Potions, pills, and books

Ethan started to rummage through the items in his ring again. Besides clothes, weapons, magic stones, and other stuff that his teacher had already seen, there were also some books, magic potions and pills, and some money. Knowing how much his teacher loves to read and remembering his promise to him, Ethan thought that it would be best if he took out the books last. After all, the time before lunch wasn't too long, so Ethan thought if he took out books last, maybe he would be spared from nonstop flipping through books for the sake of his teacher's reading.

So he took out all the money, or, to be precise, coins, from the ring. All of them were made from gold, silver, copper, and iron. There were fifty gold coins, and they were the biggest ones. Silver coins were smaller, and iron coins were the smallest, not bigger than the fingernails of a grown man.

Ethan wanted to tell his teacher about the difference between each coin, but...

[I'm not interested in your money, so put it inside the ring.]

[Um, but...]

[Put them away and bring out the books.]

Even a minute hasn't passed, but his teacher already told him to bring out the books. It was the worst thing that might happen, in Ethan's opinion.

[Uh, okay... But before the books, I want to show something else to you, teacher.]

[What's it?]

[Um, I think you will like it.]

[I will decide it myself, so bring out that something.]

[Okay!]

Ethan shoved away the coins inside the ring and took out different glass vials with potions and pills.

[So you wanted to show me some medicine from this world?]

[Um, it's not the medicine, but magical potions and pills.]

[Hmm, okay, I am now curious about them. So for what purpose were each of these potions and pills used?]

It was what Ethan wanted to hear, so he started enthusiastically introducing each of the potions and pills.

[These ones are the health potions; you can tell by their color.]

Told Ethan, pointing at the vials with red liquid.

[They are used for treating wounds. And also, these pills are used for this purpose.]

Ethan pointed at the vial with white pills with one red stripe in the middle of the pill.

[I get it, so what's the difference between pills and potions?]

[Um, potions take effect almost immediately, but only for a short time, and their effect is not very strong. And pills are very effective, but they don't take effect immediately, and you can't use them one after another in a short time.]

[Hmm, it makes sense. What about other potions and pills? I can guess that the blue ones are for the restoration of mana. But what with the vermillion and indigo pills?]

[Um, the vermillion pills are to increase body strength, and the violet pills are to increase mana capacity. Um, but they can only be used once in one week.]

[What's the reason for it?]

[Um, I don't know. I never used them before.]

[Hmm, then what have you used from these potions and pills before?]

[Um, this one.]

Ethan took a vial with yellow and black pills. Unlike the other pills, these ones were different. It was only one vial with these pills, and inside were only three pills, which were two times bigger than other pills.

[What's that?]

[It's the pills for increasing mana quality and quantity permanently. But it is only effective for the first three times, and you must wait a year and a half before using it again. I've already used it two times.]

[So do you feel something after using them?]

[Um, nothing, but I lost consciousness for a week when I used it for the first time.]

[So this is a side effect of these pills.]

[Um, I think so.]

After that, he told his teacher about other pills and potions. There were mind-calming potions, potions to help increase resistance to magical elements, pills to treat some common illnesses, and other things like that.

Ethan continued to talk about this and that, so after some time he was interrupted by his teacher's voice.

[You seem to know many things about these pills and potions, so let me guess it was thanks to your mother.]

[Yes! She knew about many things, even about potion and pill crafting. Actually, all these potions and pills were made by her hand.]

[So she has vast knowledge about magic, unlike you. Let me see the books that she left for you. I think there would be many interesting and useful books.]

[Uhh...]

There was silence for some time.

[What? You don't want to show them to me? Are you forgetting about my help earlier?]

It placed Ethan in a difficult position; after all, it was half and hour until lunch.

[Um, I'm just...]

Ethan took some deep breaths.

[It's nothing. Okay, I'll show them to you.]

Ethan put away all the pills and potions, and after that, he took out all the books that were inside the ring, along with scrolls. Ethan wasn't sure what was written on these scrolls because they didn't have titles like the books.

One thick book went with the title "Mathematics and Geometrics and Their Use in Magic," another three thick volumes were with the title "Natural History," and there was also a book with the title "Natural History and Traditional Magic." What they had in common, besides the fact that all of them were related to natural history and magic, was the name of their author, which was 'Seekers of the Truth'.

[Hmm, do you know who these 'Seekers of the truth' are?]

[Um, yes. They are worshippers of the Goddess of Knowledge and Wealth, Numentia.]

[It looks like there are many other gods besides the Goddess of Light. Can you briefly flip through these "Natural history" tomes? I'm curious about the natural history of this world.]

[Um, if it's flipping through them briefly, then I can do that.]

Ethan took the first volume of this "Natural history" and started to flip through it; he would linger on some pages for a little bit longer when he was told to do it by his teacher.

It only took about ten minutes to flip through all three volumes.

[Hmm, I see now, it's not the 'natural history' of this world, but of my world.]

[Really!? How is this possible?]

[Yes, I'm sure about it; all the laws that were mentioned in these books had the names of famous scientists from my world for whom they were formulated. Like Newton's laws of motion or Mendeleev's table of elements. But something is strange. There is only classical mechanics, and some elements are missing from the Periodic table—to be precise, all actinides.]

Ethan didn't understand even half of what his teacher said. He only understood that the names of laws were named after famous scientists and that it was strange that there was only classical mechanics and some elements were missing.

[Um, is this bad?]

[I can't say that this is bad, but looking at how deliberately they exempted some knowledge that I'm sure is known to them, their name shouldn't be 'Seekers of the truth', but 'Censors of truth'.]

[Um, are they censoring the truth?]

[Yes, it looks like. Do you know if these 'seekers' have some connection with that saint person?]

[Um, I don't know, but I heard that they appeared only fifty years ago, and The Saint was gone a hundred years prior to them.]

[Hmm, okay. Then let's see what other books you have.]

[Um, okay. But before that, can you tell me how it is possible that the knowledge from your world appeared in this world?]

[It might be because there were also other otherworlders like me or that saint.]

It was a shocking revelation: not only was the saint from another world, but there were also other people like him.

[Teacher, are you sure?]

[About eighty percent, but don't let it bother you. After all, you can't change it. Your only option is to accept this fact without any questions.]

[Um, okay.]

[Good, then let's see other books.]

Besides the books written by the 'Seekers of Truth,' there were also different books about magical elements and common spells, books about potion and pill crafting, books about magic circles and symbols, and books about using these circles and symbols in artifact crafting, about which Ethan's teacher was most curious. And Ethan was forced to flip through them by him. Unfortunately, his teacher didn't find in them what he was searching for, but luckily there were other books.

One book was thick, the cover was pitch black and made from unknown material, and the title was carved with golden symbols, whose meaning Ethan doesn't know. And another book was thick, but its cover was made from leather, and the content of this book was handwritten.

[Hmm, 'Umbral language dictionary', so this book with golden symbols must be written in this Umbral language. And it looks like you need to help me read this dictionary and this book first.]

[Um, are you that curious about this strange book, teacher?]

[Yes, I'm very curious about it. After all, the symbols in this book are similar to the symbols on the cage bars.]

[Then, if you find out what these symbols mean...]

Ethan started to talk very quickly because of anxiety.

[I might find out the way out of this cage. But don't worry; I'm not in a hurry to leave this place. After all, I promised you that I would help you become stronger.]

Hearing reassuring words from his teacher, Ethan calmed down.

[Um, then it's fine.]

[If you calmed down, let's see what's inside of these scrolls.]

[Okay.]