The book floated before him at the World Map page. Four Nations and one Alliance Peac3.
"Guess which country you are in!"
"Five Leaf Clover!" Elias exclaimed.
"Bingo. You are not dumb!" Sasha clapped before she asked, surprised. "Did you guess or did you know?"
"I know," Elias said with a low voice.
She pulled back the stone book and looked at the map herself, and understood how he guessed it. The forest they escaped from bordered with a vast swath of deadland which linked to Six Leaf Clover Country.
"So, what are your plans?" she asked.
"I need to find my bearings. Can I see the book again?" Elias was fascinated by the stone object.
"Yep. And you are free to walk around. But don't touch things without permission!" she said. "I will go make food!"
Elias pressed his stump on his gravity book, then released a Gravity Force that moved the book to settle on a table beside him.
He released another Gravity Force on the Relic Stone Book on the table Sasha placed it, it floated and came to him.
The book was the size of a torso, the stone cover was thick and rough with no writing on it. Closed now, one couldn't see the pages.
Elias couldn't make gravity do two different things at the same time, which meant he couldn't flip the book open.
He sat down, then used his stump to open the stone book while it was kept floating by gravity.
It opened, its pages flipped one after the other, made of leather that was old and whitish; the writing on it was of clay turned to ink, and everything was written carefully.
The sentences, the pictures, the colors, and the impressions. It was amazing art that gave a new perspective to life. He could smell the pictures and feel the meaning of the writing if he had a hand to caress it.
"You are a curious one, aren't you?" Sasha returned, a spoon in her hand. "Do you want jollof rice or moi moi?"
"Jollof!" Elias said.
"Won't you say 'whatever you got is okay' dear caretaker?" she teased.
"Ah. Okay!" His gaze returned to the stone book.
"What are these stone things?" Elias asked as she was going back.
"They are called Relic Stone or Stone Relic. Basically, technology centered around manipulation of stone, earth, and rock. This city was established in ancient ruins that have a lot of them. The ruins are vast and still unconquerable."
"Is it a very old ruin or was it made using talent?" Elias asked.
"They are as old as Egyptian history!" Sasha's voice came from the distant location where the kitchen was.
"This is a relic of the past!" It was now he understood why it was called a relic. It's very old even in relation to the old world.
Half an hour later, Sasha returned, aroma around her, carrying two plates of steaming jollof rice. A slice of meat adorned the top, together with slices of cucumber and lettuce.
"Here we go. Jollof rice, the best in the world!" She sat across from him at the table and said, "Historians said that when the Great Gouge happened, buried remnants of ancient civilization were pushed out."
Elias nodded. He gently placed the stone book on another table and sighed. The weight of carrying it with gravity weaved its way to him slowly, but he held on as training for half an hour.
"Are there more ancient ruins around the world?"
"Yes. I heard there are some. But these ruins extend for about 1/10th of the country. Making it the largest known"
"That vast!"
"Yep!" She nodded as she pushed a full spoon of jolof in her mouth..
Elias's attention turned to the aromatic rice. It was pleasing to the eye, but how could he eat it?
Gravity Force pushed from him and passed the rice before it came back. The whole jolof rice rose, but he settled back most of it, leaving only a little rice, and pulled them toward him.
They were shaking; some were falling. When they were close to his mouth and as he moved to have in his mouth, most fell.
'It's hard. The rice are light; carrying them feels like moving wind now that I have held that book for so long. And because there are about 89+ individual rice, maintaining them is hard.'
The rubble he trained with were six pieces, and each had a weight which Elias was able to feel properly, unlike the rice that appeared like wind.
He tried again, but this time the plate was close to him, and his mouth was above it. Even as the rice spilled down, it fell back onto the plate.
"This is frustrating!" Sasha stood, grabbed his spoon, scooped some rice, and brought it to his mouth.
"Don't be shy. Take it!"
'This girl...' Elias lamented in his heart. He stared at her and shook his head.
"It's food. No need to train. Just eat and be full so that you heal faster!" she snapped. It irked her, seeing his struggles.
Elias sighed and just stared at her angry face. Shaking her head, she dropped the spoon. "I can't watch this!"
She left with her plate, going deeper into the house, leaving him alone.
'Should I contact them?' Elias had been having this thought ever since he was at the hospital, but he was hesitant.
He focused on the food before him, and his clumsy attempts continued, failed many times but gradually got the hang of it.
Gravity could bend wind, so the rice grains become easier to manipulate. But fine control was the problem here.
Chewing his meat, he leaned back and relaxed, his mind and body resting with a slight smile on his face.
Slam!
"Here, don't break my glass bottle."
Elias smiled. The bottle filled with water floated before him. Then he tried to tilt it but failed. Normal push or pull wouldn't tilt the bottle.
He placed it back, pulled his book, went through the skills until he came to the right one.
Shifting Object Skill.
As he read through it, his frown deepened. This couldn't be done in a moment. He moved his mouth above the bottle, and bit it, then tilted it, supported by gravity, and he drank the water.
"Ha. I thought you would be stubborn!"
As she said that, the whole sky darkened; shadows deepened around the house. Elias bolted out, but she was faster and raised her head.
"Rank 3 Explorer is here!" she shouted in reverence.
"This house?" Elias asked.
"No, silly. I'm a new Explorer, he is here to evaluate people like me. I need to reach the Explorers Branch!"
She ran to prepare, and Elias stared up. He saw no one in the sky, but felt a vast presence that reduced the light of the sun. Then it vanished.