She opened the history book first. It looked very old, covered in dust, all the pages were yellow and its edges were torn. She tried searching for newer ones with the clerk but he explained to her that history books were too expensive for a public library. She began immersing herself in the book.
"The recorded history of Odeth, the continent we're on started four hundred and fifty-eight years ago... Thats so recent compared to Earth's ancient past. And the entire continent is split into six kingdoms. No, wait... the book hinted on the existance of a seventh? Maybe if I found a more up-to date book there would be a clear answer." She went quickly through the pages, making her sneeze because of the buildup of dust, there were scraps of informations about mana beasts and different species but it was surface level information.
Alice flipped and flipped until she got to another page that was of value to her. A map of the continent with every kingdoms terrain.
"So human kingdom has the biggest piece of the continent. Well this makes sense since it looks like they got the glades and small hills, which are the most common type of terrain. Wow there is also elves kingdom in this world" She drooled at the thought of seeing a tall manly elf. "And even dark elves ? I think I will have to go there one day" She wiped the dripping saliva. "What else? kingdom of Bunari... "Alice had never heard of the Bunari species before. The book didn't include any images, but it described them as having pale skin covered with fur. "That sounds like those animal cosplayers back on earth. Their kingdom is in the ice part of the continent. I guess the fur is to block the temperature."
She flipped the page to see the rest of the kingdoms "Wow there are even mermaids... I hope they aren't the type that is mentioned in the sailor folklore, I will stay away from the coral reefs since thats where their kingdom lies. The high cliffs and mountins are the terrain of the dwarves, they focus on creating things. Well this is pretty spot on compared to my fantasy books back home."
She flipped to the next page, but it was torn off completely, the edges ragged as if someone had ripped it out in anger. Alice frowned, wondering what had been so important. Maybe there's something here that someone didn't want people to know… "Someone must have been pretty angry about what was said there" She closed the history book, happy with what she has learned and curious about the information the torn page.
She decided to shift her focus to the 'Magic for newbies'
It wasn't nearly as worn out as the history book "Well it makes sense. More people would be interesteed in magic than the history of this continent after all. So there are four elements of magic: fire, earth, air and water. No one can use more than one element at once. All of them are created from a mana that all creatures have inside them" She touched her temple, she could feel her heartbeat and a different warm pulsating sensation, like sand being pushed by the waves on a calm beach "So this is a mana core from what this book says. It stores the mana inside it to cast the spells of four elements. And if someone runs out of mana they enter the 'mana exhaustion' state where they aren't able to move around until it regenerates. This sounds exactly like my fantasy books. Even the way to train the capacity of the core is the same."
Alice stretched her arm a few times "Its like building muscle. The more I use it, the stronger it will grow. But the rend is barely discribed here. Its just said that whenever someone awakens their rend a tear appears on the place that uses it the most, so if its magic related it would appear on ones hand" She looked at both of her hands, finding nothing "If its mobility related it would show up on legs" Alice examined her legs carefully "But its impossible to know exactly as it varies from person to person" She hit the desk with her fist "Then start from this next time !" She shouted. After inhaling and exhaling she resumed reading "I guess it being unique to each person makes it hard to write anything about it. But the princaple behind it is similiar in the fact that using it more will allow for better understanding and growth of the rends power"
Alice flipped the pages searching for any combat stances or even training routines. "Why is there nothing about it ?" She searched and searched but there was nothing related to what she wanted to know "I will just ask the clerk in a moment" She closed this book too and put back both of them to their place on the shelves. Her eyes tired from reading so much.
She walked towards the clerk and decided to ask.
"Why are there no routines or stances mentioned in the magic book ?" She gazed deep in the clerks eyes, he stopped his paperwork and stared back at her.
"I hate to break it down for you but because information like that is very valuable, usually only big acadamemies and specialized training facilities share it" He explained "Also you better leave soon because the library is about to close" He pointed towards the time outside. It was already getting late.
"Oh I was too absorbed in the books ! Thank you and sorry" She quickly ran out, the stalls outside were already gone. The lifely city was now silent as everybody went back to their houses.
...
She got to the house right on time for dinner
"I'm here lady Elizabeth!" She exclaimed, sitting by the table to eat the meal.
"Good to see you again. How was the library ?" Elizabeth asked while cutting Jack's food into smaller pieces.
"It was great, thank you for telling me about it" She was speaking with her mouth full, too hungry to care about the manners. By the time she finished the meal Elizabeth was already in the kitchen and Jack was outside "Thank you for the meal" She brought the dirty plates to Elizabeth.
The older woman was washing the dishes, using her rend and water magic to clean them faster "Can you go watch Jack outside for me ? He went to train and i can't supervize him right now." She made it sound like she wouldn't even mind even if Alice declined it.
"Ofcourse" Alice nodded and went outside and saw Jack sweating with his hand stretched out forward, he was slightly bended over and he was breathing heavily.
"It's not working !!" Jack said, Alice giggled that although he was boasting so much earlier, now he can't even do the basics. Annoyed Jack then said "Okay you try then !" He thought that Alice won't even know how to cast a single spell and that he will be able to laugh at her too.
"Sure" She replied with a new found confidence after studying the books. She focused really hard, imagining a valley of hills and the strong wind going through them, she focused her senses and poured all the mana she could feel inside her core through her hand
...
...
A strong gust of wind appeared and knocked over the training equipment surprising both Jack and Alice herself "Wa-wait ! I actually did it!!" her success didnt sit well with Jack though, as the girl was running around all happy, then falling down on the ground because she used all of her mana, but she didn;t stop giggling all happy.
"This is unfair... My magic doesnt improve and my rend doesn't work" Before he stormed off Alice called for him. "And now you can use it all of sudden ?" He felt very demotivated because of that
"what do you mean your rend doesn't work??" She looked at him feeling bad for teasing a young boy like that.
"Whenever i use it it's like a different rend all together." He threw his hands in the air, tears appearing on his face "It makes a weird sound that I have never heard before, then different pitch of some kind of otherwordly instrument that goes DING DING DING DING and then my rend is like a totally new thing compared to the previous time i used it" He kept gesturing with his hands and trying to mimick the sound.
"What do you mean by that ?" Alice sat up, still unable to stand up yet "Can you show me what's wrong with it ?"
"Do i really need to ?" He tried saying no but then he saw that Alice really wanted to see it so he sighed "alright then."
He focused really hard and closed his eyes. As he opened them the tear around his right eye started glowing as a sound of machine rolling started...
CLICK CLICK CLICK CLIK