Chapter 7

[POV MC]

With my story over with the Lich King getting killed and Bolvar being the next one , there were discussions going on whether some concepts I introduced could be really used .

They were discussing while I was getting offered some sort of alcoholic drink made with fermented horse milk , it was called 'kymyz' .

After a bit of talk among themselves they were ready to go to the next level .

"Okay , we will go on with the ceremony ." said a man getting up .

He went to altar and on a big stone bowl he spilt his blood in it . Others that saw this also started getting up one by one and they too spilt their bloods in it .

After the last person spilt their blood I saw others gather around me . Külgöz came next to me and place her hand on my shoulder .

She said in an etheral voice

"Go on . Drink it , my child . "

I looked at the bowl full of blood , the smell was terrible . A metallic smell hung in air . It was making my nose twitch . But I was seeing the serious expressions on the faces .

I took the bowl in my hands , it was heavy . I raised it to my head level and took a sip . I took my time drinking it for the first time and getting used to its taste . Then I kept going a gulp after another . Taste was not pleasant but it was ignorable to a degree . There was still blood left even after many swallows . Finally finishing it with a great challenge .

I placed the bowl back and hardly kept myself from throwing up .

Then I heard the sound of chanting or maybe sound of a music. It was a mix of choir song and throat singing . They were dancing and singing around me with their shaman drums and tambourines . The creatures were circling around them , howling and screaming .

I was starting to feel dizzy , world around me shaking . At some point I felt like I wasn't myself anymore . I was standing my arms open , I too started chanting something I don't know . Seeing visions of war , death and might . Telling to shamans around a story . I slowly started to see myself from the third person , seeing my eyes shining in red .

It felt like shamans were worshipping me . A desire to rule , kill , conquer , prosper , expand .

I was a god at that moment , I was feeling like one . And the afterwards were blurry with me dancing and singing in some unknown way with a half understandable language until I started to drink the life around seeing things wither , order become chaos . I kept dancing with the shamans around then I sat down at some point and kept mumbling something and the rest was nonexistent.

I had lost consciousness .

After I lost consciousness , I woke up with visions of death and war .

I was at somewhere else and all the crowd was nowhere near . All the ruckus was gone .

I was lying on the ground . I had this feeling of waking up with full of stamina after sleeping too much .

"Oh , you are awake ?" "Good ." said a familiar female .

"I will be your master until you are passable to your next master . " "Get up. You rested enough ." "You will be learning the basics with me ." "It will be a long journey until you are passable to your mentor ."

I straightened up and tried to organize my thoughts .

"First we will make you a wand or a staff or a stick or whatever you are comfortable with . It will take you to the next step since they are shortcuts to rituals. They are basically tools for motion based rituals . " "Usually one of them is chosen since controlling two at the sime time is an event that will waste a lot of time ."

The genius inside my head was already speaking .

"What about tattoos , moving ones if possible ?"

She looked at me like she was looking at the most stupid thing in the world.

"Can you freely move it inside your body , if the answer is no stick to classics ."

I got my answer , which was a 'no' because I didn't think I could move some magical pigments under my skin. Not now at least .

"Tattoo idea is good but you are not at that level yet , I have seen your control it was pretty primal . Useful nonetheless . Stick to it for basics."

She continued "Rituals are the basic way to fast results . Basic rituals with basic actions are effective that is why wands are popular these days since they have all that and are mobile too ."

"But we prefer mostly the sticks because you can turn it to a spear or to a bow with magical capabilities . You can even use it as a sword if you can somehow gain the trust of dwarfs , they live in underground and are good at metal works . They mostly make guns and the reason we don't use guns is because a gun lowers the reaction speed and power . Sure you could enchant the gun and bullets but a strong or smart opponent won't even be scratched . "

"I use a stick and a drum for rituals ."

"Drums are better after you get used to a wand or stick or staff ." "They are slow to conduct rituals but are crazy efficent with chanting ."

"Same for the staff but with a good shaped one you can easily use it as a shield after enough mastery on it."

"Wands are okay for mobility but when you face ,as an example , an itbarak[=humanoid werewolf] they are not that useful if you can't turn it to a dagger . Not impossible to do but useless since it protects its material composition on itself . Would work easily if it was made of metal but dwarves are hard to deal with and human 'masters of wands' are too prideful to make it metal . And they probably don't know much about magic conducting metals . "

The lesson went with some theory . From what I understood weapon is a necessity and at some point I will have one . But for now what I need is the thing called foci . My primary focus was on the stick , if it was turnable to a bow and a spear it might come in handy .

