Edward Suncrest Pov

The Five Elements Tower consisted of 15 Wizard families. 1 five element family, 2 four element families, 3 three element families, 4 two element families and five single element families. The more elements a family had, the more powerful it was. Well you probably would have guessed that already.

Well why was I talking about this? Bear with me, I’m getting to it.

Anyways, as I was saying, the more elements a family had, the more powerful it was. This means that the Five Elements Tower was essentially run by the five and four element families. The other were just there I guess. Well maybe the three element families are the basic workforce that followed the orders of the higher ranked families.

To put it unflatteringly would be to say that they were servants.

Why did this matter? Well every Wizard who entered the Five Elements Tower would eventually have to join one of these families.

Except.

We could only join the one element to three element families.

If I were to give a reason for this, then it would likely be for safety concerns.

No matter what organization it was, they would never allow outsiders to be part of their top brass. Were there to be too many, the original owners would become cast aside, removed from their organization, losing all power they originally had.

This also essentially made it impossible for the outsiders to riot and overthrow the original top brass, ensuring they had a firm grip over the entire organization. Well call it the woes of someone who has no choice but to be a slave.

Well anyway, we were tested and examined just now… as I thought, only me and Amber rose managed to get into a three element family. I entered the divlisi family, pretty sure that that was Greek for refining, but refining what, I do not know.

Now here’s the problem. They put Main Character in a one element family.

The worst one, the lowest one.

Even though they clearly knew he had the Five Element Soul Ark.

Yet there he was.

An incomparably large mistake, even if I do say so myself.

I had seen it happening too, the malice which passed through the examiner’s eyes as he spouted what he assumed to be a death sentence to Main Character.

Oh, how wrong he was.

Even worse, there seemed to be an actual reason for his malice. Later, I had searched around and found out that, apparently one of the young masters of the Tower had been jealous that he managed to gain the approval of the Five Element Soul Ark and had decided to make life terrible for Main Character.

It seems that you don’t understand how bad one element families have it. Well, let me put it into perspective for you.

The worst resources.

The last to get their allowances/incomes.

The least respected.

The- well I suppose you get it by now.

Unfortunately, the victim here was Main Character.

What a big mistake they are making, and yet no one knows.

Let me reiterate.

What a big fucking joke.

Did they not have heroes in their generation? Did they not have Geniuses, the highest of the high back in their time? Or was this the main character aura working its magic here? Did they not have bards, who sang of the outrageous feats of heroism of people?

The four element family that that young master belonged to was done for.

It was fucked. I gave it 11 months to live.

And yet no one knew of the grave mistake that had been made.

Well maybe Amber rose knows.

That cruel smile on her lips when she saw what happened, as she stared at the examiner, as she glanced towards me…

Undeniably the most dangerous one I have met yet.

A true [Psycho]

I just hoped that this didn’t affect me in the future…

Well internal monologue (Rant) aside, I had a good starting point. The divlisi family was a respected family amongst the Tower and were one of the best three element families to be accepted by. Even better, it seems as though buttering up to Hakha had amounted to something, since I was in the family that he was in.

He probably pulled some strings to have me accepted.

Looks like I’ll have to prepare some ‘gifts’ for him later…

Now, I was being escorted to the main hall of the divlisi family, to be officially introduced to the family. The future was bright, no need to think about the Towers impending doom, yes that’s right, there’s a lot of options out there, at most I’ll just have to become a knight right…

6 hours later

Having given away 3 of my Mana potions I received upon joining the divlisi family to Hakha and promptly receiving them back, I was once again in my room.

The conversation between us went somewhat like this.

Me: Here’s 3 Mana potions as a thank you ‘gift’

Hakha: No need, they are useless to me anyway, since you understand my intentions, consider it an ‘investment’ in you.

Me: Thanks!

Hakha: In exchange, 2 weeks later, you must participate in the Hunting regiments recruitment trials.

Me: …ok

Afterwards, I had traded one of my three Mana potions for 15 Mana tonics, which once more affirmed their value in my mind.

