Proofread by: Daylius and Vikingstad

“Did I make you wait for long young Shiv?” the sudden conversation startled Shiv. He turned to the direction of the voice and bowed lightly to the approaching figure!

“No master, you did not!” Shiv was one who saw his master as equivalent to his parents.

Altair smiled to the gesture, she liked the way Shiv behaved, and she liked the respect he gave her. “The fountain of elixir! Magnificent piece of art, don’t you think so too?”

“Yes master, it is truly wonderful. The sculptor must have been the greatest ever existed.”

“Indeed he was, indeed. Have you tasted the water from the fountain Shiv?” enquired a smiling Altair.

“No master! I did not know that one was allowed to consume it”.

“Did Thor, I mean Thorwin not tell you the water he gave you before came from the fountain?” Altair was bemused! ‘That idiot, he did not even explain this’. Altair was mentally cursing Thorwin.

“Well never mind. So tell me Shiv, when you drank the water you were given before, what did you feel”.

“I felt unbelievably strong master. It was like strength was flowing through me, like something was granting me enormous power.”

“Good, now you understand the power of this water.”, Altair now sat on the wall of the fountain, her hands making figures in the water, a bewitching smile on her face.

Shiv noticed that his new master appeared young, beautiful; her soft shiny silver hair was now flowing like a river due to the gentle wind. The smile added to her beauty, her serene nature making things even more magnificent. Shiv thought his new master to be more beautiful than the fountain itself.

The boy was so entranced that he spilled his thoughts without recognizing. “Beautiful!” Altair looked at Shiv; she blushed when she realized he was looking just at her. She understood the praise was meant for her and it was a heartfelt praise too. She turned her now red face away from her disciple and continued talking to change the mood.

“This water is called elixir for this very reason; it gives great power to the one who drinks it. This water is magical. Don’t you agree?”

“I agree, Master!” Shiv was back to normal and was now looking at the water curiously.

“Let me ask you a simple question! What is magic? Is it some parlor trick? Or does it have greater value?”

Shiv had no answer for the question. He couldn’t answer a simple question as that. All he knew was that there were many magical spells. He was disturbed. He had never thought of the meaning of magic.

“You don’t have to feel depressed. Only a few people like Archmages know the real answer. Let me give you my version of how I understand it. Walk with me, will you?” Altair started walking and Shiv followed.

“From time immemorial, magic has been practiced throughout the world, some used it to protect while some used it to destroy. But most of those who used magic did not know its real essence. Magic is neither a tool for destruction nor a tool for protection! It is a part of who you are. ”

Shiv was now really confused. ‘How can magic be part of a person? Surely mana was produced inside the body, but magic?’

“You seem to think otherwise, don’t you? I don’t blame you, none would believe it. Any way lets continue.” Suddenly she started walking faster, Shiv tried to stay with her.

“Have you ever thought some magic was restricted to special people? Like healing for clerks, holy magic for priests and the like. Of course there might be exceptions. A tainted being is able to use dark magic but not holy magic. Have you ever thought why it is so?”

Shiv nodded his head to show he did.

Altair smiled, “That is why I said magic is a part of who you are. A priest has been blessed by god so he or she can use holy magic. It is not because she is a priest but because the good in her becomes the source of her magic. While for a tainted being the source becomes his hatred or the darkness inside. And so on for every other people.”

“Let’s take into account your new sword technique. Have you tried using them?”

“Yes master, I had been trying to after I left the academy. Strangely I am not able to do so.” Shiv had been trying to activate the skills he had been taught by Thorwin. He had been repeating the words his master had spoken and also the stance for the forms. It was during this that he was interrupted by Altair and now he was reminded of his predicament.

“That is because the magic in you is locked. You have to mold yourself to activate the magic and that is what I am going to teach you. As you are now you do not have the knowledge of any of the elements.”

Altair suddenly stopped in front of another red building. Unlike the previous one this one was shorter but had a strange design. It was triangular in shape! Shiv was lost in his thoughts when Altair spoke.

“Let me introduce myself again! I am Altair, Altair Debrolf! Mana harvester and the grandmaster of The Vault of

Knowledge! Welcome to the Vault boy!” she said waving her hand towards the red building.

‘Vault of knowledge!!! Cool!!’

Altair walked inside with Shiv following her.

She gave him a chair and asked him to sit down.

“Now let’s get you to understand the basic elements, shall we?” Altair smiled. She then clapped her hands once and suddenly the entire room lit up. Behind Altair was something that shocked Shiv to the core. Behind her were books, millions and billions of them.

But what shocked him were not the books but something else. From outside he thought the building to be not even a quarter of the previous one, the academy of warfare. But now he thought that he was greatly mistaken.

The interior looked like it was twice the length of the academy! With books stacked on the shelves to the very top. The shelves were placed on the wall of the triangular building and so they were too at an angle. But the books did not even move slightly. They were stuck to the shelf as if they were glued to it.

