1 Beginning of the End

Beta Dimension

Arvia, Lower Realm, Doha.

Year 9,938 after the great war.

Jayde Freehold ran for her life, she knew that if her uncles and cousins caught her that she would be tortured, and only if she was lucky would she be granted death, but considering her luck the death reaper would not be visiting her any time soon.

For the thousand times, she wondered just what she had done to deserve this life, born with a weak body and no magic, she was an absolute waste. Her 2nd uncle often told her that she should be grateful that she wasn't drowned at birth. Bitterly she wondered why she wasn't killed at birth, this life wasn't worth living. Death would have been a blessing, living was a daily grind. Her existence was worse than the lowest slave. Whenever her cousins misbehaved she was the one beaten, her cousins used her body for target practice, even knowing that their punches and kicks could break her bones.The slaves and maids would beat her to take out their hatred and frustrations that they had for her grandparents, aunt, uncles, and cousins.

Breathing heavily, sweat pouring down her small face, Jayde frantically eyed the surrounding area, she desperately needed to find a safe harbor. Some place to hide and rest for a while. Jayde could hear the hounds barking in the distance, had they picked up her scent already? Filled with despair and dread she stumbled along, grabbing at the spiking yellow grass clumps she scrambled up the mountain path. If she could reach the Dark Forest she had a chance to elude the family members chasing her.

An hour later, Jayde fingers and hands were raw and bleeding, her legs trembled with fatigue and her side ached terribly. She barely had any strength left. Lifting her head she tried to gauge the distance to the Dark Forest, but it looked too far away, the seeker hounds were closing in on her. Tears leaked from her eyes, and she was filled with despair and bitterness. She knew that she wouldn't make it. Resting her back against the mountain-side she helplessly waited for her uncles to find her. Her thoughts scrambled, darting frantically trying to figure a way out. If only she had a dagger she would slit her own throat or even plunged it into her own heart. Ah, who was she kidding she never had the courage before to take her own life, so many times she had thought of it, but every time she chickened out. Cursing herself for being so weak and such a coward. All she could think about was to make her uncles so angry that they would kill her by mistake. Finally a plan, a way out. Yes, she would make her 2nd uncle kill her. He absolutely hated her and had the shortest temper in the family. If she could rile him up enough, he would lose his temper and forget about his strength and kill her.

Arms resting on her bent knees, head hanging down. Her dry straw-like black hair, soaked with sweat covering her face, she thought back to earlier on to the disaster that had led her to this miserable end.

6 hours earlier.....

Today had started like any normal day, rising before the sun rose, Jayde had left her tiny shack to wash in the small lake in the Freehold Estate. After dressing she had hurried to the large family kitchen, happy that it was Restday. Every Restday she was tasked with helping in the kitchen as most of the slaves were given the day off, it was better than workdays when she was sent to the pits. Today she would be able to sneak some food from the kitchens. The only day when she wouldn't have to fight the beasts in the estate for food.

Three hours later Jayde was able to leave the kitchen her apron pockets bulging with purloined foods, breakfast had been served to all the family members, and Mama Dee the head of the kitchen had been in a good mood, she had even given Jayde a fresh scone. Jayde could still feel the slight warmth from the scone through her dress. Jayde was happily thinking that if she could ration the overripe fruits and bread she had stolen she would have enough food for three to four days. What a great harvest!

Sneaking through the courtyard Jayde was trying to find a quiet spot where she could eat her scone. Luckily she was small, even though she was 13 years old, due to malnutrition, Jayde looked like she was 9 or 10 years old, and while she looked frail and weak, she was pretty strong for a magic-free human, she had built up a lot of strength doing hard labor chores that most adults found tiring around the estate, although compared to even a first rank magic user her strength was useless. Being Restday, most of the maids had gone to either the shopping district or to one of the numerous temples to worship, the slaves were resting in their quarters and the guards were patrolling outside so the courtyard was pretty deserted.

