[[Volume 1]]: Humble Beginnings

  Chapter 5: Hidden History

  Lucien clapped and turned around. He began writing on the chalkboard. The words he wrote on the chalkboard appeared on the black squares on everyone's desks. He spoke as he wrote.

  ["We define our Year 0 as the year the 7 major nations consolidated their powers."]

  His chalk clicked on the board as he wrote.

  ["The White Gold Empire, The Democratic State of Arcana, The Kingdom of the Dragon Father, The Principality, The Theocracy, The Ultimate Covenant, and The Great Merchant Group all solidified their power blocks at this time. They formed the foundation of the modern geopolitical landscape."]

  ["Our continent, Rhalgj, was majorly occupied by our Empire, the Arcana States, the Kingdom, the Great Merchant Group, the Theocracy, and the Principality. The climate spans from a cold and desolate one at the top and bottom of the continent, versus a milder one nearer to the center, with deserts and forests scattered about, and a few mountain ranges."]

  ["The secondary continent, Khave, was majorly occupied by The Ultimate Covenant, The Great Merchant Group, and The Principality. The climate of this continent, which is split into three major islands, is mostly tropical. It is also dominated by mountains."]

  ["The third continent was overrun by beasts, and has been since the founding years. They are of at least Rank 13 Beasts, and any beach landing that has been attempted has been repelled by them. They are highly adapted to the climate of the 3rd continent. Several mages have also tried 'Teleporting' in. They have not been heard from since. It is assumed that several more Rifts have opened since the continent was first overrun, and now it has become inhospitable."]

  ["The power structure remained mostly stagnant for thousands of years, until 1027, when a Rank 12 Rift broke out in the Kingdom, and the last Dragon Father either died or went into hiding. This led to the slow decline of the Kingdom, and their neighbors, the Great Merchant Group, The Principality, and the Arcana States slowly ate into their territory."]

  ["As the years passed, The Ultimate Covenant forced the Merchant Group out of their continent and fully onto ours. They grew distant from the other nations, and continued trying to force The Principality off what they considered their continent."]

  ["Around a thousand years ago, a Rank 11 Rift opened in the Arcana States, which they conquered with extreme prejudice. It seems whatever they got from that Rift enabled their growth. They began to fortify their cities, while upgrading their roads to be larger, and more durable. Their economic output greatly increased."]

  ["About a hundred years ago was the Inheritance War which annihilated the Principality. The geopolitical structure of the world hasn't quite settled down from this disturbance. Ryath the Rune Mage died in this conflict. Thankfully, they had already left behind their preliminary notes on Runes. However, imagine where we would have been if they had survived the war. The rapid territory grab from the surviving six nations left them suffering from indigestion, especially The Ultimate Covenant, as they seized the rest of their continent, and abandoned all outposts on our continent."]

  ["And we now arrive to today, year 3424 post-unification. New technology emerges daily, forever shifting the balance of power in the world. Rune-based technology meshes with the power of steam to create powerful tools, and even more powerful weapons. The size of the world is shrinking thanks to the invention of long-distance vehicles. A nation was destroyed a hundred years ago. Will another one be destroyed? The world is barreling towards an unknown destination."]

  By this point, Lucien's writing had fully filled up three of the chalkboards.

  Tyrith's brain was a bit scrambled from the information. He had neglected to bring anything to write with, so he supposed he could just listen, and hope to remember the important parts.

  ["Now, I will move on to an overview of the current geopolitical situation of our world."]

  ["I'll start with our Empire. The White Gold Empire is currently the largest nation in the world, occupying hundreds of thousands of square kilometers.

  Our military power is the best in the world, and our intelligence agency, the Silent Chapter, is well-versed in both offensive and defensive operations.

  Our economy has been booming, thanks to trade with our neighbor the Merchant Group, and trade with our friends across the Cursed Region, the Arcana States. We have incredible mineral wealth, especially in magical materials like Marble and Gold.

  Our Empress, Kalactissia, has ruled for 20 years, and her rule has only increased the prosperity of our Empire."]

