[Mission: Explore the den of a Lost
You have entered the dwelling of a 'Lost'. Explore what he left completely.
Reward: 5 Fate Points]
'A "Lost"? What is that?' Irwiz thought.
He wasn't surprised about the new mission - he had gotten several of them up to date.
However, this term of 'Lost', it seemed to be a 'professional term' of the mystic world. Or perhaps a being different from humans?
Whatever it was, it was the world where he was desperate to reach.
Seems like entering this place would be a huge step forward in his wish.
Perhaps, following the trail of missions were the key to-
"What are you thinking?" Rera's delicate voice interrupted his thought process.
Rera asked the question out of curiousity.
Immediately after the lights had turned on, Irwiz had suddenly stopped in place and seemed like he was in deep thought after all.
"Nothing, just taking in the view" Irwiz pointed forward.
Following his finger's trajectory, it was...
The apparently 'den' of that Lost.
The light from some stones embedded into the wall illuminated the room.
It wasn't a big room. Perhaps the size of their previous shelter.
The furniture and etc weren't all that special either; just one chair, made of hardened mud, a very ragged blanket covering a part of the room, along with some random debris.
It was hard to tell what it was because it was initially made with mud too. As time passed, intentionally or not, they weren't able to preserve themselves and internally collapsed.
At first sight, what caught Irwiz's attention would be one book that was lying on the blanked face down, while open.
It seemed to have several pages torn out from it.
Looking around, Irwiz couldn't really find anything.
So, he decided to look into it.
The cover of the book was worn out with the passage of time, with the edges especially more so.
Although it seemed to have a title, Irwiz couldn't read it at all.
Opening the book, it was the same thing. Even more so, it was a very unorganized book. Instead of sentences, it seemed rather like a long line of scribbles. Every page he turned to was the same, although some were short and some long.
They varied.
At the same time, there were also some drawings or illustrations, although they were hard to understand.
On some of them, there also seemed to be drawings. Unfortunately they were nothing special. It looked like the author tried to draw some tree or table, just random things sometimes.
On the halfway mark, where the two pages of the book was lying face down, the words on it were completely worn down and unreadable.
As he flipped the pages more, the writing became more and more unstable.
At the last page, it was a different sight.
It was no longer ink that had been used to write, instead it was a reddish-brown ink that had been used. Judging by the color, Irwiz guessed that it may have been blood that had dried.
However, it did seem to have a lot of emotion poured onto it.
'Only if I could understand the meaning' Irwiz thought regretfully.
An escapee from the cult, one who has possibly been here way before, was crucial information.
Eventually, he would encounter the mystic world after all. It would've been good to know of it as soon as possible.
Well... not like he knew any written language in this world after all. For some reason, he just understood the way people talked when he came here.
But he didn't know how to read nor write. It wasn't anything special since all the orphans in the shelter were the same.
Majority of the people residing in the slums didn't get the opportunity to read and write.
Thus, he also didn't trust Rera to be able to read.
However, just as he was thinking about what else he had to do in order to complete the mission, the black panel popped into existence before him.
[Learn the Ancient Seraph language for 5 fate points?]
[The maximum number of points you can borrow depends on what you are able to get within the near future.]
[As you have an impending mission worth 5 fate points, you are able to borrow 5 fate points at this moment.]
Joy immediately filled Irwiz's eyes as he immediately accepted.
This knowledge before him was like a treasure trove behind an iron lock. He lusted for what it represented, but he could only watch helplessly as he didn't have the key.
Turns out, the key fell from the sky!
Obviously, to borrow didn't feel like anything good to Irwiz at all. If he had been fortunate before, the situation might as well be reversed if he borrowed.
Still, he didn't believe 5 fate points would bring any particular disaster, so he accepted.
Immediately, he felt something had changed inside his mind. He didn't know what it was, but he felt as if he could understand the book now.
Just as he looked at the title of the book, Rera's voice sounded from besides him.
"Di... diary?" she was not confident as she said those words.
"What?" Irwiz was confused.
"That book's title, doesn't it say diary?" she pointed out.
Earlier, she had been looking around the room and had now come to look at what Irwiz had found.
"You know how to read this?" his pupils constricted as his words sounded incredulous.
How was she able to read? Not to mention a normal resident of slum not even knowing how to read the modern language of Seraph, ancient Seraph would be far out of their reach.
They probably didn't even know the language existed, worrying only about the present.
But this orphan girl, from the shelter, knew it? How?
"Yes. My grandfather taught me when I was young" Rera answered. She seemed to be quite proud of this fact.
"Why did I never hear you were literate before?" Irwiz couldn't help but asking. From his knowledge, everyone in the shelter was illiterate - including the boss.
If Rera was literate, she could've enjoyed a much more preferential treatment at a place far better than the shelter. Especially if she knew ancient Seraph too, wasn't that basically at a scholar's level?
"It was my grandpa's will; he said not to tell anyone. Also, I'm not that good either" she explained.
"Your grandpa huh..." hearing that, he gave the book to Rera.
Perhaps, was them meeting fate? It was also incredibly coincidental that their prison cells' locks matched each other too.