Chapter 5

Tom spent the rest of the day in his study and even fell asleep there. The next morning he started the day by cooking some more meat.

"I don't have anything to use as padding... maybe if I have to combine enough cobweb, I could use it as a way of padding... But then again, how to attach it without causing any pain... Maybe if I turn it into something like a trouser and use her shoulders as a support and pull them up... Arh..."

Mumbled Tom as he was cooking the meat. Soon the spider and Lodié approached him and sat down beside him. Tom was preparing, this time five rabbits. When the meat was prepared, he tossed one to the spider, gave on to the wolf, and was about to stand up and go into the house, but as he turned around, he noticed that Doli was walking toward him, and the girl was riding him. As Tom saw it, he chuckled slightly and gave a rabbit to the girl and one to Doli.

"Yesterday, I completely forgot to ask your name... And also forgot to introduce myself... My name is Tom!" Said Tom with a smile.

"Elnin... My name is Elnin... And thank you for saving me, sir!" Uttered the girl and looked at the smiling Tom.

"Please, just call me Tom. Please be more informal with me; I am not really used to it... " Replied Tom.

"Um... Right...Sorry... Tom." Uttered the girl nervously.

"I don't know whether you are hungry or not, but here is some food..." Said Tom and gave one of the rabbits to the girl and one to Doli.

"T-thank you!" Replied the girl.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I have some matters to attend to; in the meantime, please make yourself at home... Also, these are my wolves, Doli and Lodié... and that spider seems to be a friend of Lodié..."

Said Tom and walked back to the house, and headed straight to the library.

"Yesterday, I was so focused on the events that I didn't even think about the wolves' house... How on earth was that large trunk moved... I will focus on it a bit later... Now, I want to learn a bit about magic... I always wanted to use magic, and although I had this library, I didn't come to see what books it has."

Thought Tom, and then he started looking around in the library. It was relatively small, as it only had a few bookshelves, but every single one was full of books. After a few minutes, Tom found a book titled: "Magic Essentials". Tom quickly grabbed it and rushed back to his study, closed the door, and started reading it. The first part of the book was a short introduction to magic itself; and its stages and realms.

Fostering Element; is the first realm one can step into. It has nine stages. In this realm, mages have minimal knowledge and control over magical power. The progression is slow, as the practitioner is required to do physical exercises to advance. As the body is being trained, the magical power slowly enters the body and fuses with it, increasing physical strength and defence. When the fourth stage is reached, the progress gets drastically more difficult as the already strengthened body still needs to be fused with more magical power.

Core Formation is the second realm. It is only achieved after a considerable amount of magical power is already absorbed and fused with the body. If the practitioner lacks physical strength, they will be unable to advance to this realm. It also has nine stages; to advance, practitioners must learn how to control the magical power around them. Using that knowledge, starting from the fourth stage, they can absorb magical energy more efficiently by controlling it and pulling it into their body. To achieve the fifth stage, practitioners must begin the formation of a magical core within their body, which acts as a bridge between the body and the excessive magical power which have been and will be absorbed.

Core Cognition. It consists of five stages. After the realm has been reached, the magical power which can be used is drastically increased. With each step, the practitioner gets more familiar with their core and learns how to utilise its potential. When the last, fifth, stage is reached, the user will be able to exert most of the accumulated magical power and begins to feel a strange change in the core.

The Core Probe realm is reached when the change in the core is noticeable and has a slight weakening effect. The core is distant, and the connection to it is obstructed. At this stage, the user can't rely on the stored magical power and has to learn how to utilise the magical power in the air. The fifth and last stage is reached when the connection to the core can be noticed with the help of the usage of external magical power.

Golden Core realm. It is reached when the connection to the core is perfectly noticeable again, with the help of external magical power. It has nine stages, and to progress, the core and its magical power must be purified. Reaching the second stage is the hardest, as understanding how to refine the absorbed magical energy is complicated. The purification yields explosive growth in power and mastery over magical power. After the fifth stage, the practitioner will have enough insight to react to slight changes in the magical power within a specific area. It is called magic sense. Magic sense improves along with the purification of the user's core.

"It...It is quite dense... But... unfortunately, it seems I won't be a mage... I can't feel anything... Anyway, let's continue; maybe there is still something interesting that needs to be read."

Thought Tom and continued reading. The first part after the realms was about different crystals and how they react with each other. To grew gradually sleeper and sleepier as he kept on reading until he fell asleep and had a strange dream.

He was standing in a plain and bare area. It was in the middle of the night. He looked at himself, and all he could see was a golden misty armour. He was wearing a full-plated armour which seemed as if it was made of mist and was glowing with golden colour. On his two sides, there were two swords in their scabbards.

"What a strange dream..." Said Tom and then brought his right hand close to his face and closed it, then opened it.

"It feels a bit too realistic... But I did hear that there are dreams where you can control what you do... Maybe my consciousness decided to give me some strange, wild dream since I have been longing for a magical adventure, and I have learned that although I am in a magical world, I can't be a mage... Or I am just an idiot and overthink everything... And this is just a coincidence."

