Let the journey begin

A CLANG RESOUNDED in the silence as my mother dropped her fork onto her

plate.

"What? Reynolds! Arthur isn't even four yet! No. Besides, you said if our

son was an augmenter, you would be able to teach him." Mother's

desperation was evident in her tone.

"But I never expected he would be this much of a prodigy in mana

manipulation," Father responded, much more calmly. "Who's ever heard of

an awakening at the age of three?"

"But that means he'll have to leave home. He's not even four, Reynolds! We

can't have our baby leave home at such an early age."

"You don't get it. When I observe him while he meditates, I can't help but

feel that this all comes naturally to him. Alice, honey, I'm holding my son

back by trying to teach him something he can do in his sleep."

Thus began my parents' quarrel.

They went back and forth, basically repeating their initial points; Mother kept

saying that I was too young, and Father argued that they couldn't hold me

back from reaching my full potential. In the meantime, I was playing a game

of war with my food. The peas attacked for the Mother Empire, while the

carrots of the Father Nation desperately defended their land.

Finally, as they each ran out of points to back their argument, my father

turned to me. "Art, this concerns you, so you have a say as well. How would you feel about going to a big city and having a teacher?"

I applauded his effort at trying to make this fair, but I didn't think he realized

that he was asking a three-year-old to make a decision that would ultimately

change his life.

Trying to put an end to their argument, I said, "Can I meet some mentors and

ask them if I need to be tutored?"

A tense silence fell over the room as my parents mulled over my suggestion.

Had I stepped on a landmine? Were they mad because I hadn't chosen a side?

Having no confidence in my ability to keep a poker face, I looked down and

waited for their response.

Thankfully, none of my fears were on their minds. My mother finally spoke,

muttering quietly, "We'll at least have his mana core and channels formally

tested. We can figure out what to do from there."

My father nodded in agreement, and we began making preparations to leave

the very next day.

When I'd made my suggestion, I had assumed we'd be going to a nearby

town or city—perhaps a day's travel—to have me tested by a qualified mage.

Never had I been so wrong.

The journey would be three weeks long. We would be travelling by horse-

drawn carriage through the Grand Mountains to a city called Xyrus.

One of the books I had read popped into my mind. I recalled reading about a

floating piece of land, built by an elite organization of conjurers for the sole

purpose of housing the prestigious mage academy. A city had later been built

around the academy, and both the city and the academy were named after the

leader of the organization, Xyrus.

I wondered how it was possible to keep a piece of land, nearly a hundred

miles long, afloat. Magnetism? Then the land beneath the city would be

affected by it. Did the city have its own gravitational field? It was clear that

there was much about this world I didn't understand; perhaps I could find

answers in the books in our library, or in a library in Xyrus.

Faced with the prospect of such a long journey, I began to wish this world

had sources of transportation like my previous world. In order to get to the

city, we'd have to enter through one of the designated teleportation gates in

the Grand Mountains. Otherwise, it would easily take months to travel across

the continent to reach the gate below the actual city, which floated near the

border of the kingdoms of Sapin and Darv.

One reason my father pushed for us to go on this journey now was because

his ex-party members were also on their way to the city of Xyrus. Going

now, with them, meant we would have three augmenters and two conjurers,

along with my mother, who was a rare emitter, and my father, a B-class

augmenter. While the mountain range didn't have any mana beasts, there

were still the potential dangers of bandits and wild animals.

While my mother and father took care of packing all the necessities, I packed

my wooden sword and two books—The Encyclopedia of Dicathen and

Foundations of Mana Manipulation—for the journey.

By mid-morning, we were ready to head out.

After tying my knapsack, filled with my books and a couple of snacks, to my

back and strapping my wooden sword to my waist, I grasped my mother's

hand and followed my parents to meet their former party members. Although

I'd heard about them from time to time from Father, I had never visited the

house while they were helping rebuild it, so this would be my first time

meeting them.

When we reached the inn at Ashber, we saw them out in front, near the

stables. My father rushed to hug his ex-party members, then exclaimed,

"Guys, I'd like you all to meet my son, Arthur. Go on, Art, say hello."

Looking up at them as I gave a half-bow, I introduced myself using the most

formal speech I thought I could get away with.

"Hello. My father has told me great things about his fellow Twin Horns

members. Thank you for traveling with us to Xyrus. We'll be in your hands."

One of the men burst into laughter and said, "What is this? Such manners!

Are you sure he's your son, Rey?" From my father's stories and his red hair, I

recognized him as Adam Krensch, an augmenter whose main weapon was the

spear.

Taking a closer look at him, he seemed like the energetic, talkative type.

Fairly good-looking, he had bright red hair tied into a messy pouf, almost like

a flame. His bangs escaped from the hair tie, and he looked like some sort of

vagabond. His eyes were bright and seemed to be always laughing. The most

noticeable thing about him, though, was the scar across his nose, reaching

both cheeks.

As I studied him, I felt myself being lifted and held firmly against something

soft while a woman's voice said, "Awww… Isn't he just so precious? You

should be glad he doesn't look like you, Reynolds."

