3- The attack

in the far east of the Tomorian Empire, were mountains projects into the ocean, there was a town that was prosperous and famous for being one of the main destinations for trade, training, and hunting, and all because of a special mine that produced high-grade mana stones for the last 40 years without stop.

many mage guilds also built their headquarters around that mine, the power that radiates from the mine alone is enough to improve their mana concentration and cultivation. 

several nobles took advantage of that, the long vast forest, the beach, and everywhere around the mine now is full of all types of shops, stalls, inns, markets buildings, squares, and roads, except for one location, no one have dared to approach the watchtower on the mountain.

they say the old man who lived there was crazy, he didn't interact with anyone, and whoever tried to overstep the boundaries of the tower he didn't hesitate to hurt them, yet there were people who knew him well, he was the high visor, the mage of the tower that maintains the protective formation, but no one had ever shown gratitude or respect towards the old man for doing that, except for few who had seen the power of the old man as a capable mage, many nobles were requesting him to teach their promising children, but he always rejected them because he had students already

in the mountains between the trees, a sudden flash followed by a fire explosion landed on distant trees.

" and that's how you make the spell effective with the least consumption of mana, it called spell compression .. ". it was Philips explaining magic-related knowledge to three young students. " woahhh. that's cool ".. " awesome " the students cried in excitement.

they were his first and only students, it been 7 months since he had saved them from a stray Bear in the forest not too far from the tower, and he was involved with them ever since.

Philip was tired of his lonely life, his brother left a long time ago after the funeral of the remaining elders, many years have passed since then. he finally wanted to do something before he passes away and it was giving these orphans a chance to fight, after few months he grew to like them and started teaching them magic. they were two boys and one girl, Alice, zack, and Arthur. 

they kept their daily routine to train in the afternoon, then Philip would go attend the formation needs and then read or meditate till the next day. 

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the strength of the Tomorian empire rose significantly in the last 40 years, to carefree experiment and play with high-grade mana stones is a privilege only exclusive to the humans of the empire, they now have the best gear, knowledge, and tech among all other races, their power and skills have grown several folds over the last decades.

no one knew the war between the kingdom of kolon viel and the empire have long stopped in secret, the empire now is using the fake war situation with the kingdom to justify the massacres they inflict on others.

At the capital of the empire, inside a huge palace, in a room filled with fancy decorations and gold, the emperor was lost in his thoughts. his fingers tapping on his disk looking at several reports. suddenly a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. " come in ". as he continued " it better be something worth it " he said with an impatient voice. as the sound of footsteps echoed in the vast decorative room, it was the reporter from the eastern mana mine, the reporter handed a red envelope to the emperor. bowed and left.

the emperor had a worried look as he checked the content of the report and cursed under his breath " ever since the last year the resources coming from the mine were getting less and less every month ".

as he was lost in his thoughts he heard other knocks with a voice " your grace you called for me ! ". it was one of the empire generals. 

" ahh general just in time, come in," the emperor said as he gestured the general to sit. looking at the color of the envelope in the emperor's hand the general knew it was a report from the east.

the emperor noticed the general as he said ". ah this, the mine isn't doing too well general ". the general replied " another bad news about the mine your grace ? ". the emperor replied, " well it will soon be depleted. we can't afford to waste high-grade stones from now on, we expect it to run dry in the next year ".     

.." then what should we do next !" the general asked with a worried expression. the emperor replied " your father was a knight, he helped the empire explore the mine 45 years ago, and now I trust you to do the same, we will trade the mine to the dwarves for one of their big gold mines in the south, " the emperor said with a smirk. the general replied " sell, but doesn't that mean we will be throwing whats left of the high-grade stones to the dwarves? will they even accept the mine? ".

it is true. even if the mine was close to run dry. it still had a large number of stones that is worth more than a simple gold mine, the general was confused. 

the emperor continued " when we trade it to the dwarves we will make sure they buy our good intentions, after a short period the kolon viel kingdom will raid it, take the mine and kill everyone in the town, then we blame the dwarves for our citizen's death in the town, we still own the mana mine, no one knows we are working with the kolon viel kingdom now for almost a decade, we share the same goal as them, and also a free gold mine general, plus the dwarven compensation for the citizens lives " the emperor said with a big grin. the general looked in surprise with his hand on his chin and asked as if something is worrying him " but don't you think they will have a hard time raiding the town, considering the magic formation, plus the high visor in the tower? I think we shou..." the general was cut short by the emperor ". he might be a level 21 mage but he is still one old man, it doesn't make any difference to the kingdom's troops, we have provided them with the gear and the manpower, I don't care if he dies, we don't need the magic formation anymore "..... 

