CHAPTER. 140: THE BEGINNING OF THE END (PART 2)

With those words, Asok began to immediately pace around the rather broken down building, grabbing notes he hadn’t pointed at before, and even swinging by the room I was in to grab some of the papers there. And that’s when I saw Sol’as’ Spear, or what its true form was.

It didn’t look like a piece of black matter anymore, not at all. Instead, it was the complete opposite of the blackened stick it was once. It was an elegant spear with a deep blue color and light blue accents, its blade glinting to the light with ornamental designs and a small crystalline sphere at its top.

[Sol’as’ Spear. Tier: SSS].

As expected, it was an SSS Tier artifact, though Asok commented that it was a weaker weapon now which⁠— didn’t surprise me, and as soon as I grabbed it I understood what he meant. The intrinsic skill of the spear was simply no longer there. It did have an intrinsic skill called [Piercing Fury] which based on what I understood ⁠— the feeling it gave me ⁠— all piercing attacks would bypass the opponent’s armor.

It was strong, but in comparison to [World Piercer], not so much.

After that, Asok took me alone into a room with a blackboard, or; what resembled one. After turning on the orange light, he immediately began to spread some of the papers on a table, and after a single cursory look through all of them he nodded.

“Just as I remembered.”

Then turning around, I watched as he drew a glyph on the blackboard with his finger. His scribblings shone in golden light, contrasting with the black material of the board. I raised my brow, slightly lost on what he was doing, before he wrote the word, ‘life’ below the glyph. Finally, with that done he turned to me.

“As you know, magic has an alphabet of special characters that have assigned meanings, I’ll be teaching you the alphabet that pertains to the Primordial System.”

I blinked as he continued to explain.

“With that, you should very easily be able to use what you call Arcane Magic. Only problem is that corrupted mana does not produce Arcane Magic, but at least it allows you to learn it.”

Hearing him, I couldn’t help but tilt my head.

“So you’re telling me that if I learn the entire magic alphabet of the Primordial System I’ll be able to use Arcane Magic? How do I even use magic glyphs along with it?”

“What do you mean by how?” Asok frowned. “How did you learn magic then?”

“Well, for starters I was summoned into what was essentially hell.”

“What is hell?” Asok raised his brow. “And what do you mean summoned?”

I paused seeing his reaction. I forgot that Asok was essentially an alien so expecting him to be on the loop was a bit insane on my part. Though, still, I couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

“Hell is a place where people that commit bad deeds go after dying,being condemned for their actions for all eternity. It's a religious thing, but ignoring that; it could be considered a nightmarish place, or the word can be used to denote the concept of nightmare, it can also be used to say things are good…” I tilted my head as Asok slowly nodded. “Anyway, I’m saying I got sent to a living nightmare, taken from my world to that place; and after getting out of this so-called training, I ended up in the world of Arlas.”

Asok still seemed to be processing information, but I decided to continue.

“The world I came from had no magic whatsoever, it had technology run by electricity; it resembles some of the inventions from civilizations around. But nothing is exactly the same. You could say my first contact with magic was when I found myself in the training area designated by the System.”

He nodded. “But still to have learned magic you⁠—”

“The System gave me the skill to do ice magic, and I was able to do it instinctively; there were no glyphs, there was no nothing.” I crossed my arms. “So, in short, I don’t know how learning these glyphs will help me if I don’t know how to apply them.”

Asok raised his brow and spoke with a normal tone. “Could you show me some of your ice magic?”

“Sure.”

With that, I flicked my fingers and a bird of ice appeared, one which immediately started flying around the room before it disappeared into a cloud of mist at my command.

He raised his brow. “Well that sure is beautiful magic, but the glyphs are there,” he pointed.

“What do you mean?”

“Just look.” And with those words, I watched as Asok flicked his fingers and… a bird appeared; sure it was a lot more crude but it still did the same and disappeared into mist. “I can copy it because I saw the glyphs. They are there.”

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He flicked his finger again, and the same bird appeared, then with a tug of his hand he grabbed at the air and⁠— the bird exploded. I stared with utter confusion as he clapped his hands and a projection of magic appeared in the air, showing hundreds of complicated symbols intertwined with each other.

“That’s the magic of your System; while I don’t know how to read it I could still copy it; though I’m quite certain the only reason it’s so complex is because you made the bird from scratch rather than it coming from a skill.” He nodded. “Which is a commendable thing; the fact that you’re so comfortable with the basics of your magic to be able to create new things from it.”

“Right.”

