"Hear me out first." Rivie cut through Sebastian's thoughts - she noticed that he looked troubled when she suggested a supporting role.
"A supporting role doesn't mean that you won't be able to do anything by yourself and that you are weak. I mentioned before about different adventurers grouping together to form a party and adventuring forth to accomplish certain tasks. These tasks might be for subjugating a monster's nest, to control a specific animal's population at certain times, or even to escort people when they travel from one town to another. If you have a party full of swordsmen or a party full of mages, then it leans heavily on their offensive aspect and it will create problems when faced with certain situations." Rivie was still gazing at Sebastian, checking if he was following her. He wasn't sure if her lecture already started, but it was a nice change of pace compared to the physical lesson in the morning.
"To continue, this is where supporters come in. They might be in the form of a well-balanced adventurer - one who can do offense and defense at the same time, or healers that can support the party to help them push forward. Unfortunately, there will always be injuries or illnesses in an adventure. The presence of a supporter can mean the difference between life or death to an adventurer. To put it into perspective, if the adventurer you met when you first arrived to this world was just injured and still breathing, and you had the ability to heal her, she would have been alive today." She paused this time to let her last sentence sink in and quietly waited for Sebastian's reaction. She knew from Leo's report that Sebastian was flustered in that situation and it could have weighed heavily on his mind.
Sebastian shifted in his seat uncomfortably as he put down his spoon and placed his hands on the table. "I can basically understand where you're coming from. I just felt that I don't understand what an adventure in this world means and what I needed to do as a supporter. I just don't want to hold my team - or party as you call it - back. My work ethic is that I do my fair share of work, and I expect everyone to do the same."
"Those are very noble words, yet this is more reason for you to take on a supporting role. Let's say that you use your abilities from your previous world and assess your party's injuries before they even realise what is wrong, and you can prepare remedies for it quickly. This will allow your party to be more robust and accomplish more than usual." Rivie also put down her spoon and slightly pushed her bowl away, indicating that she was finished with her meal. When she looked at Elias, he nodded slightly to hint that he understood what she meant and prepared the table.
After quickly cleaning the table, Elias put down a few steaming mugs in front of everyone. To Sebastian, the aroma gave off a slightly sweet, fruity scent. It definitely smelled very familar, comforting, and somehow relaxed him.
"This is a common type of tea here in Kalonia. It's made of herbs and some fruit rinds so it's soothing and very aromatic - have some." Elias described the tea calmly as he was cleaning away the dishes and placed them in the sink. Sebastian couldn't help but think that Elias also had a gentle side to him, apart from the barbaric one he just met hours ago. Sebastian took a sip from the mug and felt refreshed, all the way to his core. He thought that it reminded him of a warm minty drink.
"Did you put mint in this? It's very pleasant, thank you."
"Ah, the one which you call mint is actually a herb to replenish your mana. It's refreshing and goes deep into your body. It's good that you like it and this goes to show that it's compatible with your body as well." Rivie took a sip from her mug as she elegantly placed it back on the table. She was still observing Sebastian intently, and he could swear her eyes glistened from time to time.
"So are you testing my body in some ways?" The thought made him shiver, but Sebastian wanted to know if there were any more surprise examinations after this. He suddenly felt a bad premonition regarding Rivie's afternoon classes.
"In some ways yes, but these will also be for the sake of your magick studies. Don't worry, I won't do anything that will severely harm you. It will be to gauge your abilities as well."
"I can't help but take notice how you casually placed 'severely harm me' in your reasoning. So there will be some sort of harm or damage to come."
"Like I said, it depends on your body's reaction to mana here and the equipments related to it. First off, we shall discuss that which we call mana and what it entails."
At this point, Elias finished off his mug and calmly stood up. He was making his way to the door already while saying, "with that, I take my leave. Rivie will take it from here regarding your magick lessons. I have to attend to the young adventurers' classes as well. I'll see you tomorrow, do not be late." The sound of the door closing was already ominous even without him slamming it. Sebastian gulped his saliva as he looked at Rivie, who just nodded slightly as if to agree.
"To start off, can I just ask which world you came from? We previously had Forgotten Ones as I said, and they have shared tales of their previous worlds with us. I am somewhat familiar with a few other worlds."
"Is that so? We call my previous world as Earth. Were there some Forgotten Ones that came from Earth?" Sebastian's curiosity was now piqued. He was still taking sips from his herbal tea as he looked in anticipation towards Rivie's smiling face.
