He woke up in silent contempt, he wasn't sure why but something was bothering him, he felt uncomfortable. Looking down to see what it was, he noticed a large white ball of fur laying over his legs, he reached down and pushed the wolf off, once he moved the wolf had already woken up so it bounced off his legs once he started to push.
Once the wolf was off he had to stand and start stretching his legs, once he was done with his legs he began to move to the rest of his body. As he got limbered up he stretched, he felt great. He only had one more meal worth of rations so he decided to eat it, this meant he'd be able to eat lunch and dinner downstairs.
Sitting down the first thing he did was began to carve minor runes into his equipment, well it said carving but it was more using mana to place a rune on the item. Come to find out it was pretty easy, the output of mana he used was decent, small compared to some things but these weren't complicated runes. The ones he placed on all of his equipment and clothing were.
Mending, it took any sort of raw material and helped repair an item. It helped improve the life of his gear tremendously.
The next was a cleaning function, helping to passively clean his gear to make sure grim stayed off it, this was especially good for his sword and knives since it doubled as maintenance to keep them free of rust and degredation.
He placed a 'magic sharpening' on his knives and sword. It basically used ambient magic they came in contact with to keep the edge sharp, he would still need to repair, and maintain the edge at times but it helped lesson how often he needed to.
He also used a rune that helped him gather mana over time. Not only was it good for increasing his personal mana, but it was also good in slowly making the gear and items he had stronger with mana so they could handle more mana and runes.
This was all he could do currently without straining the material used on the weapons and causing them to, as he found out with a pen, desentigrate.
If an item had too much mana going into it without it becoming stronger due to mana, it would just crumble to dust. He could only imagine the effect it could cause for a creature.
Also, something he learned. Runes didn't make an object a magic item, it simply helped the process. He had learned through the bestiary that certain creatures could only be affected with a magic weapon, becoming interested he went to the scholar notes he had, and come to find out there was a vast difference.
His weapons weren't magic items, they were considered mana weapons. The damage they could do to a creature was minimal if it could only be affected magically. Though he learned that unless he was actively looking for a creature like that, it was near impossible to stumble across it, especially in this area. Mana beast was plenty though.
He would need to eventually see how long it took an item to become a magic item, and he would also need to see the 'limits' to how much mana he could induce to it, and how fast that changed the process. Would certain kinds of mana change certain things about it as well? It would all have to be experimented with later since his notes didn't have much about it. Actually, magic items themselves seemed pretty strange.
He got 'most of his gear on, for now, he just kept a sword and normal clothes on, putting the rest into his banker, which was incredibly useful.
Locking his door behind him he and his wolf walked down the stairs and made their way to the counter. Alex seemed to be working on something at his desk but when he looked up and seen Felix he waved a hand before standing up, making his way over. ''Morning to you lad, decided to spend some time studying?''
Felix gave a nod before he spoke. ''The bestiary mostly, no matter how muscle headed I might be eventually, it's always good to have the knowledge to back up it.''
''I have a request, and a question, the request is can you find me a teacher for scouting? As well as a person that would be willing to spar with my wolf so he can get used to fighting people with weapons.''
Alex gave a nod. ''Easy enough, just head along the counter to that side door, I'll have people join you in a bit, what's your question?''
''I noticed that magic items are pretty much a mystery to a lot of people, is Magic itself pretty mysterious?''
Alex laughed before he nodded. ''Actually, we know Magic exists, definitely, but the 'Age of Magic' long passed. No progress has been made into it, hell it's even degraded over the many years. You might still find some people good with magic that are old guys living in towers, but a lot of people nowadays rely too much on magic items or spellbooks.''
There was a difference between spells and a spellbook. A spellbook was a 'General' idea of a spell, and if anyone followed it they could eventually do the spell, but a spell was personalized magic that the person using it took time to practice, and build up themselves. The good thing about personalized ones is they were stronger since they were made for you, but they took time to make and learn, however, general ones gave the same amount of power and were quick to learn.
Hearing this he mentally frowned a bit as he left Alex with a wave and thanks. If magic really had become demoralized like this, wouldn't that mean someone who decided to do the old way of magic, really powerful? He didn't see himself becoming a wizard or anything, but he might dabble into it for a bit, he always thought quality builds was good, though he decided when he was 7 or so that he would be a 'Master of all Trade, Jack of none.' Basically meaning he would eventually seek to master every aspect he dabbled in, and note just get a general idea then move on.
Was it time-consuming? Definitely, just learning how to transition from melee game builds, to squishy rogues or squishier wizards was a task, he could only imagine it now.
Though he also decided he would focus on his physical strength and body first while slowly going into his mind. If he wanted to focus on magic but ended up not being able to use spells, he wouldn't have a sturdy body to back up one. But one thing you can always trust? Your body, in the words of someone wise from his past life. ''The greatest weapon is always the human body.''
