Val above ↑ He has copper- coloured eyes. Will be giving a separate chapter for other characters' introduction later^∆^
Selene and Alex were sitting for last 10 minutes staring at the cube that was given by Val for them to solve. There strange figures drawn on the cube's six faces which were divides into 25 parts. Basically it was a 5×5 rubiks cube with strange symbols etched on it instead of colours. Alex was staring at the cube intensely for a long time as though trying to remember something. Then he suddenly gasped and said I remember these symbols are the letters of one of the seven ancient languages!"
'Languages?' Selene was confused, if that was the case shouldn't she be able to translate it? But no matter which angle she looked at it they only looked like weird symbols to her. She snatched the cube from Alex side and looked carefully at each symbol present on the 150 squares of the cube. After some careful observation, she realized that there were actually 6 groups of letter whose structures were quite identical to each other. She started to solve the cube by imagining each type of language's symbol as a particular colour. In her past life she was an expert in solving cubes she passed her time waiting for her target by trying to break her previous record. Still it was hard since she had to imagine the cube to be a normal one. She managed to solve the cube in 10 minutes, quite slow according to her standards but then again the cube she was solving was unique too.
Once she got the right positions she placed the cube in front of Val for him to judge having a confident smile on her face. But Val gave the cube back to Alex and Selene with a smirk on his face and said "Read and tell me what is written on the cubes faces."
"Wasn't this a test of wit?" Alex asked he was not good at understanding and memorizing foreign languages, hence he always struggled in ancient languages class. Also in the classes they always taught the basics and never more than that so it was not possible for him to comprehend the words written on the cube face. He knew that Selene had not started to learn the ancient languages in her course so he was not that hopeful about passing this level. Dispirited he laid back on the chair looking glum. After all he didn't know was that the current Selene had a power gifted from the gods of this world to aid her learn the languages in seconds.
Selene smiled knowing that translating foreign languages was her forte, she sat up and started to look at the faces of cube. After looking at them for a minute she started write something one one of the white paper lying in front of her.
"There you go." Selene said submitting the paper to Val with a smug smile on her face. Val looked at the paper and surprise flashed through his eyes, Selene actually did translate the words on the cube's face. The words were not even connected into making a sentence, hence she couldn't have translated it unless she actually knew the language. But he had seen Selene's previous class timetable and knew that she was not taking any classes for ancient languages. He looked curious and opened his mouth to ask but then shut it thinking it would be more fun to find out himself.
"Mhmm...You two have passed this round too, I had specifically looked for you two's weakness and had found this with much difficulty, all efforts gone to waste. For the last round we will go to the outskirts of the forest. Come let's get going." Val said.
"Alex said that there are seven ancient languages, but there were only six on the cube. What about the seventh one?"
"Well if you would know about the seventh one, then you are qualified to enter the magic tower for experiments under ancient magic. But remember it is one of the hardest language one can encounter in this world. Even magicians like me have a hard time to deal with it easily."
"So if I can decipher seventh ancient language, I can perform ancient magic?" Selene asked.
"Yes but that's not a dream a kid like you should have now, come now." Val urged again, Selene hesitate for a while because of Anna's warning not to go to the forest after what happened last time but went after Alex and Val anyways thinking that Anna will scold her severely atmost.
She went to change her clothes in her room secretly wearing a loose maroon shirt with a belt and black full pants beneath. She wore a thin black coat over her shirt in which she kept some handy materials to use. She went down stairs to the receiving hall which was also the main exit of the duke's mansion. Alex and Val were waiting for her to come, they immediately went outside once Selene came. The outskirts of the forest was considered not to be dangerous since it only contained small animals such as rabbits ,squirrels, foxes etc. Val's walking speed was found to be extremely slow for Selene and Alex, the reason? He always relied on the magic tower's transportation rings. Even today he came to his friend Alpheus's mansion he teleported directly at the gates.
Selene and Alex had already reached the place where the last test should take place when they saw Val coming at an extremely slow pace from far towards them. He was clearly struggling to walk such a short distance, Finally after he reached them, he pulled out a mana crystal in front of them but unlike the one Selene made this one was transparent.
"This is your last testing object, you need to gather as much mana as you can from this part of forest. A piece of advice- it takes two to pass this one, I will come back to this place after 1 hour and see the result if the shade of the crystal is not dark enough, you will not pass the last test."
Saying so Val took out a crystal bottle filled with red liquid and opened its cork, after drinking it he went back to the mansion but this time strangely his walking speed was quite fast.
