"Low Level" Mage

by Knight of Crows

Chapter 1

Author's Note:

So I had trouble thinking of a name for a mage so I found a name generator. The choices I narrowed it down to were Gareth, Thanus, and Manus. Being a Dark Souls fan I had to choose Manus.

After watching Quanzhi Fashi (Full Time Magister) I feel I'm copying several things from it, but I've only seen the first season and I've had this idea in my head since before I saw the clips I mentioned in my last blog post so I'll hold off on the crossover tag until I feel I should add it.

How the magic and enrollment works will be explained in the next chapter.

"Come on Manus, is half-assed defense all a failure like you can do?" Zane mocked as I was getting back on my feet after a surprise attack.

Now I'm sure you want to know what's going on so I'll just summarize it for you. We're both students at Chroma Academy, this one specificalizes in teaching elemancy partially because each color represents a specific element. Zane here is one of the top students and I'm at the bottom, though not for the reasons you would think. I can guarantee I'm more powerful than him and probably most of the students above him, I just never applied myself, it's even to the point I'm considered to be so weak that I may as well not even have magic. I just never cared enough to prove myself, though tody will be different. You see I lost my uncle the day before so I'm not exactly in the best of moods, and after a surprise/ unofficial duel in the school I'm in even less of a good mood.

My father passed away when I was at a young age, my mother did all she could, but it was barely enough to feed and shelter me and my sister. My uncle after seeing the sorry state we were in stepped in as best he could, over time I came to see him as a second father, though I never called him that. He was actually the reason why I was able to enroll in this school, I didn't care about magic, but I couldn't tell him that. How could I after all the strings he pulled to get me into the school? I know it was wrong of me to not even try, but there was a reason for that, he wanted me to take his job or rise above it if I can. I didn't want the job, I didn't care about magic (though I do enjoy it), I just wanted to live my life and repay him for everything and every penny he gave to us. Now I'll never get that chance.

I'm less than pleased with myself, and I doubt he felt much better than me considering my grades and performance in school. I was hoping that someone else would get the job, then I would actually improve in everyone else's eyes.

"You know Zane, I'm really not in the mood for this. Back off now!" I threatened getting a laugh out of him and everyone around us.

"Are you of all people threatening me? You really are stupid, have you forgotten the difference between us? Hell, no one here has to even try to put you in your place, everyone here is above you!" He said.

"It's not that I've forgotten. I've just never showed the true difference between any of us." I boasted.

"Pfffffffahahahah! That's the best joke I've heard all year. Plea-" He started. I shot him with lightning before dashing to him and hitting him in the gut with a fire empowered fist launching him into a wall blowing enough dust and smoke to impair vision.

Now I should note something. No one has seen me use magic before, well they have, but they never got a good look at it. No one knew how many elements I had or which ones I had and I've just shown 2/3. That first wind spell Zane used to knock me down earlier, I made a small ash shield to block most of the damage, it was used at just the right moment to look like I didn't cast a spell. Back to now, I took advantage of the crowds inability to see and sent 3 of my familiars to keep Zane pinned, a phoenix and 2 lightning wolves, afterward I launched a fireball at him to finish him. When everyone was able to see again they saw me looking down on one of the school's overall best and powerful students with him still pinned to the ground.

"You just had to piss me off didn't you? I was already in a bad mood and you just had to antagonize me and look at the result. By the way, I was holding back, let that show you the difference between us. Do me a favor and never stand before me again!" I said before dismissing my familiars and walking away. In my anger I didn't notice him moving.

'Beaten, by HIM? A pathetic excuse for a mage like that weakling! No, this is inconcievable! To be humiliated by a low class wretch like him! I'll show him what happens when low level trash like him messes with me!' Zane thought to himself as he charged up a wind spell with the intent to kill.

I was too focused on other things to notice what Zane was doing behind me. I wasn't going to hear the end of it, now there was no reason to lie and hold back as much as I was. This is all going to end with one very long and painful headache.

"DIE MANUS!" I heard Zane shout. Now there were many things going through my mind in the very short time it took for the air slash to hit me.
1. How is he still conscious?
2. Does he have a learning disability?
3. Does he have anger issues?
4. That's an air slash.
5. Oh shit that's an air slash.
6. I can't react fast enough.
7. I'm fucked.

When it hit me I had lost all the air in my lungs. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. All I felt was pain as I began to lose consciousness. I saw Zane speaking, laughing, but I couldn't hear him. I saw a few teachers arrive too late and quickly subdue him. Before I died I saw a light no one else seemed to notice, it spoke to me and I heard it tell me my fate wasn't to die here before light took over my vision.

Comments

[Moonlit_Stardust]

Okay you had my interest, now you have my attention. I hope to see more.

[8bitmadness]

ah yes, good ol' quanzhi fashi aka versatile mage. Good source material to draw inspiration from. I wonder if this dude's gonna get access to the dark element as well.

[GrimDarkSurvivor]

You've captured my attention. I hope to see more of this in the future.

[The Hermit]

I am taken aback a bit. The main character Manus is a contradiction of himself, he doesn't care for magic yet he also enjoys it?
That doesn't make much sense. If he had a high magic aptitude but didn't think he needed a reason to learn how to use it or the other way round, It would make more sense and would in turn make him into a more human character.

Besides that, good work on the story.

I will continue reading to see where this goes.

[Knight of Crows]

10472327
Not exactly a contradiction. I would compare it to someone who likes fighting but hates hurting people (which is kind of an expected result). In his case, he likes magic, but he doesn't want it to have so much of an influence in his life that he's hard pressed into becoming the Archmage or something similar to it.

[SolitariLupus]

Never EVER turn your back to an enemy/opponent. That's practically number one in dont does for fighting. Even if you think their down and not getting up, always keep an eye on them.

[Black--Soul]

Chapter to short. Perhaps at least 2000 words?
At best chapter 1 can be called a prologe.
Weak magic? Bad training? Bad teachers? Seems like hes simply not motivated to be regular or better.
Familiars? Interessting.

Murder? This idiot just destroyed his own future.

Nice... Saved by fate itself. Color me impressed...

[midnight arrow]

this seems interesting so far i really didn't have high hopes but now i am interested i only started to read this because i was bored but now i am glad i read this

[Mr Lore miser]

Wait if he wanted to pay back his grandfather why wouldn't he try hard from the beginning