4 weeks later…

…

After a visit to a low-level healer, I was resting for the last few weeks so that my injuries fully heal, mainly my arm which had shattered and needed to heal correctly into place.

Though I heard more better healers can immediately fix something like a broken arm within seconds, however the low-cost healer that was hired only enhanced my body’s natural regeneration, making the expected normal healing from 12 weeks to 4 weeks.

These four weeks have been spent, relaxing, bonding and mentally getting into the right state of mind. Currently I had just been called down for breakfast to talk with Loraine and Henry about ‘something’ they said.

Walking down the wooden steps, they creak at each step, I walk over to one of the tables and sit down across from the couple.

“G’mornin David” Loraine greets me as I sit down, I respond with a nod as I start digging into breakfast.

Shortly after we finished eating Henry and Loraine both look between each other and quickly nod as if they coordinated this situation, “David, I know you said you wanted to become a adventurer, but now that your healed up, are you sure that you want to go down this path?” Henry questions, with a look of worry in his eyes, I wipe my face with a small napkin and respond with a determined look, with my resolve steeled and say, “Yes, in my mind the only option is to get stronger, I want a hold on my life. Please, help me become an adventurer, Henry.” I say staring at him without blinking, getting my point across, however he sighs and replies, “Fine, however only when I say your ready, understood?” I respond with a short but enthusiastic nod.

“So, when do we start training?” I say seconds later, causing Henry to sigh and Loraine to smirk before quickly hiding it as Henry shot her a look.

“There are so many things that need to be sorted out David, its not as simple as, ‘Let’s just into training!’, you need to decide what energy you’re going to use, Mana or Ki? What weapons your using, what protection will you use and need to get adjusted to before going out, more and more.”

I raise my hand and say, “Didn’t you say there were more variations other than Ki or Mana? Why weren’t those mentioned?”, responding to my question he says, “Because, Ki and Mana are the most common and have been explored by numerous amount of people meaning those two are the most safe option, not only that but the other energy types, if you can even call them that, are extremely rare, and more often than not are either completely useless because other energies can do things better, or the people who get them are complete morons and have no idea how to use them, and they misunderstand and assume that it’s the energy’s fault and not their own. Also, just a quick mention but as I said, the less known energies are uncharted territory, you will have to experiment, test and guess what the energy does and what you can do with it.”, he finishes and I shoot him another question, “Uh, can you have more than one energy?” I ask and he rubs his temple, “Yes, however its far more difficult, not only is it harder to learn to use because you have to make sure the first energy you got doesn’t interfere and make sure it doesn’t completely overshadow the second to the point you can’t even tell where it is and how to manipulate it, but it’s also far harder to learn and obtain. That’s not even considering the use of both, and how useful they will be, unless you’re able to control both and use them in innovative ways which, may be possible considering your otherworldly perspective but even then, that would take a long time to achieve, hell you wanting to get stronger would stagnate because it would be one of your main focuses.”

“So basically, it would be far harder to use and probably wouldn’t be worth it since you can probably replicate the effects of one energy with another.” I say which prompts a nod from Henry as I suddenly realise Loraine had already left to the kitchen with the cutlery, plates, and bowls.

“Anyway, getting back onto topic, I would highly recommend you choose between Mana or Ki.” He says which I agree and gesture for him to continue, “Okay, first question, what role do you want?” Seeing my confused look he elaborates, “I mean what do you plan to do? Be a Mage? Swordsman? Spearman? Bowsman? Healer, Priest, Tank? Rogue? Main Damage dealer? Sub Damage dealer? Beast tamer? There are a lot of roles you could take, though some of the mentioned are more positions and others are more classes and specialties like Bowsman being usually a Sub Damage dealer while Tank is more of a role used as someone who protects the group and takes majority of the damage to buy time for the others.” He says giving me a moment to digest the info dump until he continues noticing I finished dwelling over it, “You can probably see where Mana and Ki start to peak through, Healer is usually a Priest or a Mage who specializes in healing which both require Mana, though priest can be a little bit weird with Divine power, generally most classes have variations depending on the energy you have, not with all but a majority, there isn’t going to be a Ki mage, however there could be a magic swordsman or just a Swordsman, a lot of physical damage classes tend to focus on Ki which is one of the reasons its rose to prominence.”

