Alie (END)

'What do you see?'

Alie heard a voice in his head. At the moment, he had been looking at the dragon with pleading eyes, and hearing that, he turned around to see if someone had whispered it to him.

'Look at the world around you.' The voice urged.

Suddenly, Alie took note of the beauty that was laid in front of him. He could see colorful red and yellow particles rising from the ground, which was also glowing red and yellow at the moment. The hotter the area was, the brighter the particles were. He watched them move in astonishing speeds, but somehow he could see them.

'You are looking at the fire elementary particles,' the voice went on, as though it was an instructor to a student. However, even the training was more intuitive, as though understanding was being sent straight to the mind without the need for words.

Alie began to understand the elements of fire. Dane was a good teacher, and with his enhanced mind control abilities, passing knowledge directly to the soul of a mortal was an easy task.

The Fire element was similar to the light element. In some technological civilizations, they called the fire element infrared radiation and the elementary particles' photons. Everything that gave off heat gave off these particles. Alie should not be able to see them as it was impossible for a mortal, but Dane had an appropriate teaching spell to use on him.

He expanded Alie's mind to be able to see the elementary particles themselves to give him understanding, instead of the blur caused by them moving too fast. Their violent and dizzying speeds caused by the fire element had an effect of the wielder, and most ended up being extremely hot-headed and overbearing, such as the command of the fire.

There was no better teaching ground for someone of the fire element since this entire place was an amalgamation of the three elements, fire, earth and storm elements, and of course, the life and time elements. Of these, the fire element was predominant, and hence both Dane and Alie were extremely overpowered.

Alie was at the novice rank, which meant that he was just gaining an understanding of the element. At this point, those who'd awakened elemental based abilities could exert a measure of control over these elements, and the more these elements there were, the more powerful the wielder would be.

A fire mage, as Alie could be called now, would have a hard time-fighting in snowy environments, and but in such an environment, he was overpowered. Of course, due to the thunder element, had Bamboo been here, he would also be totally at home.

All this he understood from the simple words said by that voice. It was almost as though he had received the knowledge, and all he needed to do was think about it to understand it. It was as though he had received a zipped package, and the thinking about it part was the process of extracting the package.

Dane had decided to use the same curricular he had been trained under, the famed curricular of the Maa faction. It wasn't that difficult or that mysterious, which was why most people preferred to use it. It had been created by the universe creator, and based on the essences he released in the universe, he recommended all those that sort power to use it.

Of course, some came up with different curricular, but most were just derivatives of this and any that wasn't usually turned out to be a failure in the long run. To reach the utter peak of their potential, most followed the Maa faction curricular.

For elemental practitioners or mages, it was pretty simple.

There were three main levels, the Apprentice level, the Veteran level, and the Expert level. Each of the three had its main divisions, and as one rose in tiers and life ratings, these three levels remained.

Everyone usually started as a tier 0, or in simple terms, a basic mortal. At this point, they don't even have any abilities and are just cannon fodder. Needless to say, these are the vast majority on the planet, as their ability to reproduce is off the charts.

However, being considered a tier 0 was a good thing, as that meant that you were sentient. This meant that most civilizations wouldn't actively eat you, and some level of respect and decency was given, after all, these were self-aware mortals, though they could be beasts or plants. Yes, there were self-aware plants in the universe.

The moment one awakened an ability, especially an elemental ability, they would become tier 1 mortals. These were mortals that have some control over an element. In other terms, they were in the Novice rank of the Apprentice level.

As one grew in understanding, they would realize that they could summon said element from within themselves. The moment they summon the element, they would enter the next level, the Conjurer rank of the Apprentice level, or tier 2. At this point, one could use their power to bring forth elementary particles even though they were not present and to amplify them in case they were lacking.

The third rank in the Apprentice level was the most exciting, for those that reached it. It involved mastering most of the spells that can be used in this element, and the more complex an element was, the harder it was to reach this level. Then, they could then form weapons in their attacks and even Enchant weapons by powering them with their elements. This was the level of most practitioners, and it ushered one to the veteran level.

