The more he lived in this world, the more he realized one absolute fact.
He wasn't omniscience just because he was a transmigrator and he know the future trajectories would be.
"I have to do something to make up for all the plot holes."
After the plaza incident, he decided to do what a transmigrator always did, become stronger quickly, even faster than the protagonist.
Not because he wanted to replace the protagonist, but to better protect himself. He already found a future villain by accident but what if suddenly another unexpected factor comes at him.
Hamsyar was still too young thus he was harmless but what if he encountered the one that was already an adult. He couldn't persuade(scam) that person as easily as he did with Hamsyar right? One wrong move, he might even lose his head.
"I have to be more active if I don't want to have the same ending as in the novel"
The only ending for Ares in the novel is dead in the middle of the plot.
He doesn't want to die early. He wants to live a long life, enjoying this fantasy-like world. He started to become really interested in magic, skills, and techniques.
While pondering about the issue, Ares's hands didn't stop arranging his bookshelves. He just bought a stack of new books related to history magic and techniques from the black market.
The books consist of not only normal studies but also those that were deemed taboo or forbidden.
Suddenly he found the wooden box Ron passed to him along with the books he bought.
Ares traces his hands onto the sigil on top of the wooden box.
There were mages who specialized in creating protective lock like sigils but they were extremely rare and even rarer than dark mages.
"Grand said I have to use my mana to unlock it"
Every person has different traces of mana only unique to themselves thus it means Ares was the only one capable to open the wooden box no matter what. Unless there was a mage expert in sigil who managed to crack the sigil on the box.
Usually this kind of box used to keep important treasures thus he was a bit skeptical when Grand said the original Ares put his diary inside it.
'What could he wrote inside the diary that it has to be protected like a forbidden treasures?'
"Huh, isn't this looked like a Codex Silenda book?" He sounded confused.
Ares has seen this kind of book once during his work as a game designer when he has to come up with designs for a game with a medieval setting.
Codex Silenda is a wooden mechanical puzzle book, laser-cut, and hand-assembled. Each page is a relockable, 3D mechanical puzzle that must be unlocked in order to progress to the next page.
He frowned looking at the book cover that was obviously made out of some kind of metal instead of wood. It looked more complicated than what he had seen.
"Grand said this is Ares's diary right? What the hell is the original Ares doing with this kind of thing?" He grumbled.
He thought he might get at least a glimpse of how the original Ares was based on what written in the diary but now he got to solve the puzzle just to open a page.
The book looked thick and it seems he only had to solve the puzzle on the cover.
Thus with a half-hearted resolve, Ares decided to try opening the book that night.
And.
He ended up staying up all night.
Clack
"Finally fuhhh....."
Ares instantly laid down on the floor after he managed to solve the puzzle. Based on what he saw, the puzzle might look complicated but unknowingly, Ares who just randomly fiddle with every single part that he could fiddle, manage to open it.
It was like having a blind person finish a jigsaw puzzle set. That's how absurd it felt but not impossible.
Ares never had any idea about mechanical things but he just thought it was his body's memory that helped him.
"Original Ares must have done this dozen of times thus his body must have naturally memorized it despite me not having his memory" Ares muttered.
The book remained open but Ares wasn't that curious anymore. Thus while he was in a daze, unknowingly he fall asleep.
After a few hours, Ares suddenly woke up when he suddenly felt his right arm was burning. He immediately looked at the Codex Silenda he managed to open.
Instead of a page full of writing, it was blank but felt hot at the same time as if it was boiling.
"Hey is this a weird quirk of a villain to have such a hardcore diary? Just what is actually inside?" Ares mumbled trying to touch the page that started steaming.
Suddenly he felt his mana was being sucked almost immediately that bulge of veins appeared on his forehead. There was something shining on his right arm.
He quickly folded his long sleeve and saw a tattoo with a shape like a cross suddenly appear on his arm, the area around his *median cubital vein.
*(Area below the inner fold of the elbow)
"What the fuc-"
He didn't even finish cursing before a sentence written in shining gold suddenly appear.
===[Synchronizing....65% complete===
Rayyan Lee --> Ares D Zanuki
∆Character being updated
∆ All abilities being updated
=============================
Words started to appear on the blank page in the form of a beautiful golden color font.
Ares's felt like he had seen this kind of writing format before...
'Wait, am I getting a system?'
The incomprehensible phenomenon made him nervous. He had never been this nervous since he came to this world.
This diary, is it really Ares's?
What just happened? The diary seemed to know about his transmigration here.
While pondering many questions at the same time, the page suddenly shone brightly. A mere second later, without having a chance to be shocked, new words appeared.
[Synchronization 100%. Both consciousness synchronization completed.]
[All status updated]
[Blessed with unique authority, the Balancer]
Ares looked at the words with a blank face.
He completely had no idea what was going on or what he had to do.
He carefully touched the beautiful golden font before it disappeared and changed to another sentence.
As if it was a touch screen, new sentences would appear if Ares's touched the page surface.
=============
>>Atrributes:
∆Purple Eyes: Soul Gaze(full power locked)
Can see someone true appearance and characters.
∆Red Eyes : [Locked]
∆Luck : 50% Luck & 50% Misfortune
Can transfer luck or misfortune to someone else. Further practice needed to enhance this ability.
∆Anti mental interference:
Capable of defending any type of mental magic or interference. No one can access your consciousness and memory without your consent.
>>Skills:
∆Eight Trigram Urns
Immunity to extreme poisons. Capable of purifying poison and harmful substance entering the body automatically.
∆Psychokinesis(Low Tier)
Created solely to fit Ares Zanuki. Only capable to affect non-living objects like weapons. Weight restriction will be lifted when level rises.
∆Fire magic(Low Tier)
Capable of wielding low tier fire element magic.
