"Take care of yourself there okay?" Krios' mom told him emotionally while wiping some of her tears off her cheeks.
Today is the day that Krios would venture out towards Zelestria academy.
"Yes mom. I promise." He assured his mother.
"Here, take this." His father gave him a tiny box.
He opened it and his eyes lit up immediately when he saw what was inside.
"That's a storage ring. It has the size and capacity of a small carriage. Use it wisely and take care of it." His father added.
"Thank you so much dad!"
"Now, you have to be very careful there alright? Send us a message once you arrive. Always take care of yourself and stay away from trouble as much as possible." His father ruffled his hair.
"Understood." He answered. He then hugged both his parents tightly for one last time before he started walking towards the carriage that was waiting for him.
Kane then looked at the elder standing on the side.
"Elder Tharn, please take care of our son for us during this travel. And thank you for accompanying him."
"I will protect him with my life my Lord. You don't have to worry." The elder bowed and walked towards the carriage.
Krios looked back at his parents once again and smiled.
"By the way, tell Keian to wait for me and we'll spar when I come back okay?"
Both his parents just laughed and nodded. Then they waved their hands goodbye as Krios entered the carriage and they sped away.
"Elder Tharn, how come the Lightbane sect has a teleportation system connected to the other side of the continent and we don't?"
"First of all, setting up one costs more than one can imagine. It also requires an expert artisan and a mage who specializes in teleportation magic which adds more cost." The elder started.
"Can't we afford one?" Krios asked.
The elder then chuckled at his innocence.
"No young master. Unfortunately not. Although we are one of the richestand strongest faction in this part of the continent, we will never be able to compare with the Lightbane sect as they have accumulated wealth over hundreds of thousands of years. And as we all know, they have existed far longer than our clan." The elder continued.
"As for why they decided to put up a teleportation portal, it's because one of their sect leaders a thousand years ago, married a princess from a kingdom on the other side of Aldecian. And that kingdom is the Kingdom of Hacier, where Zelestria academy is."
"Is it really that hard to travel across the Aldecian mountains?"
"It is indeed. The Aldecian spans for tens of million of kilometers from east to west, splitting the continent in half. So ther is no way to go around it. As for crossing, it is possible. But you would need the company of an extremely strong mage or warrior to protect you."
"Why? I know a lot of beast lives there, but is it really that dangerous."
'Won't it be a good source of mana cores from mana beasts? That might just be a lucrative job' He thought to himself.
"Seventy percent of the Aldecian mountain range is unexplored lands. And most of the parts of the mountain range that is within our vicinity is part of that seventy percent. Due to this, a lot of beasts have grown unchecked, getting stronger and stronger without any regulation. So it is not advisable."
Their conversation continued for hours with Krios asking away to appease his curiosity. The elder graciously answered all his questions as best as he can.
The journey to the Lightbane Sect main grounds lasted for two days. With Krios spending most of his time cultivating. The elder observed him during those times and was pleasantly surprised by how fast he can enter a meditative state and most importantly, how dedicated he was to his cultivation.
'I heard he was not able to push through to the Core Reformation realm due to a certain condition caused by his birth. But now he's at the precipice of ascending to the Mana Condensation realm in a span of a month.' The elder was astonished by Krios' unbelievable cultivation speed.
After two days straight of traveling, their carriage had finally arrived at the Lightbane Sects enormous gate. They queued up along with other carriages and people trying to enter the main sect grounds.
The sect main ground is situated on a mountain with their Sect palace sitting atop the mountain and the other buildings and roads lined up winding down the mountain side.
The Lightbane sect is a specialist sect where they train and focus on light magic and battle arts. They are the strongest, and most powerful group in the south-western region of the continent.
After thirty minutes of queuing, they were finally let in.
"Wow, this place is so huge and grand." Krios looked through the window in amazement.
"Is this your first time here young master?" The elder inquired.
"Yes. And I can't believe how beautiful the place is. The buildings are bigger and taller than those back home." He can't help but compare.
He saw streets upon streets branching out and lined with different shops. This place had shops by the hundreds. But what amazed him the most was the building atop the mountain. It was pristine white in color and it rose to a hundred meters into the sky. It was also twice as big as their own clan palace which was definitely not small.
He also saw an enormous arena three times the size of theirs back home. This place really live up to it title as the richest faction in their region.
Their carriage swerved left and left the main road. It went straight to a hotel where they would stay for the day. It was a bulding with about fifty floors and a very interesting facade.
"Are we going to stay here?" Krios asked the elder.