Beings with racial blessings could skip some levels and ranks, for instance, the dragons could breathe out a fire at the point of awakening, and hence for them, they wouldn't be novice ranks, but rather conjurer rank. The druids and wood elves who had nature blessings could skip some stages in the life element, which was commonly known as the natural essence. Of course, such a feat could only be accomplished by those with superior bloodlines, as trash bloodlines wouldn't even awaken an ability.

At the moment, little Alie was just a novice apprentice fire mage, and while his development in the fire element had grown substantially due to Dane's influence, it was still a long way before the lavel could conjure a flame.

"Does the dragon agree?"

Kendar turned around feigning shock, and while the little puppy eyes that Alie had on wouldn't sway him, he still softened before saying, "The GREAT dragon has been teaching you already, haven't you noticed?"

"That was him?" sudden realization hit the lavel, which led to him bending down before the Dragon in worship.

"You have been accepted into the Order of the Dragon! Now the training begins!" Kendar said solemnly, and the great dragon flapped his wings and took off, into the mountain ranges.

Familiarity breeds contempt, and continuous interaction in his dragon form would lead to the mortals being familiar with it, to the point of disrespect. Dane wouldn't allow that, that was why he had the form of Kendar, someone they could relate with, someone who the others can look upon and see as an equal.

The respect given to Kendar as an elder was not nearly as much as the reverence that Dane commanded as a dragon, and while he needed to interact with the mortals, he also did not want to lose his stature. For the foundation he was building, he needed to command great respect and reverence.

Since Kendar was still, in fact, Dane, he used the same methods as the Dragon had used to train Alie. 2 seasons, or years, or as the folks in this planet measured their time, 2 lunar revolutions passed quickly, and by the time Kendar was done with Alie, he could rival anyone in the galaxy who had gone through 10 times the period learning under normal circumstances.

The reason why Dane decided upon this method was he needed his plan to begin to be effected as soon as possible.

Alie was the only one with a dark past, someone who could be moved to take up a course as there was something to motivate him to do it. Moreover, given Alie's age, an accelerated learning curve wouldn't harm him as he was still young and malleable Dane himself had started his training while he was older than Alie, but that was because lavels develop faster than humans.

All in all, Alie was the prime target of this kind of training, but while Alie was under training, a lot more was happening.

A lavel's shelter was nothing more than a shed, with just a roof on it. Usually, families would build these shelters for their young ones, but a lavel life wasn't meant to be lived indoors, actually, there was no indoors.

Usually, a clan would live around each other, establishing a semi-sedentary lifestyle. To prevent inbreeding, several clans would come together and form a settlement. These settlements were like mini towns and cities, which meant there were a lot of people congregating.

Needless to say, such settlements needed to have a way to establish governance, a form of leadership. Various settlements had various ways of determining who rules and who forms the government, with the more advanced one having rules and ways of enforcing them.

The idea of the singular monarch had yet to hit their minds, and lavels were more communal, living out their lives as best they can. That was the primary reason, but there was a second reason, which was more important.

Though they were in a time of peace, and they were the top predators on the planet, there was a greater threat, the bandits and slavers. They would abduct lavels that weren't powerful enough and trade them with vasils. Though this was a despicable act, as it was seen as a betrayal to one's race, those that dabbled in it were quite powerful, as they had the supply of something no other lavel had, vasilian weapons.

Due to the tip of their wings looking like human palms, they could be said to be dexterous. Some dabbled in crafts such as weapon making, and though their weapons could not be said to be sophisticated in any way, they still were the only weapon makers in town.

Dane wanted to establish a set of weapon developers, one whom he could nurture and build, but to do that, he needed this lavel. Most civilizations were forged from dark times, and through the darkness, a species and indeed a planet can show you what it was made of.

Bamboo belonged to one of the smaller settlements. They usually kept to themselves, and besides maintaining their territory, they didn't have many skirmishes with anyone. As they were in a period of plenty, there was barely any competition or scrabble for resources. Everyone had their fill. However, there was still a need for them to protect their settlement, as if a considerable bandit raid occurred, they would abduct as many children as possible.

It was the work of the males in the settlement to fight and take down whatever threat that came. The bandits came mostly for the young ones, as they were the target for slavery. To achieve this, the clans would motivate their young ones to grow in strength as they would become the next leaders, and alas, a time was coming for the next generation to take charge, and this generation included Bamboo!