Chapter 33 Before The Party
"Do we really have to go?" Kevin asked Elena. They were staying in a private villa owned by the Rothschild Family. Every elite family, and some rich families, had their own villa in Soran, as it was the location of the World Academy.
"Sigh, Kevin, now that the Whiteheart Family is also a part of one of the elite families, you need to maintain your image more carefully from now on. Going to such events, whether we like it or not, is one of our duties as members of an elite family," Eva tried to explain to Kevin, who was still against going to Asher's birthday party.
"Don't worry, father told me that uncle Louis will accompany us there, so we can leave after staying there for a while," Elena told Kevin.
"That guy is so arrogant for a person who has not even gone through his awakening yet," Kevin scoffed while talking about Asher.
'But his presence was scary for some reason,' Eva thought in her mind.
"Let's forget about it. You know, we might be classmates when we enroll in the World Academy, so we should at least try to get along with him," Eva didn't want a conflict between Williams and Greville, so she wanted to use this party as a chance to smooth things over.
"Whatever, if that guy comes to the Academy, I will show what my fists can do when there is no bodyguard around him," Kevin arrogantly said. Even though he might sound arrogant, he was considered one of the prodigies because he was close to breaking the record of Nathan Greville. His record was around 4 hours. This was one of the few reasons why Rothschild was allying with the Whiteheart family.
Elena also somewhat liked Kevin, so her father didn't mind the two youngsters spending time together, which would come in handy in the future. Eva was the childhood friend of Elena, so she also spent quite a lot of time with Kevin and they became friends pretty fast.
"Don't worry, I am actually planning something to help Amelia, but I wasn't sure whether to commit to my plans, but it seems fine now," Elena smiled and said to Kevin, who was confused about what she was planning.
"What are you planning, Elena?" Eva asked her.
"It's a secret~!" She spoke, then got out of the room they were in while being happy for some reason.
Eva knew Elena was quite a vengeful person, and whenever she planned something like this, she wouldn't tell anyone.
"I hope she doesn't cause some huge ruckus at the party," Eva sighed and walked out of the living room with Kevin.
Meanwhile, in the Mage Association Tower:
"So you're saying we should also send a person to show our appreciation towards the Greville family?" A man who looked to be in his 50s asked the man in front of him.
"I mean, why not? You already know about him breaking the record of Nathaniel Greville, we might as well make a good impression on them," Edward Amaris, the mage association elder who helped Asher in his awakening, replied to the man seated in front of him.
The man was the chairman of the Mage Association. One of the SSS-Rank Hunters in this world, renowned for his magic and referred to by the title of 'Archmage'. His name was Silvus Grandus, and he had silver hair with deep yellow amber eyes. Despite being such an important figure in this world, he did not belong to any family and had no relatives. He was an orphan who climbed up the ranks to become one of the most powerful people in this world. Due to him being a commoner, he did not like to mingle with the elite families much and his sole focus was on managing the Mage Association.
"Sigh, Although I don't like that musclehead swordsman, that doesn't mean his grandson would be like him. I hope not, but anyways, you can go to represent the Mage Association as this will not alert all the other powers because you already have a good relation with the Greville," Silvus told Edward his opinion.
Only Edward could talk to Silvus this casually, because he was one of the people Silvus taught and nurtured himself. Although Silvus could be seen as a 50 year old fit man, his actual age even surpassed Nathan by a few years, who was around 80 years old already. Due to their high ranks, humans could live longer, but unlike what you might think, mana did not help with the longevity of a person. It sure could allow you to perform miracles and look considerably younger than your age when stepped into adulthood, but life force never mingled with mana.
Nobody knew why, despite being able to enrich their bodies with mana and even changing their anatomy, they could never free themselves from their mortal shackles. But despite that, a person with a high rank could live till 200 years old if they did not die. This world only consisted of humans, but there were records describing some other species known only to elite families and the Association higher-ups. When the world first experienced a mana outbreak, the destruction of most of civilization was inevitable. But some records of the people from the past were handed down to the next generation and were never open to the public now. Only those in power knew about such records.
"I wonder why there's so many talented people in this generation alone," he sighed and closed his eyes to do his training. He couldn't help but think about the records that were passed down.
"Who knows what the future might entail for us," he continued his training, closing his inner thoughts.
"Emmy, retrieve the parcel from here before my birthday party. Use whatever means to get it before the party starts," Asher ordered Emmy to retrieve the painting he ordered. He wanted it as a gift for his birthday.
"As you wish, Young Master," Emmy nodded at his request and left him after getting the information needed.
"Arghh," Asher groaned and held his forehead. His surroundings were getting cold due to his bloodlust leaking out. Fortunately, he was in his secluded training chambers and Emmy had left, so nobody could sense it.
"Fuck, the symptoms are even worse than they were in my previous life," his indifferent face broke and a frown could be seen on his face.
"Till next year, hold on...till next year," he repeated to himself.
He went back to do his mana training. He was practicing his mana manipulation, he needed more effort to fool Nathan about his bloodline when the time for his 2 weeks of training comes. Although the rank of his Mana Flow skill was not increasing because he was not utilizing this skill for his increase in manipulation. He would not increase his Mana Flow skill level until he got into the World Academy.
His rank has broken into F-Rank and from here, simple mana training alone would not help him much. But he was not in a rush until his training with Nathan, he wanted to set a solid foundation which will increase his speed of increasing his rank in the future.
When a person broke into a new rank around his mana core, a ring will be formed. This ring was how their rank was calculated. But multiple factors such as a person's mana pool, his innate talent, and his usage of skills with other factors would result in power disparity among the people in the same rank. This was the reason why a person's rank was not calculated only based on his mana core.
"Status"
-----------------| Fate Devourer System |-------------------
[Name] : Asher Von Raven Greville
[Level] - 7 (EXP 0/7000)
[Bloodline] : Devil's Absorption Rank SSS
[Blessing] : Goddess of Time(Sealed)
[Body Constitution] - Mana Core Rank E
[Shop] [Quests] [Synthesis]
---------------------------------------------------------------
[-Attributes-]
Strength: 32 -> 40
Agility: 27 -> 30
Endurance: 40 -> 45
Intelligence: 55
Mana: 45 -> 60
Stamina: 40 -> 47
Charm: 57 -> 60
Fate: 3730
[AP]: 30 [SP]: 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
His attributes increased due to his increase in his rank. Except for intelligence, every stat had changed. He could feel his body was lighter and his mana pool had also increased.
"Doesn't seem too bad," Asher thought. He had already calmed his nerves down quite a bit. He continued doing his training after closing his status. In that way, two days passed and today was the day the party was going to happen. Many servants could be seen running around the place.
"Stephen, make sure there are no compromises in the security around the estate," Arthur ordered Stephen, who nodded at his request.
Arthur did not go to work today and Sylvie was spending her time with Amelia and the twins. He was sitting in his office and was going through some documents.
Knock, knock
"Come in," Arthur said.
"Young Master Asher has gone out without security and left a message that says he will return before the party," one of the servants conveyed the message to Arthur.
Arthur dropped his pen and looked at the servant and said,
"What?!"