Chapter 1: Nemea Village

I wish I would just die already...

Maybe then, I get to be reincarnated as a noble boy endowed with an infinite amount of mana, or as a prince with innate magical talent in special elements carried by the royal blood, or even as a genius dual elemental mage chosen to save the world.

Then, I won't be stuck here using my meagre amount of mana trying to knock over a single empty can with the weakest magic of all: wind magic, for every single day. This has been my routine every morning ever since the day of my magic awakening three years ago and yet, I've hardly made any progress.

~~~

I still remember the day of my magic awakening ceremony as clear as day. Words can't describe how excited I was knowing that I will soon be able to cast magic spells. Growing up, I always loved listening to stories about the reincarnated mages that protected and saved the world with their awesome abilities to wield two types of magic. Inspired by this, I have always dreamed of awakening super strong magic or miraculously achieving a double awakening. I wanted to be a powerful and famous mage when I get older.

At the Nemea Village Hall, exhilarated children aged between eight and ten have gathered for the magic awakening ceremony that happens once every three years in the village. As I was walking among the crowd and looking around in excitement, I saw a familiar face who started waving as soon as she notices me. It was none other than Annita Fluran or Annie as I call her. She is the girl next door that I grew up with and our families are very close.

We waited together for our turn to enter the awakening chamber anxiously. She was called quite early on, thanks to the fact of having a name starting with the initial 'A'. She stood up and I wished her good luck. When she was in the chamber, I saw blue streaks of light permeating through the door and instantly knew she is a water mage. I gave her a thumbs up from afar when she got out of the chamber and was guided away from the waiting area.

There are four elements that a human can awaken: water, fire, earth and wind. Water element is known for its healing ability, fire as a strong offensive element, earth as the best defensive element and wind, um, as the useless element. Though there are not many that awaken the wind element nowadays, the unlucky few people are normally nicknamed 'the human dryer'.

"Theolus Aether."

After an eternity, my name was finally called and I entered the chamber anxiously. 'Awakening fire element like dad would be kinda awesome or maybe earth like mom is cool too. Well, I wouldn't mind any element really, as long as it's not wind' I thought. But lo and behold, after pressing my hand to the magic orb, it starts to glow white, signifying the dreaded wind element as my magic. Perhaps I was the one who was more in need of good luck compared to Annie.

I was mortified and can already hear the reaction noises outside of the chamber. It felt as if my whole soul was drained out of me as I walked out lifelessly while having to face all the stares and laughs around me. Then, a hand reached out to me; it was none other than Annie. "Hey, it's fine. Let's head home, you'll feel better" she said and proceeds to drag my 'corpse' back home.

Annie was right. After calming down at home and receiving non-stop encouragement from my family as well as Annie, I accepted my fate. Not only that, I was still hoping that somehow, I will still be able to become a strong and well-known mage one day.

~~~

"Hey, let's give it a rest for today. Come with me, I have something interesting to show you." Annie said.

Not giving up yet, I said, "Wait Annie, watch me! This time I will definitely blow this can off. Wind magic: jet streaaaaaam!" Psssh. Another fart-like wind was all that I could manage. I sighed and said, "Hmm fine, let's go then..."

We left the seashore where I always practised my magic and I followed Annie who seems to be headed north, the same direction as our homes. We walked through the plaza and sure enough, we walked into some jerks who were just loitering around. I rolled my eyes; ugh, here we go again.

"Hey 'human dryer', I've got some clothing at home that can use some drying!" one jerk mocked.

"Oh, I wonder which clothing is that? Could it maybe be the pants that you wetted last night?" Annie retorted.

We both giggled and kept on walking, leaving the red-faced guy behind.

"Nice one." I smirked at Annie.

Soon enough, we reached the marketplace and Annie still kept on walking. The Nemean folks there kept on greeting Annie while pretty much ignoring me. I don't really mind it at all; Annie has an amiable personality and is liked by everyone while I, on the other hand, am not really a people person.

As we continued our further-than-I-initially-thought journey to whatever Annie wanted to show me, we bumped into my mom and my younger sister at the corner stall.

"Headed home already?" mom asked.

Before I could answer, Annie spoke, "Not yet auntie, I'm bringing Theo to a place just by the woods for a while."

Oh, so that's where we are headed, I thought.

"Oh okay dear, stay safe you two and just don't wander into the woods on your own." mom replied.

"Alright auntie"

"Yes mom"

"O-okay mama"

"Uh-uh-uh, not so fast. I said 'you two' didn't I, where do you think you're going, Cassie?" mom responded to my sister's words.

"Hehe, going with brother, mama. Can I, can I?" Cassie said while pulling my shirt.

Mom quickly said, "Nope. You, young girl, are staying here with me. Now, off you go, both of you. The longer you're here, the more she wants to follow"

"Okay, bye mom." I said and then left with Annie.

Not long after that, Annie spoke, "We're almost there." She was pointing at a shrub underneath a tree, so I asked, "What's there?"

She answered, "Yesterday, I saw this really cute rabbit wandering around there but when I came closer, it has already disappeared. I think there might be a rabbit hole somewhere here. Can you help me find it?"

"Sure, why not?" I agreed to help and we began searching the ground around the area. Deep down, I am actually quite excited as I have never really seen a rabbit up close, let alone touch one. Then, sure enough, after I've been poking a stick at the ground randomly for quite a while, I managed to find some sort of an opening. I called Annie over and started examining the opening by clearing the leaves around it. It really is a hole. One large enough to fit a rabbit.

"Yeay, you found it! This really is a rabbit hole, isn't it?" Annie asked exuberantly.

"Most probably is," I answered.

"Do you see any rabbits?" she quickly cut.

"No, not from here. If there's any, it might be hiding deeper. But hey, even if there's not one here right now, it ought to return here sooner or later if this is really a rabbit hole. Oh wait, I think I can try to look deeper into the hole." I said.

I was about to pry my head into the hole when suddenly...

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang...

For the first time in forever, the village emergency bell rang and it just kept on ringing continuously.