Zach opened his eyes sleepily.

‘Jeez,’ he thought. ‘Do I even dream anymore? It’s like I close my eyes for only a moment and I wake up in a different place wearing different clothes.’

He threw off the blanket and hopped to his feet. Morning light streamed through the wooden shutters of Lydia’s apartment-like place.

He summoned a lengthy to-do-list from his inventory, a notebook containing his highlights from the game wiki, which appeared in a shimmer of light.

After making sure he was alone, Zach skimmed over the list as he reaffirmed his schedule. Then he walked out of the room and knocked several times on Lydia’s door.

“Mhm, what?” a groggy face said when she opened the door.

“Lydia, I’m ready to start my apprenticeship!”

Lydia blinked twice and closed the door in his face.

About an hour later, all three of them were gathered around the table eating a light breakfast.

It turns out, Lydia was a night-owl who liked to sleep in.

“Zach, tell your friend that he needs to learn some Jumaitish as soon as possible. There's no way I can feed the three of us with my wages alone, and he isn’t going to be able to get a job unless he can talk to his employer.”

Zach translated.

“I’d love to,” Elmarud responded. “But it’s going to be slow going. For now, I’ll have to rely on Zach to communicate for me.”

“That’s fine,” Lydia insisted. “But we need to find a way to make some extra income.”

“I have an idea about that,” Zach offered. Equipped with his game knowledge, he knew all kinds of ways to earn money. “He can accept quests at the Hunter’s Guild. Those pay a lot of money.”

“Sure. But it’s incredibly dangerous to take on those kinds of missions. You fight monsters for money. Only thrill seekers, people without many options, and the extremely hardened go into that line of work. The death rate is-”

Elmarud scratched his chin while nodding sagely. “Well, I guess I fall under all three of those categories.”

“You were a dungeon boss,” Zach agreed. “So you could probably handle yourself no problem. And it's something I was planning on doing too.”

“After spending so long surrounded by wolves, I’d love to get a change of scenery,” he shrugged. “I’ll admit that my violent past makes me a perfect candidate. Plus, you are my savior. If you are hunting, then I will too.”

“Hey!” Lydia slammed her fist on the table. “Are you guys even listening to me?!”

Elmarud and Zach shot a knowing look toward each other.

“We would both like to become Hunters!” Zach said conclusively.

“What?! You guys didn’t listen at all!”

“Think about it, Lydia. We talked about this yesterday, too. I would pick up a side job in addition to our apprenticeship. Then I would study with you in the mornings, and work in the afternoons. How is this any different from what we were already planning?”

“But monster hunting?”

“I know it may seem crazy, but Elmarud and I are strong. We can take care of ourselves.”

Elmarud nodded reassuringly.

Lydia trembled with rage and worry.

“Fine,” she said at last, already knowing how stubborn Zach was. However, there was a glint in her eye. “First let’s test how strong you guys are. Come with me, outside the city, and let’s have a duel. Both of you versus me.”

Zach took a moment to translate her shocking words to Elmarud, whose eyes lit up in surprise and delight. His unintentionally vicious smile appeared, briefly sending shivers down Lydia’s spine.

"If you win," she said, "you can become hunters. But if you lose, you'll look for a different line of work."

“This one has... spunk. Doesn’t she?” Elmarud looked at Zach. “What do you say? She’s confident enough to take both of us. Should we make sure she’s worthy to be your master?”

Zach turned to Lydia. “We accept.”

…

Lydia walked out into the middle of the grass field and unfastened the cloak hanging around her neck. Setting it on the ground, she tightened the string holding her hair up.

She didn’t have her magic staff. Such a thing was only used for when she was practicing magic. Here, she wouldn’t be erasing her spells.

The only things that would aid her were two flaggons of water hanging at her waist and two additional flaggons of some brown liquid strapped to her thighs like gun holsters.

“What are those for?” Zach asked once he realized she was going to use them for magic.

