Chapter 95: Introduction
"Can you tell me more about mana? You told me that mana can talk, it lives… But how does it work?" The question left my mouth and in the same moment, he put the book he was holding away. With his right hand, he started slowly going through his beard, from chin to the tip of his white facial hair.
"I love that you are interested, it might take a little time, I'm not sure. So to start, I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Elros, I was an elf but now I don't know who I am anymore, I still kept my name though. Okay, let's just start with explaining what I mean. So, mana is everywhere, in fact, even you yourself are mana but a clump of it. Remember those stories about god and all of that? Why is it valid, the mana was even before that time as well. It's eternal when it comes to existing in this world, but it was just a lot harder for people to learn it therefore they slowly started falling under the darkness's influence. The world once was dark, that's true, but how did it go after that? They say it was an explosion that created god. After that point it all went downhill, I don't know who came up with this idea but I suppose it was the first darkness user of the time. Then passed by generations, all of that knowledge was very changed. But what was the real story?" He snapped his fingers and everything around went completely dark. Then a dark blue surrounded both of us, stars, but no sound. "Mana is related to stars themselves, stars, I think at least are mana as well. That is what mana told me, I know that it doesn't lie, but how true it is that stars are mana as well. Even I don't know. You also see that I can use darkness as well, but there is no point in using it, it's just very… Wrong. I will repeat myself here, but you know yourself how bad a person can get. Even when he didn't seem as bad before, it was even worse." He snapped his finger one more time and then stars appeared around us, two stars then flowed to one another and created an explosion. "This is how the earth was created, this is how this planet appeared. But anything before that… Even mana itself doesn't know."
"So you're telling me that earth was created by two stars hitting each other?"
"Exactly." The image disappeared and everything went back to normal. To the moment before he snapped his fingers. "Interesting, don't you think? Even mana itself doesn't really know about it…" He sat down in a chair and looked at me. His hands were crossed and eyes revived, a blue glow was there instead of white nothingness.
"I do think it is interesting." Then I stood up and looked out the window, there was no snow, only a yellow shine. "I have a question for you, something I think you might be able to help me with, but something that might take me long to do." I came back to the bed and looked at it, slowly trying to lay on it but then stopping myself as something moved under the bed itself.
"And… What is it then?" He probably expects what I want to say from the smirk on his face. There is no way he doesn't expect it, but there is also no certainty.
"Can you teach me how to use mana?" When the question finally appeared in the air, he jumped from his chair and quickly appeared in front of my eyes. I saw no movement, nor glow. There was nothing behind him.
"Finally! After all those years I found someone who actually wants to become an apprentice. I never had someone willing to ask me that! Never in all the time, I lived, more than a thousand years no one has ever asked me to teach him! Finally… After such a long time, someone came to me to become a student of mine." His energy hasn't depleted, he was quickly appearing in the room in different places.
"A thousand years! Why has no one ever asked you about that? I can't see your moves, you must be incredibly powerful!" He seemed even happier as the afterimages became even less visible.
"Well, the problem is that people got so attached to darkness, that no one wanted to become a mage anymore. Most mana users are called mages to your knowledge. It's been so long since anyone got under my wing, I wonder if I can still do it…" He then stopped warping around the place. Another book was taken from a shelf by him, the title once again didn't make sense but was readable at the very least. He made a small gesture with his hand above the book and the letters shifted. They then created a name, finally, I was able to read what the title was. 'Basic mana comprehension'.
"What is this?" The pages of the book started turning while glowing with blue light, completely submerging the room in water like color.
"I will now teach you something about obtaining mana and how it works inside of your body. Firstly, we work a lot differently than the dark sorcerers. If you know anything about astrology, you know how many planets are around our sun. And that's somewhat what magicians have, we begin on earth, then the more powerful we get, the more planets we unlock. Those planets become our disposable mana, that's how a mage becomes a real mage. Those are first levels, then it goes further but those details are revealed for everyone individually once they reach that place." He pointed at the sky, now it was a sky and not a ceiling, a sky with planets all around. "You may ask why we start on earth and not the place closest to the sun but the answer is easy. It's just because we were born here, there is no point in reaching stars before knowing where you stand." He added and then went to a room right next to my bed, I don't know why but I followed. He didn't say anything, I just followed him. This house seemed a lot larger than I expected. It was a long corridor with many doors at its sides, each door was opened and behind them, there were many different places. A beach, a castle, a frozen lake, everything you could ever imagine was there. Doors to anywhere or just illusions.
"What are those doors?" I said while following him behind his back.
"Those are just some portals, don't worry about them." He said completely casually, nothing specific inside his voice.
"Just some portals?! Look how many there are, those are not also just some ordinary portals. What are you talking about?!" I got even angry at this point, I don't understand how he can say something like this without anything in his voice, no emotions.
"I am not sustaining them personally, they are created by runes and alchemy. This is also an important part of a mana user's life. It will take some time to learn them but I will do my best." He added, he then went into one of the doors, once again I followed. It was a great library, a large one. It was so long that I wasn't even able to see the end, it was just a dark thing in the distance.
"Runes? Alchemy? What are you even saying?" I don't know anything about his world, his world is a realm that will become my own. A new thing, a new world. New things to comprehend.
"You will learn in time. First, you need to understand how to build your first planet. Earth is the easiest and hardest one to create at the same time. It's easy because it's the first one but it's hard since it requires a lot of focus and maybe disturbed if you have a lot of dark. For you, the second point is not a problem though." It doesn't matter if he said that, I am not even scarred by what he said, not at all.
"So… How do I do that?"
"Crouch, your back has to be straight and your mouth has to be opened."
"Like this?" I asked with my mouth opened not even questioning anything besides.
"Exactly. Now, do you feel anything?" He asked me but I felt nothing besides weirdness. I was straight up just feeling weird.
"No."
"Do you know why?"
"No?"
"Because I was just f*cking with you." S*it… How did I not notice that? was that because of my urge to get power therefore I forgot about common sense? There is a chance for that…
"Why did you do it? I feel so embarrassed man…" I straightened up and looked at him with shame in my eyes. I didn't want to show him anger, because there was none. I was just ashamed of not knowing what happened.
"I wanted to see if you will listen to me as a student should, you passed my first test." This old man… He is annoying, even though he is going to teach me, now he already seems annoying. "Now, now. Don't look at me like that." He added and then once again he warped somewhere far away, somewhere where I wasn't able to see him. Into the dark...
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone