Walking aimlessly Cygnus pondered "Hmmm Should I go to the barracks or not? Maybe not, but the chief might scold me... Ahhgggg decisions.. decisions." he was thinking really hard. "I should find a workshop first, I didn't have any time to get my weapon fixed, might as well have it checked".

Cygnus scanned the surrounding establishments. “Ugh, I have no Idea where I am”

"No good, this city is too big, I'll have to ask someone". He looked around in the area for someone to ask directions from. He locked his gaze onto a general store, he noticed a middle-aged woman together with a young girl, they were loading multiple crates in a cart. “There!”

“Mother, this is really heavy..”. The young girl was struggling to lift one the crates, she then accidentally lost her grip and was thrown out of balance. “Oh no..” She slipped and was about to fall over when Cygnus caught and supported her by the waist.

“Careful miss, a girl such as yourself should not be carrying these crates.”. The young girl was shocked as she looked to see who was holding her. She then remembered that she dropped the crates only to find that they were floating safely in the air. “They’re safe” Cygnus smiled and waved his hand, the crates then slowly landed on the ground. “Thank you, sir.”.

"No worries miss, I was just passing by. By the way, may I know if there are any magic workshops nearby?" He said in a very dignified manner, the woman was instantly mesmerized. *blush "Ah yes, there's actually a workshop just 3 blocks away from here... Uhm, if you want I can walk you there." she said in a sweet voice. "I couldn't trouble you with that..." "No! it's really no trouble at all".

Despite Cygnus' real attitude of being sloppy and lazy, he can easily switch his demeanor in order to suit his needs. Cygnus though "It never fails... Hehe". "Hayrain Shop, ah let's get this over with"

—————————————

Azrael was rigorously working on refining the stone, then he paused "Phew, I'm so tired, just 10 more to go, have been working since I got here"

The refining process involves purifying, tempering and inscribing. The last step is what gives the stone power. The process of magic stone refining is quite simple but it is very taxing on the mind and drains quite a lot of mana.

“If my assessment goes well then I can finally go to the academy and leave this place. I don’t want to get stuck here in this shop doing this forever, otherwise, I’ll be proving the Clan Elders right". Azrael’s eyes were focused

“Its already past noon, I should probably take a break”

Suddenly a loud crash sounded from above. Azrael immediately ran up and saw broken pieces of equipment, and broken vials with its gleaming contents spilled all over the floor.

“Granpa what’s happening” Azrael soon discovered that a group of men was surrounding his grandfather Ansel. Specifically one of them was holding him by his cuffs.

“You old fool! We are your customers yet you dare disrespect us?! These commoners I tell you.”

“Let go of him!” Azrael said with angry eyes as he shouted.

The man glanced sideways to the boy. “Oh if it isn't the whelp, what are you going to do about it?”

Azrael instantly recognized this person. He was one of the Elders of the Anguis clan, Henrickson.

“What are they even doing, here?” Azrael fumed with anger. It wasn't enough that they have been exiled as family, they had to come here to cause trouble. Azrael’s hands were trembling, and mana was slowly gathering in his hand.

“Magic huh? It seems you do possess a bit of talent after all. Well then give it your best shot”. With a bit of a mocking smile, the elder tossed his grandfather to the side.

“You bastard! A triple stacked magic circle formed, his 2 hands aimed at the elder, Light: Beam.

“Azrael no! Don’t do it.” His grandfather pleaded despite his frailty.

The highly strengthened beam fired straight to the elder, however as soon as it neared 2 meters the elder raised his hand and received the beam barehanded. The spell was blocked. “Trash..” The elder muttered. Before Azrael even had time to react to what happened the elder was already in front of him with a punch delivered directly to the gut. “Ugh,” Azrael coughed up blood and his body slowly slumped to the ground.

“Now this is more like it, Now say that you are trash.” Said the elder with a satisfied smile. “No! It's you who are trash!” Azrael roared, despite this Azreal, still tried to gather mana to try to cast another spell. As he did this, the elder kicked Azrael. He pulled out his sword and was about to inflict a permanent injury.

Clang Clang Clang, the Doorbells rang as it slowly opened.

“Hoh, to think that one of the 6 clans would actually bully a simple shop, Anguis’ standards have truly declined.” A lazy voice sounded. The group of people glanced back to see a soldier with a cold aura.

“Cygnus!!” They instantly recognized him, his appearance was hard to forget especially the fact that he is a Knight.

“I suggest you sheath that weapon otherwise, I will drag you to the city prison myself”

“Hmph... To think that the great Scion of the Andares Clan would grace us with your Presence.” Henrickson slowly sheathed his sword and signaled his men. They walked passed Cygnus without any eye contact.

