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"Apart from a few broken pieces of metal that fell from the Commander\'s armor, and a few broken scales, I found nothing worth talking about in the rest of the room…" Testros said in disappointment as he shook his head

"Instead, I can only continue the story I was telling you, since it seems we diverged from it quite a bit."

"That is true…" Dale said with an awkward smile

"So, continuing from where I stopped…"

"The Commander knew he was going to perish, so he acted based on that, and made sure to protect his legacy even after his death by hiding and preserving the very essence of the Corps…"

As Testros said that, Dale took out a small wooden ball and a book from his inventory, the two items he recovered from the safe.

"This is what I got from the hidden safe." Dale said with a serious expression as he put them on the table

Testros grabbed the ball and studied it before putting it back on the table, continuing with his story:

"... Although we don\'t know how he got hurt, we can easily infer how he died…"

Testros then took a deep breath and started narrating:

"Imagine this scene, a hurt man entering his office, hearing the screams and chaos all around him, limping as he left his trusted companions behind, knowing that he wouldn\'t be seeing them again as they bought time for him…"

"He knew there was no escape from this situation, so started his plans… Leaving behind his legacy… Or anything really."

"Better put, he was likely finishing what he had already started... Because he knew this day would come, he just didn\'t know when."

"Mayhaps he could\'ve prepared for it, but just like his name inferred, he was the Commander, the last to leave the battlefield..."

"But the question remains... For whom did he do all of this?"

"In truth, that is relative, as he had no way of knowing... There was no way to choose, he couldn\'t be picky about it."

"Whoever was strong enough to retrieve his things would have to do..."

"At least that is how it felt, the Commander did not hide anything under a complex set of requirements that only members of the Corps would know, instead, he simply hid it in a small safe."

"And once he was done, he likely did his best to stop his bleeding as he took his sword and stood there, waiting… Waiting until the sounds of conflict stopped."

"And it came, a massive monster strong enough to treat the reinforced door of his Office as if it was clay, its head scraping against the ceiling, carving a path in it as it slowly drew closer to him."

"But this creature wasn\'t completely fine, it was hurt just like him, although perhaps, much less."

"Enough for it to ignore his current strength, he was likely not a threat to it anymore."

"It walked closer to him, albeit I can\'t tell much about what happened in between... It may be that they communicated, as there are signs of this creature possessing some sort of intelligence..."

"..."

\'Intelligence... That is something I must think for the future.\'

\'Strong monsters may be just as smart as they are powerful, that was a tendency seen in the past game, and albeit not all strong monsters were like that, the meaningful ones were all capable of strategy and counterplay.\'

"This monster slowly approached the commander, and they had a final clash, but due to his injuries, the Commander fell onto the ground near the table."

"Given how the room wasn\'t completely destroyed, it\'s likely that the Commander barely had any strength to stand, his weak slash only left a small gash on the ground, it likely didn\'t even phase the monster..."

"..."

\'Weak slash?... Well... There\'s a long way to go still.\'

"And... Perhaps to mock the Commander in his dying moments, the monster shoved his own sword against his stomach, followed by that strange Thorn that pierced his heart, ending his life."

Finally, Testros said:

"This was the end of the Southern Corps, there may be other soldiers that are still alive out there, people like me, who were in the right place to flee, or were given orders that allowed them to do so, if not straight out commanded to do so."

"But I don\'t think they would be alive right now after so long... Or if they are, they may already be far beyond the borders of the South." He said as he looked at the window

"I do hope that some managed to go out there, and I wonder how they are right now if they\'re still alive."

"Perhaps like me, they found someone to pass our legacy to, and while we may be here struggling, they are thriving."

"That is to say, not everyone stood in the Wall all their life, some retired, some got injured, preventing them from working normally..."

"Those people might\'ve had the chance to leave Resko and settle outside, just like how I could\'ve if I had chosen to do so all those years ago..."

"At least, that is what I would like to believe."

/Silence…/

After a momentary silence, Dale asked:

"But we can say his plan worked right?" Dale said, trying to be optimistic

"Hah… You\'re right, we recovered all of the files within his Office, a miracle in itself, and that wasn\'t all as we recovered his keepsakes." Testros said with a smile

"His actions have allowed us to live a decently peaceful life beyond the forest as even in death, the Wall remains standing."

Testros seemed to have recovered as he said:

"With this in mind, our time is running out, so it\'s time for us to move on."

Dale nodded, he had been waiting for this.

"First, let\'s start with this book and wooden ball, there must\'ve been a reason why he kept them inside a sealed safe."

Testros grabbed the book and read the Title, finding something odd.

