Chapter 2 – First Lesson
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  Opening my eyes I see an unfamiliar wooden ceiling, I guess it wasn't a dream and I am in another world. What should I do from now on, start a business? No, I don't have the connections, startup funds, knowledge of the markets and products, and more importantly, I have no skills nor strength to protect anything if I start from peddling. The guide described this world in a state of dog eat dog, people prey on the weaker if it will benefit them, the survival of the fittest.

"...Sigh"

I guess nothing is so easy, but to live here comfortably won't be cheap, I can only start at this inn for 10 days even if I don't buy anything. The guide did recommend becoming an adventurer, the default cliche thing to do when coming to another world. Despite the dangers, it does pay well as well as the chance to become stronger. Speaking of strength I don't know a single magic useful in combat nor know how to fight with any weapons.

I get up and stare at the bronze mirror at the desk to take a better look at myself for the first time. I look just like how I was in my old world but just a lot younger, I am 18 again after all. I had black hair, brown eyes, and plain features that is forgettable as fuck. I look down towards the rest of my body, I had the same average build I had in high school with a small belly as expected of a gamer who didn't exercise much.

My stomach started growling as I moved towards the window of the room and saw the dazzling sun high up. I guess its noon and I haven't eaten anything since coming to this world. I make my way back down to the lobby after locking my room and bringing all my belongings with me. At the counter, I spoke to the middle age lady previously there is now a man, probably the husband and owner of this inn. I lightly nod back at him as he greets me and I continue to head towards the pub area for a meal. Finding an empty seat, a young man quickly approaches me with a business smile.

"Hello sir, here's the menu for today, feel free to take your time and let me know when you know your order."

He hands me a piece of yellowish paper and quickly turns back to tend towards the other customers.

I scan menu which only had five or so options for food and half a dozen or so of appetizers to go with the alcohol that fills the entire back page. I decide to just get the lunch of the day as I have no idea which would be good as they all seem to be simple dishes.

I waved at the previous waiter when he is free and give him my order as well as some water. I didn't have to wait too long before he came back with a tray full of my dishes as he carefully placed them down. The food looked like a simple club sandwich with some mashed potatoes on the side along with some butter. I asked for the check immediately as well so I can just leave when I'm done. The meal cost 50 coppers and since I got 50 coppers back in neat stacks of 10 each wrapped in paper after handing him a silver coin, I can confirm that 100 copper coins are equal to a silver coin.

After finishing my food which was actually pretty good or I was just really hungry, I turn in my key to the man at the counter and head out of the inn in order to look into the adventurers guild. I see a large building nearby and start heading towards it, I mean usually, the adventurers guild is super big like a landmark right?

As I come near the building I noticed signboards that are in front of every shop so far, but this time it is a picture of a golden scale with coins on each side. I move closer to the entrance and see a large store sign hung right above the entrance with the words "Merchant Guild" written on it. I guess I was wrong and this wasn't the adventurers guild, makes sense though that the merchant guild is near my inn catered to merchants.

I didn't want to waste more time and ask one of the people standing guard by the entrance to the merchant guild for directions. Thankfully they don't seem too averse to helping out strangers as I quickly headed towards the directions the guard indicated.

Within 15 minutes I see another large building this time, larger than the merchant guild but not as fancy. I see the familiar signboard but surprisingly the picture wasn't anything I expected for an adventurer guild, it showed a picture of a huge blue tree with fruits hanging on it like apples.

Seeing many people who were similarly dressed and armed as the people I encountered on my way to this city, I am reassured I didn't go to the wrong place and proceed to enter through one of the eight large doors into the guild.

The place was very organized with signs everywhere to help people locate where they need to go. I saw signs for people to would like to put a request to the guild head off to the left, signs for merchants to trade with the guild to the right, and for adventurers heading straight deeper into the building.

I come across another four sets of eight doors, but much less grand and much more normal-sized. I open the door and the sound you would expect from any pub instantly assaults my ears, those are some pretty good soundproof doors.

To my right was the rowdy pub area where I see many adventurers having a drink and meals, while straight ahead I see a big line of adventurers waiting to be served at one of the dozen counters where a uniformed guild staff awaits. This is starting to look like a lineup at a bank in my old world, there is even an information service counter veering off a little to the left of the line where two guild staff are busily looking over some paperwork.

