4 days later Lucy and Mary arrived at Glory City, the first thing they did was go o the Magic Academy.
In an luxurious office were sitting 3 girls, 2 man and an old woman. They were grandma Cai, Lucy, Mary, Zane, Kate and Ron. Just like the other three, Kate and Ron are students of grandma Cai, also known as Sage Cailin current headmaster of Magic Academy.
"I see." Grandma Cai closed her eyes after hearing the story from Mary. A teardrop slowly dripped from her cheeks onto the ground. She opened her eyes and looked at her students.
"I have only loved a few people as much as I would love my own child, you here are one of them and those two were also one of them, they hard their circumstances that did not allow them much freedom but that did not stop them from doing what they wanted. Even while on the run, they always looked forward." She stopped and looked up at the ceiling. "They might have died but their child is still alive, their past is too much for him to bear right now but one day he will come and ask about it. At that time I want all of you to be at your strongest, if he is anything like his parents then we will be going to war."
Other hearing that their would go to war were shocked. Aside from Zane and Kate, no one else knew what Sage Cailin meant. Seeing their reaction she released a sigh.
"All will be made known eventually, just know that I need you at your strongest for when the time comes, go into the tower and improve yourself. All of you need to be back here for the expedition."
"Yes Master!" all five if them said, Lucy being very quiet, barely being audible.
"Lucy, did you know Aaron had a BloodPower, it is called Magma, he inherited it from his mother, his magma magic is very powerful. He used that once on a school trip to kill a King class magic beast, he did that by turning everything to ashes. There is a possiblity he faked his death." Cailin said.
"But why, why would he do that?" Lucy sounded like she was about to cry, he voice trembling.
"I don't know either, it makes no sense to me, so my second guess is that his mother was the one who used it."
"His mother? Why would his mother.."
"It is a long story Lucy, just know that you need to be strong enough to protect their son, they were my students and their son is like my son. His safety is important for that is what they would want." Cailin said as she released another sigh. "Move out first thing tomorrow. Go and prepare."
"Yes master!"
...
...
Months went by as it was soon the excursion to the Kilin Forest, after Cailin's student went to climb the tower, Cailin herself decided to teach the 8 kids from time to time. she would give them advice on how to improve their powers and what to focus on. She also made sure the news of Ray's parents did not reach him. For what she knew, Ray is just a 11 year old kid and him knowing of the possible fate of his parents now is too soon.
In the mansion, Ray was sitting on his bed with white lightning crackling around his body.
"YES!!" Ray screamed seeing his current condition. When he coated his dagger in lightning last time, he realized that the metal of the dagger could not conduct mana, because of that when he had tried to coat it with lightning, the dagger became hot and once his grip released of it the coating on the dagger dispersed as well. But that did give him an idea. Why did the hot dagger hurt him, but the lightning did not?
At first he could not understand it, so he experimented with it and the more he tried the more he learned, he found out that if he does not directly use the lightning with the intent on hurting himself It would not damage him. He asked Ria if she could coat her body with lightning and found out she could, but not like his. While Ria's coating surrounded her body, it never directly contacted it. She would always make sure it did not contact her skin, Ray's lightning however did, he could have the lightning he used to directly be in contact with his skin. This difference is huge, one can only be used as a defensive and offensive mechanism but the other can be a supportive one as well.
Coating his body with lightning was not easy though, he would need to have enough mana to use it and sustain it and also be able to fight while keeping it sustained. That all requires a lot of practice and mana, which he did not have. But he did not give up and after a year of practice he could coat his body with slight bits of lightning. While it has close to no effect, it does however mean that he can practice to keeping it active subconsciously and that is the most valuable thing about it.
Rent went outside to spar with the others, they have been doing a it twice a week to improve their fighting capabilities after Cailin had told them to. Going outside, he sees the others sparring already and only Lucas was waiting.
"You are late" Lucas said as he walked to the arena.
"I was close to a breakthrough in my experiment." Ray said as he went up to the arena as well.
