Disclaimer: Nothing in this FF is actually mine except the plot of the story~!

  This FF depicts scenes of violence and some cursing .

  '' speech ''

  ' thoughts '

  * sounds *

  *  *  *

  * ahhaaa * * ahhaaa *

  '' W, Wait, I can't, I can't do it. I changed my mind so let's just stay friends.''

  '' It's ok Curun?r, just relax. If you do this will be easier for the both of us. ''

  '' How can I relax when I know it's going to be so painful. ''

  '' It's going to be painful because your muscles are so tense. If you relax your muscles, it will... it will just slide in. ''

  '' Slide in? How can it slide in when it's that BIG ''

  '' Come on Curun?r, don't make me force you. ''

  '' You are forcing me. ''

  '' You already agreed about this. Take a deep breath and everything will be over before you realize it. ''

  '' No! I don't want to do this. ''

  '' Here I go. ''

  '' Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ''

  * * *

  TWO DAYS AGO.......

  After a good sleep Curun?r connected to Royal Road again. He appeared in the Blacksmithing Room at the exact point he had logged out before. By chance or not Caleb was in the room and once he saw Curun?r he told him to repeat what he did the last time with the weapons and once he was done, to move to the underground training room and practice for another ten hours.

  Curun?r started heating and cooling the blades with the help of his skill this time and he was able to finish much faster than the last time. Only five hours instead of eight and he was able to heat and cool every blade much closer to the desirable temperature. His skill was now at level three and half way to level four.

  Upon finishing up his current task, he made preparations for his training. He got buffs from art and the garden and proceeded at the third underground floor. There he again found Caleb waiting for him with a weird weapon in his hands.

  '' I noticed that you got the Concentration stat so, from now on you are going to practice with this weapon instead of the rapier. ''

  The weapon Caleb had in his hands was a long sword however, that long sword had no sharp edges and it seemed quite heavy.

  '' I thought I wasn't going to wield such heavy weapons furthermore, this sword doesn't even have sharp edges. ''

  '' This is a training sword and is going to help you improve your balance, your strength and reflexes but also stay focused. Why don't you try and check the sword by yourself? ''

  * Ding *

  '' Just touch the blade and say Identify ''

  Curun?r touched the weapon and said:

  '' Identify ''

  '' This.... This thing doesn't improve any of my stats, even worse, it kind of reduces them and I also receive damage. ''

  '' Exactly! Right now you have more stats than anyone at your level, but you can't say that you are more powerful too. ''

  '' What do you mean I am not more powerful? Am I not supposed to be stronger and faster since I have more stat points? ''

  '' Not really. What you have more are limits, not power. ''

  '' What is that supposed to mean, you are confusing me Caleb. ''

  '' Just think about it like this. When you walk you use only a small part of your agility and not all of it right? ''

  '' Yes. ''

  '' If you start running you are going to use some more of your agility and if you start running with everything you got then you are going to use even more, but not all of it. The reason is that your stats are actually your limits and not your power. Slowly you do improve, but it takes a lot of years to reach your absolute limits.''

  '' So you say with this sword I can reach those limits faster? ''

  '' The traditional way is to practice inside the water instead of practicing on land. The resistance of the water makes you use and depend on muscles you didn't even know existed. The sword has a similar effect since you will struggle to move around and use these muscles, and it also is heavy which is going to make your body reach your strength limits faster.''

  '' Now I get what you meant in the beginning. If for example I have thirty points of strength and I can use only fifteen of these points ,then someone with twenty five points of strength that can use twenty of his points is actually stronger than me. ''

  '' Yes, you got that right. Now start with the new training and try to stay focused or you will have to rest every five minutes to replenish your Health. When you are done come to the floor above, I will be waiting for you. ''

  Caleb left the room and Curun?r started his training. He was able to stay focused for a while but soon....

  ' Awww dammit this is going to be harder than I thought. '

  ' My moves are all over the place even after so much training I had the last time '

  ' Did I say moves? That reminds me of that girl Veronica, she definitely had some killer moves with that sexy ass. '

  ' And man, her boobs where out of this world too. '

  ' Awwwww DAMN IT '

  Curun?r let the sword and sat down. He still had more health, but he had to find a way to not lose health at all. His mind was getting distracted all the time and so after a while he decided that instead of trying to keep only particular thoughts in his mind, it would be better if he had no thoughts at all.

