God, it felt like for the past couple of weeks I'd been going from one form of unimaginable pain to another. What the hell was going on?
As I steadied my breath I saw Kent and Tresha looking down at me trying to see what was wrong while comforting me, while the rest of the carriage simply looked on frozen in worry.
I didn’t know exactly how long I was on the floor but once I regained my senses, I noticed that it was raining quite heavily so I could no longer see people walking the streets.
“How are you feeling right now? What exactly hurts?” Kent asked in a relatively neutral tone he didn’t seem to be that concerned about what I was going through but that was normal for him.
He took an effort to make facial expressions that showed what he was feeling on the inside as a way of connecting with people better but I already knew that when he was serious about something his face naturally became placid and his tone dead.
“I felt like multiple strings which were embedded into my body were slowly being pulled out of me, but I'm a lot better now” I responded trying to diffuse the situation.
“Do you have any idea what happened?” Kent asked again with a flat tone as Treasha moved to the side patting my head slowly to provide me some sort of comfort while still standing tall in front of everyone.
“I’m not certain but I think it has something to do with the lower levels of mana in the mid-group” Kent replied in a steady tone.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean!?”
“Remember that our country is divided into four sections, the outskirts, the mid-group, the inner circle, and the capital.”
“Our kingdom of Salicia was built inside of a large creator, generally the deeper you go into that creator reaching the capital the more wealthy that area is with a few exceptions.”
“Since our family home is placed on the rare edge of the outskirts we live in one of the most underdeveloped regions of the country”
“Wait aren't we one of the ten founding families why the hell do we live in the middle of nowhere” Surprisingly Rina was the one who shot in with that question with a deep sense of worry in her eyes which I couldn’t understand.
“Because that's where the family tree is, where it goes the family goes” Kent replied matter-a-factly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“What is now considered the outskirts wasn't even near our family home when it was first built we used to live basically in the forest”
“Why are you talking like you were there? Anyway, what the hell that poverty has to do with the pain I just experienced?”
“Look over there.” Where my teacher was pointing was a simplistic rune I had learned to be a kind of enchantment during my magic lesson.
“These enhancements are put all across the country. On roads, on walls, on top of buildings everywhere, they can fit”
“Their main function is to absorb some of the mana in the surroundings so that it doesn’t harm people especially the old, the sick, and the young who are at the highest risk of going Feral.”
“This measure is necessary because unlike most countries ours was built in a pretty mana-rich zone so some countermeasures must be made to maintain public health”
“The richer the area the better and more numerous these runes are, meaning the lower the mana level in the air, which is great for the vast majority of people” Kent gave a small pause before looking at norman.
“Here it comes another damn problem that I have to deal with that no one else does”
“Because you have the Mana starved trait and an advanced version at that your body needs more mana to survive than a normal person.”
“Since the mana levels are lower here your body needed to pull more mana from your soul to stay at around equal levels, that over-excretion of your soul is what caused you to feel that painful pulling sensation”
“So what do I need to do about it”
“Not much as we have said before your soul produces way too much mana anyway just stop using the medication you were prescribed to slow the activity of your soul while you are at this event so that it can produce enough for your body naturally.”
***
After taking a couple of minutes to calm myself down I looked around the red and gold interior of the carriage that I was currently riding in as I sat next to Kent and Gaine, while my sisters and Tresha sat in the opposite corner doing their own thing.
After a while of riding my sister went from being nervous to excited, to worrying about my random screams of pain and finally being bored with the whole endeavor.
You could only watch random buildings and streets move past you so many times before you got bored of it. The multi-colored rain that was falling from the sky was beautiful but the cool humid air it produced also made one want to fall asleep.
As we rode our carriage we suddenly pressed up against an inner wall with a gate.
The wall was made of an orange stone that had unending magical runes and enchantments running across it.
Over the wall was a barricaded area where one could easily shoot arrows and above the gate stood ten crests including one from our very own family.