During my training I will be given missions to hunt monsters and etc. with supervision but it was for the later half of training .

I decided on the stick . She took me to choose a tree for the stick . I chose an oak tree . I also gave a bit blood for the stick , she said it will be used to find a good magical ingredient . For the stick there was a ritual I should participate in when it is ready so we went on with lesson with theory .

The lesson consisted basic rituals , use of totems and dolls , communication with nature and magical creatures , some very basic healing rituals and some herbs that have healing effects . Communicating with the dead , it was necromancy basically and not a taboo since no one fancied sleeping with the dead around here historically . It was not seen as a perverted act , raising dead and such since you were just a bag of bones when you die since the soul is departs . It was also believed that their souls would be greatful if they were to see their dead body fight even after death . Especially with various cults among shamans such as Kızagan [=a God/Deity Of War] cult .

Since we had just started with lessons we didn't do anything with ritual tools around.

After the first lesson ended I was sent back to dormitory . There I saw the kids that greeted me first since I spent the time most with the reverse harem girl I went to her to greet her .

This time the bullies were as away as they could be from me .

"Hello 'My Lady' how are you ?"

"Hmm , it seem you have learned the way to talk Snake . And thanks my day was good ."

"Hello to you too girl whose name I don't know ." I said to the Asian looking girl .

"You can call me however you want ."

"Asia then ?"

"Acceptable ."

"Okay then Asia how are you ?"

"Fine ."

"How cold ." I said , making a hurt face .

"Ughh , what do you want me to say ?"

"I don't know just be a bit more social ."

"..."

I had some chit-chat with them and asked them to take me to the place for study . In study hall there were many rooms next to eachother . From what I learned a kind of a special studyroom , a highly advanced place for study , this surprises me since there were no signs of an advanced education facility .

"Ah by the way you must go in here to study everyday if not there will come stone iyes[=nature spirits] from the walls and will kick your ass to inside . " said the lady reverse harem giggling .

Then she hugged me from one of my arms and while I was looking at her to understand what she was doing she pushed me to one of the rooms .

Then she said "By the way doors will -" but I didn't hear her since the door was closed and suddenly all the outside noise was gone . There were books about today's lessons on the bookshelf on the left side of the room , the room was small with only a little bookshelf on the left and an endless paper giver on the right . There was a chair that didn't look comfortable , but once I sat down it was as good as a high quality gamer chair .

On the paper giver there was a somthing written on it , finish the first chapters of the books on your left , this gave me a suspicion and I get up to open the door but as I thought it was locked. I was locked in until I finish the books .

" 'Nature of Rituals' , 'Herbs from Mountains to Streams ' , 'Totems , Idols , Balbals' , 'Uses of Divination' ,'Death and the Road Ahead ' , 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ,West Asia ver.' ,'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them , East Asia ver.' " I said the names one by one and took a look at one them to find out how many pages one chapter was and it was about a hunderd for a book . It was a bit much for children I guess but what can you do when you are locked in.

And unknown to me the girls outside were talking behind the door .

"You couldn't tell him about the lock ."

"Well , he will figure it out ."

"You also didn't tell him about the trial room and that he doesn't have to finish it in a day . Also you didn't tell him about time iyes slowing the time inside ."

"Yucks !.. Don't worry he will probably understand when an house iye shows up gives him some food . Hopefully . "

"Ughh, whatever . " said Asia then continued with little worry . "What I understand is how they found this much iye to shelter here ."

"I remember them being guided here with the help of Archura[= is a shapeshifting woodland spirit who protects wild animals and forests.] , I also remember northren Archura was known as leshen or something . After 'the Long Lasted Hunt' many magical creatures held hands with local human magicals some with shamans some with wizards some with Shinto priests and some with Ahura Mazda and Ahriman priests ." "But forget about iyes and talk about wizards I heard there were some handsome men in the Europe . Not the inbreds though , I can understand them sleeping with relatives but at least use some protections , inborns aren't okay afterall !!! "

"What are protections and what does that hag Ağperi is teaching you ?"

"Come on admit it , it was worth shamans giving lessons about what sex is or else we wouldn't learn these things until we got married to a husband ." she whispered to Asia .

"You damn horny monkey just don't talk about lewd stuff at least once in a while ." she muttered , rubbing her forehead .

While they were talking about their daily problems I was reading the books assigned to me . Fully unaware that the door won't open to outside but to a skill test room to test if I really learned .

But I had passed the skill tests , though I had to go back to the studyroom and take a look at a few things I had forgotten .

Thus my first day of lessons and self studying had ended .

[Minor F. 07.08.23]