“It's 36.” Irwyn calmly stated while looking at the elderly man in front of him; his tutor Lucas was a respected scholar as well as an important priest of Ezta, the minor goddess of darkness and patronage which was the only deity allowed in the Blackburg fief. Irwyn was currently doing some simple additions in mathematics. Simple by his standards; not by a 2 years old child's standard judging by Lucas’ flabbergasted expression.

“Truly incredible. I started teaching you numbers only yesterday, but you can already do additions of numbers above 10.” Lucas exclaimed, his mouth wide open.

“Please don't flatter me, teacher. Let's carry on,” Irwyn remained humble; it would be humiliating to be praised for such simple things if he was not used to it. He also utilised this moment to use his skill.

[Activating Overseer]

[Action successful]

[Name: Lucas Wisenose]

[Race: Human (pure)]

[Soul grade: peak uncommon]

[Mana: 300/300]

[Active Classes: Scholar(T 2/3) 15/15, teacher(T 1/3) 10/10]

[Worship: Ezta (minor goddess of darkness and patronage)]

[Essence: 234]

[Unspent points: level: 0, attribute: 0, upgrade: 0]

[Titles: Scholar]

[Magic: Cartography magic, printing magic]

[Skills: Living maps (99/100)]

[Dormant classes: master cartographer]

[Attributes:]

[Magic capacity: 30]

[Constitution: 3]

[Strength: 4]

[Intellect: 40]

[Dexterity: 35]

[Soul: 12]

It was not particularly impressive, although Irwyn expected as much.

“Oh, yes, of course. Since we are done with math for now what do to want to learn about today. I have an idea, but would like to hear your opinion,” Lucas regained his composure and moved on.

“Teacher, I am interested in recent history,” Irwyn stated. It was actually true: there were 3000 years’ worth of important events happening around the world that he should learn about.

“Recent history? Although recent events might sound more interesting there are far more important events in the history of our universe. Tell me Irwyn, have you ever heard the word ‘aspect’?” very slight frown formed on Lucas' face.

“I think I did hear a maid mention it,” Irwyn said; he stopped the frown that was about to form on his own forehead and started lying through his teeth “but I don't know what it actually means.”

“See that is what I meant by more important. Aspects are considered to be common knowledge around the world, although most people don't know as many details as I do. The story of the aspects brings us all the way to beginning of time and before it.”

“First there was only the One. There was no world like the one we live in; there was no air that we breathe nor was there the water we drink. There was only the first flame, Ignis. Ignis was omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient at the time, but he was alone for all eternity. At some point he grew tired of his solitude; he split 8 sparks away from his form and from them created the first 8 aspects. Lumen, the aspect of light; Umbra, the aspect of void; Logos, the aspect of Logos or the system; Temporus, the aspect of time; Vita, the aspect of life; Terra, the aspect of worlds; Probatio, the aspect of challenge; and Proditio, the treacherous aspect.”

“Do you have any questions so far?”

There was a moment of silence before Irwyn realised he was being asked a question and calmly shook his head. He did not hear a single word his tutor said and made sure to not read his lips. The old man could be spewing biased bullshit and Irwyn wouldn't know. He could not afford to hear that story right now; his current body could not contain or even withstand the emotional outbursts it would without a doubt cause.

“Then I will continue. After Ignis created the first 8 aspects he was overjoyed by their company; he even took Lumen and Umbra as his wives and had a child with each. When these two children were born they were different than their parents. Their bodies were unlike the pure aspect forms of their parents; they were made of flesh and bone, and inside them appeared the first two souls. The son of Lumen was the first human while the son of Umbra was the first elf, the two races were later created in their picture.”

“When Ignis saw his two sons he was amazed by them. His creation created something he himself never would have considered. He then requested from the aspects that they would create and once again amaze him.”

“And so, each of them gave life to a champion, creating the 8 primordial kings. The celestial king, Gwyn; the void emperor, Abaxoth; the guardian of Logos, Golem; the eternal one, Ouroboros; the warden of life, Yggdrasil; the first giant, Titan; the first dragon, Tiamat; and the first undead, Kel'thuzad. When Ignis saw them he was overjoyed. Once again he witness creation beyond what he would image before. He encouraged the 8 primordials to make creations on their own. However, they could not; when they attempted to create they could only form lesser versions of themselves and the things they were taught. Ignis realised that it was only him and those he made directly from a piece of himself that could ever truly create. For that realisation he offered the 8 primordial kings souls. Only Tiamat refused that offer as he believed that for his purpose it was essential to be different than the rest; it is for that reason that even today monsters do not have souls.”

