Touch of Fate

Chapter 104: Unearthly Origins

Mike returned to the empty dorm, grabbed "A Brief History of Ea," and settled down in the living room to read. He figured he would start with the beginning when building is knowledge base.

The book began with a brief introduction that outlined the major segments of history. The author fully admitted that only a small section of world history was actually recorded in any way, so much of the first half of the work was built upon existing mythology, archaeology, and a fair amount of guesswork.

Ea began at some point in the distant past when the five creator gods (Please see Ch. 24 for more details.) came together to form the world out of the immaterial chaos that originally existed on this plane of existence. No clear details remain, but its widely believed The Five, as they came to be called, were originally from another universe. The reason for their sojourn is lost in time, but some records seem to indicate they were fleeing from something.

In any event, Ea existed as a lifeless rock until the gods invested the five forces into the world. The first of these was the elements, which in turn created the first life. Next, was mana that nourished and empowered the life that took shape during this mythic time. The book didn't mention the other three, but it was implied they were of lesser importance. Mike suspected this was an elaborate means of denying complete ignorance.

In this First Age, as it was called, there was no System, and life was allowed to grow freely without limitation. Beasts of titanic size, and great power roamed the planet, destroying all in their mana fueled wake. In time, the gods grew displeased with their creation. Unchecked life had only led to the birth of true monsters, some of which had grown powerful enough to challenge them in some areas. They decided that something must be down to regulate the world.

Working together they created a divine construct, greater even than themselves, but in doing so they forever bound a portion of their essence to it. The System was incorporated into the very framework of the universe, forever altering the way living beings developed. No longer able to advance nor reproduce rapidly, the monsters of this age slowly declined in number, until only a handful were left in the more remote parts of the world. Some of them are believed to remain, even till present times.

Seeing this, the gods recognized that their creation was now ready for a new kind of life. Through their combined efforts, this new kind of being was born. Effectively immortal, perfect in shape and form, and blessed with a natural affinity for mana usage, these High Elves became the first of the humanoid races to walk Ea. Their creation ushered in the Second Age, also known as the Age of Elysium.

Reveling in the paradise they found themselves in, the High Elves built a powerful civilization that spanned the entirety of the world. Achievements of magic and technology that would boggle the mind of modern scholars gave them virtual mastery of Ea. Eventually, they achieved the impossible, and created a stable portal into another world.

The records become disjointed at this point, but it remained clear that this portal led to encounters with other sentient races for the first time in the history of the High Elves. These races, which seemed to include primitive humans, orcs, beastman, and others, were at first welcomed, then regulated, and eventually enslaved by the increasingly arrogant elves. After all, none of the immigrants were anywhere near as advanced as they. In time, they even turned away from the gods that created them, believing in their own superiority over all other beings.

Mike sensed a fair amount of cultural bias from the author, especially since he was essentially writing about the mythological past, but he decided to press on.

The High continued this process of exploring other worlds and dominating their inhabitants. They even created new realms, giving rise to many of the lesser planes that now surround and overlay Ea. However, they eventually encountered some great tribulation which spelled the end of their civilization.

The records are contradictory about the exact nature of the event, but they all agree that the High Elves opened a new portal to a realm that contained some great force or enemy, which fundamental altered the world. The Elves were stripped of their immortality and a great deal of their power, and in the blink of an eye, their great empire was shattered. Only the direct intercession of the gods saved the people of Ea from extinction. This event was simply referred to as The Fall.

Using the System in some way, the gods were able to offer protection to a few scattered, surviving High Elves. They were divided into five groups, each of which received the blessing of one of the creator gods. Over time these blessings fundamentally altered the elves, giving rise to the current division among them. The sun, moon, star, and void elves, along with the dwarves appeared as a result.

[Wait, so dwarves are a kind of mutated elf? How does that make sense?] Resolving himself to doing more research later, he continued reading, wanting to at least reach a good stopping point for the night.

The other races were largely left to fend for themselves, but survived in sufficient numbers to eventually repopulate. In large part due to a greater level of fecundity, they quickly outstripped the scattered remnants of the elves and took over large swaths of the world for their own, thus ushering in the current Third Age.

The author concludes this section with a quick caveat. It is largely at this point that our current knowledge of Ea's history really started to take place. A vast majority of the earliest surviving historical resources date back to the beginning of the Third Age. This largely played a role in shaping the current measurement of time. Lacking a better alternative, these early scholars and historians started tracking time from The Fall. The label of After Fall, or A.F. for short, became the standard shortly thereafter.

Mike heard the others enter the dorm, and he realized that he had spent most of the day reading, almost without a break.

[Its been too long since I got my hands on a decent book. I'm already halfway through this one, and I just got it yesterday.]

