Master Of None

It was only a few minutes before one of the archivists returned with the books Walker and Gil had been asking about. Whether they had realized it when they first started bouncing around theories or not, there were already records and evidence found of some immortal chasing race plans.

”We have referenced the terms you mentioned along with the books related to other immortal chasing race ruins we have discovered. Some of what appear to be the oldest and damaged documents were related to experimentation. Others are related to development and clearing other races from territories. If you need more help, please let me know.”

The archivist was clearly trying to curry a bit of favor with the pair of them, but generally, it seemed to be useful to have an expert who could hunt down the books and topics they needed.

”This one I have seen before. It’s about the experiments on others to try and awaken unique skills. One of them being a self regeneration skill that was common in a species of frog that no longer exists. They believed that demi-humans with frog traits might possess the same skill.” Walker grimaced while mentioning this to Gil.

While everyone knew that the immortal chasing race had thrown out all good aspects that came with morality to pursue immortality for themselves and their people, it was still hard to accept what had happened. The amount of suffering that this race caused alone in the ancient past was what had led to the breakdown of the world flow and damaged countless people and species within the world.

Not to mention those outside of the world in the greater elemental planes being forced in to a more chaotic flow of mana in turn causing a war there. They had been the source of various strife for years on top of years because of their foolish actions.

”This book should be about the buildings they made and the tools that were discovered. I saw one of the craftsmen working on arrows for crossbows reading a copy. Apparently, the reinforced needles the immortal chasing race made are actually a good design for tougher metal arrows with hollow tubes so they don’t use as much material. It’s also being used to make hollow stone pillars to reserve material and allow for secondary storage.”

Now it was Walker’s turn to be surprised that Gil recognized one of the books he was seeing here. He hadn’t expected that this would be the case, but then again it was a lucky discovery that could help them search for more specifics related to expansion plans and what might be valuable to Genesis and themselves now.

Speedily flicking through pages and reading was something both of them could do. Gil’s extremely sharp eyesight let him focus on the keywords he needed to find and push through faster. Meanwhile, Walker could easily speed read and memorize the contents of any books to look back later. Let alone split his mind to focus on reading what he saw while he memorized even more. Not that he was competing with Gil to be faster right now, but, the two still seemed to be racing a bit.

”Here, there was a plan to encompass a mountain to trap a species of snake. It mentions that they had the ability to manipulate their own soul but were almost impossible to capture because they could change the form of their bodies like a golem almost.” This seemed to be a path to immortality that the immortal chasing race had tried or wanted to try.

Yet, as Walker looked more the information about the snake was little and the mountain they wanted to pasture was also covered in vampires since it was the territory of a vampiric clan. Meaning that it was a war to get the territory. Meaning that research on this topic had been lost due to that war.

Not that this meant there was information missing. There was plenty gleaned from old documents and condensed here by the archivists.

The information that caught Gil and Walker’s attention was that the partial plans to expand rapidly and find other ways to grow the immortal chasing race were immense. Some passages they read detailed their battles against the monsters and how they might be able to make them more tame and serve them as sustenance or materials for their growth.

There were other writings about the lack of experimental intelligence that came from the other races. How vampires were considered monsters that mimicked the appearance of intelligent life but were slaves to their own desires for blood while pretending to be a proper race. Then the angels were seen as blessed but foolish since they could not put aside their own inner squabbling leading them to be constantly getting weaker rather than growing any more than they were now.

Seeing that the immortal chasing race found the other two major races of their age to be beneath them despite the power they had was astonishing. The angels had made literal floating war cities dedicated to magical combat despite their splitting beliefs about mana and what should be researched or studied. Then the vampires could maintain significant clans and powerful groups with much higher lifespans than other races. Meaning that they accumulated knowledge constantly, despite their own inner fighting as well.

While neither race was better than the other with the ways that they failed to unite properly, they were not just some lower race, they should have been seen as some form of equals. Then again the immortal chasing race believed their goals to be greater than any other. They were blinded by their ambitions, unfortunately leading them to have horrid beliefs and morals.

Even worse, there were small notes about experimenting on angels and attempting to remove their wings to implant on other monster species or even the immortal chasing race themselves. This way they could utilize the abilities to absorb mana faster from the surroundings and potentially use the other race grafted on to them as a core for the mana to be held rather than the need to constantly absorb mana.

It meant that the ancient angels had to worry about being captured by the immortal chasing race. A potential reason why they might have originally begun to create the floating cities in the first place rather than just the monsters on the ground that were so dangerous.

In terms of experimentation on the vampires, it appeared that the immortal chasing race wishes to create servants that were nearly immortal so that they could control them without the downsides of being forcefully changed in to a vampire. Something that’s not done nowadays since the vampires know that it is not a moral or proper way to treat other races. In ancient times beliefs were different.

This was mostly lost research which Walker and Gil didn’t mind being lost since it was cruel and unusual. But it still proved that the immortal chasing race wished to turn other races and monsters in to servants for their immortal reign.

There was one particular note that didn’t match anything else.

A small spot that mentioned a side note about utilizing elemental spirits to create a mana heart connected to the elemental planes creating a permanent endless mana flow for the user.

Unfortunately, it had been a tough side note within an already damaged text leading to the copy made to only hold that tiny bit of information.

However, if that was a small note, the immortal chasing race might also have sealed elemental spirits within mana gems, armor, weapons, or even the bodies of those they experimented on. Including themselves.

It made Walker angry to think of this. ”We have already helped rescue and bring back plenty of elemental spirits. If we need to go explore more of the ruins we will do it. Fleur and her people have already awakened many dormant spirits and the dwarves have helped undo their past errors. I’m sure that they will help undo the wrongs of this ancient race too.”

The glint of anger Gil saw in Walker’s eyes proved how much Walker detested learning about the immortal chasing race and their experiments.

”I know we can undo some of the wrongs but they still happened. So far they caused so much damage to the world and it’s growth that I don’t know how much more we might find. I just hope that we are doing what’s right to make sure it won’t occur again.”

”Really? Walker, you and I both know that we are all doing what’s right for the people we help and lead. I believe without a doubt we will be finding so much more in the future.” The brightness in Gil’s words were enough to push the dark cloud from Walker’s thoughts.

He knew all too well that their effort was making a better life for so many people. They just needed to keep working together to maintain it and be transparent about the wrongs of the past and how to protect against it repeating again.

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Drop those golden tickets!