The introduction of Lone Wolf: How to Survive in the Wild was about how the only one you can trust to save yourself is yourself. While others might be able to save you, that doesn't mean you have to stop trying to save yourself. A mage's number one priority is being prepared, and if not prepared, then adapting fast; for example, most mages have multiple enchants on their gear to protect against the environment. After the introduction, the next chapter gave James a list of a few major things most mages prepare for.
1. Enchanting your gear is your best friend. All of your gear must be enchanted, even with just one enchant, but the more, the better. The most common enchantments are protection against your environment, like deadly heat or freezing temperatures. Some mages have unique enchants they have developed for specific things.
2. If you find yourself in a situation you didn’t prepare for, then adapt to the situation fast. Mages have many different tools on hand that, even when they don’t have a specific tool meant for the situation, another tool or spell you have could work.
3. Stay low-key. Mages have survived this whole time by staying low-key until they reach a strength that no otherworldly creature can beat.
James had never thought about it before, but after reading that, he thought it made sense for mages to be low-key to survive. James took those three to heart and would follow them until the end of his journey. Entranced in reading the book, James didn’t notice that another member had sat near him and started to read their own book. By the time James had made it halfway through the book, he was starting to feel sore from sitting for so long. James got up and started to stretch. Before James could sit back down and continue reading the book, he noticed the other member sitting near him now. The other member noticed James had gotten up, so they stopped reading their book and introduced themselves. “Hello, my name is Aiwin. I've never seen you around here before. Are you a new member?”
James noticed that Aiwyn's ears were pointy like an elf's. Curious about his ears, James wanted to ask about it but didn’t know if it was rude to ask. Aiwin noticed the look James gave his ears. Aiwin told James, “As you might have noticed by my ears, I'm an elf. I'm one of the last few of my species on this plane.” After saying that, James noticed Aiwin looked sad. So instead of asking any questions about him being an elf, James talked about his situation. “I'm sorry to hear that. My name is James. I couldn’t imagine being the last of your species, but I do know something about the pain of having no one. Just recently a demon-like boy destroyed my entire hometown after we caught him. In self-defense, one of my coworkers killed the boy, which was the worst thing that could have happened. All I know is that once one of my coworkers said over the radio that the boy was shot, everything went to hell. Almost instantly after the radio went off, I noticed a portal open in the sky and a black snake-like creature with lightning flowing on its body come crashing down. After that my memory went blank, but the fear I felt because of that snake, I just know that my hometown was destroyed.” Aiwin had a look of sympathy on his face, telling James, “I’m sorry you went through that. If you need anything, you can just call or message me on your watch. Just add me to your contacts. All you have to do is tap your watch to mine. Now if I heard you correctly, you said that a black snake-like creature with lightning flowing on its body destroyed your town?”
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James nodded, which prompted Aiwin to keep talking. “If what you are saying is the truth, then it sounds like your hometown got destroyed by an abyssal creature. I've never met someone who survived an encounter with an abyssal creature. What's even stranger is that I've never heard of one using magic; usually they just tear apart the person.” James thought to himself, “It wasn’t a simple abyssal creature. It was the same being Humility showed me, but I can’t let anyone know about Humility. After he finished his thought, James heard Aiwin had kept talking. “... The only thing that has any relation to abyssal creatures using magic is abyssal nobles mentioned in a whole bunch of myths. It is said that abyssal nobles are the higher-ups and descendants of the Seven Deadly Sins.” James hadn’t expected anyone to know about the seven deadly sins because of what Humility had told him. This whole time James thought the seven deadly sins had been dead for a long time with zero influence, but it seems that they still have descendants left. Who could be carrying out their wills or maybe even trying to revive them? After getting his thoughts together, James told Aiwin, “It was nice to meet you, and Thanks for the information on abyssal creatures and abyssal nobles.”
After saying that, James sat back down to continue reading Lone Wolf: How to Survive in the Wild. The next chapter was an explanation of how to determine if the food around him was edible if James got stranded out in the middle of nowhere before he became a 3rd circle mage. The book told James that because of how many apprentices to 2nd circle mages would die due to the consumption of poison and because of not being able to tell apart poison and edible plants, a caring senior mage developed a 0 circle spell called Nature’s Insight used to detect poison.
“"qv huexjk hsz qhuexi, qv qtevnee hsz hjcejk,
teterevh jkty eafhvnee, dfghrac mhti hjcejk.
xtjwra ejzzxnb, wetdfg vtvh mvmy—
vvjkvte'w eswjcejk, vvterejh neejw xhvmy!"
James knew that a spell used to detect poison would be very useful in case of a situation like the cave again. After memorizing the spell, James kept on reading the book.