chapter 1

On June 20, 2039, in Xtown—a quaint town nestled in Limpopo—life proceeded as usual. Six-year-old Ethan, sat down for dinner with his family. It was a momentous day; his sister Veronica was poised to inherit the mantle of their family's hotel business. As they dined, a brilliant blue light erupted three meters from where Veronica sat. Her body radiated, pulsating with a mysterious energy, and then darkness engulfed them. In the now darkened house, a blue spiral materialized, casting an ethereal glow over the dining room. From it, a creature resembling a werewolf emerged, petrifying everyone with its presence.

Ethan, gripped by fear, dove under the table. Through a sliver of space, he watched in horror as the beast began its slaughter. Veronica, quick to act, pulled him further into the shadows as he was about to scream at the gruesome sight of his parents being molded, her hand clamped over his mouth. Tears streamed down her face as she trembled, her eyes wide with terror. The sound of more creatures entering through the portal filled the room.

The werewolf, drawn by the scent of fear, overturned the table. Veronica, in a desperate bid for survival, grabbed a knife from the floor and shielded Ethan, pushing him towards the portal. The creatures hesitated, sensing the volatile energy within her. Cracks spread across her body, a sign of impending doom.

Suddenly, a clawed hand seized Ethan's shoulder. His scream cut through the silence, startling Veronica. She turned, only to see the portal's energy resonate with her own, destabilizing it. Time seemed to slow for Ethan as he witnessed the unthinkable—Veronica slowly exploded before his eyes, and the sight of his family's ravaged bodies filled his vision. His screams went unheard, and darkness claimed him.

"Kid... Kid... Hey kid, wake up," a voice called out. Ethan's eyes fluttered open to an unfamiliar world. He lay in a forest, beside a cave. "Hey Hector, what are you doing? You were supposed to check out that bright light," a muscular man clad in heavy armor, reminiscent of video game heroes, called out, brandishing a futuristic weapon.

"Wait a minute, go call the boss. I've found something odd here. What's a kid like you doing in a restricted area?" the man demanded.

"Restricted?" Ethan echoed, confusion lacing his voice. As he spoke, the memories of the night's terror flashed before him. "Mommy! Daddy, no!" he cried out.

Ethan's tears fell as he grasped the harsh truth: the visions were not mere dreams but stark reality, and his family was forever beyond reach. "My apologies, Miss Elaine," Hector began, his voice steady despite the oddity of the situation. "While investigating the abrupt mana fluctuations, I stumbled upon this lad—unconscious. Upon awakening, he descended into a frenzy of tears and nonsensical babble." He recounted his encounter with Ethan to Elaine as she arrived at the scene.

"Oh, how intriguing," Elaine murmured, her mana sense sweeping the vicinity. Hector dared to interject, "Is it really?" only to be met with Elaine's piercing glare. She grinned, her confidence unshaken. "A Grand Wizard of my caliber needs no instruments to discern the events that transpired. The traces are subtle, yet unmistakable—a flow of space-time mana residue envelops the boy. We must transport him to the laboratory for a thorough analysis." With her command, the team swiftly packed their gear.

Elaine led her forty-strong crew, escorting Ethan from the forest's embrace to a concealed city. There, nestled within the slum's shadow, lay a clandestine laboratory. Within its walls, Ethan was ushered into a sterile chamber where attendants cleansed him and clothed him in fresh garments. It was there, before the mirror, that six-year-old Ethan noticed his transformation: his body felt ethereal, his eyes shimmered with a newfound purple hue. Adorned in attire marked 'S59,' he was a changed being.

Guided by a sentinel, Ethan traversed from the vacant chamber to one that bore the marks of human experimentation. There, he stood immobilized upon a table as Elaine invoked a spell to read his memories, rendering him unconscious as she touched his head reading his mind.

As consciousness returned, Ethan's ears caught the tail end of a conversation. "It seems he's a victim of the disaster that occurred a 100 years ago, a survivor flung forward in time as a result of his sister's mana surge reacting with the newly formed dimensional rift, distabalising it and sending him forward in time." Elaine theorized. "But how? They didn't Mana then right. How did his body survive in the first place," an assistant of Elaine pondered. "Remarkable, it seems his very being was reconstructed when the collapsing Dimensional rifts Mana reacted with his sister's Mana as he was in the middle of it all, evolving him to a high human a class of beings that is only achievable by only the most talented mages. The cataclysmic fusion of his sister's mana and the Gate's pure essence not only unlocked his latent mage potential but amplified it exponentially. His evolution was not completed of course, judging by his Mana core his mostly a quarterly evolved high human, yet he still has potential to fully awaken and join the ranks of higher beings those we know as. High elf, High human, Elder dwarf and elder Dragon," Elaine declared, seizing control of the boy's fate. " I shall personally raise this boy as my successor he will be nothing like my ungrateful child that betrayed me. Get me Victor on the line I will personally inform him if this discovery?" the first assistant inquired.

