"Hup, here, and there we go!" A faint voice was audible behind the loud splashing sound of a huge waterfall. If someone paid close attention, they could see the silhouette of a young teenage boy moving up the stream with incredible speed!

From far away it looked like the heavy stream was pushing the boy and he was simply riding the stream upwards.

The boy was about 1,50, had long sky-blue hair reaching all the way to his back, his naked upper body was rather slim but looked fairly sturdy! And while he was moving up the waterfall, he had his left arm held behind his back the entire time!

"Yo Shisho! I'm done!" The boy cheered while dashing through the water curtain of the waterfall and landing in a cave.

"5 minutes and 12 seconds, one armed, not bad Nagisa." A voice echoed out of the cave while a man with dark hair and dark blue eyes came into the light! That's right, the man was Kagero and the boy was Nagisa who was now 13 years old!

"Heh, I remember when you set the goal of climbing the waterfall in 30 minutes with both arms." Nagisa rubbed his nose while putting on his shirt.

"And I still remember the boy who whined that it was impossible." Kagero countered while ruffling Nagisa's hair, "But yeah, I'll admit, you're doing way better than I expected."

"Hehehe." Nagisa grinned cheekily while grabbing a wooden stick at the side of the wall, "I'll go practice the spear moves you taught me!" Nagisa told him before running off.

Nagisa had become a lot closer to Kagero in these three years. He had accepted him as a parenting figure that he had never had. Kagero did a spectacular job of taking care of him while training and teaching him everything he knew. It was something Nagisa had never experienced.

In the three years, Nagisa had been doing the same training every single day! It was about a week in when Nagisa realizes that he had gained the first bit of aura while climbing the waterfall! It turned out that aura was literally physical energy! It could be gained by simple weight training in an area with enough elements!

Of course, people had developed new methods that were a lot easier over time! But Kagero had wanted Nagisa to understand the basis of aura! If gaining mana was like carefully extracting the bits and parts you needed out of the elements and then distilling them before letting them flow into your mana pool, gaining aura was basically gathering and running the elements through a filter which was a combatant's body! While the elements slightly enhanced a combatant's body while running through it, the body also worked as a filter to sort out the bits and pieces that were needed to gain aura! And when the filter process was done, the remains simply flowed into the aura pool while the unneeded part was dispersed off in the form of sweat.

After two years of non-stop training, Nagisa was now a stage 3, 1-star spear user and a stage 2 level 9 mage. His work as a combatant had improved a lot more since he had an experienced teacher guiding him in that part. With magic, he had to figure out everything all by himself and it slowed down his progress drastically. But according to Kagero, he was still above average!

Nagisa's aura was of the shadow element just as planned while his mana remained water natured. Kagero had also taught Nagisa his own spear style Nagisa had been able to climb the entire waterfall within 30 minutes after about one and a half years.

Now to the sad and awkward part… even though Nagisa was a stage 2 and almost stage 3 mage, he still only knew the one spell Kaede had taught him years ago… the rank 1 healing spell, Healing Touch.

Nagisa started to swing his wooden stick around as soon as he got out of the cave. Kagero's spear style had been very different! Unlike usual people who base their style on their element, Kagero had studied all the elements and had tried to create a style that included all of them! Sadly, he only ended up with an incomplete offensive move based on the wind element and a technique to handle the spear based on the water element!

Even though he tried to teach Nagisa both of them, Nagisa was only able to learn his water-based technique. The wind-based move was hard for him to understand, the fact that it was still unfinished only made it worse.

An earth or fire-based move or technique was something Kagero couldn't figure out at all. The wind element was the most similar element to water when it came to its characteristics, while earth and fire still seemed completely odd to both Nagisa and Kagero.

The water-based technique shined in its continuity and stacking nature! It was an all-rounded technique that allowed the user to shift between offense and defense at will while maintaining a barrage of swift and never-ending strikes or blocks. The highlight of the technique was that the hits and blocks got heavier with every swing the user made, just like how waves push each other to create a greater wave in the ocean! This was also the one Nagisa had the most success in. Kagero called this style the Raging Billows.

The wind-based move only focused on two factors, its speed and sharpness! Using his entire body, the user would start to twist it along with the spear while focusing his aura at the tip of the spear creating a drill like shape before charging at his enemy faster than the human eye could follow and pierce through everything that was standing in his way!

But that was all in theory! While Nagisa did manage to understand this move, it was still incomplete and impossible to control. He would always lose the grip of his spear, unable to stop the rotation of it, resulting in it escaping out of his hands and himself also spinning through the air and eventually crashing into the ground or a tree.

"Alright…" Nagisa took a deep breath before a dark gray aura started to spread out of his body before his left scale started to glow and the aura started to take a dark blue color while also looking smoother. Nagisa then started to move around while spinning his stick around him in a defensive manner. His movements looked smooth and fluent as if his feet were gliding on the ground while the spear automatically danced around him.

Nagisa then took a deep breath before kicking a nearby tree with his right foot causing it to shake as leaves started to drop from it. An intense light appeared in Nagisa's eye as he gathered all his focus and took an offensive stance. His arms turned into a blur along with his spear while leaves magically disappeared from the air.