After quickly being let passed I could feel the difference between the two areas we had been in.
Most of the buildings were made of dark orange stone as well as some dark brown wood.
The architecture in this country was extremely weird.
Most houses had a slopped roof to allow water to easily go down the roofs, but the direction each one was sending the water was so unintuitive it was like they were purposefully gathering the water into a specific place.
Another oddity was that around each house on each floor was a mini garden where mostly blue or black fruits, vegetables, and flowers were being planted.
If I assumed that the color was because was were currently in the season of water and such people were mostly planting crops that were in the season that meant that almost every single person was planting their food to some extent which was wild to think about.
“Alright guys we have officially reached the inner circle while we here I would like to test if you remember anything from our history lessons” Kent sat up in his chair and gave a simile while the other two adults in the room lazily sat in the carriage saying nothing.
“Can anyone tell me what the building over there is”
Where Kent pointed was a giant pearl-white brick tower that seemed to cast a shadow over the entire city.
Above the tower was a gigantic crystal from which numerous lines of light stretched throughout the city to unknown locations performing unknown tasks.
Each layer of the tower was lined with a different color in between the gaps between the bricks indicating which subjects were studied there.
“That's the central mage tower simply called The Obelisk, Not much hands-on research is done there in modern times now is mainly used as a communications and information-storage hub which also acts as a center for most of the publicly used large-scale enchantments and other complex magical tools” Rina raised her hand and answered enthusiastically while sending Kent a smile.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Excellent explanation,” Kent assured while patting her on her head causing her to smile even brighter.
“Norman your turn, what that over there?” Kent said while pointing at a park with three giant stone statues depicting someone fighting some kind of humanoid figure with round faces and razor teeth. Their bodies were emaciated and unnaturally pale, their nails were strong and sharp like claws and some sort of liquid moved around them.
“Over there is the national park. Over there is the first dungeon entrance tamed by the ten founding families, over there is…” anticipating the boring question and answer session I decided to just list out a bunch of things I recognized from books in the distance in as few words as possible.
This was one of my specialties I was already naturally good at remembering large quantities of random information at the top of my head which was why I never had trouble in school back in my life.
Kent didn’t seem to deem it necessary to praise me as he did Rina for answering his questions.
It was only natural that I would know all of this since I was forced to study way more stuff than my sisters daily.
The expectation of success still annoyed me as it reminded me of my past life but I comforted myself on the fact that I was a grown man on the inside so I really should not be casting about if some random guy wanted to pat me on the head and say a good job or not.
That would have been extremely embarrassing if he did so.
After a couple of rounds of Kent asking the three of us questions before we finally reached our destination.
The cloudy sky did not allow much sunlight to seep through it so what stood before me was not really clear yet still managed to be majestic.
A gigantic dark red sphere floated in mid-air with numerous magical runes big and small wrapping around it forming a complex weave of symbols, all turning around the sphere together in a uniform and purposeful manner.
Around the supernatural sphere, there was a large ring made of white marble that was intricately carved to give a sign of nobility.
This gigantic flat ring was supported by eight main staircases that went all the way to the ground.
“Will have to get out of the carriage for the rest of this trip.”
Kent stood up in the carriage grabbing his hat and putting it on before going through the motion of casting a spell silently.
After he finished he moved his head forward in a gentle manner pointing at everyone in the carriage one by one. As he did so a slight emerald hue circled our bodies.
“Alright then, it's safe to go outside now”
My sisters looked extremely nervous once again, moving from the relative safety of the carriage to the true outside world.
I grabbed Rina by the hand and lead her outside. Emma holding on to her back moved with us at a measured pace.
As we came outside the multicolored rain which was gently pouring around us simply slid off our bodies as though we were covered in some sort of wax.
Whatever spell Kent cased on us it must have been something from the school of abjuration.
