Training began the day after visiting the Oracle.  Marty gave Gifford and Erica several pointers in her to train Ki in the early stages.  Yutsuki was to be personally guided by him. There was a little bit of awkwardness between them as the Oracle had spilled the beans on Yutsuki’s feelings for him.  Soon, there was a tacit understanding between that they would not mention it, and they quickly went back to treating each other as they usually did.

Currently, the party of four made their way to the training grounds in the early morning.  When they arrived, they found four people waiting next to separate tables. The only of the four that Marty recognized was the armored man present during the summoning.  Besides him was two lightly armored women who were going to train Yutsuki and Erica. Finally was a skinny older man who had a face full of arrogant pride. Marty could tell from the other three that this man wasn’t very popular as their body posture seem to ignore his existence.  Given that it was fairly obvious the arrogant man would be training Marty, the four of them went up to their respective trainers.

“So you are going to train me about how to be a mage?” Marty asked the skinny older man.

“Indeed.  I am one of the most prestigious mages in the Kingdom as I invented a couple of magic formulas.” The older man replied.

Marty didn’t show it, the skinny older man’s abnormal pride, arrogance, and narcissism repulsed him.

The old man continued: “To be completely honest, I won’t be training you so much as guiding you as any good beginner mage needs to understand a vast amount of foundational information.  You can start by reading these books.” The older man said as he pointed to the three books on the table.

Marty nodded as he grabbed one of the books and sat down comfortably before he started to read.  The older man sneered when he saw this because he knew something that not many people knew. The magic that summoned the heroes would only allow them to understand the local language as well as be understood, but only the spoken language.  The older man had planned to wait until Marty asked for his help before shaming him as illiterate. Naturally, he knew that none of the others would help defend Marty, the ‘Fake Hero.’ The older man had decided to show off his position and authority.  In reality, he was nothing more than a bully who wanted to stroke his ego. After several seconds of only hearing the occasional page flip, the mage turned to look at Marty who seemed to be engrossed in the book.  

“What are you doing?” The older man asked with a hint of anger.

“Reading?  What else would I be doing?” Marty casually asked, but with a slight smile that seemed to carry some taunt.

“Impossible!”

“Why is it impossible?” Marty asked back with a bright smile making sure everyone else could hear the discussion. “Were you perhaps waiting for me to ask you to read because the magic that brought us here allows us to speak with you but not read your language?  Then you would call me illiterate and stupid?”

The older man suddenly became angry and red-faced out of shame.

“It all looks like Greek to me,” Gifford said as he looked over Marty’s shoulder, drawn over from the noise.

“Right.” The older man suddenly said as if he had just remembered something. “I wasn’t aware that you wouldn’t be able to read this.”

“Very impressive you knew it is Greek, Gifford,” Marty said with a chuckle before turning back to the cover.

“Introduction to the magic theory.  In its essence, magic refers to the usage of Mana to create and manipulate the phenomenon that we find in this world.  Mana is a substance found in the human body. To date, there is no way to know how much Mana dwells within the human body.  Mana most likely comes from the soul, though some theorize it comes from the mind. To create magic, Mana is utilized through magic circles.  Mana is used to create various shapes and symbols believed to be the language of the world. There are two general ways to cast magic. The first is to memorize the magic circle in its entirety and then duplicated with Mana.  The second is to engrave the magical pattern on an object and fill it with Mana to cast the spell.

“Magic itself has been around for longer than books record.  Whether it was the product of an ancient race now lost to history or birthed with the world, we cannot say for sure.  All we know is that much of the information required to cast spells has been lost, and we don’t have enough of an understanding of the world’s language to expand our magic.  All we can do is take steps to preserve what we have. The purpose of this book is to explain to you, young mage to be, the few fundamental principles we do understand. Perhaps you may be able to create spells in the future and write your name in the records of history.” Marty said as he closed the book.

The older man was furious as he could see Marty was mocking him.

