Arlan sat on the bed in the hospital room he had been assigned to and leaned his back against the wall.
He was tired and wanted to sleep but knowing that he would be interrogated in a few minutes, Arlan decided to wait and instead check something he had not had time to look at before.
In his hand were two orbs, one blue and one black. Earlier, when he had been in the cafeteria kitchen, Arlan had remembered how those symbols had formed in his mind when he had first picked up the spheres.
Trying to re-create what had happened, Arlan concentrated on the orbs in his hand and slowly the symbols began to appear in his mind.
Just like when he was in the dark world, Arlan could read the symbols perfectly even though he had never seen them before.
[Lower Mana Core]
[Lower Artifact Core]
Arlan blinked several times before reading the symbols again in his head.
'Cores? ...Mana and Artifact?'
Arlan didn't understand what the two spheres were at all. Even if the symbols practically told him their names, it didn't explain anything.
But almost instinctively, as if he knew what he had to do. Arlan took the spheres, one in each hand, and squeezed.
The crystal-like spheres shattered under his grasp, turning into nothing more than lights of the same color they had been, disappearing from existence without a trace.
But Arlan paid no attention to the lights and the disappearing orbs. Instead, he was completely focused on the new symbols that had appeared in his mind.
[Lower Mana Core Absorbed]
[Capacity of first pillar: 1/100]
Arlan didn't know which orb was which, but for some reason, he knew that the black orb was the mana core, while the blue orb was the artifact core.
[Lower Artifact Core Absorbed]
[Widow's Veil]
[Artifact Capacity: 1/10]
Arlan was stunned, he didn't know what to say or think. When he picked up the orbs from the monster's corpse, he never thought that they would be cores of... something.
'Mana? ...artifacts? What is all this?'
He completely forgot about the supposed interrogation that was about to take place. Arlan concentrated on the symbols in his mind.
Like a jigsaw puzzle, the symbols began to rearrange themselves in front of Arlan's mind, showing him something completely new.
Name: [Arlan Vondel/Fisher]
Pillars: [1/5] [Heart of the Dragon Zyrzos the Corrupted: 1/100]
Innate Ability:
Skills:
Artifacts: [01/10] [Widow's Veil]
Arlan read the symbols in his head and couldn't help but frown. First of all, some symbols were brighter than others, while others were so opaque that Arlan could not read them, so he put them aside and focused on the ones he could understand.
'...Heart of the Dragon'
Dragons, incredible creatures that appeared in fantasy stories Arlan had heard of once. Many cultures worshipped dragons as divine and powerful beings, capable of completely obliterating a city with a puff of fire.
Arlan had no idea how he had gotten this supposed heart, or how he had come to the dark world and how he related to it.
There was no one to ask, and even when he spoke to the symbols, they did not respond to his words, and he could not interact with them... at least not all of them.
Arlan noticed that the name of the only artifact he had, the [Widow's Veil], was a bit brighter than the other symbols, and with a thought, the symbols began to reconstruct themselves and generate new information.
[Widow's Veil]
[Heart Forgetfulness] [Hidden]
[On the eve of her wedding, uncertain and fearful, she ran to find her beloved. She searched and searched for hours until she reached the edge of the dark ocean, where the moon was reflected in its calm and silent waves. There, her lover and an unknown woman lay on the whitish sand, stained red with the blood of both. The man had tears on his face and a knife in his chest, the woman had a blissful expression, and her throat was slit]
'...What?'
Arlan did not understand the sudden story described by the symbols, it seemed like the narrative of a love... or heartbreak novel.
Ignoring the strange story, Arlan noticed the other symbols below the artifact's name.
Like the symbols from before, these also glowed brighter than the others, so repeating what he had done before, Arlan focused on them, and they changed again.
[Heart Forgetfulness]
[The bearer is incapable of love]
'...Concise'
The description was short but direct, but even though Arlan didn't fully understand the meaning, he continued to read the other symbols before thinking about them.
[Hidden]
[The wearer will be able to go unnoticed by those weaker than him. Applies to humans only]
Like [Heart Forgetfulness], [Hidden] also had a short and concise description, but it was also ambiguous.
Arlan felt like a child opening his Christmas present, for some reason, he was excited about all the new things he was discovering. He was eager to study the symbols and fully understand their meaning.
That was until the door to the room suddenly opened and three people entered without warning.
One was the soldier who had led Arlan and Kaylynn to the bunker, another was a young man with blond hair, an indifferent expression, and eyes as blue as the sky. His gaze reminded them of the man who had rescued them in the forest when they had left the Beta bunker.
The last was a woman with brown hair and eyes of the same color, unlike the man who wore a suit, the woman wore a lab coat like the rest of the people Arlan had seen before.
"That's him" the soldier pointed at Arlan with a raised jaw.
The man looked at him casually, while the woman looked at him with some hidden interest.
"So, you're telling me a random young man killed a stalker?"
The soldier nodded and fell silent
'...Random young man?''
What he had just said was an insult, especially considering that Arlan came from the Fisher side, but he ignored it and let it pass.
The young man crossed his arms and continued to stare at Arlan, who was beginning to feel uncomfortable under the gaze of both the young man and the woman.
Sighing softly, Arlan kept his worried face on and spoke:
"W-who are you?"