In the central plains off of the Sky Dragon Road under the milky light of the moon a hundred or so black tiger like beasts were dining on the flesh of humans. Blood formed rivers and soaked into the earth muddying up the ground beneath brick like paws. Wagons were partially destroyed after being rummaged through by the many magical beasts.

In the middle of the gathering of beasts was grand purple striped black tiger standing at over six feet tall with a length of at least seven feet not to mention it was about five feet from shoulder to shoulder. The beast seemed to emanate a certain prideful aura as it stood tall looking down upon a shriveled up body. The odd thing was though that currently this majestic magical beast was missing half of its right arm and the end of its stump of a limb was charred while giving off faint wisps of smoke.

Suddenly the beast began to laugh with a certain joyful and amused tone addressing the fallen man before it, "Hahahaha... human I will keep up my end of the bargain or I am not Pax the Royal Winged Tiger"

As the tiger stood there laughing joyfully one would notice that it's stump of an arm was regenerating fast enough to notice with the naked eye, a clear sign of a Phoenix Class magical beast. Once Pax finally had four limbs once more a deep purple fog began to coalesce around him before shrinking along with Pax's body, swirling about, until finally it compressed itself before dispersing revealing a Pax's human form.

Pax stood at about six feet tall with long flowing black hair rolling down his shoulders only it appeared to have a purplish glow under the moonlight. His face was rather average but not entirely ugly either but his features made him seem dignified and kingly. The only feature the truly stood out were his bright purple eyes that seemed as though they could see through you yet stilled seemed to display a slight look at his truly intelligent nature.

Pax walked forward in his royal purple colored robe, which was formed by the purple fog that earlier coalesced around his body, towards the baby lying in bloody mud covered earth. Baby Fay was letting out slightly whimpering cries. Pax calmly walked over and picked up the little Fay before holding him out in front of himself to get a good look at the child's face. Once Fay was in Pax's arms he immediately stopped his cries before opening his little eyes.

In that moment when the baby Fay looked into Pax's eyes he had a small smile on his face before started to giggle. Pax couldn't help but let a grin start creeping across his face as he cradled Fay in his arms and whispered gently to the child, "What are you laughing at lil' Fay? Don't worry you are now one my little tiger cubs child..."

As the moon was now edging towards the horizon and the sky was beginning to lighten up Pax yelled out to his troupe of tigers, "Brothers, this feast is over! We will now return!"

The tigers all let out roars in response as they began to run off toward the West with a swift pace. Pax changed back into his true form only this time his purple stripes were gone rather in their place were purple leather wings that held and wrapped around Fay so he did not fall off of Pax's back as he ran.

As the large troupe of tigers traversed the plains they didn't make a sound despite the fact they were all herded together like a stampede. From far away this tiger troupe simply appeared to be a black fog rolling through the tall grass.

When the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon the troupe stopped in front of a deep hole that had a diameter of over five hundred feet. If one was to look over the edge of this hole they would first notice that they cannot see the bottom only then to recognize that along a spiral path leading downwards were hundred upon hundreds of cave entrances. This place was likely at one point in time a great mine used to supply ore in long forgotten era.

The tiger troupe went down the spiraling path entering their respective homes. Pax stood at the edge of the hole before jumping into abyss below. The only sound that followed a splash for the bottom of this mine was flooded with water forming a sort of lake. Pax had jumped into the water holding Fay up high so he wouldn't fall in then swam to a rocky shore that surrounded the bottomless lake.

This shore was formed after water eroded the cliff sides of the causing part of the cliff side to break off to form a secluded place at the bottom of the mine and this is where Pax lived. The island was the most quiet area in the entire mine since many magical beasts lived here, not just Pax's kin. However Pax ruled over them all as a Phoenix Class magical beast. Pax walked forward until reached his home, a two story wooden cottage.

This cottage was the only wooden residence in the entire mine and so Pax was quite proud of it since he had constructed it himself. As he approached the house he once more turned into his human form and he was holding the baby Fay in his arms. As Pax pushed open the door to his house he immediately walked towards his bedroom and laid a sleepy Fay onto his grand featherbed.

Pax had a fascination with humans so he had long since traveled about learning the various human languages and collecting many books for he truly enjoyed such things. To Pax his dream was always to be able to interact with humans however given that he is magical beast he could never enter any cities due various systems in place to keep Dragon Class magical beasts and above from entering so he could only interact and learn from a distance.

