Chapter 7: Clueless

2 months have passed since Ayda began to show maturity. Her skin grew thicker, she yelled less (albeit, she developed quite a temper), and rarely insinuated arguments and fights with the other kids. However, she still acted childish in front of Anwar - it was, apparently, her way of showing him affection.

“Anwar!” Ayda chirped happily. Sweat dripped off her chin and forehead and she produced a foul-smelling odor that caused Anwar’s sense of smell to go numb. Ayda, evidently, just finished the first part of her conditioning.

It was something that recently appeared in her schedule, an entire day of training her body to be that of a warrior’s. Within two weeks, her muscles that used to look soft, yet toned, now had grown hard and somewhat… big.

In a few months, she’ll resemble Arnold… Anwar thought to himself, examining her biceps. There’s no way, right?

“I missed you!” Ayda laughed, hugging him, her sweat sliding up and down his neck. He shuddered in disgust and quickly nipped at her arm, to which she quickly pulled back, giggling. “You missed me, too, huh.”

He mentally gagged.

“Break’s over!” Zander yelled, calling for her back.

“B-but it’s only been a minute!” Ayda complained.

“It’s been 10 minutes,” Zander deadpanned, an amusing gleam in his eyes. Sadist, Anwar shook his head.

I have no time for this, Anwar huffed, getting up and away from the two.

“W-wait!” Ayda protested, but he left before she could say anymore.

Normally, when he left her randomly, they assumed he went to graze, like a dumb horse. The truth is, he was practicing his magic and training to become stronger in the forest under Elwood’s supervision.

Anwar maneuvered through the dark forest, as if he knew the entire forest on the back of his hand. He finally stopped at a small clearing where the sunlight came through the small holes between the trees. The clearing was circular and was, of course, surrounded by trees and various vegetation. However, the difference between this clearing and the rest of the forest, was that Elwood placed a small protection ward on it.

In this clearing, anyone and anything, aside from Anwar, Elwood, and a few people Anwar deems trusted (which is no one, including Elwood), are unable to enter this area. It was quite convenient, and was given to him, generously, by Elwood. (Which he suspected was a bribe to help Ayda).

“What do I do now…” Anwar pondered to himself.

He came here to train, but he wasn’t exactly sure how to train. In the first place, the word ‘train’ was completely foreign to him. In his past life, he wasn’t so much a jock (well, he wasn’t very good at sports, from what he recalls) and preferred to play video games or read fantasy books and translated novels from different countries. Also, there was the odd case of action figures, to which he felt a deep, passionate connection to.

“Need help?” A familiar voice spoke up. He could recognize it anywhere. Soothing, yet somewhat snide and sarcastic. Other times, amused or bored.

He sighed, “hello, Elwood.”

“Is this how you greet your master?” Elwood faked hurt, and placed her hand on her heart. “On the serious note, do you have any questions on training?”

Anwar hesitated before saying, “yeah. A lot, actually.”

“Ask away.”

“Alright, then.” Anwar showed no mercy and said, “how do you train?”

A sudden burst of spit came from Elwood as she looked at him incredulously. “Are you serious?!”

“Not right now, no,” Anwar casually replied. “So? Are you gonna tell me?”

She glared and quickly fixed the spit from her clothes and chin with a wave of her hand. Anwar scoffed, if she could do that, then couldn’t she have killed that previous Mongrel easily, too?

“I assumed you knew, since, well, you’ve succeeded on receiving your first gift,” Elwood sighed. “But, if you truly don’t know-”

“I don’t,” he interrupted.

“Yes,” she glared, then continued. “If you don’t know, I’ll “teach” you,” she created quotation marks with her fingers.

“What do you mean by ‘teach’?” Anwar tried copying her movement with his hooves, but was unable to and fell forward.

Ignoring his antics, Elwood said, “practice makes perfect. Meaning, in order to perfect and advance your magic, you continuously use them, apply them in battle, study it, and make improvements on it.”

“This only applies to regular spells, however. In order to train your gift, you must train your mana and push it to the next level. You are currently at level 2,” Elwood explained simply.

“Uh?” Anwar stared at her in confusion, “how do you check your level?”

“You can’t exactly check it, it doesn’t appear to you like your gifts do when you first get them. However you can feel for your level, as in concentrate deep within you and check to see how strong your mana is. But anyway, you should be level 2, since you achieved your first gift a few months back.”