Deciding he'd had enough for one day, he went to help the exhausted Oracle with a little Healing Magic. Tal and Brenden had evidently pushed her hard in their training.

The group had a unremarkable dinner, before discussing the results of the day in the living room. Mike related his new class schedule, which elicited a few comments. All of them were a little dissatisfied with his apparent ability to accumulate Primary Skills without any trouble, but Sera was mostly excited about the inclusion of Alchemy in his curriculum.

"Do you have any idea how much some Alchemical goods go for? Even bad ones can live comfortably on the proceeds of a few sales. If you are even halfway as ridiculous overpowered in crafting as your are in magic, we'll be rich!"

Mike found her money-crazed excitement a little off-putting, but couldn't exactly fault her energy. He was quite excited himself at the idea of creating mysterious substances. Although, he wondered what it actually entailed. A few fantasies of refining miracle pills and turning lead into gold played through his mind, but he suspected that it was more complicated than that in this world.

"Anyway, how did training go today?"

Sera immediately looked away in a suspicious manner, "I don't really want to talk about it."

Brenden cut in, "This girl is absolutely hopeless when it comes to anything that requires physical coordination. About the only thing she can do with any amount of skill is run away, but even then she lacks stamina. Quite frankly, I'm not even sure where to begin."

Sera twisted her hands in a mixture of embarrassment and depression, "This is only the first day! I'll do better tomorrow."

Mike gathered a few more details, and determined that the more experienced adventurers first tested the Oracle for any latent magical abilities. Failing to find anything useful, they proceeded to try to teach her the basics of fighting, in the hopes that her class had access to some combat skills. Failing to acquire any, although this was not uncommon for only one day's worth of training, they finally decided to try working on her substandard physical abilities, with little in the way of results.

He agreed that they probably needed to start up a regime for her to increase her strength and endurance, but he wondered if they weren't going about it in the wrong way. They had her try a number of weapons initially, but Sera couldn't make use of any them in an effective manner. She seemed to lack the instincts necessary to survive in close combat.

After some deliberation, he offered his opinion. "Why not try to teach Sera archery or something? At the very least it would allow her to focus on one thing at a time. As it stands now, it sounds like she's getting overwhelmed trying to maintain her stance, defend, and attack all at the same time. Some of that will come if she ever acquires a combat skill, but at least that way she can contribute to the fight from a safe distance."

Tal and Brenden looked at him as if he was slightly crazy.

The beastman commented first, "You know that archery requires even more skill than regular fighting, right? It also needs a great deal of strength and natural coordination. I don't think our little Oracle really fits the criteria."

"No, he might have something there. I vaguely recall my mother telling me about the Oracles of old. I think she mentioned a sect of them that specialized in the bow. Something about their foresight allowing them to place arrows exactly where they needed to go." Sera broke in excitedly.

Brenden and Tal looked skeptical, or at least Mike assumed so in the elf's case.

"Why don't we let her try? It can't hurt, and its not like we are in any hurry." Mike suggested.

"Actually, we only have a limited time before her initial request expires, disqualifying her from joining the Guild officially. If we don't get it done by this time next week, it will be a problem." Brenden countered.

"Let try." Tal broke in, supporting Mike's suggestion.

"Fine." The beastman finally relented. "I think I saw a practice bow in the training yard's supply shed, although I don't know if you'll be strong enough to string it, let alone use it."

"I'll do my best!" The Oracle responded cheerily.

While smiling at Sera's change of mood, Mike said, "I'm sure it will be fine. Besides, if you wait until the weekend, I can even go with you."

The room suddenly froze, as the three of them came together and started whispering in a panicked manner. They were evidently trying to be quiet, but Mike could still hear everything they said.

"Way to go blabbermouth, now we only have until the weekend to get it done!" Sera whispered accusingly at Brenden.

"Me! If you weren't hopeless, we wouldn't be in this mess. Now we'll have to deal with the walking disaster on what should be a simple request." He countered.

"Must work harder. Finish before then." Tal contributed.

Eyes spinning with the pressure, Sera replied, "That's right! I just have to make some kind of progress in the next few days. Maybe if we cut down on our sleep time, we can force my development."

"Um guys....." Mike broke in, starting to feel a little off put.

[Its not that bad, is it? I know I got them wrapped up in a few things, like in the dungeon, the city with the demons,...and the whole boat trip...maybe they do have a point.]

Sera laughed nervously, "Ahaha, just discussing training strategies. Don't worry about it, we'll make sure to have that request taken care of long before the expiration."

Sighing internally, Mike simply acquiesced with their sentiments.

[Oh well. If Sera truly turns out to be hopeless at fighting, I'll help her finish that request. It should be a simple, easy going mission. Even my luck shouldn't be able to mess with that.]

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