“Well,” Gramok said, slapping Jake on the back, “you’re on your own for this one.”

Jake chuckled. Back to the usual. “Guess you don’t know the language at all?”

“Nope. Besides, even if I did, you’re the one that can see magic.”

“Right.” Jake bit his lip. Where to even start? The Archaeology perk to learn lost languages would be perfect for this. Maybe studying the ruins would give him insight into their culture and level the skill up to three.

He paced up and down the room, staring at the murals. Each side told a story that mirrored the other. A people rising in power, only to be destroyed by their own hubris. Was it a warning?

No, a lesson.

Archaeology skill increased 2 → 3!

Jake smiled and put the perk point into Forgotten Tongues. Even a novice level of understanding would be a lot better than nothing. Maybe it was time to spend those three Language perks he’d been sitting on, too.

Learning (0/5): Increases speed of learning languages up to Adept level.

Mastery (0/5): Increases speed of learning languages from Adept level up.

Artistic (0/5): Increases skill in using language in an artistic manner.

Technical (0/5): Increases skill in using languages in a legal or technical manner.

Speedster (0/5): Increases speed of writing and language comprehension.

Translator (0/5): Increases speed and quality of translation efforts.

Artistic and Technical were out. Speedster and Mastery might be useful down the line, but not for now. That left Learning and Translator. Which was more important? Taking extra time would duplicate learning, but wouldn’t necessarily increase translation quality. He put two points there and one in Learning.

“Hey.” An arm wrapped around his, and he jumped.

His startled muscles partially relaxed. It was only Cara.

“What do you see?” she asked, leaning against him.

“It’s a warning. I think they don’t want us to make the same mistake.”

“A warning about magic?” A grin lit up her face. “A bit late for that.”

He rested his head on hers. “I don’t think so. Magic is depicted here as good—it saves them. Then here, it’s bad again, used for war. Besides, this whole place is soaked in magic. That’d be a strange way to say not to use it.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

“Right.” Jake frowned. The magical symbols in the murals were similar to those in the wood elven ruins, but also completely different. It had to be language, but where did one word start and another end?

What was he missing?

He disentangled himself from Cara and moved on to the desk. Atop it was a twelve-by-twelve grid of buttons, most but not all marked with magical symbols of varying length and complexity. Definitely some kind of input device.

Presumably not an alphabet, otherwise why make extra buttons that wouldn’t ever be used? Plus, many of the longer symbols comprised shorter ones. All of them, in fact. What did it mean?

Adrenaline rushed through Jake. Of course! The murals were compound messages built up from smaller parts, just like spells. They wrote in magic. Why wouldn’t their language resemble magic?

It was a conceptual language.

Languages skill increased 3 → 4!

Whatever determined skill increases seemed to reward success, particularly novel successes. Hopefully, this meant he was on the right track. He put the extra perk point into Learning.

Context. He needed context. He went back to the murals. Each scene had a short sentence, if they could be called that, made up of multiple elements. Each sentence shared at least one constituent “word” in common with the scene opposite.

The first scene. A wolf attack on the left: z-slin-(rack-shaw)-nai. A mana vortex on the right: z-krol-(rack-krin).

The second scene. Zelnari learning magic safely on the left: z-(crak-nosh)-krin. Zelnari writing magic down on the right: z-torn-(krin-nosh).

The third scene. Zelnari using magic against other races: (zoll-prak)-ik-(rack-krin). Experimentation with powerful magic: zoll-((rick-nosh)-(mort-(rack-krin))).

The fourth scene. Huge cities being built: z-nosh-ed-wren-((mort-gruk)-nai)-ik-krin. An enormous magical library: z-wren-((mort-gruk)-(nosh-torn).

The fifth scene. A creature of destruction: (mort-shaw)-prak-((mort-rack)-krin). A mage casting dark magic: (mort-kron)-prak-((mort-rack)-krin).

What was z? It was short, probably not too complicated. Maybe a pronoun? It disappeared in the third and fifth scenes, the darker ones. Was that out of shame? Perhaps it meant the Zelnari, or simply “we”.

