This chapter and the two next are background, after that begin Orcus Dungeon and the real start of the story.
I don't own Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou
It was the afternoon of his fourth day in Tortus and Hajime was in the castle's library looking for books to read.
After the revelation of his non-existent battle power, Hajime almost gave up . He wasn't a shonen manga MC who started weak and through hard work, effort, guts and obvious plot armor became one of the strongest characters in the series. Real life didn't work that way (then again magic wasn't real and now he is in another world) , maybe, he isn't so sure anymore.
Power (or lack of it) aside, one of Hajime other problems was information, he and the others knew almost nothing about this other world. But apparently having cheat powers and ability to cast magic made you forget about the environment and the reality.
And it was a funny story, really. Yesterday they received their first lesson about magic. Hajime previous disappointment about his stats gave him the mental fortitude to endure in case this turned to be day two once again. It was just really fitting if beyond having less than average stats he couldn't cast magic.
Really, at this point Hajime suspected he was being bullied by this world 'god'. He didn't knew why but he even could imagine him, laughing at his expenses.
Flashback
Third day's magic lesson.
Hajime and the others were guided to one of the most secluded rooms in the castle. The instant he got into it, Hajime felt a severe change in the atmosphere, like if he wasn't in the castle anymore. Not only him, but the others too.
The confused students and a teacher warily observed the room till the last inch. It was a big room. They occupied like 20% of it, another 10% was full of books, 40% was occupied by various tools, some looked familiar and others completely unknown. The rest of the room was empty.
"Are you done?"
Their visual exploration of the room was suddenly interrupted when they heard a voice. Looking again, the empty space wasn't so empty anymore, standing there was a man. He was in his middle twenty, his hair was black and short, he had glasses, was dressed in what seemed really expensive robes obviously tailor made for him and had a large staff in his left hand.
It was the staff what called Hajime's attention the most. It had a length of 1.80 meters, covered in strange symbols, he couldn't tell of what it was even made, but it wasn't metal. Then in the top was a strange jewel, it looked like a ruby, but there was something else, something his normal senses couldn't feel or even begin to comprehend. Then his attention returned to the magician in the room.
"Hello, inter dimensional travelers, my name is Aleksander Achard, but you can call me Alek if you wish. I was called here, in order to teach you about magic because I was told that where you came from there isn't magic. Also I am curious about your world so if you feel like telling me about it I am all ears."
Aleksander Achard, the strongest magician of the continent. He was respected and feared by devils and humans alike. His true age was unknown, but some says he is at least a hundred years old. His presence worked as deterrent to the war fir the last forty years, until now. Devils becoming bolder all of sudden was unexpected even for him too.
He was independent, he didn't serve the kingdom, but work with them when there is something that interests him. In this case the presence of otherworldly people, and the opportunity to interact with them was too good to let go, so he accepted when they asked him to train them. Of course the Earth group didn't have any way of knowing this.
"The basics of magic aren't so complicatd, childrens can do it so you should be able too. Now let me explain you some important facts."
Alek gave then an easy of comprehend explanation obviously made for people who knew nothing about magic.
The main points of the lesson were in Hajime's opinion:
-Magic was a form of energy manipulation were using a spell and spending mana you obtain an effect.
-The results are differents for each person, because of various factors like mana used, magical strength talent and others.
-People has certain amount of mana inside of them, that amount could be increased by training (mediation and constantly use of it), also there was abundant mana in the atmosphere that could be used for skilled magicians.
-In the age when gods walked among men, when monster of tremendous power roamed Tortus, magic was more powerful and humans base stats were higher. Historians were confused about facts that doesn't seem to make sense and made lots of theories. But it was true that long ago magicians were stronger than now. Lot of magic was lost, spells were forgotten and secrets were bury deep.
-Magic wasn't restricted by class, but those of a class, had advantage in specific fields.
-Although warriors could use magic, their was less versatile than a mage's.
-Some people had talent and others not.
Finishing his explanation, he revealed that the status had a magic related quantifier.
Apparently Meld didn't tell them about it to not spoil the surprise during the magic lesson.
Hajime, who was betrayed by his status plate already, wasn't so excited like the others. He lazily lifted the plate and read:
Magic Talent: E
Affinity
None
You don't need to be a genius to imagine what the letters represent.
"Magic talent is how we call to the ability to wield magic that people has, it is classified in a seven tier scale, with E being the lowest possible and S the highest known, though, the scholars argued about an eight rank they call X where they says the gods stands. The scale is as follows:
F: Non-existent (can't use normal magic).
E: Non talented (can sense magic but his control is next to useless).
D: Below Average (can use magic but only low level spells and hardly mid level spells).
C: Average (can use magic till mid level spells easily and high level spells with effort).
B: Above Average (can use high level spells with little difficulty , can use mixed spells).
A: Prodigious (can use easily high level spells and downgraded forbidden magic alone, can begin to create their own spells).
S: Legendary (has mastered forbidden spells, multi casting, advanced spell creation and all the previous but better).
X: Divine (UNKNOWN)."
Hajime, having played lots of games could make sense of it, seeing again his status plate the E there was somewhat depressing, not a lot because he was expecting that, but it was kind of sad to be in a world with magic and can't use magic.
