“So, what would you like to know and what do I get for it?” Adeline started off the conversation, hoping to get it over with so she could get back to gardening. Not to mention the pressing need she felt to get the older man out of her home. Nervous sweat indeed.

“We can discuss remuneration afterwards, depending on how helpful you are. Let’s start off with the basics then. Where are we?” Ammanas figured he could work his way up from the basics.

“Wow, that IS pretty basic. You’re in the village of Sulas, part of the territory of the city-state of Ferrent, west of the Wildlands and westernmost nation on the continent. Does that ring any bells?”

“No. But that’s a start. Okay, what’s the local currency?”

She gave him a weird look. “Boy you are from far away. It’s the same as everywhere else on the continent, genius. 100 copper makes a silver, 100 silver makes a gold, then platinum.”

Ammanas had to thank any higher power that was listening. The same monetary system as Ashes and he was probably one of the richest players in the game so that covered him for any expenses if he could convert his coins over. The different stamping on the face may make that difficult if it’s one they don’t recognise, though. “Who’s in charge of Ferrent?”

“The city lord and his council rule the city and the city rules the territory. Probably the only ruling council of a nation comprised of almost entirely warriors too. Though, the city lord being a rank 9 with a council of rank 8 warriors probably helps with that.”

Oh great, another ranking system to understand. Ammanas was more interested in magic users than warriors though. “Is there a library I can access in the city?”

“The magic academy manages the city’s library, so you’ll have to be a member or an alumnus of one of the city’s academies to use it. Oh, you probably don’t know about the academies either. There’s a magic academy that trains any and all magic users, though they really only have the capability of teaching witches and wizards. Then there’s the warrior’s academy that takes care of those with an aptitude for weapons or aura. Lots of nobles from surrounding kingdoms send their scions to the academies for outrageous fees because the education is so good and Ferrent has a pact of neutrality with almost every surrounding nation so there’s no risk of conflict. If you’re caught carrying out grievances on your nation’s behalf, you’re liable to get your nation banned from entering the territory.

“They also recruit commoners from the surrounding towns and villages in the territory for scholarships if they have the aptitude or the skill for it. They send a warrior and a wizard round in pairs to the towns to supervise tournaments every half a year, so they can scout potential students. There’s actually going to be one in Runas soon, which is the town closest to us. About half a day’s walk North-west. I think that Harken Ward boy is going to try out, he’s pretty good with a bow from what I hear.”

Ammanas sat quietly for a few moments, absently petting Edgar who was now on his shoulder, to digest what he heard and figure out what to do with the information. No library access without joining an academy meant he either joined an academy or just snuck in and stole what he needed. The academy was probably more useful than just library access and would also give him an opportunity to learn the magic structure of this world. He was also interested in learning about this Aura that Adeline mentioned warriors using. The disguise he was using from his doppelganger mask made him look like a local of Ferrent, based on what he’d seen of the villagers so far.

He could probably pass himself off as a villager and join the tournament, using his stat limiter to make sure he didn’t overdo it and kill everyone in the town on accident. He was actually exceedingly good at using a staff in combat, something he was interested in and with his avatar’s speed and strength it was something worth learning too, so he’d be able to join the warrior’s academy too and learn about Aura if he wanted to. It sounded to him like the Qi referred to in Chinese medicine and martial arts. Adeline sat patiently whilst he worked through his decisions, staring at the still silent raven perched upon his shoulder. It stared back at her, before tilting his head down and cawing at the young man. He looked up at the raven before nodding his head.

Edgar, as a familiar, could send his vision, emotions and ideas to his master similar to the mind link Ammanas had with his greater demons but permanently in place. He had just recommended going with the academy idea, as working at the information from the inside was going to be a lot less disruptive than the potential conflict he’d get into from stealing it if, god forbid, he did get caught. Ammanas always appreciated Edgar’s input, for it was usually quite insightful and he only spoke when he had something he felt was worthwhile saying. With his heading decided for the meantime, he decided to try and get any information he could about magic in this world from Adeline whilst he had her attention. He returned his own attention to Adeline, who now stared at him instead. “Harken was actually the one who led us to the village. He mentioned you knew some spells, if you wouldn’t mind performing some of them for me, I’d be happy to compensate you generously for your time and effort.”

Adeline looked at him quizzically, wondering why he would need to see her use magic. His scholarly airs and the sense of danger coming from his companion implied someone both highly educated and worldly, someone who had definitely seen magic before. However, he did mention compensation and the divines know the money she made in the village was a pittance of what her services were worth. Her mate rates qualified her as the greatest mate anyone would ever have the fortune of befriending. She was also planning on heading to Ferrent sometime in the near future for supplies she couldn’t get in the village and wasn’t brave enough to look for in the forest but due to being strapped for cash the trip kept getting postponed. Her deliberations over, resolved decisively by the need for money, she acquiesced to his strange request and stood up from the table before moving to a more open section of the house.

Ammanas and Orobas remained at the table and turned to watch her. She proceeded to condense this world’s version of mana into her body before running it through her body and out of her hand, turning it into a magelight orb that floated above her hand. Blue tendrils snaked between the light and her hand for a moment before the light stabilised fully.

