POV: Sammuel

I’m walking through the Town I ended up in, breathing the fresh air, free of pollution. It’s nice, not breathing in toxic fumes constantly.

Something I’ve realized since my arrival here is that while the spoken language is the same, the written language is one that I don’t recognize. It should be easy enough to learn though, so long as I can get a tutor.

As I walk through town I keep getting weird looks from the people. I suppose that’s to be expected though, I’m a ghostly pale man with practically no mass to speak of, wearing a modern outfit in a village full of people who seem to work manual labor outside for most of the day. On top of that I’m holding three machines that look nothing like anything these people have ever seen.

Regardless of odd looks, I’m looking for a library of some kind, that way I might be able to learn the basics of this written language. However this is proving quite difficult when I can’t read any road signs and whenever I try to ask for directions, the people stay far away from me.

If I could just find a library, or an inn, or anywhere where I could ask about anything. Regardless all I can do now is look.

As I look around I notice an increase in clusters of light energy mana around certain spots. It looks as if the mana is redirecting the light, preventing me from seeing whatever is there, but allowing them to see me.

I don’t like the idea of being spied on, but I can’t cause a scene in the middle of town. The last thing I want is to be on the run from the government of whatever nation this is.

I’ll just have to bear with it until I can deal with them. When the time comes I’ll be sure to get rid of them, be it through talks or through force. I don’t have any real reason to hide right now anyway.

As I keep looking for a place to find out something about where I am, I see a fairly large building with a decent amount of people inside. These people vary greatly in build, attire, and equipment. Some are quite large while some are very small. Some carry swords and wear armor while some carry staffs and wear an assortment of cloth-based outfits ranging from typical tank tops and shorts to full blown robes.

It’s easy to tell who has more money than another person based purely on their outfit. Some have very extravagant weapons and clothing, while some have the bare minimum.

Another thing is that mana is acting very strangely around these people, they’re each absolutely covered in a few specific types of mana. And their equipment is the same, most of them have equipment that match themselves, but some have equipment that attracts different types of mana.

I had noticed a similar effect around the townspeople, but none of them were this extreme. For them, at most it would be a slightly larger number of one type of mana near them, but I wrote it off as me not quite understanding how mana fully works yet. It’s now clear that this isn’t an anomaly with the mana, but rather with the people. I’ll have to investigate that later.

For now this place looks like the prime spot to gather the info I’m looking for.

While I head over to the large building I see some people turn to look at me, or rather, behind me. Perhaps they noticed those painfully obvious invisible people. Maybe these people can see mana naturally? I’ll add that to the long list of things I don’t quite understand yet.

Regardless of the physiology of the humans here, I head on in to to building and straight to what looks like the front desk.

“Hello, how may I help you sir?”

The guy at the counter greets me with an almost annoyingly cheerful voice.

“What is this place?”

I’ll start with the most important thing, learning what this building is.

“The building?”

He sounds extremely caught off guard by this question, this must be common knowledge in this world.

“Yes the building”

“The Request Hall sir… were you not aware of that from the sign outside?”

“Unfortunately I am unable to read that. But to ask again, what is a Request Hall?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“…Am I being played here? Are you really unaware of what a Request Hall is?”

So it is certainly common knowledge here. Even so, his confusion is really quite annoying.

“Afraid so, now can you please answer my question”

“…A Request Hall is where citizens can place various requests with us for a fee, the amount depends on the difficulty, and anyone can take them so long as they fit the requirements. Particularly tricky requests will be restricted to only hall certified personnel, that means only people who hold a position in the Request Hall’s rankings. Even then they need to fit the requirements however. After completing a request, you will be rewarded with a portion of the fee paid to set the request”

So it’s basically how they get all the problems in the general area solved? It also seems like a pretty decent way to make money if you can’t get a job anywhere else.

“And what might those requirements be for a certain request? And how might one take up a request?”

“Certain requirements could be either a high enough ranking in a specific branch, or the recommendation from someone who is a high enough rank. To take a request you would just head over to our request board and choose whichever one you want to take. For our certified personnel we have a separate board”

Ah, so you can only take requests that the hall seems you qualified for, that makes sense. And it keeps people from taking a request they can’t handle, and preventing someone who can from getting it.