“In fact, only the greatest masters of magic were able to do that, and very few could do it with multiple elements.” He smiled. “No wonder you’ve been able to survive here for so long.”

I frowned. “What about you, how many skills can you create?”

“I can create skills of any element of course; not for nothing was I given my title. Though⁠— it’s a fickle thing, in the end, even with the hopes of my entire civilization on my shoulders, I couldn’t do it.” He shook his head. “So, it’s not really a competition or anything.”

“Right.”

“Anyway, ignoring any kind of praise I have for you, the predicament is… worrisome. Glyphs are imagined in our heads in order to cast magic you see, but if you aren’t really imagining the glyphs then⁠— you can’t really use magic of the Primordial System. Not unless you get to experience it in the first place.” He frowned. “So I guess, in short: there is nothing I can do to help you.”

My heart skipped and then a moment later I spoke⁠:

“What⁠—”

“But,” he interrupted, “I wouldn’t be a researcher if I didn’t like solving problems. I do think our systems are fundamentally different, so I can’t help you too much, but I think that a good starting point would be showing you magic of the Primordial System; except that part itself is hard. So for now, I’ll teach you the magic alphabet of the Primordial System.”

“Right.”

◇ ◇ ◇

And just like that I spent a couple of hours in an extensive lecture with Asok, where he explained the meaning of each glyph in detail. Even though it was enough information to make the regular person throw up, I actually managed to digest all of it to a decent degree.

Though thinking about it I had also managed to go through Asok’s notes just fine. I didn’t consider myself super smart or anything, so I just assumed it was due to my Tier rather than anything. Which I supposed was part of being essentially a superhuman.

After that, he made a few surprise questions and upon answering them all; we were done.

“Well that was easy wasn’t it?”

“Maybe…?” I asked, confused. “Now what?”

“Now… nothing, I can’t help you right now with any of that. You need to get a feel for yourself, and there is nothing I can do for that.”

I blinked, immediately frowning. “What…? Didn’t you say that your forte is problem solving?”

“Yes I did, which is why I’ll still try to help you figure out a way for you to get a feel. But I can’t do it with the tools at my disposal.”

“Right.”

I watched as Asok touched the blackboard and all the writings disappeared, meanwhile my emotions were in disarray as I stared at him. He ignored the papers he had left at the table and headed to the door.

“Come on, what are you waiting for? Let’s go.”

“Go?” Now more confused than ever, I asked. “To where?”

“There is a whole world outside, remember there is no more corruption,” he mused as he headed towards the front door of the building which was currently closed. “Which also means, well… you’ll see.”

I didn’t really know what he was talking about but I still followed after him as he continued talking and walking towards the door.

“The apocalypse is coming so we won’t have much time to really explore, but I think we should still be able to find something that will help you.”

“I’m still lost on what you’re talking about⁠—”

“And if we can’t find something,” he continued without regarding me, “then, you can just figure it out on the edge of death. Though I do want to say something.”

He stopped at the entrance and turned to me.

“Just in case I don’t have the chance to say it later; in order for you to ascend your mana it must be fully corrupted first.”

I nodded in understanding.

“And then, you need to for lack of a better word shatter it with a great stimulation from within. Like an awakening.”

“Right… what must I do?”

“Simple: use arcane magic and if it’s strong enough it shall lead to a qualitative change. And that might be the hard part for you. I don’t mean this from the sense of; having to experience arcane magic but from the strength part⁠— oh.”

He paused.

“You have used arcane magic before.”

I blinked. “Have I?”

“You did when I lost my mind; the attack from the spear was undeniably true magic; or arcane magic as you call it. So, I believe you should be able to figure it out if your life depends on it.”

“Right, but what do you mean by strength? How strong does the magic have to be?”

“Oh, right.” Asok nodded. “It’s very simple, it just needs to reach the Omega Tier⁠— the Tier that your spear has.”

“The Tier of my spear?”

I turned to Sol’as’ Spear only to see its Tier once more.

[Sol’as’ Spear. Tier: SSS].

“That sounds…”

“I’m not going to say it’s impossible but if you aren’t already in that Tier⁠— which you aren’t, then I really hope we can find an artifact that possesses true magic of that Tier.”

He shook his head.

“Otherwise you shall never be able to use magic again.”

I blinked and then he opened the door, and contrary to my expectations I saw a blue sky, I heard noise and once my eyes readjusted I saw…

Civilizations.

Myriads of them, all rebuilding as if they had just gone through the apocalypse.

All of the corrupted beings had reverted to what they once were…