“I...I can’t read this...It’s not the same as the fairies' magic but...What is going on?”

“Hmm? What’s up? It’s normal to not be able to read everything. It’s these parts that are important.” Benji pointed at clusters of runes.

Their arrangement and location seemed to share similarities with what I know but it was the mana runes. I couldn’t read 90% of them. As if I was trying to read a different language. I had written a book on exotic mana runes but they were extremely rare and difficult to find. I go to a different continent and I only find them.

The humans had normal mana runes. The skills the rabbits used also had normal mana runes but...their racial skills seem to be different.

“Benji, excuse me for my rudeness, but can you show me the magic circles of your other racial skills? Racial skills don’t display their magic circles when used so i never saw them.”

Gears started spinning in my head. I should be an expert in this but I’m stumped. Maybe the mana runes are different because this skill is ancient. But no, he showed me various racial skills that get used often and all had exotic mana runes. What is going on?

It seems that I need to redo my research. I have all the basics. All I need is to learn how to read these and match their function with known runes. I’ve done it before, this shouldn’t be difficult. It would just take time.

“Do you mind if I study the mana runes? I won’t divulge your racial skills.”

“Sure. You can show it to others. Racial skills can often be only used by the race it belongs to and if that’s not the case it would take more effort for them to use it.

I was aware of racial skills but I couldn’t relate. Misha don’t have racial skills regrettably. It makes us feel less special because any other race could do what we can do in theory.

The only exception is the coveted [Hattrick] which seems the closest to a Misha racial skill. The only one able to use it is ironically not a Misha but it is a race that’s known for its skills of impersonation.

How sad are the Misha that another race creates a racial skill for us...

The interaction between Mishelly and Benji was interesting. Benji seemed quite doting and Mishelly tried to resist it as much as she could.

I wonder if I should say something about this. I wish I knew my parents or grand parents. Misha aren’t known for being great parents. We often get thrown into the world the moment our magic scratches the bare minimum. The Misha separate their daughters from their fathers to teach them magic and how to be a Misha and leave them in a random Misha city after they pass. It’s what happened to me and other Misha.

Why we keep perpetuating this, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a racial instinct or desire but there are also Misha who don’t do this.

I sighed and got up. Our break was over. “Oh, I heard that you were bad with time. It seems you at least realized that it is time to move.” Benji stood up and spread his arms, asking a hug from his granddaughter but Mishelly refused.

“Gramps! Let's act professionally! Azu is here too!”

“Hahaha! You’re just like your mother. Professionalism isn’t a reason to deny your family! Come on! We might not be able to hug after we get inside that tower!”

Mishelly flicked her ears and walked over to the fiery spire territory.

“I was so hoping her rebellious phase would end after her racial traits locked in, it seems I was wrong.” Benji and I followed Mishelly into the fiery zone.

There were still several golems but all the floating shapes had disappeared. We circled around the base of the spire and were face t face with an enormous imposing opened gate.

Strange mana leaked out of it but it also exuded a sense of mystery, seducing us to come and take a look.

I was successfully seduced by the mystery and stepped forward. “Come on! This might be the chance of a lifetime! Not many have seen the inside of ancient buildings!”

“Or they have but never made it out to tell the tale.” Benji said as he petted his goatee and peered inside.

“But I agree with you. Nothing will be achieved if we remain timid. The scouts have been tasked to report this to the burrow and to start a rescue attempt if we don’t return within 5 hours”

“But it could take days to find out. I’ve only ever been in another one and it had puzzles that could easily occupy you for days.”

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“Very interesting. Tell me about it while we explore. Come Mishelly. Let’s see for ourselves why ancient technology is so valued.”

We stepped inside and instantly noticed that what was in front of us didn’t match the outside.

“Spatiotemporal phenomenon. I don’t know if this applied to the other dungeon I entered but the size of the inside doesn’t match the outside.”

We found ourself in an enormous hall with gigantic dark red tiles and fire pillars nea the walls which were hardly distinguishable due to the distance they were removed from us.

The rest was seemingly empty, except for a massive burning door in front of us.

“Huh? Where is the door we just came from?” Mishelly looked around and the only door in the hall was the one we were looking at.

“This might be the reason hardly anyone has ever returned from an ancient building.”

“That must be the exit then!” Mishelly rushed to the door but Benji caught up to her and lifted her by the back of her shirt.

“don’t be rash, let’s explore this hall first before moving to the door. If Azu is correct about that puzzle, then this hall might be a puzzle in itself. I expect that door to be locked. It is the basic function of a door.”