“You can read Greek?” Gifford asked him, very surprised.

“This isn’t pure Greek.  It seems to be some strange dialect. I’ve been filling in the gaps by listening to the others’ conversations.  I still don’t understand it completely,”

Gifford nodded, extremely impressed.  The older man mumbled angrily before beginning to walk away.

“It’s okay if I take these books, right?  Can I have access to your library after I’m done to read more?”

The older man nodded before he threw a metal to him. “This is the basic identity metal. It’ll get you into most of the library.” The older man grumbled as he walked off.

Marty rolled his eyes before he pocketed the metal.  Then he looks over to Yutsuki who held a double-convex bow in her hand and was talking with her teacher. “Yutsuki, the furthest dummy in the center.”

Yutsuki’s instructor was surprised and a little angry that Marty had interrupted her, but before she could say anything, she was distracted by Yutsuki who had already knocked her arrow.  With a slightly awkward posture due to using an unfamiliar type of bow she, she fired the arrow. *Ting* The sound of the arrow striking the head of the furthest dummy broke the silence as everyone looked on in shock at the excellent shot.  Even the trainer was unsure whether or not she could hit the target on the first try.

Marty quickly gathered the books. “Aside from the posture correction for using a new bow, the only thing else you need to teach her is the utilization of Ki.” He said as he walked away.  

Yutsuki had a smile on her face as she watched him walk away.  Everyone else had a dull and shocked expression on their face as they looked at her.

Back in his room, now that he was out of sight from everyone, he started reading in earnest.  The way that Marty read compared to the average person was completely different. Instead of reading, it could be called looking at the pages.  At a glance, it permanently fixed in his memory where he would read and comprehend the information extremely quickly. As such, he could memorize both of the pages every second.  In less than half an hour, he had thoroughly read the three books. Half an hour later, he had finished digesting the information. The next step was learning to utilize and control his Mana.  

The source of Mana was from the head.  This is the reason why it was believed that Mana came from either the soul or the mind.  To become a mage, one had to learn how to release Mana. This first step was essential and was one of the reasons why the population of mages was somewhat limited.  Only one in ten people could ever reach that step, at least in this world.

Taking some time in a meditative state to get himself in a subtle mood, Marty began to focus inward.  To release Mana, Marty first imagined creating internal pressure inside of his head before he imagined releasing it.  At that moment, he felt something like a cool stream of water flowed through his body. Besides his Ki, he felt another unique energy, which was his Mana.  Whereas Ki came from the Ki Core in his heart, Mana came from his head. Just from this, he could not tell if Mana came from the soul of the mind, but he had a strange feeling this came from his soul, though he couldn’t say for sure; it was just his gut feeling.  

After a couple more hours, he managed to get his Mana from his head down to his finger, which was the second step to becoming a mage.  If anyone in Regnum were told that someone had not only crossed the first step but the second in several hours you’d be laughed at as a fool.  In Regnum, it was common knowledge that the most significant genius record in history took a month to get to the first step and two weeks to do the second.  On average it took a year to successfully make the first step and a half year to complete the second. Naturally, there was a reason for this.  

In regards to the first step, it was easier for those with more Mana.  Mana was, in fact, a byproduct of the soul. It would usually remain within it, but once the pathway was opened, it could freely be controlled to come out.  The more Mana a person had, the easier it would be to complete the first step. Though he didn’t know it, Marty had an abnormal amount of Mana because of some additional circumstances, and the existence of other souls nourishing his.  As for the second step, Marty knew the reason why he successfully did it so quickly.  

After completing it, he realized that Mana flowed through Ki much more naturally than without it.  It was almost something like the protective covering of an electrical cord. It would keep the Mana from easily being dispersed and allow a guiding path for it. Typically, the people in Regnum would only focus on Ki or Mana as reaching a high level in either one was extremely time-consuming so they wouldn’t stumble upon this phenomenon.  However, because Marty had both an extraordinary amount of Ki and Mana, he was able to see this.