I didn’t have an appreciation for seeing Kent use multiple completely different kinds of spells before seeing him use illusion magic to help teach lessons, transmutation to make little obstacle courses for us to use for exercise, and even conjuration to make basic enemies for us during weapon practice had all become extremely normal to us.
But now that I had gone through my own journey of learning magic I realized just how incredible it was.
I had already been practicing transmutation magic for the past three years but I could only just barely cast four level-one spells at this point.
Just learning a new spell from the same school was incredibly difficult so to be able to use multiple high-level spells from multiple different schools of magic was nothing short of astonishing.
The fact that he also found the time to become a master with almost every melee weapon I've seen him touch while also having an incredible shot with the bow was nothing short of terrifying
Where the hell did one find the time to be so good at so many different things and why would someone of that caliber be content being a butler of all things, even for a family as renowned as ours?
Tresha patted the horse that had been pulling our carriage along and whispered something into its air.
After she was done the horse moved away from us to a location unknown, more that likely waiting for us to return in three weeks.
As we moved towards the stairs going to the giant ring surrounding the sphere I noticed something amazing that I wasn't able to see from the carriage.
Waking slightly forward while listening to the pater of my footsteps on the water-covered surface I noticed that under the ring that surrounded the massive floating sphere circular pit that had obscene amounts of water flowing into it from all sides flowing so deep that you couldn't even hear when it finally crashed.
“Isn’t it beautiful” Kent came up behind me seeing my awe-struck expression?
I simply looked toward him, at this point we knew each other well enough that I didn't need words to communicate with him.
“Remember how I told you that this entire country was built in a crater, well water those this neat thing where it tends to flow down to lower elevation”
“Where we are now is the center of the country which is also its lowest elevation point, all the water that rains in this land is collected through a series of interconnected gutters.”
“All the water you see going down right now is actually just a small fraction of the total water that's entering there since most of the guttering leads to holes inside the column itself”
After taking some time to gaze at the feat of engineering one of my sisters eventually pulled me away taking me with the rest of the group.
We all walked slowly through the rain until we got to a little shelter that was next to the stairs leading to the orb.
An old man sat in the chair, he had an ugly face and a red and black uniform. He gave off the feeling of someone very experienced and quite honestly tired of his job.
After exchanging greetings Kent handed the man some documents which he glanced through before giving Kent some kind of token from under his desk.
After that, they each other fair well, and we were led up the stairs. As we did so I noticed many people standing around in the same red and black uniform who seemed to be guards.
Once I was actually on top of the white ring I realized just how massive it was. The circle had a bunch of sections marked by red lines that were all labeled in numbers of ascending order and had some sort of enchantment in the center.
Looking out onto the city from that high up was also a different experience in its own right. Giving a view that was both breathtaking and made one feel insignificant on the grand scale of it all.
Below me walked thousands of individuals moving around like scarring ants, all of whom were living their day-to-day lives, working their jobs, taking care of their children so on and so forth.
Periodically a wagon filled with goods and with at least two people manning it would come outside of the strange sphere fitting itself exactly within the designated lines before swiftly being teleported away to some unknown place.
“Let’s go” Kent sauntered forward as he noticed all of us staring at the goings on of the strange place.
“The reason everything needs to be teleported is that too many things need to be transported in and out of this place at a time, for people to move their stuff naturally.
“The cargo is not actually being teleported that far away everything you see is probably going to one of the many storage houses you see around the area to be transported further later.”
“Now come on If we don't get moving you won't have time to socialize with the other kids before it's time to go to bed.
Our group moved along the circular structure until we reached the section labeled AC34539. We all then entered the sphere.
It felt like I was moving through thick jello before suddenly being pushed out of the other side of the wall.
I found myself in a medium-sized dark wooden room. That was sparsely decorated with a small booth where a man who wore the same uniform as the man who gave us our ticket sat, a painting of a dignified noble on the wall, and a small sofa that could fit around three people at a time.
The man in the booth had jet-black hair and deep red eyes with a face that was mature and beautiful to look at.
