In a vast garden inside the manor of House Archea, Aez is quietly meditating with orange Arcane Crystals in front of him. He is slowly absorbing Arcane from them in order to serve as the foundation for his awakening.
Behind him, Alieza is standing, giving him notes about what he should do. Of course, Aez by no means needs such a tutorial, but his eldest sister insisted that Alieza teach him the means to awaken before he departs.
"Your majesty, as you know, Arcane is the most prominent type of power used in Cynosure. It is used by almost all adventurers in the world. Arcane is the energy of the world. It is what's used by all living beings to survive and is the foundation of power. When we accumulate enough Arcane, we will be able to awaken an Arcanum. Arcanum comes in different types, each with a different function. For instance, my Arcanum is an Iron Falcon and it gives me the unique ability of conjuring iron. It allows me to transform my Arcane into iron. There are certain limitations to this such as --" Alieza was not able to finish what she was saying since Aez raised his finger to signal her to stop.
"Alieza, do you know what Arcanum means?" Aez asked.
"It means power source," she confidently answered.
"It means secret," Aez said. He was already aware that in the current era, Arcanum means power source, but in his time, it meant secret.
Alieza was confused since she knew that it means power source. She could not rebut her young master, so she could only swallow her questions and continue, "An Arcanum can be classified into different classes, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Black, and White. These classes mark the potential and inherent talent of the Arcanum of an individual. The higher the class of your Arcanum, the more potential it has."
'A million years had passed yet the world still has not realized that no matter what your Arcanum is, your potential is still the same,' Aez thought before asking, "What is the class of your Arcanum?"
"Yellow, your majesty."
"Do you believe that an individual with a green-level Arcanum would be more powerful than you in the future?"
"Generally, yes."
"Don't be dumb. Your Arcanum has the potential to be as powerful as anybody else's Arcanum," Aez reminded.
Alieza did not know what to reply. She did not know where Aez got this, but she realized that Aez was only cheering her up so she could not help but smile.
After seeing her reaction and seemingly reading her mind, Aez could only shake his head in disappointment.
"The class of an Arcanum cannot be changed, so what adventurers pursue is to raise their level. Runes manifest around an Arcanum every time it levels up, from 0-9. It starts with Red runes; then, after reaching nine runes, it would merge with the Arcanum. After that, the Runes that will appear would be orange Runes, until they reached white Runes which is the epitome of Arcanum."
'A lot of information is still missing from the general public, huh? It seems like The World Force is deliberately suppressing information regarding this. It's no surprise, though, after all, they would do anything to keep their position,' Aez thought.
"Runes are another power used by adventurers. Runes are created through the Threads of Laws. We, adventurers, use our Divinity in order to touch the Threads of Laws of the world. Through this, we draw Runes. In battle, Runes are combined to create Glyphs to utilize their power. If you will recall last time when I created a rectangular Glyph to shield you from the attack. Runes are also divided into levels, Red to White. Of course, Glyphs follow the same pattern,' Alieza continued to explain.
'She did not mention the tiers of Runes. I guess it is another piece of information kept from the public,' Aez thought.
"Lastly, we have the adventurer tiers. These are what classify adventurers. From what I know, there are seven tiers, Magus, Paladin, Wizard, Noble, Elite, Champion, and Legend. There are a lot of benchmarks needed in order to rise in the tier list. Both the level of Arcanum and the proficiency of an individual in Runes are considered. For instance, the patriarch is a Wizard Adventurer which is extremely powerful already," Alieza said.
'Oh? A Wizard Adventurer? Was I wrong? That's impossible. These tiers of adventurers can never fool my eyes. It seems like the patriarch is keeping his tier from the world,' Aez thought.
"We are done for today. I still need to pack for tomorrow," Aez said.
"Tomorrow?" Alieza could not help but ask.
"Yes, I am leaving tomorrow."
"Your Majesty, please. The eldest daughter asked me not to let you go until you have awakened," Alieza said in worry.
Aez knew that if he let this unfold this way, Alieza will tell on him, so he faced her and looked her in the eye. "Alieza, you have been my trusted companion for a long time. I know that I have not been the best to you and have not treated you well; in fact, I treated you poorly. You must know me better than anyone. Therefore, you must have realized that I changed. Don't worry about me, Alieza, I will be fine. Trust me. Keep this a secret from the house. Remember, you are my companion first before their servant."
Alieza could not help but be moved by what Aez said. 'This was the first time young master called me a companion. He even admitted his mistakes in the past. He really did change. What happened inside that mountain? I must trust him. He is my companion first!' Alieza told herself.
"Let me help you pack, your highness," Alieza said with an enthusiastic smile.
'This child has such a pure heart. This malevolent world is going to devour her whole and spit her out dry, alas,' Aez lamented in his thoughts.