Journal Entry #1
'Hello to myself and/or anyone who may read this. If you are not me, I am either dead or you stole this so give it back!
My name is Eric. I am not originally from this world, Eden. I came from a world known as Earth. There are several glaring differences in our two worlds that I have noticed after my time here and while I do miss my old world, I do not want to go back nor do I think I can.
On Earth, Technology and medicine reigned supreme. Civilization developed greatly to the point that average citizens never feared for their lives, had well paying jobs, and grew families in peace and comfort.
Here on Eden, its survival of the fittest. It reminds me of the medieval ages from Earth history, where knights and kings were in charge and religion and the word of God was law. The one big significant difference was the existence of magic.
On Earth, magic was just the stuff of fairytales and entertainment. There was no definitive proof of its existence and the few indigenous groups who did believe in its powers, were so far removed from the public's eye that nobody knew they even existed.
However on Eden, magic is real. Everyone can use it, even a baby, but it takes time and effort to train yourself to feel for magic and to properly handle its power. Mana flows through the bodies of Edenites, similar to how the blood flows through people's veins.
The difference between those two is that Mana has no physical form. It only exists in its astral form, or the spirit realm as many humanoid species call it here. The spirit realm being another separate world, attached to the world of the living. Similar to how religions like Christianity or Judaism on Earth believed in a Heaven or Hell.
But of course, these places were actually real due to physical records and firsthand accounts of people stumbling upon said realms. I do not have much information on that other than rumors since that kind of knowledge would be a closely guarded secret of any country.
Anyways, another thing different between these two worlds, is the existence of humanoid species other than humans. There are Beastmen or Demihumans that have animal ancestry that give them physical abilities similar to their ancestors. There are Elves who are highly educated in the magical arts and have Mana reserves up to 10 times greater than humans. There are demons who harness the power of corrupted Mana to destroy and terrorize other living beings. And many more.
These species all have similar humanoid structures with slight variations but are vastly superior to humans when it comes to physical or magical prowess. Humans are the bottom of the food chain in the world of Eden.
For the most part, Elves, Beastmen, and Humans live in harmony. At least on the surface. They all interact with one another intimately in some way, whether that be between kingdoms or individuals, their societies has slowly mingled together to allow a mixing of cultures.
As for why I say on the surface, well that's because Slavery is legal in this world.
Back on Earth, slavery has been outlawed for a long time, but on Eden, its a fundamental part of society's structure. Kingdoms thrive and rely on the slave trade since free labor reduces the cost of infrastructure and also provides a steady income when trading between kingdoms.
As an Earthling, it appalled me when I first saw people being passed around like tools, but over the last 3 months I learned that slaves have rights and I have slowly come to accept its existence as a necessity.
I'd prefer not to go off on a tangent for now and this first entry is feeling kind of long for me so I will just mention one last thing.
Gods are real and they bestow every living being with a Blessing.
These Gods are not the same Gods from Earth, and I have no idea how much power they actually wield over us mortals, but they are real. The evidence? I have a status page.
The famous status page from Earth fantasy novels where you have to verbally speak "status" and a translucent screen pops up in front of you, showing your physical and magical traits in numerical form.
It was quite a shock to me at first, but now I just see it as a nuisance.
That's because society decided that those who were blessed with physical or magical related Blessings, or Classes as most people refer to it as, are chosen by the Gods to rule. Basically, the cocky, egotistical assholes get to push around the little guys and live a life of luxury.
Nobility and Royalty all have families that pride themselves on the fact that they can kill and destroy the livelihoods of others and go out of their way to constantly remind others of it.
As you can tell, not a big fan of nobility.
But its not even just nobility. In everyday life, adventurers, i.e. mercenaries for hire, also throw their weight around just because they can. Your neighbor might talk down to you just because you have fire magic and they have water magic, meaning they can extinguish your fire even if the laws of physics still allow your fire to prevail as the victor.
As I said earlier, the world of Eden is all about survival of the fittest and I am not very fit apparently.
Oh by the way, my class is something called an "Imagineer." I honestly have no idea what kind of class it is other than the description of the class provided to me via status, but everyone I asked seemed to have no clue.
Its not a huge issue to me, other than I know it won't help me in combat. But I do know that this class has given me a TON of knowledge on the magical arts, and magic circles especially.
Magic circles are required by any mage in order to cast magic. It is step 1 to learning how to become a mage because mages have to learn how to memorize the different parts of a circle in order to cast different types of magic.
So even though I don't have a fighting type class, I don't think I'd trade this knowledge if I was given the chance to change classes. Its just too precious and honestly OP in my opinion. I can tell just what kind of magic a person is going to cast before they even finish their incantation (also another requirement of mages).
Anyways, this is my first journal entry that I decided to write on a whim. I don't know how long I will be in this world honestly since death is always right around the corner, but I felt it was necessary to preserve the knowledge and history of this world and my old one.
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
- Eric, the Imagineer.
P.S. only Earthlings will get that reference. Heh.'
- - -
With a small sigh, the young man sitting at his desk under candlelight closed the leather-bound notebook in front of him and stored away it and the ink pen and ink well accompanying it. All three items were quite expensive in the world of Eden, a luxury meant for nobility or merchants to use to keep important documents.
Paper was accessible to the public, but was too expensive for an ordinary citizen to use on a daily, or even weekly basic. It was reserved for important carrier pigeon messages or other important documentation they may need to keep.
However Eric felt it was worth it. He didn't want to leave this world without leaving his mark, which is exactly why he was so determined to figure out the secrets of his Imagineer class.
The slightly above average looking man with glasses and short black hair looked down at his hands in thought. He slowly balled them up into fist before relaxing them with a sigh.
"Blessings? Heh. What a load of bullcrap. If they're blessings then I should have gotten some OP ability from a pretty goddess when I was dropped off here. But did I receive a welcome party? Unless you count the beating I got from some random thugs for 'lookin' weird,' in my modern clothes, then no." He complained to no one.
With a sigh, Eric stood up and walked over to the nightstand next to his bed. His room wasn't decorated in anyway, with it being an inn it only had a bed, nightstand, and desk. There was no closet or bathroom, so he would have to go out to the outhouse to do his duty.
He didn't mind it so much, but the item he took out of his nightstand was something he felt like he needed.
A mirror.
No he wasn't a vain person, but it was hard as an ex-Earthling to not be able to see themselves. He wanted to make sure he looked presentable and healthy so he also spent quite a fortune purchasing this item.
He was practically broke at this point, but it was better than wallowing in the streets. He was lucky to have found a job relatively quickly, securing himself a steady income. He also did some part-time work on the side so he was able to save up for these luxuries.
He put the mirror away and slid himself into bed. As a 6 foot tall man, he had to curl in his legs a bit due to the small size of the bed, but he couldn't complain. He was already quite fortunate as an average commoner in this world but in the end, he still felt like he could do more.
'I wonder if its time to start looking for some actual help.' Eric thought to himself as he slowly drifted off to sleep.