As the only legitimate heir to the clan, I was envied because of my position.
My happy days were cut short when I was betrayed. Two men had ambushed my guards and me guards as we were on our way to the capital.
Now I was being dragged along a path toward a magical gate leading into a dungeon. The men seemed to have been hired to get rid of me, and it appeared they had decided to throw me into the dungeon.
"Have a nice trip," said the man carrying me as he tossed me in.
"Bastard!" I yelled at the man as I passed through the gate, losing consciousness.
After waking, I found myself later in a small cave with a path leading out.
As I looked around, I noticed what seemed to be a wild, orange cat with a feral look and a long, meaty scar over its left eye.
The cat gave me a strange look, almost as if it were dismissing me.
I let out a sigh. My shoulder-length blond hair was messy, and my once-expensive dress shirt and pants were now covered in dirt and cuts from the fall through the gate.
After a bit of looking around, it seemed I was in a random part of the dungeon, and the only other living thing around was the cat.
"The name's Kaiser. I guess you'll need a name as well." I sat there for a moment, wondering what to call the wild cat.
"How about Monse?" I smirked. "Yeah, that fits."
After being named, the cat jumped up onto my shoulder and sat there.
those two bastards had to be at least Rank 4 mages to be able to dispatch my family's guards so easily.
In this world, a mage's strength is measured by their mana core rank, which goes from Rank 1 to Rank 9. The higher the rank, the more mana a mage can store and control. As a mage's rank increases, their body becomes stronger, and they can live much longer.
Mana is the energy mages use to create magic. Every mage has a mana core inside their body that stores and controls their mana. When a mage casts a spell, they pull mana from their core and shape it into a mana type.
The most common mana types are the basic elements: fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning. Every mage can learn to use these with enough practice.
Some skilled mages can combine these elements to create advanced mana types, which are stronger and more complex.
But the rarest kind are unique mana types. These are special abilities that only one person can have when they awaken their magic.
And today, I had awakened a unique one. Now I just needed to figure out what it was.
I closed my eyes and focused on my body. After a moment, it felt like something soft was surrounding me, almost like a cloud wrapping around my body and lifting me up. Startled, I opened my eyes and looked around.
It was a cloud.
I tried to use my will to move the cloud around, and after focusing for a bit, it finally started to move. As I continued, it became faster and easier to control.
I started moving around, getting faster as I went. Monse went on edge and clung to my shirt with his nails.
"Sorry, Monse," I smirked as I stopped flying around.
Maybe I could solidify the cloud. I tried, but my mana quickly grew tired and started draining fast. After about half of my mana reserves were consumed, the cloud finally hardened into something solid.
Panting from the strain, I muttered, "Finally."
The solid white cloud floated in front of me.
I should test this, I thought. So I threw a punch, and it was blocked by the cloud.
So it blocks things, but it probably can't block anything too crazy yet, like spells. Thinking that, I began to cast a basic lightning spell.
"Lightning Strike," I intoned as a magic circle formed in my palm, and I pointed it at the cloud.
Of course, being only Rank 1, it wasn't very powerful.
A small stream of lightning shot out of the magic circle and hit the cloud. It blocked the strike, but the cloud shattered a moment later.
Monse looked over my shoulder, watching me test the cloud. He looked far more intelligent than a normal wild cat should.
For the next hour, I trained and tested my cloud, experimenting to find the best way to use it.
It seemed I was able to form a cloud using almost no mana, and I could fly around on it without exhausting my mana at slow speeds. But the faster I went, the more mana I had to use to keep the cloud together, or it would start deforming and breaking apart.
I realized I could also coat myself in it to support my body. Thinking that, I put Monse down and coated my legs in the cloud, then jumped high with ease.
"Alright, let's get ourselves out of here, Monse," I said as I picked him up and placed him on my shoulder.
Monse, sitting there, gave a little nod.
I did a double take. "Wait… you're a mana beast?"
A mana beast is a creature born with a natural connection to mana, able to sense, manipulate, or even store it. He had to be one; if not, how could he be this intelligent?
Monse had what seemed like a smirk on his face. He slapped his paw against my cheek and then pointed forward.
"Well, I guess that's the best case for me," I said to Monse as I began walking forward into the dungeon.