Ascension of the Nephilim

And the first thing he hears is an insult to his work!

The man pounced at Emeros angrily and, with one hand, carried Emeros high up the ground. Emeros unconsciously cast a gauge and saw the man\'s stats.

---

Grumpy man in his Underwear

Level 19

Strength: 51

Magic: 56

Dexterity: 85

Vitality: 51

Intelligence: 81

Force: 0

---

He had the strength and could have easily killed the boy.

But his pride stopped him, and he lifted the boy in anger.

"How dare you?! What do you know about Energy formation circles?!" The man charged.

Emeros didn\'t know anything about the energy formation circle theories. But from his memories, he knew why Kyros\'s energy formation circles were far more powerful.

Kyros and Noxus always made energy formation circles from the very center and would spread out. From what Emeros could see, the energy would surge from the center and expand outwards. But this strange energy formation circle had an energy flow that was practically chaotic!

"From the center...! Draw... from the... center...!" Emeros answered as he barely tried to force out his words.

The enraged man heard Emeros\'s words and suddenly stopped.

"...Draw from the center? Wait... How did you know how I drew? You can see mana? That means you have mana!" The mage stopped and took out a strange stone, and placed it on Emeros\'s hand.

Emeros could feel the stone call out his mana. He didn\'t want to be suspicious, so he resisted the pull of mana.

The stone gave a strange glow, and a number appeared.

"Oh? This high? Four mana points?! That\'s amazing!" The man exclaimed.

"I only had 1 when I was level 1! The highest number of someone naturally born to be a genius mage was 5. You... you would have great potential as a mage!" The man stopped.

"And you even know about Energy Formation Circles?" The man placed Emeros down.

"I-uh... I don\'t know much about that. I just watched my former master do it."

"Former master? You had a master?"

"Er... I was his slave, my lord!" Emeros bowed.

"...Did he train you in magic?"

"He... wanted to. But he died. During the war." Emeros\'s voice turned sad.

"...Ah. Haven\'t we all lost something from that stupid war..." The mage turned around.

"So... your master always drew things from the center? Why?"

Emeros shrugged his shoulders.

"I don\'t know. But whenever he activated it... the magic would... shoot out. I can see the magic flowing here. It doesn\'t... seem to have any direction or a path to follow. It wastes energy."

"Huh... I would never have known about that. Interesting." The mage began to sit down and use a strange device to engrave an energy formation circle on the stone. His expression had changed from anger to enlightenment.

"The ore here provides me with materials to create these energy formation circle tablets where I can practice it. I may look like a mage, but I\'m not even a champion! I\'m actually someone who self-studied it."

"You... didn\'t go to mage school?"

"To be precise, I got kicked out, and I\'m banned. Why do you think a mage would work in this mine? My only income would be from the soldiers nearby or from the miners who want to level up! But do you know how many monsters I need to kill to reach the next level? At my level, absorbing what the miners bring in would not even give me any increase in my experience unless they killed a strong beast!" The mage began to rant.

Emeros watched as the mage worked and couldn\'t help but notice that even the center of the energy formation circle that the mage was making was inefficient. Kyros would right and stack several strange symbols on top of each other whenever he made his.

But Emeros couldn\'t remember any exact details and glanced around, hoping to see if the mage would have that potion to help in memory recall!

But the mage had very few potions, and Emeros could tell they were for health and mana...

A small energy formation circle was made, and upon testing it, the mage was astounded as he could see a glow appear.

"...It worked! Damn! I was so stupid! This could change the outcome! Hahahaha!" The man laughed.

"Kid! My name is Mage Perment! From now on, if you could bring in some monster to kill, I can give you free level-ups up to level 4!" Perment chuckled as his expression was full of glee.

"Uh... Tha-thank you, Mage Perment!"

"Do you remember anything else from your master?"

"Erm... if you have those potions that could help one recall, I probably could help you out more!"

"Eh? A memory access potion?! That\'s expensive! Only nobles and aristocrats can afford those!" Perment frowned.

"I-uh... I misspoke!" Emeros bowed.

"Eh, forget about it, kid. What you did was like giving me a second life in my occupation! Look, the mines should be opening soon. Where you here to get some health potions?"