The entire process only took a few seconds before Nagisa stopped his arms while panting heavily and putting his weight on his stick with its end stabbed into the ground. On the head of the spear, a bunch of leaves were neatly strung together.

"… 34, 14 where I missed the center. I could keep building up more power in my strikes, but it would sacrifice my accuracy…" Nagisa frowned while catching his breath while the remaining leaves finally reached the ground. "Now…" Nagisa quickly calmed himself while removing the leaves from his stick before the scale on his left hand started to glow again. His dark blue aura turned back to its original gray color before changing into a dark green. The movement of the aura also seemed sharper than before. "First I have to fix my landing before trying to keep my spear under control." Nagisa muttered to himself.

He took another deep breath before firmly gripping his spear and leaping into the air! After reaching his highest point, Nagisa quickly kicked a nearby branch to change his momentum and charged downwards while starting to spin his body forming a drill like whirlwind to surround his body! But within barely a second, the whirlwind started to lose its form before shooting out everywhere and completely ruining Nagisa's balance!

Nagisa quickly let go of his spear while his body was flung through the air like a feather in a storm. Unable to regain his balance, Nagisa crashed into the ground while letting out a painful groan. After resting for a while he slowly sat up and started to heal his wounds and went to find his missing spear or rather stick after he was done.

After another few tries to keep the Piercing Gale under control but without success, Nagisa gave up and rolled his aching shoulder blades before heading back into the cave. The stick that he was using as a spear replacement was already broken.

"Do you have a mission tonight?" Kagero asked without even looking in Nagisa's direction when he walked back in.

"Na… I'm already catching their attention with my streak of successful missions, have to stay low for another while." Nagisa shook his head while grabbing an apple from the pile next to the fireplace.

"Good, it's about time for your graduation exam." Kagero smiled while putting a hand on his shoulder, "It's time you get into the world and start seeing things for yourself. And you finally need to catch up with your magic progression. There's not much more I can teach you as a combatant, I've taught you all the basics and my best moves. All there's left is for you to develop it into your own style."

"You mean I can…?" Nagisa's eyes sparkled with excitement for a second but quickly turned dark again.

"Yeah, but you know the drill, only the mage and the soldiers." Kagero warned him before letting him go, "I'll come with you for this one, just in case."

"Don't worry… I know." Nagisa's narrowed his eyes while his left scale started glowing again while the grey aura covered his entire body. With the aura settling again, Nagisa's warm blue irises had turned dark grey and emotionless while his sky-blue hair had also turned into a light shade of grey, short and spiky. Nagisa then grabbed a 50 cm long pitch-black dagger and fastened its sheath on his belt. "I'm off Shisho." Nagisa said before simply sinking into the ground and disappearing with another flare on his scale.

"This kid… it's like he becomes another person." Kagero frowned and shook his head slightly before also heading out of the cave.

"Guess someone came before you." Kagero stated while looking at the scene before him. Nagisa and he were standing in front of the slave prison Nagisa had been held in once. But instead of the prison, all that was left was a pile of rubble and ashes, there was a 200-meter-long split in the ground where the prison used to stand along with several thousand corpses spread around the place. In the middle of this mess was a body pinned against the remains of the old prison. Nagisa recognized that getup, it was the mage that was hunting him and Kaede down when they tried to escape!

"Who did this..." Nagisa cringed and frowned at the sight, "Not that they were good people, but this is a little bit too brutal." He shook his head, "Especially with the mage, it doesn't look like intentional torture so whoever killed him was an amateur for sure… they probably missed his vital points several times before managing to finish him." Nagisa concluded after observing the man's corpse. There were deep marks on his arms and legs from the ropes that were tying him down, so he must have struggled a lot before dying. The knife wounds on his body were all around his left chest area, but the stabs weren't clean and missed the heart 3 times before hitting its target. which is either caused by an incredibly dull knife or just an unsteady or even shivering hand or just extremely poor knifework.

"But what's done is done I guess… what about the graduation test now?" Nagisa let out a small sigh before turning back to Kagero.

"You know it was less of a test but supposed to be a sign of you moving on." Kagero shook his head and chuckled, "Since someone did your job already you simply pass."

"Fine by me." Nagisa nodded while the gray coloring in his irises and hair slowly started to fade while his hair grew longer again, "So what's the plan?" Nagisa asked after turning his eyes back to Kagero.

"Get into Valm and apply for the dawn academy. It's currently the best school for dragon tribe combatants and mages, especially mages." Kagero told him while getting a few things out of his bag, "You'll need some decent clothes, see it as a graduation gift." He said before handing Nagisa a set of clothes.

The set consisted of some black pants and brown boots, a white shirt with a dark blue blazer and some fingerless gloves, "The gloves are similar to your old ones, just without the talent suppressing and that you're able to take them off as well now." Kagero explained, "Take this as well." Kagero handed him a hair tie, "I still suggest to just cut it, but you're also right that it provides better cover for your other identity. I don't have the money to make you your own spear, so you'll have to settle with the dagger I made you."