Selene turned around and asked Alex " Well you know how to absorb magic right?"
"Of course that's one of the first basics of magic but the again you have not started having your magic classes, have you?" Alex asked with light mocking smile.
Selene pursed her lips and took deep breaths to calm herself, in the novel too often Alex provoked Selene so that she would lash out at him and make a fool herself. It was his way to take revenge on Selene for ostracizing him when he was new at the duke's mansion. Selene always fell for this trick and got scolded by the duke later.
"Since brother is so knowledgeable you should proceed to gather the mana, our success depends on you!" Selene said forcing a smile on her face.
Alex raised his eyebrow not seeing her flare up but started to gather mana towards him and transfer it to the empty mana crystal, what he didn't know was that the mana concentration in this part of forest was very low. Soon after 10 minutes he was huffing because of stamina exertion. Selene who was observing him depleting his stamina uselessly, laughed inside before putting on an anxious expression and asking "Is there anything wrong?"
"*Huff* Not really, it just that...it's just that there is not much mana in here to collect so..."
"But the crystal is not even half filled."
"I know I am trying my best to fill it, but if I try to do it any faster I think I will collapse." Alex said with a tired expression on his face.
"Do you really want to collapse though?"
"What do you mean?" Alex eyebrows wrinkled.
"What I mean is do you really not want any help from me?" Selene asked.
"But how will you help me? It's not like you can collect mana with your hands, can you now?"
"Who knows maybe I can, but you have to promise me that whatever happens from now will stay between us. Can you do that?" Selene wanted to see if there was a chance for her and Alex to live in peace.
Alex eyed Selene suspiciously "Why should I believe you?"
"Cause you don't really have a choice, of course if you want to exhaust yourself to the point of fainting you can go ahead."
Alex considered her offer for a while, after realizing that she was saying the truth he nodded lightly.
"Very well take out your hand, we are gonna take a magical vow so that you don't go back on your word." Selene said.
Alex stretched his hand forward as Selene had asked. Selene then mind linked Lumen and asked him to seal a penalty vow between her and Alex. Lumen asked her to entwine her hands with Alex.
Feeling Selene suddenly grab his hand tightly Alex tried to pull back his hand but wasn't able to , his eyes widened as their entwined hands were wrapped by shimmering string of words written in ancient languages.
"Wha-what is this?" Alex asked bewildered.
"Something that will make sure that you keep your promise."
"Oh? What will happen if I break my promise?"
"Nothing much you will just wake up pimples and bee bites all over your face and they will not be the ones that go away." Selene said with a sinister smile on her face.
Panic flashed through Alex's eyes as he touched his face to check if his face was still smooth and let out a relieved sigh. "So why did you make me do this weird vow?"
Selene smiled mysteriously but didn't say anything, instead she gathered all the mana she could in one go and injected it into the half filled mana stone. Shocked Alex looked at Selene and then her hand which was directed towards the stone.
"You have awakened?!"
"Yeah shortly after the best time to do so." Selene said while swirling the mana she had collected on her palm.
"But then why didn't you tell father about this? You know he was worried about you not awakening this year." Alex asked. He couldn't understand that why his sister who always competed with him for the Duke's attention did not use such an excellent chance.
"Because now is not suitable for him to know about my awakening, exactly why I made you to vow that you wouldn't reveal anything about what you are seeing now." Selene said warning him with her eyes.
Within 20 minutes with Selene joining in Alex was able to completely fill the mana stone Val gave. He now understood the advice Val had given to him for this test.
"Thirty minutes more before mage Val comes, let's rest for sometime before that." Selene suggested.
She walked near a tall tree and sat down in a relaxed manner leaning against its trunk. Alex also did the same with another tree, till now because of the determination he had for finishing the task given to him, he did not rest. Which is why when his back hit the rough tree trunk all he felt was deep comfort and relief. He closed his eyes to breathe in the fresh forest air and feel the cool wind blowing against his skin.
Selene looked at her brother's state and smiled knowing that if it were not for both of their contribution his state would have been worse. Even though they were in the forest outskirts there were still enough tall trees to block the harsh sunlight of midnoon and keep the area cool.
She was about to close her eyes to take a short nap when she heard some shuffling of footsteps near her. She looked around to find the source of the sound and found a pair of eyes staring at her from the densely packed bushes.
She immediately stood up with her eyes fixed on the bushes, she walked near Alex and nudged him to wake him up.
Alex being a light sleeper woke up immediately and was about to ask what happened when Selene put her index finger against her lips and pointed towards the bushes.
