Tales of a Forgotten land

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"Apart from a few broken pieces of metal that fell from the Commander's armor, and a few broken scales, I found nothing worth talking about…" Testros said in disappointment

"Instead, I can only continue the story I was telling you, since it seems we diverged from it quite a bit."

"That is true…" Dale said with an awkward smile

"So, continuing from where I stopped…"

"The Commander knew he was going to perish, so he acted based on that, and instead, he prepared many things such as hiding those things in the secret safe and making sure to protect his legacy even after his death…"

As he said that, Dale took out a small wooden ball and a book, the two items he recovered from the safe.

"This is what I got from the hidden safe." Dale said with a serious expression

Testros grabbed the ball and gazed at the before putting them back on the table and continuing with his story:

"Although we don't know how he got hurt, we can easily infer how he died…"

Testros then took a deep breath and started narrating:

"Imagine this scene, a hurt man entering his office, hearing the screams and chaos all around him, limping as he left his trusted companions behind, knowing that he wouldn't be seeing them again as they bought time for him…"

"He knew there was no escape from this situation, so started his plans… Leaving behind his legacy… Or anything really."

"For whom? That is relative, whoever was strong enough to retrieve his things would have to do..."

"At least that is how it felt, the Commander did not hide anything under a complex set of requirements that only members of the Corps would know, instead, he simply hid it in a small safe."

"And once he was done, he took his sword and stood there with his sword in hand, waiting… Waiting until the sounds of conflict stopped."

"And it came, a massive monster strong enough to treat the reinforced door of his Office as if it was clay, its head scraping against the ceiling, carving a path in it as it slowly drew closer to him."

"But this creature wasn't completely fine, it was hurt just like him, although perhaps, much less."

"It walked closer to him, and there isn't much more I can tell..."

"It approached the commander, and they had a final clash, but due to his injuries, the Commander fell onto the ground near the table."

"Perhaps to mock the Commander, the monster shoved his own sword against his own stomach, followed by that strange Thorn that pierced his heart, ending his life."

Finally, Testros said:

"This was the end of the Southern Corps, there may be other soldiers that are still alive out there, people like me, who are in the right place to flee, or were given orders that allowed them to do so."

"But I don't think they would be alive right now after so long..."

/Silence…/

After a momentary silence, Dale asked:

"But we can say his plan worked right?" Dale said, trying to be optimistic

"Hah… You're right, we recovered all of the files within his Office, a miracle in itself, and that wasn't all as we recovered his keepsakes." Testros said with a smile

"His actions have allowed us to live a decently peaceful life beyond the forest as even in death, the Wall remains standing."

Testros seemed to have recovered as he said:

"With this in mind, our time is running out, so it's time for us to move on."

Dale nodded, he had been waiting for this.

"First, let's start with this book and wooden ball, there must've been a reason why he kept them inside a sealed safe."

Testros grabbed the book and read the Title, finding something odd.

"Hm…"

"Is something wrong?" Dale asked

"Not quite, just that this is written in Classic…"

"What does that mean?"

"It means it'll be quite a bother to read, It has been decades since I used Classic."

He opened the book and went to the first page, frowning immensely as he read the first page.

Dale remained silent, and instead of waiting, he decided to check on the wooden ball and be productive.

Upon grabbing it, he started looking for clues…

'It has a rather soft texture… But it's very solid, even if I use my nail, I can barely leave a scratch on it.'

'If I look closely, the ball is actually segmented into multiple areas… Perhaps it can open?...'

'This would mean that there is something inside the ball?'

'Hm...'

'... There is no point in thinking about what could possibly be inside…'

'Instead, how do I open this thing?...'

Dale tried everything he could think off.

He twisted the ball, trying to see if something moved.

He then tried pressing on a few key areas to see if something clicked.

Once again, he gently shook the ball, trying to see if there were any moving pieces within it.

In the end, he put the ball on the table and spun it, trying to use centrifugal motion to open it…

But Testros only looked at him with a frown, prompting him to apologize and put the ball back…

Still, he couldn't remain in place.

