Chương 4: Tome

As Leo entered the huge room, the gold engravings slowly died down. The golden light slowly moved out of the doors like a snake. Some of the golden light entered the room through the floor, following him, while the rest converged outside the room on top of the doors. The light settled on some engravings, forming a phrase.

________

Here Lies The Arcane Emperor.

________

He had already entered the room and didn't see this phrase. The gold light behind him split up and covered the walls. The entire room lit up, as the floor and walls were filled with engravings shining in the gold light.

He was too mesmerized to consider running away. His young mind gave into curiosity and awe. He followed the flowing gold light to the center of the room, his eyes glued onto the lights. His legs kept walking forward, out of his control, until he bumped into something.

In front of him was a beautiful pedestal that was the height of his chest. On top of the pedestal was a huge book. The book was opened up, showcasing its golden pages.

Naturally, he tried to lift the book. However, it was too heavy for him, and stayed unmoved. He closed the book to see its cover.

A green emerald adorned the center of the cover, and obsidian patterns surrounded it. The rest of the book was made of hard gold. The entire tome seemed so much more solid than paper- like it was made of silk yet as hard as a diamond. It was very lavishly decorated, indicating what its use was.

"It's a tome. A bloody tome." He muttered to himself.

A tome contained the magic spells and it contained the entire magic knowledge of a magician. They were considered legendary because only powerful mages could make them. Tomes had a little magic power in them to make inheriting the spells easier. They were considered the legacy of ancient families. And only the highest nobles - the royals, even had the chance of having one.

As he was admiring the book, blood started creeping out of the scratch he had. The blood had gathered at his elbow and eventually dripped onto the book. By the time he had realized it was too late. The blood fell onto the cover, just on top of the emerald.

"Damn it!" He cursed.

He took his hands off the tome and lifted his shirt to try to clean the blood off. By the time he lifted his shirt, the blood had tricked onto the emerald. He watched the blood seep into the emerald.

He let go of his shirt and touched the book to make sure the blood was gone. The emerald shined brightly, partially blinding him. Suddenly, a flash of light brightened up the entire room. He felt a vibration across his chest along with a wrenching pain in his heart. The pain only lasted a split second. However, when it ended he got onto his knees and started panting.

After taking a second to recover, he stood up. He looked at the pedestal to see what happened to the book but he couldn't find it. The pedestal was empty. A searing pain in his hand shifted his gaze.

He felt like his hand was burning and looked at his wrist to see the cause. The part of his wrist that was below his palm had a glowing tattoo burned onto it. It was a book. This was a book he recognized: it was the same book that was on the pedestal. It was now on his wrist.

He looked around. It was a lot darker than before because the golden light had completely disappeared. The only light he saw was in front of the tome. A throne had appeared out of nowhere. He hadn't seen it when he first came into the room. On top of the throne was a skeleton.

In front of the throne was a plaque. He stepped forward to look at the plaque.

__________

Here lies the Arcane Emperor. Pay your respects to your master.

Only use your knowledge for good.

Pass down your knowledge to a deserving successor.

__________

He looked at the tome on his wrist. Then he turned to look at the skeleton. The skeleton was resting like a king. The gears in his mind turned as he started to piece together the little information available to him.

The only explanation for all this was that the owner of the tome had chosen him to be his successor. He knew that if this was true, it could be the greatest thing that happened to him.

Leo bowed down to the skeleton.

"Thank you for this opportunity, sir. I will cherish this opportunity and uphold your values."

He looked back up to find that the throne was nowhere to be found. Nothing in the room was how it was when he got there. The engravings were now completely gone. The throne and the pedestal had disappeared.

He turned around and saw the waterfall he had come into right in front of him. The tome was still etched onto his skin, so the encounter was real. But now, the tome was no longer glowing and had faded down to a black tattoo.

He realized that his arm was no longer bleeding. When he took a step forward, he felt lighter than before. He was full of energy unlike before. After stretching his body and jumping a few times to warm his body up, he got ready to leave.

A body dove out of the water and splashed into the lake. It was Leo, who had finally started to leave the forest.

He started swimming towards the shore that he had come out of. Since he didn't want to tire himself out, he was trying to swim slowly. The run outside was longer than the swim so he would have to be faster then.

However, his plans shattered immediately. He felt a weird tremor near his legs and looked back. A similar shadow was on his trail. It was the same crocodile that chased him into the cave in the first place. This time it was slightly closer than the previous time.

"Why? Why is it still on to me?"

