The world of Axia consisted of five continents, four of which were surrounding the fifth continent. The names were as follows: Nordenheim the continent of frost, Shara the continent of fire, Mons the continent of mountains, Flora the continent of forests, and Ager the continent of fields. On the continent of Flora, a lot of the forests were mixed with magic technology, which made it possible for the populous to live in the many forests instead of cutting them down. In one such forest, a lone facility for body enhancement was located. A young man with short messy black hair was standing outside the facility he was wearing a formal grey suit without a tie. Beside the young man stood an older man, the older man had his hair slicked back, but his most noticeable feature was the fact that he was missing his shirt, the pair was of course Elijah and his father Fjord "Let's go son" Fjord said.
Meanwhile:
Inside the facility, for body enhancement, a middle-aged man named Clark was dressed in a lab coat and was driving a cart with a transparent box on it. Inside the box was a heart, the heart had runes faintly similar to those associated with Norse mythology painted across it. The middle-aged man was humming a happy tune as he was the one who had the honor of inscribing the heart of the famous tooth of the leviathans son! A female trainee interrupted his musings as she bumped her own cart into his, the boxes in the respective carts dropped to the ground with a clatter. "hey watch it you imbecile!" the trainee hurried to pick up her box as she apologized "s-sorry sir it's my first day here and I am a tat bit nervous you see" As the Clark took in the girl his eyes went wide, she had an alluring figure and beautiful dark purple hair and clear purple eyes, a lecherous smile stretched across his lips "don't worry dear, we will talk about it later just come to my office after you are done with whatever you are doing and wait for me there. ". The girl who had just finished setting a box on her cart bowed and said "o-of course I will see you there, apologies again sir". As Clark drove his cart away he thought he heard her mumble something "may Mimameidr grace us".
"Let's go son", Elija sighed he really could not wiggle his way out of this one so he might as well accept that he was fated to become a body enhancer. As Elijah entered the facility behind Fjord, his eyes went wide. there where magic tech everywhere, never had he seen so much magic tech in one place not even in his family's estate! Elijah was snapped out of his musing by the hurried footsteps of a Clerk that was quickly approaching them. "Hello my name is Fiora I assume that you are Fjord?" Fjord nodded "And this is my son Elijah, he will be undertaking the inscription today". Fiora nodded in understanding, and started walking through the facility while she spoke "please follow me everything is ready. I assume that the son of the esteemed Fjord is familiar with the process already yes?", "Yeah, I am" Elijah answered. The clerk nodded but decided to explain anyway "Elijah you will have to surrender your clothes until the procedure is over, so as to not disturb the mana flows with enchanted materials. I understand that one might insist that they are not wearing any enchanted clothes but I am afraid it will be necessary, I'm sure you understand ." Fjord interrupted then "we understand, feel free to take any precautions to ensure the inscription will be a success". Fiora nodded and continued to explain "we will be giving you some sedative so that the experience will be as comfortable as possible " Elijah mouth twitched as he heard this. He silently added 'more like so that we will not steal your secrets' in his mind. "For you to understand the next step you need to understand that all progression of body enhancement is stored in the heart. That is also why practitioners only develop what is called 'mantels' at gold rank and above. You see the cells need time and repeated exhaustion to take over the body to such an extent that it will affect your appearance. Bear with me I know you will probably attend one of the academies soon and have all this explained. But it never hurts to be prepared, does it? anyways After that, we will be converting the essence and progression of the Hydra into the inscriptions. Those inscriptions will then be transferred to your heart so that you can progress naturally in the body arts." The clerk then stopped in front of a white door and said "and here we are just in time, please proceed, a colleague of mine will be waiting inside with further instructions. Fjord if you would follow me I will take you to a viewing booth for family".
Fjord
As fjord entered a lavish viewing box, he noticed that Elijah was already sound asleep. 'Good' he thought 'let the boy get some rest'. Besides Elijah, a man he knew to be Clark Kendrick was setting up the necessary materials for a smooth inscription. "Would you like something to drink?" the female clerk asked. "No." he answered. Fjord had never been a man of many words around strangers, only when he was with family and friends did he let loose. But the damned clerk mistook his demeanor for nervousness and berated him with words.
"Are you nervous?"
"No."
