‘Jun, eat your food instead of playing with it!’ my sister commanded as my entire family sat around the dining table having breakfast.
‘Aye, aye captain!’ I retorted, letting out a small chuckle.
The next few days after my sister had woken up from her comatose state had been a blur of emotions. While my sister was initially taken aback after learning that she had been in a coma because of me, she rebounded quickly, and was soon back to her usual chipper self, simply thankful to be alive. On the other hand, my parents had a harder time adjusting to the reality that my sister was miraculously back in our lives. Since I didn’t tell them about the mana stone, my parents and the doctors had no choice but to classify her recovery as some sort of unexplained miracle. Still, the primary emotion for all of us since that day had been one of gratitude and being a family once again. And before I knew it, a week had gone by.
Drifting back into my thoughts after taking another bite of Yeon Soon’s famous eggs benedict, I realized that this left me with less than a month until Magiharu. I let out an internal sigh as the stress I had so far successfully contained started to pour out because of the importance of the day. Although some kingdoms followed their own education systems, most had copied the model pioneered by our kingdom approximately ten years ago.
Because a majority of young mages awoke to their comtype at different points in their teenage years, apart from being assigned a pre-assessment rank and optional private magical tutoring if they could afford it, young mages attended relatively normal schools until they were twenty years old; where skills in technical science and social science were emphasized. After graduating high school, if one wanted to seek further education in mana arts, which most competent mages naturally wanted to do, we had to participate in Magiharu, which was an entrance examination for magic academies all across the kingdom.
Magiharu took place in a single day, and was a test of both our knowledge of the history and fundamentals of mana arts, and of our skill and competency in its practical use; magic. After the test, each mage was assigned an updated rank, and given a scorecard which captured our relative competence as a mage compared to our peers testing within the same year. This was the most crucial piece of information about an applicant that magic academies required when deciding whether to admit an applicant or not.
Applying to magic academies after Magiharu was the same as applying to any university program; mages could apply to ten magic academies and list out their preferences in order of the most desired to least desired academy they wanted to attend. After that, it was mainly up to the admissions councils of the various academies to decide who to admit. Although there were about two hundred magical academies in the Kingdom of Haneul, the top academies outranked the others by a huge margin.
Last year, in the ranking of worldwide magic academies complied by the International Mage Association, six of the top ten magic academies worldwide were located in our kingdom, with the top three spots having been occupied by our top three academies since the inception of the ranking. To say that our kingdom was miles ahead of the other kingdoms in terms of education in mana arts was an understatement; and this had all been possible due to the vision of the Silver King; our monarch, and the most powerful mage in the world.
‘Although getting into these top magic academies is a foolish dream for someone like me, who’s currently an E-rank elemental,’ I almost said out loud as I inhaled another piece of turkey bacon. Even if my rank did improve after Magiharu, the world’s top magic academies would already have privately scouted and offered admissions to the most promising young mages in their kingdoms. After all, if you had the talent, even the biggest academies were ready to fight over you to increase their own prestige. For me though, Ashford Academy was my ideal choice, assuming I did well enough in Magiharu to be able to get in.
Although it was in the top twenty magic academies in our kingdom, it was one of the three best magic academies in the Korean province; and controlled by the House of Ashford, which was one of the most prominent mage houses in the province. To top that off, it was our province’s top magic academy specialized in training elementals. It was also conveniently located, since I wanted to stay in Seoul for the time being to be closer to my family; I mean, I had just gotten my sister back.
Though my previous aim of getting stronger for the sake of waking my sister up had somewhat been altered, it was still largely intact. After all, I had just witnessed how small and powerless I had been in the face of the human-shaped monsters that were out there in the real world. I knew that my parents being non-affinates would only make things harder for my family in the future. And although my sister was a talented healer, there needed to be someone to protect them from the horrors that existed all around us. Somehow, my resolve after that incident had become firmer than ever. I wanted to get stronger.
Strong enough to be able to protect my family from the dangers of this world. And perhaps strong enough, to be able to meet my masked savior one day, and thank them in person for saving my sister’s life. And so, in order to get stronger, I needed to get into Ashford Academy, and make the most of the two years there to learn as much as I possibly could.
‘Mom, Dad, Yoonah… I’m going to head to the dojo as it’s been a week since I last went,’ I announced, getting up from the table after finishing breakfast.
‘Okay… just come home at a reasonable time okay…,’ my mom stated hesitantly, the incident from a week ago still fresh in her mind.
‘Don’t worry, I will!’ I smiled, giving Yoonah a quick back hug before rushing out the door.
I felt bad for having lied to my parents again, but I was twenty years old, and I was going to have to make my own decisions from now on. Although Master Jaehyun’s dojo had helped me polish my skills as a martial artist, helping me develop a fighting style compatible with my comtype, I knew I was still lagging behind the private tutoring my relatively more well-off peers had been receiving.
I had seen Fang’s father sparring with him at their mansion once, and it was no surprise how he had progressed from E-rank to D-rank so quickly after getting into Ashford Academy last year. If I wanted to get stronger, I needed to challenge myself with real opponents. And so, I had decided to sneak into the Serpentine Forest, the nature zone lining the eastern side of Seoul, and fight against actual mana creatures.