“Feel for it?” Anwar closed his eyes and concentrated on his mana, trying to “feel” for it. He definitely felt his mana as a surge of power burst within him, leaving behind a mint-cool feeling to it.

However, nothing appeared to him, except a burst of mana. A small amount of frustration built inside of him, but quickly disappeared when he saw a familiar blue screen in front of him.

Basic Information

Name: Anwar

Race: Divine Horse

Age: 43? 8 months?

Title: Blessed One

Level: 3

“Uh, Elwood.” Anwar gulped. “Are you sure a blue screen isn’t supposed to appear?”

“Yes,” she nodded her head firmly. As if it were a law it wasn’t supposed to show up. However, it was happened to Anwar… right now.

“Are you super sure?”

“I’m super sure,” she yawned.

“Serious? Are you super serious?”

A small flash of irritation appeared on her face before saying, “as dead serious as you were when you first drank from your mother.”

“Low,” he whispered. “Anyway, if you’re so sure, then why is there a blue screen in front of me saying ‘basic information’ along with my, well… basic information.”

“What?” Elwood’s eyes widened in surprise. “Anwar… what’s your mana level?”

“It says level 3? Is that good?” he asked cluelessly.

“What! When did you level up?!” Elwood stared at him in surprise, then a flash of shock and shame appeared on her face. As a Goddess, she was ashamed she didn’t realize it after examining Anwar’s mana everyday. Shock, because even he didn’t realize he leveled up.

Anwar squinted his eyes, thinking of anything that happened recently that could cause him to level up. “Oh!” He yelled out in sudden revelation, “it might’ve been during that one time…”

One day, during training, he accidentally provoked Elwyn’s dark side and was suddenly hit by a ton of mana pressure from him. Anwar must’ve unconsciously tried to defend himself from the sudden attack and failed, but the pressure probably forced his mana level to increase by one. He recalled seeing blue upon fainting.

“I see…” Elwood trailed off. “This Elwyn must’ve been a character back in his days.”

“It’s what everyone is saying,” Anwar sighed.

“Well, then. What’s your second gift?” she asked.

“Uh, how do I check that again?”

“Info,” she replied curtly.

“Info!” Anwar yelled, feeling himself turn pink, which was impossible but… Saying it out loud was embarrassing.

Metamagic (Beginner)

Can adjust or change properties of magic and items to a certain (minimal)* amount.

*Color, name, etc.

Info?* (Beginner)

Can show information on items and statuses

*Info given is clearly the ‘common sense’ in this world

He sighed, another useless skill. However, everything has the potential to become something greater! Is what he thought to himself uselessly…

“Er, it says info,” he told Elwood.

“And?” Elwood urged him on.

“It says info with a question mark.”

She sighed, “tell me its description.”

“Can show more information on items and statuses… info given is clearly the common sense in this world,” Anwar ended pitifully.

“Pfft! BAHAHAHA!” Elwood guffawed, “leave it to you to get another useless skill.” She sighed and wiped a single tear from her eyes.

Anwar huffed.

“Anyway, you should really get back to leveling up. At this rate, you’ll be level 10 in a few years, which is… incredibly horrible.”

“Eh?” Anwar tilted his head, “this isn’t normal?”

“It’s incredibly slow,” Elwood answered back. “Below average.”

“What!” Anwar shouted in surprise, “then what’s the normal rate? What’s the above average rate?”

“Hmm, before going off, I’ll tell you one thing. At the beginning stages, known as the foundation-forming stage, one would normally take a few months or even years to form a foundation. However, it took you a few days-”

“Wait, does that mean level one is basically forming a foundation?”

“Correct. If you were able to use magic, that is. Beings that are unable to use magic use other methods to level up. Anyway, taking a few days to form a foundation is… horrifyingly fast.” Elwood sighed, her eyes filled with awe.

“Eh? Then what happened to me now?” asked Anwar.

“Normally, it would take an average person a few months to get from level 2 to level 15 and have 2 of their gifts, maybe even advance one of them, in less than half a year. However, it took you a few months to get from level 2 to level 3.”

Anwar gulped, when she phrased it like that, it seemed like his cultivating talent was horribly weak. “Then how do I level up faster?”

“As of now, you’re only training your physical abilities and your body. However, fret not, I will teach you the ways of magic!” Elwood smiled, as if he should be lucky to have someone like her around. “What do you say, young one?”

