After finishing his meal, Lev's body felt new and aroused. His strength returned to his limbs and his mind was no more sloppy.
"Thank you for the meal. How should I address you?"
The man carried the empty cauldron and started heading to the entrance of the cave.
"Just call me whatever you want."
Whatever I want? Lev was intrigued by the secret behind the man's name. He stood up and noticed something that made him uncomfortable. He grabbed the inside of his jacket and pulled out a black book and a black box. There was something weird on the book that Lev couldn't point out. He decided to set it aside for now and hid it behind a rock.
Lev tried to think of a name that suits the man's personality. He followed him to the entrance of the cave, where the Jäger was lying, and what he saw outside was the whole forest that was covered in fog. The forest goes on and on as far as his eyes could see, it made him wonder if the whole world was covered in this dense fog.
With the view of the humid forest and the fog that blocked the sunlight, Lev wondered where they were. He gandered on the mouth of the cave, curiously thinking how he could see the whole forest. He looked down and he noticed that this cave was located on the edge of the cliff!
Beneath on the base was a deep river, and not far from the cave was a huge waterfall.
The height of the cave down to the river was like a 100 meters. If a person dropped down to the river from that high altitude, the chances of survival were high but the pain that it will give is that as if jumping straight on concrete.
"Do you want to learn more about this world?" The man with the black leather armor asked while looking at him.
The only answer was yes if he wanted to survive this world. Lev nodded with resolve in his eyes.
"Follow me."
The man threw the empty cauldron off the cliff and jumped on a swan dive position before transitioning his body to a proper diving form. When he landed on the water, few splashes of droplets rose from the water surface before merging back.
Lev didn't expect that the man would perform such a dangerous stunt! After a few seconds, Lev saw him emerging from the water with the empty cauldron on his hand. He went ashore and looked up at Lev.
Maybe physics and gravity don't work in this world... Lev tried to comfort himself as he readied himself to jump.
Well, here goes a leap of faith. Lev jumped off the cliff, it wasn't as grand as the man's diving position, nor was Lev in a proper position of diving. His legs were straight down facing the river while his arms were spread sideways.
Splash!
The river spewed large droplets of water everywhere as the water tension slammed Lev's unfortunate legs.
He could feel that he landed straight to the ground as electricity traveled around his body straight to his head.
The water was cold and deep, Lev swam above and crawled his way to the river shore.
"You failed to jump properly off the cliff."
The man turned around and began to walk towards the forest.
Waters spat off of Lev's mouth whenever he coughed. He turned his head and looked if his legs were still connected to his body. Thankfully, it still was.
He got up on his foot and followed the man. After the cool jump that the man did, Lev decided to name him Ezio.
Lev smiled, he was satisfied at that name. It fitted the man's demeanor which was silent, dark, cool and powerful.
"Mister Ezio!" Lev called as he started running towards him.
"Ezio?" The man was confused about Lev's sudden call.
"You said that I could call you whatever I want, right?"
"... fine."
Ezio was quite thankful that the boy didn't give him a weird name.
They ventured deep in the forest, Ezio collected some flowers, herbs, crystals and some rocks, while Lev listened to every word he said.
The world that they lived in was called 'The Kingdom'. This world was mysteriously created when an ancient powerful being, a deity which called 'Himself' Fate, found this domain. There was nothing in existence. The world was desolate and empty.
Out from 'His' palms, water gushed out, covering a huge part of the world. Trees, plants and flowers spurted from the ground, and animals came into being. And just like that, this world was created.
'He' created several types of races to take care of his creation. Elves took care of the forest, Humans took care of the land, Dwarves took care of the mountains, and the Leviathans guarded the deep waters. 'He' also created Dryads to protect the trees and Naiads for the rivers, springs, and lakes, but only a few people have seen them, making them nothing more but myths and legends.
After completing 'His' creation, 'He' blessed the inhabitants with knowledge and understanding on how to control the elements around them. After that being done, 'He' named this domain The Kingdom, and before leaving, 'He' gave the Kingdom freewill to choose how they wanted to live.
Thousands of years later, Humans created a civilization where different races could come and do business. They built a Kingdom, which was now the Ancient Kingdom, and agreed to have a human as their King. For hundreds of years, they lived a peaceful life, but mysteriously, monsters emerged out of the forest and started attacking the Kingdom. That time, there were no Knights of any sort to protect them, so the Kingdom was slaughtered and thousands of lives died.
Miraculously, life still persevered. The survivors migrated to a new place, far away from the previous Kingdom, and there, created a new one. Now, they were more ready to face the monsters when they attacked. Knights were trained and they mastered to control the elements while some others didn't. Little by little, the Knights became stronger and stronger until they finally managed to push the monsters away.
Adaptation, it was how life managed to continue. Different races from different places migrated in the Kingdom to learn Elemental powers and to achieve the title of being a Knight.
And for another hundred years, the King ruled them with just and righteousness, gaining the respect from different races and they even considered him the King of the whole domain.
They explored the Elemental powers and noticed that the more they believed in Fate, the stronger their power was.
When Lev asked more about the Elemental powers, Ezio denied his question by answering that he never learned Elemental powers so he could not show it to him.
But when they thought that everything was perfect and safe, the Kingdom faced a new adversary. This time more dangerous than the monsters, it was the shadow of darkness.