It took four days to get the notification I'm waiting for.

Although I wanted to gain the ability to understand the language as soon as I can, I couldn't stare at the book all day due to the strain that it puts on my eyes and mind. Due to that, it took me four days with sufficient breaks to complete the task.

As I need to understand the language to get any useful knowledge from these books, I stopped exploring the surroundings. I only went out to get some Eogus fruits and water when needed.

Also, I did go out to make a few torches. It's been a week since I was summoned here. That was the time I allotted to see if I can unlock any skill relating to the dark.

As I wasn't able to unlock the skill, I made a few torches so that I can utilize the nighttime to do something useful, instead of wasting it like I've been doing the past week.

As for the parts of the torch, I used fallen branches for the wooden base and the dried leaves of a particular plant called Aidlum whose leaves burn slowly but releases awful fumes along with it for the flammable substance at the top.

I used a few vines to tie the leaves around the branch. Although my crafting is crude, it works. That is all that matters for now. I made quite a few of these torches so there won't be any shortage of them during exploration.

I know I can explore the basement right now with the help of torches but that can wait a few days. It isn't going to run anywhere.

The rest of the time I spent staring at the book until I feel the strain and then start to meditate to steady my mind until I feel like I can get back at it.

I repeated this process for four days until I got that notification.

Skill Unlocked : Language - Aizic

Skill absorbed into the perk Polyglot

Polyglot

Grade : Epic

A gifted linguist, well versed in languages.

Effect :

Helps understand any language as long as one has the minimum quantity of the required material and the time to deduce the respective language.

The time required varies depending on the difficulty of the language and the quantity and quality of material available.

Languages Known : Aizic

Thank goodness that skill was absorbed into the perk. It would have been a waste if I had to use one of my precious skill slots to unlock that skill.

Due to the time I spent meditating these past four days, it also gained a level.

Meditation reaches level 3

Now that I can understand the language, let me see what the two books are about.

The titles of the books are Blackwing Empire : Origin - Part I and II both written by the first Imperial Archmage, Khanse Servon. Both books are huge. Each has at least 500 pages.

I don't have anything better to do, so I start going through them. It took two more days to read both of them completely.

Both of them are about an empire called Blackwing Empire. About how it came into being.

According to these books, the ruin I'm in is where the Imperial Palace was supposed to be. That must imply that the huge building that looks like a palace must be the Imperial Palace.

The books explain how a king from a small kingdom became the Emperor of an Empire that rules an entire continent.

If I had to describe everything it will take a lot of time.

I'll summarize the main points.

Before the founding of the Blackwing Empire, the continent of Ahera was rife with chaos, death, and violence. As there wasn't an empire, a large kingdom, or any other organization with enough influence to maintain order, the whole continent was ravaged by wars between different kingdoms and races.

Numerous orc legions traveled through the Desolate Bone Bridge from Ilos, the continent southwest of Ahera, under the orders of the then Orc Emperor to conquer the lands on Ahera.

Merfolk armies from the Oceanic Kingdom near the north coast of the continent started marching towards the land, in hopes of conquest.

Beast folk who were oppressed under the dominion of draconian overlords were rising to challenge them with help of elves.

Several wars were being waged all over the continent by different kingdoms vying for supremacy. It was destroying the continent as plagues have started to spread due to the mountains of corpses that were left untouched on different battlefields.

At the center of the Ahera continent was the Ancient Kingdom of Blackwing. The ruler of this kingdom was the Blackwing Family, believers of the Ancient God of Courage, Tharros, and also possessors of the Mythical beast Elemental Tiger bloodline.

Although the bloodline was diluted to a level that it is difficult to even see any differences from normal humans when compared to the ancient past, there was some chance that someone in the family can be born with an improved bloodline due to atavism.

The current king of the kingdom is Aryan Blackwing, he had a son Jonathan Blackwing with his wife Lillian Blackwing. Jonathan was such a lucky individual to have an improved bloodline due to atavism.

He was an inquisitive and compassionate child who learned about the chaos that was spreading on the continent as he grew up. In his teenage years, he traveled the war-torn continent in hopes of helping the different races with their problems.

Although he was a great warrior and he tried to help wherever he could. It was difficult for one man to change everything so he returned to his kingdom and took its reins after his father abdicated.

At first, he was at peace looking after and providing a safe haven for his people in those troubled times but he couldn't overlook the tragedies that are happening all over the continent.

He cared for the place he was born and loathed to see it destroyed by war and plague so he prayed to the Ancient Gods for days hoping anyone would listen to his pleas and help him in his ordeal.

Maybe a miracle was supposed to happen, as later on oracles were sent to the temple of God of Courage that was present in the capital in which instructions on how to make a summoning circle and how to perform the ritual to summon beings from other worlds with their consent to help the kingdom when in need were present.

To summon a being who is willing to help in their troubles, the ritual is needed to be performed by the ruler himself and it required a huge amount of mana to succeed.

With the help of then Royal Archmage, Khanse Servon and the rest of the mages of the royal mage tower and the head of the temple of God of Courage, Archbishop, Henry Goldoff and the rest of the priests they were able to use the schematics given to them to engrave the summoning circle on to the marbled floor of the summoning temple.

According to the oracle, the strength and boons given to the summoned being depend on the quality and quantity of mana provided for the summoning.

Therefore, Jonathan Blackwing used all the natural mana treasures accumulated by the kingdom over the years until then and also the mana of all the mages from the royal mage tower to complete the ritual and he summoned the first-ever summoned being, Marcus Ark.

