Aacek went into the Dancing Tiger as soon as he arrived.
Pamral smiled today, the first time since Aacek met him. “I believe you have found the cause of the disappearances.” He looked at Aacek, motioning for him to sit opposite him at the table he always sat on.
Aacek nodded and sat. “I believe it is Markena.”
“Indeed, I always suspected him,” Pamral said, nodding, his face turned pensive. He wrung his hands together and looked to his right and then to his left. He then went closer to Aacek and almost in a whisper, asked, “Did he say anything to you?”
Aacek shook his head. He was expecting something revelatory, the way Pamral had edged closer and whispered. “He was in a hurry to just leave the cave.” Aacek recounted the happenings of that night to Pamral and waited for his reaction.
“Well,” he said, “thank you for looking into the matter. You may now choose a reward your trouble.” He held two items in his two hands. In his right, he held a dagger, the hilt was made of carved and polished wood with intricate designs. The designs were abstract patterns which Aacek could not recognize. The blade seemed to be made of ivory, but had a green hue to it; it curved slightly and ended in a not-so-sharp tip. The edge looked blunt as well. Aacek inferred the dagger was probably not for physically harming others.
Dagger of Vernika | Magical Ceremonial Dagger |
Used by Vernika herself to stab her last opponent. Though the blade is not as sharp as it used to be, the magic still holds the dagger together.
+1 to intelligence
Applies poison damage every time you use chronotachy with this blade in hand.
Cool!
In Pamral’s left hand, a cube sat. It was made of similar, dark polished wood like the hilt of Vernika’s dagger and was decorated with similar intricate abstract patterns.
Troll Dice | Magical |
When held in your non dominant hand, there is a 10% chance of dodging physical attacks.
“Am I supposed to choose only one?”
“Yes,” Pamral nodded.
Aacek did not pause very long before he said, “I choose the dagger.”
“Very well.” Pamral handed the dagger to Aacek.
It felt remarkably heavy for its size. Aacek felt a strange tingle in his hand when he held it. He examined the tip and edges more closely and realized it was not as blunt as he thought initially. The hilt fit perfectly in his hand and he wondered if this was a personalized dagger. Satisfied with his new reward, he looked back at Pamral.
“You have gained some experience reward points too,” he said.
You have levelled up!
Congratulations on reaching level 3!
You can now access your inventory!
You now have access to your Time Codex! It is located in your inventory.
Time Codex? Wonder what that is!
“Congratulations, Aacek.”
Aacek smiled and said, “Thank you.” He paused for a moment. “I wish I had this dagger with me when I met Markena. I might have done some actual damage, maybe the poison would have even killed him.”
Pamral shook his head. “It is too early to be killing kings, Aacek. You are still level 3.”
Aacek did a double take. “Kings? Markena is a king?”
“I believe you have access to the Time Codex now. You can see everything there.”
Aacek brought up his character screen.
Aacek | Lvl 3 | Chronoschist |
He noticed the 5 free attribute points available but he was more interested in the inventory tab which appeared now. He just had to think of it and the tab opened.
He saw his newly acquired dagger highlighted in the weapons sub-tab.
Equip?
Yes.
The club moved into his weapons tab now.
He saw another tab which showed all his equipped items on a figurative human being.
His dagger was in his right hand weapon slot and the shield in his left shield slot.
The tunic he had earlier equipped occupied most of his torso. He could read the properties of the individual items if he focused on them.
He then saw another tab that said Class Items.
In it, he saw a single item. It looked like a very old book with yellowing pages. When he focused on it, it said, Time Codex. When he mentally thought of opening the book, it displayed a table of contents like any other normal book.
The TOC read:
- Mons Sowkha
- The Bregos
- Amili’s Birth
- Seeking
- Healing
Aacek looked at Pamral, confused. “Is it a Time Codex? I don’t see anything time related there. It just looks like a normal novel and the chapters after five are all grayed out.”
