Of Bad Decisions Amongst Other Things

The book was unlike anything he had ever come across before. Though, admittedly, it wasn't like he had many references to base his knowledge off.

The words written in the book were unreadable and unknown to him. Though the script used was the same, it was not something that he was able to decipher.

Alec squinted. Why was it that Main Characters were always able to read whatever they got their hands on? Oh, right. Because they were the Main Character. Unfortunately for him, Alec was just a poor System on a punishment mission.

The closer Alec studied it, the more he was unsure whether or not it was even in the same language as what he was currently using right now. Though the Mainframe did indeed provide him with the language skills in his 'main' language so to speak, that did not mean that its courtesy extended to the other languages that were potentially in this world.

Alec's curious soul was on fire. Oh, how he longed to read what was inside the book.

Was it a diary? Or was it record of some long-lost information that no one had put their eyes on for centuries? He didn't know, but Alec was dying to find out.

Alec eyed the words balefully. He had a faint feeling that it wasn't so much as a different language, but rather, the fact that their language had evolved over the years, rendering this book unreadable to him.

Alec took the chance to curse the Mainframe yet again. If this really was the same language, then wasn't it being too stingy!

Whatever. He didn't believe he couldn't decipher it himself. He had another five or so days before he had to head back.

Ignoring everything else, Alec lost himself in the world of the book before him.

There were certain words he could make out more than the others, which hadn't changed much, apparently, but there were also words where he was completely lost.

He had no idea how much time passed before he first got even a semblance of what was written down in such beautifully cursive script.

Alec was enraptured. There was no other way to describe it. The words flowed so beautifully on paper that it didn't feel like they were using the same language at all. Even the author's script looked more elegant and imposing as compared to what he was used to.

Eventually, Alec was able to make out various broken words from the flowing script. He squinted. "… Activation isn't… a lot… potential? Things… many…"

The longer he worked on it, the more fluent he seemed to get. Various words that previously eluded him locked into place and started making sense. Though majority of the book was lost to him for now, he was able to glean a number of things from it.

First of all, this wasn't the only book. There were a series of books from the series, and this was the last one. Alec was able to make out that all the books should have been here, but the only one he was able to find was this one.

Alec searched through the backpack again and confirmed that there was indeed nothing else that had been hidden inside.

He frowned.

He reread that little passage in the beginning that spoke about the other books before pausing. He flipped to the next page, realizing that there was a strange empty page on the back of it where the other pages were completely filled.

Alec brushed a finger down the empty page, his magic ever so gently running across the page in a sudden urge to Awaken it. Not the book as a whole, but that one single page.

His magic sank into the page, where a series of strange markings appeared. Shocked, Alec stared at it blankly when his face was abruptly impacted.

Literally smacked in the face with three books, Alec topped over, falling onto the ground. He stared at the cave's ceiling with a stunned look on his face as his mind comprehended what just happened.

That was… quite literally a smack in the face.

Alec snorted.

Okay, that was actually pretty funny, for some strange reason. It tickled at Alec's sense of humour.

Sitting back up, he gathered the other three books that had been abruptly ejected straight into his face, looking at the covers. Unlike the book that had been exposed to the various elements of time, these three books looked fresh and almost brand new, like they had been held in stasis.

Alec raised a brow, but stopped for the time being, changing the dressing of his wounds. He could already see a bit of blood that had seeped through the dressing.

He didn't bat an eyelid when some of the cuts started bleeding again.

When he looked at the three books, the titles on the covers gave insight into what was inside.

The book he was holding, 'Activation', along with 'Offens' 'Defens' and 'Augmentation'.

Obviously, Awakening, Offensive, Defensive and Supportive Magitypes, though they were called something else in the olden days.

Alec wondered just how long Societypes and Magitypes had been around. Surely there had been a time when society had not segregated everyone into the various different classes.

However much he wanted to sneak a peek into those books, his curiosity was drawn to the strange markings that had appeared on the previously blank page.

How was that possible? Was he able to do that as well?

As he flipped through the now familiar pages, he realized that there were now illustrations where previously there were only words.

"R…unia," Alec pronounced.

It clicked. "Runes!"

Alec sucked in a shocked breath. Runes. It was a rare, highly sought-after path that not many were able to pursue. One, because of wealth, and two because of knowledge.

Much of the knowledge they still retained was not complete, and though there were many examples of spatial items that would allow one to store things, everything that could do so was rare and exorbitantly expensive.

Why did Alec know about this, you might ask?

That was because Alec suspected that his mother was actually a Rune Master. Though she had not come out and flaunt it, there was a room that had been labelled off limits to him, which was the room where she sometimes went in for hours on end before emerging, looking tired but satisfied.

During those times, she smelt of ink and fire, piquing Alec's interest. He tried to look up the things his mother might be doing, and eventually ended up coming across a very vague book talking about runes.

A lot of the runic knowledge had been lost to the different eras, and even now, when they had various informative pieces about how to craft certain things, they were still unable to obtain optimal results.

For example, the lost knowledge of spatial runes. The Neil Clan compound hadn't expanded for a long time mainly because of the lost knowledge of spatial runes. No one was able to produce something that acted in the same way.

Why was it that that specific set of runes were able to produce the result of creating a spatial array? Why was it then when they copied the runes, they were unable to produce the same result?

No one could figure out the answer.

But now, Alec had his hand on the knowledge. It was because it required an Awakener to do it!

He sucked in a breath. There were more options and capabilities to this Magitype than he thought!

Why was it that over the years, such knowledge had been lost? Why were Awakeners treated as lower than dirt, who were useless?

Instantly, Alec's curiosity about runes started burning, but the book talked about various other things, totally unrelated to what he currently wanted to know.

Alec absently traced the same runes onto his upper thigh as he studied it, not realizing that some of the fresh blood that had been left on his fingertips when he changed his wound dressings made a faint trace along his skin.

He paused, looking at his leg. Just as he was about to wipe it off, a thought flashed into his mind. What would happen if he Awakened this rune right now? Would he be able to have a space on him at all times?

Without giving it a second thought, he pushed some magic into it.

The pain that assaulted him was worse than when he messed up his hand from the fall.

Oh, fuck! Alec thought to himself that had been a phenomenally stupid decision on his part. What had he been thinking? Oh, that's right. He hadn't been.

He passed out.