Old Building - The Library

— Don't even think about it, I already told you not to go in there. - She turned her face confirming this denial to me. And it took me a while to understand.

"That's not what I'm asking Alexia." I braced my arms and stretched forward under the table. "I want to see if you can control your skill. You don't?

"Yes." She looked at the bell and after a moment she held it in her hands.

"See, your ability seems passive. In this case, as soon as you remove the tiara, it is likely that it will no longer be coordinated...

"Master Arx also said that she is focused on the highest energy closest to me.

"Yes, then I'm going to step back a bit." However, I can't go so far away, otherwise this experiment will be in vain.

- Like this?

"I want you to focus on the bell to remove its magic. In case you don't know how, we won't lose you since I'll be forcing your ability to nullify my aura when I'm the priority. Even so, we'll have enough chances and time to know how your ability works, won't we?

- I understood.

"That will all depend on whether what Arx said is true anyway.

- All good. So as soon as you walk away I'll try.

At that moment I walked away.

She looked at the bell and then at me. With delicacy, she removed the tiara and left it under the table and placed the bell equally but on the side.

At first she did nothing and just watched.

We could see that nothing had happened.

"Yeah, apparently what Arx said is true. His skill doesn't work for all things at once. And if it doesn't nullify the bell, maybe it's focusing on my aura.

"Let me try something."

And she closed her eyes and recited some words.

When he opened his eyes, they were bright. Probably if it were at night, they would be revealing their location. Then I saw the bell's aura absorb like a vortex towards Alexia and disappear into thin air.

- Our. You did it. What did you do?

— I'm not a mage, but apparently this ability is like a spell.

"I don't understand yet, but if it worked, that's great.

"What I did was think about what I wanted and how I wanted to do it. I thought of something like a whirlpool. And it worked.

"And the words?"

"Oh, just a sollerun.

- One that?

— A sollerun, a reflective phrase. She helps me to focus: "Ver ni arkana vox", come to me pure magic.

"And you say you're not a mage?"

"Actually, this is the first time anything has happened after I've recited a reflective sentence.

"Well, it worked, didn't it?"

- Yes. But if I didn't know I had this ability through something or someone, it wouldn't do much good.

- Why?

- Simple. Even a sorcerer needs to know the right words to recite his spells. Or even a warlock needs to have his bond in perfect order. But, for a mage, it is enough for him to have an idea of ​​how a spell works to use it. In this case, he will only need to have the information and enough mana to do it.

"So you're a mage, aren't you?"

"Not just because of that." Every person has a mana pool, some less some more. However, that is not why we can consider everyone to be magicians. It was a random event. The Creator enlightened me with this gift, I believe.

— That was illuminating — I said placing my hand on my chin in a thoughtful way, and after returning to normal, I looked at her — But now comes the final test Alexia.

— Hmm?

- Yes. From what I understand, my aura also represents my energy, doesn't it?

- Yes. That's right.

"So, in that case, I want you to focus on nullifying my aura.

- But...

- Don't worry. If in that state of madness you made it and soon after we got better. I think now would not be worse.

- He is well. Prepared?

- Yes.

Then she got up and came a little closer.

He closed his eyes and recited the same words as before. "Ver ni Arkana vox". Her eyes sparkled and I felt like I turned off the lights. A sudden faint, perhaps.

There was just enough time not to fall to the ground and when I opened my eyes, Alexia was shaking me, screaming my name.

— Wynan! Wynan... Oh, by the Maker, you're fine.

'I wouldn't say I'm fine… getting better, yes.' Our! It was very different from before. It was like I was being drained.

- I'm sorry...

- No need to apologize - and I put my hand on my head regaining consciousness. I also looked at the tiara under the table. "I guess the tiara isn't quite an Alexia coordinator. Apparently it's also a limiter.

"Could be." She looked at the tiara and after she saw me trying to get up, she helped me.

"I seem to be getting better." And my aura, how is it?

- Incredible. When you were unconscious, it was as if she was almost out. But, she's back to normal.

"Was I unconscious for a long time?"

- No. It only took a few seconds.

"Is there a limit to how much you can erase?"

- I don't know.

— I think that alone will not affect you in any negative way. Still, are you all right, Alexia?

- Yes. The other time I felt my body heavy, now I almost felt nothing.

- AND. Probably my aura isn't destructive all the time like it was then, so we can say that I'm much weaker than before and whatever you do won't risk your life.

"I wouldn't put it that way, but yes.

"I'm better, Alexia, if you're okay, I'd like to go outside.

"Okay," and she walked over to the tiara.

"You don't have to take it now.

- No?

- No. I'm going to test something that's common in games, and if it works, we need you to be without limitations as well — and if it doesn't work, I'll look like an idiot.

She was left with no answers to the situation. Even so, she just nodded and followed me out into the courtyard.

***

As we walked downtown I was thinking that my idea was really stupid.

Usually, in a game, the character needs to store or collect energy, whether it's screaming or meditating, something he must do.

