My sister woke me up at the crack of dawn. Due to my bad sleeping habits it took me a while to get fully accustomed to what was going on. While everyone was going in and out of the house, putting their bags on the carriage Zeph had rented, I was sitting on my bed, staring at the wall mindlessly, too tired to even think.

‘You better get up or they’re going to leave you,’ Ryes' voice rang in my mind.

I glanced at my soft feather filled pillow, thinking it wouldn't be so bad if they left me, if it meant I could go back to sleep.

‘Don't worry, I'll get up, just give me a second.’ I finally moved my arms to push myself up on my feet. I sluggly grabbed my blanket and wrapped it around myself tightly. Someone must’ve taken my bags to the carriage because I didn’t see them in my room.

I walked out of my room and I could see my whole family going in and out of the house with bags, making sure they didn’t forget anything. I was too tired to help them, so I didn’t even bother. I just kept walking, hoping no one asked for my help.

I was about to take a step outside, but someone grabbed the back of my blanket making it to where I couldn’t move.

“And where do you think you're going, brat?” I turned around to be greeted by Zeph’s ugly mug. He was carrying a heavy looking bag by its jaw string with his mouth.

“I’m going to lay down. It's too damn early for all this.” I said, as I re-wrapped my blanket around me, for a better fit.

“If you can’t even handle waking up early I don’t know how you're going to make it through my training.” He took the bag out of his mouth and handed it to me, “Why don’t you help out your crippled uncle and take this to the carriage. After that you can go back to sleep, because trust me, you'll need it.”

“Fine.” I responded, as I grabbed the bag, “But me and you both know you're anything but crippled.”

He let out a laugh as he walked back into the house, leaving me with the luggage.

The bag was heavy as I suspected. “What the hell is in this damn thing?” I mumbled under my breath, as I made my way to the carriage.

Once I made it to the carriage, two big green birds came into view. They were standing up and waiting patiently for our departure. I had read about them in one of my books, apparently they’re called Hoodles. They stood taller than me on their two back legs, and their long necks only made them look taller. Their front wings, though, were small and they didn’t allow them to fly, making them more of a running type bird, hence why they pull carriages.

After getting a good look at the animals, I went to the back of the carriage and put the luggage up, then quickly went to the section where we would sit down.

The carriage was fancy, a little too fancy for my taste. The seats were dark blue, lined with gold, and the outside was even more vibrant. It was something I could only see a fancy-pants noble riding in, not someone like Zeph, and it made me wonder where in the hell he rented this thing from.

But even though I didn’t like how it stood out, I wasn’t complaining about the cushioned seats. I quickly made my way to one of the corners and laid down.

But it became difficult to go back to sleep as the emotions of boredom and impatience invaded my mind.

‘Rye, can you please calm down? I’m sure we’ll be leaving soon.’

‘Sorry, it’s just so boring being in your mana core all the time. I want to get out and explore.’ He said, with a tinge of excitement in his voice.

‘You can get out of my mana core when no one is around, just keep watch and hop back in when someone’s near.’

At my words, my companion hopped out of my body, performing a feline stretch on the carriage cushions. “Ahh, it feels nice to be out again.”

“Is my mana core that bad to be in?” I asked, somewhat offended.

Rye finished his stretching and jumped on the window ledge of the carriage, looking out into the distance, “It’s not that, it’s just I've always been restrained like that. I prefer being able to move around and go where I see fit.”

The memory of Rye waiting in the cave for his mother came to my mind. He had stayed in that cave, for god knows how long. And I understood what he went through, maybe more than anyone…

I pulled myself away from my thoughts and I sat up, suddenly not tired anymore.

“Don’t worry my little feline friend. Once we get to the capital we’ll do all the exploring you want, I promise.” I said as I ruffled the top of his head. “Remember you said you would help me get a new wardrobe?”

“I said I would remind you to get new clothes, not help him pick them out.” He responded.

“Oh yeah. You did say that, didn't you.” I remembered as I relaxed back into my seat. “Well I don’t know how I feel about fashion advice from a cat anyways, so I guess it’s for the best.” I teased.

