Author's Notes: Well, here is another one that I whipped up today. Feel free to rate, comment and review. Speaking of reviews, I would like to take the time to thank the only two people who has given me their review on the story so far, Sesamechikn and Hexwolfx. You two didnt say much i thank you nonetheless. I will always welcome reviews since they can help me grow as a writer and when the reviews go into detail I feel it would help me fix the areas i am weak at. So I do encourage reviews, and dont worry about offending me or whatever. I'm a very laidback guy so pretty much nothing can really get me angry. I know the story is still in its early stages though. Not much can really be said, but any advice would be appreciated.
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Roland found himself walking to the library. It was a rather large building at least three or four stories high, looking like it contained every type of book imaginable. It was not only huge but seemed as if you could get lost in it if you ventured too far. It was almost maze-like.
Roland liked libraries, the quietness and the smell of paper was calming to him. He felt at peace whenever he walked into one.
He saw a pretty, young-looking librarian and several students as he walked in.
The students were third and fourth years. They didnt take any of Roland's classes, but they had heard many things about the new instructor from a certain teacher of theirs and were curious about the young man. They had lived for at least several decades, and although they were considered quite young, they had still seen many things in their time.
They didnt understand how this young man had the qualifications to teach at a school where the members of the most powerful of races were gathered. And least, not at first.
However, through some reliable sources, they discovered this young man was someone that even the Arch-devil of combat, Lord Mephistopheles, had trouble dealing with. They didnt quite believe this at first. Afterall, what kind of existence was Lord Mephistopheles anyway?
One of the most powerful and highest ranking devils in Hell. It was said his power was so great that even the The Four Great Rulers of Hell, with the exeption of the Mistress of Ruin, Gehenna, would would treat him with respect. If even he had trouble with Roland . . .
Not only that, but it seemed the young man had quite a close relationship with Headmaster Loki.
But if it was only that perhaps nothing would happen. However, due to a certain other reason, a few of the more hot-headed students decided to "test" the new instructor.
They had disturbed the man's classes a few times in the last couple of days . . . The result was a swift and brutal beating. It didnt end there though
Even today, a few fourth years had chosen to disturb Roland as he was teaching one of his early morning classes. They ended up taking part in some "special training" in which they didnt get any rest even when they passed out from exhaustion.
This news had instantly spread like wildfire even after a mere hour or two. It made many others wary of the new teacher and had them curious as to his origin. Obviously the man was not simple. They had heard of him from that one teacher before, but they did not expect the man to be so overbearing as to be able to casually beat them without even thinking of the consequences.
These students were not only children of gods, but also children of high ranking members from all types of races whose influence spread far and wide throughout many worlds. It was to the extent that few of the other teachers at the school would be able to raise a hand to them without fear of payback.
Roland had made no shortage of enemies during his few short days here. He recieved some approval from his own students but the other members of the student body, despite not having much contact with him, believed the young man too arrogant and even had a few passing thoughts to use their family's influence to put pressure on the newcomer.
One student tried doing just that and used a special magical artifact to contact them. However, as soon as he mentioned the man's name, no one from his family had any intention of helping him in his petty little scheme.
Rather, even the student's great-great-great grandfather had heard of his plans and lashed out at him, saying he was a disappointment to his ancestors. The grandfather swore on his own mother's grave that if the student caused any trouble for the man named Roland, he would at best recieve ten thousand lashings and they would rub salt on the wound if he uttered even a peep of protest.
The student's great-great-great grandfather's mother was actually still alive. Even she supported her son's words. The student was left thoroughly confused and scared beyond reason.
This student, along with a few others, saw Roland walking into the library and quickly escaped outside.
Roland, oblivious of all this, saw a rather scared-looking student walk past him as he entered the library. He didnt know what was wrong with the poor kid and even wanted to stop him and ask what the problem was, but he ran off too quickly and so he put it out of his mind. He found a secluded place at the building where it seemed no one ever went to. The area actually had a good bit of dust on the table and chair, which he quickly cleaned with a simple spell.
Roland truly appreciated the convenience of magic.
He settled himself and looked for a few books pertaining to this planet's more recent history. He recieved some advice from the pretty librarian and quickly found what he was looking for.
He opened a book and discovered a few things about this planet.