In the RPG this "energy" would be your own Mana and it would be there, even if the character never used any skill in life.

From what Alexia told me, I have enough magic aura for her to see beyond my body, so I can already say that I have "Mana". Even so, just that and superhuman situations like strength or reflex wouldn't be something to go up against a dragon, right?

I looked around to see what I could use, then I remembered those training dummies. They were pretty battered, more from age than use, yet I walked over to him. And I watched my clenched fists.

My first test: See how strong I am in terms of blows. Lifting the table, surprising as it was to me, was somewhat easy. So let's punch full force.

I have to mentally prepare myself to feel pain. The last time I punched something hard, I nearly broke my wrists. Let's go!

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

I put my legs in a perfect base to gain momentum and turned my entire torso to the side. I was right-handed, so that's where my punch came from. A powerful direct.

If I could see myself from a distance, I could say I made the same moves as a pitcher in baseball. And that's when I felt an energy filling my fists and as if cutting the air, this pulsating energy accompanied me until it reached the doll.

Imagine the scene with that "Zzziiissssss pow" sound. And the doll was literally evaporated and did not stop there. A wave of power cut through everything in a cone and hit a good part of the wall, raising a large cloud of dust.

Both Alexia and I were blindsided by this and had to pull away.

"By the Creator..."

- What it was? —and she pointed in the direction of the blow.

Literally the wall and what was behind it was destroyed showing a new window to the abyss. I swallowed that saliva thinking: Jeez fuck.

"Holy shit… I mean. I don't know what to say about it. I didn't even feel like I'd used up all my strength.

- Is happy?

- Yes. Yes I am.

"And your hand, how is it?"

— ... — I looked at her just to see her condition, she looked a little red like someone who punches the wall, even so it wasn't more than a small burning sensation — Okay. It's just burning a little. And my aura, did it change?

- No. I believe what you did was just for yourself. Without using your mana for this.

- Serious? Well... Those words, the reflective phrase, can I use it?

"I don't know, why don't you try it?" In this case, you have to know what you want to do and how to do it, otherwise it won't do any good. And usually a reflective phrase is made up of arcane glyphs that represent the thing you want to do. Do you know some?

— I'll have to improvise in this situation... Okay. So get ready. I'll focus on just releasing the aura — when the dust settled, I returned to the center of the courtyard.

I don't remember the name of the anime, but, it was something like Dragon Sphere Z, if I scream and focus on releasing the power, it will work, right? Well... it doesn't hurt to try.

- Right. I'm ready," she commented, taking a defensive stance.

My second test: what does it take to activate my mana?

Characters had active and passive abilities. Passives normally didn't need to be activated and were always working "passively" and depending on the effect, it could be visible or not.

Already active or support skills for yourself or the group should be activated using the character's mana or energy. They made your actions stronger, tougher, or faster. In the RPG context, it was enough for the player to say that he wanted to activate the skill, so he didn't have to do anything else.

And now? Do I have to tell someone about its use?

Since Alexia said I need to understand how it works, then why not a simple warrior skill, just to start? If this is Arkana and assumes it's a game, even an RPG, then could I use Amplified Power from the warrior's skill tree?

I closed my eyes again and spread my legs a little, albeit parallel, and tense my muscles. I opened my eyes and screamed "Amplified Power... Ggrraaaaaaah".

I probably sounded like an idiot screaming, but maybe only at first, because then an aura appeared on the ground delimiting a space and then a flow was released to all sides with gusts of wind and power.

At that moment I didn't know how to turn off this... ability. So even though I was aware of what I was doing, it was like my body was in automatic control.

Everything began to slowly shatter and turn to dust. Alexia then ran towards me.

— Wynan! Enough, it's done!

"Alexia?! —and she jumped on me pulling me out of that position.

As I held myself, I felt a little calmer and weaker. Even so, the gust dispersed, breaking much of the stable, other dolls and cracking the walls closest to the building.

Since she had jumped sideways, we landed together. I was underneath and she was holding me by the waist. I breathed heavily with a smile on my face.

- Is more calm? - she asked.

"Yes, thank you... and you, did I hit you somehow?"

"Just a few scratches.

- Serious? Let me see...

"You don't have to..." She stood up, putting her hand on her face.

I got up and walked over to her, taking her hand away so I could see. It was like I said, a few scratches. However, one of them was bleeding.

"I'm sorry, Alexia, I didn't mean to—"

"I already told you not to worry... we've both seen how strong you are, so we don't need any more tests, do we?"

- Oh yes.

"Can you let me go Wynan?" — jeez, again holding her.

So I released her and apologized again. She cleaned the dress she was wearing since she had jumped with me on the floor and was looking at all that destruction.

"Alexia, thank you.

"And now, why is that?"

"Your explanation earlier on how a mage uses magic was what I needed to understand. And these two tests made everything clearer.

"I've never heard of such a reflective phrase before." I don't know how I managed to help you.

"Well, it wasn't a mage skill. I used a warrior skill.

— "Mage skill", "Warrior skill"? Never heard anything like that.

