Chương 8: The Capital

The capital was nothing like the village. Leo understood that within minutes of entering it. The city stretched beyond the horizon. Stone walls several times higher than those surrounding the smaller city stood around it, covered in glowing magical inscriptions. Towers rose between enormous buildings, some reaching so high that their tops disappeared into the clouds. Magic was everywhere. Floating lamps illuminated the streets. Carriages moved without horses. Water flowed through channels suspended above the roads.

Large crystals powered devices Leo couldn't yet identify. And above everything… A massive translucent barrier covered the entire capital. Leo stared upward. The amount of Mana required to maintain this… He couldn't even estimate it. Beside him, Mia looked around with her mouth open.

"Leo…"

"What?"

"It's huge." Leo nodded.

"Very." Their parents said nothing. They had been traveling for days since leaving the village. The capital was supposed to be temporary. At least, that was what Marcus had told them. They would stay with relatives while the authorities investigated the events surrounding the forest. But Leo knew that wasn't the real reason his father had brought them here. Marcus was worried. Not about the village. About Leo. The incident with the dragon had changed something. Marcus hadn't asked many questions.

But Leo had noticed the way his father looked at him afterward. As if he had begun wondering what kind of child he had raised. Leo didn't blame him. Even he didn't fully understand himself. Their relatives lived in a modest district on the eastern side of the capital. It wasn't wealthy. But compared with the village, it was enormous. The house had two floors. There were several rooms. A small garden. And, most importantly… A library. Leo discovered it immediately. He stood before the shelves. Books. Dozens of them.

Not thousands like the royal library. But enough. His aunt laughed when she saw his expression.

"You really like books, don't you?" Leo nodded.

"Yes."

"You're seven."

"I know." She smiled.

"Your uncle used to say the same thing when he was young." Leo looked at her.

"What happened to him?"

"He became a merchant." Leo looked at the shelves again.

"Then I'll read the books before becoming a merchant." She laughed. The next several weeks passed quietly. Leo studied. He trained. He observed. And he waited. He learned that the capital was divided into several major districts. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The Noble District. The Merchant District. The Common District. The Adventurer District. And the Academy District. The Academy District immediately caught his attention.

It was located near the northern part of the capital. There were several educational institutions there. Magic schools. Combat schools. Alchemy institutes. Research towers. And above them all stood the Royal Arcane Academy. It was not the academy Leo would eventually attend. That one was located in the kingdom's central capital. But this academy was already considered one of the best in the region. Leo occasionally saw students walking through the streets. Most wore dark blue uniforms. Some carried staffs.

Others carried swords. Some wore magical accessories. Leo observed them carefully. The difference between them was obvious. Some were talented. Some were mediocre. And a few… were genuinely dangerous. One afternoon, Leo watched a group of students practicing magic in an open courtyard. A boy raised his hand. A sphere of fire appeared. He launched it toward a training target. BOOM! The target shattered. The students cheered. Leo remained silent. The boy had power. But his control was terrible.

The spell consumed far too much Mana. His stance was unstable. And he relied completely on the spell's destructive power. He would be dead within three moves against a competent martial artist. Leo turned away. Then stopped. A girl had stepped forward. She didn't use a large spell. She simply raised two fingers. A thin blade of ice formed. She flicked her wrist. The ice shot forward. Crack. It pierced the target precisely through its center. Leo's eyes narrowed. Much better. The girl wasn't wasting energy.

Her control was excellent. She noticed him watching. Their eyes met. Leo immediately looked away. Not because he was embarrassed. Because he had no reason to attract attention. He had learned that lesson from his previous life. Being noticed could be dangerous. That evening, Leo returned home and trained. His Internal Energy had reached a stable level. His body was still developing, but his foundation was much stronger than it had been a year earlier. He stood in the garden. Feet apart. Hands raised.

He began moving. One stance. Then another. A slow sequence of movements. His body turned. His foot shifted. His palm moved forward. The technique looked simple. But every movement contained decades of experience. Leo suddenly stopped. He felt it again. Mana. He could sense it throughout the garden. His Internal Energy was circulating inside him. The two remained separate. But now… Leo had an idea. He didn't try to fuse them. Instead, he attempted something simpler. He used Internal Energy to reinforce his body.

Then he used Mana to reinforce the air around him. His palm moved forward. Boom. The air exploded. Leaves scattered. Leo stared at his hand. The attack had been stronger than expected. He tried again. Internal Energy strengthened his body. Mana strengthened the surrounding environment. The two energies didn't need to occupy the same pathway. They could cooperate from different positions. Leo smiled. So fusion isn't the only answer. That realization was important.