He whipped his head toward me, “I’m not a cat I’m a Tig-”

His retort was cut off at the sound of footsteps growing closer to the carriage. Rye quickly hopped back into my body, and I began fake sleeping.

The curtain to the carriage seating area was opened and through the cracks of my eyes I could make out Zephs figure followed by the whole family as they stepped in one by one and took their seats. Zeph went to the front to command the hoodles for departure.

I slowly opened my eyes and performed a yawn, pretending I was just being woken up by the noise they had made. “What’s going on?”

“You really need to work on those sleeping habits, Fal.” Myla said, sounding somewhat exhausted, “We're about to leave you dolt.”

‘Yeah! You dolt.’ Rye repeated in my mind.

I just ignored him.

“How long will the ride be to the capital?” I asked.

“It will take about a week to get to Ara,” My father responded, “Then from there, you, Myla, and Zeph will use the warp gate to go to the capital. Me and your mother, though, will use the warp gate to get to Venla.”

Ara is a large city north of our home village and is also on the outskirts of the lunar mountains. The main branch in the Adventurers guild is located there, making it busy with adventurers and merchants looking to make a quick dollar.

On the maps I’ve seen, Ara was the closest city to Beck Town, but hearing it would take the carriage a week to reach it, gave me an idea of how out of the sticks we were.

Venla, on the other hand, was on the other side of the kingdom. It was known as a beach city, It’s located on the coast of Tri Beach and mainly profits from tourists and vacationers.

And vacation was exactly what my parents were going to do.

Zeph apparently owned a beach house over there and promised them they could stay there for as long as they wished.

My sister and I weren’t mad at our parents for leaving us with Zeph while they go on vacation. We had discussed last night and we both felt they deserved it, and since we could contact them at any time, we had no reason to complain or worry.

At my father’s answer I relaxed back in my cushioned seat and got comfortable, ‘It’s going to be a long ride, Rye.’

‘Yeah, imma get some rest.’ He said, yawning.

I woke up from my nap, rubbing my eyes. It was hard to see due to the angle the sunlight was seeping through the carriage window, but when my eyes adjusted I could make out the sun in the middle of the sky. From the sight I devised, I had only slept for a couple of hours.

I looked around to see Myla soundly sleeping with my mother. I could hear my father and Zeph talking and laughing outside while commanding the hoodles.

I stayed where I was for a moment, looking out the window. The landscape hadn’t changed all that much, but if I wasn’t mistaken, the far distant mountains only seemed to get larger along with the trees that covered them.

‘Rye, are you seeing this?’ I asked, wanting him to get a glimpse at the sight as well. But he didn’t respond.

He must still be sleeping.

Not trying to bother my feline familiar from his sleep, I finally got up from my seat and gave a light stretch. After that, I made my way to the back of my carriage to practice using my spells. I wanted to see just how long I could consistently use the wind bullets or my hand blade spell.

I passed the luggage area and opened the small half door that allowed me to sit outside in the back of the carriage. The hot summer air clashed well with the passing breeze the carriage caused. I sat down, letting my feet dangle over the moving dirt road, and began casting the wind bullet spell.

I held up my hand and coalesced mana into my palm. Multiple small bullets of wind appeared, and I fired them into the distance. After all of them were fired, I instantly conjured more and repeated this process. It only took about two minutes for me to start feeling exhausted. During my repeat firing of the wind bullet spell, I noticed that after about a minute the bullets began to grow less in number, and the distance decreased as well.

I figured it was because of my dark red core status. Since I was at the lowest level possible, my mana capacity was low. And the only way to change that was the usage of the mana core and meditation.

From what I’ve gathered so far the mana core is like a muscle. The more you use and exercise this so-called muscle, the more strong and powerful it will get.

I had nothing but time on my hands during this trip, with nothing to do but sleep or train.

So I lifted my dangling feet from the ledge of the carriage and got in a meditative position. I began to absorb mana to replenish and refine my core. The replenishment of my core in a meditative position took around three minutes. Afterward, I began to refine my core for thirty minutes.

