[Mission Log]
[Silent Guide:
The 'Vulgar Novel' Adventuring Team needs you to accompany them to the Foggy Forest and assist them in capturing two adult Frost Insects.
Adult Frost Insects captured: 0/2
Mission Description
Your companions have left you once again for various reasons, but you've grown accustomed to this. Regardless, the adventure must continue. A mundane life leaves you feeling adrift, and only an exhilarating, dangerous, and adventurous life can help you find yourself again.
The 'Vulgar Novel' Adventuring Team from Muya City has taken an interest in you, hiring you as their guide for a generous salary. There are many reasons for this, not only because you are a highly skilled and experienced adventurer, but also because you are a Norde — a previous teammate who died was also a Norde.
They hope that after this mission, you will officially join the 'Vulgar Novel' team, but that is a matter for later.
As for now, winter has passed, and the Frost Insects are about to return to their deep, elusive dens, so time is limited for you.
Set off, as the Foggy Forest is calling you.
Mission Reward: 100 points of Soul energy.
What on earth is going on? What is this so-called Soul energy? Who will give me this reward? Bartlett stares at the strange text in front of him, frowning and pursing his lips. The tattooed pattern on his forehead looks like a black iris about to bloom as he furrows his brow.
The text jumped out uncontrollably, causing Bartlett to feel genuinely alarmed. Moreover, the mission description, reminiscent of an opera's aside, made him feel as though he were an actor on stage for others to admire.
Bartlett doesn't like opera, especially the peculiar singing tone of the performers. Why can't they sing with a normal voice? Being a Norde Barbarian, he doesn't understand this so-called high art that the nobles frequently attend.
I'd rather play a clown than sing with those high-pitched or melancholic voices, Bartlett thought. But I'm not very good at making people laugh, he hesitated again.
"What's the matter? Are you having a problem?" Old Will looked at Bartlett, "You seem lost again; is this mission troubling you? However, I must point out that your eyes don't seem to be focused on the mission page unless you're cross-eyed like a Dog-headed Man I know." He laughed.
Old Will's words brought Bartlett back to reality. The barbarian adventurer shook his head vigorously and saw the text disappear before his eyes.
If this continues, I'll go insane one day and become like that 'Mad Tom' from my hometown. He was always so absent-minded, muttering incomprehensible things.
The children in town loved to bully 'Mad Tom,' Bartlett included. 'Mad Tom' was not only insane but also small and short. Although he was actually a purebred Norde and not a half-blood like Bartlett, his height didn't show it; he resembled a dwarf.
When pushed too far, 'Mad Tom' would also retaliate with harsh words, holding his head while running and shouting, "Just wait, when I have ten points of Mana!"
Bartlett didn't understand the meaning of this, and no one else did, nor did anyone care about the words of a madman.
Damnit, this isn't the time to think about such trivial matters. Bartlett looked up, only to see Old Will, the Half-Elven, and the Ogre all staring at him.
"No, it's not the issue with the mission." He explained. Taking a deep breath, Bartlett carefully read the content on the parchment in his hand again, which only described the goal of this mission and the rewards that could be obtained. There was nothing else redundant.
Two patterns were printed at the bottom right of the parchment. One pattern was the magic septagram, which was the symbol of the Magic Association; the other pattern was a piece of parchment with a dagger nailed to it, which was the symbol of the Adventurer Association.
This showed that the issuer of this task was a mage within the Magic Association, and the Magic Association handed the task over to the Adventurer Association in Muya City.
"Indeed, there are some things that puzzle me." Bartlett rolled up the parchment, tied it with a blue ribbon, and handed it back to Old Will, "But not this mission."
"If you'd like, you can tell me." Old Will's bright eyes were looking at Bartlett.
"You..." Bartlett glanced at the Mage Will across from him, hesitated for a moment, and then, as if determined, stretched his left finger into the cup next to him. There was a shallow residue of rye beer left in it.
Bartlett used the finger wet with rye beer to draw horizontal and vertical lines on the table. He neatly drew the character "日".
After some thought, he seemed to feel that the '日' character alone was not enough to explain the problem, so he used his left index finger to dip into the rye beer in the bottom of the cup again, and slowly wrote the character '志'. He wrote this character slowly, but when it was finished, it was still somewhat distorted.
"Do you recognize these two characters?" Bartlett pointed at the '日志' drawn with rye beer on the table and asked Mage Will, who had just started smoking his pipe again.
Mages are always very knowledgeable. Their strong curiosity and powerful abilities make them almost curious to study and understand everything, giving ordinary people a sense of omniscience. In fact, the entire mage community isn't too far away from 'omniscient'.
This Mage Will in front of him claimed to have lived for 200 years, so his knowledge should be extensive. Bartlett hoped to get some help from him.
Old Will leaned in and looked carefully, frowning and pondering, "Are you sure these patterns are characters and not some kind of mark? We all know that the unique mage marks created by mages are very special."
"It should be a character, or possibly a rune, but not a mark." Bartlett replied.
Marks are lonely and unsocial, just like him. Even when he joined the Vulgar Novel Adventure Team, he still seemed out of place. But characters and runes have 'brothers'. They unite together and show different meanings in different arrangements.
"As far as I can remember in my 200 years, there's no known language that has this kind of structure on the continent." The 200-year-old Mage Will pondered, examining the patterns on the table carefully, "However, looking at their structural connections, they might indeed belong to some language that is yet unknown to people." White smoke sprayed from the mage's nostrils, reminding Bartlett of the mist in the Foggy Forest.
"Language doesn't just represent the expression of meaning; it also reflects the birth and evolution of a civilization. Moreover, the most primitive languages and writing had extremely powerful forces." Mage Will seemed a little preachy, "According to an opinion circulated among mages, this opinion holds that in the beginning, the Multiverse contained only one language and writing, and this kind of writing could only be used by beings much more powerful than legendary mages and divine beings."
Feeling excited, Mage Will told the unknown legend to the people in front of him, "Because of certain unknown factors, at an untraceable historical point, part of this single writing system was stripped of its inherent power by those powerful beings, allowing more species to learn it. Eventually, these original characters, now devoid of power, slowly evolved through history into the many various categories we see today. Even now, you can still find some special traces. For example, in Common Language, High Elf Language, and Orc Language - which has very few characters - the way they write the word 'mother' is very similar."
He finished, silent for a moment, looked around at the people in the room, and then added, "Of course, this is just a viewpoint that cannot be verified."
"If they really are a type of language..." the mage pointed at the characters '日志' and seemed excited, like a child who had accidentally discovered a new toy, "Usually, there should be many more characters of the same category, which would undoubtedly have great research value. Do you know any more?"
"Well..." Bartlett hesitated, unsure how to answer.
...