Chapter 4: First Travel

I am almost 5 years old now.

I have developed a good relationship with my sensei, she is a very capable teacher after all.

I found out a few things about her:

1. She is an herbalist, a very good one. In fact, I think I learn more about nature than about magic. Well, she is a wood elf so no wonder she is very good with plants.

2. She is not yet married. In this world the wealthy and royalty tend to marry at a young age, between 12-15 or even younger due to pressure for heirs. The peasant class and longer lifespan races tend to marry a little bit later. However, the adventurers tend to marry a lot later. Higher level tends to have longer and healthier life. Adventurer life is full of danger so they tend to die young and unmarried. My teacher is one of adventurer though she likes to teach children also.

3. She has been going to dungeons with other adventurers since she was 15. She is quite good with bow, cooking and some minor healing spells.

4. She has a good aptitude to holy element and water element. A rare dual element magician.

5. She is related to the elven magician guild, she wouldn’t say but I guess she is still a relative to a high ranked person in the guild. She was born in the village of arnheim in durothar kingdom but she went to study in Avalon, Zephira is one of her teachers.

Meanwhile in almost 3 years of studying under her, I have learned several skills such as identifying, status manipulation, herbalist, archery, cooking, and basic magic. I also learned to trick aptitude test by casting basic spell while doing an aptitude test and canceling them. The crystal will show the result according to the type of magic that I cast. In case I am forced to do that by someone in the future.

I learn that magic is another form of energy in this world. Usually you need to say words to help you concentrate in casting your spell. However, I find it unnecessary to chant basic spell.

Perhaps it is because I have more concentration or maybe because I actually understand the principle of what the magic is trying to do. Or maybe because my teacher also able to use chantless magic.

It is a common knowledge in this world that when you use magic to summon water, it is much more difficult to do it in dessert.

It is also common knowledge that controlling rivers and lakes are easier than controlling ocean.

The scholars in this world theorize that air and land contain water while in dessert, the air and land doesn’t contain water or very little water.

They also theorize that ocean is harder to control due to the water is salty and the power of the vast ocean.

Of course they are partly correct but they have no idea of molecules and atoms.

Once I combine my understanding of molecules and atoms with my magic, I find it easier to separate the element that I want from the other elements.

I also learned sword skill and dual wielding from my father.

I have decided to go to study on Avalon, the other elven kingdom across the ocean to the east. The reason is the scholarship Zephira offered to me and the reputation as one of leading magic academy in the world.

My status right now is something like this :

Name : Bryson Alastair Valdemar SkysingerRaceSunElfClassN/ATitleN/AAge5 yearsProfessionN/ALevel1Experience0%Strength8Agility8Wisdom12Intelligence18

Meanwhile my skill description :

Genius Mind (Hidden)Increase chance to Learn new Skill. Increased rate for skill mastery. Remove max skill limit.Aura Blessing (Hidden)Increase chance to avoid detection from hostiles or harmful creatures.Blessing of the SunsWhen activated increase strength according to level for 60 minutes. 1 day cooldown.BookWormIncrease Reading Speed and Chance to learn skill from books.StealthIncrease chance to go unnoticed.Blessing of The Goddess of the StarRestore stamina, health and mana or increase all stats for 300% for 1 minute. Can only activate when there is star in the sky. 7 hour cooldown.QuickReadingIncrease Reading SpeedMana PerceptionAble to feel mana, increase magic efficiency. Chance to Increase WisMeditationIncrease mana and stamina recovery. Small Chance to increase Wis.ScribeAble to copy letters with more precision. Increase chance to learn languages and secret codes.IdentifyingAble to identify objects.Status Manipulation (Hidden)Able to manipulate your status to a limited degree. Higher change makes your manipulation to be easier to detect.HerbalistAble to discern the use of nature to mix potion with varying effects.ArcheryIncrease accuracy and damage while using bow or crossbowCookingIncrease cooking speed and taste.Mana ManipulationEnable to cast basic magic.Sword MasteryIncrease damage and speed using swordDual WieldIncrease proficiency and damage while using sword in both hand.MultilingualIncrease chance to learn and master languagesRunic MagicAble to store magic in the form of runes.

Oh I also pick up multilingual skill from reading the books and the parchment that my mom copy.

Usually it is very difficult to learn new skill and raising skill mastery; the reasons why I can raise my mastery very fast are because of three things:

1. My parent and my teacher is quite good at their respective skills, combine with my genius mind, I was able to learn new skill quickly and raise my skill mastery very fast.

2. I can activate my blessing of the goddess of the star 4 times a day, further decreasing my need to rest and enabling me to study longer.

3. I have high intelligent, it seems higher intelligent will help your mastery rate.

My teacher will accompany me to Avalon. We will travel using river boat to the harbor city for around 10 days.

From the port city, venice, to Avalon will take around 3 weeks to over one month if we use one of the fastest ship.

I have mixed plants that have similar property like ginger and mint leaves for me to take as sea sickness medicine.

In my previous world, I rarely take a boat. And if I took a boat, it only takes a few hours to cross between island straits.

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This is my first long trip by boat and for sure I don’t want to throw up in front of my teacher.

My teacher sees me making my pills with pride expression in her face.

I think she knows what I want to make and probably she already made some for me before I made it myself.

I didn’t play a lot with children my age. I know them of course since their parents are my parent’s friends but I have no desire to play with children. I have the mentality of an adult anyway.

A few things worth mentioning is that I have one baby sister, her name is Lucianne and she was just born a few months ago.

She is adorable, she reminds me to my granddaughters back at earth. It is too bad that I can only play with her for a few months before I have to go to Avalon to catch up the start of the new semester.

