5 LW - 5.

(Arthur.)

The trail I was following disappeared a long time ago, I've been moving in a random direction ever since, it wasn't the smartest thing to do but it was the only thing I could do since I had nothing to navigate with.

'Did something happen to them?' I wondered, I'm currently standing in front of 3 trees lined up and they each have these 3 rune-like symbols, not knowing what they do, I didn't mess with them and continued on my way. Although I was curious, I wasn't going to mess with something that could potentially hurt me.

'Haah, whatever I'll find my way on my ow-' My thoughts were cut short as I was engulfed in a green light, my insides felt like they were being jumbled together causing me to get nauseous and dizzy when I opened my eyes I found myself inside a pristine city with dark oak wood buildings and beautiful grey stones.

'W-what the hell happened?!'

(Osiris.)

"Old man? What are you wanting me to do again?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Virion and I were standing face to face. He told me to freeze everything I could in the vicinity, but I don't know if he's being serious...

"Brat I've said it twice already, hurry up and freeze the area! We don't have all day!" Virion shouted, he had his hands behind his back as he looked straight ahead of us towards the forest.

Sighing, I still did it nonetheless.

Raising my right hand, I swiped to the left using just my hand, and a giant mountain of ice shot out of the ground and encased all the trees and grass in front of us, I never tested the range before so I don't know how far it went.

"Hey, Old man, what was the point of me doing this?" Glancing at Virion I saw that his eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open, he kept turning his head to me and then back to the frozen group of trees.

"B-brat! How are you doing that! I can't sense any mana at all! Not even a single droplet of it!" He shouted, I took a step back as he was now standing right in front of me bent over so his face was level with mine.

"E-eh, I don't know, I just knew I could manipulate ice..." I said with my hands raised out in front of me to push Virion back.

"Huh?" Virion grabbed both my hands and his eyes widened even wider before he squinted his eyes almost like he was thinking about something.

"Why are you so cold? Does using this "Ice manipulation" lower your body temperature?" He asked, he was rubbing my hands while doing so most likely trying to see if they would warm up, but contrary to his expectations, they never did.

"Is it a bloodline thing? Your hands won't warm up no matter how hard I rub them... Interesting." I heard him mumble, I already knew my hands wouldn't warm up with just friction since I tried it before, but I gave up since I didn't really need to worry about the cold temperatures.

"Virion? Can you let go of my hands now? It's starting to feel weird." My words snapped him out of his thoughts as he let go of my hands and turned to walk towards the forest of frozen trees.

'What's he doing?' I questioned, watching Virion with curiosity as he walked up to the ice and knocked on it with his finger, I don't know what he was testing but when he did it the second time it cracked and everything crumbled.

"E-eh? what did you do?" I asked him, Virion rubbed his chin before turning around and nodding his head in my direction.

"Your ice is very cold but it's brittle as well, there's almost no density in it and can be destroyed with just a mana-infused finger. You need to work on that." He stated, I nodded with a frown, I knew he was right because I already knew that but I don't know how to make it harder.

"Well, what do you suggest? I don't know how I would train that." I told him, Virion didn't answer immediately, instead, he walked over to a big rock and tapped on it.

"Here, use this as a reference, try to make your ice as hard as this rock by making weapons or ice balls and hitting the rock with them, as they break make try and focus more on how it felt hitting the rock and try to recreate it with your ice."

'Wow, how come I didn't think of that...' I mused inwardly, I let out a light chuckle before making my way over to the rock.

"Alright, I guess I'll be staying here all day then, I doubt I would be able to do it perfectly the first time," I said aloud, I glanced at Virion and saw he was shaking his head.

"No, that won't due. My granddaughter seems to have caught quite the liking towards you, she's been looking forward to showing you around today. Try the exercise I just told you a couple times then go and find Tessia." I sighed at his words but nodded nonetheless.

'I really wanted to just practice today...'

"Alright, I guess I can do that." Virion chuckled before waving over his back and made his way towards the entrance to the castle.

Turning back towards the rock, I put my right hand on it and ran my fingers across it, trying to see if I could get any hints to how hard it is.

Removing my hand with a sigh I held my hand out and formed a sword, I swung down at the rock and watched as the ice sword exploded into many pieces on contact.

'Damn, I didn't know it was this brittle... This will definitely take a while.' I thought with a wry smile.

I raised my left-hand palm up and formed a dagger this time, but I focused more on trying to make it hard rather than cold.

