It was a bright morning as a tall muscular old man with white hair was swinging and poking a wooden stick towards a boy who had long gray hair. From a distance it looked as if the boy was an adult, but as one looked further Welnir was only 7 years old. Welnir reached the height of 5 ft 6 as his body grew faster as his future height would soon reach 6 ft 7 as he had always grown abnormally fast as a child. Observing further as one looked at both of them, Welnir was blindfolded as his body instinctively dodged and countered every attack the old man had used.

“Hahaha, truly impressive! You’ve reached the Counter stage in just a year of acquiring my gift!”

Having seen this, Gulious was shocked as everyday that had passed since then from his explanation, Welnir improved drastically breaking through stages. Furthermore it looked like not only was his ability to comprehend increased for the Feeling, Welnir’s body solidified as his body reached the limit of the physical state as his muscular growth stopped and only his height increased.

For Welnir as a year easily passed he looked towards his status panel as it changed drastically from his constant grind for power.

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[STATUS PANEL]

Name: Welnir Baudelaire

Race: Human/Demon Seedling [PURE 100% BOTH]

Rank: 0 Knight Mage

HEALTH: 2110/2110

STAMINA: 1900/1900

MANA: 10/10

[STATS]

Strength - 37.7 [Increases Physical Power]

Defense - 42.7 [Increases Health & Nullifies Damage]

Endurance - 36.5 [Increases Stamina]

Agility - 40.8 [Increases Speed]

Intelligence - 1 [Increases Mana & Ability Power]

[TRAITS/SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES]

Demon Circulation [Mage Talent] -> Intelligence Stat Increases 10x Faster

Demon Affinity [Mana Talent] -> Special Affinity Only Demons Possess (100% PURE)

Lightning Affinity [Mana Talent] -> Lightning (75%)

Demon Resilience [Physical Talent] -> Defense Stat Increases 10x Faster

Demon Transformation/Inheritance [Special Talent] -> LOCKED CONDITIONS MUST BE MET

Demon Speed [Physical Talent] -> Agility Stat Increases 5x Faster

Disciple of The Feeling [Special Trait - Counter Stage]

-> All Weapon Skills Are Learned 300x Faster

-> Prediction and Redirection Are Perceived 50x Faster

-> Senses Are 5x More Sensitive

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Having 2 years passed, Welnir improved as he not only achieved higher stats earlier than the previous him. Welnir had also managed to learn and achieve learning the Feeling all the way into the Counter stage. Being able to advance all the way into the Counter stage, Welnir could finally somewhat get used to the blindness and senses of the Feeling. This had also made Welnir be able to redirect and block attacks accurately.

“Master Gulious, recently I seem to see a change in my status panel. It says rank 0 Knight Mage? I’ve never seen this before.”

As Welnir trained he had noticed recently that as he opened his status panel he found his rank status to be completely different from the normal blank. Even before this when he was a regular knight back then he had never had seen anything change. The only time he had seen this change was recently as he had achieved Counter stage not too long ago.

“Ah, you finally achieved Rank status! It’s pretty simple actually. Most regular people who aren’t mages usually don’t get this Rank status at all. From your category of a mage usually it would show your category and rank. Every rank is set in a system of 3 sub advances. These 3 sub advances are basically formatted into gas, liquid, and solid advances.”

Explaining the rankings Gulious explained there was no definitive highest rank at all. In the records of history the highest a person had ever advanced was rank 24. Furthermore, that person was a Knight Mage that had ruled a particular continent thousands of years ago before completely disappearing mysteriously. Naturally as one became familiar with advancing ranks usually it became harder and harder to advance as the body would be damaged if one were to forcefully advance without proper requirements being met.

Obviously, the higher the ranking someone achieves the stronger one is. Explaining further, Gulious based ranks on the intelligence stat that a person has. A certain amount of Intelligence has to be met to achieve the said rank before one needs to do a special meditation of collecting mana and advancing. Usually advancing was dangerous as one would need to be at their top condition to be able to smoothly advance without getting permanent damage. It was dangerous since collecting mana for advancement was completely different than just regenerating mana.

