A very strange encounter

In this boring world, I used to live my life hoping for something new and special every single day. Yet, nothing ever seemed to change, all was stagnant like a marshy lake. Well, that was until I found out something I shouldn't have...

Adger looked infront of him with eyes hiding yearning. His brown eyes were glued on to the site before him, not daring to even blink as if fearing that the site would vanish.

Before him was a huge, freshly made crater with grey smoke rising from it. The crater had a radius of roughly 7 metres, forming a huge concave pit in the ground.

Adger moved forward slowly with trembling legs, from fear or excitement it was unclear, but his expression seemed to lean towards the later as he had a huge grin plastered over his youthful face.

As the grey smoke gradually cleared, Adger finally saw something in the middle of the crater.

It was... a man. A man covered in torn blue robes that were disfigured and completely black with burning marks. It was really hard to make out the original blue colour of the robes.

The man had black hair and bronze skin, his eyes were closed and he lay in the middle of the crater without showing any signs of moving.

Adger when he saw that scene before him was very surprised. Even his initial excitement seemed to have gone down a notch.

He cautiously looked down the 1 metre deep crater and waited for a few minutes. However even after the wait, the man in the crater didn't seem to show any signs of moving.

'Should I go down there?' Adger contemplated for quite a while, but his curiosity got the better of him.

With small, careful steps and support from his hands, he slowly made his way down the crater towards the man.

'Damn this is absolutely crazy!' When Adger was just a little far away from unconscious man, his heart couldn't help but race.

He was in the middle of nowhere with no one else accompanying him and then suddenly a meteor crashed near where he was and then upon closer inspection it turned out that it was a man not a meteor that made the huge crater.

'This seems like the beginning of a fantasy novel hehe.' He giggled inwardly as he thought about the whole bizzare situation he found himself in.

Adger then pushed such thoughts out of his mind as he focused on the current matter. He observed the bronze skinned man from a little afar not daring to go too close.

He took out a pen from his black pant pocket and after carefully aiming, he threw it directly at the man's head. However, the man still showed no response.

"Huu..." Adger let out a sigh of relief and then with unhurried steps came infront of the unconscious man.

Upon a closer look, the bronze skinned man didn't seem any different than ordinary people. Only his attire seemed a little unorthodox.

Adger moved his hand closer to the man's nose and then suddenly his body froze up.

He wasn't breathing...

Adger hurriedly moved his hand to the man's chest and discovered his heart not beating.

'His heart isn't beating! He... He is dead!' Shock spread on Adger's face. All kinds of thoughts flashed through his head as his breathing intensified.

'How could he die? No... I shouldn't have expected him to live after falling like a freaking meteor. But what could I do now? Report it to the police? No, they wouldn't believe me even if I narrated the whole incident truthfully.'

"Sigh~ I should just get away from here, it is not like anyone can track that I was here." Adger said to himself as he prepared to leave.

Then suddenly he caught a glimpse of a leather bag attached to the backside of the waist of the bronze skinned man.

'Huh! What is that?' Curiously, Adger grabbed the edge of the leather bag and pulled it, but even with great difficulty, the bag did not come out.

A little irritated, Adger pushed the man and rolled his dead body once so that the backside was revealed.

Now he finally got a better look at the leather bag. It was made from brown leather with some unique patterns drawn over it. It was attached to the back of the man with a similar leather strap.

'Even the clothes of the man were destroyed yet this bag remains unscratched. Strange...' Adger thought with a glint of amazement passing through his eyes.

He unstrapped the leather bag and held the fine leather made piece of art in his hand.

'Holy shit, this is some next level craftsmanship. Where did they even find this quality leather?' Adger couldn't help but compliment the bag.

Without wasting any time, Adger decided to open the bag quickly. This whole ordeal had piqued his curiosity a little too much, even though the dead body had scared him quite a bit, he wasn't just going to walk away from such a strange encounter empty handed.

He opened the bag that was sealed with a golden button and with a calm mind, he took a look inside.

To his bewilderment, not a dragon egg, not star dust, nor even a magic stone, it was a book that was kept inside the leather bag.

'A book?' Inside the beautifully made leather bag was a book with yellow pages and a similar hard leather cover.

'This better have something good in it or I am gonna be pissed!' With a expression that seemed to have been born from the lava of curiosity and the ocean of disappointment itself, Adger thought.

He held the leather cover between his arm and peripheral chest while holding the book in his hands.

The book cover was very similar to the leather bag, just harder. It had unique designs carved on it that looked like symbols of some strange language.

Adger slowly flipped open the book and carefully read the first page...

[22, Feb, 1003]

[I stole the book of secrets]