After he reached the second step, to begin to prepare for the third and final step in becoming a mage, casting a spell.  He focused his Mana to the tip of his finger. From there, the Mana expanded to a circle-shaped where he congealed a single character.  As soon as he congealed this character, the Mana that had a slight blue tinge turned red before a flame appeared from the character. In roughly three hours, a mage had been born.  This talent could only be described in one word; abnormal.  

Marty began to experiment with his new magic.  By pouring in more Mana, the circle became more substantial and larger, and the flame became bigger.  This was one of the benefits of casting memorization compared to engraving. The primary downside to casting memorization was the memorization.  If the characters weren’t remembered correctly or in the wrong order, the spell would fail given that the more powerful spells used more letters.  The primary upside was that, once this magic circle was created, one could pump in as much Mana as was physically possible, making the spell more powerful.  

Engraved magic circles got rid of the memorization aspect of the spell.  While it wasn’t as simple as putting Mana into the engraving, it was far easier to cast compared to the memorization spells.  It was also quicker to cast as you only had to fill in the engraving with Mana. However, the amount of Mana that was required was always fixed and impossible to exceed.  As such, engraved spells were fixed in their power, making them less flexible, but easier to use.

However, for Marty, this wasn’t an issue.  With his memory, not only could he correctly remember every time he successfully cast a spell, but he could perfectly recreate it as though it was an automated process.  After that, he could increase or decrease Mana input at will and occasionally train casting speed.

After doing this for quite a while, he started to feel a little light-headed and strange. It seemed he had begun to run out of Mana, and it was affecting him. After doing some checking with the books, he came to the conclusion he was under the condition of being ‘Mana Drunk’ which occurred when running dangerously low on Mana. It was referred to as such because the person would act similar to being inebriated.

After taking some time to recover from being Mana Drunk, he decided to take a break and do some reconnaissance.  He walked around the exterior of the palace and heard some laughing and the occasional fighting sound. After reaching the source of the noise, Marty saw a large group of about 20 men who appeared to be about 18 years old.  Due to overhearing others talk, Marty knew that the fighters were organized into troops of 20 starting from a very young age. These troops would grow and learn together, increasing their bonds and teamwork. To Marty’s amazement, he realized through the shouting of others that the crown prince, who he had not yet seen, was one of the two who was currently sparring.  Additionally, he realized that this world seemed to have no idea about the three states of Ki; Reinforcer, manipulator, and emitter and only knew about confining and releasing Ki. While he was surprised, he quickly realized that the large amount of Ki people had here could attribute to this.

In Albion, most soldiers had Rank 2 Ki. Intelligent utilization could change the outcome of a battle.  In Uul Kheer Tal, a person’s Ki could vary between Rank 2 to Rank 6. This discrepancy and their nomadic lifestyle focused more on overwhelming strength instead of control. Here those with a lot of Ki could dominate those who had little.  This Kingdom focused on the amount of Ki and overwhelming the enemy compared to the utilization of Ki. Marty was somewhat impressed with this group in front of him as they all had Ki Rank 8. After about half a minute, the crown prince finally won.  There were some cheers and laughs, but they soon simmered down as clapping could be heard, coming from Marty.

The crown prince look at Marty slightly confused as both Marty’s face and clothing were unfamiliar to him. “Did you enjoy watching?” He asked with an honest smile.

“Indeed, it was a good fight,” Marty replied, smiling back.

“Glad you enjoyed it.  I am the crown prince, Eustathius.  You are?”

“Marty, though you probably know me as the fourth hero.”

The Crown Prince’s eyes lit up. “Yes, I would know you by the fourth hero, Marty.” He said with a laugh. “I also understand your talent best lies with being a mage. It’s a bit of a pity; I’d like to fight you if you were a fighter class.”

