Having dealt with Maisie, Xander headed for his room, even though he know he should get straight to sleep the book was far to intriguing to wait before trying to read it.

Sitting on the bed Xander opened “A Gentleman's Guide to Ome” and started reading.

“To whomever is reading this book I hope it will be useful in your journey through this world. Since arriving here I have come across many things that defy understanding, as such I have decided to document as much as I can about this strange place, thankfully as the residents have been willing to help with explaining almost everything I wanted to know about “Ome” as they call it this task is far easier than it could have been. To aid in ease of reading I will be separating this guide into sections based around each of the races and societies I have encountered.”

Before he turned the page to the table of contents Xander noticed a string of faded symbols at the bottom of the page, focusing on them they seemed to be ancient Greek, intrigued he tried to read it hoping that this wouldn't cause another backlash like the runes had, slowly the meaning became clear.

“P S If you are reading this please find a way to get a copy of this book back to the University, what I have found here proves the most controversial of my theories, and could hopefully lead to many advances.”

Mulling over the foreword of the book Xander felt excited, he'd been expecting something akin to a travel guide, but if that last note was to believed it was more appropriate to think of it as a treatise. Turning to the next page Xander was met with the table of contents, their were ten sections each split into chapters, knowing exactly what he wanted answers to first he found the page number for the chapter on Runecrafting and began flipping through only slowing down when he spotted that as the stall owner had mentioned a large number of pages had faded to illegibility with time.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

After a minute of so he reached the chapter he was looking for, luckily it was still in a decent condition, with a sense of relief Xander started reading.

“Similar to the Dwarves Enchanting and the Coyotians Transmutation, the Gnomish Runecraft has a natural affinity for solids, but where enchanting generally consumes Aether and transmutation usually produces Aether, runecraft would appear to fill in the space in the middle being more about altering the internal properties of an object by repurposing the Aether already within the inscribed item. Another difference of Runecraft that will make this chapter more complicated than the others is that Runic symbols react badly to the translation magic that I and my wife gained when we arrived here causing extreme migraines when trying to read them, but in the interest of fully understanding this world I have found a method to mitigate this problem, on the next page is a recipe for a elixir that can suppress the pain.”

Turning the page Xander let out a groan, aside from a few words the page was completely illegible, the page opposite though was still mostly intact, expecting the chapter to start explaining the runes themselves Xander resumed reading.

“As you may be able to tell from the ingredients and exact effects although this Elixir works it is hardly a viable long term solution, I theorize that repeated exposure to Runes would eventually allow one to read them without problems, assuming they could withstand the migraines till that point.”

Xander winced not wanting to do what he was about to, closing the book he took a moment to brace himself before focusing on the lone rune on the cover, the pain was extreme but Xander kept staring as the pain started increasing, gritting his teeth he kept going.

Xander woke up with a stabbing pain shooting through his skull as someone banged on the door repeatedly, doing his best to ignore the pain he got up from the bed wincing as the book hit the floor with a loud thump. Making it to the door Xander opened it to reveal Maisie, on hand still halfway to hitting the door again.

“Morning.”

“No Xan it's afternoon, I swapped the lessons round when I realized you...”

Noticing how pained Xander looked she trailed off.

“What happened?”

With a sigh Xander decided he should just tell her.

“We may have a problem with me learning Runecraft, the short version is when my translation ability interacts with Runes it causes pain that is apparently enough to render me unconscious.”

Grabbing him by the wrist Maisie dragged Xander out of his room and out of the tavern.

“Right, I'm taking you to the apothecary, maybe she'll be able to help.”