Chapter 28 - The Missing Text

Tiberius read the book he was given for the next two days. He planned to ignore all of the historical details and only read the 'Prime Magic' portion of the book. "So people always spoke English here," was his initial thought.

However, he discovered that some words did not even fit the language as he attempted to read more. The book seemed to have been translated from another language. A language that was almost entirely unlike English.

Seeing how difficult it would be, he chose to read it from the beginning. And he was glad he did. It actually explained some of the unknown phrases. Those were mostly about names of potions and their ingredients. While some had direct translations to English, most were just unknown and were left as they were.

Of course, at first he found the existence of potions ridiculous. He thought magic could only be used by dahas and other creatures. But as he read, he realized that this was not always the case. As this world was first formed, there was no mana in dahas, not even a drop of it. They were exactly like humans: powerless against nature with one exception. Intelligence.

The Dahas of old had recognized the supernatural abilities of certain plants and animals. They possessed a power of some sort that either helped them hunt or protected them. And this is how dahas discovered the magic.

They began to use this in their favor. They would cook meals using plants that gave off strong mana. They hunted animals that seemed to have more strength, strength that was not the result of their strong muscles or large sizes.

As they used animals and plants as food, they did realize that in certain mixes, they would create something out of the ordinary. For example, the black lilac, known for its aggressive nature, could be used to create swords and spears that dealt continuous damage even after the enemy is damaged. And the only way to stop its effect was to use white lilac, a rarer one that would grow only in high mountains.

Dahas noticed odd changes in themselves after generations of using these potions in their daily lives. They started to become smaller and weaker than earlier generations because they were depending too much on magic. However, it came with a massive advantage; they began to have their own mana! After consuming food of animals that were flowing with mana and engaging with a lot of potions, they had finally had their own mana.

So they began to learn it, experiment with it, and control it. Slowly, they realized that while mana could be used for nature elements. They could control or create them out of their mana. Fire, earth, water, and air—all of them were under their control. They mixed elements and started to control more, including lightning, ice, flora, and magma, as they used their magic more and more each generation. Indeed, there were limitations. Dahas were never strong enough to continuously use magic because their mana reserves were not that great. They would run out of mana after a few minutes of fighting. But they trained; they consistently improved to the level that some people even began to show special abilities.

However, the book just mentioned the existence of these abilities. Never explained what they were and how they worked. Seeing this, Tiberius slowly moved on from those parts and came to the part where Rael asked him to read “Prime Magic.”

As he mentioned, there were only four types: gravity, time, creation, and destruction. Together, they form the concept of reality and existence. And to learn them, individuals are required to have immense…

“Huh?” Tiberius wondered as he reread the last part. But the sentence where it explains the requirement was cut off. “This is weird,” Tiberius murmured. He was right in finding this a bit weird. Because, while the sentence was cut off and the next part was something completely different, the book did not seem to have any ripped-off pages.

Tiberius jumped out of the tree branch he was sitting on and walked toward Rael’s room.

“Hey Rael,” he entered the room after knocking. “Some pages are missing here.”

Rael, who was trying to fall asleep on the couch, looked at him with questioning eyes. “What do you mean it is missing pages? No one even knew about the existence of that book except for me.”

“Well, they are not ripped off but seem to not exist entirely. Have you read this?”

“I have, but it was years ago. I don’t remember anything except for the things I had mentioned.” Rael replied, walking toward Tiberius.

“Look here.” He opened up the book and showed the exact page: “This sentence gets cut off suddenly,” he pointed out.

“Hmm,” Rael read it a few times, only to find the same thing Tiberius did. “You are right. There does seem to be something missing.”

“But pages are not ripped.”

“Yeah, it was probably ripped in the original book.”

“Original book?” Tiberius frowned. “Didn’t you say you found this in a cave?”

“True. My bad for not explaining it better. This is the same as the book I found. The difference is, it is translated into English.”

“The original one was in a different language? I thought people here only spoke English.”

“It is only true for our time,” Rael explained. “In past, maybe over a century ago, there was a different language called ‘Halyan.’ When I found the book, which was roughly 20 years ago, I found someone who could translate it.”

“What did you do to the original?” Tiberius asked.

“I don’t know. I told him to keep it. It was in a language that no one spoke, so I didn’t think I would need it.”

