Shortly after being expelled from Ryver's room, Silas appears walking down the hallway and greets us.
"What were you two doing in Ryver's room? And why were you kicked out?"
"Don't worry about it, Ryver was just embarrassed," Rudge shrugged. "But you arrived at the right time, Silas! Let's head to your training room while we talk!"
Silas seemed a bit confused but didn't mind much, he simply led the way to our destination.
"So, Silas, what do you think about the boy's physique?"
"Well, it's a rather concerning physique for someone his age. My friends and I, for instance, already had well-built bodies when we turned 15. But I think with a little effort, we can turn him into a real man!" Silas seemed quite proud as he spoke of his childhood feats, a hint of nostalgia lingering.
"Then, what do you think of taking him as your disciple?" Hearing Rudge's suggestion, A bit of confusion appeared on Silas' face, mine became stunned, but she continued, "Even Ryver has accepted him as one!"
Surprise flickered across Silas's face, followed by a hearty laugh.
"Hahaha! Now that's interesting! Very well! I have nothing much to do with my time anyway!"
Another teacher for me? No one will ask for my opinion on this? Not that I'm complaining, especially because Rudge's radiant smile while suggesting it prevented me from doing so...
After a few moments walking down the corridor, another rather large room appeared, not as large as the main hall, but still quite enormous. It was filled with wooden stands holding piles of weapons, shields, armors, and other strange objects I couldn't identify.
"Welcome to a warrior's sanctuary! In this place, I will teach you all about the way of the sword!" Silas exclaimed, opening his arms towards the room, a wide smile on his face as he presented the place most important to him here.
"Good luck with your training, kid! I'll set something up to teach you, just like Ryver did! Don't forget to show up at the library after your training!" Before I could say anything, Rudge made her escape out of the room. I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen here. Surely not, right?...
"Alright, kid! The first step is to observe your characteristics, the strengths and weaknesses of your entire body. I would say we have no positive points, but don't worry! I'll help you right away! Give it your best shot!" With a gleam in his eyes and a mischievous laugh, Silas moved toward me with fists raised.
********************
With frenzied breaths, I find myself sprawled on the floor, exhausted.
"Pause! I need a break now!" I exclaimed between large breaths, my lungs feeling like they might burst. Silas, on the other hand, didn't have a drop of sweat on him.
"Hahaha! Well done, kid! Somehow, you managed to withstand my light assault for more than 5 seconds! You have talent for combat!"
Could you explain how?! In the first 5 seconds I was thrown to the other side of the room! After that, it was just a repetition of a bloodless massacre, me trying to escape Silas's monstrous attacks and failing miserably in almost every attempt. If not for some kind of magical barrier protecting this room, there would be marks all over the walls from me.
My body aches in every extremity, I'm covered from head to toe in sweat. Even opening my eyes in this state is a difficult task. It was 20 minutes of pure suffering and despair. Silas's malicious grin doesn't leave my mind, giving me chills.
"Next time, let me know before doing something like this! I thought I was going to die!" Voicing my complaints, Silas only laughed more and approached me, his massive frame casting a shadow over me.
"Come on, don't be like that! I'm not joking, young one. You have incredible reflexes. Your eyes tracked every attack I used on you, your body just couldn't keep up with your thinking yet. And you enjoyed that, didn't you?" Silas's loose smile while saying that got on my nerves.
"I'd be a masochist if I enjoyed getting beaten up!"
"But when you managed to dodge, the wild smile I saw on your face was undeniable! That's why I'm telling you, young one! You have raw talent in there, both spirit and instinct are present in you!"
What Silas said caught me by surprise, I vaguely noticed a kind of excitement while dodging a precise punch, maybe I was happy for avoiding flying across the room again, right?... I haven't turned into some kind of madman, have I?...
"What we need to work on is your body. The evident lack of muscles completely affects your fighting style, but don't worry! I'll create a perfect training plan for you to become just like your master!" Silas spoke while flexing the trunks he called arms... No thanks. "Feel free to rest now. I think it's best for you to take a shower, do you know where the bathroom is?"
Seeing me shake my head in denial, Silas closed his eyes and muttered some things I didn't understand. Suddenly, a crude earth golem appeared from the ground, almost my size.
"This is one of my stone golems, it'll carry you to the bathroom, off you go!" Before I knew it, the stone creature picked me up and carried me in its arms like a princess. I was too exhausted to complain, so I just let it happen.
Perhaps I dozed off a bit on the way to the bathroom because I suddenly woke up with a sharp pain in my back, opening my eyes to see that the golem had dropped me to the floor. 'I thought you were supposed to be gentle!'.
I could only sigh as it turned around and left, I slowly got up from the floor and opened the door behind me.
***********************
I'm completely revitalized, new and soft clothes cover my body. The bathroom here is an impressive place, the bathtub in the middle of the room is large enough for you to sprawl out without any worries. Perhaps I spent too much time in the water, but no one can blame me, I confess I dozed off a few times. It seems that the bathroom water works wonders, almost all the muscle pain I felt is gone, leaving only some numbness.
