"Acolyte...? what do you mean" Velex had an intrigued expression this was the first time he had heard the term.
The old man had yet to snap out of his daze. It took him a few moments to come back to reality, yet he still couldn't believe his eyes. seeing an acolyte did not surprise him, it was that this young man although he looked like fierce beast didn't look older then 14. he heard the surprise in Velex's tone and the look on his face told him that he most likely wasn't trying to deceive him. At the side his grandson wore an astonished expression looking at Velex.
finally ignoring his grandson, he began to speak "you don't know what an acolyte is?"
"I have heard about mage's, but nothing about acolytes. I come from a small Mountain tribe near the Beast forest, yet I left to explore the world the life their was not enough for me"
The old man found his response a bit suspicious, but looking at his beast like appearance he decided to accept his background and explanation for now. Specially since the lad was out here alone what ever were his origins at this moment it didn't matter. Instead an idea started to form inside his mind, but he would wait a bit before getting ahead of himself. but that didn't stop the beaming smile that appeared on his slightly wrinkled face, he continued.
"well since you saved my grandson and are seeking knowledge, let me enlighten you. Come let us go into the carriage talking here is not the best idea"
Velex had no issue with the idea, not wasting time was to his liking and the information he needed was right in front of him. He decided to take the risk and join the old man and his grandson on the carriage. soon the 3 carriages began their journey through the Chaos ridge mountain. The old man didn't waste any time and quickly introduced himself.
"my name is Denis, we are from the Sha family a small mage family. But i will get back to that later, let's talk about what you should know first." Slowly Denis began to explain most of the power structure of the world to Velex.
An acolyte was in a sense a student of the magic art's, any and all mage's stared as acolyte's. The road of an acolyte was difficult since the first stage of their development mostly revolved around gathering, refining and storing magic energy or elemental energy. Each person would be born with their own spiritual root or elemental root, their was an 80% chance that their element would be the same as their parents. each person could have a mix of elemental affinities yet most time then not 1 element would be stronger then the rest. The basic elements were fire, water, wind, earth and the stronger rarer elements were darkness, and lightning.
An acolyte would have to go through 4 stages of power ranks till they could try to advance to a mage, they were gaseous, liquid, solid and last crystal stage. he didn't explain why regular humans or commoners weren't aloud to know about mage's but he did say mage's weren't easy to come by as they were higher and rarer people. A person's spiritual root didn't only determine their element but most important of all their potential. talent could be rank from e to a rank, were E it was basically impossible for the person to ever be a mage, d rank had a basic 9-15% to advance, C was 20-35%, rank B 40-65% and finally A rank would have an astonishing 70-85% chance. As to why their was a gap even between the same potential rank it was because although within the same rank each person could be slightly better or worse. Denis told him that he wouldn't tell him about mage's for now, but he wanted to invite Velex to their home.
"Although our home isn't in The Raylen citadel, we are not to far from the large city before the citadel it's managed by the Floid mage family. I actually have a deal i would like to strike with you, i won't force anything on you of course. But be assured that it will definitely benefit you and us as well." old denis smiled as he said that.
Velex didn't sense any malice in the old man's word and who would know the next chance he would get to meet a mage family under such good circumstances he didn't delay and replied "Their is much i do not know, i will happily hear out your deal"
Old denis was thrilled to hear this, they spoke about a few other subject as they travel. Denis said he would explain everything clearly once they arrived at his home, as he had to finalize his deal with the family's current head his son.
The rest of the journey was rather uneventful, it took then about 1 months to reach the Sha family estate. As it came into view Velex could see the high stone walls and metal gate, behind a large castle made out of stone towering over many houses made out of wood and stone. The Sha family estate was bigger then Carven town and had a higher standard.
They reached the front gates and without waiting more then 1 second the gate opened and they headed inside. It didn't take long for then to reach the castle, the guards saluted the old man and Lybert as they headed inside. The inside of the castle had a vast hall with a Blue and gold carpet running through the middle at the end of the hall was a Square table with many chairs around. their were many corridors that led deeper inside the castle. right after entering a golden hair middle aged man wearing a white and red robe came from the other ends and quickly greeted them.
