7 Chapter 6: Vos (2)

He read through the brief history of the village on his first night. It was founded, serval thousands of years ago, by seven grand mages and scholars. The purpose was to create a place where anyone can safely study, practice, and perfect the use of mana without the insanity of political, racial, and hereditary baggage. For a century, everything went well and they managed to establish a grand academic city that was known throughout the world.

It didn't last after. A nation from the north decided to invade the futile central and southern areas of the continent and the world around them descended into war and chaos. They had no choice but to create weapons and artifacts to defend themselves; their greatest invention was something like an atomic bomb. When that weapon was used, it managed to destroy a fully armed army of at least 100,000 units.

Through that event, the academy garnered the awe and eventually fear of many of the warring nations. The founders thought that they scared them away and they can finally research in peace. It didn't last long though, the warring nations out of necessity and fear of a weapon that can easily turn the tides of war, joined together to annihilate the academy.

With all the powerhouses of the rest of the world taking part, the founders knew that they didn't stand a chance; but they also don't want everything they've worked on to vanish. Thus, using their power, knowledge, and the lifeforce of everyone that wanted to stay they converted the entire academy into a legendary artifact, divided into 7 parts and scattered itself all around the world.

The book chained to the library was one of its fragments. Reading onward, it mentioned that the current fragment was the residential, commercial, entertainment, and presentation area of the academy. Sadly, it seems that many of the facilities, stores, and magical devices were non-functional.

Skimming through the rest of the pamphlet, he had a feeling that it wasn't a bad idea to explore inside the book.

Xylos actualized the device, pulled the bed covers over his body, closed his eye and press the red button. Five seconds later, the device faded back into his hand and he blacked out.

When he regained consciousness he found himself standing fully dressed at the Presentation area.

The arch flickered and two figured appeared from it.

"I knew you would come back." The Chief said as he strolled in wearing his iconic overall with pockets everywhere. He was casually followed by another figure where a formal suit that made him look like a butler.

"It is you!" Xylos shouted, "You are the one that gave me that map. Was the female also from the book as well?"

"Yes, she is no longer with us as you would expect. She arrived in this artifact a few months before me. This place can multiply the amount of time you can remain in the world. I'm Marc by the way."

"Time moves at 4 times the speed here. But it doesn't affect the rate at which your body degrades" Cheif added, "We've been waiting for you. Come lets head to the central plaza, I can show you around and answer any questions you might have."

"Alright," Xylos said as he walked toward the arc; when he was about two steps away, the mark on his right hand lit up and the arc glowed with the same color, soon after he can see a large fountain with the statue of an open book with a large yellow globe floating above the book.

"Now that you have a key, you can enter the main area anytime." The Cheif said.

Xylos walked through the arch and as he expected he appeared at the central plaza. Looking around there were 7 paths from plaza; from left to right they were "Kaftans crook", "Rylin's road", "Sortez Street", "Drizen's way", "Academy Road", "Charlott Bulevard", and "Mylor Avenue"

Strangely though the area was devoid of people. When the other two arrive, Xylos asked, "Where is everyone else?"

The Chief hesitated before saying, "They are in stasis."

"Why?" Xylos followed.

Marc looked at the Chief, the Chief then looked back, paused and then nodded, "Because we are trying to conserve magic power. There is a limit to how many people this place can handle. At the moment, we are losing power. We have about 1 year left before everyone in here will be forced to go into stasis until the book is infused with magic power again."

"How long have you been active?" Xylos asked.

"I've been awake for about 2 years. I have a feeling that I've spent much more than that but my memory is fuzzy." The Chief admitted, "But this isn't the time for speculation. We need your help."

Xylos expected something like that, the fact that being in this place can extend his life by 4 times was already a great benefit "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to bring the book out of the facility, locate a mana vortex to recharge the book, and collect the other fragments. In return, you can use any facility in the book and the residents in this book will take on your requests."

"Ok" Xylos agreed. There was no doubt it was a good offer, but how he would go about doing it is another matter. "I'll see what I can do."

Marc then handed Xylos another scroll; on it was a detailed map of the whole area. Xylos looked at Marc with a confused expression, he expected that they would give him a tour or teach him something useful about the area.

Marc looked back and said, "We will go into stasis, this way we could increase the time flow by 12 times for you."

"There is very little that we can do to help you." The Chief added, "You've received the legacies following them will open a path toward your goal. All the best."

Both Marc and the Chief smile before their figures faded into the air, leaving Xylos alone in a spawling bu empty city.

"I'm all alone again. And here, I thought that someone or something would help me master magic and solve the problem of my limited life span. The only good news is that I'll have 12 months instead of one month as long as I stay here. The idea that I'll lose 12 minutes every time I spend one minute in the real world is annoying. I have to succeed otherwise there will be nothing for me. Where do I start?" Xylos pondered out loud to push back the grim silence of his surroundings.

"The first thing I need to do is increase my core capacity, I can do so by entering the book physically in the day and practicing creating more complicated and intensive Programs. I'll have to make sure that my "true self" doesn't vanish while doing so in the book."

"I will use the time when I'm asleep or in bed to scour every corner of this city for knowledge that would be able to accelerate my growth or solve my problem."

"As for the facility members, I'll simply tell them about the book; about how it is a fragment of a legendary artifact and by some stroke of luck I was able to gain access to it. I will offer to cooperate with them to unearth the book's secrets and share the results of my exploration. That way I'll have something that they'll look forward to and deter them from getting rid of me right away. If things go well, they might even help me extend my life."

"Let's get started." Xylos opened up the map and head to the most interesting area.

As Xylos walked onward, a shadow jumped out of the fountain globe and landed gracefully on the ground. If he looked back, he would see a pitch-black cat with small universes moving along its sleek figure. Two red eyes which were like a supernova in stasis looked at Xylos before following silently behind him.