Two weeks later…
"Is this how you want to enter the devil's farm?".
"Is this how you want to avenge your family?".
"Cause from what I can see here,you've failed before you even started."
"All I see here is a wimp, full of nothing but talk and anger yet no ability."
"When you were talking smack last time,when you were ranting about how you will avenge your family. I almost thought that you were the bastard son of the God of magic."
"Yet here you are already giving up and hopeless before the real trial has started."
"Training is over James. I hope you have seen that revenge is impossible, and will give up on that foolish dream of yours. This is a dog eat dog world, a lawless world, only the bigger fist matters here". Said Donald as he left, leaving James who was without strength and on the floor.
"Is this where my journey ends? At the finish line?" Asked James who was all alone on the floor.
"Uncle Donald was right, I'm nothing but a screaming ant." Said James as tears started streaming from his eyes.
"I can't even train for 3 hours without fainting. With my ability, I wouldn't even be accepted in the army, even less at the lowest mage academy."
James closed his eyes with tears in his eyes as his family's faces started flashing in his head.
"No!! I can't give up now. I must have the heads of every single being that had a hand in my family's death be they god or man!" Said James with rekindled resolution in his eyes.
James stood up, and resumed carrying the load Donald gave to him on his back and started to climb the hill. For hours James continued training. Whenever he felt tired, he would rest and he would continue again.
Not too far away, Donald watched James with a slight smile on his face.
"It seems he isn't that hopeless after all" said Donald.
James came home very tired. Every cell in his body was screaming in pain. He walked to his room slowly. His only objective, sleep. And he was going to complete it, so everyone else could wait or wasn't important. He couldn't even hear Donald and his wife calling him for dinner. He slept off upon hitting the sack.
James kept up training for three months and his endurance was building. His uncle Donald saw his determination and started improving his training schedule, increasing the difficulty as time passed.
Now James had been training non-stop for seven months and the change was apparent. Even James couldn't believe he improved that much. But still he hadn't moved past basic military training. Donald hadn't taught him any fighting technique or magic, James didn't ask and Donald didn't say anything either. But after a while, James couldn't hold his curiosity any longer.
"Donald, when are you going to teach me how to fight? What about your old friend who was going to teach me magic hmm?" James asked.
"James, who do you think are the strongest set of human beings?" Donald asked James.
James was shocked, it wasn't rocket science, even three year olds could answer this question easily. "The mages." James answered confused at why such a topic was brought up and why now of all times.
'Why do you think so?"
"Isn't it obvious? They could control any element and do amazing things that ordinary people can't. I mean a mage could take on several Knights of the same level if they don't wear the very expensive anti mage equipment. They could also win against anti-mage knights if given the time to cast forbidden grade spells.
"What about mage Knights?" Donald laughed.
"They are somewhat powerful but against a veteran mage with high magic affinity, they would still lose. They are also disdained by the mage association. After all, it's common knowledge that mage knights are made up of people with low magic affinity, and those with high affinity all end up becoming mages. There are only a few cases where people with high magic affinity become mage knights and there are the true strong ones".
Donald laughed heavily making James confused, he hadn't said anything wrong.
"What about the others?" Donald asked intrigued about how much James knew about the world.
"Well we have The Dragon Knights of Litosverg, the country on the other side of the Red Blossoms forest in which the devil's farm could be found. The Dragon Slaying Knights of the Krambrodian empire, The Demons Firearms of the Grandom Kingdom and The Reclusive beasts guardians of the iron forest." said James confidently. He was obsessed with magic so he read about them and the other systems that is why he was sure that mages were on the top of the food chain.
"Hmm, You sure do know a lot. But there are some things hidden from the public, so you can't find some in your little book. In the magic system, the rankings are like so;
Apprentice, Journeyman, Senior, Master, Grandmaster, Archmage, Sage. While in the knights rankings, they are ranked from F-S. Then we have the special knights like Mage Knights, Dragon Knights, Dragon Slaying Knights, etc. Each with their own ranking and special abilities.
Mage Knights can imbue elemental energy into their bodies and weapons.
Dragon Knights are experts at taming dragons and are ranked by the level of the dragon which they ride. That doesn't mean without their dragons they are weak, through their dragon links they share some abilities with the dragon they ride.
Dragon slaying knights grow stronger by consuming the blood and energy of the dragons they kill by some special technique known only to them. Though it comes with some side effects varying from person to person. But they generally do not live past 50.
I'm sure you know about the rest, but there is a class of Knights that are generally more powerful than mages."
James was shocked. Knights could beat mages, it sounded impossible.
"They are called dark knights. They have no affinity with magic there off, but they are the real bane of mages. They are totally immune from all elements with just their bodies. The only way to break through them, is by combining all the elements together to form celestial mana. Only celestial mana can break through the defense of dark knights. Only a celestial mage can produce celestial mana easily, sadly it's almost impossible to get to the celestial rank. But it's way easier to become a Dark knight. The ancient kingdom of ISung was full of dark knights but up till date, only 10 celestial mages have been recorded."