Chapter 186: Researching Runes

With a sigh, Arthur touched the necklace around his neck. He had many questions more but Miko had already disappeared after revealing the information she had. 

The reason her family was sought after is that the seven families believed the prophecy that the traitor's descendants would aid the outsider, that was expected to bring doom into them. There was also the fact that their ancestor is the one who split the world, making them suspects of holding knowledge on how to undo it. 

Thus, the Era of Yore would come back in full glory, bringing the calamities along with it. 

She said there was a limit to how much she can say, so she gave him this telepathic necklace before telling him shocking information. 

Her family already knows that he was still alive. This could only be explained that there was someone close to him that has informed them. 

Arthur sighed as he stood up. The next moment, he appeared on the roof as he pulled his mask from his subspace and wore it on his face. He jumped and stood over the railing as the wind fluttered his jacket. 

'I knew that not all of them could be trusted, but it's still a lonesome feeling to be wary of others all the time.' 

Miko had told him that her family meant no harm; they simply wished to support the outsider. However, a lot of people said the same thing to Arthur before and there are a lot more who wished him dead. 

'Even the Ilios Empire wishes to use me, so how does that make them different?' Arthur jumped from the roof as his body started freefalling downward. 

Before anyone can notice that someone has jumped, Arthur teleported away to a different building. His chain of teleports landed him back in the mansion. 

He didn't use the door and simply teleported into the foyer. He heard voices from the room and headed there to see Idris, Sier, and Vihan sitting there. 

"Welcome back," Si smiled at him and Arthur nodded in greeting. He also greeted the other two before he sat on the couch with them. 

"I've brought what you asked for." Idris turned to face him as he took out three weapons from his storage artifact. "Three weapons that are worth 20 million in total." 

"Good," Arthur nodded and took out a big case he prepared that was loaded with the artifacts that he had worked on last night. After checking them, Idris nodded in satisfaction.

"These would fetch for almost thirty million, as a rough estimate." The figure was mind-blowing for Arthur, but he was getting used to how easy it was to make money. The only reason he didn't spam Idris is that he didn't want to reveal too much of his ability. 

"Whew," Vihan whistled. "That's a lot of money you've got there. Maybe I should charge you the next time you come in here half-dead."

"Would happily pay for your services." Arthur smiled before he kept the three weapons Idris gave him into his subspace. "Any news from Master Ronin?" 

"Yes, he mentioned he might have found a way to assume the identity of a noble's son." 

"A noble's son?" Arthur raised his brows in surprise. "Wouldn't it be easier to have a commoner's identity?" 

"Public records, relationships, schools, and believable façades are hard to fabricate if you're a commoner. However, if you're a bastard son of a nobleman, then it's a lot easier for people to turn a blind eye." 

"Being a bastard means trouble." Arthur imagined how proud the nobles were and how their reaction would be. 

"Nobility circles are tight, so it's our only viable option. Furthermore, the nobleman you're taking his son's identity used to be a runes master before he went senile due to an accident in an experiment. It'll be easier to convince him that you're his bastard son and it will explain your knowledge about runes." 

"Do I also need to go there and pretend to be his bastard son?" 

"No, he's already probably thinking you're there already." Sier smiled sinisterly. "You only need to be prepared to take the exam next month. As for your disguise…"

"I'll take care of that," Arthur said and Sier simply nodded. "If that's all, I'll be going back to the fortress." 

"Well, Vihan and I are tagging along too." Sier stood up from his seat and Vihan, unexpectedly, rushed over to aid him to walk. Arthur looked at him silently and found that Sier barely had the strength to stand up on his own, realizing that he's not as healthy as he appeared to be. 

***

After their return to the fortress, Vihan treated any injuries the group had, which were minimal with Ivy around. Arthur, on the other hand, gathered everyone and registered them as guests by the core, allowing them to leave. 

However, Arthur didn't tell them that the space-locking function didn't work on him. He didn't want Zas to ask if he could be granted permission as Arthur did. The reason was simple: Arthur knew that Zas was the only one that was relaying information to Miko's family. 

His ability was the simplest testimony. Furthermore, Arthur has seen how Zas was hateful of the seven families. If it was fueled by revenge, it would be explained. 

Zas's constant doubt of Arthur probably stemmed from his family's suspicions. Furthermore, he might have been asked to test Arthur further. For example, the time he had him and Ruby compete against each other. 

Although Miko's family has proven themselves to be on his side, and even though he felt a familiarity with them that led him to go into the trial, that didn't mean Arthur could trust them and allow them to use him as a pawn. 

After the matter was taken care of, Arthur headed straight to the first layer. He cleared a room and placed a few tables around that Idris had brought to the fortress. After a few hours of arranging things and the tools Idris gave him, Arthur finally sat down. 

It was finally the time to research things. From within his subspace, he took cores that were of the primitive-tier. He had a huge bunch of these because of the goblins. They weren't enough to give him any mana anymore, but they were good to experiment with. 

Arthur took a primitive core as he sat on his comfy chair and a Strength rune appeared in his hand. He fused the two and the runic lines turned into an ethereal sphere. Just like the time when he researched his fire rune, Arthur closed his eyes and allowed his mana to get into the runic world. 

His consciousness was pulled into the runic world. However, he didn't need to exert an effort to maintain the runic world like before. His mana, after undergoing the qualitative change, held a certain authority over runes. 

As he opened his eyes and looked into the magical world, Arthur's heart shook by what he saw. In the middle of the runic lines stood a single portal. Arthur floated closer to it but could only see murky fog inside of it. 

Arthur frowned. This was not what he has expected. He did expect something different than a Reality-Gate, but this didn't make sense. 

'Maybe I need to activate it to see.' Arthur thought as he sent mana into the portal. It began growing in size and the fog became less and less. Arthur felt like he was opening a path to somewhere but he didn't stop. He wanted to know how he was able to alter the world through these runes. He wanted to know why no artifact could do the same.

As his mana drained, the portal grew larger as it began revealing what was beyond. To Arthur's dismay, it was infinite darkness. He kept pouring mana until he finally got to see something. 

'There's something beyond.' Arthur realized. He lifted his hand as he tried to touch it, despite his body not being physically here but simply a projection of it. As he touched the glass-like surface, something appeared from beyond the darkness. 

Golden eyes opened to stare at him. Arthur's soul shook as he looked at the two eyes. His consciousness threatened to break as it couldn't handle what it was seeing. The runic world shook as it started breaking. Arthur's existence shook as he felt like was being crushed. 

He couldn't look away as the eyes now had a face. Then, very slowly, the face had a body. The body had a hand that stretched toward the portal. The runic world fell apart as the hand grabbed the giant portal and began to close it. In his mind, a single phrase boomed.

'Not. Yet.'

The moment the portal was closed, the runic world fell apart as Arthur was thrown back to the real world forcefully. The ethereal core broke down as Arthur began vomiting what he ate earlier. After several breaths, he lost consciousness.