The advance consisted of compressing mana of high amounts beyond one's capacity. In the process came circulating this amount in the body as the body would change in drastic ways. As one continues their body would increase in power, specifically a mages’ mana would become completely different as it would hold higher concentrations of mana which makes them stronger.

“Though I’ve explained this to you I wouldn’t worry about it right now. What’s more important is training right now, ahaha!”

Saying this, Gulious initiated Welnir to once again take up the blindfold as he once again used the wooden stick to poke and swing at Welnir. Swinging repeatedly and changing positions, Gulious was smiling as he was jealous, but at the same time shocked as the boy in front of him had the talent to fully achieve mastery in a shorter amount of time than him. Gulious knew this rate of learning was crazy as he himself as a disciple before had never advanced this quickly. His master, who was unnamed and blind had told him as a disciple before that his rate of learning was really fast. Though as he looked towards Welnir, Gulious was overshined as Welnir advanced in a more monstrous way than he had before.

‘Ah, damn, why do I keep getting dizzy all of a sudden?’

Though Gulious was training Welnir, suddenly he saw that Welnir was off as his movements became sluggish. Seeing this Gulious was concerned, but as he thought about Welnir’s previous movements he thought nothing of it as he started once again attacking Welnir.

“W-wait, something’s off, my head’s getting dizzy.”

As Gulious was about to begin his set of attacks suddenly Welnir took off his blindfold as he suddenly staggered sluggishly.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

Seeing this, Gulious was concerned as he walked towards Welnir. Though as Gulious was about to walk towards Welnir suddenly a collective of voices were heard behind them. As Gulious heard this he sensed that a huge crowd of people were gathering near them as Gulious grabbed Welnir quickly to hide.

“Well, students, today this will be our station for the day. This area is known as the Rocky Plains and we’ll be doing some combat tests for you talented mages!”

Having grabbed Welnir, Gulious was cautious as he hid carefully from the group as he saw the head of the group to be a rank 6 mage. Following the rank 6 mage came a collective of kids ranging the ages of children to teenage people.

“Umm, teacher, is it just me or did you sense that huge pool of mana around here?”

A student questioned as the other students agreed as all of them too sensed a large pool of mana before completely disappearing in thin air.

“Well, it seems you all are quite observant, I did sense it, but it seems like they left quite quickly. Either that or they’re strong enough to conceal their presence from my level of sensing mana. Though I assure you students that there is nothing here, not many mages are as of a high rank as I am.”

The teacher who spoke was of average height as he was about 5 ft 6 and wore a mage robe in black. Having been assured the students, they quickly thought of it as nothing too as they followed the teacher’s instructions releasing their abilities towards the swarm of rocks to test their powers.

Though as the students did this a particular girl in the group with bright blonde hair looked afar towards Gulious and Welnir who were hiding behind a large rock. As she felt something, suddenly she raised her hand as a white tattoo appeared on her right hand showing a woman with wings praying.

“That rock, teacher, I think there might be someone there.”

Though as the girl questioned this the teacher ignored her as he responded that it was nothing as he scanned once more finding nothing. Seeing this the girl was confused as she never saw her tattoo ever glow so brightly. Going back to training, the girl inevitably went back to testing her powers as she scored the highest amongst the students.

“Nice! Well, done Aidah, being the most talented and being the descendant of the ancient Angel race I wouldn’t expect less.”

Aidah, it was her name, a girl so special even the Divine Kingdom had to be careful of. She came from a mysterious race that was revered as an immortal race. Their race was special as every Angel was strong and became legends in the earliest of times. It was rare for one to see an Angel as most of them were scattered everywhere in the world.

Though as this happened Gulious was strangely shocked as he noticed the girl, who seemed to be around 9 years old, looked towards them as if she clearly saw them behind the rock. Sensing this Gulious was curious as he noticed she had also scored the highest in their test.