Perhaps he had been approaching the problem incorrectly. He had been trying to make two different systems become one. Maybe they didn't need to. Maybe they simply needed to work together. Weeks later, Leo visited a public library. He was searching through books about magical creatures when he found something unexpected. A thin, damaged manuscript. Its title was barely readable. Ancient Energy Systems. Leo pulled it from the shelf. The book was old. Much older than most of the others. He opened it.

The first pages were missing. The next section described ancient civilizations. Then came references to something called: Primal Energy. Leo frowned. The term appeared repeatedly. Unlike Mana, Primal Energy wasn't described as an external force. Unlike Internal Energy, it wasn't cultivated through ordinary martial methods. It was described as something between the two. Leo's eyes narrowed. He continued reading. Most of the information was incomplete. But one sentence caught his attention.

"Before modern Mana circulation was established, ancient practitioners sought to unite the energy of the body with the energy of the world." Leo stopped breathing for a moment. Unite the energy of the body with the energy of the world. That sounded familiar. Too familiar. He turned the page. Most of it had been torn away. The next surviving page contained only one diagram. Two circles. One inside the other. A line connected them. And beneath the diagram: The Dual Path. Leo stared at it.

His heart began beating faster. Not from fear. From excitement. Someone had tried this before. Maybe not with Internal Energy and Mana exactly. But someone had realized that the energy of the body and the energy of the world could coexist. Leo carefully memorized the diagram. Then he closed the book. He didn't take it. He didn't copy anything. He simply remembered it. That was enough. As he returned the manuscript to the shelf, he noticed something. A small symbol had been carved into the back cover. A dragon.

Leo froze. The same shape he had seen among the ancient ruins. His expression became serious. The dragon beneath the forest… and the ancient energy system… might be connected. That night, Leo stood on the roof of the house. The capital glittered below. Thousands of magical lights illuminated the streets. He looked toward the north. The Academy District. Then toward the distant horizon. The forest. The ruins. The dragon. He still didn't understand what had happened. But he now had a direction. Study magic.

Master Internal Energy. Understand the ancient energy systems. And eventually… return to the ruins. Leo closed his eyes. He could feel both energies within him. Internal Energy. Mana. Separate. Yet compatible. A strange thought crossed his mind. In his first life, he had spent decades pursuing the highest level of martial cultivation. He had believed the path was already complete. Now he had discovered an entirely new world.

Perhaps his greatest achievement would not be becoming stronger than the Heavenly Demon had been. Perhaps it would be discovering a path the Heavenly Demon had never imagined. Leo opened his eyes. A faint smile appeared. Then a voice came from below.

"Leo!" Mia. He looked down.

"What?"

"Come inside!"

"Why?"

"Father wants to talk to you!" Leo jumped from the roof. He landed lightly. Mia stared.

"How did you do that?" Leo paused.

"Practice." She narrowed her eyes.

"You're weird." Leo smiled.

"People keep saying that." He followed her inside. Marcus was waiting. There was a serious expression on his face. Leo sat down.

"What happened?" Marcus placed a letter on the table. Leo looked at it. The seal bore a royal crest. Marcus spoke quietly.

"This arrived today." Leo picked it up. He recognized the emblem. The Royal Arcane Academy. Marcus looked at his son.

"They've heard about your magic." Leo's expression didn't change.

"Why?"

"Because someone saw you." Leo became silent. Marcus continued.

"They want to test you." Leo looked down at the letter. A test. An academy. New knowledge. New people. New opportunities. But also… attention. Leo slowly opened the letter. His eyes moved across the page. At the bottom was a date. Three years from now. Leo was seven. The academy's entrance examination would be held when he turned ten. He folded the letter. Then looked at his father.

"I'll go." Marcus stared at him.

"You didn't even think about it." Leo smiled.

"I've already thought about it." Three years. Three years to strengthen his body. Three years to deepen his Internal Energy. Three years to master the basics of magic. And three years to understand the mysterious connection between the two. Leo looked toward the window. The academy waited somewhere beyond the city. But he knew something else waited there too. People. Rivals. Teachers. Secrets. And perhaps the first clues that would lead him toward a world far larger than he could currently imagine.

Leo closed his eyes. For now, he was still a child. But three years from now… he would take his first step into the world beyond his family. And his second life would truly begin. End of Chapter 8.