The Barren Land

(A/N: Yooo so real quick I wanted to say that please do help me out in making this book, as you can see I'm not that great of a writer so if you could help me improve I'd be grateful to you forever, thank you everyone and enjoy the book!)

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The boy looked at the starry sky laying in the sand, he knew death awaited him, it was no surprise as he was bound to die in this desertified land without food or water, oh how he had gone from a noble to a orphaned boy in just 1 day.

Just barely 3 days ago raj was a noble living in his lavish mansion eating such foods not seen by people of his county, and now he was an orphaned boy roaming around a desertified no food no water and death awaiting.

"How did it turn out like this" he said while sobbing, he saw his own father die Infront of him, they.. they killed him.. they killed every single one in their family but left him alive... For what? To suffer? To die slowly? Why was he left alive..

He had no more energy left, he was barely keeping his eyes open he knew soon his demise would befall him, the last thing he thought was "If I ever get a second chance... I will not spare anyone of you who killed my parents... I will destroy everything of the empire.." as he said so he slowly closed his eyes fully.

Suddenly the ground started to shake violently, raj was still not dead just could not move anymore, as the shaking stopped someone wearing a flowing robe fully black with red and blue stripes appeared from the sand, with aura so intense even raj with no talent for magic could feel it, with his all his might and remaining strength he said "A.. an... Angel?..." The man listened to his words and smiled at raj.

He put both his hands on the head of raj, and chanted something under his breath that raj couldn't hear, finally after a minute or so of standing still like that the man let go of rajs forehead, the man slowly disappearing from existence said "Do good my disciple." As he said that he completely disappeared from reality, as raj wondered what happened he slowly fell unconscious, waiting for his death.

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2 days later..

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Raj woke up with seeming confusion, didn't he... Die? What happened, and who was the person or thing he felt the aura of? Everything was just making no sense, suddenly a strong headache took over his head "Ahhh!" He screamed in pain, he hadn't felt this amount of pain ever in his life.

Soon memories started to manifest in his brain, memories that were not his, these were the memories of a great magician, a magician who cheated death itself but regretted it later.

The name of the magician/mage/supreme mage/Archmage whatever you wanna call him was Indra. One of the strongest mages of all time, but why did he have his memories? And why did he feel so different? He could sense everything better, like his senses had heightened beyond human.

And more than anything he could feel the magical energy in the air, more commonly known as mana or world energy too, it was almost intoxicating feeling this power inside of him that he had never felt before, but then suddenly one last memory appeared in his mind.

"If you are seeing my memories right now, then I have chosen you worthy to be my disciple and gain my knowledge and power, of course I can't give my full power will be overwhelmed, but I can give you a chunk of it and also my knowledge about magic.

"If I've chosen you that means you have the responsibility that no one else can bare, you my child have been chosen to kill the demon Archmage Asura, he's one of the strongest archmages and he was damned to hell once he was found practicing dark arts.

"Yet he still managed to put a curse not on any person, but the entire world, he put the curse that this world and magic in it's entirety would be destroyed by his hands, he will wipe us all out for what we had done to him.

"What you do with my powers is none of my business, but all I beg of you is please save this world from the Archmage Asura, I have spent my whole life on this and now I'm giving this knowledge and power to you, as if you don't protect this world, you will be killed as well."

Raj was dumbfounded, he was chosen for such a big task, he was a nobody, why would he choose him, raj himself didn't know if he wanted to do the work as he wouldn't live until Archmage Asura awakened... Right?...

Well now that he had the essence of magic itself, mana inside of him, he'd live for 500 years at the minimum, and Archmage Asura to his knowledge would awaken in about a 100 years time, so he has no choice but to do as Indra has said.

Not like he wasn't gonna.. okay yeah if he had a choice he wouldn't, but tell me would you want to fight one of the strongest archmages of all time with no notice prior that you have to do it.

He only has a 100 years to prepare and he also wants to destroy the empire for it had done to his family, so he got up from the sand and promised himself he'd destroy the empire and save this world from its impending doom, well if he could.

He only had a 100 years to prepare so he quickly started walking as to not waste any energy and started sucking the mana around him to recover some energy, unfortunately mana did not work as good as food, for now at least as he was just a low level mage.