Rack was common across both the first scenes. Danger, perhaps? A warm glow filled Jake’s chest. He was on the right track. The one on the right translated to, “We (danger-)”? Dangerous?

Krol and krin shared various similarities. Perhaps they were related. A mana vortex was shown in graphic detail. That was magic-related—so two were both the second scenes, and krin was included in those.

If krin was magic, was krol casting? “We cast dangerous magic”? That would make sense. The left was still a mystery, but at least there was progress. Maybe the other scenes would help decipher it.

The second scenes, “We (-) magic”, and “We (magic ).” Nosh was common to both, but what concept did they have in common? Learning? Jake frowned. Maybe.

The third scenes dropped the z. Were they ashamed of it? “(-)--dangerous magic”, and “-((magic )-(-dangerous magic))”.

Nosh was definitely learning. Mort—a modifier related to the magic? Powerful, perhaps? Or something close, at least. So someone learned powerful magic. Was zoll a set of people, or something else entirely?

Mort gruk was common to both the fourth scenes. Were both related to building? Did gruk mean a building, or something similar? That’d make mort not “powerful”, but “great”. That could fit.

The sentence on the right with the huge library was a lot clearer now. “We ((great building)-(learning ).” There it was again, torn. A library had recorded learning. That fit the second scene as well, where they recorded the magic they learned.

Did wren mean erected or built, then? That would make the message on the left, “We learned built ((great building)-nai) magic.” Not just one building, multiple. There had been multiple creatures in the first scene, too. That had to be what nai meant.

Jake’s pulse quickened. He grinned. “I think this one read, ‘We learned to build many great buildings with magic.’”

“Nice!” Cara said, bouncing from foot to foot, her eyes ablaze.

Gramok looked up from his sandwich—when had he gotten that out?—and shrugged. “Great.”

What was his problem? “You alright there?” Oh. Jake froze. Right. “Sorry. I wish you could see this, I do.”

“It’s fine.” He shrugged and took another bite.

Cara patted Jake on the back. “Don’t worry about it. He’ll forget all about it after you get that door open.”

“Maybe.” Even if not, at least it would get it over with sooner rather than later.

He turned to the fifth scenes. “(Great )--(magic of great danger),” and “(Great )--(magic of great danger).” Shaw again, from the first scene. Both had hostile creatures. Was that the link?

Kron was similar to both krin (magic) and krol (casting). Caster, maybe? A great caster doing something with dangerous magic. Prak was clearly something bad.

Archaeology skill increased 3 → 4!

“I think I have it,” Jake said, putting the perk point into Past of Present as planned. “Left and right are both cautionary tales, slightly different, but the same message. Five scenes, five messages.”

Gramok pulled himself up to his full, towering height and strolled over. “Makes sense.” He stared at the buttons, blank from his perspective, and drew his sword. “Go for it.”

Well, that was a vote of confidence. Jake stared at the buttons. In the first scene, the common thread was rack, danger. Jake pressed the corresponding button and the first light lit up white.

“Did that work?” Cara asked.

Jake’s heart raced. Would getting it wrong result in immediate results? Maybe it would wait for the end. If he got it wrong, would they stand a chance against whatever would try to kill them?

A lump formed in his throat. “Maybe. Only one way we’ll find out.”

There were two common elements in the second scene, krin and nosh, magic and learning. Was the lesson about magic or learning? Jake frowned. Both, and there were buttons for both.

Was he supposed to press both, or would that count as the second and third? The presence of buttons such as rack-krin, and even (mort-rack)-krin suggested so. But learning and magic as two different concepts wasn’t the same as learning magic, a singular concept.

They wrote with magic. Magic infused every part of the room. If it was that common for them, wouldn’t magic be a background feature? The answer had to be learning. He pressed nosh.

Another white light. Hopefully, that was a good sign.

Only one common element in the third scene: rack-krin, dangerous magic. He pressed the corresponding button. A third white light appeared.

At least it was consistent. The fourth had two common elements, mort-grok and nosh. If this was building toward something, it wouldn’t repeat learning, so it had to be mort-grok, great building.