First off it didnt appear to have any name. The planet was seperated into a few continents that were quite large, and this continent was named the Frozen Cloud Continent. He wondered how it got it's name. Perhaps he would look it up later.
Anyway, they were so impossibly large that there was very little contact between them until a few thousand years ago when the various outside powers, like the current governing Pantheons, discovered the planet and declared it a neutral zone.
Since then the planet underwent a pretty fast rise in technology. It seemed at a point where things like indoor plumbing, trains, and a few other things were already developed. Magical devices were also created.
It was . . . Odd. The level of technology was somewhere in the middle. Not too high that they created things like atom bombs or air planes but not too low either. If he had to say, it almost resembled the Industrial Revolution era of a certain blue planet he and Loki once visited.
It was a tad odd because it was a strange mix of technological and religious rise. It was . . .Well, lets put it this way. The inhabitents of the world was originally like Roland's old home planet. You cultivate, rise in power and someday you could have a chance of entering the higher planes. You got a certain bit of power and you either couldnt break free or moved on to bigger and better things never to be heard from again.
Technology just wasn't something that developed much in a place like that where power and status ruled the world.
In those types of places it was like living in an undeveloped backwater country.
Here the inhabitants had been intoduced to many new races and concepts with the coming of the Pantheons. It was probably a bit similar to when aliens suddenly appeared.
The chances of the inhabitants here breaking through their motal shackles and entering the bigger stage was quite small. And those that did would be overwhelemed and realize just how small they are. They almost never went back. Why would they?
Not many who got that far had family or friends.
Only people like these students who were always aware of the enormity of the universe, or universes, could take things like that in stride.
Anyway, it seems that with the arrival of Pantheons and the various other races such as demons, Elves, beast-kin and others, the indigenus people here had a moment of upheaval. The concept of cultivating and such was put on halt as the rise of technology began and the long-dead religious orders were rekindled. Loki said the influence of the varying pantheons were equal on this planet, but Roland assumed that meant the native people worshipped them equally here.
Apparently that was true in the far past, but as the idea in which personal power and social status were required to survive in the harsh world became more and more wide spread, the religions that worshipped the gods were abandoned and soon forgotten.
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However there were some branches that remained and kept the religions alive, however withered. That apparently was enough for a few member of the pantheons to manifest here. And as they did, their religions were revitalized, making it easier for the other gods and godesses of those pantheons to appear. Once that happened the Pantheons decided to make this place, as Loki said a while back, a "vacation spot".
Meaning anyone from those pantheons could materialize here.
But he left out the part where now pretty much anyone from any pantheon could come here. Roland thought Loki probably didnt even know this. That guy didnt care much for the what happened in the outside world.
This planet soon became a popular place for the various races to visit. In fact it seemed that a few races like the Vampires and Beast-kin had a few groups here already that lived in secrecy from the other inhabitants, not knowing of things outside of this world.
Somewhere during the mingling of the natives of the world and the newcomers, cultivating personal power became less important and both technology and religion rose to power. Religion perhaps more so. Actually meeting the gods and goddesses you worship would have that effect.
It seemed that because of this, the amount of contact the world had with it's other continents grew increasingly more frequent. It caused a lot of waves since most of the natives didnt know the existence of the other continents and even those that did could not cross the distance between them. Basically the other continents became something like myths and legends.
The distance was so vast that any attempt to cross would take years to achieve and there were many sea beasts that could swallow a giant ship whole. Even if there wasn't, no ship could last since the amount of supplies required to survive the crossing were just astronomical.
Flying was really the only way they had to have a chance at succeeding but air planes were, of course, a foreign concept to them and that wouldnt be a viable option anyway. They wouldn't be able to carry enough fuel, just to name one problem.
Strong Cultivators could fly, but those strong enough to do so could not fly indefinitely and even if they made a ship to rest and supplies to keep them fed, they would either run out of those supplies or the ship would get eaten. Well, perhaps the part of food was okay since you could always fish.
Still, even that wasnt safe. Fishing in the ocean of this planet was quite dangerous.
On the planet there existed a few artifacts capable of producing a pocket dimension that could store things within, but ones capable of holding an entire ship within once you were rested and could fly again was, simply put, much too rare.
