It has been two years since Eric first stepped into Merosis, and he hasn’t enjoyed it much. On the first day of his training, Eric had his bones broken, muscles ripped, and read so much it made his eyes blurry. He was healed only enough to be able to move.

As soon as Eric thought he was getting used to the training, Arthur took it up a notch by using gravity magic on him. He increased the weight every time Eric made progress.

But, Eric did learn more about the world of Merosis though. Only about one-fourth of sentient creatures born are able to manipulate mana. The reason why is that they aren’t born with affinities. Arcane mana is what the pure form of mana is called, and most beings are born with it. It is unknown why, or how, beings are born with affinities.

The eight main affinities are; Water, fire, earth, nature, light, dark, space, and time. There are dozens of sub-affinities for each main affinity. You can also combine the main affinities, but not the sub-affinities.

Magic is not the only way to use mana. Arthur taught Eric how to use mana to strengthen himself. He can use it to make himself faster, stronger, and even heal faster. It's not as good as healing magic, but it uses much less mana. It is called mana arts

Eric learned and mastered fire magic. He also learned the sub-affinity Dragon-fire. It’s what Uwibami used to burn the army that was attacking Arthur's castle. It sticks like water and is extremely hard to put out.

There are thousands of different sentient beings in Merosis. The most common are humans, fae, elves, dwarfs, and giants are called the big five. The big five tend to stay together, and away from each other. Humans like the open plains, fae like the floating islands, elves like forests, dwarfs like to be underground, and giants like to live in the mountains where it's always cold.

Gnomes, goblins, minotaurs, and fairies are used as slaves or servants for the big five. Apparently, slaves are commonplace in Merosis.

But today is the day Uwibami is going to give Eric the light affinity. Eric had already asked his AI helper what the chances were of working, and it pretty much said it was a fifty-fifty chance. Eric thinks it’s worth the risk.

“Alright, you ready?” Uwibami smiles at Eric. They’re standing in Uwibami’s tower.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Eric smiles back.

Uwibami nods and puts his hand on Eric’s chest. Eric can Uwibami’s mana seep into his blood. He does his best to keep his fire mana from reacting to the invading light mana.

Eric guides the Uwibami’s light mana to his heart, extremely slow as to not cause a reaction. It feels like hours go by, but Eric doesn’t lose his concentration for a second or the light mana may kill him.

Eventually, the light mana makes it to Eric's heart. Eric slowly trickles it in, taking his time. The light mana brushes Eric’s fire mana and the two instantly jump at each other, as if alive.

Eric falls to his knees clutching his chest, trying to force the two mana away from each other. After a few seconds of trying to pull them apart, Eric realizes that he shouldn’t be trying to pull them apart. So he stops trying to pull them apart and starts trying to spin them together.

Uwibami can only watch. He doesn't know what could happen if he tried to do anything. He watches Eric as he slowly brings the mana under control. Eric's eyes fly open and he jumps up.

“I DID IT!” Eric jumps in the air.

“Chill out kid, we still got six more,” Uwibami says while rolling his eyes.

Eric tunnels his new light mana into his right palm and tries to cast a spell like he would with fire mana. Uwibami’s eyes go wide and he screams:

“NO!” and jumps at Eric.

“Wh-” Eric tries to say, but an explosion interrupts him.

Eric is thrown into a bookshelf, while Uwibami is protected by an invisible shield. Uwibami runs over to Eric's crumpled body.

“Boy!? Eric, are you alive?!” Uwibami flips Eric onto his back.

Eric's right arm up to his elbow is gone, and he has multiple third-degree burns on his body. Uwibami channels his light magic into his necklace, making it glow yellow.

“Verba quae sana” Uwibami whispers as his necklace glows brighter, a stream of light shoots out and onto Eric, healing him completely and instantly.

Uwibami sighs and leaves back as Eric sits up.

“W-what happened?” Eric says as he looks at his hands.

“You tried to channel light mana into your arm without training, that's what.” Uwibami growls, “You could have killed yourself!”

Eric does a dogeza bow. “I’m really sorry, Uwibami.”

“Tsk, extra training from now on!” Uwibami says before walking out.

Eric leaves Uwibami’s tower and heads to the barracks where he's been sleeping. He greets a few of the soldiers before reaching his bed and laying down. He’s about to drift off when someone sits down.

“What happened?” Eric's friend Jeremy asks.

“Hm?” Eric grumbles.

“Do you have another affinity?” Jeremy looks at Eric with a sparkle in his eye.

“Yeah, and I blew my hand off too.” Eric rolls over.

“But I can see your hand right now…”

“Uwibami healed me, ya dumbass!”

“Jeez, you're grumpy,” Jeremy says before getting up and walking off.

“Jemery, I’m sorry, man. I’m just exhausted.” Eric sits up and looks at Jeremy.

“It’s alright, I’ll let you rest.” Jeremy turns around and walks away.

Jeremy is King Arthurs's son and his best friend. Eric met him when Arthur had them train together. Jeremy is one year older than Eric at twenty.

“You should make Jeremy one of your champions.” The AI tells Eric while he was running laps around the training grounds.

“Maybe. I don’t know if he would want to.”

Eric had told Arthur and Uwibami about the two doors and the system. He told Jeremy a month after he met him.

Welp, here comes another time skip.