Chapter 45 – Antiquated Scrolls

Aile decided that he would learn ingredient-concealing Rune. He only needs to enrich his knowledge of Runes to get supplementary assistance from his auxiliary-field connection.

He was currently at 56 percent comprehension of the beginner Runes. He believed that with the addition of ingredient-concealing Rune's knowledge and the little extra information that he had picked up at the library, he could get 70 percent comprehension. This was the benchmark needed for the auxiliary connection to help him.

Now, he was finished with the library and wanted to find the alchemist union to learn the Ingredient-Concealing Rune.

Another issue that he remembered is what happens after he achieved 70 percent. He will get 100 percent comprehension from his auxiliary soul connection and learn everything about beginner runes. However, the next step becomes even harder. Currently, everything in the first stage was already restricted, how hard would it be to find information about intermediate runes. Therefore, he also needs to keep an eye on where he can learn intermediate Runes. If he does not, he will not progress after learning the beginner stuff.

Aile then sighed and stopped thinking about the problems that could come in the future. Now he wanted to leave the library to deal with his current difficulties. But he did not know how to exit.

The old lady never told him how to get out of here.

So he searched around the room and noticed that he was in a circular room and there was no way out.

He looked around, and all he could see was the spotlight that was on the blue book. Then he thought that perhaps the blue book was the key to exit this place.

He went towards it and looked for the word, exit. He traced over the letters of "Exit" with his finger.

Swish.

He was out of the library inside the darkroom. He could still see the flickering candle where the old lady was at. He did not want to stick around here for long and quickly left the library.

He then got out and noticed that it was already very late at night. The sky had turned very dark, and there was barely anyone on the street. He knew that he can no longer go to the alchemy union today.

While he was walking back, he hoped that no one noticed his absence in the tavern.

Once he was close to the tavern, he went to an empty alley and removed his robe and mask.

He sneakily entered the tavern and into his room.

Tonight he decided that he would get a few hours of sleep.

As he had no sleep in the past three days. After doing some essential training, he closed his eyes and lay down in his comfortable bed.

Soon he drifted to sleep and had a rejuvenating rest. Early in the morning when the slight rays of light entered his room, Aile woke up. He felt rested, and laziness succumbed him.

He did not want to leave the bed. He just wanted to enjoy the warmth of the blanket and the gentle warm rays of light that was on his cheeks.

As he was enjoying the warm sensation of light on his face, he slowly drifted to sleep again. Then he had a dream.

In his dream, Aile saw that everything that he valued was taken away from him by Duke White, as he looked at him helplessly.

This nightmare woke him, and the helplessness brought back his recent memory. He remembered Sophie asking him to take her to Cape Tie and how he could not bring her here because of his lack of power.

His powerlessness was all that was on his mind, and he knew that he could not afford to rest.

He got out of his bed and started to meditate to calm his mind. Then he resolved himself to improve getting out of bed and then continuing to take over the body's energy channels and do other essential training.

After some time passed, his door was knocked.

Knock,

Knock,

Knock,

Knock,

"Aile we are going for breakfast! Wake up!" Sara said in a tired tone.

Aile stopped what he was doing and opened the door and saw Sara yawning. She was stretching her hands.

Sara was dressed in a beautiful red dress, and she gestured Aile to come closer as she opened her hands wide for a hug. She held on to Aile like they had not seen each other for months. Aile was used to this and hugged her back.

Then they both went down for breakfast.

The tavern had quite a few unique kinds of seafood, and Sara and Aile tried all of them.

They ended up loving a few small creatures that lived in the bottom of the sea. They were fried with a tasty honey sauce making them very appetizing.

Aile and Sara both enjoyed the breakfast.

Towards the end of breakfast, Hazel said that they will all be looking around the town after.

Soon their breakfast finished, and everyone went back to the room to quickly get ready to leave for a tour around the town.

Aile went to his room and wore the same stuff as he came with. He had already used water, fire, and air gathering Runes to clean it.

He was waiting outside, and soon everyone came out. The head guards were no longer in their military attire and were dressing down. Aile almost did not recognize them, they looked less ridged and less like a fighter and more like a civilian.

The group slowly walked, while everyone was curiously looking around.

Aile was not curious, he was in deep thought because he was reminded of his lack of power, and he had already curiously looked around yesterday.

Everyone noticed the expressionless face of Aile and thought that the lack of interest to leave his room for the past 10 years could clearly be explained by his current behaviour. They thought he was not capable of finding things interesting. However, they did not dwell on it too much as they were attracted by many new things in Cape Tie.

Hazle explained things to Sara and the guards occasionally, she was actually in a better mood the more she talked. Soon Aile was woken up from his stupor and started to listen to Hazel's explanation.

"That blue shop is one of the oldest landmarks here. It is dubbed an essential monument of the town, and it has become one of the most unique attractions in the kingdom," said Hazel.

"Why is that so?" Asked Sara.

"That is because it has a very unique story."

Everyone curiously looked at Hazel to continue.

"The shop is called, "antiquated scrolls" and is owned by one of the wealthiest powerhouses of Cape Tie... The story starts off like this, a very long time ago a middle-aged beggar was targeted by a noble family's heir. The young master publically announced to the town that he will kill him in one month for their disagreement.

The guards were told not to let the middle-aged beggar out of town, and he was forced to count down every day to his death. After three days past he had tried all means of escaping and had failed.

All that he could do was to wait for death. Initially, he did not want to give up.

However, he found out that there was no way for him to survive. He even publicly apologized to the young master, but he was not spared.

After multiple failed attempts, he had given up trying to escape and apologize. So he gathered his little wealth and wanted to enjoy the last few days of his life. On his way to spend all of his money, he saw a sick bald man who was selling books and scrolls to get treated from a well-known sickness.

He wanted to ignore the man, but he looked at his little wealth and knew that it would not be enough to spend even one day in happiness. He then thought perhaps he can save this man with his money and have a better next life.

He gave the man his money and wanted to leave, but the man refused to take money without giving something back in return.

In the end, he picked up an antiquated-scroll.

When he got back to his home, he was depressed. He had not lived a fulfilling life. He had not achieved any of his goals, and he had not left his mark on the world.

He looked up and sighed at his fate.

In the end, he did not want to die, he was scared. Out of curiosity, he opened the scroll. In it, he found a basic cultivation technique. However, this gave him hope.

He remembered that the young master was only a 1st stage cultivator.

Thus he believed that, if he pushes himself, maybe he could fight back. He trained day and night, and after 1 month he fought the young master to a draw. The young master was humiliated, but he was not petty, he organized another fight in 2 months and promised to kill him then. With the pressure of his life in danger, the beggar improved.