A cannon.

What defines a cannon is not the ammunition, but it is the very item that fires the ammunition. A heavy artillery that is mounted to fire rounds of exploding shells that does great damage during war.

During the great war against the old world, Every man capable of manifesting mana was taught to create a skill known to have been great at assisting the very nature of their success. That skill was known as the Mana Cannon.

Taught by mage, the Mana cannon was one of the defining skills that brought the new world to their victory.

Although it was a basic and common skill, it was powerful and reliable. the mana cannon was a human conjured bomb. Its level of power was defined by how much a mage could compress his/her own mana into this skill.

Now as the time flies by…the mana cannon is still used by the hunters, but mainly by the mages who have a grand amount of mana. Its use for a hunt is mainly on groups of monster that chase or attack in groups.

But as hunters grow into a stronger force each time they level up, the mana cannon would rarely be used since the hunters gain more and more unique and more applicable skills into their attacks. Simply put, the mana cannon is a skill that is made for beginning hunters.

One thing to consider is that Mana cannon uses a lot of mana from the hunters. And its power is defined by how much a mage can compress their mana into this attack. A less trained mage can perform the skill, but without proper sense of the mana in his body, sometimes, the skill is wasted despite having a large pool of mana inside his body.

So to create this into a perfect bomb, mages should be trained enough to read the mana in their  body and converge it into a compressed attack.

Looking deep into it in the internet again as my source of information, I looked for anyway possible to gain this skill. Its not something that can be made and thought of at the top of my head just like a mana spear would…a mana cannon is different.

In a sense its more safer to be thought by a professional in using this skill since a mana cannon is basically a bomb. Attempting to make this skill by yourself is another way of telling yourself that you were going to kill yourself with a bomb. Its basically suicide…and I don’t think I have the insurance to cover my own funeral…

Looking in the internet, I tried looking for a place that teaches this basic skill. Mainly I searched up this topic in the hunter’s association site, and looking into it, I found a certain name that was advertised as a school that teaches the basics of being a mage. Certainly, I wasn’t going to throw this chance. I only had the intent to take a five day course…and naturally, the tuition for this lesson was expensive.

“…T-ten thousand qoril…damn, that’s expensive as hell.”

I said as I felt burdened by the sight of my bank account getting less and less by the day.

Knowing that I was in a hurry, I took the opportunity to take this class first thing tomorrow. I only had about 13 days before the class would start, so I don’t have time to waste on waiting for this kind of thing to happen.

As I signed myself in and paid the tuition, the site in return gave me a few certain information about this school.

“Hmm, the address is a bit far from where the house is and its nowhere near the city at all…or even a town, its somewhere in a forest. I guess I can take a cab here.” I said as I stared at the gps pointing to its location.

Looking more into the information, I noticed something very important that was found at the end of the site of this hunter’s association..

“…Eh? 1.5/5 stars?”

The review of the place was bad…

Only about 15 people were able to review about this place…giving it the most brutal comments that I have ever read.

[The Dojo Smells like it was rotting away in the forest, no one bother to clean up the place : 1 star]

[I thought I found a man dead at the stairs before I could even enter the Dojo, turns out it was a drunk hobo asking for change at the entrance. They should really manage this place if they want to keep it running : 0 stars]

[I saw an orc-like monster chewing on a chickens head by the chicken coop and a naked man running around with his dong out and about : 0 stars]

[While I was trying to learn the basic skill mana reinforcement, the old man was staring me up and down with his eyes…I felt violated : 2 stars]

[While I was sleeping in their dorms, I heard a girl crying from where it sounded like the bathroom…when I came to check, I saw the old man pissing like he was experiencing the world’s most excruciating piss ever. He was probably passing a kidney stone.…: 4 stars]

[Woke up to find my sandals were covered with dog shit : 1 stars]

[Woke up this morning and noticed that my wallet was missing a few thousand qorils, found out that the old man was using the money to pay the electric bill…WTF? : 0 stars]

I read deeper and deeper into the reviews…and everything about this place was extremely bad.

“…M-maybe I can get a refund…”

But the longer I looked into this, I found out one unchangeable fact.

It was non-refundable.

“…”

Only a single tear fell from my eye as the eternal sadness within me swallows me whole like a rotting husk of a corpse.

I was scammed.

“Why!!!!!!!! Why does the site even have their reviews hidden!?”

The reviews only ever popped up at the last minute after I signed up…that kind of process is a goddam SCAM!

After I contemplated in the tragedy of this mistake, I had to think of whether or not I should go. Judging from the reviews itself, it was a bad experience but it didn’t say anything about their lessons on the subject being bad or that the school failed to teach…

Knowing this, I felt hope swell in my heart…but along with that hope, doubt came.