“My apprentice, there is much you need to learn if you don’t know about this,” Lydia clicked her tongue. “All the more reason why I can’t risk you venturing into the dungeon to hunt monsters.”

Zach somewhat stubbornly insisted, “I can handle it, especially with Elmarud there. So tell us the rules.”

Lydia dipped one of her fingers in the water flagon and quickly drew a spell with green mana. When the spell was cast, a green mist washed over their feet and settled into a ring of soil around them, marking the edge of the battlefield. The grass along that edge suddenly sunk into the ground as a depression of a line appeared. It was a circle large enough to fit a baseball diamond inside.

“The goal is to knock your opponent out of the ring without causing unnecessary injury,” she said. “Since it’s the two of you versus me, I made the ring especially large, so you guys can run around a little.”

Elmarud grinned. “Zach, allow me to distract her. I’ll catch her off-guard with my charge attack.”

“Okay. Then I’ll have to use water and air magic. I don’t want to hurt her with my throwing ability or my daggers or my fire magic.”

“Are you boys ready?” Lydia smiled confidently.

Zach raised a curious eyebrow, but nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then let’s begin!”

One of Lydia’s hands shot forward and drew a perfect square in front of her. Then inside it she started drawing. The speed of her movement was incredible!

The unceremonious start caught the boys off guard, but there was no time to complain. Zach used blue mana to draw his own circle at a painfully slow speed. It was like comparing an amature gun-slinger to a professional one. Fortunately for him, he wasn’t alone.

Elmarud was only a second late because of the language barrier. His body glimmered with an orange light, making Lydia doubt her eyes, before shooting off at a high speed in her direction.

By then, she had completed her ward, a defensive spell with a resplendent design. It was a polar rose, a function of sine or cosine drawn in the polar-coordinate system rather than the cartesian one. The circle collapsed for a brief moment before expanding out like a wall, forming a barrier of green light.

An earthy scent tickled Elmarud’s nose. He slammed into it and was rebounded off, the strength of Lydia’s barrier being able to withstand his hit! He let out a frustrated howl and started pounding at it with his fists, circling around to find weaknesses.

Lydia didn’t even blink. She tilted her head and a second spell circle, an offensive one, swiveled around in front of her, seemingly out of nowhere!

‘Where did that come from?!’ both Elmarud and Zach thought at the same time.

Lydia smirked, reading their shocked expressions. ‘Two hands are the bare minimum requirement of a real mage.’

Ba-boom!

Elmarud went flying away, landing a hair’s breadth away from the ring, almost being disqualified as soon as the battle started.

Lydia’s eyes shifted back to Zach. Noticing he was about to complete his spell, she shot a few red dot manifestations which flew over and punched a couple holes in his function.

Although it was more energy efficient for her to stick with the ground element, manifestations could only disrupt opposing elements. Air and ground would oppose. Fire and water would oppose. So, in her opinion it was worth it.

Zach grimaced and spread his fingers. The spell circle activated successfully, but it’s power was severely weakened.

This was the level of experience he had not reached yet. In the same amount of time Lydia had drawn and cast two spells, Zach had barely been able to complete one.

But he still had a few more tricks.

*ping

[Save the last spell for quick casting? You can only save one spell at a time. y/n]

‘Yes,’ he thought.

The previous spell reached Lydia and burst into a shower of water, pushing her back slightly.

“Hey. We haven’t gone over absolute value spells yet,” Lydia said while drawing new spells at a rapid pace. It was as if her hands had a mind of their own. “When did you have time to learn that-”

[Quick Cast]

Lydia’s eyes widened as an identical spell circle appeared in front of Zach, holes and everything.

An identical water spell exploded in front of her as she was pushed back a little more.

Now it was Lydia’s turn to be shocked. ‘How did he-’

[Quick Cast]

[Quick Cast]

But there was no time to think.

She flung a circle she had just completed in front of her and spread her fingers. This one was also defensive, but unlike the first spell, this one had a spiral shape drawn on the inside.

