SEVEN DAYS OF JOY AND PAIN

Three days had passed since Lynne had begun learning underneath a world-renowned eternal virgin. The two had become so close that they began considering themselves blood brothers, vowing to forever protect one another till death. Lynne had learn that this strange fellow’s name was Auldin Rennar and that he was twenty-eight years old. What astonished Lynne more, though, was the fact that Auldin was actually Four Star Master Archmage.

After the basic rankings of Magus, which run from Unraked to Master, there are additional ones once one steps into the true world of Magic. However, unlike the basic ranking which is heavily tied to simply mastery of the Basic and Advanced elements, much more goes into determining the rank of a Magus later on. Starting with the affinity, Mana, Mental Energy, Soul Energy, even physical strength… a whole myriad of things need to be taken into account when evaluating one’s true strength as a Magus. As such, every registered Magus within Highlind Kingdom is required to attend the yearly assessment within Edgemaw in order for Kingdom to always know its true strength.

Starting just after the ‘Master Magus’ rank of the basic ranking, there’s ‘Archmage’. It’s the most basic title granted to everyone who manages to break the bottleneck that ‘Master’ rank possesses. Requirements for the breakthrough were very simple, but also very terrifying: one merely had to create their own spell. The fact that only one out of every thousand can actually do that attests to the ‘terrifying’ part. Auldin had carefully explained rankings to Lynne, all the way up to the Celestial Magus rank, stating that ‘anything beyond is only known by those beyond’.

1-5 Stars Archmage

1-5 Stars Dao Mage

1-4 Stars Dao Archmage

1-4 Stars Master Archmage

1-4 Stars Pius Archmage

1-4 Stars Dominus Archmage

1-3 Stars Heavenly Magus

1-2 Stars Celestial Magus

Naturally, with so many ranks, each of the stages only held a small amount of Magus within the single Kingdom. Auldin, after getting drunk on their second night together, had even told Lynne that the Highlind Kingdom didn’t posses even a single Celestial Magus, and that their current strongest Magus was barely One Star Heavenly Magus. Lynne merely memorized all this as it was far beyond anything he should be concerned at the moment.

On the other side, Auldin was slightly surprised with the progress Lynne had made. The eternal virgin had quickly realized that Lynne’s affinity and comprehension were far beyond ordinary, and with him bottling up for seventeen years, once Auldin started teaching him and instructing him to practice all the time, all of it began pouring out. If outsiders were to learn that in mere three days Lynne had progressed from Unranked to Three Stars Adept, there’s no doubt they’d vomit blood. However, considering the seventeen years of doing absolutely nothing related to actual Magic and exploring more mortal versions of magic, Auldin wasn’t truly shocked.

What did shock him slightly, though, was Lynne’s ability of manipulation. The young lad could seamlessly combined any of the two Basic and Advanced elements at will, even the opposing ones. While not unheard of – as even Auldin had the capacity to do that – it was still extremely rare, especially for someone so young. Just yesterday Lynne was able to combined Blood and Water elements to create a piercing rain of blood. Auldin was rather proud with the progress the young lad made, and even more proud with the progress he made on the other front.

“Listen bro,” Lynne hugged Auldin with his arm as the two walked casually through the forest just outside Auldin’s home. “To charm a Princess – especially the haughty and cold types – you need to pour out all the fire in your heart!”

“All the fire!!” Auldin repeated excitingly.

“That’s right!” Lynne nodded. “That means, when you approach her, your words need to be spoken with flame unbound, as if you have Dragon blasting off roars within your soul! Watch!” Lynne suddenly let go and took two steps forward. Suddenly, he comically fell onto one of his knees while he extended one of his arms up into the air, palm face-up, fingers spread out. His expression was solemn but his eyes were fierce. He suddenly began speaking in an unnaturally deep voice, as if he tried to imitate someone much older than himself. “Thou beauty haunts me, my Queen!”

“But she’s not a queen?” Auldin said, confused.

“It doesn’t matter!” Lynne roared angrily. “In your eyes, she’s a Princess, a Queen, an Angel, a freaking God for all you care! You need to put her above everything else, you get it?!”

“Ooh!” Auldin’s lips were split as he stared at this youth in wonder, as if this young lad said something so profound that could shake the world. “Yes, Master Lynne!”

“Khm… I cannot face sky without seeing your perfect face, cannot listen to birds without hearing your angelic voice, can’t fall asleep without trembling as I imagine your perfection! You haunt me, my Angel! Please, I beg you, stop my suffering! My heart cannot help but stir at the sight of you, my soul cannot help but shake under your gaze!! I suffer my Queen!!”

“*clap clap*” Auldin suddenly began applauding as Lynne got up from his knee. He had wondrous expression, as if he just witnessed something he otherwise never would. “Amazing brother Lynne! Purely amazing!”

“Well, yes,” Lynne scratched his nose, acting slightly bashful. “As I said, khm, the art of charming women is all about fire Auldin! Fire, flame, blaze! You need to thaw that ice in her eyes, you need to burn away the doubts in her heart, you need to conquer her from the roots! Only then you can do this and that.”

“Shameful!! I would never… he he.”

