After the first lesson I had in my life I finally began to understanding how the world works and why I never hear of any big conflict.

“do you have any questions regarding this lesson?”

“Grandpa you told about the continents but are there any other pieces of land in this world?”

“Good to ask there are a few small islands although they do not belong to any continent they are protected by the nearest continent. Besides these small islands there are three big island the size of our land these don’t belong to any continent and are what we call free islands. A lot of trade happens in two of these islands as one of them is unhospitable seeing how it is colder then here. They are one of the few places where the races live amongst each other without a lot of hostility. But only traders, thieves or adventurers go there so you should be careful when traveling there.”

Grandpa advised me to rest for a bit before the next lesson about mages and warriors starts. Johann escorts me as we went to the city to look around some shops and sightsee the city. Normally I am escorted by a few guards seeing how I haven’t learned magic yet or have trained in the warrior skills but going with Johann should be enough he is after all a former warrior at the rank of knight and should be able to hold off any problems.

I have never seen such an enormous city this is the biggest city in the empire. I want to go to a store for magic spells as I am going to be a mage so we searched and found a shop called The Mystic Mythic.

When we got inside we were one of the few customers. We walked towards the clerk behind the desk and asked him.

“Where can we find beginner spells for ice?”

“ If you want beginner spells they are in the bag and are placed by element but be aware that any spell books cost a lot of money.”

We thanked the clerk and walked towards the end of the store. When we arrived at the end of the store we started looking for interesting spells in ice and light.

“ Johann can you look for ice spells.”

“ certainly young master.”

while secretly searching for a lightning spell I found an interesting spell book called shock it did not start out strong it did however grows in strength by how much you used it and the amount of energy you used to create it. It had the ability to evolve into a shockwave this is a must have for me. While searching for light spells I found a book with a spell for increasing concentration this would go hand in hand with training any other skill. Finding an ice spells took longer until Johann showed me a book called ice spike which was just like spark and is able to evolve into ice spear.

After finding these three spell books we walked back to the clerk to purchase them.

“ Johann can you wait outside while I purchase these books.”

“ Yes young master but if you aren’t outside within three minutes I will be back.”

The clerk looks at the books and says

“ You know that these spells are from different elements?”

I lied saying my friend isn’t rich and can’t afford to buy them so I will buy them for him the clerk was surprised by the answer.

“He sure is lucky with such a friend. The total will be 10 silver coins.”

I hand over the coins I wondered if anybody who had an affinity with an element would even be able to buy these spells or afford a teacher before going to school. Even if I was raised a noble I know that living in this world an average person earns 5 bronze coins per day. The conversion rate is simple 1 silver coin are worth 100 bronze coins. While 100 silver coins are worth 1 gold coin. Lastly 100 gold coins are worth 1 platinum coin.

For example the earnings my family makes in an entire year is 365 platinum coins a year. This might seem to be a lot but that was before any expenses like the army, workers, roads, cities and of course paying the Kaiser. After all these expenses only 50 platinum coins are left this has to be divided by the whole family which existed of 50 persons consisting of my siblings, parents, the elders, uncles, aunts and cousins.

So even if my family earns a lot most of it is gone and the last bit is divided the portion anyone from my family gets is still incredibly much by normal standards. As I walk out the door Johann and I go home since enough time has passed for the next lesson to begin.

When I arrive in front of the building in the garden I knock on the door asking to come in.

“ Come in your next lessons will now begin.”

I walked inside and sit down in front of grandpa.

“ This lessons will be about mages and a little bit about warriors as I am not a warrior and can’t tell you exactly how they work.

First of magic is categorized in 8 main elements they are air, earth, fire, water, ice, lightning, light and finally darkness each of these have certain characteristics and you can divide each of these in more sub categories. I will explain each of these elements in their basic forms for this first lesson.

Air magic is the only element not categorized as defensive or offensive since it doesn’t have a lot of spells in either category. This doesn’t mean that it is useless as air magic characteristics are speed and vibration. Both of these could be placed in either offensive or defensive. Speed will make you able to attack quickly or react fast to an attack. Vibration is the same you are able to make the air vibrate and damage an opponent internal if needed or create a force that hurts the body while it could also be used as defense by vibrating the air so an attack slows down or is torn apart. besides that air magic makes you able to fly from the start and lets you breath anywhere these don’t cost a lot of energy and are easy to learn. This makes air magic extremely useful in fights involving 1v1 or large groups against each other however if there are multiple opponents against 1 air is too weak to do enough damage or defense.

then we have earth magic which unlike air which is categorized as neither offensive or defensive earth is categorized as both. It has a lot of defensive and offensive spells since earth is sturdy it is a great way to stop a lot of attacks and because of how sturdy, hard and heavy it can be used to deal a lot of damage making it a useful offensive and defensive magic. Of course like every magic even earth has it’s downsides there are two big downsides in earth magic one of them is that earth magic is rather slow. The other downside is that not all terrains are useful for earth like in the water or air.

