"First of all—" the wizard said, gesturing to a chart that hung on the wall.
"My name is Shaman, and this is what you'll be reading young master."
On it were depictions and details of the power levels and systems of the souls and the various tracks within which one could specialise in.
"Something tells me you're not up to date on your soul theory. It's a pity that your brother has gone ahead in all of these things from the moment he could crawl.
Now that you've awakened, you'll need to catch up with him in the basic theoretics." Shaman continued, waving his hand again, which magically summoned the chart and rested it on Kion's lap, the same way he had done with the chair earlier.
"I want you to look at that. It's everything you need to know about your powers and the other ones that exist in the world. In it are also the kingdoms and the realms that be, as well as the factions, rulers and academies.
Also, and feel free to ask me any questions that bother you." Shaman added in the end, and Kion couldn't help but wonder why the wizard, who's never paid much attention to him before, was helping him this much currently.
It was a thought that made him suspicious, but he quickly shoved it at the back of his mind as he spread the chart open and began to read.
The first thing that caught his eyes was the map.
It was stationed at the very centre of the chart. A magically crafted, geographic representation of the continents of the world as well as the nations and kingdoms that existed within those continents.
His eyes fell on the central kingdom of Stormholt, his home, and one of the largest kingdoms in the largest continent: Hygia.
In his past life, Stormholt had been the only kingdom, encompassing all of Hygia and holding power over the smaller territories.
Back then, it was known as the Imperial Capital.
But it seemed that in this timeline, it wasn't just his kingdom, as he could clearly see three more kingdoms surrounding the central one.
The borders of Stormholt were marked with a dark shade of blue, a colour that represented the kingdom's national colour, and as the central nation, it was bordered by kingdoms: Thorngate, Apex, and Grotia.
Below it was some facts and figures about the country's history, including its popular trades, past rulers and historic wars.
Apparently, Stormholt was very popular for its stormblooms, delicate flowers that only grew on Stormholt soil and were responsible for its name.
These stormblooms first appeared on their land many centuries ago, rumoured to be the last gift the Thunder god, Raiden gifted to mortals who hoped to cultivate faster.
A potent sap could be obtained from crushing the flower petals. This sap, if drunk, doubled one's enlightenment speed, ensuring that they progressed in their levels at a much faster pace whenever they chose to learn skills and techniques via scroll meditation.
However, the stormblooms themselves were never sold, lest they died out quickly. Instead, powerful alchemists studied the chemical composition of the flower sap and replicated its formula, creating what was called storm-pills, special capsules that would grow to become Stormholt's number one trade.
Even as they were only found in Stormholt, stormblooms were exceedingly rare, growing only in the season of the Lunar spring, a season of spring where the moon stayed out for longer hours.
They also only grew to full bloom on stormy nights. This rare combination of growth factors was what contributed to the scarce nature of stormblooms. That was why Stormholt guarded and respected the flowers like it was their legacy, because, quite simply, it was.
It symbolised their national colours, their tradition, and their history. Representations of the stormbloom was seen in everything they did, from the clothes they wore, which was designed with motifs of the flower, to their festivals: the Stormbloom festival, where people came together for something called "shared enlightenment", a ritual where young cultivators came together for a natural dose of the stormbloom sap directly from the flower, which was said to be purer and more potent than the pills.
The festival was said to occur during the Lunar Spring, ensuring that the flowers were initially in bloom to avoid natural depletion.
The stormbloom was an integral part of Stormholt, at least from what Kion had just studied. He made a mental note to look into the power of those flowers.
Thorngate, which lay right side of Stormholt, was the next largest kingdom in the Hygian continent.
Unlike the people of Stormholt, who possessed mostly general soul talents, the kingdom of Thorngate was known for its pure royal blood of Wood mancers, the most elite echelon of nobles and royals, most of them bearing one family name: the Thorns.
It was from this name that their kingdom was derived. Thorngate, as the name implies, was famous for its thorny gate. It was said that penetrating the castle was impossible, due to the vast covering of vines and trees that fortified the walls and covered the castle.
In their quests to keep anyone away from their castle, they had to specialise in other forms of combat besides close range. Due to this, they had the deadliest combination of archers that the kingdom, and most likely the continent, had ever seen.
They specialised in trades of furniture and produce due to their affinity with nature. As he scanned another section of the chart, Kion frowned.
There were so many spaces between the details on Thorngate that he didn't believe this to be an official textual material for the kingdom.
"Some headings are missing." He said, turning to the wizard.
"And rightfully so." The wizard replied almost immediately, as Kion's frown deepened.
"They only allow us to know so much about their kingdom, as do we. No kingdom can know everything about the other. That would swiftly turn the tides in war."
