Three contrasting children walk down the market district path at mid-day. Thea, Arne, and Eli walk slowly, all deep within thought. Thea quickly turns to Arne, opening her mouth to say something, before shaking her head and facing away from them, her face slightly red.
As the children walk to their respective homes, stopping along the way to say their goodbyes, they all begin to worry about the days ahead.
Arne walks up his family's hill and enters his small cottage, and upon entering is greeted by the smiling face of his mother.
"How was your first day?" she asks her bright eyes and shining smile made it appear as if she were almost glowing. Noticing the worried look on Arne's face she looks at him up and down and her face shifts into one of concern. "Not good?" she said.
Arne snaps out of his daydreaming and hugs her tightly. "It was nice," he whispers, before pulling away and putting on a big smile. "A few kids left, but I made friends with the ones who stayed! And I have a water affinity! Mr. Gregory says I may be able to become an ice mage too!" he rambles.
Rena's mouth opens in shock before softening into that classic motherly gaze. "Alright sweetie, lets get some food in you and you can go play with your brother and sister."
"Okay!" chimed Arne.
As night slowly fell in the village, the shadows grew longer and light grew scarcer until the night was all that was left. At Arne's house the lights slowly fade into darkness.
From the top of a nearby tree a cloaked figure can be seen gazing into the window at a silver-blonde young boy resting in his small bed. As a strong wind blew the figure seemed to fuse with the misty night air and evaporate into the moonlight.
Across town, the final house that had light stood. It was slightly taller than the buildings around it, but nothing too extravagant. This was the house of the old man Lumin, the founder of the village and a former knight of the sword kingdom. His achievements allowed him to establish his own territory within the sword kingdom, which over the decades has turned into the Lumin Village that exists today.
Within the house an ancient looking man, as if a wisp of wind could take his life sat in a chair. His face was fiery red, and his eyes looked like they may explode from his head.
"THIS WAS THE LAST STRAW!" he yelled.
This man was Seld Lumin, the old man who founded this village. He looked good for his age, not a day over 100. Next to him was his secretary, a young man with a talent for paperwork.
"Is exile really necessary? He hasn't done anything major to the town." said the young man.
The old man rubbed the bridge of his nose as the color on his face faded and said: "Yes it is necessary. Barry has been causing trouble for the town for upwards of twenty years. He may be younger than me by quite a few years, but I'm still surprised on how much trouble he has caused. I'm sure he'll be fine anywhere else, but he needs to answer for the trouble he's been causing us all this time. He almost got our village annihilated by that Baron a few years ago!"
The old man sighed. "I'm just worried he'll cause major troubles before he passes is all. Since his wife passed he just can't seem to keep out of trouble."
"He'll be gone before the week is over sir." said the young man.
"Thank you," replied the old man, "and don't be too harsh with him."
The next morning Arne and Eli meet up and enter class to find that Thea is there waiting for them already, staring out the window lazily just like yesterday.
Arne takes his seat next to Thea, and Eli takes his seat as well.
"Good morning!" piped Arne. Thea jumped slightly and turned to her right to see both Arne and Eli in the classroom already. She quickly turned away again after seeing them both, her face almost as red as her hair. Arne doesn't seem to notice, "Does she not like us?" he thinks.
As Arne begins to think Mr. Gregory enters the classroom boisterously.
"Good morning class!" he exclaims, "Today we will be exploring different weapons for you to learn in the courtyard!" He gestures towards the door with his left hand. "If you'll follow me I'll lead you to where you can choose your weapons."
As the students follow Mr. Gregory they pass several other classrooms where older children are being taught, though they aren't much older, as school only lasts two years here. Covering only simple concepts and basic weapon training. To get real knowledge one would have to be accepted into a academy, join the military, or learn through adventuring, the most dangerous method. As they exited through the back of the school building a rack of weapons was seen laying against the wall. There were many different weapons carved from wood and wrapped in straw. Arne only recognized the swords, he had never seen these other types of weapon.