Fire magic is focused on offense as it barely has any defensive spells and the ones that are defensive are only there for a short while. Fire has besides offensive spells quite a bit of buffing spells. Buffing is very useful the only problem with most fire spells that buff have one common side-effect it makes it so you want to fight or go berserk this is because it could be described as fueling anger or igniting a flame in your body. A fire mage is capable of all kinds of fights if it is 1v1 big groups or even multiple enemies. Fire also enables you to fly however in comparison with air it consumes quite a lot of energy and is hard to learn.

Water magic has two things it specializes these are defensive and healing spells. Most magic spells involving water are defensive. Water magic is a counter to both fire and earth it can dissolve fire and erode the hardness and sturdiness of earth decrease making it far less powerful or easier to penetrate. The healing spells are a bit harder to learn then the defensive spells. A water mage is able to breath under water. The defensive spells of water magic are the strongest ones around they don’t last as long as earth spells but they are harder to destroy. This makes it so that water magic is mainly used in big group fights or in a party in the back.

Ice magic is a very strong offensive type just like fire but unlike fire which makes you able to use buffs ice magic debuffs the opponent and also has some strong defensive spells. This is possible by the side effect of ice which is freezing you could lower your enemy’s accuracy by making the ground or any object icy so they have trouble being steady or even slow them down by freezing them. The defensive spells are nearly the same as the ones earth magic uses like creating a shield or wall in front or around you. For the offensive spells ice can be used to make weapons from ice which unlike fire are physical and leave holes they can make you bleed out. This is a magic that is very strong the problem with it is that it can be countered by a few things such as fire that melts the ice and it doesn’t have a high effect on water mages as it would have on other mages.

The next magic that you are able to use is lightning which I will teach you 5 days a week. Lightning as you can guess is used offensively. Just like air it increases your speed lightning mages are the fastest of all the mages and lightning is the most destructive type of magic. There are unfortunately no defensive spells however you are able to set traps and use magic up close seeing as how a mage is resistant to his own spells and lightning can stun an opponent. Lightning can be used in any kind of battle the only problem with lightning is that most spells are used for areas and could also hurt allies within a certain perimeter this makes it so that lightning mages prefer fighting alone. Using lightning will cost quite a bit of practice as it is very quick and you need to focus where you want it to hit.

The last magic you are able to use is light magic. This type of magic is used in big battles or in parties mainly because it is used to buff and heal people. That is why light magic is also called divine magic it is the strongest in both buffing and healing. The healing skills you learn as a light mage are even at a low level enough to stop somebody from dying immediately however if no further help is given the healed one will still die after a while. The biggest problem for light mages is that they do not have many defensive or offensive skills so they need to be protected. If you ever meet a light mage that is travelling by itself there are a few possibilities the first is that he is a warrior next to being a light mage, another one is that he is a dual mage and lastly it means that he is a very high rank seeing how all light spells become stronger by each rank. Of course every magic increases in strength when going up a rank but for light magic it seems to always double the amount of another type this might be because the ranking is based on becoming a god.

Now the last one is darkness magic which as you know is used by my father your great grandfather and is the most cunning magic type as it is an offensive type for two different reasons. First of all a lot of darkness spells are a bit overpowered and can corrupt the opponent in process of the fight. Second of all it is hard for a warrior to come close because darkness gives you the ability to summon creatures. That means that darkness mages prefer to travel alone and fight hordes of opponents as they can summon creatures to fight for them. The higher ranking darkness mages can even summon an army if needed. The problem for darkness magic is that it consumes quite a lot of energy and is very weak against light magic.

Now that I have given you basic knowledge of all the different types of magic I will explain how the ranks work for mages there are 10 ranks in total for mages.

These are novice-acolyte-apprentice-elite-master-grandmaster-king-emperor-saint-deity each one of them have 4 levels they are as follows beginning-early-mid-late this stops at the deity part where there are different levels demigod-false god-god-high god.

At the rank of emperor every mage is able to fly. Between every rank there is big difference the only ones able to beat somebody of a higher rank are dual mages but they still need to have both types of magic at the rank below and at the very least mid-level. Raising your level requires overcoming a bottleneck for mages this is having enough energy.

For overcoming the bottleneck of a rank is different and much harder to do this requires understanding a part of the element you are using. Here comes the reason why we suggest having an affinity of at least 40% knowing that affinity effects how quick you understand the element you are using.

For warriors there are different and less ranks they are recruit-guard-squire-soldier-knight-high knight-saint-deity. As you can see both mages and warriors have the saint and deity however there is a difference. At the rank high knight a warrior can start using magic. The levels are the same for warriors and mages.

Each time you go up a rank you are able to become older but only from the moment you are a saint you are immortal by age for us humans.

For both mages and warriors to become a saint you need to understand 70% of your element this is much easier for mages as they have been using their magic since the beginning for warriors this means that it takes an incredibly long time to go from high knight to saint.

To go from saint to deity does not only require you to have an understand of 90% it also requires you to make your own spell or skill which is why there are people who have been saints for thousands of years and still haven’t been able to become a deity.”

Grandpa pauses for a bit to let me understand all the information he has given me.