He had the palest white skin I had ever seen but he did not look sickly, on the contrary, I had never seen someone who looked healthier than the man that sat in front of me.
While my sisters and I stood there absorbing our drastic change in environment Kent walked up to the man sitting in the booth and handed him the ticket he received earlier.
He then motioned us to follow him outside the building.
As we stepped out of the building we saw what wasn’t the first amazing sight of the day.
Above our heads was a starless expanse of black with one giant blood-red moon illuminating the sky that dyed the entire world in a light red hue.
The soil was gray with a light yellow tint and most of the buildings I could see were made out of a mixture of black, white, and gray wood which all accentuated each other giving the entire town a simple but aesthetically pleasing look even if it was a bit gloomy.
The building we just came from was connected to a footpath made of dark brown stone which lead off into the distance.
“This is another question for you Norman what are the different types of dungeons that exist in this world?” Kent pointed at me with a smile.
“Why do I feel like I'm getting the majority of these questions,” I said with an offended look.
“Because you are, you the one who got extra assignments, you the one who should know the most,” He said back to me.
“A dungeon is an area that is produced unnaturally by the system which is placed somewhere in the real world often with unique and powerful rewards. The three categories of dungeons are Trials, Pockets, and Challenges,” I said in a flat tone.
“You are once again correct, the center of Salicia has always been a pocket dungeon named The Blood Citadel.”
“After it was defeated by the original fifteen-member party that founded this country it became an unpenetrable stronghold that acts as the capital of this nation.”
“Just look to your immediate left and immediate right”
Looking off into the distance on both my left and my right I could barely make out the appearance of a building that was eerily similar to the one we just came from when we entered this place.
“Wait is that the other number that was millimeters away from us before,” Rina asked in a surprised tone.
“Yes, the space inside the ball is far, far bigger than it is on the outside with is why on the outside such an efficient use of space needs to be made and why you need to be very careful when entering. Changing your position by just a few centimeters when you enter can displace you from your intended destination by miles.” Kent mentioned with a small smile filled with pride.
“Well let’s get going it's already pretty late in the afternoon and for those who haven't been here before the nighttime is pitch black, if you don’t have a light source on hand you will not be able to even see your hand in front of your face.”
“Alright”
With that, we all began walking to the place we would be staying for the Astra.
Due to how many people would be in attendance the participants would be separated into ten houses each staying at a different hotel.
In the mourning at around eight o’clock, everyone would be transported to the main stadium where everything would be taking place.
The entire thing was meant to be a three-week-long affair.
The first week would consist of general track and field sports that you would expect at any school event l as well as stat and skill events that were meant to test your abilities to use skills and your stats effectively as the name implies.
The second week was going to be focusing on team sports where everyone would be separated into groups of about ten for the majority of the week we would be playing typical real-world sports like basketball, football, and the like but on the last day, there would be a special team event that changed every year.
The only similarity between events was that more than likely it would be some kind of group battle.
“The third week always consisted of a grand tournament which always had an amazing reward for everyone who participated.”
“Each week we would have competitions for five days with a two-day break in between for socializing, resting and for handing out the rewards earned during the week”
After walking for about 30 minutes we finally stopped in front of the parking lot a large white and black building.
“Is this the place?” I asked kent as we walked inside.
“Yep, it is,” Kent said without looking at me.
He then placed his hand on my head before speaking further.
“I know that you are a little stressed out about the fact that you couldnt practice for the last couple of months and I get that frustration I really do,” Kent intoned in a distant voice, “But make sure not to be too hard on your self, remember that you only need to complete the events you were assigned not get the first place”
“Ok?”
“Of course, when have I ever been the type of person to stress myself out with these kinds of things you should really be giving this speech to my sisters,” I said in an annoyed tone.
Kent simply let out a deep sigh and began walking away.
As we entered the hotel we stayed in the hall with all of the other children.