Willfred only knew pain.

Pain was what he feared the most, but the only thing he had.

He stood in a line, beside his fellows. He wore a white cloth. Everything down to his shoes was white, and it was expected of them to keep it that way.

“Willfred and Emily, room 2.” The calm voice of the doctor resounded through the hall.

He entered the room with Emily, and both of them looked at each other across the room. Willfred could feel the doctor scrutinizing looks coming from the glass window in the side of the room. He couldn’t hold back.

He looked at his status window and thought back which abilities he should focus on during this bout. Emily would surely try to counter him.

Name:

Willfred

Race:

Human

Class:

-

Level:

-

Strength:

28

Agility:

29

Constitution:

31

Intelligence:

32

Wisdom:

38

General Skills

Name

Tier

Level

Mana manipulation

Rare

100

Sword mastery

Unique

98

Regeneration

Rare

35

Literature

Rare

85

Meditation

Rare

48

Acting

Uncommon

59

Perks

Nature attunement

Your body is attuned to the natural elements. Gives the user extra resistance to the elements and more affinity to them.

He knew that attacking her directly wouldn’t be the answer. Emily used a spear to fight, and had superior control over her own body. He assumed that her spear mastery skill to be at tier rare, giving her an edge in close fighting.

He knew he would have to use superior mana manipulation in order to win this fight.

Willfred manipulated his mana all over his body, ready to unleash it whenever necessary. He concentrated the mana over his sword and attacked.

A wave of cutting mana left his sword, going toward Emily. The attack was fast, not giving her enough time to evade it. She simply concentrated her mana over her spear, making her cold elemental mana flow through her weapon, using an exquisite movement to deflect Willfred’s attack.

They looked at each other’s eyes and grinned. They knew that this fight would take a long time to end.

__________________________

Willfred rolled to the side, avoiding Emily’s ruthless attack, her spear almost pierced his shoulder. The ground behind him frosted a little. He used his mana in order to make a small burst and directly hit her on the ribs. She was not expecting the attack, making it especially deadly. She flinched and tried to hit him with the but of her spear, but he was already expecting that.

He avoided the attack and sharpened his sword with mana, cutting her arm off.

The fight was over at that moment. Even though their wisdom attributes were around the same, Willfred's superior control over his mana made him use it with more efficiency and waste it less. Even though she had an advantage over him when it came to weapon mastery, he came on top in the end.

He looked at his notifications and grinned.

Sword mastery leveled up to 99.

Sword mastery leveled up to 100.

He had arrived at the threshold. He was only a little short of evolving it to rare. He knew that now that it was at the top of its tier, he would be able to evolve it sometime soon.

Both of them nodded to each other and returned to their initial position. Emily grabbed her arm and placed it over the stump. After holding it for a few seconds, it was as good as new.

They waited in place, until the Doctor said. “Both of you are showing incredible improvements. Soon you’ll be able to reach your full potential. Leave the room and join the others.”

Both lowered their heads and left the room. They placed the weapons at the corner of the room where all weapons were kept and joined the others after leaving the room.

Willfred stayed still while waiting for orders. The bright light of the hall bothered his eyes a little, but nothing to complain about. After some time, the doctor entered the hall with a new company.

The man with the doctor had silver hair and eyes. He looked to be around thirty, and his presence was terrifying. The Doctor walked a step behind him. It was a strange sight, as their instructors and teachers were always respectful and deferential in the Doctor’s presence. It was strange to see the old man acting like that to another person.

They looked over the teenagers around the room. The silver man, as Willfred chose to call him, scrutinized each and every one of them.

“They have developed satisfactorily. They will serve well.” The silver man looked at the Doctor and said. He looked over the children in the room and said, “You all are blessed. Many in this world are born without purpose, but you have a path laid out for you. There is no doubt, no disturbance in your paths.”

His voice resounded through the hall and through the hearts of the listeners. Willfred was unlike many of them. They were raised inside of this facility, and knew nothing that was not it. Most of his fellows didn’t question their fates, they were raised like him, and were satisfied with what was offered to them. They were eager to serve and explore under the master’s banner. A master that he was taught to worship, even though he knew nothing about him.

Willfred slowly circulated his mana around his body, making it clear his mind and getting the silver man influence out of it.

It was a trick only he could pull out among his fellows, as he was the most gifted one in wielding mana.

Everyone lowered their heads and placed one knee on the ground, and Willfred did like them. Even though he could get the silver man influence out of his head, it was not wise to defy him directly. He knew that he would be instantly crushed if he didn’t obey.

“Five days from now, you’ll receive your class. It’ll be a blessed day, one in which your purpose will be defined.” The silver man said and left the hall. After the man left, the Doctor looked at them and said. “Go back to your rooms and rejoice, your destiny is close.”

Willfred looked around and could see the joy in his fellow’s face. They were truly happy.

After going back to his room, he sat on his bed and began to meditate. Mana flowed through him and calmed his furious heart. He was lucky, if not for that, he would be like them.

The only reason Willfred was not bound by the same ideals as his fellows, was the man that taught him how to wield mana, Lurior.