"Hm…"

"Is something wrong?" Dale asked as he noticed his expression

"Not quite, just that this is written in Classic…"

"What does that mean?"

\'Why did he stop halfway? I know the main language used in the Azimuth is Palamaleta, the first tongue.\'

\'There is a long story related to this that dates to some religious practices long ago, and I didn\'t quite read the Comunity Forum due to time.\'

\'If it\'s in Classic, then it\'s a more Archaic version of it?\'

"It means it\'ll be quite a bother to read, It has been decades since I used Classic..."

He opened the book and went to the first page, frowning immensely as he tried to read it.

"... Wall... I... No... We... Okay..." Testros mumbled as he read the book

"It\'ll take a while, but I\'m starting to remember."

Dale nodded in silence, but instead of waiting, he decided to check on the wooden ball and be productive.

Upon grabbing it, he started looking for clues…

"Hum..."

\'It has a rather soft texture… But it\'s very solid, even if I use my nail, I can barely leave a scratch on it.\'

\'If I look closely, the ball is actually segmented into multiple areas… Perhaps it can be opened?...\'

\'This would mean that there is something inside the ball?\'

\'It\'s about the size of my fist, so whatever is inside wouldn\'t be that big.\'

\'Hm...\'

\'... There is no point in thinking about what could possibly be inside…\'

\'Instead, how do I open this thing?...\'

Dale tried everything he could think of.

He twisted the ball, trying to see if it had any moving parts...

He then tried pressing on a few key areas to see if something clicked...

He gently shook the ball, trying to see if there were any moving pieces within it...

In the end, he put the ball on the table and spun it, trying to use centrifugal motion to open it…

But Testros only looked at him with a frown, prompting him to apologize and put the ball back…

Still, he couldn\'t remain in place.

So he got up from his seat and started to organize the books within his inventory.

Little by little, his room started to be filled with books of many kinds, organized neatly into sections…

The books were already half organized due to how he stored them, so if he goes from the oldest stored book to the earliest, a pattern would form of how they collected the books in the first place.

And albeit not all had been done like this, as he could ready their cover Titles, he could at least try to sort some of them, as anything was better than remaining still.

David would also help him and give him a few inputs from time to time, making everything simpler and more precise.

It was at this point that he asked David if he knew anything about that weird book, but he said he didn\'t...

But strangely enough, Dale felt that he was lying due to his tone.

He tried to press on, but he only met silence.

It seemed he was missing something for this Quest trigger... If it was one.

In the end, he decided to put this at the back of his head and focus on his task.

And like this, an hour passed…

…

/1 hour later…/

/Thud…/

Testros slowly closed the book, thinking deeply as he massaged his temples.

"You\'re done already?" Dale asked as he took a side glance at him

"Yes I am, I figured out what this is."

Dale smiled, stopping what he was doing and sitting back on the bed to hear what he had to say.

"This book is an assortment of Tales… Almost mythological in nature, but written in a way similar to an autobiography presented in a linear way, as if its writer wanted us to refer to it in the future."

"And he most likely wanted us to believe that the events within it were very much real... Something that I highly doubt deeming the nature of some of these stories."

"There are several stories within it, and the entire first section of the book, 3 full chapters, are all about a cult-like faction called InnerLight."

"InnerLight?" Dale asked confused

\'Was there something like that in the notification?\'

"It tells the story of its highest members, the so-called Alma Conquerors, and how they rose to their position…"

"It\'s a pretty interesting tale in itself..."

"The problem is… I have many reasons to believe that… The strongest Commander was once an Alma Conqueror."

"Really?" Dale asked, surprised

\'This is getting interesting.\'

"Yes, the second Tale of the Alma Conquerors, entitled \'The Sword\', and the tales of the Commander are oddly similar, with several aspects of it intertwining…"

"From the details of how he grew up to the way he came to become who he was... It\'s so similar its frightening."

"I even came to believe that this might\'ve been the original copy of it, and the ones presented to us were actually derived versions of it. Despite my unwillingness to believe it."

"As the way some events were presented and explained were... Harrowing, to say the least."

"But, after thinking a little, that makes sense. Because more often than not, legends tend to be either altered or exaggerated."

"The man known as the Strongest Commander was indeed legendary, but he may not have been as Golden and Great as the records testify."

"To confirm this, I\'ll have to re-read his biography, it should be somewhere in that massive pile of books, there was a copy of it literally everywhere…"

"This also doesn\'t explain the other two Chapters."

"The First Tale, \'The Spear\', and the Third Tale, \'Self\'."