"Ah yes, we did have some Forgotten Ones from Earth before, though they were a few centuries back. We share a close relationship with Earth after all. Are you familiar with a cataclysmic reaction in Earth before? It was said to have wiped out a whole species then."
"Cataclysmic reaction? Whole species? Are you talking about the dinosaur extinction? It was caused by a meteor I read." Sebastian tilted his head to the side slightly as he tried to make a connection with the dinosaurs, Kalonia, and magick. No matter how he tried to think about things logically and in a fantasy setting, he couldn't make any sense of it.
"Was that how it was reported? I see. Please don't be too shocked or anything like that, but what happened then was partly caused by Kalonia. We were trying to transport large quantities of resources from Earth to Kalonia when the mana overflowed though the portals. Apparently, mana is not compatible with Earth and it combusted aggressively, causing a cataclysmic explosion. Resources and people at that time were unfortunately lost on both sides. Centuries after then, people probably blamed it on a meteor strike to cover it up." Rivie was gently tracing the mug outlines with her slender fingers as she gazed calmly at Sebastian. She was expecting to hear resistance from Sebastian given this new and literally out of this world fact.
"I kind of understand what you mean, although I really can't understand a few points. Why was Kalonia trying to get resources then from Earth? Was it easy to move between the two worlds then at that time? So did dinosaurs really exist then? Or was it made up? But there are evidences though so it couldn't be made up..." Sebastian's voice trailed off as he fell into confusion the more he verbalised his questions. He hung his head low as he tried to grasp at straws trying to rationalise everything but he was failing miserably.
"Let's go through things slowly, please look at me. Have another sip if you want, it will calm you down." Rivie motioned for Sebastian to take another sip from his herbal tea. Her words hinted that the herbal tea had some calming properties which would help ease the onslaught of facts in the next few hours. If Sebastian tried to remember harder, he would have noticed that Leo also served him a similar herbal tea when he first met him in the Adventurer's Guild.
After she made sure that Sebastian took a sip or two from the mug, she then expounded on her previous statement. "Mana has always been a part of this world, from the creation up until now. It gives us different abilities, allowed us to flourish, and has provided for us. On the other side, it has also caused us problems. Animals continuously exposed to mana accumulate it in their body and minds. It warps their bodies, and strips away any form of reason from them, bringing them back to their primal instincts. They become monsters who don't know fear or caution, and simply want to consume and multiply. Is that clear so far?"
"Yes, it seems understandable enough. Are we going to talk about Earth's relationship soon?" Sebastian couldn't hide his excitement and irritation as he wanted Rivie to clear up the relationship between Earth and Kalonia soon.
"Yes, I will go into that now. When Kalonia was at it's infant stages, we could use basic magick for our daily living and for hunting. However the monsters at that time proved too much for us. Settlements were being wiped out one after another without any resistance whatsoever. When our ancestors turned to magick, they found out that they could open up doors or portals to other worlds temporarily. They recognised that Kalonia had its potential and didn't want to abandon it. They weren't even sure what monsters - if any, they would face in other worlds." Rivie paused at this point for a couple of breaths, and made sure that Sebastian was still following her.
"So your ancestors thought that it was possible to retrieve resources from other worlds and bring it back here to Kalonia for their safety and prosperity." Sebastian concluded her main idea as he calmly took another sip and allowed everything to digest slowly.
"You are absolutely right in that regard. They wanted to bring resources they couldn't easily find here. They didn't want to strip everything from other worlds, they just planned to take what they needed. That was unfortunately how they discovered that mana was incompatible with other worlds. Desperation brought them to that point so they couldn't do things slowly. They immediately wanted to harvest lots of resources and bring it back here. When the cataclysmic event happened, it also opened their eyes to the further possibilities of mana. As a result of the cataclysmic event, it expanded their understanding about the offensive potential of mana. They were able to repel monster attacks easily after that, but the scars were still there even centuries after. Which now leads us to the predecessor of the Forgotten Ones."
"The predecessor of the Forgotten Ones? Were there previous people that transmigrated as well?" It seemed that in terms of information dispensing and absorption, Sebastian couldn't keep up with Rivie. He was being dealt with mind-blowing information one after the other. He took another mouthful of the herbal tea as he continued to listen.
"Knowing that they were able to open up portals to another world, our ancestors were naturally curious then. They wanted to learn more about other worlds and wanted to bring that information back to Kalonia. So once the settlements here stabilised, they sent the first group of Otherworldly Adventurers to other worlds. These Otherworldly Adventurers were to mingle with the world assigned to them then. They would learn what they could about the other world, and come back. It was a rough method which involved them dying in their assigned world though specific means, and then coming back here, but it was the only method they knew how to keep the memories intact."
