1 Good Karma

Somewhere in the landscape of the earth, there was a city located in the midst of a forest.

Nestled in the middle of a lush forest was a city that from the outside appeared to be able to hold more than a thousand people, the locals are currently doing their daily activities that are nearing their end. Most of them were farmers hard at work on their land.

Everyday life hummed along as it always did for these people at the bottom of society.

Not all of them are farmers, some are wearing woolen clothes that boast about their wealth. Merchants can be seen making their stores and standing at the edge of the cobblestone street, preparing to close their stores for the day.

Despite the peaceful city, thieves are lurking and would roam about at night.

At the peak of the sunset, in a particular deserted area at the corner of the city near the mouth of the forest, right behind a marbling white church is a group of three people, teens no more than eighteen or nineteen can be seen doing something but they're definitely not playing.

Amongst the three, one looked beat up and riddled with bruises here and there.

"Flaming Punch!"

The teen that stands in front of the bruised boy can be seen charging forward, his right fist slightly sparking with slivers of fire that slowly cloaked his entire fist. Soon, the teen drives his fist into the bruised boy's stomach and sends him crashing a couple of meters away.

It was clear that the teen is a Fire Mage, walking on the first path of power.

"Nice Punch, Adrian! You definitely got stronger!"

"Really? I did feel like I'm getting a hang of the Flaming Punch spell" the teen called Adrian rubs his nose out of embarrassment, he was clearly taking pride in himself for nearing mastery over the new fire spell that he had been practicing.

Glancing at the bruised boy, Adrian then asked, "How is it, Samael? Did I get stronger?"

The bruised boy doesn't look older than eighteen, probably a couple of years younger than eighteen. He has a sweet and innocent feel about him. A pair of blue eyes that decorate his face, and his blazing short blonde hair are probably the features that made the sweet feeling about him.

But his eyes are hiding the pain from the punch he just received, the tremble shows it all.

"Y-Yes... I can feel clearly that you got stronger, Adrian." Samael replied while standing up, clutching his punched stomach strongly. A drizzle of blood can be seen trickling down the corner of his mouth as he forced out a smile, but he quickly wiped it away.

Nodding his head in a good mood, Adrian waved his hand, "Anyway, thanks for helping me today!"

"I know we can count on you, Samael. As always, thanks for helping us train" the other teen approached closer and tap Samael on the shoulder with a bright smile, "You're okay, right? Someone that has an affinity to light elements should be able to handle this much"

"Of course, this is nothing" Samael replied with false bravado, his voice shaking as he spoke.

The teen's smile grew even wider before he slap Samael's back with a cheerful laugh, "That's the spirit, we'll see you tomorrow at the same time, okay? We both just got a new spell, and we really need some training with you"

Without even waiting for Samael to answer, the pair of mages left while bickering blithely.

Meanwhile, Samael fell to his knees before he curled his body out of pain. It was obviously a fluke that he was fine after that punch, he was clearly not. Mages with an affinity to the light elements have stronger regeneration compared to other mages, and Samael has an even stronger regeneration compared to his peers.

Yet that doesn't mean he can recover instantly, his bruises still stayed for more than a day.

After taking some time for his body to recover a bit, he was finally able to stand up when the sun was about to drown. "Shoot, I need to get back or Lily would be worried" Samael mused to himself before he quickly makes his way back.

Walking along the street that keeps getting darker, every local greeted him with friendliness.

"Done training, Samael?"

"Here, take some apples and share them with your family. Don't forget to give some to Lucius!"

"Okay, aunty! I'll tell my brother that you gave me this" Samael replied and take a bucket of apples.

Samael was the second son of the town's Priest of Light who is highly revered by anyone inside this city, everyone knows this and thus everybody greeted him or at least shoot a smile at him. It was a daily occurrence, but these days he feel something odd coming from them.

'From their view, I'm probably only the son of the Priest of Light that can't even use a single spell'

It had been a long time since he discovered his affinity with the Light Element. His parents had been arranged together because of similar magical affinities, so it made sense that their children would have similar affinities as well. Thus, this wasn't shocking to other people.

Out of the various mages in this world, Light and Dark Mages are revered the most.

Ever since the Erovian race, a race of creatures that are evolutionarily adept in fighting mages descend to earth, the hierarchy of mages has been turned over. Fundamental mystic mages such as fire, water, earth, wind, and other magic branches mages were not revered as much as dark and light mages.

Immunity against the fundamental elements possessed by the Erovian race caused these changes.