Kion nodded his head.
It didn't seem that the documentary on Thorngate held much fact, which was rightfully so.
The kingdom still had vast unexplored secrets that Stormholt was yet to unearth, and that was how it was intended to be between the kingdoms.
This was why Kion decided to skim through the details of the other kingdoms; Apex and Grotia being the final two. He knew that whatever information that was contained here would be useful, but not so useful as he'd originally imagined, as all he did was take note on some random facts and move on to another section of the chart.
The next section that came was on races.
There were a lot of races besides humans. Kion had known that much already based on his former life, but he didn't pay much heed to this fact as with the way his knowledge of the kingdoms had been updated, he believed that the same would be the case in this aspect.
This was true, as Kion felt his eyes widen at the sight of the possibilities of life.
There were elves, orcs, mermen, nereids, nymphs, dryads, venti (sky spirits), birdmen, and many more than Kion could physically take note of.
And they were everywhere.
It was not like in his past life, where the elves, humans and orcs lived in their very own kingdoms, thriving separately under different factions.
It was more mixed, as the vestiges of power where not specialised in race, but in strength and smarts.
That said, anybody could rise to the top regardless of who they were, but of course, there were still some predetermining factors.
For Kion, it was his bloodline, which usually held the best talents in all of Stormholt.
From his great grandfathers to even his father, King Aurelius, their ancestry held the best and most influential figures that their continent had ever seen.
They were a lineage of great warriors, ranging from tanks to swordsmen of different caliber. Aurelius himself was a renowned Mythic-grade Stone Mancer, specializing in a Tanky fighting style that suited his elemental mana: earth.
He'd also acquired a sub-domain of metal manipulation, an exceedingly rare domain that was possessed by less than 0.001% of the continent.
This particular ability rendered most people useless against the king in a fight, as he could dictate the nature of the terrain, as well as manipulate the weapons wielded by fighters, which were made with mostly metal.
In short, Kion's father was an absolute powerhouse, which was why he was specifically hard on his sons. It was how his father had trained him, and how his grandfather had trained his father.
This was what set the standard, making the Everglades a force to be reckoned with in both talent and training. They had access to the best resources, and went through the most gruesome challenges all to establish their dominance at the top.
Which was why Kion was such an anomaly to even begin with.
From the little bits of history he glimpsed on the chart, it turned out that Gina, his mother, was a street-rat commoner who'd never had an affinity for a soul in the first place.
Where most commoners in Stormholt had common-grade souls, as the term implied, Gina had no soul at all.
From his readings, Kion found out that Gina was soulless, and that fact alone was what kept her at the bottom.
Unfortunately for her, she had the body of a goddess, something that Kion himself had confirmed upon his reincarnation.
And that body was what attracted Aurelius to her in the first place.
They met like any royal would a street rat. Aurelius on a royal parade, and Gina a normally bystander.
It was love, or rather, lust at first sight.
And Aurelius didn't waste much time to get his hands on her from the look of things.
Weeks passed, and it was discovered that Gina was pregnant. Knowing quite well that she couldn't cater for herself and the child at the same time, she decided to make an unsolicited appearance at the castle, much to the shock of the royal court.
People had expected the king to throw her back to the streets from whence she came, but Aurelius took pity on her, granting her her own quarters within the castle walls, and promising to take care of her child.
Even at that, people had expected Gina to take up the role of a mere maid, but surprisingly, again, Aurelius had left her alone.
She moved around as she pleased, even though there were restricted areas that she couldn't cross, which included the royal courtroom. And finally, when the time came for her to have her child, the king made sure that she had access to the best healers in the kingdom.
It infuriated everyone, and even when her child, Kion, was born and declared as a royal, sharing the best resources of the crowned prince despite his part-commoner bloodline, people still expected them to be put in their place come the Awakening ritual.
It must have come as a huge shock for Kion to claim not just one, but two elite souls.
Kion smiled, knowing quite well that things wouldn't have been this calm if he were to awaken as soulless for the second time.
He had already awakened as soulless once, and then, even with his pure royal blood and prowess as a prince, he was still banished.
At the end of the day, everything depended on whether he'd awakened a soul or not.
And fortunately for him, Kion had awakened one of the highest and most powerful grade. It was a level that most people claimed to be myth due to its rarity, and Kion confirmed that firsthand when he scanned downwards, his eyes glimpsing little bit of info that made them widen.
Apparently, no one in Stormholt currently had a celestial-grade soul, the last person having one being one of Kion's ancestors: a part human, part elf named Tyril Everglade.
Kion's eyes widened when he saw the drawing, as he realised this was just an older version of the boy he'd met during his awakening.