldly named the Devastating Spells of Solaris 1st Volume, which contained some of the destructive spells a mortal priest could cast. But they were known to be very complicated and challenging, which prompted Lukas to see what he could garner from it after he relearned all of the spells in his repertoire first.

Later that evening, after a hearty meal of fried potatoes, grilled meat and watered milk, Lukas sat beside his table in his abode staring at the encompassed books currently in his possession. He possessed his previous host Book of Spells which was currently blood bonded to him, the petite book of Apprentice’s Rune which his sister silently mocked at, the Complete Compendium on Foundational Runes & their Sigils, a present Ariandel brought for him after she mocked the petite book, and the two books he had taken from the library, The Basis of All Magic & their Elements together with the Devastating Spells of Solaris 1st Volume which had raised an eye brow from the bearded guardian of the Hall of Insight. All together, each book served a specific purpose in trying to increase his overall strength.

Starting with his blood bonded book of spells, it had a meager amount of spells his previous had learned throughout the months of being within the Cathedral. Although he was imparted with his memories, he had to relearn the spells and in the process, master and optimize them so they could be more powerful and have more impact now that he was a Mid-Mortal Mage.

Furthermore, he had to admit he now had a potential for Rune Casting, seeing that he possessed a behemoth of the book. When he perused through the Compendium, his eyes were regaled with esoteric drawings and arcane diagrams of almost all the runes a Mortal Mage or even an Earth Mage could master. Although most were either auxiliary or defensive in nature, they possessed the utility that with a little creativity Lukas instinctively knew he could craft a few signature spells for himself. But he had to curb his excitement. Before he could theorycraft, he needed to deeply understand all of the cards on the table.

Solaris was famed in history as the mage once obsessed to prove how Elemental Light can emboss the same path of Destruction just like many of its counterparts. With near madness and unimaginable ambition, he achieved what he sought out to do, leaving behind notorious reputation that eventually garnered respect for all of the priests in the Continent. Although his path was frowned upon by the Cathedral, they ultimately recognized the importance of their priests having the ability to defend themselves. In his honor, his legacy was divided into several books, with the 1st Volume available for all the Mortal Mages to read. But his spells proved beyond difficult to master even at the lowest stage and over time most priests only bothered learning one or two spells meant for their protection. Lukas was slightly more ambitious as he barely any offensive spells in his repertoire, but he had to be patient. There was a good reason why many gave up after checking out the Solaris Spellbook.

The Book of Basis of All Magic was meant to increase his horizons and prepare him for the future. It contained knowledge of all the elements a mage can awaken to, including some deemed to be too obscure and abnormal. Learning how his elemental light would interact with other awakened elements would help in knowing exactly where his strengths stood and where his natural weakness laid. Under that context, he could create some countermeasures incase if he ever found himself in trouble. But the mother of all learning laid in practice and encounters, so presently he could only do so much to prepare.

The last thing on his mind was the Physical Halls. He didn’t want such a conflict to stem his goal but he knew he would face some resistance. If he was seen in such halls, a mage, training his body like other warriors his reputation would simply drop lower than it already was. The rancor ran deep but luckily for him, there was no rule prohibiting mages from ever using such halls. They were freely available for everyone to use and so that was something Lukas could depend on if he was ever accosted.

Armed with several books, a decent plan and an impossible goal, Lukas knew the moment had arrived, the moment where his training officially started, the moment where he would have to prove if he could survive in this world of magic with his own strength or not.