I Studied Mainly Textbooks! Chapter 31

"What the?"
Nothings changed.

'It's… not this place?'
There's absolutely no way that was the case. The white mana that faintly leaks out from the ogre's heart, the density of mana in the vicinity.

Thump- thump-
Even though it had already been separated from the body, the heart continued beating.

However, it didn't keep beating forever. The contractions slowed down until it stilled and…

When the freak ogre's heart finally stopped beating, iit brought along subtle signs of changes in the environment.

Shhhh-
The ground started vibrating in increasing intensity, followed by a pure-white magic formation surfacing. White mana was seemingly extracted from the ogre's heart and flowed into the nooks and crannies of the formation.

"Uuuh? Mr. Abel!"
Seeing Abel gradually fading out, Reina shouted in exasperation.

Abel's body was turning more and more transparent. This was a forced teleport by the magic formation. It seemed that only successors of white mana were permitted entry as there were no reactions on the part of Reina.

Fwoosh-
Abel's body completely disappeared and the trembling stopped. The glowing magic formation had also disappeared. The only evidence left of what had transpired was the ogre's carca.s.s.

In a s.p.a.ce that was filled with a pure white light, Abel found his footing after the shift in location.

Then, a soul(?) manifested into existence, floating in the air right in front of his eyes.

"Whoa! That surprised me."
Abel was taken aback by the sudden arrival of the semi-translucent apparition. He looked closer and realised that it was somewhat different compared to a soul.

[Greetings, successor of the White. I am Thrandriel's 'residual body'.]
A very handsome-looking soul greeted Abel. It easily ranked within the top 10 of Abel's 'most handsome men he had ever seen ranking'.

"Residual body? What's that?"

[It's something I left behind for the later generation. You can consider it a fragment of my soul.]

"You mean you're still alive?"

[That's not the case. My body and soul already disappeared as the apocalypse befell the world.]

'……?'
They were communicating normally, but this guy was a dead dude?…… then he was speaking with a dead person?

Abel felt shivers run down his neck.

"Well, alright. But why is this 'residual body' still present?"

[This residual body exists but for a single reason. It is the sacred duty of the eternal elves to pa.s.s down white magic to the inhabitants of the future.]

He had come here looking for a single book, but didn't realize that things would get blown wayyyyy out of proportion.

"Oh, and what was up with that ogre outside? I nearly crossed the River Styx because of it!"
Honestly, he even had a feeling that some psycho set that up to kill anyone that came here believing that he was a man of great destiny.

[It's a device I set up because I was worried that the seal may be uncovered. The seal is set such that it only opens when the guardian is killed with white mana. If you've perused the two volumes, then you should have no problems in killing it though?]

Maybe that would have been the case initially. The problem was that it had 'evolved' continually over the course of 20 thousand years. This was an unpredictable outcome.

"Well, I did kill it, so… please continue."

[We eternal elves thought to ourselves in the face of the apocalypse. How are we to fulfil our duty and pa.s.s down our heritage to later generations? As such, we preserved our knowledge and wisdom within books and sealed it in this place. However, we couldn't record everything due to the lack of time.]

When Thrandriel waved his hand, a shelf rose from the floor.

[These 100 books were selected out of many magic tomes and records. May you transfer these to the later generation and spread the ways of white mana once more.]

There were a hundred volumes of several-inch thick books. He had to comprehend all of those? Reading and understanding the contents of a single book per year required one hundred years!

Of course, Abel had his 'Room of Spirit and Time', but that wasn't something particularly fun to use. Moreover, looking at those books, they had been written in moonrunes, an ancient language. In other words, decrypting and translation was required as well.

"I don't even know how to read the words within, how am I supposed to learn all of it? Don't you guys have some magic that inserts it all into my brain?"
Looking at the ogre outside, and this s.p.a.ce, that seemed like a plausible suggestion.

[We also thought about that at first, but decided that it was impossible. Moreover, what good is knowledge that one does not understand? As such! We have prepared something for you.]

"What is that?"

Thump
Yes! Thrandriel had even left behind a residual body. There was no way he prepared only some old and dusty books, right?

A legendary artifact from the ancient times?
Endless riches comprising golden mountains and troves of jewels?
An elf-like handsomeness?
(Editor note –  LOL!)
Or some kind of special psychic ability?

Abel hopes were lifted considerably.

[It is none other than… 'wisdom'.]

"Eh?"
Shatter!
His expectations were utterly crushed.

[We will impart upon you the knowledge that enables you to read these texts, and to accompany it is the wisdom to understand it.]

Let's put the ancient language aside. What wisdom?

"Wisdom? What do you mean by that?"

[It means allowing you to utilize the full extent of your brain's potential.]

All of the brain's potential?

He would teach Abel how to fish, rather than hand him a fish.

[Destiny has chosen you after 20 thousand years. May you carry on the sacrosanct duty of the eternal elves with this knowledge….]

After finishing his words, the residual body started changing its form. It turned into a small orb and projected a beam of light towards Abel's head.

Flash-!
A strong flash of light later and Abel felt something within the orb enter his head.

"Arrrgh!"
Abel struggled due to the sudden onslaught of pain. The pain was much more intense than anything he had experienced.

Thud-
Abel was unable to persevere, dropping to his knees and clutched at his head.

"Urrrgh…."
This was due to the awakening of his brain.

The dormant part of Abel's brain woke up. As the functions of his cerebrum were revitalized, his autonomous nerves, sensory regions, language comprehension, and memory were enhanced.

It didn't end there and work on his cerebellum gave him enhanced information processing, restructuring and recombination abilities.

His brainstem was also revitalized, granting him quicker reflexive responses.

