United Kingdom, Pembrokeshire County, Village of Dale, April 13th 1990.
In a small cave by the Westdale Bay, a young brown-haired boy was facing the small amount of rations that he had managed to bring back for the day.
Dale village was a small village with only a few hundred inhabitants.
Due to the relatively backward location, the village’s culture and habits were passed down from generation to generation without much changes.
With the relatively ancient culture, anything that vaguely resembled the supernatural was inherently feared and hated.
With a mentality that anything that I don’t see doesn’t exist, the young Lux Arden had long been expelled from the village and sent to the remoteness of their land.
Despite facing the fear and hatred of the villagers since he turned eight, he had only been sent to live on his own on his ninth birthday, having had the chance of participating in school and having a meager but true progress in the field of academics.
He knew how to write, read and complete some basic mathematics problems.
Having been told from the moment he was born to his ninth birthday that he was lucky to even have an education, he had made sure to listen well and study even more.
Unfortunately, everything changed on the day of his eighth birthday.
Having slightly levitated right before falling from a tree saving a black cat, the villagers had instantly made the connection between him and the witches of the past, the same kind that had been burned to the stake.
Thankfully, despite the wish of some villagers to continue with the rites passed down from their ancestors and burn the evil in the young boy, most resisted such an action as such a thing could easily send them to prison and have legal ramifications to the state.
After all, burning and killing people were heavily frowned upon and even entertaining the idea of doing such a thing was something most of these villagers both feared and felt repulsed by.
As such, after an internal meeting between all adults and elders of their villages, it had been decided that they would be sending him in a cave in the side of Westdale Bay, a cave which according to the words of their ancestors was once the cave of a witch, a witch that had caused a lot of trouble for their village but also saved them from an enormous storm that could have killed everyone.
With their choice of sending him to live there on his own, sending him some food from time to time to still take care of him in their own way but out of their sight, they effectively sent the young boy to a remote location where he could live but without intervening in their lives.
The cave had been said to have been searched countless times in the past for any relics left behind by the witch.
To their great joy, everything had seemingly been destroyed by the waves of that famous storm.
With only a little less than a hundred slippery stone steps that led the way to the entrance of the cave, Lux had now lived in this cave for a bit longer than a year, making it his home and using his collected supplies to somehow survive through the harsh winds of winter.
As the tanned blue-eyed boy of ten years old sat at the entrance of the cave, his feet dangling in the air, his eyes fixing the horizon, looking at the waves with both admiration and fear, he finally lowered his body, allowing him to simply lay down on the hard stone ground, his naked feet still dangling.
Right at this moment, a small crack in the void appeared, undetected by anyone.
No sound nor energy was released by the golden light.
The only one who noticed the light was the young boy who frowned, opening his eyes as he saw the light that changed to a pure green as it fused right inside his body.
Despite the panic rising in his body at the sight of an unknown object being gradually assimilated in himself, the young boy could only feel a calming presence form the orb as it gradually and slowly fused, turning into a liquid that seemingly touched every part of his body and soul.
As the sight disappeared as fast as it came, the young boy, now fully awakened, looked around himself.
Despite seeing the surroundings he had seen countless times in the past, this time, he could feel something was different.
He couldn’t see it per se, it was more of an intuitive feeling, something he could roughly sense.
Getting up from the ground and habitually dusting his clothes covered by a small amount of dirt, his eyes turned towards the cave he called home.
Some kind of energy seemed to be coming from the cave.
Something he had never noticed during the past year, something that seemingly attracted him.
With an attitude of exploring his own house, an emotion unknown to him for the past few years appeared in his body: Excitement.
Pushing his thoughts about the light to the side, he entered his cave and saw that there were all kinds of weird symbols placed everywhere on the cave walls, symbols he knew nothing of but he was certain they were special.
After all, he hadn’t seen them in the past year, only appearing today.
Touching one of the symbols on the wall, a special energy seemingly went through his body but nothing else happened.
