Entering the library that was near the back area of the house, there was a long table in the middle of the room. The books lined up on the shelves inside weren't all that much, but for a village, it was plentiful. The bookshelves lined up the 3 sides of the room with the shelf on the left side of the room being quite long, almost as long as the wall itself. This shelf had books about magic, mana, magic research, and other handwritten research documents.
At first, it made Cecil wonder why a fox village with their inherent magic had such a long line of books related to magic research and the modern magic system but it turned out that Lucia's mother, Anna, was actually a very talented Spellcaster and magic researcher. She was able to adeptly use the modern magic system's magic spells as well as her own inherent magic spells. She had graduated from a prestigious magic academy and continued with her research until she got married and settled down in Fauxe Village with her husband, Zaqi, where she continued her magic research from now and then when she had the time, but she mostly invested her time in doing housework and teaching all she knew about magic to her daughter, Lucia. Of course, now it was with the addition of Cecil.
There were 2 bookshelves on the right side of the room which were separated by a window. The shelf closer to the door had books related to history and geography while the further shelf had books related to language and mathematics. The small shelf at the far end of the room by the side of the window contained storybooks that Lucia loved.
When Cecil first came to the library, the first kind of book Lucia showed him was precisely from this small shelf. It made her a little upset when Cecil directly ignored it and pulled out a book from the geography & history shelf while telling her to read it to him. At the time, although Cecil was already capable of speaking the language, it was still hard for him to read. She complained for a week after that, saying that he was a dull and boring person. But what could he do? Cecil urgently needed information about the world.
Now he could read them by himself, but it was with difficulty. So in the end, Cecil still needed Lucia to help read the books for him.
"Okay, stupid, what do you want me to read?"
"Hey, Lulu… could you please stop calling me that every time we come into the library?"
"Well, it's not my fault that you can't read," Lucia said with a cheeky grin.
"Hey, that's uncalled for!"
Lucia responded by sticking her tongue out and Cecil grabbed one of her tails and began ruffling it.
"I-Idiot! Stop that! Y-you're not allowed to do that!" Lucia immediately exclaimed before she started blushing.
"Then please stop calling me stupid. Or else every time you do, I'll mess up the fur on your tails!"
This was the usual exchange that they had whenever the two went into the library. It was just harmless banter and neither of them took it to heart whenever either one called the other a name or teased them about something. However, this was the first time that Cecil grabbed one of Lucia's tails. From her reaction, there was something more about it, but Cecil didn't know and just did as he pleased.
Lucia didn't pull back her tail and just let Cecil do as he pleased, in fact, she even seemed somewhat happy. Cecil stopped after a while and said, "Just read me the books about the place we're at."
"Okay~"
Lucia and Cecil went to the 'geo-shelf' and grabbed a couple of books. Lucia spread out a map of the large continent they were currently on and she began reading to Cecil. Cecil was already listening with rapt attention and he was writing down a few things to take note of from the book.
Cecil's notes were in both English and the Alternian Common Language. It was a normal thing for Cecil to take notes and he would always use both languages to write them. It was probably because she was curious, but Lucia also started to learn English and because of that, it was her turn to struggle like Cecil as they learned each others' respective languages.
"Make sure you get this down, Cel!"
"Yes, let's start from where we left off?"
"Okay!"
----------------
The world Cecil had transferred to was called Alterna. It was a world almost like Earth. It had 6 large continents, but Alterna was at least more than 10 times the size of Earth. The 6 continents' names are the Human Continent Midgard, the Fairy Continent Faerholm, the Beastkin Continent Urrugdrasil, the Demonkin Continent Helaife, the Artic Continent Aizlandia, and the Dead Continent Non. The human continent was situated in this world's western hemisphere. As the name implies, the Midgard was the continent where the majority of the population were humans. The civilization there was also pretty advanced, already having the technology to travel through the air on airships and such.
