After turning off any and all 18+ content I turn again to the village lords son.

"Welcome, welcome~. Can I interest you in some tea while we talk about my fathers job? I haven't had any visitors for months now."

Even though I turned off sexual content he still acts and sounds gay as fuck though. Am I getting trolled by the game developers?

"Sure, lead the way." - I respond to him.

He leads me to the second floor of his house. We appear to be in a kitchen of sorts. Putting a kettle of cold water on what I presume to be a magical stove he turns to me.

"So can you tell me why my father has sent you to me? It isn't very often that he asks for my services." - he tells me while having an expression most people would describe as disgusting.

"Of course. The story is rather simple. Villagers were attacked on the road towards the village by wolves. He sent me here to help you find out the reason for their attack."

"..."

He stands in place for a bit, thinking my words through.

"Do you have any information about the appearance of the wolves? Stuff like eye and fur color, size. Anything of the sort."

"I do, in fact I was there when the attack happened so you can ask any questions you want.

"Lovely~"

"..."

Ugh......I don't know if I am capable of getting through this without puking.

"So, first off, about their fur. by any chance, was it covered in blood. Also, were their eyes blood red?"

- Something tells me that this guy is trying to describe the hell - spawn rabbits I fought earlier in the day.

"No, not really. They looked just like regular wolves, though they were a bit too skinny. Even when I haven't trained in any form of combat I was still capable of killing two of them with relatively minor injuries."

"Is that so?.. It's a big dissapointment if what you said is the truth."

Why would you say that my gay friend? Is there perhaps something valuable in those blood thirsty fiends?

"Why should it be a dissapointment having a bunch of blood thirsty wolves outside the village walls?"

"You wouldn't know since you don't deal with magic. Let me enlighten you a bit about it's wonders."

Okay then, captain, take me away.

"Wolves being covered blood would have been a sign of a mana vein making its way to the surface. Normally, when a mana vein shows itself, part of the wild life in that certain area gets... corrupted you can say. The ordinary animals in the wild, like wolves and deer for example, are not attuned to mana. When they ingest the mana, wether through eating a mana rich creature or herb, drinking mana infused water, or even breathing in mana infused air they become very, *very* violent."

"The mana starts to circulate through their body and mostly their blood stream, causing damage to organs, rupturing veins and arteries, lots of stuff you wouldn't want to have if it were you. This is actually the reason for their eye color and blood covered fur. The blood vessels in their eyes rupture causing their color to turn to red, and you could probably guess what happens to the fur already. Their skin gets damaged and the blood just leaks out of the body. As a result of the mana they do get a fair bit stronger though."

Oh, damn son. I need to find out what this mana vein can be used for. I think I can already guess what it is.

"I'm guessing that mana veins are very valuable then?"

"Oh yes they are. It's a fairly valuable resource... for mages, that is. For normal people, it's absolutely worthless. It can even be described as a natural disaster depending on the size of the vein."

"I can see how it will be a natural disaster all right." - I shouldn't ask any more questions about the mana veins, don't want him to get all suspicious after all.

Fernando goes back to the kettle, now filled with boiling water, and makes us some tea. It tastes spicy for some reason.

"So you say that the wolves were just skinny and you killed them?"

"Correct."

"I see... well, they were probably forced out of their territories by something stronger and attacked the villagers because they were starving. It seems pretty simple. Don't know why my father would send you here for such a small problem."

He probably sent me here to punish me since you're the most disturbing person in the village. Not like I will say that out loud though.

"Actually there is something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Ohh~, is that so? Have at it."

 On a side note I don't think I will ever be capable of getting used to these gestures of his.

"If I want to become a magician, what do I need to do?"

"That? You need a little bit of capital to become a mage my friend: 25 gold coins."

Oh damn, I don't even need to make up the expression of surprise on my face. That's pricey! And this is just the tutorial area.

"I need that much? Why is that?" - I respond, thinking it probably has something to do with the mana vein so maybe I will skip through payment.