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Chương 5: Escape

Leo swore in his mind while speeding up. Instead of furiously beating around like a brute, he calmly pushed the water back neatly with great strength. He was trying his best not to waste too much of his stamina. Meanwhile, the crocodile was closing in quickly.

He saw the shore was closing in. The water that he was pushing moved back with more and more force as he increased the power he put into each stroke. Because of this, he was able to get out of the lake and onto the shore quicker than the time he took the last time. He immediately left the water and scrambled forward.

The crocodile dived at him like before, except there was no mysterious barrier helping him this time. However, he had gotten enough space from the crocodile that it missed. Even though the crocodile didn't get him, he immediately backed up more so that even if it moved forward it wouldn't be able to catch him.

After giving himself enough space, he got up and bolted into the forest. Getting out of the lake was only his first problem: he also had to worry about escaping the forest without dying. He ran towards what he thought was where he came from. He hoped that it was the right way. Otherwise, he would be running to his death.

He ran through the forest and started to feel his stamina drop around 5 minutes into the run. A glimmering plant stood in the way which made him speed up. It was a Glimmer root, which meant he was likely on the right path.

He didn't skimp on any energy while running this time. This was him truly running for his life. He hoped that he wouldn't run into the wolf or any other monsters on the way like at the lake.

The trees were starting to thin out in front of him. The last stretch that he needed to run was in front of him. He dashed out of the last trees of the forest, getting into the open. The sun was just setting, telling him that he had spent a substantial amount of time blacked out.

If he was in the forest any longer, he would have to survive the already dangerous forest in the dark. The nocturnal animals would eat him alive.

Even after getting out of the forest, he kept running until he felt the forest was far enough. He slowed down to a walk, slowly recovering his breath while making his way to the city.

"I am never going to go into there again," Leo promised himself.

He forced his body to make it to the city gates. When he entered the gates into the safety of the city, he breathed a sigh of relief. After getting back into the city, his mind started functioning properly. Suddenly he remembered something.

"The market might close soon. I have to go!"

Since the sun was setting, the people at the market usually wrapped up at this time. Throughout the stressful day, he never let go of the satchel that held the Glimmer roots. He had 23 of them, which would give him 230 Star coins. It would give him some time to rest without doing work to figure out what happened to him and the tome.

With money involved, he suddenly gained a lot of energy. He sprinted to the market. When he got there, he saw that people were starting to pack their stalls up. He ran to where Trevor's stall had been that morning. Trevor's stall was still there, and Trevor was sitting there, unbothered that the people around him were packing up.

He let out a breath of relief. Trevor noticed Leo and saw his condition. While there were no visible wounds on him, his rags were completely unusable, and his face looked incredibly weary.

"You must have had a hell of a day," Trevor remarked.

"Almost died," Leo shot back.

Trevor shook his head. "I told you, didn't I? You took the risk, and you did it. How many roots could you find?"

Leo put the satchel onto the stall. He took out the stalks of Glimmer root. Trevor looked at them.

"These are good. That's 23 of them?" Trevor confirmed their authenticity.

He nodded.

Trevor reached into his purse and took out 5 coins.

"230 Star coins. Go buy yourself some better clothes." Trevor handed the coins to Leo.

He slipped the coins into his pocket.

"I will. Thanks for the work." Leo thanked him. Normally a day's work would give him a few Star coins. It was very apparent that he was an orphan so he wouldn't be paid the right amount. This was the first time he had earned so much money at once. 230 Star coins would last him and Daphne an entire month. He could also alternatively buy himself and Daphne a few pairs of clothes while trying to find other work to get him food.

"This is fine work. Do you want more work?" Trevor asked Leo.

Leo shook his head. "Not anytime soon. I almost died. It's too dangerous for me."

Trevor laughed. "I am not surprised. Maybe you could learn an aura training method from a guild and become an Aura Knight. You could earn a lot more that way."

His smile disappeared. While mages were solely nobles, commoners could also become powerful by learning how to use Aura. However, he never had the access to Aura training methods that others would have at a young age because he was incredibly poor as well as an orphan.

Normally, the reason people couldn't become Aura Knights was because of their lack of talent. But he was never even given the chance because he was unlucky. Trevor noticed the change in mood and understood why almost immediately.

"How about this? Aura Training methods are pretty common. They cost around thousand Star Coins. Good ones are more expensive, but the basic ones should be enough. Save up to that amount and I'll sell you one. Then you can see if you have the talent to become an Aura Knight. If you become an Aura Knight, you can earn more than a few thousand Star coins." Trevor offered an opportunity to him.

Leo smiled bitterly. "When I have a thousand Star coins, we can have the discussion again. I'll see you again if I need another job."

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