Jol Voltex's POV:
My name is Jol Voltex and I will one day become the greatest magician in history.
I have loved magic since young, be it ability to toy with the building blocks of the universe, the spell circles that bend the laws of nature to conjure the impossible, or the enchantments that rewrites reality, my heart flutters all the same. I only regret that my love is unrequited.
You see, I was born with the "Fallen Star Body" physique. It is one of the many physiques that has an impact upon one's magical aptitude. It grants an above average mana capacity, which to some might seem like a blessing, after all, mana is the purest form of magical energy, powering our spells and enchantments through its ability to be transmuted into other elemental forces. However, my increased energy reserves come at a cost. In exchange for my above average mana capacity I have been cursed with subpar aptitude for the elements.
In the realm of magic 2 out of 3 magicians rely on their natural talent for the elements to advance in their craft. Fairies are drawn to people possessing a high aptitude for their specific elements when choosing a potential contractor. Meanwhile, though having more mana is far from a bad thing as the energy cost of casting spells significantly increases as the tiers rises, having a large mana-pool is useless if one lacks the means to convert it all. For someone of my physique to become an arch-magician level is as rare as seeing a shooting star. However, heaven leaves a path for us all, for there I still had one chance to reach the pinnacle of magic, "Enchantment Magic".
Out of the three orthodox schools of magic, it is the only one where one's affinity holds very little relevance as the enchantments themselves can act as a converter for the mana in place of the persons aptitude. In fact, amongst enchantment specialists, my physique might even be perceived as envious as having additional mana means I can activate and maintain high-level enchantments for much longer than most. Really, the only aptitude requirement of the school is that one has the ability to transmute the minuscule amount of elemental energy to draw the enchantments, after all, if one had to rely solely on magic stones to draw their enchantments, it wouldn't be long before they found themselves bankrupt. Which brings me to the one and only flaw in this otherwise perfect craft, its expenses.
The school of enchanting is undoubtedly the most expensive of the three elemental schools, as any decent enchantment require expensive high-quality materials, processing fees for blacksmiths or the like to sculpt the raw material into something usable like a sword, armour, etcetera, and of course there is also the matter of acquiring the adequate tools for precision work when engraving the enchantments themselves. On that note, I would say I have been rather fortunate actually, for my potential had been recognized by my master, the sage of runes himself. With his backing, his status, his experience, skills and knowledge, I have been able to grow into the grandmaster craftsmen I am today, an arch-magician in enchantment magic. However, it is still not enough.
I am not satisfied with the mere title of arch-magician. The title which I desire is not an arch-magician, not a grandmaster or great grandmaster, not even the title of sage which my master holds is in my eye. As I stated before, my ultimate goal is to become the greatest magician in history and though certainly impressive in his own right, my master is far from the title I seek, as he is not even the greatest magician of the current era should you compare him to his fellow sages. With Wilhelm Alfheim being the only man in history to contract two spirit kings and, Lunaria Hillferd, the only living 8th tier magician, descended from a long line of arcane sages that invented the world's first 8th tier spell, allowing them to gain a monopoly on the title for over a millennia, effectively making him royalty in the world of magic.
My master may be a great enchanter, in fact, "Great" might be an understatement, as a great grandmaster of enchantments rarely emerge more than once per century. That being said, if you search through history, enchanters capable of creating mythical grade artifacts are a dime a dozen, in fact, in his era, he has faced one or two competitors for his title like the Watanabe or the Archfold.
However, that which I seek lies beyond all of them. Alchemists, blacksmiths, and enchanters, within all these crafts, there is one unified title for that which I seek, "Divine Craftsmen", in other words, someone capable of creating a divine grade masterpiece, and in the history of enchantment magic, there has only ever been one such article, the miracle of magical engineering, the floating Island of Walpurgis, the worlds first and only, divine grade aerial craft. Though, regrettably, much of it's functionalities remained a mystery as the original creator perished before passing on any information on the innerworkings of his masterpiece. If he had, that tragedy may have been avoided.
"It took a while to fully register, but as of this moment the flying island of Walpurgis is my property! And any trespassers will be shot on sight!"
Some mad lunatic had discovered a hidden inlet to the islands control system and managed to hijack the floating island, utilizing some undiscovered functionalities to overpower my master and kick him and everyone else off the property. Honestly, the whole scenario is just so ridiculous it could almost make me laugh. I mean, my master, a descendant of the original creator and currently the foremost expert on enchantment magic has been pouring over the whole island, meticulously analysing it top to bottom for as long as he has been a sage, and still, a random nobody managed to sweep it away right from under him just like that. I iterate, the whole thing is laughable, but what followed was no laughing matter.
*BOOM*
Before we had time to retake the masterpiece of one of the greatest magicians in history, that crazy wench that stole that work of art, destroyed it. As my master's disciple, no, as an enchanter, no, as a magician, it is my solemn duty to avenge this savage act, this disgrace, this insult to magic itself will not stand. Hence, when my master invited me on to join him in his quest to punish that vial criminal, I naturally followed him to the 2nd martial continent.
Unfortunately, due to minor mistake that got me in trouble with my master, I was delegated to the meaningless task of shutting down the enemy's communications. Honestly, what does it matter if these weaklings see us coming? We should have just sent our main force and been done with it already.
With the 3 sages and even the aid of the dragon alliance, we should have more than enough strength to overpower any opposition this meagre continent can muster, but I was shut down when I argued as such. Apparently, the targets we are after has record of cunning impressive enough to warrant some additional caution, if only to prevent their escape.
Personally, I believe this to be an overreaction. The Yangs may have been formidable in the past, but they are now little more than a shadow of what they once were. The thief of Walpurgis may have gotten the upper hand in the past, but only by borrowing the power of forces greater than her own, be it the mysteries of the island of wonders or the monarch of the 2nd moon, none of those can be relied upon now. And do not even get me started on the force she has pulled to herself, The Dark Empire. The only reason that wretched state still stand to this day is because they were not worth the sages taking direct actions to interfere in the matters of the divine and demonic trials.
"I mean, just look at how effortlessly we took this fortress!" I muttered to myself upon completing my task.
The task delegated to me was simple. Lead a small force consisting of the mediocre rabble this continent considers elite through a blind spot in the enemy's boarder surveillance, disguise ourselves as soldiers of the enemy to infiltrate the fortress at the centre of their encrypted telecommunications, deactivate the fortress's defensive barrier and if possible, seize control of their specialized communication devices so we may receive and falsify enemy reports in future.
The whole operation was met with frankly, an embarrassing level of success which serving as evidence to the share incompetence of our enemy. Not only was the infiltration and seizure of the fortress proved embarrassingly easy much thanks to the identification token acquired from our mole granting us passage through the forcefield, but we also even manage to capture the very thief of Walpurgis along the way, which wasn't even part of the plan. The biggest challenge I faced this entire time was tolerating the stalling of my incompetent underlings, handpicked by my master as a punishment for misusing his golems, as we traversed the land on foot.
"Honestly! Sending the likes of me on a roundabout journey to deal with a barrier my master could easily destroy in one or two strikes is a waste of my ti-!"
Before I could finish that sentence, a blinding light suddenly erupted from beneath my feet and I-.