Adrest and Alissa spent the remainder of the day and most of the evening playing, only taking occasional breaks to eat and for Adrest to stretch his limbs. Something the girl across himself seemed to have no concern over. She never even gave a hint that she was uncomfortable sitting on the hard bench, hunched over the board in concentration for hours at a time.
Quite some time into their marathon, Adrest had fully let his guard down against the girl, leading to this exchange:
“This is so much fun! It won’t be long until I master this as well!”
“Yes yes, that nice. How many gods are there?”
“Nine major and countless minor and unknown gods! When were you brought to this world?”
“Oh, just a few wee-!”
Realizing what the question was only after mostly answering, he panicked and looked at Alissa to see what kind of expression she was wearing.
He stiffly stared at her until Alissa finally realized he wasn’t playing anymore and raised her head to see Adrest staring wide-eyed and scared. She giggled at the sight, and eventually explained.
“Everything you asked, even a child on the streets would know! You asked a lot of questions like that too. You simply can’t live to be 18 and not know these things.”
She had a note of self-satisfaction in her tone, happy she had seen through him, but Adrest focused on a specific part of that explanation, feeling completely seen through.
“How the hell did you know my age?!”
She doubled over laughing at Adrest’s face, laughing so hard there were tears in the corners of her eyes. After wiping them away and settling down Alissa said, “It was a magic skill a tutor taught me.”
That phrase “magic skill” had opened a whole new world and confirmed hopes he had been keeping close to his heart. Adrest then barraged the poor girl with questions non-stop about how magic works, forgetting his fear.
Infected by Adrest’s zeal, Alissa patiently explained that there were the five most common schools of magic, being Earth, Fire, Wind, water, and body.
Beyond that however, there were a myriad of other, more specialized and rare categories such as light, dark, gravity, utility, and her own lightning magic. All were with different specializations and uses.
What magic you use depends on your innate affinities. While mostly random, genetics seemed to play a significant role. An example being if a human had two fire magi parents, there were very good odds the child would inherit that talent.
Also, it was apparently common to have multiple affinities, needing at least 3 before it became anything of note. For reference, the heroes of an era will be extremely talented in at least 5 different schools, and dragons all had at least 3 affinities.
Soaking in the revelations of magic, Adrest suddenly remembered how the conversation started and broached the subject with Alissa, not knowing what would happen now that his biggest secret was out.
With an excited smile she simply waved off his worry, “Don’t worry about that, it actually isn’t as much of a deal as you may think. People like you have always popped up. According to my history tutor, it happens roughly every hundred years and something interesting almost always occurs!”
Noting the suspicious gleam in her eyes as she said the last part, Adrest asked for clarification on what exactly interesting entailed and Alissa to gleefully answered.
“Well, when an otherworlder does something notable enough to become known on a national scale, it’s always one of three things. Most commonly, they gain absurd wealth or power and do something utterly ridiculous with it like establishing city-schools or taking over nations.”
Adrest nodded to show he followed before she continued, “The other two ways are straightforward; they become either heroes sang about for generations, or powerful villains that would do anything for more chaos. Either bringing the people hope against terrible existences, or becoming the disaster itself, sacrificing millions for strength.”
Stunned by the frank attitude in which she mentioned the death of entire populations, he could only ask “Why?”
Whether not noticing or caring about the new gloom overtaking his features, she cheerily answered.
“Right!? Why do they all end up freakishly strong? I asked my tutor the same thing! He said that it was the natural order of things. We don’t exactly know why people get transported here, but we do know that Gods pay special attention to them.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“For example, I’d guess that the Dark God gave you their blessing! Think about it, what are the odds that you just happen to find a Lodestone, unclaimed and unguarded?”
The dragon raised a good point. If she was telling the truth, that was the best explanation of why he lived past his first day. Hell, maybe that was the reason he was attacked in the first place, forcing him to where the gods above wanted him.
Shaking his head to forget that chilling line of thought, he changed the subject.
“So what, you're following me to watch a show?” Having a good idea of Alissa’s character now, he asked incredulously. Getting himself a bright smile and nod in return.
Well at least she’s honest, he thought, deciding to once again just roll with it, satisfied with the knowledge that he wasn’t in immediate danger. He relaxed a bit and continued to play with the odd dragon into the late night.
