"You didn't use any Skills." Whitlock said.
He came out of his tent to watch the battle.
I completely forgot that Sorcery was not merely restricted to the use of Affinities for stronger attacks.
But my opponent didn't use any, I could use that as an excuse.
"Zane even used Cyclonic Disturbance, yet he won without any skills. That's very impressive." Ashford said while he was seated on the grass looking at me holding onto Zane's helpless face.
"You know we just escaped a battle before we met them. My brother was still recovering. Believe me, Cyclonic Disturbance can't be defeated that easily." Whitlock said, after this he went back into his tent and signaled for Zane to come.
"Please let go of my face, I can't breathe too well." Zane said.
Even though it was in his regular meek tone, to me it sounded like 'Get your hands off of me'.
I immediately did what he said trying to avoid another skirmish just in case he had some Stamina left.
I saw Madden watching from behind her tent, still as quiet and eerie as usual.
I simply walked away into a secluded place and sat behind a tree where I stayed cross legged as I tried to slowly recover my Brio and a little of my energy.
While I was meditating, I decided to start gaining knowledge from the available parts of 'Bibliotheca'
…
-{Make Your Way To Your Available Section. Do Not Falter, Azur}
It was hard to tell if Athena was angry or not but I just did exactly what she said and I grab three books that piqued my interest.
One was on Brio efficiency, the other on Energy cultivation and the last was like a Flame affinity encyclopedia and apparently this was merely Book one of a thirty-eight-part book.
They were the first books I wanted to gain knowledge from.
I flipped through the first pages of the flame vade mecum.
[A/N: A vade mecum is a concise reference book providing specific information about a subject or location. In this case the subject is the Flame affinity.]
This entire book had nothing on flame skills or techniques, it was a bit of a letdown but the information on it was important.
It was basically about the correct way to assimilate energy for Flame conjuration.
I opened up all three books and I read through them for a while, then Athena came to me.
-{Go Back Up}
After what she said I was forced out of 'Bibliotheca'.
I expected to be surrounded by beasts or maybe Zane came for a rematch or maybe Stein came back for me, but I came face to face with Anastasia with a weird face right in front of mine.
I was startled to the point I felt like my heart intended to leap out from the confines of my chest.
I winced and due to that I erroneously hit her with my head.
She fell over, rubbing her head in pain and I stood up to see the party was gathered and they were boarded on the wagon.
Ready to leave, the two humanoid beasts I remember seeing earlier were tied to the wagon as maybe the beasts of burden.
"So, is there anything wrong?" I felt obligated to step into the wagon and I carried Anastasia as I boarded.
"You were blanked out for quite a while. We thought you were sleeping but you were gathering energy too. Very strange." Ashford said.
He whipped the goblins twice on the back and they began running in the direction ahead of them.
I felt it was quite rude and cruel because I and Anastasia were both Beasts but for some reason, I felt like I was above those beasts and that it wasn't wrong. The two-sidedness returned.
"Oh, don't worry. They are Arcane kobolds. They aren't too sentient at this stage. They are more or less mindless fools at this point."
It was like Whitlock sensed the strange feelings brewing within me and spoke to try to quell me.
"What Crypt did you saw we are visiting?" Anastasia asked eagerly as soon as she recovered from my unexpected head-butt.
We were visiting a crypt.
It would be a good learning experience for me if I did get into one with them and I could get some things explained to me.
I was still very oblivious to this world despite all I learnt from Athena.
"Athena, is there any ailment that could be said to be responsible for ignorance? Ignorance as in obliviousness or memory loss."
-{Yeah, it's called amnesia}
"Amnesia, I see" I needed to know just so I could make an idea for a plausible excuse for a reason as to why I know nothing so I can extract greatly needed information.
"Can you explain Sorcery to me?" I threw this question to Whitlock.
He was startled and I'm sure he wondered where a question like that even came from.
"Huh? how does one use Sorcery but not know what it is?" He replied.
"I don't remember a lot of things. I lost it all when amnesia struck"
"Oh, okay then. Well, Sorcery is basically taking the dormant energy outside into your body and through your Core to turn it into Active and usable energy. In fact, some Sorcerers are so good that they can use energy from the surroundings without even taking it to their Core. Cool huh?". Whitlock explained.