  He sat in a crossed legged position and tried to completely empty his mind. It wasn't easy, but he eventually succeeded. He stood up immediately and started his training again. This time it went much better and Curun?r lost health only once or twice in the next hour.

  Curun?r had already understood the theory of power and limits/potential of power Caleb had explained to him earlier and slowly he was starting to feel it too. In the beginning he thought it was harder to move the sword, but soon he came to understand it wasn't just the sword. It was his whole body that was harder to move.

  The feeling he got was that of trying to move in the water, but it was also like getting inside a room with higher gravity. In the water you feel the resistance when you try to move, but at the same time you can't feel the weight of your body. However Curun?r not only could feel his weight, but he felt heavier too.

  Three hours later Curun?r had only rested twice to clear his mind and his ' new ' muscles had started to awaken. He tried to keep his maditative state, even when he was hitting the scarecrow and let his body move on muscle memory alone and he got rewarded for that soon.

  * Ding *

  Curun?r was ecstatic. The biggest problem any combat class has is the lack of Mana. If he was able to level this skill at a particular level, he wouldn't have to worry about using his skills or spending money on mana potions.

  He had a break to eat one of Caleb's meals to fill his satiation. The meals Caleb provided him were normal compared to the dragon steak ,but nevertheless delicious and gave him a boost in Vitality and Stamina. Once he was done, he started his training again, wondering in what other ways his new skill supported him.

  The skill seemed to also help him keep that meditative state easier while he was hitting the scarecrow with everything he had. Without the buffs of the dragon steak, the progression of his sword mastery and increase of combat stats were much slower, however, not the same thing could be said about his Endurance, Sustenance and Concentration stats.

  When ten hours had past his Endurance, Sustenance and Concentration stats had increased at least by five each. It had been only a little more than a week and Curun?r had increased his stats like no other could in this amount of time. At two weeks time he would be able to finish his Basic Combat Training Program and also learn a bunch of other things. Much faster than others but that was due to the exclusive benefits he recieved from Caleb.

  He left the room and moved to the floor above. He opened the door and found himself inside a humongous library which was taking up the whole floor. Tens of rows of three meter high bookshelves and thousands of books. Curun?r would need more than a lifetime to read them all.

  '' Here you are! I need you to read this book. ''

  Curun?r took the book and sat on a chair. The book was about theories of magic Curun?r couldn't understand at all and most of the text seemed like gibberish to him. Random words one after another. He finished the book an hour later and returned the book to Caleb.

  '' So boy, did you get the skill? ''

  '' No, I didn't. In fact, I couldn't even understand most of the things in this book. ''

  '' HM... I thought so. ''

  '' You thought so what? ''

  '' Since you are Half-Blood Elf you definitely have some blood affinity, however you can't use blood magic. It seems only purebloods can use it. ''

  '' How is it possible to not be able to use blood magic when I have blood affinity? Aren't you supposed to be able to use an element once you have some affinity with it? ''

  '' For the other elements yes, for blood magic no. Blood magic like any other magic uses mana but, in this case the use of mana is similar to a catalyst. The power of blood magic comes from the power of the blood the Blood-Elves possess and once that power is mixed and used with mana you can do blood spells. ''

  '' But I thought there are others that can use blood magic, like some types of Shamans. ''

  '' What you are mentioning might seem like blood magic, but actually it's not. That type of magic is called sacrificial magic and these shamans you talked about sacrifice their blood to use that magic. There are many kinds of sacrificial magic. There is the kind priests have which by sacrificing their lives they can use that power to heal and cure masses of people or use the power to damage a very strong enemy. There is also the kind which by sacrificing offerings to lower gods or demons you can get power, either its physical or magical. Sacrificial magic is considered the strongest type of magic second only to blood magic, but when the Blood Elves faced extinction the blood magic wasn't seen or heard of ever since and that's how people with the little knowledge they had mixed blood with sacrificial magic. ''

  '' So what you're saying is, half of my ancestry is completely useless to me. ''