A small barrier with a flat surface appeared. Zach’s water spells exploded against it. The disk-like barrier brightened before a stream of energy went back into Lydia.

‘It absorbed my spell?’ Zach wondered with a mixture of fear and awe.

She smirked. “Thanks, I needed some mana to block your friend’s next attack.”

Elmarud was back in the fight!

Then he smashed into another one of Lydia’s barriers.

‘How can she draw so fast?’ Zach wondered.

He used his [Quick Cast] skill a few more times, but he figured if he spammed more Lydia was just going to absorb the mana as her own, which meant he would run out of energy before she did.

‘In that case, I’ll switch to melee with Elmarud!’

He charged while shooting air manifestations in his attempt to disrupt her spell casting.

‘If we can get inside her barriers, this fight will end.’

“That’s a good idea,” Lydia said, “but I think we are done here.” She dipped both of her fingers into the flaggons of water at her hips, then pointed them. A confident smile appeared on her face. “Quick cast!” she said with finality.

Green light flew out of her fingers and automatically drew a very basic spell circle, one she was intimately familiar with from years of practice, so familiar that she could draw it in her sleep. It was a simple circle with a single line across its diameter, a linear spell!

Boom! Boom!

Two clumps of dirt struck their chests and sent Elmarud and Zach flying out of the ring.

Zach grumbled and sat up with a look of dismay on his face.

Elmarud lept back to his feet eagerly, ready to jump back into the fight, but upon seeing he was outside of the ring, he sat down again.

“I hope I didn’t break anything.” Lydia asked when she walked over.

Zach felt his chest where he got hit, but of course he didn’t feel anything. His health points were a different story though.

[Health: 106 / 190]

Thankfully though, it was slowly going back up.

“I broke a few ribs,” Elmarud admitted. “But I already healed them.”

Zach nodded. “We’re fine, Lydia. But you… how are you so good?” Zach asked with shining eyes.

To appreciate what Lydia was doing, one must first understand how hard it is to do two different things with both hands.

Try drawing a circle with your left hand. Then try drawing a square with your right. It’s pretty easy to do them separately until you try doing both at the same time. It might take a few days of practice to stop making choppy circles or rounded squares.

But if you were Lydia, you would have to draw circles and squares with math functions inside of them while tailoring them to the situation of the battlefield and watching your enemy’s movements. Lydia could even tell what kind of spell Zach was drawing and what element he was using to draw it with, that way she could choose the correct element to counter it with. It was not the kind of skill you could hone in mere days.

“Practice, practice, practice,” Lydia smirked. “I told you already, you’ll need to get good at dual casting too. As of right now, you are too slow. If Elmarud hadn’t been there with you, I would have crushed you much sooner.

“However, I would love to know how you can already quick-cast spells, especially ones with... holes... in them.”

Zach hummed thoughtfully. Fortunately, he already concocted an excuse the day before, when he was doing research.

“I don’t know!” he waved his hands around mysteriously. “I figured out I can quick-cast the spell I drew last. Pretty convenient, don’t you think?”

Lydia massaged her forehead. “I hope you understand how hard it is for ordinary mages to do that. You could be called a genius. Just don’t let it make you arrogant. Other genius apprentices started years ago, so you have a major disadvantage when it comes to experience.”

She picked up her cloak and refastened it around her neck. Then she sealed the flagons at her waist and thighs.

“So,” Zach asked curiously, “what are those for?”

She waved a hand dismissively. “Clean water and dirty water for weakening my spells. I’ll tell you about it later. For now, translate for me.” She turned to Elmarud. “You… was that chakra you were using to reinforce your body?”

“Chakra? No. That was mana.”

“That’s not how mana is supposed to be used. The force of will needed to control it without ravaging your body alone is inhuman-” She stopped herself. “Wait. Nevermind.” She sighed.

“Ever since I became a werewolf I could control the mana in my body in new ways,” he said. “To reinforce, to heal, to fight infection.”