  ["Next is the Great Merchant Group. The Great Merchant Group is a bit of an enigma out of all the nations. They really have no structure and no defined leaders. They are only bonded together through economic incentives. Their goal is to make as much money as possible and to be the wealthiest of all nations.

  They accomplish this goal through trade with all of the nations. As one of our neighbors, we trade with them regularly. Try not to limit your imagination when it comes to them. They will do anything to accumulate wealth, from being sell-swords to selling Rifts.

  Their de-facto leader is Jean, the richest person in the world. His personal wealth could raise an army that would take down a nation."]

  ["Now, the Democratic States of Arcana. They are one of our staunchest allies. They have slowly risen in power over the years, from the least powerful to one of the most powerful nations. Their military and economy are both strong, no longer near the bottom of the totem pole.

  Their governing system is very labyrinthian, but I'll try to put it in simple terms. Their ultimate ruler is called the Overlord, and they are democratically elected by the enfranchised portion of the populace. The Overlord's power is balanced by the House of Justice and the House of the People. Then, it's a massive bureaucracy all the way down.

  The current Overlord is Drexar, a moderate who is nearing the end of his first term."]

  ["Next up, the Kingdom of the Dragon Father. The Kingdom of the Dragon Father has historically been our ally, but lately, they have been faltering in their devotion to our common good. We suspect this is because of whatever they lost in the Inheritance War.

  They function as a Kingdom, with a lineage of Kings. Traditionally, the Kings would be Dragons, but since the last dragon disappeared, the question of who should be King, and why, has rocked their Kingdom.

  Currently, their King is Cyrivar, 2nd of his name. His rule is still shaky, and he is focusing on appeasing the nobility, the Dragonborn. Their military might is ranked 3rd in the world, and their economy is in the dumps. They forgo modern technology, as they think it will dishonor their ancestors."]

  ["The Theocracy. The Theocracy has been historically opposed to us, which does make sense given that we're neighbors, and by their words, "godless" ones at that. We have always had small conflicts over resources. Once the Lord fell silent after the Inheritance War, they have mostly retreated to their borders, trying to stabilize their populace after that scare.

  In terms of government structure, their Pope is the ultimate power in the country. Below the Pope are four Cardinals who carry out his direct orders. The Cardinals are each in charge of one quadrant of their nation. Below the Cardinals are Archbishops, who each govern their county. Each Archbishop is in charge of some amount of Bishops, depending on the size of their county. The Bishops are in charge of Deacons, and so on and so forth.

  Their intelligence operatives are called the Holy Advocates, and their army is the Lord's Punishment. The Cardinal of War is commander of the Lord's Punishment, while the Pope is commander-in-chief. Their military might is rivaled only by ours, though their economy has plunged after the Lord's Silence. "]

  ["Finally, the Ultimate Covenant. I'll put it plainly, the Ultimate Covenant is damn spooky. We know next to nothing about them, and no one does. We don't know who leads them, or how they do it. We don't know the structure of their economy.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  All we know is that their actions are guided by the Covenant which is their namesake. And we know next to nothing about their Covenant. Any attempt at sending in spies has been foiled by their counterintelligence. We only know that one of the directives of their Covenant is to 'Prosper.' Luckily, they don't seem to be aggressive towards us. "]

  Lucien wiped the timeline he had written on the chalkboard to free up space.

  ["Let's get more in-depth with each nation now."]

  He kept writing on the chalkboard.

  {The Democratic States of Arcana...}

  After another hour of information being crammed into Tyrith's head, the students were dismissed from class. It was time for lunch.

  The dining hall was on the periphery of the buildings. Tyrith walked into it and got some food from one of the serving lines. It was cuts of beef, with bread, some leafy greens, and fruit. There was a glass of water as well. He looked around the room, surveying the tables. At one table sat a black-haired woman and a blonde-haired man, chatting. At another, there was a ginger-haired man, eating alone while reading a book. There were quite a few empty tables. Tyrith chose to sit down at one of the empty tables, for love of peace and quiet. He began eating his meal, which was notably tasty.

  He got absorbed in eating when he felt the table shake and looked up to see a tall, dark-haired woman slamming her hands on the table.

  ["Are you Tyrith?"]

