Chapter Twelve: The History Recorded by Mages
Upon meeting Master Mesel again, Donald now wore a blank badge on his chest. This was the standard credential for mage apprentices across the continent, invented by the Magic Empire of Bannai thousands of years ago. If he managed to become a first-level Black Iron mage, a magical pattern would appear on the badge.
“Master Mesel!”
Having little social experience in his past life, Donald still understood the importance of showing respect. In this world where strength dictated hierarchy, one must always treat those of higher status with reverence—even if they were enemies.
Dressed in casual attire typical of nobles, Master Mesel sat on the sofa like an ordinary elder.
“Sit! Don’t be formal!”
Donald sat down across from him without hesitation.
“Apprentice Donald, I’ve asked you here because I have some personal suggestions. But before I share them, I’ve prepared a few small gifts as a celebration for you becoming a full apprentice. You must accept them!”
Hearing the old mage’s firm tone and the caring look in his eyes, Donald felt warmth in his heart. He took the tray from the coffee table without hesitation.
“Thank you, Master, for your kindness. I am deeply grateful!”
The tray contained three items: a scroll of parchment, a small bag, and a copper ring inlaid with crystal stones.
The old mage pointed to the seemingly ordinary items and said with a smile, “The scroll contains the spells of the first level along with detailed instructions on how to cast them. The bag holds some basic elemental crystals. As for the ring, it was my own during my youth. Though it’s just a trinket, it’s very useful for spellcasters below the Bronze level, especially apprentices!”
“It has a mental enhancement effect, allowing you to master some first-level spells earlier. With this white crystal ring, you can start learning the first three spells on the scroll right away. There’s no need to worry about spell backlash. This should help you become a full mage!”
Donald was overjoyed. This wasn’t just helpful—it was a tremendous help. Such an item, capable of enhancing mental strength and enabling spellcasting beyond one’s current level, was practically a miracle for novice mages and apprentices!
Hearing that Master Mesel’s gifts were so valuable, Donald hesitated to accept them.
Noticing Donald’s hesitation, the old mage said with a smile, “There’s no need to worry. Though this equipment is quite good, it’s of little use to me at my current level! Our kingdom of Selt has been isolated from the heart of the continent for hundreds of years, making us relatively weak. In terms of the number of mages, we are far inferior to the Mage Kingdom of Polin, descendants of the Baned Empire. In terms of the number and strength of warriors, we are even worse than the Swordsmen Kingdom of Kort. Even the small Principality of the Siren Knights—there are so many powerful nations on the continent. The people of Selt can only strive to improve their own strength so as not to be conquered by other countries. Any mage from the kingdom of Selt who sees an apprentice as excellent as you will surely offer help to help your new generation grow. So, you needn’t be concerned about my gift!”
After hearing these words, Donald’s admiration for the old mage soared. Perhaps there were many patriotic mages, but few who were as upright, noble, and selfless as Maelthor.
“Actually, I have my own motives for doing this. In these few decades since I became a full-fledged mage, I’ve only taken on two apprentices, but unfortunately, they both passed away before me. I had already lost the desire to teach anymore. Your arrival has changed my mind. I wonder, Donald, would you be willing to become my official apprentice?”
Donald was stunned and didn’t know how to respond at first. He hadn’t expected the supreme first mage of the Northlands, the most powerful master in the Mage Council, to want to take him as an apprentice.
Seeing this, Maelthor’s expression darkened slightly. “It’s okay if you’re not willing. You can still come to me for help anytime!”
“No, Master. I’m just too surprised. I would be very willing to become your apprentice!”
With that, he formally bowed to Maelthor, who laughed heartily and helped Donald up.
After receiving gifts and some guidance on advancing to a Black Iron Mage from Master Maelthor, Donald was sent by the old mage to the library of the Mage Council in Stone City.
According to the old mage, “The library of the Mage Council in Stone City isn’t very large, but it’s sufficient for apprentices and mages below the Bronze rank. If you have the chance, you should visit the mage tower of the Royal Capital Mage Association. There, you can expand your knowledge and broaden your horizons, helping you grow faster.”
Those who become official apprentices can enter the library of this club using their apprentice mage badge. However, except for the first visit which is free and has a certain time limit, a fee must be paid at other times. This is also the rule in most mage organizations in the kingdom. It originates from the theories of the Magic Empire of Banne thousands of years ago.
Only by mastering knowledge can one become a more powerful mage. An even older Arcane Empire had a saying: “If everyone could become an archmage, then gods would be unnecessary in this world.”
Of course, such heretical “blasphemies” do not appear in the records of various races, except in the books left by ancient mages who were dedicated to seeking the truth behind the existence of the world and did not believe in gods.