"That's good, did you succeed?"
"Yes, but it is too weak right now. I will need to get stronger first to see its strength."
"That's pretty cool, you know." Lucas was genuinely surprised, he did not expect him to succeed. In terms of mana, Ray is way behind them, but his skills in combat make up for it. What use is mana if it is not used to its greatest effect? Lucas understood that if they fought without mana, he won't win a single time. But what use is a mage without mana?
Ray took two wooden daggers from the armory while Lucas used his fists. Both took position and ran at each other. With both of them being close combat fighters, the fight was very fast paced. Ray used his daggers to try to slash or stab a vital spot but it proved to be useless as his daggers were dodged by dark magic. It was a skill that would make the the user use the shadows to dive in to. Lucas using his dark attribute magic and light attribute magic in combination to create shadows and dive into them. Ray who could barely use a simple coating of lightning on his arms tried to do his best and hit him but to fail every time he did. As Ray kept trying Lucas kept hitting him in his blind spots, being a princes he had strong teachers to teach him from the moment he could walk, especially writhing the beast tribes this proves very effective. Because of that, Ray had no chance but to be lose miserably. But everytime he lost, he would improve and everytime he'd last longer than before.
The fight ended in Ray's loss, Lucas and Ria had the most wins with Ray having 0, Yuki followed 3rd and after was Erik followed by Warren and the twins.
[clap, clap, clap]
clapping sounds were heard, they looked to see Cailin clapping on the side.
"Greetings Headmaster!" All 8 greeted her together. "Great, you kids are improving faster and faster, I came to see how you are doing and tell you about the excursion into the Kilin Forest. Be at the school entrance at 7 am tomorrow understood?"
"Yes Headmaster!"
"Good, Ray, come with me for a bit." Cailin said as she started to walk into the garden, Ray quickly followed behind her.
"Is something wrong headmaster?" Ray asked as he walked behind her.
"Ray, have you heard about the recent Beast hordes?" Cailin asked as she stopped and look at Ray to see his expression.
"Beast hordes? no I haven't. I have been focused on my training, Headmaster has something happened?" Ray started feeling restless 'Why is she talking about beast hordes? What has that got to do with me? Did something happen in Rasb City?' As Ray was struggling with his inner thoughts Cailin continued to speak.
"Ray, a few months back there was a beast horde in Rasb City." as she finished speaking Ray felt his heart ache, he knew that there was more. "There were many deaths and many people missing.." She looked at Rai as she finished speaking, seeing his expression she knew that he already figured out what she wanted to say but did not dare to believe.
"Your parents and sister are missing Ray, the house was burnt to ashes leaving nothing left. We don't know what for certain what happened to them, but...." she released a heavy breath and looked Ray in the eyes "Chances are high that they perished in the explosion."
[Thump]
Ray fell to his knees as he closed his eyes. He had seeing his parents die before, his brother and sisters died before as well, he had seen his wife die. Death was not new to him, but death of a loved one is never easy to endure.
"Headmaster, why did you not tell me before?" Ray spoke as he kept his head down
"I originally did not want to tell you so soon, but news has already reached Rune City and you would have found out about it even if I didn't tell you." Cailin was shocked, she did not expect him to take it so well, she could feel the sadness from his voice and the fluctuations of mana inside him, but for him to remain calm even then is something even adults wouldn't cope with. She however didn't know that Ray had reincarnated.
"Headmaster Cai, I have a question to ask."
"Ask ahead, everything you want to know, I'll answer."
"Then headmaster Cai, is there anything else to do in the academy for our class? Normal classes are different from the one I am in, I know that. But if there is nothing else to be taught here, I wish to go search for them." Ray spoke as he looked her in the eyes. Seeing his eyes, she was reminded of her students and could not help but show a sad expression.
"Ray, don't even think about it, with your strength you will not even survive for a week." She said as she looked Ray trembling. "Ray, I will tell you everything after you graduate. For now, focus on increasing your strength. She said as she left behind a crying Ray.
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