I raised it in the air and brought it down swiftly, once the dagger hit the stone it broke into shards of ice that soon melted.

"Haaah, whatever let's just keep doing this..." I said to no one in particular. I kept on doing this for about an hour before I was interrupted by a girlish voice.

"Oz! Oz! Come on, let's go to the city! I wanna show you around!" I turned around and saw Tess running towards me with a big excited smile.

"Sure, sure but do you have to keep calling me that? I mean Oz doesn't even sound like Osiris..." I asked, she shook her head as she grabbed my hand and started pulling me.

"Oz is your nickname, Osiris is a bit hard to pronounce."

"How? It's not that long nor is it rough on the tongue." I asked her.

"I-it's difficult for me! So until I can say your full name you're stuck with me calling you Oz!" She exclaimed, I sighed hearing this, but didn't say anything back and just let her pull me out of the castle.

She was wearing a white kid dress thingy I don't know what they're called but yeah she's wearing one of those.

I'm just wearing a long grey sweater with black pants and shoes, nothing too fancy and nothing to uhh, what's it called, uh uh... never mind I forgot.

When we left the palace we went to all types of shops, they were mostly just food stalls or something that had to do with food... She's quite the glutton, but nonetheless, the food here is actually really delicious most of it was just vegetables but the way they were cooked made it taste like meat somehow, almost like those "Vegan Burgers" back on earth, but these were actual plants and not whatever the hell those patties were made out of.

"Tess, slow down! We still have quite a long time before we have to go back to the castle." I stated but fell on deaf ears as the girl pulled me along to each and every stall or shop she saw, it was pretty fun but my mind was mostly focused on trying to manipulate the people's shadows that were around us, the concentration needed was lacking since I had to pay attention to both Tess and maneuvering around the people in front of me.

"Another human?"

"How did he here?"

"Aren't the gates closed?"

My head snapped to the crowd of elves to our left, I heard what they were saying and frowned.

'How would another human get here? Didn't the teleportation gate disconnect after Tess used it?' I pondered.

"Oz? What's wrong? Why are you just standing there?" I turned my head to my right and looked at Tess who had a curious expression, I smiled before replying.

"Ah, nothing wrong I just heard something interesting, let's go," I said as I started walking off towards the palace leaving Tess to stand there by herself.

'Haaah, if I'm not wrong that should be the MC of the original story... But how did he even get here? Wasn't the gate supposed to be cut off? Unless the guards forgot to disable it...' I froze in my spot as my hand hit my forehead.

"They totally forgot to close it..."

"Close what?" I heard Tess ask as she arrived next to me.

"You'll see later, now let's head back to the castle I'm pretty sure we've been out for more than an hour," I told her.

"But why? My parents won't know until later since they're always busy!" She argued.

"Tess that may be true but I also have training I need to do. It was fun hanging out with you though." I said with a small smile, she didn't answer instead she pouted and turned away from me.

"Fine whatever! We can go back, but don't be upset if I find a new best friend!"

"A new best friend? Where are you going to find one better than me?" I asked her with a teasing voice.

"H-hmph, you never know!" She exclaimed while stomping off towards the castle.

I sighed and followed after her.

When we go to the castle we were immediately met by Virion.

"Brat, meet me in the meeting room we were in before, Tess you go to your room or something." He said with a serious voice, I nodded and was about to walk off but was held back by a grip on my arm.

"No, I wanna go with Oz too!" Tess exclaimed, Virion seeing this glanced between the both of us before he sighed and nodded his head in agreement.

"Fine, it isn't anything serious anyway."

(Arthur.)

When the green light enveloped me, my eyes shut closed to brace for impact, but when I felt that nothing hit me I grew confused, I opened my eyes and was met with the sight of a crowd of Elves muttering something about 'another human.'

'I-is this the kingdom of elenoir? The home place of Elves?' I questioned myself, I slowly stood up and dusted off my clothes, and went to speak to the crowd but was cut off when 5 swirls of wind mana appeared in front of me.

Raising one arm to shield my face from the wind and placing the other on the hilt of the sword I collected, I watched as the swirls of wind mana dispersed and 5 elves in armors armed with rapiers.

"State your business here human!" The guard in front demanded, I immediately took my hand off of my sword and respectfully bowed my head as I spoke.