Thanks to Master Merlinna’s care, Donald did not have a time limit this time.
After entering the library, he did not rush to browse the spell books right away. Instead, he was interested in examining historical records and mage diaries first. To understand something, one must first understand its history—this was Donald’s experience from his past life.
Yet, the newly appointed apprentice Donald didn’t realize that his actions greatly pleased Master Mesel, who was observing him through magic. Some new apprentices, upon arriving in this library and facing so many spell books, would immediately try to study spells beyond their level, aiming for powerful offensive spells. This shows an unstable mindset, and exposing them too early is detrimental to their future development.
But this most talented apprentice he had ever seen not only did not do that but also focused first on the historical truths and the origins of mages—precious legacies left by their predecessors. These are valuable knowledge that helps apprentices form a correct worldview and style as mages, guiding them on how to become truly powerful mages. This proves that Donald is not only talented but also calm and steady in every aspect, giving everyone confidence.
Satisfied, Master Mesel withdrew his magical observation, and Donald immersed himself in the vast and magnificent history of this world.
The materials here were very different from the history books Donald had read before, but this was within his expectations. Compared to church scriptures that center everything around gods and kingdom epics that perfectly embody the concept of flattery, only rigorous mages would truly record historical truths objectively, without any subjective embellishments or distortions.
Through these materials, Donald gained a rough understanding of the world he lived in. It was a world inhabited by gods; mighty dragons and ancient beasts once ruled the continent. Many years later, the high elves emerged from the World Tree, and their extraordinary intelligence soon made them the new rulers of the world. Countless years passed, and the newly born high elves gradually declined from their initial semi-divine strength to a gold-tier level. Intelligent races such as humans, orcs, dwarves, and goblins appeared one after another, yet the high elves remained the undisputed rulers of the world. Their powerful elven empire governed everything on the continent and soon conquered the vast oceans as well. However, due to the continuous expansion of the main world, the high elves’ mother tree, the World Tree, had to disperse its energy to sustain the dimensional barriers of the main world, protecting its children from invasions from other dimensions. Although the Life Tree, a branch of the World Tree, continued to sustain the high elves, there was only one Life Tree, which could not take care of high elves scattered across the continent and oceans, causing their reproductive capacity to decline significantly. As a result, the Life Tree produced tens of thousands of ancient elven tree seeds at the cost of reducing its own strength. When these ancient elven trees were nurtured into life by high elves in various places, their descendants—the ordinary elves—were born. After that, no more high elves were born outside the sacred elven lands where the Life Tree stood. This was because, unlike inherently weaker races like humans, the souls of elves were formed from the ancient elven trees in nature. High elves were born with gold-tier strength, and naturally, the ancient elven trees could not compare to the Life Tree and World Tree of their parents and ancestors. Thus, even if both parents were high elves, they could only produce ordinary elf offspring. Even among elves, the strength of their souls at birth was at least comparable to that of black-iron-tier spellcasters. Therefore, although the elf race was small in number, each member was a highly powerful warrior or mage—this was why they once ruled the continent and still held a significant position even in this era of human dominance. Here, it must be mentioned the profession recognized by the gods as the most powerful since the birth of the main world, aside from the true gods: the archmage. The ancient archmages are the origin of today’s mages; in fact, today’s mages are a branch of those ancient archmages.
The earliest mages can be traced back to the ancient times tens of thousands of years ago, initially created by the high elves. However, it was the humans who truly brought magic to prominence. Ten thousand years ago, due to population reasons, the high elves were forced to relinquish their status as rulers of the continent. Races such as humans, dwarves, and orcs also began to grow stronger. Among them, the humans, who excelled in creation and learning, quickly stood out. They inherited the legacy of mages from the high elves. Some exceptionally talented human mages, despite their short lifespan of barely a hundred years, achieved the same level of mastery as the highest-ranking high elf mages, and even a few of them surpassed even the rarest among the high elves. Thus, the high elves noticed the unique qualities of the human race. Retiring from the forefront of history, they took the initiative to form alliances with humans and recognized the status of human mages as equal to that of elves. Many magical studies were carried out jointly with humans, and diverse ideas led to rapid development in the magical system, resulting in countless intellectual achievements such as sky cities, magic crystal cannons, domain barriers, and artificial intelligent puppets—reaching a level that even the gods admired. Unfortunately, such a splendid civilization was destroyed due to the whimsical experiments of some mages, who turned their attention to the realm of the gods, thereby provoking the gods’ displeasure and leading to the downfall of the Mage Empire. The gods needed faith to enhance their power, while the nation led by Mage Lord Soroth sought knowledge and truth. Anticipating that within a thousand years, the mages might reach a level comparable to that of the gods, the gods decided to weaken the mages’ strength by imposing restrictions on mortals to encourage them to worship them more wholeheartedly. Faced with the gods’ hostility and oppression, the free-loving mages naturally would not sit idly by and allow themselves to be enslaved. They rose up in resistance, but aside from the most elite among them, few could match the power of the gods. For the sake of human victory, the mage leaders made a fatal decision: they opened the portal between worlds, summoning an army of demons from the dark side of the universe, from the endless abyss of darkness and evil. These abyssal demons dealt a severe blow to the gods, causing most of them to perish. Most of the gods we see today were deified only after that catastrophe, with only a few ancient true gods still existing.