While Adrest practiced with Alissa she answered a lot of questions he had, as well as asking some of her own. Mostly on what a different world was like, she scrunched her nose trying to imagine technology such as planes and skyscrapers without magic. It was a very informative and memorable night for both, staying up until the early morning fighting on the board fiercely.
Time was a blur for Adrest, it was a constant learning experience for Adrest, with Alissa having moved in on her own, Adrest was absorbing the common knowledge of this world such as the common currency, coins called the trevil and their relative worth. It went from iron, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum, with each being a worth 100 of the prior.
He also learned about other far-off nations. And she even told some stories she had heard of exotic lands whose people very rarely came to the continent.
He also began learning the basics of magic after literally begging Alissa until she agreed. It began with her taking his outstretched hand and her telling him, “Stay still and keep your mind and body relaxed.”
Doing as told, Adrest took a deep breath and tried to not pay attention to the beautiful girl holding his hand. It became very easy when he felt a weird sensation, akin to a shock running up his arm, and towards his heart.
Despite the warning, he still jumped as it moved, only staying still because of the iron vice grip on his hand. After staying there for a full minute the vice loosened, and he regained his freedom staring in anticipation.
Alissa opened her eyes, her smile increasing ever so slightly.
“You’re almost as amazing as me! You have a full 5 affinities, darkness, fire, space, body, and metal. We even have a few in common!”
Adrest stared wide-eyed at Alissa for a moment and jumped up cheering, “I’m fucking awesome!”
And with the basics out of the way, he could now start Alissa’s brutal training.
It started with the most basic of abilities for dragons and demons alike, summoning and controlling their wings. According to Alissa, they were essentially non-existent unless you were actively cycling mana through them, making for a great introduction.
It took some explaining and more than a few attempts for Adrest who had never come into contact with magic before, but he soon could feel a sort of warm energy move from near his heart, through his back and then past it. With a sudden whoosh, a set of raven feathered pitch black wings unfurled behind Adrest, giving him a devilish appearance.
Excitement flowed through every inch of Adrest’s body with the unfamiliar appendage, and he almost couldn’t believe it when he focused on them and they twitched in response.
Alissa was smiling happily at him, knowing the feeling as she had to adjust to a human body when she first became able to transform. She took out her own wings so she could show him how exactly to move them. They were a smaller version of the wings he had seen the day before, just as beautiful in the sun.
She was a brutal teacher, giving Adrest just a few more moments of self-admiration, before tightly grabbing him by the shoulders and shooting upward.
Before Adrest realized what was happening, they were already above the tree line, and going higher still. Unable to appreciate the scenery, as he was terrified for his life, he screamed at Alissa for an explanation, but she just soared ever higher.
Finally reaching a ridiculous height of at least a thousand feet in the air, Alissa finally opened her mouth.
“My father always said necessity is the best teacher. I’m going to let go, and you’ll have to save yourself, okay?” finishing with a wink and fun filled smile that didn’t match the situation.
“Wha-“ was all he managed to get out before the air rushing around him covered his words.
Adrest was panicking, flailing his limbs in vain and all that was reflected in his eyes were the treetops below that got closer every second. All he could hear was his heart violently beating, deafening even the wind surrounding him. He tried desperately to make his wings move, to save himself, but all Adrest’s struggle got him were slight twitches here and there.
Getting ever closer to his death, Adrest desperately cursed that stupid dragon for getting him killed, all he wanted was to learn magic and have fun. But now he was dying, not even a month into his second chance.
So close, all he could see was a sea of deep green that was about to envelop him, hiding the promise of death just below the surface. And he rebelled with every fiber of his being.
“Bullshit!” he screamed hoarsely against the air, and just as he was about to be swallowed by the trees, Adrest felt his mana move and flow in a way he had no control over. It spread through his wings, that he now had an instinctive feel for where they were, exactly how far they stretched. It felt no different from any other limb.
Fully saturated with his magic, the wings moved. Not small twitches like before, but great bellowing flaps that fought against the natural order.
In that moment Adrest was actually flying, granted he wasn’t moving, just hovering in the air barely above the forest, and was lost for a moment. He was still feeling the shadow of death. But then he realized he was floating, looking over his shoulders to see the new muscles at work.
Sadly for Adrest however, it seemed being able to avoid a messy death was the extent of his flying abilities. As soon as he actually tried to think about controlling the appendages, the mana sputtered and stopped, sending him back into free fall and landing painfully on the ground.