Marked By An Angel

The Woman's Daughter

Thousands of years ago, this place was inhabited by people who never had any ability. However, this changed when the demons started attacking this plane. Destroying tribes, killing people, and treating humans as slaves, soon the gods from the upper realm intervened.

They decided to share their divinity with the humans and gave them a way to fight back against the dark creatures. Everyone was blessed with seeds in their body. This seed was described as something that would give them the ability to be one with nature. Soon, they started calling it Mana Core.

Mana was found everywhere. It was something that we breathe but not everyone could use it.

Using Mana, people discovered three ways to strengthen themselves.

The first is called reinforcement.

It was the thing that warriors and archers do to a certain part of their bodies to become stronger and faster. For instance, an archer had reinforced their eyes while a swordsman reinforced their whole body.

The second was something called Manifestation.

Sorcerers belonged to this group. Not many people could successfully manifest the mana out of their bodies, so it was a special and unique way of using Mana.

The third is a summoner or spiritualist.

An elementalists was obviously someone that could summon spirits. So, they belonged to this class. First, an Elementalist would undergo training until they could make a contract with a spirit. Once they made a contract with a spirit, they were automatically considered level three elementalists.

Years passed and humans have evolved into something more powerful. They created ways to make themselves stronger by focusing on the affinities based on the seeds on their body. They discovered that the mana core could be strengthened using meditation and soon started to use colors to identify the strength of their cores.

“I think there’s something wrong with this story,” Francesca uttered. “What do you think, Cui?”

“Miss? I— “

Francesca waved her hand, silently telling her maid not to answer her. Actually, she is just wondering why sorcerers were considered the most difficult of the three. However, the original owner of this body had limited knowledge when it came to sorcery. She knew that she could only answer her questions during her first lesson.

On the next day, her first lesson started.

Alferes arrived at her studies at exactly eight in the morning. He was still wearing the same black cloak. But this time, something was intimidating around him. His voice sounded low and his answers to her questions were curt. It was pretty obvious that he didn’t want to be here.

Still, she ignored it.

“So… you are saying that elementalists could easily learn sorcery too?” she asked.

“In theory. But no one was able to do it. Sorcery was just a difficult thing to learn..” He answered. He was standing by the window, a few feet away from her. “However, an Elementalist would choose not to learn sorcery as it is more difficult than controlling elements.”

She nodded. Elementalists and Sorcery have levels, one being the lowest and nine being the highest. Compared to controlling elements, comprehending a higher-level spell was very difficult. In fact, a level four or five Elementalist is considered common in every kingdom, while a level three sorcerer was already very rare.

Level three sorcerers were valued and respected by kings and other people. At the same time, they were feared for their abilities. Alferes mentioned earlier that a level three sorcerer was comparable to a level seven Elementalist.

“So… in our kingdom… the highest sorcerer that we have was level three, right?”

He nodded in response.

She lowered her head while squinting her eyes. From this body’s memory, there were three level-three sorcerers in this kingdom and one of them had to be the man standing before her.

“Alright… I want to learn the spell.” She declared.

“Then you study the ancient language. You cannot learn a spell without the basics of mana. And to do that, you need to chant something in your head while meditating. Sadly, I cannot tell you anything as every chant is different. This depends on how you comprehend things.”Sarcasm was apparent in his voice. Perhaps he never expected her to learn the language? Or he was expecting that she didn’t even know about ancient languages.

“Yes. I can read it.”

He paused, turned towards her before he reached out towards his cloak, and handed her a parchment. She knew that spells cannot be written on normal paper. Usually, only animal skins have the strength to support a level one spell.

“Learning a level one spell would automatically give you a level one sorcerer badge. Your teacher could handle the badge for you.” Before anything else, she needed to start accumulating Mana using meditation. Sadly, Alferes cannot teach her any meditation.

“Eh? Where are you going?” she asked when he suddenly moved towards the window.

“Leaving. No one can help you comprehend a spell. Sorcerers are talented and smart. This is why they are rare..” He didn’t even wait for her to say anything as he vanished, disappeared into thin air. He simply left without saying anything else.

“What a rude man.” But that man was a level three sorcerer, so she could only assume that his arrogance was simply because he was looking down on her. But then again, the previous Aren was indeed stupid.

Maybe no one was expecting her to learn a single spell or maybe even the meditation that they used to breathe in Mana.

She eyed the parchment that was only the size of her palm. In the middle of the parchment were some symbols that reminded her of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

“That man didn’t even tell me what kind of spell it was!” Yet from the symbols, she knew that it was a fire spell. A fireball?

But then again, he already said that helping her would be useless as everything would depend if she could understand it using her mana...

But first, she needed to start with her meditation!

Francesca sat on the floor, closed her eyes, and followed the instructions that Alferes told her earlier. The first picture herself inside her seed, let darkness surround her, swallow her until she could feel the heat coming from her mana core. She needed to follow a certain breathing pattern until she could see the lights surrounding her.

That would be Mana.

Previously, Francesca wasn’t able to detect mana as her comprehension was really low.

It was mostly because she was thinking of contracting a spirit before she could even use mana.

This woman was really helpless.

…..

“How is she?” Duke Rochester asked the man who appeared before him. His gaze was melancholic as he looked outside, staring at the white snow that blanketed the mountains at the man of the mansion.

“Not as enthusiastic as when she tried to make a contract with a spirit without knowing how to use mana.”

A sigh escaped the Duke’s lips. “Did you think I made the wrong choice, Alferes?”

Silence answered him.

“I spoiled her too much thinking, she would live a normal life. I wanted her to live away from the war and intrigue. All I wanted was for her to be happy.” Everything backfired on him. Spoiling her only made her arrogant. It didn’t do him any good.

At the end of the day, Francesca Arenfel was still that woman’s daughter.

Soon, she would discover her talents in Sorcery and leave this place…

Just like what her father did.