Chapter 7

The first volume of the ice elemental series explained the simple breathing technique to spread the mana through the body.

Although there were many complex and improved mana practice techniques, most of them were kept as a secret within institutions or families.

'In the game, the mana techniques served only as a means to increase mana pool once apart from the tranquil animation that lasted for a miserable hour.'

'I never would have thought these techniques had a relation with elements. Hmm.., I should've learned some yoga in school. Wonder if that would've worked.'

'As an alpha tester, I only had the chance to play with the void element. Wonder how I can even awaken that.'

Dismissing all his thoughts, Noah continued to focus only on breathing and moving the mana within his body. After some time he was able to feel the mana travelling from each end of his body, back to the heart.

After nearly 6 hours, Noah was able to stabilize the breathing pattern and perform it as if he was breathing normally. With each passing moment, Noah felt his body getting warmer and his mana flowing smoothly across his body.

At this stage, Noah started visualising how wind formed, how air currents travelled, all that he could remember while he was in school back on earth.

Wind element awakened.

Mana +200

Wind affinity +1%

You can now use skills with the wind attribute by learning magic circles based on your intelligence.

You can now form contracts with wind spirits based on your affinity.

'Hmm, that 1 percent should have originally contributed for someone who was at 0% affinity, awakening the wind elemental. I guess gaining affinity fastened the process.'

****

By the time Noah reached back, it was already pitch dark. He could only say that he was lost while exploring the temple helplessly. After an earful from Melissa and Reynard, Noah sat down for dinner.

Sitting down at the dining table, Noah could hear multiple conversations. Some regarding the villages nearby, some regarding the plans for the upcoming spring, but there was only one topic that Noah took interest in: when the elder would be returning.

As soon as he heard that the elder would be returning in five days, Noah started planning his escape.

****

The library maintained by the temple was divided into multiple sections through intricate pathways and corridors. The first few sections were filled with children's books, family planning books and others on healthcare. The deeper one went, the more serious the topics got. Books on history, family lineage, wars and even bestiary.

The entire library was maintained by an old librarian. Enchanting a card, the librarian gave Noah a library pass which gave him access to sections on ice elementals as requested by Reynard.

Each of these sections that were protected were essentially in a new room maintained by space magic stones. When a person taps their library card against the door at the end of the main library they can open the door to their desired library room.

Entering the room on ice elementals, the librarian parted ways after warning Noah to handle the books carefully.

Over the days, one other feature Noah was able to access from the Heads Up Display was the ability to take a screen capture.

This gave Noah essentially a photographic memory. He was able to capture whatever was within his vision and even his surroundings with limited depth of vision.

Although this didn't allow Noah to view what was behind him every time, he was able to replay the playback whenever he wanted.

Opening the book, Noah started scanning the pages one by one.

Even though Noah hadn't awakened his ice element yet, he was determined to learn everything there is before he left the temple.

Within a few hours, Noah was able to store contents from all the 45 books on the bookshelf ranging from the beginner series to advanced.

All the skills from the intermediate series onwards required a spirit contract to perform and the level of the spirit also limited the type of magic the caster could use.

After entering the tower the day before, Noah knew that the temple did a lot more than distribute rations to the villages.

Holding the library card in front, Noah used Distort on it.

True / False flags for all the accessible locations in the library showed up.

Accessible sections like children's books, healthcare, kingdom history, herbs and ice elementals were set as true. But apart from that, new sections that the librarian never spoke about also appeared: dark ages, ice spirits, temple history, priest history, records of covenants, weapon history, weapon manuals, blacklisted criminals, forbidden spirits, advanced ice magic series 1 to 5, bestiary series 1 to 19, and so on started filling up.

Although learning new magic and skills were important. After escaping the temple, Noah wanted to continue searching for his family. From his memories, all he remembered was the face of his mother and the fact that she was a noble. The only other clue Noah had was the thin metal bracelet.

Taking a deep breath, Noah used Distort to update access to the kingdom history room.

Just updating access to one location took a quarter of his mana. The biggest drawback of the skills derived from the blessing of the goddess was that it didn't mention how much mana it would consume.

Hoping that there was no way the librarian could track him entering restricted areas, Noah entered the kingdom history room.

Unlike the other rooms Noah entered so far, the air in this room felt still, as if not a single thing had moved since the last person entered. Noah could only speculate a higher level of preservation magic was being used here.

Luckily no visible alarms were set off when he entered.

Taking a deep breath, Noah walked towards the bookshelves.

He felt excited and scared at the same time, knowing that his family was out there. He felt scared thinking whether his family would now abandon him or would be better off without him in the picture as it has already been seven years.

He could think of hundreds of reasons why it would be better if he didn't go back but still wanted to meet them at least once.

Going over the shelves, Noah found the magic book on the current generation of noble families. Magic books, unlike normal books, were linked to other books through a signature. This allowed the changes in one book to be reflected on to its siblings. In his previous life when he entered Etherworld as an alpha tester, he had seen it working when one of the academy professors used it to send a warning for a beast attack.

The book had a painting of the couple on one side and the family details and lineage on the other.

Noah carefully went through the book page by page, checking the painting and then the family history looking for clues.

With only a few pages in, Noah's hands froze.

"Mum?"

She looked exactly as he remembered her seven years back. Her black hair and soft golden eyes made her look gentle and affectionate. Next to her stood a tall man, with light blue hair and dark blue eyes. Although he didn't have any memories of him, he strangely felt familiar with his appearance.

Reading the excerpt on the side, he understood why.

'The Duke and Duchess of Wyte, Sir. Edwin Wyte and Mrs Trish Wyte...'

'...The daughter of Marquis Alinac, Trish Alinac Wyte, married to Edwin Wyte, crown prince of the previous Wyte kingdom in the year 870. Their marriage marked the unification of the two kingdoms…'

'Their children are princess Emilia Wyte (872-), prince Noah Wyte (874-877) and princess Maeve Wyte (876-).'

Noah kept reading the page over and over again hoping for it to make some sense.

Although he felt happy that his family was still present and healthy, he felt confused and overwhelmed about whether he was deserving of such a family.

When he was still playing EtherWorld as an alpha tester, he had a chance to interact with the eldest daughter of the Wyte family. Resembling her father in appearance and strength, she was one of the key characters he had wanted to form a partnership with.

'Wait...Didn't Emilia say that her brother, Noah, died two years before back when I was alpha testing... If Aditi's time slice of EtherWorld was at 890, would that mean Emilia had known that I was alive? And does that mean I die in the year 888? What the fu*k is happening?'

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A/N: Adding timeline here to make it easier for all readers.

| – Year 870 — Trish marries Edwin

| – Year 872 — Emilia Wyte is born

| – Year 874 — Noah Wyte is born

| – Year 876 — Maeve Wyte is born

| – Year 877 — Noah Wyte gets separated

| – Year 884 — Present Year

| – Year 888 — Noah Wyte dies in time slice / α world

| – Year 890 — Protagonist meets Emilia Wyte in time slice / α world