Solitude became my best friend after my mother died. Listening to the sound of chirping birds, looking at animals peek their heads from corners as I walked past them, the coolness of the night and the heat of the day, they were all part of my solitary moments as step by step I ventured out on this journey towards becoming a successful Astral Mage. However, there truly was no such thing as a permanent happiness. Just further up ahead was the figure I hated the most.

With a wooden sword in hand he shouted, "Today is the day that I defeat you! Prepare yourself mage!" And without warning, charged straight at me.

I gripped my staff tightly and then, "Die!" I swung it in front of me before I slammed the tip on the ground. Just then, before he could get close, the ground shook and opened below him.

"Oi! That's cheatiiiii-" was what I heard before he fell down the huge crack on the ground, down to who knows how deep it was (but it was pretty deep indeed). I then left without even looking back to proceed with my solitary moment.

Just a few hours later that noon as I was picking fruits from a certain shrub, again he appeared out of nowhere on top of a tree, swinging his wooden sword towards me as he shouted, "Got you!!" This time, I swung my staff upwards and a huge water geyser deflected him up towards the heavens. Thus, I went back to picking fruits.

However, that evening, I was about to start my campfire when what I lit up instead was a cockroach in the guise of a human boy hiding behind the bushes. I sent him running to the hills before he said, "Just you wait next time!"

Four days have past ever since that day. Now for the tenth time again, "Just, stop, this, already!!" I swung my staff and again sent him away.

“Oi! That’s chea-“

"Yes! Yes! I know! Just shut up and fly!!", I annoyingly flung him up to the skies with a huge root which emerged from the ground. "Please never return!!"

I sat down with my butt on the ground and went out a deep sigh. Such tenacity, such resilience, wasted on a stupid boy, "He won't learn, will he?" I have already performed almost all the elements that I know except for those huge type ones which I've been keeping for extremely dangerous situations. Yet it would seem like this would go on for long until I blow him away with something which really hits the mark.

"Still, his endurance against magic is quite strong," I remembered last time when I used one of my ace attacks - flame type "Sun Child". Naming a mage's skills completely depend on the caster. I named my strongest flame type attack "Sun Child" due to the fact that it was humongous, it looked like a tiny sun. For each elemental that I know, I have a "Child" version created, except for time elemental and enhancement magic. Still it bothered me how my strongest flame attack only burned his clothes but his body only had a few burned spots (His body had a few burned spots. His body... was naked at that time, right?).

"Blrrrghbblllgbbbblrghbgllhhh!!" I shook my head as fast as I can, cleaning it free from dirty thoughts, then slapped both my cheeks with my hands to calm myself down. Nothing good really came out of even thinking about him for a few moments. I began to stand up, stretched my arms for three seconds, then proceeded to my destination.

* * *

Walking straight towards where the sun rises, without a hint of whatever could lie ahead, I was greeted by a strong odor piercing my nose. It was like the smell of rotten flesh and blood mixed with dirty water. The stench was so strong it made me cough a few times before my stomach felt like throwing up. Covering my nose, I cast a small purification spell in front of my nose holes to cleanse the air before passing through it. Successful with my spell, I continued walking on without worry, yet curious as to where that horrible smell came from. Just then, a small house could be seen from a distance. Continuing my walk, more houses were in view which was then I knew that I'm headed towards a human village.

"It's dangerous for me to just go on," I then turned my back to find another route until I heard a faint voice from the village.

"Help, please help us!" was the sound of an old man coming from one of the nearest houses. "Please, I beg of you!!" The old man then coughed a few times after his plead. I turned my head to look and saw that a little girl, about the age of five, was behind him. Trembling, she clutched unto the old man's pants and hid behind him.

I only looked for a while then disregarded them as mere nuisances. Just then, the little girl let go of the old man and hurriedly ran towards me. "W-wait," she was stumbling as she ran, and without warning, held on tight to the tip of my robe. "Please don't leave yet! Help us!"

I looked and stared at the girl with disgust before I pulled back my robe from her clutch and went on ahead to find a new route. She just watched my back as I was getting farther and farther away from the village.

"Irritating," I was whispering to myself multiple times. "Irritating, irritating, irritating, irritating, irritating!" Whatever could be wrong with those humans. They were too desperate for help they would ask even a mage, a race which they despised, mistreated, and murdered. "Lowly humans dared ask me for help." They were not of my concern; thus, I must only leave them behind.

