8. The Awakend Worlds

Back at the camp, Alex put some more wood on the still glowing embers, and sat down on his mat.

Well, I think the plan for today is quite easy.

I need to get somewhat competend, before meeting other people. That means I must at least be able to act as if I grown up in this, what did you call it, the Awakend Worlds. The old fake it until you make it.

So, I have to get comfortable, or better yet, even a little skilled with the sword.

There I have a tiny bit of a base because I had those two friends who were big in LARP and fencing with old swords.

It would be better if I had the theoretical and practical basis for magic, if that is possible, in a short amount of time.

And finally, I need a huge amount of information. All that common knowlege, that people will just asume everybody has, you know.

As we are quite safe here, have enough supplies, and are not in danger of someone suddenly stumbling over us, I think we will stay here for at least the next few days.

As soon as the sun goes up, I will clear some space somewhere around here, for training, and until then, it would be good if you could start explaining stuff.

But keep it basic for the moment. Like an overview. We can go into the details later.

Kagami, sitting on the other side of the fire, nodded smileing.

Ok!

That's fine with me. So, first, I think I tell you what the Awkend Worlds are.

A long time ago, and I mean way over 100,000 thousand years ago, the Well came into existence. It's the source of all Mana. The Mana expanded and encountered other worlds.

If these worlds were lifless husks, not much would happen. But if there was life, that was more than just bacterias, it was a whole different thing.

If lifeforms use Mana, even just unconsciously, they transform it into Essenz. This Essenz does not just change the lifeform, like those experience points in your storys, it changes everything. A mix of Mana and Essenz suffuses the world and accumilates.

At some point, the world has stored enough, and it goes over the first threshold.

That is a very violent and dramatic change! I mean volcanic eruptions, storms, and earthquakes. The world grows about 5 to 10 percent with this change. It is now a surprise that most civilizations call it a Calamity.

The other big changes after the first threshold are the Rifts, that are actuall crackst in the fabric of space, that open to the Inbetween. Think of it, like a separate realm of Mana that connects all worlds, that at least had their first Calamity.

The last change is in the lifeforms. They can now awaken!

We can speak about worlds with higer Manadensity and higher tresholds later, because the world we are in is a world oft he first treshold.

So, what does it mean, to awaken? Well, for a sapient lifeform, it means that it gains a Class.

If someone is born here, they are soaking in the free Mana and Essenz around them until they come to their own little threshold. In the Manadensity of this world, it takes about 14–19 of the local years to happen. For Human, at least.

At the Awakening, a tiny Rift inside the body comes in existens, and Mana starts flowing in. What kind of Mana depends on a lot oft hings. Yours is pure Lifemana.

The exitence of Classes has a simple reason.

The Awakend Worlds want to grow. They need a lot of Mana and Essenz to grow. Mana is plentiful, thanks to the Well. Essenz needs lifeforms using Mana, the more the better. Lifeforms bevor later thresholds because they are not evolved enough, to use Mana, activly by themselves.

You see, Classes are like trainings wheels!

And the evolution system of Beasts, that is what awakened animals are called, is the same.

You could say that the Awakend Worlds are like one of your Wuxia stories but their population ist o dumb to cultivate. At least at the start of their journey.

A Class itself is just a construct that is attached to the connection of your soul to your body and that is capable of self-learning, to a degree. They are not natural things. They are made by Gods or godlike Beings. That is why there are so many of them, even if a handful would do the job. Very simply, they do three things:

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First, they manage your bodycultivation. So, they make you heal faster, make you better and and set a focus. That means if the bodycultivation focuses more on strenght or speed and so on. It also makes your phydical body better, thats why the bunny couldn´t even scratch you.

Second, it controls the cultivation of your mind, more or less like the body.

And third, it gives you the skill to feel your Mana and to do something with it.

Is this clear for you? Should I continue or do you have questions?

Kagami asked.

I have a bunch of questions but go on for now. You do a good job with it!

But I think I should start by clearing some room for training while you explain.

Alex answerd and made his way to a flat area between his camp and the stream.

Thank you!

Ok, going on.

Well, normally a person gets a Class vision the moment of awakening, chooses a Class from the Classes that work with his personal kind of Mana, and gets one such self-learning construct.

You have two such constructs. That is because oft he sumonning. It still counts as one Class.

The focus of your body and mindcultivation is in speed and reaction.

