Recently, Sages mother hired him a combat instructor to help the young man with the upcoming combat examination.
In this exam, they put students through a few trials to see high their aptitude to mana and ki is. They do this by pitting them against examiners in a one on one duel.
Examiners are people who are all masters of mana and ki manipulation... they do so to know what students have the highest potential.
In the second trial of the exam, the students are made to fight against each other to test their combat abilities against people of the same level as them, in order to know who is the best of the best in their class.
ki is what some people would consider to be magic, but it's quite different. The main differences are the resources required to use each of them.
Unlike ki, magic requires Mana, which can be absorbed into the users mana gates, allowing them to outsource the magic from within them as a sort of weapon. Mana can also be found pretty much everywhere in the world, as it's the source of energy for everyday appliances in this world.
Magic can also be used to control the elements, like fire, water, wind, and earth, as well as the sub elements which can be used by combining two of the four basic elements. Such combinations can lead to even more powerful magic like lightning magic, ice magic, dark magic, void magic, blood magic, light magic, and illusionary magic...
Ki on the other hand allows you to enhance your physical abilities, and enables you to do all sorts of other things like enhancing the strength of your weapon, to even creating weapons from the ki inside of you. Ki also allows you to summon certain creatures, even transform parts of your body at will...
They say being able to form weapons out of your ki can take several months, if not years to master. And only a few people in the world have a natural affinity for ki, and luckily, Sage is one of those few people, as Sage can't use magic in the first place.
The size of a person's mana gates determines how powerful their magic is, as well as how much mana they can hold in their gates. A person can increase the size of their mana gates through very extensive training, but everyone has a limit on how much their mana gates can grow, some people being lucky and having a near limitless amount of mana.
Sage however, hasn't had mana for as long as he can remember. Over the past few months,Sage's mother has sent him to multiple magic schools in order to try and open his mana gates, but nothing has worked.
Everyone's mana gates usually open around the age of 5, which is when everyone heads to the M.A.Y.M, also known as the magic academy for young mages, in order to assimilate with an element best suited to their mana gates.
Since Sage is not able to use magic however , he's had to focus all his time and energy on assimilating with Ki manipulation.
The only downside, is that Ki is the weaker of the two combat styles, as Ki is really only used for close quarters combat, meaning it is very hard to battle against a mage, as they tend to stay back and cast spells.
The amount of Ki someone has can be increased through practice, but it takes double the amount of time to increase compared to mana.
Since Sage can only use Ki however, he's had to learn to adapt to close combat, using items such as swords and daggers to hurt his opponents.
However, fighting with weapons is something Sage has never been able to click with, which is why he has a mentor now.
The first time he met this person, Sage had a feeling something was off about them. From old tales told by people all around the world, only deities and dragons have golden eyes, yet the person who he considered his mentor, had the most majestic set of golden eyes he had ever seen.
Besides the overwhelming presence his mentor gave off, they had an even more impressive control over ki, greater than anyone he had ever seen. She was able to move fast that if I even blink, she could be at behind him with a finishing blow within her reach.
"FOCUS, SAGE!" His mentor shouted, dragging him out of his thoughts.
Just as he flicked his head around to face his mentor, the young man felt a sharp pain on his shoulder. Sage winced in pain from the attack as he glanced down to see a wooden sword rising up from where the weapon had just hit him.
"That's what happens when you don't pay attention." The mentor said in a sarcastic tone.
"Yeah yeah, whatever." Sage rolled his eyes.
As he tried getting back in a fighting stance, another sharp pain could be felt on his right leg.
"OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" Anger leaking out of his voice.
"For getting smart with me, of course." A smirk rose on his mentors face. After thinking about how he could get back at her for the sudden acts of aggression, Sage concentrated all of his ki into his hands to form two crimson daggers.
Sage then got back into my fighting stance and waited.
As he stood there waiting for her to make a move, a flash of black flew past him at what seemed like the speed of light. Before he could even react however, both his legs got swept out from under him, causing him to fall on his ass. In another instant, the same wooden sword that hit him in the shoulder earlier was already placed gently against his sweat drenched neck.
Confused by what he was seeing, sage just sat their in silence, he was puzzled by the fact that his mentor was still standing right in front of him, where she was before he even got in his fighting stance... Or at least that's what he thought, because she was standing right over him as well.
"What the hell" Sage whispered under his breath, mostly to make sure she didn't know he was surprised, because Sage knew she would laugh at him.
"You shouldn't always wait for your opponent to make the first move Sage." Exclaimed his mentor with a condescending look.
As Sage glanced up at her with the most serious gaze he could muster at that moment, he couldn't help but ask "what was that?" His voice shaky from what had just taken place.
"It's a secret." She said with the widest grin he had ever seen from her, followed by a sly wink.
Sage was determined to know what she did, but he didn't want to pry, knowing it would've only led to more punishment from that wooden sword in her hand.
With that, Sage lifted himself back up.
As Sage stood up, he noticed something moving near the doorway of the training grounds entrance. What came out of the doorway was his mother. She was holding some kind of strange box that clearly had something inside of it.
"What is that, mom?" Sage asked in an intrigued but confused tone.
"It's a gift for you, I know how hard you've been training and I wanted to get you something special." She walked up to him, and unraveled what was in the plain looking box.
Inside was a dark gray cloak with strange runes going down the back of it. As Sage lifted it up, he caught a glimpse of something on the right wrist of the cloak he had seen in one of my visions. It was a rune of some sort.
After opening the box and grabbing out the cloak, he gave his mother a tight hug then put the cloak on. As he did, he felt something inside him change, or rather... evolve.