Marcus Ark was a thousand-year-old sword cultivator who was known as a Sword Demon in the world of Pangea. He was tightly clutching onto his sword even on the verge of death when he was given a choice to either die or transfer to the world of Gaea to help the Blackwing Kingdom with their troubles.

Marcus accepted the proposal and that was the first meeting between Jonathan and Marcus who went onto become best of friends and also the First Emperor and Hero of the Blackwing Empire in the future respectively.

After learning about the situation of the continent and Jonathan's aspirations, Marcus believed in his ideals and started actively helping him.

It took them five years to merge the surrounding various independent city-states and many small kingdoms into a single empire under the Blackwing Family.

They then allied with the elves to free the beast folk that were still fighting against the draconians to release themselves from slavery, who could be a huge help in the upcoming battles with their numbers.

Although draconians were strong, they were few compared to beast folk and were already pressured by the elves to abolish slavery and now even the newly merged empire also started to pressure them, thus they gave up and freed the beast races.

Then this motley alliance of elves, humans, and beast folk formed another alliance with the other larger kingdoms in the continent to stop the invasion that is happening simultaneously on the opposite sides of the continent.

This newly formed alliance then left the minimum army required to hold down the orc legions at Egmont Fortress in the valley surrounded by Rosenbaum Mountain Range and left to rebuff the merfolk army in the north.

In this war, Marcus earned the title, Lightning Sword Saint.

The war concluded when the merfolk army retreated to the oceans a few months after several defeats.

By the time the main army was returning, the army left to defend against the orcs in the south were almost on their last legs. It was only thanks to the alliance's defensive battle style and the sturdy defensive structures built at Egmont Fortress by the dwarves that helped them with withstanding the orc legions.

Later it took them three years to push them to the Desolate Bone Bridge and there they were stuck in the stagnant war for four more years due to the constant reinforcements of the orc legions coming from Ilos before the Orc Emperor called for a retreat.

Even though there were many sacrifices made on the alliance side, they were victorious at last and were able to appreciate their victory.

The alliance leaders decided that such a situation shouldn't happen again, so it was decided that High Elf princess Lumire Silversnow will marry Jonathan Blackwing and they will be the first Emperor and Empress of the Blackwing Empire that spans the continent.

Under them would be an Elder Council on which each race, kingdom, and a few important organizations would have a seat and they will help and support the now new Blackwing Imperial Family in ruling over this new Empire.

After the marriage of Jonathan Blackwing and Lumire Silversnow, the Blackwing Empire occupied most of the continent. They signed an armistice with the Orc Empire to prevent the war from happening again.

As all the kingdoms and other organizations on the continent with different races and cultures merged to form this Empire, there weren't any restrictions on any one race or culture so one can see different people from different races all around the empire.

The Blackwing Kingdom that was at the center became the new capital of the empire.

After keeping his promise to Jonathan in achieving his goals, Hero Marcus Ark took a break from the war and politics. As he was a sword cultivator before coming into this world he wanted to spend the rest of his life here peacefully doing just that.

He asked Jonathan to make him a single promise and that was to bury his body along with his sword when he dies in the deepest part of the Imperial Catacombs where he prepared a trial space for his legacy to be passed on to the next worthy Otherworlder.

He asked the Empire to protect his trial legacy until the sword he left was claimed by a successful heir. For doing this, he promised to allow one person from the now Imperial bloodline in each generation to take the test.

After reading both the books, I can infer that this big auditorium must be the Summoning Temple that was mentioned in it. Those golden markings on the ground must the engravings required for the summoning ritual.

Doesn't that mean I was summoned?

Wait a minute, the book said that the summoning requires the consent of the summoned being.

But when I was summoned here, no one asked me for my consent.

What changed?

Also, where are the people who summoned me?

Is this not the place mentioned in the book?

I need to confirm whether this is the place mentioned in the book.

I remember there was a sentence written on the statute where I was sleeping at night. I check it again now that I can read it. It says Tharros, Ancient God of Courage.

I also check the metal plaque at the entrance, which says, Summoning Temple.

That once again confirms that this ruin should be the Imperial Palace and its surroundings.

What happened here?

This place is supposed to be the capital of the whole continent but from what I see this place is a ruin and no one lives around here.

There are only a few buildings left standing. And from what I could understand, this place is now called Forest of Illusions not the capital of an Empire.

Something bad must have happened here and that must have been sudden or else no one in their right mind would leave all those valuable books behind.

Is that something still here?

Is that the reason there are no predators around here?

I need to explore this ruin thoroughly to understand what caused this and if it's still here.

There are also these new locations I haven't heard of that were mentioned in the book like Desolate Bone Bridge, Ilos, Egmont Fortress, etc. I wonder if those places are still around. If they are, I should try to find a map of this place to see where these places are relative to each other.

Also, there seems to be some sort of trial for Otherworlders in the deepest part of the Catacombs, wherever that is.

I should check that too.

Name : Janus Arthridge

Race : Human

Level : 0

Bloodline : N / A

Class : N / A

Level : 1

Health : 100 / 100

Stamina : 100 / 100

Mana : 100 / 100

Attributes

Strength : 10

Dexterity : 10

Vitality : 10

Endurance : 10

Resilience : 10

Perception : 10

Intelligence : 10

Wisdom : 10

Willpower : 10

Attribute Points : 5

Skills

Appraisal Lv.1

Stealth Lv.2

Meditation Lv.3

Skill Slots : 7

Perks

Otherworlder

Summoned Being

Polyglot