Cecil was currently on the Urrugdrasil Continent, the continent of beastkins, and was surprised to find out that the two continents were actually only separated by a 100-kilometer long 'river'. Legends state that Urrugdrasil and Midgard were once one whole supercontinent. It was only because of the constant wars between the two races that a 'God', who was benevolent and kind, wanted to end all of these conflicts. The 'God' used their sword and slashed a huge 100 km long and abysmally deep gouge across the lands which ultimately separated the two landmasses thereafter.
Of course, this was only a legend. The credibility wasn't all that good and it was the propaganda that the religion at the border between the two continents spread. The two continents were peaceful from then on and even until this day, though this was only on the surface. There was no way it would be peaceful after all of that history of enmity. It was just like back on Earth where wars were raged because of the differences between ideals and races. This applied even to the inhabitants of this world.
For instance, even though trade was open between the two countries situated at the borders and the inhabitants from both sides could come and go as they please using teleportation formations that were situated in the few major cities located around the border, but lately, the tension between the two sides was on the rise because the human side had started to kidnap people from the beastkin's side to sell them as slaves and such.
Of course, in response to this, the beastkins naturally dealt away with such traffickers by killing them if they were caught kidnapping and even raided some human cities to try and save their own kin. This was actually the latest information the villagers obtained from the merchants who came to the village twice a week from the nearby town. They said that small scale skirmishes had already started popping up here and there with the humans saying that they wanted to enact justice towards the beastkin who had raided their cities.
It was laughable considering that the humans themselves were the first ones who had raided villages and towns to kidnap the beastkin and as a human himself, Cecil felt very shameful and disgusted towards how hypocritical his own race was. When the merchants spoke of the news, the town of course was full of worry.
The merchants were even starting to worry about how and why the village was sheltering Cecil. The person who spoke up for Cecil during that time when suspicions were being directed at him was Lucia. It wasn't only Lucia however, all of the villagers spoke up for him and didn't condemn him for being a human. They even defended him explaining how he was different from those despicable people so the merchants didn't report him to the authorities in the nearby town.
His contributions to the village earned him the favor of everyone so they naturally spoke up for him. Cecil was always helping out with the hunting and miscellaneous jobs around the village and not to mention he was such a young child, they all judged him to be a good boy which of course, he was.
Moving onto the continent that Cecil was currently on, the beastkin continent called Urrugdrasil. Fauxe Village was located on the far east side of this large continent. So Cecil was a long way away from the continental border. So why was the news about the conflict between the humans already making their way this far out of the countryside? This was because according to another rumor, there might be a war waiting to happen if things got too out of hand.
The situation was actually so bad that there were even rumors about other beastkin actually cooperating with the humans in kidnapping their fellow kin and selling them to the human slave traders for gold and other resources. It was really cruel and hypocritical, but that's what greed does to people, both human and beastkin alike. The Urrugdrasil Continent had a variety of beast-kin species. This was also the only continent that had the presence of dragons in it who gave the continent their protection. The huge tree that Cecil saw on the first day he was transported to Alterna was unique to this continent and it was called the World Tree, Urrugdrasil.
The name of the continent came from the name of the World Tree which was also the guardian deity of the continent. The protectors of the World Tree was the beastkin's elf race. This included every species of elves such as the dark elves, night/moon elves, high elves, wood elves, sun elves, and many others. They each had a specific region around the world tree that they would occupy and protect except for the dark elves and sun elves.
The dark elves lived in underground caves that were connected to the roots of the World Tree and they protected the roots from underground monsters and invaders while the sun elves lived directly on the large branches and leaves of the World Tree. They tended to the maintenance and health of the World Tree's trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits. The other beastkin races were scattered all around the continent and most lived in harmony with each other. However, there were a few races who couldn't stand to even breathe the same air as their rival race. One example of beastkin races that were at constant war with each other was the canine and feline-types of beastkin.
This reminded Cecil of the love-hate relationship between cats and dogs back on earth. It was quite amusing to Cecil that the two animal species couldn't get along even in another world. Also, it was exactly these warring races of beastkin that were said to be kidnapping and selling each others' kin to the human slave traders. It was somewhat ironic that it could be the very people of the Urrugdrassil continent that were the ones sparking the war between the two continents in the future.
