It was a cold night. The water was freezing, the sounds of wolves howling could be heard, and even the sounds of something as quiet as water droplets could be heard. In a small vilge located in the outskirts, there lived a promising young girl who’ll have the chance to explore the world tomorrow.

  “It’s already night, mom said that I should sleep so that I can prepare for tomorrow. But how am I supposed to sleep when something that I’ve dreamed of ever since I was a child is happening tomorrow?!?!?”, said Sylvia.

  “Actually instead of sitting here doing nothing, let’s try practicing the memoria spells that I was taught in school”.

  Not long after, Sylvia closed her eyes and started thinking about a warm memory earlier when she was having dinner with her family. She started using her fingers to draw something akin to a sun in the air. She then held out her hand. Soon enough, a small ball of light started forming above Sylvia’s hand, which lit the entirety of Sylvia’s room.

  “Sweet!”, Sylvia said out loud.

  However, Sylvia unconsciously poured in more of that warm memory into the spell which gave it more power and made the ball of light even brighter.

  “Wait wait wait this isn’t supposed to happen, oh god uhhh how do I stop this… Oh I think I remember!” Sylvia remembered that in one of her previous lessons, one of her teachers mentioned that to stop a spell from growing stronger, one would need to stop putting more memoria into the spell so that the spell would slowly shrink and eventually disappear. “That could’ve been a disaster. If the whole town were to wake up because of me, I’d probably be dead”, said Sylvia jokingly.

  “Anyways, that's one of the many spells I was taught in school, memoria sure is complicated. You need it to cast a spell but you need to be able to control it so that it won’t go haywire and ruin something, not to mention the mental toll it has on you if you accidentally make a spell stronger by accident like what I was doing earlier. I guess it’s good, cause… I’m starting to get… really sleepy.”

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  As morning rose, it’s clear that there’s going to be a heavy downpour today. The clouds are gray, there’s no signs of sunlight, and loud rumblings can be heard from the sky. Despite this, Sylvia still insisted on starting her journey today even after her parent’s objections. Eventually, her parents gave Sylvia permission to start her journey today.

  “There’s really nothing we can do to stop you huh, Sylvia. Well, safe journeys out there sweetie. Don’t forget to visit your parents regurly, okay?”, said Sylvia’s mom.

  “Got it mom! How about you dad? Don’t you have anything to say? If not, I’m gonna go now!”, said Sylvia energetically.

  “I was pnning to give you this gift ter, but since you’re going to be gone for who knows how long, I decided that this is the perfect time to give you this. Hopefully this can be a good source of motivation for you on your journey”, said Sylvia’s dad.

  Sylvia’s dad handed over what looks to be a neckce, embedded with a small magic crystal to Sylvia.

  “Woah, what’s this dad?”, excimed Sylvia excitedly. “It’s called a Memoria Crystal, it was passed down from my ancestors who used to go on the same journey as you. Inside it holds hundreds of different spells that you can use as you grow stronger. Memoria Crystals can also help you focus, which might come in handy if you need to stabilize a certain spell or make it stronger. However, you don’t need to hold it to help you focus, just use it as a regur neckce and it’ll work just as well. You’ll learn more about it as your journey progresses”, said Sylvia’s dad.

  “I didn’t know you had something like this with you, thank you so much for the gift dad! I’ll cherish it for my entire life and I’ll even pass it down to my child once the time comes!”, said Sylvia as she was jumping up and down, clearly happy with the gift. “Hahaha the time is still long, for now just enjoy the journey you’re going to have. The first day of a journey is special after all, so make the best use of it”, said Sylvia’s dad.

  “Alright, I’ll see you around mom and dad! Wish me the best of luck for my journey~”, said Sylvia as she went off on her journey.

  After saying those final words towards her parents, Sylvia went out of the town’s borders for the very first time in her life. Although it was not an easy decision, she figured that venturing into the unknown and exploring the world were much more fun than spending the rest of her life living in that small town and doing mundane tasks to live her life. She knows that the world’s not all sunshine and rainbows as dangerous monsters can be lurking around everywhere, but her curiosity for the world and her goal of making the best use of her life took over her worries.

  “That girl has always been adventurous huh, I wonder where that side of her came from”, said Sylvia’s mom jokingly.

  “Hahaha she has always been like that, she has always dreamt of going on a massive adventure like this and making her own tale”, said Sylvia’s dad while ughing.

  “Fair enough. Have you taken a look around the area though to see if it’s safe, dear? I know we’re supposed to let Sylvia have the fun and all that, but it’d be completely irresponsible of us if we let a dangerous monster live while our daughter starts on her journey”, said Sylvia’s mom as her expression turns serious.

  “Fret not, my dear. I’ve eliminated every monster that I would consider as a threat to our daughter. If anything were to happen to her, I swear by my sword that I will kill every single monster in the world so that something like that will never happen again”, said Sylvia’s dad as the expression on his face turns from ughter into anger.

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  As Sylvia stepped foot outside the town’s borders, she was met with a luscious scenery filled with trees. This kind of scenery was something that Sylvia has never seen before. She admired everything that she was seeing, from the trees, animals, to even the flowers. She was so used to the environment in her town where there were barely any trees and animals roaming around that Sylvia had to spend a good 5 minutes admiring the scenery. Unfortunately for her, her sightseeing came to an end. The gray clouds from earlier started to rain, which meant that Sylvia had to find a cover quickly before her clothes got wet.

  Sylvia started running, trying to find a small shelter or something so that she can stay under it for a few hours. She turned left, but her eyesight was filled with more trees. She turned right from there and her sight was filled with even more trees. She then turned another right and even more trees were sighted. Everything was trees from her perspective.

