Glenn leaned back in his chair, his head resting against the backrest. He looked at the light passing through the glass ceiling with a blank expression, feeling as if his strength had left him. People were passing past him, throwing judgmental stares thanks to his naked torso. There certainly weren't many people who strolled around in a Library with their shirts missing, after all.
He covered his eyes with his right hand, letting the other hang out by his side. Senior Exan seemed to be sure that escaping this world was impossible, and he had more than sixty years to try.
'So you're going to give up just because you read some shit that this guy might have made up?' Diamanes tried to rile him up, to no avail. It was as if Glenn was empty of everything, motivation and soul alike.
'You can still check out that guy's other entries, so you can try and get some information, at least,' Diamanes recommended, bored out of his mind. Glenn nodded slowly, his determination returning at an equally slow pace.
“This…this is still quite disheartening,” Glenn admitted. He didn’t move for another minute, before clenching his teeth and straightening himself up.
“...No use in losing all hopes,” He muttered, “...I might as well try and prove Exan wrong.” He stood up and went back to the History section, searching for more books that Exan could have written, but sadly, most of the books he had seen earlier were copies of the ones he already read.
He only found another book that he didn't already read, called "The Bestiary".
He opened it standing in front of the bookshelf, reading the few usual lines of English.
"Today is a grand day. I married Luna! Well, I originally planned to make a harem as any reincarnation protagonist worth this name should do, but no woman on this cursed land could come close to my Luna. It's been twenty years that I've been living in Munirp, and still, no fellow countryman of mine has come to visit me. I am not starting to despair, but I might begin to have doubts. Please, if you read this, you HAVE to give me a sign that you exist, alright?"
Glenn turned the page and confirmed that there was no other special text.
"And how do I do that, dear Exan...?" He muttered as he closed the book and brought it back to the table with him.
Diamanes snorted, 'Oh, I have an idea. What about...visiting him, or sending a letter, I don't know?'
Glenn scoffed, looking at his bandaged left hand with indignation.
'Alright big genius, mind telling me his address so I could do that?' Diamanes remained silent, as Glenn had expected.
'Now stop taking me for an idiot, and start giving me some good ideas.'
He shook his head while turning the book in his hand. Suddenly, his eyes froze, reading a line embroidered on the back cover.
A malicious and mocking voice resounded in his mind, 'Well, well, well. 'Royal Library's director, Exan'. Ask, and you shall receive.’ Diamanes laughed wickedly, ‘Don't you think that might be the address you wanted, my dear moron?’
Glenn pushed through his embarrassment and ignored the entity, instead choosing to concentrate on reading Exan’s books.
'Glenn, shame on you... Glenn, shame on you...' mocked the laughing voice of Diamanes, echoing in his mind. Glenn clenched his teeth and hid his face in his hands, sighing heavily. After exhaling his distress and recovering his bearings, Glenn concentrated once again.
Once he was done with all these books, he would try and find a way to send a message written in English to the Royal Library to contact Exan.
…If there even was a way to send mail to the upper Circles. He somehow doubted that. Still. Maybe it would be a shot in the dark, but it had a tiny chance of working. And if it did, he would have the help of a senior... What should he call the people in the same situation as him? Earthlings? Yeah, he would receive the help of a senior Earthling, which wasn't negligible at all.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Finally having a plan worth such a name, he sat back in his seat, and started reading the book named "Munirp and its Legends".
An hour later, Glenn laid back in his chair, his brain melting with all the new pieces of information he just learned. Even though it was packed with information, thankfully, the book was relatively short. The most interesting 'legend' he found in this book was the one concerning the First King.
Founder of King's Rise and the Order of the Victorious, Builder of the Four Gates, First user of the Fallen Artifacts of the Moon Rift, the Immortal Conqueror who reigned for a thousand years, before time finally put him down to rest, dying of old age. His name had been forgotten in the meanders of time, but his presence had left an indelible mark on Munirp's history. That was... quite a lot of titles. Glenn sighed as he stared at what he just read.
