World Continent, Northern Lands, Etwas Mountains, Unaffiliated Great Mage Tower.
Beyond the trees stood an eleven-year-old boy with black hair, eyes blindfolded with a black ribbon, and a skeletal hand sitting on the ground on stone steps leading to the magic tower. His chest rose and fell as a stream of white air accompanied each breath, lasting for an hour and a half.
"I don't know what's coming, but surely the book is warning me of something, and I mustn't ignore anything that might come. I'll be fine as long as the book advises me." Damian, the eleven-year-old boy training in his breathing method, thought with strong determination to become secretly strong.
The cold northern wind blew, mixed with snowflakes, hitting Damian's body. He practiced the breathing method in minus 30 degrees Celsius weather. Although it was very painful and seemed to cause self-inflicted wounds, Damian didn't stop practicing. The breathing method not only increased his magical power but also gave him total control over its use, harnessing every drop of magic in his body.
This led him to mistakenly believe that his magical power had increased when it was actually that he was manipulating it in a perfect flow that would give him total control over every part of his magic.
From now on, every night and part of the morning, Damian would practice this breathing method. He needed to accustom his body to it and also conceal his magical power from others.
In this wizard tower, diligent students like him are still relatively rare.
Especially in the coldest month of winter, the colder the weather, the more suitable it is for practicing Shadow Storm Breathing, according to his father's legacy. After completing the breathing method practice, Damian held a wooden stick. According to his father, it wouldn't be enough to be powerful not only in magic but also in swordsmanship.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The wooden stick in Damian's hands simulated a sharp sword, emitting a sharp sound as it cut through the air, easily splitting a large wooden trunk in the distance. Manipulating the wooden stick, Damian's entire body was pushed to the limit, his muscles began to burn, and part of his magical power began to flow through each of his limbs at high speed.
"[... Era do The Great Mage Flamme calendar, unknown moon year, you have survived for 7 days.
You have trained enough; if you continue to strain your body, you will cause irreparable damage, so you can now go to your room to rest."
Damian took a deep breath and quickly wiped the sweat from his body. In his mind, he imagined that magical spell he had been memorizing before but didn't use it for fear of alerting other people who were sleeping right now.
Knowing that he could now become stronger in secret, Damian was so happy that he wanted to cry, but he knew it wasn't the time to be too happy because he didn't know what could happen.
"Calm down, hide, and work silently." Knowing everything he could achieve in the future, Damian thought to himself.
It had been a few days since he became a wizard apprentice and had participated in the necessary magic classes while skipping others.
Today, he finally believed that he had achieved many noticeable changes while also knowing that the naturalness of his training had also improved a lot.
One strength point is approximately the same as that of an ordinary adult in his previous life, and he can lift fifty kilograms of heavy objects.
According to Damian's estimation, with a month of training, he could be much stronger to the point of being able to lift a weight of 300 kilograms. Based solely on the strength attribute, Damian is stronger than many, considering his age was that of an eleven-year-old boy.
He was just a child, but mentally adding the memories of this body, he had the knowledge of a 35-year-old man, so he knew the patience he must have.
There were elves in this world, many of whom could live for thousands of years easily. Demons also live for many years; dwarves have a shorter life, but it's much longer than the average human's.
At this point, Damian didn't need to despair about being an adult because time passes very quickly, and sooner or later, he will be involved in many other more dangerous things that will endanger his life.
But currently, from a physical point of view, Damian is already like a little superman.
But on the world continent, Damian couldn't be considered strong, knowing that there are too many demons lurking in the shadows and a war that is currently starting against the demons.
A few years ago, the original owner of this body lost his parents in a battle that started everything.
After arriving at this magic tower, Damian, who had been brought here by an unknown person, lost his memories and was now trying to become stronger by all possible means.
This is a world of extraordinary power, but also a world of low productivity.
"Kid, do you really want to die by the rules?"
When Damian was returning to the magic tower, he heard a female voice and found Syndra standing in front of him, looking at him with an indifferent expression.
But this time was different; Damian didn't feel fear or hesitation in his words. Looking at Syndra, he soon discovered that she had an impressive magical power, something that even first-class mages probably didn't have.
"I should have guessed that you are the ultimate power in this tower." Damian had managed to control his emotions to the point that his voice didn't tremble, his hands didn't shake, and he didn't feel fear.
Syndra noticed these changes in Damian, but she didn't say anything; instead, she smiled mysteriously and asked, "What makes you think that?"
"Your magical power..." Damian's response was much simpler than she expected.
"Incredible, it seems that your eyes have improved a lot, gaining more features... But don't you find it curious?"
"What?"
"The blindfold on your eyes was originally a punishment that a mage put on you for looking at him resentfully. You wore that blindfold even though you couldn't see, but after hitting your head, you awakened your magical eyes, and now you see perfectly." Syndra knew from the beginning that Damian's magical eyes were special, so when she knew he was ready, she sent him to the apprentice test.
But what she didn't expect was for Damian to break the wrist with which the students' magical defenses were evaluated; she had underestimated the talent of that child but wasn't upset.
"Can I ask you some questions?" Damian looked at Syndra curiously.
"Just three."
"Then, are you the owner of this mage tower?"
Syndra shook her head and replied, "My master is the owner; he is currently at the front fighting with the human army trying to eliminate the demons that are coming out like termites."
Knowing this, Damian changed his question: "Did you meet my parents?"
"I only met your mother; I regret her death since the day I found out... But at least I'm sure she didn't die just fighting; I heard that all the Demon King's generals, including him, attacked the city where they were unexpectedly."
Syndra showed a bit of nostalgia in her gaze, as if she remembered some moments with Damian's mother.
This surprised Damian; for the next question, he wanted to know more about
his skeletal hand, but was also interested in knowing who brought him here.
"Who brought me here?" Damian asked, staring at Syndra, who remained silent.
She didn't answer immediately; she looked around for a few brief moments and said, "She will be known as the most powerful human woman in the world; her name is Flamme, and she helped evacuate all humans, making your parents' sacrifice useful."
"That means..."
Syndra averted her gaze from Damian beyond where the trees were and said, "This is the only place where there is a barrier that woman created for us to train young mages, but it's a pity that the instructors are getting younger, and with time, we will all be destroyed."
"How much time do we have?"
"Flamme is creating barriers in giant cities, but she can't do anything in agricultural towns; we go to those places to evacuate civilians, but many die in the attempt." Syndra didn't answer Damian's question and simply stayed there, smiling.
Damian was confused; why didn't Flamme attack the demons if she was the most powerful in the world?
"It doesn't make sense..." Damian murmured as he walked away.
Syndra looked at Damian's injured body and asked, "What are you going to do?"
"About the future? I will exterminate all the demons." Damian said as he stopped.
"But your life is very short; it may take hundreds of years, and your efforts will not be significant."
"There's a legend, maybe a fairy tale... The legend says that the water from the Fountain of Youth grants eternal life to whoever drinks from it; I have a map in my possession, and when I'm strong, I will travel to that place to see if it's true." Damian said without turning around that, now that he knew many more things about this wizard tower, he was glad that a friend of his mother could at least vouch for him.
"A single sip will give me ten more years of life... A gulp will give me a hundred more years of life, and if I drink it all, I will live forever." Damian murmured as he remembered that map that was in his father's research.