The sun was already setting by the time Luca was released from the underground area under the parish. So it was pretty much impossible to get a place to stay unless he chose one of the inns in the area. And Luca wasn't interested in spending his newly-earned money so quickly, despite the amount he had.
He had about 93 Sterlings from the original amount he'd saved, and a whopping sum of 50 more Sterlings that the Church had given him as compensation.
All seven territories of the Divine Solaran Empire used the same currency.
It had taken a few decades before it was enforced across the entire Empire, but it did eventually happen. The Kingdom of Astor was no different. 100 Bronze Pence equaled 1 Silver Sterling, and similarly 100 Silver Sterlings equaled 1 Gold Crown
The average adult's wages in Carinthia city were at 25 pence per week, which rounded up to about 100 pence per month or one sterling, which was enough to feed a family of three if they were a little frugal with their money.
Luca was way ahead of that figure after months of careful saving. His parents had left a small sum of 20 sterling when they had died. It had taken a lot of work to convince the vultures that they left him nothing, but he managed to do it successfully.
The rest? A mixture of casual pick pocketing and lucrative jobs by helping the more well-off members of society.
There was so much he could do with it, and he wasn't about to spend even a tiny fraction of it yet. Luca had already begun to make mental calculations in his mind, and a small smile formed on his face.
In any case, he'd decided to spend the night at Old Humphrey's house, which doubled as a forge. The old blacksmith was considered wealthy for a peasant.
It was as if Luca could only see money and had pictured the sum of 10 Crowns per month written squarely on his wrinkled forehead. That was how much he earned from selling weapons to the city itself and other customers. It was lucrative, but not by very much.
Peacetime wasn't a great time for business.
Humphrey was a little skeptical, but still lent him a room for one night after he explained the situation.
And finally, Luca could rest. He collapsed onto the bed with a satisfied expression on his face. It was far softer than the one in his previous room, and the room was even more spacious than that.
It made sense. Humphrey lived in a nice house in a nice part of the city.
By now, the sun was fully below the horizon, and the bright silver moon had taken its place.
Luca kept all his money in a space next to his chest, so he would know if someone tried to take it. It wasn't likely to happen here, but it was better to be careful.
And finally, he drifted off to sleep…
******
Whoosh!
A sudden sound startled Luca awake. His first thought was to reach for the gold near his chest, but it wasn't there!
Now he jumped to full attention, only to realize something crucial.
"Where in the Sun's name am I?"
Not only was he no longer in Humphrey's guest room, but he was in an unknown place entirely.
He stood in a large grassy expanse illuminated brightly by the cosmos. Millions and millions of stars and constellations shone brightly in the sky, nearly rivalling the brightness of the sun.
Luca was stunned.
A thought came to mind: "Is this a dream?"
Even then, he was doubtful. If it was a dream, how did he know he was in one? Some people thought that dreams were tricks delivered by demons to drag a person's soul to hell, but Luca thought that was a load of horseshit.
Now… he wasn't so sure it was that ridiculous.
Luca stared, then he reached out to one of the infinitely distant stars and made a grabbing motion, and amazingly, it shot out from the heavens above straight towards him!
Shot down perhaps too fast!
'Oh shi-'
He tried to dodge, but it was here before he could even react!
BOOM!
The trail of magnificent starlight dove right into his body, and the world itself warped around him.
Luca fell.
The ground seemed to open up, and suddenly, he could feel himself shifting through dozens of planes of existence, never lingering in any for more than a fraction of a second. It was an assault of colours from every possible angle, but even those colours shifted into nothingness, and thousands of different eyes appeared in the sudden void that covered his vision.
Glimpses of strange and unknown scenes filled his mind, overlapping all at once without any meaning, filling his mind with chaos.
A pain spread out from his temple like a wave. The eyes, colours, and scenes collapsed into each other, forming arms that grasped at his body, attempting to pull him down even further.
At this strange moment, Luca could barely even think, but he realized one thing: he was far smaller than he had realized.
Strange unseen entities spoke in his ears, whispering sounds and words in languages he did not understand.
"Astaphaios…"
"Adonai… Elohim…"
"Agiel…Yaldabaoth…"
"Astaphaios… Adonai… Elohim… Agiel… Yaldabaoth…"
The whispering voices stacked over each other, forming a strange whisper-scream of incomprehensible nonsense. Luca closed his eyes from the pain and gripped his ears as if to make it stop. But still, he wouldn't let this overcome him, whatever it was.
His eyes opened quickly, with a trail of blue light glowing within his irises. He thrust his arm forward and said:
"Converge!"
The strange word escaped from his mouth in a language he didn't recognize. All the eyes and the scenes and the voices disappeared, collapsing into one singular entity that appeared to be a ball of energy that flew right into his mind.
Upon reaching his mind, the ball expanded.
A mysterious symbol formed in his mind, floating in a continuous circular motion within a miniature starless version of the cosmos from earlier. There was also a strange, dark energy that rotated on the opposite axis.
The glowing white symbol and the strange dark energy revolved around each other in near-perfect harmony.
It was at this moment that everything returned to normal.
"Huff~ Huff~" Luca breathed heavily after that experience. It was terrifyingly scary, and he didn't fully understand what it was.
But it seemed as if he wouldn't be getting rest anytime soon. The dark energy residing in his mind pulsed, then spilled out into the world. Luca braced himself for another wild trip, but nothing came this time.
Instead, the energy congealed into a physical form in front of him. Eventually, it formed a thick tome with a few large words written on it.
"Introduction to Magic and the Heretical Arts"
Under, a small line followed: "By Magnus Crowley; the Emperor of Heresies"