"I apologize for my illegal entry, but I didn't come here on purpose, I was traveling in the woods and got lost, I started to wander around aimlessly hoping to find a human settlement. But as I traveled I found 3 trees with unique markings, I avoided them and walked past but was engulfed in green light and when I opened my eyes I was here." I informed them in one breath, I raised my head and gazed at the man in front of me who held a skeptical look.

"Hmm, alright. Come with me, we will bring you to the king himself and he will decide what to do with you."

I didn't even get the chance to respond as 2 of the elves behind the man who spoke, came and grabbed me by my arms and carried me towards a giant beautiful palace.

'So beautiful...' I thought with awe, the palace here was definitely something you would expect in a different world. Not like the world I came from didn't have kingdoms and whatnot but they were never this beautiful since war was always on the verge of breaking through.

Lost in thought, I didn't even realize I was already in the palace till it was too late. The guards who brought me here stopped in front of a giant 2 piece door that was bronze-gold colored, I glanced at them and saw they nodded their heads before they opened the door and walked in with me in tow.

I saw multiple people sitting or standing around a long stone table, at the head of the table sat a silver-haired elf with a small crown around his head, which gave me the idea that he was the current king.

To his right was a beautiful silver-haired woman with bright emerald bluish-green eyes, she too had a golden trinket around her head letting me know that she is the current queen.

Standing off to the side was an old man with a wrinkled face, a long grey beard, and grey hair, on his left was a pale-skinned boy with snow-white hair and pitch-black pupils, he had a strange black mark on his face that started above his right eyebrow and extended all the way to the middle of his right cheek.

The boy wasn't staring at me like the others were, instead, he was talking to a young elven girl who had emerald eyes just like the king and queen, she also had silver gunmetal hair.

"So, who are you and what are you doing here?" I was snapped out of my thoughts as I heard the King speak.

'He's royalty so I should be respectful to make sure I don't end up getting thrown in jail...'

"Ahem, my name is Arthur Leywin, and I come from a humble family that originates in the Kingdom of Sapin. The reason as to why I'm here is because I was separated from my family after a bandit attack, I've been traversing through the forest ever since then in hopes of finding a way back to my family in Xyrus City." I said with confidence to let them know that I'm not lying.

The King put on a thoughtful expression as he glanced at the old man with the 2 children next to him.

"Elder Virion, what do you think we should do?"

'Elder Virion? So that's his name... I'm guessing the white-haired kid with the mark is the other human the other elves mentioned when I first arrived...'

"Brat, are you having pain coming from your mana core?" I heard the Elder ask, my eyes shot wide open, my mouth dropped as well forming an 'O'.

"H-how did you know?" I asked, but all I got in return was a smirk.

"Become my disciple."

"Father! You already have that other human child! Why do you need this one too!" I heard the King shout, my surprise over his past question was already gone as I was now thinking of the benefits of becoming his disciple.

'If I become his disciple then I could learn more about the magic of this world and hopefully figure out what's wrong with my mana core... But what about my family? I can't stay here that long with them thinking that I died...'

"Elder Virion, I'll become your disciple if you have a way of letting me see my parents make sure they're alright," I stated, the people in the room minus the boy and the girl, eyes widen with surprise. Virion smiled before he spoke.

"Fine, go wash up and rest, tomorrow I'll take you to someone who could fulfill your request. Osiris, stop flirting with my granddaughter and show this brat around!" Hearing what he said filled my insides with hope, but hearing the name 'Osiris' filled me with curiosity as well.

I glanced at the white-haired boy who I thought was Osiris.

"G-grandfather! W-what do you mean flirting! We aren't!" The silver-haired princess shouted, the boy named Osiris chuckled before making his way over to me.

"Yo, follow me." I just nodded and got up from my chair. We didn't speak as we walked through the halls of the palace, I was mostly entranced by the view of it.

"Beautiful isn't it?" I heard Osiris ask, I looked at him and saw he was looking at me.

"Yeah, it is. Doesn't really feel real haha." I said with a small chuckle, Osiris chuckled a bit as well before responding.

"Yeah I know right? It didn't feel real when I got here either."

"How long have you been here Osiris?"

"Hmm? Oh, not that long, I got here yesterday. I'm sure you've heard that there was another human here when you first arrived right?" He asked me, I nodded my head in agreement.

"So... was that you who... ya know, killed those people?" He stopped in his place for a second before he started walking again, letting out a sigh.

