The ground trembled. A loud cracking sound woke Elise. She tried to get up as fast as possible, but she had forgotten the strong gravity. As if getting up was not hard enough, an earthquake shook the ground, making it even harder to stand. Standing on one knee, she looked around and saw the Traveler sitting on a rock, carelessly looking toward the source of the cracking.
"What is happening?" she shouted over the continuous cracking.
"The ground is unstable. It's been changing rapidly since we arrived, but this one was closer than the others. Don't worry, it shouldn't bother us that much."
"It shouldn't? Are you not sure?"
"I told you before, this place is incomplete. We can only guess what will happen." He looked toward her, and Elise caught a mischievous spark in his colorful eyes.
"You look quite awake to me; shall we start?" The earthquake faded as he spoke. He dropped from the rock and approached her.
Elise barely got up. Her legs were still sore, but they were not as painful as before. The Traveler stood in front of her, inspecting her. Normally, she would be disturbed if someone looked at her like that, but his gaze carried no ill intentions. She stood straight and waited for him to finish.
"Don't take your armor off. You should eat before we start. I have things to explain to you while we eat." He moved toward a medium-sized rock. He took a breath and punched it. Elise watched with curiosity; it was a gentle punch, and it looked like it did nothing.
He put his hand on it and pushed gently. The rock crumbled into dust, forming three shapes from it. They looked like two chairs with a table between them. Elise looked at the three-piece set with an open mouth.
"Just... how?"
"Oh, come on. You saw me do weirder things. Come sit; I should have some nice food around here." He searched inside his layers of clothing and brought out different kinds of food. "Eat first, then we'll talk."
The food was delicious, but the Traveler only ate little pieces of each. Some of the food was familiar to Elise, but had different flavors mixed in. She recognized the rice and chicken, but the others were completely new tastes. The strange soup with thin, long dough strips was especially delicious, which got her curious.
"Where are these coming from? They are so delicious," she asked with a full mouth.
"I collect them as I travel. They are unique flavors you can't find in any other Realm. It is one of my hobbies."
"So that's why you protected Mama Millio's tavern. Why don't you eat them?" The food was fresh and hot, like he had made it on the spot. He must be quite a cook, Elise thought.
"I don't really need food; I just like to taste it. I am quite a foodie, you know. I just wish I could cook them myself."
That statement shocked Elise. He had been traveling since the Gods knew when, but he couldn't cook. It did not make any sense to her.
He saw her expression and chuckled. "Is it that shocking? Let's just say I am not really good at creating stuff." He stared at the horizon with pensive eyes. Although still strange, even the best had something they lacked, she thought.
She ate the rest of the food in silence. It was a tasty and filling meal, maybe the best she had had since leaving home. The food containers had different designs. Some were metal, some paper, and some the same material as the water bottle he had given her before. The Traveler swung his hand over them, and they all disappeared without a trace.
"Okay then, tell me. What do you know about your Realm's magic system?"
She was not ready for a question like that, but she tried to remember what she had read years ago. "I read some of my father's books for the basics, but it was not my thing, I guess," Elise answered. "I know there is a source of magic called mana, and some can shape it with complicated incantations and items. If a magician is strong enough, they can use magic without incantations."
"When my parents first discovered my Blessing, they called a magician to check my magic affinity. They said most Blessed ones had high affinity, but when they checked me, they said I had almost none." Even if it changed the Traveler's perception about taking her as an apprentice, there was no point in lying to him.
"Good. It will be easier to teach that way." He pointed one finger up, and a dark, dome-shaped veil formed, severing their connection from the outside. A point of light appeared from that absolute darkness, starting to shape as the Traveler spoke.
"Your magic is a form of mana, as they call it in your Realm, just like you said. It is more commonly known as Energy." The fluent shape of light started diffusing all over the place, shaped as extremely thin strings. "Everything is a product of this Energy. No one knows where it came from; it was here even before the Gods, and it will be here till the end."
"Wait! Aren't the Gods the ones who created everything, including that mana—I mean Energy?" That was what the Church of the Six in her country had told the people since its existence.
"People usually want to believe that. That their almighty creator created everything alongside them. They are partly right, though; almost all matter is created by the Gods. But the Gods themselves are quite the opposite." The diffused strings of light started to condense in certain places, forming brighter clusters. "Energy that was aimlessly roaming before formed its own consciousness. The Gods we know are natural phenomena caused by Energy itself."
"The Gods?" This new knowledge was a bit hard for Elise to believe. It was not like the teachings of the Church of the Six in her region. Since childhood, she had thought the Gods were almighty beings that existed since the beginning of time. Everything was under the control of the six supreme Gods and Goddesses. They created and watched over everything, so everyone should have been grateful to them.
"The first Gods. Their consciousness was not the same as ours, of course; it was more primordial. But they changed as they interacted with more Energy and, of course, each other. Some fought and consumed each other, and some cooperated to coexist. Some even fused with others or divided themselves." The light clusters moved as he described, creating a colorful dance of chaos. "And eventually, something happened that changed their whole dynamics."
He stopped his sentence with a dramatic tone, as if telling a bonfire story. He looked at Elise, expecting an answer. Captivated by the story and the light show, she couldn't think of anything at first.
"Did they find balance?" she asked, saying the first reasonable thing that came to mind. She received the reaction she least expected. The Traveler burst out laughing, but quickly gathered himself.
"Sorry for that," he said, wiping joyful tears with his fingers.
"Was my answer that funny?" For Elise, her answer was perhaps not well thought out, but a reasonable one.
"You'll understand when we encounter some of them."
"We will what now?"