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in the following month news of trade negotiations between the empire and the dwarves spread out in the town, some were happy and cheering, some were not.... " hey hey did u hear it seems that the emperor has declared his friendship with the dwarves and he gave them this precious mine for a just a gold mine as a symbol of friendship and trust ". many people are talking about it since dwarves are good craftsmen. and unlike the empire, they have always sold their goods, dwarves getting the high-grade mine means adventurers can buy new better gear made with high-grade stones, everyone was excited, except for one person.  

an old man inside his tower, looked out of the window as he frowned at the news, he was confused and worried about the empire's actions. " hmmm why would such a greedy Racist empire do that ". something just for friendship doesn't exist in Philips world, his past was cruel, he lost everything, over the past years he was bullied by the empire noblemen, they took advantage of his hometown for their selfish gains.

after some time, Philip looked again outside of the window and again he looked in his hands, it was something that was gleaming in pure red shine, the mysterious spider gem, as tears were dropping on it, that night Philip remembered everything...

after 2 months of the dwarves taking over the mine, in one of the nights, a fire suddenly was set on many houses, flame arrows were raining on the town, in a moment the silent and peaceful town turned into chaos, knights of the Kolon veil kingdom riding their warhorses through the streets of the town slaughtering everyone on sight, whatever it was humans, dwarves. old or young, everyone was killed on sight

the magic circle was alerting the whole tower, Philip woke up suddenly to the sound of chaos, looking outside the window. his dear hometown was engulfed in flames. sounds of crying, shouting and weapons clanging echoed in the silent night, he was shocked at the sight. and said in anger " this damn empire I KNEW IT, for friendship my ass ". 

Philip didn't care that much about the town that was now the property of many greedy nobles, he only cared about his family tower, but in the middle of his thoughts something just hit him, he cried in worry ". the kids ". he quickly went to take everything he needs and while doing so, something reflected in his eyes, it was the mysterious spider gem on the disk, he quickly grabbed it and left quickly running toward the orphanage. 

the usually silent and empty town in the night is now all burning in fire everywhere. while running through the familiar streets, Philip didn't believe a day would come when he would witness the roads he crossed since he was a little kid, filled with fire, bodies, and blood. " sometimes I wish it dream " he thought with a sad face as his eyes reflected the flames, after several minutes he finally arrived, it took him a while to arrive at the street where had the orphanage building, it was partially damaged but fortunately the direction of the orphanage was not in flames, as he tried to run toward the building, his next step was interrupted by a flaming arrow. that pierced the ground right next to his feet, Philips quickly made a distance and raised an arcane shield with a fireball ready in his hands. ". that's not good, they're so many ". Philip cursed under his breath, soon suddenly he sensed another stronger presence coming in fast, so

* swishhhhhhh. foooooooooo Buvfffff *  

something landed hard, smoke and debris were everywhere. soon a shadow can be seen coming out of the smoke, with a deep and sarcastic voice it said " Oh well well, none of them have arrived here yet, I guess that makes me the winner, haha old mage I'm sorry but you see, you're unlucky haha but I promise I won't make it painfu..." the shadow was cut short as a fireball appeared in his vision.

BAADAMMM 

 he managed to dodge but didn't expect the old man's fireball to be this powerful.

" yoo what's the deal, cant we have a civilized conversation? " he said in a puzzled voice as he dodged another two fireballs exploded.   

..BOOOM

...BOOOFFFFF. 

if one looks now, a bulky guy in his mid-twenties, wearing only shorts and a bandanna standing, behind him a large hole of melted ground at where he stood a few seconds ago. " tsk troublesome old man ". the guy said as he clicked his tongue, he jumped over one of the roofs nearby and said out loud in a sarcastic tone " well, you are better than we have expected but still, there's so much a man can do with a single hand, let alone an old fart like you" as he smirked and jumped in a blink for a power Attack, but Philip was ready, as he already had three runes that exploded in a chain of blizzard storms. the kingdom attackers retreated and tried to attack again, but was Philip no were to be seen.

hiding behind the orphanage building Philip was catching his breath as he thought " Damit, they are from the kingdom of kolon veil, but they shouldn't be this strong, the mana level of that guy is too dense..... ...unless "Philip's eyes widened in his conclusion, " but that doesn't matter now, the blizzard will keep their mana sense out for a while, I have to get the kids to safety and worry about this later " Philips nervously thought. he hid his presence as best as he could and entered the orphanage house.

crekkkkkkkk

it was empty, but Philip didn't waste any time as he exactly knew where they were hiding, Philip quickly walked down the stairs to the basement, where he saw the old lady of the orphanage and around 10 kids were hiding behind sacks and barrels. Philip assured them in a calm voice and " its fine iam the high visor "

the lady recognized him and asked in worry " Mr high visor, what is happening outside, are we under war ?" 

Philip replied hurriedly ". yes, it's not safe. please kids, everyone. let us get out of here "

the moment they exited the orphanage, Philip's face paled at the sight of his family's tower burning in flames, he turned around and saw the fear in the eyes of the kid. Philips main plan was to escape through the tower, but that isn't possible anymore, all the roads are not safe. " there's only one possible direction " Philip narrowed his eyes and decided,  

they ran in the direction of the mine...