A Series of very crappy events

Eduard Claymore, a youth of 17 years, lay in a muddy ditch in the rut of the stone paved road with a shattered ankle, in a bout of pouring rain, cursing his miserable life. Eduard was the adopted first son of a noble family of sword masters who had been one of the cornerstones of the empire for many generations, the claymores. life wasn't always so cruel, born with exceptional looks and a sharp mind, Eduard was the rising star of his family, he was first in all things, the best clothes, food, teachers, and weapons, but as Eduard aged he ran into a problem of sorts for being the rising star of a sword family Eduard had near zero talent with sword aura.

Aura, the basis for a sword masters power, was nonexistent in this unfortunate adopted son of one of the greatest sword families on the continent. Cast aside from his position as inheritor, he was exiled from his family at the age of 15 left with nothing but 40 gold, the clothes on his back and a slight talent in the mysterious art of magic. From a recommendation of his ex teacher he got, the sought after position of grand magus apprentice. You would think with magical talent and such a good teacher how could you end up so miserable.

Well the truth of the matter was that Eduard, though an apprentice of a grand magus, was the 23rd, his magic potential was low, locked at the 2nd level and he couldn't even afford any magic books or ether crystals to help his advancement. He was now stuck running favors for the third apprentice, Aron Belford, hoping to get recognized. So now that we have that out of the way let's get to why poor Eduard was sitting in a muddy ditch in the middle of the pouring rain, with a shattered ankle. As said before he was running errands for Aron, fetching him a potion from an alchemist when he was mugged by a group of thugs. Now you might think he's a level 2 magus why doesn't he fight back. Well that would be the case if he had an aptitude for some desirable field of study like fire, or darkness but Eduard had an aptitude for one of the weakest and hardest magic fields, lighting.

Lighting magic is very poor; it takes twice as much mana, a longer casting time and at his level had the effect of a slap. Now you might have some heroic aspirations about fighting back but Eduard who is talentless in hand to hand combat, and too poor to afford defensive magic items, with three men with short swords and clubs pointed at him, had one measly option left, run. Now though Eduard was in good shape he was already tired from walking all over town, but when you're being chased by men with weapons you tend to run like your life depends on it. Sadly for him it was slightly too slow. Now with a group of men with swords pressed nearly to your back about to die you are left with one option, throw the potion, or the less preferred option, get ran thru. Eduard never valued himself as a scholar, but when left with those options he picked the first one.

When the potion was seen soaring through the air, the thugs, catching a glimpse of it dove to catch it, missing by a few inches and letting the bottle shatter on the ground. In the time that this took place the bedraggled Eduard leaped into the ditch twisting his ankle and coating himself in mud, formed from the falling rain. The thugs, angered by their failed robbery, beat Eduard senseless.

Eduard after escaping possible death was slightly relieved but also in a bit of a slump, the muddy, injured Eduard realized he had just thrown, and broken a class 4 spirit potion, one that would cost him 6 years of hard labor to reimburse. Now the broken and limping Eduard, short black hair coated in mud, tall posture bent from the twisted ankle, with downcast black, gold speckled eyes limped off away from the tower, the city and his previous life.

The One thing that ran through Eduard's mind as he limped down the road towards the distant forest, 'why me?' 'why me!' although his life had gone pretty bad, he still had a warm bed, food and some companions to chat with, now though he was heading out into the unknown, no food, bed, or friends, but what other choice did he have? 'I'm not going to stay and work off some debt that I didn't even deserve, or seek'.

This was how a previous Noble, turned lowly apprentice, turned runaway started his journey to the top.