"Don't bother yourself with that." He dodged the question with a hand gesture. "They definitely did not get balanced," he said, trying to hold his laugh in.
"They got bored. Some of them stopped their meaningless dance and got themselves a new subject to play with." Some light clusters separated from the others, starting to change form. "They used their Energy, the very thing that created them, to create other things. Like matter. That led to the creation of Realms and life."
This new knowledge filled her head with even more questions. "So, you are saying everything is created from Energy, and we can control it to do magic and create other things?" The endless possibilities of this thought were enough to excite her.
"Exactly, although they are called Energy Arts, not magic. To sense or control Energy, you need to either be created that way or adapt to it, and there is no one way to use it. Every Realm could have a different approach. Of course, there are similarities in most because lots of those bastards are just jealous copycats, but some Energy Arts are quite unique." The lights changed colors and shapes, starting to turn around them. "Some named it Aura, Ki, Shard, Blessing... etcetera. Energy can manifest in different forms and be used with different techniques."
"So, my Blessing is a form of Energy Arts." The concept was quickly getting complicated, but she did her best to remember everything. She had left her belongings, including her notebooks, at the inn; unfortunately, they were likely burnt to a crisp. "How does it work? Did my Realm's creators just pick me or something?"
"Well, you see, your Realm is a young one, and a reprint at that." He looked unsure, as if debating whether to tell her the rest.
"What do you mean by a reprint?" she pressed, curious about her home.
He met her gaze with troubled eyes but decided to continue. "It is a classic medieval fantasy with a twist. It is a small space containing only your planet. The rest of the necessities for natural life, like the light and heat from the sun, are sustained by the Gods themselves. That is why there are six of them; they are either not strong enough to handle everything individually, or they are merely inexperienced younglings."
"I am saying that because, as far as I have researched, the fabric of the Realm is full of openings, causing the raw Energy to leak inside. They probably couldn't handle it and decided to use it in their favor. I have seen similar cases; they didn't want it to go wild on its own, so they started injecting it into random newborn humans, creating their own Energy Arts. Pretty clever, I would say. That manifested random anomalies—some boosted features—inside your bodies, causing the things you call Blessings."
He stopped for a moment to make sure she understood. This whole subject had blown her mind away, in a good way. She was already pleased she had chosen to follow him.
"I get the logic behind the Blessings, but why did you say it is a reprint?"
"Your Gods probably saw the setting of your Realm from some other Gods' Realm. Life did not occur naturally in your Realm. They liked it and decided to copy it. Think about it; what is the history of humanity in your Realm?"
It was a subject she had read about before. "We came from different tribes, forming bigger villages and towns, and eventually kingdoms."
"Yeah, what about before the tribes?"
Elise searched her memory, but unable to find a logical answer, she remained silent.
"That is what I am saying. Life in your Realm is really young, roughly three to five thousand years old."
"Is that considered young?" Five thousand years seemed unreasonably long to Elise.
"Well, yeah. Considering intelligent life forms can take billions of years to evolve in a natural system."
Billions...? How could something even last for billions of years? She didn't know what to think about this. She never had any interest in history or the creation of everything, but the way the Traveler explained it triggered her hunger for learning. She opened her mouth to ask more, but was interrupted.
"We'll have plenty of time to talk about these things, but today we have a different subject."
"Are you going to teach me those Arts you mentioned before?" That would also do.
"Of course not. Those techniques are lacking in a lot of areas. They have some good points here and there, but it is not worth learning the whole thing just for them." The orbs flew toward the middle, shrinking as they came together. "I am not saying they are useless, don't get me wrong. You can fuse them into your own technique, and I am going to teach you the technique I created and honed by combining all my experiences."
Even the thought of learning something that amazing from a real master ramped up her excitement. She felt it was time to ask the most important question. "So, what will the test be about? Are you going to test me after you teach me that technique?"
He waved his hand like he was trying to get rid of something in the air. "Glad you asked that. I'm not going to test you afterward; I'm going to test how well you can learn my teachings." The dark veil and the light orb disappeared in an instant. "Shall we start?"
He stood up, and Elise followed with excitement. It almost made her forget the gravity difference, but as she stood, the weight of her armor fell on her again. It was not as bad as before, but it still limited her movements.
"I see you are getting used to the gravity here. Good. Keep the armor on, but give me your sword."
Elise hesitated. Her sword was a different story. It was her father's gift and her only companion since childhood. She always kept it close, even when she took it off her belt. It even had a name: Steel Freedom. She looked at the Traveler's demanding hand.
"You won't need it as you train here with me. I'll give it to you when we start training with a sword. Don't worry, I'll keep it close." His caring tone softened her a bit. She knew she needed to follow his words to achieve greater heights, and eventually, she halfheartedly gave him her sword and scabbard. What could happen, right?
"Now, do you see that tall mountain over there?" He pointed out the pointy volcano faintly seen on the horizon. It was filled with cracks glowing with an ominous light, and its peak smoked continuously. "We will go there."
"What are we going to do there?" That place seemed a little too unpleasant for her taste.
"I don't know. It is the highest peak here. Maybe we will have a quick look around." He put Elise's sword on his shoulder and started walking slowly toward their destination. "Try to keep up with me."
"Weren't you going to teach me about Energy? Why are we moving again?"
"That mountain has a high Energy output. It will be easier to sense, but harder for you to control the Energy there. Perfect for learning." He looked back, smiling wickedly as he walked. "And we need to work on that skinny body of yours on the way. Higher Energy circulation inside the body demands a stronger vessel. Now stop whining and keep moving your body."
And she did... or at least tried to do what he said.