“Creation requires sacrifice. Ignis knew that with each being he created he grew weaker, but he was now beyond the point of no return. He dedicated himself to create, giving birth to the countless lesser aspects whose exact numbers are still not known to this day. He gave himself away piece by piece until he was only a shadow of his former self. It was only after that did he relayed his plan. He wanted to create something tremendous; something that would come at the price of his life as well as all the aspects'. The Universe. The aspects were all overjoyed to participate in such a great plan; all except one. Proditio, as his title The treacherous aspect might suggest, did not desire to participate as he was at that point obsessed with his own life. Yet when faced with overwhelming opinions of the others he knew he didn’t have a choice.”

“And at the beginning of time it all started.”

“Temporus gave his life to create time itself setting everything that stood still before into motion.”

“Lumen gave her life to create the vast infinite skies and filled them with her empyrian children.”

“Terra gave his life to create our world in the centre of the sky as well as countless smaller planets spread all over the universe.”

“Umbra gave her life to create the endless void which filled all the gaps in between and filled it with her demonic offsprings.”

“Vita gave his life to create the many races which traverse our world, including our own humanity and connected all the realms through his first child, Yggdrasil.”

“Logos gave his life to create the system which was meant to guide them through their own lives.”

“Probatio gave his life to create the monsters and trials which were meant to challenge the mortals in their attempts to approach their progenitors.”

“It is not not known what Proditio really did, but it is known that he gave his live to create something malicious out of pure spite for not being allowed to live.”

“All of the minor aspects sacrificed their lives to create all else that we know in the universe today. From the water we drink to the air we breathe.”

“When all this was done Ignis looked down at the greatest creation yet. He was overjoyed over what he achieved and beckoned with what was left of his power; he created souls for all empyrians, demons and humanoid races. As he witnessed their joy over their newfound fullness he took one final step; he sacrificed his life to give the universe his flame.”

Lucas was slightly emotional when he finished speaking. As a scholar he was someone who sought bits and pieces of ancient role. Despite being incomplete and possibly slightly changed over the many years and versions that were recorded the story of the creation of the universe always seemed to stir emotions within him. He looked at the hourglass to his right and just managed to see the final few grains of sand fall down. That signified that about half of their time was over; Lucas rather quickly flipped the hourglass and spoke again.

“That concludes the story of the aspects. Do you have any questions?”

“No, teacher.” This time Irwyn unblocked his senses before any awkward silence “What will you teach me next?”

“Let’s see. You said you were interested in recent history, correct?” Lucas raised an eyebrow.

“Yes teacher,” Irwyn said with composure.

“With that in mind I will first have to introduce you to basic geography...” Lucas said as he began to scramble through various documents and papers on his desk “here it is!” he exclaimed as he finally found a map. It was clearly magically enchanted as the moment he laid it down in front of Irwyn a large ellipsoid appeared above it; the contents of the magical map were projected on its spherical form.

As it rotated few times Irwyn saw a total of 1 huge and 4 large continents; additionally he also saw many small or large islands. The single huge continent seemed to span from the subtropic to mild climate on the northern half of the globe; Irwyn knew that was the central continent. The large continents were respectively as follows:

One on the equator on the exact opposite side than the huge continent, the tribal lands;

one was a distance away in the mild climate regions southern to the central continent, that made the technocratic lands the only continent fully on the southern half of the globe;

another continent was not far away west from the central continent, the land of dragons;

and finally there was the continent fully spun in the subarctic or even arctic regions above the central continent, the far north or the land of mages.

Lucas did his best to teach Irwyn the names as well as main characteristics of each of these continents and even threw in most of the “important” large islands; however, that additional knowledge was very rarely useful from Irwyn’s experience. Then Lucas finally moved on to the useful part of his explanation.

“The northern continent that we live in was just shortly before your birth united into a single empire ruled by the founding emperor Augustus. The empire had long been the largest power on the continent, but finally became the only one after the arch-lich Sur’ghoru and his armies were defeat in a large campaign lead by the late duke Brightbeak. The land is ruled by the emperor and individual parts are controlled by the noble houses. Most of it is politics that I am sure you would not be interested in, but your house Blackburg is extremely prominent in the empire.”

Irwyn found that curious; not that that the Blackburg house was obviously influential, but the name he heard. He vaguely remembered the name Augustus as the young leader of a small faction here in the north from his previous reincarnation. It was curious that the man made it that far, but their previous relationship was unfortunately not good enough to capitalise on in any way.

“Do you have any questions?” Lucas asked.

“You said the founding emperor Augustus; how old is he if he founded such a great empire?” Irwyn decided to confirm.

“He is very old; some sources claim he might have been born around 3 millenia go. 3000 years is an extremely long time for someone to live, especially when considering that he is still as fit as a fiddle.” Lucas’ eyes sparkled slightly as he spoke, but soon enough dimmed again.

“If you don’t have any more questions we should move on. We still have some time left in today’s lesson. You are incredibly fluent speaker for your age, but there are many languages used around the world. Most of them also have their own letters and grammar that you need to learn. I myself am fluent in 15 languages spoken here in the north or in the central continent. But first things first...” he scrambled through his desk again and took out a scroll filled with letters “Let’s begin with writing in a language you already know.”