  Tyrith wiped some crumbs off his mouth and then spoke.

  ["That's me. What do you want?"]

  The tall woman sat down.

  ["I'm also a student of Verrick. He said we would be training partners."]

  She stared seriously at Tyrith for a second, before holding out one of her hands to shake.

  ["I'm Saelyn, nice to meet you."]

  Tyrith reached out and shook her hand. It felt rough and calloused, and she had a strong grip.

  ["Nice to meet you too."]

  He massaged his hand after she let go. Saelyn sat down at the table and continued to stare at Tyrith. Tyrith noticed that her eyes were gold-flecked brown and very intense.

  ["You should join me at the training hall this afternoon. It would be good to get an immediate start to training if we are to complete Verrick's goals."]

  <"Hmmm... I'm not really a fan of physical training, but it is nice to have someone to practice the sword with who is more on my level. At least I can enjoy that aspect of this place. I'm unsure if any of the martial arts will be useful for me as a researcher, but I can at least do swordplay as a hobby.">

  Tyrith blinked himself away from his distracting train of thought and responded.

  ["Sure. I'll join you after the last class."]

  Saelyn nodded, then got up and left.

  Tyrith raised an eyebrow and then continued to eat, ruminating on the knowledge he had gained in class.

  After he finished eating, he placed his tray in a receptacle, along with his utensils.

  It was time for Tyrith's next class, Magic Theory and Experimentation.

  This one was, of course, in the same lecture hall that his Political History and Magic class was in.

  He chose to sit in the same desk that he sat in last time, for the comfort of routine. He looked around the class to see that most of the students in the last class were there too. He heard a thump to the left of him and saw that Saelyn had chosen to sit next to him. He gave her a quick wave and she waved back in response.

  Finally, the professor walked in. He was a stout, bald man, with a long beard and mustache. He had a mischievous look about him as he made his way to the desk. He snapped his fingers and then spoke.

  ["Greetings students! I am Dr. Ryan. I am a researcher of Combat Spells here at the Bladespire. I've also been teaching this class for 5 years now, so I've developed a feel for it. This class is slightly different from your other class, in that I'll teach you something, and then you'll try to put it into practice. Eventually, I won't be able to teach you anything more, and you'll have to do everything on your own. However, I will give you the tools to do so."]

  ["First lets go over the basics of Mana Gathering and Mana Circulation."]

  ["You should have been taught these in your primary Academies."]

  ["The idea of Mana Circulation is to take mana, either from the environment or from your core, and circulate it throughout your body, enhancing its recovery, and improving the quality of your spells."]

  ["Mana Gathering is the general term for techniques used to draw environmental mana into the body and into the core, replenishing your mana stores at a rate faster than the natural regeneration."]

  ["In your academies, you were taught only the most basic versions of these techniques. In this class, I will guide you through more advanced versions, and help you create your own personalized techniques. We will also have Mana Capture competitions later in the semester."]

  ["Please now view the mana flow of the room using the inner sight technique you were taught."]

  Tyrith saw the students around him close their eyes in the split second before he himself closed his eyes, and entered a meditation state. He saw the flow of the mana particles around him. Suddenly, all the mana particles rushed towards one point in the room, where the professor stood. They surged into him like a whirlpool, and he began to emit a bright blue glow.

  ["Alright you can stop looking now. That was just a demonstration of what you can do with a highly developed Mana Gathering and Circulation technique."]

  The air was now bereft of mana, and Tyrith swore it felt drier than before.

  ["Let us start with learning about Mana Circulation. Ideally, you want to create a Mana Circulation technique that will fit with the Foundation you will build. So yes, unfortunately, you have to plan ahead. The recommended techniques for the standard Foundations are all in the textbook, which can be found in the library. I call my Mana Circulation technique 'Starry Sky.' I concentrate mana at thousands of points throughout my body, then radiate it outwards from those points, before collapsing it back in. This allows me to be snappy with my recovery, targeting all points on my body at once, at a low intensity."]

  ["I want you to think about your own Mana Circulation technique, and attempt it. There is no danger here, as there are stabilizing runes present at every desk, so no there can be no Mana Deviation."]

