All of the goodies I had just acquired from this alcove would be put to use immediately, and since I had nothing better to do for a few hours - and because I also knew that having access to even the most rudimentary magic would make the upcoming days far easier on me - I decided to actually read the book in front of me.
I knew some of the theory behind magic in this world thanks to the introduction quests you were made to complete in place of a rigid tutorial, but never being made to actually put those theories to use and never having to actually complete the actions meant I was truly a novice at this.
That might even be disrespectful to the actual novices at the Academy who knew how to use magic and were able to actually do things that warranted a spot here; putting myself down though wasn't something I should be doing, so I took a deep breath and flipped through the book until I reached the section dedicated to awakening your magic.
Reading a few lines and cross referencing it with what I knew about this topic from the game made me relieved since everything checked out, and now that I was properly refreshed and reading it over again I was catching a few extra things that were rather interesting.
I knew that there were no such thing as restrictions when it came to magic type - you could be a 'Fire Mage' but still cast water magic if you wanted - but it was saying that everyone did have an affinity of some kind that helped bolster your growth with that type of mana.
On top of that there was also a quick explanation that emotions can dictate how potent certain kinds of mana can be for some people, and how trying to force - for instance - a calm, stoic person to use fire magic might not be as skilled with it as someone who was more temperamental and emotional.
That part was something I was curious to see whether it was just a very old viewpoint on magic that had been disputed or if it was true, so for now I just ignored that and instead focused on the more important thing, which was how I could awaken my own magic.
It didn't seem too bad either, though I was a little nervous since this would be one of the most important things I would be doing in the first week of me being here; meeting people and making impressions was important, and getting some of the items before they were sealed away from me was also important, but this...
I mean, this was magic, and unlocking my magic is both important because of it giving me power but also important because it was MY magic, and I never had magic before; I wanted magic, I loved magic, and I was going to do as much as I could to improve my magic whenever and however I could.
My original question had been HOW do I unlock my magic so that I could begin casting spells and getting stronger, and the idea had been one that wasn't really something I could understand since I was from a world with no mana.
The whole theory is to feel the mana around you and try and pull it into yourself to awaken your body's ability to harmonize with mana so that you could shape it to your will, and in a world without mana that isn't possible.
Did I really know what mana felt like even now that I was in a world that had it?
No, I wasn't entirely certain that I knew what it was, but I was one gigantic step closer than I was before since this world did actually have it, and the book highlighted this as an 'issue' for some people since not everyone casted spells willy nilly.
If you never encountered a mage in your life you might not really know what it felt like the same way that you might not really know what extreme temperatures feel like if you didn't go out of your way to create or encounter them.
The book was written by someone who understood that and had decided to add an entire section dedicated to how you might discover it yourself without anyone helping you, though it did preface the entire section by saying it would be far easier to just ask someone to cast a spell in front of you.
All I needed to do though was close my eyes, clear my head of any and all thoughts and just feel the world around me; focus on whatever grabbed my attention first, be it the air on my skin, the ground beneath my feat, the heat or lack thereof from my surroundings, the moisture in the air...
Magic could be anything and everything, but awakening it usually meant finding what spoke to you the most - and using this method would also help you figure out what your mind found to be the most complimentary kind of magic to your own talent.
Not completely accurate and not the end all be all of magic, but it would give you a place to start and let you know where and what you should focus on if you were prioritizing efficiency over exploration.
Whether I had a hope for my mana type or not wouldn't matter since I could cast any and all spells with enough practice, and that was why I had been adamant in acquiring that medallion for myself since it would help me learn magical techniques quicker.
Personally I was praying I didn't have something boring like fire or ice as my 'attuned type', and I really didn't like earth that much either... water was also sometimes bland to me, and lightning was overhyped sometimes...
But I was also someone who disliked sticking to one thing forever, so whatever my 'attuned type' was wouldn't really matter since I planned on studying all kinds of spells to cover all my strengths and weaknesses as best I could.
That and I would need certain spells for certain people or monsters going forwards, and some spells were just objectively badass no matter how overhyped I think they were; striking someone with a barrage of lightning was just cool no matter how much you disliked lightning, and summoning an exploding ball of flames was just a classic.
So I closed my eyes and took a deep breath after reading over the passage one more time, preparing myself for something that would change my new life for good in this incredibly different, amazing and fantastical world.