CHAPTER 8 - ENTERING THE CITY

[2144 words]

*POP*

Suddenly, from a large rip in space came a white-haired young man with a slight smile on his face.

"Hmm... I should be about 3km away from the nearest human settlement according to Kyrtaar's words...might as well just run there for a bit." Jonah muttered to himself.

Using his maxed-out Lightning Magic, he transformed himself into a lightning bolt and started to make his way towards his destination, arriving there instantly.

The city of Ebonick was built at the edge of a dense, tall forest and is truly a modest wonder. Its appearance is matched by the backdrop of cascading waterfalls which have helped shape the city into what it is today.

Ebonick was one of the most popular cities in the Kingdom of Eflya, and most of that popularity came from Ebonick being where the main branch of the Adventurers' Guild was, attracting all sorts of people to it.

Slowly walking up to the huge gate in front of the city, Jonah attentively admired his surroundings,

'This world is just one of countless more out there, but it's already so interesting! I can't wait to travel to other worlds and check them out!' He thought.

Seeing that there was a huge line of people in front of the gates, Jonah also went ahead and grabbed a spot and the end of the line and waited for his turn patiently.

After about 10 quiet minutes of waiting, a few people approached Jonah...

"You, give us your spot in line if you wanna live!" Said a skinny man with a mohawk.

"Yeah! Get outta here!" A fat dude chimed in with the mohawked guy.

'It seems like there are these types of people in every world...' Jonah sighed in his mind.

"No." Jonah bluntly replied.

With a tick on his forehead, the mohawked skinny guy spoke, "Listen here, you bitch! My friend here is a mage, and he has level 3 fire magic! Do you still wanna act all tough?!"

Hearing this, the ginger man behind the fat dude buffed his chest in pride. Naturally, he was the fire mage and on his hands was a staff with some sort of red gem on top...

'Hmm... Judging by how he said his friend is a mage, I can assume that mages are somewhat rare in this world, or at least not everyone has the capability or talent to be one... If someone were to see all of my magic, they'd probably die from shock.' Jonah quickly thought.

"So? I don't really give a fuck if your friend is a mage or not; I'm not going to give you my place in line either way," Jonah replied.

Listening to the conversation, the ginger man stepped in front of the mohawked guy and hit the ground with his staff,

"This is your last chance! Either give us your place in line, or I'll turn you into ash!" He threatened Jonah.

"You are welcome to try." Jonah scoffed at the ginger man.

Pissed at Jonah's behavior, the blonde man started chanting a spell quietly,

"Fire Magic: Blazing Fireball!" The blonde man said after a few seconds.

Instants later, a bright, big scarlet fireball appeared on top of the man's staff and started heading towards Jonah.

"Void Magic: Nothingness,"

With a simple whisper under his breath, Jonah made the big Fireball completely disappear as if it were a hallucination.

"Ice Magic: Glacial Spikes."

Suddenly, dozens of thick, sharp ice cones appeared all around Jonah. They floated in the air, simply waiting for Jonah's command.

"H-He's also a mage!" The mohawked guy said, stepping back in fear.

"An Ice Mage!" Someone from the crowd shouted, attracting attention towards Jonah.

"How does he not use a staff?!"

"Someone with Appraisal look at his status!"

"Appraisal is a very rare skill! No one in this crowd will have it, you stupid idiot!" A random extra shouted.

That's when a warrior suddenly jumped out of a nearby luxurious carriage. This warrior wore shining golden armor all over his body and had a huge longsword on his back. His blonde curly hair along with his blue eyes and sharp facial features made him a attractive individual.

"I, Keagen Tarolla, have the Appraisal skill!" The warrior shouted with a prideful look on his face.

"Keagen Tarolla? The S-ranked adventurer?!" Someone from the crowd shouted back.

"That's right! I'm also interested in this individual, so I'll gracefully use my Appraisal on him!" Keagen once again shouted.

Using his appraisal on Jonah, Keagen began to yell out Jonah's stats for everyone to hear.

-

[Name: Jonah Peterheart]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Class: Quad Elementalist Battle Mage]

[Level: 89] [XP: 241.766/415.010]

[Skills: Persuasive Speech (LVL. 5) • Quick Step (LVL. 9) • High-Regeneration (LVL. 4) • Aether Manipulation (LVL. MAX) • Pain Resistance (LVL. 4) • Stealth (LVL. 6) • Precognition (LVL. 1) • Thought Acceleration (LVL. 4) • Leadership (LVL. 4) • Bloodlust Sensing (LVL. 7) • Emotion Sensing (LVL. 3) • Hard Skin (LVL. 6) • All-Speak (LVL. 8) • Superhuman Endurance (LVL. MAX) • Superhuman Senses (LVL. MAX) • Superhuman Strenght (LVL. MAX) • Superhuman Speed (LVL. MAX)]

[Magic: Water Magic (LVL. 8) • Ice Magic (LVL. 9) • Lightning Magic (LVL. 6) • Earth Magic (LVL.5)]

[BP: 306.910]

-

Keagen fainted after seeing everything and so did a lot of the crowd, but some still remained strong.

"A Quad-Elemental mage?!"

"300 thousand Battle Power?! He must be a Hero!"

"Level 9 Ice Magic?!"

"He's level 89?! That's close to the Guild Master's level from the Adventurers Guild!"

"This man is too strong!"

The crowd was in an uproar with Jonah's status. Naturally, the men who were bothering Jonah earlier also heard everything...

'What monster did we just offend...' The mohawked guy thought, already accepting his death.

"I won't kill you this time, but there won't be a next. Get the fuck out of here!" Jonah said to the mohawked, fatty, and fire mage.