“Happy?”

Ammanas hadn’t sensed the casting of a spell that his sensitivity, skill and a slew of passives allowed him, but they worked on the basis of Ashes mana being used. He sat contemplatively in silence whilst staring at the magelight, ignoring Adeline’s question. Ashes mana was something generated by the body itself and levelling and stat bonuses increased capacity and generation rates.

What Adeline had just done clearly came from without. It seemed that the world generated mana for its people to use if what she just did was the standard process. He was immediately excited by the prospect of learning to use it too, if he could. It would effectively double his mana pool if you could store it after condensing it differently to the storage of Ashes mana instead of immediately using it in a spell. It probably wouldn’t work for his Ashes spells due to conflicting origins, but he was a man who thoroughly enjoyed learning new things and a whole new world of magic and spells to learn had him positively giddy.

He had an ability he’d stolen from one of the bosses he killed in the final arena, a dragon known for its fondness for seeking out and absorbing any form of power or energy it could get its greedy foreclaws on. In order to seek it had to be able to sense. Prismatic Vision let him identify different forms of energy and power such as mana or even the rage that some berserkers used in Ashes. He activated it, and were it not for the doppelganger mask, Adeline would have definitely seen the whites of his eyes turn completely silver, whilst his iris divided up into a rainbow of colours similar to the buffering cursor on a mac.

As it was, he just looked to be deep in thought as he stared at the magelight. The long, contemplative silence was sort of uncomfortable for Adeline, but she figured since he was paying, he was a customer and the customer was always right, so she let it carry on. Carry on it did, Ammanas fell into a daze as he stared at the wisps of blue light that snaked around and through the white of the mage light, a thin tendril of blue connecting the light to Adeline’s palm and flowing up through her palm and into her head. He was able to see into her body in a way that wasn’t x-ray vision but more just moving through obstructing objects.

Clearly the control point was in her brain. It’d been a fair while since he’d seen a scan of a brain, but he was pretty sure there were no unusual bits that made it different than what he assumed his brain looked like. That was exceedingly good news, different organs likely meant he wouldn’t be able to learn this type of magic since he wouldn’t be able to control it. Instead it looked like it was fed control through the imagination and subconscious. That made it relatively structured and combined with the existence of academies looked like it was largely a process learnt through education rather than feeling your way through it.

“Excellent, excellent.” Ammanas stood up from his chair, startling Edgar into a flapping fit to gain balance. “Your help has been invaluable, feel free to name a price you feel is reasonable.”

She got to name her own price? Adeline was startled by this statement. She first thought to overcharge him and then immediately discarded that idea when she remembered the danger and hunger she felt from Orobas. Besides, she didn’t actually do that much for him other than fill in what was common sense and perform what was possibly the most basic of basic spells. “Well I have to say I haven’t had to provide this kind of service before, most people that come to me already know where they are and all that… how about a silver?”

She was right to think that lying to Ammanas about the price was an exceptionally bad idea. Not because Ammanas would have anything to say about it, or even care, more because if Orobas had sensed a lie, the culprit would not have a happy ending from trying to cheat his master. As it was, he had no knowledge of what a reasonable price was, neither did Ammanas in fact hence allowing Adeline to name her own price, and so didn’t particularly care at this time. A silver seemed sort of underwhelming considering how helpful the information was to Ammanas, despite being common sense in these parts. Ammanas had the same line of thought and frowned slightly, which gave the wrong impression to Adeline. She hurriedly rectified her perceived mistake. “Or if that’s too much then even 50 coppers would do fine.”

“What? No, no, no. I was thinking it was too little, the information was truly helpful.” Ammanas quickly waved his hands to clear up the misunderstanding. He reached inside his robe and activated his inventory before pulling out a small bag filled with a few gold coins and plenty of silver. This sort of spare change was practically inconsequential to him. He handed it to her and the weight and clinks of coins coming from it startled her. Opening it up and a daze of gold and silver light from within led her off on her own thoughts. Ammanas spoke up to interrupt her daydreaming. “I hope those coins are alright, I’m not sure if you guys stamp yours.”

Ashes had multiple currencies technically because there were a few factions who hated each other and didn’t want any of their wealth going to or coming from their enemies. So, they all ended up stamping their coins with a particular design and refused to accept any with the design belonging to their enemies. It was all very petty, really. The main currency, though, was just plain gold cut into coins and used most everywhere else. Adeline had no knowledge of the process of minting coins and thus was thoroughly confused by the idea of stepping forcefully on them. However, the coins in the bag were blank and matched the coins used everywhere else on this continent so she just put it down to one of the quirks of this strange customer. She was much too happy with this sudden fortune to mind much else. “Its fine, its fine. You are much too generous, but I’m glad I was able to help answer your questions. If you’re ever in need of potions or more common sense, feel free to pop by again!”

She smiled at Ammanas with a look of adoration and awe that made him seem like the pope more than a traveller. Maybe he gave her too much? Oh well, it wasn’t anything to worry about. Instead, it was time to find that Harken boy and organise participating in this scholarship tournament for the academies.