Alex placed the first book down, then picked the next one, 'Mana Systems and Types.'
He opened the book and started reading.
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It is theorized that mana is somewhat sentient, since it gives users the ability to gauge their own skill through a status window.
Said status window appears in a way that is most understandable to the user.
For example, an illiterate person would see the levels in a way they understood better — stars, skulls, anything.
For everyone else that went to school, the status seems to be expressed the same way. That way being:
Beginner > Apprentice > Novice > Intermediate > Advanced > Master > Grandmaster > Exalted > Legend.
Those levels are further separated by tiers, those being:
Tier 1: Beginner, Apprentice, and Novice
Tier 2: Intermediate, Advanced, and Master
Tier 3: Grandmaster and Exalted
Then there was Legend. One could say that Legend was its own realm since attempting to reach it was highly dangerous and provided boosts that were akin to a rank-up in tier.
Continuing on that topic, there's another reason why the levels were separated by tiers.
That was because, to reach certain levels, one needed to meet requirements.
Ranking up generally was accomplished by increasing your core by oversaturating it with mana gathering training. When you reach 100%, your level goes from, say, Beginner to Apprentice.
Ranking up in tier was different. One needed some materials, which were actually the same for everyone, with the difference being in the elements needed. Said material requirement was also provided by the status once one reached the threshold of a tier.
Without those materials, one couldn't rank up, since they were needed to help the body with the modifications done by mana.
Those modifications allowed the body to absorb more elements, purer mana, and do it more efficiently. It also provided more mana regeneration.
In the case of Martial Artists, it provided another set of boons — more natural injury regeneration, more tenacity, and a tougher body, besides the benefits granted by leveling in rank.
But ranking up in tier with only materials was capped at Tier 1 to Tier 2, because from Tier 2 onwards there were also magical standards to reach besides the material ones.
So one could rank up to Tier 2 without ever studying magic, but they could never cross to Tier 3 since they would need to meet some standards on their way of magic.
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'Sigh, that's a lot to take in,' Alex thought, but it was all needed.
He then went on to the types of mana.
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Mana encompasses a multitude of elements, which are divided into Basic and Advanced, those being:
Basic: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Ice, Sound, and Healing.
Advanced: Lightning, Space, Gravity, Darkness, Light, Illusion, and Nature
This did not mean that a beginner mage couldn't pick Space or Light as their first attribute. They were separated by which elements gave a smoother entry into the magic world, since all the elements in the Basic department were easier to study, while those elements in the Advanced category were more complex in nature and hard to study or perfect.
It was found that Martial Artists could not practice the Healing element, since it seems it can only be stored in a core and was only usable in projection-type magic.
Theories stated that this was the world's way to balance the mages with the martial artists. Since martial artists were already very tenacious with insane natural regeneration, if they were able to use Healing magic, they could become immortal as long as they held mana.
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After reading for a while more, Alex placed the books back where they belonged.
He now knew he could foster another element in his body and wanted to go to the magic store to buy a magic gathering book together with a skill to accompany it.
He left the library with a little over an hour until the day turned into night.
He walked toward the magic shop he saw before while strolling through the village.
As he walked, he finally started counting his gold coins inside the pocket watch.
'567 gold coins… I hope that allows me to buy some magic books,' Alex thought. It was an insane amount of money for a teenager, but he knew that magic gained that name by how it made money disappear.
Reaching the magic shop, he greeted the receptionist and walked straight to the Elemental Gathering section. He was wondering what element to pick, and what skill.
While pondering, he heard a commotion at the entrance.
There seemed to be people trying to steal from the store, as three dudes were pointing their knives at the man behind the counter.
The store clerk simply watched the men with a deadpan expression, then he moved his hand, and three ice spears swiftly appeared in the air, impaling the men from top to bottom.
Alex was flabbergasted. Well, actually, it made sense that a powerful person would be protecting such an expensive collection of items.
The clerk wasn't finished, though. He used fire magic to burn the bodies after dematerializing the ice spears, leaving nothing but ash. Then he used water magic to clean the ash, making it seem as if nothing had happened.
'Diabolical,' thought Alex at such a brutal display.
"Don't worry, it's more common than you think. Sorry for troubling you," the man said to Alex, who was watching from afar.
Alex gave a nod to the man and went back to what he was doing.
After some thought, he decided that he needed defense. The fight with the bear had painfully demonstrated that.
He was deciding between Water and Earth, as he wanted to keep himself in the Basic category.
He didn't consider Healing since he would enter a cycle of damage and healing over and over again, and the moment he ran out of mana, it would be the end.
He would rather have a skill that could make him take no damage while also allowing him to put some distance between himself and the enemy.
He finally settled on Water and went to that aisle.
He started looking at the prices and gulped.
'Two… two hundred coins for basic magic?!' He was shocked solid.
Still, he got Water Drop Meditation and Water Shield.
Reaching the desk, he placed the books on it, and the man said,
"That'll be 400 gold coins, kid."
Alex placed the money on the desk in stacks of ten.
Seeing forty stacks of gold coins made his heart ache.
'This is an investment,' he kept thinking over and over again.
"Thank you, have a nice day," said the clerk with the same deadpan expression he had from the moment Alex walked in.
He left, and it was evening already. He started walking toward Susan's house.
He wanted to have supper, a shower, and go to sleep.
Now that he had something to write with, he wanted to memorize the magic control book in his dreams to write it down later.