They immediately scrammed, afraid that Jonah's patience might run out...

Due to this little incident, Jonah's name quickly became famous throughout the waiting line. Tens of citizens approached him and asked him to take their place in line, to give them his autograph, to show them his magic, etc.

30 minutes later, he finally managed to reach the gates of Ebonick, and just needed to show the guards his status before he could be cleared to enter the city.

"Place your hand on the glass ball, please." Guard 1 said to Jonah.

"Sure," Jonah walked to the crystal clear glass ball that was on top of a simple wooden table and placed his hand on top of it.

In instants, Jonah's status screen appeared on top of the glass ball, but naturally, it was the fake one.

Seeing Jonah's status, both of the guards entered a state of complete shock.

"Y-You may enter, M-M-Mr. Peterheart..." Guard 2 said after getting out of his trance.

"W-Welcome to Ebonick..." Guard 1 added.

Jonah's lips curled into a smile and he nodded at both guards before making his way inside the city.

Walking for a few seconds, Jonah officially entered Ebonick, and he could already see why it was so popular.

In front of him was a large street filled with countless people entering and exiting restaurants, stores, and shops. Jonah's left and right sides were packed with people wearing strange, medieval-like clothes, with some even carrying swords, shields, bows, and staffs. He also saw that a small number of individuals actually had some pets with them. He saw people with magical turtles, fantastical birds, and some even had large beasts, such as a flaming black tiger, and an ape with yellow wings on its back.

'This place is awesome!' Jonah couldn't help but think.

Being the curious cat he was, Jonah made his way into every single establishment there.

Entering a store that he saw several people with staffs go in and out from, he started to look around the place.

"How can I help you, Mr. ...?" A cute blonde woman approached Jonah.

"Peterheart. And uh... can you guide me through what this store sells? I'm new to this city so I don't know much..." He kindly asked the lady.

"Of course, Mr. Peterheart!" She led him to a bookshelf that was filled with books. "These are what's called Spellbooks. By reading these Spellbooks, a mage can learn a spell which he couldn't learn by just leveling up his magic. You are familiar with the concept of magic, right?"

Awkwardly shaking his head, the lady chuckled at Jonah and began explaining,

"To start things off, you should know that not everyone can become a mage. Usually, only 1 in 1.000 people can become a mage, but just because they can, doesn't mean they do. Having the capability to become a mage is necessary, but hard work and determination are just as important. Only those that are born with a Magical Core - the place where an individual's Aether supply is - and are willing to work hard can have the honor to become mages.

"When someone is born with a Magical Core, they are also born with a Magical Affinity. Fire, lava, water, ice, earth, lightning, gravity, wind, light, dark, holy, and demonic are the 12 currently discovered elements, but some researchers and mages believe that there might be more. A person born with a Magical Affinity towards fire will have a much easier time to level up their fire magic than someone who doesn't have that affinity, but that doesn't mean that using Fire Magic is impossible for those without affinities, it's just much harder. To put it simply, someone with an affinity towards fire will reap twice the benefits with half the time, while someone without will reap half the benefits with twice the time. That's why Tri, Quad, Penta, or even higher Elemental mages are very rare throughout the world. Usually, a person is only born with 1 or 2 Magical Affinities, but there have been cases where they are born with 3, 4, 5, and even 6 affinities.

"Now, what do I mean when I say that a spell can be learned via Spellbook instead of leveling the magic up? I mean that, when a...let's say, Wind Mage, discovers his affinity towards Wind Magic, they will begin to train it to level it up. With each level up, a mage's spell arsenal grows, until it reaches the maximum level of 10. By then, a mage is a master of that element, and can almost use any spell of that element. However, some spells can never be learned by only leveling up your magic, and need to be learned by its Spellbook. Nevertheless, Spellbooks also have a magic level requirement, meaning that a level 4 Water Mage can't learn a level 8 Water Spell. One good thing to know about Spellbooks is that each one can only be learned by a single person. This prevents someone from buying a level 6 Spellbook and sharing it with their entire family. The Spellbook will automatically destroy itself after the owner has learned the spell inside it. Also, Spellbooks of up to level 8 all have several duplicates, but those of level 8 and above only have one version, which makes them very valuable." The lady gave Jonah a deep and easy explanation.

"Hm... Makes sense. Though, why do I see plenty of people carrying staffs around? Is it like necessary to have a staff for magic to work?" Jonah asked after contemplating the lady's words.

"Oh my, Mr. Peterheart, you really don't know anything about magic..." she giggled, "A staff is the object through which a mage channels their magic. The efficiency in channeling Aether and its potency is determined by the materials used to craft the staff, and mostly the Magical Crystal embedded on top. Since ancient times, only a handful of mages have been able to accomplish the incredible feat of staffless magic."

"Oh, so that's why! So, now that I know more about magic, can you explain the rest of the items in this store to me, please?" Jonah politely asked.

He then spent the next 20 minutes with Tessa - the lady who explained everything to him - and learned basically everything magic-related. He learned about Spellbooks, magical herbs, potions, and much more.

...

"Sir! Sir! Please wake up!" A man wearing an elegant suit nudged a guy who had his face on the grass.

With a loud and deep breath of air, the guy finally woke up. A confused expression clear on his face.

"What happened, Alfred?" The guy asked.

"You have been unconscious for nearly an hour, Sir! You fell to the ground after checking that Hero's status!" Alfred replied.

The guy wearing golden armor, once known as the Prideful S-Ranked Keagen Tarolla, seemed to be recalling his last moments before passing out.

"Alfred! We must find that Hero! Maybe he can help Father! Let's enter the city and find him!" Keagen commanded with urgency. A tint of hope clear in his bright blue eyes.