“Ah, what’s happening, why is it glowing?! My head hurts!”

Saying this Welnir was in pain as the area on his left hand glowed bright red. As Welnir was in pain suddenly it had pointed him towards the area the group of mages were testing their powers in. Being forcefully pointed in that direction, Welnir’s eyes glued towards a particular individual as he saw someone familiar. Specifically, the girl was beautifully pale skinned with bright blonde hair and red eyes. Having seen this Welnir saw that this girl was the woman in his weird dream of memories.

‘Aidah…’

Having seen the girl, Welnir suddenly said a name in his head that he had not said in decades. Welnir remembered that this girl was a childhood attention seeker that became a friend as he enrolled to become a knight for the Divine Kingdom. Though Welnir had become a knight this person would always nag Welnir and tease him as he came back from missions. But as time had passed Welnir one day came back without her meeting him anymore as she seemed to have disappeared from the kingdom entirely.

Though Welnir was ecstatic and excited from remembering this person, Gulious saw that the situation was bad as he knew if he didn’t hide his mana properly this teacher would report him to the higher ups. For Welnir he was not detected as the mana he emitted was nearly negligible. Being cautious and not taking any risks Gulious carried Welnir as they both vanished instantly without leaving a trace.

“Wait, that girl, I think I know her!”

Though as he said this Gulious was already far away as they had already come near the smithy. Hearing this though Gulious stopped briefly as he was intrigued from Welnir’s response to the girl as he himself was wanting answers from the mysterious girl.

“You know that girl? She’s bad news, I’ve never seen anyone pin point our position that accurately, she was basically staring at us face to face.”

Though he considered Gulious, Welnir straightened his thoughts as he didn’t want to say that he had met this girl before in a different timeline.

“Well…I saw the girl before in the streets walking in the markets.”

Lying, Welnir wondered about Aidah as he only knew 2 things about her that made her peculiar. To Welnir she was a mage, one that strangely considered him as a friend even though back then he was talentless in being a mage. Secondly, she was a girl that was mysterious and had always been disappearing with a beautiful woman with her when they had departed from each other. Welnir had always considered her a person that pitied too much and was bound to leave him regardless in the future as a friend.

Though what struck Welnir the most was that when she was near him this time, the newly gained tattoo he had obtained, which he had linked to the Demon race’s blood brought him pain. Welnir knew she was special, she had always talked about her being one of the best in the mage academies. Though the situation that had happened recently was strange as Welnir wondered if the Demon blood he had obtained linked towards Aidah.

“Wait, that’s it? Well, if that’s the case we can’t really do much. That girl is mysterious, but all we can do is ignore it. I also didn’t expect a class of mages would be using our regular site for testing.”

Agreeing, Welnir had no choice, but to ignore this particularity as he knew he had to focus on his own training, and not be distracted in theories that would lead him to lose progress.

As they approached the smithy Gulious heaved a sigh before they both entered the smithy. Gulious heaved a sigh as he had been hiding from the Divine Kingdom for over decades now. Gulious knew he had to be careful as even though he was strong there were existences beyond his capability.

Having been interrupted from their training Gulious led Welnir towards the smithy as they rested. Experiencing this oddity Welnir shrugged it off as Gulious led him down the basement.

“Since we can’t use that place to train anymore I’ve thought of a solution! Specifically, you will be in seclusion training for a year! Such talent cannot be stopped until that person succeeds!”

Saying this both Gulious and Welnir entered the basement as Gulious pulled out a sword from the corner of winery barrels. Grabbing the sword, Gulious suddenly struck at the stone ground as he cleanly carved out a fleet of stairs leading further down. After some time Gulious had reached about a 100 meters down before stopping.

As Gulious stopped he carved out a door in front of him as he hastily blitzed the walls into dust as he carved the area around the underground area. Time passed slowly as in time the area looked to be a gigantic gym of sorts with pillars supporting the roof of the area.