"You're… not coming with me?" Nagisa took the things after spacing out for a second. His eyes were getting slightly red.

"Cut it out kid." Kagero sighed, "I will come check on you every now and then, but I can't take you under my wing forever, you'll have to grow up eventually."

"I know Shisho…" Nagisa took a deep breath before slowly putting the things Kagero gave him on. "So… I'll see you around?"

"Yeah… when the time comes, you'll definitely see me around kid." Kagero smiled gently before ruffling Nagisa's hair, "Until then it's goodbye for now, I have some unfinished business I have to solve myself." He said before he leaped into the air and disappeared into the clouds.

"…Thank you, Shisho." Nagisa waited for a few seconds before he muttered and slightly bowing in the direction Kagero had gone to, "Guess I'm on my own again…" Nagisa took a deep breath. He was going to go wash himself under the waterfall, change into his new clothes and head towards the capital!

It wasn't Nagisa's first time in the capital. In the latter half of his three years training, he had been here quite often. But it was only under the disguise of his Unique Skill, this was the first time he had come here in his original appearance.

Since Nagisa was already a stage 3 combatant, his shadow scale had also rewarded him with 3 new Unique skills with the first one being Illusion Shroud. This ability allowed him to cast a realistic and even physical illusion on himself, but ONLY himself. He could change his features, height, and even voice! But there was one drawback, it only worked in the dark!

After getting familiar with this ability, Nagisa also discovered that he was able to imitate other element natures with it, but since the illusions were only as good as his own imagination, while his imitation of water natured aura was fairly decent, his wind nature imitation was rather horrible due to his lack of understanding of the element. Imitating the earth and fire elements were impossible for Nagisa since he couldn't even picture the element in his mind.

The capital named Valm was a huge city surrounded by city walls that were more than 30 meters tall! Of course, it was merely a joke for any decent Mage or Combatant, but it was incredibly effective against a normal human army.

Right now, Nagisa was strolling along the street while nibbling on a bun he had bought on his way. He knew where the dawn academy was, but if he remembered correctly, the new semester had already started more than 3 months ago! His best guess was that Kagero somehow managed to pull some strings here and there to allow him to enter in the middle of a school year. After all, having a stage 8, 2-star combatant owing you a debt was always welcome, no matter who you were.

Kagero had also gotten Nagisa his own ID card for both his fake and real identities when they first entered the capital more than a year ago, so Nagisa had no trouble getting into the city.

"Hey! Young lord!" Nagisa heard someone calling behind him but didn't give it any thought, "Hey! The young lord with blue hair!" The voice shouted again.

- Is he talking to me?! –

Nagisa wondered as he slowly turned around with a slightly confused frown on his face, "Are you calling me?" Nagisa asked skeptically.

"Of course! Who else would I be calling?" A man with a sharp and cunning looking face quickly walked towards Nagisa, "Are you on your own young lord?"

"Why do you ask?" Nagisa frown deepened as he continued to talk, his hand was already slowly moving toward the dagger strapped behind his waist even though it was forbidden to start a fight inside the city walls. In all the times he was in the capital, this was the first time a merchant actively tried to start a conversation with him.

"You see young lord! Our store had just received a new shipping of top-class magic crystals and weapons. I was thinking if you maybe had any interest in taking a look." The man asked with a fawning look on his sharp face. It looked so fake that Nagisa couldn't help but to cringe inwardly.

"Not really. Thank you for the offer." Nagisa quickly answered slightly overwhelmed and walked away without looking back despite the man's attempt to call him back. That was the first time he had ever experienced something like this!

- …Ah, it's because of these new clothes. –

Nagisa figured out after calming down after walking a fair distance. The new clothes that Kagero had gotten him as his graduation gift, were finely made and of high quality. And adding Nagisa's decent looks and his age, the merchant probably mistook him for a spoiled kid from a rich family walking around all alone and tried to rip him off by selling him some useless tools.

Being reminded of the clothes he was wearing made Nagisa uneasy again, he wasn't used to being dressed so fancily, but he knew why Kagero got him this outfit and the reasoning behind it was perfectly reasonable.

When he finally reached the address Kagero had given him, he was standing in front of a huge gate with two guards standing on each side of it. Inside the gate was a huge place that looked like a garden of a royal palace! There was a gold plated shield at the reception on the right side of the gate which stated Dawn Academy!

After all was only natural that he at least needed a decent appearance to fit into this so-called prestige school! What made it so very special was the fact that it was the very first academy that accepted both dragon and human students at the same time! It was known as the first step of humans and dragons being able to live with each other!

And Nagisa is all on his own again! Well at least for now, after all he's joining an academy to learn more about magic! Next chapter is going to be Nagisa's first school day! And naturally he's going to meet some new people! And I think you know who's finally making his debut in this story! ;)

Tell me how you liked this chapter in the reviews! I'd love to know what you think about the time skip! What do you guys think happened to the prison? (Though I think I made it rather obvious)

And as always, thank you so much for your support! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you in the next chapter! ;)