  “Since when were there this many trees near my town??? This is not good… It’s starting to rain even harder and I haven’t found something that looks like a shelter yet. I can’t stay below a tree, otherwise there’s a good chance I could get struck by lightning. Oh wait, is that a cave? Y’know what, any kind of shelter works for now!” Sylvia dashed straight into the cave. It was a dark cave filled with emptiness. Her clothes were wet and she had no spare clothes, so she had no choice but to use another memoria spell to heat her clothes and herself up.

  “Dad did give me this neckce earlier, maybe I can use it to stabilize my spell so that something simir to st night wouldn’t happen again?”, murmured Sylvia to herself.

  Sylvia then thought about the heat from the campfire that was always lit during rainy nights in her house. Memories of her bickering about school to her parents came flooding in. She then drew something simir to a fire symbol in the air and then held out her hand. Not long after, a small fire appeared right above her hands. After successfully casting a fire spell, Sylvia noticed that there are a few logs in the caves. She collected those logs up with her left hand and then casted the fire spell onto the log so that it’ll make a campfire.

  “Hmmm, did that Memoria Crystal help me with stabilizing my fire magic? I normally wouldn’t be able to maintain that fireball for more than 10 seconds. I wonder, how did my ancestors get this Memoria Crystal… I don’t think it’s something common as I’ve never seen it before, so it has to be rare”.

  After she murmured that, quiet footsteps could be heard. Sylvia was sitting down which leaves out the possibility that it’s her doing. That only means one thing, there are more people in this cave.

  I’m not alone in this cave. I’ve made my presence clear with all of the fancy fire spells I did earlier. If they were good people, I doubt they’d be hiding for this long. How should I approach this? I can’t leave the cave because it’s still raining, and if I suddenly leave while it’s still raining it’ll only make them even more suspicious of me and they’ll follow me. If I stay here though, there’s a good chance that they’ll attack me which is not a good option. What should I do… Sylvia thought to herself

  Should I just fight them? They could still be good guys though and I would not want to hurt someone who hasn’t done anything wrong. Maybe I can ask nicely and see if they’re willing to cooperate with me. Sylvia then made up her mind.

  “Ummm excuse me, is there anyone else here? I’d really appreciate it if you would come down from your hiding pce. I know it’s raining, and we’re trapped in this cave together but instead of hiding like this, why not interact like normal humans?”, said Sylvia nervously.

  Sylvia sensed that they’re dangerous people. After saying that, she immediately remembered a protective spell that she can cast during this time. She thought about the protection that her parents gave to Sylvia, and how they were always willing to protect her under any circumstances. Sylvia closed her eyes and silently drew a circle like thing on the ground. Sylvia soon felt that an invisible barrier appeared near her, and she stood up to look at her surroundings.

  As she was looking back, someone attacked Sylvia from the front and tried to steal her neckce, but her barrier spell prevented that which left the attacker shocked. Sylvia immediately focuses her attention towards the front again and sees a hooded figure with a mask on which looks all too simir to a thief or an assassin. After noticing that a fight was inevitable, she then picks up a sword from her bag and prepares to attack.

  “Not bad girl, I didn’t think a newbie like you would be able to use a spell without chanting. But it all ends here, you’re alone here while there are 5 of us. And something tells me that your barrier won’t st long enough to block this many strikes”, said the assassin mocking Sylvia.

  “What are you and your group after? Is it this neckce? If so, then you’re NOT getting it for free. Besides, you have no idea what I’m capable of”, said Sylvia confidently.

  Without any more words being said, the assassins started ganging up on Sylvia which overwhelmed her to the point where she couldn’t counter attack. When she was about to attack, the assassin that was targeted dodged back to avoid her attack and moved forwards again to attack her. It seemed like Sylvia’s loss was inevitable, her barrier was starting to break and she had no way to counter attack. Sylvia then made a risky gamble, she casted aside the barrier spell and focused her thoughts on her hard training. She remembered how many times she was mocked back then for being different, all the other students had to use incantations while she could do it normally. She was ridiculed for being “gifted”. She poured those emotions and memorias into the fire spell she used earlier to cast a ring of fire. This spectacle was unforeseen for the assassins, 4 of the assassin’s clothes were starting to burn while the assassin that mocked her earlier managed to dodge the attack, leaving no scars. Sylvia was left exhausted after the attack.

  “INTERESTING! I commend you for trying your best, but that’s as far as you’ll go. It’s time to say good night!”, said the assassin. He then unched himself forward and tried killing Sylvia, but an unknown force blocked the attack with a dagger. He tried to look towards where he was aiming at, but in a split second his right arm was cut off, leaving him in pain. All the other assassins who managed to recover after the fire attack tried to run away, but unfortunately for them they were all incapacitated. Sylvia tried looking at the unknown force and noticed it was a slender figure, looking simir to the assassins she was fighting earlier. The person then kicked all of the assassins into one pce then casted a spell which looked to be purple fire, and then burned the 5 assassins alive.

  “Umm… thank you, strange person.”, said Sylvia, still panicking.

  “It was all part of a commission, they were causing chaos to the castle nearby so I had to finish them off”, said the mysterious person.

  “Still if you didn’t save me I probably would’ve been dead by now, so I owe you o- wait she’s already gone??? Well the sky is starting to get clear, and she did say there was a castle nearby so I guess that’s where I’ll be going next! What a way to start off my journey, let’s get to it~”, said Sylvia excitedly after the near death situation that had just occurred.

  …

  …

  “She’s an interesting one, being able to cast spells without incantations… Normally that’s something only highly skilled sorcerers can do. I need to keep an eye on her”, said the mysterious person while observing Sylvia from afar.