“Old man, make sure to remember the arrangement, we won’t be so nice to let you go next time.”

“Are you guys okay? It’s a good thing I was on my way here in the first place otherwise you would have been goners” Cygnus asked as he helped the old man.

“Thank you for your help Sir, my grandchild would've been gravely injured if you hadn't intervened.”

“Dammit!!” Both hands banged against the floor. “They weren't content of exiling us and now this. Grandpa tell me everything, why were they here?” Azrael asked

Sighing. “I’ll tell you about it later, for now, let's fix up this mess. Sir Knight, why have you visited the shop? If it's for the rush order of magic stones, we’re still lacking a few more, but we’ll definitely deliver on the due date.”

“Magic stones? Ah no, I don’t know anything about that. I’m actually here to get my weapon re-energized plus some minor repairs if possible, I’m going to be here for a month so I can't go to my personal Smith, so could you check it out for me?” Cygnus pulled out a rapier from his Rune Storage and set it on the counter.

Grandpa Ansel took the rapier and examined it. It was a spell-sword and Perfect-grade at that, its materials are probably very expensive. “Sure, you can pick this up tomorrow”

“Hey kid, that man you tried to fight was way out of your league, you could have been killed you know. I don’t know if you’re brave or just stupid” Cygnus said while leaning on the counter.

“Stupid?? What would you have done if your family was getting hurt in front of your eyes? Just stand there?” Azrael angrily retorted.

“Azrael! don't shout at our benefactor!” grandpa Ansel sternly said and looked bowed slightly to Cygnus. “I'm sorry for my grandson’s attitude, he’s a bit disrespectful but he really means well.”

“Hahaha it's fine, I like people with guts” He patted Azrael in the back. “Get stronger kid, that's the only true way to be free of oppressors, I’ll be back tomorrow pops”

—————————————

After a few hours Azrael finished fixing the mess at the store with that he left the shop and dashed straight to his master's house.

“Alright, we’ll begin the training immediately,” Gerald said as he summoned 5 Spectral wolves with varying color intensities. They slowly encircled Azrael little by little.

Azrael readied himself and went into battle mode. The leaves rustle and after a few moments, the wolves chased. He began drawing small magic circles to increase his speed, not allowing himself to be surrounded. “Light steps”, specs of light emanated from his boots, and off he went, leaving a trail of light.

He readied another spell as he was continually evading the pursuit.

“Let's go for the weakest one first,” Azrael thought. He increased the magic output on “Light steps” and dashed past the incoming wolves, Moving him swiftly to the backline.

“Now!” He fired off an “Illuminance Arrow” directly piercing the wolf’s head.”One down!” he went to evasive maneuvers and continued with the hit and run tactic until all the wolves were destroyed. Occasionally needing to fire multiple spells just to kill one wolf.

“Tch. I’m really lacking in power, that bastard just blocked one of my strongest spells with his bare hands” Cygnus thought with a frustrated expression on his face.

“Good work! Now there's some progress, with this I’d say your battle skills are slightly tolerable now”

Gerald smiled as he said.

“To be honest master, I think its really lacking. I wish I had stronger spells.” Azrael said looking down with a dejected face.”

“What happened to you today? You usually don’t underrate yourself” his Master asked. Azrael recounted the events that took place in the Shop.

“I understand. Very well, we were moving to the next stage anyway, before I teach you new spells, you need to know that magic is just one of the ways to fight, It just so happens that you have a great aptitude for it that I taught you.”

“You will be encountering warriors who strengthen their bodies and focus on weaponry as well, just like that Anguis Elder fellow you fought. But you must understand that you have barely scratched the surface of magic, its only natural that you were helpless. ”

“Doing magic is one thing, but to actually become a Mage and apply it effectively in battle is very different, thankfully your talent is not lacking. So don’t beat yourself up regarding what happened.”

“Now what I’ll be teaching you now, will be a Spell Progression that I have created myself, now that you are my disciple, you will be the one to inherit it. “

"Azrael, I will be entrusting this spellbook to you, it contains all the information about the Yin-yang magic. You see, this magic cannot be taught directly, you have to understand this on you're own. The first page of the book is already unlocked but the subsequent pages on the book itself are sealed. Each page corresponds to a spell and once you master it, the next page will be unlocked. Everything must be done in succession.”

“I’ve never heard of ying-yang magic, what exactly does it do master?”

“In summary, this will ultimately get around the issue of your mana reserves. I will be leaving early, finish up your training on your own, come back here once you have gotten to the first 5 pages.”

"Master! I thank you for this opportunity, I promise that I won't disappoint you!" he said while bowing his head. "Good! now go and train"