Sean left Leo with the peasants—Leo had the situation handled from what Sean could tell—and walked to the shacks by the river. The shacks were three buildings that had risen out of the ground like the village had but they were far off, closer to the base of the mountain than the village itself.
The three shacks housed the huntsman and the mage. Each got their own shack.
“Hello anybody home,” Sean said as he got close to the worn buildings.
“Y-Y-Yes, my lord. I’m here,” said a voice. It was Alastair. The middle aged man’s stammering voice revealed himself before his face poked through the shack door on the far left.
“Good, I wanted to meet with you and the hunters, so I could understand better about your abilities. The system didn’t answer when I asked.”
“W-W-Well, the hunters left already, but I can try to explain, " Alastair said. He bowed his head, exposing his balding head, and opened the door to invite Sean inside.
Alastair’s shack was chaos epitomized–books and scrolls covered the place. Sean grabbed the closest one.
The book was written in some language that Sean had never seen before.
“You can read this?”
“O-O-Only a bit my lord. I never truly got the chance to finish my studies. I wasn’t quite the best student in my younger days, you see. It’ll take me a while to make sense of any of this, but you can be sure I’ll do my best, my lord,” Alastair said.
“And what were your younger years like,” Sean asked eagerly. He hadn’t been able to get a past out of anyone so far. If Alastair had a past, Sean might be able to piece something together.
Alastair looked at the ceiling as if to think and then said, “M-M-My younger years are hazy. All I remember is I didn’t do too well.”
“No problem, I expected as much,” Sean sighed. “Do you mind giving me a display of your magic. I want to see what it looks like.”
“O-O-Of course. We should probably step back outside. My magic is not as accurate all the time as I would hope.” The mage’s face flushed red from embarrassment.
Sean had high expectations as they exited into the commons–the open space between the village and shacks. He’d already seen the magic the system could do, and that experience had made him tremble in excitement. An actual person with magic was likely to be just as amazing of a sight even if it was being done by a system-titled [failed mage].
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Sean gave Alastair a wide berth, watching with bated breath as the mage went through some strange hand movements and muttered strange incantations. The words sounded like gibberish to Sean’s untrained ear.
He stayed quiet so as to not disturb the mage, but soon found himself drawing a bit closer to see a faint glimmer that was actively forming in the air. The light was the size of a baseball and brighter than the sun. He had to squint when looking at it to not be blinded.
“I-I-I’ve succeeded, my lord. This is a light wisp used to illuminate surroundings,” Alastair said.
Sean tore his eyes from the ball of light to look upon Alastair. The mage, unbeknownst to Sean, underwent a physical change. He had gone from a rather rosy cheeked and healthy looking middle aged man to a gaunt figure who was drenched in sweat, and had bags under his eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“P-P-Perfectly fine my lord. The magic takes a lot out of me since I’ve yet to fully establish myself in the first stage. Once I’ve finished my core, rank zero spells like these should become much easier.”
“This ball of light is a rank zero spell? That means it's the easiest I’m assuming? I’ve never seen magic before, so if you don’t mind when you explain, can you explain it to me as if you’re talking to a complete fool,” Sean said as he walked closer to Alastair and the ball of light.
“Y-Y-Yes, it’s a rank zero spell. Even people without a core to draw from can do it by channeling the magic in the air, but as you can see–” Alastair pointed at himself. “It is much easier with a core.”
Sean reached his hand out, gingerly, he was afraid to be burned, and tried to touch the ball of light, but his hand met nothing but air. He tried a couple more times but got the same result.
“It’s not physical,” he muttered. He’d watched enough TV and movies growing up to not be surprised by the sight of a glowing orb, but it didn’t diminish his curiosity.
“How does it work,” he asked, this time for Alastair to hear.
“W-W-Well, it’s supposed to work like a sifter–you know, like the tool the farmers use. The magic is supposed to be drawn from the environment around the caster and filtered through a core leaving only the good bits of magic to be used for the spell. And if you have a core you can even store energy for later, well, in theory, I haven’t gotten quite that far yet,” Alastair said.
“So not having a core made you like this,” Sean said, indicating Alastair’s weathered form.
“Y-Y-Yes. I had to use my body since I don't have a core. It’s straining as you can see.”
“Do you think you could teach–,” Sean started to say, but stopped himself short as the forms of three men came out of the distant tree line. The men were only a hop, skip, and a jump away from arriving at the village.
“Do you know those men? I thought there were only two hunters?” Sean pointed at the men walking off in the distance.
“They could be the huntsmen, maybe, but there’s three of them. I can’t tell from this distance,” Sean said, answering his own question.
“I-I-I can’t tell either, my lord, but I did hear them leave at the break of dawn. And their way of dress looks the same from a distance. I’m almost certain it’s them, Nick and Nate,” Alastair said.
Do you remember three people leaving? It looked like everyone was accounted for at the village when I left.”
“I-I-I honestly don’t know, my lord.”
Sean didn’t want any surprises. He was already on edge from adjusting to the new world, adding random men emerging out of the treeline only exacerbated the issue.
“Let’s be on the safe side and inform Leopold of their return, though, I didn’t know they left,” Sean said rather pointedly. “I don’t plan on losing this game on my first day.”