Ethan flipped through the small book, deciding not to go too deeply into the details now, savoring it for a full read later. He had come, after all, to smash some golems and try some magic. From what he gathered, the book contained entries for over a year. And groaned inwardly, God, he has awful handwriting. Thankfully, the strange ability lets me read it just fine. Does my power also decipher code?

After missing the entries for the first two months, the guard captain kept a close watch to report back almost daily, littering the pages with short notes and observations. He wrote on the most random things, noting even what the various people staffing the castle wore.

Ethan found himself constantly trying to make sense of what the guard captain had reported as if it was written in some gibberish or the man did not know how to express himself well. Well, he was a guard captain, after all, Ethan thought as he went through the pages.

He discovered that the Castle of the Gloom had a society of sorts living in it. The captain did not know who founded it or even when the castle was built, only to note that the place had always been there—a topic of scrutiny among the residents of Veer.

No one knew where the money came from, but he suspected it was some cult worshiping a dark god who financed the operations. How he came to such a conclusion, Ethan could not see at a glance, deciding that it was most likely due to the name the place had. Dark gods financing earthly operations? Yea, why not? Ethan shrugged and read on.

The captain’s days always began by waking up and having a quick breakfast in the common room, which Ethan understood he had passed before he got to the library. After breakfast, it was training, always with the training. For the captain and his troops, the practice was a simple affair. That was why the poles with the magic engraved on them were there, after all.

According to his quick notes, the captain and his troops would train from dusk till dawn, the magic in the poles never expiring. That was one of the reasons the captain was so suspicious of the place, as it was out of place for magical items not to stop working.

Supposedly they had to be maintained and fed an ‘aspect token’. However, the captain never saw their devices maintained, leading him to believe that a dark god supported them with his magic. This guy is nuts, Ethan thought, considering the captain’s obsession.

By the middle of the journal, Ethan understood that the man was quite a simpleton, not well versed in enchanting or artifice. All he seemed to know was how to swing his sword and use his abilities. How can you not spend some time working things out? Ethan thought and then remembered that the guy most likely lived in a medieval, magical world and did not have Google to look stuff up.

To Ethan’s dismay, the captain did not elaborate on what type of aspects he had or how he got his abilities. Instead, he described only the duels he won with the golems, never mentioning how he did it. Ethan felt the captain, besides obsessing, was also deceiving himself about his prowess with the sword.

What Ethan was more interested in was the golems themselves. According to the captain's notes, they were shadowy conjurations bound to the area around the poles and were used to teach his troops some martial art, never mentioning the name of it. That pissed off the captain in some of the entries Ethan skimmed over, unwilling to read pages-long rants about the medieval hiring process.

In the end, there was not much the captain could tell. A simple touch of the pole was enough to activate the golem if mana to start the process was provided. After that, the creature would manifest in the area around it and wait for the trainee to make the first move.

How did they expect these guys to improve if they constantly attacked the golems? Ethan thought to himself, putting the diary in his inventory. He panned his gaze over the room and noticed something on the wall by the entrance. He walked to the place in mind and saw what looked like a stone switch. A light switch? he thought.

Ethan flicked the switch up with his finger and was immediately blinded by the lights coming from the ceiling. Squinting his eyes, he fought off his temporary blindness before turning around to take a good look around the room. It turned out that it was larger than he had previously believed. Training areas stretched as far as he could see into the hall, which he estimated to be at least a hundred meters long.

“Oh, wow,” he breathed out. “These guys did not mess about. How huge is this place?” Ethan looked up at the ceiling but could not see the exact sources of the light, just dots of bright light casting luminance in his eyes as bright as the sun. He looked away, thinking over his next steps.

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A plan started to come together in his mind. Best he could understand, the castle had laid untouched for millennia, with no human soul residing in it. That meant he had the whole place to do whatever he wanted. Perfect.

And having a safe place to himself was necessary, even if it was a huge creepy castle on top of some hill in the middle of nowhere. After all this, I wonder how I will feel about moving to an inn. If I manage to escape the place and the surrounding forest in one piece, he thought and panned his gaze over the hall again.

With food and water secured for the foreseeable future, what was left was to understand this world, at least a bit better, before running into the forest. Sure, he felt brave back home when he had to fight other guys in the ring, but here it was different.

No safety gloves or coaches interrupting an incredibly close tussle. No, here everything was real. Even the rats could quickly end him. And they were not even mighty compared to the enormous cat he saw in the forest, by his estimate. That made him wonder - how many more beasts were lurking in the woods? Are there dragons? he questioned, shaking his head at the thought.

It was useless to dream about meeting fantasy creatures he could not hope to survive. So he needed to get some power. He had lucked out and found an aspect seed tucked away. Why did they want to hide it? Was it because it was some rare treasure? he thought, walking around the poles. He had no idea, but he did not care in the end. What mattered was that he now had magic powers and a place to train them.

If the guard captain were to be believed, Ethan would pick up a thing or two after some alone time with the golems. I do not think the guy was honest with his notes, Ethan thought, examining the dark poles. I better double-check his info before playing with some poles summoning soldiers.

Ethan did not check the library he found and regretted that decision, being impatient. He had, however, learned his lesson with the rat and postponed his training before checking what the library had. Still, given the sheer size, it was bound to contain valuable books about the local culture, beasts, geography, and many other topics he desperately needed to know about. After all, the books were more literate than some random humans he had yet to meet.

After a few days of his stay in the castle, the place had already offered him many exciting secrets. However, he was sure there had to be many more out there. After all, he had yet to explore the whole place and doubted he would manage to do it in the upcoming few days.

He panned his gaze around the large room one last time before turning off the light switch and closing the door, the ungodly sound slightly more bearable this time.

Ethan turned around and started walking back to the library. After a few uneventful minutes, he walked into the bookworm's dream room and closed the door behind him. Where to start? he thought and panned his gaze over all the bookshelves and hundreds of books in them.

Then, resting his sights on the table in the middle of the room, he started with the items on it. It seems like the most likely place the previous owner left the essential information that could be the most useful to me, he thought and nodded to himself.

Ethan walked up to the table a plopped down in the chair. The same chair he had made a mess on just recently, though no traces of that remained. He picked up a random scroll from the table and read the contents.

List of items to be ordered for the kitchen? he read and dropped the scroll on one side of the table. He picked another scroll, and after reading it over, it quickly joined the first. Daily observations of the number of birds that flew over the castle. What the hell is with this useless information? he inquired to himself.

After a while, Ethan read the contents of all the scrolls on the table during what was left of the day. However, after his initial few scrolls, he quickly lost hope of discovering something worthwhile among the pile as the rest followed similarly.

All of the scrolls contained useless information in the end. Well, useless for him. Maybe someone appreciated the number of buckets of water extracted from the well. Who keeps track of stuff like that? he thought, throwing his arms up in defeat.

Ethan turned and noticed that the room was dim, the light outside having moved away from the windows. The evening had come yet again, casting long shadows from the windows in the library. Ethan yawned, and his stomach rumbled. He had been so immersed in his reading that he had forgotten lunch - again.

He stretched and got up from his chair, calling it a day, and decided that having an early dinner was better than no lunch. Then, with the light crystal in hand, he returned to the kitchen to get his freshly cooked fish out of storage and light the fireplace.

His mood upbeat by the small victories made through the day, he casually strolled into his tiny bedroom and started the fireplace. Once he got the fire burning, he went ahead and got out his jug of water and steaming fish from his storage and sat down, rubbing his palms together.

Just as he was about to ravage the fish - the wails began.