Thwack!

"Hey, Lilium! You slacking again?" Gideon scolded.

Bruh! If this wasn't for money, I would have left this cursed place on the first day! I just had a dream about my very adventure beginning!

After spending four years with Lucy in the forest, I was solely fixated on learning different things from her! But I never had the chance to study or train my magic!

I've been forming my mana channels slowly under her guidance. She said that perfect control needs perfect foundations! Most of the kids my age have formed a mana color already!

Lucy is definitely a unique mana beast! Her magic doesn't take any form, she uses all kinds of elements! Usually, people only have one affinity for a certain element!

Either fire, water, earth, or wind! Those are the main attributes of what form magic may take! After spending some time with her, she said that I was one of the origin descendants, but she wasn't quite sure!

I didn't get what she meant. She didn't want to elaborate to me! But I had been told that I am one of my kind too, and I can't use common magic!

I don't know if that is a curse or a bliss, but if anything I'm sure about it is that I have terrible luck!

I am not being pessimistic! I already accepted that fact as something that cannot be helped! Who am I to go against fate?

I'd rather let nature take its course. For now, I'll only do what she said!

I can't attend any magic academy while I'm poor anyway! I'm even homeless. Attending any academy is going to be hard for me since I don't have a city token with me! That being said, only regulars have the right to enter any kingdom!

Without a city token, I don't have an identity! Those who don't have a city token are irregulars, practically doomed!

The kingdoms here are crueler than I thought! Slaves and bastards here aren't what you think they are! Women can be sold or traded for money, but it isn't the same for men and children!

Men would be executed for the slightest mistake they make, or the least threat they possess to the kingdom or their master!

For children, it's a whole different matter when it comes to males! Most of the healthy boys are either trained to be assassins or war puppets!

From what Lucy had told me, those children cannot rebel for one reason!

All of them are brainwashed! Victimes of the forbidden soul art! Thousand Souls Prison!

It is the most hideous and cruelest way possible to make someone submit to you with the utmost obedience! They can't even think about rebelling since their minds are lost!

As Lucy said, it is a very tormenting method! They use some weird mana technique to make their pain nerves feel a pain that is a hundred times stronger! Slowly cutting their skin with a non-sharp blade, applying white phosphorus on their wounds!

A healer would be presented to heal them whenever they were about to lose it! They can't even faint due to that forbidden technique! Repeatedly facing that nightmare, most of them will lose their minds on the first cycle!

I'd face the same fate if I were going to show up in any city! As I am an irregular for now.

You basically cannot enter any city, be it through the gate or climbing the walls! The city guards are no joke. Not to mention the protective arrays around the whole city. You may leave but you can never enter!

Naturally! Anything must have flaws and openings! I can't penetrate my way through the gate, nor escape the protective arrays. But I definitely can bribe a mage into fabricating a token for me!

It's neither the smartest nor the perfect way to enter a city, but it will certainly work!

Due to that one issue, I'm currently working my ass off here prospecting resources. This place is heaven for irregulars! You don't need a city token to work here, but the payment is a bit off!

Nevertheless, irregulars are forbidden to enter any city, run any business, or form any relationship with regulars.

That's because most of them are criminals! Thus, you'll instantly feel disdained and contemptuous the moment you get caught! People will only look at you with wary and disdained stares.

The worst thing about working at this place is the lack of safety! You may die at any moment, either from the collapse of this cave, hitting an explosive material, or by people themselves!

Everyone here wears mana restriction handcuffs. And no, it is not to protect you from other people using magic!

Mana fluctuations can cause some of the hidden high-grade elixirs to explode at the slightest mana interaction!

Not being able to use mana to strengthen your body is definitely a no-no for half of the mages. You are basically powerless and exposed to any and every risk.

Since there are two different types of mages, one can either be a conjurer or an augmenter!

Conjurer is the most efficient type when it comes to close-range combat!

You draw out the mana stored in your core through the mana channels, enhancing your whole body parts with it!

Either make your fists as strong and heavy as mountains, your legs as swift and fast as winds, or manifest mana itself into the element attribute you have an affinity with.

The biggest flaw in this type is manifesting the magic. You can't throw a fireball, use blades of wind, or use any long-distance range attacks! The moment the mana is outside your body, it loses its shape and disappears!

That's due to the conjurer's mana channels' internal structure! Their mana vessels are narrow, compressed, and only extend to the fibers of muscles.

The internal structure of augmenters is a bit different. But it makes a huge change!

While they can't use mana to strengthen their bodies as conjurers, they don't need to make contact with the attacker's mana! Rather than covering their bodies with mana, and receiving the full blast of the damage, they can easily manifest mana outside their bodies as a shield. Completely avoiding the backlash of attacks perfectly!

Augmenters can use the mana in their surroundings directly! Unlike conjurers who need to absorb it through their narrow internal mana channels, all the way to their core! Only after that can conjurers use the mana after they have purified it!

Augmenters' mana channels are spacious and wide compared to the conjurers! Their vessels extend to their skin! Their ability to absorb and purify mana is much more efficient than the conjurers. It is only a really small distance, only millimeters. Yet it makes all the difference! In a long-distance fight, you will be endlessly faced with magic attacks! Since they can use mana in their surroundings, their mana reservoir is practically endless!

They are not as fast or powerful as conjurers! While they can't enhance their bodies, hiding in a shell while attacking you from a long distance is a pain in the ass! Also draining their mana reservoir won't work!

While both types have their cons and pros, one cannot be an augmenter and conjurer at the same time due to the internal difference!

According to Lucy, I am neither! For that reason, I have spent the past three years fixated on channeling my mana vessels only!

It is because my mana channels aren't like any of these people here! I have many more mana channels than normal people, with the ability to extend them!

Lucy said forming my mana core right now is the boldest and the stupidest move I can make. It's a crime to let such an opportunity slip by!

It may sound impossible and stupid to anyone because you can't even form the channels if you don't have a core to begin with.

The usual way is to form the core by absorbing pure mana particles, gathering them all in one place and compressing them to the point where they explode! Only like this, you can form your core, slowly purifying it with time, advancing in stages!

Mages are born with the ability to store mana in their bodies. Thus meditating every day, slowly progressing in gathering pure mana particles from the environment!

Kids cannot gather pure mana at young ages, due to their lack of understanding! You would be considered a genius if you could understand how magic and mana work in this world before the age of 10!

I never had that issue. I don't need to understand mana to begin with! I was able to see mana particles from the moment I was born!

For me, mana is not something I need to understand! Just like how you don't need to understand how your body moves.

You are innately able to move your body! I have far surpassed the idea of understanding mana. I am more concerned about how to use it!

Since I don't have any affinity, and I'm neither an augmenter nor a conjurer! I have no idea what I will be able to do when I form my core.

Hehe! I don't understand why Lucy is trying to make me so powerful anyway! Deeply in my head, I don't care much about how powerful I can get.

All I want is to be with her till I die! I am neither concerned with being a great mage nor looking for my real parents!

I think it's time to leave this place! I was planning to leave in the afternoon, but I got to work some more hours since I had taken that nap! How stupid.

Throwing that pickaxe away! I made my way home. I'll be working here for one more week only. This hell is finally coming to an end!