"Haah, yeah that was me. The girl you saw me hanging out with was the girl I saved from those dooshbags."

'Dooshbags? Is that something people of this world would say?' I raised an eyebrow as I thought about this.

'Is he an otherworlder? No, that's very unlikely I shouldn't start jumping to conclusions just because of what he said.'

"Ah, is that why she seems so close to you? You guys seemed to have known each other for a long time."

"A long time? I've only known her for about 2 weeks..." Osiris said with a dry tone.

"Ah, well that's just what it looked like, my bad..." I said while putting my hands in front of me, the boy didn't say anything and kept walking and soon the halls were filled with nothing but the sounds of footsteps.

"Hey, Osiris? If you don't mind, can you tell me what's up with that mark on your face? I've never seen anything like it before." My curiosity-filled voice resounded through the deadly silent halls, Osiris didn't stop moving as he answered.

"Dunno, I was born with it and it grew as I got older, which is why it's as big as it is now. Maybe I'll figure something out about it as I get older and explore some more." I was about to answer but he stopped abruptly.

"Alright, here's your room, I'm the next door over so if you need anything then come and ask. Alright, see ya." He informed me with a wave of his hand.

I watched him leave for a door that led outside before I went into my room, plopping on the bed the comfort from it made me fall asleep instantly...

(Osiris.)

'Okay, now that I'm free~ let's go train my ice!' I thought enthusiastically. Making my way towards the big rock Virion showed me earlier, I saw that the frozen trees and grass were nowhere to be found and neither were the frozen objects.

'Ah, seems that he wasn't able to save the trees...'

Shaking my head, I continued my small journey to the rock and once I got there I once again ran my fingers across the top of it, trying to see if I could get an idea of how hard it actually is.

"Haah, of course, that won't work..." I muttered out loud, forming an ice dagger in my right hand, I raised it in the air and brought it down, once it made contact it exploded into millions of pieces. Seeing this I sighed once more before repeating my action from before, over and over again.

I changed the weapons I used to see if I could find one that would feel natural to me, and the only set of weapons that did, were daggers, so I ended up just using daggers the rest of the time.

After an hour of doing the same thing over and over again, I decided I would do it once more before switching over to training my darkness manipulation, I wanted to do it while it was still daytime since there are fewer shadows which would make it harder to produce or manipulate the darkness.

I already had a set plan of the times I would train my ice manipulation and my darkness manipulation, Ice would be in the mornings while darkness would be in the afternoon. I knew that I would need to train my darkness manipulation a lot more than my Ice manipulation since Ice is million times easier than darkness. Manipulating darkness felt like trying to get a baby to stop crying, only to end up making the baby cry louder you know?

Like you have to find the perfect way to harmonize and to calm it down, or it would lash out.

The darkness felt chaotic and untamed like it was rejecting me, it only worked those other two times since I was in danger and it willingly worked with me, making me have the thought that it wanted to protect me.

So in simple terms. The darkness wouldn't work with me but it would help me if I were in trouble, letting me know that it kinda has a mind of its own.

Ice, on the other hand, felt like it was a loyal companion, it felt very willing, it didn't fight back and it answered every single command I gave it. Whether it was to cover my body in ice, coat my organs with ice, or even my bones, it never resisted. It just did what it was told.

Anyways, enough of the explanations.

Plopping down on the green grass, I raised my head to look at the bright stars that floated in the sky.

'At least I got some type of progress today, it was a lot faster than I thought.' I internally mused.

"Oz! It's time for dinner!" A girly voice entered my ears, turning my head I was met with the sight of Tess standing in the doorway, Arthur was there as well but he was farther behind her.

"Hey, Tess. I'll be there in a minute just let me finish up my business."

"No, you've been playing with ice all day! You completely forgot about lunch and you left me to myself all day leaving me bored." She argued, she had her arms crossed and her head raised, almost acting like an adult telling her child they can't play anymore.

'What the hell? Was she like this in the story?'

"Fine alright Im coming, Im coming," I said as I stood up and dusted off my clothes, I let out a deep breath of air forming a cloud in front of my mouth.

Gazing at the duo, I walked over to them with my hands in my pocket, once I got to them Tess turned around and led us to the dining room while I and Arthur walked behind her.

"So, ice huh? You're a mage?" I heard Arthur ask, glancing at him I replied.

"Eh, something like that." He just nodded his head, and we walked in silence.

.