“What is the purpose of this sudden meeting?”

The man with the short black hair and beard said while sighing and tapping his finger on the table. He was Derek, the king of the Lazor Kingdom, one of the four kingdoms in the Mohan Empire. The expression on his face was sleepy, and he was constantly yawning. He glanced around the room with his black eyes. There were four people besides him, and one was an elf, Algor, the king of the Tedian Kingdom. After Algor took the throne, elves around the continent migrated to the Northern Kingdom. Most people called it the Elven Kingdom, as elves made up %80 of the population, But just like the others, the elven kingdom was open to all kinds of people. Algor was sitting there with all his dignity. The tips of his pointed ears could be seen through his white hair, which reached almost to his waist. His green eyes were fierce as always, and he was always looking like a predator ready to tear down its prey. Algor was the one who answered Derek.

“I don’t know, but since the emperor itself contacted us personally, it should be something important. So stop whining and wait quietly.”

He said with a firm tone. It was a little aggressive, but Derek didn’t care.

“Actually, I was the one who requested the meeting.”

The woman that was sitting across Algor said with a soothing voice. She had a decanter-shaped waist, and her complexion had an impeccable green tone. Her enticing deep dark blue eyes gazed at Algor. It was impossible not to be charmed by her brown, bright hair that was floating carelessly over her shoulders. Most men would be drooling by now, but Algor continued to sit unresponsively. She was Elaine, a nymph and the queen of the Odiria Kingdom, the ruler of the west. Before Algor could respond, the doors of the room opened. Two guards held the door, and they made way for the figure which calmly entered. A man wearing a red royal mantle stood there. Just like the Algor, his eyes were fierce. He had deep dark red eyes. With a soul-piercing glare, he took a look at the people around the room. His white hair gleamed in the sunlight shining through the room’s window. He was in his early 40s. After the coronation, everyone had doubts about him. Because he didn’t prove himself like his father, the previous emperor, he was entitled to the throne just because they had the same blood. But that changed after the war they went through six years ago. Even though it was a little devastating, Aaron proved himself back then. Like the other four people in the room, he was one of the most powerful individuals in the empire. After he entered the room, the others stood up and greeted him. Aaron simply nodded.

“I told you, when we are alone, you don’t need to be so formal.”

He said with a deep voice. That softened the atmosphere a little. In fact, Aaron, Elaine, and Algor were good friends from their youth, they’ve gone to the same academy and traveled for a while after their graduations, and they fought shoulder to shoulder.

“So, I called you all here at Elaine’s request, and she got something we all need to see. I’ll tell briefly.”

This time, his voice was more serious, and he had a gloomy expression.

“We could be dragged into a war, just like we did six years ago, but this time it’s much more serious.”

The atmosphere in the room has become heavy after his words. Even Derek, who was almost asleep, pulled himself together and paid attention to the conversation. Algor was the one who broke the silence.

“Is it the same bastards that we fought six years ago?”

He sounded angry.He Aaron nodded.

“We think so.”

He turned his head towards Elaine.

“Elaine, show them what you found.”

Now everyone’s attention was on her. She extended her delicate hand forward. Then a dead body appeared out of thin air and dropped on the table with a loud noise. It was not a human but a goblin. Its skin was much darker than usual goblins, and it was almost as tall as an average person. Two red lines were starting from under his eyes and extending throughout his entire body, it was like a wound that’s glowing crimson. Then Elaine extended her other hand, and a tiny black crystal appeared this time.

“We found it inside of the goblin. We suspect that they are trying to find a way to enhance their power. It actually works, this goblin was almost two times stronger than a normal one, but I don’t think any sanity was left in it.”

Aaron continued.

“We think it’s still in development. If they manage to find a way to use this on humans, that means we are in big trouble. Our alchemists tried to analyze it, and according to them, this is very expensive to create, and the ingredients are scarce, so the estimated time until they complete it is around 10 to 12 years.”

After hearing that, Derek suggested.

“Then why don’t we attack and destroy them first instead of waiting?”

This time Chase spoke for the first time.

That is out of the question, and we all know the only reason we were able to push them back six years ago was thanks to 'The Demon' that went on a rampage.

The others nodded on that. Chase was the king of the Sohan Kingdom. There was not much personal information known about him, but he was the strongest assassin in the empire, and that was an undeniable fact. He was always wearing a mask and black clothes. All of the assassin clans respected him, and most of them were under his command. Chase was the empire’s information network.

“So, what is your suggestion?”

Algor asked.

“We need to strengthen ourselves within ten years, tighten training in all academies, spend more time and resources on military training, and most importantly, call out our powerful adventurers spread across other continents. It is clear that the current generation is inadequate. Therefore, we must place our hope in the next generation and educate them as best we can, even personally, if necessary.”

Chase’s words were true. Most powerful individuals chose to be adventurers and left the continent for missions instead of becoming a knight. That’s what Aaron was thinking, especially since education at academies needed to change. The world had only five continents, and the Mohan Empire was one of the continents. There were 4 Empires, but it wouldn’t be wrong to say they are unimportant. Because compared to the continent in the middle, the other four were like ants.

“He is right. I was thinking about that too. I’ll personally contact the strong people outside of the empire to teach in academies. Let’s hope they’ll accept.”

They were all nodding this time.

“Now, it looks like no one seems to object.”

Aaron got out of his seat.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have to go and find a teacher who will teach my boy how to use katana since that little prick refuses to learn the way of glaive from me!”

His words became furious at the end of his sentence. That was their first time seeing Aaron like this, not as an emperor, but as a father.

* * * *

Three men were sitting cross-legged on the freshly cut grass. It was the month of July, because of the excessive heat, there were no activities in this small town. Animals were gasping for air. Not even a single leaf of a tree was moving. Therefore they were sitting topless. Technically, a man, a kid, and a faceless black figure were seated.