'Hopefully, this doesn't happen because I have to make my way from the east of this continent to the west where the border is at.'
If a war were to start between the human and beastkin races... him being a human wouldn't really be a welcome thing at all. He might even be kidnapped or killed on sight just because he was a human!
The next continent Cecil learned about was Faerholm. It wasn't that large of a continent since it was somewhat like Australia, just a couple of times bigger. Faerholm was located at the "root" of the world. On Earth, it was located where Antarctica was. The outer area of the continent was protected by the snow and the constant blizzards that happened all year long and there was never a time when the blizzards and snowstorms let up.
The only reason that people knew it was the land of fairies was that old records stated that the land of the fairies was once a part of the demon continent Helaife, but because of the constant oppression from the demonkin, the guardian deity of the fairies separated a portion of the landmass and moved it to the root of the world, casting an eternal spell of blizzard and snow around it to protect the fairies from any prying eyes and dirty hands that wanted to soil their purity and take advantage of them and their gifts.
Not much was known about the fairy continent because no one had ever made it past the frozen area, but it was believed that past the blizzards and snowstorms was a paradise. A heaven on earth. It was basically Alterna's version of a Shangri La. The cause of his isolation was because of the demons and they lived on Helaife.
This continent was vast and it was situated in the eastern hemisphere of Alterna and although the demons did live on the continent, it didn't mean that the continent itself was barren or desolate. The Fairy Continent Faerholm was once a part of Helaife which meant that Helaife itself was an abundant land of resources.
The continent had a higher content and density of mana compared to any other continent which resulted in the demons having greater control over mana itself and their capabilities were supposedly greater than that of the other races. Because of their talent and fighting capabilities, this caused the demons to constantly seek battle. They were a warmongering race that constantly had internal fighting amongst their respective demon factions. This was how it was in the ancient past and it prevailed to this day.
The only thing that changed was the scale of the battles. In modern times, the battles between the demons were limited to small and medium scale battles. Large and continental scaled battles rarely occurred because the demons knew that without the assistance of the fairies they would be pretty screwed. If they thoughtlessly started a huge war that caused irreversible damage to the continent's environment then their living space would be inhospitable and they'd slowly die out if they didn't move to a different continent.
The consequences were unimaginable so the fights between factions were regulated. The small and medium scaled battles were still tolerable because of the high density of mana unique to the Helaife Continent. The high mana content of the continent sped up the recovery of the environment after the destruction caused by the battles. In summary, it was a very chaotic continent, but the civilization level didn't lose out to the humans and beastkins despite the constant conflict that occurred.
Next, was the continent of ice, Aizlandia, this continent was located opposite the Fairy continent Faerholm. It was at the 'roof' of the world and had a climate of eternal winter. The ruling race of this continent was unique because they were sentient elementals.
The Ice Elemental Tribe and the Water Elemental Tribe lived in peace and harmony with one another on the continent. Because of the eternal winter, it was hard, but not impossible for other races to live there. Examples would be the races that have inherent ice and water constitutions, like the frost giants, ice elves, and water dragon or serpent-type beastkins. Even individuals who have abnormally high affinity with the water element and the derived ice element would settle down here, and one such individual would be the Ice Emperor.
He was the first human to ever journey there, made friends with the Ice and Water elemental natives, and established an empire of ice and water that ruled the entire continent which shared the same name as the continent, the Aizlandia Empire. There were 2 royal bloodlines in the royal family of the empire. One was the Frost Royal Bloodline and the other was the Hydro Royal Bloodline. This was because the Ice Emperor had married two female elementals that were direct descendants of the tribe leaders of each respective tribe.
Most people would think that this would cause conflicts to arise from the later generations down the line, but due to the traits and long-lived affection of both tribes, this worry never happened. One reason was that the elementals were a long-lived race. So even though the Ice Emperor of the past had long passed away, his two wives had brought up and guided their children in the traditions of the two tribes leading to no conflicts being raised by the later generations.
