Aefia decided to read the first page of the book. The pages of the book were yellowish, with brown fraying edges and the transcripts were written in cursive handwriting.
She knew how to read cursive handwriting due to Nada, who would often write her school notes in an 'aesthetic' way. Aefia would find it a bit annoying because Nada's notes would usually contain more drawings and illustrations than actual study materials.
Before starting the reading, Aefia flipped back to check the last page number. She would often get overwhelmed if she didn't know when the book would stop which would cause her to discontinue the reading.
On Earth, she would usually only read through her phone because it allowed her to see her progression whenever she wanted. Nada tried to make her read some physical books but the only physical books Aefia would read were her schoolbooks.
This book contains six hundred pages. It should be fine since I have read PDF versions of completed webnovels worth at least five thousand pages back on Earth. I must have been a reckless person there.
She flipped back to the first page and read the title. 'The planet of Demae'.
Curiously, she read the first paragraph thinking about the beast and the old man earlier. They both said something to do with the outer planet.
I wonder how many other outer planets there are.
She thought about her school and the number of things she had learned. Schools only taught that Earth was the only planet with life. Aefia had believed it until she participated in this random competition and teleported into a world she didn't know of.
I had never in my life heard about a planet named Nikoan and Demae. The astronomical observatories would name any new exoplanets with letter and number combinations based on certain things, like galaxy name and planet location, and so on. If there are more than trillions of stars, there are more than trillions of planets too.
I am not certain who this 'Torture Cell' is referring to, and I will need to gather information like which planet...no, I need to gather information on what and who is associated with it. That way, I can track down that person or group of people and destroy them.
Aefia was lost in her random thoughts about this matter. There seems to be a lot of loopholes and strings going from here to there making it seem like a bunch of tangled strings. She knew, for instance, that diving deeper would also tangle the strings further. Therefore, she was stuck until she could get further information.
The ragged edges of the paper caused Aefia to come back into reality and notice the opened book.
The only thing I can do now, it seems, is to gather as much information as possible while also growing in power and strength. If the 'Torture Cell' is a strong entity by chance, and I am still a rookie, I am a hundred percent sure I am dead. My main goal for this competition isn't to save Nikoan, but to know more about the 'Torture Cell'.
Thanks to all those games and novels, now I can partially predict how this situation might go. As far as I have read in my life, almost all stories share the same structure. Action novels, especially web-novels, would always start with an orphan who is broke and weak coming across a sort of power or system and then they continue growing in power until they destroy an entire civilization or a powerhouse of problems.
Video games are the same. The main character either accidentally ended up in a new world or transmigrated there. The start is them finding out how to live and grow strong and the ending is them destroying an abnormal being who causes destruction.
Almost every english story, some of which focus on solving mysteries, ends with the main character killing a specific person who had killed or kidnapped a loved one. The same applies to every other genres.
For my case, I teleported to another world, so my situation would be from either of the first two options. Both options are telling me to just keep growing stronger until I gather enough information about my real enemy, the destroyer of worlds and the 'Torture Cell'.
But I need to consider another thing besides all that. The main character in those stories would either know the future or have systems to guide them. For me, I need to gather my resources and form a solid ground to step on. If my resources are volatile and of poor quality, my ground will break, and I am back at the first step.
Aefia's overthinking caused her to get distracted numerous times before she finally decided to leave her pocket watch open in front of her so that she could stay alert with how much time she had wasted trying to predict what would happen next.
Alright, I will have to consider my number one priority as 'stop overthinking'. If I keep thinking like that, I might as well make my situation more messy.
She shut the book and paced her room back and forth five times without thinking about anything, and sat back down at her table to reopen the book and hopefully read it without a distraction.
Aefia read that the planet 'Demae' was named after the person who helped prevent the colonization by the demon king.the person was from a tribe called Kronin. Due to the identity of the demon king being unknown, that person couldn't destroy them. The demon king still roams the universe while colonizing planets.
The planet of Demae originally belonged to the people of Kronin. During the destruction of an unknown world, the people of Kronin decided to give up their planet to the people of a destroyed world and went on to live in another unoccupied planet which is now called Kronin.
The people of Kronin are extraordinary people who can adapt to any surroundings and could turn any kind of environment into a home, while the people of Demae live off the fruits produced through slavery of the people of Kronin.
Aefia thought the people of Demae as twisted and the people of Kronin as dumb.
She closed the book after writing down the key points she had gotten from the book. She opened her dictionary to search for the word 'Earth'.
