The History Recorded by Mages

When Donald met Master Messer again, he already wore a blank badge on his chest. This was the continent-wide identification for Apprentice Mages, invented by the Bannai Empire a thousand years ago. If he managed to become an early-stage Black Iron Mage, a spell-formed pattern would appear on the badge.

"Master Messer!"

Donald had little experience with society in his previous life, but he knew that courtesy never hurt. Besides, this was a world where the strong ruled and social ranks were strict. Whenever he met someone of higher standing, even if that person was his enemy, he had to behave respectfully.

Dressed in the casual clothes commonly worn by nobles, Master Messer sat on the sofa like a kindly old man from the neighborhood.

"Sit down! Make yourself at home!"

At his words, Donald sat down across from Master Messer without any fuss.

"Apprentice Donald, I invited you here because I have some personal advice to offer. But before I do, I've prepared a few little things for you. They're gifts from me, your senior, to celebrate your becoming a formal apprentice. You must accept them!"

Hearing the old mage's firm tone, and seeing the warmth in his eyes, Donald felt a glow in his heart. He didn't stand on ceremony and picked up the tray on the coffee table.

"Thank you for your kindness, Master. I'm truly grateful!"

The tray held three items. The first was a scroll of sheepskin, the second a small pouch, and the third a copper ring set with a crystal.

The old mage pointed at the ordinary-looking items and said with a smile, "The sheepskin scroll lists first-level spell incantations and detailed instructions for casting them. The pouch contains a few low-grade Elemental Crystals. As for the ring, I used it when I was young. It's only a little trinket, but it can still be quite helpful to spellcasters below Bronze rank, especially apprentices!"

"It can amplify your mental power to a certain extent, allowing you to master some first-level spells ahead of time. With this White Crystal Ring, you can start learning the first three spells on the scroll now without worrying about spell backlash. It should help you become a formal mage!"

Donald was overjoyed. "Some help" was an understatement. Equipment that could strengthen one's mental power and allow one to cast spells beyond one's level was practically a divine artifact for low-level mages and apprentices!

After hearing how precious Master Messer's gift was, Donald began to feel that he shouldn't accept it.

Noticing Donald's hesitation, the old mage smiled and said:

"There's no need to worry. It's a fine piece of equipment, but at my current level it's no longer of any use to me! Our Kingdom of Selt has been cut off from the center of the continent for centuries, and our strength is relatively weak. In terms of the number of mages and their levels, we're far behind Polin, the mage kingdom founded by the descendants of the Bannai Empire. In terms of the number and strength of our warriors, we're even further behind Kort, the kingdom of swordsmen. We can't even compare to the tiny Siren Knight Principality. The continent is full of powerful nations. The people of our Kingdom of Selt can only work hard to improve their strength so that other countries won't swallow us up. Any mage from the Kingdom of Selt would help an outstanding apprentice like you, so that the next generation can grow strong. You needn't feel awkward about my gift!"

After hearing this, Donald's admiration for the old mage soared. There might be plenty of patriotic mages, but few were as upright, noble, and selfless as Messer.

"Actually, I have a selfish reason for doing this. In the decades since I became a formal mage, I've only taken two apprentices, and both of them sadly passed away before I did. I'd already lost the desire to teach another student. But your arrival changed my mind. Donald, would you be willing to become my formal student?"

Donald was taken aback and didn't know how to respond. He had never imagined that the exalted North Shire's Number One Mage, the most powerful mage in the Mage Association, would want to take him as an apprentice.

Messer's expression dimmed. "If you don't want to, that's all right. You can still come to me for help whenever you need it!"

"No, Master! I was just so surprised and happy that I didn't know what to say. I'd be honored to become your student!"

He formally bowed to Messer. The old mage laughed heartily and helped him back up.

After receiving gifts and some advice on how to advance to Black Iron Mage from his teacher, Messer, Donald was sent to the library of the Giant Stone City Mage Association.

As the old mage put it, "The Giant Stone City Mage Association's collection isn't very large, but it's enough for apprentices and mages below Bronze rank. If you ever get the chance, you can visit the mage tower of the Mage Association in the Royal Capital. It'll broaden your knowledge and horizons, and help you grow faster."

Anyone who became a formal apprentice could enter the association's library with their Apprentice Mage badge. However, only the first visit was free, and even then it was subject to a time limit. On other occasions, they had to pay a fee. Mage organizations in most kingdoms had similar rules. This practice stemmed from the teachings of the Bannai Empire a thousand years ago.

Only by mastering knowledge could one become a more powerful mage. And the Arcanist Empire of even more ancient times had passed down this saying: "If everyone could become an Arcanist, the world would have no need for the gods."

Naturally, such blasphemous "heresy" never appeared in the records of any race. It could only be found in books left behind by ancient mages, who pursued the truth of existence and worshipped no gods.

Thanks to Master Messer's consideration, Donald wasn't subject to a time limit on this visit.

