"I'm sorry sir you have me at a loss, have we met before?" i ask the well dressed older gentleman sincerely. "Oh right you are hehe, call me Grigori!" the jovial old man say with a bright smile. "It's nice to meet you Grigori, you speak as if you know of me already." I say shaking Grigori had, it was smooth as if he'd never done a single days work. "Of course i know of you! It's my job after all" Grigori says so easily he's either being truthful or so practiced in deception even I couldn't tell. "I'm a Guardian Angel you see, imagine my surprise when some upstart clown is playing with the strings of fate like some amateur harpist." Grigori says his friendly tone staying steady throughout. I stay quiet and observe the mans body language, he didn't seem to be here to fight. Not that it would be much of one if he decided to destroy me here and now. "But you've already lost fate's favor, how intriguing" Grigori says with one hand on his chin "My luck is gone, all that remains is enough intelligence to know how fucked i am" I say to Grigori still deep in thought. "Stats can quite difficult to put in perspective, we'll have time to go over it in detail" Grigori waves away my concern like a bothersome little fly circling his midday snack.
"Intelligence converts memory, perception, magic power, learning capacity, adaptation, and problem solving into a numerical value." Grigori explains "why can't i cast any magic?" i interrupt "Because survival skipped every single step, you have no fundamental understanding of magic" Grigori replies with his eyes closed holding his pointer towards the Preriot's usual place in sky "your tiny friend probably told you survival is yours, but that's no true at all... is it?" he stares and waits "still craft as ever old man" Preriot says now visible in the exact spot Grigori was pointing "HAHAHAHA coming from you, that's quite the complement" Grigori booming laughter seems to shake the entire carriage. "Preriot lied to avoid admitting they had no idea where it came from hehe, but it came from me" Grigori reveals this with a grin.
"The fates begged me to help, they're quite protective of you. Such a poor little creature, fumbling into success after success. I had to put a stop to it before it stunted your growth even further." Grigori says placing a sympathetic hand on my shoulder "take this" Grigori hands me a thick weathered tome. Red with a gold spine labeled 'Intro to Magic Theory' in black handwriting. "You'll have to learn the hard way, but with your intelligence i have no doubt you'll be fine" Grigori watches me as I flip through the pages. "Oh and one last thing" Grigori says now bathed in golden light "they'll find about Vlad soon, you'll need to get much stronger very soon. I'll see you again after you've grasped the basics" after finishing Grigori vanishes leaving a single white feather in his place.
After we'd been alone for around an hour i busied myself with read the Grigori gifted me "you haven't asked about me lying to you" Preriot said cautiously, it wasn't like her so i closed to tome to give her my full attention. "I hadn't planned on it..." i said with a blank expression "you clearly have a lot of secrets. Detangling truth from lie is more work than I'm willing to take on" i say while returning to reading. Preriot started to speak but stopped before words came out, and so we sat in silence for a while longer. I'd notice Preriot occasionally shifting in the carriage seat she'd taken but i kept reading suddenly a passage caught my eye "magic is classified as a skill based on convivence not classification. Fireball is a spell however fire magic is a skill. Fireball will never be listed on your status board because it falls under the skill of fire magic" that couldn't be I'd use sea spire without earth or water magic. Preriot noticing my confusion hovers over me to read the section I was looking at while continued reading "magic requires 3 things for activation mana, imagery, and the most importantly a catalyst. Mana exists in all living things from humans to demons to plants. Imagery is mental picture of the spell you're attempting to cast, simply put if you wish to cast flame you need to be capable of not just picturing the fire, but its warmth and its potential devastation. Finally a catalyst which can be thought as median for the magic to flow through most modern spell caster use a wand or staff." This doesn't align with my experiences, then i noticed the fine line of the passage in bold lettering
"DO NOT ATTEMPT MAGIC WITHOUT A CATALYST! You could potentially use your own soul as catalyst which could cause several different side affects depending on which portion of your soul is consumed."
"{side effects may Include but are not limited to headaches, stomach aches, heartache trouble maintaining erection, trouble getting rid of erection, death, insomnia, complete loss of empathy, and temporary bouts of bloodlust}"
I close the book "well that's enough reading for one day hehe" I say attempting to grapple with the new information, ultimately failing. "Uh hey remind to buy a staff a Jerzy will you" i say Perry while resting my eyes. "With what money dumb-dumb?" Perry said while slapping my head "I don't know, we'll figure it out." i said only half believing it would work out myself. With my luck it wouldn't be easy but i couldn't just lay down a die and burning my soul any further.....wasn't an option
The clacking carriage wheels lull me to sleep again, before sleeping I pray for no interruption.