“What is this…” Arnold waved his hand in front of Lyra. But there was no reaction whatsoever.

Her expression was still that of sadness and longing. She was staring lifelessly into her teacup.

“She’s the Vulris people’s queen?” he looked at the notification screen to see if anything would change, “Did she lie about her identity on purpose?”

‘I guess It makes sense if she lied. Her entire race was forced into submission by the demon lords. They also perished. That would obviously cause her great shame. For a great magic race like the Vulris’—capable of all forms of magic—to die out would cause the monarch to be ashamed.’

Her race was born from mana itself so they were able to control magic of all forms better than humans and elves alike. Humans were capable of arcane and divine magic while elves are capable of elemental magic. Archmages being the exception in this case.

Naturally, this caused many to fear them and see them as a race as frightening as the demons and undead.

There were subspecies of Vulris—one being from this world and the other being from the demon world. The ones from the human world couldn’t survive in the climate and atmosphere of this world so they died out hundreds of years ago.

“What does it mean by any martial skill of my choosing?”

From the looks of it, it seemed like time had frozen to allow him to understand the quest. But what if it was actually to allow him to choose whether he wanted this quest or not?

But what would happen if he rejected the quest? Would the system punish him by resetting his stats?

A sudden ding went off while Arnold was having such ominous thoughts.

Arnold von Berkley has been issued with penalties. This was to limit the amount of things the Player born into him would be able to do.

“Does this mean that there really were others but they were evil? What would’ve happened if I used my knowledge for evil as well?”

It seemed that the status screen had something to do with him being reborn. But it was a valid worry to have. Liam was a former DOP who had knowledge of the future that not even the human gods had yet. He could be considered as a pseudo-Timeline God.

An example of a human god was Melis. She could make divinations and give blessings but she didn’t have a full grasp of the future. She wasn’t omnipotent either. Only one of the three Timeline Gods could actually be considered as all-knowing and all-seeing.

Arnold decided to read further:

One of these penalties was to weaken the player by locking all of Arnold von Berkley’s skills so that it would be impossible to fight full strength. If the player accepts then they would be able to unlock a martial skill of their choosing. If the quest is completed with a high success rate(70-90%) then the player would be able to unlock three to four martial skills.

“Are you serious!?”

Wasn’t this something that he had dreamt of? Being forced to fight as a level 40 with zero skills besides his aura skills was torture. He couldn’t even perform any one of the techniques of the Berkley household’s ancestors let alone any of his martial skills with the sword.

Arnold von Berkley would’ve been one of the most powerful swordsmen with his skills alone if he had all of them.

“This system isn’t as useless as I thought it was. With this, I’ll be able to use two high level skills even if I succeed under seventy percent.”

One such skill was his aura style skill known as [Storm Of The Water Dragon]. He assumed that his other skills were also class A or higher at least. If he had S-class skills then that already made him the most powerful swordsman in this academy.

“Alright!” Arnold made up his mind and looked towards the notification window with sparkling eyes, “I accept!”

Quest countdown—0 day(s)

“Huh? Ah…” he was confused why it said zero days but he remembered that Lyra was immortal now that she was soulbound. She had all the time in the world to be freed.

But that didn’t mean that he could be complacent. He had a chance to unlock his martial skills. What idiot wouldn’t take this opportunity?

First Fragment of the Vulris Queen acquired. Skill points will be awarded to player. Remaining fragments (???)

“Hmm…”

Even the system didn’t know how many fragments were out there. He hoped that it was a handful because it was too arduous to run around aimlessly. He probably won’t even be able to complete the quest if he didn’t have a single lead. The unknown number of fragments only increased the difficulty.

“How am I supposed to help this woman… Well, it’s a quest that’ll even outlast my own lifespan. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky and find one in the near future.”

As if the system knew that Arnold was done contemplating, time began to move again. The birds outside chirped as they flew away and Lyra sipped her tea.

“What kind of dreams do you always have of theirs?” Arnold got back to what they were talking about before so as to avoid suspicion.

“Let’s see… Ah, there is one where I always awaken in a dark cave. Light would pour into the cave and I would walk towards it. Whenever I stood on the edge of that cave, I would look down…”

“And… what did you see?”

“Clouds. An endless sea of clouds with nothing that could break through them. Some days the sky would be clear and I would be able to see a humongous forest. There are also times when I see a red sky which probably means that the third one is stuck in the demon world.”

‘That’s pretty specific. Could I use this somehow to help her obtain her fragments?’

But the issue was that it would only work if she was familiar with the place she wakes up in.

“How long does the dream last?”

“About ten seconds. Sometimes less.”

‘Shit. Is the interference from the soul bindings that strong?’

He had to somehow find a way to weaken those bindings. If he didn’t then he had to find the places Lyra was referring to. Plan B wasn’t exactly a good idea since he had no idea where to look first. Arnold assumed that the cave that Lyra was talking about was in some mountain somewhere.

Arnold didn’t know how many mountains could break the clouds besides the Culb Mountains. But would he be able to even find this one specific cave if it were in those mountains? The Culb Mountain ranges spanned cross-country so he had no idea where to look.

“The dreams aren’t very clear.”

“What do you mean?”

“My vision darkens sometimes and the next moment I’m standing somewhere else.”

‘It’s almost like she’s lagging. Is it a sort of glitch?’