“…it doesn’t say anything about their lessons at all…It could only mean two things. Either its decent or either its bad…”

Thinking that if this is a failure of a school, maybe I should think of going to a different place that had a more sizeable review in their name.

And I did find a few more schools…one problem is that their tuition for their lessons is five times more expensive…and the days it takes to complete the whole course take about a whole month at least…

“…I don’t have time or money for this kind of school.” I say as I felt more conflicted by the idea that this old school was probably going to be my only best bet shot at learning the skills of a basic mage.

“M-maybe it isn’t so bad?” I thought…

***The next day***

Stairs…

All I saw before me was a bunch of stairs leading up to what seemed like the skies…

Two thousand steps…These were the numbers of stairs leading to the very entrance of the school I was going to.

And as grim as my heart was towards the situation, I can’t say anything but sigh in the reality that my body was going to die the moment I arrive at the top.

“Haa….lets just get this over with.”

So I started the journey…

It isn’t as far as one would think…

Two thousand steps…its like walking about two kilometers if I based each step I make as a meter worth.

And with my body as fat as it was, each step I make, made me believe that I was walking a meters worth for each staircase.

“…haa….haa…haaa” a quarter way to go…I think.

Looking afar, the road’s direction changed and was leading to the left. And yet, I continued on…

1035 steps in…just halfway through, here in the middle of a resting flat ground, a bench was b a tree as well as the body of a sweating Soril Remus, me…

I feel uncomfortable…I should’ve brought an extra t-shirt to wear. And my lungs, their burning to a point that it feels like I’m breathing a cold singe of air…

But I continued…

1200 steps in…I stepped on a dog’s shit.

“…”

But I still… I continued…

1202 steps in…

I stepped on another piece of dog shit.

“…”

I continued…

1234…steps…in…

I encountered a snake wiggle by the stairs…it looked at me for a quick second and went its way back into a bush…

1504 steps in…

Found a dung beetle rollings its round collection of shit up the stairs…

1345…steps back…

I was chased by a swarm of wasp…couldn’t fight back until used up about a lot of my mana to fire 16 mana spears…

1700 steps in and I found a big mountain lion chilling by a flat resting bench under a tree. It was licking its paws like no one’s business.

Meanwhile, I was looking at it with a cold sweat dripping from my back…I continued on without resting on that bench.

2000 steps in…

Finally at the top…

But the moment I walked at this final step, I saw a man pissing by the side of a tree…

“…”

“Ah, you must be the student that signed up yesterday.” he said as he continues to piss at the tree…

“no, you have me mistaken for somebody else…” I said in a quick response to deny the man’s allegations.

“…Well, you can’t really lie to me since when you signed up, we already knew what you looked like in your profile.” said the old man as he smiled at me with his crooked teeth…I thought he was an orc for a second there…

He guided me in…and I didn’t think I have any qualms with what was going to happen.

There as we went further in, I was finally able to see the sight of the school…

It looked abandoned.

It looked like it was rotting.

With a single gust of wind to pass…this whole building might fall…

It looked like no one should ever be even here in the first place…

The reviews were right…

“…” without hesitation, I turned around and started walking back…

“Oy” and without halt, the old man grabs me by my shirt’s collar and dragged me inside.

“No!!!” I screamed…but like a man in the middle of the highest point of the mountain, no one could hear me…no one…

I was doomed since the nightmare has started…

As he opened the school’s doors, he placed me by an open room…

The floors resembled that of a tatami mat, the walls itself looked paper thin…and the roof, it was entirely made of old wood. Everything about this place spoke of the Japanese themed architecture. And looking back at the exterior, I was right to assume that this place might have been what seemed like a Dojo.

“…” the room was silent and only the air flow from the rotting holes of the roof could be heard.

“…Are you the one who signed up for the basic training?” asked an old man who was sitting down in a formal Japanese way. His head was lowered as he only stared at the floor.

This old man was a bald headed man, having a long white beard and a pair of long earlobes…while wearing a white robe that was similar to Japanese clothing of an elder senior. This man spoke of what people call…an elder. Someone wise to their years…

“…Y-yes, I am.” his pressure was different, it made me act to stay alert of his words.

“…Very well, sit down in a lotus position and we may begin.” said the old man.

Having followed his orders, I did what he said.

As I sat down, I turned to him and he turned to me…together, we were looking eye to eye, but his looked like they were squinting, so I had doubts if he was able to see me at all…

Until I finally noticed something about him…he was blind…

“…Y-you…”

“Yes?”

“Your blind, aren’t you?” I asked.

“…although I cannot see, I know that you are there…fat boy.” he said as a smirk appeared on his face.

“…Oy.”

“Don’t be so doubtful, I may not look like it, but I am a man who was honest to his years…” he said.

“huh, okay…”

“…may I feel your hands?” all of a sudden, he asked a very weird request…

“What are you going to do?” I asked back.