>Fire Balls
>Breath of Fire (Basic)
∆Lightning magic
Capable of wielding low tier lightning element magic
>Electrostatic weapons (basic)
∆The Wind Swordsmanship Technique(Basic)
•Ability to attack as fast as the wind with precise one attack per second. Upon mastery, only one second is needed to defeat the enemy.
•The technique can be upgraded upon full mastery.
∆Energy Absorption(new)
•Capable of absorbing any energy in this world as your source of energy like mana, dead mana and holy power.
• This skill is unlocked after user absorbed huge amount of holy energy.
•Now user is capable of using holy energy
Luck: 1
Misfortune: 1
Everyday, user is provided with one luck and one misfortune to use on himself or to others. Number of luck and misfortune increase when the attributes became stronger.
===========================
The more he read, the deeper the frown on his glabella became. The format looked like Cedric's system format but also a bit different.
"Is it because Cedric is the native of this world and I'm not? But what the hell with this luck and misfortune point? Does it have to do with the unique authority, the Balancer? Should I try using it?"
Since he was currently at Zanuki mansion in Kazigare Valley, he didn't have to worry about his safety since the security was stricter than the matriarch's mansion.
Because of that he chose to spend the one point of misfortune on himself. Touching the word misfortune on the page, the number '1' quickly turned to '0'.
"Is this how to use this book?"
Waiting in anticipation for anything bad to happen, instead of the bookshelves falling down or the chandelier crashed onto him, the book suddenly turned to another page.
[Interfered by Unique Authority, the Balancer]
====Mission====
Save Hellios clan last descendant
Description: The last blood of Hellios clan is trapped in the Tree of Life tomb.
Reward: Tree of Life Inheritance. One point luck will be bestowed on the last Hellios clan.
Penalty: Negative Luck bestowed for a month
The mission is auto accepted.
==============
"Hellios clan? Isn't that Cedric's original clan? What does that have to do with me though?"
Ares was stupefied when he saw he suddenly got a mission and not an accident as he thought when he spend the misfortune point.
Ares knew Cedric's origin more than the current Cedric thus he also knew the Hellios clan descendants could only be trapped alive using the Tree of Life, which is the fragments of the World Tree the elves worshipped.
Not much was known about the Tree of Life as it was only said to be the creation of an unknown Demi-God for an unknown reason. However, it was said to have ties with the Hellios clan.
{Tree of Life Stigmata}
Another words appeared.
Below the sentence was a symbol of the same black cross shape just like the tattoo on his arm.
"Stigmata? What is the function?"
However, the book didn't respond and all the previous sentences disappeared. The hot sensation has also gone as if nothing happened.
"Hoi what kind of diary is this?" Ares grumbled confusedly while feeling his mana almost get sucked dry.
He tried to remember all the details from the novels, forums, and even the author interviews that he watched.
"Hey Ray, do you know why I didn't allow you to change Ares's character outcome?" The author of 'The Journey of A Hero' novel randomly asked him in his previous life.
For Rayyan, he was a weird fellow with a unique way of thinking but he didn't make him uncomfortable which he finds interesting the more they interacted.
"Why? Do you want to put an *ester egg or something or a hidden ending?" Rayyan tried to guess.
*(An Easter Egg is a term used to describe a hidden detail left in a movie by the filmmaker. This element could be a message, foreshadowing or call-back to another medium, designed to give the audience members sharp enough to catch, a thrill.)
"Hah, everything is not black and white my friend. Ares is the most colorful of them all" the author chuckled while spouting not a bit of information. He always talked like someone drunk.
Rayyan was already used to his weird and ambiguous way of talking thus he didn't press nor he was curious about a fantasy character.
But now as Ares, he felt things that happened just now weren't as absurd after he remembered the conversations he had in his previous life.
Didn't they say, an author is the God of the world he wrote? Everything inside the book is his creation.
Before, he felt dissatisfied with why he didn't seem to have any special perk as a transmigrator other than his knowledge but now it seems like God specifically chose him since he was close to the author during the creation of the game based on the novel.
Author=God
Ares felt the equation seemed weird but wasn't as absurd as how he suddenly came to this world.
"Is Ares actually a *deuteragonist?"
*(The deuteragonist is the secondary character, right behind the protagonist in importance. The deuteragonist may be on the protagonist's side: for example, a love interest/sidekick)
The only example deuteragonist that he could think of is Zuko from the Avatar The Last Airbender.
"Sigh, if that's true, why did the author kill Ares before the novel even enters its final climax?" Ares still trying to process his thoughts.
The diary was said to be the possession of the original Ares. But how could the Zanuki let Ares who they seemed to protect and pampered, have this kind of book?
The only explanation was that even the Zanuki didn't realize anything amiss with the book. So now the question remained was how did the original Ares even get this book?
Another weird thing was, the original Ares seemed to know that the diary wasn't anything normal thus that's explained why he put it inside the sigil sealed wooden box that only him could open.
√ Power being sealed.
√ A weird diary that seems to be a prophetic tool that has it own consciousness.
√ Ambiguous character role.
Ares who he always thought as a villain but actually wasn't seem to be the case. But how did he became so famous as a notorious villain in the novel.
"There's a lot of thing amiss. I need to know the real Ares. Not Ares Zanuki but just Ares."
If he had the original Ares's memory, some of his questions might get answered. However he didn't.
"The diary said both me and Ares's consciousness had completely synchronized; so that means I might eventually get Ares's past memories right?" He muttered
"I wouldn't be surprised if suddenly they said my unknown father is actually a God that randomly came down to Earth and impregnated my mom just like *Zeus the Greek God did"
*(Zeus had sexual relations with a total of at least 57 others. If he was a human he might already get STDs)