The first week was definitely the most odd for Arthur. He was constantly surprised by the odd foods. The strange items that could float and seemed to pop out of the walls, as well as the numerous sprawling landscape outside of his window once the fog and clouds cleared on a particularly warm day. His body finally began to feel better with each passing day that he could move about and stretch. Although it was nowhere near his peak of being of being a knight and warrior, it was actually a lot better then he remembered his teen body being. The muscles were small, but tight and dense under his skin. There was very little fat on him, and although he still looked the young beanpole, he could probably compete with a new knight if he attempted it.
Merlin claimed it to be the rest of the 'serums' or potions that were still running through his system and helping his body to recover and improve. Arthur didn't understand it, but given that he could lift the strange athletic equipment Merlin brought him which weighed at 2 stone (25lbs) in just a hand, he surmised that at least he was sure to improve rapidly if his muscles could grow and expand to their former size while keeping such power within. Arthur's mind also felt sharper. It wasn't just that he was able to remember the strange words that Merlin spoke to him without much thought, but that he was able to feel his body far more clearly then before. The adjustment in height and weight should have left him in a far more copious position than what had occurred. Within a day he was already able to perform simple exercise, and by the end of the week he was already performing complex actions such as hand stands and juggling several items. He felt a fool at the time when Merlin asked him to attempt such things, but seeing how simple it had become for him to get the task down after a few tries, he had to admit that being able to quickly grasp such difficult dexterous actions was a boon for the future if he was to wield a sword again.
The real problems began when he had to begin studying in earnest. Truly, even when Merlin advised and tutored him back in Camelot, he would often forget some of the more mundane or circumstantial knowledge that he felt provided little use. Only retaining truly immediately useful knowledge such as what was needed to improve a villages crops or how to properly make sure the clerks were taking proper care of the kingdom. Things like the names of rulers of distant lands, geography, and the workings of the world had only interested him to a point before he felt his time was better served elsewhere. But now, Merlin was practically cramming such knowledge into his mind each day. He was forced to sit before books and things called 'screens' that glowed with text to learn new things every day. Some knowledge was easier to grasp then others, like mathematics and the fascinating development of the world since his time, but stuff like specific people throughout history, or these new sciences in studying all things from the body to the stars baffled him.
He knew the names of the Old and new religions of the various heavenly bodies, but to learn so much about them and how they had all been so wrong back in the day on their simple observations of the world was hard to shake off. He was able to retain the information, but to replace what he believed he'd known at the drop of a hat was much harder.
Then came the language lessons. He could hardly believe that almost nothing of his way of speaking remained. All of it replaced with Saxon and later languages and their way of speaking. It was very difficult to grasp the foreign tongue, taking him several days just to grasp basic sentences, but he was learning quickly at least. But when he was told that this was only the first language he would be learning, the dread of his future left him reeling in anguish. He actually got so frustrated during the second week that he 'accidently' smashed one of the glowing screens with his clenched fist and taking the rest of the day to just work out and nap.
What was interesting was how much the world had grown and shrunk at the same time in his absence. Not only were the isles united, but the whole of Europa was united under a singular banner, even if they still had regional conflicts on the daily. To see such a sprawling empire that not even the romans could accomplish in this day and age left him in awe, but to find out it was still one of the smaller empires or nations of the world left him even more gobsmacked. The steppelands of the east were united loosely under another banner, but from the maps it seemed to stretch for near endless miles. The far Asian empires were sprawling and unique. An empire of islands and jungels, one of an entire subcontinent, and another that encompassed so much of the east, it looked as though it would swallow those around it.
But it did not end there. Across the greatest of seas, there lay yet more great massive lands that had numerous empires of their own. One in the north, inherited by the descendants of those that fled Europe. Three in the south across its vast jungles, mountains and plains. Each unique, but in constant conflict across the continent. But if one were to look for the most conflicted lands of the world, they would be on the great continent of Africa. Several empires lay across the vast lands, but each was as ruinous and conflicted as the worst of the old days. Many had rebels, and smaller nations that wished to break away from those who had control, while others were dying of natural disaster and horrid plagues. While the world was in great conflict no matter the location, Africa seemed the most piteous. Always in conflict at every corner, and people dying in the thousands by the day.
The only strange nation of the map seemed to be the singular continent or island in the great sea of the Pacific. It stood alone on a massive island and a few smaller ones around it. He remembered asking if such a place was not so powerful to dominate such a vast land and be so secure, but Merlin claimed it to actually be one of the weakest of the nations left to fight in this world. It was only so large and secure because of its location so far away from the world that it only occasionally engaged in small skirmishes rather then actual war..
His last questions were on the center of the continents as they seemed to have no name. Merlin shook his head to his question and said "~Those are the lost lands.~" Apparently, the areas around that area had been fought over so frequently over the years, that there was little left to fight over. The region was almost barren and left as dangerous deserts that were rife with 'radiation', a dangerous poison of the air, as well as horrid diseased ruins. There were only sparsely populated oasis scattered about the land. Small areas that were neither poisoned or barren, but were too small to house great populations. They acted more and through points and havens as refugees crossed the lands in search of simpler lives elsewhere, perhaps fleeing the conflicts of Africa to the numerous empires that maintained tenuous peace in their own borders, but still battled for small stupid claims.
Apparently there were people that also existed outside of our world. I asked if people now lived in Avalon or other realms as well, but Merlin just shook his head and told him about those that now stayed on places such as the moon, Mars, and strange harbors in space above us. I could hardly believe such things possible, and wondered why so many fought here if there was so much space out there, but apparently, while those places could house humans, they were small and barely habitable. Most would call them only the desire of those crazed for learning or wealth and desperate enough for the new. While many nations had previously harbored hopes for such places, the current crisis of the world drew their attentions back to Earth and they have mostly abandoned those ideas of garnering wealth and possibility from the stars until their homes are more secure.
Truly Arthur could only think this time was a time of strife if one could wage war across oceans for years on end with no resolution in sight. Where before war was common, it could not spread so far and so many all at the same time. And with safe harbors shrinking in number by the day for the peoples of Earth, it seemed near the end times. The world on the brink of erupting in wars so far unseen and truly dangerous to all. Wondering how Merlin could possibly think Arthur would be able to solve such a dangerous world and bring it to peace, Merlin would only respond with it being our destinies.
By then end of the second month of learning, Arthur was beginning to at least grasp the overall situation of the world and the main language of trade being English for the western side of the world. Though the modern vernacular was still difficult to grasp at times, Arthur could at least hold a conversation and understand what someone was saying back to him. But now that he could understand Oros, he was not very fond of the mechanical being that was always watching and monitoring him. The thing often talked to him as if he were a thing of study rather then a King or just a human being. It was truly unsettling and even when Arthur attempted conversation with it, the being seemed set on keeping such interaction as concise and simple as possible often leaving Arthur in awkward silence. To say it had hindered his developing language skills was an understatement as Arthur was almost wholly reliant on the speaking programs on the computer instead of actual interaction since Merlin would mostly stick to a mix of the old and new language so that Arthur could actually understand subjects without mistranslation errors in this early time of study.
As the third month was almost halfway though, he couldn't hep but wonder if he was truly ready and prepared for entering this school that Merlin talked of. Given that his main frames of reference were a cranky old wizard and annoying speech impaired robot.