All of a sudden, I halted my steps. I gripped my staff tightly and gritted my teeth. This must probably the worst day of my life as I turned back and went on towards the little girl, which at that time was sobbing softly to herself. Realizing I came back, she wiped away her tears and smiled an ever-so-huge smile her tiny mouth could form.

"You came back missy!" she greeted me with the smile.

"Just tell me what is it that you want," I bluntly spoke to her. "Depending on your answer, I might either help you or leave. Choose your words properly."

That was when I noticed something wrong with her face. Her cheek seemed to have something growing out of it. Looking closely, it was a small mushroom.

"Missy, our village is sick," she spoke with frequent sobbing. "Everyone is weak and cannot work nor defend from bandits. Just now, some bandits came and took many of our things."

"What do you mean by sick?" I asked her in a serious angry tone.

"A-are you angry missy?" her eyes began tearing up.

"No, I'm not just answer me-"

"Uuuweeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!" she started crying all of a sudden. "Missy is angry at me! Uweeaaahhh!!"

"What is wrong with you? Just answer me okay?"

This tiny bundle of weeps and sobs attracted the attention of the village folks which started one by one coming out of their houses and towards the source. The little girl's grandfather, too, came to us despite being too weak to even stand. After about a minute or two, it looked more like a performance was being played as the village folks circled around us out of curiosity as I did my best to shut the little girl up.

I then looked up at the village folks and noticed something was wrong with their appearances. There were mushrooms sprouting out of their skins.

* * *

"A curse?" I asked for confirmation.

"Yes, these mushrooms are from a curse," the village elder told me about the situation. I looked at the villagers outside the village elder 's home poking their heads and ears out of curiosity of what the two of us could be discussing. It was only a matter of three minutes since they took me in here when they began to grow in numbers outside.

"How long has this curse been here?" I became curious of the curse and asked. Mages have the capacity to use curses, which are spells bound in time. I, too, can inflict a powerful curse but refrained from doing so in fear that it might anger my mother. Curses are evil according to her, and therefore must never be used.

"Five years ago," the village elder answered in a very down tone and started explaining everything. "It all began when a prophet came to our village and told us that the great god Jhurai was mad of our ways of living. He told us that our contribution to the holy king has been declining for years and demanded more white grapes than before."

"White grapes?" I can't believe there were such types of grapes. "What exactly are white grapes?"

"These are grapes which we have discovered to have been growing on a mountain north from here. They produce wine which pales other types of wine in comparison. So we made it into a business for our village. Once the holy king of this land knew about it, he became addicted to this wine and began demanding high amounts of it every day," the village elder gripped his fists tight and sobbed a little. "But because we couldn't meet the demands, he sent us his prophet and told us the great god Jhurai is angry and will curse this land."

"So, you think Jhurai cursed you?" I asked him seriously. Jhurai is a human god considered as the highest god there is. It was told that he saved mankind from the 'evilness' of us mages. I can't believe a god would curse his people over wine.

"Yes. Afterwards, these mushrooms started sprouting out of our skins and sucking our lives away little by little," was his reply to my question.

So these mushrooms existed to slowly kill these villagers. Indeed, I felt their realea to be weaker than that of a standard human.

All of a sudden, the village elder bowed down his head to me, "Please help us. As a sage, I'm sure you know what to do." In order to not be found out by the villagers, I told them I was a sage, which was why they took me in here. "Please use your wisdom and guide us."

The image of a human kneeling down before me felt good as I looked down on him with prideful eyes. Curses are still spells, which are product of magic, so this is like a walk in the garden for me. I also could learn something from this type of spell to enhance my magic even further (maybe use this spell on that boy).

"Then help I shall do," I stood up heightening myself further from the kneeling human. "However, I need to be compensated."

"Yes, of course. We will provide you anything we could give," the village elder stood up and revealed the true difference between our heights (I'm not short). "Although, we cannot be sure to be able to give you anything."

I turned my back to face the door and started walking as I spoke, "I'll think about that after the problem is settled."

* * *

I began examining everything which could be related to the curse. I started by poking one mushroom out of a villager to be sampled. It would seem these mushrooms weren't sucking their blood away, but their realea instead, explaining why there wasn't any blood from the spot where I took it. Next, I surveyed the area for any other possible cause. As I was doing these, village children were following me wherever I went. I tried scaring them away with a fierce look but they would merely smile at me, one even handed me a bug which I just chewed and ate. If only that filthy deer didn't lick my magic items away, I could've used them to test these mushrooms.