"Yes."

"Alright. And since you have magic, I\'ll give you these Fire Ore bombs. It should help you kill a few beasts. Pour in some of your mana if you can and throw it. It isn\'t much. But monsters lower than level 5 would get hurt or be killed! And be careful! I can\'t help you out there, kid. Miners tend to steal each other\'s monster kills. Every day chump would fight and cry about how his kill was stolen from him. You better be careful out there..." Perment handed Emeros three fire or bombs.

Emeros gladly received them.

"Get back here when the mines close. I must talk with you more to learn more about your master! If one sentence is this much gold, I believe that whatever practices your master did would help me!" Perment laughed and sent Emeros on his way.

Emeros walked out and couldn\'t help but feel a strange feeling.

"...I made a friend? I guess this is what it means to be outside Fate and Destiny. If this was Kyros, that mage would have tried to kill him or imprison him!" Emeros trembled at the thought and moved toward the mine.

As he returned, he saw a long line on the armory and knew that he was among the earliest who entered the mine.

Several people were picking their partners, with many other kids begging and pleading with the adults to take them.

At first, Emeros frowned as he could not activate his gauge spell.

"Hey! Move it, kid!"

A man walked and bumped into Emeros, who stood still. As Emeros turned, he saw the stats when they collided.

---

Man

Level 3

Strength: 9

Magic: 0

Dexterity: 13

Vitality: 9

Intelligence: 23

---

Emeros blinked. He saw the stats of the man at level 2 and couldn\'t believe it.

"People are this weak...!" Emeros thought to himself. He had never seen stats and only saw Kyros as a reference.

"...I think Kyros started at level 1 with his strength stat at 50! What kind of a freak was he?! And I thought 18 would be standard level 1! But... won\'t this mean that I have stats that are at least... three levels above this guy? The stat average of my strength would be at level 6!" Emeros tried to do some calculations in his head.

Emeros shook his head and thought that if that man was at level 3, he should have enough strength to take on the beast in the mines alone!

"I guess Dad did give me something awesome!" Emeros took a pickaxe and went his way. He took some of the miner\'s bags and began to march off.

"Hey, kid! Stop! Don\'t go all by yourself!" A soldier shouted, but Emeros paid no heed to the man.

"Stupid kid..." The soldier shook his head but ignored Emeros.

Emeros could see several miners hammering away at various places in the tunnels and paths.

But Emeros was confused.

"Why aren\'t they... mining where the mana gathers?" Emeros was confused. But then he recalled that even Perment was surprised at how Emeros could see the flow of magic. Then he realized something.

"Could it be? The mana flow I\'ve been seeing deep inside the mines isn\'t visible. Now that I think about it, I\'ve never seen such thick energy gather before. This should be my mother\'s wisdom that gave me a gauge. Now that I think about it... how can I gauge things by touching them? Maybe I can sense mana in a more sensitive manner!" Emeros realized it.

Emeros went to a spot where he could see mana gathering near the surface.

It was high up, so Emeros piled some stones nearby.

Many of the onlookers saw Emeros and were confused by his actions.

Emeros pretended that he was having a hard time lifting the rocks but was quietly placing it one piece at a time and finally stood over it and struck the pickaxe on the wall.

DING! DING! DING!

After several strikes, a strange red orb fell.

It was similar to the Fire Ore Bombs that Perment gave him, but this one had a rich energy around it.

The rock fell to the ground.

Emeros saw the rich man and knew what he found was profoundly different from what the others would usually mine.

"This stone looks expensive. I might have gotten a week\'s salary already! And I still have the whole day ahead of me!" Emeros thought.

And many who saw the bright rock full of glow caused their greed to surface.

Emeros picked up the stone.

"Hey, kid! That was my spot! You got there first! Give me that stone!" The man who Emeros bumped into earlier thundered close to him.

"What? No way. We don\'t have spots here! I got here, moved the stone, and hit there. This is mine!" Emeros answered defiantly.

The man was angered at Emeros\'s answer.

Unknown to him, Emeros was chanting something in his head.

"Please attack me. Please attack me. Please attack me... Yes! He attacked!" Emeros cheered as the man ran towards him.