One Construct is for intern bodyaugmentaion, the other is an Aura sense skill.

The first lets you, in his base form, not only augment your body; it is for self-healing too.

The second is more complicated to describe, for now just know, that it lets you heal others, among other things.

What it means, that the constructs are self-learning, is a long explanation. For now, just let's say that the Class and the skills will change depending on how you use them.

So now to the Classes that exist, and you may encounter.

See, what kind of Mana a person has after awakening depends on a lot of things.

The Mana and Essenz around them while they grew up, heritage, did they eat a lot of beastmeat of a special kind or even alchemical produkts. For now, let’s speak of affinity, even if that is not quite true.

If one has no affinity, they still have all the basic Classes. Like Warriors of all kinds, if they have an augmenting construct or Crafter and Scouts if it is an aura construct. Their skills are most likely like short burst augmention, your classic shield bash, or small degree augumentions over longer time, perhaps for endurance for a Courier.

The Aura skills could be something that lets a Crafter interact with his material, or something like a danger sense for a Scout.

If there is an Affinity, then the skill is always more heavily on the direct manipulation of the Mana. Think of a Brawler and a Brawler of Fire. Both have the same punch, but the second has to controll his Mana to do fire damage.

It's more learning-intensive, but the Class is better overall.

Before you ask, there is something like your classical understanding of a Mage, but you would have to learn for years, so it's not a concern right now.

So, if I understand it right, I need to learn healing me, healing others, how to augment my own body and that Aurasense stuff.

Alex asked, while attacking the roots of a bush with the shovel.

Short, but correct!

Ok!

What about this world? Foremost the places around here, and their people.

Well, you already know, that this world has just a little moon.

It has two big and one smaler continents, and of course a lot of islands. 68% of the surface is water, and you can´t do very long shiptravels because of powerfull beasts in the sea. That´s why nobody here knows about the small continent, because you can´t do islandhopping to get there. The continent we are on is not verry wide but goes from pole to pole. It came into existence throug the first Calamity, and there are just humans here.

The other big continent is somewhat egg-shaped and home to an elven race.

Between them, on the equator, are a lot of islands, so trade by ship is possible but still very dangerous. So, 99% of humans have never seen an elf.

We are in the northernmost dukedom of the northernmost kingdom.

The Kingdom is called Nordwall, the dukedom Nordrand.

It´s a very young dukedom, just 200 years old. A Baron from the coast of Nordwall, together with a Trading clan, started a harbor up here. The plan was to build ships, with the trees from the Wildenwald forrest to the east of here.

They found other good possibilities to make money; more towns got started, and a little more than 200 years ago, they became so big, that the Baron first became a Count and finally a Duke.

Of course, the Trading clans are a major influence here. But they have that in a lot of countries.

By the way, the Trading clans are from those islands I told you about.

The next big city from here is Nordhutten, it's to the Southwest. It's mostly heavy industry and farming. There is good ore in those mountains.

From Nordhutten there goes a big stream to the east until it meets another one, that goes from the north straight to the south, where it empties into the sea.

Everything east of that stream is the Wildenwald, to get to the rest of the kingdom, you must take a ship and follow the coast.

Where the two big streams meet is another big city with the name Dreebrucken, and where the stream ends at the sea the harbor city Nordhaven.

And of course, there are little towns and villages around and between.

What do you think? Where should we go after this?

Alex asked Kagami, while resting a bit.

I think somewhere in the foothills of the mountains, west or southwest of Nordhutten. The towns there are a good place for a newly awakened person to start.

Especially, the town of Ephemersfurt. There is a branch of the Akademie of the Traidingclans and the trainingscamp oft he Asociation of Sentinals of Sapiens. They are a little like those Adventurer gilds you told me about.

A.S.S. ?

Really?

That's how it's called!

Well, for now a good plan. We will see how it goes.

What's about the language?

They speak simple Common. The humans of the southmost empire have held on to a old language, and the elfs have their own language, too. But you will just need common.

So, I have to learn common, bevor we leave here.

No, that you got put right into your brain, like everybody at Awakening.

We speak it right now.

Alex stopped working and looked at her, mouth hanging open.

Oh!

Ok, very cliche, but as it is somthing thats helping me, I let it go.

Looking at the area he had freed from undergrowth, he said.

Let's eat something, and after that I will try to remember what I know about footwork and fencing.