Glowing Symbol

Reading the contents of the book, Edwin became confused to what was written, "Wraith? Celestial? Retollian? Erchian?"

Other than the part where it mentioned the war of the southern region of the Trigurniburg Kingdom, he didn't know the rest of the page-turned-letter.

He tried to turn to other pages, but couldn't do so just like earlier. In the end, Edwin gave up the idea of exploring the other contents of the book and he closed it.

As he turned his back to the stone lectern, he suddenly heard flapping noises behind him. 

The boy turned around and saw that the book was repeatedly changing pages. His eyes widened and immediately backed off.

However, before he got away, the book suddenly pounced on his face!

He tried to get the book off his face, but it was as if it's glued onto him now. He even used the only of one of his daggers that was left to stab the book, but his remaining weapon also broke while doing so!

When he felt that he reached the worktable, he viciously pounded the book to the table, even disregarding the chance of him getting an injury.

-bam- -bam-

Edwin repeatedly bashed the book on his face on the table9 to the point that he became dizzy, but he didn't even stop for once.

As the Edwin was about to hit the worktable again, the book removed itself from the boy's face, however, Edwin didn't process what happened in time due to his dizziness and he bashed his face onto the table.

-bam-

Edwin stumbled backwards while bits of blood flowed out of his nose, then he tripped and crashed down to the ground, with his head getting bashed on the floor with a strong force that rattled his brain.

The book, which was now standing on the worktable shook, it was as if it was laughing on Edwin's misfortune. Then the book turned to a particular page and a short beam of light came from the showed page and went to the boy's left palm.

Afterwards, Edwin eyelids became heavier and heavier until they finally closed.

***

Some time later, Edwin woke up. He rubbed his head and nose due to the pain of hitting himself earlier. Following which, he sat up and checked if there was still blood flowing out from any parts of his head.

After checking his nostrils, he was suddenly surprised as he noticed that the book was now on his lap.

"Huh?", Edwin let out a startled face, but was infuriated afterwards and pinned the book with his both hands to the floor and started to pound it.

"You damn, face eating, perverted, worthless piece of junk!", Edwin angrily cursed as he punched, kicked, used his weight to crush the book, and many more.

The boy only stopped when his rage ultimately subsided and that's when noticed that his hands was sore due to punching the book multiple times.

"Hiss..." He took out some sort of potion from his satchel to heal the soreness. He was about to start to rub the liquid when he noticed that his left palm faintly glowed.

His eyebrows rose and he examined the glow.

He spotted that there was some sort of a symbol faintly glowing. The glow also followed the rhythm of his breathing, making it look that it was alive.

Edwin couldn't understand what was the meaning of the symbol, and it made him more baffled from where did it come from.

He tried to touch the glowing veins of the word with the fingers on his other hand. When the fingers and the faintly glowing veins met, his fingers also glowed a bit, it was as if his whole body suddenly connected with it.

Because he didn't understand the word written, he put into mind that he would ask Allen what was the meaning of the word, as he thought the latter could understand it.

Afterwards, Edwin decided to leave, but, he forgot that there was a translucent barrier on the exit! But, the barrier rippled and at the same time, the glow of the word on the boy's palm intensified. He realized that the word was some sort of key to exit. He tried his guess and it almost worked... almost.

"Is there an another key here?", Edwin searched around the chamber. He looked on top of the round table, the shelves in the wooden table, and even the rusty armory, but none of them seemed to work, that's when he saw the book that jumped on his face on the worktable.

The boy took the book and used it with the symbol and finally got out of the barrier.

"Hahaha!" Edwin laughed and rejoiced and he threw the book to the ground, he still couldn't forget what the book has done to him.

Edwin walked towards the exit of the cave, but he sensed that his body became heavy and his pace slowed, until to the point he stopped somewhere near the exit!

The distance between him and the exit was so near, yet so far at the same time. That's when the weighing force turned into a suction force and dragged him back near the entrance of the chamber, hitting the stalagmites, the rocks, and boulders on the way.

The white robe he was wearing protected his body. Other than feeling his back ached due to the rough ground, the dragging didn't cause any serious harm to him.

His left hand then went out of control, he tried to resist but couldn't do so and he was dragged towards the The Mortal Plane's Codex.

Seeing the book again, Edwin now realized where did the mark on his palm came from and why he couldn't leave the cave! He wanted to tear the book into thousands of pieces, but he could only imagine it, as the book was as if as tough as a mountain!

The book suddenly shivered, as if knowing what was Edwin thinking. The boy also noticed what happened and figured out that the book knew what he was thinking because of the mark on his palms.

"So you can read what I think?" In the end, Edwin could only sigh and picked the book up, he tried to place it inside his satchel, but it didn't enter. So, he placed the book in the pockets inside his robes instead.

Now, he effortlessly walked out of the cave and saw that the sun has just risen on the horizon.

"How long have I been sleeping?", Edwin stretched his arms up high and yawned. Then his eyes widened and said, "Wait, my weapon! I need to get it fi..." When the boy turned around, the cave was nowhere to be found!

He looked blankly to where the cave once was even walked on top of it's former location, but nothing happened.

"Now how will I kill that demonic bear?", Edwin thought and suddenly remembered about the book. "What if I use the book and hammer it at the bear's head, it's probably harder than a demonic animal's skull, right?"

The book inside his robes shivered again sent a mental attack to Edwin through the mark.

"Gahhh...!" He repeatedly hopped like a rabbit then plopped to the snowy ground while the mental attack was ongoing.

...

Although the mental attack only lasted for a few breaths of time, Edwin's eyes were now bloodshot, due to the pain he felt from the said attack. He really wanted to tear, burn, incinerate the book, but he knew that it's impossible for him.

Edwin crawled up from the snowy ground, and stabilized his footing.

-whoosh-

As soon as he stood up a spear suddenly went flying to him. However, Edwin's reaction speed was still fast enough, even though he was mentally attacked by the book and dodged the spear on time; but more spears went flying towards him, forcing him back.

'If I only had a dagger, I could've sliced those spears apart.', Edwin thought.

Now, he backed off to the middle of a clear snowy patch, where the cave was once was. At the same time, creatures who were much smaller than the boy and has green skin walked out of the dense cover of trees.

"Goblins?", Edwin saw the said creatures holding wooden spears, wooden swords, and carrying baskets of rocks behind their back.

'So they are real? I thought that they are merely fantasy beings in stories.'

There were ten goblins in front of him, if he only had a weapon, he could take them on at the same time; despite of that, he doesn't have any sharp weapons to use and he could only retreat.

But as soon as he turned around, he saw ten more goblins behind him, with the addition of an orc!

Each of the orc's steps lightly shook the ground. The orc was carrying a large club, almost as big as Edwin!

'An orc? But grandfather said they aren't real too!' He thought. His grandfather has been telling him stories involving goblins and orcs, but he said that they don't exist!

Back to the forest; the boy couldn't run away and was surrounded by the horde of enemies. He got into a fighting position. He could use Burst Steps or even Flicker which could only be executed by him once a day, but he felt some sort of weird feeling from the orc that he didn't dare do so.

The goblins at the front used spears to force Edwin to the middle and be on the defensive. Meanwhile, the other goblins behind them got ready to throw rocks at the boy.