POV: Sammuel

The first thing for me to do today is obviously to start my reading lessons. Learning to read is the first step to completing my understanding of mana. I’m certain that these people, who are born with the ability to control mana, must also have knowledge on how it functions.

Heading over to the library, I take the fastest, most direct path. The quickest way to the library is a fairly large residential area. I have no idea why they would build an inn so far from the main reason people come here, it’s quite inconvenient.

More than that, the neighborhood isn’t exactly a nice place. There are quite a number of unsavory individuals in the area. From people getting robbed, to people with nothing to steal, there is no shortage of undesirables here.

There are far too many petty thieves and crooks to consider this place safe. Even so, there are plenty of people who seem to be homeless. Mothers keep their children as far from the worst spots as possible, and not a single person is properly fed. The few people who have food hide their eating the best they can, lest someone come along and steal it from them.

Though there are houses, the people living inside are only mildly better off than those on the outside. It seems like the houses mainly serve as a sort of base for criminals to collaborate and stay somewhat hidden.

For those who aren’t criminals, the houses offer little more than light protection from the elements. I doubt these houses were even bought, it’s more likely that the city government simply doesn’t care to get rid of them.

The strangest thing about this place though, is the lack of mana in any of its residents. Everyone else I’ve seen in this world so far has had at least a bit of mana, but these people have none.

Perhaps some people here are born without mana, and those people are unable to find a stable job as a result. That would explain why the people here live in such awful conditions.

None of this has any bearing on me however, so it doesn’t matter. The people seem to avoid me, perhaps suspecting that I’m not from here, and not wanting to risk the possibility that I can use mana.

According to my map, there isn’t much more residential area before I reach the town center. Walking this distance has only reaffirmed my belief that they absolutely should not have built an inn this far from the main attraction of this city. It’s no wonder the inn doesn’t get much traffic considering most people come here for the library, and yet they’d have to walk for multiple hours to get there.

I finally arrive at the town center and immediately head to the library. Inside, it's the same as before with plenty of people inside reading, studying, or just talking with friends.

Heading to the back where the classes are held, I can see the rooms where the lessons are likely held. looking around I can see a desk similar the one at the front. heading over, I give the paper to the woman at the desk, who, almost immediately gives me a tag with a number, and my name on it.

"That's the room number, don't lose that tag or you'll have to register again"

The woman immediately gets back to her work, as if she'd forgotten the interaction altogether. I suppose she must have other work to do, and the people in the library are the least of her concerns.

Leaving to go over to the appointed room, when I open the door, the inside is extremely plain. With a table, two chairs, and all the necessary materials to study a language, the room is extremely empty. I sit down in one of the chairs, assuming someone will be here soon to start the lesson. Proving me right, very soon after, a man with no significant features enters the room and walks over to me. Looking at him, he's easily the most plain person I've ever seen.

"Hello, my name is Paul Smith, I'll be managing your journey to learn a new language. This is a difficult thing that many give up on, just make sure that you keep focused on your goal and you'll surely surpass your own expectations!"

The way he talks so over-enthusiastically is slightly annoying, but I'll have to ignore it if I want to make any progress.

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"My name is Sammuel, please get on with it"

"Impatient I see, well it's not like that's a bad thing in this case haha. Very well, We'll be starting with the very basic characters, then we'll move to words and sentences, and if you're still around by the, we'll go over literary practices"

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For the next several hours we went over basic characters. I made decent progress in memorizing them, my memory is one of my strong points after all. However, I still needed to check in with the Request Hall to see if they found a partner for me, so I left before it started to get dark.

After reaching the Request Hall I head inside, and to the front where I ask the guy there about my partner.

"Yeah, we found someone, they aren't here right now, but we asked them to return tomorrow at noon, if you come back then they'll likely be here"

Alright, this is good, I was worried that it might take a while for them to find someone, but it seems my worries weren't necessary. Leaving the Hall, I start to head back to the inn. But as I'm walking, I remember that I haven't eaten in a while, so I decide to go back to the town center and get food. I decide on getting some bread and water from a bakery since I don't need to spend much time inside. Now I just have to head back to the inn and eat, practice my control of mana, and maybe sleep.

Heading back through the criminal neighborhood, I notice many people staring at me, likely because of the smell of the bread that I have. Ignoring them, I keep walking, but the stares continue.

Suddenly, while I'm walking, I feel a sharp pain in the side of my lower back, and a man runs from behind me in an attempt to steal my bread. Since I always have my wand in-hand, I can immediately push him far away, but the bigger issue of the stab wound is still there. Trying to stabilize it, I hold the blood in place with mana, but this is only a temporary solution.

I'm not in any position to be fighting anything, and now I'm surrounded by people who would kill to eat for the night, and I already have a large wound. Some of them will probably be weary of me due to my mana, but more will likely see me as a wounded target. Still bleeding since I can't hold my wound together perfectly, I get up and attempt to head back to the town center, where there will hopefully be a hospital. However, of course it wouldn't be so easy, as there are still people who are after what I have. Since I'm prepared for them now, I can do something, but despite how they're all malnourished, they're probably still more fit than me. On top of that there's my wound, the situation isn't looking good.

I still have a bit of time before they decide whether they think they'll win if they fight me, so I start running. I hadn't gotten too far in the neighborhood, so it shouldn't be long before I can make it back. Very soon after I start running, a couple people come after me. It's not hard for them to catch up, but I can send them away with mana so long as it's just a couple. What I'm worried about is that a large group might come after me, I don't have enough practice with my wand to deal with that yet. I've long since dropped the bread, and that seems to have stopped some of them, but there are still some who are chasing me with the hopes that I might have something else.

Suddenly, large rock smashes into the side of my head, sending me to the ground, and giving the people a chance to catch up. I can still keep most of them away with mana, but there's just far too many. My stab wound starts to bleed again since I have to focus on my attackers, and my head is bleeding quite a bit as well. On top of that, I'm now being attacked by the people who caught up. I'm fairly certain I have a concussion, but I don't have time to worry about that right now. People catch up with me quickly since I can't even stand, and I'm swarmed by them. The situation really isn't good, in just a short few minutes I've lost a large amount of blood, and soon I'll probably pass out. If that happens, I likely won't wake up. I've been very close to dying quite a few times before, but I don't think any were quite as hopeless as this.

As I'm being attacked, my vision starts to get worse, as a combination of my head injuries, and blood pouring from my head and getting into my eyes. I can barely see the people in front of me. While all of this is happening, I hear what sounds like a yell coming from down the road, and the people start to run from something. Perhaps another person was walking along the road and saw the commotion? Regardless of what it is, it probably saved my life so that's a good thing.

As my head ponders what happened, a figure appears in front of me. I can't see it very well, but it looks like a person, and I think they're saying something, but I can't tell. Since I don't need to worry about people attacking me anymore, I can try to hold my blood inside my body as well as possible, but at this point I don't think it matters, I've lost so much blood that I'd definitely need a transfusion, and this world definitely doesn't have the technology needed for that. The only thing I can do is hope that they have a kind of magic that can heal my wounds.

Regardless of that, there's not much more I can do, I can only wait and hope that I won't die. The person who came by seems to be taking me somewhere, but I have no way of telling where, since I only have the mental capacity to keep my thoughts in order, so I can't really focus on any of my senses. Wherever I'm going, I have no control over, so there's no point in thinking about it. The pain of my injuries is immense, but it's not unbearable, I've been in similar situations, albeit, less extreme.

All I can do now is wait, and hope I won't die.