The next morning came and Arthur got up from his bed and ran straight toward the library. He reached the front gate a few moments later as the library wasn't that far away from the orphanage.
The library was a tall building with two big gates which were open, the feeling it gave was more of a castle than a building.
Arthur admired it for a second and went straight in. Although Arthur came here yesterday, he was still amazed by the thousands of books on different topics neatly arranged on wooden shelves.
Yesterday when he came here, he blindly started searching for books but today he choose to ask the staff on the other side of the counter.
Arthur went towards the counter and saw a lady with glasses in her thirtees sitting there reading something from a parchment. He knocked on the counter and asked
"Hello. Could you please tell me where can I find knowledge regarding awakening and abilities?"
The lady looked up at Arthur and raised her brows only to see Arthur shrugging on her gaze.
"Section B, Row 11" she finally said and went back to her previous work.
Seeing the lady uninterested, Arthur went to row 11 of section B the lady told him and began scanning through the book titles.
A few interesting titles came into his view but Arthur was interested in those things as of now, he wanted information about his lightening.
After some scanning, a book came in his view
"The history of Ekdum" Arthur muttered as he picked the book up. It was an old book with a layer dust on it, indicating that no one has read it in a while.
He dusted the book with his hands before turning the cover over. A blank page came into his view, which prompted him to turn another page. There came words written on it as Arthur read it aloud
" Ekdum. Our world. It was filled with mana from as long as one can remember. The mana is the souce of all of our abilities,spells, and techniques."
The words written on it amazed Arthur. He didn't knew that the strange thing he felt while using his lightening was mana, as children weren't told about things related to Abilities before their awakening. So he read further with some excitement.
" Mana is responsible for the awakening that happens to every individual in this world.
The abilities also require mana to remain active and function."
"But the amount of mana a individual can hold in his body is limited and vary person to person, some had a vast reservoir meanwhile some had a minuscle amount at the time of their awakening. The mana holding capacity of a individual increases as the proficiency and tier of their abilities increases."
At this point, Arthur became confused. He didn't know that their were tiers and proficiency for abilities, as he thought that Abilities are just.... Abilities.
But he threw away his doubt in the back of his head and continued further
" With the limited mana capacity, came a major problem. The individuals that had abundance of mana raised their proficiencies and gained even more mana but the ones with low amount couldn't even keep their abilities active for a long time hence couldn't increase their proficiencies."
" This threatened the weaker masses, as without power, they will be at the other party's mercy everytime a conflict arises between them. In those times, a person came forward and introduced the concept of spells."
Arthur eyes shimmered with stars after hearing about spells, it was a concept unheard to him so he was very excited to learn about them. Therefore he read forward
" Spells were introduced as a means for those who didn't have the necessary mana to perform their abilities i.e, the weaker masses, to have atleast a chance to defend themselves in case of conflict."
" What's even more interesting is that the discovery of spells was accidental. It was the result of a eccentric trying to trap abilities into a vial so that he can carry them on him and spam them together on his enemies. But alas the vials he created exploded resulting in his death."
Arthur nearly cried from laughter, reading about the eccentric, it was quite a stupid in his opinion too but it also got him excited as he read on
" The eccentric failed, but his actions gave an idea to a person who then tried to imitate the same experiment on parchment made of beast hides. That person wasn't that confident about the result but when the ability was partially inscribed on the parchment, he nearly went mad from hapiness."
" The years passed, the seasons changed and the person managed to inscribed the parchment with with nearly 80 percent efficiency. He tried further, but failed to do so everytime.
" He called these inscriptions, 'Spells'. and very soon they became popular among the masses with its ease of portability and low mana consumption. Spells had a major drawback -it was just a counterfeit compared to the original ability with lesser efficiency. But this drawback was overlooked by almost everyone as the benefits it promised far outweighted the drawbacks."
" If you ask a person -what is the problem with your current abilities that you need spells? His answer will be along the lines that if his abilities were known by his opponents they would be countered easily. But with spells that limitations broke, and anyone can carry any spells no matter the element involved, provided they have the mana to activate it."
" The potions were also just a counterfeit of abilities with greater efficiency than spells.
For comparison, if a person drank a heal potion and someone cast a heal spell on him, the potion will help him recover more and faster than the spell."
Arthur felt his head hurt after gaining so much information at once and decided to call it quits for today and came back to the orphanage.
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The sun rose indicating the start of the new day. Arthur just like yesterday ran straight off to the library.
He was so engrossed in the concept of spells that he forgot to read about awakening. Today, he was here for that exact reason.
Arthur reached Section B and searched for that same book he was reading yesterday. After taking the book he started flipping the pages.
'Spells.....potions...beasts... Ekdum's history.....awakening yes! Here it is' he sound found what he was looking for and started reading
" The awakening. A process after which a individual's body becomes capable to store mana in his body and use it as per his wishes.
It also becomes an important event in their lives as they gain their first ability through it."
" The abilities are divided into different levels based on their impact and strength. they are arranged in the decreasing order as follows
[Sapphire],[Epic],[Ultra Rare],[Rare],[Unique],[Uncommon] and [common]. The levels are further divided based on their proficiency as
[Begginer],[Apprentice],[Master] and [Sage]."
" The general consensus is that a Rare rank ability user cannot defeat a Ultra Rare rank ability user in a duel. But a Rare ability user with a sage proficiency can easily beat a Ultra Rare ability user with a beginner proficiency."
" This is all because a sage proficient user is more familiar with his ability than a beginner, and know how to use it in different situations."
Arthur was astonished by the details he just got and can't help but imagine the scenario where he got a Sapphire rank ability.
' hehe, life would be too easy if I got that.' Arthur smiled as he turned the page but a frown appeared on his face as the next page was....blank!
He still hadn't got to know how he got his blue lightening and there aren't any records of anyone gaining abilities before their awakening, therefore Arthur was in a pinch about what to do.
' sigh..I'll just hide it from everyone untill the awakening and show them this as my first, I can't keep it hidden forever as someone is bound to see when I use it.' Arthur made his choice and decided to hide his lightening for now.
With a disappointed expression on his face, he exited the library and came back to the orphanage.
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