The ancient Aglic dictionary had a slightly different resemblance compared to dictionaries on Earth. The Aglic dictionary featured the same alphabetical order and the same rule of using the dictionary.
The way the words and definitions worked was interpreted as follows: the word is written in English and the ancient Aglic version of the word was written next to it. The definition and the second meaning for the ancient Aglic word are both written in English.
She went to the 'E' section of the dictionary and scanned through the pages until she found the word 'Earthling'. In ancient Aglic its called 'Tabun' and the second meaning for it was 'the origin'.
She read the definition of the word 'Earthling'. "Earthling refers to a person who came from another world who brings stories from a world called Earth."
The way this world and the beyond work is questionable. Everything is twisted.
For not being able to hold the awkwardness, she decided she would just scroll through the rest of the dictionary. She flipped the pages until a word caught her eye. 'King of Demons' Dungeon'.
Could there be a possibility for this so-called king to be a demon king?
She went back to that page and read its definition. "The king who merged the Demon world with the world of war to form a world called the Demons' Dungeon."
I have heard of this word! I can't remember where. I do have a lot to remember ever since I came here probably last night.
She searched further in her dictionary and wrote down a summary of the details she gathered into her notebook.
"A normal citizen of an unknown world with the magic of an ancient, formidable creature (probably an elemental animal) killed two Guardians to claim the position of a King. The two Guardians were the Guardian of Truth and Lies and the Guardian of War. The person then went on to invade two planets. One of which belonged to the Guardian of War, called 'The Dungeon'. The other planet was the planet of the demons. The name 'The Dungeon' was given to the planet due to its constant war and the number of people who died due to starvation and regular suffering." Aefia felt uneasy while writing this down.
"The person merged the two worlds together to form a new world called 'Demons' Dungeon' and became the King of that world. It is said that the world is one of its kind and is indestructible. The king has never revealed his true identity, and his power is enough to demolish ten worlds with the swing of his sword."
Aefia put away her notebook after she wrote down all the information she had gathered and got up from her chair which made a loud creaking sound. She glanced at her pocket watch. She had spent two hours reading and writing down information only to be stuck in loopholes.
Let's just say things will get better and clearer over time. Who knows, maybe I can get some information from beasts. For now, I want to leave this thing a mystery. If I mix clear water with muddy water, it will still be muddy...
She then opened her system and checked the skills she hadn't tried out.
Suddenly, an upgrade appeared.
[Upgrade Skill: System?]
So I can upgrade the system I absorbed? 'Upgrage'.
The screen turned off and Aefia tried countless times to switch it back on. After waiting for two minutes, the system flashed back on.
[Upgraded skill: System(Phase two)]
What can it even do? It's just a blank screen.
The features started to arrive a moment later and Aefia realized that it carried more functions in it. One of the functions showed her strength level, phase level, and details like those in video games and novels.
So now I have a properly functioning system. But if it loads this late during a battle, I will be in serious danger.
Aefia sat on her bed and figured out the functions a bit by bit until she got used to it. After a few tries, the system loaded faster than her gaming PC back on Earth.
While going through the new features, she came across a blank screen which could function as a notepad. She could take notes of information anywhere without having to carry a notebook and a pen.
After an hour of figuring out the system in full, Aefia thought of her 'Future Prediction' skill.
I haven't given it a try. With this enhanced system, I can easily activate skills faster.
She held out her pocket watch and activated the skill. Time seemed to have stopped but the ticking of the watch continued.
How does this skill work?!
Aefia thought of some possibilities. After thinking it through, she came up with a hypothesis. As an experiment, she dropped her glass pen on the ground and left it shattered.
She then turned off her skill and noticed that the time had gone back to its original state. The glass pen was intact in the place she picked it up from and the floor was spotless.
So the skill allows me to make alterations to the future and experiment with possibilities before coming back to the present and carrying out the task. I should try it during a battle to confirm the results.
She spent the next few minutes trying out the other skills and thinking of ways she could use them during battle. She wrote down each of the skills and their uses and ways of use into the system's notepad.
Done. The last skill has been tested out. Though it is hard for me to believe that the beast didn't have many skills. The only ones he had were 'Thunder Crash' and 'Venom Injection'. Both of which are useless. I am lucky I can convert these two skills into a resource to unlock another one of my skills.
But I will do that later. Right now, I just want to sleep. Using too many skills has caused my health bar to empty. Aefia thought while looking at the system's screen.
She wrote down a reminder on a piece of paper and left it on her table before flopping onto her bed like a kid. She buried her face on her pillow while thinking about her brother on Earth. She felt the sudden urge to go grab her books and search for a way to bring him to this world with her.