In the empty yard, a human like manequin stood at center completely void of his surroundings unaware of the impending fate which I to befall it.
A short distance away, stood Tim, the Twilight academy's most renowned failure.
Tim gazed tirelessly at the figure as he knew the fate which was going to befall it and all he could do was just stare.
Soon, a ball of fire flew straight towards the manequin, immediately setting it ablaze instantly.
This occurrence was already a common phenomenon in the Twilight Academy for mages.
This was simply a scene of a student mage practicing a few attack sequences.
Multiple other balls of fire were sent to the manequin as the already ablaze figure was reduced to ashes.
Tim could only sigh at this scene as he knew that, although he might have the same elemental magic as th mage, his might was nowhere near that of the mage's who stood in front of him. At best, he could hardly perform simple tricks not to talk of setting an entire figure ablaze. This was equivalent to setting an entire human ablaze. One could easily consider how lethal that was.
For three years, he had tried effortlessly to improve his mage ability. He had imploded various methods and gathered a large amount of wisdom but he still failed. It turned out that even with an infinite amount of wisdom, without talent he could forget about being a mage. After several years of cultivating magic, he still couldn't amount to anything.
"Looks like I have no other option."
he said as he left the scene.
There were only two ways in which one could improve one's mage ability.
One was by cultivation of their inner essence. The mage would have to improve their control over their inner essence's growth breaking the various barriers which surrounded it.
As one shatters these barriers, their mage tier would advance.
For years, Tim had gathered information on the various ways to at least break the first essence barrier but all efforts proved futile so the only option he had now was to resort to the other method of improving his mage tier. It was either that, or he would be forced to dropout. At that time, his family's name would be dragged to the mud and the legacy that his predecessor had already put in place would be shattered. But he would not blame himself, do he knew he had at least tried.
The other method was by the hunting of magical beasts. These magical beasts' essence would be absorbed by the mage and if a mage was able to gather enough essence, the proposed mage would be able to shatter the essence barrier.
This method was easier said than done.
In the past, like Tim, many apprehentice mages had been daring enough to scale through the academy's walls and brave the beasts they encounter thinking that it was the only way to improve one's mage tier.
Unfortunately, many who had tried had subsequently failed.
The forest which surrounded the academy was far from safe and the students knew this as well but they just didn't know how dangerous it was. Some of the mages who had been extremely unlucky had been killed by beasts before they could even search for one.
It was very common knowledge that bests were generally much stronger as their ranks increased.
In total there were four ranks of magical beasts each rank being stronger than the former.
The lowest rank was the Primitive beasts. Although one might think that this beast might be defeatable because of it's low rank and hence many mages who lacked knowledge would foolishly challenge these beasts. But many that tried that tactic could not evade the cruel fate that awaited them. And as expected, they all perished.
The other ranks of beasts included
High rank
Advanced rank
Special rank
Demon rank
God rank
Each subsequent rank was generally stronger than the former in terms of strength and abilities.
Of all ranks, the strongest and the most powerful ranked beasts were the ones that were Demon or God ranked. Both ranks of beasts possesed devastating power which could destroy the strongest ranked wizard with a single strike.
For a millenia it was rumored that only two demon-ranked beasts and 1 God-ranked beasts have been seen. This was enough proof to show how extremely rare these beasts were.
Right now, Tim's only worry was the wall which surrounded the academy and the restriction of apprehentice mages from leaving the academy. He was ready to face anything that would at least make him a bit stronger.
So the only way he could hunt for beasts was to scale through the city wall which surrounded the entire academy.
The act was indeed risky as any mage of his tier caught would be expelled.
Tim had pondered greatly on this decision before implementing it.
If not for the fact that his grandparents were legends in the kingdom, he was sure he would have been expelled a long time ago as the academy couldn't house a failure like him.
His grandparents were known to be renowned mages throughout the kingdom and their legacy had even spread to the other kingdoms.
They had been known to have been the mages who had defeated the hybrid mage who terrorized the kingdom of Denvar.
To put it short, Tim had no other choice.
The Plan was set and all that was left was to wait.
Nightfall soon came and the the various mages headed to their various dorms.
All except Tim
"It's time!".
He said as he left his dorm and headed for the closest part of the wall.