"Both of them came from the same roots as the Second Tale, but the way I never heard of them, not that I can remember."

"Above all, if this is true... Then this Cult called \'InnerLight\'... It may be more frightening than anything I could\'ve ever imagined."

"As this Cult created one of the strongest warriors to ever walk this Continent, and by the looks of the other 2 Tales, those warriors were definitely not that far in terms of accomplishments, with the Third Tale being the most complete out of them all."

"Only the very end of this Tale is missing... However, I couldn\'t really understand most of its contents anyway."

"The way each story was written becomes more and more convoluted as you go, as it seemed the writer had every intention of not allowing its contents to be that easily imparted."

"They\'re almost coded in a sense, I may need several days to try and properly translate them... If there isn\'t an already translated version somewhere in the books we collected."

"Going on… There is one more thing that made me confused…"

"There isn\'t a single completed story…"

"The deeper you go into the book, the less complete each story gets."

"There isn\'t a single removed page though, instead, the pages simply go blank, as if the writer knew how to continue but refused to write the rest, or simply had no time to do so, which makes no sense since he continued writing the book either way."

"The stories, apart from the first 3 stories, are all standalone stories and don\'t affect each other, however, it is clear they all happen within this same, massive location."

"The mirrored Planes."

"Yet, there is no conclusive explanation as to where this place could\'ve been located or even a time period for us to go over, albeit I can infer time-based on the growth of the people depicted within."

"Some were obvious, like children growing, but others were... Confusing, like one of the books explains the growth of a creature based on its horns, but that isn\'t a precise time indicator."

"Any sort of environmental explanation outside of things such as caverns and castles is completely and utterly nonexistent, as the writer was as direct as possible."

"He wanted the details to be all about the personal experiences and feelings of the beings depicted within and not whatever was around them."

"No country names... No timelines... Nothing. Even the name of some characters is unknown... This is the reason why I can\'t say for certain the Second story is about the Great Commander."

"Pretty much, the story is devoid of many details, being extremely compacted."

"That is why I find this book to be very odd."

Dale remained pensive, drawing his own conclusions…

\'I see it now, so the percentage value wasn\'t how compatible it was with me, but how complete the story was.\'

\'But whatever that means in the first place is unknown… Albeit his points hold weight.\'

\'If this the Second Tale really is about the Legendary Commander, then things change...\'

\'Ignoring all consequences tied to this fact, there are bound to be several clues for my current Quest...\'

\'Albeit, this discovery doesn\'t change things for me.\'

\'This book is meant to be used, and I\'ll have to make a choice.\'

\'I\'ll discard all of the talks about the intricacies of each Tale and go directly to the bulk of it.\'

\'If I were to choose a path, then it would be better to choose an already known path, right?\'

\'I would be able to know many things beforehand and perhaps even improve upon them, while also avoiding any complications along the way.\'

\'However, there is also the question of power.\'

\'Choosing the most powerful option would be the most ideal, at least this is what most would think.\'

\'But I think that choosing something more fit with myself is better than simply aiming for more power.\'

\'If I could, I would choose something with more potential even if it started very weak as compared to something that granted me a large deal of power all at once.\'

\'But how do I determine that?...\'

"Would it be too much if I asked you to read the book for me?" He asked awkwardly

\'If I can know the contents of each Tale, then I would be able to make the right choice rather than just going on some empty impressions.\'

"Hm? That wouldn\'t be a problem but… It would take quite a bit of time… So I have an idea."

"I\'ll have Jyter transcribe the book for you and effectively make a copy of it, aside from me, he may be the only one that still knows how to read Classic…"

"Though, as I said before, not all of the book may be possible to be translated, there is nothing much I can do about it."

"Aside from us, Tina is occupied making sure the Outsiders don\'t overstep their boundaries, Misgurd is in the Guild, and Edimund is also too busy to do it."

"What do you think?"

"... I think it\'s a good idea." Dale replied with a nod

\'The book will be consumed once I read it, so why not have a copy of it? It may be useful one day…\'

\'Even if the copy isn\'t translated, it can be done so later, a copy could even prove useful later.\'

\'As if I can get a Class through it, the Villagers may be able to learn something from it too.\'

"With that out of the way…" Testros said as he grabbed the ball

"I didn\'t expect to meet such a thing…"

It seems Testros knew what this seemingly ordinary wooden ball was!

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Notes

I changed quite a bit of this chapter by adding many words.

Previously, the way Dale talked about the book left many questions unanswered and untackled, but hopefully, this time, I brought them up.

Thank you for reading, peace!

(PS Next chapter, the special one, will be left for tomorrow)