'That guy is like a god. How the hell did he live for a thousand years, to begin with?' mused Glenn, bewildered.
'It's honestly a bit disappointing. You'd think that a guy living for a thousand years would have the time to conquer the entire planet, but it seemed like he calmed himself after uniting Munirp,' noticed Diamanes.
Glenn's eyes widened in indignation.
'That's already quite the feat, honestly!'
'Why are you getting angry? It's not even your king?'
'I don't know, I just feel like he's worth respect.'
'Tsk, tsk. That's probably not the full story. No matter how well written history is, it's always the victor the author of it.'
Glenn rubbed his chin, looking down at the book. There were also quite a few folklore legends, that he quickly went through to familiarize himself with this world's mythos and fears, but he wasn't going to read a few kilograms worth of legends and myths. Not that he wouldn't like doing so, but more because he had better things to do. With this thought in mind, he opened the "Magiconomicon, 7th Edition".
It was time to improve his terrible knowledge of magic.
Glenn started reading, the book open in front of him. Diamanes was keeping silent, letting him read in peace. So far, the contents of the book weren't far from what he knew. Magic was fueled by the energy called Mana, which is present everywhere, in different concentrations.
High-concentration Mana-zones would have the spells cast in them become more powerful, at the cost of safety and efficiency, while low-concentration Mana-zones would have the caster put more effort into casting a spell, controlling it more precisely, but losing might in the process.
Generally, such zones are rare and appear in particular situations or environments. For example, the Ink Dunes the Black Heirs come from is a low-concentration Mana zone, while King's Rise has been established in a high-concentration zone. Each comes with advantages and defects. It's mostly up to the mage to adapt their magic to each zone to make the most of it.
'The Still Peak where you found me was a high-concentration Mana zone, in case you were curious,' informed Diamanes, chiming in to present a familiar example.
The next chapter was about the Mana Circles, explaining that there were nine such circles. The first three Circles are considered the Initiation, explaining why Glenn was called an Initiate.
A First-Circle mage would be a beginner Initiate, a Second-Circle an advanced Initiate, and a Third-Circle a true Initiate. After this stage, when he gets to the Fourth Circle, a mage is considered a Magi, with the same ranking system of beginner, advanced, and true. A Sixth-Circle Magi was even called an Archmagi, a prestigious title that is given only to the best mages.
Finally, above that, is the domain of the Rulers. The information on this was a bit lacking, only explaining that a Seventh-Circle would be named a Newborn Ruler, an Eighth-Circle a True Ruler, and a Ninth-Circle an Ancient Ruler and that they were extremely rare, only one or two appearing in thousands of years. Despite that, the current king was known to be a True Ruler. Exan explained the power system between Initiate, Magi, and Rulers like this: an Initiate is an army of bowmen, a Magi an army of siege weapons, and a Ruler a natural catastrophe.
If it was put into number, for example, if a spell cast by a Beginner Initate would have a power of 10, an advanced casting the same spell would double, or triple such number, or even more, depending on their mastery of the spell.
A True Initiate would be able to multiply this number even further, making it ascend to previously unattainable heights. All of that depended, of course, on the mastery and skill of the caster.
Rising in rank only took off the limit cap and more Mana to use, not just giving an absurd power-up. The rise from Initiate to Magi, though, did make one's strength change qualitatively, and the same would be true for Magi to Ruler, logically.
There were no clear explanations on how one should Converge more Circles, Exan having simply written 'it will happen, or it will not'. These were the only words on this matter, and the book followed different manners to use Mana and Aura, adding a small side page to explain their ranks too.
Aura users were categorized in nine ranks too, with no records of a ten rank existing. It was pretty simple: Novice was rank one, Squire rank two, and Knight rank three. Then, Aura users also needed to make a breakthrough, reaching the Grand Chevalier stage. After that was Crusader, and finally, at the same level as Archmagi, Saint. The Rulers levels were called the same, be it for mages or Aura users.
Glenn kept on reading before his eyes widened in indignation. He rubbed them, having a hard time believing what was written.
"That damned old fogey!" He blurted out, pissed off.