  Tyrith had a faint idea of what he wanted as his Foundation, and it wasn't one of the basic Empire-provided ones. So he would have to get creative with his circulation technique. He wanted to base his Foundation on the 7 districts of Valenhome, dividing it into 7 parts, each having its own function. So to make a Mana Circulation technique, he would need to be able to control 7 streams of mana.

  Tyrith looked inward. He drew a stream of mana from his core with the basic Circulation technique and circulated it throughout his body. After a couple of circulations, he tried to split the stream into two, and he succeeded. What he did not succeed at was moving the two streams in separate directions. After several minutes of concentration, he succeeded in moving them in slightly different directions.

  After the time allotted by the Professor for practice had elapsed, Tyrith had managed to independently control 5 streams of mana.

  <"I'll have to practice more later to get up to 7. I also need to choose starting and ending points for each stream. Most importantly, I need to think of a cool name for it.">

  His train of thought was interrupted by Dr. Ryan speaking.

  ["Now let's talk about Mana Gathering. My Mana Gathering technique is called 'Violent Whorl.' I envision it pulling mana particles down into a whirlpool, with the strongest force closest to me, and falling off with distance. This allows me to quickly replenish my mana but has diminishing returns as I continue to use it. Again, you want your Mana Gathering technique to suit your future Foundation. It becomes harder to change these things as you advance."]

  ["Now, try to modify your basic Mana Gathering technique into something which will more suit you."]

  Tyrith looked inward. He decided to modify his Mana Gathering technique to have 7 primary locations that gather mana, in line with his Mana Circulation technique, and his theoretical foundation. He focused his will, and inscribed it into his core, more spectral hands appearing in the corners of his vision as he worked. The number of spectral mana gathering hands increased from four to seven slowly. He looked around him as he moved the seven hands and brought mana particles. Unsatisfied, he tried to change the 15 tentacles on each hand back to fingers, to have something more familiar to himself. He enforced his will, and the hands morphed back to a humanlike appearance. He looked at the mana particles around himself and sent his hands out to gather them. They captured mana particles and brought them back to his core. His speed of gathering had increased at least two times.

  He was satisfied for now, but he eventually wanted to be able to create an attraction force with his hands. He had tried doing this before, but the power of his mana core was too low. He would need to rank it up to at least the Dark Flecked stage before being able to do that.

  Tyrith spent the rest of class gathering mana, and waiting for the Professor to dismiss him. He estimated it would be a week or so to get to the next minor stage, the Solid Bright stage of the Red core.

  After class was finished, Tyrith made his way to Verrick's training hall as he had promised Saelyn. It had begun to grow dark outside, but the wide streets between the buildings were lit by Rune Lamps, powered by the ambient mana.

  He stepped into the dark training hall. It seemed there were no automagic lamps here. He fumbled in the darkness and found a switch on the wall. He flicked the switch, and the room lit up with a dim purple light, from a few lamps scattered across the ceiling.

  It seemed like Saelyn wasn't here yet. Last he saw, she was still practicing her Mana Gathering technique in class.

  He walked over to the weapons rack and picked out the same sword he had used against Verrick. He held it in his hand, feeling the smooth wood, and he brushed his hand over the blade, feeling the cold steel.

  Tyrith walked over to one of the training dummies, sword in hand. He took a grounded stance and swung. He made smooth contact with the dummy, but his sword had no impact on it.

  <"It looks like Verrick upgraded the materials of these dummies.">

  He swung again, harder this time. He followed it up with a stab at the dummy's heart, then another slash.

  Tyrith lost himself in attacking the dummy, pacing around it and fighting an imaginary adversary.

  He came back to reality, sweat dripping down the side of his head, breathing heavily when he heard a voice.

  ["You're here. Good."]

  Saelyn had arrived. Her face was red from the cold. She looked at him, and walked past him, picking up a sword from the rack.

  She spun to face him and leaned into a combat stance.

  ["Let me know when you're ready. No blood drawing allowed, this time."]

  Tyrith fell back into his stance, took a breath through his nose, looked Saelyn in the eyes, and nodded.

  ["Let's go."]