I safely opened my eyes to a new morning and relit the campfire outside. I need to get a little warmer, but except that, everything's fine. All the valuables I got yesterday are safe, but this is the last of my concerns. I need a plan.

 

Let me make a quick summary of what happened to me in the last week. Maybe I can think of a better plan for the future with that.

 

I died in a bombing attack and opened my eyes to this forest in a different world. That's how I started my week.

 

I encountered a living skeleton, not a big deal like those things are the most common thing you see on earth, so I acted calmly and killed it.

 

After it, I encountered a group of small greenish creatures that I assume with the intelligence of early cave people, good thing they didn't sense my presence back then, but I fought with another group anyways.

 

Later, I encountered a wolf, and I think that was my lucky day since I gained some meat from my hunt, so I used the wolf's skin and pelt to make a smoking tent to preserve my food for a longer time.

 

Night of the day I encountered the wolf, I fought against the small green creatures called goblins, which I won, and I don't know how I did, but I stole their life powers or something. It was a weird day for me.

 

And the day after that one, I moved towards a location with the command of Voice. Oh, I forgot to add it to the summary. What it called itself. Yeah, something guideline, gift of gods, annoying thing.

 

But it works as intended giving me a guide. Well, half of the time, but better than nothing.

 

Now I am tasked with killing specific monsters, which I wonder who in its right mind decided to give a random guy such a task, or at least without details. I only know I need to find and kill something.

 

I have two priorities, survival and escape. To survive, I will avoid unnecessary conflict, and to escape, I will strike my targets down, a simple plan, but I would be grateful if I had a clue.

 

Well, I still have time to think. Long as I stand in one piece and have opportunities to make decisions, I think I will find a solution. It is not like I will lose a limb or get slaved. In the worst case, the monsters of this forest will brutally murder me. Lived with worse can live that.

 

Maybe I should take a break and enjoy my little campfire and this bone-freezing cold.

 

Maybe.

 

                                              *****

 

Hours passed without me doing anything but boiling snow to get drinkable water and eating some meat from my stock.

 

This little quiet life with action now and then maybe it is what I want from this life. Maybe, killing monsters with a sword and hunting for my food is what I desired deep down, I don't know. But I started to enjoy what little I have here and accept that no one will come here to save me. I managed to overcome that much easier than I thought I will.

 

There is still some sunlight outside. I will give try some of these books sitting inside. Who knows, I might even learn a thing or two about this world.

 

I moved to the cave and grabbed a book from the stack of valuables. It has a leather cover and nothing else on the front. Plus, it is too thick to be a journal, so it should be something else. Better to read it next to the fire. 

 

I went back to my previous spot and opened the book. At first, sentences wroten in an alphabet I didn't know appeared.

 

"Supported Language." With Voice's words, my vision got a little blurry, but as I recovered unknown alphabet was changed with one I knew, and the sentences were readable.

 

"Basics Of Magic." Not the first thing I expected, a magic textbook, I might be on my lucky day. But let's see what it contains first before becoming too happy.

 

"Chapter one: What is magic?

 

Magic, as we call is directly connected with all living and non-living. It is in our structure. From wild magic to ones carefully processed like diamonds by masters of the art, one can find it all over the world. But only a fraction is skilled enough to learn it. For someone with no innate talent, magic can takes decades to learn.

 

But the assuming reader has a teacher and skill on the topic. The book is a suitable study for beginners of the art.

 

How does it work?: Magic works with the type of energy we call mana. Almost all living creatures have some quantity of mana in their bodies, but having mana is not meaningful. Being able to process this mana into making magic is."

 

I closed the book and put it on the ground for a second. 

 

 

"Magic, mana, controlling energy, hell. This world has more things than I excepted, and who can blame me for not being surprised by them at this point? I wonder what I would see next."

 

 

I grabbed the book again and opened the last page I was reading.

 

 

"Ability to control magic, if not discovered by sheer luck in childhood, can be learned through meditating and several exercises. The help of a teacher who helps to move mana through one's body or using several items that will do that instead of a person with the ability to use magic shortens the process of learning the basics of mana control. Otherwise, it might take years to learn.

 

 

But magic is not only dependent on one's ability. Mostly preferred by the wealthy because of their costs, some items or processes can allow one to use magic without mastering Magicianism.

 

 

Example One: Magic-infused items.

 

 

From simple jewelry to massive weapons of war, anything with the ability to hold a large quantity of mana is suitable to be used as a basis for a magical item. A sword can be made sharper, or an amulet can increase the strength of its wearer. These items usually use crystals with mana in them as sources or what mana their user possess in their bodies. This way, someone with no ability to control mana in their body can use a magical item because the item will control the mana for them.

 

 

Creating a magical item is a long process that requires at least a decade's worth of mastery over the craft and cannot be explained in a single book, so we are passing this segment.

 

 

Example Two: Scrolls.

 

 

Compared to their counterparts, scrolls are much easier to craft (Note: The standards required for a magical item are so high that saying a scroll is easy to make can be confusing since it requires similar mastery over the topic of magic.) Yet, they hold less value since they only have a usage span of single-use.

 

 

A scroll on its core is similar to magic items. They can heal your wounds, send powerful fire bolts to your enemies, etc. But a scroll requires knowing the standard alphabet used in making magic. Thus, it isn't available to everyone.

 

 

They also require more mana than a magical item, unless you use ones made from rare mana-rich materials, but they are not worth the fortune they cost.

 

 

I closed the book again. "Magic items, controlling mana and such, maybe society of this world isn't that backward, perhaps with magic, I can see wonders. Well, only time will tell."

 

 

I opened the book again. I have lots of free time, better to spend it well.