As his eyes flew open he looked at the unfamiliar woman, or was she familiar? He stared at her before things began to happen all at once.
She had thrust a bag of items into his hands and pulled him to his feet while saying.
''Today is your fourteenth birthday, that means you're officially an adult, with that you can leave the orphanage and start your life as an adult.''
As he was pushed forward he just walked, trying to understand what was happening he caught glimpses of the things happening around him, wherever he was run down, rotting rood and the smell of mud and shit, it seemed familiar but foreign. It wasn't until he was suddenly pushed outside a door that he ended up on a street and the door was slammed behind him.
He stared in bewilderment, looking around he noticed rough wooden houses, some weren't even all wood, some only mud and some sort of hay-looking material. He looked around before he tried to recall his memories, he remembered his life living in the modern area, a curious logical kid looking to do a lot of good in the world with his abilities.
He looked around as fragments of memories began to come back to him as if he was just remembering his childhood again. His life in this 'world', magic and monsters existed, so did knights and dragons. He gripped tighter at the bag in his arms, this was a ''Care package'' given to all fourteen-year-olds that left the orphanage.
Thankfully he had no real friends, most of the ones he had already left on their own paths, the lady from before weren't rude, but due to the stress of so many kids, and in such poor conditions took a toll on her, and she was always rushing, though even though it all she tried her best to raise all of them.
Due to mana existing in the world, it wasn't strange to have the development of the mind and body much further than others. Even after looking at his own body for a bit, he noticed he was a bit taller, his muscle much more developed. He decided to get out of the street and walk down the dirt path until he came across a stump, taking a seat on it he began to explore the bag.
Inside he found 10 copper, which in this poor village was a decent around, just two copper could buy a good meal, 4 a good inn night and meals. It was generous because after looking through his memories he was a hard worker that helped around the place, depending on how much you did while you were in the orphanage depended on how much you were given.
After some thought he put the coins away, never taking them fully out of sight. He was new to this place, but it felt like instinct to make sure others couldn't see exactly how much you had, just in case. Looking through he found a few days worth of water and rations, newish clothing that looked to be handmade, a small knife. When he pulled it out and examined the blade for a long moment he decided to test if his ability still worked.
Bonding with the knife he noticed he could feel it immediately, glad this worked since it would give him an advantage in this crazy world. After holding it for a bit it felt more natural, slowly adjusting his grip on the knife to hold it better, examing the knife, it was well made. It was actually a knife he himself made, it was one of the ways he helped earn money for the orphanage, making smaller things. As he continued to hold the knife memories he had with it slowly came back, how to skin animals, how to take care of the blade, and condition it so he could keep it in good shape.
It seemed he had a basic knowledge of someone who knew how to carve wood, barter, smith, mining, and a very basic level of hunting skill. He continued to hold the know before putting it back into its sheath. Placing it to a crude leather belt behind him. It was a small knife, but it was still sharp.
In a world like this, it was protection.
Looking through the bag a bit more he found a very worn-out book, it looked to be handcrafted as well but when he held it he noticed he felt a need to bond with it, so he did. The moment he did he felt an explosion inside his mind as the thought of mana and magic circulated in his instincts now, he could feel it. He had seen some minor magic before, but now he could feel it. Looking up into the air he looked around to look at the thing strings of mana floating around.
Wherever he was had a thin concentration of mana, he could still use spells with it however it would take longer to make them.
Mana worked in simple terms, the more mana, the thicker the strings of mana in the air were, few could actually see the mana strings. He learned that if he unbonded with the spellbook, they disappeared, but once he re-bonded they were back. It was a spellbook explaining mana and its uses.
Mana existed in everything, and around everything. The stronger the mana of an item, person, or area meant they had thicker 'Mana strings.' It was an easier way to detect mana.
As he put the book away he continued to simmer over the knowledge of it. Mana was 'Infinite' in a sense, as long as someone knew how to use it properly, even if they used it to cast a spell there was no cost, it just required using the right amount of string depending on the strength of the spell, and once the spell was cast it would disrupt the strings, but they would slowly form back after the mana left the spell and returned to strings
There were three things that decided on how much mana someone or something had, the natural one was age. The older a person, the more mana, or the older an object or place, the stronger the mana. The only real thing that ignored this rule was the planet itself, it took billions of years just to naturally form thin mana strings like this.
The second was how long someone concentrated mana on an 'object.' or person. A magic item, anything could become a magic item, it just depends on how much mana, and how long mana was used on it that depended on the strength of it.
The third was mana creation, people could take natural mana since it was infinite and turn it into 'Personal' mana, the difference between natural and personal mana was a few things.
If natural mana was solar power, personal mana was a battery. Most people who focused around mana had a larger pool of personal mana, making the mana around them thicker naturally, this did two things.
Made wizards easier to spot if people used a mana detection skill or the rare case people could 'See' mana like Felix could with the book as his second bond.
Helped to enrichen the air around them with mana. The longer someone with a deep personal mana pool stayed around, helped fuel the are around them in natural mana slowly.
After looking through his 'memories' he deducted that if someone in the small village did have a personal mana pool, it wasn't large or the mana of the village would be even just a little thicker.
Looking at his own personal mana, he had barely enough to cause a gust of wind, and with his ability to see the mana threads around him it was much easier to pull them towards him to ender his own pool. He wasn't sure how long he would do this, but he knew if he wanted to survive, in a case of emergency it would always be better to have a backup battery in case the 'solar panels ever got destroyed so to speak.
He looked around from his stump, staring around him before he shook his head a bit. This village was too small, he wouldn't be able to do anything here that could majorly help him, but he sat on the stump and clenched the bag in his hand a bit tighter as he began to formulate a plan of action, but the first thing he needed to decide was something major and would decide he entirety of his fate on this world.
He knew next to nothing about this world other than very crude basics, but he did know a few things that could help him.
One, this world was harsh and cruel, only the strong survived by themselves, and the weak gathered together like sheep. If he wanted to survive even for just tonight, he needed to be stronger.
Two, he remembered his dream still vividly, and either it is the truth, like a gaze from the future, or just a passing dream. Meant that this world wasn't going to hold back against him. Through his dream, he knew no matter what, if he persuaded power, he would eventually see something like that more than just once.
Third, and possibly the biggest choice he would make to date. Did he want to be the hero who fought for others, saved everyone he could, and ended up, in the end, sacrificing a few people, including himself eventually?
Did he want to be the villain and do things he wanted, when he wanted? Did he want to harm others for the further of his goals, did he want to do anything in his power, even if it meant being evil of this world to make sure he survived, did he want to sacrifice others, and always leave them behind in pursuit of his own strength?