Mage of nothing

If Dex had any form of liquid, it would come spurting out of mouth at an incredible speed. He saw a lot of zeros which basically deemed him useless. He knew that he was not the greatest mage but he was at level one so why did his level say zero on the stats window for everything?

"System I think you made a mistake, I am a level one mage."

"You are a level one mage of nothing, become a real magician before attempting to correct me." The system responded.

Dex scratched his head like a monkey because he was completely confused. Was he considered to be a magician of nothing by the system because he lacked affinity with the elements? And why did the system sound so disdainful of him? It was judging him, he could feel it.

"But I am already a mage and I have an affinity with space, it says so right here." He countered.

"You have not yet activated the astral magic or united with the space elements so until you do so, you are a mage of nothing."

"Can I activate it right now?" he asked eagerly.

"Yes."

He wanted to ask how he activated astral magic but he did not want to seem even more foolish to the strange system so he opted to close his eyes and feel the elements like any mage does.

As he concentrated, he saw small colorful flying little ball like structures in the air. He knew from studying that they represented different elements and the one which approached you was the one you got your magic from. The red one represented fire, blue was for water, transparent one was for air, brown was for earth. The rare elements like lightning and space were purple and black respectively.

Previously, the little balls would avoid him like a plague and every time he tried to touch one and absorb it, it would slip away from him like a wet slippery bar of soap. But today, the black ball shot into his body at the speed of a bullet and he fainted immediately from the immense pain and pressure in his body all at the same time.

With his eyes closed, Dex did not see the new change on his stats window. If he did, maybe it could have been another reason for him to faint again.

Endurance: [0/100]

Now all of his stats were at zero and there was no difference between him and a commoner who had no magic.

A while later, Dex opened his eyes and the first face he saw was that of his father's hovering over him worriedly. He could see the clear gray sky above which meant he was no longer inside the carriage.

He could also hear sniveling and crying so he turned his head to look in the direction of the person who was crying.

 "Mother!" he called excitedly.

"Atty" his mother responded happily with tears still running down her face. "What happened son? We were called to the hospital and told that you were on the verge of death? Are you okay, what happened to you?"

As he watched her mouth move, all he wanted to was get up and hug her. In his past life, the small town of Ethea was attacked by a hoard of flying mantis dark magic beasts. They carried off many and killed half of the population. His mother had been one of those to be carried off while his father was killed.

When he heard about the attack, he had pleaded with the headmaster of Ragor to authorize a team of level five mages to go into the mountains and rescue those who were taken but terminator troll and a few teachers refused to comply with his request.

They said the lives of a few commoners were not worth risking the lives of mages.

Dex and a group of five close friends decided to take the task on themselves but when they arrived at the nest of the flying mantis, all they found were bones and pieces of torn clothing. The humans had been eaten clean and nothing was left of them.

The hoard of flying mantis was also gone and he could not enact vengeance so he took his younger sister and the ashes of his father and he never returned to Ethea city.

Two months later, he became the youngest level five mage and he voluntarily left Ragor academy.

He did make it a point to kill every dark magic flying mantis in the world. He traveled far and wide hunting them all until he wiped them out of his existence. He scoffed and wondered if maybe that's why he had received a hunting system.

In this moment right now, he looked at his fussing mother and quickly recalled how much she loved to worry and always had a million questions for everything. He also recalled how much he hated being called Atty which was short for Atticus.

"I am okay mother; I think I was knocked down by a juvenile boar." He replied.

"How did that happen, did you go hunting? How many times have I told you not to go hunting? There are scary things in the forest Atty. You are supposed to be in school, why have you returned?"

"The boy is a magician Zena, he will not grow if you pamper him too much." He heard his father's gruff response. "Get up and drink this."

Dex slowly lifted himself up to drink whatever was in the brown mug that his father was offering him.

 After chugging it all down, he looked at his parents and smiled so brightly like a fool. It was that same crazy lunatic like smile which he had on back in the classroom.

His mother touched his forehead with a face full of worry. "Are you sure that juvenile boar did not injure your head?"

"I am fine mother, I am just so happy to see both of you." He answered and he hugged both of his parents. "You have no idea how good it is to see you." He said and his voice broke into a little pitiful sob.

His parents shared a worried look and his father asked, "Has anyone been making things difficult for you at the academy?

"Should I come and speak to your teachers?" his mother added a question.

Dex wanted to remind him that he was not as helpless as she imagined but he didn't. Instead, he chose to enjoy the worry and love which went away so early in his life.

On the continent of Athra mages lived to a maximum one thousand years while commoners lived to a maximum six hundred. For him to lose his parents at the age of sixteen in this world was like a one month baby losing their parents on earth.

Aging in this world confused him because it was like everyone reached the age of twenty and the aging process was paused for a while. This was why you would find sixty year old people who looked twenty eight. His parents were the perfect example of that.

The headmaster of Ragor academy was six hundred years old but he looked fifty. It always puzzled Dex how these looks were maintained until he learned about spells and beautification portions which allowed one to maintain their beauty and looks no matter their age.

He stopped thinking about when his father pulled himself away from him and asked. "Did something really happen at school?"

"No," Dex replied with a happy smile. "I finally have an affinity, that's what I came back to tell you."

"Aah," he mother squealed with excitement.

"Congratulations son." His dad slapped him really hard on the back. "I guess you are going to become a big shot mage now."

"You can count on it." Dex responded. It was not enough that he become an ordinary mage, he would become the strongest, the most feared, the most powerful and a figure that could crush the heavens with one hand if he needed to.