A little Adventure 5, Old Relics of the Past

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As he read the system messages, Dale couldn't help but fall into a minor state of shock.

In order to fully process what happened, he read through the messages again very carefully...

[You have found the book, Records of the Mirrored Planes(Incomplete)]

"Phew… Okay, I'm better now." He mumbled to himself

'Time to go one by one and figure out what just happened…'

'First, this one… Wait.'

'Can David read my mind?'

/Silence…/

'Oi! David!'

{You called?}

'How does your mind talk work?'

{Heh... I can already imagine what this's about}

{Worried that I'll read your thoughts? Well, there is no need for that}

{I can only receive the thoughts you want me to hear, it does sound a bit specific, but it really is so don't worry}

{The same also applies to me, otherwise, you'd be hearing everything I'm thinking every damn time, and you'd be pretty annoyed}

'... You promise?'

{What am I to you, a kid? But oh well, if it makes you feel better, yes I promise on my name}

{Now go on, think happy… If you even can that is…} David replied with a bit of spite

'That was rude.'

{So was you for not believing in me, but no worries, I can understand your worries}

{This was one of the reasons why didn't want to initiate in this sort of conversation in the first place...}

{If you need me for anything else, I'll be here, this shit's golden, you won't believe what's written here...}

'Thanks... We'll talk later then.'

"Now..."

After finishing talking, Dale went back to the matter at hand.

'So first, the book… Records of the Mirrored Planes.'

'It says that it's incomplete, but the book looks perfectly fine…' He said as he inspected the book's outside

Dale tried opening it, and although he couldn't read the book, he could see that it was filled with images and drawings.

Strange runic symbols, or simply the drawing of creatures and objects he couldn't recognize...

There were also many images of the Human body and highlights of several key points, like a martial arts book.

"Hm?"

'Some pages are missing!... No… It's something other than that… Some of the pages are just blank?'

'Why would someone write a blank book like this?... Wait!'

'Dale then read the next message…'

[The book contains within it the fragments of a tale of untold heights…]

'Is this it?...'

Dale started to formulate a theory…

'What if the book contains several tales, some of which were more complete than others, and hence the percentage value?'

'It's a half-assed theory but it could work…'

'But it raises a few questions, why are these tales incomplete in the first place, and why are these specifically here?'

'Are they perhaps connected in any way?'

[Consuming the book will give you access to a new compatible Class]

'It says that these are compatible Classes…'

'So are there incompatible ones within this book? Would another player receive other options to choose from?'

'If I hold onto this book and continue training and leveling up, would something change in the future?'

[Only one path may be chosen]

'One path can be chosen?... And this book will be consumed later…'

Dale frowned, thinking deeply.

'This book is certainly extremely valuable, the name of these Classes and the location where this book was found already tells me everything.'

'There was a reason why the book was being secured.'

'In the first place, I never had any intention of handing it to anyone else.'

'However, since this is a book… How about I read it first?'

'Although I don't know the language of this world, I can have any of the Villagers read it for me… Unless this is written in another tongue...'

'Although it does raise the worry of this book's contents... Depending on what's inside, I may have to choose carefully who is going to be the person to read it.'

'In any case, this isn't the time nor the place to think and go over each Class...'

Nodding to himself, Dale stored the book in his inventory and looked at Testros, who was now outside of the room.

Dale approached him to see what he was doing.

But he stopped as cold sweat fell from his back.

"Damn…"

'It's a battlefield.'

Outside of the room was a long and wide hallway, littered with the bodies of both armored warriors and monsters.

The warriors were divided into many classes, some were holding onto bows and medium armor, others were using heavy armor, while some were using almost no armor at all…

Their clothes seemed to glow in the dark, as if still infused with supernatural forces…

As for the monsters, some were massive, covering big sections of the hallway, like a large snake-like monster, and some others were very small, like a small creature the size of his hand…

One of which could be seen lying inside the chest of one of the warriors, how he got there is unknown and Dale didn't want to know…

Simply by the skeletal structure of the monsters, Dale could already tell that they weren't ordinary, and some of the bigger ones even offset some sort of pressure on their surroundings.

It was as if their bloodlust remained to this day...

It didn't affect Dale that much, but thinking about how these warriors felt when they were alive, fighting here amidst this horde…

It was chilling.

He crouched near one of the soldiers and identified a terrible truth…

"How did he even die?..."

'All of these warriors… All of them are equipped with Unique Items… Some are even with the next grade, the Relic tier.'

'These are likely the top Elite warriors of the Corps, the last ones to die right beside their Commander, fighting to the very end…'

As Dale investigated the bodies of the warriors and the monsters, Testros got up and said:

"I'm finished here, are you done? I heard some commotion previously…"

"Not quite done, but I did a small investigation and found a few things, we can talk about it later."

"But I'll say this now, we probably won't be able to come here anytime soon, without the second key, we won't be able to come this far again…" Dale said in a low tone

Testros already knew what he was going to propose…

He bit his lips, but he eventually let out a sign.

"You're right… We can't leave this all behind… Even if broken and tattered, it can be put to better use… It is what they would want..."

"The bones and pelts of these monsters can also be reused, although time has claimed its fair portion of them... It would be a waste to leave them all behind…"

He looked behind one last time and said as he passed through Dale:

"I'll be waiting in the Office, there is still one thing left that I want to investigate, after I'm done, I'll help you pack the rest…"

"Just… Just be respectful… Please…" He said with emotion

Dale felt pity for the old man, perhaps he recognized someone in here, or perhaps it was something else…

Whatever it was, Dale never had the intention of desecrating their bodies.

"I will." Dale vowed

With a small nod, Testros went back, leaving Dale alone in the hallway…

"Okay…"

'Time to start…'

Dale crouched near a fallen warrior.

It was a woman, she had long golden hair that fell to her shoulders.

"Hm?"

'Deeming the conditions of this place, shouldn't her hair have gone red or something? I'm not an expert on this field but I thought…'

Dale shook his head.

'It doesn't matter.'

Carefully, Dale touched her armor, and he realized he could indeed store it in his inventory, there was no need to remove it from her remains...

But before he did that, he removed a small metallic badge on her chest, it wasn't easy to remove, but it did come off eventually.

There were some Symbols attached to it, and he knew from Testros that this was supposed to be the person's name.

It was a Name Tag and also their rank.

He had no idea what this lady was called as he couldn't read, so he simply left the badge near her body and stored her armor and weapons.

One day they would be back, and at that time, he would bury her body and inscribe her name on a tombstone...

But that is for the distant future... The present beckons...

Dale turned around and looked at the monster's body near her.

It looked like a large feline, although only in shape.

It was a shame, but it seemed that most of its pelt and scales had already decomposed considerably.

Using the game menu, he could somewhat tell what was good and what was bad, so he took only the best and left for the next warrior.

If he had time and space, he would collect the rotten parts as well...

Who knows, perhaps they could be used somewhere else?

"If all of this can be repaired, then it would be enough to gear all of Resko's warriors..."

'With this, the Village's power would rise several Levels.'

'And with the techniques recorded in the books, we're going to become a real power.'

'However, that isn't enough…'

'This place fell even with all of these warriors and powerhouses, they even had the environmental advantage.'

'Even if Resko becomes stronger, it'll never surpass the old Corps military power.'

'At least not any time soon…'

'So I need to prevent this situation from even happening in the first place.'

Dale turned his gaze to the side, making his way to the next warrior…

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Notes