"Before we begin child, how many species do you think co-exist among us?"
The child replied, "Aren't there only two mister?"
For a child, it would be understandable if he didn't know much about the realms and the species. Determined to drive this family out of their grief-stricken situation, I explained,
"We live in a world of magic. A world where power can mean everything. However, more than power what truly has meaning is intelligence. Only the intelligent survive. The intelligent species we live with are the Demons, Humans, Elves, Giants, Orcs, Goblins, Dwarves, the Undead and last but not the least, Animals."
The child was awe-struck hearing all these things he had never heard before. "Whoa! But aren't animals really dumb, Uncle Ius?"
"Not at all. Animals have instinctive behaviour that makes them sharper than all of us. They live a basic lifestyle without any improvements, but they are truly smart. The creatures in this forest may be weak but if you go out and adventure, you'll find some of the greatest beings out there to be animals. There was a time when I roamed around in the land of the Gods. It was then I saw a creature on the zenith of wisdom, a Dragon. You may be young now, but when you get older, someday, maybe you'll have the privilege to see one too."
I sighed as I remembered the good old days, the times when I could freely travel through the realms and my name was renowned. About 700 years ago, I was at my peak. Ever since then, I've been slowly rotting. For a demon the average lifespan is about 400 years, however due to the large capacity of magic I had, I was able to live for over a thousand. Yet, now, I have become as weak as a human.
I continued, "Child, today I'll show you something you had never seen before, your true potential. All you have to do is repeat after me,"
I made the child remember the Asura chant. He obediently listened and did whatever I told him. What a good kid.
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A month passed by. Over the course of the month, I forced the child to repeat the Asura chant everyday until it became a habit for the child. His magic potential increased exponentially. I was delighted to have such a hardworking student. As a gift, I taught him basic martial arts and demonic arts that were practised by a few of my peers back in the day. During this time, I had completely healed. I no longer required the shelter of this kind family.
After I was satisfied with how the child had progressed, I decided to leave. I walked out of their house waving goodbye. The young man insisted in making me stay for a few more days, yet I refused. If I became too attached to this family, I would be unable to complete my goal. My work here was done.
I moved into the forest to meditate and improve my magical power. Out of the 50 stages of magical power one can achieve, I was at the lowest. For a demon who was once on the 48th stage, this may seem ironic, but the truth is, after stage 30, the magic in my body began to condense. A transition took place where all impure forms of magic transformed into a pure, dense mana. When this happened, the amount of mana stored in my body also decreased. Over the years, I could've trained to maintain my stage, but busy with the tasks of a King, I was unable to get much time.
However, being at a higher stage isn't exactly what determines strength. Now that I had mana in the purest form, I could combat people up till the 15th stage. The only problem was that I could only store a small amount of mana. And so, I began finding a place to meditate in peace, in the large forest.
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An hour later, I encountered a large tree near a waterfall. I had decided to meditate here of all places. However, I could sense the presence of an animal nearby. I stayed alert for the time being. If the animal had no intention to harm me, nor did I. I sat down below the waterfall and began.
I concentrated all of the surrounding mana around me. Next, I absorbed all of the mana in my central core. I repeated this process about a thousand times before I reached stage 2. Normally, this would have taken a repetition of a 100 cycles, but now, due to the pure mana I possessed, it would take me ten times the effort it would take anyone else. With no idea of how much time had passed by, I got up. My body felt physically stronger. My muscles were bulging due to the mana. I felt a several hundred years younger. My hair had turned silver instead of the normal white. I had completely transitioned from an feeble old man to a hunk. However even with all this progress, I was still hungry. (Mana acts as a temporary energy reserve, so hunger can't be completely avoided.)
I made a staff out of a tree trunk by sheer strength, and left the forest to reach a nearby town. I scanned the life forces of any nearby creatures and avoided them throughout the forest. Later to look for the nearest town, I scanned through the surrounding mana and tried to find a cluster of life force. To my surprise, the nearest town itself was 10 kilometres away. To prevent applying unnecessary effort, I imbued my staff with mana, to use it to levitate.
By cycling mana from the staff to the ground, I could create a current of mana which would allow me to levitate. While doing this, I absorbed a large amount of mana in my staff to create a low amount of mana in the surroundings. This would then result to the large amount of mana in the town attracting my staff with the simultaneous repulsion from the low density of mana I created around me.
Within a moments time, I came crashing into the town like an asteroid. People around me shrieked as they saw me. Of course, flying for mere humans was almost impossible. I didn't pay any attention to their melodrama and walked on.
A while later I realised my clothes were torn to a pathetic state due to my progression to stage 2. Thus, I decided to buy a few items from this town other than food. But of course, before doing so, I had to have enough money.
I advanced to the nearest magical equipment store. On entering, a man with a small stature pushed me out of the door while yelling,
"Get out! I have no time for beggars!"
For the first time in my life, someone had dared to belittle me. With the anger I felt, I couldn't help but enter the store once again. This time, I didn't care to follow any sense of formalities. I broke the door and walked through. Then, I grabbed the little man by his collar and lifted him up. What I did next was obvious. I pulled my hand back and threw the man 'lightly' on the wall.
With his head half covered in blood, the man hid under the counter and asked, "W..W...What can I do for you s..s..sir..?"
With a bold smile on my face I replied, "I'm here to sell this staff."
The man analysed the staff and was mesmerised with the power the staff held. After all, a King had created it. It was to be expected.
The man bought the staff for 5000 numers. I left the shop and healed the poor man from afar.
I walked into a clothing store later on and bought red, mana-imbued clothing equivalent to a wizard in the human realm. With loose clothes, I could cover my muscles and avoid the public eye to some extent. After all, it's not common for a man my age to be physical fit amongst humans.
I then advanced into the one place I had to go to ever since I had come here, a restaurant. With the remaining 2500 numers I had, I used 2000 on food. I ordered 32 salads, 20 steaks, 11 well cooked salmons, with 5 litres of beer to finish.
After finishing my meal, I decided to explore through the town before the sun set. I walked along the streets and saw the structure of the buildings, I looked at the mechanism of the machines the humans had built, and took a tour around the royal palace. Humans surely had improved since the last time I had visited their realm.
During the evening, I decided to sell another staff imbued with my pure mana, to retain enough money for a couple of days. While using magic to decrease the friction between my legs and the floor, I ran across the town, and reached the forest. I cut yet another trunk of a tree and made another staff. I enhanced this one with ancient demonic engraving to increase it's power a 100 fold.
While selling this staff, the short man was baffled by what he had seen.
The man spoke, "T...T..This staff is way too supreme! Finding someone to buy this would be impossible! You'll have to take this to the auction house if you really want to sell it!"
Pleased with the man's honesty, I took some time off from my day and repaired the man's door.
"So tell me little one, what's your name?" *
The man replied, "It's Vagnolin Drakegrin."
"So I see. You're a Dwarf."
The dwarf smiled while saying, "Indeed sir I am. And I'm proud of it." *
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By the time I had left the store, it was already night. I walked to the nearest hotel to sleep, for once, in peace.
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*Numers: A form of currency used in the human realm, which is in the form of coins. (It's common for humans to travel with a bag of coins.)
*"So tell me little one, what's your name?" : No pun intended. The mc is older than the human and it is because of this he refers to the short-statured man so. This can be misleading into thinking that the mc was referring to the man as short.
*The dwarf smiled while saying, "Indeed sir I am. And I'm proud of it." : The dwarf is proud of his origin even though he works as a store manager unlike other dwarves.