Jason instinctively cringed at the request, which seemed more like a command. You could feel the unobtrusive pressure and anticipation in the air. The energy that Enzo exuded was calm but firm. The boy was very impressed as he had never met a person who would dominate the surroundings so much with his mere presence, and he did not mean the huge posture of the warrior.
"Yes, of course Mrs. Enzo!" – he hurried to explain, he knew that he had to tell the truth, otherwise Enzo would quickly realize that he was lying. Jason preferred not to think what the consequences could be of offending the great warrior with a lie.
"If the story is long, you can sit down," he pointed to a well-made wooden chair. The seat was simple but very comfortable, and Jason ran his hand over the surface of the wood—there was not the slightest hint of unevenness on it, the wood was as bright gray as marble. If the structure of the wood was not visible on it, he would be convinced that it was made of stone.
"Thank you, I'm hurrying with explanations, Mr. Enzo," he tried to maintain as much respect as possible.
"Dad, Jason saved me from a greater eren, don't be so harsh."
"I'm not going to be harsh, I just want to know how your friend got here, he doesn't look like anyone from Edelfross."
"Yes, you're right, I'm not from this place, I'm from a place called Sunnybrook, I don't know how I got here or what brought me here. My friend and I were swimming in the pond of sorts… and suddenly I felt a strange feeling like something was sucking me in, after a while I woke up on the ground in this place, Lucas – my friend was lying next to me."
"Interesting I've never heard of anything like this, sounds like some kind of magic..." there was a sense of reverie in Enzo's voice.
"It only got weirder from there, Lucas and I discovered that we had strange abilities, he could summon a shield to protect against blows, while I could summon creatures that fought opponents instead of me"
"Firlo, can you leave us alone? Enzo said firmly, interrupting Jason's monologue.
"Yes, father," he replied without a moment's hesitation.
As soon as the boy left the room, Enzo's mood definitely deteriorated, it wasn't bad, but you could see a look of reverie and perhaps a bit of fear on his face.
"Jason, I don't know if you know, but these types of abilities are very rare, and in fact unique. Personally, despite my numerous travels, I have never met anyone who could summon beasts like you.
When I was your age, I traveled all over the world to gain combat experience, and I learned what the world looks like outside of Edelfross, which is the forest where we are now.
You may not know, but our planet Kikalli consists of two main parts. In the northern hemisphere, the world is illuminated by a bright sun during the day and the moon and numerous stars at night, in the southern hemisphere there is no normal day-night cycle as we know it from here. All day long, the hemisphere is illuminated by the gray light of two moons. I've never been there, so I know that place only from stories.
There is a conflict between these two parts that has been going on for hundreds of years. Around the entire planet, the north built a long wall, hundreds of meters high, to prevent attacks from the south. Fortunately, Edelfross is very far from the wall, so it has never been exposed to attacks.
In the north, people have skills as we know them – there are warriors who use various types of weapons, there are us – called Barbarians by people from outside the forest, there are clerics whose main task is to heal the wounded, and finally there are mages who invoke elemental magic to help them.
In the south, that is, beyond the wall, people use all kinds of dark abilities, the ability you have, which is the ability to summon beasts, reminds me of stories about mages from the south who summon dead minions to help them fight on the battlefield instead."
At that moment, Jason froze, he remembered the corpse he and Lucas had fought with, sweat ran down his forehead and his stomach was squeezed by fear, but he did not speak, waiting for Enzo to finish the story. He wanted to learn as much as possible about the world he found himself in. Perhaps there was no reason to worry.
"These mages are called necromancers, they revive servants, the bodies of people who have fallen in battle. The most powerful of them are said to be able to summon disembodied wraiths that are not afraid of any ordinary weapon. We don't see them in the north, and they don't take part in the fighting between the north and the south very often, because even in the south they are an extremely rare phenomenon. There are only some legends about their strength."
"Enzo, when we woke up, each of us could see a strange screen where we have information about our skills, stats and equipment, do you know what it is?"
"I've never heard of anything like that, screen? What is it?"
"Something like a book where we see what we have already learned and what we haven't learned yet."
"I've never heard of such a thing, but I'm not a sage or a mage either – perhaps someone in a bigger city could help you. I only got my knowledge from the expeditions I took part in as a young boy, now I don't go outside Edelfross very often. I don't want to leave my people unprotected – even though we are far from the border with the south, it doesn't mean that there are no dangers here.
For now, however, I would advise you not to go outside the forest, the hike would be too dangerous. You have unique skills, but I sense that you lack any combat experience, you should get to know your skills better before moving on, I wouldn't want someone who saved my son to die a senseless death on the trail."
"Maybe it's not a bad idea, I have to ask you something, Is it possible that I met such a mage from the south here in the forest?
Jason saw the blood drain from Enzo's face.