The march back to Mezi would take all day, if they managed to maintain the current pace. Something which should not pose much of a problem, considering most of the guards were even trying to increase it, given the unknown entity that had caused the disappearance of half of their scouts still being somewhere out there, hiding in the shadows.

After ten agonizingly long minutes of silence, Alex could not take it any longer. He had to know more about this world, more about the System, and, most importantly, more about magic!

Inching closer towards the old scholar and beginning to pester him with the questions he had, "Alberton, the thing about focus you mentioned before..." a hand was shoved into his face, almost covering his mouth, and a stern expression revealed on his opponent's face.

A slight shimmer enveloped both men when Alberton replied, "I won't answer any more questions until some of my own curiosity has been satisfied. Tell me, how was your world? You've demonstrated quite a lack of common sense by now, which makes me wonder: Were there no monsters in your old world? And what about magic? Your interest in magic is admirable, but your obvious lack of prior experience with the subject and your fascination for the topic as a whole leads me to think that there was no such thing as magic either. How could that be? There have been various studies regarding the use of magic, even without the System, and dozens of magical devices had been constructed solely through physical means in the past, without prior knowledge of magic necessary in the first place. Granted, those were more akin to toys, but nonetheless of magical nature. Any civilisation, without exception, should have been capable to develop some form of magical system through the study of these. How can it be that yours did not?"

Overwhelmed by the sheer mass of questions and new information, Alex did not know how to reply. He wasn't even sure whether some of these questions actually had answers in the first place, so he said the first thing that came to his mind, "We had neither monsters nor magic, no..."

"That is not a satisfying answer. Just tell me anything you would deem important to know about your world," he replied, taking a deep breath to reign in his rising annoyance at the youths lackluster attitude.

And so Alex did just that, telling him everything he knew, from the big bang to the last day he remembered, leaving out pretty much everything inbetween, other than the general structure of their society and some major historic events. He talked about the rise and fall of the Imperio Romano, the Middle Ages and the black plague, the advent of modern science, skimmed over some wars, and concluded with the general aspects of modern society with a heavy focus on it's technological achievements.

"That's pretty much what I'd consider important. At least most of it. I could talk more about the specifics of certain technologies and their origins, but that can wait for later, right?" At least he hoped it could, for he had no desire to waste any longer reiterating things he already knew, but would rather spend the time finally learning something related to magic.

"Yes, that should be enough for now. I have to say... that was less interesting than what I was expecting," he visibly deflated, having hoped for some fascinating insights into highly advanced techniques, superior to anything achievable through mundane magic alone. What he got instead was electricity, something not dissimilar to the various electric elements found within their own world, generated via the use of magical devices or simply created by mages with minimal efforts.

'Fuck you too,' Alex thought, taking offense at his world being undervalued. Being greatly annoyed at the depreciating attitude clearly visible on the scholars expression, he demanded, "Now it's your turn. Magic, how?"

With a sigh, Alberton started into an explanation of magic, demonstrating his astounding capabilities in the field, "Just focus on any element and will a small part of it to move. Once it does, just increase your efforts..."

"That's it? That's not an explanation! That says jack-shit! I know more than that about magic myself!" Clearly incensed, Alex almost seemed to boil from his anger, prompting Alberton to step up his game, lest his golden goose decided to reciprocate the feeling when his turn came again.

That world may not have been what he had hoped for, but it was undeniable that just the prove of its existence alone was worth more than any other contributions to the field of magic in the last few centuries combined.

And with the studies of mind-magic not having shown any advances since the discovery of the Skill Telepathy, he could only rely on his willingness to cooperate.

Excusing his lackluster explanation, he began again, providing much more detailed insights for Alex to revel in, "First of all, you need to know about Elements. Everything is made of Elements, and there are innumerable variations in their behaviours and properties, but that won't be of importance until you start learning about Transmutations, which will be a topic for later, due to it's high complexity, need for an advanced knowledge about hundreds of different Elements and their properties, and the ability to interact with Elements in the first place."

Extending his hand and willing a handful of gravel to float towards it from the ground, Alberton picked out the smallest pebble from the heap and presented it to Alex. "Here, take this."

Seeing the serious demeanor of the scholar lessened his previous fury. Taking the pebble, he could already guess what was to come next, but nonetheless waited for him to continue, lest he missed some important detail.

"Now, extend your hand and focus on the position of the Elements in your hand. You won't be able to feel anything from the pebble itself but you should have some form of representation of it's relative position to yourself in your mind by now. If you can't even manage to do that, I fear you won't be qualified to become a mage."

Waiting for Alex to confirm or deny his words, he was disappointed by the lack of a response. Turing around and suppressing a sigh, he prepared to sooth the mans likey depressed mood from his failure to achieve even the most basic form of magical training.

"It might take a whi... What the fuck?!" A small pebble floating above his palm and a moronic grin spread across his face, Alex seemed to have lost his mind. Similarly, Alberton needed some time to come to terms with the absurdity of the situation.

"How did you do that?!" His shocked road shook the other-worldly man out of his reverence, not garnering much of a reaction from his surroundings, thanks to the magic he employed beforehand to hinder any sound from escaping their immediate surroundings.