Benji put Mishelly down and looked at the large tiles. “Azu, I would like to hear about the ancient building you’ve visited before.”

He tapped his foot on the tile we were standing on.

“Well, I didn’t enter it completely. My clones did as I expected something like this to happen. It had a jigsaw puzzle inside that were responsible for changing 4 paintings on the wall, which would change. Certain conditions caused the circular walls to rotate and creatures jumped out of the paintings. My goal wasn’t to solve it but to just find a difficult combination to seal someone away and scramble it. There was more than 1 solution which makes me believe that attempting to solve it would require many hours if not days or weeks.”

Benji hopped on another tile and kept stomping and tapping on it while applying different magical elements to his foot. “I see... We don’t have any magic restrictions here in this building by the way. Nothing seems off with these 2 tiles. It’s unlikely that the other tiles differ but I want to test some more. I would ask if you 2 could inspect the walls and the pillars. Please be careful though.”

Benji said that but Mishelly just ran toward the wall to our right and stared at the burning pillars and the walls behind them. “Hey! Something is written on these walls!”

“Oh, is it magic?” I ran over to take a look. “Huh, what is this? I can’t read this.”

It was difficult to describe what we were looking at. It seemed like gibberish, highly organized gibberish. I didn’t recognize the symbols so reading it was out of the question. Some symbols resembled mana runes however.

“Is this how magic began? It’s not much different from a language”

Something related to my research was right in front of my nose but I couldn’t read it. It was so frustrating! Coming to this continent made me realize that I don’t know as much about magic as I had initially thought. Now I’m staring at possibly the origin of magic and I have no leads or hints to help me.

“Wait, the theory is that these spires came from some other place right? If that’s true. Why would it have symbols looking like mana runes?”

“Eh, coincidence? We’re at least sure that it wasn’t buried deep underground as some spires had spawned over backup burrows. We would have known if they were buried. You know how deep our burrows go.”

Mishelly was right. These things didn’t come from underground. Something teleported them here but how and why? And...who...

These spires and the fairies might not even be the biggest problem. The something that placed these spires here might be an even bigger threat.

Was it a god or something else? Or could things like this happen spontaneously? That’s impossible right?

As much as I like to find things out for myself, I wish there were more hints or someone that could tell us what’s going on.

I took out an old student notebook and started writing down every unique symbol I encountered with it’s context. It would be some sort of aid in finding out their meaning. Something somewhere might have similar patterns and give hints on how this language is structured.

A symbol appeared that resembled a mana rune which is often involved in clusters that code for ‘repetition’. “It’s just a coincidence Azu, it might be a completely different rune with a different meaning.

“Oh, look! It lights up when you touch them!”

Mishelly had her hand on the wall and the whole section lit up yellow and Benji exclaimed behind us.

A tile in the distance had lit up yellow too. “Mishelly, that was reckless but good job!” I went to take a look at the section of the wall that had been lit up. The walls were also made out of enormous tiles it seems. Mishelly’s tile had lit up but had similar unreadable symbols on it.

“Hey, can you 2 describe what’s on that wall there? This floor tile looks strange!” Benji shouted.

“Just some gibberish! What does that tile say?!”

“I can’t read it but it seems incomplete!”

I walked over to Benji to see what was going on.

Half of the tile had the unfamiliar writing, the other half was blank.

“Azu, are the walls also made out of tiles?”

“Yes, each of them has these strange writings. Is it possible that our performance might be affected by being unable to read these?”

“I would like to think that’s not the case but knowing this language might be a requirement to progress. I’m a bit concerned. We all might have been reckless, hopping in, expecting to be able to solve all the puzzles.”

“Why do the ancients love puzzles so much? And did the ancients even build this?”

“Most ancient buildings contain valuable knowledge or information. These puzzles are put in place to ensure that whoever makes it to the end is competent. No amount of power would get us through. Our competency is tested by puzzles and problem solving. Knowledge could be important too which is where this language kicks in.”

“So is it some sort of word puzzle?”

Word puzzles seem easy but that’s assuming you know the language the puzzle is in. A simple word puzzle in Kaledonian would be impossible for a Nesher resident, no matter how smart.

That’s unless he or she can find out the rules of how the language operates. This puzzle might be easy for someone who knows the language but another puzzle presents itself when you don’t.

The tile stopped glowing and the text and glow disappeared.

“Oops!”

Mishelly had touched another wall which had turned off the glow of the other wall tile.

A fire pillar broke loose, turned into a fire tornado, and approached us.

“It seems that this is the punishment for getting it wrong! Azu get ready! Mishelly! Come to this side of the hall!”