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Pamral looked confused for a moment himself. “I don’t pretend to know everything about the Time Codex but I believe you will have access to later chapters once you level up more. Regarding whether it is a Time Codex, if it says it is, it is. It is your book, better start reading it.
“Just so you know, open the Codex only when you know it is safe to do so, like in towns like this. Do not open in the middle of combat; even though the combat pauses ever so slightly, it is not safe to open the book out there.”
Aacek nodded. “Understood. Who exactly is Vernika? The dagger says Dagger of Vernika.”
“I don’t remember right now. You are the Chronoschist, Aacek. You probably have access to the entire history of the multiverse now. You might eventually find out. You might never find out too; there are far too many stories out there, beyond even your comprehension.”
Aacek nodded again. He brought his character stats up again, deciding to distribute his attribute points.
He put two points in intelligence and three in vitality.
Now, they read:
Strength: 16
Dexterity: 10
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 19 (+3)
Health: 125
Mana: 110
Stamina: 80
He examined his skills tab next, he could choose between Chronoschism and Chronotachy only still. No other skills had made themselves available. Aacek chose to level up Chronotachy again. It said he could now try the skill on larger objects or speed up smaller objects more.
He turned to Pamral again. “What do I do with the club? I mean, if I don’t want to use it anymore, can I sell it or break it down to get something?”
“You can. Fernir can buy it from you and he will give you Realm Time in exchange. You can break it down to its parts to use later; but you will have to pay him RT for his services. Also, you can check out other wares he is selling, you can buy them if you have enough RT.”
“Alright, looks like I am still learning and I am already level 3,” Aacek said and smiled.
“You are just getting started.”
Aacek sat alone at a table in the inn. He had decided to read the Time Codex and excused himself from Pamral to read it without disturbing others or getting distracted. He had chosen a dark corner.
He pulled up his inventory and opened the Time Codex. He mentally opened the chapter:
Mons Sowkha
A man, a woman and their daughter walked up the fabled marble steps of Mons Sowkha. The parents walked; their young daughter hopped, skipped and jumped her way up, squealing with delight and wonder. At the entrance, they saw two immense wooden doors, ornately carved with intricate designs, but one motif could not be missed. On the door was carved a lady bending down to help a man sitting on the floor, his face contorted with agony, mouth open. Before the small girl processed what was happening on the door, she heard a voice. "Hello beautiful. What is your name?" A young woman dressed in a red gown greeted them at the door. The small girl wore a shimmering white gown which matched her silvery hair, which was neatly braided and adorned with what looked like colourful small shells. She held her mother's hand and walked up to the lady in the red gown. "Waniyu," she said and smiled. Waniyu's mother clutched her daughter's hand tightly when she heard her joyful tone. "What a wonderful name, dear Waniyu. My name is Namila." Waniyu did not pay attention as she turned to look at her mother as soon as she had squeezed her hand tightly. Waniyu's mother was dressed in a faded, stained white shirt and brown long skirt and brown boots. The shirt looked more brown than white and her skirt and boots had patches of white. Waniyu, of course, did not see these things. Her eyes looked only at her mother's beautiful face. Then she looked at her father who stood behind them. He was dressed in a similarly worn white shirt and brown trousers and wore worn brown boots too. "Mother! Father! Why are you people crying? You said this was a picnic, right? Here we are. Look at this big house! I have never seen such a big house." Her eyes roved, taking in her surroundings. She jumped up and down and grabbed her father's hands too and pulled her parents together. "See, you said they would give us nice food and we could have our fill and play and then go back to our hut. It is so nice here. Why are you people crying? Ma? Pa?" "Do you really mean to take her away?" Waniyu's mother asked Namila. Namila did not say anything. She smiled and nodded. Waniyu's father hugged his wife, tears still moistening his face. He then cuddled Waniyu and hugged her repeatedly. Waniyu's mother joined in. They were too overcome with emotion to speak. Waniyu's