  '' What?! Of course not. You can't use blood magic skills but still, you can use blood fighting skills and believe me they don't luck at all. The only problem is that you will have to find how to get these skills on your own. ''

  '' Can't you teach me? ''

  '' Not I nor anyone else in this world boy. The Blood Elves are forgotten along with all their greatness. ''

  '' Then how come you know so many things about them? ''

  '' I am a bit special.... ''

  '' Which reminds me of all the things I want to ask you but never have the time to do so. ''

  '' You can ask me everything you want. ''

  '' Ok then I am going to start with the location. How can a castle and a garden exist in this cave and how come the roses are black and can grow without sunlight? ''

  '' I teleported the whole castle along with the garden inside this cave hundreds of years ago when I decided to live alone. The roses are special and they don't need sunlight to grow. Actually, they don't grow at all. Each of these roses exists for hundreds or even thousands of years. I made it so they won't wither and each of them as the name says represent a soul. Each time I was losing someone important to me, I put a black rose there and eventually the Garden of the Lost Souls was created. ''

  '' You have lost a lot of people. ''

  '' Yes, but it's already been hundreds of years since I put a flower there and I already mourned for everyone I've lost. Any more questions?

  '' Well, there are a million questions I want to ask, but for now I will do with one more if you don't mind. ''

  '' I already said you can ask me everything you want. ''

  '' How come you can eat normal food? When I asked you if you are a Vampire you said yes and less than an hour later you were eating the same meal as me. As far as I know Vampires can only drink blood. ''

  '' Yes, about that..... Let's just say I am a bit different than the rest of the Vampires but to explain that further I think you must read one of the books inside this library. ''

  '' A book? What kind of book? ''

  '' The only History Book inside this library to be precise. ''

  Caleb moved to the bookshelves and took several books which left on the table Curun?r was sitting in.

  '' Start with the big one, it's the book I talked to you about. Once you finish it read the rest, you are going to need them for our next lessons. I will also explain your previous question when you finish with the books, I will be waiting at the Blacksmithing room. ''

  Caleb left the library and Curun?r started reading the History Book.

  The story then continued by mentioning how Dragons who stood neutral were chased and hunted for their meat since it was a source of power. The dragons decided to hide their presence and some even moved to other realms. The story then skipped hundreds of years where a Human was able to unite all races and was named Emperor of the world. One of the greatest powers that Emperor had was to give life to his creations, second only to the power of his imagination.

  But then the Emperor like any short lived human, died and the union of races ceased to exist. Every race tried to claim more land for themselves and wars between them broke loose. In this pursue of power the Emperor's creations were named ' monsters ' and were hunted so the races could become stronger.

  After that only a few other events were mentioned until the story ended like that:

  Before he could even close the book he heared:

  * Ding *

  '' A difficulty ' A ' quest which I can't abandon. That kind of sucks....... I better check my other messages ''

  That was a massive boost in mental stats, but Curun?r was dumbfounded by the information and knowledge he got. He wondered how many people really knew the true history of this world, but most importantly, he wondered how Caleb was connected to the history of the world and maybe his quest. For this to be answered, however he would need to read the rest of the books Caleb had put on the table.

  He got the next book in his hands and started reading it. It was about mana and its proper use on magic and fighting skills. It had many theories and examples of different uses on mana and it commented on which of them were safe and which were dangerous. When he finished the book he got another stat increase in Wisdom and Intelligence along with a new skill.

  * Ding *

  The new skill looked interesting, but Curun?r couldn't understand why Caleb gave him a form of magic mastery when he trained to be a fighter. He decided to put his thoughts away for now and continue with the rest of the books. There were three green ones, three brown and a smaller black. He got the black one.

  The book was about body anatomy and once he finished it he also got the skill with another pair of stats.

  Next he read the brown books which it turned out to be Bestiaries. They had information on monsters along with their anatomy and weaknesses. Beside the mental stats, he was able to level up his newly Body Anatomy skill.

  The last three books had a lot of informations about herbs. Where they grow, how to dig them out, which are poisonous, which have healing abilities, which increase your stats and how they tasted.

  ONE DAY AGO.......

  His new skill was almost at level 3 when he finished the third green book. When he checked the time he noticed that fifteen hours had passed since he started reading. Finally done with all the books he stood up and headed to the Blacksmithing room. In the Blacksmithing room, Caleb was waiting him with a bag full of ores.