My idea was that I would refine my core, or ‘exercise’ for half an hour, then use spells, or ‘use my muscles’, for as long as I could and then repeat this process. This regime was the best I could come up with while in the carriage. And it soon began to show results.

Hours had flown by and I could see the sun setting In the distance. My spells over time had gotten faster and began to last longer by about thirty seconds. It was small, but still an improvement. There was one thing though, I had noticed it fairly early in my training. No matter how fast or how many wind bullets I shot, they would all dissipate at around the same distance.

I held up my hand, shooting multiple wind bullets to see it again, and like I thought, they dissipated at the same distance.

I was starting to grow irritated, but my annoyance was interrupted by two knocks behind me.

I turned around to see Zeph, he had a slight smirk on his face, “Training already?”

“Yeah,” I responded curtly, turning away from him to continue my training. I lifted up my palm and shot more wind bullets into the distance.

“Your wind bullets look faster than before.” Zeph said, “but I’ve been watching you and you seem frustrated. Are you not satisfied with your improvement?”

“My spells. Why do they dissipate at a certain distance?”

Zeph looked at me, his face a mixture of amusement and something else. He finally let out a laugh saying, “Is that it?”

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just you seem so smart for your age, but you barely know anything at all. I guess this is a good chance for me to give you your first lesson on magic.” He said as he moved to sit beside me. “There are multiple types of mages, but only three types are suitable for combat. Casting mages, martial mages, and healing mages. Casting mages specialize in long-range spells, protective barriers, and etc. Martial mages, on the other hand, specialize in close combat fighting and spells to aid in that, like that hand blade spell you used against me. Healing mages, I assume I don’t have to explain.”

“I see.” I just shook my head in understanding as I pondered the overload of information he just casually dumped on me. “But from what you just told me it sounds like casting mages are the stronger mages.”

“Sharp as always I see.” He responded, “While casters are at a great advantage at the early mana core ranks, the divide between them and martial mages dissipates as they reach the higher ranks. I myself am a martial mage, and so are you, but due to my mid-cyan core rank I am adept at long-range spells allowing me to hold my own with any caster.”

“So that’s why my spell dissipates at that distance” I mumbled to myself.

Zeph seemed to have heard me because he let out a laugh. “Anyway brat, your birthday is coming up soon right?”

“Yeah, why?”

He got up and went where the luggage was. He came back with the jaw string bag he told me to put up for him, before we left the house, “When we sparred in the woods I noticed you didn’t use any dark element spells, so when I went to rent the carriage in town I picked a little something for you as well.”

He tossed me a book. Its hardcover was pitch black, but it was thin, only about the width of my thumb.

I opened the thin book and saw it contained two spells called, [Shadow Step] and [Dark Negate].

As I was reading the dark grimoire Zeph began to speak, “These are the two spells I used against you in the woods. There are the most basic dark element techniques, and at your level, the dark element can only be used for defense and mobility.

Him bringing up the woods again reminded me to ask him a question I had forgotten to ask him before. I turned my gaze away from the early birthday present he had given me, and looked him dead in his eyes. “Zeph, why didn't you tell my parents about me fighting beasts in the woods?”

He returned my serious look with his own, “To be honest, you remind me of myself. I had asked to spar with you back then because you can learn alot about a person from the way they fight. Falyn, you're so young...and yet you fight like you're trying to find a purpose. Like I used to” His serious demeanor turned playful as he continued, “And I wouldn't be a cool uncle if I did that, now would I?”

I was shocked by his comment, but deep down I knew he was right. I had always been good at reading people and in his face, I didn't see any lies or hidden agendas, he was just telling the truth as he saw it.

I just smiled at his words, “Yeah, you wouldn't.”

After a moment of silence Zeph turned to walk back into the carriage, “Well, I'll leave you to your training.”

“Alright,” I responded. “And thanks for the grimoire.”

“I'll be watching to see how fast you can get those spells down.” He halfway turned toward me as he was walking back, “And one more thing. When we officially begin your training, you'll have to introduce me to your little familiar.”

I stared in shock as he disappeared back into the carriage, the only audible noise was the wooden wheels moving on the craggy dirt road.