mother showered her with kisses and let go. "What is happening? Why are you crying?" She hugged her parents tightly now, not letting go. She sensed something was very wrong. Namila held Waniyu's arm and gave a gentle tug. "Come dear, it is time to eat the nice food you were looking forward to eat. And then you can play all you like." "I don't want to play, I don't want to eat. I want my parents. Leave me. Why are you pulling me? Let me go." Waniyu started crying too. A weal had formed where Namila had held her arm. Waniyu's mother sobbed uncontrollably now. "Can we come see her once in a while?" Waniyu's father spoke for the first time that evening. Namila smiled again and said, "You know you cannot." "Please take good care of her. She is such a gentle, small child. Her cycles haven't begun yet, she is so young. Please take good care of her," the mother said. "How I wish she never had these gifts! How I wish you people had never found out!" the father said. "You know her gifts cannot be hidden for long. Besides, you know we will take better care of her than you could ever have. Trust us, she is in safe hands," Namila said. "Goodbye, dear Waniyu, know that we love you forever. They say we cannot come see you but I hope you will come see us when you can!" "Ma, I am not going anywhere," she said, holding on as tightly as she could. Her father then separated mother from daughter and handed her over to Namila. Tears of sorrow flowed from his nose and eyes. He trembled as he left Waniyu's hands. "We love you, Waniyu," he said.
Many hours later that day, when her relentless crying had reduced to sniffles and when hunger was too painful to ignore any more, Waniyu asked Namila for food. She did not say she wanted food. She brought her palm over her stomach and then put her fingers together to form a prism and brought those fingers close to her mouth. Namila brought her food in a plate, smiled and said, "Come with me, I will show you something." Namila then led Waniyu up a winding spiral staircase and ushered her into a large room with a wide balcony. Two cushioned chairs sat in the balcony and Namila asked Waniyu to sit in one of them. Waniyu hesitantly sat and felt herself sink into the soft cushions. Namila then placed the plate full of food into her lap and asked her to eat. Waniyu seemed to have momentarily forgotten about her hunger pangs for all she could do was look at the scene in front of her without blinking her eyes. A large, lone white moon shone on her right side and illuminated the landscape as far as her eyes could see. Right in front of her was a field of grass and further away, she saw snow capped mountains. Between the mountains and the grass field, she saw several small buildings interspersed between huge trees. A gentle wind caressed her soft, wet cheeks and brought her back to the balcony. "Do you live alone in this big house?" she asked. "No, I now have you for company, my dear. No really, there are lots of other girls here and some more women who will be your friends. You can meet them tomorrow. "And, this is not a house, Waniyu, it is called a castle. Please eat, dear, I know you are hungry." Waniyu tried a handful of the coloured cooked rice from her plate. She felt the rice melt in her mouth and the taste was alien to her, she felt a mixture of sweetness and sourness, like tamarind but not exactly it. She ate quickly after that, never smiling, never really feeling happy. She was just relieved to be rid of her hunger. "Why have you trapped me here? Why did you tell my parents they cannot come see me? I do not like it here," she said. Namila sighed, took the plate from her and hugged her. She said, "You are not trapped here, dear girl. You have a very special gift. You are a very important person, you have an important part to play in the affairs of the worlds. We will help you hone your ability so that you can make better use of it." "Who said I want to use my gift and that I want to horn it? I just want to go back to my parents. I don't want to play any role in anything else," Waniyu said, looking forlorn and angry now. A cloud covered the bright full moon and cast a shadow on them. The landscape darkened too and Waniyu thought it felt eerie now. The wind turned cold too and started to howl a little. "Time to sleep, Waniyu," Namila said.
Aacek’s mouth hung open. Did I just read Lady Waniyu’s beginning? I feel so sad for her.
Realm Time remaining: 1:00
And it started counting down.
Just in time. I must tell Amuna all about Lady Waniyu.
Just as he thought this, he saw the door open. A lady, dressed in leathers, walked in. As she came closer, he saw her name and level: Amuna, lvl 1.