Dante didn't stay any longer in the Saint's church, which he quickly found out was more like a hospital that relied on magic to treat its patients instead of regular medicine. That had made Dante wonder why hospitals still exist, and the answer to that was both simple and complicated.
To heal someone with magic, you still need the medical knowledge and clear understanding of what you're trying to do and how to do it. But it didn't end there, as magic itself was awfully inefficient at treating diseases, so all healers were basically just trauma surgeons who specialised in treating physical injuries.
On top of that was the rarity of people with enough mana who still wanted to work as healers. While any regular human can learn medicine and eventually reach the operating room, healing magic was hard-gated by the amount of mana someone has. What made it far rarer was that the people with mana tended to choose to become fighters on the front lines since that made them more money, and so there were only a few dozen healers in the church, unlike the thousands of certified medical professionals in the few hundred hospitals spread across the fortified city Dante was now in.
The church wasn't only about healing, but also had two more important roles. It was also a military force with its Knight Paladin divisions, and it was responsible for maintaining the city's defensive barrier. Dante did wonder why such power was left in the hands of the church, only to learn that it wasn't, in fact, left in the hands of the church by someone. This power was all created by the hands of the Saint herself.
She is the one who pioneered healing magic and taught it to people. She is the one who trained the Knight Paladins so they can fight the abominations and protect the people. And she is the one who created the barrier protecting the city and taught the other Blessed how to maintain it.
Learning that, Dante decided to take the Saint up on her offer and join the Blesseds' Academy. If for nothing else, he wanted to learn about the city, who holds power in it, and try finding a way to survive without being used and abused.
Three days had passed, and Dante woke up tired in the Academy's library with dark circles beneath his eyes. Sweat drenched his back, and fear clouded his eyes as he checked his hands and neck. He was fine. There was no blood, no wounds, and he was still very much alive. He isn't surrounded by wolves anymore… or is he? The library's clerk, the cameras in the corners, the teachers and agents walking all around the place working. All of them had to be keeping an eye on him, and they are wolves in human skin.
Since he was late and only had one month before the dungeon's expedition, most of the teachers didn't have the time to teach him; that's why he now spends most of his time here in the library with either Alexander or Miguel.
Alexander, who was sitting by his side, looked at his face. "Same nightmare?" He had spent the last three days with Dante, and they even shared the same dorm room.
Dante rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, that damned night." Every time he fell asleep, it was the same twisted nightmare of when the wolves tore him apart.
"Well, getting half-eaten by abominations certainly isn't a pleasant experience. Just try to forget it and relax; it'll eventually fade on its own. Or… you can always try counseling; the academy offers it for free." Even though Alexander said that, it sounded more like a joke to lighten the mood.
"Tried it, and I hate how that man's face looks, always smiling and asking questions I don't want to answer. It felt more like he was digging for information about my Blessing than actually trying to help." Dante closed the book he was asleep on just a moment ago. "If I want to feel better, I just have to get strong enough so those abominations won't be a threat to me ever again."
In the past days, Dante had to register with the government and get a Blessed ID, and then get set up in the academy where they tried to get as much information about his Blessing as they could, which he politely lied his way through. He made them believe he had a short-range scouting ability that allowed him to detect humans and abominations around, and being able to tell them apart even through walls, and he proved that by pointing out the number of agents hiding behind the test room's secret spying mirror. He even lied and gave them a rough range of five meters just to be safe, instead of his true ten meters range.
When they tried to pry information out of him about how he fought and how he, a Mundane, could have managed to kill four Scarred Beasts, he used the excuse of trauma and told them that he didn't want to even remember that night, which resulted in them referring him to the counseling office.
Dante also noticed that the agents who were tailing him from the shadows and trying to spy on him had backed out of the five-meter range that he told the interrogation officer just moments ago. It took all of his willpower to hold himself back and not call them out.
Of course, it turned out that the counseling was just them switching tactics from asking normally to emotional manipulation to get hold of as many details about his powers, which resulted in him storming out in rage. If he stayed there for another minute, he would've punched that smiling bastard.
After that, Dante had spent all of his time here in the library, trying to learn a bit more about the world. The abominations weren't his only enemies, so getting basic knowledge was necessary, and he needed something to sink his mind into. Just trying to imagine what they would do to him if they found he was immortal made his spine shudder and his blood boil.
The city he is now in is called SAF, short for South American Fortress, and it is the only habitable human settlement in all of South America. It was built on the ashes of the ancient city of Manaus and is now the base of Saint Maria Valentina. Some even call it the Sacred Amazonian Fortress thanks to Maria's titanic holy barrier that protects it from the Amazon's abominations.
There were only three more human cities in the entire world: the REF, short for the Roman Empire Fortress, built on what was before Rome and is now the home of the Magic Saint Vergilius. The DNF, short for Dragon Nest Fortress in Hong Kong, where the Sword Saint Yang Wang is; and lastly, the GPF, Golden Palace Fortress in what was before called Delhi, the only human city to have lost its Saint in battle, but they still have the most Masters of all the other cities.