Turning his head to the others, he continued to explore but eventually stopped and sat down on his bed.
‘At least they can be used to light up the cave.’ He thought positively with a smile as he could never do anything after five o’clock as the sun was hidden behind the mountain, casting a large shadow over the sea and the cliffside.
Turning his attention to the light screen that had appeared in his view after he touched the first symbol, he read with some difficulty the words on the panel.
[Runic Lexicon]
‘What is a Runic Lexicon?’ He wondered as the words disappeared from his view as another panel appeared instead as a description of the item seemingly came along with it.
[The Runic Lexicon is an alchemical object that has the function of viewing and improving one’s mastery over subjects.
The user of the Runic Lexicon is bound to the very plane of existence itself, allowing the user to flourish through the universe’s blessings.
The Lexicon offers the user the ability to continue improving to the very limits of the universe.
The Lexicon will assign grades based on the completeness and depth of the user’s understanding.
Additionally, any piece of supernatural knowledge learned will appear under each category with a level.
Upon reaching the maximum amount of experience in a select subject, the knowledge will perfectly organize itself for the user.]
As he finished reading the introduction of the Runic Lexicon, a new panel appeared in front of his eyes known as mastery.
‘I have already mastered some supernatural powers?’ He thought with great enthusiasm as he could finally confirm that he wasn’t different from everyone else but that there were simply not enough people like him.
[Mastery]
Charms
– Levitation Charm: 21/6912
Divination
– Catoptromancy: 100/1’958’748
Language
– English: 1744/1’151’523
Runes
– Futhorc: 0/982’459
“So is this Futhorc?” He wondered aloud as he saw the dozens of runes written on the walls, floor and ceiling of his cave.
“And if they are, what do they do?” He continued asking himself as he went back to the runes, trying to see if he could understand something from them, anything really.
As he was effectively kicked out of school when he was sent to the remoteness of the village of Dale, he couldn’t continue studying and improving himself.
However, now that he could see his improvement and the chance at learning something special, he was more pumped than anyone else.
Taking some paper and a pen from his supplies, supplies given by the villagers at the condition that he didn’t go back to the village, he started recording the various runes of the cave.
What was their use, he had no idea.
Would it be useful, he didn’t know.
However, he had a chance at learning something new and he would take advantage of this opportunity.
Slowly copying the 33 different runes on the paper, he eventually stopped as he had no idea what else he could do to understand them.
He had neither a book to teach him nor did he have someone to explain them to him.
All that he could tell was that the runes, Futhorc, were glowing, nothing else.
Playing around with the runes as he drew them on the paper with a little more mastery every time, he thought back to the catoptromancy skill he had under the subject of divination.
“This should be what I saw in that mirror a few days before I was kicked out of the village.” He said to himself with a nod of his head, wondering if he should ask for a mirror from the villagers the next time he received supplies.
“Let’s continue with the runes.” He decided as he had neither books to study English, nor had any idea of how to use levitation magic.
Finally, without mirrors, he was pretty much blocked from studying this subject, leaving the runes as the only subject he could learn from.
Writing the runes on his notebook, he slowly rewrote them, making them look better and better whenever he restarted.
After all, whether or not he knew their uses, he remembered the villagers telling him that if he couldn’t write properly, nobody would be able to understand him.
As such, he made sure to write properly.
Going at it for three extra hours, enjoying the light given by the runes as the sun gradually set in the distance, casting a shadow over the sea and darkness in his cave, he finally stopped as a yawn escaped his lips.
Despite the interest in these new runes, sleepiness had caught up to him.
‘I’ll continue tomorrow morning.’ He decided with a smile as he looked at the runes on the ceiling which granted him just enough light to see properly in the cave and allow him for a peaceful sleep.
Closing the notebook, a panel appeared in front of his eyes akin to a notification.
[Futhorc +8 exp.]
With his eyes lighting up as Lux could now see a proper path forward, he, for the first time in years, slept comfortably with excitement for the following day.