Ravian changed out of his bloodstained clothes and put on a fresh set of clothes from the wardrobe in the room House Viola had given him.
A maid had also come by a short while earlier while he was changing, telling him that Lady Larette was wondering how he was and why he had not answered the door when they brought him the dinner he had requested. Ravian replied that he had been asleep and had only just awakened because of the loud knocking on the door.
His answer sent the maid into a panic, as it appeared someone had given her strict orders not to disturb him during his stay, only for her to do the exact opposite. She hurriedly apologized and said she would leave him to rest, as he had requested.
Now, Ravian stood before the desk in his room, having tossed the bloodstained clothes he had just removed onto its surface.
’How am I supposed to get rid of these clothes now?’
Ravian could not leave something like this lying around on his first day here. What was he supposed to say if someone saw all the blood on them? How was he supposed to explain bleeding this much when he had supposedly been sleeping here?
’What a nuisance.’ Ravian rested a hand on his chin in thought.
Despite his annoyance, he was genuinely happy to have become a Walker.
This had once been nothing more than a dream of his, and now that dream had finally become reality.
As the System had told him, he could now even view the requirements for advancing to the Eighth Rank.
’It seems the grade of my physique is what determines whether I can view the advancement requirements,’ Ravian realized. He was just about to examine the new requirements—perhaps he could use the two future requests the earl had granted him to obtain whatever they required—when he remembered that he had to deal with the clothes first.
’Wait.’
Then he remembered something.
’Can’t I use magic now?’ Ravian thought, a wide smile spreading across his face.
’The System also said my element is Void!’ Ravian nearly shouted.
He gently raised both hands and, without uttering a word, tried to release magic from them.
"Hup!"
...?
Nothing?
Nothing happened.
’The fuck?’ Ravian thought in shock.
He tried again, then again, and then a fourth time.
Still, nothing came out of his hands, no matter how hard he tried or how vividly he imagined it.
Ravian finally lowered his hands.
’Have I been scammed?’ The thought flashed through his mind.
He had just been waving his hands around like Harry Potter, trying to conjure magic or some other bullshit, yet no matter what he tried, the only result was his own ragged breathing.
’Um, System, is my magic depleted because I just returned from the Nightmare World, or is my mana blocked, or am I suffering from some other kind of bullshit I used to read about in those cultivation novels?’ Ravian asked inwardly.
[No, Host.]
[You are not afflicted by any of the things you call bullshit. In fact, this is the first time I have ever heard of such things.]
’Then what is it? I can feel the magic inside me, but I can’t summon any of it no matter how hard I try or what I imagine.’
[Because it is not that easy, Host.]
’Huh? What exactly do you mean?’
[I mean exactly what I just said. It is not that easy.]
The System paused for several seconds, allowing Ravian to process its answer before continuing.
[It is not simply a matter of imagining something, or wanting it to happen and having it happen.]
[Magic is far more complex than that, and using it is even more difficult than using aura.]
[First, you need to learn how to control your mana.]
[Then you must gradually bring it under your control before manifesting it in the physical world.]
[After that, you must develop it through meditation so that you can use it more freely and with greater power. Every one of these steps requires study and serious, proper training.]
Ravian read one notification after another until he realized how foolish he had just been, trying to control something he knew nothing about and expecting to master it completely on his very first attempt without any knowledge or prior study.
’Then why did those damned novels make it look as easy as drinking water?’ Ravian silently cursed every novel he had read in the past as he pictured how he must have looked moments earlier, waving his hands around in supposedly ’magical’ ways like an idiot.
’So I need to go to a library or have someone teach me, right?’ Ravian asked the System in his mind.
[You need both.]
Only those three words appeared before him, but they were more than enough to convey the point.
[However, I advise you to choose a high-grade method, as it will affect how you use magic and the foundation you build upon later.]
’Does it really go that deep?’
[Yes, even deeper than that. You are only at the beginning.]
[You will also need someone to teach you the practical side properly, so that you do not drain your mana without making any progress.]
Ravian remained silent for several seconds, fully taking in the explanation.
Then he remembered a certain tall man with gray hair streaked with black, who carried a long spear across his broad back and strode across the battlefield, commanding everyone’s respect without ever making a spectacle of himself.
’It seems I’m destined to see you again, Master, don’t you think?’ Ravian thought as he gazed at the moon through the window.
’Well...’ Ravian thought. ’I was going back anyway, but now it seems I’ll have to meet you as soon as possible.’
Ravian then grabbed the bloodstained clothes, lifted the mattress, and tossed them underneath before lowering it back into place, postponing their disposal until the following morning.
He threw himself onto that same comfortable, spacious bed, which was longer than he was—nearly two meters long and almost as wide.
Strangely enough, when he lay down, the bed did not make a single creak to betray its age or suggest that it had been left unused in the room for a long time.
Ravian simply concluded that House Viola would hardly begrudge spending a little money to replace its furnishings every so often, and such an expense would not affect the family in the slightest.
He then pulled the blanket over himself to ward off the cold, even though the cold could no longer affect his current body. Still, he did not want to abandon the simplest comforts of life he had grown accustomed to merely because he had become a little stronger.
Tomorrow, he would try to settle whatever business he still had with House Viola, if possible.
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