I don’t remember much of when I first arrived to this world. Something went wrong when my consciousness was supposed to be transfered. I woke up tucked into a soft bed in a small cabin. After searching around for a bit, I found a middle-aged man who said he found me in the wasteland, completely alone.

I found myself in a different body as I expected, but not the one I thought I’d end up in. I found myself in the body of a young girl. I had become a rather short girl with long golden hair down to my lower back. At first I thought I had become a child, but closer inspection showed signs of adolescence; though I was still unnaturally petite.

Even though I was an adult before, he treated me like a child and took care of me. He practically babied me, but it was kind of sweet and I had no experience in this world so I just let him. I also had no clue how to use this new body and found myself stumbling constantly which likely only made him see me even more as a needy child. I don’t know why I was so receptive to the situation. I was aware that this was a very odd situation, but any time I tried to focus on that I just accepted this body as if it is what I have always had.

He explained a bit about the world I found myself in when he discovered I knew nothing about it. I never told him about my old life, I figured it would be too difficult to explain and the memories of it were somewhat hazy as if this body was trying to reject them. I couldn’t even remember my name, so he named me Adriel but he would usually call me his angel. When I asked him for his name, he got very concerned for some reason but eventually told me it was Duriel.

Over the next year, which is apparently four hundred days here, Duriel taught me about the world and I was ecstatic to learn that magic existed here. There are three types of magic, though only two that are still often used. There are physical, usually called elemental, meta-physical and primordial magic types. Physical is often referred to as elemental while meta-physical is more psychological though can include light effects like illusions.

Among these, elemental is the most prevalent in the world and can be broken down further into air, water, earth and fire types. Everyone is born with certain affinities for the elements, and in rare situations more than one, which can enhance their power or cause the spell to be more efficient and use less mana. A person can still use magic they do not have an affinity for, but it is usually less powerful and always uses a lot more mana.

Primordial magic has been essentially lost in the world. It is hard to quantify and acts like a combination of the other two but far stronger. Durial says he doesn’t know how it works, or really what it's limits are, but the traces of it left in the world show that primordial magic was used to create life itself on this world.

For some reason, magic came very quick to me. He would comment that no human could possibly learn this quickly. When I asked what I am if not human, he wouldn’t tell me. He would only say that I’m not human. Duriel held affinities for Fire, and Earth. Even though he said he doesn’t have an affinity for air, he used a lot of it.

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In this world, magic is not done with chants like in a video game from my world. Instead, you focus mana in various forms and imagine what you want it to do. While magic did not require chanting of the spell name, people often used them for advanced magic or spells they are not well versed in to help their mind focus on the flow of mana. The only limits are your own imagination, your supply of mana, and your control of that mana. Duriel taught me these things and spent almost every day training me on how to control my power so I could survive in this barren world.

While it is true that this means that custom magic was entirely possible, the majority of magic is done by studying spells and methods already created by previous magicians. To create a completely brand new or fully customized magic is exceptionally difficult but ultimately the source of all magic. It is through this study that nearly all magic is also put into various tiers which indirectly represent their power.

They go from the very basic tier 0 to tier 9, with tier 10 being reserved for “ancient magic” and magic which is too powerful or costly to be reasonably classified. However, the tier is actually calculated by the quantity of mana and the amount of control needed and not the result of the spell. Generally speaking though, high tiered magic means it does “more.”

He didn’t just train me in magic, but with a sword too. He only had experience with using a greatsword, which really wasn’t viable for my body size. So I adopted a light rapier and a glave. I found the most useful way to use magic in this combat to be very straightforward body-enhancement to strengthen my tiny body and let me move fast enough to repel attacks.

*pant* *pant* “I guess I still can’t beat you Duriel.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I don’t mean to brag, but I am quite a capable fighter and you put up a decent match. That’s exceptional when you consider it has only been a year since you woke up here without any ability at all.”

“You are just trying to be nice now...”

“You know I couldn’t lie to you, even if I wanted to.”

It’s true. While exceptionally rare, some people are born with additional unique abilities that often exceed what traditional magic can accomplish, and it seemed I had one as well. We called it an aura of truth and it makes it impossible to lie in my presence. It even affects myself. While after a few months of training, I figured out how to change its size and even remove it entirely, I had to use constant focus to alter or remove it. It is possible for me to lie by removing it temporarily or changing its area to include a void inside of it where I am, but not by accident and it makes my very soul squirm to do it.

“At this rate, you may be able to best me in another year.”

“I will work hard to make that happen! Please keep teaching me!”

“I will do whatever is needed for you for as long as I live, my angel.”

I just wish he wasn't so formal with me all the time...