“That’s perfectly fine. I just mistook it for a cultivator’s aura. That’s all,” Lydia said. “Just don’t do that in front of other people until you have enough language skills to explain yourself, otherwise they might blame you for attracting undead.”

Elmarud nodded.

“Now that that’s settled,” Lydia continued. “Let’s head back to the city. We have paperwork to do.”

…

They walked back to the city, stopping at the Mage's Association.

Zach took a quick literacy test and was approved right away. The administrator handed him a temporary certificate and told him he could get a badge when he graduated from being an apprentice.

Walking out of the building, Zach turned to Lydia.

"Next can we stop at the church?" he asked. "There's a book I need to read."

"A book? Could you be talking about the Histowire?"

"Yep."

"How do you know about that? I mean, sure. Everyone knows about the holy book, but you are from a different country and barely know about magic."

Zach inhaled.

There was already a path set out for him by the main quest from the game. If he could fill that role, he would be unquestioned in the future. If he wanted to take the pages of the holy book held by other towns and powerful people, this was the only way. He needed to play the game.

"Would you believe me if I told you it summoned me?" he asked.

Lydia's gaze sharpened. "The Histowire summoned you?"

He nodded. "I didn't know about it yesterday. No one told me what it was, but the information appeared in my dream last night. I need to read it."

Her gaze turned skeptical. "Don't say such things about the holy book lightly. If you are making things up, you're in for a scolding."

Zach nodded seriously.

From what he understood of Vera's lore, the Histowire was a holy book that very few people could read, even among the priests. It wasn't that it was written in a different language, it was the words themselves that changed from person to person. Anyone had a chance to understand it. That's why access to its separate pages was open to the public. Anyone who could read it were revered, usually because of how precious the information was.

"Let's go," Lydia said. "I have work for the Association in the evenings."

They made their way to the church.

"Welcome to the Buforas Church, esteemed guests," a man in white clothes greeted respectfully. "What can I help you with?"

"I've come to see the Histowire," Zach responded.

The priest nodded. "Please follow me."

They were led into a separate room where there was a short line of people waiting their turn to flip through a book.

For the most part, they didn't say anything as they flipped through the pages, their faces unenlightened. "I didn't glimpse anything," they would say before leaving the room.

A bored looking man with a quill and parchment sat at a desk nearby. "Next," he would say. "Remember, if you glimpse anything, please read it out loud to me."

The man's parchment continued to be blank. The line got shorter as people walked away with disappointed, yet calm, expressions, as if this usually happened.

"Next," the writer yawned.

Zach nodded and stepped up to the book. It didn't have a cover.

[Histowire (Admin Terminal), Rarity U. Access: Member]

- {Attributes: indestructible}

Zach's eyes widened. "Indestructible?" he whispered. It was just like his game console.

The writer perked up. 'Someone finally said something? Wait… he didn't even open it yet!'

"Hey," he said, somewhat angrily. "Don't waste my time and ink. If you do not glimpse anything, do not say anything."

Zach frowned. "Ah. But, sir. I see two lines of information. Histowire. Attribute: Indestructible," he raised a challenging eyebrow.

"Nonsense! Everyone knows the first page is blank. You must have made that up!" The man spat.

"Excuse me!" Lydia interrupted. "Is this how members of the church are supposed to behave? Your job is to write, not to question what people see."

He looked at Lydia with slight disgust. "I will write what people see, not what they make up. Send the next person! This one's wasting our time."

People waiting in line awkwardly looked between Zach and the writer.

"Why are you being so unreasonable? Let me look at the book first," Zach said as he flipped the page.

[Fast-travel unlocked]

"Oh," he exclaimed in surprise. "I just gained some kind of ability."

"Such lies," the irritating man accused. "You merely flipped the page. If you wanted to pretend you are a Messenger, you would at least go to the middle of the book where I was able to read from it!"

A few people in line started muttering amongst themselves while nodding their heads.