The Arcane kobolds were maneuvering quite easily through the forest and were finding routes that fit the wagon.
Madden might have been inside the coverings of the wagon because unlike Zane and Ashford she was absent, but it didn't matter now anyway.
"Cool, I guess." I replied, trying to silence my anxiousness.
I needed to hear more. This Sorcery concept was quite exciting.
"Sorcery involves numerous ideas; Beast taming and Summoning, Enforcing and Strengthening, Weapon practicality, Necromancy, Beast Volition usage and so forth. There are so many that I haven't even heard of them all."
I started realizing that this Whitlock had a personality that was, in short, whacky. He was eccentric but acted kind of childish.
"And I've heard that there is an even better form of Sorcery whereby Negative energy is used. I haven't seen any of it though, but I would like to." Whitlock went on as we made our way through the forest at a quick pace.
"Sorcery enables us to harness the energy around and produce unnatural effects around the world. The Energy around us is unlimited, so your ability is only as limited as your imagination."
"That can't be right. If that was true then Zane should have been able to beat me. He doesn't have Amnesia so his imagination should surpass mine" I said in an effort to contradict what Whitlock had just said.
I remember there being some kind of Brio system where you can't Accumulate Energy when your Brio is low.
"Hehe. You are provocative. Yes, you are right. There are indeed many other restrictions that keep our sorcery at 'regulated standards' which can be surpassed." He said in a clear warning tone.
"There is something in our world called Natural Law, it makes sure that all that is happening can happen and should be able to happen, hence it is allowed to happen and then it happens. Happen is quite fun to say." He added in a quirky, child-like tone.
[A/N: I don't even understand what bro said.]
I saw Zane glaring at me from the far corner of the wagon and it felt frightening actually.
It was like there was some kind of shadow casted over him and all I could see were his eyes which pierced into my soul.
I guess he was still a bit sore from the defeat.
Anyway, I understood everything else he said but this stuff about there being a world legislation just doesn't sit right and Athena was probably still mad at me for ignoring her so I can't rely on her anyway.
"Natural Law?"
"It's like a set of rules. Simply; You can only do things that can be done by you. Example, the big blazing ball of light and ether up there." He said while pointing at the sun which was already halfway into the sky representing it was noon.
"If a human searches for ways one can possibly be able to move it forcefully and fortunately enough, they find it, they would be unable to learn it and even if their mastery allowed them to learn it, they shouldn't be able to actually make it move. Humans shouldn't possess such power without them fully understanding the responsibilities and acknowledging the fact they are dangerous. Hence, Natural law prevents them from doing it. Natural law does a lot of things like this."
He kept on explaining and from the sounds of it, Natural law was quite useful.
I think it is responsible for keeping my Creator; Stein, in check.
"Like the concept of Brio, once one is exhausted one can't accumulate more Energy and once one's body is fully incorporated and saturated with energy the body can't accumulate any more. Both these "Laws" prevent Unlimited Energy usage or as I call it 'Illegal God-modding'." He explained.
"That's quite convenient actually." I said.
After my phrase the conversation came to an abrupt end and then the maddening silence I dreaded returned and crushed me under its soles.
Then in the already awkward situation I saw that Madden and Ashford had joined Zane in rudely glaring at me from a distance.
They all shared the thick shadow of shame and hatred and only the color of their eyes could visibly be discerned.
I did indirectly make fun of Ashford for his bald predicament and I did disgrace Zane in a spar so their glares were expected but why Madden was glaring at me was unknown to me.
I saw Whitlock speaking to Anastasia who was significantly shorter than him and she acted as cocky and arrogant as ever but the whacky Whitlock was able to tolerate her.
…And there I was.
Alone in a relatively silent wagon with nothing but hateful glares and the sound of enslaved beasts doing their forced jobs.
It was so eerily similar to Stein's facility that it furthered my notion that all humans were the same.
I sat right there on the floor and held my knees close to my face, I realized the length of my arms were reducing, I was starting to look less beast-like and more like them.