Roland POV
Roland sat uncomfortably in the lotus position; his brown skin glistened with sweat. His hair was out, and so messily it fell over his face in an untidy braided mane.
His eyes tightly pressed shut in a pained expression whilst he tried to avoid cursing from the growing pain. In a somewhat unsurprising compromising turn of events, he was stripped free of his clothes and left with a simple rag tied around his waist to cycle the thin strands of Ki he forced through his hardened channels.
That alone might've been somewhat bearable if not for the incessant droplets of water falling directly between his brows.
The suspiciously acidic liquid was beginning to burn his eyes. But its true purpose involved the undeveloped meridian network running through his body. Roland had spent so long focusing on his mana and his sea of awareness that he completely ignored his body for a while.
The process of refining his low iron into a bronze rank started now, and to help facilitate this change, he had the help of the little swallow with a blindfold and silvery cropped hair.
Roland was beginning to wonder if she was the best source of help right now. Considering they couldn't stop bickering since this entire ordeal began.
The swallow stood on a short stool and carefully held the bowl of water over Roland. Every five minutes, she was supposed to allow a few drops to fall precisely onto his forehead. Roland had three minutes to absorb and attempt to use the drops to clear the way through his blocked channels. Too much would cause him to pass out (something he had already experienced enough times today).
And too little meant he could not do much with the liquid racing through his meridians. According to the theme of the body refining manual, purposefully made for him by his late Mother. The aim was to first fill Roland's body with some of the rarest and most potent elixirs before bombarding it with a harsh regime to force his body to expand past its limits. This was something he considered 'easier said than done.' However, according to the lady who made this book for him. The elixirs she had been force-feeding him since his birth were supposed to help facilitate the extreme process of what he was undergoing.
Roland felt another drop landing and could only bite his tongue whilst the excruciating pain burned from the top of his brows all the way through his body until the heat settled in his stomach. He tried countless times to talk to Omega in a bid to help steer his mind away from the pain. But it didn't help that the system was prone to alert him to every change of state his body went through.
He stomached this gruelling ordeal for another half-hour before his body gave way to the stress of it all, and Roland collapsed against the floor. His sticky back clung to the hard wooden ground. Roland stared into the empty air, his chest heaving in and out whilst laborious breaths wheezed out from between his mouth.
"I…I n-need -a break." He wheezed painfully. He could hear movement around him from the swallow setting aside the stool, before she dusted her palms together.
"Agree with you there, weak prince. So how about we call a time-out for now and resume this later. Oof-my joints are so stiff." Said the swallow, rotating her arms around to loosen her joints.
Roland could barely breathe, let alone speak, so he chose to remain where he was. He found a rare opportunity to reflect on his past and future lives. At some point, he remembered the previous owner of this body and sat upright with great difficulty.
He scampered towards his bed and peered underneath it. Here, he kept the hard-backed books and scrolls he took from Wizard Grey's hideout.
Roland glanced at the thickest and heaviest book in the pile. He carried the book out from beneath the bed but also noticed a small folded piece of paper sandwiched underneath.
"Hm, this is—"its crumpled appearance told him where this likely originated from. After he opened the paper, Roland wasn't surprised to read the thoughts of a familiar and slightly unhinged voice.
"How many lives have I lived? Why does it feel so fractured, all of this, my mind, the visions? I forget what's accurate from time to time. I forget…if I am real. I keep having these same nightmares. I keep seeing that damn face again. Who is she? Do I know her? I …I don't think I do but she keeps showing up. With that crazed wide smile of hers. Tsk! Nobody believes me, but I'm definitely cursed. I must be. Nobody else has these illusions. No one else but me sees that little girl with red eyes and midnight-coloured hair. Why is it only me? Why does she only torment me? I hate this feeling. I hate this life. I hate everyone. They don't trust me. They doubt me. They shunned me and called me crazy. Why? Because I'm different? But everyone is different? They have different names? Just like I do.
And I bet…I bet one day they'll try to get rid of me.
I only have my work. My thoughts and my dreams. One day, I'll discover a new world. I know one exists out there. And one day, I'll be just like them. I'll be just like the stars. I'll be strong and revered; I'll be called beautiful and be loved. One day…one day, I'll be truly magical."
Roland removed his gaze away and simply sat there in silence, staring dreamily into the open air with mixed feelings. He couldn't recall how long he sat there. But once he finally moved again, a dried trail of tears stained both of his cheeks.