"Take your pick," said Mr. Gregory, "After you do I will teach each of you some simple fundamentals of your weapons, and we may have time for a little spar." He secretly relished these moments, where he may show these little fish the vastness of the lake in which they swim. By showing them how skilled he is, he can spark their determination to get stronger. He loved teaching!
Arne ignored the weird look Mr. Gregory was giving them and went towards the weapon rack. Above the rack was a shade, likely to keep the wood from getting wet in the rain, that's why his mom said roofes were slanted.
Needless to say, he was overwhelmed.
He had to stand back in order to see all of the weapons at once, and he still wasn't sure which one to pick. How could he choose just one? After several grueling minutes of trying to pick a weapon, Thea was the first to move. She walked calmly and carefully towards the longer weapons, and chose a halberd that was larger than her. Mr. Gregory showed intrigue over her choice but got quite the shock when Eli walked forward and grabbed a large battle-axe, barely heaving it onto his shoulders, and carrying it back to where they were standing.
Finally, only Arne was left to make a choice. He had decided. He walked towards the middle of the rack and picked up a large sword, almost the size of Eli's battle-axe. Mr. Gregory grinned at this sight as he used a similar weapon, and would be able to teach Arne more effectively, but Arne didn't stop after picking up the sword. He kept walking down the rack and picked up a dagger as well. Mr. Gregory was even more intrigued by this choice, and decided to ask the class.
"Why did you pick the weapons that you have?"
Thea responded quickly, "It was long."
Eli timidly responded saying "Bigger weapon is better, right?" almost as if he wasn't sure if it was the right answer.
Arne cheerfully responded after Eli, "I wanted a small one, but the big one was cool too so I got both."
Mr. Gregory nearly spat blood. He shook his head. 'Despite mana accelerating mental growth, they are still children aren't they.' He rubbed his eyes and looked at the children with a fresh perspective.
"Alright who wants to go first?" he asked.
Nobody responded.
After a few moments, Arne inquired "Where is your weapon teacher?"
Mr. Gregory sighed and said, "I was supposed to teach you first, but I guess I will demonstrate."
He walked towards the rack confidently and clearly knowing the weapon he would choose. He stopped in front of a sword. It was straight and looked to be about as long as his arm, possibly shorter. 'What a simple weapon' thought Arne.
"You will learn this later in the year, but I thought I should use this chance to demonstrate to you the magical equivalent in the physical combat realm." Mr. Gregory crouches low to the ground, the tip of his blade almost touching his back heel. His muscles from underneath his robes pulse, and the sword begins to glow in a sharp light. Arne sees sharp strings of light from all around, the air and the earth, flock towards Mr. Gregory's blade like a moth to a flame crashing into the practice sword and increasing the intensity of the light with every slam.
"This," he says "Is called Intent." As he finishes his sentence a long stable breath leaves his lungs and he drags his sword slightly above the ground parallel with his heel slashing straight up into the sky.
The class begins to sweat as a vibrating white light rockets from the wooden blade in Mr. Gregory's hands. The pressure caused by the beam makes the air around them vibrate with energy, and as the beam gets further and further away it explodes into a flash of white particles.
The three kids sit awestruck as they stare at the sky, their jaws had dropped nearly to the floor. Each one looked at the wooden weapon in Mr. Gregory's hand before looking at their own weapons, and then back at Mr. Gregory's. This repeated for a few minutes.
"Anyone wants to go first?" Mr. Gregory repeats his earlier question, while wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
This time, no pause was heard as three little hands reached for the stars, hoping to learn that awe-inspiring technique.
"Eli, why don't you step forward first." said Mr. Gregory, eager to test the boy's competence with weapons.
"Let me move your body," he says "I will show you what the optimal stance for your weapon would be and then I will adjust your stance so that we can build proper foundations. Now hand me your axe." explained Mr. Gregory.
"Watch me carefully Eli." he says, taking a wide stance with enough room to crawl under his legs, holding his hands far apart on the handle. He then twists his body around the weapon after pulling it back, and uses his whole body to swing from top right to bottom left evenly and in a straight line.