Analyzing my data, I suspected the water supply to probably be the reason. After asking them where their source of water was, they led me to a well which was quite far from the village. Once we reached there, I demanded them to leave me be, which they immediately responded. Alone in front of the well, I held my staff in front of me and raised it upwards as I chanted, "Reveal yourself!" and cast a forced summon magic.

Just then, a huge mushroom-like creature emerged from the well. It was an elemental sprite, creatures born from the elements of nature. It was three times the size of a human (and three times uglier). It swayed back and forth like a drunkard as it approached me.

"To what cause have I been summoned esteemed mage?" it asked as it bowed down in respect. We mages were considered by humans as a threat but we're highly respected by sprites.

"I would like to ask why you are living in this well. Are you not supposed to be in swamps or some muddy lakes?"

"Truth be told, I was summoned here for the intention of tormenting those humans."

"Why so? Aren't you sprites supposed to stay away from them?"

"It was what my caster summoned me for."

Hearing what the sprite has said gave me a hint of relief. I knew there were still other mages out there, that it couldn't be just me and my mother who survived that day of Jhurai. However, relating it to what that village elder said, it couldn't be possible. Mages would rather die than serve humans, that is our pride.

"Do you know where your caster is now? Did he or she tell you?" I asked with a huge interest hoping to get a good response.

"Unfortunately, no. He did not tell me. After my summoning, he left without saying a single word," the sprite was quite gloomy saying this.

Despite my expectations ruined, I replied a, "I see, I felt sorry for you. But you should definitely leave this place.”

"I apologize but I am not to follow anyone's orders except for him," the sprite had a stern look upon its face.

"He's already gone for five years now. You should value yourself more. There are plenty of other things to do in this world," although I hate the world.

However, it only made the sprite angry. It somehow suddenly lost its mental state and became hostile towards me. "You are not to insult my master!!"

"Hey, I didn't-" I dodged its attack which came out suddenly. It would seem that I need to educate this lump of flesh why it respected me in the first place. I gripped my staff tightly, fully prepared for battle.

"GRRRRRRRAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!"

The mushroom sprite launched its huge arms towards me, which I immediately dodged. I would never try to harm an elemental sprite, yet I was not left with any other choice.

"Are you sure about this?" I gave the sprite the most serious face I could give. "You know you don't have even the slightest of chance to win against a mage. Let alone me." I released a huge amount of realea to intimidate it, perhaps it might calm down. However...

"GRRRRRRRAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!" was its only response as it launched both its arms forward, elongated it and smashed the ground. I managed to jump up and raised my staff in the air.

"Flame Blades!" I summoned five large flames in the form of blades and sent them down the creature. It managed to deflect one but got pierced by the other four.

As I landed on the ground, the mushroom sprite spewed a huge amount of swamp water from its mouth, as if a flood, it came to me in great speed. But as I was (and am) a great mage, I held my staff tight and formed a barrier combining wind and space magic, allowing the water to only pass me by.

"Let's stop this, I don't want to harm someone else's summon," I decided to stop the fight before I could harm it even further. But to no avail, it continued attacking me, like it's formality from earlier did not exist. Now, it only acted like a wild vicious beast. That was when I got the idea of probable incomplete summoning.

Elemental sprites can either be summoned through calling or creation. Calling is when realea is commanded to forcefully make an existing sprite within the area appear, just like what I did. Through contract, the mage could own the sprite and have it listen to the caster’s command, which could or couldn't have a time limit depending on the mage's skill. The other one would be the harder version which is creation. Through mixing the realea of the area, an element, or even an existing spell, with the mage's own realea, the caster could create an elemental sprite of its own. Although the appearance of the sprite would be depicted by the element, its strength matters greatly upon the caster's realea input.

Which one of these two can I do? I could say both. Although my creation in the past wasn't still that impressive, I have done it once before, but my realea input was weak. My elemental sprite didn't have a mind of its own and only acted by command (I was great at realea controlling, but giving realea is a lot harder than what one might think). Eventually, it vanished in thin air after about two days.

Just like this being that's currently giving its best effort to kill me, elemental sprites could be corrupted if the summoning was incomplete. Perhaps there was less input on realea to its mind capacity (if creation), or the contract is forced (if calling). Whatever the case, it was currently swinging its huge arms at me as I either dodge or reflect it. Looking at its eyes, I could see longing exist deep within. In that sense, it was also possible that the contract wasn't forced, but the realea input on the contract process was lacking.