“How might a person become hall certified? What steps would I have to take to get that position?”

“Well that depends on what branch you want to strive for. We have branches for both those who use magic, and those who don’t. Which would you like to know about”

“I want to know about the magic branch”

“Well even within that branch there are three groups, you could be a mage, a magic warrior, or a magic architect. The first two are pretty simple, mages fight directly with magic and magic warriors use weapons imbued with mana. The third is a bit more complicated, magic architects make magic tools and artifacts, they’ll typically handle anything that isn’t combat related”

I suppose it makes sense that in a world with creatures that can control mana, they would need to have some kind of force that can fight them when the need arises. And that’s also probably why there are so many people with weapons here. However there’s really only one option that fits me.

“If I wanted to become a magic architect what would I have to do?”

“Well first you would have to pay a fee, then we would confirm both your magic prowess, as well as your affinity. Those aren’t typically needed for magic architects, it’s just a procedure. Then we would need you to prove your ability to make magic artifacts, and rank you from there”

“I see. Well, that’ll be all, bye”

There’s no need to rush any decisions. If I can, I’d rather not get involved with any massive organizations just yet. The clerk looks pretty upset that I had him explain all of that and didn’t even apply, but that’s his job, he can’t blame me.

A ton of other people also look pretty surprised at my decision, maybe it’s rare for people to come in here and leave without either receiving a request, or applying to be hall certified.

One thing I am curious about is magical affinity, but I better not push my luck asking any more common sense questions. I can pretty much guess it anyway, it’s probably just to see what kind of mana sticks around me, like with everyone else here. Unfortunately, I don’t have one so I probably shouldn’t take that test unless it becomes absolutely necessary.

Then I wander off to search for a place to stay, it’s getting pretty dark after all. In the worst case, I could probably use magic to dig into the ground, it’d probably be cleaner than my old lab anyway.

As I’m lost in thought I bump into something that feels like a solid brick wall. I pay no mind to it, it wouldn’t be the first time I’d run into something after all, but the “wall” is actually a person, and they’re not too happy about my having hit them.

“Hey buddy, when you run into someone you’re supposed to apologize”

“Huh? Oh, yeah sorry”

I don’t like his condescending tone but it’s best not to pick fights right now.

“Now that just ain’t gonna cut it anymore pal. When you bump into your superiors you apologize immediately, or you get punished”

What is this guy talking about? Is he joking? I can’t imagine a world in which he truly believe that he is my superior but I suppose I’ve found it. All I can muster in the face of such strange ignorance is a weak response.

“What?”

“You heard me, bow, lower your head and I might consider letting you off”

My god, he isn’t joking. How could anyone truly believe themself superior to me? I’m so puzzled trying to figure out how he reached this conclusion that I can’t even respond before one of his friends speaks.

“Tyler look, he’s too scared to even speak! This dude is pathetic”

At that his whole group of about four guys with large builds laugh.

“Pardon my late response, but I just can’t imagine how you believe yourself to be superior to me”

“How? Well in just about every way that’s how. I outclass you in every way. A guy as pathetically weak as you, I’m surprised the wind hasn’t killed you yet”

At that his group laughs even harder.

I don’t understand people like this, how can one truly believe themself to be above me? And so confidently too. I need more time to just comprehend his thought process.

I turn to leave and just think about it but he grabs me by the shoulder.

“When did I say you could leave?”

“I don’t remember needing your permission”

I can tell this guy is too ignorant to understand his situation, so I’ll probably need to use force. On the bright side, he makes a perfect first human test subject for my wand.

I grab hold of the machine and attempt to lift his arm off of my shoulder, but instead I hear a sickening crunch as his arm bends upward at an odd angle.

Perhaps the massive increase in mana concentration has an effect in the power of my magic? That’s certainly something to consider.

The man falls back screaming as his group crowds around him. This is the perfect chance to leave, none of them are going to follow me.

Truly though, how can someone actually think that they are superior to me? That is a question I’ll likely never be able to answer.