  '' I am sure you have a lot of question,s but I would appreciate if we could do this later when there will be no more lessons for the day. ''

  '' Ok, so what are you going to teach me now? ''

  '' I am going to teach you smelting. ''

  Curun?r stood next to Caleb, who was preparing the forge and the tools for smelting.

  '' Smelting consists of two parts. The first one is the melting of the ore and the second is the refining of the ore. I am going to teach you about melting first. ''

  Caleb put a metal bar inside a clay pot and then placed the pot inside the forge.

  '' Melting isn't something hard to understand, you just wait for the metal to get a liquid form. The tricky part however is that most of the time the ores you are going to find or buy will have mixed metals inside them. For example the metal I put inside the pot is a mixture of pure iron and silver. I chose this particular mixed metal on purpose since pure iron is a silver colored metal and you probably think it's difficult to separate them. Also, there are ores and mixed metals with more than two kinds of metals so you must have all your attention in the process when you are smelting. ''

  '' The whole process seems to be very time consuming. ''

  '' For the majority of blacksmiths, it is, since they don't have Mana Manipulation like you and me. ''

  '' What has Mana Manipulation to do with smelting? ''

  '' Just watch! ''

  Caleb put the palm of his hand close to the fire of the forge and suddenly the fire became bigger and its color changed several times. In the beggining, it was a normal yellow fire. Then changed to orange and only a couple of seconds later to red. About ten seconds later it changed again to blue and a minute after that it changed to white.

  '' I use the Mana Manipulation to feed the fire with my mana and thus make it bigger and hotter. The colors of the fire are yellow, orange, red, blue and white with white the hottest and yellow the coolest. ''

  He stopped feeding the fire with his mana and told Curun?r to try it too. Curun?r took a deep breath to clear his mind so he could focus on the task at hand. He could feel the Mana inside him move however he wasn't able to move it outside his body.

  '' Just visualize the mana exit your hand and going to the fire. You already have the power, you just lack the habit to use it. ''

  Curun?r tried again and this time he could bring out a small portion of his mana, which he fed to the fire. After a lot of trials and errors he was able to make a small stream of mana that left his right hand and went inside the fire.

  '' Good, it might seem a little hard for now, but when you level up Mana Manipulation this is going to be easy as breathing. It seems the silver finally started melting so watch what I am going to do now to separate the metals.''

  Caleb watched for a while the pot and then moved the solid metal to another clay pot and placed it again inside the forge. Then he got the first clay pot and poured the melted metal inside a bar form, where he left it cool.

  '' When you are smelting it's important to check the temperature of the metal with your heat and cool skill. After that you only need to know the melting point of the metals. The melting point of silver is at 960°C and iron's at 1538°C. I just kept the metals at 1000°C for a while to be sure all the silver will melt and then moved the iron to another pot. Now if you are going to use the melted metal, you put it in a form of a blade and then work it out depending on the metal you are using. If not, then put it in a bar form where you can keep it for later use. ''

  '' That means I need to level my heat and cool skill a lot so i know the precise temperature of the metals. ''

  '' Yeah, but it's ok since you don't need pinpoint accuracy. Now let's step to the second part of smelting, the refining. Metals have a lot of impurities in them and if you forge a weapon or armor with a metal full of impurities, the durability will be really low and there will always be the danger of the equipment breaking. Once the metal melts, you pass the liquid through refining tools which block the impurities and thus the alloy becomes pure. However, you are going to use your Mana Manipulation to do that, since it's good practice. ''

  Caleb then showed him how to pour mana into the now melted iron and told him that the areas the mana couldn't go through were where the impurities were. He then concentrated the poured mana under the impurities and forced them out of the melted alloy.

  After that Caleb told Curun?r to try it and continue the process with the rest of the ores.

  A few success later Curun?r was able to get the tenth and last skill he could generate without a class. Caleb told him to smelt all the ores in the bag and then meet him in the Greenhouse room. It took fourteen hours for Curun?r to finish all the ores, but he was rewarded handsomely with increases on his Endurance and Concentration stat and some level ups at Smelting and Mana Manipulation.