I noticed one of the men is a beastman of the cat variety as I see his cat ears twitching as he is working while looking down, the awkward contrast between cute cat ears and a fit middle-aged man put a chill in my spine as I'm still not used to approaching these new races. I saw a lot of different races on the streets until now but I didn't want to stare and mistaken for someone being rude, the guide book only introduce some of the different races but never went into detail on their characteristics or culture so I wouldn't know any taboos for their race and how to handle them. There are definitely a lot of humans in numbers anyway, this city of Unatis probably belongs to a human kingdom anyway.

I walk over to the counter and walk straight up in front of the human man who gave off an aura of a strict veteran.

"Excuse me"

The man stops what he is doing and looks up straight at me.

"Yes, how may I help you?"

"I was thinking of becoming an adventurer and would like to know more about them, can you tell me how the whole things works?"

The man quickly pulls out a sheet of paper and puts it in front of me and starts explaining to me while using the paper to help with his explanation.

"It's free to register but you will have to either take a combat test to prove you can defend yourself or take our newbie training course until one of our volunteer trainers gives you approval. Once you become an adventurer you will still have the same freedom of movement as before so don't worry about that part."

"Okay, then please go ahead and enter me into the newbie training course"

Lucky they provide training which is exactly what I was looking for and I accepted it right away.

"The course can be started at any time, if you're ready then please follow me to the training area."

"Yes please."

I start following the old guy toward the left, the opposite direction to where the pub area was. After going through a few doors we are now outside in what seems to be the backyard of the adventurers guild. The man looks around to find someone free and starts heading towards a woman standing around looking at the others' training. She seemed to be in her late twenties with flaming red hair down to her waist, clear blue eyes, skinny build, and wearing an equally red cloth robe that fits the criteria of a standard looking mage but without the hat. She had a classic hourglass figure despite the thin build, and probably at least a D-cup.

"Elena, this is a new recruit wanting to become an adventurer, do you have the time to train this one?"

The man seemed familiar with her, seeing the way they talked to each other.

"Sure thing Lawrence, I was just lazing around anyway. It's so boring recovering from an injury."

Elena said with a cute pout.

"That'll teach you for always being so reckless, anyway I still got work to do so I will be leaving him in your care."

The man that I now know is called Lawrence quickly retraced back from where we came from and disappeared.

"Hi I'm Elena, I'm a rank six adventurer. What's your name?"

Elena turns her attention towards me after waving Lawrence goodbye and gives me a brilliant smile.

"Aster Estrea, a complete beginner, I will be in your care"

I politely bow toward my new teacher while trying my best to not let my eyes wander off to where it shouldn't be.

"Oh my, cute and polite just how I like it."

She playfully winks toward me before quickly putting on a business face, showing she is ready to get to work.

"So Aster, do you plan on becoming a mage or enhancer? Maybe a mix of both?"

Mages are self-explanatory but enhancers are the people who focus on physical combat mainly at melee range, their magics are called enhancement magics thus the nickname enhancers.

"I wanted to fight from the back lines, so I would like to pursue the path of a mage."

I answer in an equally serious tone. And as to why I chose a mage, its because I never really liked working out nor do I want to be in the front line of a fight. Besides, I usually roll a mage when I play RPG games anyways so it would probably be easier for me.

"Perfect, I'm a mage too so that works out. In order for me to give approval for you to become an adventurer you will need to reach level 1 in two different magic, and I really recommend you focus on those two elements of magic even in the future. Practicing anymore would just make you a jack of all trades, and even the strongest adventurers only focus on one or two magic that they excel in, so your choice now may stick for a long time. Any particular magic you want to learn? I'm a fire and wind specialist but I can teach you beginner level of most elemental types I think."

As she starts spouting off numerous information that I have read from the guide I couldn't help but stare down into her cleavage. It is taking all of my willpower to stop myself from hugging her tightly and press those soft-looking marshmallows right up against me.

"Helloooooo, Asterrrrrr got any particular interest in an element of magic? Hey, can you focus please, if you qualify to become an adventurer by tomorrow I might let have a feel okay?"

She bends over slightly to establish eye contact with me as I was staring straight at her chest and speaks to me playfully before giving me a wink.

Fuck, what's wrong with me? Did becoming 18 again mean all the hormones are coming back to me as well? I should have better control than this, come on Aster your an adult mentally. I try to recollect my mind and look straight back into Elena's beautiful blue eyes.

"...Umm sorry, I would like to learn water magic please, and as for the second magic I will wait until I master water first."

The guide book showed some of the different magic I could learn in this world like fire, water, wind, dark, light, but the more vague concepts didn't exist like space and time. I decided on water magic already for several reasons and there were three main ones.

