Quite a distance away from Stonehill town's main road is the residential district, the farther from the main road, the more dilapidated the surrounding houses.

Neil walked along the tricky alleyways. With a big smile on his face and a slight skip as he walked.

"I'm home~" shouted Neil as soon as he opened the door of a simple shabby house.

"Brother!" A little girl ran and clung to Neil as soon as he entered. Since she had similar features to Neil, everyone who saw them could tell that they were siblings.

"Welcome home, Neil." A middle-aged woman smiled as she greeted Neil. Watching tenderly as the siblings embraced and filled the house with laughter.

"Mom," Neil approached his mother, still holding his little sister, "I got a lot of money today." He said, beaming.

His mother's smile dimmed slightly, thinking of the hardships her young son had to go through.

"Really? That's good honey, let's eat, you must be starving."

Dinner was simple as usual, but the little family remained warm and happy as they talked about their day.

"Today, old man Joe gave me 4 copper coins."

"Old man Joe is a kind person, make sure you thanked him. I will make some lunch for him later, you can bring it to him."

"Okay, mom," Neil nodded and hurriedly talked about the main event that makes him so happy, "Today I also met an outsider, his name is Ernest, he helped me when I bumped into the grumpy Tobias."

His mother, surprised, asked worriedly, "you bumped into him? Are you alright?"

"Yes, Ernest helped me. After that, I asked him if he wanted me to be his guide, and guess what mother, he gave me a silver coin to guide him for a few days."

"Here it is!" He took out a silver coin from his pocket, the highest currency an ordinary commoner can get.

"That is really generous," his mother sighed, but then she started to get worried, "honey it is good that he is so generous but you still need to be cautious, in case he has bad intentions."

A silver coin for a few days of being a guide is too much no matter how much you think about it, one silver coin equals a few months of living expense for their kind of family. It is either that young man is rich and generous or he is ill-intentioned and tried to lure her son using money.

"Don't worry mom, I know."

___

Munching on potato chips, Sieg stared at his screen. Today is their first morning in Stonehill Town. On his screen, Ernest and a boy named Neil stood in front of the mage association's supply shop.

They come to buy mana stones.

In the world of Ellus, every living being has mana on their body. The amount of mana they have is decided the moment they are born. Ordinary people can't use their mana to bend the world's various rules, in other words, they can't use skills. This is because the mana of an ordinary person is only sufficient to maintain their life or more accurately their soul.

That's why in the past people with abilities, those who can use skills, are treated like kings and worshipped as they are small in number. As a matter of fact, the majority of various kingdoms or empires in this world are established by the ability user of the past.

But then, a renowned mage, the founder of the mage association, Elyone, managed to create a mana stone. By using the mana stored within this mana stone, even ordinary people could use their skills. Of course, they have to be smart and reach a certain standard to do so.

Mana stones are made by processing Elyonite stone so that it can absorb the injected mana. Until now, this stone production method was monopolized by the mage association.

Ernest came here because they decided to hunt monsters that appeared in the forest behind Stonehill Town's rock mountains. It was such a powerful monster that they decided to buy mana stones to use. Respectively mana stones of fire, earth, wind, and darkness.

Sieg looked at the mana stone the bearded old mage had given them. They were all transparent so he couldn't tell which stone was which. But it doesn't seem like it's a problem for Ernest.

Ernest hands over his Academy badge, by showing this he can get a discounted price from the mage association. But even so, Sieg was still surprised by the high cost of these mana stones. At that price, this mana stone can be considered a luxury item. No wonder the number of ability users did not experience a sharp increase after the manufacture of mana stones.

___

Ernest put the mana stone into the bag around his waist.

"Wow, this is the first time I've seen a mana stone. It's so small." Neil exclaimed, his eyes full of curiosity.

"Yes. But one small stone can store enough raw energy to destroy a building."

"No wonder it is so expensive."

"It's only a few months until the annual examination right? You might be able to use this stone then."

Every empire or kingdom in this world held annual exams to test the mana capacity of teenagers. Those who have good abilities will be immediately accepted and fostered in various schools while those who only slightly exceed ordinary people must undergo various other tests to determine their abilities to be accepted. This test can be repeated until the age of 20.

"No, I have no talent," said Neil nonchalantly.

"You don't want to be an ability user?" Ernest raised his eyebrows at his disinterest.

Almost every child dreams of becoming an ability user. Because becoming an ability user opens easier paths to many other professions. Not only as a warrior, but you can also become a healer, academic, or any other profession but with a higher status.

Neil shrugged "I'm the only man in my family."

"So? Isn't that more of a reason you should aim to become an ability user?"

"That was before the invaders came, it would only be dangerous if you were an ability user now. This is just my guess but I think sooner or later all kinds of ability users will be required to go to the Arena."

Surprised, Ernest looked at Neil "And why do you think so?"

"Well, the time gap between the Arena's emergence is getting shorter and shorter over time, there have only been fifteen years between the last two Arenas, right? And we've also never managed to beat them back before. I think this is enough to make those at the top nervous."

Ernest was silent. What Neil just said was true. Previously, the time interval for Arena's appearance had only been shortened bit by bit. This gives people the illusion that there is still plenty of time and things are still manageable. But one day the time between got shortened to a large extent. In fact, it becomes more frequent and sporadic. Everyone panicked and as Neil said, every ability user was required to enter the Arena, and then, as time went on, everyone who could fight had to enter.

"Well, that's just my thought. Things might not be that bad."

"Yeah, that probably won't happen."

With his heavy moods, they walked towards the Stonehill forest in silence.

At the entrance to the Stonehill forest.

Surrounding the rocky mountain of Stonehill Town is a forest. Since the materials from the monsters in this forest were quite useful, quite a number of hunters could be seen here.

"I'm going in. You must stay here."

"You don't need me to be a porter?"

"No, it's dangerous. I'm not familiar with this place so I don't have the confidence to protect you."

After saying that, Ernest stepped into the forest.