Getting out of the cultist encampment, Carl led the children towards the nearest village. The children didn't know the way back to their village. Since he had seen the settlements nearby when he was in the sky, he figured that they might be coming from the one closest to the cult's camp.
After the somewhat calmed down and the fright left their systems they began asking Carl various questions.
"Mister Carl" Basil said.
"Just call me Carl"
"Carl, sir do you know magic"
"Magic I suppose I know a little about it."
"That really cool, I wish I was an awakened one too"
"Awakened one, what's that?"
"What? You don't know that?" the children exclaimed wide eyed at Carl.
"It's the process in which a person becomes a mage or a warrior. My greatest wish is to awaken and become a warrior"
"Warrior?" Carl questioned.
"Warriors are the strongest." Basil said.
"Mages are the coolest." Lynn said.
"Carl sir where are you from? I've never really seen a black human before." Lynn said.
'Human huh, so they are called humans' Carl thought.
"Am from a land far… far away."
"Are you a traveler? Do you travel alone? What is the coolest place you've ever travelled to?"
The children asked endless questions along the journey and Carl also obtained some information from them. The children quickly got tired from walking and Carl conjured a cart from mana. The children were dazzled as they looked at Carl with awe and reverence. Climbing onto the cart with excitement the children got some respite and Carl willed the cart to move forward.
After two hours the village came into view making the children excited, they had really survived a near death situation. Looking at the villages entrance Carl saw four guards in leather armor holding wooden spears.
The guards saw a hazy silhouette coming closer, one of them took out a binocular and when he used it he saw Carl, observing some more he noticed the children waving wildly on the cart and became pleasantly surprised. Quickly relaying his findings to the others Carl watched as they got rowdy passing the binocular amongst themselves. One of the guards quickly ran into the village.
Soon several people got out of the village crowding at the entrance. Carl could see some who had red teary eyes presumably the parents of the kids.
When he finally reached the village entrance, the children quickly got out of the cart rushing towards their parents. They were met with a hug as both the kids and the parents started crying. Carl dispelled the mana cart he had conjured however this action went unnoticed as the villagers had their attention on the reunion. A relatively elegantly dressed middle aged man walked forward to Carl.
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"Hello young boy, I am the village chief of Nahla village."
"I am deeply grateful to you for bringing them back safely."
"Can you tell me what happened?"
"Well I rescued them from a cult group trying to sacrifice them." Carl answered.
"You rescued them?""Yes.
"The village chief looked at Carl for a while,
"A cult?"
"Yes"
"Alone?"
"Yes."
Seeing the village chief's disbelief, Carl conjured a mana bullet and fired at a lone tree at the distance. The trees trunk exploded into bits, the tree falling shortly later with a cracking sound. Silence descended unto the villagers as they stared dumbfounded at the poor fallen tree.
Even Carl was shocked by the damage he did, the trees back in the forest were super resilient he thought it were same for all trees. He was clearly wrong, well you learn something new every day.
"Ahem, do you believe me now"
"You are a mage… at such a young age." the chief said in surprise.
"Sorry for not recognizing it sooner." He bowed to Carl with respect.
"Thank you for rescuing the children."
The parents of the kids made their way to Carl, they bowed expressing their gratitude. "Thank you for saving our children, the Leerysom and Zafnia family will forever be in your debt."
"Nahla village welcomes you." The village chief said with an inviting gesture.
Carl was welcomed into the village and arranged a place to stay by the villagers. He noted that many of the villagers always looked at him like he was a rare animal. The chief had told him that most of them had never seen an orfa human before. The chief's face crumpled into one full of incredulity when Carl asked what an orfa human was.
******
A week has passed since Carl had come to the Nahla village. He managed to pass his ignorance as an amnesia, the story is that he had woken up in the forest all alone with much of his memories lost. The chief and his wife looked at him with pity, the wife even suggested if he would like to be adopted by them. The expression on the chief's face was priceless.
Carl had learned that he was in a world called Mabelle. Mabelle had many continents and the one he was at was the called Arelon. There were five sentient races in Arelon continent, they include humans, elves, dwarves, lizard folk and cat folk. The humans are further subdivided into six groups based on skin color. The ofra, adni, opsi, acir, inoste and ojado who respectively are colored black, red, yellow, brown, white and brown with black striped patterns.
He is currently in the country of Chorin. It is bordered by the dark forest to the west, the Sulphonia country north, the elven domain in the east and the lizard folk domain in the south. The forest Carl had woken up in was the dark forest, it's said to be a dangerous forest having extremely powerful beasts and trees tougher than steel. There is a sole religion in Arelon, the Solaris religion worshiping the sun goddess.
He also inquired about magic but the chief barely knew general information which was still useful to Carl. Apparently before a person reaches the age of twenty they have a chance to awaken and be able to use mana. However that chance is really small and many people are destined to continue being ordinary. Awakened people can either become mages or warriors.
The awakened are divided into ten ranks:
Newly awakened
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
Master
Grandmaster
Lord
King
Emperor
Sage
He suggested visiting the cities library or enrolling in the magic academy in the capital city to know more about the awakened. Carl took this into consideration and decided to visit the neighboring city, Sesmire city. Today was the final day he was staying at Nahla.
Early next morning he visited the Leerysom and Zafnia households for the last time he bid them goodbye. They gave him lots of parting gifts in the form of several fruits and even a few silver coins.
He swiftly packed the gifts he had received from the chief and the grateful parents, they included a dried meat, fruits and a hundred silver coins which he placed in the dimensional pocket. He still didn't exactly know the value of money hence he couldn't tell if a hundred silver coins were many or not. He at least knew that ten copper coins equal one silver coin and ten silver coins equal one gold coin.
As Carl left the village he heard a shout. Behind him at the village entrance stood the three children he had saved waving at him, turning he gave a warm smile and waved back.
Sesmire city was south of Nahla village at the very border of Chorin country. It is said that the lizard folk could be found in the city and he was really curious to see how one with his own eyes.