So he got up from his seat and started to organize the books within his inventory.

Little by little, his room started to be filled with books of many kinds, organized neatly into sections…

He didn't know if he was correct, as he only had the title of the book as a reference, but it was better than remaining still.

David would also help him and give him a few inputs, making everything simpler and more precise.

And like this, an hour passed…

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/1 hour later…/

/Thud…/

Testros slowly closed the book, thinking deeply as he massaged his temples.

"You're done already?" Dale asked as he took a side glance at him

"Yes I am, I figured out what this is."

Dale smiled, stopping what he was doing and sitting back on the bed to hear what he had to say.

"This book is an assortment of Tales… Almost mythological in nature, but written in a way similar to an autobiography, as if its writer wanted us to refer to it in the future."

"And to believe that the events within it are very much real... Something that I highly doubt deeming the nature of some of these stories."

"There are several stories within it, and the entire first section of the book, 3 full chapters, are all about a cult-like faction called InnerLight."

"InnerLight?" Dale asked confused

'Was there something like that in the notification?'

"It tells the story of its highest members, the so called Alma Conquerors and how they rose to their position…"

"It's a pretty interesting tale in itself..."

"The problem is… I have many reasons to believe that… The strongest Commander was once an Alma Conqueror."

"Really?" Dale asked, surprised

'This is getting interesting.'

"Yes, the second Tale of the Alma Conquerors, entitled 'The Sword', and the tales of the Commander are oddly similar, with several aspects of it intertwining…"

"To confirm this, I'll have to re-read his biography, it should be somewhere in that massive pile of books, there was a copy of it literally everywhere…"

"Although… There is one more thing that made me confused…"

"There isn't a single completed story…"

"The deeper you go into the book, the less complete each story gets. There isn't a single removed page though, instead, the pages are simply blank, as if the writer knew how to continue but refused to write the rest, or simply had no time to do so."

"The stories, apart from the first 3 stories, are all standalone stories and don't affect each other, however, it is clear they all happen within this same, massive location, The mirrored Planes."

"Yet, there is no conclusive explanation as to where this place could've been located, any sort of environmental explanation outside of things such as caverns and castles is completely and utterly nonexistent."

"No country names... No timelines... Nothing. Even the name of some characters is unknown..."

"Pretty much, the story is devoid of many details, being extremely compacted."

"That is why I find this book to be very odd."

Dale remained pensive, drawing his own conclusions…

'I see it now, so the percentage value wasn't how compatible it was with me, but how complete the story was.'

'But what it means in the first place is unknown…'

'And if this is really the tale of the Legendary Commander, then there are bound to be several clues for my current Quest...'

'Besides, this changes things for me.'

'If I were to choose a path, then it would be better to choose an already known path, right?'

'I would be able to know many things beforehand and perhaps even improve upon them, while also avoiding any complications along the way.'

'However, there is also the question of power.'

'Choosing the most powerful option would be the most ideal, at least this is what most would think.'

'But I think that choosing something more fit with myself is better than simply aiming for more power.'

'If I could, I would choose something with more potential even if it started very weak as compared to something that granted me a large deal of power all at once.'

'But how do I determine that?...'

"Would it be too much if I asked you to read the book for me?" Dale asked

"Hm? That wouldn't be a problem but… It would take quite a bit of time… So I have an idea."

"I'll have Jyter transcribe the book for you and effectively make a copy of it, aside from me, he may be the only one that still knows how to read Classic…"

"Aside from us, Tina is occupied making sure the Outsiders don't overstep their boundaries, Misgurd is in the Guild, and the Edimund is also too busy to do it."

"What do you think?"

"... I think it's a good idea." Dale replied with a nod

'The book will be consumed once I read it, so why not have a copy of it? It may be useful one day…'

"With that out of the way…" Testros said as he grabbed the ball

"I didn't expect to meet such a thing…"

It seems Testros knew what this seemingly ordinary wooden ball was!

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Notes