One month later…

BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOOOOOOMMM!!!

Thunderous claps echoed all over the mountainous valley shrouded within the clouds. Heavy bursts of light pulsed out from the epicentre as ungodly coils of lightning tackled the pure empyrean skies. However, there wasn’t a grey cloud in sight. There was no rain or any signs of heavy weather that could have generated such powerful lightning bolts.

So what was the source of the terrifying phenomenon that destroyed boulders and ripped the sky in half?

“Hah… Hah… Hah… Master, one more time!”

Yachi hunched her back and grabbed her knees, taking a moment to catch her breath. Beads of sweat trickled down from the top of her head and down to her pure white nape. The teenager was in a training uniform, one that helped in absorbing her sweat and to regulate her inner body temperature. However, even with that high-spec gear, Yachi was still drenched to the bone.

“Isn’t it enough for today? You’ve been at it for two hours already.”

Roan replied half-heartedly. As a Master, it delighted him to see Yachi take training so seriously. But as someone who had been through a harsh training programme, it pained Roan to see Yachi suffer.

“No, I can still take it! I’ve only used Tempest twice!”

“Only twice you say...”

The Magic God rolled his eyes at Yachi’s words. Tempest was a powerful lightning spell that Roan had created with the help of Yachi’s Pinnacle Tempest Body. It made use of Yachi’s special constitution to call out over a hundred lightning bolts, each one capable of destroying a couple of houses, and merge them all into one control-type spell.

One could imagine the power of hundreds of lightning bolts all targeting a single area. By Roan’s estimates, Tempest was equivalent to an Advanced-Class Magic Spell. If Yachi could strengthen it through practice, it could easily spill into the Tactical-Class.

And the scary thing about Tempest was… it was unique to Yachi.

Yes, Roan could cast Tempest by layering magic circles over one another, but it was far too inefficient. The mana cost would be absurd, and the chances of one spell cancelling out the other were abnormally high.

Only Yachi, who was able to call out lightning bolts without a magic circle, was able to take full advantage of Tempest.

Be that as it may, Yachi had only just begun her magical journey. Casting Tempest once should have caused a significant strain on her body, and yet the girl was brushing it off as if it were nothing.

“Hah… Fine, I’ll do it again. But this is the last time, alright? We’re not in a shounen anime where you have infinite stamina and mana. Overtraining is a thing.”

“Understood!”

“... I really wonder where you get all of that energy? Is it youth?”

Roan thought out loud, conveniently forgetting that he was just ten years older than Yachi. Either way, he waved Serenity in the air as a conductor would to an orchestra. In response to his demand, broken rocks levitated up in the air before merging into twenty different spheres. The stones continued to congregate until brown magic circles appeared above them, forcing the spheres to morph into three-metre-tall Humanoid Earth Golems.

The Earth Golems moaned softly as they were brought to life. Some of them stretched arms and legs, ready to take on the challenges that laid ahead.

“Ready?”

“Yes! Master, please begin the session!”

“You know the drill. These guys don’t have any intelligence and can only fight with their fists. They are, however, highly resistant to magic. Only an Advanced-Class Spell such as Tempest could damage them. Are you sure you want to continue?”

“Yes, I’m ready!”

“I don’t know where you get that stubbornness from…”

Roan dropped his head and sighed. In the end, all the new Master could do was to take extra care when observing Yachi's training session.

“Ready? Begin!”

❖❖❖

Ten minutes later...

“Hah… Hah… Hah...”

Yachi laid flat on the grassy floor as she imitated a starfish. Chunks of broken rock were littered all around her, and the residue scars of magic crisscrossed the beautiful valley landscape. Yachi looked like an Amazonian warrior that had conquered a trial by fire and had come out as the sole victor.

It was truly a sight to behold.

“Wow, you’ve really made Tempest more efficient.”

“Hah… Hah… I tried my best...”

“HAHA! As expected of my disciple!”

When Roan first started the training session with the Earth Golems, Yachi was unable to destroy a single one of his summons. But she never once gave up. Every subsequent attempt at the trial, Yachi improved her skills tremendously.

If she wasn’t able to complete the trial, Yachi would innovate new ways to overcome the challenge. One day passed, Yachi learnt the Earth Golems’ weaknesses. The next day passed, Yachi was able to destroy one of the Golems with Tempest. And finally, after the third day, Yachi was able to solve the puzzle and complete the training session.

But the girl wasn’t satisfied.

It took her far too long to destroy the twenty Earth Golems, and Yachi continued to fine-tune her abilities. Initially, it took her a full day to complete the trial. It was then halved to half a day. Then, three hours, an hour, until finally…

“Ten minutes to complete the Trial of the Earth Golems! And you’d only started last week! I’d bet that those ‘geniuses’ in the other Magic Towers would turn their faces away in shame if they’d heard about your achievement!”

“Hehe… Thank you, Master! It was thanks to your godly guidance that I could get this far!”

“Girl… You really know your stuff!”

Roan’s face brightened up after the obvious praise.

In truth, it wasn’t only Roan’s teachings that made the difference. The main reason why Yachi could match Advanced-Class Magicians after only one month of training was because of her Pinnacle Tempest Body. The ability to cast high-levelled Lightning Spells without Magic Circles was basically a cheat, and Yachi made full advantage of that fact.

Roan just pointed her in the right direction, and the rest was Yachi’s innate talent and hard work.

But of course, Yachi wouldn’t say that. She loved to kiss her Master’s ass and would praise the man as much as he wanted.

