Chapter 16 – The Forgotten Tome
Chris stood still at the threshold of the Third Floor.
He had expected to be welcomed by a storm of arcane whispers, ancient spells etched into floating runes, or books that pulsed with raw magical energy. But what he found instead was...
Silence.
The room was dimly lit, and the air was... normal. Not dense with mana. Not humming with power. Just still.
The shelves stretched across the vast chamber, lined with books so mundane they looked like they belonged in a noble's drawing room rather than the legendary Arcana Library.
He walked to the nearest shelf, pulled a book at random.
"The Founding of the Empire – Year by Year Chronicle."
Another.
"The Lives of the First Emperors."
Another.
"Trade Routes and Caravan Culture During the Second Age."
Chris frowned. No spells. No grimoires. No rituals. Just history. And not even forbidden history—approved, polished, safe history.
Days passed. One after another.
Chris woke early, trained to maintain his routine, then climbed to the Third Floor to search—again.
Fifteen days of dust-covered pages.Fifteen days of unremarkable titles and records.
He wasn't just disappointed—he was lost.
"Was I wrong to come here?""Was the Third Floor only a dead end?"
The hope he'd carried—the fire that pushed him through pain, pressure, and trials—flickered.
But still, on the sixteenth day, with heavy feet and a heavier heart, Chris found himself back in that same corner.
That same shelf he'd checked twice already.
As he idly reached for another book, his fingers brushed past a spine he hadn't noticed before.It was tucked behind two larger tomes, its leather cracked and curling from age.
Something about it… felt different.
He slid it out gently.
The book was bound in black leather, with no title, no emblem, no markings. Its cover was smooth—too smooth—and cold to the touch.
When he opened it, the first page had a single line written in old imperial script:
"Only those who seek beyond the veil shall uncover the truth buried beneath lies."
Chris's eyes widened.
The second page was blank.
Then the third.
Then the fourth.
Just when doubt returned… a word burned itself into the center of the fifth page.
"Hello."
He dropped the book in surprise. It hit the floor—and began to glow faintly, lines of silver and crimson etching themselves along the spine.
Chris picked it up slowly, heart pounding.
The pages were no longer blank.
Symbols. Notes. Diagrams. Concepts that defied logic.Magic that hadn't been seen in centuries. Ideas that made even his dragon rune knowledge feel primitive.
"What... is this?"
The book pulsed once in his hand, like a heartbeat.
And then, on the next page, a new line appeared—written as if in real time:
"To walk the path your ancestor feared, you must abandon the world's truth."
Chris understood, in that moment—
He had just opened a doorway.
Not into knowledge, but into forbidden legacy.