After entering the library, he didn't hurry to browse the spellbooks. Instead, he first went to look through the historical records and mages' diaries with great interest. To understand something, you first had to understand its history. That was a lesson Donald had learned in his previous life.

What the newly initiated Apprentice Mage Donald didn't know was that his choice greatly pleased Master Messer, who was observing him through a spell. Some newly initiated apprentices, faced with so many spellbooks in the library, would immediately seek out incantations far beyond their level, single-mindedly chasing powerful attack spells. It showed that they lacked composure. Early exposure to such spells could hinder their future development.

But this most talented apprentice Messer had ever met did nothing of the sort. Instead, he focused first on the precious legacy left by those who had come before: the truth of history and the origins of mages. This knowledge could help apprentices develop a sound understanding of the world of mages and the right approach to their craft. It could teach them how to become truly powerful mages. Donald wasn't just talented; he was also steady and dependable in every way.

Satisfied, Master Messer withdrew his scrying spell, while Donald immersed himself in the grand and stirring history of this world.

The material here differed greatly from the history books Donald had read before, but that was only what he had expected. The holy scriptures of the church placed the gods at the center of everything, while the Kingdom's epics were perfect examples of self-congratulatory praise. Only the rigorous mages would record history objectively, without false information shaped by subjective glorification or vilification.

These materials gave Donald a general understanding of the world he now lived in.

This was a world where gods existed. Mighty dragons and ancient magical beasts had once ruled the continent. Then, countless years later, the High Elves emerged from the World Tree. Blessed with extraordinary intelligence, they soon became the world's new masters.

Countless years passed. The High Elves, who had once possessed demigod-level power, gradually declined, until Gold rank became the starting point for their strength. Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Goblins, and other intelligent races appeared one after another, yet the High Elves remained the undisputed masters of the world. Their mighty elven empire ruled the entire continent and soon conquered the vast oceans as well.

However, the High Elves' mother, the World Tree, had to disperse into energy to support the plane barrier of the ever-expanding prime world, lest her children suffer incursions from other planes. Although the Tree of Life, a branch of the World Tree, sustained the High Elves thereafter, there was only one Tree of Life, and it could not care for the High Elves scattered across the continent and oceans. As a result, the High Elves' ability to reproduce began to decline sharply. So the Tree of Life sacrificed some of its power to nurture tens of thousands of Ancient Elf Tree seeds. Once the High Elves in various regions had cultivated the Ancient Elf Trees, their descendants—the Elves—were born.

From then on, no High Elves were born outside the elven holy land where the Tree of Life stood. Unlike naturally frail races such as humans, Elves' souls were formed from nature by the Ancient Elf Trees. High Elves were born with Gold-rank strength, and the Ancient Elf Trees naturally could not compare to the Tree of Life or the World Tree, which had given rise to their ancestors. Thus, even when both parents were High Elves, they could only produce ordinary Elves. Even the souls of ordinary Elves were at birth at least as strong as those of Black Iron spellcasters. So although the Elves were few in number, every member of their race was a powerful warrior or mage. That was why they had once ruled the continent and still held a place of importance in this age of human dominance.

Here, it was necessary to mention a profession acknowledged by the gods as the most powerful to arise in the prime world since its creation, apart from true gods: the Arcanists.

The ancient Arcanists were the source of modern mages. In a sense, today's mages were simply one branch of the Arcanists of old.

The earliest Arcanists dated back tens of thousands of years to the ancient era. They were first established by the High Elves, but it was humanity that truly brought Arcane magic to prominence.

Ten thousand years ago, the High Elves had to give up their position as rulers of the continent due to the limits of their population. Humans, Dwarves, Orcs, and other races began to flourish. Humans, who excelled at invention and learning, soon stood out. They received the Arcanist tradition from the High Elves, and some exceptionally gifted human Arcanists achieved the feats of the High Elves' finest High Arcanists in their brief lifespans of less than a hundred years. A few even became Grand Arcanists, a rank so rare that only a handful of High Elves had ever reached it.

The High Elves noticed humanity's potential. Having withdrawn from the stage of history to live behind the scenes, they reached out to the humans and recognized human Arcanists as their equals. They conducted much of their Arcane research together. Their different perspectives soon brought about rapid advances in the Arcane tradition, creating countless marvels of knowledge such as Sky City, Magic Crystal Cannons, Domain Barriers, and Artificial Intelligent Golems. For a time, they reached heights that even the gods admired.

Sadly, this brilliant civilization came to an end because some Arcanists pursued fantastical research into the realm of the gods, angering the deities and setting the stage for the Arcanist Empire's destruction.

The gods needed faith to increase their power, while everyone in the lands ruled by the Arcanists pursued Arcane magic and truth. Foreseeing that, in less than a thousand years, the Arcanists might reach a level equal to the gods, the deities decided to weaken them. They imposed restrictions on mortals so they would worship the gods more readily.

The freedom-loving Arcanists naturally refused to sit by while the gods oppressed them and enslaved them. They rose up in resistance, but aside from the most powerful Grand Arcanists, few could stand against divine power.