"Ah your finally back father, it seems Lybert made it back in 1 piece. Yet who might this young man be" said the middle age man as he looked at Velex.
Denis quickly introduced him "This young man is Velex , this is my son Robert the current family head, young Velex aided your son Lybert during a dangerous encounter against a pack of grey wolf."
"ah then you have my gratitude lad, their is a welcoming banquet that will be hosted for Lybert. You are most welcome to join us....." before Robert could say more Old denis interrupted him. "We can talk about this later, I have something very important to talk to you about" he said to his son as he motion for him to follow him to one of the inner hall. He told Velex they would return shortly and asked him to take a seat.
A few minute later the son and father duo return to the hall, at this moment both of their excited expressions were hard to miss. They didn't waste much time and quickly denis began to explain.
"Okay lad Velex, let me start by telling you more about mage's...."
Soon denis began to explain to Velex how acolytes trained to become mage's. The first and most crucial thing he mention was about the 'Academy's'. Academy's were small to large independent forces that trained young talented acolytes, A lot of talented acolytes came from already established mage families or rising one, even some small mage families would have a small rising star every few decades. Before Velex mind could run wild, Denis continued one would think why would mage families willingly give their talented young acolytes to these independent forces. Their were a few reason one was that many of these academy's had special relationships with certain families, another would be that smaller families didn't have the resources to nurture their acolytes. Then why would Academy's shoulder such a burden, well these academy's although strong in their own right all paid allegiance to one of the 4 Top families. Each family would be able to recruit talented mage's that the academy's would nurture and in return they would receive resources and aid in different fields. Of course the academy's also own the rights to try to recruit these talents for themselves further aligning them to those acolytes family. What really shocked Velex even after he knew how large the Raylen's family territory was, was that each family own their own region yet these 4 regions only made 1 vast continent in the northwest area from the Beast forest. As to the other continent forces Denis did not elaborate. At this time Denis came back to the deal he mention.
"Although academy's take in young talents to nurture, each one has it's own ranking and of course the stronger the academy the higher their standards. every 3 to 8 years the academy's under the 4 families send their recruiters to 8 different appointed locations. In 2 years the next recruitment process will be held. Lybert is now 14, he will be 16 by the selection time anyone 13 and under 19 is able to apply. so I will be blunt now about our so called 'mage' family, in truth their are a lot of families that hold the tittle of a 'mage' family but that's only a crude joke like ours. A family earn the tittle when the officially have a mage emerge from their family, yet we haven't had a mage in our family in decades. me and my son Robert are only acolytes with low C level talent, we are stuck being acolytes for the rest of our lives this is a fact many have to face. Yet our son has a decent chance being born with low grade b talent, if he could join a high level academy then his chances of becoming a mage would rise. Although he has B rank talent its the bottom of the rug, and his chances to be accepted to a high level academy is low. This is were you coming, You aren't much older then 14 are you?
"I'm actually 12 right now" it wasn't the Velex was lying the power his soul had receive had brought his soul age above a teen's soul age, His body although almost 5 years old had been pushed to grow and was that of a 12-13 year old body with added strength and features of a lightning beast.
"That's good, Our offer is very simple. Their is one way besides offering a major donation to a academy for Lybert or someone with poorer talent to be able to join. That is if that same family had a high talented acolyte, that those high level academy's would do anything to recruit. Since you weren't even aware you were an acolyte and couldn't hide your energy I could sense the dense amount of magic energy around you. Although that isn't enough to judge your talent, But goin by how young you and the amount of energy your body could naturally collect. Is enough for me to know or gamble to say you have a high A rank talent. Although i haven't seen many high talented acolytes, I've never heard of an acolyte with the same amount of magic power you have at your age."
"So Velex here's the deal, we would like you to join our family on a 5 year contract. which in one we will aid you with some resources for your cultivation, two you will be able to use our family name to join an academy as commoners are not usually able, and 3 we will give you a spell node to start training your magic powers. In return Lybert will be able to join the high level academy you join, and we would ask if you could look out for him in these 5 years in matter within your capabilities. besides that we have no other request of you, what do you say?"