Coming to a small secluded garden in the courtyard, that was hidden from view, Jayde sat on the small stone bench, and after taking out the precious scone, she slowly nibbled on it. Enjoying every single tiny bite she tried to make the scone last as long as possible. At this moment in time, Jayde was happy, while her tummy wasn't full, it wasn't empty like normal. Also, Mama Dee had only smacked her once this morning for being too slow, and no one else had beaten or kicked her. All in all, so far it had been one of her better days and she had even eaten a delicious scone for the first time.

Dusting her hands, Jayde was preparing to leave the small garden, she figured she had just enough time to run to her shack and hide the rest of the food she had stolen and get back to the kitchen for lunch, with a bit of luck she might be able to steal even more food, maybe even some meat. Her mouth watering just thinking of tasting some meat Jayde left the garden. Just as she came to the corner she heard voices. It was her third sister Saphira and her younger cousin Edvard. Saphira was 14 years old and was considered one of the most talented people from this generation, she was already a Fourth Rank Silver Major Fire Martialist, while Edvard was also 14 years old and a Third Rank Silver Major Water Mage.

In Doha, talents were broken down into two different paths Martialists and Mages. Martial talents were born with warrior body types, they had superior strength, amazing speed and very strong bones and tough skin. They were able to cultivate martial qi. With martial qi, they were able to generate qi shields, increase their strength and speed, and empower their weapons with various elemental attributes. There was 7 elemental qi Wood; Fire; Earth; Metal; Water; Light and Dark elementals. Most talents were single type elementals, with dual elementals being quite rare and triple elementals being the rarest. Dual and triple elementals were naturally a lot stronger and due to the fact that they could absorb two or three different qi at the same time, they would advance in ranks two or three times faster than single elementals. Mages, on the other hand, could cultivate magic qi which enabled them to perform various different spells, of course, they were limited to spells of their specific element, for an example, a water mage body type could only use water or ice spells.Fire and water were the most common types of elementals, with light and dark elementals being the rarest.

Besides one's talent or element type, one of the most important factors in a person's potential in Doha would be one's spirit pool. The size of a person's spirit pool would determine the amount of qi one would hold. It takes different amounts of qi to progress through the ranks, so if your spirit pool was small, no matter how much you cultivated you could never store enough qi to advance beyond your limit.Qi pools were broken into 7 categories namely Stone (capped at 4th Rank), Copper (capped at 12th ranked), Bronze (after breaking through to 13th rank one would be known as Knight 1st rank, bronze pools were capped at 12th knight rank), Silver (after breaking through to 13th knight rank, one would be known as bishop 1st rank, silver pools were capped at 12th bishop rank), Gold (after breaking through to 13th bishop ranked one would be known as King 1st rank, gold pools were capped at 12th king rank), Platinum (after breaking through to 13th king rank one would be known as Emperor 1st rank, platinum pools were capped at 12th emperor rank) and Etherium (anything above emperor ranked, and was supposedly limitless, was considered god ranked, but this rank was really a mythically rank as no one in Doha had even seen an Etherium body type and it was generally believed this is what the gods in ancient times had so that is why it was called god ranked). Within each rank, there were different breakthrough points called sub-ranks, these were broken down into beginner, intermediate, major and advanced.An advanced sub-rank was nine times stronger (each sub-rank being three times stronger than the previous one) than a beginner, so even if a person was the same rank their sub-rank made a huge difference in their fighting power. The last variable to one's potential was the size of their meridians, the bigger and stronger their meridians were, the more qi they could cultivate and the quicker they could fill up their spirit pools and achieve breakthroughs.