"You see, just like the animals in the wild, we draconians are not very well attuned to mana, there actually isn't a single intelligent race that is. Dwarves, elves and so on. Mana is even poisonous for someone like you. But for me it's not.

Well, that's new I guess. Mana is bad for you if you are not a magician.

"In order for someone like you to become capable of manipulating and using mana, you need to go through a 'ritual' of sorts. The point of the ritual is for you to build your own mana heart or as others call it mana core. As well as the mana heart you need to build mana channels that are pretty similar to your blood circulatory system, except they are only for mana. The last part you need is your magic consciousness. That is a miniature world of sorts that you can enter and manipulate at will. The magic consciousness is a bit difficult to explain, but in general if the mana heart is the thing that stores mana, and the mana channels are the element that mana flows through, the magic consciousness is the one that allows you to cast spells."

"Surprisingly, magic consciousness forms by itself when you build your mana heart and mana channels. Interesting, isn't it?"

"The reason it's so expensive is because of the materials required for this 'ritual'. First, you need to make your mana channels. That involves injecting the juices of the Kenloppa Berry, along with a small amount of a magical monsters blood extract in your blood stream.

He picks up some berries that resemble the ones that killed me when I was exploring and shows them to me.

"...." - tutorial area privileges? Isn't this a bit *too* convenient?

"The berry juice burns along the edges of your circulatory system and forms the mana channels, the blood extract just makes sure the berry juices STAY in the blood stream. If it spreads past your blood stream and into your inner organs and muscles, you're dead. Also this is the reason mages bleed as much as they do when they go over their limits, since the mana channels form on the edges of the blood vessels, it's really easy to rupture them.

"Anyway, the blood extract costs 1 gold and the 300 ml of berry juice needed for this procedure costs 4 gold."

"About the mana heart, you need to just inject small portions of liquid mana in your blood stream over the course of about 2 hours until your mana heart forms. The only problem in this step is that the liter of liquid mana used costs 20 gold."

"After the mana heart forms, your magic consciousness forms on its own... neat, huh?"

"If you want to become a mage come and find me, I will glady make you a mage if you have the... capital~"

I'm pretty sure I have everything except for the magical monster blood extract. Need to check how I can destill liquid mana from that water as well. I should not ask this guy directly since he will get suspicious instantly.

- You know what? Maybe I should wait for a day and check the internet for information about the topic. Is that considered cheating? Eh, I think I will do it anyway. It's probably a whole lot easier to become a mage in Easy mode rather than Hard.

"I will think about it, maybe I will come later after I get the gold." - I tell to Fernando while getting up from the chair.

"Well, alright then, I will show you to the door."

---

 

So, with the magic put on hold, I guess I can do something else, then log out and go to sleep. The question is *what*?

I guess learning to smith is an interesting choice though I still want to keep my gold in case I need to buy the blood extract. What I need is something with which I can make some quick bucks. I can always try and steal something, but that's a very bad idea with the village chief breathing heavily behind my back...

Actually, now that I think about it, being a magician isn't the only way forwards avilable to me, is it? If the chief and George are something to go by, you can get strong without becoming a magician.

With that thought in mind I take off to the barracks. They happen to be right next to the village chief's house. It didn't take long for me to find the man I was looking for. He's overseeing the training of new recruits by the looks of it.

"George! Whats up."

The man in quetion turns to me.

"It's you? What are you doing here?"

"Can I ask some questions?"

"It depends on the questions. If it is something important don't expect an answer."

"Of course, of course. Well, I am not too sure if what I'm about to ask is important or not, so I will ask anyway."

"..." - George just stays in place and looks at me without changing his expression. He looks kind of scary, I think he's trying to intimidate me.

"Well, what I wanted to ask is how the chief got so strong? From what I know the only way to get so strong is to become a magician, but he did not seem like one, did he? I'm guessing you're training in the same way he is?"

".....Oh?... Was that it?" - The guy responds to me.

