Alice moved the light ball down the stairs, dimly lighting the pitch black darkness below.

"Let's go!"

She descends down the stone stairs post-haste, eager to explore. Chase treads behind her reluctantly while his eyes dart around nervously. The stairs are surrounded by rugged and weary stone walls that had been beaten by the elements, much like the walls of a cave. Cold air brush past them towards the opening of the trapdoor, as if freed from its long years of imprisonment.

'This.. basement must've been constructed before the house was built' Chase deduced by observing the rough stone steps which had been chiseled in ineptly, unlike the house above which had been built with deft hands.

Their footsteps produce echoes which resounded on the walls and were reflected from down below, giving tattletale signs regarding the extreme depth of the basement. It had been quite a while and they had yet to clear the stairs.

"A-alice, is the basement still far below?" Chase asked worriedly, the thought of being trapped down here made him shudder.

"Hmm? Oh, no, not really far below... but we would need to walk a fair distance after we finish the stairs to reach my uncle's research room"

"R-research room? What does your u-uncle do anyway?" Chase's interest perked up at the mention of research.

"He was a travelling historian, he goes around the world searching for historical artifacts and such" Alice explained.

"W-what happened to him?" Chase asked deliberately, avoiding the mention of death.

"You mean how he died?" Alice replied nonchalantly.

"It was not like he was murdered or anything, really. He always had a weak constitution and one day he just died from a heart attack" Chase could not see Alice's expression clearly due to the dim lighting.

They had finally reached the bottom of the stairs and are currently in some sort of stone hallway. Chase paused and looked around. The hallway stretches on for an unfathomable distance ahead. Some stalactites and stalagmites cover parts of the ceiling and floor. Chase senses something ominous about the hallway but dismisses it as his imagination going wild.

"Come on! We're almost there!" Alice beckoned in front, her ball of light floating overhead.

Chase took long, composed strides to hide his fear. They resumed their walk.

"So is the r-research room the place he stores h-his findings?"

"Yes, and some of his notes are kept there as well. You should just see for yourself, it's brilliant, I promise" Alice said with her head turned over her shoulders, showing her beaming face.

Chase kept silent and soldiers on behind Alice. His eyes starts to shimmer with a silver colour as he silently channels his mana in preparation for any emergency situations such as a cave-in, for example. A mix of intrigue and fear wells up in Chase. Five minutes later, both of them stopped in front of a solid wall. The wall is circular in shape, it completely blocks the path ahead. Upon closer inspection, a gold nameplate had been attached to the surface of the wall. It reads out 'Godric Cloud, Seeker of the Unknown'. Noticing Chase who is eyeing the nameplate, Alice spoke.

"You can't take off the nameplate and sell it, okay?"

"W-what? No! I'm just reading t-this part here... Seeker of the Unknown, w-what does it mean?" Chase hastily corrected the misunderstanding.

"Oh, that's just what he likes to call himself! He's just a regular old historian"

Alice had turned her attention to the door. She is tracing the surface of the wall with her palms, as if searching for something.

"Now where was it?" She mutters under her breath.

"Aha!" She suddenly yelled upon finding what she's looking for.

A hard to discern rectangular stone panel rests under Alice's palm. Alice pushes the stone panel and it slowly sinks backwards into the wall with a grating sound, leaving a square hole in its place. The wall trembles slightly and gives off a rumbling sound. It begins to rotate and roll into a large indentation on the wall beside it before stopping.

*Ker-Chang!* A metallic noise is created by something, as the circular block of stone is locked in its place.

'So it was a door, huh? Neat!'

Alice floated her light ball upwards and forwards beyond where the door stood blocking the path a moment ago. She increased the intensity to light up the whole area, revealing what's in front of them. Beyond the door is a huge circular room, the ceiling shaped like a dome. The walls,floors and ceilings are smooth and covered with tiles of varying designs, unlike the previous roughly hewn walls along the flight of stairs and hallway. Tall, wooden bookshelves line up both sides of the room. Books upon books are arranged on each row. The number of books available would rival a small-sized library.