Supposing that all these problems were taken care of, you would still need to know in which direction to go. Otherwise you would end up wandering aimlessly and the distance between the continents made it so you could never even find them without knowing the right way to go. From what Roland read, even finding an island would be a miracle.
Luckily the arrival of the Pantheons solved everything and there were now new ways to reach the other continents. The most popular method was the Teleportaion Array, a truly massive magic circle that could teleport a very large number across the distance with ease.
It was, of course, heavily guarded and monitored carefully.
Other than those points, it seems the God and Goddesses of the ruling pantheons became celebrity-like existences. Some of the gods didnt like the attention and so stayed pretty much uninvolved with the world, but those like Thor, Brighid, Hephaestus and such were more . . . publicly known.
It seems that Thor has earned a reputation for being an arrogant prick. Loki, he read, truly was more well-liked than his brother. It seems the natives here rather enjoy Loki's eccentricities.
Apparently Loki still doesnt make many appearances though. Actually, it seems that in general, the pantheons do not get directly involved with the governing bodies of the world. They do have areas that they rule and take care of but other than that they stay put and dont meddle with outside affairs.
Roland read that there were few governments that still practiced slavery, which was good. However he did read that in places that still did, the treatment of slaves were quite bad. They were treated like animals.
Rather, they were pretty much seen as animal. Basically slaves were, in others' eyes, an animal. Luckily that meant that cases of sexual assault on slaves were very rare. After all, who in their right mind would fuck an animal?
Roland was quite pissed off after reading that. Roland hated three things: The harming of women and children, rape and slavery. He would not forgive anyone who commited any of those acts and would make sure any who did wished for death. Even if it had nothing to do with him, he would not allow it to continue.
Unlike others who held the same beliefs but only helped those in front of them, Roland had the power to overthrow governments in a day. He believed that since he had the power, he would use it. In the end, he only helped others to satisfy himself and his ideals. But even if he knew that, he would not let that get in the way of what he believed to be right.
Roland made a mental note of those places which still allowed slavery. In the future he would eradicate them. Roland dealt with situations like this before. Once he got finished, it would be a long road to recovery for the ex-slaves and the attitude of the people who allowed that injustice would need some adjustment.
Roland, as stated before, has done this before. He knew what to do and what was required.
Roland, for now, put such matters out of his head. He would deal with them later.
He spent a few more minutes reading, but lunchtime was soon over. He had a few more classes to teach and then it was time to head home. Roland felt it was time to change how he did things a bit now. The reason he did things the way he did up to now was because for things like combat, it was best learnt through your body.
He could go into details, but experiencing it was always more helpful. Roland didnt think he would be good at explaining how to fight anyway. He was the intuition type, not the theoretical type.
And for those of the former category, explanations were always difficult. How could you accurately explain something you do by mere instinct?
He also said he would give a few pointers to Saren and his brother, and he thought today was a good time to start. Perhaps Lilith would join in as well. Roland felt she would take a different route from Reina and the two brothers.
Lilith was a fairly strong warrior, but . . .Roland thought that perhaps she was more suited for magic. He would ask and see if she wanted to take a few lessons. He knew many spells he could teach her and he didnt really have anyone to pass them on to. Who knows, perhaps she would be able to handle the more complicated ones too.
The brothers seemed like born warriors, both of them having a strong build and fast reflexes. Roland wondered how strong he could make them. They appeared quite gifted, perhaps he should show them some sword techniques he knew?
If they practiced them to mastery, they would become quite powerful.
Roland put the books away and waved good-bye to the librarian when he felt a sudden chill.
It had been happening quite often lately and he didnt know what caused it.
Sometimes he would get an unexpected moment of coldness spread through him and the next he could be feeling like a hot fire was coursing through his veins.
It was quite odd. They didn't really hurt, but it seemed to get a bit worse as time went on and he had no idea as to what started it in the first place. He had never come across something like it, at least never in regards to himself. He was never really affected by anthing of the sort, even getting sick was so rare to him that he could not remember the last time he was sick.
Sometimes he even felt weaker. Not to any noticable degree but there were instances where he felt a very slight slowing of his reaction speed.
Neither of them had any affect on his combat ability but he thought it eventually might if it continued to worsen. How strange. He wondered what was causing it.
Though he was confident it would pass eventually, so he wasn't worried