Although the mages achieved victory, it was a narrow one, and the demons caused incalculable devastation to the main world. Many of the mages’ traditions were buried beneath the ruins of history, resulting in a decline in their powers from generation to generation. It was not until the fragmentation of the Banai Empire a thousand years ago that the term “mage” completely disappeared from people’s sight.
The Ancient Magic Empire of Banai can be regarded as the last great chapter in the history of mages. At that time, humans, elves, dwarves, and other races shared a common enemy: the orcs. Though orcs were less intelligent than humans and elves, their strong reproductive capacity and omnivorous nature ensured their population continued to grow. This large population provided a vast base of faith for their pantheon, whose deities shared the same beastly aggression as their mortal counterparts. Fearing that the orcs would devour the lands of various races and attempt to rule the entire continent, establishing powerful empires like those of humans and elves, the gods of other races could tolerate this no longer.
While battles raged on land, the gods led by humans also waged war in the stars against the orc pantheon. The most powerful realm among humans was Banai, ruled by the descendants of mages. With the support of their numerous powerful combatants beyond the Golden Tier, the orc tribes, lacking magical prowess, were quickly defeated and driven to the frigid western highlands. The mages of Banai then succeeded in unifying the entire continent and established a second empire dominated by mages. They also compiled and organized the remaining magical knowledge, giving rise to the new profession of mage.
At the peak of magical development, there were eight major schools, covering almost all the abilities of spellcasters in the world. However, the mage profession, based on fragmented magical traditions, only included a few branches such as elemental mages, alchemists, summoners, and wizards specializing in souls and curses. Unfortunately, just as the Ancient Magic Empire of Banai reached its glory, it vanished like a firework. After the gods of humans defeated the orc pantheon, spatial rifts formed in the main world, allowing the abyssal demons that had once destroyed the ancient mage empires to return. This marked the beginning of the second magical disaster recorded in the continent’s history.
After the disaster, to prevent the emergence of a second Arcane Empire in the world, the Banai Empire split as a result of the gods’ intervention. It was thought that peace would prevail from then on, but due to various forces, multiple stable spatial gaps formed between the Main World and the Abyssal Planes. Through these gaps, every so often—every ten or hundred years—abominations from the Abyss would invade the Main World and cause chaos. Some of the larger gaps even allowed a small number of demons to appear year-round, harassing the creatures of the Main World. Although these gaps were small and fragile, unable to withstand powerful demons, even the lowest-level demons were stronger than adult humans, and they possessed spell-like innate abilities, making them a persistent threat to the inhabitants of the Main World.
Fortunately, the human nations and various racial factions had the support of powerful professionals and the godly churches, and the several major demon plagues that occurred over the past thousand years were all successfully eradicated by the allied forces. Even when smaller outbreaks occurred, they were quickly quelled thanks to the attention paid by all parties.
In this world, wars never ceased—not only between human nations, but also between humans and other races, as well as between creatures of the Main World and evil beings from other dimensions. This was likely why civilization in this world had developed for at least ten thousand years yet still resembled the medieval era of his previous life. It was not only the result of the gods’ control; the continuous wars between these races also played a significant role.
Learning about these real historical circumstances, Donald felt no fear at the arrival of orcs or the invasions by demons. Instead, he became excited!
He remembered a famous fantasy novel written by a renowned author in his previous life. The protagonist, after traveling to another world, rose to power step by step through his achievements in combating demon plagues, eventually even achieving divinity.
“Does that mean that if I can earn merits in the battles between human nations and orcs, as well as in fighting against demonic creatures in this world, I can surely gain new territories, restore the glory of the Merlin family, and even go further to become a true noble?”
With the powers granted by the Book of Truth, Donald believed he could definitely make a difference. Although demons were powerful, those who could reach the Main World through spatial gaps were likely not among the strongest species. According to mages, since their gods fell, orcs had not produced any professionals above the Gold rank.
“Even if a war with orcs breaks out, those skilled orc warriors will surely have powerful human professionals to deal with. I just need to target the weaker ones and, by relying on the power of summoning armies, earn enough merit to exchange for rewards—it’s easy enough.” Donald had no doubts about this and was very confident.