As the two circled back, they immediately headed towards the platform. They only had four days left, and Lynne had to be in the best condition he could in order to complete the mission he was assigned. Naturally Lynne wouldn’t be the only deployed counter-spy, as leaving the destiny of the entire Kingdom in the hands of an absolute lunatic - seventeen years old one at that - was complete insanity. However, as Lynne was to be assigned to the highest prefecture of the Kingdom – the Kingly Ring itself – he need to be as sharp as the blade crafted in the clouds.

As Lynne leapt onto the platform, his playful expression quickly changed. It’s rather miraculous how a person can change when motivation strikes them deep, and that was the case with Lynne. He had nothing. He wasn’t even certain whether his only blood – his father – was still alive. He could have surrendered and lived life on the street as hundreds of others, but he couldn’t. Desire for nice things – mainly gold – simply burned too deep within his soul. As such, greed within him ignited a spark which filled his entire being to the very last pore with desire to succeed.

As he exhaled a deep breath, his eyes suddenly became much clearer as he stared at the wooden dummy in the distance. At the moment he was practicing offensive and maneuvering capabilities, as they were rather important if he ever intercepted any of the shady individuals. The art of battling using Magic was much different than when one used ordinary weapons and means. Battles between two relatively evenly matched Magus would sometimes stretch for miles from their original location, as majority of Magus battles relied on movement and precision. Naturally, there were different types of Magus. As such, there were some who simply relied on sheer brutality of their spells and Mana reserves to completely overwhelm their opponents, but as Lynne’s Mana reserves were still quite shady, he was forced to take a more stealthy path. This meant that he would fight by constantly moving around and casting spells.

As casting spells came directly from one’s mind, no physical acts were required to be performed. One simply had to picture a fireball in their mind, and they would be able to manifest it within whatever portion of their bodies they desired. However, accuracy depended on practice and practice alone.

As such, Lynne suddenly spread both his arms wide and lowered them at angle whereupon two glistening balls of flame appeared. He suddenly dashed sideways as a gale of wind pushed him, and he fired off one of the balls towards the dummy. However, the ball missed by about arm’s length from the dummy’s chest area, prompting Lynne to grit his teeth in frustration. Although he was able to procure some unique and twisted results by combining different types of elements within his mind, accuracy with either of those was terrible. As the matter of fact, Auldin told him that even amongst the children of the ages between four and seven he’d still be amongst the worst. However much talent and innate ability he had, it couldn’t help him in terms of actual experience and training.

Frustrated, he called winds once again as they blew him upwards and away as he released the other blazing ball. This one was a bit more accurate, but it still merely grazed dummy’s leg before leaving a black mark on the stone platform. Landing, he began cursing as he flayed his arms and legs about in frustration.

“Screw this!” he yelled. “It’s too hard! How the hell can I aim with my spit upwards of ten meters but I can’t hit a freaking two meters tall bulk of wood directly with an actual spell that’s completely under my control! Screw me, screw Magic, screw you Auldin--”

“What did I do wrong?!” the lad pleaded with a sorry face.

“Your face is irritating to look at!”

“Bro!”

“Blah,” he spat as he went back up onto the platform. “Look at that wooden bitch, taunting me like that. Humph, just wait you snot. I’ll blast you apart may it be the last thing I do! You want to stand between me and MY gold? Dream on! I’ll scorch you to ash and ember you bitch! I’ll scorch your entire family beyond recognition.” It doesn’t have one!! Bro have you gone mad already?!! Auldin thought, pitiful look on his face. “And then I’ll burn all your friends--” You’ll burn my forest!? Noo!

“Bro, calm down,” Auldin said, trying to meditate the situation between a living being and a piece of wood. When he stopped to think about it, he nearly fainted. “You just need to practice, and there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll be able to blast apart Mr. Wood in no time!”

“Mr. Wood? That bitch has a name?! Humph, fine! Just you wait Wooden bastard, you won’t be grinning for long!” He’s gone completely insane!!

As such, the days with the two went on. While Lynne was teaching Auldin the secrets of charming beautiful ladies, the latter was trying to teach the former the act of not getting pissed off with a piece of wood. And a piece of stone. And random pond in the forest. Auldin quickly realized that Lynne was rather explosive when things didn’t go his way.

On the seventh day, Auldin was gently shaking his head as he watched the scene. Even after seven days, Lynne was still unable to hit the dummy at the distance bigger than six meters. As he looked at the frustrated youth, he swore he was seeing a devil. His hair was sprung apart as if it wasn’t washed in good few decades, his eyes were bloodshot, veins were popping wherever there were veins in one’s body, he was flaying his entire body in frustration as he rolled around on the stone platform cursing “Mr. Wood” and vowing to defeat his ‘Archnemesis’. It was a rather comical scene, but it only caused pain in Auldin’s heart.

“… bro has given me so much wisdom in the art of love,” as Headmaster listened to Auldin spoke lowly into his jaw, he suddenly spat a mouthful of blood from above. His face contorted and became ugly. “But I have failed him… I am a failure as a brother! I’m a failure as a man! How will Princess Ella love me with the way I am?!” Damn brat, she’s already engaged! Find another! Headmaster cursed in his mind. “Will bro be fine?” Auldin sighed… He’ll get us all killed! Headmaster bellowed inwardly. He’ll cause the entire Kingdom to collapse! What the hell have I done?!!