Long ago in a grand jungle clearing
The sound of grunts and the dull thud of wood against wood can be heard with an uneven pace. "Again" a tall hooded man says. "Still wrong, stop pulling it backwards when you're about to slash. A real sword cuts with the smallest motion." The man says sighing as the wind blows off his hood revealing man who looks to be in his thirties, his pale skin, blood red hair and yellow eyes showing more of a bored expression than the aggravated expression anyone else would be making. As he rolls his neck ,Why? Because this is the fifth attempt to break his trainee's habit of pulling back his weapon instead of just moving from the currt position. Yes Alkus was a man of patience, but even he had limits. "That's enough, you're done for the day kid." Putting his hands on his hips his lean yet muscular build showing as the wind blows. Alkus looks at the younger scrawnier boy feeling drained, out of all the habits his trainee could have it's one that's so basic and somehow has still not been corrected. "Huh? You said you were going to-" Alkus puts his hand up in front of the boy. "I know what I said Gage, but your just going to have to fix that habit on your own. We've been at this for hours. Your good enough with most weapons already. You just have that stupid habit to fix. Now move it and clean yourself, you reek feel of a whores ass.." Gage looks disappointed but understands that there's only so much Alkus can do to help. With a nod Gage leaves toward a nearby lake. "I'll leave Alkus to his sulking, such a drama queen. Fix this Gage! Swing higher Gage! Quiet whining like a runt!" Gage scoffs and rolls his eyes "not my fault your in your thirties and still single. Ugly red bastard." He says thinking to himself then chuckles. "I'm not sulking! And you think out loud runt! That's I better not see you eating until you finish two hundred pushups and sit ups! And by the goddess get to bathing before I throw you in the lake with an anchor!" Gage hurries his pace through the woods not stopping until he reaches a lake to bathe himself.
After cleaning Gage looks at his reflection. His tan skin, green eyes,dirty blonde hair and freckles giving his face an overall pretty boy look. Looking around to make sure he's alone he turns back to look at the surface of the lake flexing. "I really have gotten bigger since I've joined them, a lot more formidable too. I guess these brutes actually have some use." He then clentches his fist, remembering that his mother basically sold him without a second thought. "Leaving me to be a punching bag for these brutes! And she had the nerve to smile at him before she ran away!"
He stops out He takes a deep breath and gets dressed in his leather armor, the others haven't allowed him to forge a mettle set until he kills five demon's.
Gage hated how much killing he's done while training under the zenus six, now seven. He doesn't even know how they picked up that name while they were completing jobs. It's not like the were knights of the kingdom or legendary sages. They were a small band of mercenaries. Gage hears a twig snap and immediately gets into a fighting stance... against a squirrel. Gage sighs in relief, as a spearhead gets pressed against his neck
"You really should learn to keep using your sense's little brother, if you die who's going to fetch me more booze?" The spear is remove from Gages neck as he runs it.
"Damnit Dimitri! Stop doing that you're going to slit my throat one day!" Gage's shouts at Dimitri as he laughs. The fourth and well known alcoholic of the zenus seven. Legends say the gourd on his hip never runes out of whiskey and when it does the world will end. His greasy brown hair betraying how clean and maintained it actually is. A van dyke beard that compliments his pinkish white skin and black eyes on his shirt body. "Calm down little brother. I'll lessen the physical treatment..kinda...sorta..no on second thought I'm not!" Dimitri laughs. "But on a more productive. Your training is complete" Gage looks shocked he couldn't believe this, after constant hours of drills, sparring survival simulations and first aide. He's finally done. "That's great I can finally-"
"With the physical aspect at least. Don't look so sad brother." Dimitri pats Gage on the back nearly sending Gage off his feet. "The second half is much more easier than the first." Gage sighs and nods ready to begin.