The Ice Emperor had also set down a rule that the succeeding Emperors or Empresses may only have one child each, and every generation would take turns in ruling the Empire for 100 years.
So even until now, there hadn't been any conflict regarding the succession rights for the emperor or empress. There were probably also other rules that the Emperor had set, but they were only known to the insiders of the Aizlandia Empire.
The civilization level of the Empire wasn't primitive at all since the Ice Emperor was able to unify the continent. In fact, their magic technology, or magi-tech for short, was far ahead of the other continents.
They were able to create a sustaining barrier that used magi-tech to keep a portion of the kingdom in a state where they were actually able to grow their own crops, and the people who processed this area were also none other than the Elementals themselves.
How could these cold elementals stay alive in that warm-hot area? It was because they had also created magi-tech that allowed the water and ice elementals to live freely in that warm-hot climate that was inside the barrier. If they could create tech for water and ice elementals, naturally it meant that they could create tech that allowed normal races to live in the north as well. One thing that caught Cecil's interest was that they had created an "eternal" light source for their people.
Since it was winter all year long, it would mean that the light on the continent was only around for a few hours before dark clouds blocked the sun and a storm ensued. Because the weather was really unpredictable, one moment it'd be sunny, and in the next, there would be a huge blizzard that would rage for days on end. To provide light for their people, the Aizlandia Empire's craftsmen were able to create a light source that ran on a resource other than mana. This was something that Mrs. Anna had explained to Cecil and it made him think of an energy resource like electricity.
In a world where mana was the main resource and reason that made the living condition more convenient for the people, a new energy resource could be seen as a large technological and scientific achievement. Since the northern continent was able to find a new energy resource other than mana that helped them with their livelihood then it would mean the northern continent was leaps and bounds ahead of all the other continents in terms of civilization level.
Finally, the last continent was the Dead Continent Non. As its name suggests, it was literally a dead, uninhabitable continent. Although it was described as such, there were in fact, still some tribes of races that still lived on the continent. A very very long time ago, this continent once had all of the other continents connected to it, except for Faerholm.
It was once a land of abundance. Resources were scattered throughout the land and the density of mana in the atmosphere was said to be 100 times the density it was right now on the Helaife continent. This place was the paradise of all the races and once upon a time, all the races of the world lived on this continent in harmony. As for how the continent had turned dead, there were many theories and speculations.
While most of these were all over the place, the oldest theory, one that Cecil found most agreeable, was one that actually spoke of a cause that was outside the realm of legends and gods. The theory stated that located right in the middle of the continent of Non was a huge sky-piercing mountain. It was thousands of meters taller than the World Tree Urrugdrasil and it was said that this mountain hadn't existed at the start.
It had suddenly fallen from the sky–or rather, from outer space–in a blaze and smashed right into the center of the Non Continent, resulting in the destruction of all life and the landscape of the continent. The once connected landmasses then split into 3 and drifted away due to the resulting shockwave.
The thousands of races that were once living on the Non Continent went extinct and millions upon millions of plant, animal, and monster species were wiped out of existence. The survivors of the initial impact and the cataclysmic after-effects weren't lucky enough to be able to hitch a ride off the continent when the other 3 landmasses had broken off. Most of these survivors were actually situated far from the center, so until this day they had to adapt and survive on that dead and barren continent.
The landmass of the continent is twice the size of all 5 of the other continents put together, to the point if you drew the continents together on a map, the Non Continent would be considered the mainland while the rest could only be considered islands that surrounded it.
At present, most of the races and tribes that survived through the test of time and adapted to the desolate environment now only lived on the outer edges of the dead continent. While the inner to central areas were dominated by the surviving monsters that mutated and adapted to the desolate environments.
