When Jacob heard this hollow sound, his eye lit up. He knew very well this kind of sound could only be made when you hit something empty inside!
He quickly started to press the area, and his finger suddenly pressed something before a small trapdoor opened, revealing one cubic meter compartment.
Jacob's eyes fell on two things: one was a green book while the other item also looked like a thin book shape, but it was carefully wrapped around a tatter gray cloth.
Jacob first picked up the thick book with a blank green cover and ignored the old gray cloth folding.
Jacob finally opened it and read the first page.
"Decker Shaw Journal,
"A proud Alchemist of Shaw Family of Imp Goblin Race."
Jacob cocked an eyebrow, seeing the words Goblin and Alchemist, and thought, 'So, I fell in the hand of a goblin, huh? No wonder this guy looks so hideous, and he's even an alchemist, which also explains his experiments.'
Jacob turned the page and saw an introduction that read,
"My name is Decker Shaw, and this is my journal about my research on special physiques of different races living on the Zodiac Plains.
"Zodiac Plains are rumored to be endlessly vast, and there lived many species in this vast plain.
"There are five known regions of Zodiac Plains,
"The first, Common Races Region, where live ordinary animals and that vast forest, but no one seemed to care about this region since there's nothing extraordinary about it.
"The second is the Uncommon Races Region, where intelligent life forms live without special physiques, bloodline, or talent. This region is also completely ignored and left alone to rot.
"The third region where I'm from is the Rare Races Region. This region is very popular because of the special races that live here, with many special physiques and bloodlines.
"The fourth region, Rarer Races Region, is the home of rarer grade races with supernatural strength and many special bloodline abilities, which made the races of this region extraordinarily proud and arrogant. They look down at us. True bastards, indeed!
"The fifth region is very mysterious and called the Epic Races Region. We simply didn't have the qualification to know about this region because those bastards from the rarer races region completely blocked any kind of information about Epic Grade Races. They're their faithful dogs!
"But the widely known factor about the Epic Grade Race is they possessed something called 'Magic,' which I have no idea what it is, but those bastards of Rarer Races Region were extremely fearful of it!"
Jacob's heart couldn't help but beat wildly when he read to this point. This literally confirmed his guess about Magic. Although Decker's introduction was too vague about Magic, Jacob had read fantasies about Magic. He knew what this word represented… absolute power!
He could also understand why those arrogant people of the Rarer Races Region were so afraid of people from the Epic Races Region.
He quickly continued to read as he flipped to the next page. Just this first page revealed many things to him.
"The Races of Zodiac Plains are divided into ranks or grades according to the regions they're born in, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Rarer, and Epic. There are different professions as well, and they're also divided into the same grades.
"I'm an Apothecary Alchemist, a unique profession in our Imp Goblin Race, and I love to experiment with living things of different races…."
Jacob couldn't help but sneer at this point and mumble, "Sick bastard!"
After that, he sat down and continued to read, completely forgetting about the other thing. He also discovered that this book was written by Decker from a very young age, as he could imagine his enthusiasm and vigorous words. It didn't sound like the cruel Decker of the present.
Jacob found there were many experiments noted and some formulas of medians Decker created after a long string of experimentation.
This also revealed a lot of information, but Jacob wasn't interested in Decker's alchemy research, nor could he understand it entirely because he had no clue about the alchemy of this world. Decker seemed to be an extremely high-level alchemist as well.
This book could be said to be an encyclopedia for the Apothecary Alchemists, and no alchemist would reveal their research to another quickly, not to even their apprentices.
This was simply Decker's life work.
Jacob quickly turned page after page about alchemy. He knew this book would be beneficial if he decided to become an alchemist, but now he was interested in the information.
As Jacob turned page after page, the writing became more refined and mature and exempt from Young Decker's bullshit, while his experiments also became longer and longer.
Jacob finally decided to just see to the end since this book was eight inches thick and almost complete!
He wanted to know what kind of experiment Decker was doing on him before he took over this body.
He finally found the last entry, which was about his blood change result. Decker left it empty, which meant he was going to write it after checking Jacob's blood analysis report, but it never happened!
Jacob turned back many pages, and after turning back over hundred pages, he saw a note which wasn't about an experiment and read it.
"Today, a rarer race, the Mountain Giants, approached our Imp Goblin Race. They wanted to hire some Apothecary Alchemists for an expedition inside the Rarer Races Region.
"This was clearly a death mission since everyone knew we'll be killed right after this expedition just so those bastards could keep this a secret. But we have no choice and can't reject their request, just like always.
"I was chosen with others by my arch-rival for this death mission, who had become an Elder of the Elder Council because of his top talent, and he finally decided to get rid of old me. His name is Loop, and he's a hypocrite, scheming bastard!
"He had taken advantage of my research many times and gained that position that rightfully belonged to me, but alas, I was just too trusty and blindly trusted him since I was already busy with my research, and now he wanted to get rid of me once and for all, so I could not get in his way anymore.
"But I will not leave this book, I will take all my research to the grave, and if you're reading it, then this means I'm dead, so this is your luck you found this book, and I have no hard feelings toward you…."