“Soo, let me get this straight. You’re saying that you’re Julius, the founder of the Namean Dynasty? You left a fragment of your soul in this chest, but it took too long for it to open, and you manage to recover some of your strength.”

It was the 5th time that Elius’ father asked this. Julius was getting bored.

“Yeees.”

He said with a tired voice.

“And you are Wilbert, and this little kid is Elius, the one who managed to open my chest.”

Elius was nodding excitingly. Wilbert still wasn’t convinced but based on the spell cast on the chest and the feeling he was getting from Julius, he thought there was a big chance that it was true. Wilbert didn’t feel any hostility from the black figure. Instead, he felt a bottomless power radiating from the man and a strange kinship towards him.

“So, Mr. Julius, you said you left this box to the next mage after you, right? So are these mine? What are these books or this bandage, or this hilt thing?”

Elius bombard him with questions without a rest.

“Hey hey, calm down. I said that, but I wasn’t expecting that I’d recover my consciousness. So I have to make sure you are the right one.”

Hearing that made Elius more excited instead of breaking his courage.

“How do I prove myself?!”

He shouted.

“Okay, first tell me how many types of mana core are there?”

“Only two!”

He shouted again and started to explain.

“First is the mana core that can contain mana. People born with it can’t cast spells as extensive as ours. Instead, they draw mana from the world and store it in the core. This way, they can enhance their physical attributes by circulating mana inside their body. Second is the people who are born with a mana core that can’t contain mana. These people like us can control the mana around them and manipulate its shapes, leading to unimaginable possibilities. We can create our own magic. But since we can’t contain mana inside our mana core, our physical attributes are poor, even though we can circulate mana inside our body. Because of that, many mages are considered weak.”

That explanation was much more than Julius wanted, but it was okay, and seeing someone almost as enthusiastic as himself made him smile.

“Okay, Elius, good. How many nodes do you have?”

“Four!”

“Only four?”

Julius was surprised. At Elius’ age, he had close to fifteen nodes.

“Well, I guess that’s understandable since you didn’t have anybody to teach you.”

He smiled again and got closer to Elius.

“Now, I’m going to test you for real this time. Are you ready?”

Elius nodded and shouted.

“Yes!”

The fire of passion burning in his eyes was worth seeing.

“I’m going to teach you a technique that is crucial for the mages. Well, everyone can use it, but we need it more than anyone else since we can create much more spells than them. If you convince me that you understood its fundamentals, then everything in this chest would be yours.”

Elius’ face became serious this time. His dad was watching silently. It was his first time seeing his son this excited.

‘I guess it isn’t so bad that Julius showed up.’

“Let’s start with fire magic, cast a fireball.”

As soon as Julius said that, a fireball appeared on Elius’ palm.

‘A little slow, but it is okay.’

Julius thought to himself.

“Now, I want you to concentrate like you never did. Focus on the fireball inside your palm, try to reach its core. Try to feel the mana that created this fireball. Get inside of it and reach deeper with your every breath until you can’t go any further. When you reach there, try to think about what you want to create and how you want to shape this fireball. It has to be precise, and if you have doubts, you will not succeed. Then try to visualize the reason why you can’t go any further. That can depend on your imagination, and every great mage has different images in their mind.”

Elius focused like his life depended on it. The more he listened to Julius, the deeper he was going. After a while, he finally felt like he had hit a wall. Then he tried to visualize what was holding him back. He tried to focus more, wanted to go further, and a shape began to form in front of him. He saw dozens of lines entwined with each other, and they had a starting and an ending point from each side. They were like circuit lines that must be separated from each other and connected with their first and last point. Then Julius continued.

“When you succeeded in creating an image. You have to find a solution for that. That can be a wall that needs to be broken down or any kind of problem you have to deal with. The more complex the spell, the harder your image gets. And if you can solve that problem, you will be succeeded. That is the foundation of creating any magic.”

He waited for Elius to fail. It was impossible to do that the first time. It took four days for Julius to visualize something. Julius would give everything to Elius eventually, but since he was there, he wanted to have fun with the poor kid a little until he depleted all of his energy and disappeared again. Then something happened. He saw the fireball in Elius’ hand flickering like it was trying to change its shape. One side of the fireball began to sharpen and lengthen, but then it immediately disappeared. Elius opened his eyes while breathing heavily, and he felt tired for some reason.

‘Damn, how can connecting some dots be so tricky?

If Julius had eyes, they would be widened in shock right now. He just stood there and watched Elius for a few seconds without saying anything.

‘Amazing, amazing. How did he succeed on his first try?’

Julius was becoming excited too.

“Ooo, good job Elius. I knew you were a bright kid. It took me six days to do it.”

Wilbert flattered his son and patted his head with a smile. Elius was smiling too, he felt the sense of victory, and his horizon widened. This newly learned technique opened a new path full of new possibilities before him. It was thanks to Julius. Elius raised his head.

“Mr. Julius, thank you so much, I didn’t do anything for you, but you still teach me this unique technique. I would never do it myself.”

“I could teach you that too.”

Wilbert murmured himself. Julius had so many thoughts right now.

‘Can he be the one to stand against them? Maybe…’

Unconsciously, Julius began to grin madly.

“Mr. Julius?”

Elius called out with a concerned look on his face. Julius shook his head to get rid of the thoughts and smiled broadly.

“Good! Good! You passed with flying colors.”

He stood up.

“Thus! You’ve earned yourself a new special technique!”

Elius was on cloud nine and started to jump in joy, but Julius stopped him.

“But! This time it comes with a condition!”

“What is it. I’ll do anything!”

“We will make a deal with you.”

Then Julius spread his arms to both sides.

“You will resurrect the Namean Dynasty!”