The following two weeks went by without even a hiccup. Khyrum spent much of his spare time researching other sites in his PLE, trying to figure out if there were other books similar to the one he found, The Book of Chronicles-Alpha Prime Edition 1.

He also spent a lot of time researching the articles in the book. He found many of them interesting.

“Many of the articles here seem ludicrous at first glance,” I said.

Reading them out loud would make you sound like you were crazy or had too much to drink. But if not for the fact that I had already done one of the techniques and was positive it had good results, I would have already moved on to something else.

I was itching to try the other things described in this book. Most had TGene restrictions. You had to be at a certain level to try them.

Another of the things in this book that was very interesting to me was the description of the different skills.

For instance, House Cassiel had healing spells such as aid, minor restoration, aura of healing, and others of higher tier.

You would only know these skills if you were familiar with or part of House Cassiel. Most abilities are a hushed secret, not shared lightly with anyone, and the higher-tier ones are highly secretive, not disclosed to anyone, not in the top five families of any given group.

So, reading them here was quite a surprise.

“If I could learn healing spells, man, I could fight beasts and high-ranking Alphas on equal ground,” I thought.

I wouldn’t have to worry about getting injured or asking for help. I could go on expeditions into the forbidden lands to find treasures and other things. This would make things so much easier for me.

“I need to look for someone with a healing technique,” I said.

“Probably someone in the medical or pharmacy fields," I thought.

While researching The Book of Chronicles, another group also caught my eye: the mysterious Bragen Group.

According to the book, they were considered the best of the Transcendent Groups at the time.

Their forte was the understanding, comprehension, visualization, and realization of Space, Time, and Assimilation techniques.

What precisely all that meant was debatable. The book said they could assimilate skills from the different groups and use them as their own, but that was true of many Transcendent today.

Many Alphas could use a small part of another family's skills. Most tier-three skills are interchangeable among the families now. Most attribute this to all the crossbreeding between the different families and corporations over the last 300 to 400 years.

To my knowledge, there were no more true or clean bloodlines left.

Bragen could also manipulate Space and Time. This was initially unbelievable to read since no Alpha had ever dreamed of doing it.

Manipulating Space and Time was considered folklore, even among the Transcendent.

But here it was in this book. A group from the past had these skills—or at least that is what was written in this chronicle.

“It would have been amazing to witness this,” I told myself.

“Can you imagine being able to manipulate space and time? What skills could you do?” I asked myself.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I was hooked on the chronicles. I continued to read and try to figure out as much as possible.

Suddenly, I got a message from Brandon on my PLE.

“Where are you at shithead? We need to talk now!” it said.

It was already Friday, so I knew we would return to Rayong tonight. I was still in school, in my hideout, and I wanted to finish reading the book. I knew that this weekend would be a hassle.

So I did what any 15-year-old boy would do; I ignored him.

“I’m busy right now and can’t talk,” I wrote.

“Go back to Rayong with your mom and sister, and I’ll see you there tomorrow,” I continued to write.

It was the same as when we came about a month ago. They traveled ahead, and I came in with the maids and servants.

After that, I turned off the messenger option on my PLE. I didn’t want to be disturbed for the next hour or two.

After what seemed like minutes of being engrossed in the book, it was time for me to head back, as 2 hrs had already passed.

I walked back to the estate, and when I got there, I could see the maids and servants ready and waiting.

“Young, Master Khyrum, you're finally back,” said Malee.

“Yes, Malee, I had some unfinished business at school, but it is done now,” I answered.

“Are we ready to go?” I asked.

“Yes, young master,” she replied.

“Please don’t call me young master, as I’m not part of the Richie family. Just call me by my first name, Khyrum,” I said.

“If we are ready, let's get going then,” I continued.

“Ok, you…I mean Khyrum,” said Malee, catching herself mid-sentence.

“Please jump in my transport vehicle so we can head off,” she said.

With that, Khyrum got into the transport vehicle and returned to Rayong with the rest of the staff.

When we arrived at Rayong, it was late at night. I returned to the guesthouse but didn’t feel much like unpacking, so I went into the bedroom and crashed out. I fell asleep quickly.

It was already 10:30 am the next day when I heard the shrill voice of a pretentious and self-observed individual screaming in my room.

“Khyrum, what are you doing? Wake up, you asshole!” said Brandon.

I looked at him from the corner of my eye as I lay on my bed.

“Hey asshole, wake up. I need to talk to you now”, he said as he started getting puffy.

“What do you want, Brandon? I’m in no mood to deal with your shit today,” I said as I rolled over to the other side to avoid looking at him.

“I heard that Nox from Strike Team 3 wants to talk to you about joining his team. Supposedly, you showed great ability or something.”

"What ability if you're a loser?" he said, irritated.

Brandon couldn’t help but feel envious that I had been chosen to join a strike team first instead of him.

“I’m not sure if that's true, but even if it was, what does it have to do with you, Brandon?” I said in a frosty tone.

“It has everything to do with me,” he said, annoyed.

“I’m the one with the famous father, and I’m the one with the better genes, so there is no way you are getting on that strike team before me, you get it?” he said, agitated.

“I’m not even sure why he thinks you are great. You are a nobody, Khyrum, only surviving on what my family gives you. You better know your place quickly,” he said as he walked away.

That rubbed me wrong, so I got up and answered him briskly.

“I wasn’t going to join anyway, as I was not interested,” I said.

“But understand this, Brandon. I live with your family here, at your father's invitation. He was the one that asked me to come, not the other way around,” I said, unsmiling.

“The fact that I live here does not give you the right to tell me what to do. If you have a problem with that, bring it up to your dad,” I told him before I walked into the restroom.

From inside the restroom, I could hear him cursing as he exited the guesthouse.

“What a pain in the ass,” I could only say after he left.

I tried to avoid as much interaction with him as possible, as I knew how fickle he was. He was also becoming more temperamental as time passed.

You throw in a girl that he wants to impress, and that, my friends, is a recipe for chaos and anarchy—a situation I did not want to be involved in.

After I finished my bathroom routine, I left in search of breakfast. Usually, I kept some food in the guesthouse, as I did not like to go into the main house.

But since we just arrived, I had not had any food delivered to my guesthouse.

“I’ll get with Malee and have here restock my fridge with some items. Not too many, as we will only be here for about four days,” I told myself as I walked towards the central kitchen.

Once I walked in, I could see the cooks working on some food.

“Chef Thida, good morning,” I said.

Chef Thida was the main chef for the Richie household. Mr. Ethian had recruited her from one of the secondary families from the Cassiel Group. Chef Thida was very good, and she also had Tgenes, which was one of the reasons she got hired. She used a healing technique to make the food healthier and ensure no toxins or poisons were added.

“Good morning, young master,” she said politely.

“I said it before, chef. Please use my regular name. I’m not related to this household,” I replied.

She looked at me with tender eyes and just nodded.

“What can I get for you, Khyrum?” she continued.

“A serving of your tasty breakfast omelet would be a start,” I said, rubbing my stomach.

“Also, if it is not too much trouble, could I look at the sequence of your third-tier healing spell?” I said in a humble tone.