Most noticeable of all are the huge skeletons of unknown creatures surrounding the center of the room which seems like it had been manually put together piece-by-piece. There were skeletons of various types, ranging from small goblin-like creatures with one eye socket up to a towering lizard-like creature standing on its hind legs. Right in the middle of a room is a gilded table with some objects on it, along with a large number of boxes piled up beside it.

"Woaaah" Chase could not help himself as he looked around, dazed by the surreal sight.

Alice is staring at Chase with her lips pursed in a knowing smile. She too, had displayed the same reaction in front of her uncle on her first visit several years ago.

"Go ahead and look around if you want to" Alice told the still gaping Chase.

"Eh? O-okay, I'll look over the bookshelves to the right t-then" Chase responded and hurried towards the bookshelves, disappearing out of Alice's sight.

Alice slowly strolls around the room while taking a trip down memory lane and reminiscing about her uncle. Her uncle had been a peculiar man, always absorbed with his research. On the rare occasion that he speaks, it had always been about some ancient artifact he had uncovered. But Alice liked her uncle, mainly because her uncle had never forgotten her birthday and had always come by to visit her whereas her parents did not. Her uncle would gift her with some bizarre trinket he dug out at some place or another, telling her of how significant it is and how great care should be taken. Alice still keeps them in her room as a memento.

Chase is currently sifting his eyes across the books arranged on the bookshelves.

'History of the Great Holy Empire of Bosco, The Infallible Gates of the North, The Three Wonders of Armus...... are there no interesting books around?'

It is not that Chase did not find the books to be interesting. To him, all the books here are interesting. This whole research room of Godric's is like a treasure trove for him. However, he is currently trying to search for a book which stands out to read back at home. After scanning the rows upon rows of books, one of them finally caught his eye. A moderately thick red leather-bound book entitled 'The Demon King's Downfall'. It was shelved too high up for Chase, so he used Wind magic to gently take the book out and grabbed it with his outstretched hands.

Chase brushed off a thick layer of dust which had accumulated on the book, revealing a picture on the front cover. The picture depicted a winged shadowy man pierced by a shining golden sword by another man, presumably the hero. Chase flipped open the book and quickly shifted through the pages, seeing the contents.

'Wow, it even has illustrations!'

Chase smiled, he is satisfied with his discovery. The book would make a good bedtime reading material for him later on.

'I should probably head back to Alice now.... can't keep a girl waiting for too long'

Chase walks back to the center of the room with the book tucked under one of his arms. He sees Alice pacing around the middle of the room, staring at the skeletons. Chase hastily rushed over.

"Alice, I'm d-done" He says to Alice who had her back turned.

"Eh? Oh, you got yourself a book! Let me see it" Alice held out her hands.

Chase gingerly placed the book on her hand. Alice pulled it closer to her and inspected it.

"The Demon King's Downfall, huh? Looks interesting, tell me about it after you're done reading" she says as she hands it back.

"W-what? Wouldn't you prefer to r-read it yourself?"

"No, I'm not an avid reader you see.... these sort of thick books would put me to sleep after a couple of pages" Alice blushed while explaining her reason.

'The book's not really that thick.... oh well, it depends on the person I guess'

Chase looks at the gilded table near them which he saw earlier. Now that he's this close he could see the objects on the table more clearly. There seems to be a narrow black box on the table, with a stack of notes next to it. Underneath the box and the notes is a spread out map of Armus.

"H-hey, let's take a look at what's on t-the table" Chase said while his feet had already begun to carry him closer towards the table.

"Oh, that's his reading table.. those are probably the last stuff he was researching about before he died" Alice followed behind Chase.

Chase arrived at the table and touched the black box. His fingers caressed the box and finds a small hinge on it. He pulled the hinge outwards and the box opens, revealing its contents. Inside it are a shiny thin rectangular case of some kind, a card with a person's image and some writings on it and also a thin stack of small rectangular papers with something drawn on the surfaces.

