5 Magic

The cafe was quiet, which was of no surprise to Lucius. The town was quite small and most of the people were at work right now, so he had quite some time to enjoy his stay here.

The establishment itself was quite cozy, if he had any say in it. The wood walls, partially carpeted flooring and tables at respectable distance from each other just made up the whole atmosphere here and Lucius was all for it.

After ordering the coffee, he finally opened the books. The first one was a history book. It contained some rudimentary information of ancient times, as all things considered, there weren't a lot of things remaining from this time of history. It was first piece of information that he was somewhat familiar with, although some of it of course was different.

After all, although a lot of things changed, he still remembered a guy named Gilgamesh being crowned. For humans, the Sumerian civilization was one of the oldest documented ones and he had to base his own timeline with the one humans managed to create.

Although memories from previous 'donors' gave him some basic understanding of the history and all other subjects, but as those weren't considered to be important memories by them, they were full of holes and irregularities, so he couldn't trust them. Some things were bound to be added up with a spark of imagination and he would rather not have such faulty understanding of the world.

Even after skimming through the book, pausing on more interesting and important pieces, he couldn't find anything new. Humans of course interpreted some of those things in their own way, but he didn't hold them at fault here; they weren't present at those times and as such, they could only theorize based on some rare findings of those eras long gone.

He also quickly checked the basic science books he bought. The theories there fascinated him. A lot of those laws, theories and theorems could explain a lot about the world around them, at least about the part that wasn't touched by magic. He could already foresee that he would have to study them more thoroughly later on, as they contained interesting conjunctions that could help him greatly with magic research.

But as he had only basic knowledge now and had no internet access, he postponed this activity for later. After that, he finally took out the red-covered book. It's title "Magic for dummies", was certainly enough to amuse him. As he opened the first page, he was immediately greeted with a quite a peculiar introduction that could be taken either as a threat or an unfunny joke, depending on what angle you read it from.

"This book was made in order to teach the basics of basics in the path of magic that anyone with even an iota of magic power can learn. If you can't understand even this book, then you are a completely hopeless person and the path of magic is definitely not for you." - Körbl Fabel of Grauzauberer

Lucius belonged to the latter as he could only give a dry chuckle at the sight of it. He turned the page and started immersing himself in the book that was bound to be at least somewhat interesting.

×-×-× 

After 4 hours passed, Lucius finally closed the book.

'Huh, if that wasn't interesting...' Although science, history, chemistry and all that were fresh topics that were certainly of interest to him, they still weren't completely familiar to him and as such, he could barely understand anything. But this book, on the other hand, was different.

He was a magical being. Magic was simply something inherent to him and no one could take it away from him, nor could they forbid him from using it. When he finally materialized into this bizarre world; from the first memories he still remembered, he was a being of destruction. He was savage, knew no sense and understood nothing. And so, equipped with formidable power, he ravaged the world.

Of course, sometimes he was pushed back, but even those few ones didn't last long as he adopted to their moves and strategies or simply outlived them. After considerable time though, mindless and completely pointless destruction were no longer enough for him and he started changing. He started spectating others, watching how they lived, worked, died. It was how he learned that there was more to this world than simple, glorious bloodbath that he created everywhere he went.

Learning and adapting and following those two principles, he learned how to live in a society. Some races took him in, him, a stranger, a being that only knew how to destroy before and taught him a lot of things. How to behave, how to live like a mortal being and how to talk. This marked a point in time where Lucius really understood that he existed; he was no longer a mindless beast.

In time, some people taught him magic. As it came naturally to him, coupled with his experience of it, it wasn't that long until he learned everything, absorbing knowledge quicker than anyone could procure it to him.

When he finally understood what this force in his hands could really do, he was fascinated by it. Killing was only a small part of it, but the bigger part was still unknown to him and he wished to learn it.

That was when he started traveling and exploring; researching and absorbing new knowledge everywhere he went. He always strived to probe further than anyone else and as such, he always understood that if he was good in at least anything in this world, then it definitely was magic.

That was why he found the book so interesting, if a little bit lacking. First of all, it was clearly made by humans for humans and there seemed to be no harsh condition to learn magic. Usually, as far as he knew, humans had to made contracts with other beings to use their power and that was what they called magic. 

The book, though, clearly stated otherwise in every way possible. As said at the start, even a completely unlucky human could technically start delving into the world of magic, as Lucius knew that every living being in the world, humans included, had magic power within them. For humans, it usually remained dormant from their birth to their grave, but it was certainly a fact that it still existed in the deepest part of themselves.

There wasn't a lot of information on how this magic system came to be, but he at least got a name he could work with- Merlin Ambrosius. 'I will have to find out more about him later on if possible.'

Besides that, the magic system was quite unique for him. He had seen a good share of them in his life, but it still was a little bit different from the ones he knew. It reminded him somewhat of the 'miracles of the gods', but it wasn't exactly derived from it either. He instead got a feeling that the creator only took some inspiration from divine beings and most of it came from somewhere else.

He had to admit though, the human magic system was quite diverse and full of possibilities. It didn't seem to be the strongest, but it didn't have to be anyway. This magic system allowed one to create spells for any possible situation if needed. It certainly had great potential and he was even more interested in it now.

Of course he also immediately saw the downsides of it. The basic principle behind using this magic system was to understand the phenomenon you are trying to conjure with magic. It used the power of the mind to make calculations and through them conjure them into the world. It was quite easy to understand but hard to master, as you needed a lot of knowledge of the surrounding world to really make this magic system worthwhile.

Luckily for him though, this downside wasn't all that bad, if he could even call that one to begin with. Humans had limited lifespan and as such, also limited amount of knowledge they could possibly learn in their whole lifetime. Lucius didn't have such problem. Not only he is supposed to be immortal, he also has a great understanding of the world already. With new schools of science describing the world in even better detail, he could theoretically push the boundaries of magid to their utmost limit. 

'Still, this magic system is a great one for humans. They don't have to be slaves to others anymore and can have their very own perceivable strength now. Besides, with their advancements in science and understanding of the laws of the world, it isn't that hard to learn magic. All in all, it's a good combination.'

Now he could finally see some real potential in the human race. Although they were quite good at adapting in the past, it was almost everything they had about them. Now though, after thousands of years, they finally blossomed into their full glory and only continued to grow stronger.

'I can really see benefit in helping them.' Lucius smiled at that thought, as he mused further about the exciting future he could already foresee.