Mana Affinity

Feeling the presence of someone heading towards his room, Zick woke up from his slumber.

After becoming a middle rank knight, Zick's vitality has increased by a lot. Just sleeping for a few hours could make all his fatigue vanish.

"Young master Zick, we can start travelling at any moment now"

"Okay...just wait near the carriage for a minute"

Hearing Vincent's voice, Zick relaxed and answered back.

After feeling that Vincent's presence had left, Zick checked his current appearance in the mirror.

'hm...doesn't seems like there is any problem'

Finishing checking himself, Zick looked at his current progress in the middle rank.

Though he had lost a lot of mana after removing impurities. The total amount of mana he had gained was worth 6 months.

'which means i can become a high rank knight at the age of 12...'

Even Zick felt that it was a huge achievement.

Becoming a middle rank knight brought another perk with it.

It was the ability to hide his rank.

But there are a lot of restrictions in it, he could only hide his rank from people who have the same rank as him or lower.

Anyone who is stronger than him could easily find out his rank with a look.

'it's better than nothing'

Concentrating upon himself, he controlled all the mana which were leaking out his body and suppressed them within it.

Seeing that no mana was leaking out of his body anymore, he started heading towards the door.

When he tried to open the door-

CLACK!

"hmm...."

The door knob had broken off the door.

'....I forgot that my strength has increased'

Zick had directly started sleeping after he had turned into a middle rank knight which led to him not being able to control his strength properly at all.

CREAK~

Pushing open the door, Zick went towards the carriage with a smile on his face as if nothing happened.

When he reached in front of the carriage which was waiting in front of the inn's entrance, Zick could see all the knights waiting for him.

When Vincent was about to welcome Zick suddenly he stopped in his tracks and looked at Zick with a dumbfounded look.

'He became a middle rank knight at the age of 10...?'

Zick didn't know but the fact that he became a middle rank knight at the age of 10 is an extraordinary achievement in the whole continent.

There has never been anyone who has managed to become a middle rank knight at the age of 10.

Vincent was surprised by another thing too when he looked at Zick's mana.

'he hasn't used any mana drug'

Zick's mana was as pure as crystal with not a speck of impurity.

It gave rise to different types of emotions within Vincent at once. There was jealousy, proudness, admiration and more.

But the most intense emotion he felt was proudness. As he got old, all types of emotion and aspirations of becoming someone great had left him for a long time.

The Melvix family has been taking care of him for a very long time so Vincent was genuinely loyal to them and was filled with good will for it.

Now, all he wanted was to live a happy life with his family. He already has one daughter and a son who has also been training hard to become a knight.

Seeing Zick grow like this made him happy, the more Zick grows the more the Melvix family name's fame would increase.

Bowing towards Zick with a smile on his face, Vincent sincerely spoke to Zick.

"Congratulations on becoming a middle rank knight, young master Zick"

"....Thanks"

Feeling the sincerity behind those words, Zick replied to him with a smile.

Entering the carriage, Zick looked out of the window. He felt that it was weird to why Vincent treated him with such sincerity but Zick let it go as he could feel that there was no bad intent behind it.

Feeling the carriage moving, he closed the curtains of the window and took out a book from his ring.

(Basics of becoming a mage) 

According to the title of the book, Zick had listed a lot of books in the paper of the things he needed and this was one of them.

Though it was mostly about skills which could be used with a sword, he also wanted to try becoming a mage so he ordered this book.

Opening it, Zick started reading it with an interested gaze.

In the novel, the mage had a lot of weaknesses.

They had weak physiques unlike knights.

They don't store any mana within their body instead use the mana in their surroundings. Which gave rise to a major flaw, using a mana disturbance device mages could easily be killed.

The mana disturbance device also has a limit, it can only stop at mage or below high rank from using any spell. It is almost ineffective against a Peak rank mage and above. 

A peak rank mage could forcefully control the mana in the atmosphere even in the presence of mana disturbance.

The Ranks in the mages are as follows.

LOWEST RANK MAGE

LOW RANK MAGE

MIDDLE RANK MAGE 

HIGH RANK MAGE 

PEAK RANK MAGE

ARCHMAGE.

The archmage is the highest rank in the mage class profession.

There hasn't been anyone who could reach archmage rank in 50 years in the first continent now.

There are only two people who have the potential to become an archmage mentioned in the novel.

One of them was the harem member of the protagonist who was the one to complete the unorthodox method which Zick used.

And the other was the princess of the magic kingdom, Pheorous. Zick almost knew nothing about her. There was an incident when she was heading towards the academy and The only other thing he knew about her was that she was very cold to everyone around her.

She also attended the academy the same time as the protagonist, but she didn't talk much at all during the whole first year there.

She had vanished after the magical disaster which happened at the end of the first year of the academy which teleported everyone all over the world.

Closing the book, Zick went over all the things which he just read.

Only the people with affinity with mana can try becoming a mage. The affinity of someone is decided the day they are born.

'My potential increased so some of my affinity should have also increased a little right?'

Zick wasn't sure about his affinity himself.

Closing his eyes, he extended his hand and concentrated.

Using his senses to the maximum, he could feel the mana around his hand. Feeling the mana, Zick did what the book had told him.

But it doesn't seem like even the first step is going according to the book.

The mana around his hands weren't moving the he wanted it to at all. 

The book had mentioned that even a person with the lowest affinity with mana could do it easily.

"....."

Staring at the book with blank eyes, Zick had an urge to throw it out of the carriage but in the end he put it back in the space ring.

'in the end it's all about talent isn't it?'

"sigh...."

Zick gave up on it very easily, increasing someone's affinity is very hard. The protagonist's fire element had increased because of the blessing he got from the sun god.

The novel didn't even mention anything that could increase a person's affinity. Which made Zick even more helpless about it.

His plan to become a mage had fallen flat before it even began.