Alex who thought it was a small stray animal attracted to them, went closer to the bushes and pulled them apart to see if it needed some help. But what he found was not expected, the the bushes revealed the owner of the gleaming eyes but instead of a small cute animal as he had expected, it was a monster 3 times bigger than Alex grinning at him eerily.
The monster was not from her world but since the writer of this world belonged to her world it did resemble some animals she had seen in her world before. The face was that of a hyena but with its snout shortened and scales all over its face. Instead of canines it had tusks which were just right for it to pierce them into its prey's body to kill.
Selene had read about the monster in one of the books she had borrowed from the library, it was a blood eyed hyena. It was an evolved form of red hyena who is a first level monster. A fact about it was that wherever it went to hunt some of its lackeys followed him from a distance near to him. Selene looked around to see if she could spot its lackey but she couldn't. As she was thinking how to escape while not getting caught by them, Alex suddenly came running to her and dragged her further into the forest.
"Hey what are you doing ?" Selene asked bewildered.
"Running away from the monster and saving our lives." Alex answered looking back at her.
"No you idiot if we go deeper into the forest it would just give it more opportunities to catch us, since the deep forest is its domain."
But Alex realized that too late cause the moment Selene finished her line two red hyenas came in front of them blocking their path. They were smaller than the blood-eyed hyena they met first but still larger than them. Now they couldn't run away any more, in front of them the group of red hyenas were blocking them and at back their evolved form.
"Sh*t." Selene muttered.
She looked at Alex who was looking around for a escape and then looked at the monsters grinning at them knowing that there was no escape. The blood-eyed hyena who had gotten impatient pounced on them, Selene jumped to the right and Alex to the left to avoid its attack.
As a second-level mage Alex was obviously stronger than Selene when it came to delivering magic attacks thinking so Selene decided to leave the blood eyed hyena to him, and said " You deal with the big one, I will deal with its lackeys."
Alex nodded at her and started to fight with the blood eyed hyena, at the same time the red hyena also launched their attacks on Selene. Selene kept dodging their attacks and started sending small attacks towards them. Her intention was to tire them out so that she could deal with them with ease. But she didn't know if this strategy would work.
On the other hand Alex was continuously sending poison attacks towards the blood-eyed hyena, but despite his heavy body it managed to dodge all his attacks. Alex, a little frustrated changed to metal element and brought out a big silver chain and started to manipulate it to wound it across the big hyena's neck. But he miscalculated its strength. In a second the hyena flipped his neck over and threw him on the ground, still holding the chain Alex called for help.
Selene who was dealing with the 3 red hyenas with sweat all over her face looked over Alex direction and saw his situation and then helplessly looked at the hyena's direction attacking her continuously not giving her a single chance to free herself.
'Use your fire wall magic to trap them for a while.' Lucien who had been quiet all the time suddenly spoke up.
Selene's eyes lit up hearing his suggestion "Right why didn't I think so?" Even though she had learnt to make firewalls quite recently it was still enough to give them some time to run away. She called " Alex, release the chain and lead it to these red hyena's group now!"
Alex immediately released the chain and lifted his exhausted body to run towards Selene, although he didn't know what was Selene planning he hoped it was gonna work. The red-eyed hyena immediately followed him. Selene pulled him towards herself once he reached her and shot a bunch of fire streak around them in a circle and raised them to create a fire wall-like structure surrounding them.
"This won't last for long, come on let's go!" Selene took Alex hand started running as fast as her legs could take her. They could see the forest's boundaries from far after a while, but Selene heard a sound behind her. She looked back to see the red-eyed hyena who had managed to break through her fire wall following her with mad anger in its eyes.
"What should we do now?" Alex asked seeing the hyena nearing them.
Selene bit her lips working her brain hard when an idea came to her, she asked Lucien 'Hey can you use poison attacks like Alex?'
'I can but for that I would need to be in my physical form and there is no way I am appearing in front of that rude kid.' Lucien replied, staying with Selene last two month, he had grown a bit protective her which is why he didn't like that brat being rude to his contractor.
'Well that I will ask him to run away to our mansion then we can deal with the hyena.'
"Alex you go to the mansion and see if you can find that magician I will fend the monster till then."
"You sure you can handle?" Alex asked.
"Why else do you think I am asking you to leave me alone that monster?"
Alex began to run after giving her a look which strangely made him look like he was worried about Selene. After he was gone, Lucien immediately transformed and stood in front of her.
"So what do I have to do?"
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