It was rainy morning. That much, together with the cold air and the blue sun, whose light one could see behind the clouds, created a unique and sad atmosphere.
Kay didn't knew why, but he was feeling particularly hopeful that morning. It was a strange feeling, however the youngster was familiar with the bizarre. He came from a mage family, after all.
Kay had jet-black hair, with amethyst eyes. He wore a blue shirt, with a black coat, to protect himself from the cold. He also wore black pants and blue shoes. His skin was tanned from working under the sun, he had a scar under his right eyebrow and he was a bit more muscular than what you would expect of a mage.
He was also 19 years old.
Seeing that rain became more fierce, the young man steps turned into fastpaced strides. He didn't expected to rain today, thus didn't picked a umbrella.
"Damn Weather. It was sunny a couple minutes back!" After those words, the rain became a storm. It was like things were naturally going wrong for him. Knowing that he couldn't keep running like that, the youngster entered the first commercial building he saw.
The place was dried up, well lit with a few columns of stone with magical flames on the top, providing a heat source to those who didn't had and to top it all of, it smelled wonderfully. Kay, who couldn't stop trembling, found the atmosphere nice.
The receptionist, who saw that, giggled to herself. Muttering a few words and drawing in the air with her index finger, it soon took shape of a dark blue, with some runes inscribed in it, circle. And after glowing in the same color, the young man body was left dried up.
"Thanks!" Kay said, bowing politely. The woman giggle again, her adorable face and laugh being the best thing the young man saw and heard in a while. She had blonde hair, pale skin and wore glasses. Her eyes were of the color of diamonds. She wore a black business suit, and a smile that was uncharacteristic of someone who dresses herself that way.
"Your welcome. Grab a seat, it seems that the rain will take sometime to pass." She said, which caused him to sight. No way that he would be able to make in time for his job. He still thanked her nevertheless.
Sitting across the young lady, Kay noticed all the different emblems of Magical Families, or Crests, as they were usually called, hanging on the walls. The four most infamous there were the Tiger, the Dragon, the Turtle and the Phoenix.
Each of them representing one of the ancient noble families. Each one representing a past that everyone tries to forget.
The ancient noble families where four different clans that were said to be descendants of the four divine beasts. They had an immense amount of magic, and could use Runecraft with ease.
Talking about Runecraft, it was forgotten and replaced by magic circles, a way more efficient and fast method than runes, and also the reason why the normal humans could dethrone the four noble families.
Kay looked at his hand. Sighting, he tried to draw the same magical circle the woman before him drew, but to no avail. Unfortunately for him, he had a unique branch of Magic, one that couldn't be used with the Magic Circles.
He was a user of Runecraft. He didn't knew why or how, but he was born with this rare condition that didn't let him use magic circles. Even more, since the magic council forbid the use of runes, he couldn't even use magic.
Runecraft is a traditional branch of Magic that focus on drawing runes with ones own Mana, and by pouring more Mana into it, they could cause different effects in the world. Things like creating a tornado or making magma flow out of the earth can be done with relative ease if one's know the right Rune to it.
However, since the dethrone of the ancient noble families and the subsequent censorship on that content, the boy couldn't do anything because the first Magic King forbid any Rune related knowledge to the public. And since Runecraft is, perhaps, the only magic branch that could be used without magic circles, Kay couldn't use magic like the others around him.
He couldn't even draw a magic circle in the air! All because to do magic, one must have a strong image of what he wants to use, then he must evoke the magic circle. Unfortunately for him, Runecraft doesn't works that way.
To use runecraft is to have a strong image and to vocalize it in the form of a rune. It irked him to no end. To be less than others, less than child.
While the young man was thinking, the teleport circle in one of the walls begun to glow, and from there, two figures emerged. One was a fat and old executive, the other was a beautiful young woman.
She had long and soft black hair that was loose, letting everyone who saw it became instantly charmed to it, mesmerizing blue eyes, and porcelain pale skin. She wore a pink dress, with blue highlights.
"Please mistress, I ask of you, why is my son not worthy of becoming king!" The man asked, trying to negotiate with the woman. Not understanding anything that was happening there, Kay decided to simply turn away and not look. He knew that getting attention from rich people, for him, at least, was a bad choice, and he also had to go to work. The rain finally had stopped.
"Isn't it obvious… it's because I didn't came here to see your son. He doesn't have the makes of a king… no… YOU!" The strange woman pointed towards Kay, her scream made him yelp. Turning around slowly, he was once again entranced by her beautiful skin, he asked slowly.
"What?"
"I see potential in you… want to become the Magic King?"
And so, without knowing what to do, and without any control over his fate, the youngster was thrown into an event that would forever change his life.
