"SYSTEM"

Nothing happened. There was no system notification or any kind of system interface. Whatever appeared before was not coming back, there must be other conditions to fulfil before that panel appears again, right? Also, some people glanced his way to see what he said to himself and quickly turned their heads back recognizing it was none of their business.

Darrick was prepared for the embarrassment if it ever came and it did. He had said it out loud and people were looking at him for a few seconds but that was still a bit embarrassing so he opened his diary and read aloud four more words to make it look a bit more natural, somehow.

What!? I don't have a system? But I saw that broken system panel a while ago. That was definitely not a hallucination, I'm sure of it but why is there nothing now? Hey, even the broken one works. Please just give me some hope, just a quick look is enough.

There was nothing. Darrick's shoulders slumped, and he exhaled a heavy sigh questioning if he was not worthy of whatever he saw before. Even though it was a big disappointment, he couldn't do anything about it, he was just a powerless guy. He had to do something else he could control to an extent and that was knowledge.

Now it was time to read Diary No. 2, it also did not contain any groundbreaking discoveries but was *way* more descriptive with its writing unlike the first one which was limited by the vocabulary of a child. Darrick got bored just after reading a bit of diaries on things like his middle school, the subjects he learned there, and the friends he made and such things.

He would love to read all the diaries but not now, now was not the time for wasting. He got more important things to know like where this train was heading and what kind of situation he was going to face immediately after the train ride. So he took out his third and final diary.

The Third diary was a bit more special unlike the other two. It had a leather cover and decently white coloured pages unlike his other two diaries which had clothing covers and yellowish pages, likely because of the amount of money he had in his childhood and his adolescence.

Darrick opened the diary and started reading it. It started with him entering an academy at the age of fourteen in a city. For further education he left his small town and entered a city of decent size named Silvervale, when he started living there his worldview was shattered. He was just a frog in the well, he was fascinated by the workings of the city unlike his small hometown, but he was happy with his new life so he wrote about the things he loved and hated about the cities.

He was a guy from a small village so he was bound to hate the loud noises and the overcrowding. It also looks like he was a bit stressed about living up to the expectations. Hmm, coming from a village to this big city for studying means everyone in the village knew about it and even if they did not say anything, some would feel like they are bearing a lot of responsibilities.

It's good that the downsides didn't weigh over the upsides of city life. Making new friends, meeting with people of different cultures, all the facilities usually unavailable in the villages and most importantly the thing for which he came here, The education. That's good.

He flipped the pages one after another. There was mention of language, currency and some important place names that were bound to be useful for Darrick as well as help the original Darrick.

So the name of the language is 'natil' but why did he mention it only now or maybe he did mention it before, it's not like I read the second diary. And the country where I'm currently present should be 'Zalin' but I kinda don't like this name, like who would find a country named 'Zalin'? and why?

'Darrick' did not know much about the country's workings or maybe he did not care enough about it to write in his diary. The next best thing he found out was the currency- 'Denim'. He did not know the value of the currency enough to compare it with his original world's currency.

I don't know what to say. All these words do not look like it's from the same native language currently being used, maybe these names date back to a few centuries ago? It looks like someone randomly put some different-sounding names here and there. Is this an in-world inconsistency?

It may be pretty weird to look at from the outside perspective such as his but it was probably just a common word by now for the people. Even if he complained about it, it was nowhere near problematic enough to think more than a few seconds about so it just quickly faded as he did not give too much thought to it. There were more important things to worry about like the war that happened seventeen years ago.

The fuck! where the hell did this war come from? Is Darrick a war orphan? He could be, and that mostly explains his lack of parents. He didn't know the scale of war and did not bother to research about it, what a guy! Maybe the war was pretty smile, the world does not seem that fucked or maybe it is fucked but I haven't seen it yet. Could be anything I guess.

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He shrugged about it. Even though he needed information Darrick was not reading that attentively. He was mostly skimming and glancing at the pages to find some keywords to read into it. Don't know if he missed something important but he definitely got something important. He suddenly stopped at one page, he found the juicy info he was trying to find.

Wow wow wow....! I knew it, there had to be something magic-related stuff here otherwise I would have been utterly disappointed. Magic beasts, monsters and mages. This is it, I have chosen my career path. RISE OF THE ARCHMAGE DARRICK. Absolutely phenomenal!