No one had time to translate for Elmarud, so he simply stayed silent. Lydia opened a water flagon.

Hearing the commotion, another priest entered the room.

"Brother Martin, what is going on? Why are you talking so loudly?"

"This boy is making things up. He is probably trying to get attention. We should throw him out to teach him a lesson."

Suddenly, a wind picked up and the Histowire moved on its own. The pages flipped quickly, automatically opening up to the 10th and 11th pages.

The people in line were shocked. The priest's eyes went wide. There was no instance of the Histowire moving on its own before, even for the high priests.

Zach took one look at the page and said, "I can read it."

The irritating man made a hilarious expression as the priest looked at him scornfully.

"Out of the way," the priest said before shoving the man away from the desk and picking up the quill.

"B-brother Abel, p-please wait!"

"Silence. Please read, good sir."

Zach nodded and began.

"Congratulations on finding a part of the Histowire. An ability has been bestowed on you.

"Fast-travel: allows you to return to any place you have visited before. Requires all of your mana to activate."

The people watching gasped. It was a rare occurrence for someone to read, and even when they did, the book had never given such a useful power.

"A hidden quest has been given to you, The Histowire's Dream. First find the Histowire's Sheath in the ruined town of Kosk and reunite it with the Histowire in Caeli."

The pages began flipping again until the book shut with a final snap!

The wind died down.

The priest who had taken the quill finished writing everything down with religious care.

"Messenger," the priest stood up and bowed, "I am Brother Abel. I apologize for the rude behavior displayed by my associate. He will be punished swiftly."

"No, Brother, please. Have mercy!"

"Enough. Go wait in the dining chambers and reflect on your actions." He turned back to Zach. "My apologies, Messenger."

Zach struggled not to make a smug expression. "That's okay, uh, Brother. I don't want any more trouble. Let’s just move on. Uh, Lydia, do you have a map? Where is Kosk?"

He briefly recalled Sir Deltris telling him to turn around and head to that place when they met the first time, but he didn't know exactly where it was.

"I can't believe you… the Histowire… wind," Lydia mumbled, then stood straight when she noticed she was the center of attention. "Ehem. Uh, I don't have a map, but I do know it's on the south side of the Stutter Forest near Fernsdale. I just wonder why the Histowire said it was a ruined city. As far as I know, Kosk has a decent population."

Zach gulped. He knew why.

His research of the quest revealed that Kosk was razed overnight, right after the princess' convoy left on their way to Fernsdale, before he even started playing.

It was destroyed so quickly, no one knew yet.

"Messenger, if I may," the priest offered, "we have a map you can use. It's the least I can do. The Histowire has specifically called upon you to find its Sheath. I have never heard of such a thing before."

"Sure," Zach agreed.

The people in line watched them with awe, that was just how revered a reader of the Histowire was. The book had even moved on its own accord! Excited ones left the church to tell everyone about when they had seen and heard.

Zach and Lydia left the room with the priest and found themselves in a room with shelves and shelves of scrolls, books, and letters.

"Here is our best map. Please take it," the priest pushed a scroll into Zach's hands.

He unrolled it.

Lydia pointed. "Here is Caeli. South of that is Fernsdale here. South of that is the Stutter Forest. And even further south is Kosk, right here."

"I see. I can probably use my new power to return to the Stutter Forest and make my way from there." Zach nodded.

He rolled up the scroll and held it out for the priest.

He held up his hand and shook his head. "It's yours now. If I may trouble you for a few minutes, can you meet our bishop?"

Zach had no reason to refuse, so he followed the man.

He placed the map in his backpack and transferred it to his inventory.

"You aren't planning on leaving right now, are you?" Lydia asked worriedly.

"I'll need to go as soon as possible," Zach explained. "This was a quest issued by the Histowire."

"I know, except you recently became my apprentice, we don't have time to travel back to Kosk."

"Why not? I have fast-travel now. I can travel huge distances if I wanted."