Chase took out the items inside one-by-one and eyed them curiously, Alice did the same. She shifted her gaze after a moment towards the stack of notes on the table.

"Hey! Maybe these notes explain about what they are!"

Chase gently touches the notes, taking care not to damage them. Old paper is very frail, after all. To his surprise, the paper was not as old as he thought. It is still in pretty good condition. He begins to read aloud the neat handwriting on the notes.

"Year 315, Inanis Calendar"

"I had found some interesting items buried under the ground on the outskirts of Menfang"

'Menfang? If I'm not mistaken that's the capital of Hwalren, The Infallible Gates up in the northern continent'

Chase continues to read.

"The first item is a rusted thin rectangular case, with a cracked glass on one side"

Chase picked the corresponding object and turned it around, there is a cracked glass panel covering the casing. He did not realise it before, but on the other side of the rectangular case is a silver emblem in the shape of a bitten apple. No rust could be seen on the case. Chase looked back at the notes while Alice listens attentively.

"The second item is a leather pouch of some kind with plenty of pockets in it. The pouch was already worn out and it crumbled away at the slightest touch, so I extracted the contents. Inside it was a card made out of some unknown material, it was somewhat like hard paper but a little bit flexible with a smooth texture. There is an extremely detailed drawing of a person's face on a small square section of the card and some foreign sentences written on the side"

Chase briefly glances at the card and shifted his vision back towards the notes he is currently holding.

"In the largest pocket of the pouch, I found some small rectangular parchments of identical size. The parchments had drawings of people on the center, albeit different ones from the card. There are some writings as well on them, most probably the same language judging from the shapes of the characters. The face of the same man is drawn on parchments of identical colour, the writings were almost identical as well with a minor variation"

"Taking care not to damage them, I store them inside my custom-made airtight box in order to preserve them. I shall further inspect them once I get back to my research room"

"Year 318, Inanis Calendar"

"I arrived home only to find out that my cousin had conceived a child. I am delighted to have a niece, I am very proud that the name I suggested, 'Alice', was used. I can't wait to share my discoveries with her"

Chase looked up at Alice, apparently Alice is one year older than he is. Alice is cupping her mouth, her eyes red and watery. Chase hurriedly looked back at the notes and continued reading.

"The items I found on the outskirts of Menfang were the most mind-boggling of all the artifacts I had discovered. I compared the writings with all of my documents and I could not find a single match as to where the objects originate from. I did, however, deduced that the card is probably some kind of item used for identification and the parchments could be a form of currency"

"If so, whichever civilisation this came from must had been more advanced than ours. To replace gold and silver with paper currency is just ingenious! My theory is further supported upon further inspection of the first object, the rectangular case. I had managed to remove the rust over it, but the glass does not seem to be normal glass so I chose to leave it alone"

"The silver emblem of the bitten apple resembles no house or kingdom I know of. I found a way to open the case and carefully opened it"

"I was puzzled further by the contents residing within it. There was a rectangular cartridge of some kind inside which was detachable, and there were some thin, small wooden panels with bits of metal stuck in them. I decide that I do not have the knowledge to decipher this and made a mental note to visit my old friend, the genius Samrin in the capital"

'Samrin, isn't that the guy who invented the Glyphstone of Life?'

"Year 319, Inanis Calendar"

"It took a long time since the last entry, Samrin was too preoccupied with some new invention of his inside his lab. Knowing Samrin, he would never leave his lab until he is finished with his project. I only got to meet him last month, he was in a foul mood and told me he failed. It was a shocking revelation, Samrin never fails... this invention of his must be groundbreaking. Well, so are the objects I brought along for inspection"

"This is much, much more complicated than my wildest expectations. Samrin was shocked as well when he examined the rectangular case. He said it is a product of a technology which is too far ahead of what we currently have at the moment. He said the glass is supposed to be able to show images on it and the pictures drawn on the card was not drawn but in fact the direct image of the person himself imprinted on it. I must find out where these originate from as soon as possible!"