"Yes. We will stay here for the day as the Teleportation portal won't open until tomorrow morning." The elder answered.
They entered the building and was met by what looked like an attendant. The elder showed her a badge of some sort and they were immediately escorted to their private rooms.
After settling down in his own room, Krios heard a knock on his door. He opened it up and saw the elder
"Young master, please stay here for a while. I will be going to the Teleportation site right now to check if our arrangements were followed."
"If you need anything, just tell the attendant at the end of this hallway."
Krios only nodded and Elder Tharn walked away. After a moment of thinking Krios had something he wanted to look for so he went out and asked the attendant for direction.
"Excuse me. Do you know a place where I can buy mage arts, or any battle arts? Even just the simple ones?" Krios asked the attendant.
"There is one such place right beside this building. When you go out of this building, It is two shops to the right." The attendant told him.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome sir."
Following the instructions of the attendant, he shortly found the shop he was looking for.
"Good afternoon sir! How may I help you today?" The shop owner enthusiastically greeted him.
"I'm looking for any light based mage arts. Just basic ones." He told the shop owner.
"Oh you have come to the right place! Right this way sir!" The attendant led him to the far side of the shop where a shelf full of scrolls were displayed in.
"Here they are sir. Choose whatever you want."
Krios scanned the title displayed on every scroll looking for a specific one. He was not a mage specializing in light magic but he wanted to test something out.
"Here. How much for this?"
"Let me see. Ah this one is one of the most basic ones so this only costs five hundred gold coins." The shop owner told him.
'A basic art yet it costs half a thousand gold coins. No wonder this sect is wealthy.' To put into perspective, the grandson of a prominent clan leader like Krios only had about two hundred thousand gold coins in his savings. And he still thought the price for the basic mage art was a bit steep.
"Okay I'll get it." He fetched the five hundred gold coins from his storage ring and handed them to the owner.
"Thank you so much sir, do you still need anything else?"
Krios just shook his head. He stored his newly acquired mage art into his storage ring and headed out of the shop back to his private room.
The next day, Krios and Elder Tharn stood in line at the teleportation portal. There was about a hundred five hundred people in line along with them eagerly awaiting to be transported to the other side of the continent.
"Are there usually this many people going to the other side?" Krios asked the elder.
"Yes young master. And the reason is because this teleportation portal only opens once a month."
"But why? Can't they open it more frequently?"
"Unfortunately, they can't as it consumes a lot of mana crystals and the sect cant sustain it for longer than a single day."
'That makes sense. Now I get why I have to wait for a month before traveling here.'
After a few minutes of waiting the teleportation portal finally opened and people started entering it one by one.
When it was their turn to enter, the elder went first to support Krios when he popped into the other side.
Krios went in and he felt disoriented for a second before finally popping into the the platform on the other side of the continent. He felt a little nauseous which the elder immediately noticed. Elder Tharn led him to a bench to sit for a while to reorient himself.
"I'm sorry elder but I feel a little bit queasy." Krios told him as he say down on the bench.
"Feeling nauseous is normal especially because this was your first time traveling through a teleportation portal. You'll get used to it once you try it more." The elder reassured him.
After a few minutes, Krios started to feel better.
"I feel better now Elder Tharn. We can continue with the journey" he told the elder.
Thy had to ride a new carriage as carriages are not allowed to move through the portal. And only during the carriage ride was Krios able to appreciate the beauty of the Kingdom of Hacier. It had unique looking buildings that he saw for the first time. There were also a lot more people than in the place he came from. But what he appreciated the most was the amount of parks and gardens he saw on their way. It was as if the hustle and bustle and modedernity of the Kingdom intermarries with nature.
"Welcome to the Kingdom of Hacier, young master." Elder Tharn told him.
"Thank you for accompanying me in this journey elder Tharn."
The Kingdom of Hacier was the second largest Kingdom and faction in the entire continent. Their main grounds or as they call it, the city center, was twice ad large as the main sect grounds of the Lightbane sect. The kindom also owns ten percent of the continent's land.
But it is second only to its neighbor, the Kingdom of Aldecia which owns around fifteen percent of the continent's land area. The two kingdoms combined spans an astonishing twenty five percent of the entire continent's land area.
The city center was so big that he can't even see where the royal castle was. All he saw were building upon buildings. Streets full of life and people goong about their day.
"Are we going straight to Zelestria Academy?" Krios asked the elder.
"Yes, I'll drop you off and I'll be on my way." The elder answered.
Krios only nodded and proceeded to look at the scenery once again.
'Zelestria academy, I can't wait to finally be there!'