CHAPTER 2: The Tip of the Ice Berg

--Sura’s POV--

The book left by the mysterious man was in plain sight, it has a black leather cover that protected the contents of the book. Tattered cover and pages imply that the book isn’t particularly new, however, I feel as though there’s something more to this book than meets the eye. It is suspicious that it was just left behind by a strange hooded man, other than that, it is just an ordinary-looking book with strange writings.

I picked the book, and something caught my attention, not because of the title nor the name of the author but because of the language, everything was written.

[No way!? It’s written in Japanese?! Is he…?]

I wanted to go look for the man that left the book and ask if he was Japanese, however, my sister wants to buy the ingredients and come home quickly to help Mary at home.

***

While walking through the crowd, I recalled everything Aishita taught me about this world. Aishita taught me, that we live in Gadvell village of the kingdom of LouwenDale and that the language we use is called the Human Tongue used by the Human race native in the Human Continent. She also mentioned that the Village of Gadvell is on the northern side of the continent and is 5 weeks away from the kingdom of LouwenDale, by cart.

Although the Human Continent is mainly composed of Humans, other races live in the continent, these races are the Elven race, the Dwarven race, and some Demi-Human race. Aishita explained that the Elves is the first race to discover magic, having the ability to see the surrounding mana, the elves sought to control mana through incantations derived from the Elven language, she also explained that although Elves had a continent they lived in before, they were almost wiped out during the 3rd magical war and that the Demon race drove the elves away from their continent. Dwarves, on the other hand, are the first race that made use of stone and minerals, with their sturdy body they utilize these materials to strengthen their equipment and make a living out of the products they can produce. Lastly, the Demi-Humans are mixed races that have a similar appearance to Humans but are entirely different, hence the word “Demi”. These races are distinguished by their half-human and half-beast appearance and are considered to be physically stronger than humans. Demi-Humans together with the Human race are the first to ever make a map of the whole world.

***

As I was pondering about the information that Aishita taught me, we arrived at a petite hut fit for business, vines entangle themselves around the walls and dangle from the roof, herbs of all kinds occupy the entire yard and I won’t be surprised if the back was also full of herbs used for medicine. Flowers bloom not only in the garden but also on the windows visible from the outside, the smell of aromatic flowers complements the view, you can tell that this place was well taken care of.

“Hello, Aishita you came shopping today?”

A woman of the Demi-Human race about 5ft 9in, greeted me and my sister. She appears to have brown curly hair that has been braided towards the back of her head, she also has a pink flower ornament that holds her braid together. It seems that it is common for women to wear flower ornaments that complement their hair in this village. A tail and dog-like ears are what you immediately see when you look at her, it suits her well to the point that even I might have fallen in love with her.

“good morning Ophelia-san, my father seemed to have fallen ill again do you have any Echinacea herbs?”

“certainly! Your father always had low resistance against poison ever since he first came to this village you know”

“yeah, he keeps acting tough for our sake, but I can always tell”

“here 😊, careful on your way back sweetheart”

“hai~”

We immediately went home. I somehow just realize how large this village is, having a crowded market early in the morning. While scanning our surroundings I notice that 2 primary races live together in Gadvell, humans, and demi-humans. It seems everything that Aishita taught me is real, however, I remember Aishita mentioning that elves are rare to find unless you’re in Manasophy Academy, the only place that teaches you A-Class magic, the highest possible rank for a normal mage can attain.

The market seems to be far from our home to the point that just going to the market made me exhausted and Aishita noticed my exhaustion and offered to carry me home, she somehow got mad at me when I refused her offer so I had no choice but to be humiliated and be carried on our way back.

“you okay there Sura-chan?”

“maybe I should ask you that nee-chan”

“don’t mind me 😊, I did help mom when she was pregnant with you”

“oh…”

“you can always rely on nee-chan, you know.

nee-chan will always be there for her cute little brother”

“…”

Those words somehow reached my heart.

I remember a time that I was the one telling my sister, Misaki that I will always be there for her but when the time came that she needed me the most, I could not do anything for her, I could not even be there by her side before she died.