"When I am nervous I try to think about something else you know"
"you don't say."
"you see it helps me calm down it might help you as well!"
"I don't think so."
"Really? then what do you do when you are nervous?"
"I hit things." Fjord said and gave the clerk a menacing look. The clerk gulped loudly and excused herself from the room. Meanwhile, Fjord was being distracted by the Clerk the inscription had already started.
Clark
Clark was in a good mood as he finished setting up his tools. As he went over the inscription to ensure nothing was wrong he could not help but let his mind wander to the gorgeous employee that awaited him in his office. He grinned as he thought 'The things I'm going to do to you hehe just you wait, you pretty little thing, huh? that's odd I don't remember the inscription looking like th...'. Clark's mind suddenly went blank, "Hmm" Clark hummed as he thought 'oh I must have spaced out for a second there, what was I thinking about again? Got it! it was that pretty little thing'. As Clark soon finished his preparations, His mind full of the pretty lady.
Fjord
Fjord nodded as he saw Clark going over the inscriptions one last time, it was always a good idea to be prudent about one's work. Fjord looked on as Clark dipped a pencil in a weird blue substance and drew in a mesmerizingly fast manner on Elijah's heart region. If Fjord had been inside the inscription room he would have noticed that the inscription made a sizzling noise before sinking into Elijah's skin. Afterward, Clark picked up the box with the heart inside and placed it right on top of the vanishing inscription. The heart gradually got smaller while the bottom of the box slowly vanished leaving only an inscription which was slowly sinking into Elijah's chest. Fjord nodded in satisfaction, as a silver-ranked squad leader, he had witnessed such events before and knew the inscription to be a success hence he could not help but be happy on behalf of his son. As Fjord exited the room guided by the chatty female clerk, the window he was watching through went black as the process was over.
"Mr. Fjord, inscription Clark will now be making a post-inscription analysis ensuring that the process went smoothly", Fjord simply answered with a nod.
Clark
As Clark finished the inscription analysis he felt his back soak in a cold sweat, 'No no no no! this has to be a mistake!' as he thought this his eyes lit up! 'yes a mistake that's it'. So he checked again, and again, and a fourth time for good measure but the Screen simply showed:
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Name: Elijah Gray.
Rank: Human zero.
Organ: Heart of a Crow.
Affinity: Unkown.
Inscription type: Unknown.
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Clark gulped how could this happen! he had checked multiple times through the procedure and nothing had been out of the ordinary, sure his head had been somewhere else but still! 'I am a ancients, damned inscription master!!' People hire me so that such mistakes as this do not happen!'. Then it hit him, the girl! she had been the first to pick up a box! The boxes must have been swapped! 'How did I not notice that! My whole mind is a bit foggy today but that's no excuse...'. Fjord entered the room at this moment, "Everything alright?" he asked. Clark sighed he might as well have it over with "Sir I am sorry to inform you that there has been a mistake". Fjord frowned "What kind of mistake are we talking about?" Clark sighed again this time deeper, "The kind that cannot be fixed. Firstly two hearts have been swapped somewhere in the process of transferring them." Fjord now looked like the angriest man Clark had ever seen. Clark gulped and stammered out the rest of the sentence "S-secondly there has been registered multiple anomalies, such as an unknown inscription which in and of itself is preposterous in this day and age. The only explanation I can think of is that the one who inscribed the heart made a mistake somewhere".
As Clark finished his explanation, the gound shattered in a circle around Fjord.
Clark's eyes widened as Fjord released his body enhancement which Clark could only assume he normally had under strict control so as to not destroy cities he moved through. Clark's eardrums popped as a sonic boom took place due to Fjords rapid movement. Before Clark could even blink Fjord had his hand firmly around his throat. "now tell me what kind of beast my son has gotten inscribed and what affinity it has!" Fjord though got angrier and angrier as he had to repeat himself several times due to the fact that Clark had his eardrums ruptured. Clark finally understood Fjord and stammered "W-well that's the thing, sir! the beast is a normal crow so Elijah has not even enhanced his body. Therefore he is still a human and not a wood one enhancer as would normally occur after an inscription". Fjord's hand tightened around his throat as he heard this. Fjord then roared "So he is not even a Body enhancer!". Snap! an audible snap resounded as Clark's neck broke.
