Before continuing on with our story, let's talk first about guardians.
The central civilization (the five countries below the impassable mountains) only knows that there was once a race where people have pointy ears and slanted eyes as a distinct feature. Queen Shezbeth calls them elves or the elven race since they have the same features as the elves from her realm. They used to live on the lower plains since ancient times forgotten. They were an advanced type civilization where people are rumored to wield magical tools with mana and refine their bodies with life force. Though advanced, they were really not the peace-loving type of race as they are divided into clans and engage each other in brutal battles to claim superiority above other clans. These constant clan wars led to rapid depletion of life force and the scarcity of mana stones in the lower plains. There was an immediate effect on this violent race that almost led to their demise. Fearing that their kind will no longer exist, the remaining clans convened and decided to leave the lower plains. Most of them left the land and crossed the vast ocean. They built big ships on a small port town called Fandir. But there were other clans who refused to leave the land so they were required to swear a holy oath to the heavens that they will never again engage in events that will harm the land and instead, guard the land against those who are capable of harming it, or else their whole clan shall perish. The rapid depletion of life force in the environment due to the constant wars led to an imbalance in nature which created a malevolent energy, razing through the lower plains and turning everything from trees to rocks to living creatures into dust save for the area around the small port town of Fandir which was already very far from the ancient battlefields. Because of this, those clans who refused to leave were left without any choice but to traverse through the impassable mountains and brave the dangers beyond. Thus, the origin of the guardians. This happened over tens of millennia ago. Only Old man Rimo and his brave soldiers know about them because they sometimes, albeit rarely, encounter them during their roams through the forests and beyond. And they certainly know the great powers the guardians wield.
The guardians tamed their violent nature and formed rule-bound friendly competition against each guardian clans. They teach their younglings thorough discipline before they teach their closely guarded ways of cultivating martial arts and magic manipulation when the younglings turn fifteen years of age. That's also why our friend miss Jzy Lin is unaware of this because she's yet to reach 15 years old when she met an unfortunate accident which led to her leave the clan then later was rescued by the king of Jamna.
So that's that, lets go back to our story.
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Just as she was about to enter the training grounds, Princess Kahlia saw a young man practicing with his sword diligently. His form was fluid and his stance were stable. For a long time, the princess just stood there to watch and didn't bother him. Then after a while she started to recognize his moves which seem very familiar.
"Hey you!" She knows his name but she just couldn't be bothered.
Edkael have actually noticed the princess already. "Greetings princess." He stopped what he was doing and faced the princess.
"Come with me." She turned around and headed to the stables.
She loves to sport a no-nonsense face in front of everybody. Her mushy personality is only reserved for her family and her only friend.
Later that day, they arrived while riding on a mount to an encampment on the outskirts of the city. This was his grandpa's soldiers.
"Greetings princess." Every soldier they passed by greeted them with a bow.
They continued walking until they reached a flat wide ground where the soldiers gathered.
"Uncle Venn!" The princess waved her hands.
"Princess Kahlia! It's nice to see you here. To what do I owe you the pleasure?" An articulate middle-aged man approached them.
"Me and my friend here need your help." With a cute smile on her face, she gestured her hands towards the young man behind her .
Edkael was slightly surprised by the change in the princess' attitude. On the soldiers' training grounds, she was like an evil girl who likes to bully people and calls everyone 'you'. But she seems to show respect to the soldiers here. It's even his first time to see the princess smile and she was really pretty. He almost forgot what the princess was really like in his eyes.
Seeing as he was introduced, he stepped forward and said with a bow. "Greetings, I'm Edkael. A warrior in training."
"Hhmmnn… for you guys to come here means there's nothing more to learn at the castle's training grounds." Uncle Venn thought for a while then gestured to them. "Why don't you guys follow me?"
Hours passed by and it's suddenly in the late afternoon. While the big shiny ball of fire is seen setting on the horizon, a carriage was gently being pulled by two jamnaparis (goat-like Jamna mounts). Sitting up front and leading the reins was Uncle Venn while the princess was sitting beside him. As for Edkael, he was lying down unconscious on the carriage.
"Uncle, do you have a faster way to cultivate life force? I've done what my mother taught me but it's already been five years yet I just advanced this little bit." The princess made a gesture as if she was pinching a grain of sand.
"The queen's teaching is what we also learned. The only difference is the amount of life force we've acquired. Surely you know that the amount of life force beyond the forest is denser than here." Uncle Venn explained.
"I know. But I'm not allowed to go there. Mother says it's dangerous."
"Yes, it's certainly dangerous. But it's not that bad. Besides, only from danger will you truly grow." This uncle really has seen too much of the world to be able to say this.
They kept on talking until they reached the castle. All this while, the young man was already awake but kept silent as he was still trying to figure out what happened. He's never seen any soldier fight like that. Not even on his previous life. His stillness is the opposite of what's going on inside his mind. He recalled every move the princess made, and how the soldiers behaved during battle. In his previous life, soldiers stood in a row, create mana shield, then shoot energy attacks at the enemy. And on this world, he saw soldiers mindlessly hack at each other. But in not even a day, his mind was thrown off by difficult maneuvers, agile dodges, timely feints, and clever attacks which doesn't even have any direct relation to pure brute strength.
"We're here." A voice suddenly awoke the young man from his stupor. I was Uncle Venn. "Young man, where do you live? I'll take you there."
He saw a brightly lit castle and sighed inwards. 'They must have spent thousands of candles to lighten up the entire castle. While I sparingly use the only candle I have.'
"I'm fine sir. I'll just walk. My house is the opposite of where we came from." Edkael stood up trying to look fine.
Princess Kahlia glanced at him. Seeing that he doesn't have any illumination crystal to light his way, she reached somewhere inside her clothes then threw something at him. "Here… catch."
"I only have one because there's no use carrying a lot. But you can use this since I'm already home." Offered the princess. "Although it's expensive, treat it as my payment for you today from following me."
Edkael was surprised as he caught the crystal. He was inwardly delighted because this was exactly what he has been looking for! The mana stone! And she wants me to use it as a tool to light the path!
"Thanks." Edkael barely managed to contain his happiness and hurriedly walked away.
The princess no longer minded him when she saw that he was doing fine. "Uncle Venn, are you going to wait for grandpa? Why don't you come inside first?"
"Please lead the way princess."
On the way, Edkael jumped with joy upon discovering that he will fortunately be able to use his skills on this planet after all. All he need now is to make a runic tool to convert raw mana.
Runic tools are blessed objects with runes drawn on them. These runes vary depending on how the raw mana will be used. The most common and straightforward runes are the element runes; fire, water, air, earth, light, and dark. There are also complex runes which are a combination of two or more simple runes. There's also mutated elemental runes, they're more powerful but also unstable. And last is the non-elemental rune, the spatial rune. It is a special rune that can be formed from the absence of all elements. Once embedded into a tool, that tool will be able to teleport objects to and from a spatial storage formed by the runes. The stability and dimension of the storage depends largely on how much mana were spent in making and fortifying it.