So now, here I was, sitting in my bedroom, doing some research on the fire element. I had purchased some books talking about the basics of the fire element and Wizards in general, which had some really fancy titles like ‘A basic primer to the fire element’, ‘The basics of Wizards’, ‘The history of the Wizards of Earth’ and ‘Controlling mana: the do’s and the don’ts’.

What did I use to purchase them? My Mana tonics of course.

Generally, Wizards use Mana crystals as a currency, but they also believed in equivalent exchange, thus meaning that as long as you had something of equal or better value, they would trade. Which was how I got a hold of these books, since the seller was a guy almost at the peak of rank 1.

Turning the page, I continued memorizing the contents of ‘The history of the Wizards of Earth’. It was quite the entertaining book, that was for sure. It told of the history of the Wizards on earth.

Apparently, the first Wizard who stayed behind on earth was a rank 7 Wizard, who was well versed in the power of light, and was a peaceful person. The second Wizard who stayed behind was also a rank 7 Wizard, however, he was a powerful and cruel person who wielded the power of darkness. They both regularly got into fights, due to their conflicting ideologies. The organizations they created, the Wizard’s association and the Dark Wizard Tower similarly conflicted with each other often.

Thus, the Wizards on Earth were split into two factions, called Light Wizards and Dark Wizards. The Five Elements Tower that I was a part of was one of the mid-level organizations in the Wizard’s association. Meaning that I was a Light Wizard, who’s upbringing would be weak. I couldn’t accept that.

Didn’t I start my path as a Wizard to be strong? To think that I made a bad choice… well it shouldn’t matter as long as I constantly fought others. Since the Light Wizards and Dark Wizards still had conflicts against each other, it meant that there was definitely a regiment of Light Wizards that fought against Dark Wizards.

Looking through the small booklet the divlisi family had provided me, I found what I was looking for.

The Hunting Regiment, a special regiment of Light Wizards who fought against Dark Wizards. Recruitment was at the end of the month, with the minimum requirement of having 35 Mana and 35 Mind power.

As long as I joined them and regularly fought, be it against monsters or Dark Wizards, I should be able to hone my fighting skills. Looking at the requirements and doing some mental maths, I figured that I should be able to make the deadline, provided that I didn’t slack off on meditation.

This also coincided with what Hakha wanted me to do, so it was killing two birds with one stone.

A sudden beeping rang out in the room, causing me to notice the time. It was already 10pm, time for my daily meditation. Taking out another bottle of Mana tonic, I downed it in one gulp. It had already been a week since I last taken one, and my speed slowed so much that it was unbearable.

Sitting on my floor, I began furiously meditating. Everything would begin when the one month, when the ban on killing would be lifted, and when I could join the

2 weeks later, in a room that smelled of fragrant citrus, a large bald man sat cross-legged on the floor. Sweat was rolling down the side of his head, showing that he was rather uncomfortable right now.

[Edward Suncrest’s Mana has increased by 0.34, Mind power has increased by 0.12]

[An 8 hour meditation session has honed Edward Suncrest’s will, Unwavering Will Lvl 2 has become Unwavering Will Lvl 3, Mind power now undergoes multiplier of 1.3]

[Edward Suncrest]

Rank 1

Gender: Male

Vitality: 12.6

Strength: 13.6

Mana: 35.18

Mind Power: 27 (35.1)

Attack: N/A Defence: N/A

Skills: Unwavering Will Lvl 3

Spells: Spiral of flame, Fireball

Soul Arks: Fire Manipulation Soul Ark (71%)

Setting down the test tube filled with blue powder, I sighed in relief.

That level up from Unwavering Will had been really timely. I had been struggling a lot with Mind power recently, especially after I crossed the 25 points threshold. If Mana was fuel, then Mind power was what guided it. To my horror, I had not paid attention to this, leading to a lack of increase in my Mind power. By the time I realised, only 3 days were left, not enough time for me to slowly increase it, leading to my purchase of a vial of Enchanted Drenore.

Enchanted Drenore would help me drastically increase my Mind power in a short amount of time, although the side effects were disastrous. From my estimates, I would lose slightly less than half my vitality, and my strength would drop as well.

