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Linael found himself in the chambers of the mind, which looked like a cozy home library. A comfortable armchair, a large desk, soft lighting, and straight bookshelves stretching out into the distance. On the right, as if it were a barbaric outhouse, lay a doorway to a cave, with torn and burned books on the floor. Only a single leaning shelf stands close to the entrance.

The size of the cave, compared to the library, was quite small, about thirty times smaller. It was understandable, since it was the subconscious. The library is the memory of the elf, who has lived thirty times longer than the human, and the cave is a reflection of that memory. And the whole rack is the knowledge of the language. The rest of the memories are books scattered on the floor of the cave. And the condition of the books speaks to the quality of the memories. More accurately, most of the memories are irretrievably damaged.

Linael set about recovering the human's memories. To do this he had to leave the comfort of his chair and go into a cave. There he began to pick up the broken racks with his hands and arrange the surviving books on them. He also corrected a crooked rack of memories of language. Each action brought him a bundle of knowledge. The more books he shelved, the more he learned about the world that was new to him.

For the most part, Dmitri's personal memories suffered, but much knowledge of the world survived, which pleased the mage.

A side effect of his actions was the integration of the human's personality into his consciousness. But a much greater experience of life allowed Linael to retain his personality. Of course, there were side effects, but he wasn't a mental mage. Such was the adoption of some of the Human's habits and addictions. It was fortunate that the elf had been able to curb most of the bad habits. And they, it should be noted, were many. There was laziness, alcoholism, smoking, and suicidal tendencies. None of these things were necessary to the elf.

As a result of long work on his consciousness, the elf learned a lot about the new world of residence. The planet was called Earth, and the country he found himself in was called the Union of Soviet People's Republics (USPR). This country used to be called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1989, the policy of the Communist Party changed. The failure of the planned economy became very evident. And then the government decided to follow the path of the Chinese comrades, who combined communism with a state-controlled market economy.

In the early years of the USPR, the country had a hard time. There was an economic crisis. But the solution soon showed its best side. By this year, 2017, the country has successfully weathered several global crises and is in third place behind the People's Republic of China and the USA (North American United States) in terms of economic efficiency.

Of course, everything cannot be perfect in any country. The USPR is no exception. Wages and pensions here, compared to European and American ones, are very much lower. But the standard of living is quite decent. Soviet citizens are free to travel around the world, although until 1990, this was considered impossible. And inside the country the tourism market is actively developing.

But some villages after the collapse of the collective farms began to die out. The emergence of successful large and small farms led to the collapse of collective farms. In some places they still continued to work, but already on a commercial basis with the distribution of shares. Thus, Dmitri owned one share of the local collective farm. It did not bring huge profits, but it still gave something. Every year Dima received for his share a natural product in the form of several sacks of flour, sugar, grain, and hay. Of course, one could also get money, but at wholesale prices. Therefore, the peasants preferred to take their share in natural products. They usually used these products for their own needs. Grain and hay were enough to feed a few dozen birds, one cow, and two or three pigs for a year. So almost all of Dima's neighbors kept one cow, some chickens, geese, ducks, and a couple of pigs. He, on the other hand...

Karpov turned out to be a peculiar individual. While he lived with his mother and sister, everything was going relatively well... The women kept him awake, made him work and take care of the household. But as soon as his sister got married and went to town, tragedy struck. The tractor, on which Dima worked at the collective farm, fell off its supports during repairs and collapsed on him. Thus he received a lifelong leg injury and disability. They started paying him a small pension. But if ten thousand rubles isn't money in the city, in the countryside you can live on it. It was half of his former salary.

In the end, Dima decided to quit his job. He began to spend more and more of his free time with the help of his idle neighbors and cheap country alcohol, moonshine. And when his mother moved to the city to live with her daughter, he started to do all the heavy lifting.

First, he drank away his entire pension. Then he took everything out of the house. First the chickens, pigs and cow were sold. Then the drunkard got his hands on home appliances, which, as it turned out, had no magic at all. Everything that was created by the Humans was made with the help of technology. Moreover, the local humans consider magic a fiction, although some of them believe in it.

Karpov began to accumulate debts for utility bills. First his gas was cut off, then his water and electricity. Now a quarter of his pension is deducted from his bank card by court order for debts of utility payments. And the amount of debt by court order, including fines, has increased several times.

In general, nothing good awaited Linael when he left the hospital. But he opened his eyes with a happy smile on his lips. Why shouldn't he be happy? Knowledge of the world, which might have taken him several years to acquire, he got for free, as the natives say. And freebies are what the elf fell in love with due to the deformation of his personality because of the mental technique he used. It's not that bad, either. At least he has a house with a roof over his head and thirty acres of land.

After his return to consciousness, Linael found it easier to perceive himself as human. Not to say that he accepted it, but now at least he began to perceive the situation adequately. After all, he had gained a decent layer of earthling memory.

He now knew that the strange floor covering was called linoleum, and that the multifunctional device was not an artifact, but a technical device called a smartphone. It is a miniature computer used for communication with other people and as entertainment, a source of various information, a device for capturing the moments of life in the form of photos and videos, mathematical calculations and much more. He immediately wanted to get his hands on such a device, but he has no money for it.

In general, Dima had a difficult financial situation, so Linael had to think hard about how to not only return the magic, but also how to improve the quality of his new life.

He spent the next ten days in the district hospital. The Human healers took a lot of tests, and the treatment was done with pills, injections, and drips.