Finally after three hours Carl set foot on Sesmire city. The city was right between the border of Chorin country and Mangan, the lizard folk domain separated by a wide river.
He took in the sights and sounds of this new environment in wonder. Tall towering buildings gleamed in the sunlight, the streets were teeming with humans and lizard folks and the roads were full of carriages drawn by horses and huge flightless birds. It was almost overwhelming. At a glance he could also see people exuding mana presumably mages and warriors.
As he navigated the maze like streets of the city, he inadvertently wandered into the market place. Carl found himself accosted by a throng of hawkers, each one eager to sell their wares. He politely declined most of them until a certain stall caught his eye.
Moving towards the stall, he noticed a bracelet that had a small red mana core on it. Curious he picked it up bringing it close to his eyes. The stall owner sensing an opportunity started to introduce his ware.
“Ah, you indeed have a great eye young lad.” The stall owner remarked, peering at the bracelet in Carl’s hand.
“That there is an Almight bracelet produced by the Belor house.”
“It has enchantment that increases the wearer’s strength”
Looking carefully at the bracelet, Carl could see tiny engravings in it with red mana slowly flowing in the engravings from the mana core like water in a channel.
‘Fascinating.’ Carl thought.
“How much for this bracelet?” Carl asked
“It is only five gold coins young lad, but for you I can sell it for four” the stall owner replied enthusiastically.
Carl reached into his robes Carl, retrieving forty silver coins and handing them over to the man.
“Do you know how they made this bracelet?”
“Ah, the bracelet is first made by a blacksmith, then handed to an enchanter who inscribes runes on it which are then powered by a mana core. The mana core provides mana to the runes which causes a magical effect”
“Runes?”
“Runes are special symbols with magical properties that can be used to evoke some spells”
“What about mana cores”
“Well those are special organs harvested from magical beasts, they allow the beasts to carry mana”
“If one were to have a mana core where could one sell it?”
“You can sell mana cores to either the merchant guild or the adventurer’s guild”
“Where…”
“It’s located in the town square”
“What about the library?”
“It’s also in the town square, just take a carriage and it’ll take you there”
Thanking the man for the information Carl headed to a place where lots of carriages were packed.
Picking a carriage at random Carl moved towards the coachman.
“How much for a trip to the town square”
“5 silvers”
Paying the fair he got into the carriage.
The quiet journey took about 30 minutes, during the journey Carl put on the bracelet. A wave of red mana washed over him quickly being absorbed into his body, Carl didn’t feel any effect making him question if he had just been scammed. After reaching the destination he got out of the carriage. Carl looked around and quickly spotted the adventurer’s guild. It was a five story building with a huge plank with the words adventurer’s guild.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Entering the building he was greeted by a neatly furbished lobby, there were chairs arranged round some tables. To the front were six receptionist desk with the receptionist serving the people who had lined, waiting for their turn. Some people sat on the chairs, with huge mugs filled with booze.
He moved to a line that seemed relatively shorter than the rest. Finally his turn came. The receptionist gave a professional smile to Carl.
“Hello how can I help you?”
“Do you buy beasts mana cores?”
“Yes, of course we do”
“How do you determine the value of a mana core?”
“Well it depends on the grade of the mana core, red mana cores are the cheapest followed by yellow, green, blue and purple being the most expensive. Also the size matters, the bigger it is the more expensive it is”
Reaching into his robe Carl pulled out a wolf’s mana core thirty cm in diameter.
“Then how much will this sell for?”
Looking at the large blue mana core the receptionist gasped, drawing the attention of the crowd to Carl's mana core. The receptionist quickly calmed down and told Carl to follow her. She led Carl into a separate room, the room was opulently decorated with gold linings the edges of the walls.
Carl didn’t have to wait for long as the door opened and a middle-aged man came in. He had blonde hair and a stubble beard. He had a muscly physique that couldn’t be hidden by his loose shirt.
“Hello there, my name is Gerald, the guild master of this branch in Sesmire city.” Gerald said with a bright smile as he stretched his hand for a handshake.
“Am Carl.” Carl said as he shook hands with Gerald.
“Can I look at the mana core?”
“sure.” Carl said as he handed the mana core to Gerald.
Handling the mana core like it was a fragile egg, Gerald took out a monocle placing it on his right eye. He examined the core carefully. Carl noticed mana flowing through the monocle, it is probably enchanted. The monocle was an enchanted trinket that could zoom in on images and could also see through objects. Handing over a pouch with gold coins Gerald proclaimed that there were 15,000 gold coins in there. Handing Carl a square device he said that Carl can confirm the amount. Seeing Carl's confusion, Gerald poured the gold coins into the device which lit up with numbers rapidly changing as it counted the coins. After a few seconds the machine stopped counting, displaying the number 15,000.
After selling the mana core Carl decided to search for the library. It didn’t take long to find the library. The library was a three story building with the words ‘Sesmire Library’ above the entrance.
Entering the library Carl spotted the librarian behind a reception disk. The man looked at Carl and seeing the new customer he beamed with a welcoming smile. He showed a board that showed a gold coin. Understanding what he was supposed to do Carl tossed a gold coin to the librarian. The librarian then tossed a token pass to Carl and told him that it allowed him access to the first two floors of the library. If he wanted to access the third floor he needed to pay more and have a warrior of mage token. Taking that into consideration Carl decided to browse the first two floors.
Outside on an alley two men shrouded in shadows eyed Carl as he entered the library.
Walking past the reception area he was met with the imposing sight of tall majestic shelves. For a moment he was at a loss on where to start. After a few seconds he searched for the isle with books on magic. He quickly found what he was looking for. Picking a book in random he rapidly flipped through its pages. Although he was flipping the pages his mind actually captured all the information in the pages.
After he finished reading the book he took another from the shelf and repeated the process. For those books high up in the shelves he floated up to reach them.
The librarian voice rang through the whole library, it was time to close the library. Carl closed the last book releasing a sigh the knowledge he had absorbed was slightly overwhelming.
The awakened people were divided into ranks with each subsequent rank being stronger than the other. The ranks were further divided into early, middle, late and peak. The first four ranks can be distinguished by their mana color, a beginner has red mana, an intermediate has yellow to green mana, an advanced awakened has blue mana and a master awakened has purple mana. Above the master rank is the grandmaster, lord, king and emperor rank.
The difference between mages and warriors is that warriors store mana physically in their hearts while mages store mana in their spectral plane, that’s where the soul resides. Since warriors have mana coursing through their veins it strengthens their physiques making them physically stronger than the mages.
There was also basic information on runes and chants that can be used to evoke spells. Runes were special symbols that can be arranged or written in a certain way to evoke a spell when mana runs through them. Chants on the other hand are words and sentences spoken to create a magical spells. Apparently warriors can’t use chants to evoke spells.
But what mostly intrigued Carl was the thing called magic attributes. A mage with flame attributed mana will find it easy casting flame spells while finding it difficult to cast other attributed spells. This is completely new to Carl as back in his world the only spells people could do was deemed simple mana manipulation in this world. He wondered how he could give his mana an attribute.