Chapter 6 - Warriors and Mages

"Ah Shin, you're here." Hendrick noticed Shin and James entering the arena as he smiled and gestured them to approach.

"I'll take my leave then sir." James then quickly hurried back upstairs, probably to finish off his other daily duties. The Baron, despite his lifestyle, still had a lot of matters to tend to on a daily basis. Though he didn't have his own territory to manage, he still had many political matters to deal with given his position as a noble.

Shin watched James before turning back to Hendrick before noticing a strange machine nearby.

Hendrick noticed Shin's gaze before chuckling.

"I borrowed this from an old man just for you, come stand here." Hendrick gestured Shin to stand in front of the machine.

It was a strange looking machine around 1.5m tall.

"A knight is a profession and there are many kinds of people who are classified as such. There are two major types of knights with one of them being greater in number." Hendrick started to explain.

"The two types are mainly divided into warriors and mages with warriors being greater in number. This is because the majority of mages are not cultivated here but rather over on the eastern coast near the mage tower. The central area, however, has the royal academy where the greatest warriors and knights hail from." Hendrick, with shining eyes of pride, continued to explain.

"I don't know a lot about mages in comparison to my knowledge about warriors but I'll explain about them first briefely as best as I can."

Mage was a term describing a group of people who could control mana. This wasn't the rarest gift as the majority of the people in these lands could perform such an act. However, talent still differentiated the prodigies from the rest.

Mages were divided into nine tiers of circles with each circle granting them exponentially greater strength.

The first two circles couldn't even be called Mages yet.

Those in the first circle were called Apprentices. The majority of these people were children who just started upon their paths, The majority of them either trained in magic academies or worked as servants of high ranking mages in doing menial tasks.

The second circle were Apprentices who have managed to create their second mana circle and have taken the first step into magehood. These were called Magicka and were in an awkward spot between being a beginner and being a full fledged mage. The majority of these people worked as interns in various locations where mages were required or continued their study and training.

The third circle was called Mage. This was when most mages decide upon their career and was also the most numerous of all mage ranks. With three circles, they had a lot of options to choose from.

Some were able to call upon the elemental spirits and contract to become spiritists.

Some manipulated their own mana and fused it with various non-living materials and became golemancers or necromancers.

Some used their own mana as sacrifice to knock upon the doors of other dimensions and summon various beings that aided them in battle and called themselves summoners.

Some followed the traditional and the most pure path of magic of studying and harnessing the elements. These were called elementalists and were the most numerous in number.

"Majority of the elementalists focus on the four major elements of fire, water, wind or earth but some mages are found to have a rare talent in special elements." Hendrick shuddered as he continued. "The dark mages who manipulate the darkness and the corrupted mana... They are lead by the Arch Lich and are the ones who we have been in war against for the past 6 decades."

The following mage ranks were:

4 circle: Greater Mage. This is when the mages could start learning secondary elements such as ice, lightning or sand.

5 circle: High Mage. They were differrentiated by their power to hold off against a hundred normal soldiers on their own with their large area magic.

6 circle: Arch Mage. This was the peak of mages to the majority of people. Taking decades of studying and research to finally climb among the ranks of Arch Mages granted one the power to change the weather and even break open the earth. The majority of Mage captains within the army held this position.

With the magic capabilities to conjur up a giant earthen wall hundreds of meters wide, giant tornadoes with winds sharp enough to cut through high grade steel and bring forth a wave of flames unto the battlefield. They were a terror incarnate to the majority of the commonfolk.

"And from the 7th circle, they are no longer classified as mages as they are all called Archons of low, mid and high tier. 7 circle being a Low Archon and 9 circle being a High Archon. There are only 19 High Archons within our empire." Hendrick explained. "This is because there is a qualitative change from the 6th and 7th circle as the 7th circle and beyond have reached the demi-god territory and gain a huge increase in their lifespan."

"High Archons... How strong are they? Are they like gods?" Shin, who had been listening with shining eyes, asked. He was a boy after all. Any boy who heard stories of magic would become entranced in such fantasies.

"No. Almost." Hendrick smiled.

High archons rarely showed themselves in public. This was because their pure existence was strong enough to rip the surrounding mana apart and force it to assimilate as their own.

The most famous case of an archon's power was when one of the dark mages managed to assassinate the Ice Queen's grandchild. Ice Queen was the title of one of the 19 archons who permanently based herself in the north and was considered one of the strongest archons of the era.

She had very little emotions as it was one of the sacrifices she had made along her path of cultivation but as her only grandchild had been murdered in the safety of her daughter's house, a place of safety, she was sent into an unstoppable train of rage.

That day, the world realized that the Ice Queen wasn't emotionless. She was just great at suppressing and controlling herself.

On that day, the entire 15,000 square kilometer northwestern area was frozen solid. The Ice Queen decided to land straight in the middle of the murderer's base of operations in the northwestern warfront and exploded in mana.