Knowing this might be on the written portion of the test I’d be taking in a month, I mentally summarized what I knew about the subject of mana creatures as I made my way towards the outskirts of the city on my bicycle. Fifteen years ago, human beings weren’t the only ones affected by the Aurora Magilis; on the contrary, it had left no living creature unchanged. While many animals succumbed to the cardiac straining effects of the aurora, much like human beings, the ones that survived also found their physical states altered, now able to manipulate mana to varying degrees, sometimes as well as, if not better than humans. The term ‘mana creatures’ was coined to refer to creatures of the land, air and sea, who had evolved from their predecessors; now capable of magic.
Through extensive surveys which continued to this day, mana creatures were also ranked from F-rank to S-rank, similar to human beings, although the rankings did not connote the same level of competence between human mages and mana creatures. For example, F-rank mana creatures such as white furred squirrels could only manipulate mana to grow the fur on their bodies into a slightly thicker hide to better protect themselves against predators. However, even non-affinates could easily handle entire packs of these squirrels on their own without using magic. To give another example, even E-rank mana creatures such as cat fiends, which had evolved from cats into slightly larger creatures with razor sharp claws and accentuated night vision, usually served as no more than cannon fodder for an average E-rank elemental.
However, A-rank mana creatures such as the burnt umber bear could prove to be a difficult opponent for a skilled party of adventurers, even if it was comprised entirely of A-rank mages. This was because higher level mana creatures were more in-tune with the external mana surrounding them than human beings were, being able to manipulate the mana in their surroundings as if it were a natural extension of their own power. And that’s not even to speak of S-rank mana creatures, which ruled over entire domains, or nature zones. I’d even read in one of the books on beast tamers in my dad’s study that their existed a hidden tier of SS-rank mana creatures, although no one had ever come across them, at least to public knowledge.
I abruptly ended my mental recollection as I approached the end of the Han District where the entry gate to the Serpentine Forest was located. I was still surprised at how much the world had changed from my parents’ time, at least according to the stories they often told us. Apparently, before the Aurora Magilis, apart from the large, highly advanced, magitech powered cities of our kingdom, there used to exist many smaller cities all across the kingdom as well. However, after most of the world’s population was wiped out, the growing mana-abundant natural landscape such as forests, desserts, and rivers, now populated by fierce high-level mana creatures, slowly started to amalgamate smaller nearby settlements and cities into its domain; areas termed as ‘nature zones’.
And so, human beings in our kingdom, hailing from different areas, started relocating to the larger, magitech powered cities, with mana shields which protected them from the dangers of the surrounding nature zones. Although there were seven large cities in the Korean peninsula, Seoul, which was the city I lived in with my family, was the capital, and by far one of the most advanced cities in our entire kingdom, if not the world. Even surrounded by three high-level nature zones; the Serpentine Forest to the East, the Hayan Mountains to the North, and the Mistfall Sea to the West, Seoul was one of the safest places to live in the entire world, for affinates and non-affinates alike. Passage into the nature zones was regulated through the use of specific gateways leading out of the city; limited to those with a specific license which allowed them to enter and exit through the gateways.
Still, over the years, certain relatively low-level areas on the outskirts of the Serpentine Forest had started to be ignored by border patrols, and left largely unguarded. And if you were a local like me who had lived near the outskirts for the first eight years of their life, you were bound to know a few shortcuts and secret passages into the forest. As I approached one such passageway, I parked by bike at a small café, making sure to lock it in place on the bike-stand so it didn’t mysteriously disappear by the time I got back. Making my way on foot towards a hiking trail at the edge of the city, I made sure no one was following me before I abruptly turned left, leaving the defined path of the trail behind to head towards the small rock formation nearby, where I had played with my sister when we were just kids.
Going from memory, I managed to locate a small space in the crevice between two larger rocks. Although I was a lot larger now, I managed to slide downwards a few yards through a small tunnel in the rock formation I had discovered many years ago, coming out on the other side with a large thud, now on the outskirts of the Serpentine Forest. Although crawling back up the tunnel would be a difficult task with my now adult body, I would cross that metaphorical bridge when it was time.
Quickly unleashing the full capabilities of my mana sense like I hadn’t done for a while, I could once again see mana particles tinted in hues of different colors all around me. Although I had been to one of the safe zones of the Serpentine Forest with my high school class on a field trip once, I was surprised at how much more abundant the mana was in this part of the forest; even though the outskirts couldn’t really be considered a true part of the nature zone anyway.
While the hidden passageway had dropped me into a clearing of sorts, with the exception of the gigantic rock formation clinging to my back, the remainder of the circular clearing had densely packed trees of different types and sizes dotting its circumference. I knew from my studies that high-level mana creatures were almost never found near the borders of the nature zone they inhabited, but I didn’t want to run into any surprises regardless.
Focusing my mana-rich eyes on the surrounding trees, I took my time using mana sense while I made a 360-degree turn and took in my surroundings. To my relief however, all I could sense were small clusters of mana emanating a weak aura; meaning I was mostly surrounded by low-level mana creatures. Although I wouldn’t have known at my current level if a high-level mana creature was hiding its presence and silently watching me; the odds of that happening in this hidden clearing near the edge of the forest were quite low.
‘Okay, it’s time to get started,’ I said out loud to myself as I channeled mana into my legs and fists.
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