Unknowingly, Sebastian finished off his herbal tea and then gazed blankly at Rivie. The scale at which mana was able to be wielded was just confounding his senses. Rivie took notice of his blank stare as she gently took his mug and refilled it with the same herbal tea before placing it back in front of him, seemingly to give him time to process the previous piece of information as well before she continued.
"When the first Otherworldly Adventurers came back, they brought back with them a plethora of information that allowed our ancestors to flourish. Information regarding commerce, medicine, and even education were beneficial to the growing population back then. Although not all of them were able to come back, the few were regarded as heroes and were rightly treated as such. What they didn't know back then was that the Otherworldly Adventurers also imparted their knowledge regarding Kalonia in one way or another to the population in their assigned worlds." Rivie's smiling face slowly turned into one of melancholy as she paused before resuming her lecture.
"For the Otherworldly Adventurers to come back, they had to be killed using mana stones from Kalonia to ensure that their memories come back to Kalonia albeit in another vessel or body. They managed to do this by imbuing mana stones into weapons and using these to end their own lives, sometimes with the help of others. Now when you influence a growing population, there is also a possibility of creating warped beliefs down the line. We only noticed the problem when after all the surviving first Otherworldly Adventurers came back, persons were still being sent from their world over to Kalonia."
Sebastian could guess the reason why this happened and in a low voice butted in, "because they thought that killing people using ornate weapons was a ceremonial death. They thought that certain people needed to die using that method." His mind flashed back to when he saw the ornate dagger from the village chief just before his life on Earth ended. Sebastian shuddered unknowingly as he grasped the warm mug in front of him. The warmth seemed to ground him to the present as he further listened on to Rivie's lecture.
"Yes, it did create confusion and conflict at first. However once the first Otherwordly Adventurers explained things, everyone knew that we were partly to blame for this misguided information. People were being labeled as 'human sacrifices' in their previous worlds and killed using the weapons imbued with mana stones. From the first Otherworldly Adventurers, it slowly spiraled out of hand into ceremonies for a bountiful harvest, to bring rains, or to ward off unknown diseases. Banal reasons were being used to send people to their early graves without even understanding if it works or not." Rivie stopped herself as she took a sip from her tea. Sebastian remembered that Rivie was interested in the Forgotten Ones so she might have talked and interacted with a lot of them before him. He quietly waited for her to finish sipping her tea before she pressed on.
"That brings us now to your case. I know it is insensitive for me to ask, but were you also - sacrificed for some unproven reason?" Rivie seemed to struggle with the last few words as she silently gazed at him.
"I was actually finished off as an act of mercy. I tried to defend some people in a remote village from wild animals and ended up fatally injured. There was no way of saving me so the village chief killed me with an ornate dagger, which I now assume was imbued with mana stones. It also makes sense now why he told me to 'live long and be strong'." Sebastian took a few deep breaths as he fixed his posture on the chair. Talking about his demise on Earth was never easy - he wasn't sure if it ever will.
"Thank you for sharing that information with me. It is very interesting because all the Otherworldly Adventurers from Earth were accounted for already so the village chief might have based it on information passed on from his ancestors or the elders before him. I won't go into detail regarding the history anymore since it might overwhelm you further. We shall save it for another day, now is time for magick practice. Come with me to the courtyard again." Rivie stood up and gestured for Sebastian to follow her.
Standing in the courtyard with a few paces in between them, Rivie opened her hand while casting [Light]. A small ball of light floated on her hand. "As you might have guessed, mana is used to alter the laws of this world. It involves in using the mana within you to process your thoughts and create a physical phenomenon." Rivie looked at Sebastian who had a blank expression, seemingly not understanding her at all. "It will make sense when you feel it. I want you to close your eyes and feel the energy within you first, then slowly widen that sensation to outside of you."
Sebastian closed his eyes then tried to find any source of energy within him, he was intently closing his eyes akin to meditation when he found a warm energy coursing through his body. He tried to follow its movements before he noticed that it seemed to be growing bigger with each second. Before he realised it, he was engulfed with a hot energy which seemed to burn him!
He opened his eyes to look at Rivie for guidance but he only saw her silhouette against a blinding white background. The world seemed to burn in brilliance before his eyes as he felt the energy sear his flesh from the inside out. He tried to scream but he could feel that the energy was also stifling his breath. He couldn't feel anything else aside from the burning pain, he couldn't even hear anything Rivie was saying before he collapsed!