"Beastmans can't use magic so they are in the F scale, all species able to use magic are born between the E and A scale, humans in average are usually in the C rank, while most devils are in average within the B rank, so trying to beat devils in pure magic is a big no. Lastly someone within the S rank haven't been seen, in centuries, because is very difficult to reach, lots of promising magicians tried but were not able to attain the legendary rank."
Hajime wasn't interested anymore, he wanted just go to his bed to sleep, awake and discover all was just a bad dream his subconscious imagined, but when his thoughts started to become dangerous his attention returned to Alek, because his explanation suddenly changed of theme.
"Magic talent is something you are born with, some compared it to a wall, but it isn't a wall you can't pass. It may be insanely hard, it may be time spending, it may even be not as forthcoming as some believe. But there are still magicians and warriors out there, that try very hard to break down that wall, each day of their lives, because the world is dangerous, they train, they study, they fight, because they have goals and people to protect they fight, because they want to live they fight, because they dream of a better future they fight, so now give your all, keep going and make your dreams come true with your own strength."
Hajime felt as if Alek speech was aimed to him specifically, such wasn't the case, but Hajime didn't care. His thoughts realigned themselves and he decided to place a goal, a dream, an objective, he was going to live, he was going to survive all this and return with his parents to a pacific live in Earth. He wasn't going to let his obvious weakness or his jealous classmates stop him, he was going to became better, the best he can be.
End flashback
After make his mind, Hajime and the others learned the basics of magic. Hajime didn't had any problem comprehending those, his problem came when it is time to use actual spells, even when the used were the low level even kids can do. While the others made a ball of fire their hand size, some even bigger, after half a minute Hajime only could lit one of his fingers in fire, the size of a lighter's. The bullies didn't waste time and started to laugh of his pathetic accomplishment.
'E really mean no talent.'
Anyway, Hajime was determined to be strong enough to not die at the first difficulty, but being realistic that was easier said than done. In place of berate himself for things he couldn't do he'll try first what he could do. So his first step was going to collect information and work from there on.
Such was the reason he was in the library, looking for books about history, magic, and geography.
The history books proved be too much, to begin there were hundreds and were dispersed by all the library, the worst was that lot of them had more theories than facts, of the hundreds books of history only a handful may prove useful, but Hajime decided to search them another day.
Magic books weren't difficult to find, these had their own section, so he took some books about magic for childrens. It was a little awkward and embarrassing but he wanted start for the basics.
He also found a good book about Tortus geography to read, but just starting reading it Hajime found out how much he missed Internet, computers, TV, and so on. When he returned to the reality an hour had passed.
Hajime library's adventure started like four and half, now were almost six. It was getting late and he hasn't read anything yet. He was going to stay a few hours more till eight, he already asked for his dinner delivered to his room at nine.
Hajime admonished himself by letting his mind run wild for an hour (it was a bad habit he had learn to control), and returned to the books in the table, but he couldn't concentrate. Hajime started to getting nervous, someone was observing him, not the occasional glare, but the kind that predators have when stalking their prey, discretely he tried to see behind him but it was to no avail, when he had enough he turned around but the feeling vanished.
Hajime eyes explored the room, there was nothing there. After a while he began to felt silly and blamed his overactive imagination. When he turned back to read, the sensation came back, stronger than before.
Hajime started to sweat, he was in a castle, in a library, in the night, seemingly alone, only him and this mysterious person, he was getting anxious, his best option was to withdraw to the relative security of his room. But sudden movements could make the other person in the room make something rash.
Making his best act of be calm and composed Hajime took the five books and slowly walked to the exit through the maze of shelves, the eyes of his stalker following step by step turn by turn, only when he left the library he stopped feeling observed. Hajime walked straight toward his room, briefly greeting those in his way till he reached his personal fortress (room).
Closing the door Hajime relaxed, he put the books in the empty table and threw himself in the bed. The tension in his body slowly dissipated and calm filled its place, now out of harm way and alone he can think better.
Someone was observing him with such intensity he felt like being stabbed. He managed to scape before thing could be worse, but he didn't know who was this person. He could only speculate, but what more could he do? Like that he made a list of possible suspects.
-Hiyama, observing him in order to know what buttons touch to make him feel bad.
-Same as above but now a random student.
-Devil Infiltrate in the castle learning about 'the heroes' and he was spying them one for one.
-Same as above but now the spy was another human group.
-A complete stranger that was there and now hate him for reasons.
-Prince Randell feeling jealous.
-Kaori?
It was clear that he was becoming crazy. The first two were the only logical conclusions, he wasn't sure what to do about the other options, they were obviously absurd, they have been here just for three days, it was to soon for that kind of development, also the castle was super secure, no stranger was hating him for absolute no reason, and the prince Randell was a ten years old.
Finally, his last suspect, he didn't know what he was thinking, Kaori? Really? Hajime now suspected his brain was starved for decent conversation and lack of use. To be honest, Hajime didn't even wrote a reason, he just wrote her name and a '?'.
Tired of this Hajime just decided the culprit was Hiyama and be more wary of him from now on.
Three hours before dinner, Hajime took the book titled 'Magic for dummies' and began reading, convincing himself that there wasn't anything embarrassing about it.
About OCs, the lack of characters of Arifureta made easy to use OCs for various roles, that lot of characters aren't explored and have no background allow to make them yourself.