"Tsk, should I just use force contract to calm it down?" since I was desperate to not harm it any further, I could forcefully make this sprite my own. However, the grieving look on its eyes refrained me from doing so. "It seems like your contract is truthful, huh?" I stopped dodging and stood firm, gripping my staff tightly in one hand.

"Forgive me for I have no other choice," I then pointed my staff towards the incoming sprite in from of me. "Return to the elements," I have already chanted an anti-summon spell and with a wave of my staff, the mushroom sprite halted its steps before slowly vanishing into nothingness. These are spells which were considered as cruel towards elemental sprites by breaking down its components and returning it to realea to be dispersed back to nature (basically it's painless murder).

Its disappearance made the well water clear again, although it looked clear with plain eyes before, its visibly clean now. It was so clear; one could almost see the very bottom. With that, I returned to the village to tell them how righteous I was. In my mind was images of how the villagers could thank me or offer things to me in return. Without noticing, I was quite having a malicious smile, but for some reason, I felt great to be able to help. It was almost like I was skipping down towards the village like a wee little lass as I was getting closer.

* * *

"Hehe! Villagers! I have successfully solved your problem! You should all be grateful!" I spoke with pride and confidence, as I desperately raised my chin to look taller.

"Really?!" the villagers started gathering towards me like chickens to their master. "The curse is finally lifted?! We can finally live peacefully!!" They started hugging each other in joy, disregarding the still existing mushrooms on their skins.

"Although the curse is still there in your bodies, just a few drinks of clean water would do," I finally reassured their happiness.

"Thank you so much! Were truly grateful!" one villager started bowing his head, which made others bow theirs.

All of a sudden, children started gathering around me, one of them without warning went up to give me a hug. As others were also this desperate, one child was able to grab my huge veiled hat and removed it from my head. That was for me, a huge mistake.

We mages have one physical distinction from humans, our deer-like ears. Besides that, we look exactly like humans. At that moment, there was a long silence as everyone looked at me. I instantly grabbed back my veiled hat and wore it. Immediately after, I felt a rock brandished my silver hair.

"Get away from this place you vile creature!"

"Who would've thought they still exists?!"

In an instant, rocks were like rain falling from the sky. As I was standing there, I felt helpless merely covering myself from getting hit. One villager managed to throw hard and hit the corner of my face. At that time, I felt powerless. The rain of rocks doesn't seem to be as painful as what I felt in my chest.

"Mother, are humans really that bad?" my thoughts of when I was with mother came back. At that time, she knelt down to me as she said, "I am not sure, but like there are good things and bad things, maybe so does humans have good in them."

Sitting on the ground, I was about to let go of that thought when suddenly the throwing stopped. When I looked up, I saw the back of an old man with his granddaughter still gripping tightly to his pants.

"Have you no sense of gratefulness?! Or are you mere fools?!" the old man shouted despite his rough hard voice. "How could you throw rocks at the one who solved our problem for us?! Not even the holy kingdom bothered to do so!"

"Can you not see? That's a mage!"

"Perhaps it's the one that cursed us from the beginning! No wonder it easily removed it."

"I see no mage, nor human, nor holy king, nor god!" the old man looked at me before again faced the villagers. "I see a child saved us."

However, I opened myself back to reality and stood up clenching my left fist as I gripped tightly on my staff. I looked at the villagers with disgust as I opened my mouth.

"Haha! Hahahaha! Of course I saved you all. I saved all your pitiful disgusting existence from being too disgusting. You people think you're too righteous. Well let me tell you one thing, " I raised my staff in the air and summoned 'Sun Child' in front of them, which out of fear, they all went further back.

"I will be an Astral Mage! And none of you can stop me!" Sun Child grew larger and larger as my eyes narrowed out of anger.

On the contrary, the old man just came nearer, still with his granddaughter holding on his legs and said, "You seem to be a nice girl." He then caressed his granddaughter's head and said, "I hope someday she will be as nice as you."

I almost fell to tears as I remembered my mother's final words, "You're a very nice girl, Friesha."

I removed 'Sun Child' and turned my back towards the village. Without warning, I left them and continued walking towards my destination.

I could still feel tears forming in my eyes... That human dare make me cry, how unforgivable.