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“Now with that in mind, I will explain Mana and Ki, though don’t take everything I say with 100% accuracy, I’m not a philosopher or anything.”, He clears his throat and continues, “So starting with Ki, it is usually used in classes and skills, generally speaking it is an energy which, if your using it right, can be used to harden your body, make it stronger, etcetera etcetera, you can infuse it into objects to enhance its basic characteristics, infuse a rock, it becomes harder, infuse a sword, it becomes sharper and denser, infuse a bow, allow for more power behind each arrow, infuse an arrow it flies decreases air resistance and has more piercing power. Once you get incredibly efficient and skilled in manipulating it you can even create things like Sword Ki, which is like infusing however it is greatly increased and can be used to attack from a distance with even a melee weapon, though the downside is that it takes a long time to reach that level. I haven’t reached that level myself; chances are that some of what I said is wrong but hey, its what most people go off.

Mana on the other hand, is usually used for magic, from things like shooting balls of fire to shooting lightning out your fingertips, its extremely versatile and while it does take a while to reach a point of decimating enemies, its still incredible, you can even make a semi-Sword-Ki affect with mana, though the effect is far inferior to Ki.”

“Why wouldn’t everyone just go Mana and reproduce the effects of Ki? Surely there is something like body enhancement magic and as you mentioned, recreating things like Sword Ki?” I ask confused at what was mentioned. “Though I’m not the most experienced in Ki, I’m a bit above average, the difference between reproduced and the original is so drastic that there is no point, anything that gets close uses way to much mana to be worth it, unless you create an extremely efficient spell recreating Ki which would be hard unless you used both which as mentioned is nigh impossible, it would be easier to just use a spell with more destructive power and use less mana. Generally, not worth it, while Sword ki and Spear Ki are extremely efficient, and the damage is intense if used correctly. It’s a simple but powerful energy, mana is a complicated, versatile, and powerful energy.

If you were to have a Swordsman up against a mage in medium range than the swordsman would quickly close the distance and defeat the mage, while the mage may instead teleport away using spells that send the swordsman away whilst pushing themselves further away. Its all about how you use it and the proficiency of your usage of the energy.” He finishes giving me room to breathe and consider everything.

Magic is the way to go, long range attacks, and use some enhancing magic combined with a weapon like a spear and I should be good. “I think I’m going to go Mana, but I also plan to focus on a close-range weapon as well. Any weapons you would recommend?” I ask with a raised eyebrow, “Well I used the basic versions of most weapons before I decided to go down the brawler route, however based on your body structure I would choose between a sword, spear, or axe, I wouldn’t go for things like hammers or anything requiring a lot of upper muscle, at least until your body is ready for them.” Henry replies and pauses for a moment as I cut in, “So I should be able to use one of those three somewhat?” I question which he nods and replies, “Yeah you could probably practice with some wooden ones.” I once again cut him off, “Wooden? Not like, metal?”, he pauses and looks at me like I’m an idiot, “Do you think you can carry tens of kilograms of metal and use it efficiently? Cause I don’t think you could.” He says looking at me while I shoot him a questioning look, “Don’t spears and swords weigh like one to two kilograms? Why tens?”, replying to my sudden question, “Because more often than not your equipment is heavily damaged when adventuring, and its good for them to be as stable as possible, also to bring out the most amount of damage to the opponent, and lastly, because what’s the point of using a weapon that’s so light that it wouldn’t affect most monsters, denser the better, usually. Oh, right you didn’t have anything like Ki or mana on ‘Erth’, well most people can easily bend iron with their hands and carry tons of weight easily, though I am exaggerating a bit.”.

Anyway, I have a few wooden weapons when I occasionally spar with some friends. I’ll be outside for a bit, then I’ll lead you to some training areas.” I nod and start getting ready when Loraine comes back and gives me a tip, “Start writing a journal, trust me, its going to be one of the few things that keep you sane for the next few months.” She says with a sinister grin, “Uh, w-why would I need one?” I nervously question, and she just smirks and walks away.

I think I’ve made a horrible mistake.