Of course ones body type just gave a person's potential, there was still a lot of work involved in actually progressing and advancing through the ranks, but the most important thing in Doha was that at birth your body type potential dictated your position and prospects in life. Stone body types would also be slaves, Copper would be servants and if they were lucky assistants, Bronze could join various clans as guards, elite guards (depending on their ranks) and even become mercenaries. Silver body types were the elite of the Lower Realm, once the reached Knight 12th Rank they were given the chance to apply to one of the major colleges in Mid Realm, and if they passed the entrance exams, they could enter Mid Realm. The spiritual energy in Mid Realm was five times stronger than in Lower Realm, so you can just imagine how much faster one could cultivate, and due to the abundance of qi, even the food and water was rich in spiritual qi. The people in Mid Realm also had access to various intermediate and advance tonics, medicine and qi pills which could help in improving one's body and cultivation. It was even rumored that they had special spiritual weapons and jewelry would help in attacks and defense. While trade was allowed between the Lower and Mid Realm it was strictly controlled, with only intermediate tonics, medicine, and qi pills being allowed in. Although clan member in the Lower Realm who had family members that were living in the Mid Realm did have limited access to advanced tonics, medicine, and qi pills. Due to many tragic instances in the past Mid Realm weapons were strictly forbidden from the Lower Realm, as a high-rank Lower Realm person with a high ranked Mid Realm weapon could potentially be unbeatable in the Lower Realm and should anyone be found guilty of smuggling in Mid Realm weapons, jewelry or artifacts, their whole clan faced extermination.After a couple of clans were exterminated in the Lower Realm due to trying to break this law, no one dared to even think about it anymore.

From King, 12th Ranked one could enter the Upper Realm, but nobody really knew much about the Upper Realm. The few individuals who had entered the Upper Realm never returned to Mid Realm but it was rumored that the spiritual qi in the Upper Realm was so strong that is would actually kill someone who wasn't strong enough to handle it. The last realm was Gods Realm which was considered a legend, most people believed this is where the gods lived, and no mortal could ever enter this realm. There were also stories about the Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, Mermaids and Demons realms, but these were just stories no human had ever seen one of these races and these were considered to be fairy tales.

It is with this understanding of the different realms and the hierarchy involved that one can understand how important a person's birth potential was and how it played such an important role in a person's future prospects.All clans devoted a lot of resources and time to cultivate their talented youth. A person's potential dictated even one's marriage potential as after years of trial and error it was understood that if both parents where silver body types the chance of their children being silver body types was over 80%, and if both were fire elementals then their children would definitely be fire elementals, but if one was fire and the other was water, they had a slim chance of birthing a dual element, which was highly desired. The same being for dual elements, if both parents were dual elements they had a high chance of having a dual element child but more importantly, they had a slim chance of a super rare triple elemental. Besides dual and triple elementals being able to advance quicker than single elementals, due to their rarity they had the option of being able to gain a higher rank partner. A Gold body type wouldn't even look at a silver body type person as a potential partner as there was a chance of having silver body type child, but to a silver dual elemental, that was a whole different story.This partnership could produce Gold or Silver dual elemental child, a highly desired child. Marriages were big business in Doha, with professional matchmakers being very wealthy individuals with a lot of very powerful contacts which lead to most children in Doha being betrothed before the age of five. Due to the expense of providing a dowry for daughters and paying a bride price majority of people only had one partner, with clan leaders being the exception, most clan leaders had the main wife with two to three concubines.

Jayde father Za'thul was the clan leader of the Freehold clan, the Freehold clan was one of the four great clans in the Lower Realm, and their clan size number in the hundreds and when including the branch clans then they numbered in the thousands. The Freehold clan controlled the country of Arvia, with the Freehold branch clans controlling the surrounding Sochilov and Mogomel countries. Jayde mother Shyenho was the eldest daughter of the clan leader of the Starglaze clan another one of the great four clans in the Lower Realm. All in all, Jayde should have had a pampered life, being the first born princess of Freehold and Starglaze clan, her bloodlines being impeccable, her father being the clan leader, her mother the daughter of the main wife of clan leader of the Starglaze clan. Both Za'thul and Shyenho were silver body types, with Za'thul being an advanced 9th ranked fire martial knight and Shyenho was an advanced rare dual type 12th ranked wood and fire mage knight. Shyenho actually broke tradition she married for love, she was initially betrothed to the gold body type second son of a mid-ranked clan from the Mid Realm. It was rumored that the Starglaze clan had to pay out a huge fine to break the betrothal, but Shyenho had insisted that she would only ever marry Za'thul. Shyenho gave up her dreams to study in the Mid Realm and to settle to be the clan leader's main wife. It was considered that Shyenho was close to breaking through to 1st rank Bishop Stage and would have been one of the few Bishop mages in the Lower Realm, as very few Bishop experts would stay in the Lower Realms, as staying in the Lower Realm with the low amount of spiritual qi available meant that one would struggle to advance.

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