It was literally a continent where death was present everywhere. Even the surviving tribes fight against one another for the scarce amount of resources and not only that, but they also had to worry about the strange and powerful monsters that occasionally hunted them for food. Because of that, the people of the dead continent were nomadic. They traveled all around the vast outer edges of the continent to hunt for resources. Some powerful tribes have even managed to gain a foothold in the mid-section of the continent which somehow had more resources than the outer edges, but none dared to venture into the inner and central areas of the Non Continent.
Also, due to the impact from the apocalyptic meteor that fell from the sky, there was no longer any elemental-type mana present on the Non Continent. This meant that all of the inhabitants of the continent had no access to fire, water, earth, wind, and other elemental attribute-type magic.
The survivors could only adapt and over the course of history, the people of the Non Continent were said to be quite adept at using Void and Non-elemental mana and magic. The concept of Void magic was not well studied and there were few to none who actually used this type of magic on the other continents. Even throughout history, there were no records of famous people who were actually adept at using Void magic.
Non-elemental magic was also quite rare since normally, people would gain an attribute once they grew up and reached their teenaged years. This kind of magic was mostly used to strengthen the wielder's body and it's applied by infusing mana into the organs, muscles, tendons, nerves, and blood of the caster.
It gave the caster enhanced strength, endurance, agility, speed, and even intelligence. Most warriors used these types of magic spells but instead of using non-elemental mana, they use techniques with similar effects using elemental mana. The upside of using non-elemental mana would result in a more balanced and all-encompassing effect but not many people even had non-elemental mana, to begin with.
Using elemental mana would cause different effects depending on the type of mana being used. Fire would result in greater strength and explosive power, water results in greater defense, earth results in better endurance, and wind resulted in greater speed. The people of the Non Continent took it a step further. The effects they applied to their body's almost make them superhuman, but at the cost of a higher metabolism rate. This meant that if they use the spell or technique for too long, they might just die from bodily exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, etc. Or in other words, nutrition deficiency.
Cecil at first thought that it was pretty cool that you could suddenly go 'Super', but then he heard from Lucia's father, Zaqi, that the after-effects and consequences of going 'super' were really scary. One such after-effect turned the caster into a gluttonous, starving monster that'll consume anything they see that could be used to re-balance the nutritional deficit in their bodies. The after-effect caused the user to eat and eat until they were satisfied. If they couldn't find any food on hand then they would clean out the whole area around them of edible resources. Sometimes in the worst-case scenarios, the affected may even start cannibalizing their own tribe. It was a double-edged sword.
The resources of the Non Continent were already scarce and topped with the cannibalism, these "monsters" were treated as major threats that needed to be killed before they could manifest themselves.
"... Okay, that was the last one!" said Lucia happily as she closed the book.
"Oh. That was fast, good job, Lulu!" Cecil said as he patted her head and rubbed her two fox ears. He then took a book from the pile on the table and said, "Time for the next book."
Hearing such despairing words, Lucia's tail and ears drooped and she immediately began to whine.
"Noooo~"
"Hurry, hurry. The faster you read, the quicker it'll end."
"Cel~ no more~"
"Come on, how about this, I'll brush your tails later, okay?"
"Really? Yay! Alright, next one's about magic right?"
"Yup."
After Cecil successfully 'bribed' Lucia to read the next book, but first, they took a short break, consuming some of the snacks and drinks that Mr. Zaqi brought earlier. Finishing their short break, Lucia grabbed a different book from the one Cecil had taken earlier and she began reading it to him.
"Okay, let's start with this!"
Cecil took a look at the title of the book and noticed that it was different from the book she last read to him a few days ago.
"This isn't the Introduction to Magic... for dummies is it?"
"Of course not, we already finished reading that a few days ago."
"Good. Which is this then?"
"How to use Magic for dummies?"
"… Why the 'dummies' part?"
"Oh, I just added that because Cel's an idiot?"
"Seriously???"
"Kuhuhuhu~"
After their light banter, Lucia adjusted to a more relaxed posture before she began reading.
'Finally, the main course.'
Thinking such, Cecil focused himself and began listening intently to Lucia's words and prepared himself to jot down notes on his scroll of paper.