After placing Fay on his bed he went to the second floor of his home. The second floor was completely filled with bookshelves aside from a single desk and chair. Although Pax had the entire second floor filled with bookshelves only about a third of the space actually housed books. This is because Pax believed there had to be more to read, more to learn from the humans so he would always keep space open for more knowledge.

The majority of the books on Pax's shelf were various training manuals, magical grimoires, and books the continent's history. Although most of these things were useless to him he firmly believed that he could advance his own power with the help of humankind's vast knowledge and history. And more precisely he wouldn't have been able to become a Phoenix Class magical beast if he did not learn from these human techniques.

As Pax sat at his desk he couldn't help but think of how he would take care of a weak human child in a den of magical beasts. Pax hadn't accounted for the fact he doesn't know how to take care of children. Which is exactly why he momentarily passed off the little burden to his elder sister who is a Dragon Class magical beast and a mother of five little tiger cubs.

At Pax's eldest sister's cave situated in the middle level of the mine.

"Come on take him, I'm not good with kids..."

Pax was currently arguing with his sister who was currently in her human form. She was only about five feet tall with long purple hair but her face was one that you couldn't help but stare at due the way her beauty drew you in. In Pax's mind this was his devil of an elder sister, Aiya.

"Nope. Never going to happen! Who told you to make promises you can't keep!"

Aiya was currently rather frustrated that her brother bring a human child to her simply to rid himself of his own burdensome promise. In a desperate voice Pax tried his best to convince her to help him.

"Oh come on! How about this... just take care of him for the first five years! I'll will give you anything you want!"

Hearing 'whatever you want' is quite enticing even when it's a human let alone magical beasts which normally run on their raw instincts and emotions. Which is exactly why Aiya would definitely take care of Fay.

"Fine, I'll help you... IF... you build me a wooden house just like yours here in this cave!"

Hearing this Pax inwardly sighed while thinking to himself, When you have something others don't it only brings envy it seems. Following this line of thought Pax detachedly answered: "Sure"

After about a month a two story home was constructed inside of the wide tunnel. Also from that moment on Fay for five years grew up on magical beast milk and raw meat alongside five tiger cubs.

Pax had rarely seen Fay for the last five years however in that time Pax was waiting and planning so that no matter which path to power that child chose he would be a prominent figure in this vast and dangerous world.

Fay was standing in front of Pax on shore of the lake smiling because to him Pax was his real father. Although he rarely saw Pax he was often told stories of his great might by his aunt Aiya which couldn't help but form the image of Pax's grand kingly figure slaughtering his way out of any danger.

Pax at this moment was explaining to Fay that he must choose his route of cultivating the essence of nature to strengthen himself or he could never become a powerful figure.

There have always been two cultivation routes for human beings and this choice would change their life forever. First of all, all humans have a core space in the center of their chest next to their heart, this is the base of both paths of cultivation.

The first and most widespread form of cultivation is that of a warrior. A warrior collects raw natural essence into their core center through meditation where they then cause it to fluctuate throughout the body and forcing out impurities using the body as a filter. A warrior will continue this process to build up battle spirit, refined natural essence. A warrior's battle spirit often takes on certain properties due to the influence of the warrior's body keeping it from being truly pure natural essence because it is changed based on the practitioner.

Users of battle spirit can use it to strengthen their body or even their equipment however the output is based entirely on one's physical limit. Forcibly igniting battle spirit while disregarding your physical limit can destroy the body, Fay's father is an obvious example of such occurrences. It's ultimate flaw is the physical limit and deep dependence on training the body.

The second way humans can cultivate also starts with gathering raw natural essence into their central core however with this method one forcibly changes the elemental affinity of the raw natural essence by cycling the energy outside their body to draw in the desired affinity, the gathered elemental essence slowly combines the raw natural essence to change the affinity. Based on where one practices there are different mixtures of elemental essence formed by the natural area.

Once one draws elemental essence within their core center to change their affinity they gain the ability to call upon power of their element and based on the purity of the elemental essence in one's core center their respective spells' power is also affected. Since the elemental essence in a mage's core center is a mixture they must always cultivate near proper areas otherwise they won't grow more powerful or be able to cast more high level spells. Also once one becomes a Mage they can never form battle spirit since the purer elemental essence would conflict with the body if it was to be filtered or used for strengthening like a warrior, instantly killing them.

Pax stood in place waiting for Fay's choice of cultivation method when Fay finally asked one last question before he gave his answer, "Uncle Pax... which method do you use?"