An Unknown Tunnel in the Desert? Not suspicious at All

Practically drooling, Raz's eyes went wide and sparkled as he yelled loudly in his thoughts, 'FINALLY! After a year of being shut out of information and being forced to do nothing but cultivate and sleep, he was finally going to take a peek into the Magus world.'

Seeing his adorable son excited, William rubbed Raz's head as he expressed, "I'm glad to see you excited about learning, truly what a peerless genius should be like! However, before I can even teach about the theoretical aspects of magic and mana, first, I must show you the capabilities Magus possesses."

William abruptly stood up from his chair while he grabbed Raz with one arm before he opened the door to this study and found Ed, who patiently waited outside the door with his heavy black armor.

However, something different Raz noticed was the fact that instead of the regular shortsword that accompanied him. Strapped to the back of his armor was an intimidating great sword that stood almost as tall as Ed himself, who was well over two meters tall.

"William. You called for me?" Ed asked.

"Ah yes," William walked over to Ed while he whispered quietly so Raz couldn't hear, "today is the beginning of Raz's journey into magic, so I thought I would introduce him as we learned from Professor Apollyon."

Hearing the name made Ed nod and laugh as he bellowed, "While he was certainly a gloomy old geezer, he certainly knew how to teach."

While Raz had no clue who the geezer they were talking about was, the pair stepped outside onto the trimmed grass of the back lawn before they set off.

William, while still holding onto Raz with both hands tightly, stepped onto a weird-looking board that had runes etched into it.

Taking a look at it, Raz thought it looked incredibly similar to a surfboard from Earth, but his mouth went agape as he saw the runes light up and the board start to float with the father and son on top of it.

As they flew even higher, Raz started to clap with his tiny baby hands as he enjoyed the experience. Even though he often flew during his time as a cultivator. One would always enjoy floating in the air and flying with the wind rushing your face.

Catching sight of his son clapping, William laughed, "Enjoy floating, little fella? You'll enjoy the next part more."

A gust of wind blew onto Raz's chubby, rosy cheeks as he turned his head to see that Ed was also floating in the air! However, he was using his sword instead of the surfboard-looking item.

As he focused on the giant obsidian black greatsword, he noted that it had numerous runes engraved onto it, which lit up a deep magenta which meant that Ed was also a Magus. This fact completely shocked him, as Raz always thought Ed was just a regular knight.

"You never thought your Uncle Ed over here was a Magus, huh? He's a low-stage Fledgling Magus just a stage below me," William observed before the group started accelerating forward as he barely got out, "That's a story for another time. Time is of the essence!"

The group flew just below the clouds at a speed considerably faster than a horse for over twenty minutes. The entire time along the way, Raz looked below at the various towns and villages to the giant rolling hills of the surrounding area.

From what he knew from his father and other sources, Levir was situated in one of the newest frontier regions named Ite, which was considerably big, which meant the ecology and climate could vary from the harsh dunes to rolling hills.

Even though the region itself had an abundant history and natural resources, the natural dangers that lurked in the deeper parts of the frontier made it quite unexplored and untouched by the Iron Wolf Kingdom.

Although, his mother had told him there were once rumors of an ancient civilization that ruled the continent, including the Ite frontier, before they collapsed for an unknown reason.

As the three of them slowed down to a much more relaxed pace, Raz breathed in the relatively arid and dry air of the sand dunes that were located on the fringes of the Ite frontier.

A feeling of nostalgia tugged his nostrils as he thought about his time as a cultivator and reminisced about his beginning when he lived in a similar area.

Snapped out of his daze, William explained to Ed, "We've been commissioned by the Seven Star Academy to find the whereabouts of a group of researchers who disappeared in these dunes studying the ecology and wildlife. Usually, I would've turned down the request, but the old Professor requested it.

"I was told that the researchers were transporting some rather valuable equipment and research. However, the academy deemed this location as a low-risk task due to the fact that this is considerably deep within the cleared parts of Ite, so they only sent a late-stage Apprentice to supervise.

"They missed their check-in date, and local hunters confirmed that it seemed they were ambushed by a group of Lurls from the traces left behind."

Ed seemed confused by the last statement and questionably asked, "Why are Lurls this far inside the sand dunes? This is dozens of miles away from the swamps they usually live in."

Shrugging, William replied, "I'm not sure, but Lurls are normally as strong as regular knights, and the Lurl champions are at best equivalent to a late-stage Apprentice, so this should be an easy task for us. We've been tasked with rescuing any survivors and their materials, but we also will receive extra numeration if we find out why they are so far out of their territory."

Never hearing of Lurls before, Raz looked up to his father, who was still carrying him, and inquired, "What are Lurls?"

"Lurls are the equivalent to primitive mutated fish people, but they are quite aggressive and rowdy despite their weak power—nothing like civilized fish folk that lives on the coast. Don't worry, son; these things are inconsequential to Ed and I. We are just here to investigate, and this is also a safe opportunity to witness magic in action." William replied as he scanned the horizon.

Eventually, he spotted some wrecked transport carriages and flew over to land. As the magic artifact landed on the ground with a soft thud, William picked it up before making it magically stick to his back before he started to investigate the scene.

But before he did anything, William handed Raz off to Ed and reminded him, "Watch over him and cover his eyes."

Following William's orders, Ed used his huge hands to shield Raz, who protested to no avail from the scene.

Usually, William would let his son experience everything as a potential magus needs to develop a deep understanding of the world, but strewn in front of him were dead bodies of the researchers that lay still caked in blood.

Even though Raz was only a year old, his parents often treated him as an older child who needed to learn about the harshness of the world, but even William felt it was wrong to expose his son to such a scene.

Keeping his balance on the mounds of sand, William cast a spell by chanting a phrase in Lamit. A sudden burst of light surrounded his hand and started to reveal a subtle trail that led in one direction.

Chuckling to himself, William muttered, "Thankfully, that old Professor is still as cautious as ever and makes everyone have a magical tracker on them at all times."

"How strong is this, Professor?" Raz asked out of curiosity.

Looking at his adorable son, William responded, "I guess I never really explained how the noble ranking system worked in the kingdom. Alright, pay attention, each rank as you progress as a Magus is split into three stages: lower, middle, and upper.

"Meanwhile, in the Iron Wolf Kingdom, the ranks are generally distributed like this: Baron - Low Stage Fledgling Magus, Viscount - Middle Stage Fledgling Magus, Earl- Upper stage Fledgling Magus, Marquis - Low-Stage Magus, Duke- Middle stage Magus while the King's prowess is generally unknown but rumored always to be an Upper stage, Magus.

"The old Professor always tells people that he's a middle-stage Magus, but who really knows at this point? I have yet to ever see the old man go all out."

As the three of them followed the subtle glowing trail, the intense afternoon heat slowly started to die down as the sun started to descend soon.

After two hours of walking with Raz being carried by Ed, who had taken his hand off of Raz's eyes, the entire way, the three of them soon saw something other than the vast expanse of sand dunes in the distance.

Although Raz couldn't tell what it was, William and Ed, with their superior eyesight enhanced by their abilities, could tell it was a tunnel-like hole in the ground, but what made them even more confused was the fact that they had never heard of such a thing in this area which was well documented and explored.