Fjord
As Fjord 'Accidently' broke the man's neck he sighed. He knew that no repercussions would befall him due to his own station. He would at most get a reprimand from a high-ranking superior but that was all. Fjord looked over towards Elijah only to find him sitting with a horrified look on his face, Fjord sighed again "I am sorry son, it looks like you will not become a mage or a body enhancer". The door slammed open then, a girl with beautiful dark purple hair and stunning purple eyes stood with a box entered with a panicked look on her face. She looked horrified as she took in the dead body and Elijah who was missing a shirt "I am so sorry sirs I am afraid this is my fault you see me and inscribtor Clark's boxes must have been swapped.." Fjord changed his stance slightly as he furrowed his brows and said "Firstly I am afraid your luck is bad and ours even worse, the heart has already been inscribed on my son, and secondly.." Fjord snapped his fingers a scythe started to form in his hands as he continued "drop the act, you feel far too dangerous to be horrified of a dead body". The girls smiled "You really do the rumors justice don't you? tooth of the leviathan?" Elijah's eyes widened as he jumped off the chair he had been lying in and went behind his father in chase something was about to happen. Fjord's eyes narrowed "Girly listen here and listen good, you know that I will not leave here without some sort of reimbursement for my son right?" The girl smiled sweetly as she looked towards Elijahs hidden form "I am sure we can figure something out".
The girl then took out a compass with a crow carved on it. Fjord eyes narrowed as he knew the compass to be magic coordinates for a spire, the girl, seemingly oblivious to Fjords reaction continued "The heart was actually more than enough reimbursement in and of itself, it has state of the art inscriptions on it" as Fjord narrowed his eyes and tightened the grip on his scythe she hurriedly continued "But since the inscription was a prototype, I will give you access to a beast spire that should have a fitting beast gear for the boy" she threw the compass at Fjord who now looked somewhat pleased and continued "apart from that I will also be so kind as to give you some information. You see the spire is one of a kind. That is also the reason it has not been claimed by the government or one of the big families" Fjords eyes widened as he heard this, an unclaimed spire was a treasure trove for any family. The reason being that most of the big aristocratic families only had one or two spires with a limited number of beast gears inside. The rest of the spires were regulated by the government and the beast kings so as to limit the power of the big families. They were thereby ensuring that the government was not usurped by a single power. It also made it possible for people who were not part of the big families to get a beast gear through service in the army. The government was also in charge of handing over an extra beast gear to soldiers who reached the emperor ranks. Fjord was therefore very surprised to hear that the girl was just handing over such a treasure practically for free. As Fjord's mind whirled as he tried to figure out the catch, there had to be one, since no sane person would just hand over such a treasure for free, the girl continued. "You see I got my hands on an ancient script that explained that the spire has been designed by the beast that set up, so that it can only be seen by bearers of one such compass as that one, and only if the bearer also has the heart of a Crow. And to lay your suspicions to rest here is some bonus information there is supposedly only one beast gear inhabiting the spire". Fjord was enlightened as he heard this, that meant that the spire was only usable once and could not become a resource that could be tapped into at will. "I see he said, one more thing do you happen to know what kind of an affinity magic crows have?". The girl looked surprised and then laughed "I believe they had either the affinity of death magic,divination magic, or illusion magic though I am not sure how exactly that would work when handled by a body enhancer." Fjord sighed and let his scythe vanish "I was afraid it would not be combat-oriented magic..". The girl stopped laughing and sighed "It is worth mentioning that even that will only be possible if you find a way for the boy to become a body enhancer... Well, I will take my leave now I believe we can call it even yes?". Fjord stared into her purple eyes for a long time trying to find any kind of malice but when he found none he answered, "I suppose so".
Elijah
As Fjord and Elijah departed after the discussion with the lady, and belated apology to the staff for coursing the death of an inscription Elijah was in deep thought. He had mixed feelings about what had happened, he was sad that he was not even a body enhancer let alone a mage, but he was also surprisingly hopeful for the future, as he had gotten an opportunity to take a trial at a one of a kind beast spire. If he succeeded and managed to become a body enhancer somehow he might just be able to walk his own path and not one downtrodden by generations of mages and body enhancers, even if said path would not be as a mage.