Ren and Liza go shopping. Ren getting some pretty...average clothes and basic supplies, since covering myself with a cloak, nobody's going to see my clothes anyway. This is just the right temperature where there are people who like to wear coats and others like to wear shorts. If not, this cloak would give me heatstroke.
Nothing out of the ordinary happens. They decide to have lunch at a pub this time and walk to it. Ren, now I'm certain, underwear doesn't exist in this world. They do sow some soft fabric into the pants, so it's not so bad. Is this why pretty much every woman is wearing a dress? So as to not wear theses things...wait, then aren't they all going commando???? That aside, they're not so bad, but could be a lot better. There were heroes from another world here, right? Why didn't they introduce underwear?
Ren and Liza take their seats, order food, and decide to have a nice long chat. Ren, "so about Demons, how strong are they? The soldier before was screaming at me that it was a 'high level demon that was attacking the town".
Liza, "that solider had a poor choice of words. Minotaurs aren't a high-level Demon". Ren, "hm? Why-, never mind, continue please", better to have her explain and then to ask questions.
Liza, "the minotaur was attacking under the orders of a high ranked Demon, and that's probably what he meant, but first, how the level of Demons are classified. They are divided into four groups, low, medium, high, and Demon King. Low being assigned the letter C and high being assigned the letter A. The Demon King is assigned the letter S as the Demon King is always in a class of their own. These ranks also have weak and strong ends of the spectrum. We attach abbreviations to the rank to represent this. To give you an example, that Minotaur from yesterday was a low-A rank monster".
Ren, "wait, monster?". Liza, "yeah, monsters are classified the same. They're different from Demons. Demons are...basically, human-like monsters. Monsters are like wild animals that are difficult to deal with". Ren, "I don't really get it".
Liza's expression contorts as she contemplates, "...I'm finding it hard to explain. Everyone just knows what they are, so they don't have to explain it". Ren, "fair point. I understand it's hard and am grateful for you taking the time to explain things".
A small smile forms on Liza's lips in response, "to continue, Demons are capable of human speech, are intelligent, and...can interbreed with themselves and others races. Humans, Dark Elves, Elves, Demons, and Vampires can all interbreed, but monsters can't".
Ren, "good to know...but not what I wanted to know", I don't want to know how they discovered the interbreeding part.
Liza, "you'll understand once you see them. Just think of them as a different race. Humans and Elves are the same, but different. It's like that". Ren, "well...I guess I'll just have experience them myself", seems like it will be better than trying to understand through words alone. However, when I heard the term "Demon", I thought they were summoned from hell or born from magic or something. Hearing that they're just another race...I wasn't expecting that.
Liza interrupts his thoughts after eating some of her food, "let's move on. For how humans typically fight demons. First, there are regular soldiers, they only possess armour and swords. They are the easiest and quickest to train, so the majority of forces are these soldiers. Next, among the soldiers are close combat mages. These are soldiers who use magic in close quarters, primarily through martial arts, for example, punching with fire. These are low on numbers for two reasons. 1: it can take years for a person to develop magic that can be used in combat. 2: the cost of materials for preventing injury from one's own magic".
Ren, "wait just a second! What do you mean, 'injury from one's own magic'?". Liza rubs her forehead, "I keep assuming you know things. Humans are able to produce magic, but fire is still fire. The magic is generated slightly away from the skin, but it will still burn you...badly. Hence, you need burn/heat proof materials, such as wyvern skin, in order to fight properly with fire. You wear a wyvern skin glove, and since magic is generated slightly away from the skin, it materialises over the glove, allowing you to punch someone with magic, dealing a bit of extra damage".
Ren, "so you can't use any type of magic for attacks due to this restriction?". Liza, "there are generally two types of magic used by humans for combat, fire for offensive use, and water for defensive use".
Ren, "hold on again. Adam...the God, told me that there was fire, water, wind, lightning, and earth magic, in addition to unique magic".
