Shi! It's time for dinner!"
"Coming mama!"
At his mother's call, Shi rushed out of his room. As he ran down the stairs, fragrant smells of rabbit meat could be smelt. As his stomach churned in hunger, Shi he ran to his mother's smiling figure.
"Wow! Rabbit meat!"
"Hahaha, calm down you little rascal."
"Hoho, Shi you're as energetic as always, huh?"
"Oh Byrael, go clean up when you come in!"
"Haha okay okay Azela~"
Azela scolded Byrael when she had noticed that he had yet to clean with a smiling face. With a light smile, Byrael bent over and kissed her on the cheek before he ran off to wash up. As she shook her head in amazement, she laughed as she watched Byrael go into the bathroom with eyes filled with love.
Byrael and Azela, these two were Shi's parents in his new life. Byrael was a burly fellow that towered over others with his six-foot six-inch frame. He had long brown hair that reached down to his shoulders and a full beard. He seemed like a daunting person at first but that notion soon disappeared from everybody's thoughts with his jolly laugh and kind hazel eyes. Currently, he was in his prime at thirty years old. When he was eighteen, he had joined the army and rose to fame with stellar swordsmanship and constant battles. Many people thought he would soon become a commander but to the surprise of everyone, he retired at the young age of twenty-six. The reason was that the young lady by Shi's side.
Azela was a very beautiful young lady. At the prime age of twenty-six, she was a rare type of woman. Even though she had been raised in a noble family, she was kind and courteous to everyone, even peasants. His father had told him that she used to go out and help out the less fortunate in clinics for people who couldn't afford the hospital. He had actually seen her there after coming back from a campaign and immediately fell in love.
After that, Byrael had often gone to that clinic to be with her. As the two got to know each other, they had quickly fallen in love and in six month's time married. Since her parents didn't approve of the marriage, Azela had to come out from her parent's house and Byrael retired before the two moved to the east.
For the past three years, they had raised him with the utmost love, always doting on him. Even though their family could not be considered rich, they were still well off because his father had been hired to be the trainer for the Baron's Soldiers here and even privately taught the Baron's son.
While they all were happily eating, Shi made a promise in his heart once again.
'Even though I wasn't strong enough in my last life, I promise that in this one I will protect these two in this life. Hmm…. I've finally learned how to fully read now, I should start training tomorrow.'
The next morning, Shi snuck into his father's study. Inside, he heads toward the bookshelf. Unfortunately, his family only possessed a few books.
'Well, it's not like books were a common sight in my previous life either.'
With those thoughts, he immediately found the book he wanted and pulled it out. As he sat the book on his lap, the title was printed in large lettering.
Introduction to Mana.
Flipping the cover, he began reading to understand how magic worked in this world.
Mana is the gift that the gods have given to our humanity. With mana, humans are able to perform miraculous feats such as cast magic or release strength or speed that match can match some of the physically superior beasts. This has led to the creation of two occupations that defend humanity from demise: Warriors and Mages.
Warriors are people that strengthen their own bodies with mana. Letting their mana flow through their muscles constantly, warriors have superhuman strength and agility. Depending on their physical abilities, affinity percentage with their elemental, and amount of mana, you will be given a rank.
Mages are people that call upon the abilities of elementals. Pouring mana into their elemental, mages can cast spells with their affiliated element. A Mage's rank is determined by four factors: the amount of mana, affinity percentage with elements, purity of mana, and the rank of their elementals.
Warrior and Mages are divided into the following ranks:
Trainee
Apprentice
Knight/Wizard
King
Emperor
Hero
Saint
Demi-God
God
Each person will be born with their elementals. Due to the long assimilation process between humans and the elementals, one will not be able to know their affinity until the process is completed near the age of six. Just like beasts, elementals are ranked as the following:
F
E
D
C
B
A
S
SS
SSS
There are also seven different elements that Warriors and Mages are categorized into by their elementals:
Fire
Water
Wind
Earth
Steel
Light
Dark
The majority of people have just one element. People who are considered geniuses have two elements. The strongest magician and strongest warrior of all times, Godar and Ryder, had three elements each.
As people reach higher ranks, they also tend to live longer. A Demi-Human are reported to live for thousands of years, not to mention God levels people who gain immortality.
Mana capacity, however, is something that someone is born with. No matter how much one trains, their mana cannot be increased. The only known method to increase a person's mana capacity is by eating a beast's core. By eating a beast's core, people will get an increase in physical ability and increased mana capacity. As expected, the increase will be dependent on the rank of the beast. A core from an E ranked beast will not give nearly as much as of an increase as per say a core from an A-ranked beast.
'Ho…..so that's why I couldn't use magic before' thought Shi. Even though mana in his past world and the one he was now in worked basically the same way, there was a major difference: Elementals.
The beings known as elementals intrigued Shi. The idea of using an external source to conduct your magic interested him.
'Hm…. I wonder what kind of element I have. Maybe I'll be lucky and have more than one? Oh well, unfortunately, that's not something I can find out until I turn six. I should focus on what I can currently do and that's to purify my mana.'
With that thought, from that day on Shi began to meditate every night in his room to purify his mana. Even though it was a very tiring process for such a young mind, he persisted with the motivation to become strong and protect his parents. Like this, time slowly passed without his parent's notice. If Shi's parents had seen him meditating, they would extremely shocked. The method to meditate was only a method that was taught to mages and warriors that exceeded King Rank by their kingdoms. Shi, however, had already stumbled upon the way to meditate through his previous life. Slowly the murky gray mana inside of him became more distinct and purer.
During the day, Shi pretended to act like a normal child and would tell his parents that he was going out to play. When he went out, however, he would instead head towards the open fields and run. Even though Shi was impatient to begin training, he knew that if he started too early that it would be harmful to his growth so he bared with it and continued to just run to raise his cardiovascular system.
When he first started, he could barely run a quarter-mile. Even though inside his mind Shi moaned for the times when he could easily run fifty miles, he would grit his teeth and continue. As he persisted on, the distance he traveled slowly increased. Half a mile, one mile, two miles. Like this, three years passed by.