First, I really wanted to stay away from my enemies and not get hurt at all, and from my experience in games, Ice mages fits the role.

Second, there's no magic item system and while space rings exist, they carry very little amount and are very expensive and hard to get. That means bringing along enough food and supplies is one of the challenges of being an adventurer, and since water is so heavy to tug around, I thought water mages will have it easier being able to produce water whenever I want.

Third, since only selecting two or so magic is the norm, I wanted to select two different magics that had good synergy to achieve my goals of a pain-free safe combat style. I had another element of magic in mind for my second magic but I'm gonna need to test out the properties of after mastering water magic first.

"Water magic huh, sure just let me go over the basics of magic first and have you to learn to feel mana."

"I will try my best teacher, please go ahead."

"Well then to start off, mana is the source of strength and magic we adventurers and monsters in dungeon rely on. Mana is everywhere and we constantly absorb it into our bodies until we reach our maximum capacity. We can train the capacity by simply using up our mana more and more, like training your muscles. When we invoke magic, we exert power on our environment through our mana and since the mana comes from us, the power we create originates from us as well. This means I can't just make a fireball appear behind you all of a sudden, I can only make it appear within half a meter range from me."

Finally, I'm learning more detailed knowledge that the guidebook didn't tell me about. I close my eyes to listen carefully and avoid repeating the previous incident again.

"Of course, if I only make it appear, it wouldn't have any attack power to it. So any attack spell consists of two parts called spell power and spell control. Take a basic fireball spell, for example, I first need to make a ball of fire with my spell power and then use spell control to throw it at the target at high speeds."

"...Umm, then can you change the property of the spell with spell control? Like making the fire burn hotter or split into two fireballs or something like that?"

I quickly ask Elena as this question will decide if I chose my element correctly with what I had in mind.

"Of course, many things are possible with magic but it might take a lot of mana from you if you can't picture what you want properly which requires a lot of practice. Thought if you try to make a change that is too drastic like changing a fireball into a waterball the spell may fail and you mana wasted so be careful."

I nod at Elena's words.

"Now why don't you try to feel mana first, here hold this."

She hands me a tiny round shaped crystal that I used before with the magic lights back at the inn.

"This is called mana crystal or some call it magic crystal, same thing. They come from defeated monsters and are usually located where their brains are and are the main source of income for adventurers when they visit dungeons. Stronger creatures have richer and more powerful mana crystals so they are worth more as well, this small crystal is from a goblin so it's of low quality and is only worth one silver. Anyways, go ahead and try to feel the mana within."

I spent the next few hours sitting down with my eyes closed like I'm meditating, and by the time the sun is starting to change color I start feeling mana. It's kind of like when I was a kid and pretended I can ki and can shoot power blast through my hands, but this energy is definitely real.

"I did it!"

I quickly reported to my teacher Elena who was sitting beside me having a drink while looking at two guys spar.

"Nice! Good job Aster, really, you just completed the hardest part in learning beginner magic. We started kind of late and the suns going to set soon, so let's call it a day today. Come back tomorrow morning and we will continue okay?"

I handed back the crystal to Elena while she seemed really happy and proud, beaming like she wanted someone to praise how good she was at being a teacher.

"Sure thing, I'll see you tomorrow. And thank you teacher Elena, it was all thanks to your teaching that I progressed so fast."

I start making my way back to my inn and start feeling the mental fatigue of sitting down for hours and just focusing. I think I'm just gonna eat and go straight to bed today.

I autopilot myself to the inn and retrieve the key from the middle-aged lady that checked me in earlier today, and went straight toward the dining area of the pub. I was given three choices of meal that came included with my room fare and I mechanically just picked the first one being too tired to care. The dish seemed like a tomato sauce pasta with ground beef, pretty good I should say.

As I finish gulping down the mug of water to wash down the food, I quickly retired to my room, room 307 and asked for a bucket of hot water on the way there. I used the towel and hot water to wipe myself clean and brushed my teeth with a wooden toothbrush that inn provided and quickly plopped myself onto the bed after changing to just my underwear from my spare clothes.

As I enjoyed the softness of the bed and pillow I thought back on my first day in another world. I think back to Elena's breast and the things I want to do to them. Man, it would be perfect if I had a girl right now to hug in my sleep.

"...I wonder how strong teacher Elena is anyway? She said she was a rank 6 adventurer, whatever that means."

I was totally absorbed in the lesson and taking in new information that I completely forgot to use my identify spell. I really should get into the habit of using it more often. With that thought in mind, I slowly fell asleep as I'm exhausted from my first day.

 

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