“How can it be?” Shiv had excitement, doubt and wonder in his tone.

Altair was happy, she was proud of her vault. It had taken her years to build this to the way it was. With a smile she whispered to his ears “Magic is a wondrous thing young one and now I am going to open the door to you!”

She then again clapped and suddenly there was a large squeaking sound. Five books came flying from different direction and landed on her palm. She then presented the books to Shiv.

“I want you to read these books! By the time you finish I will prepare some food, you must be hungry.”

Shiv nodded and made a light bow. He then went back to his chair and began to read. He looked at the titles of each book. The first one was ‘Mana: Source to wonders’. The others were, ‘Basic Element Wind’, ‘Basic Element Fire’, ‘Basic Element

Water’, and ‘Basic Element Earth’.

He began to read the books. He began with mana. He was diligently reading the book, understanding what mana was and how it was made into magic.

Mana is considered as the essence of this world. Just like the air around you there is mana everywhere. All living beings are like a container of mana. They absorb the mana from the surrounding, mainly the ground.

It is believed that mana was created by the Goddess of Life, Tia who dwells in this world! It is also believed that it was she who had created magic from mana.

Magic consumes mana. higher the magic output, higher the source of mana required.

Normally, there exists 7 types of main magic; Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Wind, Dark, Light. All of these are affiliated to nature.

It is also believed that there exists magic which do not come under these categories and is considered so strong that they transcend the boundaries of nature itself.

Every life form is born with uncharacterized mana. This mana develops characteristics as the life form grows and matures. This is the reason why a person has affinity towards certain type of magic but becomes incompatible with another!

[/tds]

It took him a while to complete the book as he tried to understand everything the book offered. He closed the book and recalled everything he had learned.

‘Trrrng’

[td4]

New skill unlocked: Magic mastery (Passive) Beginner Level (3%)The ability to use magic freely. Your understanding of mana has enabled you to use magic with much ease . the more you improve the stronger the spell becomes. You are unable to use special magic unless you satisfy the requirements.

You are now able to cast basic spells.

Increase casting speed by 2%

Increase magic strength by 5%

+5 to INT and WIS

+50 to mana

‘Trrrng’

Having read on one of the laws of this world you have become smarter

+1 to INT and WIS

‘Wow! This is some major development’ Shiv was happy about the Stats gain and skill generation.

He then continued reading the remaining books in random, he was now eager hoping that he would gain more skills and stats. He started with Water and went to Earth. Once he finished Earth he read Wind and finally Fire. By the time he had finished reading he had gained 2 points in INT and WIS. He also gained the respective skills too.

New skill unlocked:Water mastery Beginner level 1 (0%)Understanding the element of Water has made you stronger than before.

Allows manipulation of one of the elements-Water . As your skill proficiency increases, the amount of water produced and the strength of the magic will also increase.

+5% strength for water based spells

+1% water affinity

+1% water resistance

New skill unlocked: Earth mastery Beginner Level 1 (0%)

Understanding the element of Earth has made you stronger than before.

Allows manipulation of one of the elements- Earth. As your skill proficiency increases, the amount of earth produced and the strength of the magic will also increase.

+5% strength for Earth based spell

+1% earth affinity

+1% in Earth resistance

New skill unlocked: Wind mastery (Passive) Beginner Level 1 (0%)

Understanding the element of Wind has made you stronger than before.

Allows manipulation of one of the elements- Wind. As your skill proficiency increases, the amount of wind produced and the strength of wind magic will increase.

+5% for strength in wind based magic

+1% wind affinity

+1% wind resistance

New skill unlocked :Fire mastery (Passive)Beginner Level 1 (0%)

Understanding the element of Fire has made you stronger than before.

Allows manipulation of one of the elements- Fire . As your skill proficiency increases, the amount of fire produced and the strength of fire magic will increase.

+5% strength in fire magic

+1% fire affinity

+1% fire resistance

He was happy that he could gain so many skills. Not only did he learn new skills he also gained affinity and resistance to those elements. But something happened which made him even more happy.

New skill unlocked: Heavenly Element Sword Technique (Passive)Beginner Level 1%)

The sword technique created by the Dragon King, Orrinshire, himself. This technique is considered to be the strongest technique which helped the Dragon King to conquer the world.

You are the 2nd person to inherit this technique. More elements will be unlocked when your proficiency increases.

Currently unlocked elements: (2/7)

Currently unlocked transcended elements: (0/2)+5 to all stats

New sub skill unlocked: Form 1: Kaze(Active)Beginner Level(0%)

Your deep understanding of the element and the sword technique has helped you learn the first form: Kaze(wind). The first form of Heavenly Elements lets you move swift like the wind. FOR THE WIND IS EVERYWHERE.