"Now take a stance Eli, and I will adjust you accordingly." Mr. Gregory stays serious throughout Eli's entire lesson, only having to correct him several times, and is quite pleased with his focus and dedication.
Eli, drenched in sweat from his heavy axe brings it back to the weapon rack and lays down on the ground near Arne. His heavy breathing and red face could be seen from across the village, but he was much too tired to care.
"Nice job Eli!" said Arne, he was mesmerized by the lesson, and only grew more excited to begin learning as the day went on.
Thea stood separately, but her excitement was evident as well, her eyes shining like bright stars in the night. "I'll go next!" she cried. Clearly impatient to wait for Arne to do his lesson as well. As Thea began her lesson Arne sat next to Eli and began to talk with him.
"So what are you going to be when you are older?" asked Arne, his eyes displaying obvious curiosity about Eli's strangely strong motivation.
"I will join the military." said Eli, "I don't want Dad to be so worried about everything. At the bank he constantly is worried about bandits or thieves, so I want to make him feel safe."
"Laaame." said Arne, jokingly of course, making Eli look at him intensely only to see him giggling hysterically. Both of them break out into a laughing spree.
"What about you?" inquired Eli, sides still sore from laughing.
"I heard some adults talking about my mom being an adventurer, so I would like to be one too, it sounds like a lot of fun, getting to explore and stuff." he replied.
"Wow, that sounds pretty cool. My mom would never let me though." said Eli.
"You seem much more confident today." said Arne.
"I'm just too tired to be nervous." replied Eli.
"Arne, it's your turn for this lesson." called Mr. Gregory.
Arne hopped up off of the ground quickly in excitement, eager to learn as much as possible. He grabbed his sword and dagger and skipped over to Mr. Gregory.
"Like those two, I will first demonstrate a stance, and then you will imitate, and I will adjust you. For now, you can ignore that dagger, it won't do you much good until you can properly use the larger sword."
"Alright" chirped Arne, then he set down the dagger and held his sword in both hands.
Mr. Gregory showed a stance and Arne followed, with minimal adjustments needed.
"Follow my movements slowly" said Mr. Gregory, as he slowly swung his sword following through with the motion and using that to transfer into the next swing. Arne copied him as closely as possible, and when he felt himself slipping:
"Keep your stance stable" barked Mr. Gregory, and Arne did.
After about thirty minutes of exercises Mr. Gregory looked at the exhausted kids and decided that sparring can wait until next time.
"You may go home now," he said, "place your weapons exactly where you found them, if any are out of place I will know about it. Now go get some rest. Tomorrow will be an in class day."
As Arne set down his weapon he failed to notice something due to the absence of his status card.
[Latent Title Awakened: Academic]
[Academic - You excel at study, you learn everything quicker than most.]
Arne rushed home after saying his goodbyes to his friend Eli, and reached the top of his hill just in time for dinner. After briefly talking about his day over dinner, he ran to his bed and jumped in, ready to start tomorrow and learn even more about his weapon and magic.
Rena, Roger, and Lily still sat at the table, amused by Arne's quick running to bed.
"He's got that same spirit that you two do." said Rena, causing Lily to giggle, and Roger to smile softly.
"Now you two get to bed," she continued, "and no sneaking out again Roger. I don't care what it's for."
Atop a tree in the distance crouched a black cloaked figure, watching the home on the hill, exuding an aura of longing, before once again blowing away like mist in the wind.
Arne's New Status:
[Name:] Arne
[Race:] Half Elf
[Titles:] Academic
[Rank:] 0, 0/100 (0%)
[HP:] 10/10
[MP:] 30/30
[SP:] 15/15
[Affinities:] Water
[Attributes:]
[STR:] 1
[DEX:] 1
[AGI:] 1
[INT:] 2
[WIS:] 2
[PER:] 1
[LUC:] 2
[CHA:] 2
[VIT:] 1
[Cards:] N/A
[Unique Skills:] Prismatic Eyes: As the owner of elven blood, the user is granted the rare ability to see the flow of magic, as well as the type of mana in the air.