"Year 323, Inanis Calendar"

"I traveled back to Hwalren a couple of years ago and scoured the northern continent for further clues, but to no avail. It had been harder to move around recently, I run out of breath much faster than usual. I expanded my search to the whole of Armus and by sheer luck I found an object of significance being sold off as an unique trinket in the Great Empire of Bosco's port city. It was a watch, unlike a regular pocket watch, this is supposed to be worn on the wrist. It could be just a bizarre watch invented by someone, but the writings on the surface of the watch used to indicate the time says otherwise. "

"Year 324, Inanis Calendar"

"I returned home, and continued my research. I managed to scale down the area of any further objects or clues to a small region in Bosco, around one of the Three Wonders of Armus... the dreaded Earthscraper. I must hurry, my condition is getting worse and I'm afraid that I would never unravel this mystery in time"

The map on the table had a lot of lines drawn on it, with a big circle marking the location of the Earthscraper.

That was the last entry on the notes. Chase stopped reading and replaced the notes on the table. He replaced the objects back into its custom-made casing with great care, now knowing that they had been very important items to a person.

"Year 324.... five years ago, that's the year that he died" Alice uttered the words with a shaky voice.

"He...he...n-never g-got to s-solve the mystery in the e-"

Alice did not finish the sentence as she burst out in tears and slumped on the floor. Chase was alarmed and immediately approached her, lending his shoulder to cry on.

"W-why?"

"Whyyyyyy? Why couldn't he live longerr?"

" Is it to-too *sniff* much to ask f-for?!" Alice wails raggedly in-between sobs.

Chase did not say anything and just continued to softly pat her back, experience had taught him to be silent during such situations. She continues to sob onto Chase's shoulder, her words barely intelligible.

Alice quieted down after a while, her tears drying up leaving a pair of red eyes. She sniffled a little bit and stood up.

With one last glance at the gilded table, they immediately exited the room leaving Godric's memories behind. The only item that was brought out is the red leather-bound book held by Chase. Alice pressed another stone panel hidden on the walls, producing another metallic clang as the circular stone door is freed. The stone door rotated and rolled back with a rumbling sound as it returned to its previous position, blocking off the research room. They walked back through the dank hallways and up the stone stairs in silence.

Once they got back into the room above ground, Chase put the book he was holding onto the floor and stared at Alice. Alice's face was gloomy, an expression which had never appeared on her countenance. It was already evening, and the skies would darken soon.

"H-hey, Alice... I'll walk you back home" Chase offered, worried about Alice in her current state.

Alice nodded noiselessly in reply.

They travelled to Gillian's house without any incidence along the way, much to Chase's relief. She remained taciturn for the entire journey.

Alice turns to face Chase and mutters a goodbye. She starts to walk towards the door.

"W-wait!" Chase yelled and Alice stopped her movement.

Chase takes a deep breath and begins to say some words he had carefully prepared along their journey to Gillian's house.

"Alice, I don't know how you feel..."

"I don't have anyone but my father.. "

"but there's something that I could tell for sure from reading all his notes" Chase did not stammer, even the slightest bit. He could not afford to ruin this.

"Godric Cloud did not regret a single thing, up until the end, and he would not want his beloved niece to mourn over him"

A brief moment of silence ensues between them.

"-pid" Alice mutters softly with her back still turned towards Chase.

"Huh?" Chase is scared, perhaps his attempt of consoling her had backfired.

"Stupid!" Alice turns around and yelled at Chase. Her face red from anger or embarrassment, Chase couldn't tell.

"Who said I was mourning over him?!" Alice runs over to Chase with her hand held high ready to slap. Chase closed his eyes and cringed away from the incoming impact. Instead of stinging pain, a soft wet sensation is felt on his cheeks. He opened his eyes and see Alice's face up close kissing him. Alice broke off from the kiss and smiled radiantly with her hands tucked behind her back, none of the gloom earlier lingering on her visage.