+10% to AGI

Your presence fades making it easily to sneak behind enemies.

+10% more damage when attacking with the skill.

Duration:30

Mana consumption: 50

New sub skill unlocked: Form 2: Hono(Active)Beginner Level(0%)

Your deep understanding of the element and the sword technique has helped you learn the second form: Hono(fire). The second form of Heavenly Elements lets you burn everything. FOR THE FIRE CONSUMES ALL.

+10% STR

Your body develops a fiery yellow aura.

Your attacks bypass any defense.

5% more damage when attacking with the skill.

Mana consumption: 100

Shiv was overwhelmed just with the joy his heart felt. He had finally inherited the cool moves his master had showed him. He was busy celebrating his new found skills that he did not notice Altair’s presence.

“Cough!”, Altair coughed to gain Shiv’s attention.

“Sorry master, I was not myself for a moment.” Shiv bowed apologetically.

“It’s ok. I too was like you when I first gained the ability to use magic.” Altair consoled Shiv. “So you seem to have gained control over your magic. From the look on your face I believe you are now capable of using the sword technique too.”

“Yes master, I can”, Shiv said smiling, but the smile disappeared when he saw his master had a sad look on her face. He wanted to know the reason why she would make such a sorrowful face. He was about to speak when Altair began talking again.

“Well now that I have taught you all that I have I want you to go back to Thorwin and practice your new magic skills, only the magic skills. You are prohibited from using the sword skills.”

Shiv’s face became pale, ’again to that hell hole and that demon? No you can’t master I will die.’ Before Shiv could protest Altair snapped her fingers and Shiv felt him being swooped away from the ground and thrown back. When he landed he was outside the vault and in front he saw Altair closing the door with the same beautiful smile he had seen at the fountain.

---***---

Shiv had been continuously training his magic skills just like he had with his body under Thorwin. He had used Chains of Time to increase his time, or rather slow time around him, converting 1 hour into 2 hours. By the end of the allotted 2 day magic training all his magic proficiency had reached beginner level 4 except for magic mastery. It was only beginner level 2. From this he understood that magic mastery will only increase if he used powerful or large scale magic.

He had no powerful magic so he tried to use magic which affected larger area. He did this by trying to increase the amount of element created. But he could not also do that for his proficiency in the 4 elements being low. So he continued with the usual method and used basic spells like fire ball, water bullet, wind blade and earth wall.

He had expected all of them to become new skills but was disappointed when he found that after all that training no new skill had developed.

Shiv had almost two more hours before his lessons under Altair came to an end. So he thought to log out and go have a small chat with Mia. He had been occasionally logging out in between to meet his family. So he thought now was the right time to.

“Log o…..”, he could not complete it as he was interrupted by the sudden opening of the door of his training room. The door was flung open and in came a gigantic figure. Together with the giant was Altair.

Shiv was startled because of the sudden intrusion by the duo but he regained his composure instantly.

“Shiv, how have you been? I am sorry for not visiting you I had some business to attend to. Leaving that behind, meet Petra your new master. She will be teaching you strategies and tactics. I am going to teach you how to fight.”.

“But I know how to fight”, Shiv protested clearly not liking the idea of being the faint lady’s disciple. He was shocked enough when he heard the giant was a woman. He was now shocked even more when he heard she was his new master.

‘Why do I have to suffer so much.’

“Fight? You think using flashy sword moves and some stupid magic makes you able to fight? Nonsense, you are as stupid as Thor said. Look here son, I am going to show you what a true fight is. And in a true fight you use this.” finished Petra with her fingering pointing to her head covered with a helmet.

“You fight with your helmet?”, Shiv asked with a serious face.

There was silence throughout the room for a second. Shiv thought that he was going get hit by the giant lady. But contrary to his thoughts the two ladies started laughing.

“Oh my, oh my! He is just as you said Al! I can’t stop laughing. Petra could hardly talk because of her laughter. She was now almost rolling on the floor

“I told you so!” said a teary Altair who had just stopped laughing.

Petra stood up and removed her helmet, her golden hair plaited neatly now came to Shiv’s view.

“No son, not the helmet. I fight with what this helmet protects. My brain. I am a strategist. I have fought enough wars to be called one of the best of these lands.” She said confidently.

“Well now, let’s not waste any more time. I have to turn you into a war machine as fast as possible. Altair let’s begin.” Petra said looking at Altair .

“Begin what?” Shiv had a bad feeling! He did not like the way things were proceeding.

”Master, begin what?”

“It’s a secret Shiv.”, Altair replied. She was smiling and as she had done before, she snapped her fingers. And everything became blank.

---***---

(Guys do you think the chapter is too long????? am sorry. i wanted to shorten it but i just could not delete anything!!!! this is the base of my characters power so i had to explain it clearly. everything that has happened till now is for a reason. pls enjoyyyyy)

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