Since he's a potential mage that has an affinity to the light element, Samael was revered very much by the people of this town, but that started to fade slowly as time passes by with him showing not even a glimpse of magical talent unlike his brother Lucius.

'What am I thinking? How can I have such a thought against these good people? God will frown upon me'

Fearing the wrath of God for thinking badly about the people of his city, Samael shakes the negative thoughts that he had and hastens his pace. It was getting dark, and his father doesn't like him out when the sun is down.

Upon reaching back to his home, he saw a figure standing in front of the gate of his home.

Even though Samael had not been close enough to decipher the figure, he knew it was her. "Lily!" he yelled, waving his hand excitedly as he hastened over to her, despite the pain in his abdomen pinching him.

The woman heard her name being called from a distance and spun around to face him.

As soon as the woman's caught the sight of Samael running to her with her gray-blue eyes, a sweet smile blooms on her face. "Lord Samael, I almost start looking for you. It's almost dark already" the woman said with a gentle voice.

"I told you to call me Sam when we're alone, it's been ten years and you still stuck to that habit"

Samael said amidst his pant, his eyes spellbound by Lily, who had been his friend since he was a child of five. Even though she was the daughter of the head maid that worked for his family, Samael never treated her like a servant.

"Okay, Sam... come inside, I can tell you're hurting right now" Lily replied and went inside first.

From the way Lily acted, Samael being hurt every day whenever he came back seems to be a regular thing. Samael followed behind before the two of them reaches the sideyard, a place that has been used for Lucius or him to train.

Lily has already gone and prepared some ointment and bandages for Samael's wounds.

Sitting at the stairs that lead to the sideyard, Samael grunted before he pull up his top and expose the blackish bruise on his stomach. "Adrian has gotten stronger again, he's already able to use a fire spell despite awakening his affinity two years later than me... and it hurts badly to be punched by him"

"Why didn't you stop helping them? It's clear to me that they're using you" Lily replied calmly.

Samael takes the healing ointment and applied it to his nasty bruise while hissing through gritted teeth, he then started wrapping a bandage around his bruised stomach. "Of course not, how can you have such negative thoughts about them?! Do you have no shame for God? He's listening!" he gasped, surprised by how blatant her words are.

"Dear God, forgive Lily for uttering her negativity" Samael quickly clasped his hands and prayed.

Upon hearing this, Lily rolled her eyes as she can't quite get used to Samael's behavior. "If they really want to train their spells, they can use rocks as their targets. Why do they need to use it on you? It's obvious that they like to see you hurting"

"Nonsense! I volunteered to help them! Yes, that's right, I volunteered..." Samael defended.

Lily can only sigh helplessly in defeat, she can only shake her head and tidied up the bandages and ointments. "Volunteered? More like being forced to become their training dummy, I can't understand you sometimes"

Samael was at a loss for words, yet he can't find anything to say back to Lily.

"Ahh... you just can't understand the way of God, I'm doing good deeds for helping them train. It'll increase the good karma in my life." Samael mutters to himself in a low tone, not wanting Lily who is bringing the ointments and bandages to the side to hear.

But his voice turns out to not be low enough, Lily heard it loud and clear.

"Don't blame your stupidity on God! You will be frowned upon!" Lily shouted from the back, forcing Samael to only smack his lips in displeasure while scratching the back of his head. "You aren't meant to hear that!" Samael shouted back.

"Go train or I won't make your favorite meal, I mean it!" Lily shouted again.

In response to this, Samael lazily groan as he stood up and went to the middle of the sideyard, preparing himself to train in the hope of being able to use one spell so he can at least can finally call himself a mage.

Samael has awakened his affinity to light elements from the age of twelve which are pretty fast.

Most of the potential mages awaken their affinities to an element when they reach thirteen or fourteen, but he awaken his affinity when he was twelve, quite a talent by those standards. But it's been three years, and he hasn't been able to use a single light spell.

Even though he kept on training neutral spells, he was never able to conjure a single light spell.

Of course, this year has been very rough, frustration started to catch up to him. But he kept on going, and that is all thanks to the support Lily showed to him, she's God's light in his world.

Despite their light bickering, this moment with her actually healed Samael greatly.

Not in a literal sense but in a metaphorical sense, his soul was healed every time he spends time with Lily. She was also the reason he hasn't lost hope in himself yet, he would feel absolutely wrecked if he doesn't have someone like Lily by his side.

'Someday, I'll definitely be able to become strong enough to join the Divine Sanctum of Divinity. Father, mother, and Lily would be proud of me then' Samael gets into his training stance with a clear determination on his face. 'And also, at that point, I can do more good to make God proud of me' he thought with a smile.