Making his way out the door he saw a large training field, which looked exactly like you'd think it would. The dirt was compacted and stamped down, there was still looser dirt the can be kicked up or grabbed but all the yard saw active use and foot traffic. There were wooden dummies laid to one side and a row of wooden weapons of all kinds.
He let the wolf prance around the empty yard before eventually, two guys walked through the door, one was built large, thick arms and a thick chest, his whole body looked like a wall, he didn't say much but he moved to get a sword and shield from the rack. Seeing that Felix instructed his wolf to focus on learning how to dodge, evade, and look for openings.
They immediately started without question, Felix liked the silent guy, more of a get his job done, not worry about conversation type.
The other person was also male, but he was more small and lean, less about bulk, and more about making every little muscle count. ''First off, scouting is about being quiet and being able to travel without being spotted. For now, we won't worry about them being spotted part, but let's focus on the noise and how you move.''
With that, they began to train, and Felix was learning a lot more than he thought he would, he was learning how to adjust his stance to make less noise, how to breathe, how to use certain parts of his shoes, or even his feet to lessen the noise he made, he was even taught how to evenly distribute his weight on landing from a jump or leap so he made less noise.
Even if he didn't take to something, he remembered it so he could train with it later, after about six hours, a break for lunch, and another two hours he had reached what the instructor labeled as passable. Asking that he go further in-depth with his explanation he got it.
''You could sneak and scout through the forest pretty easily, unless you were detected magically, or tried to be spotted nothing could get you spotted, your scent might give you away but that's a bit harder to train in without getting messy. Civilians are no match for you, but people trained, or even people who are in a similar occupation could spot you if they tried.''
This was good, only half a day worth of training and he could consider himself at least decent. The reason why they stopped was only that the trainer wanted to work on his bow usage. After a quick demonstration, he said that for hunting, he was actually really good, but for combat, he would need to work on a few things.
''When you train, it's best to work on other things, focusing on just one thing will cause you to train in the mistakes made as well, so during your training, always have a focus, but never spend more than eight hours on it. With your bow we'll focus on two things, moving while shooting, and your ability to hit a moving target, while also moving.''
They did this until it started to become sundown, he never learned the trainers' names but they had become friends. The scout was glad to finally have someone competent, and actually paying attention. The one training his wolf? The only words out of the entire time he got out of him were at the end. ''Wolf's smart, two more sessions and he should be a danger to even the Guild Master.''
Come to find out, when he said that as he was walking away the scout whistled. ''Never heard him say that much, your wolf must be really good. Once he gets used to combating maybe I'll also train him.''
Felix raised a brow before looking over. ''You can train animals to scout as well?''
The guy nodded. ''It's not too uncommon, whereas it's still rare to see an animal as smart as your wolf, many scouts usually end up befriending an animal to help in scouting, actually. You got a pen and paper on you?''
After some checking, neither of them had any, so they went inside, after asking a clerk behind the counter they got one, the scout started to scribble something down before handing him what looked to be directions. ''When you get 10 gold, I recommend you take a visit to this lady, she can make your wolf a Spiritual animal, and from there you can make him other creatures and even communicate with him.''
At that price? She better be able to make his wolf fly, good god. About 50 copper could keep a family fed for up to a few weeks, about five silvers could have them living pretty good for a few months, a single gold coin was about as much as most farmers made in an entire year on a good harvest. The currency was broken down into three stages, copper, silver, gold. A hundred copper became a hold, a hundred silver became a gold. You could make 'Bars' with was just, a hundred of the coins smelted into a small bar. Not only was it good for space, but it also became a universal currency, some stamps weren't liked by some nations, while others were.
Apparently, there was also a magical version of the coins, it didn't make them more or less expensive, but it seemed people who practice magic preferred the more magical coins.
Once he had eaten a pretty good dinner, bread, butter, stew, and a drink of his choice, which he chose just water. He was stuffed, making his way to the counter he asked for an 'Adventuring guide'. It included a lot of random however useful information, getting it for free since it was easy to print and make such books, he wondered why libraries were so hard to get into then?
Once he was back in his room, door locked and the wolf lying at the foot of the bed he began to compare his scholar notes, with the guide book. He then, in his own writing began to section the information and put it in a book of his own. He was using ink to do so since that is all he had, but he learned that it wasn't too hard to 'Erase' ink, so even if he needed to update information, he could. He didn't try to put it into a book or anything, he kept them as papers that were separated by a small piece of leather with a blank page that only said the topic.
So it would go portion about beasts, then at the end of that portion it would be a leather bookmark, then the page behind it would have in bold 'Magic', so on so forth. After some time spent doing this he stretched, with a quick spell to clean himself and his clothing he kept his dagger beneath the pillow and laid down, the wolf this time was at his feet and if he stretched his toes out he could feel the wolfs fur and the warmth of it.
Also, he didn't forget to clean the wolf, at first its coat was rather rough, but after constant cleaning and upkeep, his fur was now rather soft.