“Genius!” Tiberius exclaimed with sarcasm, “Now, how am I supposed to learn this? You said it requires cost, didn’t you? How did you know that then?”

“A feeling?” Rael replied. “Anyway, are you ready for your training? We made all the plans.”

For a few seconds, Tiberius stood there without responding. Although he disliked abrupt topic changes, he accepted it and asked, "Sure, what is your plan?"

"I'll give you physical training. Ivy will assist you with your strength ability. Layla, Tom and Tyler will take turns sparring with you while pointing out your mistakes.”

“So I won’t study magic?” Tiberius asked.

“No, we don’t have time for that. Figure it out yourself while fighting.” Rael said, walking toward the door. But suddenly, he stopped and turned back. “I was going to take a nap and I forgot that. Now let me rest.”

“Okay, but I don’t get why you are always sleeping or eating. You are much more lazy than I expected." Tiberius complained.

“This is the cost of greatness, my friend, the cost of greatness,” Rael replied, lying on the couch and closing his eyes.

Tiberius saw no point in staying in the room and put the book on the table, thinking he won’t need it anymore. As soon as he left the room, an arrow flew toward his head, which he tried to dodge but was not fast enough for it. Luckily, the arrow had stopped right between his eyes, without touching him.

“Did you finish with the book?” A sound came next to the tent he was facing.

“Yes,” Tiberius replied, taking the arrow.

“Great, then we can start your training. Show me the crystal.” Layla approached him. Tiberius, without questioning, pulled the crystal out of his pocket and showed it to her. “You need this to be touching your skin all the time. Unless it does, you can’t use mana at all.”

“Okay, but holding it in my hand will put me at a disadvantage.”

“Who told you that you need to hold it?” Layla pulled a roll of bandage. “We will tie it onto your arm so you won’t have to carry it in your hand.”

“But what if it comes loose?”

“Make sure it doesn’t. What are you, a kid?” Layla looked at him irritably. “Also, make sure you don’t tell Harald anything about this. He doesn’t like his things being taken.”

“You stole it?”

“I borrowed it.”

“Anyway, as if it matters. Thank you, but who will I try with first?” Tiberius asked as he took the bandage.

“You will start with everyone else. In ten minutes, join us. We will quickly go over mana essentials. Then, while we focus on nature types, you will work on your primal types.”

“But I don’t know how they work. The book did not have anything on that.”

“Then imagine,” Layla sighed, “magic is mostly the work of your imagination and practice.”

Tiberius simply nodded and went off to cover his arm with the bandages without saying anything more.

…

“Mana has a few usages that you will need.” Layla explained, standing in an open field, facing all the kids she has selected. She only selected older ones, primarily those over 16. “First is protection.”

“Sorry, I am late,” Tiberius apologized as he joined.

“It is okay. Let’s continue. Protection.” She said, covering her whole arm with mana, “As you see, there is no spot I left unprotected. But does that mean I won’t get hurt?” She looked around to see if someone wanted to answer.

“Not clearly,” said Maria. “It is up to the density of your mana, but it is still just a layer.”

“Correct,” Layla agreed. “While this will protect you from light attacks, you will still need to dodge and block enemy attacks with your own.”

Then she pointed her hand toward a small rock next to her, lifting it without touching it. “Second usage: Mana Grip. You can affect things around you with your mana and control them to a certain degree. As you see, lifting this rock isn’t an issue, since this does not have any mana to oppose me. But when I try something with mana,” she let go of the rock and extended her arm toward Yula, lifting her off the ground, “it becomes difficult and condition-based.”

Everyone around stood calm except Tiberius, who was slightly shocked by it.

“The reason it becomes difficult is mana of the living beings. When I try to lift her, she could push my mana away by releasing her own mana, not letting me lift her. This all depends on your mastery over mana, the the amount of mana you have and timing.”

“But this is not all. Mana Grip is really tricky. Sometimes you may not even be able to lift a simple rock, because your enemy has surrounded it with their own mana or has created it. In those cases, you need to find another way to deal with danger.”

“Can we lift ourselves?” Tiberius asked curiously.

“Well, of course, but it still depends on your mana and your weight.” Layla replied.

She opened her hands to the sides and covered them with flaming fire, adding, "The third and most important way to use mana is creation and control of nature. And this is what we will learn.”