A fourth white light appeared. Jake’s breath quickened and his nerves tingled. This was it. The common element in the last scene was (mort-rack)-krin, magic of great power. And there it was, the corresponding button.

He pressed it. A fifth white light. Jake smiled.

The lights went out. The exit sealed shut. Maybe this was all part of it?

Golden magic glowed in the center of the room. Threads wove in the air, faster and faster, forming an unimaginably complex transmutation spell.

A knot formed in Jake’s gut. If he had gotten it wrong, there wouldn’t be room to maneuver here. Jake dual cast an Armor and an Absorb spell upon Cara, keeping his gaze upon the increasingly solid figure at the center of the room.

The spell completed, and the freshly created golden humanoid drew itself up to its full ten feet height. It moved in a series of smooth jerks, like a 30 FPS image. Part magic, part mechanical, armed with a large round shield and a sword that put Gramok’s to shame.

Gramok stepped forward and raised his shield. “I think that was the wrong choice.”

The twist in Jake’s gut agreed. “You don’t say.”

Why wasn’t it attacking? It simply stared with golden, impassive eyes and sucked in mana.

Golden Centurion

Level: 20

HP: 400/400

Stamina: 400/400

MP: 100/150

Status:

Teal magic shimmered around it, and it launched itself at Gramok.

It lunged with terrifying speed, breaking straight through Gramok’s guard. Jake pulled on his mana and put an Energy perk point into Stability and two into Power. It was a construct—it had to be vulnerable to lightning, right?

Metal clanged against metal as Gramok and the centurion exchanged blows.

Magic sparked around Jake’s hands. Come on, Gramok, you can do this.

Both their blades glanced off each other’s armor. Gramok dropped his sword and struck with his mace. Another clang rang out, louder than ever.

The centurion stepped back and thrust its sword. The blade transformed into a lance mid-strike, driving straight through Gramok’s shoulder.

“Enmironak!” Jake’s lightning arced through the air. Teal shimmered around the centurion, absorbing the magic without any sign of weakness.

0 lightning damage dealt (356 absorbed)!

Shit! How powerful was that absorb? Jake lined up another lightning bolt.

Gramok roared and deflected another thrust from the centurion. The two struggled, trading blows back and forth with minimal impact.

The centurion tossed its lance into the air and struck with its fists. Gramok seized the opening, but his mace glanced off the golden armor.

Jake’s chest pounded. He focused on the lightning spell, willing it to finish the fight.

Magic shimmered around the lance. It turned in the air and aimed at Gramok’s back.

“Behind you!” Cara cried out.

Too late. The lance shot down and pierced Gramok’s back.

“Enmironak!” The teal around the centurion flickered. The Absorb was nearly gone. One more lightning strike would do it.

0 lightning damage dealt (527 absorbed)!

Gramok staggered to his feet. Another hit like that would finish him. Nearly wasn’t going to cut it.

“Ro’ronkatara-fa si,” Cara hissed. Her arrow glowed silver.

The lance dematerialized and reappeared in the centurion’s hand. The construct lined up the kill shot.

Cara’s arrow punctured the centurion’s chest. Light flashed. The construct staggered.

“Enmironak!” Jake’s lightning shattered the teal barrier and crackled around the golden centurion.

Vulnerability exploited! 203 lightning damage dealt!

Energy magic skill increased 3 → 4!

The construct sparked and keeled over.

2100 XP received!

Cara darted forward, clutched her side, and approached Gramok at a hobble. “You injured?”

He shook his head. “No, below half health, though.” He leaned back and winced. “You guys are going to get me killed, you know that?”

She pulled on her mana and began casting a heal. “Better hope we unlock Rebirth before that happens, huh?” She pressed her hand to his back and hissed, “Lunaeka!”

The emerald green magic disappeared without effect.

Jake’s brow furled. “That wasn’t a failed casting.”

She shook her head. “No, it wasn’t.” She tried again. Same result.

“We can’t heal.” Gramok shook with laughter. “Nearly dead, and we can’t heal.” He stared at Jake, and his voice went deadpan. “Get it right this time, please.”