The hall grew quiet, as three of the four people present observed the black-haired beauty, as if she grew another head.The receptionist and the executive's eyes soon fell on Kay, who was with a serious face up till now. The fat man soon grew angrier, as he thought the woman was mocking him."Mistress, I never saw that man's face in any noble family. You wanted potential, and my son is one of the most talented mages of his generation! What could a commoner such as him have that my son doesn't?" The man said, breathing erraticaly. He knew far too well that he can't lose composure in front of this woman. His entire family treasures and history could be wiped out in a whim if so she desire.However, he was a prideful man. And among the things he took more pride in, was his son. He was a prodigy and worked harder than any other child in his classes. So having that woman saying that she didn't want to met his son, and only came here to talk to a commoned... it angered him.He was Ashira Ri
"Although, I'm still confused." Kay said aloud, in the same place he had been sitting throughout the whole reading. "You said that we were going to fight on a Battle Royale to decide the next king… if so, how the bloody hell no one remembers such an event?"The woman, Zera, hummed and smiled in satisfaction. Looking towards Kay, she answered, pleased by the inquire nature of her new disciple."Well, that's quite simple. After the Battle Royale the winning team, composed of the apprentice and the Arcana, both use a powerful artifact to erase the commoners memories of the battles that will take place in the entire kingdom."Kay's eyes widened."What the hell?! The royals always had such a thing?!" He yelled. If they really had a way to erase an entire kingdom memories of an event, the things that they could do and get away with it… Kay's gulped just by thinking about it."Don't scream. The landlord here hates all kind of rattle." Zera scolded him, sensing a chill run down her spine when
"That… that…" Kay mumbled a few curses for the last thirty minutes or so, while trying to regain his bearings. He soon decided to think about what his master told him. "Knowledge is power… I wonder…" He then begun to try and read the runes that illuminated the wall, with hopes that it could give him some source of directions.He stared at the shiny letters on the wall for a couple more minutes until…"Dammit! I can't understand a single word!" He cursed aloud, and as expected of his bad luck, it attracted… something.Kay begun to hear steps and a couple of shaking noises. The dimly illuminated cavern, whose only source of light was the bluish runes, became even more scary after, a couple of meters ahead of Kay, a Skeleton Soldier appeared.The Skeleton Soldier is a low level monster, who appears often in the early floors of dungeons. It is made of weak bones, none reinforced by magic, and have as weaponry a cutlass sword and a shield made of copper, with a spike in it's center.It's e
"I… I… I DID IT!" Kay suddenly beamed with energy, running around and jumping like a happy fool, leaving the dark elf completely shocked.'How can this be? The last human who could use Runecraft died alongside the four ancient noble clans… how can this man possess it?' Those where a few of the questions that rummage through the elvish woman head, searching desperately for an answer, all the while Kay was drawing the rune she taught him everywhere, making the mist become more and more dense and almost impossible for any normal human being to see in it, which caused Kay to slip in one of the rocks on the ground and fall face first."Seriously kid, how the hell can you use Runic magic?" She asked more to herself than to Kay. The youngster, however, heard her and decided to explain what he knew about how a unique magic is formed."Well, when two people love each other very much, they have a child. This child has 75% of inherit either one of the parents magic. The child also has 24,5% of g
Zera was walking towards her room, eager to see how Kay was doing. She knew, for a fact, that the boy had potential and she knew that, with his charisma, he could convince anyone.For that reason, she placed him on the area where Liria was, hoping that he could learn a thing or two from the elf. Those are, after all, the last Runecrafters in the world.Yes, she knew. The truth behind the elves seclusion and why there are so much bad blood between the two races. It pained her to see things like that, after all… some of her best friends are elves.She kept marching forward, when someone called for her."I see you decided to place your chips on a weaker one." Came the voice of Jupiter Wald… the Arcana twenty one… and the strongest between them all."This does not concern you…" Zera said, not looking towards him. It didn't matter what kind of hide he had taken to see her, she couldn't care less at how her older brother looked like right now.She kept walking, however, her brother wouldn't
The monsters were crawling towards the youngster, which made him sweat a little. He, however, still held his ground, and smiled shakily. Drawing a Rune in the air, the image of electricity crosses his mind, and thus he spoke, in a calm voice."Za'azu'a" After those words left his mouth, Kay extended his right hand towards one of the monsters. It was an immense dog, who seemed to have a horse's head and eagle paws. With his target on sight, the boy's hand erupted in light as a spark of a lightning left his hand.His target convulse with a shriek of pain. As soon as all the skeletons soldiers saw that, they, along with some kind of really big spider, attacked the boy, who kept the smile on his face. Writing a new rune, he began another chant, the image of wind striking a mill making itself present in his mind."Ruakh!" Kay exclaimed, and a very strong gale threw his opponents off balance, making them fall on they're feet. His hand danced on the air once more, and a new rune formed itsel
Kay and Liria, after a quick analysis about the youngster fight and magics, where walking towards the end of the first floor.Kay was wearing the hide of the dog he skinned, with Liria wearing another type of fur. Somehow, Kay thought, she seemed even more beautiful in that silver cloak. It was like the coat highlighted her skin and hair.Looking at his own hand, Kay remembered the talk he had with Liria."Your main affinity is fire." She had said, a couple minutes earlier, lowering the hand that was in front of his face."How do you know that?" He had asked in search for the answer."It's a little trick that the Runecrafters had come across a couple of centuries ago." She begun, with a nostalgic smile on her face. "Fact is, when using a spell, the element you used will mix in your Jing, and for us Runecrafters, we deterrence some of that Mana, with the characteristics of that element we just used. That is where lies our affinity." She finished the explanation."What is in your mind,
Kay woke up to the sound fire burning metal. Looking up, what he encountered was a tad unexpected.What was ahead was a two-headed blacksmith. One was a scarred, bald, human male, with a mighty auburn bear. The second was a Draconian, with red scales and a scar on it's left eye. It was breathing fire on a piece of iron, a formless sword."Finally 'waked, eh?" The dwarf-like head spoke, while the flames ceased and it's arms took the forge and bathed it in cold water. "Y'er gave us quite the spook, kiddo. Almost lost ya.""Who are you? Where am I?" He winced, his hand found it's way to one of it's many cuts, one particularly nasty."Easy there, kiddo. I ain't a nurse, ya know?" The sound of boiling water filled the place, the steam filled the cavern. "Still, y'er quite lucky. If I was a minute late, you'd be a goner."'Lucky, huh…' His thoughts went back to the woman who gave her life to save his, a frown marred his features and a deep sadness caved it's way into his heart. 'I guess… sh