"Er, Bronti, what’s a foundationer?" I ask, testing the waters to see how he’ll react to me not knowing that. If it’s a bad reaction, I might just have to kill him and make it seem like an accident.
He finally stopped laughing as he looked at me, then shook his head, taking a double take at my confused expression. "Y-You’re serious?! How in Emperor’s name?! What, are you from the Loipherous Valley or something? How can you not know something so basic?"
Seeing Bronti’s flabbergasted look as he repeatedly asked question after question. Still, I caught something that might be a big help, as I replied. "Uh, yeah, I am from Loipherous Valley. How’d you know?"
"Huh? Really? I thought your folk never left the valley? Weren’t the Valleymen cave dwellers and hermits? You look pretty normal, although pretty big for peasant folk," Bronti starts muttering as if in deep thought.
Then, before I could try to answer any of his questions or speak, Bronti spoke out once more. "Well, I guess if you are a Valleyman, then it makes sense you don’t know anything about the outside world or about Mana cultivation. I did hear your people spurn mana and its use."
"Then can you explain it to me? This mana cultivation?" I ask, highly intrigued, as I would love to get strong enough to fight the freaks of this world better.
"Eh? Me? I am just a peasant like you. I only know so little," Bronti replies with a sheepish look on his face as he scratches his head.
"Yeah, I understand, just what you know. It’s more than me, after all," I say, trying to encourage him to spill his knowledge.
For a brief moment, Bronti gives a wide smile, as if happy to be useful or know more than someone. " Haha, of course! Teacher Bronti Koon will tell you all he knows!"
He then tries to look scholarly and professional as he straightens up and begins to educate the man before him. "First off, I do know of the Foundation Stage of cultivation. It’s where one opens their Mana Veins and has a constant circulation of mana throughout their body. All the Knights out there in the black steel armor are at the Foundation stage. It’s the most common stage, though most peasants don’t ever reach it; if you do, your status shoots up right away."
Bronti then quickly takes a breather as he starts to get excited as he talks about it, making it clear that he hopes to one day reach the Foundation Stage. "After that, then, is the Core Stage. I don’t know anything about it or the details of the following stages. Just the stage names. Next would be the Cyclic Stage, then the Nirvana Stage, and the last one I know of is the Golden Stage. I think there are two more known stages above Golden, but I have no idea what they are."
"I see. How does one open their Mana Veins and become a Foundationer?" I ask, hoping this young man knows, though I feel like I will be disappointed.
"How would I know? If I did, I wouldn’t be working here," Bronti replies in an annoyed tone, as if frustrated by his lack of progress. "Anyways, you should take a bath and get dressed. Oh, and what kind of weapon do you want?" He says as he gestures toward my mud-caked body and the washing tub behind the mirror.
I give a wry look as I gaze over my muddy body, then go into deep thought, as I have no idea what kind of weapon to choose. After all, I have never really wielded a weapon before. Just used to using my own body and fists.
It took me a few more moments to get a general idea of what would actually be beneficial for me, though I can only hope they have something like what I want. "Uh, do you have some kind of armored gauntlets for my fists?"
"Fists? The hell?! You plan on going out onto an active battlefield with just your fists? You Valleymen are really crazy, you know. Still, I think I can find something," he says, giving me a look as if I were a weird, crazy person.
He then runs off into the distance. I walk over to the large wooden basin filled with lukewarm water, which at least looks clean. Then I begin to strip off my barely functioning clothes from Earth and lower myself into the tub. The water didn’t feel bad, and when I looked around, on the other edge, on a hook, was some kind of washcloth and a bottle of some kind of liquid I can only surmise is soap.
Using the two items, I wash myself clean, or at least as best as I can achieve with these methods. Also, I am pleased to note that it is definitely a floral-scented soap.
Not much later, I am looking at myself in the mirror, wearing the thick black clothes that were given to me along with the simple boots. I was surprised to truly see that I am the same as in my previous life. My long, dark black hair barely reaching my shoulders. My white, yet slightly tanned skin, and my piercing green eyes staring back at me.
Before I knew it, I heard Bronti running back before I saw him. He was carrying something heavy wrapped in a cloth as he came around the corner, out of breath. "Hu, hu. You are in luck, Arthur! We actually had a pair of clawed steel gauntlets in stock. They aren’t used much, other than by a few of the Sentinels that might use them."
He then unwrapped the cloth to reveal a pair of bright silver gauntlets that rose to the elbows, each finger tipped with a sharp, clawed point like a beast’s claw. He hands them over, then glances at my hair before shaking his head.
"Here. You should really tie up that mess. Out there on the battlefield, you don’t want your hair to get caught in every little thing or cloud your vision," Bronti states, pulling some kind of metallic band out of his pocket and handing it over. "Use this to tie it up in the back."
I do as he says, finding the metallic band surprisingly malleable. Afterward, I look in the mirror and see that it is not only practical but also looks even better. I now have a high ponytail at the back, with my hair falling down in a single strand. On the front, my bangs stop right above my eyes. I actually look like an Americanized version of the main characters from those Eastern cultivation novels.
I then look back toward Bronti as I grab the gauntlets, as I just thought of something. "Oh, by the way, what’s a Sentinel?"