Pulling my face away from her breasts, in which she seemed to be trying to

suffocate me, I took a good look at the woman. While not as pretty as my

mother, she gave off a "royal princess" vibe, with long blond hair that came

to a curl at the ends and round, radiant green eyes. She could only be Angela

Rose, a conjurer whose specialty, according to my father, was wind magic.

She squeezed me tighter and, just as I began to squirm uncomfortably, a

strong pair of hands grabbed me by the knapsack strapped to my back and

whisked me away.

"Angela, you're hurting him," a deep voice grunted.

There I hung, like a kitten whose mother had him by the scruff of his neck,

unable to move. My eyes remained fixed on the dark-eyed giant who held me

suspended in midair. Then he carefully lowered me back onto the ground and

tidied my clothes.

How genteel.

I imagined riding on his shoulders the whole way, as if he were a mighty

steed. I looked up at him, my eyes getting bigger as I pondered.

Since he was the only other man in the party, I knew he had to be Durden

Walker, a conjurer who specialized in earth magic. Standing well over sixfeet in height, he had very narrow eyes and eyebrows that slanted down,

giving him an almost innocent face compared to his enormous body. A staff

was strapped to his back, and the short, scruffy black hair on his head

completed his shaggy dog image.

Dusting my clothes off, I turned from the giant to face the woman standing to

his left. She looked slightly younger than everyone else. Her straight black

hair was partially tied up with a ribbon, and her red, half-open eyes and

pursed lips gave her an intense appearance.

"Mhm," she said brusquely, then gave a slight nod and turned away. Clearly

a woman of few words. How charming.

Watching as she walked away toward the stable, I spotted two short daggers

strapped to her lower back, just above the hips. The weapons told me that she

was Jasmine Flamesworth. My father had told me that her skill as an

augmenter paled in comparison to the speed with which she wielded the dual

daggers.

The last member of the Twin Horns was Helen Shard.

She patted my head

lightly and gave me a charming smile. Everything about Miss Helen was

sharp: sharp eyes, perky pointed nose, thin red lips, and an angular frame.

With her shoulder-length hair tied tightly back, she looked almost boyish. I

couldn't help but be charmed by the charisma the augmenter exuded; she had

a 'we can do anything if we believe' attitude that seemed to seep from her

pores and make her practically glow.

Clothed in light leather armor with her

bow and arrows strapped to her back, her appearance made me wonder

briefly if she might be an elf, but I quickly abandoned that thought after

seeing her rounded ears.

After we finished loading all our travel necessities into the two carriages we

were taking, we were ready to strap in what I'd thought would be horses. But

to my surprise, the stable hand brought out a pair of giant lizards, which were

called skitters. Domesticated mana beasts used for transportation, with spikes

across their backs and powerful claws, these D-class monsters were muchmore efficient, if more expensive, than horses for travelling mountain terrain.

When we were finally ready, I hopped up onto the second carriage, using a

little mana to strengthen my legs. Lately I'd gotten the hang of using my

mana to reinforce my body. I had yet to fully test what I was capable of, for

fear of giving my parents heart attacks by showing off too much, but it was

already becoming more natural for me to direct my mana from my core

through my mana channels. I leaned up to look out the window as the skitters

began pulling us along.

Let the journey begin!

By nightfall, the once-distant mountain range seemed to have doubled in size,

and I wondered how big the Grand Mountains would be when we reached the foothills. The excitement of being out of the tiny outpost of Ashber, my

hometown, had not worn off yet. The thing I detested most about this body

was how much sleep I required. Despite my desire to see the country as we

traveled, I'd slept most of the way, and I still felt heavy-eyed though I'd only

been awake for a few hours.

We eventually stopped to make camp near a small cluster of boulders. It was

an ideal spot to shelter, with the rocks blocking nearly all the wind and plenty

of fallen branches to use for the campfire. The adults set up a couple of tents

around the fire, and my father and mother had begun conversing with the

Twin Horns about old times when Helen sat down next to me.

She said nonchalantly, "I heard your pops say you're some kind of genius

mage. Is it true you've already awakened?"

Not knowing how to respond, I just replied with the truth. "Yes."

She began questioning me, asking things like how I'd felt when I awakened

and what color my mana core currently was. By this time, a couple of curious

ears had perked up.

Adam asked, "Hey, Reynolds, do you mind if I test little Art?"

If anyone had asked me, I might've said something along the lines of,'Maybe mock-fighting with someone my age isn't the best idea, since a

normal three-year-old's great accomplishments at this point would be going

up and down stairs with alternating feet, walking in a circle, and perhaps, if

he was really coordinated, balancing on one foot for several seconds,' but

apparently that sort of thing never occurred to anyone here.

Both my father and mother seemed a bit hesitant at first, but they trusted their

old comrade. Finally my father replied, "All right, but be careful. I haven't

had the chance to teach him how to properly fight yet. We've just been doing

light strength and mana exercises so far."

Adam got up from his makeshift log seat and looked around until he found a

short stick he felt satisfied with.

"Come here, kid," he said with a chuckle. "Let's see what you're made of."