"It wasn't that hard. Focus on the pebble, imagine it's position in your mind, and then just move that position. Pretty simple, really," he answered, this time with a shit-eating grin, completely oblivious to the fact that it usually required hours of staring at pebbles and slowly moving them with your hands, just to get a feeling for how to even start changing the position in your mind in the first place. That is not even taking into account that the first successful attempts usually result in slight nudges to the pebbles, maybe small jumps.

"That is NOT simple! It usually requir... and you got the Skill," he said while throwing his arms in the air, almost despairing from the sheer absurdity, before coming to a conclusion, "You've known about the concept of magic in your old world already, even if you could not make use of it, correct?"

Receiving a nod from the possibly prodigial man, he continued, hoping for his hypotesis to be confirmed, for even if such monumental talent would be favorable for Alex, it would prove problematic for the old mans studies.

"Due to your fascination for magic, I assume you have tried something like this in your old world already?" Another nod brought the old scholar satisfaction, that this man was not more gifted than himself, that he would not have to worry about his superiority in magic.

Imagination universally had the same underlying principles, so if he trained long enough in his old world, he might very well have already achieved sufficient skill to explain what happened. Elemental Kinesis was, after all, not a feat of strength, but one of concentration. Whether that came from relentless repetition or simple talent made no difference.

At least those were the scholars thoughts, not knowing that the System worked by connecting the patterns of firing synapses to the current goals, intentions and circumstances of it's host. A fact that would make Alex's previous years of training utterly useless without an active System overseeing his neural activity.

But alas, not even he could know about the inner workings of the System, actively hidden from any and all lifeforms by the construct itself since its first appearance so many millenia ago.

Having had enough of a surprise for the day, and noticing the wobbling pebble still floating in front of him, Alberton told the magic-obsessed youth to continue his efforts until he was capable to hold it perfectly still in mid-air.

"Once you are ready, take on a second pebble and make it rotate in a stable orbit around the first one. Simply keep adding more, spacing them equally. Five should be enough, so just experiment with different configurations afterwards. It will not be long until we reach Mezi. Once we're there you'll have more than enough time to begin your studies of the theories pertaining magic, something I assume you'll be very interested in," having said that, he turned away and proceeded to walk in silence, contemplating the secrets of life with a serene expression.

'How did that youth already reach level 3 in Kinesis?! That takes fucking days! What is wrong with him?!... Don't panic... maybe that's just a side effect of the efforts he undertook in his old world. Yes, that must be it! He had no System, so it's likely just overcompensating now to accurately represent the level he should be at...' Alberton told himself, to reassure his ego that he was still the most talented mage in existence. Or at least in the vicinity of Mezi.

A few hours later, filled with various shouts of "What the heck was that?!" and "Who's throwin' pebbles?!", Alex held onto 8 pebbles. Not in his hand, mind you, but floating in asynchronous curves around his body. Even when they passed behind his back, he had no troubles accurately directing their trajectories to maintain their quickly shifting configurations.

From a distance, they seemed to simply circle him, but when closely observed, one could make out pebbles in close proximity to each other excerting a certain attraction, causing slight deviations from their otherwise perfect paths.

After the fifth pebble, he became bored of the simple pattern he had to follow, so he tried to alter it. At first, he made some minor changes, but once he realized that this wouldn't pose much of a problem either, he stepped up his game. He tried to simulate waves. Not having control over enough pebbles, he had to keep it basic, arranging them in a straight line, lifting one slightly above the others and then making it fall while increasing the height of its surrounding neighbors, effectively creating a two-dimensional wave.

He did not succeed in his first attempt. On the contrary, he failed numerable times, utterly misguiding the pebbles, some even hitting an unfortunate guard walking to close to the danger posed by an unexperienced mage, but after having finally achieved his lifes goal of learning magic he was surely not going to give up now.

He persevered and on his forthy-somethingsth try he finally got a satisfying wave-motion going, which prompted him to increase the difficulty again, leading to his current display of "Newtonian Gravity" and some unimpressed stares from the guards around him.

If they knew that only a few hours ago, this man still thought magic nothing more than a fantastical force, forever outside of his grasp, they'd definitely have vastly different opinions about this feat. As it was, all they knew about him was that he was found in the forest and that Sir Grendor took this weird man as his apprentice, to the displeasure of their captain.

A displeasure he gladly demonstrated at each twist and turn of their path, constantly grumbling about respect, insulting Sir Grendor with colorful choice-words, and plotting his bloody revenge. Something they've seen more than once, usually resulting in their captain returning with singed hair and burn marks all over his face after a visit to the scholars residence. Nobody knew how the mage managed to burn solely his face, while leaving his clothes in pristine condition.

A sudden halt in the surrounding mans steps caused Alex to lose control over his pebbles, making them drop to the ground. Wondering what happened, Alex saw a gigantic, monolithic structure in front of him. A black monument, easily mistaken for a mountain, if not for it's shining, seemingly polished, surface and it's regularity, akin to a pyramid, albeit far larger than any found on Earth.

Taking a moment to come to terms with the magnificience in front of him, he noticed the guards resuming their march, apparently only having taken a pause to gain access to a barrier shimmering at the front of their group, hundreds of meters away from the foot of what he could only assume was the city of Mezi.