Into the Wilderness

Every night I went to bed with aching muscles and an empty core, and one could understand my frustration when my sleep was interrupted with moans of procreation from my parents room.

The royal palace, equipped with the best amenities in the nation, lacked soundproofing. I sighed, hoping this wouldn't become a frequent thing.

But then a morbid thought crossed my mind, siblings of royal blood generally murdered each other to sit at the throne. I could only hope my new sibling wouldn't try to kill me in my sleep.

A few moments later, their moans stopped and I sighed in relief, finally I could slee-

And a new slew of carnal noises replaced the old, seriously? Round 2 already?

Needless to say, I didn't sleep that night.

The next morning I had bags under my eyes, a bad case of bed hair, and a cranky mood.

Virion noticed this, and slapped my back, "Hahaha, couldn't sleep?"

I sent him a glare that would make even kings wet their pants in my old world, but he had the audacity to laugh at me.

I spent the rest of the day more aggressive than before.

My fifth birthday began as usual, the only major difference being my mom's belly, she was 9 months pregnant.

But around halfway through everything came crashing down. My mother experienced agonizing pains, and having experienced childbirth once she knew what to do.

Instantly everybody was shooed out, and my mother was carefully carried to a bed. Not five minutes later the royal doctor scampered into the room as me and my father held moms either hands.

It was a grueling process I had never seen occur, hell I almost went ballistic when the doctor stuck his head inside her gown.

'You dare take advantage of her when she's incapacited?!'

Virions hand pulled down on my shoulder, preventing me from skewering the man's testicles with blazing blue fire.

I calmed down enough to let him do his job, realizing that's where babies come from.

'...I'm an idiot.'

It felt like hours had passed, when it might have only been minutes. My hand was numb from my mothers death grip but I didn't mind.

It didn't take much longer for her to finish giving birth and the doctor swiftly cut the umbilical cord before wrapping the baby in a towel.

"Congratulations your majesties, it's a girl."

'This feels awfully familiar.'

.

.

.

Tessia Eralith they named her, I didn't see much of her, what with most of my time being spent in training. But when I did, they were some of the happiest moments of my new life.

Although she was a normal child, so she wasn't able to talk or understand us until she was 4, but by then I was no longer home.

After years of being trained in both physical combat and magic, I was now eligible for adventuring and dungeon diving. But as expected my parents weren't too thrilled about the idea. Even though I had 5 years of training and a dark yellow core.

Speaking about my core, something seemed off with it. Instead of it being the mass of mana it was supposed to be, it became clear that it was much more as I advanced further. I could notice how parts of it were tinged purple for some reason and the center of the core was uncharacteristically dense.

"No." My mother said in a heartbeat, "You are too young."

"Mom, I'm 8 and a dark yellow core quadra-elemental mage." I deadpanned at her, not mentioning my beast will which Virion had trained me to master the first phase of. I had only just unlocked the integrate phase.

"Yes, you're eight. You're too young to be travelling alone." She remained adamant.

"I'll be fine." I insisted.

"Fayden, your mother is right, you are too young to go out into the world by yourself."

I sighed, "Please, just this once!"

My parents shook their heads silently.

Something tugged at my leg, and I looked down at three year old Tessia bringing her arms up to me.

I melted then and there, picking her up in my arms and bringing her close to my chest, 'Maybe I should stay a bit longer…'

.

.

.

That night gramps woke me up after everyone was asleep.

"Get up brat, we do not have much time."

"Can't this wait until tomorrow?" I yawned, getting out of my bed, it was 2 am for fucks sake.

"Then I suppose you don't want to go adventuring." Virion mentioned casually as he started walking to the door.

"Whoa, hold up!" I bolted towards the door, all my drowsiness leaving me.

My grandpa chuckled, "That got you up."

Shaking my head clear of all thoughts of sleep, I grabbed the sword I had been gifted.

"You won't need that." My grandfather's voice stopped me, "I have your belongings packed already." He hurled a ring at me, its heavily adorned design making it clear just how much it could store.

I blinked in surprise, "Thanks…grandpa."

"Don't mention it," Virion laughed, ruffling my hair, "Go and enjoy your life out there."

I nodded once more and bolted out the window, noticing the number of guards below it had dwindled. I grinned, a red rune formed below my eyes which glowed in their usual mixture of red and turquoise. And in a flash of black mist, I was gone.