“Er, well… I mean, yeah-”

“Perfect! Let’s start now!” Elwood clapped her hands.

“What?! Now?!”

…

Somewhere far away from the Elven village, the Kingdom of Cyrus stands proud and tall. Within the Kingdom, one could see a burst of life and harmony between the citizens of the kingdom. If you took a closer look, one would see that not all of the Kingdom’s citizens were humans.

Yes, in large Kingdoms such as Cyrus, different races co-exist. There was, generally, no slandering between them, albeit they had a few cases of elitist nutjobs every now and then…

Within the castle, a group of pale-faced, regal-looking men stood in a line, parallel to a young man who sat in a throne. A golden crown sat on top of his lush, black hair and his golden-like amber eyes analyzed the men in front of him.

This was King Kyros, despite his young appearance, he was, in fact, 53 years old! Of course, he didn’t retain his young, handsome appearance by any normal means. No, the king himself was a magic warrior.

Magicians and magic warriors alike consumed mana. Along with consuming mana, came a decrease in aging. Of course, the stronger you are and the more mana you consume, the longer you live. In the past, there were many tales of immortal warriors and magicians who reigned the battlefield. Of course, that was in the past.

“What is it?” asked King Kyros, staring down at his subjects with disinterest.

“Sir,” one of the men spoke up, he was a tall, burly man with a set of thick curls as his hair. This was one of the captains of Cyrus’s military regime, Gabriel. “Regarding the hero…”

“Did you find her?” King Kyros asked, finally looking interested. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his chin resting on his hands.

“Unfortunately, yes,” he sighed. “We found her… dead.”

“What?!” King Kyros exclaimed. “Did you find the culprit?”

“No, sir. However, there was evidence of a large battle and resistance from the hero. We also found some uneven terrain and some parts of the earth missing.”

Kyros cursed, he slammed a fist down on his throne. “It’s those elementals again. They must’ve heard that the hero was of the wind element.”

“Would you like us to find the culprit and deal with them?” asked Gabriel.

“No, no.” Kyros sighed, “there’s no need for that. The elementals, despite there being no information or evidence of their split, it’s clear there’s a war going on between them. Even some of the smallest things could swing the momentum their direction.”

Gabriel’s eyebrow raised slightly, “then, what now?”

“We find a hero with no element,” Kyros said. “A simple warrior.”

“But sir, that’ll take too long! By the time we find a new hero with no element, the Kingdom of Hartwin would have summoned their hero! Then we’ll have no advantage of setting our hero off on a journey sooner!”

Kyros cursed, of course he knew this. He wasn’t a dumb king. However, there was no other option. Summoning was out of question, since his country was mostly made up of strong warriors. They barely had enough mages to even pass the first stage of the summoning process!

“Advantage or no advantage, there is no other option than to find one,” Kyros bit his lip in frustration.

“Finding someone with no element will take decades,” someone other than Gabriel finally spoke up. This was the Chief of Information, also known as the General of Secrecy, Silence. Silence had black hair and eyes, but pale white skin. He resembled a porcelain doll, despite being incredibly powerful.

Silence’s real name wasn't known to anyone except for the king and a few other high-positioned people within the military.

“It’s best to just find someone as fast as possible, with all of the requirements needed to be Cyrus’s hero,” Silence said.

Of course, their hero had requirements. Finding someone to fit these requirements proved to be harder than they thought, but now they had to find someone with no element that satisfied those needs? It wasn’t impossible, but it would take years, maybe decades.

Afterall, all beings were born with an element. However, beings born without elements were known to be incredibly powerful. Only a few have revealed themselves to the public.

To be born without an element means you had the ability to use all elements, since you weren’t bound to just one.

Kyros growled in frustration. It was impossible to ask them to find someone who had no element, yet filled their requirements. He knew this, but he said so anyways.

“Just find someone,” he sighed, feeling defeated. He couldn’t do a single thing about the Elementals’ War, all he could do was pray for them to not assassinate his new hero…

___________

Stellar's Box

HELLLLOOOOO, thanks for the wait? :)

Comment down below on what you think of the chapter/any mistakes you found. I'd appreciate any feedback, too, you know.

Story is finally starting to pick up, soooo sorry for the long, boring few chapters at first. x.x But, hey, it's kind of worth it. (I think).

*LOOKING FOR PROOF-READERS FOR THIS STORY, THANKS.