Back to present, in the elves’ village.

“We will start your training from tomorrow onward. The high elves will teach you the theory of magic including practice lesson in the morning. The young elves, Lyra and Oliver, will train you the physical body, armed and unarmed combat, and hunting without using magic power in the afternoon,” Queen Agnes said and explained more while we were walking back.

“The young elves were born by getting magic powers from the elders. The men elves were born from apple trees, and the women elves were born from flowers in a field near the world tree, they got magic power from the elders and absorbed magic energy from world tree, that’s why the women elves have more magic power than the men elves. We need the young elves to work for us, the high elves, and be our representatives when we have to meet humans outside. — I didn’t allow the other races to come inside the village. I created the strong magic barrier to protect, and stop the others getting through. They cannot find the entrance to our village. The magic makes them go to the other ways, like they walk in the maze.”

“The young women elves have abilities to use magic power of 4 elements and they are excellent in archery. So, they have duty to protect our village and Magnus forest. The young men elves have abilities to use 2-4 elements, but most of them have less power than young women elves, and they are excellent in crafting and hunting. They are responsible for hunting and trading with humans outside. — The young elves can be aged. However, their lifespans are longer than humans. They have more magic power than humans as well.”

Queen Agnes and Ilario reached to The Queen’s Treehouse. Ms. Carina was waiting for him.

“Please come here tomorrow morning. Mr. Mercury will teach you for basic knowledge and magic theory,” Queen Agnes said and left.

“Did you get what you wanted to know?” Ms. Carina asked kindly.

“Yes, I did. I just knew my name. I’m Ilario and I think that I have to stay here for a while. If you need any help, please tell me. I’m willing to do everything,” said Ilario honestly, he felt grateful to her. He wanted to return something to her flavor.

“It’s very kind of you. Please don’t worry for the trivial matter. You have more important duties to do. I’m glad to help and support you.” Ms. Carina said and smiled at him kindly.

She led him the way back to her treehouse, and then prepare lunch for him. She seemed to be happy for taking care everything for him.

After finished the lunch, he looked at the bookshelves to find some book for reading. Most of the books were related to nature, agriculture, herbs, and crafting. He recalled the words from Athena Goddess that the elves exist with nature and protect the nature. For that reason, there was nothing in the bookshelves which related to humanity.

He picked a book name ‘The History of Magnus Forest’. It was better for him to know more about this forest first. He assumed that he must stay here for years until he could protect himself. He felt so sorry to the boy’s family. They must be sad for losing their son. However, he can do nothing but to learn everything as much as he can.

‘The History of Magnus Forest’

‘Magnus Forest’ was a great forest of the South world and being ruled by Queen Agnes, the queen of elves, who has the duties to manage and balance the nature of the South world.

‘Magnus Forest’ has been around since the beginning of this world. Queen Agnes set boundaries in the South world and gave 1 in 3 of area to humans since the ancient time. Therefore, humans could develop the given area to be their residential area without crossing the boundaries.

‘Magnus Forest’ remained 2 in 3 of area in the South World since then. It surrounded the humans’ residential area from north to east part.

‘Magnus Forest’ has plenty of trees, especially Olive Trees and Apple Trees. It was the land that can plant all kinds of trees and good for agriculture. There was long and large river which never dry, it was the natural supply to all lives in Magnus Forest.

There were 4 seasons in the South world, winter, summer, spring, and autumn. The weather was rather warm due to the South world connect to “Meridiem Sea” at the South part.

‘Magnus Forest’ was the main nature and supplies to all lives in the South world, and also the source of magic energies.

The South World could not maintain without Magus Forest. For that reason, the elves have responsibility to protect Magnus Forest from all the dangers and invaders. The strict protection needs to be process continually.

There were plenty of herbs in Magnus Forest, some can use to make medicine, some was poison. The herbs descriptions were written on the book name ‘The herbal knowledge’

…..

After read the book, Ilario got the idea why the elves are not friendly with the humans. He could understand their point of view. Most of humans were selfish and greedy. If they knew the plenty of this forest, they will surely do something to make it for their own.

***

The sun was setting. Ms. Carina prepared dinner for him as usual. He ate everything she prepared for him. He wanted his body to grow up fast. He was excited and ready for the lesson tomorrow.