Marty was somewhat surprised with the crown prince.  He seemed straightforward, honest, and even humble. At least he didn’t look down on Marty.  

“So long as they don’t use Ki, I’m up for it.  I used to spar occasionally back from where I’m from.”

“Really?  How about right now?” The Eustathius asked enthusiastically.

Marty couldn’t help but laugh as he realized that this crown prince was a bit of a battle freak.  Compared to his father, who was the deceitful scholarly type, he seemed to be the exact opposite. “Certainly, just don’t use your Ki.”

“Of course,” Eustathius replied as Marty made his way down.

After a short exchange, the crown prince suddenly found himself on his back. “Again.” He said with a smile on his face.  This process continued for nearly half an hour, which surprised Marty. Not only did this crown prince have the endurance, but he also had an excellent disposition.  Instead of getting angry at losing, he became more excited. It looked as though he saw Marty as a challenge to overcome, and he took the challenge wholeheartedly.

“I’m surprised you’re so strong.” The crown prince said as he caught his breath.

“It’s not that I’m strong, but are fighting emphases are different.  Because my world doesn’t have Ki, we focus on hand-to-hand combat. You focus on Ki and overwhelming your opponents compared to actual technique.”

“True, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t strong.  If you had Ki… If you had Ki…” The crown prince suddenly stalled, lost in thought.  Suddenly, his eyes lit up. “Marty! can you teach us your fighting technique? If we had a good fighting technique, it would be difficult for us to lose against opponents of the same Ki level.  When we eventually reached the peak of the 10th Ki level, it’ll be difficult for us to lose without being outnumbered.” The crown prince said with a big smile on his face. On hearing his words, several of the other men in his troop became excited too.

Marty couldn’t help but smile as it was quite obvious this crown prince was a fighting madman. “Sure.  I can spend some time training you every day, but not too long because I have my studies as a mage to do.”

“Of course, of course.” The crown prince said with a laugh.

“Also, it would help me if you keep this a secret.”

“Naturally.” The crown prince of with a grin before he turned to the others. “Do you hear that?  There is a gag order effective immediately. I don’t want any of the other troops to know about this so we can give them a pleasant surprise for the next troop meeting.”

“Sir!” The group answered in unison as they saluted him with a smile on their face.  The thought of them doing well at the next meeting excited them.

“Okay, Marty, we’ll listen to you.  Where should we start?”

Over the next couple hours, Marty drilled the troops.  He soon realizes this entire troop was full of battle freaks and couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

“Thanks for the training.” Crown Prince said with a smile as he handed Marty a metal. “This medal means you’re a friend of mine and will give you access to most of the Castle.”

“Thanks. It’s an honor being friends with you, Eustathius.”

“The pleasure is mine.  Do you need help with anything?”

“Actually what I would like is information about this world, including common knowledge.”

“I should be able to help you with that to a certain extent.  Go get the map.” The crown prince said to one of his troops. “What would you like to know?”

“First, let’s start with you.  Do you have any siblings?”

“No.” The crown prince smiled bitterly as his response surprised Marty. “I’m an only child. It’s a well-known secret that the King is troubled in that area.”

“Any kids of your own?”

“Nope.” One of the troop members said with a laugh. “The Prince is about as chaste as they come.”

The crown prince bitterly smiled as Marty looked at him with some surprise. “My late mother told me that I should wait until marriage and marry for love.”

“Commendable,” Marty said with a smile.

“How about you?”

“I had a twin sister, but she and my parents died in an accident.  I would’ve been shortly married, but my fiancé was murdered.”

“Sorry to hear that; sorry I asked.”

“It’s all right.  I only ask questions and not afraid to answer myself.  Besides, it’s in the past, and I can’t change it. I can only change the present.” Marty replied, but, in his eyes, one could see he was trying to comfort himself.

“Commendable.” The crown prince of the smile as a map was placed in front of them.