He walked for 4 days straight looking for a settlement in this barren land, a place he could nurture his pupil he would use to defeat the Archmage Asura, his headquarters of operation.

At the dawn of the 5th day he saw a tents closely together in a mana dense place, whether it was was purely an accident or intentional he didn't know, but he just knew this would have to be his headquarters.

"Finally... A settlement..." He said while gasping for air, he had been non stop walking for 5 days now without rest and he had finally found a Settlement, oh the joy in his face, he entered into their territory and as soon as he did several arrows flew at him, he tried to dodge but him being restless for 5 days and on top of that being hungry got hit by some arrows.

All though it didn't hurt him much he was still in a lot of pain, he somehow managed to stand up and look at where the arrows came from, a girl looking like a leader of some sort spoke up "What do you do here?" She said looking at raj suspiciously "I come in peace, I've been walking in this barren land without food or water for 8 days"

"Please help me!" raj pleaded to her, the girl still not convinced asked him "how can I trust you when we just met?" "Do you have a magician in your settlement? If yes then tell him to check if I'm lying through a lie detection spell" hearing this the girl called for someone in a language he didn't speak ( **"represents the language raj doesn't speak)

**"Diego! Come here!"** A man looking like in his 30's while he was actually over 50 years old came over to the place.

The girl probably told him everything that had happened and raj has said in their own language, or so he thought as he couldn't understand, after listening and contemplating for a while Diego went up to raj and said putting his hand on his forehead "Are you telling the truth that you have been in this barren land without food or water for 7 days?" "Yes" Diego nodded to the girl in approval

"Do you want to harm us?" "No" Diego nodded in approval again "how have you survived for so long without water or food" "I am a mage" Diego again nodded in approval.

"Alright, I guess we can help you, but right after you've recovered from your poor condition you have to leave this place." She said still with an untrust towards him, I guess he was a stranger and also a mage now at that, well low level mage but mage nonetheless so it was pretty valid of her to be untrusting and scared.

She told Diego something in their language and Diego casted magic on him that made him float, she gestured the both of them to follow her and as Diego followed the floating body of raj also did with Diego, they went inside the settlement and to Raj's surprise almost everyone in the settlement knew magic, in the bigger cities it was hard to find magicians among the lower classes, but here the mana was so dense it could be felt without having hightened senses.

After walking for about 10 minutes they reached a tent that was comparatively bigger than others, as soon as they entered raj noticed the sick man laying on the bed, as soon as they entered that man started coughing harder and the girl ran his side "Dad! Dad! Are you okay?!"

"Cough... I'm fine my dear, what brings you here alina?" "Oh yes, this magician has been roaming around the land of siraj for days without food or water, I've already confirmed he means no harm, I came here to get permission to let him stay for a few days." "Oh silly girl do as you wish, you're the new leader now, I'll die in a few days anyway." "Hush" Alina said putting her hand on his mouth.

"Don't say such things, you'll live, the mages are working for a cure I know you'll live dad." "Oh my silly girl" she fiddled with her hair as they both started crying both knowing it was impossible yet she still wanted to try.

As they were crying Diego silently left with raj and went to the tent raj would live in for the next 3-4 days, he laid down raj on the bed that there was, it was like a hospital bed just no smell of the hospital, it barely fit raj but it was better than nothing, "I'll bring you some food and water, you can rest as much as you want and leave after 4 days" while Diego was leaving raj asked "by the way, I didn't get your name sir." "It's Diego" Diego said looking back by tilting his head towards his shoulder.

As Diego left to get him some food raj sat up straight and looked at the walls of his new home and thought 'I need to gain there trust so I can make this my headquarters. But how? How do I make someone trust me just 4 days? God..." But he realized that he had the memories of one of the greatest Archmages he had medical knowledge beyond anyone.

He could try and cure the Illness of the leader, but how? He needed to get close to him to analyze the leaders problems symptoms to see what disease or illness it was, there were guards Infront of the door so he could really get in, well in his current condition.

As thinking of this the food and water appeared finally, he ate like a hungry tiger who hasn't eaten in days, and drank the water like it was the essence of life itself, and finally gained of his energy back, and without thinking any further he went to sleep to get back all his energy in order to be his peak self.

After all, he had to gain the trust of a whole settlement, and that settlement was a gold mine for a mage...