Liza, a bit tired of explaining, speedily runs through an explanation, "there is also light and dark magic. Light is very rare worldwide, nobody in our country has the ability to use it at the moment, that we know of. About 100 years ago, there were miraculously four humans born with light magic and they went to challenge the Vampire Lord, who took them up on their challenge, only to be completely decimated. Both light and dark magic are very powerful in their own right, but they are more effective against each other than any other magic. Dark magic is just as rare as light magic, except for Vampires, all of whom are born with dark magic. Humans typically use fire and water magic as they are the best for offence and defence. These two aren't rare as everyone can learn it, but they are hard to learn. It takes years to become efficient enough to use it in battle. Since humans use magic by producing it from their body, earth magic is almost completely useless for humans, e.g. punching with an iron glove would hurt more than punching with dirt. However, Elves are unique in that that they use earth magic almost exclusively, producing it from the ground instead. Almost in exchange however, they are only able to use this magic and nothing else, with the exception of Uniques. Even if humans learn earth magic, we can't use it to the same extent as Elves. Wind magic isn't very useful, except that it pairs very well with fire magic, boosting its fire power. Similar to earth magic, it would be more effective to punch with an iron glove than it would be with a fist of air. It would take double the time to use fire and wind, so most people just learn fire. And lastly is lightning, said to be the weakest of all magic's. It's unknown why but it doesn't have much power when used in combat".
Liza finished what she wanted to say all at once and chugs a bit of water before adding a last bit, "that's everything I wanted to say. Any questions? No? Good. Oh, for the record, I use fire and wind magic. Do you know what magic you have?".
Ren, OI!!!!! I know I'll have too many questions to answer, but at least try a little more! Don't give up on me so quick! You said I could ask you anything, "...well, hopefully I'll get a better grasp of everything as we go along. I have a Unique that gives me complete control over lightning".
Liza pauses for a second to process, "lightning? Oh, I see", forming an extremely conflicted expression in response.
Ren, ah, she's a very 'my pace' person. The type to act with full conviction in what they're doing at that moment, "from your reaction, I guess lightning really doesn't have a good reputation, you said it was the weakest after all".
Liza forms a forced smile, "well, you're a hero. You'll probably be strong", are we going to be ok? I'm suddenly very worried.
Ren, yea, she's extremely worried, "how bad is lightning?". Liza, "how bad?...I'd probably be better to see it firsthand. There's a training ground for soldiers around here. Let's go after we finish", they should be deployed right now, so it should be pretty empty there.
On the walk to the training ground, Liza continues on from earlier, "there was a lot I didn't mention earlier, so I'll explain some more". Ren, I figured. That was way too short of an explanation.
Liza, "after close combat mages are weapon mages. These are mages who take their magic a step further. Though years of effort to control their magic, they become able to create a weapon out of it, like a fire sword or a water shield. These are the most common types made. Unfortunately, there are no magic archers as magic dissipates once produced, so in order for magic to maintain its shape, it needs the constant concentration and magic supply of its caster. Hence why magic arrows aren't possible unless they are made with light magic, because they are fast enough to not dissipate, depending on the distance of course. One of the previous four light magic users I mentioned earlier was an archer who was able to do it. However, it's rare among rare of those who wield light magic to be able to form arrows. Oh, the weapon mages split between offence and defence. Wind users specialise in support, so they help those who need it. The last combat group is made up of Uniques, the unique battalion. They either support the other combat groups or are assigned a special mission. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of them. This is what makes up the country's military".
Ren, "hmm... interesting. Earlier, you said you use fire, but I don't see any of that 'wyvern skin' to protect yourself from the fire". Liza, "my unique ability is 'Anti-Immolation'. It nullifies the damage one would cause to oneself while using fire magic. This doesn't extend to my clothes, however. My Jacket and shorts are very refined wyvern leather, so they don't burn, but most people would use the unrefined stuff. My shirt is regular as it forces me to concentrate and not burn it up...most of time. It's good for training as buying a new shirt every time would be a pain. My spear is a magical item that basically acts as an extension of oneself, allowing me to generate magic along the spear, which usually isn't possible. Fire would just melt the weapons since it is fire after all. This quality of a magic item can only be made by Fairies, but they haven't been seen in centuries, so there aren't any new ones, only reversed engineered ones. Magical items are very rare and typically only used by nobles due to the cost of obtaining one, even the knockoffs".
Ren chimes in, "so you're a noble", and a big one at that if you have that spear. Liza looks away awkwardly, "I'd rather not talk about that topic because people treat me differently", it's just a massive pain. Noble men try to get into my pants, Noble woman are just bitches, and regular people become too scared to speak.
Ren, "I'm from a different world, one without nobles anymore, so I'm not going to treat you any differently in the first place", it's better I make my stance on nobles clear early on.
Liza just stops and stares at Ren. Ren just stares awkwardly back at her...uncomfortably, asking "w...what?". Liza comments, "nothing", and keeps walking, and his likeability just shot through the roof. Making my heart beat out of nowhere, damn you! I wasn't prepared for that! Though I did like it...a lot. While walking in front Ren, Liza holds her hands to her chest with a bashful smile on her face.