“Ah, I seemed to have kept you, young one. Why did you come to the library? Is it knowledge you seek? I have been trapped here for decades so I have read most of the books here. If you wish to inquire of—”

“No. I’m here for the Runestone tabloid.”

“The… Runestone tabloid? But there should be one in the gymnasium, no? Why come all the way to this place for the outdated version?”

“I want to produce a hologram that will show my stats in real-time.”

A frown emerged on Lyra’s face.

“…It would be unwise to do that. The academy banned the use of the artifact because it can be used against a user who produces their own hologram card.”

“Yes, I know that people would be able to see your skills on the hologram card. But I still want to produce one even if I know the risks involved.”

The hologram card listed a person’s entire status. This included their skills, equipment, weapons and magic items. The issue was that others would be able to see your “skills” if they got a hold of your hologram card.

Being a DOP, Arnold already knew of the dangers. Regardless, he still wanted it.

“Tell me where it is, miss Lyra. Didn’t I sit and listen to your life story? I also kept you company. That’s something no one else at the academy would ever do.”

Since she was from a magic race, students feared her even though they didn’t know what kind of race she was specifically. There existed many magic races—dragons and dryads being one of them.

Only the professors would interact with her. Of course, this didn’t mean that they treated her any nicer than a slave. She was forced to maintain this library because it was convenient for them.

“…”

She looked at Arnold silently.

“Will you help me?”

“…If any of the elite mages or professors find out then they will kill me.”

“You’re immortal. What’s the point of doing that?”

She glared at him, “The pain is the issue! Do you know how many of these students have caused me so much pain just because I can heal all my injuries!?”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry for bothering you. Man, and here I thought I finally found a new friend.” Arnold stood up.

“F-friend?”

He heard her whisper that word over and over to herself.

“I would’ve come to you every day to have this delicious tea. But if you don’t want to help a friend out then I guess that’s fine.”

He reached the door and was about to leave.

“W-Wait!”

She called put to him. Arnold smirked.

“W-Will you really come every day?”

“I won’t have enough time to come every day so only most days.”

“And y-you’ll talk to me as well?”

“That’s the point of coming here, isn’t it?”

Short visits in the mornings would probably suffice since Arnold had other duties as well. She should understand that much.

“Okay…”

“Hm? I couldn’t hear you, miss Lyra.”

“I’ll… I’ll bring it to you…” she ran towards the back of one of the bookshelves and tried to pull on one of the books.

She couldn’t reach it so she kept jumping. She tried to reach by standing on her tippy toes.

“Haa…” Arnold lifted her up by her armpits like you would a dog.

She pulled out one of the books which made the entire bookshelf start moving.

“A hidden room?”

“…Will you please put me down?”

“Ah, right.”

Lyra ran into the dark hallway behind the bookshelf. The sound of her bare feet hitting the ground started fading. It was a moment later that he could hear her come back.

“Here…” she held out a big stone slab with runic patterns carved around its surface.

‘The runes are still glowing. How the hell is this runestone still working after thousands of years of use?’

“Be careful with it. The stone is crumbling.”

“Ah, okay.”

‘The runes will last forever but the object they’re carved into won’t.’

The item wasn’t that high leveled. In fact, it was probably on the same level as Luke’s current sword. Were it a Star-Class Item then it would’ve never crumbled.

“Thank you, miss Lyra.”

“Mmm.” She went towards the table and finished her tea.

Arnold followed her with the Runestone. He put it on the table.

“Do you know how to activate it, young one?”

“Sarkak Voilos Ainit Verniture.”

His words translated in the modern tongue to “Arise and grant me my wish, O noble artifact”.

Lyra looked at Arnold with gaping eyes and mouth, “You… How do you know ancient tongue?”

“I’m a bit of an artifact historian, miss Lyra,” Arnold said with a carefree smile.

The artifact crumbled as the glow of the runes intensified.

He read the letters on the surface of the runic tabloid:

Place thy hand on this surface, then allow me to ponder thy soul and body.

He did as the stone instructed.

A booming vibration shook the building when his hand came into contact with the stone. The different lights of the runes glowed brighter until it lit the entire room.

‘Please make this work.’

He prayed in his heart.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lights finally calmed down. Arnold opened his eyes and lifted up his hand.

Underneath his hand was a green hologram card.

He picked it up as if it was the most delicate object in the universe. With bated breaths, sweating palms and shaking pupils, Arnold looked at the hologram status screen that appeared in mid-air.

STR: 145 AG: 155 DEF: 160 DEX: 1300 AP: 2600 SP: 0

Martial Skills

Storm of the Water Dragon(A)—A lower version of Leviathan Storm(SSS). It is a secret martial art that was adapted from the various martial arts that originates from the western sea. Was primarily used by the water monarch races such as the whale king, mermaid king, siren queen, etc… ???-- ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????

Swordsmanship:

Flow of the Tide(S)—The combination of the speed of sound and the gentle flow of a river. It can be used to cut through reality in its final form. Thus, it is known as the weaker version of the Fury of the Trench(EX) swordsmanship style. Elementary Sword Style(G)—Basic swordsmanship used by the students of the academy. It is taught by the Empire. Dash(D) Speed Of Sound[level 10]—User is able to break the sound barrier for two seconds. Some injuries may result from overusing this power if user is not accustomed to [Mach1]. If certain conditions are met then user will be able to undergo a skill evolution.

“I can finally see my status…”