1 Zane Auserwalt

After finishing his magic training, Zane lied down on his bed as he stretched his arms and legs.

The light of the shining sun outside his windows shined upon his immature but extremely handsome face as he grumbled some complaining words regarding his daily magic training.

...

This was the world of Arcadia. A world where power reigned supreme. Dragons flew in the skies, goblins terrorized small villages, elves protect the forests.

He was Zane Auserwalt. Second prince of the most powerful human empire in the world; the Auserwalt Empire. Being the second prince of the Empire was not easy at all. He was constantly being pushed around and had to keep attending banquets while getting pinched in the cheeks by queens of the subordinate kingdoms of the Empire.

He was currently 13 years old but was extremely talented in magic and swords. At the age of 12 one can only start to train magic core or their physical bodies. Magic cores only appears in 1 person over a group of thousands. Mostly magic cores were only possessed by noble birth and as for those who doesn't have any, they train their physical bodies and become warriors.

The levels of strength were differentiated into 9 stages each level. Once a person successfully obtains mana in their magic core, an element would form in their core and which would allow them to use that specific one and become a Apprentice Mage which was split into 9 stages. However there were also special ones who were born with two or more elements.

When Zane successfully obtained mana for the first time, there was 10 elements that showed up in his magic core. Fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, dark, light, and as for the other three, he simply didn't know what they were.

Despite knowing that he was very special having this, he was a clever boy who learned the specialty of his own status and didn't reveal this to anyone even his own parents as he only showed them 5 elements which were Fire, Lightning, Wind, Dark and Light.

After telling his parents such news they naturally celebrated as people from different empires visited them to say their congratulatory words. Having 5 elements were naturally ultimately rare which only showed up in 10 thousand years. There was only 7 elements that were only known and can only be used by humans.

While having more elements would even fasten the cultivating speed of the person.

If a fire mage was to cultivate his magic core near a volcano, then it would certainly be very beneficial to him as elements around a person would certainly be picky at choosing where they would go. If a wind mage decides to gather the elements of water, then it would certainly be slower than normal.

As for Zane's progress speed, it was extremely fast. In just a year he had already advanced into 5th Stage Apprentice Mage. But there was one thing that he was baffled with. His physical strength was also increasing greatly even though he doesn't train that much and even reached 4th Stage Apprentice Warrior.

It was clearly known that warriors had better defenses and bodies than mages themselves. Mages practiced magic while warrior trained their bodies. It was that simple.

Though mages too can strengthen themselves, they clearly didn't have much time to do so or their magic training may stagnate.

Regarding this matter, Zane didn't want to think of it anymore. He was still, after all, a 13 year old child and after a day his family would send him to one of the 4 Great Human Academies in the world which was the Divine Root Academy where he would train until he became a junior mage or senior mage which was the next step after an apprentice mage.

He stood up from his bed and gazed outside his window. There stood a quite handsome, teenage boy staring back at him with a smile. This teenager was the crown prince and his brother, Victor.

Victor waved at him as he then gestured his hand in a up and down motion as if he was calling him over. Seeing him gesture, Zane smiled as he opened the window and jumped down.

The height of his jump was not low at all. His room was tens of meters high from the ground itself and any normal person who jumps down from that height would have more than broken bones and even death was possible. However, Zane was no normal person. He was a mage with 10 elements and had great control over the element of wind which enabled him to glide down as he chuckled happily at his progress.

"Truly marvelous little brother! Last week, I remember you still rolled on the ground after dropping from such height."

Victor commented as he walked towards him.

He was truly marveled at this little brother of his. His learning ability was simply monstrous while his speed of progress was even more so! At his age, Victor was still a 4th Stage Apprentice Mage and yet Zane was nearing 6th Stage already!

"You are still better than me brother."

Zane smiled at Victor as he praised him. Victor merely rolled his eyes at his brother's words. Victor was 19 and was at 7th Stage Junior Mage while Zane was still 13. Victor was also an extremely talented youth in magic as he shined within his peers and yet, his own little brother was even better than him.

"Oh yes, now that you are here, we need to bid farewell to father, mother, and our little sister. There was a slight change in schedule therefore we are to leave for the trip much earlier."

"A change in schedule? Why?"

"Some problems from my batch and I'm needed earlier than expected."

Zane sighed as he heard his brother's explanation. His brother was a senior student at the Divine Root Academy and was one of the best students there. He only came back to the Empire earlier than usual to pick him up to study there as their parents wanted.

They soon walked together towards the courtyard of the palace where they spotted Leo, their father and Leia, their mother playing with their 5 year old sister Athena.

"Mother, Father. It is time for us to depart."

Victor softly spoke as he looked towards the former and the latter.

Hearing his words, the two's faces gradually sunk into sadness as they sighed.

"Ai! Go with your older brother my son! Make us proud as someday, the other Empires might bare their fangs at us once all falls down."

Zane didn't say anything as he merely nodded while his mother hugged him tightly clearly didn't want him to go but soon reluctantly did. As for Athena, Zane merely patted her head and kissed her forehead.

After saying their goodbyes, Zane, Victor and along with some guards soon head out towards the Divine Root Academy.

...

Zane looked outside the window of the carriage with bright eyes as they passed through the one of the cities in their empire. Zane was always locked in the palace and couldn't leave it due to him being the prince.

Now, he was finally free from there and for the first time, he had finally seen what a city looked like.

Alas, it was really too bad that he was only passing by. Victor smiled at Zane's actions and spoke. "How is it Zane? My expression was the same as you when I first went outside the palace."

"Hehe, not bad at all!"

He smiled with glee as he yawned.

"It seems you are still tired. You should go to sleep and I will just wake you up after we arrive."

Not hearing his brother's words, Zane had already fallen asleep before he started snoring lightly.

Victor patted Zane's head as he too looked at the city outside.