Now, Abel was not only mult.i.tudes smarter than before, his five senses were enhanced as well.

After the awakening of his brain, the brightly glowing residual body lost much of its l.u.s.ter and entered Abel's body.

Flash-!
When the residual body was completely absorbed, Abel emitted an intense glow from his eyes.

Then, a scene played in Abel's head.

Black clouds covered the entire sky. It had been noon, when the sun was at its brightest, yet the light was unable to reach the ground due to the congregation of dark clouds.

This was a cloud consisting of demonic energy derived from the opening of the demon realm.

On the left of the vast plains were armies upon armies of soldiers wearing black. There were horrific-looking monsters as well as skeleton warriors composed only of bones. This was the Dark Army.

In the middle of that army was someone that seemed to be in charge, and sinister demonic energy smoked up from his body. His skin was pitch black and its stature double that of the tallest humans, it was obviously not human.

"Wipe them out, and your souls shall receive salvation."
The large man's voice rang across the army. It sounded like an echo in a cave.

On the other side was a familiar face, the guardian of order, Thrandriel, leading an army of his own.

"Fight the darkness and defend your families and our lands!"

"Waaaaa!"
The Dark Army was right in front of them, but their morale filled shouts resonated across the earth and skies.

Amidst the Light Army were various other races no longer seen today.

Within the air were the legendary dragons. They were known as the mediators of the midrealm.

Rumble-
The footage ended with the Armies charging towards each other.

After the 'video', Thrandriel's last words rang inside Abel's ears.

"We had won the war, but the only thing left for us was destruction. The gateway to the demon realm closed, but the inhabitants of Kornos were already polluted. In the end, the World Tree, Ariana, decided to purify the lands! Even if it meant using up the majority of her own life force…."

'……!'
That was a shocking ending! The gateway to the demon realm opened and the world was nearly destroyed! It was chaos.

Lives of the later generations only thrived thanks to Ariana's sacred sacrifice.

"You have to go through an examination first!"
The border patrol captain of Gaian City blocked Sylvia's way.

(T/N: The word 'city' here is actually 'city-state', so it's like Vatican City, but in another world.)

"I know best if I'm infected with the pandemic or not! There's urgent news to relay!"
Although it had been close, she avoided the pandemic curse thanks to her 'holy energy'.

"There are procedures. If you weren't a holy maiden candidate, you would have been quarantined already. Please wait."

A while later, a holy priest from the capital arrived and diagnosed her. Only then was she allowed entry into the cathedral.

Then, she learnt of horrible news from the priest…. That 300 of the dispatched candidates were infected, and 100 had gone missing out of the 700 that were dispatched.

However, the cathedral considered them as deserters and not missing. They believed that the girls ran away in fear rather than face the disease.

'Lady Gaia… how could you…!'
Although she tried her best to avoid blasphemy, it was too difficult to suppress her heart.

Sylvia had requested for an emergency meeting with an archbishop. She told him everything that she had seen and experienced.

"If that is true, then we must call for the paladins immediately. However!"

"……?"

"We cannot mobilise based on your words alone. Due to orders from the pope, we cannot hold a religious trial either. We will hold a meeting of the highest cardinals so await in your chambers."

This was an urgent matter, and that kind of procedure would take a month at least. The dark forces were already out in the open too!

"No! This is all true! Please allow me to meet the pope. I can explain everything!"

"You cannot! You can't meet the pope with just your status as a maiden candidate!"

"This is not the time to be mindful oft that! The entire continent is in dange… whoa… Kyaaak!"

*Shaaa*
Sylvia suddenly stopped speaking and grabbed her head. From her hair, a mysterious light started flowing out.

"……! A prophecy!"

The archbishop was shocked by the change that happened to her. This was very similar to the last prophecy received by the late holy maiden 10 years ago.

Flash-!
Her eyes started glowing as well.

This was at the exact moment Abel started viewing the past.

Another video started playing in Sylvia's head.

This was very similar to what Abel saw. The difference was that there were virtually no people of any race to be seen at all, not to mention the legendary dragons of the past.

This was another facet of the apocalypse!

If what Abel viewed was the past, what Sylvia was watching now was the future.

After the video ended, drops of tears slid down her cheek.

Sylvia looks changed from before the prophecy. Her gray hair had turned into sparkly silver. This was a distinctive trait of the holy maidens.

"S, Sylvia! What did Lady Gaia say to you?"
The Archbishop asked in a trembling voice as he had just witnessed the selection of the holy maiden happen in front of him.

"The end of the world… is coming…… We must find the black-haired mage!"

"A black haired mage? You mean a black mage?"

They were to prevent the 2nd apocalypse and they were supposed to look for a black mage?
Was the meaning to defend black magic with black magic? Fight fire with fire?

However, prophecies were always abstract. It likely didn't mean that they were tasked with looking for a black mage.

They had to find a black-haired(?) savior! As soon as possible too! If a prophecy occurred, it meant that the situation was quite urgent.

However, it also meant that it wasn't too late.

Inside the mysterious s.p.a.ce after the residual body disappeared.

Abel was putting the books on the shelf into his magic pouch one by one.

"d.a.m.ned black mages! Do they all have a frickin' kamikaze mindset?"
He didn't understand why they were so suicidal.

Learn basic magic from the academy, and learn from Kyle once he graduated. Then he would study s.p.a.ce-time magic and go home. This was the blueprint of Abel's master plan until now.

If he was able to return with his magic skills intact, then it would be super awesome. Like, super duper jackpot!

However, his plans were being ruined by these d.a.m.ned black mages.

'I'll learn the Dimensional Gate magic and blast them all off to the outer fringes of the universe.'

He had to exterminate every last black mage in existence. Only then would the others here be safe even if he returned to earth.