“Master is the best!”

“Yep, now that’s my girl!”

Roan gently stroked Yachi’s hair, causing the young girl to purr involuntarily. Almost instantaneously, Yachi felt a pleasant warmth permeate her skin. It wasn’t malicious, and it didn’t seek to destroy Yachi’s body. In fact, it was the opposite. As that warm feeling spread through her veins, Yachi’s fatigue slowly dissipated away as her body was restored to a rested state.

“Better?”

“Y-yes, thank you...”

“Good!”

“Master… Instead of wasting your mana, shouldn’t you teach me the restoration spell? If you could teach it to me in a few hours, I wouldn’t have to bother you so often.”

“Haha, patience, foolish child! Restoration is an Advanced-Class Magic Spell! Most people take years to learn that spell, and you want to learn it in a few hours? Other than Lightning-Type spells, you’re only able to cast one or two Intermediate-Class spells right?”

There were three main classifications in magic. It starts from Elementary-Class Magic, the most basic of spells that anyone in the world could master after some training. In fact, the vast majority of humans used Elementary-Class Magic for their day-to-day activities.

Therefore, for one to step on the path of becoming a magician, one had to be able to cast the next tier of spells, Intermediate-Class Magic. Most magicians were capable of casting this level of spells from memory, making it the most common tier that magicians used.

But… It was the third Class of Magic was what really separated magicians from the common man.

Advanced-Class Magic is described as the step that determines an average person from a genius. Those that could learn Advanced-Class Magic are those that have devoted their lives to magic, and only one in ten thousand people could ever hope to reach this stage.

Many of the magic spells in this class are only used by magicians that had been training for at least two decades. For Yachi to have one spell in this class under her arsenal was already a miracle, and yet she wanted to learn another in a few hours?

“A-Ah, I’m sorry...”

“No, you’ve been growing so fast, so your perception of what’s normal is skewed,” Roan explained objectively.

“Hmmm, learning about normalcy is important for your growth. But I’m not really one to teach you what’s normal and what’s not...”

Roan was the Magic God, literally the one person furthest away from ordinary life. In this case, Roan was the probably worst person to teach Yachi.

“One month has passed, I guess it should be fine by now.”

“What’s fine?”

A warm, yet mischievous smile crept up the corners of Roan’s lips.

“Let’s go on an adventure!”

❖❖❖

Eusora. Leona Republic. Ganger Tavern.

Somewhere in the middle of the human continent, there laid a small nation. Its population was about a million strong, and its borders only spanned thirty-thousand square kilometres, making it one of the smallest countries on Eusora.

Unlike the four juggernauts that ruled the human lands, the Leona Republic didn’t possess an excess of magicians. It didn’t have any Magic Towers or Witch Houses. The small country even lacked natural resources that could be imported for a high fee.

In fact, the only reason why this nation existed in the first place was to facilitate trade between the Magic Halls and the Aura Council. Merchants and immigrants were the primary inhabitants of the land with only a handful of Spellcasters and Aura Users protecting the country.

Which meant that...

“Father, I’m bored...”

“Go clean the tables or mop the floor then.”

“I’ve already done that five times this morning! And what’s the point? Even if I clean everything, there won’t be any guests coming!”

A young barmaid made an impassioned grunt as she glared at the middle-aged man who was cleaning a mug for the thousandth time...

“It has been over a month now! Why hasn’t anyone responded to our request yet?! If the Magic Beasts terrorising the Ganger Road isn’t killed, we won’t have any business!”

“Hah… What do you want me to do, Victoria? Do you think I’m satisfied with how our livelihood is being eaten up by those stupid Magic Beasts?”

“But Father! Weren’t you an adventurer back in your youth? Don’t you have any retired pals or connections that we could pull?”

“If I did, I would have called them already. Besides, those Magic Beasts are D-Ranked in power. If you band them together, they would be equivalent to a C-Ranked Magic Beast. We’ll need a team of C-Ranked Adventurers or at least one B-ranked Adventurer to hunt those monsters. There’s no way my buddies could hunt them.”

“Urghhh, so what? We just wait until we run out of business?”

The young barmaid slammed her fist on the table, showing her indignation.

“Hah… What else can we do?”

The middle-aged man was just about to pour his heart out as well, but before that could happen… as if it were a sign from heaven itself, the bell on the door chimed.

A hooded man strolled through the entrance, drawing both the father and daughter’s attention. His grey coat was dirtied with mud at its hems, and his clothes were in tatters. The man was quite battered up, but neither the innkeeper nor the barmaid thought that he was a vagrant who was seeking shelter for the night.

Why?

Because he had something that no vagabond would ever possess. A two-metre-long sharp spear.

“Is this Ganger Tavern?”

“Ah, y-yes!”

“Great,” the man replied in a toneless manner as he removed his hood.

Walking up to the stunned pair, the man made his features visible. Standing at about 1.76 metres tall, the man was a little too short for his build. Lean but way to muscular, the man’s body seemed to have been forged through fire and was carved out of rock. His stunning red-hair was tied into a short ponytail, allowing all to witness his youthful looks.

While the man wasn’t all that handsome, the fire in his serene, brown eyes hid a magnetic charm. Rather than a man in his twenties, the visitor looked more like a teenager who had just matured too quickly.

And just like his appearance dictated, the man held a dignified poise, one that was only observed in High Nobles.

“My name is Chen, and I’m here to take on your request.”