There were four kingdoms on this continent.  Regnum was by far the largest, nearly twice the size of the others.  On top of this, they controlled the land between humans and devils. Strangely, the two lands appear to have been two separate continents that eventually came together.  The Devil continent was slowly lowering underneath the humans resulting in a massive cliff known as The Divide.

After going over the basic geography, Marty continued to ask about the history.  There was some speculation that Devils and humans were peaceful when they first met.  Even though there was a language barrier, they learned how to speak with one another eventually.  The language of the devils was currently taught to the nobles, though only the verbal half. Marty could tell that the devil’s language was a dialect of Latin while the humans was a dialect of Greek.

Eventually, some ships supported communication and trade, but this occurred a long time ago.  The two continents were merging at an incredible speed. At first, the two continents getting closer was taken as a blessing and fostered their relationships, but this soon changed.

When the two continents finally met, the earthquakes that followed brought devastation to the humans and devils alike.  Both sides begin to argue that it was the fault of the other, a plot by both. This caused the first war between the devils and humans, and a subsequent dark age that lasted about 100 years.  Information going back over 500 years was scarce. If not for the crown prince, most of this information would’ve been sealed.

Marty glanced over the map and realized that part of the Kingdom of Regnum was darkened, specifically between itself and the other human kingdoms.

“Why is this area darker than the rest?” Marty asked?

“That’s because the territory is heavy with bandits and we cannot keep law and order.”

“Why?”

“Because of the devils.  We need to keep all of our forces prepared for defense as we could be blitzed and lose our best defensive position.  The large wall that resulted from the two continents merging gives us a superior position that, if lost, could mean our downfall.”

“None of the other kingdoms try to do something about it?”

“Because it is technically our land and would be considered an invasion and, on top of this, many have been complaining that their military is insufficient, as they supply us with troops.”

A small smile appeared on Marty’s face. “On a percentage basis, how many exports compared to imports are stolen?”

“I talked about this with my father, who is a noble merchant.” One of the young men said. “There are significantly fewer exports, and imports and roughly 20% of the exports and 50% of the imports are often stolen.”

“Convenient,” Marty said with a pale smile.

“You mean to say my king father is involved with the bandits?” The crown prince asked.

“Should be,” Marty replied with a nod, satisfied that the crown prince was not offended by his remark and happy that he was intelligent enough to work the pieces together.

“That should be impossible.” One of the young men said. “Did you say that some of their trade caravans have been plundered?  If he was involved, why would this be the case?”

“Has he ever set out to subjugate the bandits?” Marty asked which was replied with a head shake. “With this much military power and his disposal, there’s no way the King wouldn’t campaign against the bandits to gain their loot.  Thus, it can be assumed that he is obtaining it anyway. He doesn’t need to control all of them, just the ones along the major trade routes. Send a couple strong and retired soldiers to take the lead, and he doesn’t have to worry about any betrayal.  As for ransacking his own country’s trade routes? The goods didn’t belong to him, so he still gains, and it also gives them a reason to claim deniability. I bet most of the traders of that 20% were those with lots of gold to purchase goods from the other kingdoms which would make it hard to track.  Even though this is only speculation, I bet if the bandits start disappearing the King would be furious.”

They continued to chat for a short time before parting on good terms.  

...

As Marty walked back, he whispered very softly to Cali, who promptly turned into dust before she disappeared toward the castle.

With his newfound free time, Marty decided to head to the library to further his studies.  When he arrived at the library, he was quite surprised that the crown prince’s metal allowed him to access everything that didn’t involve national security.  After a short time browsing, he asked to find ancient books. To his surprise, there was an entire area dedicated to books that could not be read. This is because they were written the devils’ language.  Only some humans could speak the language, but none of it could be read. However, this didn’t keep them from storing and restoring these books in case they ever gained said ability. Many of these books had initially been purchased assuming a translation could be made.  However, that never came to pass.