Misaki and Aishita, for me, are similar, to the point that I kept thinking that they are the same person, the only difference is that Aishita is more mature than the Misaki that I remember.

I somehow tighten my grip around Aishita, but she did not complain.

We manage to get home quicker than I expected.

Aishita then settled me down before we went inside.

***

“Tadaima~…”

“thank you both of you, I can make the medicine for your father, you can rest now.”

“haiii~…”

“But first thing’s first!”

To our surprise, Mary quickly moved towards us and hugged us. When I looked at Aishita, she was smiling, she seemed happy to help, then she looked at me and grinned, showing her teeth. That’s cute.

After the warm hug, I gave Mary the herbs she sent us to get. I stayed by the kitchen offering my hand to take care of Griffin, he did provide financial support for the family by doing forest patrols and taking care of wild monsters, that somehow get dangerously close to the village.

[it’s the least I can do for him.]

When Mary finished making the antidote, she gave it to me and patted my head, and smiled letting me know that everything was fine, she somehow noticed how I felt when I saw Griffin collapsed on the floor.

I went to Mary and Griffin’s bedroom. He seemed to be doing fine than what I’d imagined. I may have panicked too much earlier.

“Sorry to worry you, kiddo”

“I wasn’t worried at all; you are a strong person”

“is that so… how was your first time wandering in town?”

“it’s so far”

Griffin timidly laughed at my predicament.

I applied some kind of medicine on different parts of his body, the forehead, below the nose, and the chest. It seems I’m applying Vicks vapor rub on my father; I don’t remember echinacea herbs being used to apply on the body to cure fever.

I recalled a time when I was young, I got sick and couldn’t go to school, Akihito, my real father stayed home, even though he had a lot of patients at the hospital waiting for him, he bought me medicine, he changed my clothes and fed me, it was a good memory...

Akihito was a good father to both Misaki and me, he was a good doctor as well, even though he was hungry or tired or both he will always put his patients first before himself. But he got infected and stayed at the hospital for 1 and a half years. I couldn’t even talk to him when he called. Once a month, he was allowed to video call me through the internet with the use of his coworker’s phone. He was always smiling whenever I pick up the phone, but I was never looking forward to seeing him in that state and now he’s dead… I don’t want to replace him with Griffin, but it seemed for the past 5 years of my life here, I unconsciously see him in Griffin.

I miss you Dad… I’m sorry…

***

After taking care of Griffin, I made my way to the bedroom Aishita and I shared.

I pulled out the ‘Necronomicon’ the strange man dropped earlier and examined the cover.

“Learning the Arts of Shadow Necromancy”

It certainly had a strange title for a fictional book, or it might be a grimoire. Grimoires are books used by those who can’t afford a teacher or go to the academy, we had a few which Aishita used to learn magic. These grimoires contain instructions on learning how to control mana to create magic. There are a lot of things Aishita taught me and magic is also one of them.

There are 4 main classes that classify an adventurer. Mage Class, Duelist Class, Rogue Class, and Cleric Class. These classes are further ranked as an individual progress and gain experiences through training and combat, the ranks that Aishita taught me are D Rank -> C Rank -> B Rank -> A Rank -> S Rank. As of now, I can only be considered as a D rank Mage, even though I can use all 4 basic elements; Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth. I am still too weak to be considered C rank Wizard. Though Aishita is a C rank Water Wizard and D rank Fire Mage, she still admired me because I was able to grasp all basic attributes of magic. I think she only studied the ones necessary in our daily lives, for example, fire magic for cooking food and water magic to water the plants in our garden.

There are only 2 known S ranked in the world because of the story of the Legendary Duelist who was able to stop the Arcane Sorcerer who commanded an entire army of Demons during the 1st magical war. Demons are a mysterious race, having 3 different subraces, the Beast Demons, the Humanoid Demons, and the Winged Demons who are considered the strongest race of Demons. Aishita told me a story about the reason demons began hunting for wings. Once upon a time, a race called the Ascended were massacred by the Demon race to obtain power through attaching the wings of the Ascended to the back of the Demons, once attached the wings shed their feathers that’s why demon wings never had feathers, giving the demons unrivaled powers. It’s truly a sad story when the demons annihilated the Ascended race. They stopped trying to conquer other continents after that, I wondered why they stopped their attempts to conquer the world, but also thankful for not.

