The Mysterios Magic Swordsman

"Ugh…" I woke up with pain all over my body. I opened my eyes to see myself stuck inside what seems to be a cave, with only a campfire to my side as the light source. 'I can't move…' I tried looking down on my body, only to see that I was covered in bandages with dried blood soaking through them.

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[Status]

Name: John Colton

Age: 14

Level: 7

Experience: 400/700

HP: 60/200

Mana: 90/90

Strength: 20

Intelligence: 18

Dexterity: 18

Agility: 18

Wisdom: 17

Unspent points: 6

Skills: Identify, Intermediate Magic Focus, Primal Instinct, Indomitable Will, Sword Training - Intermediate, Magic Creation - Beginner, Pain Resistance - Intermediate, Overcome the odds - Beginner, Blue Fire

Spells: Fireball, Light, Aqua, Wind Slash, Raise Earth, Blind, Fire Bullet, Earth Bullet, Wind Bullet, Water Bullet, Wind Sword, Fire Sword, Earth Sword, Water Sword, Metal Bullet, Lightning, Ice Lance

Boons: Wadur's Blessing

Curses: -None-

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'My Pain Resistance skill leveled up to Intermediate… I never noticed it.' I checked my status to see that my HP was critically low even when I gained an additional 50 points to it.

"Hoo, so you are still able to use some type of weird magic even in that state." A voice sounded out from inside the darkness of the cave.

"Who's there?!" I desperately try to move my body, fighting the pain.

"Stop forcing yourself to move, your body is still healing." A figure of a man was revealed as he walked closer to the campfire. "Don't worry. If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't have saved you from those elves." He added.

The man went closer to me and started to check my wounds, his features hidden from being against the light. He redressed the bandages and added a green goop that stinged when it touched my wounds. He then handed me a bowl of soup that was set above the fire.

"Who are you? How long have I been out? Where am I?" I turned my head to look at him. He was a very muscular man, albeit a bit old looking. He wore dirty rag-like clothing that made him look like a beggar on the streets and he carried around a wooden sword. He had messy white hair and an unkempt white beard.

"Me? I'm nobody. Though you can just call me Mister." He replied after he took a big gulp of the soup, finishing the soup in one go. "You have a lot of questions… So I'll just give you a quick rundown of what happened." He added.

"I found you, nearly bleeding out, entrapped in walls of earth being attacked by numerous elves. Honestly, it was a massacre. There was a group of young humans that were fighting against the elves but were forced to retreat after getting too many losses. It's a shame… All of them looked so young as well." He said with a downcast face.

"Humans… You don't mean?!-" I screamed in shock.

"Conserve your energy. Yes, I assume that you knew them but most of them were able to retreat. The number of elves were just too many and one of them had the capability to cast very high level magic. They got on my nerves seeing that they felt no remorse from killing those young humans. I decided to step in and check what was inside that wall of earth and saw you. I was surprised. You had numerous broken bones and were bleeding so much that your blood covered the entirety of the ground inside. That was a month ago." He added.

"A month… Mister… Has anything happened within the Qaviel Kingdom?" I asked him, worry and fear building up in my heart.

"Qaviel Kingdom? Is that the name of this kingdom? I have no idea. I don't care about political things. Though I have heard that they were preparing for an all out war and conscripted many of the villages and most of the nobility." He said as he took another bowl of soup.

"War?! I must return!" I said as I tried to get up, ultimately failing again.

"I told you to rest, didn't I?! You'll be stuck like that for at most a month and another month to be fully healed. Moving right now would only make it worse. If you really want to get back as soon as possible, focus on resting and healing." He said in a more serious tone.

I clenched my fists, realizing that there is some truth in his words. 'I just can't sit here and let them fight all on their own.' I thought to myself.

"You're an interesting fellow. I saw that you have a sword and a wand with you and I saw that wall of earth you've conjured up. It was very surprising, I'm half a mind to take you in as a disciple." He said as he faced me with a big grin plastered on his face.

"Disciple?" I was confused at first but suddenly realized that he should be strong. He was able to save me against the elves that even the instructors and students of the Royal Academy couldn't handle. "Exactly how strong are you?..." I said as I stared at the wide grin of the old man.

"You'll naturally find out when I train. You'll be with me for about a month or two anyway. If you learn anything then it means you're either lucky or extremely talented." He said. "Now get some rest, it's late." He added.

Mister was right. It took a month before I was able to move again albeit still painful. When I was bedridden, I would hear sounds of rocks crushing and intense wind entering the cave from outside. It felt almost like shockwaves, the type when helicopters would start to fly off from the ground.

As soon as I was able to move, I stood up and went to the entrance of the cave, a torch in hand. It was a very long dark hallway before I was able to reach the entrance. As I was walking through the hallway, the structure of the cave seemed odd. It was too straight and linear to be an actual cave. With closer inspection, I could see that the walls had markings of a sword slash. 'That's not possible, right?' I thought about the old man that wanted to take me as a disciple.

I reached the entrance of the cave and started to hear the sound of running water. As I exited the cave, what greeted me was a gigantic waterfall rushing down the front of the cave. I walked to the side and saw the old man standing atop a rock on the river where the waterfall went to.

The old man stood there, his eyes closed and not moving underneath the intense heat of the afternoon sun. After a while, I noticed that he opened his eyes and put his hand on his wooden sword. He nodded and began to turn back to go back to solid ground.

'Huh? Nothing happened-' I thought to myself as I felt a great gust of wind appear out of nowhere. Suddenly, the waterfall was split in half, seemingly suspended in the air. The stone wall behind the split waterfall was unscathed.

'M-M-Monster... ' I fell on my behind as I witnessed what just happened.

The old man saw me and went towards me. "That was a good warmup. Seems like you're feeling better." He said nonchalantly.

"Warm… up?.." I sat there dazed and only realized how strong this old man really was. "Please teach me!" I said as I stood up and bowed my head.

"Hoh... " He stood there, his hand massaging his beard.