Looking at this large number of books, Marty couldn’t help but be somewhat daunted, especially since they lacked organization.  That being said, he could read them.

Over the next three days, he spent most of his time in the library.  He took a break to train the crown princes group and also ensured he got proper sleep.  Of course, by proper sleep, what he did was smuggle a few books out in his storage ring and read them.  Finally, he found a book that made him ecstatic. It was titled: A Summary of the Application of Magic Regarding Space.

He took this book to his bedroom where he quickly read through it, smiling because he believed it provided him enough information to start experimenting.  This information, coupled with the engraving that initially brought him here, could very well be enough for him to learn how to have a form of Mana powered space travel.  Just as he was smiling at the thought, Cali, in dust form, made her way into his room and manifested herself.

“Found?” He asked her.

“Found.” She replied.

“Good job.” He said as he gave her a head pat.

“That feels good.” She replied with a pale smile.

Marty stood up and retrieved a large black suitcase from the space ring.  He opened it to reveal a suit. The suit was very similar to the suit he had used when he was dubbed the Black Knight in Camelot.  However, this one was thinner, made more for flexibility than actual warfare. On top of this, the helmet was replaced with a unique mask that covered most of his head.  It hid everything except for his eyes and mouth, leaving only a large chin guard to protect it and not prevent him from speaking. He wore the suit over his clothing, which was already quite thin, which allowed him to switch attire, if necessary, quickly.  Then, he retrieved two sheathed swords from the space ring, which made a decent *thud* when they landed on his bed.

These were two black short swords.  Moreover, they were far heavier than average swords because they were made out of adamantine.  He unsheathed and wielded one around, an act that would’ve surprised many because of his strength and control as he was very steady with its wielding.  That said, it was still considerably heavy for him if he did not use Ki. [It’s still light compared to that slab I exercise with.] He thought.

After quickly getting dressed and hiding the evidence, he turned to Cali. “Is it empty?”

“Should be.”

“Might as well go for it,” Marty shrugged. “Go ahead.”

After a couple of seconds, the scenery changed as Cali had Dimension Doored them into a different location.  Marty knew this location was in the castle, but he did not know the specific area. But, then again, he didn’t need to know.  After leaving a mark, he would be able to come back here anytime within the next month or so.

Once he had ensured that no one was around, Marty quickly began going over the paperwork in the room.  However, this paperwork was not typical because it was a storage room for the extremely sensitive reports of the Kingdom.  After about an hour of diligent searching, Marty finally found what he was looking for. Reports on the bandits, specifically, evidence that the King was involved.  Marty couldn’t help but smile bitterly as his 75% assurances had suddenly become 100%. It could be said that this King was indeed a competent one, but not a good one.

Moreover, Marty also found several reports that shocked him immensely.  The previous time the Devils attacked, it was an inside job. The King conspired with a high-level devil to remove a Duke of his Kingdom who had managed a Fort.  Marty couldn’t help but sigh at the boldness of the King for using his enemy to rid internal opposition as cannon fodder, though the other side was most likely doing it to weaken the humans.

After obtaining what he wanted, Marty turned to Cali. “Well, now that we have everything that I want in the castle, now we go to the next place.”

“Where?” Cali asked.

“The devil capital.”

Cali made a slight nod. “Thought so.”

“Why should you have thought that?”

Cali expressionlessly looked at Marty. “Lucibelle is pretty and nice. Next family member.” She stated as a matter of fact.

Marty tarried before looking at Cali a little bitterly. “You’re teasing me, right?  You make it sound like I’m a bandit that steals women.”

“She said, ‘Your woman,’ right?” Cali asked innocently.

“We’re going to move at night for the time it takes to get there, you ready?” Marty asked, changing the subject.

Cali nodded before she turned into a black scarf that Marty wore as the jacket was no longer appropriate.  Then, Marty disappeared and appeared outside in a secret location that he had already prepared in advance before he sped off into the darkness.

End of Day -97