After all the commotion, Kaden felt no need to sleep more. Besides, he had just picked up a core and loot from the formation master. He was very curious. He put the book on the side first since he didn’t know how to read or write. Technically he knew how to write his name, but that was specifically taught to him.

The belt had all sorts of things on it that Kaden didn’t really know what they were. He assumed they were tools for creating formations. Some of them resembled measuring tools he had used while smithing, like a ruler, but with some rotating parts to it. A sharp thing that looked like a carving tool. Objects such as them that he could understand, but then there were things like a ball with smaller balls inside it and some shapes and holes in them, he had no idea about its use.

“These might be valuable”, Kaden thought as he inspected the items with care. “I may need some funds when I return back to kill some people.”

There was one thing he was not able to inspect. It didn’t resemble a tool and it seemed to be part of the belt instead. It looked like a pouch, but it was too small to be one. Even if you did put something small in it, it would be hard to take anything out of it. Not that Kaden could open it and see. It seemed stuck.

He eventually gave up and and used some mana to forcibly open it. The mana disapeared from his senses once it came into contact with the pouch.

“Huh? What was that?” Kaden thought. It had been almost like his mana had been absorbed. “What is this thing? If it acts with mana, it is probably a tool. Since its part of this belt, the belt is probably a tool.”

Magic tools! Such things were pretty rare in Dashire. There were some and most of them were weapons. This was good stuff! “Now if I only could tell what it does. I didn’t see it do anything with my mana. Maybe I didn’t use enough?”

Kaden used some more mana and like before it got absorbed by the pouch. He saw no effect. It had to have some effect, right? Kaden frowned and released mana from his core and use it to increase power.

Finally there was some resistance. The tool was probably made for people stronger than Kaden, but wasn’t one that had enormous requirements. A pouch was something you were supposed to use to carry things in it. Why would it require enormous mana? This was indeed a tool.

Kaden felt like there was some mana in the place where his mana also went to. It was dense and stronger than his, but it was inert. Nothing or no one was controlling it. It still took some effort to push it out. If it had not been inert, there would have been absolutely no chance to do it at all.

Suddenly he felt like his mana clicked in place. Like some little corner of the pouch activated. An image appeared in his mind. Not blocking his sight or anything, but just extremely vivid thought.

“What is this?” Kaden thought as he somehow explored the image. There were objects put in order. Such as books, scrolls, tools and quite a few crystals that Kaden first thought were beast cores, but were something else instead. He felt like he could touch all these objects, he decided to pick one of the crystals.

The crystal then disapeared from its place in the image and immediately Kaden found it in his hands? He was flabbergasted! It was a storage magic tool! How does it even work? Where are all the things stored? How did any of that work?

“This is probably extremely valuable!” Kaden thought with excitement. “I haven’t ever heard of something like this!”

He tried putting the crystal back in. He had it in his hands and then chose a place for it and felt like he could extend his arm there. The crystal disapered from his hand and was now back in the place where he had taken it.

He repeated the process a few times. It was quick and effortless. He didn’t even feel like he used much mana at all.

“With this I can gather everything I find and not worry how much I take!” Kaden rejoiced.

Kaden then took out one crystal again. He wondered what it was. In his hand, he inspected its structure like he would with metal. He confirmed it was not a beast core and seemed to be something else. Mana infused stone? What stone, he couldn’t say. He poked at it with his mana again and then something triggered.

Information entered his mind directly. Like set of thougts playing in his mind. Like a record. That specific crystal contained information of some people who had materials the formation master had considered buying and simply made a list of them. As for the materials mentioned, he didn’t know what they were.

Kaden put it back and inspected some of the other crystals. He noticed another pile of them that were not in any order. None of them responded to his mana either.

He played with the pouch some more and found some controls about it. It seemed to list its size and how much of it was being used, which was currently quite full. The pouch wasn’t very large. Also found some other settings such as allowing it to detach from the belt! The belt probably was not magic tool itself, after all, but the pouch could be attached to almost anything. He still decided to keep it stuck where it was for the time being.

“So, a storage tool. Some notes? I assume empty notes? Books. Some more tools.” Kaden listed his gains. “This storage tool is very useful at least. I need to inspect all these crystals eventually too. There might be something useful in them.”

Then Kaden turned to look at the book that had not been stored. He opened it. There were some scribles on it. Drawn shapes and writing next to them. Kaden felt odd at looking at the writing. He couldn’t read, but somehow he knew these letter. It didn’t feel like the reason was the book, but something deeper inside him. Like memories, but not his. They felt familiar like… Anuu?

