The last rays of sun were illuminating Castle Gray city and the chilly night breeze began to run loose through its cobblestone streets.

"Rose - the hope, the moon that never abandons the seven kingdoms and her younger sister, Lily - the evil omen, the one that precedes the night." Alex says, looking at the view from his window, remembering one of the children's books he read.

Sitting in a wooden chair, Alex crossed his legs and rested his arms on the adorned armrest, slowly relaxing his body's muscles.

*Sighs*

"I don't know how I feel, I don't know how I should feel. This is just… Unreal." He whispers. "I've just been accepting everything that happens around me, always tense, worried, hiding my hatred. What awaits me tomorrow? What will they do to me? Since I came here, it was all so abrupt, all so fucked up…".

Stretching his face upwards, he closes his eyes, while the chilly breeze that snaked through the city streets finds its way to his room, crossing his window, swaying his hair and refreshing his face.

"Things are what they are… The world has always been brutal, the difference is that the brutality of this world is not hidden and made up. I must play by the game's rules and protect myself." Alex said, reaffirming his will.

With a thought, a thick hardcover book, with an engraved drawing of an intricate magical symbol, materialized in his hand, which was already open, as if expecting such a result.

A result that came from hours of training after discovering the storage functionality.

"Let me take a good look at you, beauty." Alex said, opening the book and reading its first page.

["Study only with the accompaniment of a mage.", "Risk of instant death.", "Do not read, you will die!", "1 in 100,000 people manage to survive.", "Do not study without checking your mana resistance.", "May cause baldness."]

"What the hell is this?! This book is begging me not to read it!" Alex huffed. "This is way over the top, I'm not falling for it." He complained, before moving on to the next page.

[Brave seeker of truth, you, who did not fear knowledge (despite all my warnings), are fit to embark on this infinite journey for answers to questions we still don't know how to ask!]

[In this book created by me, Master Kenzel, you will learn the true power system that governs the world, the ancient language, and most importantly, how to be a true mage!]

[First of all…]

With Alex immersed in reading, the few rays of sun that refused to leave, with the arrival of the third moon, finally calmed down and let the night reign, replacing the reddish sky with a cold darkness, bathed in silver.

[…That said, for you to feel the mana of the world for the first time, you must first enter a state of meditation with the previously described technique and focus all your consciousness on your skin, then recite the ancient words of original energy excitation and, with luck, you will not explode and will feel mana for the first time.]

"…"

[Don't worry, despite the high chance of dying, you, future elemental lord, will certainly succeed!]

Swallowing hard, Alex closes the book which, despite being huge, with his enhanced learning speed after coming to this world, he has already read half of its content.

The reason for stopping reading was clear: The rest of the book, according to the book itself, only made sense to read after having contact with mana.

Despite the constant warnings of exploding, dying, or even going bald, Alex rose and sat on the bed in a lotus position, ready to take whatever risk necessary to become stronger.

"That jerk who enslaved me probably got treated by the psychopath hero, but I can't let that happen to me again! In this messed up world, I need strength!" Alex mentally exclaimed before closing his eyes and performing the technique described in the book.

Imagining a ball of light above his head, Alex mentally began to rotate it around his body, repeatedly saying the memorized words of a strange language.

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"Ego, magister vitalis originalis, iubeo eruptionem."

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes lost themselves in pairs of hours, yet, Alex did not give up.

When the first rays of the morning came out, Alex, who was already thinking about taking a break and going to sleep, finally felt something.

Cold, cold enough to burn him.

The icy sensation that started in a small area of his forearm quickly spread throughout his body.

"Arghh! Damn, this burns!" Alex grunted, controlling himself not to leave his position, because, even if the warnings were exaggerated, he felt that something not very pleasant would happen if he didn't endure this ordeal.

However, with each passing second, his body burned and stung even more and, just like holding an ice cube with salt, it became increasingly unbearable to endure.

Sitting, his body was sweating, his brow was furrowed, and his mouth was contracted. If anyone saw him now, they would certainly believe that the poor guy was very sick to his stomach.

"Damn it! I can't take it anymore! I have to stop this, I really feel like I'm going to melt... Wait!" As if a light bulb went on, Alex let his body be controlled by his subconscious and quickly entered his mental space.