“…To know if you who you are.” he said.

“What?” I was dumbfounded by his words.

“…” after that, his silence was simply the response.

“…”

“…”

Both in this silence, I doubt things would move on and something would happen, but until I would answer, it seems like nothing would happen.

“Fine, I guess…” and with that, I opened my hands for him to touch.

But seeing as how he was far from me and not making any efforts to even come close, it seems like I have to be the one to come close to him instead.

So I went and stood up to walk up to him…

About a meter away, I finally gave out my palm to him…

He reached out and then run his fingers across them like he was a fortune teller.

“…” his silence was only ever making me nervous as he ran his fingers all over the lines on my palm, but by then, as the seconds continue, his eyes turned away from my palms and unto my eyes instead.

“…You, you have something watching over your back…”

“W-what?”

“…Something divine…”

“…”

“Your fate…it cannot be read…your path is uncertain…”

“What are you talking about?” I was confused by his words… asit felt heavy for some reason.

“…You must be ready…you must be strong if you want to survive this world…”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“I will help you…I will train you…” ot minding my question, he continued to speak

“Can you please explain?” worried and a bit desperate, I wanted an explanation.

“…This is a first for me. For all of the years that I have lived, not once have I seen a dark path like yours…no light to guide you, no string of fate…you are simply by yourself in a path of uncertainty.” he said as his words were coated in an essence of fear.

“…” I was surprised by how he expressed his words.

“I am Yagami, Master Yagami.” he spoke his name.

“…Yagami?” I was curious to hear such a Japanese like name in this world.

“I offer you my hand in helping you.”

As I stood rather confused, suddenly I felt a hand touch my shoulders.

To this surprise, I quickly turned around and saw the man from the entrance. He had this serious tension of expression in his face.

“…Old man, are you sure about this?” he asked.

“…If the boy accepts my proposal, I will do what can be done.” he said.

“*Sigh*….Fine, then I won’t stop you.” said the man as he sighs in a regretful and heavy like impression.

“Um, excuse me, can you tell me what’s going on?” I asked the man near me.

“Hmm…well, in simple terms, you have two choices boy. Accept his offer and become strong or simply leave…”

“Eh? But I came here to learn the basics of magic…mainly, I want to learn how to use a skill called a mana cannon.”

“That you can do, I can teach you that myself…but you must listen to the offers given to my master. He has read your fate and he is worried…you have this divine spirit within you that must be lead properly.”

“Yeah…I don’t understand? Why is he worried?”

“This concerns your life boy…”

“…What?”

“What I’m trying to say is.…do you want to become strong?” straight out of his mouth, he asked this question to me.

“…”

“Your Body is weak, your mana is strong, your soul is walking in an uncertain path…but you are guarded by a divine spirit…these are the things that my master has seen in you.”

“Umm…” I was not following.

“…I can understand that you can’t answer, you have no idea what this path is that my master is offering you… since it is ultimately your choice, you are given time to decide.”

“…Can you tell me, what happens if I choose to accept the offer?”

“Then you will undoubtedly become strong.”

“…Really?” doubtful of what he said, I stood with my arms crossed.

“Yes…but this does not guarantee your path or your life…this is simply the first step into your life’s journey.

“…” I thought hard…

I did not understand why the elder person read my palm and gave such an offer, but it resulted in me having choose to accept his offer for strength. Strength is always welcome…

At first I wanted to learn the basics of a mana cannon, but this place offered me something I was unsure of…as the promise for strength was always something that felt too good to be true…

Looking at the two, I felt compelled to deny their offer…

But the old blind man, he seems to have read something of me…

A divine spirit? Thinking of it, it must be the mission system that I follow in order of the God…but for the uncertain path, what did he mean by that?

Hearing these things, it made me fear of what was to come in the future…of my future.

“…Since your offering strength, I should accept it…but its too risky to even think of making the decision at this moment.”

“So what will it be?”

“…I need time. Show me this offer of strength you kept on talking about…and if I’m convinced, then I will solely agree to this offer.” I said.

“…might as well.” he said.

I have stepped into a territory that I am completely walking blindly into…

These people who I have meet for the first time, can I even trust them?

The tension of this entire place is simply that suspicious that I can’t let my guard down for a minute…

But their words of offering strength sounded so heavy that it feels like its worth something.

“…So what should I do first?” I asked.

“First things first, lose the fat…”

“Um…sure but…”

“A strong body tends to create strong results.” said the old blind man.

“…So is there a fast way to do it?” I asked.

“…no.” he answered.

“So what should I do?” I asked.

“…Running up and down the stairs is a good way to burn the excess fat off your body.”

“Eh? So that means…”

“Run up and down the stairs five times…” said the man.

“….”

“.…”

*Sigh*