1 Angel O'Brien
In a peaceful little village beside the mountains, a 6-year-old boy is running through the dirt paths with his dog, a happy smile adorned his face.
Today was the day he will start training in spiritual energy, for five whole years he has been dreaming about becoming one of the legendary heroes who can kill dragons, slay demon kings and rescue the kingdom toppling princesses from extreme danger obtaining there love while creating a beautiful harem.
Although he has yet to learn the ancestor's energy gathering methods, which bring no small amount of pain, it will not stop him from achieving his dreams.
The boy quickly reaches a courtyard where there are 3 other children and an old man sitting on a wooden chair, the old man turns to him and glares at him with his dark brown eyes filled with wisdom.
"Took you long enough O'Brien, come join your friends on the ground." said the old man.
O'Brien smiled cheerily and sat down beside the other children, they were Markus a tall kid for his age, Jenny a rare blonde girl in this village and Alex the smart kid, they were all focused on the lesson today, the old man seeing them focused nodded with a smile on his face.
"Today is the most important day of your life, where you will start to absorb energy in the air, it will bring pain but you have to endure, now close your eyes and clear your mind, try to imagine dot of energy surrounding you, after you have done that tell me the color of your energy." said the old man.
"I have brown colored energy," Markus told the old man.
"Earth affinity, like your father, next!" the old man called out.
"Grandpa, I have green energy, do I have the same element as my mother?" Jenny shouted.
"Yes you have Jenny, Nature affinity like your mother, hopefully, you will help us with the farms in the future." the old man smiled to his daughter.
"Teacher, I see bright yellow with a bit of blue, if I remember correctly this is the lightning element one of the many sub-elements," Alex told the old man.
"You're correct, although lightning can be destructive, it could also help you think faster if you are experienced enough in its usage." the old man nodded to his excellent student, he turned his gaze at the troublemaker, he expects him to have a metal affinity like his father, who is also the sole blacksmith of the village.
"Old man, I see a..... Dark dot, oh old man I think I have the dark affinity." O'Brien exclaimed.
"Well I guess you, children, have a perfect team if you think about it, the earth is suitable for a tank, and nature has constriction magic, thunder is destructive and deals damage, and dark is perfect for a scout, why don't you come here every week to train like a team, I will teach basic magic of your element." the old man told the four kids, the four of them nodded eagerly to start practicing.
"Ok, the first step to becoming a mage is to open magic nodes, they are the storage spaces for your mana, there are 12 major nodes, 5 sensory nodes, and 420 minor nodes, the first node you will open is the one in the brain, follow my instruction, grab those little dots an bring them to the center of your brain, you feel a faint resistance, push against it even if there is pain." the old man guided the young kids.
O'Brien was slowly pushing the black dots against the node, the more he pushed, the more pain he felt, but slowly he got the dots to enter the resistance, an explosion reverberated through his mind, he thinks much faster now, and remember what he ate the last 4 four days, he opened his eyes to a brighter world, he now details he would have missed, although he could not see better, he could process everything around him much more efficiently.
"So this what it feels like to open the central mind node, this is amazing, imagine what could it feel like to open all the nodes," Jenny shouted out with glee.
The old man began to explain the other major, sensory and minor nodes in detail, the four kids with their new abilities could memorize much more easily, with a warning from the old man telling them to fill up the mind node first then open up other major nodes, with that the four children began running towards their homes, eagerly awaiting their parents approval.
'This is the first step towards greatness, I cant wait to tell dad about it.' O'Brien thought while walking with his dog, Jacky.
O'Brien walked the stairs of a stone building, he entered through the door and a distinct smell of coal and the heat of a forge, he looked towards his father while he was hammering a piece of hot metal in total concentration, he sat on a wooden stool and waited for his father to finish.
After half an hour, he finished what looked like two identical daggers, the daggers looked very sharp after going through the crafting process, the father turned around to his son who was sitting on a stool patiently waiting for him to finish, he smiled towards him while grabbing two sheats for the daggers.
"O'Brien as this is the day you finally got your awakening, I will give you these two daggers, good job kido." father looked with at O'Brien with affection.
"Thank you, dad, I will keep them close at all times." O'Brien looked at his daggers with stars in his eyes.
O'Brien hoped and ran directly to his room, excitement for the future, when he entered his simple room, he moved his bed aside and removed the floor planks, in the little box is a book titled 'Art of Assassination', this book is the only link he has with his mother and his little secret.
O'Brien found this book in a hidden compartment in his mom's box, the book details how to train the body and the mind in an assassination, he already trained heavily in several skills like 'Soundless Steps', 'Assassins Mindset' and 'Assassins Body', with these three skills he could hide from adults and even the keen old man, and it was also the reason he got the dark element as his affinity.
Now that he got through the awakening, he could access more skills, O'Brien read the first line in the new section that got unlocked.
'An assassins path is one of the many paths that follow the standard magician rank system, the first rank is Student, who has opened all of the 12 major nodes, the second rank is Apprentice, who has opened all of the 5 sensory nodes, the third rank is Disciple, which is the longest and hardest stage to progress through, who has opened all 420 minor nodes, the later stages are not available at your rank, An assassin has to possess the dark affinity for the ability to train in these 3 skills:
'Shadow Step', 'Mind With Zero-Intent' and 'Presenceless Body'.
O'Brien memorized diligently, after he recited the book for the N time, he jumped from his bed and run towards the forest where he found a cave when he was 4 years old for his training, he sat down on the ground and followed the instruction on 'Mind With Zero-Intent', apparently it could speed up the gathering of spiritual energy, it is the best for beginners, it also has the effect of acquiring a serene mind and exuding no intent.
After calming his mind and clearing his thoughts, he imagined his mind in a colorless material, then he started etching runes in the colorless material according to the manual, he already has trained 'The Assasins Mindset' so this was his regular routine only a bit harder than the usual.
After two grueling hours of concentration, he finished inscribing the runes on his mental shield, once completed, his mind transformed to a serene and tranquil mindset, he could now be single-minded in a goal, never be distracted by trivial thought, and if someone were to sense his intent he could only feel calmness even if focused his mind on killing him.
O'Brien delayed the other skilled for another day, he sat on a mattress in the cave, he closed his eyes and sensed the black dots floating around him, he focused on attracting them to his opened node to fill them up, he was shocked to discover that now he could attract three times the black dots, he estimated he could fill up his mind node in only a three days rather than the usual 10 days.
'Man, I could have been very excited if I don't have this serene mind, it's like a dampener on emotions, that's a problem for later.'
O'Brien started to gather energy, he would stay here for a week, his father was already accustomed to him disappearing for a couple of days because of his training.