Everyone who could use magic was called a mage. It was a broad term, all of them did not have a duty to protect people but some of them did and some may even attack humans for the fun of it. They were most of the time more dangerous than the monsters themselves.

The monsters were just pure beasts of instincts who just wanted to kill and eat any humans, they usually did not have any defining sentience so they even killed and ate their own brethren. These monsters usually did not show the characteristics of killing and eating together, at least not without any of the magic beasts leading them.

The magic beats are monsters who lived for so long that they gained sentience. Even with sentience, these things can't keep their instincts at bay. What a painful life to live knowing that something is controlling most if not all of your actions.

The magical info part needed more contemplation but he couldn't do that right now so moved on to the next page, and now Darrick lost his concentration levels and again started skimming through pages looking for the keywords that interested him or were remotely important.

This guy is one of the best academic achievers I ever saw! His scores are absolutely terrifying, he even applied for so many scholarships to pursue higher studies and got accepted so many of them. I don't know if he just finished high school or is still in high school. Here they address all education facilities as academies, Ugh.

Most of these thoughts did nothing but distract him from his current work and it was absolutely unacceptable even though it was almost impossible to keep the stray thoughts from coming up.

The diary's pages were being flipped through faster than ever, he may have missed a lot of small details but he had to finish it before the train stopped to tank whatever situation he would be in there. The diary was nearing its end, only a few pages left to finish the whole thing and then his eyes drifted around and saw something, he was distracted. Again.

The gentleman sitting right next to the old lady was reading a newspaper, by the looks of it probably the latest one. Darrick got a quick glance at a news article about an orphanage getting attacked by the beast raid and now that article was not visible anymore.

Oh no, I'm getting distracted again but that looks really important, it's tickling my brain then it must be something important, right? So I should at least read about it a bit but how should I start the conversation with that man? He has that aura of a strong person. What if something I tell is considered rude by the common standards?

"Young man, it looks like this newspaper got your attention." The man addressed Darrick.

While thinking about how to start a conversation, Darrick directly stared at the newspaper and was difficult to see where his eyes were focused on. That man at the least noticed Darrick's unfocused eyes on the newspaper.

"Haha, I was certainly curious about the news. Even though I couldn't muster up enough courage to ask about it directly." Darrick rubbed the back of his head.

"Perhaps I look scary for you to muster up the courage to talk to me?" Man asked.

"Certainly not!" Answered in an audibly loud tone. That was probably not the case.

Rather than looking scary this guy feels... spectacular? I don't know, maybe? With that suit he is literally exuding elegance, he really got that fashion sense.

He was impeccably dressed in a tailored three-piece suit, featuring a high-collared white shirt, a waistcoat adorned with subtle embroidery, and a well-fitted jacket with structured shoulders and narrow lapels. His trousers were tailored to perfection, slightly tapered towards the ankle. Completing his ensemble were polished leather shoes.

On his head, he wore a stylish bowler hat, adding a touch of sophistication to his look. His accessories included a pocket watch attached to a chain, peeking out from his waistcoat pocket, and a silk necktie neatly tied around his collar.

Overall the man was very stylish for the era, many people wore similar outfits but he stood out among all the others. Then the man offered the paper, folding it and extending it towards Darrick.

"Then don't worry about it, here take this paper. You must read and return it before the next stop in about ten to fifteen minutes, that's where I have to drop off. I'm assuming you are a student. Young ones like you should be aware of what's happening around you and newspaper is the best thing for that, what do you think?"

"Thanks for the paper, we already talked a bit and I still did not introduce myself. I'm Darrick Vental, and I only need to take a quick glance at one article. It suddenly picked my interest in the passing." Darrick completely dodged the last question with something else entirely.

"Oh yes! I'm Walter Jeskins, and which article are you talking about?"

"The one where the monster raid attacked an orphanage." Answered Darrick while still flipping pages to find the article.

"The Vental orphanage" Walter realized.

"Yes, I'm just trying to confirm it"

Darrick flipped the newspaper pages in a hurry and reached the article. The headlines were An orphanage fell to the merciless monster raid.

He read out loud the first line.

"In a merciless stampede of the monsters the children and caretakers of the Vental Orphanage met with an unfortunate death."