I only left the bath because I was startled by a small ball of light that appeared in the bathtub. With lively movements, it seemed to want to tell me something, and that's when I remembered Rudge, she had asked me to come to the library. Quickly, I changed and left the bathroom. Now presentable, I open the door in front of me, revealing a huge room (why are there so many enormous rooms in this place?) and an almost endless row of books of various sizes and colors. A chandelier illuminated the entire room instead of those little stones on the walls, I wonder why?
In the middle of the room, Rudge was seated around a table, on top of which a large stack of books took place. Realizing my presence, Rudge gave me a gentle smile and encouraged me to sit in one of the chairs next to her.
"Welcome to the Calictus Library! The place where we blend all the knowledge of our group!" exclaimed Rudge with arms wide open. All of this came from the knowledge of three people? Wow...
"It's in this place that I'll teach you our history, our way of life, everything necessary for you to survive out there! Sounds exciting, doesn't it?" The joy is evident on her face. "I've already set aside some books for our initial studies!"
I won't lie, I felt overwhelmed with all this enthusiasm but didn't dare interrupt. I have several inquiries, but I didn't get a chance to ask due to my reception, they all seem too excited about my visit.
"The first thing I'll be teaching you is our language. Obviously, you don't speak our language from our first conversation, which is why I gave you this artifact, 'In Runas Mundi,' as it's called. Ryver's work, incredible, isn't it?"
This ring truly intrigues me, the power to translate any language in an instant with just one object... Isn't that quite absurd? To think that perhaps I have a world treasure on my fingers sends shivers down my spine... Or perhaps there are oddities like this all across this world of 'Luzaria'...
After finishing speaking, Rudge handed me a book.
"Here, this book teaches basic Astréan, the universal language of Luzaria."
"What do you mean by universal?"
"Luzaria is home to various beings—dwarves, elves, humans, dragons, and so on. Until then, Astréan never existed, all races had their distinct and different languages. But with the celestial conflict, that peace was broken, and the divergent races had to join forces to combat the invaders. Under the instructions of the celestials, we created this language for the unity of all."
It's interesting to know that dragons are real here, and the way she included them alongside elves, humans, and dwarves might suggest that dragons aren't the type of monsters I have in mind. Every passing moment brings more questions to my mind, a celestial war? Were they trapped here? What is Calictus? The quest for answers keeps me intrigued.
"To help you with your learning, I'll be reading to you the history of our world, dictating it in a way that you can comfortably understand our language. Don't worry about learning at your pace, we have all the time we need." says Rudge with an encouraging smile.
***********************
Many say that, a long time ago, Luzaria was an empty world covered in darkness before the arrival of two gods, one radiant and the other exuding darkness. These gods took an interest in the empty canvas that was the world, and with endless ideas in their minds, they began creating their art. Together, the two crafted mountains, plains, oceans, and forests, adding colors with plants and life with various creatures that began to roam the place, they made a true divine painting on the empty canvas that our world was. But they still felt something was missing—a crowd to acknowledge their art.
Based on the irrational residents of their world, they created three species and gave them capabilities similar to their creators:
The Gaiafae, patrons of nature, beings who reigned over life and death.
The Lutheni, masters of earth and sky, guardians of stone and land.
And lastly, the Morphem, personifications of change, representing the cycle of life and death, adaptation being their greatest gift.
The gods and their creations lived together for a long time until the gods felt that same sensation as before—something was missing. Their creation was the same as before, and that made the gods uncomfortable. With one more mutual decision, they decided to lend a hand to the constant change that was about to come. From their creations, they decided to generate more life.
Various races emerged—elves, dwarves, humans, demons, a long list of beings was created, and with their arrival, massive populations were formed, cities and kingdoms quickly sprouted. This all passed like an era of peace and prosperity until the fateful day when cracks formed in the sky, lines large enough to divide the horizon. From within them, countless deformed creatures emerged, bizarre and corrupted beings that devastated numerous lives wherever they went, their trail of destruction was evident by the dark marks that appeared on the land.
The gods quickly joined their creations and set out to defend their home, and for centuries, Luzaria was plunged into misery and bloodshed, both allies and enemies found themselves abandoned to die on the battlefield. The gods were desperate as they didn't know how long they would last, the enemies showed no retreat, while their creations formed mountains of bodies.
The gods realized that their powers were not enough, and in a hasty act, one of them separated into numerous parts and handed them to the other god, who then used a large number of them to create more gods, less powerful, but their people needed leaders, and so it was done. With a clear division of armies, the performance of their allies improved enough to regain half of their world already taken by darkness. The other god then made one last choice, one last ace up their sleeve that could save their artwork for good.
The god handed the last parts of his brother to one of the goddesses he had created and told her what to do with them, then, he used the light of his body to create a great ball of fire in the skies, a light bright enough to end the corruption brought by the enemies. To control the endless heat, the goddess used the parts that had been handed to her to create three great icy and empty globes on the other side of the world.
The game had finally turned, after so many sacrifices and tragedies, the world was in pieces, but the enemy was finally eradicated, their leader, the 'Invader,' as it was named, was captured and sliced into numerous pieces, his parts were sealed in unknown places, and guardians were placed to forever hide what nearly caused the end of the world we know...
