7 Library - Part 2

James sat down at a table on the third floor of the library. He had grabbed two books off the shelves to read. James looked at the first of the two books. "Introduction to Magi. Looks like it was written by the same author as the Introduction to Knights book I read earlier."

James opened the book and began reading. Magi are those blessed with great talent. Only 1 in 10,000 humans have the potential to become a magus. Beasts that can become magi are known as magic-beasts. About 1 in 100 beasts have the potential to develop into magic-beasts. Other races vary heavily. Many races have no potential to become magi. Several rare races are known for every single member developing as a magus. The now extinct elves were the most famous of such races.

James continued reading to absorb the wealth of information about magi. For once he felt truly excited about coming to this world. Not even the knights book from earlier made him feel as excited as right now. James kept reading.

To become a magus, one must be born with a magic core. This core is located in the center of the brain. By absorbing mana into the magic core, a magus grows more powerful. This in turn allows the magus to learn and unleash more powerful spells. Adopting from the knight system, magi are divided into 9 grades with the 1st grade being the weakest and the 9th being the strongest. As magi absorb more mana they will continuously increase their grade. The grade of a magus can be determined by either using special measurement crystals refined by artificers or by casting a spell of a certain grade. Measurement crystals are generally the more trusted methodology as magi have been known to purposely cast weaker spells to pretend to be a lower grade.

The book was very detailed, and James became completely absorbed in it. He continued to read. There are seven elements in this world. Everyone is born with innate talent for certain elements regardless of whether one walks the path of a knight, the path of a magus, or both. The 4 most common elemental affinities are earth, wind, fire, and water. After that there are the 2 rare elemental affinities of light and darkness. Lastly, the 7th elemental affinity of lightning is the rarest.

James finished the book and put it down on the table. He sighed, "So amazing. Haha, I bet I'll be a genius in multiple elements. Why else would I have been sent to this world if not for the fact that I'm a unique talent!? I bet I'll be a master of earth, wind, fire, and water! All shall bow before my might! I'll become the avatar! Bwhahahaa!"

James cheerfully picked up the 2nd book. He had picked this one up purely out of curiosity due to the title. It was called "Magus Mutates". From its appearance it appeared to be a relatively newer book. James opened the book and began to read.

It is well known that there are seven elements in this world. Earth, wind, fire, water, light, dark, and lightning. Each person has at least one innate affinity. Knights use their elemental aura to protect the body and apply it to weapons. A rather crude, but effective method nonetheless. Magus are more elegant in their usage by using mana from the mana core to cast spells that control the outside world. Create earth spikes, shoot fireballs, freeze water, and create tornados. All of these are normal spells for the respective elements. However, there are actually much rarer types of magi as well. I call these magi Magus Mutates!

James was surprised to learn there were other types of magi he was unaware of. The first book hadn't mentioned them at all. James continued to read.

In the past, scholars mistakenly thought there were more than seven elements. This was because Magus Mutates had strange powers different from normal magi. This in turn falsely led to scholars inventing false nonsensical elements such as death, metal, and others. However, my research has proven that there truly only are seven elements. Those with special powers have mutated magic cores that affect how they use their elemental affinity. Little is known about how these mutated cores came into existence. However, from my research I've found that every Magus Mutate I've met experienced extreme trauma before undergoing their mutation. Each one was a normal magus prior to the mutation. I have met a total of seven Magus Mutates in my life and they just happened to each belong to one of the seven elements. Some of their powers match previously recorded Magus Mutates, while others are completely new unheard-of abilities. It appears that even within a single element multiple types of mutations are possible. Below I will provide a brief summary of each one. I will be using their well-known nicknames as opposed to their real names.

- Professor Metal. Originally of the earth element. 300 years ago, he was a prisoner of war locked within a metal prison. He was tortured daily until he eventually managed to control the metal around him to escape. Upon escaping he discovered he could no longer control earth, but in turn could control all types of metal with ease. At the time of the writing of this book he was last known to be located at Sea Salt Academy where he resides as headmaster.

- Lord Breathless. A once well-known wind magus. It is unknown when his mutation occurred, but he is able to control gas. He did not lose control of the wind element. He is a greatly feared magus as he easily suffocates enemies from afar before they even realize what's happening. Last known to enter the forbidden continent 80 years ago. He has not been seen since.

- Icy-hot. Originally, he was an unknown ordinary fire magus. After undergoing his mutation, he gained the ability to create cold flames. He still has the power of an ordinary fire magus as well. His cold fire and hot fire are hard to distinguish. His flames are usually blue or white and either color can be cold or hot. Current status and location unknown.

- Blood-devil. A water magus of the Dark Kingdom. Her mutation resulted in her losing the ability to control water. As her nickname suggests she now controls blood. She is a feared existence for controlling her enemy's bodies to make them attack each other. She commonly kidnaps strong knights and turns them into loyal blood puppets. Blood-devil should be avoided at all costs! I myself almost died at her hands before luckily making use of a river as my getaway!

- Holy Maiden Radiant. A light magus of the Light Kingdom. Little is known about her mutation. She was originally an orphan. Upon entering the church, she became known as Holy Maiden Radiant. So far, the only confirmation about her power is that she can use it to brainwash those weaker than her.

- Captain Bonesaw Originally a dark magus. He is a well-known and feared pirate. His ship made completely of 7th grade dire-beast bones is famous. He lost his ability to control darkness but became able to control all types of undead dire-beasts. There are known similar Magus Mutates from the past. Originally scholars classified these magus under the false Death element.

- Plasma. Lightning Magus Mutate. He is still able to use lightning magic. He has additional magic that creates plasma. The plasma is hot enough for even fire affinity knights and magi to fear it. Status and location currently unknown.

