Albert Greenwood

A young boy could be seen looking out of his window at the setting sun, an unsightly expression on his face and furrowed brow. No matter how he thought about it he had a felling that something was not quite right about his situation. Shaking his head and not thinking about it anymore he decided to visit his mother.

Just as he was about to entre his mother's room he could hear doctor some distance away telling someone how bad the poison was and how painful it must be for Alberts mother. Hearing this he felt like his heart was being stabbed by multiple knifes, his face again covered with a even more unsightly expression, he sighed then knocked the door and entered his mother's room with a happy expression. As soon as he entered he could see his mother smiling at him and trying ever so harder to hide her pain. Sighing again he sat beside her.

"You don't have to hide it, I know it must hurt a lot" said Albert with water in his eyes..

"I am not hiding anything honey, I am felling a lot better now" said his mother with a gentle and warm smile.

"Don't worry mother although I haven't found the antidote yet but the Family is hosting a competition among our generation Acolytes to select those going to the Academy" he said encouraging himself and his mother.

He then proceeded on telling the details of the competition and how the winners will get any one of their wishes fulfilled. After that they talked more than two hours, then he finally decided to leave and let his mother rest. He was just about to open the door when he heard,

"Albert don't trust the Greenwood Family"

He turned around and looked at his mother's serious face, staring at her for sometime. Then he turned and left without saying a single word, as soon as he left her room an unsightly expression appeared on his face, afterwards he went to his room standing at the same spot, near the window.

Furrowing his brow, he started thinking of the same question that kept repeating in his head since yesterday. Why would anyone poison his commoner{mortal} mother? And that too with such a rare poison, this poison didn't kill her but made her suffer from incredible pain due to which she would die painfully after two months. He knew that she would survive for atleast 30 days but still he couldn't bear to watch her suffer from such pain. Does that person really hate her this much to make her suffer like this, but still he knew that it was very unlikely that the person who poisoned her had any hatred for her but it has something to do with him. Thinking about this his hatred for the person who poisoned her increased by leaps and bounds.

Although Albert was one of the most talented or we can even say the most talented Acolyte in the Greenwood Family's current generation but he never had interest in going to the Academy. It was not like, Albert didn't like magic, you can even call him a Magic Fanatic but he just didn't like combat magic that much.[ Academy mainly focuses on combat magic ]. He knew that many of his siblings considered him their main rival in this competition and would do anything to win the competition and go to the Academy where the seats were limited, so out of fear or you can say to avoid an unnecessary trouble he had publicly announced his lack of interest in going to the Academy.

But despite all of that, why would anyone poison his mother, which would force him to participate and fight with all his might for the winners position rather than to make him concede from the competition. He was very confused at this point and didn't know what to think of it but after thinking for sometime he shook his head and thought.

"Well doesn't matter, I have to win this competition anyways" Determination flashed in Alberts eyes as he thought along the lines.

**

While this was going on in Alberts house, similar things happened in nearby houses where nearly 200 Acolytes who had their own different reasons to participate and win this competition, but at this time their eyes were glowing with strong determination and sometimes with cold gleans.

**

At the same time two old experienced eyes were seeing all this happen and gave a somewhat horrifying smile. These pair of eyes were of non other than the Family Head of Greenwood Family. Standing beside him was another old man who was looking towards Alberts house with a complicated look in his eyes, he sighed and asked the Family Head "Aren't you being too harsh with him"

"Harsh, hahaha" laughing sinisterly the Family Head said" This world itself is harsh and unfair where even survival is not guaranteed, he.. he is living his life far too peacefully and is taking every resource that Family gives him for granted, he should witness the massacre that happens for the potion that he takes daily"

With even more sinister laugh he continued " He is too naive, to think of himself as some scholar who would research magic and live a peaceful life far from these struggles"

"Too naive, he thinks of treating everyone equally and is trying to become some kind of hero who would save commoners from all discriminations and make a technique for them that can help them use mana and become mages like us"

"Really too naive, does he thinks he is the first one to think of all these things of saving commoners, if anyone can become a mage then who is going to provide them all with resources to become one but does he thinks of that, NO... all this because his commoner mother ahhh..., although he is still a small kid and is foolish but still I can't let such a talent to get wasted for such bullshit" at this point Family Head was fuming with anger and frustration.