“I keep finding more and more things that Anuu gave me”, Kaden said with a sigh. “I wish I knew all of it. I feel like I should know what this is, but I have no knowledge myself. Why has this not happened until now? Or maybe it has, but I have not noticed?”

He had memories that were not his own? Is it possible phoenixes can give some information to their hatchlings? This felt true. Not just because of logic, but just… true.

“I cannot even imagine the true depths of beings like phoenixes. They are far stronger than me even at birth. I wouldn’t put past it that memories could be shared.” Kaden thought. There was no telling what else he knew. He could not tell what or the extent of these memories, but he felt like it was due to the birth flame. Perhaps these memories were basic set of things Anuu had seen fit to give to her hatchling at birth. Beasts would need to interact with humans one way or another. Reading was basic matter.

Still, reading the book was entirely another thing. While he knew the letters and how to use them, to actually read was entirely different thing. He looked at the words on the first page and then pondered quite a while about them. Eventually he could say it read ‘journal’.

“Its not direct passing of skill, but it gives the ability to quickly learn one. Like pieces of a puzzle, but you have to put it together yourself”, Kaden surmised. Perhaps it also needed some mental ability to put together the memories, but such a thing came naturally as one grew in cultivation. “I will take this chance to learn reading and take some time daily to learn and read everything.”

Kaden spent quite a bit of time looking at the journal. At first his speed of reading was slow, but it got quicker the more he tried. He found out that the owners name had been Angis, a minor noble and a formation master. He had indeed been called to construct a trap for Anuu by a true magus known as Lord Havil. He would be rewarded greatly by Havil’s sect, Heavenly Tower, for the capture of the phoenix. This he learned after looking at the end of the journal for most recent entries.

“Havil, Heavenly Tower”, Kaden said to himself loudly. Then solemnly continued:“I curse you to death!”

This true magus, Havil, was responsible for Anuu’s death. Kaden had promised Anuu that he would kill those who wronged her! That Anuu’s vengeance was part of his vengeance! Thus, Kaden would also curse Havil’s existence. Anuu had spoken of two true magi, but he still did not know the other one. He would find out. He would find out all those who were responsible and curse them to death!

With that over Kaden continued reading the journal. Right at the end Angis had written several shaky lines that he should have not trusted the military and it was their fault things went wrong. They could not hold back the beasts and that caused the formation to be destroyed. Also some curses about a flea ridden creature called Light Lion. The were several lines of various curses about it and how it had forced him into the forest.

“I wish I had seen you die, Angis”, Kaden said. “Hmmm, you might be already dead, but I want you to know in whatever afterlife you have that you should be sent to the hell realm and burn for an eternity. Angis, I curse you to death!”

The last few lines were odd and extremely shaky. It was hard to read it with Kaden’s ability, but he could make out that apparently the restriction mana, that the formation produced to hold Anuu, had caused a backlash upon destruction. Angis had been there right in the middle of the control point and his body absorbed too much of the released restrition mana when the formation broke so uncontrollable manner. He was not able to get rid of it. The lion also harrased him for quite a long time. The mana prevented him from healing and moving. His organs slowly began shut down due to not being able to function. His blood not flowing in his veins. Mana would not move.

“What an interesting way to die”, Kaden thought. He had seen the effects, blood had turned into thick gel and flesh was like rubber.

Kaden decided to keep reading the journal. As he flipped pages he noticed the book was rather strange, it seemed to contain more pages than it should be able to fit in. “Its probably magic tool too”, Kaden muttered and ignored the oddity. Someone like the formation master should have more than enough funds and ability to gather such items.

He eventually noticed some pages with diagrams and notes and also dates. They were notes of experiments a long time ago. Like a decade or so ago. Those notes were some of the most recent he found. He flipped to some of the front pages until he found writings that had entirely different date. About a hundred years ago!

The formation master didn’t look that old, but it would make sense considering his cultivation. At Channel Opening, you generally lived fifty years longer than those under it. At Formation stage, it was hundred years longer. He did not know of Condensation stage, but perhaps it doubled again. It would make Angis not that old.

What interested Kaden more was that, at the time the notes in the journal had been written and when Angis had been young, he was just by then starting to learn about crafting formations. He had bought the book at that time to keep notes.

The formations and thoughts Angis had recorded later were very complex, but the ones at the beginning were, in fact, pretty simple. “These simple formations look a bit like mana systems”, Kaden noticed with curiosity. “There are similarities. Huh, mana systems probably are formations then?”

Angis’s journal of his learning process, his research and life in general proved to be interesting. Kaden had himself been very curious about formations to begin with. Now that he had a book about it in his hands and could actually read, he immersed himself reading it. Kaden thought perhaps he could learn to craft formations too!