I risked my life to meet these seven magi during a journey that lasted over a hundred years. Magus Mutates are significantly stronger than ordinary magi and have many tricks up their sleeves. Should you ever meet one then I suggest you run. If you can't run, then I suggest you pray. Sincerely, Dr. Arcane.

James put the book down and sighed in amazement, "To think there are such powerful people in this world. Scary stuff. However, I am just an ordinary man. None of this concerns me as of yet." James put the books away. However, he did not immediately head for the next floor. He rubbed his eyes and the system display appeared. James looked at the list of upgrade options he wanted.

1. Increase System Intelligence

2. Interdimensional Storage

3. Map

James rested his head on his hands and closed his eyes. He began to think, "I currently have 100 energy units. Each upgrade option costs 100 energy units. Which should I choose? I can probably find a map in the library so it's not that useful. Interdimensional Storage sounds awesome! That would be super useful. Just think of all the things I could store in it! Wait… I currently have no things. I'm basically homeless and broke. Not even so much as a porno mag I could hide in storage. Damn! Okay. System Intelligence it is! Maybe the system won't be shitty anymore! Haha! It'll definitely be useful! Okay. Let's do it!"

James opened his eyes and selected the option [Increase System Intelligence]

[System updating. 12 hours remaining. System will be unusable during duration of upgrade.]

"Eh? 12 hours? Well, that was anticlimactic. Oh well. Off to the 4th floor!" James went to the 4th floor and looked around. This floor had many more books than the previous two floors combined! James browsed through them slowly and saw a wide range of topics. Books on war, medicine, history, and more! James settled on just two books. One on geography and the other about beasts.

James sat down and opened the book on geography. He was surprised by what he saw. There were three continents shown in the book. The BlueFire continent, BeastWater continent, and Forbidden continent. The map showed the world as a round globe. The three continents were far apart. The Forbidden continent was at the northern top of the planet. It appeared similar to Antarctica of Earth, except for the fact that Antarctica was at the southern bottom of Earth. Oddly enough there was no further information about the continent. No kingdoms, geography, etc. James had not managed to find any books on the Forbidden continent either.

The BlueFire and BeastWater continents we're lined up along the planets equator. Each continent was roughly three times the size of North America. Together with the Forbidden continent the three formed a triangle. There were also some islands along the various coasts, but they didn't seem to be common. Interestingly the BlueFire continent had the shape of a fire. Likewise, the BeastWater continent sort of looked like a bear. The forbidden continent had no particular shape to it. It was mostly round with jagged edges.

James carefully reviewed the BlueFire continent. In the northwest corner was the BlueWoods Kingdom. The southwest corner contained the Light Kingdom, which was by far the biggest kingdom on the continent. The southeast corner contained the Dark Kingdom, which was the 2nd biggest kingdom on the continent. The northeast corner consisted of multiple counties and duchies none of which were unified or explained in detail. In the north center of the continent was the Earth Kingdom. Lastly, was the Drake Kingdom. Surprisingly it was the smallest of the five kingdoms. It was west of the Earth Kingdom, north of the Light Kingdom, and Southeast of the BlueWoods Kingdom. Lastly, there was a series of mountains that ran horizontally across the center of the continent. Each kingdom except the BlueWoods Kingdom shared a border with the mountains. These mountains were the Magic-beast mountains. Magic-beasts could be found in multiple mountains throughout the continent, but none of these mountains were comparable in size to the Magic-beast mountains.

(Note from author: Link to my amazing drawing of BlueFire continent I made. https://imgur.com/a/FVJQDTH)

Next, James glanced over the BeastWater continent and Forbidden continent. Unfortunately, there were little to no details about either. It would seem knowledge about other continents is not well known. James leaned back in his chair and sighed, "So the Magus Plane is a planet after all. It's also about the same size as Earth. It's crazy how big the continents and kingdoms are though… The way Lumi spoke of it I was originally questioning if this was even a planet. I'm sure the flat-earthers would be disappointed to find out that even other planets are also round."

James put the book down and grabbed the next book. It was a basic book about beasts and was fairly short. He opened it and began reading.

There are three types of beasts in this world. Ordinary beasts are those that never manage to absorb mana past the level of a 1st grade knight. Typically, these beasts are domesticated by humans or they are extremely numerous beasts that survive by leaving a lot of offspring. The 2nd type of beast is the dire-beast. Dire-beast are capable of absorbing mana to continually strengthen their body like knights. They possess strong regenerative abilities and are able to use aura to increase their offense and defense. Lastly, there are magic-beasts. These beasts can control the elements just like a magus. They have a magic core in their head. It is common for them to be hunted due to the value of their magic cores. Be warned however that no magic-beast should be underestimated. They are scarier than most magi due to their strong bodies. They usually fight on home-turf which provides further advantages.

James continued to read the book. It provided some more details on the magic-beast mountains as well as short descriptions of some of the most commonly seen magic-beasts. James put the books away and headed for the 5th floor. "Eh?" James saw a sign. The fifth floor was closed. It was only available for Sea Salt Academy students. "Oh well." James turned around and headed for the 1st floor. The setting sun could be seen through the window. James saw the woman who entered the library before him leaving as well. He hurriedly followed behind her when she opened the door to leave. Contrary to his expectations that woman headed towards Sea Salt Academy instead of back to the city. James followed the path towards the city. By the time he got back the sky was already dark.

James reached a run-down inn. Unlike the other inns, this inn was made of mostly wood. James entered and saw an old man at the counter. The old man spoke, "1 silver coin per night. Includes meals and bath." James nodded and gave him his last silver coin. He had a nice meal and took his first bath since he entered this world. It was his first time using a public bath, but fortunately no one else was using it at the time. James then headed for his room. To his surprise, the door opened with ease. It was an ordinary wooden door! James smiled and happily drifted off to sleep.