The Arcadia System

A voice disrupted the serene atmosphere in the forest, "So, this is it?" 

It wasn't human. It belonged to a certain cat who viewed itself as the best cat alive.

It marvelled at the sight of a small cave opening at the riverside.

The mouth of the cave wasn't anything obvious. If he wasn't searching for something like that, he would have subconsciously ignored it.

Slowly, he inched closer to the cave but stopped when he noticed something strange.

His heterochromatic eyes turned blue as his sight changed to a colourful one, "There is a magic circle in the cave but it's dormant. It should be for shaking off unwanted guests."

His trail of thoughts made him discover something, which prompted him to exclaim, "Wait a minute, aren't I an unwanted guest?"

"I guess it's okay since the magic circle is inactive. But….how was it made?"

The growing mage in him made him question the existence of the magic circle.

His knowledge of magic circles was that they were a reflection of mana manipulation.

That meant that for every magic spell or skill, there was a corresponding magic circle.

If going further, one should note that magic spells needed a second party to invoke them, providing their power source which was mana!

Hence, his curiosity was not unfounded.

With his [Magic Eyes], he could infer that the cave's magic circle was active some time ago, maybe years ago. It was powered!

By who then?

Or maybe by an object that could contain mana?

If so, that was wonderful. It had to be known that even mages find it hard to contain mana without leaking a few units.

A drool dropped from Reve's mouth as he increased his pace, "I will have to see it up close."

It was the same issue with the teleportation circles, which, when he thought back on, was quite peculiar.

Reve forgot all about his promised sleep and entered the cave.

He walked closer to the nexus of the magic circle situated on the left wall of the cave's mouth.

"Hmmm, the lines in the circle are leading somewhere," muttered Reve.

He traced one of the waning lines to the depth of the cave.

Instantly, he got hit by the smell of old books, the signature of the abodes of mages.

It seemed the end of the case appeared to be a room or, at least, tried to appear.

It was supported by long wood stands that would support the cave, prohibiting it from suddenly crashing down.

Reve traced the magic circle line to a stop. The trial ended with the line entering a spot on the ground. The spot pulsed with blue energy. When the plus contacted the magic lines, it lighted it for a moment before darkening back.

Half a second later, the cycle repeated itself.

It attracted Reve's eyes, "What is that? The power source? I don't understand."

What he did understand was his meagre knowledge of the concept called magic. He wasn't qualified to even examine things of the past.

Hanging his head down, Reve decisively left the blue spot. He focused on the rest of the room.

"A comfortable chair. A large bookshelf. A fireplace. Table for various equipment and stashing supplies. A smaller table for his experiments. A large picture hanging on the wall. This definitely feels wizardly…..Hmmmm... "

Reve moved closer to the picture to inspect it. He couldn't tell whether it was drawn or made by magic.

Either way, depicted in the picture was an old man with long grey hair and beards. He wore a black robe and put on a long wizard hat.

He definitely was what one would first think of when they heard the word wizard.

On the bottom right corner of the picture were handwritten words. They were written in a language he could not understand.

However, just below that was a language he could understand. English!

Reve read the characters, "5100 A.E."

He thought deeply of what that might mean. It was some sort of date, detailing a specific time period; A.E.

If so, what was the current time period?

"I really need to learn this world's language. But how am I to achieve that? I haven't met a single living thing that doesn't want to kill me," sighed Reve.

His sight left the picture and focused on the most important stuff in the room; the bookshelves!

Mr.O had a weird fetish for translating books to English counterparts.

"Even though it's weird, wherever he is, may the Lord bless his soul," prayed Reve.

He gently pulled a book from the bookshelf and read it, "#&#%#%#...let me read it again."

"#&%#%#%#...."

"....."

"Blasphemy, this is not in English!" screamed Reve.

He was under the impression that the books here were translated but if not.....

Reve took another book and checked it. The outcome was the same; not readable!

He started to panic as his furs left his skin, "No.No.No.No.No."

Books after books, it was all the same. 

"Yes, this one is in English. Let's see…."How to build a cave"...."

Reve wept internally as he entered curses, "Damnation…."

He had wasted his time coming to this abode. He wasn't even sure if the others wouldn't be the same.

After all, not all the books in the previous abode were in English. He shouldn't have expected otherwise for this abode.

Now, it served no purpose to him.

"Ahhhh!"

Reve's vein bulged as he threw a fit in the room. By the time he was done, it felt more like a cat's room.

Having satisfied his inner cat-self, he laid on the cold floor and simply closed his eyes.

It was time to sleep.

[Notice: A request has been made to contact you by an unknown force.]

Reve jumped up as soon as he heard the familiar voice in his head.

He briefly digested the information and felt disappointed. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anything.

He thought, "Can I reject?"

[Notice: You have been given free will. Reject or Accept?]

[Notice: Rejection has been received.]

After a few seconds, he got no more messages from Nixy and realized the matter has been settled.

Then, he went back to sleep.

All of a sudden, he felt like an itch was on his back. Something was wrong and his senses weren't responding.

His eyes fluttered opened and the first thing he saw was a hazy figure which responded to him, "Hello."

...

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