"I don't know from what backwards place you came from but it certainly has been on the edge of the world if you don't know even this much."

"What we train in is called body tempering arts. As the name suggests, it makes your body stronger. Your skin becomes tougher, you can run faster and take more damage. Your stamina increases and all of your senses are enhanced, as I'm certain you've found out already."

"There are different types of body tempering arts. The ones we use here are the standard all across the nation. As for the ones the village chief uses, they're some exclusive to the knight order."

So I can train temper my body to increase my physical strength? That is very nice. Maybe I will train in this way until I go and log out.

"So can I train with these guys here?"

"No, you cannot, you can only buy the instructions to the body tempering method and that's it. It's five coppers."

After buying the instructions from him he kicks me out of the barracks - figuratively of course.

 

---

 

The instructions happen to be just some wooden plank. I decide to go and buy a spear from Mandora, the town smith. It cost me 1 silver exactly, the spear is just a short blade on a stick so it isn't very expensve. What I'm left with is 1 gold and 2 copper.

I make my way out of the city, spear in hand and a dagger strapped to my waist. The reason I'm outside the village is simply because there is not a single place where I can train the body tempering method peacefully. I can, of course, train on the street or something, but sadly, this isn't a game where the NPCs have autism, I'd probably get arrested.

Still keeping relatively close to the village, I find a quiet spot to take out the wooden plank - turned instruction manual and start reading.

Immediately though I noticed that the manual is 'slightly' weird. It was covered in runes and odd texts that were glowing in a weak golden color. The runes themselves I could not understand. There were a couple of images here and there that were equally as incomprehensible.

 

I spend some time to read through the system announcement, what it says seems to be fairly logical and easy to understand. It's good to know that you can practice with different arts at the same time and the choice you make now won't effect you too much in the long run.

I tap on [YES] with my finger.

What follows is the wooden plank literally turning into a brown wood-like goop and it entering my skin... somehow. Hey, it's magic. I don't need to understand how it works. I'm greeted by another information panel.

So I can increase the level of the arts just by adventuring. That is very nice, there isn't really a downside to having one of these, is there? You get more powerful at almost no cost. Maybe I was supposed to go to the barracks first instead of meeting the homo fun guy?

Oh well, nothing can be done about it for now I guess. I will do some exercises here and log out after an hour or two. By the looks of it it will be dark by then. I do remember that the day - night cycle was something along the lines of 11 or 12 hours.

 

---

 

I spend the next one and a half hours just doing some simple training - push ups, squats, running - etc.

I did not meet any of the mana poisoned rabbits, much to my surprise. Looks like you need to be quite a distance from the village to find them.

Oh well, I made by way back to the village and opened the control panel to find the log out button.

Pressing it, a system message pops up in front of me:

I just tap on [DON'T SHOW THIS MESSAGE AGAIN] and proceed.

......

Opening up the VR capsule, I get out of it, only to nearly trip and break my goddamn neck.

The reason for me almost tripping is not because there is some object at my feet, no, I'm just tired as hell. Fun fact about myself - I have never, and I mean *never* missed sleep. In no point in my life have I spent more than 24 hours awake. It's not because I don't want to, I simply can't. My body tends to shut down after I miss more than 4 hour of sleep, god help me if I have missed more.

There was this one time I slept only for about an hour - the result?

When walking down the street I could feel myself passing out for a split second, again and again, nearly losing my balance each time. I probably looked like some drunk high up on heroin. As a result of that 'incident' I make sure to get 8 hours of sleep every day. Well, today is an exception of course.

I find my way to the bedroom, careful not to trip. Removing my VR bodysuit, I throw it at the corner and, completely naked, jump in my bed. Barely having enough time to cover myself with blankets, I pass out.

 

 

---

ART STUFFS 

This here is a character I plan on introducing at a later chapter

This down below is not related to the story, I just drew it and thought I'd share it. It's kinda funny.

Yes, he is in fact holding an enchanted spork.