Thought Tom and looked around the area. Behind him stood a large army of soldiers. They were shaking as Tom looked at them. And then, after a brief pause, Tom turned to the other side, where he noticed a sizeable portal-like object. It was coloured purple and had a cloudy ring which was orbiting around its outline. And as it circled, the mist covered the inner part of the portal. Although the outer part looked like it was made of vapour, the inner part looked more like it was some sort of liquid as it slightly waved.

"Is... Is that some kind of spell? Wait... I have seen it in Onelord... Although it has a different colour... It is a gate... But what is it for? What is it? Gate for monsters and demons or what?!"

Mumbled Tom, and the moment he said that, a small green being with slightly defective but very sharp teeth walked through. The creature was wearing only rags, and although it was very short, it was muscular. It held a wooden club in its hand and screamed as it noticed Tom.

"A...A goblin?! Or something similar?! Now I understand... I dream about being a hero... one of the worst nightmares I could ever have! I hate being in the centre! Is this an after-trauma from the village or what?! I hope not."

Meanwhile, Tom was lost in thoughts as he stared at the goblin; the monster rushed towards him.

"You want a fight?! Fine, I will give you that... Although I am not good at it."

Mumbled Tom, and he quickly drew his sword, and in the process, he cleaved the goblin into two without even touching it with his sword.

"Oh, right, I forgot... This is a dream... I am invincible here... In that case, let's see just how wild this dream can get."

Thought Tom and laughed nervously and walked towards the gate as he drew his other sword as well, and soon he stepped through the gate. Beyond the gate, what awaited him was nothing more than a simple passage in a cave. Although it was dark, his goldish glow illuminated the path for him. Tom looked back at the gate as he walked deeper into the cave, but as soon as he heard a screeching sound, he looked ahead again. Ahead of him, he noticed a group of goblins rushing towards him.

"Previously, I managed to kill that one without actually touching it with my sword... Let's see what happens if I slash it!"

Thought Tom, and quickly slashed in a cross, and from the tip of his blade, a thin yet powerful goldish line erupted, which not only decimated the goblins but also went through the side of the cave and carved it soo deep that Tom couldn't see the end of the damage.

"It...Was... AWESOME!" Shouted Tom and jumped up in happiness.

"This feels amazing! So this is how it feels to be super powerful! This is way better than I could have ever imagined," Declared Tom with great joy.

As he walked deeper, Tom noticed some light coming from deep within the cave. As he proceeded towards the light, he heard another screeching sound and witnessed a horde of goblins running towards him from the light. Tom was hesitant at first as he stared at the swarm of goblins.

"Why am I afraid?! This is just a dream!" Declared Tom.

He instantly swung his blades, and just like before, a thin but powerful line of goldish energy slaine most of the goblins. The moment the goblins realised what had just transpired, they all increased their pace and wanted to attack Tom as fast as they could. But to no avail, as Tom started swinging his swords aimlessly and killed all of them.

"Are you having fun, TOM?!" Shouted a strange womanly voice.

Moments later, everything became motionless; even Tom was unable to move. The cave around him started cracking, and everything around Tom shattered as if it was made of glass, and now Tom was floating in a dark, infinitely large space.

"Welcome, Tom. We finally meet at last!" Echoed the same voice.

Tom quickly looked around but couldn't see anything other than darkness.

"Who and where are you?!" Questioned Tom.

"Me? Hm... Good question... Foolish humans might address me as a god... But that title is already owned by a being, and I am clearly nowhere near his level..."

"A messenger? No... Not exactly, as I am here on my own account, and very few beings have the status and power to order me around..."

"What I really am... I am... The right hand of God, to some extent... I am the executioner and the watcher at the same time..." Monologued the voice, but Tom interrupted her.

"Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe you, as I..." Tom spoke up, but suddenly he was unable to speak.

"You are still too green... Haven't you noticed? The moment you arrived, you were fine after such a long fall; no broken bones, no bruises, not even a drop of blood was shed..."

"Haven't you noticed that somehow, despite the fact that you are in a completely new and unknown world, you are perfectly calm?"

"Haven't you noticed that you, just by chance, appeared at an abandoned house with some basic tools and items?"

"Since you so wanted to be in a world with magic, that wish of yours has been granted, but it comes with a price... As it should be, when you receive something, you are expected to give something back!"

"To speed things up, I gave you a heads up and some advantages... That is the reason you are so indifferent to the fact that you are actually here! Exclaimed the voice.

"Wait... what? It does make sense, now that I think about it!" Thought Tom, as he was still unable to speak.

"W-wait... What is g... Oh..." Shouted the voice.

Suddenly the dark room vanished, and Tom woke up. It was late at night; Tom couldn't even see anything. He slowly raised his head and looked around the room. He could see nothing.

"That was strange... I am too tired to think about it... I will go back to sleep." Mumbled Tom.

He lowered his head back down onto the book he was previously reading and then fell asleep. From below the table, a tiny girl crawled out. She was small, about the size of Tom's index finger. The girl was wearing a full white gown, and she had two wings on her back. The wings were purple, and she used them to fly onto the table. Although the girl was tiny, she had other characteristics which were quite sizable compared to her body; her chest. She had quite long dark purple hair; she used her wings to keep her hair behind her back and in a straight line. After a short period, she stared at Tom with her miniature red eyes.

"Oh... Fuck, I am going to be killed..." Whispered the girl