Time had drifted on, and Roland was entangled in the deep lore of Wizard Grey's testament, which he soon came to discover was practically a dense recording of Wizard Grey's quite eventful life.
Roland was already 100 pages in and nowhere near the middle of the thick book. So far, he learned about the Wizard's origins and the first steps towards learning magic and becoming an initiate. Wizard Grey's childhood was briefly described as a period in his life where living in darkness had given him the tools to overcome the hardships he was set to face. Other than the role his Aunt played in making sure he was fed. The book hardly touched on the members of his family. Roland assumed that was purposely done.
The more interesting thing Roland discovered was the journey. Wizard Grey was once deemed inept to become a mage. Due to his childhood upbringing, he was diagnosed with a body incapable of ever developing a full-functioning mana core. The similarities were enough to pique Roland's interest, and since that discovery, he has found himself glued to the pages, reading how the younger version of Wizard Grey navigated and planned his life towards a better outcome.
"He challenged an apprentice to a duel and won at the age of 15. After he pillaged the body and discovered a wand, he self-taught himself the theories of magic."
Roland was impressed. Strangely enough, the old-timer's early choices seemed to align with his current way of thinking.
'I've never read a testament before. But it's like a personal diary.' Other than an account of Wizard Grey's life, there were detailed mentions of the people he learned specific spells from, dates, times, and processes it took him to learn them.
He finally closed the thick book and exhaled a deep breath. Roland twisted from side to side, feeling a little more mobility returning to his body. He noticed the silver-haired girl wasn't back yet, and since his death knight was currently away carrying out the last pieces of his escape plan, Roland found himself wondering what to do in the meantime.
"Another quick read wouldn't hurt anyone."
He shifted through the hard copies of text he pillaged out of boredom until he stumbled upon one peculiar book standing out. What caught his attention was the gold and black casing on the corners of the small book. A peculiar symbol was etched against the hard cover. Roland traced his fingertips over the black flame drawn using fine strokes. It reminded him of calligraphy.
"Hmm, wonder if this is a spellbook or something?" He mused to himself excitingly before opening to the first page. Roland narrowed his brows tightly upon doing so. The first pages were covered in a strange, inconsistent set of text.
'Omega, can you translate?'
The system went to work, and Omega produced a response in only a few seconds. Roland was surprised once he heard what it was.
{Omega will need a longer time to complete an analysis}
'Longer time? Hasn't your analysis ability gotten stronger? Usually, it takes you a few seconds.' He questioned the extra voice in his thoughts
{…}
{Unable to comply with host request…text contains traces of unknown energy. Omega will run a layered security scan to ensure the nature of the energy isn't harmful}
Roland was a little puzzled to hear that from Omega, but he trusted his system and imagined it had its reasons.
Despite this, he curiously turned the pages, combing his gaze over each page, finding a rather intrigued marvel at the unknown text. Unlike the other scrolls and books he read, which were clearly in another language, Roland found these symbols somewhat bewitching. If he had to make a comparison, he thought of those ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics from his old world.
He pressed onwards until he saw a prominent symbol taking up most of the page. It was drawn in a similar style to the symbol etched against the front of the book, but strangely enough, Roland felt it looked different.
'This is weird; the more I stare at it, the more it looks like the symbol is coming out of the page?'
Roland wasn't sure if he was hallucinating or not. But the more he stared directly at the symbol, the more distorted the page became. Suddenly, he was bombarded with that sickly feeling of vertigo and swiftly pulled his eyes away. But then the most horrific thing took place. As Roland dropped the book down and shuffled away, the large black symbol peeled itself away from the page on its own accord before slowly ascending into the air.
After rubbing his eyes a few times over and seeing he was, in fact, not dreaming. Panic quickly ensued. Roland tried to bring himself to run, but there was a heaviness in his movements slowing him down to the point Roland felt as though time was falling still. He cursed into the air before slowly twisting his head to face the inevitable. The sizeable floating symbol had enlarged twice its original size and honed in slowly towards him.
Roland was completely horrified, forced to sit there in despair. With narrowed eyes, he couldn't help but watch the inevitable take place.
'Omega! What-what-what the hell is that.'
The system went to work on fulfilling Roland's request. The large symbol had grown as tall as his face. Roland had no more room to shift his away. He bit his lower lip and cursed his rotten luck as always.
"Ah, crap."
The symbol flashed forward towards him.