Accident

Edward kept reading, flipping to the fourth page. This page showed him the basic low-level runes, explaining them. It is when he felt his Magical Language ability helping him massively.

When he was trying to learn German, it took him over a year to learn how to speak it fluently. Now, with this ability, Edward understood these runes quickly and easily. He felt like his brain, which normally runs on coal energy when reading or learning something new, had switched to Nuclear Energy.

'Good thing I picked this ability.' He thought as his eyes ran through the page, absorbing the information like a sponge in water and processing them.

Reading on, he didn't notice the day going dark and Elizabeth standing beside him. She folded her arm, looking down at the book. The words on the page were confusing, lines running across each other as if a child had scribbled on them.

With how focused Edward was while reading like those scribbles were actual words, Elizabeth activated Super Mind. Her thinking speed increased by 20%, yet she couldn't understand what was on the page.

Edward flipped to the fifth page and continued reading, not noticing her. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Elizabeth finally spoke.

Her sudden voice caused Edward's head to shoot up from the book before turning to her. He processed what she asked before answering, "Yes." He returned to reading, adding, "You won't understand it. These are the characters of magic, which a normal human like yourself would never be able to comprehend. Only those with mana can hope to see what they truly are or understand it."

Elizabeth frowned at his claim, glaring at him. "Oh? Then how come I was able to read the beginning?"

"I didn't make it up." Edward shrugged as he continued reading. "Maybe only the beginning was written in normal language. Now I have answered all your questions, can you please leave so I can study in peace?" He said, turning to the next page.

Elizabeth looked at him for some time then said as she left, "Come and eat."

Edward had heard her, but he didn't feel hungry. Besides, learning magic is more important than eating. Emma had also come to call him, saying they had killed a Zebra from the herd close to the flooded grassland, and once more, he refused.

Time passed, with the stars coming up in the sky, the moonlight bringing a comforting beauty to the graphite night. Everyone went to sleep within the dungeon, the nocturnal animals coming out to hunt.

He was now on the tenth page, with his cloak off. He wanted to feel the cool breeze of the night. Edward finally closed the book before putting it to the side. He made a fist with his right hand, his index finger extended. Focusing, his mana circuits connecting his core to his finger glowed blue, with a blue brush tip forming.

Taking a deep breath, Edward glanced at the book, eyes on the rune of fire. Looking up, he focused and started drawing. The fire rune looked the easiest to draw out of all the four basic elemental runes.

Focusing, he began to draw. All his concentration was on what he was drawing and his right index finger...

*Booooom*

The rune exploded at the tip of his finger, a fiery blaze blasting outward. The force pushed him back, causing him to slam into the tree behind him, the back of his head colliding with the tree.

"Aggghh!" He roared in pain, tears flowing down his eyes.

The fiery blaze sent out by the rune gave his right arm third-degree burns, with his index finger almost completely burning up. It burned away the top half of his burlap sack dress, his torso gaining second-degree burn. The blaze also burned off all his facial hair, including his eyebrows, eyelash, and his hair.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" Edward cried, a searing pain rushing through his right arm and body. The pain was so intense, so all-consuming, that he no longer knew where he was. He cursed, saying words he never knew existed.

He looked at his right arm. The burn had destroyed the outer layer of his skin and the entire layer beneath, appearing white or charred. His torso was red and blistered, some parts being swollen.

The pain was so severe that he wanted to just stay still and sleep it, but he knew the blood and noise would draw animals to him. It was too dangerous. Edward grabbed his book and cloak with his left hand, ignoring his spear. He stood up, gritting his teeth as he walked around the tree, heading to the entrance to the dungeon.

Falling down the hole, Edward fell into the dungeon first floor, face first. His chest slamming into the ground caused him even more pain as he let out a muffled scream, tears and snort staining his face.

'I fucked up.' He thought, going unconscious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edward awoke the next day, eyes on the top of the cave. The pain from his injuries hadn't gone away, but it had dulled to tolerable pain. Looking down at his right arm, he winces at the sight. Puss was coming out from some spot, and most of the flesh in his arm burned.

"I need to clean it before it gets an infection." He moaned in pain, using his left hand to push himself into a sitting position. He didn't bother to look at his brunt torso as he stood up. "My bag of holding must still have some clean water."

Picking up his book, he walked into the second room, finding no one there. Continuing, he entered the boss room, looking around to see Leonardo and Michael staring at him. They were the only ones in the room, confusing him.

"Where--"

"What the hell happened to you!?" Leonardo shouted, cutting off Edward. He stood up and rushed toward him. The injuries that were stopping him from speaking and performing rapid movement had begun to heal thanks to his high vitality at 28, but his arm was still not healed. "How the hell did you get burnt?" He stopped in front of Edward, inspecting his body. He now looked like an alien since his eyelash, eyebrows, and hair were burnt.

"An accident occurred while I was practicing magic." Edward explained, and without giving a chance for any of them to speak, he asked, "Where is my Bag of Holding?"

"Oh, Andrew and the others took it with them to hunt. They were looking for you but couldn't find you." Leonardo responded, his eyes on Edward's right arm. "This was caused by magic? Damn. Is it painful?"

"No." Edward shook his head, sighing. 'I can't go outside, or else flies and other shit would land on my wound.' Sighing, he turned to Leonardo. "Please, don't disturb me."

"You are going to continue practicing magic?" Leonardo asked, getting in Edward's way as he was about to walk away. "With that injury you got, you want to continue?"

"Yes. Just like you are the tank, I am the mage. A mage without magic isn't a mage. So, the quicker I learn how to cast spells, the better it is for me." Edward explained, once more trying to walk past Leonardo.

"Just rest for today. Heal your wounds before continuing." Leonardo insisted, getting in Edward's way.

"Leave him be, Leonardo." Michael agreed, drawing both of their attention. Pushing up his glasses, he continued, "This is the magic arc. An arc solely devoted to Edward's practice of magic. We are not the protagonist group, but if we are important enough we will become a villain group. The first step to that is by having a powerful mage."

"What are you talking about?" Leonardo asked, pointing at Edwards's arm. "Can't you see this 3rd-degree burn he got?"

"I see that, but it isn't important. In the grand scale of the novel, simple injuries like my broken leg or Edward's burnt arm won't matter." Michael smiled an innocent smile. "To become the perfect villain group for the protagonist, we need to be strong. We can't be weak and easily beaten, nor should we be so powerful that we can only be defeated by random chance."

"What are you---"

"We already have enough people to make a perfect villain group," He cut off Leonardo, sticking up seven fingers. "Seven. Mages are rare, so having a strong image in our group would lead us to the path of villainy. Then murder thousands of innocent. Enough to get the protagonist and their group's attention ---"

"Stop. Just stop." Leonardo shouted, cutting off Michael. He turned to Edward. "If you want to continue learning magic, go on. But don't come crying to me when your whole body burns off." With that, he walked out of the room.

Michael stared at Leonardo leave, turning back to Edward. "Maybe we should leave this group. They don't have the drive to move forward. With the both of us, we could form a deadly team of seven."

"I will think about it after I learn some magic." Edward said, walking towards the platform on the other side of the room.

"Sure, Edward," Michael mumbled, grinning. "This is the perfect plot."