part - 4 (2)

it is afternoon now. my sword training and hand-to-hand combat training are over. that was pretty much of a hell as well. master did not show any mercy to me and beat me to a pulp. right now I and master are sitting near a campfire and eating meat that is cooked from a wild animal that I don't even know the name of. I was afraid to eat it but my hunger got the best of me and I ate it anyway.

when I was eating it master explained to me different sorts of things while eating his piece of meat.

"say, master?"

I called to master as he was about his piece of meat and as soon as he heard me he looked at me without eating it

"hmm?"

"what is the creator rank or master rank that Solomon and others keep talking about?"

as I asked that master took his meat piece away from his mouth and talked

"the demons, gods and some other mythological creatures are said to use some kind of magic. that magic is divided into 4 categories based on their usage capability. first is the user level, second is the top user level, third is the master level and fourth is the creator level."

"oh~"

as I was fascinated by what he said master continued while looking towards the campfire

"let us assume an instrument and wielder. the user level can use the magic as an amateur which puts him on an advantage over a normal being. the top user is like a professional in using that instrument. master is like a prodigy who is born to use the instrument. he can use the magic like it is a part of his body just like we use our hands"

"then what about the creator level"

when I asked that master looked at me from the campfire and said

"the creator level. He is the magic itself. their existence is the reason that the specific magic was created and that people can use it. there exists only one creator rank other than the creator himself"

"then are there any creator ranks?"

"all the zodiac guardians are the creator ranks"

as he said that he brought his meat close to his mouth again just to be stopped by my another question and looked towards me as I asked

"then master which rank are you?"

"my rank is top user"

eh!!?

"wait!!, you… the person that is the strongest in the entire hell is the top user!!!?"

"well, there is a long story behind it so let us not talk about it now"

as he said that he was about to eat his meat

"so master?"

as soon as I called he stopped again like he did previously and looked at me as I asked my question

"which rank am I?"

as I asked that he brought down his meat piece and replied

"all the heavenly dragons are the creator ranks of their own magic. so their hosts are also a creator rank."

"then this magic is different from the magic everybody uses?"

"the mana they use is all the same but the magic they use differs from individual to individual but there are exceptions and the heavenly dragons are one of those exceptions"

"then what about the zodiac ranks?"

"the zodiacs are the direct children that are produced from the creator's body. they said to have the strength that is equal to the 1000th part of the creator's strength and similarly the magic power and ki as well. and they are said to be the strongest beings in the entire mythological world"

"they are said to be strongest with just the 1000th part of the creator's power!!!?"

"that's how strong the creator is, the zodiacs are all almost the same of the power but they do differ a little bit among themselves with the power they wield. to maintain the balance of power in the heaven underworld he divided the zodiac guardians with ranks according to their power and sent all the odd ranks to hell while all the even ranks to hell."

"wow"

"although, now it is all nothing but crap "

"eh?why?"

when I asked that master replied

"when a zodiac guardian dies the power, feelings, and memories of that zodiac is inherited into a newborn baby that was of age less than a year or so and also capable of wielding the power. when that happens they are sent to their specific place based on their rank but now since the celestials have invaded and started to kill the zodiac guardians when they were still a newborn baby. they were all sent to various places that the celestials can't reach and make them mature until they were the right age to fight the celestials "

"But why only the newborn babies?"

"because the zodiac guardian means the power that can practically change the entire geography of the planet. so the creator thought that a baby that is more aged than a year might be influenced negatively in the mind and they might misuse the power they wield due to the influence so when the baby is under the age of a year they will be inheriting the zodiac powers and were transported to the place which is most safe and also influence the baby positively in order to make them grow in a peaceful life until they inherit the memories and feeling of their predecessor"

"then how many zodiac guardian ranks exist?"

"There are 12 of them but right now only the 4 of the zodiac guardians are alive and are maturing at the moment."

"4 huh. then the master can humans also use magic?"

I asked him when he was about to eat his meat again and when I asked him he replied

"yes, there are some humans who can use magic through exceptional methods and they are called as 'Specials' in the mythological world"

"then am I a 'special'?"

"no you are 'Unique'."

"unique?"

"The hosts of the creatures are all the creator rank and are on a different scale when compared to the others who can use magic so they are categorised as the uniques"

"unique huh"

as soon as he said that he tried to eat his meat again where he was trying to eat from before

"then master"

*snap*

"what is it"

"eeeek"

he snapped finally. he was trying to eat the meat but was interrupted by me again and asked me with serious pressure which I replied while sweating

"t-t-this is the last question"

"sigh~, ask"

"What is the matter about this 'ki' you said before?"

"oh that"

he took the meat away from his mouth and looked at me and replied

"to use magic you need mana. only mythological creatures can use mana unlike humans and other creatures that live on the surface. but the ki means manipulation of your spirit which is generally used by non-mana creatures like humans"

"and in which way do they use that?"

