When I was left alone in the room, I finally cleared my mind about what had happened.
'This time I really risked dying ... however, having managed to defeat that chimera ...'
My actions last day made me happy and proud at the same time, after all, in the world I came from I was certainly not considered a brave person.
I checked my pants pockets. As I suspected they were empty.
'So they used the flowers I picked for Marie…' Of course, I couldn't be sure without asking Rivorio, but I was convinced it went just like that.
I looked around, I saw my fur coat hanging on a small clothes rack, placed next to the wardrobe to my right. As absurd as it may seem, I only noticed in that instant that I was not wearing it and that both my clothes and my body were clean.
'Hmm, I guess I have to thank Rivorio for that ...'
Not being able to leave the room, I stayed all day staring at the ceiling above me, thinking back to the absurd first two days spent in my new home.
'So this will be my new home ...'. I finally felt that I really belonged to that turbulent world, and a new will arose in me: to travel the lands of that world, and to do so I knew that I absolutely had to get stronger.
The next day I was finally able to stand up, albeit with a little back pain.
I decided to leave the room, I absolutely wanted to talk to Rivorio.
I put on my fur coat and tightened the sword belt around my waist.
Leaving my room, I found myself in the living room. I saw Rivorio sitting in a chair next to the large wooden table. He was reading a book, I wanted to talk to him but I didn't know whether to disturb him.
Rivorio, realizing my presence, motioned me to sit in front of him, closed the book he was reading, and placed it on the table.
I thought he was going to tell me something, but he kept quiet, and seeing that I wasn't speaking either, he reached out his right hand towards the book he had just put down, intending to go back to reading.
"W-wait…" I got his full attention.
"Mmh ... you lined up a few ideas I see ..." He urged me.
"Um, yes ... I think so ... but how do you know?" I asked him intrigued.
"Eh, I see it from your eyes..." He replied. I did not fully understand the meaning of his words, but I decided not to investigate further about it.
"I want you to train me…" I said, and then added, "I mean, of course, if you feel like it…"
"Hmm… don't you remember our first conversation? I've already counted on wanting to train you… Ahhh, I thought you wanted to tell me something more important… like… " He didn't add anything else, however, I understood what he meant.
"II haven't decided yet whether to become what destiny wants me to be ... however I still want to travel this world, I want to see for myself what situation this world is in, and then decide my intentions after having a complete picture ... and maybe on the journey I will also find comrades in arms, or, maybe, some friends… "I said.
At my words, Rivorio didn't seem very surprised but not disappointed either.
"So you want to postpone your decision ... MMh, well, it's already a step forward ... indeed, I must say that maybe it's the best choice, at least for you..."
"Well, but before I start training you, I have to explain to you what it is that will make you stronger ... that is mana, a substance on the edge of reality and that allows you to do unimaginable things ... and, as you are a hero, mana will be essential to your growth, as heroes have a unique ability to attract mana to themselves …". I seemed to understand his words, even though I had only heard the word mana in video games or fictional stories before.
Rivorio then started a long and boring speech about mana and the history of its use. I listened to it very carefully.
He started the talk by talking about the origins of mana use by humans.
Since his speech was going to be very long, I decided to cement in my mind only the points that I considered fundamental or interesting.
<... This energy was found by sorcerers, sorcerers different from those of now, sorcerers whose goal was to find the signs of the deities in the earthly world. Rituals, often bloodthirsty, and various other practices, also often brutal,led these sorcerers to find a new "energy", a "vital" energy, in the sense that it was changeable, moved in the air, and could give life as it could lead to the death of things. These sorcerers began to study a way to use this "energy", in order to get closer to the gods. In this time the first spells were born and this strange "substance" was given the name that we humans still use, that is "mana", a union of two terms of the ancient language that these sorcerers used "Mas" and "Natara", and that is "divine gift" ...>
For some reason, even before the translation of those two words, I already had their meaning in mind.
'So it's true that I know every language … mmh…'
<... As human society began to develop in hierarchies, mana remained primarily a knowledge of the nobles. They made the growth of our knowledge about mana slow and inconstant… the mana, in these years, was used by the nobles to keep their power over the people. The breakthrough came when the man fiercely clashed for the first time against other races such as elves and dwarves, who had much more knowledge of mana. The elves were able to cast spells of a range never seen by the men of the time, while the dwarves were able to create amazing war machines and weapons that exploited mana. In these clashes between the three races, the only advantage man had was his larger population…finally, some wise kings realized that the only real hope for the survival of the human kingdoms was to make mana knowledge into the public domain, and thus also to teach it to non-noble members of the army. Man thus managed to bring himself to an equal level with the other races, and the earth knew a balance. The only beings who could have broken this balance were the dragons, however, the dragons never cared about such things as the supremacy of their race, and as a result, there was relative peace in the world. A peace that was annihilated by a single individual, the dragon "Chaos" ...>
Rivorio did not dwell much on the first catastrophe, however, I learned of two relatively important notions, namely that the first catastrophe lasted approximately from 1100 to 1252, and that at the time of my arrival in that world, it was the year 1478. I also found that the calendar for counting the years in that world was common to all intelligent races and that it was agreed upon during the period of "peace" that that world experienced years ago.
Rivorio then focused on the focal point of his speech, that is, a first introduction on how to use mana.
{TO BE CONTINUED}
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