The next day, Ilario went to Queen Agnes’s treehouse as the schedule. He saw a high elf was waiting for him inside. He guessed that he was Mr. Mercury. In truth he could not remember him, although Queen Agnes had told him beforehand. The elders have the same face, it was just slightly different with some part on their face. He only remembered that all the elders are beautiful, even though most of them were men.

“Good morning,” said Ilario politely.

“Hello, we met yesterday. My name is Mercury. If you could not remember us, you can remember the magic symbol mark on our hands instead. It can help,” Mr. Mercury said and smiled at him. He showed his magic symbol mark, wing shape, to him.

“Thank you,” said Ilario, he felt a bit embarrassed. He thought that his expression might be obvious.

“Today I will teach you the basic of magic theory. As you may know, the magic power was the special power that had given by Athena Goddess. We called it ‘Magic Core’. There are also natural energies, we called it ‘Magic Energies’. It occurs from nature and circulates around us. — The people who can use magic power, we called them ‘Magus’. The people who can use both of magic power and combat skill, we called them ‘Bellator’. They use magic power with weapon for fighting. I will teach you the magic theory which is based on Magus because there are more details than Bellator.” Mr. Mercury said and explained more.

“The key of using magic power is ‘Magic Core’. Either Magus who got Magic Core from Athena Goddess directly or Magus who inherited Magic Core from their ancestors can activate magic power. — Magic Energies have different types as the nature and elements. It can help Magus to boost up their magic power. Under one principle, people must have magic core base, then they can use magic energies with the same type. In other word, no magic core means no ability to use magic power even there are many types of magic energies circulating about them. — The people who have no Magic Core, we called them ‘Ordinarius’”

“There are many types of magic core, but the basic types were 4 elements, earth, water, wind, and fire. It’s the same principle that I told you. If Magus have no magic core of that magic type, they cannot activate magic power of that type as well. For example, Magus who have wind magic core, they can use their wind magic power better when they stay in the area that has high energy of wind. They can increase their magic power up to 25% of their Magic Core. Meanwhile, it means nothing when they stay in area that has low energy of wind or the area that has other types of energy against wind power, in this case, the area that had plenty of earth. Magus still can use their wind magic power from their own magic core but it has high possibility that their wind magic power cannot against the area that has high density of earth.”

“In case of normal humans who are Magus, they can possess only 1-2 types of magic power. Men possess 1 type of magic power among the elements of fire, wind, and earth. Women possess 1-2 types of magic power among the 4 elements, especially water and wind. The physical body of women are more compatible with the nature than men. — Meanwhile, the other races that possess more than one type of magic power, they can mix power and activate new type of magic power. For example, Magus who have magic core of water and wind, they can activate Ice and storm magic power. They can mix it as the natural law but also need to practice hard. More elements mean more abilities that they can use.”

“The power of solar system, light and dark magic power are rare and powerful. There are no pure humans who possess it. It’s special power, like special gift from God and Goddess. For example, you, a descendant of Helius, who inherited magic core from Helius’s bloodline. Apart from 4 elements magic power, you possess light and healing magic power like Helius as well. Besides, you got the gene of demigod that cause your physical body stronger than normal humans, you even stronger than the young elves. That’s why you can possess light magic power. For dark magic power, it mostly belongs to evils, devils and monsters.”

“Magic Core is power source. The higher power of magic core means the stronger magic power that can be activated.”

“Magic core gathered in heart mainly, it’s circulating in parallel to blood vessels inside body. The Magus can release magic power out of their bodies when they activated it. The stamina is an important factor to handle magic core. If the weak body handle the powerful magic core, it can cause to death. That’s why Magus need to practice how to control their power at the young age because it’s easy to explode from over power and emotional factor.”

“Do you have any question?” Mr. Mercury asked.

“Cloud you please explain more about healing and time magic power?” Ilario asked curiously.

“Healing, Holy, and Time magic power are special gift from Goddess but these powers have no natural energy or solar system to support its power like light and dark magic power. These powers were unique. The example of healing magic power, ‘Instant Heal’ the ability to heal all kind of injury and pain, ‘Recover’ the ability to recover from all kinds of sickness, poison, or other harm, ‘Regenerate’ the ability to regenerate body that has been destroyed or cut off, ‘Resistance’ the ability to resist the poison, disease, and dark magic power, ‘Inactivate’ the ability to cancel magic power from the others, this ability is advance level and required a lot of practice. There are 5 main abilities of Healing Magic Power but you can mix magic power to create more abilities.” Mr. Mercury explained and asked, “Any more question?”

