In the continent of Mianol, there was a place filled with many patches of fog, waterfalls, and towering rock formations. The land was filled with trees and dense vegetation. Often one could hear birds screeching.

Through one of the waterfalls, there was a cave. Inside the cave was a man named Galvion. Galvion looked like a young man. A scar filled his right face with a blind eye. His hair was white and he would look handsome without his scars.

He was wearing a black leather robe with a black top hat with a white band. The top hat looked ragged but it seemed to have been kept safe. By Galvion's side was a wooden staff that looked like a bone. On the tip of the staff was a clear crystal.

Galvion eyes were blue and he was currently tinkering with a small device. He had only one main goal now that his other small goals were done. In the corner of the room, there was a baby dragon. The baby dragon looked at Galvion cheerfully.

The dragon was green with white horns. Its wing hasn't reached a huge wingspan yet. The dragon rolled on the ground and looked at him happily while chirping. He looked at the dragon and smiled. He then went back to tinkering with his device.

Suddenly the waterfall parted open and a woman came into the cave. She had green hair with a pretty face. She was wearing a green tight leather dress. She looked at the dragon as if it were her son.

She went towards it and pulled out some jerky from the cabinet in the cave. Taking the jerky she fed it. The baby dragon happily are the jerky while she caressed it’s head.

The woman with green hair was named Lafean. She was a forest dragon of low rank 3. The reason she was with Galvion was that there was a time when he saved her only child from another dragon. She owed him three favors and this was the second favor he asked for.

The second favor he asked her for was to collect mana cores till he had enough. She agreed and has been collecting mana cores for many years. Lafean knew Galvion's true strength. It's been hundreds of years since they've been together.

She once asked why Galvion didn't just go out and collect the mana cores himself when he was way stronger than her. Instead of giving her an answer he told her his story.

Galvion was born a commoner. He had a childhood sweetheart who was named Merinna. They were both the same age. Both of them grew up pretty and lovely.

They loved each other and they planned to live happily together till death does them apart. They had married at 16 and lived happily until 18. One day a tax collector came and saw how pretty Merinna was.

The tax collector tried to court Merinna but she refused. The tax collector left with rage. Both Merinna and Galvion knew the tax collector had ulterior motives so they tried to leave the village they lived in quickly.

Unfortunately for the two, the whole village knew what they were thinking. The tax this year was very harsh and if the two ran; it might anger the tax collector who might increase the tax. They felt bad for doing it at first since Galvion and Merinna had always been kind people who helped them out.

Unfortunately, they didn't feel bad for long when the tax collector came back with soldiers. The tax collector framed Galvion and Merinna. Galvion and Merinna pleaded with the soldiers and the villagers that they were innocent and the villagers and soldiers both knew it.

Unfortunately, no one stood up for the two of them. Galvion and Merinna were then split apart. Galvion was taken to a slave camp to pay off his fake debts and Merinna was taken somewhere else with the tax collectors.

At the slave camp, Galvion was beaten and whipped every day. The mana in the world and the food they gave the slaves maintain his body. Many slaves in the camp lost their will to live with dull eyes. The only thing that kept the slaves from suiciding was their instinct to live.

Galvion didn't lose hope though. Thinking about Merinna kept him strong. Even though he knew something bad had most likely already happened to her, he still kept going on keeping false hope and faith. Every day he would pray to the three human gods of the continent hoping for Merinna's safety.

Galvion had tried to escape from the camp many times but the watchers always caught him. After years of working, he finally paid off his debts. The first thing he did after leaving the camp was to go after Merinna. Unfortunately, he couldn't get far before bandits came and attacked him. The bandits were hired by the tax collector but Galvion didn't know that.

Galvion barely managed to escape with his life and went into the forest filled with dangerous creatures. He didn't come out of the forest since he had a bounty for killing an innocent person which the tax collector framed on him.

Living in the forest was tough but he held on because of Merinna. One day he saw a baby dragon and it seemed to be scared. Far away he could see two dragons clashing against each other. He saw that one was green while the other was red. The baby dragon was green so its mother was most likely the green dragon.

Galvion decided to help the baby dragon. He convinced it to trust him with some jerkies. He made the jerkies by hunting animals and obtaining salt from a rock formation. After the dragon are the jerkies, it started trusting him and Galvion led it to a cave under the waterfall.

The inside of the cave was filled with dense mana since it was close to a mana vein. The mana vein hid the presence of the two. Sensing that it couldn't sense its child's location the green dragon ran away since it was no match for the red dragon. A green dragon was a forest dragon and a red dragon was a fire dragon. The advantages were with the fire dragon.

The fire dragon tried to find the baby green dragon but it couldn't. It roared and burned the forest. It searched everywhere while roaring. It searched for many days until it finally decided to give up.

The green dragon returned to the surrounding land and started healing it. It roared for its baby and its baby tried to call for it but Galvion stopped it. Galvion was a slave for a long time and he got smart quickly during his time as a slave. He thought that the red dragon was most likely nearby waiting for the green dragon to return and call out its baby.

Once its baby came out, the red dragon would attack. The green dragon roared for days but its baby didn't show up. Days soon turned on to many days but the green dragon didn't stop roaring. The inside of the cave was filled with food since Galvion stockpiled it so he and the baby dragon were able to last a long time.

When the baby dragon first tried to go out towards his mother, Galvion explained to it that if it went out now; the red dragon would attack and kill its mother. Understanding his logic and reason, the baby dragon stayed in the cave with him.

Finally, a day came when the green dragon's roar was very hoarse. Seeing that the red dragon was most likely gone, Galvion brought out the baby dragon. The mother dragon saw its only baby left and roared with happiness. Her other babies had long been killed by the red dragon who wanted to increase its mana by feasting on baby dragons.

The dragon looked at Galvion distrustfully and its baby explain to it what Galvion did and why he did it. After seeing Galvion’s reasons, she started to trust him and gave him three favors. Galvion's first favor was for her to rescue Merinna.

The dragon refused since there were many humans rank 3 that could easily take her down. In the end, the first favor Galvion asked for was for the dragon to make him a rank 3 human. The dragon agreed and started teaching him spells while increasing his strength.

Over time Galvion learned of the green dragon’s name which was Lafean. Lafean's only son left was named Lafone. The three built a close bond being together and one-day Galvion soon reached low rank 3 after training for ten years.

Times inside the cave was sped up by the Lafean and the outside world only passed by a year. The reason time in the cave could be sped up was because Lafean had used the mana vein in the cave to increase the flow of time.

One might ask how it was possible to reach a low rank 3 in ten years. For the average human, it was impossible to reach low rank 1 without hard work, It was impossible to reach low rank 2 without resources, it was impossible to reach low rank 3 without talent, it was impossible to reach low rank 4 without all three, and it was impossible to reach rank 5 without enough life span. Galvion had the talent from enduring the slave camp without breaking his mind, he had the resources which was the mana vein, and he had the hard work which was to save Merinna.