- No? She shook her head.

"I can't deny that it felt like magic or something unique.

— Yeah, I don't think so — there's no sign that this looks like a game, so "activating skills" must be out of context.

Also, I have no way of checking or verifying any source of information on what I can do. Therefore, Amplified Power could have been a warrior skill as well as just a massive release of energy.

"Alexia?

- Yes?

"What can you say about adventurers?

"You mean the Adventurer's Guild?"

- AND. What are they like, how strong are they?

— There are numerous ranks in the Adventurer's Guild. It goes from F to S. The higher the level, the stronger the adventurer. They accept quests for the Arkana in exchange for fame or money. I've heard that the most powerful groups of adventurers fight terrible beasts, even dragons.

"Wow, really?"

— Then I can't say, but it's probably not a dragon god, is it?

— Hehe, yes. Thank you — so there is an Adventurer's Guild.

If I could reach one, I could talk to some kind of fighter, rogue, or mage about their abilities. And whether it really is usable "skills" or each "skill" here is innate as a battle technique.

As far as you can tell, I did two things just now: One was throwing that punch, which naturally took on some kind of power of its own.

Another was using Amplified Power. However, since I didn't have time to test it and it would be too risky, I can't say if it did what I expected it to do: Increase my Damage and Physical Resistance momentarily.

"I'm going to get some rest, all right?"

- Yes. She's not really hurt, is she?

"Not physically, but I'm pretty tired now. Apparently, it depends on how much energy I can nullify to be exhausted or not.

- Probably. We should also know how many times you are able to use this Alexia, if you can use it several times a day as long as it nullifies little or just once if you nullify a massive amount of energy.

- Yes yes. But, we'll get to that later, shall we?

"Okay, go rest. I think I'll lie down for a while too.

"Are you tired too?"

- No. But after all that, it's good to put your ideas in order.

— When I get to porsolar I'll call you, okay?

- OK.

Alexia left for her room first.

Meanwhile I analyzed the floor and the effects of the two things I had done there.

I looked around and noticed that there was a second part of the building and remembered that the passage to it had been blocked with debris. However, the window was open.

It was quite tall to be honest. Even so, it would be more of a test now, of stamina and agility. Could I do Parkou here? Well, it doesn't hurt to try.

And that's how the afternoon passed and the hours flew by.

Finally I went to my room only to wait for Alexia to call me.

***

Around five in the afternoon, as I said, she appeared. And then she showed me an area.

When it was late afternoon, we were able to see the sunset from a balcony, accessed from the last room on the same corridor as my room.

We talked a lot about the most insignificant things in life, and for once we forgot that we were trapped by our own luck.

This girl, she's so pretty, so smart... so polite. And so nervous! What slap did I take, and the burning? Perfect! Of course, look what I was doing: almost drooling over her like a dog in heat.

Anyway, that end of the day was wonderful. And the next morning, we would go to the library in that place.

Alexia had already gone to sleep. I, on the other hand, followed the end of the day until everything started to go dark. I didn't get to see the night itself because the noises of nocturnal animals scared me.

It is funny. I can cause huge explosions and punch dummies to dust, yet I still feel uneasy in the face of a vast unknown place of unknown creatures.

As there was no electricity, basically everything would be engulfed in darkness apart from my room and hers which had a chandelier to light.

I went down the small ladder in that small room and due to my size, it was even more awkward to walk through it.

Alexia's room is located next to mine, I couldn't see how he is, even because she stopped me. I'll respect it, obviously, but curiosity only increased.

Imagining Alexia sleeping without clothes on is one thing, now imagining her sleeping in a room she won't let me see, that's torture!

What the... what the fuck was that? Again, these strange thoughts... Anyway, let's go to sleep, the slap mark on my face won't disappear just like that.

I've been trapped in this world for three days now, and it's been three days since old Marx told us about a person capable of teaching us how to control such power. And before he left earlier today, in the brief conversation we had, he said a few things about what was going on in the Arkana.

Among several things he said suddenly, one that stuck with me was the situation of Arkana and Arglësia.

As one of the Masters of the Academy, Arx and other Masters obtained information from sources, which in his own words, "truly precious".

It was about the Peace Treaty between the kingdoms... I made it... I made the Kingdoms be rivals since the beginning of time and even if this Peace Treaty existed, everything would be nothing more than a facade.

It's hard to believe I put them on a whim to fight.

Why not just be happy everyone? No, that wasn't exciting or heroic at all, someone should suffer and now look where we are.

Of course, I didn't say anything to Arx, and I believe I hid any emotion about such matters from Alexia as well. But sooner or later I have to intervene, right? It doesn't matter, Alexia and I are going to the library tomorrow, maybe I can get more information about Arkana and even Arglësia there.

This Arkana... this Arkana I cannot change.

***

The next morning she woke me up, like every other day, and I went down to the kitchen with her for "breakfast".

Of course I liked having someone bring me food in bed, but that was the price to pay for helping me out a lot: not being a complete asshole.

After "breakfast" we left for where the library was located.