To secure humanity's victory, the leaders of the Arcanists made a disastrous decision. They opened a planar gate in the prime world and summoned an army of Demons from the dark side of the universe: the sinister, evil Endless Abyss.

The Abyssal Demons dealt the gods a severe blow, causing most of the true gods to fall. Most of today's gods had only ascended after that catastrophe. Only a handful of ancient true gods still remained.

The Arcanists had won, but it was a pyrrhic victory. The Demons also brought incalculable disaster upon the prime world. Many Arcanist traditions were buried beneath the ruins of history, and each generation of Arcanists grew weaker than the last. Then, a thousand years ago, the Bannai Empire split apart, and the title of Arcanist vanished from the world for good.

The Ancient Magic Empire of Bannai was, one could say, the Arcanists' final, glorious flourish in the history of the world. In that era, humans, Elves, Dwarves, and other races shared one enemy: the Orcs.

The Orcs were less intelligent than humans, Elves, and the other races, but their high birth rate and omnivorous diet meant that their numbers kept growing. Their vast population provided the Orc pantheon with an enormous number of worshippers. Like the Orcs on the ground, their gods were just as aggressive as wild beasts.

The other races could see that the Orcs were steadily encroaching on their lands and sought to rule the entire continent, building a great empire just as the humans and Elves had. The gods of humanity and the other races would not tolerate this.

As war raged across the land, the gods led by humanity also fought the Orc pantheon in the starry sky.

The most powerful human nation was Bannai, then ruled by the heirs of the Arcanists. With the support of their many powerful fighters who surpassed Gold rank, the Orc tribes, who lacked spellcasting ability, were quickly defeated and driven to the frigid western highlands of the continent.

Bannai's Arcanists then succeeded in unifying the entire continent and established the second empire ruled by Arcanists. They also gathered and organized the remaining Arcane knowledge, creating a new profession: the mage.

At its height, Arcane magic had been divided into eight major schools, encompassing almost every spellcasting ability in the world. Based on the incomplete Arcanist tradition, the mage profession had only a handful of branches: Elemental Mages, Alchemists, Summoners, and Warlocks, who specialized in souls and curses.

Sadly, the Ancient Magic Empire of Bannai had only just begun its rise to glory when it vanished like a firework fading after a brilliant display.

After the gods of humanity defeated the Orc pantheon, the spatial rifts that opened in the prime world allowed the Abyssal Demons—who had once destroyed the ancient Arcanist Empire—to invade again. This was the origin of the Second Demonic Calamity recorded in the continental chronicles.

After the disaster, the gods deliberately split the Bannai Empire to prevent a second Arcanist Empire from rising in the world. They thought peace had finally come, but the many forces at work between the prime world and the Abyssal Plane created several stable spatial fissures. Through these fissures, Abyssal creatures entered the prime world to cause trouble every so often, whether once a decade or once a century. Some larger rifts even let small numbers of Demons emerge year-round, threatening the living creatures of the prime world. The fissures were too small and fragile to withstand the passage of powerful Demons, but even the weakest little Demon was stronger than an adult human and possessed innate spell-like abilities. They remained a blight on the living creatures of the prime world.

Fortunately, the human kingdoms and the forces of various races had powerful professionals and the support of the churches of the gods. The great Demonic Calamities that had erupted several times over the past thousand years had all been successfully crushed by the allied forces of the races. Whenever a smaller outbreak occurred, the various factions took it seriously and quickly wiped it out.

War never stopped in this world—not just between human nations, but between humans and other races, and between the creatures of the prime world and the evil beings of other planes. Perhaps that was why civilization here, despite developing for at least ten thousand years, still resembled the Middle Ages of Donald's previous life. It was not only the result of the gods' control; the unending wars between the races must have played a part as well.

After learning the truth of this world's history, Donald felt no fear at the Orcs' invasion or the Demons' incursions. Instead, excitement surged through him!

He still remembered a famous fantasy novel by a celebrated author he had read in his previous life. After its protagonist crossed into another world, he had used the merits he earned during a Demonic Calamity to climb steadily to the top of the political ladder—and eventually ascended to godhood.

"Doesn't that mean that if I earn merit in the battles between the human nations and the Orcs, and in the Demonic Calamities when we fight the Abyssal creatures, I'll be able to win new lands? I could restore the glory of the Merlinar Family—and maybe even go further and become a true grand noble?"

With the abilities granted by the Book of Truth, Donald believed he could certainly make his mark.

Demons were powerful, but those who could cross the spatial fissures from the Abyss to the prime world probably weren't from among the stronger breeds. And according to the mages' research, ever since the Orcs' deities had fallen, their race hadn't produced a single professional above Gold rank.

"Even if war breaks out with the Orcs, their experts will naturally be dealt with by powerful human professionals. I'll just pick on the weak. With the might of my summoned army, earning enough merit to secure a reward should be easy."

Donald had no doubt about it and felt completely confident.