Lurior was the first teacher of mana manipulation they had, and since they were very small, taught them how to wield it. Willfred didn’t know if it was his talent in manipulating mana, or a small shred of warmth that was left in Lurior’s heart that made him help Willfred, he had taught many things to him that others wouldn’t even dream of knowing about.

They learned many things while in the facility, as the Doctor called the place, but nothing like Lurior taught him. He told Willfred tales about the outside world, of cities housing thousands of people, about different people and cultures, about interests and politics, and taught him about how every one of them were little experiments, only raised to be part of an elite army.

He told Willfred about how they were being raised while being manipulated, and how every subject would have their minds branded on the day they acquired their first class. According to him, this branding wouldn’t change their minds, but would guarantee that if they ever betrayed the master, their will would be wiped, and they would turn into killing machines.

Willfred knew that Lurior was very cautious, and didn’t let him talk with his fellows about the true nature of their lives. It didn’t matter in the end, because even when he tried, they wouldn’t listen to him. They told him that he was crazy, delusional, and that the master would never treat them as such.

There was even an occasion where he had to kill a friend of his, in order to stop him from telling the doctor about his thoughts. That occasion weighed on his heart everyday. It was two years ago that it happened. He got away by saying that it was an accident that happened during a sparring. He was punished, but got away in the end.

Since that day, he didn’t dare to say anything more to his fellows.

He loved each and everyone of them, but knew there was nothing he could do to rid them of their destinies. Their minds belonged to the master, even without any magic binding them.

Willfred went through his escape plan one last time. The layout of the facility was clear in his mind. Even the places where he never went to. The layout and escape plan was courtesy of Lurior, the last thing in which he would help Willfred with.

Willfred was grateful for everything Lurior did to him, but he resented him for letting those things happen to them. Couldn’t the man try something at least? He was satisfied in being a pawn for a greater objective, and said that he had no choice. When Willfred confronted him in asking why he didn’t set them free, his only answer was that he would discover in time.

Willfred shook his head and concentrated in revising his plan once again.

Lurior told him that the only way that he could put the plan in motion was by having mana manipulation at Epic tier, a step above rare. When Lurior told him the plan, he knew that he was only telling him because he believed that he wouldn’t make it, and got a weight off his chest by at least telling him his only escape chance.

By having mana manipulation at Epic tier, Willfred would be able to unravel the runes protecting the doors around the facility without sounding the alarm. That, together with his Literature skill, which was the accumulation of all his knowledge about written languages, runes included, would make it possible for him to get to the teleportation station of the place.

Getting there, he would use his abilities to hack into the terminal and make it teleport him to a random destination.

The plan sounded simple, but it was much, much harder than it looked. First, he would have to advance his mana manipulation skill to epic tier, which would be the hardest task in all of his plans.

Each tier marked a huge progression in ability. Making an ability evolve from inferior to common was easy, from common to uncommon a bit harder than the previous evolution but still nothing difficult, from uncommon to unique was hard, from unique to rare it was very, very hard. He couldn’t even phantom what it would take for a skill to evolve from Rare to Epic, but he knew that it was close, very close.

According to Lurior, he was a unique genius when it came to mana manipulation. Even powerful casters took decades to elevate it to Epic, but Willfred knew that he could do it. He had been deceiving everyone for years. Even though he was grateful for Lurior, if what he told him was true, he was no better than the others on this facility. Everyone thought that he only had mana manipulation around level 40 of rare tier.

The first thing he did before trying to break through his mana manipulation to the next tier was laying a runic circle on the ground around him. Every time mana manipulation broke through a tier, the mana around him was disturbed by the evolution.

Even though everyone thought the subjects were totally loyal to the cause, he didn’t want to risk them knowing that he had broken through to Epic tier. It was a significant progress on the way to power.

After scribing the basic magic circle on the ground, he activated it with a wave of mana. The runes flared to life, and he could feel the mana stagnating around him. He didn’t know if it would be enough, but it was his last resource. He had learned many things during his years at the facility. They had trained him since he was born, they gave them elixirs to hasten their growth, and used ruthless methods to advance the regeneration skill. They were tortured and trained like machines. Each child was taught magic theory and weapons fighting. Everyone used whatever weapon they were evaluated to have the most talent with.

There were also many indoctrinations they went through. He knew it was a miracle he even thought of defying those who controlled the facility.

------

After making sure that the circle was working properly, he began to use his magic manipulation to the limit. He remembered each and every exercise he learned to exercise his control, every time he broke through the limitations of his current control, and every progress he made. He pondered about what he had learned until now, and what he lacked.

He could masterfully manipulate mana, make it assume many forms, but he still felt it was weak. Not because his intelligence attribute was at 32, but because he lacked proper control.

Wilfred began to condense his mana, trying to make it denser, heavier. He tried many times, but his will was not strong enough.He tried for hours, until his mind was exhausted. “WHAT AM I MISSING!!” he shouted in frustration while breathing heavily to calm down.

He began to reflect on what happened when he tried to condense his mana. on how his will was not strong enough. He was only missing a little, but the small step was the difference between achieving what he sought or being controlled for the rest of his life.