'The world wasn't always split into five kingdoms. It was once a whole sphere that floated in the outer starry sky.
'All races–humans, elves, beastkin, dragons, dragonkin and demons lived together on the same sphere in harmony.
'Each race appointed leaders over themselves in order to serve them and communicate with the other kingdoms on their behalf.
'The kings, in turn, appointed ministers, councilmen and ambassadors to help them in the various aspects of trade.
'The peace lasted for decades.
'That was until one of the kings became corrupted. He oppressed his subjects, killed indiscriminately and exerted his influence unnecessarily.
Eventually, he began to encroach on the territory of his neighbours.
'This led to outrage, and then war.
'The king in question was Serak III.
Luan flipped the page.
'The war he caused lasted for a whole decade.
'He was just that powerful.
'Unfortunately for him, the cooperation of the other kings was too powerful for him to bear.
'In a last act of desperation, he revealed magical power that surpassed the scope of anything ever seen in the world.
'With this power that had the ominous colour of purplish-red, he shattered the whole sphere into five fragments.
'These fragments were later known as the five kingdoms.
He flipped again.
'The largest of these kingdoms, the kingdom of Eltashi, houses the beastkin, as they are the race with the largest population.
'The second largest, Yorpus, houses the races whose numbers are in the minority. The dwarves being the ruling race.
'The third largest, Lyprus, houses the dragons and the dragonkin.
'The fourth largest, Earth, houses humans.
'The smallest, Elshire, houses the elves.
'At the fringes of each kingdom is a death zone.
Flip.
'Death zones are the results of Serak III's shattering of the sphere. The land wasn't totally separated as even such forbidden magic couldn't destroy the crust of the sphere.
'Instead, different landscapes filled with horrors and monstrosities countless times more powerful than even legendary beasts populated were created at the edges of each kingdom.
'Therefore, inter-kingdom transportation can only be done through teleportation arrays set up by space mages.
Luan turned the meat being roasted and flipped the page.
'Mages are people who manipulate mana in the atmosphere and in their mana cores.
The page showed the image of a faceless man throwing fireballs from his hands, a woman slashing the air with wind blades, a man making waves of water out of thin air, and a man stomping the ground with a rock in front of him.
He flipped.
'All of the things shown in the previous page can be done through the usage of mana.
'Mana is the source of all magic, and is present everywhere in the world.
'It is the foundation of all things magical and all things extraordinary.
'It is a gift sent to us from a place beyond our comprehension.
'Therefore, mana can be absorbed by all manner of living things.'
The page showed a man sitting in a cross-legged position. There was a round glowing ball in his stomach from which various strings that closely resembled venous pathways originated from, extending into the arms, legs and head.
The illustration showed the wisps of light being absorbed into the core then transported into the pathways that led to the limbs.
After that, the mana was shown leaving the hands and turning into a fireball.
He flipped.
'Mana absorption is never an instantaneous process as it takes time to even feel the mana in the atmosphere.
'Once mana is absorbed to a degree, it will condense into a red ball, which is known as the mana core.
'Mana also be absorbed by normal domestic and wild animals, turning them into beasts and monsters of varying intelligence and power.
'Beasts are animals with the blessing of mana who only follow their instincts, while monsters are animals with the blessing of mana who have gained varying levels of intelligence.
'These animals look like their prior forms most of the time, with the differences being in the manner they move and the mutations they get when they reach the red core equivalent.
'Mana is also used in the technological advancements made in recent years.
'There are boats powered by mana that travel across vast distances, materials that wouldn't work without mana powering them, even in day-to-day life.'
*Thud.*
Luan closed the book.
He removed the roasted meat from the sticks, washed the meat sack and the roasted meat in order to free them of any kind of stench, and then put the meat back into the sack after drying both.
He stamped out the fire and cast the sticks into different places. Some, he threw into the river, some went into the ground and the rest were flung on the canopies of the trees.
'The way the author of this book presents the world's history and mana rubs me the wrong way, but at least I was able to find a way to survive… through mana.
'Although before that… I have to be able to live through tonight.'
Luan took out his austere blade and made a square hole that would only fit someone his height before crawling inside.
Once he entered, he remained motionless, and he didn't move.
Even his breathing was barely noticeable.
In a minute, the sun went down.
And then…
Coldness descended.