"My God, what a hallucinating pain. It seems that being tortured does not remove the pain receptors that the body has... Ahh, damn, this place is so good!" He sighed, floating in the black sea of his consciousness. "And it seems that my body has not left its state of intense burning, great."

"..".

"But... What is that?" Alex said as he came out of his initial relief, where further away, he observed a large and agitated vortex that circulated something bright.

Curious, he actively controlled the calm astral waters around him to stir and propelled his consciousness closer to the large vortex.

"It doesn't seem to have a pull on me... Let me take a closer look." He said as he floated and slowly entered the outermost area of the vortex, then getting a clear view of what was shining so brightly amidst the shapeless dark matter filling his consciousness.

"Is that... mana?" He asked in astonishment, seeing 6 small and compact orbs of navy blue light.

Observing, Alex noticed that every 10 seconds, a new orb appeared and joined the compacted conglomerate.

"So this is how mana awakening works! The person who can gather the minimum amount of mana orbs should be able to awaken normally, while the person who can gather larger amounts of orbs will have a larger reserve and affinity with mana. Now for those who can't absorb the minimum amount..." Alex shook his head to interrupt his reasoning.

Minutes passed and Alex was excited with each new orb that appeared.

"36 orbs, my body is drenched in sweat, I'll soon have to leave this meditative state... Damn, I need to speed up the process."

Remembering the environmental control he had within his mysterious consciousness, Alex, after seeing that his body was reaching its limit, decided to test if he could help with the vortex process.

Moving quickly around the edge of the vortex, Alex used the control he had to the fullest and accelerated his consciousness to the limit.

As it moved at an astonishing speed, the matter around it moved along, gradually increasing the size of the vortex.

"It seems to be working!" He shouted excitedly.

~~~

*Pant*, *Pant*

On his bed, a panting Alex lay, his body, completely sweaty, swayed to the rhythm of his accelerated breathing. His black hair, soaked in sweat, stuck wet to his forehead.

"Hell yeah!" Alex huffed with a smile on his face.

"I did it... And it seems like I did it very well!"

"..".

*Sniffs*, *Sniffs*

"..".

"Fuck, I'm expired! I need to clean myself..." Alex said, while frowning and getting up from his bed.

With trembling legs, he staggered out of his room and headed to one of the communal bathrooms on the floor.

As the inn he was staying at had only two floors, it was divided between standard and Premium floors which, in addition to the difference in size and standard of room furniture, the Premium floor had 3 communal bathrooms, unlike the single communal bathroom on the lower floor.

With one of the bathrooms occupied, Alex headed to one of the remaining ones, locking the wooden door after entering.

"So this is the infamous communal bathroom, huh." Alex said, observing the bathroom.

Large, but rustic. Paved and decorated mainly with wood and gray stone, commonly used in all the buildings of Castle Grey city.

In one corner, a beautifully carved white stone bathtub rested, on the other side, isolated, what Alex recognized as the standard toilet shape in this world. On one of the walls, a large mirror integrated into the stone wall, adorned with fine woodwork and, opposite to it, as if to complete the beauty of the bathroom, a large solid stone sink, which did not fade among the beautiful and intricate furniture of the room, giving a rustic comfort feel to the bathroom.

"Ok, I was prejudiced about it being communal, but it seems that money always buys the best that the world can offer, no matter the planet." Alex thought, removing his clothes and picking up the buckets, of various sizes, that rested next to the sink.

Filling them with steaming water that came directly from taps placed next to the bathtub, Alex couldn't help but comment: "I don't know how these hot water pipes work in a medieval world, but thank God there is plumbing and sewage system... God, gods, well, whatever..."

After cleaning the body sweat with hot water, one of the many clean cloths that were rolled up next to the sink, and the bar soap that was sold in the entrance hall, Alex finally got into the steaming water bathtub.

*Ahh...*

"It's a pity that they only let customers use the bathroom for 30 minutes every 6 hours, they even give us an hourglass..." Alex said as he placed the hourglass next to him in the bathtub.

Resting in a comfortable hot bath, looking at the bathroom ceiling, Alex let his mind run free.