I had intended to consume it after my final meditation, and looks like my choice was right. Unwavering Will had swooped in and picked me up like a damsel in distress! Although this didn’t solve my problem in the long term. Placing the potion back in my potion chest, I stood up and cracked my knuckles. My muscles bulged through the Wizard robes, once again accentuating my burly frame.

Although I was a Wizard, I still didn’t stop exercising. At least one hour a day was the rule. I didn’t want to be unable to engage in close ranged combat after all. Though this did garner me weird looks in the Tower, I didn’t really mind.

Dusting myself off, I opened a small chest below my bed. The chest contained several things, which was: My revolver, one Mana potion, a small stick which would act as my mana conductor, a pair of sunglasses and several books. Removing the fake bottom, I reached in and took out a small enchanted ring I had bought with one Mana potion. Removing the second fake bottom, I placed the tube of Enchanted Drenore back inside, before removing the third fake bottom to reveal a small pouch, which I took out and kept in my robe. One could never be too careful, a belief I lived my life by.

Putting everything else back, I took the pouch, the ring the stick and my revolver.

Sliding the ring onto my middle finger, I rubbed the simple engravings on it, thinking about its preciousness. I had traded one entire Mana potion for it, or in other words, 15 Mana tonics. It was a worthwhile investment, since its effects were amazing.

[Ring of strength]

[Increases strength temporarily by 10 points, vitality by 5, if used too often, may cause mutations]

[Buffs only apply until strength and agility reaches 20]

Well I mean the mutation thing was kind f a downer, but I intended to use this as an emergency weapon anyway, so theoretically, it shouldn’t happen to me. Apart from the ring, the stick was also important, since it would be my main weapon.

It was about the size of a police baton, and sturdier than one as well.

[Sturdy Wand]

[Increases Mana flow efficiency, casting speed increased by 2 seconds when wielding it]

In a battle between Wizards, the winner was usually the one who casted their spells first, meaning casting speed would be an important factor in fights. More than that, I intended to use this as a stun baton whenever I can. After all, with my current Mana, I could only cast fireball 4 times and spiral of flame twice.

I had to conserve my Mana whenever I could, since running out of it meant defeat, and defeats led to certain death.

Walking out of my room, I proceeded towards the front desk. After showing the Wizard there my pouch, I was directed towards a seemingly simple door, except unlike the other doors hovering around it, it had a keyhole. Taking a key out of the pouch, I slotted it into the door, causing the space around me to distort, teleporting me to my destination.

Mr. Main Character Pov

The scent of the forest tickled my nose, the smell of damp earth and fallen leaves combining together to refresh my body. It was curious really, why these smells could sooth the soul the way they did.

Walking around, I remembered my objective for coming here… that’s right, I was currently taking part in the Hunting regiments recruitment trials. I had to do well in this test in order to help the Lederman family, the one element family I was assigned to. If I managed to become a rookie of the Hunting regiment, my status would be greatly elevated, since the Hunting regiment was an extremely important part of the tower.

This would definitely help me in my goal, to defeat that bastard. That bastard from a four element family who pushed me down to where I was right now. Not only did that bastard take away my Five Element Soul Ark, he even destroyed it when it wouldn’t submit to him.

I hate him.

I HATE HIM

But it was alright, for I would have my revenge. Rubbing the small pendant on my neck, I assured myself of that fact. The Lederman family was much more mysterious than it looked. After so long of being oppressed, they had hidden quite a lot of powerful resources, Wizards and Soul Arks in a bid to break free from their situation.

Having understood my situation, they had decided to help me! Thinking about the faces of the Wizards, looking at me as if I was their hope, I once again promised myself to do y best for them. They had supported me when I was down, so I would definitely reciprocate their kindness!

The pendant I was rubbing right now was one of the items they had given me.

[Devouring Pendant]

[One-use item, can help host completely absorb and consume something, and become its new owner]

They also gave me a Soul Ark embryo.

It was a Soul Ark embryo of a Five Element Soul Ark, since I had excellent talent in all five elements. This time, my objective was also to grow this Soul Ark and properly imprint it.

Just you wait bastard! I will make you pay!