Listening to all this the old man beside Family Head looked at him giving him his most genuine smile and said "You are such a good Family Head, using your precious time to guide a junior who is going on a wrong path, such a good Family Head"

Hearing this the Family Head's face instantly become calm as if all that anger and frustration was just and act, although his face was calm inwardly he was cursing this old man for seeing though his act.

**

Albert sat down on his bed with the same determination in his eyes, he was going to win no matter what and for that to happen he had to make full use of the 10 days in smartest way possible and increase his chances of winning even so slightly.

Although Albert was naive enough to think that the world was a sweet place and he can live a happy life but not foolish enough to think that he would never have to fight. And for this he had obviously bought many Rank 0 spells among them there were also many battle spells from which he had selected best ones for him and had been practicing ever since he became a level 1 acolyte which was 4 years ago.

Albert was a Level 2 Acolyte and can utilize 40 percent of the full power of any Rank 0 spell. Rank 0 spells are for Level 5 Acolytes who can utilize their full power. [Power of spell is varying between different levels of Acolytes it is because of amount of mana stored in their mana heart is varying between different levels of Acolytes. ]. Although sea of consciousness of the Acolytes are not unlocked but they can still harness mental energy[extremely minute] to form spell constructs and channel mana though them to perform a spell.

Aptitude of a Acolyte depends on amount of mental energy, speed of mana regeneration {naturally} and the speed needed for a Acolyte to construct their first ever spell construct{Learning capabilities}.[There are also some other factors that can't be explained now]. But aptitude is not everything for a Mage/Acolyte. Aptitude doesn't even matter during fights [mostly]. It just shows how fast/quick a Mage/ Acolyte can progress further in their ranks{realms}.

Every Acolyte has different affinity towards different elements of nature. Albert has a higher affinity towards light and fire. Which means if he were to use a spells of light element then his spell would have 80 percent of its original power{ at level 2 acolyte} and if he were to use Fire then his spell would have 60 percent power.[Primary Element: 2x power, Secondary Element: 1.5x power].

In a battle between two acolytes the factors affecting the battle are, battle experience, faster spell casting, choosing right battle spells beforehand, using some basic everyday spells in battle uniquely, practice in every battle spell, calm mind [Acolytes are generally young hot-bloods who can go sway in emotions].

As far as Albert was concerned, he has selected 1 attack spells, 2 defense spell and 3 supporting spells. Spell constructs for acolytes are rare and expensive but these things are for poor acolytes to consider, for a genius/talented acolyte like Albert they were given to him for free as a goodwill of Family[to make him feel gratitude towards family]. Although he can get many spells and overwhelm his opponent with unpredictability and always use a spell that is at advantage to the spell type used by his opponent [like using water against a fire affinity acolyte, etc] but that was just not possible, because to use them in battle prior practice was needed. With limited mental energy of acolytes they can't focus on the battle at the same time form the complicated spell constructs, channel mana into them by its specific order. Any slightest mistake during the spell construction or the mana channeling can result in the construct being broken and suffer a backlash from it. A backlash during a battle can determine the winner or loser.

Albert knew that he was very inexperienced in battle and which cannot be build in a short amount of time, therefore he decided to focus on his strengths and ignore his weakness for this competition. If he was correctly informed the he had 10 days before the competition, so he sat there making his plans and constructing a proper schedule of 10 days so to make to make best use of them.

After that he again though of his mother and how important this competition was for him, reminding himself constantly of how his mother had only him to relay on and how much she meant to him. After going though all this his eyes again began to shine with determination to do anything to win this competition.