“Maybe, I should open it now?”

When I flipped the cover, ashes began pouring out from the book, it filled the room in no time, however, it does not feel like ashes even though it looked like it. The once well-lit room was now enveloped in total darkness, although surprised by the smokescreen, I was still able to respond by hurriedly opening the window and using wind magic to get rid of the strange mist that was pouring out from the book. After a minute or so, I finally got rid of the mist and began reading the first page of the book.

“Shadow Necromancy-”

After reading the header, I recalled a novel that had a strange concept of necromancers, even though the protagonist was considered a necromancer he didn’t lead an army of dead rotting corpses, the one he led is an army of shadow soldiers, I think the author of the novel was 'Chugong' and I think the title of the novel was 'Only I Level Up'. I remember I’d spend the entire day reading it nonstop and the manhwa was also breathtaking. In terms of the name “Shadow Necromancer”, it seems it’s similar to that novel.

I began reading the contents of the book, however.

“Beware of Spell Breakers?

I never heard anything about Spell Breakers before. Maybe they’re a type of monster immune to the powers of the Shadow Necromancer?”

***

“Sura, it’s time for lunch.”

“hai! Ka-san…”

After skimming through almost the entire book, a call from the dining room interrupted my ‘research’ telling me it was already time to eat lunch. I hid the book under my bed and went to the dining room.

It seems Griffin is still bedridden, so only the 3 of us were eating together, even though Griffin wasn’t with us, we ate like we usually do. Fresh fish was used for soup with vegetables and grilled tender meat with white rice served as our lunch, the same as usual. Ka-san was the one telling stories instead of Tou-san, we laughed when she told the story about the time she fell in love with dad, Griffin was still working through becoming a B rank Weapon Master and she was the receptionist of the guild. At the time they didn’t care about each other, but suddenly an A rank Behemoth started harassing Mary and when he tried to stop the guy, he ended up getting beaten up and was put headfirst on a large keg full of strong alcoholic beer and got drank. Even though he got entirely humiliated, mom still fell for him, to her he was a knight in shining armor…

After cleaning up after lunch, Aishita and I trained to improve our magical abilities, although I think she’s only interested in teaching me than improving.

“Okay, now try casting Aqua Sphere but try shortening the incantations you use”

“why? I don’t think shortening the incantations of the spells will make the spell work”

“oh, didn’t I tell before? In the branch of mage classes, it’s more efficient and safer to shorten the incantations of the spells.”

“is that so…”

I do agree that shortening the spells is more efficient and safer considering there are a lot of monsters and opponents that are fast and agile, doing that can help mages survive and have a longer life and generally go up the ranks, however, it doesn’t necessarily mean when you copy the shortened incantation of another mage that the spell works, well in my case it’s not, that’s why I thought that Aishita is unique having to cast water attribute spells with shortened incantations. I guess that having a mental image of the spell, how it works and how it is produced can help in Shortened or Chantless magic. I’ll have to learn that above all else for my sake. I believed I read a book about the Arcane Sorcerer that the Legendary Duelist fought, it states there that he or she can cast spells without any incantations. Chantless… another reference I guess.

“hmm…”

“you have a question, Sura-chan?”

“so, if shortening the incantations means that you can rank up, does that mean a water mage can become an A rank Perfect Specialized Wizard that only knows 1 water attribute spell?”

“in theory, yes! There are B rank Elementalist adventurers that only knew the basic attribute spells

“However, I remembered my sensei mentioning that the Mage branch in A rank is different than any other classes, they are required to take a special type of exam to get promoted from B rank, however, It’s been a long time since an adventurer was promoted to A rank”

“oh.”

With that, I started shortening the incantations for Aqua Sphere.

However, Aishita and I were surprised, not because no water came out, it is only natural for beginners to fail at something, but to our surprise, something else came out…

“wha...what’s happening?”