All four of those cities are under the world government's control, which is a council of over two hundred people spread all across the world and makes decisions by vote. It was formed when human civilisation collapsed after the initial abominable mass appearance. It was safe to see it as humanity ditching division and embracing a collective consciousness to unite under one flag to face their new deadly enemy, the alien abominations.
The government's public goal is to lead humanity toward a brighter future where they survive the abominable invasion and even thrive. But Dante could easily read between the lines and understand that their only job is to make sure the power balance between the three Saints isn't broken. Even Dante could see that if the government failed, the three Saints would fight among each other for dominance and lead humanity to its destruction.
Even here in SAF, Saint Maria basically has the entire city as her hostage. Ignoring that she has the raw strength to kill everyone with her hands, if she just drops her barrier down, the abominations would just swallow everyone.
Alexander also agreed with Dante, stating that it isn't even a secret. Everyone knows the government can't do anything against the Saints, and in this city, they especially can't touch Maria. Her power extends far beyond what is obvious, and to understand that, Alexander directed Dante toward several books that explained the world's six power systems.
God's Blessings, Martial Styles, Magic Schools, Holy Temples, Spirit Arts, and lastly Cybernetic Implants.
First, there was the Blessing system, the superpowers that God blessed some people with so they could fight against the abominations. The other five power systems were made by the four Saints and the government and are accessible to almost everyone to learn and use.
Saint Maria has developed and is the master of the Holy System. It uses mana converted into a holy form inspired by Maria's own Blessing to heal wounds, burn abominations, and create protective barriers. It is divided into three main Temples: Temple of Healing, Temple of Smiting, and Temple of Warding.
With a smile on his face, Alexander pointed out that besides his blessing, he was also a member of Maria's Temple of Smiting. It allowed him to turn his mana into divine magic and burn abominations, and the attack he used to kill that Mundane Monster belonged to the Smiting Temple.
Then there were the three Schools of Magic that the Magic Saint Vergilius created, which mainly focused on casting spells to either destroy, create, or deceive. School of Destruction, which Miguel is a part of, and then there was the School of Creation, which creates magic items, and lastly the School of Illusions.
There were also the Martial Art Styles of the Sword Saint, which developed physical enchantment magic and three distinct martial styles to fit all. The Style of Aggression, which focuses on damage and speed. The Style of Reflection, which can even counter abominations. Then the Style of Deception, which was so treacherous that nothing is hated more than fighting a master of it.
Spirit Arts were created by the lost Saint of GPF, and they were the most similar to God's Blessing. Its practitioners needed to first find a spirit and then make a contract with it to gain power in exchange for helping the spirit grow stronger. Spirits are ranked starting from the bottom to top as Whisp, Pixie, Fairy, Seelie, Fae, Fae Lord, Spirit, Spirit Queen. They are also separated into six elements, which are Wind, Fire, Earth, Water, Plant, and Lightning, all of which can be found all around the world where that element is present naturally in huge amounts.
The last system is the Cybernetic Implants, which are basically the scientists of the government creating several cybernetic implants to reinforce the human body and turn it into a borged-out war machine. Alexander pointed out to Dante that Borged-out here refers to people losing their minds due to using so many implants that they go crazy and become war puppets for the government.
After reading about all of that for three days and getting a pretty rough idea about what he wanted to learn in what little time he had, he headed with Alexander to the ManaGym to find one of the teachers there so they could test his mana control and affinity.
The ManaGym was, like its name implies, a Gym with countless training machines designed specifically to stress people's mana control and allow them to get stronger. It seems that mana was just like muscles, and it could be increased by training. That also meant there was an upper limit to what is humanly possible, and people were always training to push that limit up.
Dante found it funny that tens of scrawny people were here lifting several tens of kilograms of weights just using their minds and mana conversion bars. Then there was Alexander beside him, who was built like a tank, yet could barely move a weightless bar.
The teacher they met explained how mana worked like an electric current and generated something similar to magnetic fields, which is what the machines use. So the better your mana control is, the stronger that magnetic-like field you generate and the more weight you can move.
"Dante…" The teacher sighed, glaring at him with a disappointed look. "The Saint already smacked you for it once; do you never learn? Stop staring at my chest and listen; I'm making time here to explain things to you."
Dante lifted one finger. "First, I wasn't looking at her chest. That was a misunderstanding. Second… I'm not the only one looking at your chest. She is doing the same." He pointed with his thumb at the woman standing beside him and Alexander.
The woman gave the teacher a glare, with electric sparks flashing between the threads of her short blond hair and radiant blue eyes. "I thought this was a school? We were asked to come here in full tracksuit, yet here you are in a sports bra."
After a moment of silence, both Dante and the woman, Rain, ended up doing magic squats as punishment.