“No magical powers were from where I came from,”

He held the orb out as he spoke

“You got a powerless loser to help you, congratulations.”

We all stared in shock at the dull orb as the man continued

“Sorry, but where I’m from, magic isn’t a thing-“

“What about body or weapon augmentation?”

Tetra asked and he looked at her with that same quizzical expression as he spoke

“Nope, none of that, just… human.”

He shrugged as he took a second to think before he looked over at Tetra and asked

“What are the ‘powers’ of this world? Can we discuss them on our way to the library?”

The still-stunned queen reached out and took the orb from his hand she sighed and asked

“What’s your name? You have yet to tell us that much about yourself.”

He took a second, almost as if thinking about what his name was before shaking his head

“I guess this is real, huh…”

Sadness became evident in every part of him as he sighed

“Mark Anderson.”

He spoke, he rubbed the back of his neck as he sighed

“To the library while you explain to me how fucked I am?”

We began to make our way to the library as Tetra asked

“So, you said you know some stuff but-“

“Treat me like a child. The more knowledge I learn the better help I will be. It’d be a shame if I went to the battlefield to get my head chopped off from a mile away.”

He spoke rather flippantly, as tetra began to explain the basics of the four types of powers everyone in this world has. I kept my eyes on him, his steps were light but his frame wasn’t well-built anymore. He had unkempt hair but a clean-shaven face. His whole body contradicted itself. He looked like he used to fight but at the same time had no injuries that spoke of such stuff and also looked as if he had gotten rusty or stopped fighting altogether. His steps told me that he knew how to keep quiet but he spoke loud and intentionally took a hard step every few paces. I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder and looked over to see Lance smirking at me as he wiggled his eyebrows 

“He seems off.”

I whispered carefully 

“He seems like he used to know how to fight but stopped for some reason.”

Lance’s joking expression changed from coy to serious as he watched Thomas with me

“The third type of power is magic!”

Tetra continued to speak normally just as usual as the queen trailed behind us all. I didn’t tell her what I had noticed but I could tell she had come to the same conclusion as myself

‘A martial artist…’

It was faint due to his fat and rustic appearance but it was clear he at one point was proficient in some form of martial arts. If he had some form of body augmentation it would have been a great help. As Tetra finished explaining the final inherent ability, we made it to the library. As we all walked into the quite dead building I could only remember what it used to be like, now, the graveyards were more likely than this place. I watched as Thomas looked around at the massively tall bookshelves with a deadpan face. There were dozens of 100-foot tall shelves with hundreds of books with almost anything you would need on them. However, the formerly bustling space was empty. The tables and seats before the shelves after you enter the building were all empty now. As Thomas asked

“How… Do I find the book I want?”

“That’s easy!”

Tetra spoke as she ran to a pedestal near one of the bookshelves

“Press your hand here and input your… energy…”

I saw her cheerful expression turn blank as we all realized a similar problem at the same time.

“Sigh…”

Thomas sighed for what seemed to be the dozenth time as he grabbed a book within his grasp. He flipped through the pages before he spoke

“Can you do me a favor and get me a book about mana utilization, unusual and their abilities, body augmentation, weapons augmentation, and some random historical book?”

He looked at us. His face was still deadpan but his voice portrayed embracement Tetra quickly did as he had asked and got the 5 random books he wanted.

“Thank you.”

He spoke as he grabbed the books from tetra and made his way to a chain and table a bit to the side of the large main room of the library.

“He said we got unlucky…”

The queen spoke

“But I think we hit the jackpot.”