Chapter 67: History

After returning to his hideout, Zaos placed down his sack full of items and headed straight to the section where the books were stored.

He grabbed a history book from one of the shelves and began reading it thoroughly. He wanted to see if he could find any historical records pointing to the existence of a mystic human city in elven territory.

The elven history recorded in the book was as such:

At the beginning of time, the elven gods created the world. Each god formed different portions of the world leading to these regions gaining an abundance of Mana of the god's elemental domain.

After the world was shaped, the gods created their children, the elves, who inherited a portion of their creators' ability over nature. Once the gods had fulfilled their agenda, they left the world.

With the departure of the gods, the elves became the rulers of the world. However, this didn't last long since the world began to oppose the elves.

Two species born from the world; the mystic humans and Savage Beasts became their greatest obstacles in their quest to achieve world domination.

The mystic humans possessed an ability known as magic which could mimic the effects of an Elemental Weave, while the Savage Beasts were able to passively absorb Mana into their bodies to strengthen their physiques and enhance their natural abilities.

The Savage Beasts were unintelligent and divided so suppressing them was easy, however the intelligent Mystic humans were not so easily dealt with. They became the greatest adversaries of the elven species.

The Mystic humans built their societies and engaged in a fierce war with the elves for many thousands of years before finally withdrawing when the casualties became too much to bear.

Both parties retreated to their respective territories, awaiting the moment when they would have to battle it out again…

The historic records continued for a few pages adding more depth to the history of the elven society.

After reading through most of it, Zaos closed the book and pondered silently.

[This recount comes from the Qildor clan's library, yet there exists no mention of the mystic humans living together with the elves. The conflict between them is too deep for that to happen, so how is there a mystic human city hidden within the Dark-elf Tribe's territory?] As Zaos pondered, a sudden thought struck his mind.

[Is it possible that the race that existed in Grangor City weren't mystic humans? Perhaps it was another species conquered by the elves that have similar appearances to mystic humans? Humans?] Zaos became more convinced with this theory the more he thought about it.

He cast a glance at the sack where the items from Grangor City were stored. An idea popped up in his head as he thought about the books he had retrieved from the underground chamber.

He went over, retrieved the alchemy book from the sack, before beginning to study the visual descriptions in it.

After a while of studying, Zaos closed the book before setting it aside.

[There are no steps that require the use of magic or elemental weaves. It's quite similar to science but with a unique twist,]

Although Zaos couldn't understand the language used in the book, he could more or less make sense of the images in the book. From these images, he was able to determine that the alchemic technique described within the book didn't utilize magic or elemental weaves.

This was odd as Zaos had once seen an alchemist in the mercenary city perform alchemy using his elemental weaves for assistance during certain phases.

[I might not know too much about alchemy, but I'm willing to bet that both the mystic humans and elves utilize their abilities when performing alchemy, yet this fellow never used anything of such sort. It's possible the author didn't possess any unique abilities and was just a regular human…

[If I am right, that means humans had once existed on Krulon, however, their whereabouts are currently unknown and their existence wasn't recorded in the history books…] Zaos paced about the hideout, pondering deeply.

[Their situation seems similar to that creature Kolvar transformed into a few months ago. The creature clearly exists yet there are no records of it either…] Zaos felt frustrated by the many mysteries surrounding this world.

The situation on Krulon was bizarre, he couldn't just turn a blind eye to these occurrences as some of them directly targeted him.

Without sufficient understanding of these matters, Zaos wouldn't know if he was in danger or if he could exploit the situation for his gain.

Zaos sighed and decided to shelf the topic for the time being. Since it was already late and he needed rest, he teleported back to his apartment in Larek City before heading straight to bed.

***

The next few days of the week were rather uneventful for Zaos. Since his information broker, Whisperer didn't contact him for any new bounties, he decided to train while waiting for the day of darkness to arrive.

During the months after Zaos fled from the mercenary city, he had gained a greater understanding of his second stage property: devour.

To gain comprehension of this property, Zaos was required to constantly absorb different types of Mana into his body and slowly adapt to them. This practice was similar to the ability Savage Beasts used to strengthen their bodies.

Using the Savage Beasts' innate abilities and some stories from his old world as a reference, Zaos created a technique to effectively carry out this task.

It involved him entering a meditative state while utilizing his devouring elemental weaves in sync with his breathing to absorb the mana in his surroundings.

The method proved highly effective as it made the repetitive task of absorbing Mana relaxing and soothing.

After multiple days of engaging in these relaxing training sessions, the tension brought about by the uncertainties in his investigations had reduced significantly.

With this calmer mindset, Zaos exited his home on the day of darkness, his location; the Cathedral situated in the city.

[The church will be the best location to understand the elven gods more. As long as I get close to one of the preachers, I should be able to gather some information from them, although it might not be entirely accurate.] Zaos mused as he exited the lower residential district and entered the commercial district where the large cathedral was built.

Along the way, Zaos also saw other dark elves heading in the same direction as him even though it was early.

The elves could be considered a religious race, most of the population were highly devoted to their gods while the non-devotees still held a large amount of respect for the deities.

For this reason, a cathedral was built in every elven city to pay respect to the deities worshiped by the masses.