"Great. The next part of your training is magic and how to use and defend against the basics." Gage looks shocked and excited, he's never once seen any of the zenus or anyone else for that matter use magic. It was a exciting thing to think of, having the world at your fingertips with nothing but a thought. "Like shooting lighting from your fingers, or-or summoning a monster or-" *smack*
"Calm down so I can actually tell you runt" Dimitri sighs as Gage's rubs the back of his head. "Magic as a whole is how we enforce our will on the space around us and mold it to do certain things. There are many types of magic, but not everyone can use every magic type out there. Aside from the most basic versions like elemental magic, understand?" Gage nods as Dimitri continues. "We the zenus use a unique magic system called runes. We aren't the only ones who can use it, but we do have the most skill and knowledge around it. Not to mention, mention." Dimitri's face slurs his shoulders sag before he straightens up after a few seconds and continues "You see runes aren't the embodiment of your will slapped on a blade or rock, or whatever. That's something someone who has never used magic would say, it's completely wrong. Runes are the commands of universe's forces when magic is involved. For example." Dimitri squats down and draws a square with squiggling lines coming from the vertexes of the square. "This is weed." Gage looks at Dimitri like he was just slapped in the face. "Weed? A weed?" Gage squats down and points at the plant. "This?! Really, you came out here to show me how to make weed?" Gage asks in a dissipated voice as Dimitri laughs. "Of course not! I'm here to teach you how to grow weed." Dimitri grabs Gage's tounge, pulling it slightly before letting it go. Making Gage wince and glare at Dimitri. "And watch your tounge before I rip it out." He says pulling out a seed.
"This is the green rune, color runes are very basic and the first runes discovered. It can translate into to multiple words with different effects. But all revolving around the general concept of green, like plants, poison, and sickness for example. Weird I know." Dimitri puts the seed in the middle of the rune. "We can change which word and therefore effect by changing what we write it on, and use it with. Since this is the green rune, one of the more abstract ones I can channel my mana to use it on the seed to-" Dimitri puts his hand on the rune and it flows a faint dark green light as the seed shakes and sprouts into a full grown peach tree in ten seconds. Punching a hole in the canopy above as it stands above the trees around it.
"This is how no matter how many times the demons burn our fields or salt them we can always make more." Dimitri says with pride as Gage looks absolutely amazed. Hearing about magic and actually seeing it are too different! 'this is amazing!..but also kind of a lame rune to start with'
"What other kind of runes are there Dimitri?!" Dimitri chuckles "calm down runt, I'm right here." Dimitri says holding his ear making Gage look embarrassed. "Oh,uh *cough* yeah let's continue." Dimitri nods "Runes can also be combined with other runes by putting them in a circle or by using line to connect them. The ladder being more unstable. As in don't do the second method at all. Because if your lucky. And given your God ugly face somehow turned into this-" Dimitri pokes Gage's forehead and Gage slaps his hand away. "-may do nothing if you're lucky..or blow up if you aren't. You'll die in at-Oh! Before I forget, the last thing about runes is that they can't be carved in anything flesh. So drawing them on your body is impossible." Dimitri says as his voice takes on a more serious and stern tone. Grabbing Gage by his collar and glaring into his eyes.
"NEVER EVER TRY TO! UNDERSTAND?!" Gage nods quickly as much as he hates to admit the others scared the hell out of him sometimes. Dimitri nods as he calms down and let's Gage go. "Good, apologies for the man handling. It's something that I must stress much more than usual." Hundreds of humans have died over the generations from that very same thing. Assuming they were different and end up the same as the others.
"now look at your sword, those symbols we made you carve into it are some combative runes." Gage unsheathed his sword and looks at the flat of the blade and seeing several runes. "Which ones are they? How do I make it glow like you did?" Dimitri looks confused before facepalming remembering he was supposed to tech Gage how to generate and use Mana first. "You messed up didn't you? Guess all you couldn't handle all that booze after all. Such a shame and here I was thinking you were a conisuar huh?" Gage says smugly it was rare for one of his brother to mess up enough for home to tease them.
"Go fuck yourself." Dimitri says in a flat voice not at all serious and secretly loving the quick banter from Gage. Dimitri draws an outline of a body in the dirt with a circle in the center. "This is a body."
"No shi-" Dimitri slaps Gage. "Enough of the smart assness. In order to generate mama you need to finish the initial step. Every creature has mana to some. Level but humans can't use it without being taught, or at least not properly. Now sit down." As Gage sitsmon the ground Dimitri pulls out a stone, a dark purple gem that's jagged. "This is a man's stone. You will absorb the manna from within. It acts as a trigger for the mana in your body." Gage holds the rock, "and how do I do that?"
"Just close your eyes, imagine the circle, and let it flow into the circle then throughout your body, it will feel all tingly like."
Gage closes his eyes concentrating on the emiting mana of the stone. 'what am I supposed to be feeling for? Something tingly? How am I supposed to feel tha-' *smack* "stop asking questions and do it. Or I'm drilling you for days."
'How does he always know?!'