Meanwhile, Ethan, oblivious to this new world, understood none of their words.

Elaine summoned her men to relocate Ethan to the training quarters, where they honed their living experiments into adept mercenaries, destined for the black market's shadowy embrace. At the heart of this illicit enterprise stood Elaine, chief researcher of a laboratory owned by Victor Frost of Frost Pharmaceuticals—a rising company in the Southern African region's magic elixir and potion market. Yet, beneath the surface, Elaine harbored a secret agenda. Having uncovered Victor's ties to the infamous Crimson Fang syndicate the organisation responsible for her husband and daughter's death, she plotted his downfall. Oblivious to the treachery brewing within, Victor depended entirely on Elaine, his lead scientist, unaware of the storm that was about to break.

Ethan found himself in the training room of Black Wind, Elaine's notorious research institution. The room buzzed with the energy of children aged 8 to 14, all survivors of Elaine's enhancement experiments. "Attention, everyone! Today we welcome a new member," Hector announced, introducing Ethan to the 58 combat trainees. "This is S59. Subject 55, show him the ropes—and tread carefully; he's the boss's chosen one." At those words, a wave of envy and scorn washed over the room, all eyes fixed on Ethan.

Subject 55, known outside these walls as Jake, took Ethan to show him around the base's quarters. "Life as you knew it is over, S59," Jake said, his tone firm but not unkind. "We train to be the best here, and only the strongest make it. You do as you're told, no questions asked. Step out of line, and there will be consequences. Remember, being the boss's favorite changes nothing—I'm in charge."

Ethan, just six years old and plucked from an ordinary life, nodded. The world of violence and danger was foreign to him, but he understood one thing clearly: he had to survive.

With each passing day, Ethan's determination grew. His unique status as an incomplete high human accelerated his progress. In just a two years, he climbed the ranks to become the fifth strongest among the children. As a battle mage, he excelled in both combat and spellcasting. Under Elaine's guidance, Ethan's growth was swift, even developing into a Junior Mage.

Mages and warriors alike are categorized, not just by their age or lineage, but by the depth of their magical essence. These are Junior Mage, Apprentice Mage, Mage, Court Mage, Grand Mage, Supreme Mage, Wizard, High Wizard, Grand Wizard, Arch Wizard, Supreme Wizard and Sage each rank is further refined into subcategories.

One could choose the path of spellcasting, weaving incantations of great complexity and power, or the way of close combat, where mana augments the body to perform feats of extraordinary strength and agility. Yet, the true zenith of this world's magic arts is the evolution from a Supreme Wizard to a high being—an ascension that grants a status revered across all species, they are called high human, high elf, elders dragon, and elder dwarf.

But such a transformation is a path strewn with trials, a journey undertaken only by the insanely gifted. To surpass the stage of Supreme Wizard

The top ten prodigies of Black Wind, each a marvel in their own right, were as follows:

Subject 6 Rank 1 : Casper, the three-star Apprentice Mage, an 8-year-old combat mage with a fierce cruel heart.

Subject Rank 5 2 :Anna, the three-star Apprentice Mage, a 10-year-old spell weaver who commands magic with no need for circles.

Subject 2 Rank 3 : Happiness, the two-star Apprentice Mage, a 10-year-old rune mage whose spells are etched in ancient runes.

Subject 12 Rank 4 : Evan, two-star Apprentice Mage, the enchanter, an 8-year-old with a talent for weapons that surpasses his peers.

Subject 59 Rank 5 : Ethan, the four-star Junior Mage, at 8 years old, he is Elaine's protégé

Subject 3 Rank 6 : Naomi, the four-star Apprentice Mage and healer, at 10

Subject 4 Rank 7 : Bernard, the two-star Apprentice Mage , a 9-year-old spellmancer, the oldest survivor of the first ten, a fusion of elf and dwarven lineage.

Subject 1 Rank 8: Dianna, the four-star Junior Mage and magic engineer, at 8, she crafts wonders beyond imagination.

Subject 7 Rank 9: Joy, the four-star Junior Mage and alchemist, whose concoctions are as potent as her name given their trainers 'the witch of poison'.

Subject 8 Rank 10: Nick, the four-star Junior Mage and battle mage, at 9, his prowess in combat is unmatched.

Jake Subject 11, once ranked tenth, now replaced by Ethan he grew all the more hateful of him.

Every member of mercenary cadets from black wind were assigned to groups of four where they went of E rank missions from the black market to prove their might even Ethan started going on missions as soon as he entered the top ranks of the cadets.