Learning Magic

"Irene, good news! Garen has been accepted into the Ernst Magic Academy."

Before he had even reached the house, his father was already excitedly sharing the good news with his mother from afar.

"Good, that's wonderful! Come inside quickly, dinner is ready. We can talk while we eat."

During the meal, the family was filled with laughter and joy; everyone was incredibly happy.

After finishing, Garen went out for a stroll, and by the time he returned, his mother had tidied up.

She took his hand and led him to sit down in the room.

"Son, today Mom is going to teach you meditation. If you want to become a mage, you must learn to meditate on your spiritual energy and refine magic power."

Mom is actually a mage?

Garen was extremely surprised.

His family lived in this desolate wilderness with no one else around, and he had always assumed his parents were ordinary people—at most, his father might be a low-level warrior, as everyone in the Yulan Continent exercised from a young age.

When his father took him for the magic aptitude test, he had simply assumed his parents valued education; he never expected his mother to be a mage.

It seems my family background might be unusual. Why would we live in a place like this?

He had lived here for six years, and from the snippets of conversation between his parents, he knew their home was near a small town under the jurisdiction of Blazing Sun City in the Rhine Empire, more than ten miles away from the town itself.

Not far from his house was the Blazing Sun Desert, and dozens of miles to the east was the Far East Prairie; it was truly a remote, godforsaken place.

But now was not the time to overthink things.

Under the guidance of his mother, Irene, it took less than half an hour for Garen to successfully enter a meditative state. Much like the Qi-Gathering Stance, meditation required a calm mind and the casting aside of all distracting thoughts.

Sensing the dense, fiery red and cyan specks of light around him, Garen officially began his path as a mage.

Ever since the magic test, his father had been gone for several days, and Garen didn't know what he had been doing.

Under Irene's supervision, Garen followed a very disciplined routine for several days: warrior training in the morning, meditation at noon, and refining magic power at night.

On this day, Clark returned and brought Garen some news: he had found a caravan traveling from the Rhine Empire to the Light Alliance and planned to arrange for Garen to depart in a while to head to the Ernst Institute.

After all, the journey was so long that they had to set off early.

In the time that followed, his parents stayed by his side constantly, urging him to study hard, eat well, and get plenty of rest once he reached the academy.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed.

On this day, a burly uncle rode a tall, powerful horse to Garen's home.

"Garen, say hello to Uncle Luke. He is a captain of the guard for the Dawson Chamber of Commerce and a level 6 warrior. This time, you will follow Uncle Luke to Fenlai City."

"Hello, Uncle Luke."

Garen greeted him very politely.

"Garen, no need to be so formal. Your father and I are the best of comrades-in-arms. I haven't seen him in so many years, and I never expected that the first time he would contact me, it would be for such a major event. The Ernst Institute! Anyone who graduates is at least a level 6 mage. I dreamed of becoming a mage when I was a child, but unfortunately, my talent wasn't enough. You must study hard and not let your parents' expectations go to waste."

"Yes, don't worry, Uncle. I will work hard to study magic."

After inviting Luke to have a meal at their home, Garen reluctantly left the house where he had lived for six years and embarked on a long journey.

Riding the warhorse that stood over two meters tall, they soon arrived at Blazing Sun City.

In the blink of an eye, a year and a half passed.

They traveled from south to north, starting from the Rhine Empire, passing through the Yulan Empire, and finally reaching the O'Brien Empire. They traveled along the main roads within the empires the entire way, and there were basically no setbacks.

"In a few dozen kilometers, we will reach the Magical Beast Mountain Range. Although we are traveling near the North Sea, which is the outermost edge of the mountain range, we must still be careful. We will take turns on night watch. Let's go, move out."

Over the past year and a half, Garen had been following the caravan, and Uncle Luke had taken great care of him, arranging a separate carriage for him. By now, he was already a level 3 mage.

Garen
Warrior Level: 1 (12/200 EXP)
Magic Level: 3 (296/2000 EXP)

His warrior level had only reached level 1 through occasional practice and the automatic strengthening of his body while absorbing magic power.

His magic level, however, was the result of a year and a half of daily, uninterrupted meditation and refinement of magic power.

He had focused solely on refining fire-attribute magic power because his mother had only given him a book of level 1-6 fire-attribute magic incantations. Without incantations for wind-attribute magic, refining it would be a waste since it couldn't be converted into combat power.

As the caravan of carriages moved forward in a grand procession, Garen didn't know if he was excited or nervous. The Magical Beast Mountain Range—he would finally be able to see magical beasts.

An hour later.

Looking at the endless sea to the north and the tall, dense forest to the south, Garen couldn't help but sigh; he had never seen such scenery in his entire life on Blue Star.

As they entered the Magical Beast Mountain Range, the speed of the carriages slowed down. Although this trade route was frequently traveled by caravans, no one could guarantee that a group of magical beasts wouldn't suddenly charge out of the forest.

It wasn't until they had been traveling for half a day.

"Moo!"

Just as the caravan entered the area beside a pond, over a dozen Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls suddenly rushed out of the forest.

The Bloodthirsty Iron Bull was a level 5 magical beast, with a body length of over four meters and a height exceeding two meters, its entire body a fiery red color.

They usually inhabit the forest, occasionally coming to this pool to drink.

Seeing the caravan of carriages, the Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls opened their blood-red eyes and charged over in an instant.

"Watch out, it's a pack of level five magical beasts! Move the carriages toward the north, shield the cargo, guards, stay alert!"

This was a high-level guard unit, with every member being at least a level five warrior, totaling thirty-three people.

Although the Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls were level five magical beasts, they possessed sturdy physiques, and once they reached full speed, even a level six warrior could not stop them; taking a direct charge would result in injury.

However, the guards were seasoned travelers with rich combat experience. Watching the approaching Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls, they showed no fear. They either used battle qi to kick nearby massive bluestones to obstruct and slow the beasts down, or nimbly sidestepped to dodge the initial charge.

Then, working in teams of three, they surrounded the Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls; as long as the beasts could not build up speed for a charge, they posed no major threat.

Various colors of battle qi bloomed: yellow for earth, blue for water, cyan for wind, red for fire, white for light, black for darkness, and purple for lightning. As the Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls attacked the targets in front, the warriors on the flanks and rear greeted them with greatswords.

In less than a few minutes, the Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls were covered in blood and lay fallen across the ground. The guards had wiped out their opponents at the cost of only a few minor injuries.

After skillfully digging out the magical beast cores, they cut off the better portions of meat from the Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls.

"Haha, Captain, we're in luck. A small pack of Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls—these magical beast cores are another nice bonus, and this hind leg meat from the Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls is quite chewy."

This guard unit had two captains: one was a level seven warrior, and the other was Luke, while the rest were level five warriors.

In the outer reaches of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, there was basically no danger. Even if they encountered the most terrifying Wind Wolf packs, they could retreat while running, as Wind Wolves were generally only level four, and the strongest beasts in the outer reaches were usually level five, like the Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls, which typically only appeared in packs of a dozen or so.

Of course, if they happened to run into a level eight or nine magical beast that had wandered out, then that would just be their bad luck.