"So you know how it works all of a sudden? Can you bring me with you? Can you use it to escape from monsters? How often can you use it? How far can you travel?"

Zach was speechless, "I don't know."

Lydia frowned. Then she sighed.

"I'm sorry, Zach. You are just always so full of surprises. Let's talk about this later. We can run some tests. Right now is not the time."

The priest brought them to a room with a grand window of colored glass, hundreds of velvet chairs, and a pedestal. A man was speaking to a small crowd from behind the pedestal.

“Let me tell you about the blackberry bushes that grew at my childhood house, in our family’s garden,” the bishop said. “These two bushes grew on the same side of the house, received the same amount of sun and rainwater, grew in the same soil, and were cared for in equal amounts.

“The first bush grew tall and strong, with many leaves, and covering a large area… but it had very few flowers. The second bush was small, as if it was sick, yet it was covered with a multitude of flowers, promising a good harvest.

“When fall came around, the first bush barely produced one hundred berries that season. The second bush, the one that was weak, produced ten times that amount. So… which bush do you think my father decided to cut down that winter?” he asked.

“The one without fruit,” someone responded.

The bishop nodded, “In the end, which one was more useful to my family? We grew both plants in our garden, pulled out the weeds around them, and gave them extra water when it didn’t rain. So why would we keep a plant that was living for itself, without offering us anything in return? Which plant would you choose to keep in your garden? The one that has fruit, or the one without?”

“The one that has fruit,” the followers responded, seeing the wisdom of the story.

At that moment, a pair of doors were flung open, startling Zach and other members of the room. A woman with long, disheveled hair rushed through and leapt into the audience.

“Oh Lord, not again,” the bishop grimaced.

“We are doomed!” the woman screamed. “Can’t you see? The angels of the Histowire are gone. Metal stars control our fate! We must find the Being blessed by mana and send him to my Lucid Apocalyptic Mirror Space. His data is incalculable.”

She rushed through the audience, grasping at people, but each one turned their heads calmly, as if they knew the lunatic yet were told to respect her anyway. Brother Abel merely frowned. Even Lydia sighed.

The bishop stepped down from his pedestal and grabbed the woman by the shoulders.

"Stop frightening the disciples. Tell us, who is the Being blessed by mana? What does data mean?”

“They are random,” the woman fidgeted. “I do not know who they are. And data is a computer term.”

The priest sighed, as if they had this conversation before. “Computer?” he asked hopelessly.

The woman nodded vigorously. “Advanced lightning boards. Further knowledge locked.”

“I see. That’s nice. Brothers,” he gently called to the priests nearby. Brother Abel apologized to Zach and stepped forward. “Please help the lamb to her chambers.”

“NO! Please listen.” The woman begged. “Send them to my nightmare! Tell them they must not level up, otherwise we are doomed! Tell everyone! Spread the word! Lucid Apocalyptic-”

The guards dragged her around a corner and disappeared.

The bishop turned to the audience. “My apologies, everyone. She has been breaking out frequently this week. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”

“It’s alright, Father. We know her mind was burned by the Histowire. All we can do is listen to the message, even if we don’t understand the truth she’s gleamed.”

Zach blinked.

‘Holy crap. What just happened?’

He turned to Lydia with a dazed expression, “Who was that?”

Lydia shook her head sorrowfully. “Her name is Agatha Honoris Nash. A number of years ago, she was just a shy girl from a noble family. But then she read several pages from the Histowire on the Day of Revelation, and dissolved into frantic madness. Even though she’s told us everything, it doesn’t make sense and is even blasphemous at points.”

Zach couldn’t get over his shock.

‘So they lock her up? Don’t they understand what she said was significant? Wait... no… I guess they wouldn’t. There’s no such thing as video games in this world.’ he thought, the gears starting to turn in his head. ‘It seems I need to adjust my plan. There’s somewhere more important than Ferney’s Battlefield to visit tonight.’

[End Chapter 26]