"the user uses his ki and connects it to the opponent's ki to attack and that will damage the opponent internally. it is very effective against the master rank and creator rank opponents since they cannot be hit by normal attacks due to their magic ability nature"

"eh? magic nature?"

"yes, the master rank and the creator rank are the ranks where their magic is like their own body parts and own body respectively. so they can turn any part of their body into the specific attribute they use and can make themselves capable of evading any normal attack. so in order to take them down, you need to use your spirit to attack their body which possesses spirit as well. it is like connecting spirit with spirit to attack the opponent. which is also known as ki. unlike magic the ki attack cannot be evaded since even the creator rank who is said to be the magic itself might avoid normal attacks by making his body into his specific attribute but even the changed body consists ki. so it cannot be evaded"

"oh~, that sounds interesting. then master, will you teach me—"

"no"

"eh? why!!!?"

"it is still too early for you"

"but—"

"NO BUTS!!!!"

"y-y-yes"

he said that with pressure and started to eat his meat which he was holding back on eating from before. as I saw my master who was eating his meat I thought to myself.

(sigh~ no wonder that Solomon and the other demon kings were afraid of him. i wonder how the strongest demon king survived this person)

as I thought that I started to eat my piece of meat as well.

-__________________________________________-

we ate the food and are taking an afternoon nap by lying on our backs on a grassy field in a sunny light. it is so nice to take an afternoon nap with a full stomach after a huge workout in the morning. and for me, there are still questions that I need to ask the master.

"master?"

"what is it?"

when I called out to him he replied while still lying down and looking towards the sky and I asked him

"I have another question"

when I said that he sighed and replied

"sigh~ you do ask many questions"

"s-sorry, this is the last one"

"bring it on"

"y-yes, you said that the celestials have invaded 100 million years ago right?"

"Yeah, so what about that?"

"100 million years is a very long time right? then have the demons or gods made any kind of plans to fight them back?"

"I don't know about heaven but the underworld did"

"they did? what is it?"

"the 5 prodigies of hell."

"5 prodigies?"

"yes, approximately a million years ago when the aristocratic government and the demon kings at that generation were thinking about the ways to protect the remaining islands and to fight back the celestials all of them came to a single conclusion."

"What is that?"

"they chose a 10 aristocratic house which are the strongest among all the aristocrats and married their heirs and children to each other. and when their offsprings are born they are stronger than their parents. and like that the offsprings marry each other and the process is repeated and right now in this generation we ended up with the 5 prodigies who are said to be the strongest young ones in the entire history that they are even said to surpass the second strongest demon king generation which is the present generation. some are even expecting them to go into the same league as the strongest demon king generation."

"oh~ are they really that strong?"

"well, they are but they are not strong enough at the moment to bear the burden of reclaiming back the underworld. right now they are strong enough to defeat a high-level celestial and 5 of them together can defeat a leader-level celestial with casualties among them. but a leader is impossible for them individually. the 5 prodigies think that they are already stronger than the leader level and even ignore their training except for one or two of them"

"....."

"and this is where you come into the picture "

"eh? me?"

"yes listen carefully this is the part where you need to listen"

"about what?"

"Once you are trained you will become a servant to one of the 5 prodigies."

"Wait, what!!!? why would I?"

I asked master after getting up from the lying down position and the master replied to me while still lying down

"in the aristocratic demons system, the demons are divided into low-class, mid-class, and high-class and they are divided based on their power levels, experience and also their popularity"

"what does that have to do with me becoming their servant?"

when I asked that master looked towards me and replied

"in order to go on expeditions or to fight the celestials while staying in the border one needs to be any one of those ranks. a normal civilian is not given a rank and allowed to fight the celestials unless for self-protection and fight the celestials and go on expeditions. the servants of the aristocrats are the only ones that are given titles."

"so what you are saying is I need to become one of them and obtain a rank in order to go to the expeditions and fight the leader class?"

"in a certain way yes, it is a little complicated but, if you become a servant you will be given a rank after a selection of the new servants which is held every year and after the selection you will be given a rank and based on the achievements you will be promoted."

"then does that mean all the 5 prodigies are high-class demons?"

"yes, not only that they are the next heirs of their respective aristocratic houses as well."

"woah~"

as I was fascinated by that master continued

"anyway, you will find out about that sooner. at that time you may choose what you wanna do but right now you need to train because from tomorrow you will get even more intense training"

"What!!!?, no way!!!"

as soon as I heard that I could not help but complain as I was saying that master replied to me

"Just rest now, you will have to train your red dragon power after ou afternoon nap so hurry up and sleep you will not get any rest until evening"

as soon as I heard about the red dragon I could not help but stop my complaining because I know how much that is important so I replied

"yes master"

As I replied I lied down and slept.