.

.

.

I was a conjurer, I commanded the very elements of nature itself to be my weapon. I could make sickles of wind, blades of fire, arrows of water and hammers of earth. Yet my grandfather knew me well enough to include a sword in my belongings.

I'd need to thank him again when we next meet. He knew exactly what I needed.

I had been given a cloak made from the hide of a nightmare fox, making me undetectable unless they knew exactly where to look. It was a useful piece of equipment which turned people's eyes away from me.

As if that wasn't enough, he made sure to include a mask to hide my identity. It was a simple mask covering my face and eyes with a single vine running like a lightning bolt diagonally across it.

Apart from that there was a seal to block my usage of fire and wind magic. That meant I only had access to water and earth magic. I cursed under my breath, I had the most prowess over fire magic. I sighed, at least I could still use water magic.

There was no way I could get an adventurer license with me being an elf since the ones who ran the guild were rather racist. I huffed indignantly, 'Let them try and stop me.'

I got up from my seated position, dousing the fire with a conjured ball of water, and removed my seal. Let's see how well this blade holds up against quadra elemancy.

The four elements burst out around me, the earth fracturing, lightning flowing through my veins, ice coating my blade and wind augmenting my movements.

________________________

2 years later

It's not an exaggeration to say my efforts have given me a number of opportunities. I mean seriously, do you really think 2 years of mana beast massacre wouldn't bear fruit?

I've grown considerably, and my control in the elements have significantly improved, especially so in the earth element, something which I had thought to be impossible. I seriously needed to thank gramps when I got back.

I had made a name for myself these past few years, and there were rumors flying about a pre adolescent boy wielding blades conjured out of pure ice and earth. Hell some even thought I was a dwarf. The Aurean, they called me and I won't deny, I like that title.

I had saved a dungeon for a while, thinking I was not strong enough to face it. An A class dungeon which no one was booked to go in for the next few days. That worked perfectly for me, I did not plan to hold back in this dungeon, and would prefer it if no one else saw me using elements I wasn't supposed to be using.

Fishing out a map from my dimension ring I located where the dungeon would be, and boy oh boy I had a long way to go. I sighed, glancing around for any stalkers and 'activated' the first phase of my beast will.

I had learned that unlike other beast tamers, my acquire phase was in a constant release state, that meant I had a permanent rune under my unnaturally glowing eyes. Now with enough control I could dim them enough that they're imperceptible, but I could still feel it there. But whenever I used any ability of the will this effect will be erased and my eyes will temporarily become flashlights.

This 'phase' came with three abilities, one which I aptly named [Void Step] for its use in allowing me to teleport long distances in an instant and leave nothing but black smoke behind. It was a really versatile ability, allowing me to easily evade even the strongest of moves, or even tactically retreat when the situation deemed it so.

The second one I named [Fragmented Psyche] which allowed me to control the emotions of people around me, for instance I could make someone feel relaxation in the middle of a battle, forcing them to drop their guard. This ability also allowed me to increase the amount of pain felt by someone, I had broken multiple mana beasts while trying to test this ability. Oops…

Anyways the third and final ability was less of an ability and more of a whole new branch of magic. Just as there are four basic elements of magic, this was a separate form of magic allowing me to manipulate the light and the shadows to my will, photokinesis and umbrakinesis if you will.

Unlike elemental magic however, this didn't use mana. In fact, it seemed to use a completely different form of energy, a particle which seems to constantly change colors between black and silver.

As to how I got this energy, I discovered once I had hit the light yellow stage that there was a condensed sphere of this very same energy at the center of my core, while gazing onto it I felt like I was looking into the very stars in the night sky, and so I decided to name this form of energy Nacht.

Once I had confirmed there was no one else around me, I relaxed. The red runes reappeared under my uncharacteristically glowing eyes, and my body shifted through space, leaving behind a wisp of black smoke in its wake.

The Pit of Heresy was a dungeon very few adventurers dared to enter, it earned its name due to the demonic beasts that inhabited it. Some say it's a gateway to hell itself, but I digress.

The entrance to this dungeon was embedded into the ground, a faint red glow cascading off of its obsidian walls.

I cracked my neck, pulling my blade out of its sheath as I imbued it with water mana. A layer of pressurised water coated its edge, the already razor sharp blade now able to slice through steel and earth like butter.

I took a step forward, entering the so called 'Hell on earth'.