“This will be our training room now. No one will bother us over here and you can still be here if you want. I also have enough coins for us to live off for a year.”

After that, Welnir began to live with Gulious as Welnir left the orphanage forever. Everyday came with training as days went to weeks, into months, and later into a year after.

Even though that incident was peculiar, Welnir and Gulious’s goals were straightforward as they rushed for results in training without leaving a second of time wasted.

A year passed casually, as Welnir awoke in the gym with him bare chested and his body was completely tightly packed with muscles. Welnir surveyed his surroundings as he inadvertently dodged to the right as his eyes were still closed. Having dodged to his right, Gulious’s sword flew late as it didn’t make it in time.

“Ahaha, you’re too talented my disciple! To reach this level in such a short time, I can predict for sure you’ll be a monster against the world ahaha!”

Hearing this, Welnir was annoyed as he stood up. After a year had passed many changes happened as Welnir stood at 5 ft 9 as his body looked packed tightly lean with muscle as if he had armor on. After having woken up Welnir knew that today was special, as the Mage Selection was coming today as anyone the ages of 8-15 could enter the selection to be chosen as a student in the mage academies.

“Master, it’s time isn’t it?”

Observing Welnir, Gulious laughed as he smirked afterwards. Grabbing a scythe, Gulious threw it towards Welnir. Having thrown the scythe, Welnir casually grabbed it as suddenly Welnir vanished into thin air before appearing in front of Gulious.

“To think I would find a disciple with such talent, I couldn’t be more grateful!”

Saying this Gulious pulled out a scythe too as they both clashed with one another. Fighting with one another it looked as if both of them were on the same level of comprehension as both of them knew how to attack each other.

“To reach the Attack stage, you can finally wield any weapon properly! For you to wield this scythe so perfectly, I applaud! Hah!”

Both fought as they vanished quickly before attacking each other hastily. For Welnir he found Gulious to be extremely perfect as every attack synched from one another creating a dance that almost looked like it was rehearsed.

‘To think even after training so hard and reaching the Attack stage, I can’t even overwhelm him!’

Noticing this Gulious laughed as something changed drastically. Gulious for some reason completely disappeared as Welnir tried to sense him with the Feeling. Though as he tried to do so a millisecond passed by as suddenly Welnir was thrown abruptly towards the wall.

‘W-what was that! He just vanished without me being able to sense him.’

Thinking about this Welnir struggled to get up as his body shook from the intense power that Gulious exerted towards him.

“Ahaha, you may have reached the Attack stage, but it seems you can’t grasp the tiniest details of my movement yet! Well, enough for this morning practice it seems you will be attending the Mage Selection, right?”

Standing up, Welnir nodded, as he quickly recovered from the attack. Moving forward Welnir grabbed his shirt as he readied himself for the selection. Grabbing his stuff, Gulious signaled Welnir to come towards him. Confused, Welnir went towards Gulious as he was suddenly thrown a metal cube.

Observing this cube, Welnir found that it had a hollow inside. As he touched one of the sides of the cube suddenly a tear of space appeared before a weapon appeared, specifically a sword. Further looking at the cube Welnir pressed every side as a different weapon appeared for each side. All in all 6 weapons were inside the cube, a sword, a scythe, a hammer, a spear, a bow and arrows, and lastly a dagger.

“That’s a spatial device which can store weapons and hastily eject a weapon you wish to use. It’s a gift of mine as we depart from each other, but we will meet soon.”

As he heard this Welnir was thankful as he knew he had to spend time in the mage academies now. Departing, Welnir took the cube as he threw it into his pyramid before going up the fleet of stairs outside the smithy.

‘A monster will soon rise. I better prepare too though, the chaos will ensue as the decades come. Ahaha, I’m glad I came here…’

Feeling the world shifting, Gulious laughed before mysteriously vanishing from the smithy entirely, leaving the old memories of training his disciple.

“Hmm, what was that?”

Looking back confused, Welnir saw nothing as he hurriedly left the smithy too.