They seemed to be a mess, but Roland had found that they were special spell models that were different from humans’ elemental magic and elves’ natural magic.
The first few pages were depictions of models, and the rest of the manuscript was written in a language of triangles that he had never seen before.
“Have you ever asked a Mage to decipher this?”
“I let a few trustworthy Mages read it, but none of them could understand it,” Cage said with a bitter smile. “But one of them said that the words may be written in the devil language. So, I estimate that this manuscript might be a loot that my ancestors got. Now, few human beings can understand Elvish, not to mention the devil language. Besides, there are many kinds of devils, and there’s no telling which dialect this is.”
As a book lover and collector, Roland had learned more about this world.
The devils actually had more categories than the number of intelligent races in the main plane where human beings lived.
Most devil races had their own languages. Even the inferior devils, who could barely count as intelligent creatures, had their unique languages.
So, it was hard to translate the manuscript even though it was of evil origin.
“Then let’s translate it.” Roland put the manuscript on the desk.
Cage was surprised. “You know the language?”
He was even slightly alarmed. Could this young man be related to the Realm of Devils?
Roland snapped his fingers, and all the three of them were wreathed in a halo.
Cage was surprised at first. Then, when he looked at the manuscript, he realized that he could understand it now.
He was even more surprised. “What kind of spell is this? I’ve never seen any spell that can let you read something you don’t understand!”
Andonara was quite proud, as happy as if it were her who had cast the spell. “This is a spell that Roland modified. He’s the only person capable of it in the whole world.”
Cage looked at Roland in surprise. As a noble and a Warrior, he was literate and had received a good education, but he never considered himself smart.
Though he knew that he was not smart, he was aware that whoever could modify spells were the best geniuses.
This young man was strong, smart, and had huge potential. No wonder Andonara eloped with him.
Cage thought about that for a while. Then, he read out the words that he could now understand.
“‘I am Kelter from the Reed family. If you can comprehend these words, it means that your bloodline power has been awakened. I’m writing this so that the future generations can understand something very important.’”
“What?” Cage exclaimed. He had thought that the manuscript that had been kept in his basement for quite a while was a loot of his ancestors. Little did he expect that it was actually written by Hero Kelter himself. He couldn’t help but shout, “Why did he write it in the devil language?”
Hearing that, Roland stood up and said, “I’m going to take a walk.”
He’d better keep a distance from family affairs.
Andonara immediately grabbed his arm and smiled. “I’ll go with you.”
She was only from a branch of the family, and it seemed inappropriate for her to read the Hero’s notes that had been intentionally written in the devil language so that nobody else could understand.
“That’s unnecessary. This is Anna’s room anyway.” Cage closed the manuscript and said, “I’ll go back to my room.”
That would do!
Roland and Andonara stayed in the room.
Andonara talked to Roland for a while before she went to bed.
Roland, on the other hand, continued cracking the elven spells.
Firstly, he needed to figure out the function of every round node. Then, he could establish mathematical models with the data. With enough data, he could infer the functions of all the nodes and even seek new combinations.
Roland had always believed that math could explain 99% of things in this world.
The last percent accounted for the complicated, unreasonable, and even chaotic feelings of intelligent creatures, which even the greatest mathematician couldn’t calculate or predict.
The elves’ spell models were much more complicated than those in elemental magic. Metaphorically speaking, the natural magic would be a 2D picture, and the elves’ spell models would be a 2.5D picture with shadow and perspective, but they were not exactly a 3D hologram either.
Thanks to almost twenty years of systematic education, Roland was a great self-learner. He was not exactly the best student, but he was definitely one of the geniuses of this world.
Even though the spells of elves weren’t designed for human beings, Roland had parsed and optimized them for a whole night. Also, he had classified the magic nodes with Spiritual Endowment, which he recently learned.
After a night of hard work, he had successfully reduced the magic cost of Plant Enlivening by five percent.
It did not seem significant, but there was nothing more he could do.
This spell was for elves and not human beings. It was already impressive enough that Roland improved it so much after a single night.
The next morning, Cage knocked on the door.
He was quite shocked when the door opened, as it was a half-meter-tall treant that opened the door for him!
What exactly happened?
He was about to kick the treant away, but sensing no maliciousness from it, he managed to hold himself back.
Roland and Andonara were standing behind the treant.
“What’s this?” Cage looked at them weirdly. “Have you made a baby already?”
As a married woman, Andonara did not feel shy about the subject at all. Instead, she said naturally, “I wish this was our child.”
Roland rolled his eyes at her and explained, “This is a magic experiment I did last night. Your potted plant in this room is gone.”
Cage looked to the right of the dresser, only to see nothing but a pot of mud.
He squatted and observed the treant.
It was very thin, with a girth of the width of two fingers. Two narrow, long vines stretched out from its head, each with a green eye on it.
Then, there was an organ that looked like a mouth at the center of the trunk.
“This looks rather disgusting,” Cage couldn’t help but remark.
But this treant appeared to understand what he said. After a brief shock, it rushed to a corner and retreated its eyes into its leaves, as if it was very sad.
Cage looked at Roland in confusion.
Roland chuckled and explained, “This plant has been living here and looked after by you. So, it might consider you a father, or a master.”
“Really?” Cage was slightly confused. “But normally speaking, don’t summoned creatures always follow who summons them?”
Roland said helplessly, “This is the second time that I’ve used this elven spell, so I may have made a mistake. It doesn’t consider me its master.”
“It’s better than the first time, when the treant Roland summoned attacked him as an enemy,” said Andonara with a smile.
An elven spell? Cage’s eyes were fixated on Roland. There was no telling what was on his mind.
After a while, he moved his eyes back to the sad treant in the corner and said, “If you regard me as a master, you can stay in this house. But you must be responsible for cleaning. Also, after you grow up a little bit, you need to help me protect this home. How does that sound?”
The treant suddenly stood up, its eyes moving up and down as if it were nodding. Then, it hopped in excitement.
Seeing that Cage was willing to take the treant in, Roland was relieved and asked, “Mr. Cage, why did you come to wake us up in person?”
Cage closed the door and said in a low voice, “I read the manuscript last night. There are certain things that I can’t tell you, but I can tell you something.”
“Such as?” asked Roland.
“My ancestor mentioned in the manuscript that if his descendants are under enormous pressure or threat, or if this world is scourged by evil and we don’t have enough fighters in the family, we can go to a special space to obtain three bottles of Phoenix Blood. They can trigger a bloodline power after they’re taken.” Cage looked at Andonara and at Roland, before he said, “This is not exactly a dangerous moment, but Andonara is part of the family, and I wouldn’t know any of this at all if you weren’t here. So… as chief of the family, I should give you one bottle. You’re here in order to make Andonara stronger anyway, aren’t you?”
Roland nodded. It was exactly why he was here.
Andonara thought for a moment and asked, “Uncle, the three bottles of blood must be very precious, no? Didn’t our ancestor say that we should not use them until our family or the world is in danger?”
Cage smiled and said, “You are the queen, but you’re with him. Although the royal family keeps a distance from you now, as soon as you show the slightest weakness, those wolves will lunge at you. The stronger you are, the safer you will be. If you use this when you’re in real danger, there may be no chance for you at all… Besides, even if you use one bottle, we will have two more bottles, right?”
Andonara was rather moved. “Thank you, Uncle.”
“There’s no need to be courteous with me.” Cage gently patted Andonara’s head and said, “We’re family. Let’s grab some breakfast first and set off for the three bottles of Phoenix Blood. I’m getting excited. It’s been a long time since I had an adventure.”