“No,” Ilario said.

“All right. Let’s end the class for today. You might need a rest before the afternoon training. Please read this book when you have time.” Mr. Mercury said and handed a book name ‘How to kill the monsters’ to him.

“Thank you,” Ilario said.

After got some rest, he went to meet Queen Agnes. He saw a pretty woman elf who helped him from kidnappers, she has long brown hair and green eyes, wearing warrior suit, looks like a model, her appearance could compare to humans in their late twenties. There was a man elf standing beside her. He has neat blond hair, green eyes, lean muscles body, handsome, wearing warrior suit, his appearance could compare to humans in their middle twenties.

“This is Lyra and this is Oliver, the young elves whom I told you yesterday. They will be in charge of training the physical body, armed and unarmed combat, and hunt in our style,” Queen Agnes said, “and this is Ilario, as you know about his existence, please train him seriously.” She left after introduced us.

Lyra and Oliver led him to the training ground. There were archery targets, the archery set, swords, and dagger knives which are used for training.

“Warm up your body first. Run around the training ground 10 laps,” Lyra said.

‘Just like that!’ He thought to himself. He run 10 laps without a word. He knew that it was the basic training. He must do everything as they told him.

He did not tire after run 10 laps. He thought that it might be a special power which was given by Athena Goddess.

“It looks so easy for you,” Lyra said to Ilario.

“Bring ‘that’ for him, Oliver” Lyra said and gave the signal to him.

Oliver brought the stone bracelets toward him. He put it on his wrists and ankles. The weight was around 1 pound each, as far as he could estimate.

He looked at Oliver and thought to himself as if he complained him out loud, ‘I’m a five years old boy. How could you do this to a boy at this age?’.

Nothing changed but he felt better just to complain inside his mind.

“Another 10 laps,” Lyra said.

He was sweating after run another 10 laps with stone bracelets, he begun to tire.

“Swing sword next,” said Oliver, he handed him a wooden sword. “Do it like this 50 sets.” He showed him the posture and movement. He let him practice by wearing stone bracelets.

After finished, he was aching all over.

“Could I take some rest?” Ilario asked. He could not move himself. They trained him as if he was a military.

Oliver nodded his head.

Ilario sat on the ground and rested without moving an inch. Even though his mind was an adult but his body was still a child.

He thought that the young elves might be friendlier and easier to talk to, but he was wrong to think in that way. However much he wanted to talk to them, he must restrain himself to not annoy them. He afraid that the training will be harder if they were angry at him.

Oliver put several small logs on the ground, and placed it in distance around 1 foot each along the length of 3 meters.

“Run across all the logs to the other side and run back with the same method without touching the logs. It will make you get the agility. Do it for 10 sets. If you touched a log before you’ve done with 10 sets, you have to start again and do it until you did not touch a single log within the 10 sets,” Oliver said.

Ilario carefully run across the logs but he failed countless times. This training method was more like torture than training. Moreover, he was still wearing stone bracelets while doing so.

2 hours passed, he finally succeeded in the training. He lay on the ground, he has no energy to move himself. He thought that he might die from this kind of training.

“It’s enough for today. Can you walk back?” Oliver asked, he took off the stone bracelets for him.

“No, I can’t. I need some rest,” said Ilario, he was out of breath. He didn’t care about the politeness after he got the tortured training.

‘Just leave me alone’ He thought to himself. He closed his eyes and wanted to sleep here.

Unexpectedly, Oliver carried him and walked through the training ground.

“What are you doing? I just need some more rest,” said Ilario surprisingly.

Oliver smiled and carried him back to Ms. Carina’s treehouse.

He has never thought that he could see a smile from him. He thought that all the elves might take time to be friendly with humans.

“Thank you for taking me back,” said Ilario sincerely, he still could not move himself much. He was aching all over.

“See you tomorrow,” Oliver said.

“See you tomorrow,” Ilario said.

He lay on the sofa in the living area. He felt asleep and thought that it would be good if all the aches have gone.

There were the lights all over his body.

He became conscious and felt no more ache. He was surprised how it has happened. He recalled the words from Mr. Mercury about the abilities of healing magic power. He might heal himself unconsciously. He was glad that he has this kind of power, otherwise he might give up on the training someday.

***