"Thank you" she mouthed off while still beaming. She turns around and walked into the house. While the door is still open, she adds on.

"Oh, and you weren't stuttering for once!" She says and playfully stuck out her tongue. The door slams shut after that, the sounds of her tinkling laughter carried out through the gaps in the door. Chase stood there in front of Gillian's house, dumbfounded. He is still touching the spot where Alice had kissed him with one of his palms. He returned home empty-minded.

Aaron was frustrated seeing Chase in a worse state than the previous day during dinner. He tried to make Chase spill out what his problem was but Chase only grinned contently in response. Chase did not remember what happens next but it was something about Aaron saying something about how the house had mysteriously gotten so clean and he would call an exorcist over tomorrow.

Chase is lying down on his back, the wonderful event of the day still replaying itself in his mind though only the part where he got kissed by Alice.

'Thank you, Godric'

'Wait, Godric? Oh yeah! The book!'

Chase got up and ran over to the adjacent bedroom to pick up the book he left. Relieved to see the book still there, Chase took it back to his room and began to read it while sitting on his bed.

-------------------------

A year passed by in the blink of an eye, Chase had frequently visited Godric's research room or Godric's Hollow as he had chosen to name it to retrieve some books back for reading. Aaron had been informed about the place and he was absolutely fascinated with the place, he fawned over the giant lizard skeleton while letting out 'ooh's and 'aah's. Chase had gotten closer to Alice since then, his stammering habit had receded completely. Close-Combat classes had progressed smoothly with Chase mastering the basics of three more weapons, the increased sense of trust between him and Alice had removed his hesitation in going all out during their matches.

Gillian had no more to teach after Chase reached Advanced level in all the elements, though he did draw more magic circles in the training room as per Chase's request. Chase continued to experiment by trying different combinations creating new compound magic one after another and reached Master-level on his own. His mana capacity had grown tremendously, Gillian had to call Alice to help him out with channeling mana into the magic circles because he does not have the capacity to outlast Chase on his own.

It is now the Year 330, Inanis Calendar. The coming of a new decade heralds another Exploration, hordes of adventurers and merchants flood the streets of Thanes on their way to the capital city of Emond.

None of them knew or noticed a great evil stirring far to the west across the seas, underneath the Great Holy Empire of Bosco.

Chase Blackstone, current skills and abilities:

NAMEChase BlackstoneTITLEChampion of BalanceSkill ProficiencyClose-CombatMagic

Sword : Basic

Dagger : Basic

Spear : Basic

Mace : Basic

Fire : Master

Water : Master

Earth : Master

Wind : Master

Light : Advanced

Abilities

Iron Will

Quick Mind

Paramount Mana Manipulation

Quick Reflexes

Ambidextrous

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That's it for the moment! I shall return, with more chapters!!! SOON (which means AT LEAST another 10 days or so) [th_0suit.gif]

P.S. :

Please point out any bad writing quirks of mine, like my exclamation fest in chapter 7 (which Sanairb had kindly informed me of), I would appreciate it very much and would try to avoid repeating the same thing.

P.P.S. :

To Elijah808, thank you for the review. I knew there was something missing after rereading my story, I just could not put my finger on it. The personalities of my characters are... actually unplanned. I just create a bunch of names, and a rough description of their appearances in my plot draft... then the character just somehow comes to life on its own as I get into the mood to write. Yeah, I should probably accumulate a few chapters first before releasing.. just to get a deeper feel for the characters. Thanks for the suggestion! :GG:

The Hidden TrapdoorArmusThe Main Villain's appearance, finally

For The Curious Mind

So I have added another button there, it links to the 'Info and Questions' thread. If you have anything you are unsure of regarding the story, you may refer there or ask me questions in it (no questions about future plot). This button shall be accompanying you for every chapter starting from this.