  At the Greenhouse room Curun?r learned how to dig out certain herbs and he also tasted some of them which gave him another level in Herbalism.

  Next and last in line for that day was the Alchemy room where they made some low level potions. Curun?r couldn't understand how he was able to make potions without the Alchemy skill until Caleb' explained to him about how heating and cooling along with his Herbalism were enough for him to make them.

  They spent eight hours at Greenhouse and Alchemy rooms and later moved to Caleb's study room where they could talk comfortably.

  '' Now that we are finished, you owe me some explanations. What is really your connection with the history of the world? ''

  '' To answer that I have to tell you the story of how I came to exist. ''

  '' I'm all ears. ''

  '' Long ago....

  Once Caleb started his story a cinematic appeared before Curun?r's eyes and a text window which was explaining the story.

  Curun?r was left with his jaw dropped. In front of him was one of the most important figures of this world and he was playing house and school with him. He finally knew why Caleb had taken him under his wing and how come he was the only one who liked him. He could also understand that a part of him was still feeling guilty even though thousands of years had passed.

  '' So your master was a Blood Elf and you are the original of your race. ''

  '' Not just any Blood Elf. He was the Blood Elf that created me and my brother Draven and also the Blood Elf that sacrificed himself to create this realm where Vampires and Werewolves could hide and exist in peace. ''

  '' Werewolves are hiding here too? But I thought this is a Vampire Kingdom. ''

  '' Yes, only Vampires live here now. A bunch of things can go wrong when you use magic of this magnitude and the worst thing that happened was the three Moons that exist in this realm. You can't even comprehend to understand how much it changed the Werewolves. That's why Draven took them all and left in search of a more suited place for them to live in. ''

  '' I'm sorry, you must miss your brother a lot. ''

  '' I do, but what it matters the most is that he is still alive. Like me, the time can't touch him. ''

  '' I wonder what he has been up to now. Does he live somewhere alone like you, waiting for someone? ''

  '' No way, Draven can't stay alone for more than a day. He is a very lively lad and he gets bored much easier than me. ''

  '' So what now? There is a reason you shared all these with me. What is it that you want from me? ''

  '' I intent to make you strong and then pass on the legacy my master Calethas left behind. Truth is you can't survive without my help. You need to become strong to stand alone in fights because you can't depend your life on anyone to save you. Also the crafting skills I am teaching you, are going to be really helpful, but at the same time you can use them as mask that hides who you are. ''

  ' Standing alone, huh? Exactly how I wanted. '

  '' You have been training and learning new things for two days in a row. I think it's time for you to take a rest and also absorb all the information you got today, although there is one more thing I want to do and I need you to accept it. ''

  '' What is it exactly? ''

  '' You see this castle used to belong to my master and when he completed a ritual which connected us like a father and son, we became bound to this castle and we were able to leave and come back via teleportation as we pleased. If we perform the same ritual then you will get bound to the castle too, and that way you can come back here if it's dangerous or if you need me something. ''

  '' I already accepted everything you offered me, I am not going to stop now. ''

  '' Good then let me start with the preparations of the ritual for today. Tomorrow when we complete it we will be father and son. ''

  PRESENT.......

  '' So for the ritual to be succesful, we need to do that! ''

  '' That? ''

  '' Yes! That! ''

  '' W, Wait, I can't, I can't do it. I changed my mind so let's just stay friends.''

  '' It's ok Curun?r, just relax. If you do, this will be easier for the both of us. ''

  '' How can I relax when I know it's going to be so painful. ''

  '' It's going to be painful because your muscles are so tense. If you relax your muscles, it will... it will just slide in. ''

  '' Slide in? How can it slide in when it's that BIG ''

  '' Come on Curun?r, don't make me force you. ''

  '' You are forcing me. ''

  '' You already agreed about this. Take a deep breath and everything will be over before you realize it. ''

  '' No! I don't want to do this. ''

  '' Here I go. ''

  '' Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ''

  * prick *

  '' See? Already done, I got the sample. But seriously, how can a Blood Elf even if it is a half, be so afraid of such a tiny needle.

  TO BE CONTINUED

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  That's Chapter 7 folks! It came out much bigger than I planned. Sorry for being late.

  Have fun {[999aag}]