Linea has left us and marry a farmer in the village. We have rilise as her replacement, a 40 years old widow that needs a job.

My mom cried the day I left home. My dad is silent. Chald looks like he want to cry but he wouldn’t do that out of shyness.

I am his only baby brother and we were quite close.

Especially since our sister, merline went to study in durothar capital city and only back once a year.

I got several farewell gifts:

1. My father gives me a twin dual dagger. For me they look like twin swords though.

2. My Mother gives me a quail, several books for me to write and a small magic backpack. The backpack is enchanted so it can contain much bigger items and reduce the weight by 30%. I also got 5 gold pieces for my personal spending. They are consist of 4 gold pieces, 99 silver pieces and 100 copper pieces. The travel cost has been given to Serin and my school fee and living cost is free courtesy of Zephira.

3. Chald gives me his first bow and quiver.

I put all of it in the backpack that my mom gave me.

I spread the coins between my backpack and my pockets though.

To reach the port, me and Serin need to travel by river.

The travel in the river is quite uneventful, we passed through forests and stop on two small villages along the way to load and unload passengers but everything went smoothly.

Venice was surprising, it is much smaller than the cities on modern earth of course but much bigger than my village, Alastair.

The port is huge and the buildings are all made from stones. There are several big buildings, the churches, the library, the governor palace, the guild houses, etc.

Other thing that surprises me is the slaves. I saw creatures from various species in shackles and collars when we arrived at the harbor.

Me = “Sensei, why are they shackled? Are they criminal?”

My teacher looks at me with funny eyes.

Serin = “No, they are slaves, my dear.”

Me= “Slaves?”

I was shocked since there were no slaves back on earth but I should guess a medieval world would have slaves.

We also don't have slaves in the village.

Serin = “Yes, beside citizens, we have indentured, who enslaved themselves for a fixed period of time and have limited rights and slaves who have no right at all. They are quite expensive and we elves don’t really like having slaves.”

Me = “Why would anybody want to enslave themselves?”

Serin = “There are various reasons, they might have debt or they need money for their family. Indentured actually has not much different with regular servant except they can’t choose their master or their job.”

Me = “I see, how about the slaves? Where do they come from?”

My teacher shows obvious disgust when I mention slaves but she answers my question anyway.

Serin = “There are people who breeds slaves. It is much more profitable to raid an unsuspecting village or kidnap villagers though.”

Me = “Isn’t it illegal to do that?”

Serin = “Yes, but the slavers usually raid or kidnap people from far away and beaten them to submission before selling them here.”

Me = “I wonder why the king doesn’t ban slavery, it seems so….”

Serin = “Yes, we elves don’t like slavery. However, the king can’t ban slavery, if he does that; the slavers will just sell the slaves elsewhere. At least here, we actually treat the slaves much better than other kingdoms. We ban elven slaves here though.”

Me = “I see.”

Looking at the multiple races in the port city, I realize why the elves don’t like slavery.

We are quite beautiful compare to other races.

I don’t know if my judgement is bias but I think an elven slave will be very expensive.

Serin = “Let’s check in first in the best inn in venice. We will leave next week.”

Me = “We will spend a week here? Why?”

Serin = “Yes, I want you to adapt living in the big city. We also have a library here so you can register as a member and read the books while we are here.”

Soon, we arrive in the inn. The inn is quite good. Mind you it’s not like a five star hotel but its clean.

Serin = “Hi, Miranda, long time no see, how are you?”

Miranda = “Hi, Serin, where have you been? I miss you so much.” Then her gaze comes upon me. “Who is this cute boy?”

Serin = “He is Bryson, my student, that’s why I have absent for some time. I am taking him to study at Avalon.”

Me = “Hi, Miranda. It is a pleasure to meet a beautiful friend of sensei.”

Miranda = “My, my, a boy with a manner. So you need a room Serin?”

Serin = “Yes, one room with two beds for a week.”

At that I blush.

Me = “Sssory, one room sensei?” I stammer. After all, I have the mind of an adult and Serin is quite beautiful.

Miranda = “How cute, are you blushing?”

Serin = “Hahaha, relax bry, you are still 5. I think you aren’t my type. Well unless you hate your sensei.”

I quickly regain my composure. After all, it is normal to sleep with a 5 years old. She doesn’t see me as a man. I just need to control myself. I am just a little boy now. I am just a little boy now.

Me = “Of course not sensei. I am just… not accustomed to it.”

That earns me a laugh from both of them.

Serin = “Seriously though, you shouldn’t go anywhere without me. You shouldn’t trust anyone beside me and Miranda also. An elven slave fetch quite high price elsewhere.”

Miranda = “Don’t scare him like that; venice is quite safe in the daylight. Just don’t wander at night. It is a port city after all.”

Me = “I won’t go anywhere without you sensei. Is the library safe?”

Serin is smiling at my obvious hunger for knowledge.

Serin = “It should be safe and quite close. We will go there tomorrow morning.”

After eating a delicious dinner we retire to our room early.

Serin’s sleeping clothes is quite… revealing. She wears thin shirt, no bra and short pan to sleep. Needless to say I have to concentrate a lot to avoid staring at her.

I point it out to her about her outfit but I just get a laugh and said she doesn’t mind to be seen by a five years old.

I keep reminding to myself that I just a kid in this world and she doesn’t see me as an adult.

I don’t get much sleep at night…

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As always thank you for reading and i would welcome any critic and suggestions.

Next : I would make a thread for suggestions and questions. No spoiler though.

Upcoming : Serin POV side story